Officers

Marty Farraher, President
mfarraher@il-afaa.org

          

Marty has been active in the Fire, and Life Safety for over 25 years, the past 11 with the Building Technologies Group of Siemens and is a NICET IV professional. He is a USAF veteran and started his fire career as a technician for the original Edwards company. He was a designer for fire alarm and specialty systems at two premier high particle physics labs “Fermi and Argonne National Labs in the Chicago area. His past roles include technical design, management, and local / national sales leadership; representing fire safety, and clean agent specialty solutions. Marty is the current president of the Illinois Automatic Fire Alarm Association and a technical member of NFPA 101, Life Safety Code.

Marty’s current job role is managing the Siemens Engineering Advantage™ Program
throughout the western ½ of the USA and lends support to the Fire Business Unit’s
healthcare and industrial projects. Marty resides in the Chicago area with his wife Kim and family.

Andrea Barghini, Vice President
abarghini@il-afaa.org

Andrea Barghini, is the Business Development Associate for Esscoe.  She is Nicet Level II certified.  Andrea joined Esscoe LLC in January 2010.

In 1994 Andrea began her career in the Fire and Life Safety Industry as an Administrative Assistant with Grinnell Fire Protection. When Grinnell and Simplex merged in 2001,  she became an Inspection Sales Representative.  This seven year position enabled her to gain experience and in-depth knowledge on many types of Life Safety applications including fire alarm systems, sprinkler systems, special hazards, fire pumps, fire extinguishers, and emergency lighting functionality.

In 2008,  Andrea was named Sprinkler Systems Sales Representative, and was NFSA trained to design, calc, and maintain sprinkler systems per NFPA 13. Since January 2010 she has worked at Esscoe, building their Service Department and Inspections revenue.

Andrea has been involved with many great local organizations such as IL-AFAA, IFIA, NIFIA, Greater Oakbrook Network Group, BOMA and various Chamber’s of Commerce for about the last seven years. 

Scott Bartmess, Treasurer
sbartmess@il-afaa.org

Scott Bartmess is Vice President Federal Services and Chief Fire Protection Engineer at Esscoe, L.L.C., an integrated fire alarm and security systems provider in Northern Illinois. In his current position he has responsibility for overseeing the mass notification and fire alarm business with branches of the U.S. Military and Federal Agencies. He also has supervisory responsibility for the engineering and professional development efforts of Esscoe which is an Illinois Registered Professional Design Firm and Licensed Private Alarm Contractor Agency. In this position he oversees fire protection engineering systems design and coordinates approval and certification activities with local, state, federal and healthcare accreditation agencies on a nationwide basis. 

Prior to co-founding Esscoe, Mr. Bartmess was an Account Manager for the Building Systems Division of SimplexGrinnell and worked as a fire protection engineer in the consulting-specifying field designing automatic sprinkler and fire suppression systems for Illinois engineering firms.  Mr. Bartmess has extensive experience bringing the latest 3-dimensional engineering and acoustical modeling applications in to practice for the automation of design documents for fire protection engineering systems and designing voice evacuation systems for speech intelligibility.

Mr. Bartmess is a member of the;

• Society of American Military Engineers (SAME)
• Professional Member, Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE)
• Member of US Fire and Security Industry Trade Associations including:            

          Automatic Fire Alarm Association – AFAA
          Illinois Automatic Fire Alarm Association – IL AFAA

Mr. Bartmess has authored technical chapters on Fire Detection Technologies for the American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE).

Mr. Bartmess holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Bradley University of Peoria, Illinois.  He is a NCEES accredited engineer having passed the NCEES Principles and Practice of Engineering Examinations in both Fire Protection Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.  Mr. Bartmess holds certification from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) as a Certified Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS).  Additionally, Mr. Bartmess holds advanced certifications from the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET) in Water Based Systems Layout, Fire Alarm Systems and Special Hazards Suppression Systems.          

Richard Roberts, Secretary
rrobert@il-afaa.org

Richard Roberts is Industry Affairs Manager at System Sensor/Honeywell Life Safety. With over 25 years in the fire alarm and carbon monoxide market, his experience spans the installation, sales, and product development of code-compliant products and systems.

Currently, Mr. Roberts is a member of the following committees:  

• NFPA Technical Committees: NFPA 720, NFPA 72 Single and Multiple-Station Alarms and Household Fire Alarm Systems, NFPA 101 Residential Occupancies, NFPA 101 Health Care Occupancies, NFPA 101 Building Service and Fire Protection Equipment, NFPA 101 Health Care Occupancies, NFPA 101 Educational and Day-Care Occupancies and NFPA 5000 Technical Correlating Committee 
• Underwriters Laboratory Standards Technical Panel (STP) 2034, Single and Multiple Station Carbon Monoxide Alarms           
• NEMA 3SB Smoke/CO Group Vice Chair                  
• CSAA Committee: Carbon Monoxide Supervising Station Response Standard Committee             
• ESA Committees: Fire & Life Safety and Standards

Mike Madden, Immediate Past President
mmadden@il-afaa.org
            

Gamewell-FCI, National Sales Manager, 1992-Present

Mike entered the fire alarm industry in 1968 after leaving the US Navy. He
has worked as a technician, installer and sales rep for the first ten (10)
years in the industry and has been in sales management for the last
35 years.

