In her spare time, Hollice Stone has been writing a novel on and off for the past seven years. She doesn’t divulge much about the thriller, dropping clues about the plot having to do with “search and rescue” and including plenty of “explosions.”
Explosions are very much part of her day-to-day life as well. Stone is the engineer at the helm of Stone Security Engineering, a small business devoted to designing safer buildings and protecting the people inside from everything from accidents to attacks.
“We have every type of client imaginable,” says the WeWork Park South member. “They’re architects, they’re engineers, they’re security consultants, they’re owners, they’re the federal government. We have probably touched everything.”
These clients are scattered all over the world, which means Stone is now on the road quite a bit. They used to be primarily governmental agencies, but now include commercial developers, multinational corporations, and a lot of private organizations.
Stone has been working in the security engineering industry for 25 years, specializing in emergency response and blasts. That last word comes up a lot when talking to Stone. What is a “blast,” anyway?
“We design buildings to resist terrorism, and the primary mode of terrorism is explosions,” she says. In other words, you could call Stone and her colleagues “blast consultants.”
“We help owners understand what the effects of explosions on their buildings or their structures will be,” she says “And then we also help them come up with retrofits, or design specifications and design parameters so that they’ll be able to resist particular explosive events or blast events.”
The company doesn’t just consult on building design. To stay ahead of competitors in this rapidly expanding field, it also offers both online training courses and face-to-face classes.
“I want us to be the go-to resource in our industry,” she says. “I want to build what people need. I want us to be the ones who are creative, and find the hole, and see the trend, and then fix it. I don’t want to just be moving along and always doing the same thing. I want us to be leading.”
Stone started off being the sole employee, but today she has seven people who are part of the team. Arturo Montalva, vice president and technical director, became a partner in August. It’s important to Stone that all of her employees eventually own a piece of the company.
“When the rest of them are all part-owners, that will be my absolute proudest moment,” she says.
This goal stems from when Stone left her last job.
“When I walked away from that company almost after 10 years there, I walked away with nothing,” she says. “And I didn’t want to do that again. That’s why the guys who are helping me now—they all took a chance to come work for us. And I want to give that back to them. Owning your own company is terrifying and yet amazing at the same time.”
Photo credit: Lauren Kallen