Todd Pedersen is living the American dream. The 46-year-old is the founder and CEO of Vivint, a home automation security company worth $2 billion.* He says his success is related to the way he was raised. Pedersen is the fourth of eleven children from a Mormon family. After finishing his two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he started selling burglar alarms, door-to-door. In 2011, he changed the name of his security company from APX Alarm to Vivint, “to reflect its emphasis on living intelligently through home automation.” It was a smart move. Vivint now has a workforce of about 7,000 employees. At the corporate headquarters in Provo, Utah, Vivint employees are treated to free meals and a free medical clinic, in addition to the corporate gym and basketball court.
What you might not learn about him from his appearance on Undercover Boss (February 20, 8pm, CBS), is that Pedersen considers himself an advocate of public education. He favors the use of the abacus in the classroom at early ages to strengthen math skills. In the video below, Todd and his wife Andi talk about how how abacus learning helped their children in the classroom and in their day-to-day life.
*Vivint was acquired in 2012 by The Blackstone Group for $2 billion.
