About Us

Steve Richards is a seasoned CEO with over three decades of leadership at numerous publicly traded and private companies. A skilled leader known for systemically driving growth via organic and acquisition-driven initiatives, his track record includes experience across technology, media, communications, business process outsourcing, and recurring services firms, all marked by a consistent history for driving transformational growth and exceptional client service.

Josh is the founder of Becklar, and launched his career as the founder of AvantGuard where he built the company from a small mom-and-pop central station to a national leader in the wholesale monitoring space. This 3rd generation alarm guru led AvantGuard to become one of the fastest-growing wholesale monitoring companies in the nation. He saw the opportunity to expand the markets served through the acquisition of Freeus, and the formation of Becklar. Josh’s accomplishments have led to him being recognized as the Standard-Examiner’s Forty Under 40 in 2015.

Aside from his success in business, Garner is known for his kindness and charitable nature. In 2014, he organized the AG Cares foundation to help employees who experience unexpected financial difficulties. The foundation has raised tens of thousands of dollars and helped hundreds of employees during their time of need. Despite how much the company has grown, Josh takes the time to get to know employees across all three organizations by name. He recognizes that the success of a business depends on its employees and he believes it is critical to ensure that his team members know they are appreciated.

Brian Davis brings nearly 30 years of accounting and CFO experience to the Becklar team.
Brian started his career with a large, regional public accounting firm. Shortly thereafter, he transitioned into the healthcare industry, moving quickly up the ranks for 17 years. He worked as CFO for four companies prior to joining Becklar, serving on their executive teams, planning and executing strategic functions, and overseeing the accounting operations of each firm. He has been lauded for dramatically improving cash flow and internal controls. He completed his undergraduate degree in accounting from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and also is a licensed CPA.

Tyler is a seasoned technology executive with almost three decades of experience in creating software solutions. He is passionate about helping organizations develop world-class customer and employee experiences, building strong teams, and collaborating on vision and strategy for global corporations and small-and-medium-sized businesses.
Before joining Becklar, he spent twenty years at IBM in various positions, including development, product management, partnerships, and offering management. During that time, he worked with development teams and supported large enterprise customers across various vertical markets. In his last role at IBM, he led a product management team in the Watson division focusing on content management and marketing automation solutions using Watson AI, visual recognition, search, sentiment analysis, and machine learning.
Tyler’s experience defining, developing, and bringing products to market enabled him to immediately impact product roadmaps and direction working with Becklar subsidiaries, AvantGuard and Freeus. He is committed to Becklar’s We Care FIRST principles based on caring people supported by exceptional technology.

Clint is a people and culture leader with an HR heart and a business mind. A strategic leader with broad and diversified business experience, he brings a unique and creative approach to drive innovation. Clint has extensive experience leading organizational design and effectiveness, human resources, culture and engagement, talent acquisition, total rewards, and talent development.
Prior to joining the Becklar team, he spent 15 years with a publicly traded real estate company serving in various management positions including internal audit, operations, investor relations, public relations, and ultimately spending his last 6 years as their head of people.
Clint began his career as a consultant with Ernst & Young in Seattle, Washington. He holds a BS in Finance degree from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Weber State University.
Clint currently serves as a member of the board of directors for EMI Health, one of the country’s longest-standing health insurance carriers, offering medical, dental, and vision products and services to nearly 320,000 members. He also serves as EMI’s chair of the audit committee and a member of their executive committee.

Kirsten brings over two decades of enterprise software offering management and marketing experience to the Becklar team. Kirsten spent most of her career at IBM in a variety of roles including sales, channel management, product and offering management and marketing. In these roles she managed enterprise client and partner relationships, brought industry-focused solution offerings to market and created market and brand strategies. A proven leader, she worked with cross functional teams and partners to improve customer retention and analyst recognition for IBM products and services. Her positive attitude and focus on customer service drove strong relationships with world wide clients and led her to be a sought-after speaker at a variety of global events.
Prior to joining Becklar, Kirsten lead the worldwide Marketing team for HCL software’s Digital Experience products, creating compelling campaigns, driving positive growth and identifying new markets for expansion. Kirsten is recognized as a passionate leader and creative problem solver that is focused on delivering results.

