Leire Arbona Puértolas, Arielle Thomas Chosen as 2024 SIA Industry Advocate Award Honorees

The Security Industry Association (SIA) has recognized two industry leaders – Leire Arbona Puértolas and Arielle Thomas – as the 2024 winners of the SIA Industry Advocate Award. This award is presented to individuals making an extraordinary contribution of professional time, leadership and resources to position SIA and its members to address the public policy challenges impacting the security industry. Arbona Puértolas and Thomas were recognized with the awards at the 2024 SIA GovSummit conference.

Leire Arbona Puértolas serves as legal and compliance director for Veridas, providing expertise in biometric identity verification and data protection laws since joining the company in 2017. Arbona Puértolas’ efforts extend beyond corporate compliance; she actively contributes to the legislative process in various countries, advising on laws that shape the future of digital identity verification.

“Leire Arbona Puértolas played a critical role in guiding SIA’s advocacy throughout the last year related to the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act and continues to assist on matters related to AI, data privacy and biometrics,” said Jake Parker, SIA’s senior director of government relations. “The success of SIA’s work on behalf of the industry heavily depends on the willingness of key members to volunteer their time and subject matter expertise.”

Arbona Puértolas has played a crucial role in legislative developments in Spain and the European Union, and her expertise is frequently sought in international forums on privacy, biometrics and identity management. She holds dual degrees in law and business administration from the Public University of Navarre, Spain, bringing a unique blend of legal insight and business acumen to her role at Veridas. Furthermore, she firmly believes in the necessity of deep technical knowledge to create coherent and updated laws.

Arielle Thomas serves as a government relations manager on NEC Corporation of America’s Government Relations and Public Policy team. In this role, she manages relationships with elected officials and staff in the U.S. Congress, in addition to tracking relevant legislation and policy developments at the federal and state levels that could impact NEC businesses, technologies and services.

“We deeply appreciate the assistance that Arielle Thomas consistently provides to SIA’s advocacy and events, on many levels that benefit the industry, from her leadership on AI and technology policy to devoting her time to assist other members in navigating Capitol Hill during our Security Hill Day event,” said Parker.

Before joining NEC, Thomas worked at the Greater Washington Partnership, a regional business organization, where she focused on building relationships with governmental and business leaders across Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Prior to this role, she was on the government affairs team at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation, for over half a decade, where she led the Chamber’s cybersecurity lobbying engagement with the U.S. Congress. Thomas earned a B.A. in international studies from American University, with a primary focus in U.S. foreign policy and national security, in addition to a special certificate in advanced leadership studies. She is also very active with the Women in Government Relations organization, where she co-chairs the Telecommunications, Technology and Intellectual Property Task Force.

“SIA is thrilled to recognize Arielle Thomas and Leire Arbona Puértolas as the 2024 Industry Advocate Award winners – they have provided crucial contributions to SIA’s legislative and regulatory initiatives, particularly around AI, privacy, biometrics and technology policy, said SIA CEO Don Erickson. “We commend Arielle and Leire for their leadership and service, thank them for volunteering their time and subject matter expertise on key industry issues and look forward to continuing to collaborate with them on the issues most important to our members and promoting greater safety and security around the world.”

Featured

  • Allegion, Comfort Technologies Implement Mobile Credentials at the Artisan Apartment Homes in Florida

    Artisan Apartment Homes, a luxury apartment complex in Dunedin, Florida, recently transitioned from mechanical keys to electronic locks and centralized system software with support from Allegion US, a leading provider of security solutions, technology and services, and Florida-based Comfort Technologies, which specializes in deploying multifamily access control, IoT devices and software management solutions. Read Now

  • Mall of America Deploys AI-Powered Analytics to Enhance Parking Intelligence

    Mall of America®, the largest shopping and entertainment complex in North America, announced an expansion of its ongoing partnership with Axis Communications to deploy cutting-edge car-counting video analytics across more than a dozen locations. With this expansion, Mall of America (MOA) has boosted operational efficiency, improved safety and security, and enabled more informed decision-making around employee scheduling and streamlining transportation for large events. Read Now

  • Security Industry Association Launches New “askSIA” AI Tool

    The Security Industry Association (SIA) has unveiled a brand-new SIA member benefit – askSIA, a conversational AI agent designed to help users get the most out of their SIA membership, easily access SIA resources and find the latest information on SIA’s training and courses, reports and publications, events, certification offerings and more. SIA members can easily find askSIA by visiting the SIA homepage or looking for the askSIA icon in the top left of webpages. Read Now

    • Industry Events
  • Industry Embraces Mobile Access, Biometrics and AI

    A combination of evolving workplace dynamics, technology innovation and new user expectations is changing how people enter and interact with physical spaces. Access control is at the heart of these changes. Combined with biometrics and AI, mobile access control has become increasingly crucial for deploying entry solutions that are seamless, secure and adaptive to user needs. Read Now

  • Sustainable Video Solution Delivered for Landmark City of London Office Development

    An advanced, end-to-end video solution from IDIS, with a focus on reducing waste and costs, has helped a major office development in the City of London align its security with sustainability objectives. Read Now

New Products

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.

  • Unified VMS

    AxxonSoft introduces version 2.0 of the Axxon One VMS. The new release features integrations with various physical security systems, making Axxon One a unified VMS. Other enhancements include new AI video analytics and intelligent search functions, hardened cybersecurity, usability and performance improvements, and expanded cloud capabilities