During this time, Mike has worked for both a Distributor and the Manufacturer.

Directors

Dan Finnegan
dfinnegan@il-afaa.org

Daniel P. Finnegan is the Manager of Industry Affairs for Siemens Industry, Inc-Fire Business Unit with 35 years in the fire protection and life safety profession.  Dan’s first 10 years in fire service were as paramedic and Director of Fire Prevention Bureau in Chicago’s suburbs.  Dan has been with Siemens Fire (Pyrotronics-Cerberus Pyrotronics) for the last 25 years.

He holds a degree in Fire Protection Technologies and is a NFPA Certified Fire Protection Specialist.

Dan’s industry involvement includes:  

Bob Pikula is an Account Manager for Orr Protection Systems based in Burr Ridge, Illinois.  With 38 years experience in the fire protection industry Bob is responsible for both special hazard fire suppression and Life Safety Fire Alarm Systems.  Bob is NICET Level III in Special Hazards Layout and holds the Private Alarm Contractors License in the State of Illinois.
Bob’s industrial affiliations include:

• Society of Fire Projection Engineers (Board Member)
• National Fire Protection Association
• National Independent Fire Alarm Distributors (Past President)
• American Society of Plumbing Engineers
• Industrial Section of NFPA-Illiana Chapter (Treasurer)
• NFPA Technical Committee Member
• NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code
• NFPA 75 Standard for the Protection of Information Technology Equipment
• NFPA 76 Standard for the Protection Of telecommunication Facilities 

Chet Donati
cdonati@il-afaa.org

Chet Donati is President and CEO of DMC Security Services, Inc.  The company was founded by Mr. Donati in 1970.  He is responsible for sales and design of fire, security, video and access systems.  DMC has their UL listed central station in Midlothian, IL.

Prior to founding the company, Mr. Donati was a police officer with more than 16 years of service.

Chet's industry involvement and affiliations include:

• Serving on several Underwriters Labatory (UL) Standards Technical Panels (STP) since 1979.
• Illinois ELectronic Security Association - current President.
• Electronic Security Association - Board of Directors
• Central Station Alarm Association - Board of Direstors
• Illinois Automatic Fire Alarm Association - Board of Directors
• National Fire Protection Association
• State of Illinois, current license holder:  Private Alarm Contractor, Private Security Contractor, Locksmith and Private Detective.

Isaac Papier
            

Isaac Papier is Vice President Industry Relations and Director of Strategic Development at Honeywell Life Safety (HLS). In his current position he has responsibility for representing Honeywell Life Safety at various associations, technical committees, regulatory authorities and industry events internationally. He also heads the Honeywell Life Safety Global Regulatory Team. In this position he oversees and coordinates approval and certification activities and interface with conformity assessment agencies for HLS on a Global basis. 

Prior to joining Honeywell Mr. Papier was General Manager of the Signaling and Security Systems Strategic Business Unit and chairman of the Security Systems Council at Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL). In this role Mr. Papier was responsible for UL’s Global Signaling and Security business sector. This sector included Certification of fire detection and alarm equipment, security detection and alarm equipment, physical security equipment and a Certification program for individual installed fire and security alarm systems as well as certification of installation contractors and alarm monitoring centers.

Mr. Papier is a member of the;               
            

• US National committee to;
              
  ISO TC72/SC3, member of numerous WGs, convener of WG 24  and member of ISO 12239
  IEC TC79
• US National Fire Protection Association, NFPA Technical Committees on;
  
           Supervising Station Fire Alarm Systems of the National Fire Alarm code,
           Life Safety Code Technical Correlating Committee.
           Premises Security code,
           Air Conditioning Technical Committee,
• Chairman of the NEMA Signaling, Protection and Communications Section Research Committee.
• Member of the Security Industry Association Standards Council
• Member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers,
• Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
• Member of US Fire and Security Industry Trade Associations including:
  
           Automatic Fire Alarm Association – AFAA
           Central Station Alarm Association – CSAA
           Electronic Security Association – ESA
           Security Industry Association - SIA

Mr. Papier has published numerous articles and has made numerous international presentations about fire protection, security systems and conformity assessment systems.  

Mr. Papier holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois in Chicago, Ill., and is a registered Professional Engineer.

Mark Sandler is the National and OEM Account Manager for Potter.  He provides sales support for large national accounts, as well as technical and sales support for OEM sales to other manufacturers. In supporting the large national accounts , Mark also provides technical and sales training for those companies employees. 

Mark holds a degree in Business Management from New York University and is Nicet Level II Certified.