Company principals

Michael S. Cook. With over 20 years of experience in the fire alarm and security industry with various life safety manufacturers, Mike has been a field technician, project manager, and sales manager. His experience includes the design, installation and support of fire detection, security, emergency evacuation, access control and CCTV systems throughout the Chicago and Northwestern Indiana area. Mike leads the healthcare and educational market initiatives for Esscoe. He is also responsible for managing all strategic supplier and professional association relationships. Mike is a licensed private alarm contractor and holds a degree in electronics from DeVry University.

Sensing the need for a company dedicated to service, innovation and personalized customer service, Mike capitalized on his 20+ years’ professional industry experience and teamed up with Todd Keppy to found Esscoe in 2005.

Todd M. Keppy began his industry career in 1988 as a service technician with the Simplex Time Recorder Company, giving him invaluable hands-on experience that served him well as he moved into sales with Simplex and other roles in the industry. Todd takes pride in the planning of all stages of an engineered system. The result: a system designed to provide value for the customer long after the sale is over.

Todd is a nationally recognized authority on the U. S. Department of Defense United Facilities Criteria (UFC) for mass notification systems and the implications it has for speech intelligibility. He successfully delivered several of the first such systems for the U.S. Navy and has been instrumental in shaping this developing market. Todd manages the defense and institutional market initiatives for Esscoe and is a key advisor and project consultant to the A & E community in suburban Chicago.

Todd is a licensed private alarm contractor and holds a degree in electronics from Hamilton Technical College.

R. Scott Bartmess, P.E., joined Esscoe, LLC in January of 2008 to assume the leadership role for Esscoe’s financial, engineering and logistical support functions. Scott focuses on managing Esscoe’s transition from a successful start-up to a best-in-class, full-service life safety enterprise. His career experience covers a range of positions of increasing responsibility and revenue production in the MEP/construction industry, enterprise software solutions, and commercial real estate investments

Scott has served as an account manager with Oracle Corporation, focusing on high tech manufacturing and aerospace clients in the Pacific Northwest. It was here that he developed his expertise in financial and back-end business processes and observed the culture and systems that drive Fortune 500 companies to success. Additionally, Scott has several years experience running successful P&L centers in the investment and commercial real estate fields.

Scott transitioned to a technical sales position with Simplex Time Recorder in 1999. As did Mike and Todd, Scott sensed a need for a firm possessing a sense of urgency and velocity. And with the proper culture and systems, he felt it could produce significant improvements in the quality of project deliverables. Scott teamed up with Mike and Todd in 2008 to further develop Esscoe into such a firm.

Scott is a registered professional engineer, holds a degree from Bradley University and has completed financial and managerial accounting course work in a CPA preparation program.