Tag: press release

Security Engineered Machinery Donates to Local Eagle Scout Project for Children

February 6, 2020 at 6:48 pm by Paul Falcone

 

Benjamin Duby with his constructed Gaga Ball Pit.

Security Engineered Machinery donated monetary funds to the Eagle Scout project of Benjamin Timothy Duby of Worcester, MA. The project, which began in late 2019, was to construct a Gaga Ball Pit for the students of Wawecus Road School in Worcester, MA to be able to use during recess. Duby recruited family members and friends to aid in the construction after securing the funding from SEM and additional partners.

Benjamin worked as an intern for SEM in the past in both the manufacturing and shipping departments between his own school semesters. In his initial proposal for the project and funding, Duby stated: “Being a small elementary school, there is little budget for a playground and I noticed that another school one mile away had a playground that was much larger and more extensive. Building these pits will provide kids with a safe game to play at recess and a way to stay active.”

The pit, known as a Gaga Ball Pit, is a last person standing arena game where players of all ages bounce a ball towards each other in an attempt to make contact with a player below their legs. If a player is hit by the ball, they are out of the game, and this continues until there is a single player remaining.

“We’ve seen the work ethic and values that Benjamin holds when he has assisted us through his internship,” said Andrew Kelleher, President and CEO of SEM. “Therefore, when he asked if we were willing to help him and the children of Wawecus Road School, it was a very easy decision to make.”

Throughout the 52 years they have been in business, SEM has consistently given back to the community they’ve called home for the last half a century. In the last few months alone, SEM has donated hundreds of pounds of food to the Worcester County Food Bank, provided over 80 toys for less fortunate children from Westborough, MA over the holidays, and built a log cabin playhouse for a local veteran family.

Mr. Duby completed his Eagle Scout project on December 13th and passed the Eagle Scout board of review on January 28th, which is no small feat for a scout to achieve.

Security Engineered Machinery Announces Two Key Hires

January 8, 2020 at 7:33 pm by Heidi White
david_wesolowski_david_ditullio
David DiTullio, VP of Finance, and David Wesolowski, Director of Operations

Security Engineered Machinery is pleased to announce that David DiTullio and David Wesolowski have joined the team as Vice President of Finance and Director of Operations, respectively. The announcement was made by Andrew Kelleher, President and CEO of SEM.

David DiTullio joins SEM with over two decades of manufacturing finance experience, most recently as Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at Oxford Instruments. He has held similar roles at NEC Energy Solutions, UTC Fire and Security, and Nypro, Inc. In his role as VP of Finance at SEM, Mr. DiTullio will be responsible for all financial aspects of the company including financial management, cost accounting, information technology, and cash management. Mr. DiTullio received both a BS in Economics-Finance and an MBA in Corporate Finance from Bentley College.

David Wesolowski has 20 years of experience as an operations leader focused on increasing efficiency and productivity while improving company culture. Prior to joining SEM, Mr. Wesolowski worked for Thermo Fisher Scientific, most recently as Director of Operations and Site Leader. With proven experience in business acumen, improving the customer experience, employee engagement and development, and project management, Mr. Wesolowski will be primarily responsible for engineering, procurement, service, manufacturing, and warehouse operations. Mr. Wesolowski received a BS in Business Administration from Roger Williams University and an MBA from Bryant University.

“David DiTullio brings 23 years of finance experience to the team with targeted expertise in leadership, analysis and forecasting, cost accounting, and financial reporting in the manufacturing sector,” said Mr. Kelleher. “Just as impressive, David Wesolowski has over 20 years of multi-faceted operations experience with targeted expertise in operational efficiency, lean manufacturing, client relations, teambuilding, and metric management and reporting. Both Davids’ impressive experience is complimented by their exemplary personal attributes including integrity, dedication, and positivity, making them a perfect fit for SEM.”

Mr. DiTullio and Mr. Wesolowski will be working out of the company’s corporate headquarters in Westborough, MA.

Security Engineered Machinery Donates Paper Shredder to Retired Marine Major

November 25, 2019 at 7:46 pm by Paul Falcone

Industry-leading data destruction device manufacturer provides Model 2125P paper shredder to retired US Marine Major James Manel as a thank you for his military service

WESTBOROUGH, MA, November 25, 2019 — Security Engineered Machinery Co., Inc. (SEM), global leader in high security information end-of-life solutions, donated a new Model 2125P cross-cut paper shredder to retired US Marine Major James Manel. Major Manel, a longstanding user of SEM equipment, served 27 years of active duty including numerous senior intelligence roles as well as two deployments to Iraq.

