PEOPLE IN SECURITY
Exclusive Profile: Alistair Hogg, CEO Aotea Security
Joanna Mathers is a freelance feature writer with years of experience in publishing. She has a particular focus on business and innovation, and also regularly writes for New Zealand Herald’s Canvas magazine.
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Alistair Hogg, CEO at Aotea Security, is one of the unsung heroes of the New Zealand security industry. With a career spanning decades, he’s worked throughout the industry, and although his company specialises in electronic security, considers himself a “generalist”. Hogg keeps a low profile (and he’s modest about his achievements), but his story is worth telling and likely to offer inspiration to anyone at a crossroads of their career.
Alistair Hogg, CEO at Aotea Security
The beginnings It was a mark of his early promise that Hogg was given the job of operations manager for Armourguard, Dunedin, in 1987, with no private security or general management experience. He was just a month short of his 21st birthday. “I had wanted a career step change, and took the role on the basis that it allowed me to gain some general experience and would help prepare me with a planned further career change within the following two years,” he explains.
These two years would become six: his own growth within the industry mirroring the growth that was occurring in the company. “For all of the positive experiences gained during my time with Armourguard, my initial reaction to onboarding, training, expectations and accepted behaviours were less favourable,” he says. “It’s obvious that Armourguard is a significantly more evolved company now than it was then, and I salute the vision and drive of the company’s leadership over the years in creating the benchmark that the company has become.” Nevertheless, the Armourguard years would see Hogg growing professionally and engage in extensive training in varied roles, and professional development opportunities external to the Armourguard environment”. He explains that these opportunities helped him to create a variety of networks (alongside developing new work skills) and satisfied his hunger for learning and personal and professional challenges.
“Considering Aotea Security’s reach, it’s beginnings were much more humble and as Hogg explains, that humility supports the company and its people still. Perhaps not surprising having spoken with the man himself, who explains that a mix of core work ethic, focus, hunger for experience and learning, combined with the approach of never wasting an opportunity or taking anything for granted, has supported him through the ups and downs of his career and helped him and his team build the company that Aotea has become.”
August/September 2021
