Gallagher's Corey Russell wins Security Innovator award

Gallagher Security's Corey Russell has received a 2026 Security Innovator Award through a peer-nominated industry recognition programme.

Russell is Technical Solutions Specialist for the Americas at Gallagher Security. He was recognised for work on QuickSwitch, a migration tool designed to move sites from legacy access control systems to Gallagher's Command Centre platform.

The award highlights a longstanding issue in the physical security market: the difficulty of transferring customer and configuration data when organisations replace older access control systems. That process has often required databases to be rebuilt manually, adding time, cost and the risk of errors.

Russell's contribution focused on the data layer of those migrations. After raising questions about how data would be handled during conversion projects, he examined how legacy ODBC-style databases store information and developed a method to map that data to Command Centre.

The resulting approach extracts and converts information from a range of older systems. It is intended to reduce a key barrier for end users changing access control providers, particularly when years of historical records and system settings must be preserved.

Migration problem

System replacement in the security sector can be slowed by more than hardware changes. Integrators and customers must also deal with user records, permissions, doors, schedules and other settings that may be stored differently across ageing software environments.

Described as a self-taught programmer, Russell began by writing Python scripts before moving into deeper work on database structures. That background informed the development of a process intended to make legacy data usable in the new platform without forcing customers to recreate records line by line.

Gallagher said Russell also built a window viewer that lets users export connective data into standard CSV files. They can then review the files, correct errors and add missing configuration before importing the data into the replacement system.

That step removes much of the manual data entry from a part of migration projects that has traditionally been labour-intensive. It also gives end users a chance to clean and validate information before cutover.

Industry recognition

Jeff Ogborn, Director of Complex Solutions at Gallagher, nominated Russell for the honour. He linked the recognition to the practical burden data conversion can place on customers and project teams.

"Way too often the data/software side of conversions is pushed off to 'someone else'," said Jeff Ogborn, Director of Complex Solutions at Gallagher, who nominated Russell for the award. "Corey's contribution to this program removes yet one more obstacle for end users and contributes to the streamlined approach that QuickSwitch offers."

Feedback from customers using the migration process has pointed to time savings and less need to rebuild databases from scratch during system changes. That response suggests software conversion, often treated as secondary to hardware installation, is becoming a more visible point of competitive differentiation in the market.

Access control vendors and systems integrators have been under pressure to simplify replacement projects as customers seek to modernise older estates without disrupting day-to-day operations. Data portability has become a bigger concern as organisations look for clearer migration paths away from entrenched systems.

In that context, tools that reduce manual intervention can carry commercial significance beyond engineering convenience. Lower migration friction can make it easier for vendors to win replacement business and for customers to justify a switch.

Customer focus

Russell said the work grew out of discussions with people directly involved in system migrations. His comments emphasised practical use rather than technical novelty.

"It's an honor to be recognized as a 2026 Security Innovator, especially for work that grew out of trying to solve a very practical problem for our customers," said Corey Russell, Technical Solutions Specialist for the Americas at Gallagher Security.

"I'm grateful to Jeff for the nomination and for recognizing the work behind QuickSwitch. This project has really been about listening to the people doing these migrations, understanding where the process creates unnecessary friction, and finding ways to make that experience faster, easier and more reliable," Russell said.

The wider group of award recipients spans developers, consultants, field leaders and executives from across the security industry, placing Russell's work among a broader set of projects aimed at changing how security products are designed and deployed.