Michael Culmer

Talented business and sales leader in the Fire Services industry. With excellent employee development, customer relations and analytics skills coupled with more than 30 years of experience with Fire alarm and Sprinkler systems. Comfortable giving engaging presentations to clients to drive new business, excel with acquisition development opportunities, expand customer accounts and establish brand profile. Excellent team builder and leader of new out of the box concepts and initiatives.

Started in the Fire/Life Safety and Security industry at age 15. I found my legs in this industry with the help of my father, working in his company, Hue & Cry Security Systems, Inc.. From there I worked in the dispatch station of our U.L. Central station for 2 years. I then started into the Installation department learning to install systems like fire alarm, burglar alarm, closed circuit camera, and access control. I moved very rapidly to our service and maintenance department and on into sales. From there I was groomed for management by being encouraged to take college courses for leadership and management and eventually into a Dale Carnegie course. Then at that point I also got into design and engineering of fire alarm systems and was encouraged to take NFPA training and eventually NICET certification. I was wearing lots of different hats at that point but was excelling in all of them. I started to train lots of different people for different job skills. I then was given the opportunity to run my own branch office when my company acquired another company in small town called Mount Shasta, in Northern California. After 6 years of managing that branch we consolidated it into another one of our branches and I moved back to the corporate office to start training to take over the operations of the whole company. At that time we had 3 branch offices. I started to receive first hand experience with things like acquisitions, GAAP accounting, corporate financials, taxes, working with CPA's, working with funding organizations, building relationships with vendors, creating joint ventures, marketing, policy making and employment laws. By 2010, my father was ready to hand down the reigns. From that point we grew over 60% in the next 10 years. This rapid increase was mostly because of a new management structure allowing us to not duplicate resources in each branch. The sales manager, installation manager, HR manager, Financial officer, operations manager, and service manager were all located in the corporate office and managed employees in all other branches. We also found efficiency in dispatching technicians from there house and allowing them to take home the company provided vehicles. During those years we acquired several more companies that reinforced our geographical territory but also gave us new strengths that we otherwise could not have created. We also started a Fire Sprinkler department and got licensed to provide installation, service and inspections. This made our existing customers even stickier when we reached out to them and offered these additional services. It was now 2019 and time to get back to my dream of getting my Fire Science degree to become a Fire Protection Consultant and focus on prevention, detection, suppression and mitigation solutions. During this journey I found a love for the fire tetrahedron, fire dynamics, fire analysis and investigation. In addition, I felt like my strength lent to processes like firefighting, emergency management, and fire administration. I always wanted to help fire departments do their job better and now I had tool to do so. Then came the passing of my father in July of 2023. Very shortly there after I found that I lost the drive to operate this company that he so dearly loved. Instead I want to use my experience to benefit a new career and a new community. Now with several generations of Culmer's at the helm, sixty plus dedicated employees behind them, I found the need to move on.

NICET IV certification

National Fire Academy Certificates

NFPA Certificate