Major James Manel, retired US Marine Corps, with his new SEM 2125P paper shredder

“I have used SEM shredding equipment across the spectrum of use cases, from Division G-2 staff to service level headquarters in the Pentagon as well as at intelligence components,” commented Major Manel. “SEM shredders have provided a class-leading level of durability and performance, both at home and deployed, that ensure the complete destruction of documents and provide peace of mind. Now, using the SEM 2125P in the home office brings professional quality and reliability as well as that same peace of mind to residential data security for my family. It also makes economic sense when you consider the monetary and time cost of home use shredders and how often they have to be replaced and the frustration of using them. SEM shredders truly have been a lifetime partner for data destruction in my professional life, and now at home as well.”

SEM learned of Major Manel after he had purchased a SEM paper shredder from a third-party surplus site. Upon receiving the shredder, Major Manel noted that it had a damaged cutting head and was missing both a power cord and automatic oiler, at which time he contacted SEM to procure replacement parts.

Command photo of Major James Manel during his time as Commanding Officer of the Marine Detachment at Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language Center, Monterey, CA

“When we learned that Major Manel had received a non-working SEM shredder, even though it was from a third-party, we knew we wanted to provide a replacement,” said Heidi White, SEM Director of Marketing. “Like countless other Veterans, Major Manel has made extensive personal sacrifices in support of our country for which we can never adequately thank him, and providing him with a new shredder was our small way of showing our endless gratitude.”

SEM cautions never to buy SEM data destruction devices from third-party surplus sites, noting that these devices are typically used, in non-working condition, and do not include any type of warranty. In contrast, every device sold by SEM or an authorized SEM reseller includes a warranty and access to SEM’s award-winning customer support team.

“Unfortunately, we do see this quite a bit, and we consistently caution people against buying SEM products from non-authorized sites,” noted Bryan Cunic, SEM Director of Customer Care. “Since we cannot replace every non-working shredder, we do encourage people to contact SEM prior to purchasing from a third-party to ensure the vendor is an authorized reseller. This quick phone call or email can save a lot of headaches in the long run.”

A Veteran-owned company, SEM has been the leading supplier of high security data destruction devices to the federal government and its entities for over 50 years. In 1968, SEM founder Leonard Rosen invented the world’s first high security paper disintegrator, and today SEM continues to innovate new products to destroy classified and sensitive data stored on a variety of media, both traditional and digital.

“There really is no other manufacturer that matches what SEM makes,” added Major Manel. SEM makes hardcopy destruction convenient and reliable in my experience. I am a huge fan of SEM products!”

Thank you, Major Manel, for your service.

Masters of Destruction – Electronic Media Shredding

June 13, 2018 at 4:29 pm by SEM

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Masters of Destruction

Westboro company specialist in sensitive data

By Martin Luttrell TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

For decades, the federal government and private businesses have used Security Engineered Machinery equipment to shred paper records, and more recently, computer drives, CDs and other electronic records.

And with sensitive information remaining on old computer hard drives, cell phones and BlackBerries, the Walkup Drive company is expanding into full-service data destruction for clients that want secure handling and destruction of their electronic devices.

Founded in Millbury in the late 1960s, SEM employs 44 and is the largest manufacturer of document- and electronic-disintegration equipment, with its shredding and disintegration machines in use by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, in State Department embassies around the world and by the U.S. Postal Service. More than 400 central banks worldwide use the company’s equipment for shredding old currency.

The federal government has been the biggest customer, but private industry is catching up as accidental releases of sensitive data make headlines.

SEM showed a reporter a room the company renovated from warehouse space that now houses machines for shredding computers and other electronic data storage devices. Computer hard drives, keyboards and towers moved up an inclined conveyer about 12 feet, where they were dropped into a hopper and ground into pieces an inch or two in size.

“The federal government is light years ahead of the private sector in security,” Mr. Dempsey said. “A lot of companies have paper shredders. But what happens to a CD or diskette? The government has been doing this for years.

“There is not a piece of equipment here that has not been cleared by the NSA (National Security Agency) for classified destruction,” he said. “Not all companies will spend $25,000 for a machine like this. That’s where this service comes into play. We have people that walk in with one hard drive, and we’ll destroy it and let them witness it.”

Clients who ship their items to SEM can even watch over a designated Web site as their computers or other items are destroyed; some 17 video cameras mounted in the ceiling, and more in the hoppers of the machines, beam images of the process.

“We send it premium freight so it can be tracked door to door,” he said. “Some clients put GPS (global positioning system) inside so they know where it is all the time.”

