The BeSafe® Leadership Team
The BeSafe leadership team has extensive experience in public safety, education, and technology. We understand the unique challenges our clients face as well as the ever-changing advancements and requirements of the public safety industry.
Kevin Harrington, Founder and Chief Operating Officer
From 1977 through 1999, Kevin worked in public service in a variety of roles at both the municipal and state level. From 1996-1998, Kevin served as the Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Public Safety for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where he was responsible for the administration of all state safety regulatory programs. In 1998-1999, Kevin held the position of Executive Director of the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council, where he was responsible for the training of over 13,000 police officers on an annual basis.
In 1999, following extensive research and outreach to schools across the country, Kevin created the original BeSafe system and began to implement BeSafe in school districts across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He continues to work and collaborate with schools and first responders to further develop BeSafe and to promote safer working and learning environments.
Kevin holds a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice from Westfield State College, Westfield, Massachusetts, and a Master's degree in Public Administration from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.
Tom McDonald, Chief Executive Officer
Tom began his career in public education. From 1973 until 2006, he was a teacher, principal, and school superintendent. In 1998, Tom recognized that Site-based Managed Schools was an important new model for public school management and for improving student achievement.
He proposed and won approval for a Horace Mann School with greater autonomy within the Barnstable, Massachusetts public school system. Today this school is a shining example of what schools can do when given the freedom to make their own decisions and manage their own finances. As a result of this success, Tom was appointed superintendent of the 6,000-student Barnstable, Massachusetts school system in 2004.
Tom has extensive experience as a consensus builder for agencies and programs that need organizational review and direction.
In 2006 Tom was appointed CEO of BeSafe Technologies, Inc. Since then he has been instrumental in the development and growth of BeSafe.
Kathryn Harrington, Chief Financial Officer
Kathy is the co-founder of BeSafe. Since 1999, she has worked to expand the company providing financial guidance and direction. She has worked in all facets of the company, including fieldwork, production, product improvement, and office management. Kathy is currently the Chief Financial Officer and oversees the Company’s Human Resources department, ensuring the company’s financial standing is solid and well managed.
Besides her work at BeSafe, Kathy has consulted for several companies providing varied components of comprehensive financial management. Using her general financial management skills, in particular bookkeeping, she helped create and maintain several companies’ chart of accounts, inventory, budgeting, reporting and accounts payable/accounts receivable systems. For seven years she was responsible for a $7m budget at a Public School in Massachusetts.
Kathy holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Westfield State College, Westfield, Massachusetts.
Christopher Sharp joined BeSafe in 2008 as Chief Technology Officer, drawn to the importance of the BeSafe mission and to work with a talented and committed BeSafe team. Chris brings to BeSafe exceptional experience, sound engineering principles, and Information Technology expertise gained from market leaders Lockheed Martin and IBM. Most recently Chris was a member of IBM Global Services. Chris was a core member of a group of IT architects that provided application integration, test, and production hosting services for IBM web applications. He deployed and managed a global web infrastructure architecture, provided assistance to IBM outsourcing customers, and was charged with creating and implementing a consistent worldwide infrastructure for hosting many IBM web sites and applications. At Lockheed Martin Chris worked at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas, on projects for both the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Control Centers. Chris received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Lamar University, located in his home state of Texas. He was certified as a Master IT Architect by the Open Group in 2005. Chris is a veteran of the US Army, having served as an infantry soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division.