Terri Bendixsen is a driven financial leader with 15 years of experience in the accounting for a wide variety of companies in Nutrition, Manufacturing, Retail, Real Estate and Healthcare. Her background working with both public and private companies provide a diverse skillset with financial reporting, process improvement, and team leadership. She thrives at implementing processes to facilitate growth and drive financial success.

Brock is President of the Freeus, Becklar Workforce Safety and Becklar Connected Wellness businesses. He joined Becklar in 2015 to lead the newly acquired Freeus business. Since that time, Brock has had the privilege of assembling and leading a world class team that is responsible for the accelerated growth and award winning platform and services of his companies. Brock is known for his ability to drive accelerated growth through caring relationships with internal stakeholders and industry partners. During his tenure, Brock’s innovative spirit has helped Freeus to be recognized in the Utah100 for fastest growing businesses and the Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies.

Justin serves as president of AvantGuard, and has led the company through a period of dramatic growth and evolution. Beyond expanding the customer base, he was integral in developing hybrid partnership models that leverage AvantGuard’s technology. He joined AvantGuard in 2010 as V.P. of Strategic Development, leading AG’s IT team in software development as well as developing and implementing various technological advancements such as AI monitoring.
Bailey has been featured in ‘Security Systems News’ 20 under 40. In 2018, Bailey was added to the TMA Board of Directors and continues to be recognized as a prominent voice in the monitoring services industry for improved innovation and service standards.

As an information technology and cyber security leader Richard Watts brings over two decades of IT experience to Becklar as the Vice President of Information Security. He is a strategic leader with a clear track record of building and managing teams responsible for enterprise scale projects including data center design, redundant network connectivity, enterprise telephony, and cyber security initiatives for privately held and large, publicly traded companies.
Prior to joining Becklar, Richard designed, built, and supported international networks in the Financial Services and Busines Process Outsourcing industries. He has managed IT and Security teams for the last 15 years. Richard is currently working towards an MBA from Weber State University with a certificate in Cyber Security.

Throughout his career Aaron Britton has advised companies on capital raises, mergers, acquisitions and strategic initiatives. Prior to joining Becklar, Aaron gained significant transaction advisory experience at three separate middle market investment banks — serving clients in the Consumer, Manufacturing, Food & Beverage, and Financial Services industries throughout the United States. Before working as an investment banker, his previous employment included making direct equity and debt investments into early-stage companies in emerging markets. He earned a BS of Accountancy from Brigham Young University and a MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Spencer is a market aware revenue and commercial strategy executive with a strong reputation for delivering results. In his quest to translate brand promise into true power for the company and real value for it’s customers he is always challenging status quo thinking with fresh analysis of market trends. Spencer brings a diverse set of business and new service development experience to the Becklar team and is passionate about developing lasting business relationships. He believes in constructing repeatable results-driven processes and empowering teams with increased transparency. As an innovator and thought leader Spencer has been invited to speak at events across the Smart Home, Connected Health, IoT, and Security Industries. Spencer holds a B.S in Business & Marketing, and an MBA from The University at Albany, as well as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification from Villa Nova.

Jeff brings 25 years of valuable marketing experience and insights to the Becklar team. He spent the first 18 years of his career with a leadership training and consulting firm, starting as a regional sales manager, next pioneering their retail visual merchandising programs, and subsequently leading the marketing function for their international chain of 182 stores. The next 10 years were spent with a national tech company in the healthcare arena where Jeff created a new brand and go-to-market launch strategy for their new products and services division of the company.
Today Jeff leads the Becklar Marketing Team, orchestrating all marketing activities for Becklar and its subsidiaries, AvantGuard Monitoring Centers and Freeus.