SEM puts bar codes on the hard drives slated for destruction so the customer can document the process, he said.

Inside a locked cage along one wall were several cases and military transport containers holding computer components slated for destruction.

“We look at ourselves as being in the security business,” Mr. Dempsey said. “We approach our shredding as a security division. We’re interested in hard drives, cell phones, DVDs, CD-ROMs and unconventional items,” including X-rays, he said.

Mr. Dempsey held pieces of a computer that had gone through a disintegrator, noting that they were a couple of inches in length. Some clients require that their magnetic data items be in smaller pieces, and those go into another machine, which tears them into pieces an eighth of an inch in diameter.

He pointed out that a piece of a CD that goes through an office shredder contains much more information than would be printed on a piece of office paper. Sophisticated equipment could be used to retrieve that information, along with data thought to be deleted from hard drives, cell phones and other electronic devices, he said.

In addition to tearing electronic data equipment into small pieces, SEM can also use a method known as degaussing, or erasing electronic data, before destroying it, he said.

“From a private-industry point of view, degaussing is all you need to do,” Mr. Dempsey said. “What we’re now seeing in Fortune 500 companies is that they’re defaulting to the federal government’s standards that are NSA-approved.”

He said that when companies consider the damage that could result from sensitive information being compromised, data security is increasingly in demand.

“We bring credibility to the table,” he said. “We’re in the security business. Quite a few of our employees have obtained clearances. They get a background check. We do DOD work. Anyone in this room would need a clearance,” he said, referring to those working in the company’s destruction service.

All employees are drug-screened and go through background and criminal checks, he said.

Mr. Dempsey would not talk about the private company’s finances, but said it made $20,000 from its destruction services two years ago and $300,000 this year. The demand is growing, he said.

“We’ve seen an explosion from companies with financial and health care” records. “With some of the information compromises that have been in the press, they’re adapting. We know how to deal with those issues. …Crisis management is not proactive. That happens after data has been compromised.”

He said the company spent 13 months renovating the area now used for destruction services. Now, he wants the operation to be deemed a secure facility so that it can take on the federal government as a client. That could take another year, he said.

“So far, we’ve been under the radar, doing this as a favor for our clients.”

Security Engineered Machinery Founder Honored as ASIS Life Member

May 31, 2018 at 5:08 pm by SEM
Leonard Rosen, SEM Founder and Chairman of the Board

Leonard Rosen has been a continuous member of ASIS since 1968

Security Engineered Machinery Co., Inc. is pleased to announce that Leonard Rosen, SEM founder and Chairman of the Board, has been honored with Life Member status by the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS). ASIS grants Life Member status to individuals who have 50 years of continuous membership within the organization. Mr. Rosen founded SEM in 1967 and became a member of ASIS in 1968.

“Receiving ASIS Life Member status was unexpected, and quite an honor,” said Mr. Rosen. “To me, this speaks volumes about the quality and endurance of Security Engineered Machinery, which has enabled me to remain a member of ASIS over the past five decades. SEM has consistently adapted to changing technology while continuing to grow through the years, and I am so proud to be part of this incredible organization. We started by selling paper shredders to the federal government and now manufacture data destruction devices for every type of data and for every type of client. SEM continues to be a robust organization that has helped to protect national security for over 50 years.”

Throughout the years, SEM has supported ASIS through trade show participation as well as advertising in ASIS publications, including Security Management. In addition, SEM team members maintain membership and actively participate in regional chapters of ASIS.

“ASIS is truly the premier security association for security-centric government and commercial entities, and I am thrilled to gain Life Member status in such an upstanding organization,” added Mr. Rosen.

Mr. Rosen founded SEM in 1967 to fill a clear need for high security disintegration equipment for the federal government. He has possessed numerous positions with SEM over the years, including sales and marketing and operations. Prior to founding SEM, Mr. Rosen served in the U.S. Army and is a Korean War Veteran, after which he served in management positions related to sales and marketing roles with various domestic and international manufacturers. A graduate of Boston University, Mr. Rosen continues to be actively involved with SEM day-to-day operations and serves as Chairman of the Board.

“In addition to strategic vision that laid the foundation for SEM’s success, Len possesses exceptional leadership capabilities that are directly responsible for the longevity of SEM employees, whose service can often be counted in decades rather than years,” commented Andrew Kelleher, President of SEM. “He valued and encouraged work-life balance and positive company culture before anyone even knew what they were, and SEM continues to operate in that vein. It is rare to find someone with the vision and integrity of Len Rosen.”