Todd Richard Pedersen (born November 23, 1968) is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and the founder of Vivint, Inc., a

home automation Home automation or domotics is building automation for a home. A home automation system will monitor and/or control home attributes such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances. It may also include home security such ...

, security and energy company. Vivint, Inc. was acquired in late 2012 by the

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...

Biography

Todd Pedersen was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington, the fourth of eleven children, and grew up in

Idaho Falls Idaho Falls is the List of cities in Idaho, fourth most populous city in Idaho and the county seat of Bonneville County, Idaho, Bonneville County. It is the state's most populous city outside the Boise metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United St ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

, where he attended

Idaho Falls High School Idaho Falls High School (IFHS) is a four-year public secondary school in central Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA. The current building opened in 1952, though the school itself has been in operation since 1897. Idaho Falls is the older of the two traditio ...

. After finishing a 2-year mission for his church, he returned and settled in

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

. In 1992 he began selling

pest-control Pest control is the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest; such as any animal, plant or fungus that impacts adversely on human activities or environment. The human response depends on the importance of the damage done and wi ...

services

door-to-door Door-to-door is a canvassing technique that is generally used for sales, marketing, advertising, evangelism or campaigning, in which the person or persons walk from the door of one house to the door of another, trying to sell or advertise a pr ...

from a small business with 10 employees based in a trailer in Arizona. A few years later, he switched to a different product, burglar alarms, though using the same marketing technique. He contacted high-school friend Keith Nellesen to assist in this venture. Together, they founded APX Alarm Security Solutions in 1999 in

, utilizing his door-to-door marketing strategy. In 2011 APX Alarm was rebranded as

Vivint Vivint Smart Home, Inc. is a Provo, Utah-based manufacturer of smart home and home security products. Its product lines include cameras, locks, safety sensors, thermostats, and lighting, along with associated monitoring and installation services. ...

to reflect its emphasis on living intelligently through home automation. The company became a major competitor in the industry, as well as expanding its marketing through more traditional venues such as

television advertising A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

and telephone sales representatives. Pedersen was featured in the sixth season finale of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

reality show, ''

Undercover Boss ''Undercover Boss'' is a reality television series franchise created by Stephen Lambert and produced in many countries. It originated in 2009 on the British Channel 4. The show’s format features the experiences of senior executives working u ...

'' in 2015. The experience afforded him valuable insights into his employees' work days. In 2021 Pedersen stepped down as Vivint's CEO.

Innovations

Pedersen created a workforce of approximately 13,500 full-time and part-time employees through innovations in employee relations. These innovations include an on-site restaurant at his corporate headquarters in Provo, a free medical clinic, and various recreational areas including a basketball court and a weight room. Under his direction, the firm branched into

Vivint Solar Vivint Solar was an American provider of Photovoltaic system, photovoltaic solar energy generation systems, primarily for residential customers. The company was established in 2011 as an offshoot of home automation and security company Vivint and ...

, a solar-energy company. Outside of his industry, Pedersen has sought innovation in

public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

, particularly emphasizing use of the

abacus An abacus ( abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, until the adoption of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. A ...

in the classroom at early ages to strengthen mathematical skills. He also partners the

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization Vivint Gives Back with organizations such as

Feed My Starving Children Feed My Starving Children is a Christian Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization that coordinates the packaging and distribution of food to people in Developing country, developing nations. Founded in 1987, it says it has been involved i ...

. Pedersen was named Entrepreneur of the Year by three separate entities, first in 2010 by

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

, next by the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum in 2012, and in 2013 by MountainWest Capital Network. In 2015 Pedersen was inducted into the

David Eccles School of Business The David Eccles School of Business is located on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Utah. The school was founded as the "School of Commerce & Finance" in 1917 and subsequently changed its name to "School of Business" in 1927, althou ...

Hall of Fame.

Philanthropy

In 2019 Pedersen and his wife were the largest donors to

Intermountain Health Intermountain Health (formerly Intermountain Healthcare) is a United States not-for-profit healthcare system with 385 clinics and 33 hospitals in the Intermountain West (primarily Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Utah). The company's headqu ...

's new hospital annex, which is known as the Pedersen Tower. In 2022 Pedersen and his wife donated $35,000,000 to Primary Children's Hospital to improve healthcare to kids.

Personal life

As of 2013 Pedersen lives with his wife and their five children in the Provo, Utah area, and is a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

.McKenzie, Hamish.
The Book of Mormon: Why the world's most capitalist religion breeds so many entrepreneurs
" '' Pando,'' July 31, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2018. In 2016 Pedersen was involved in a fatal accident during the

SCORE SCORE may refer to: *SCORE (software), a music scorewriter program * SCORE (television), a weekend sports service of the defunct Financial News Network *SCORE! Educational Centers *SCORE International, an offroad racing organization *Sarawak Corrido ...

Baja 500 The Baja 500 is a Mexican off-road motorsport race on the Baja California Peninsula that is sanctioned by SCORE International. The course has remained relatively the same over the years with the majority of events being loop races starting and fi ...

off-road race.Green, Mark and Kiersten Nuñez.
Vivint CEO Todd Pedersen involved in crash that killed young spectator at SCORE Baja 500
/ref> Peterson lost control of his vehicle while navigating a turn and slid down a hill before colliding with spectators. One person died and two others were injured. He was briefly detained by Mexican authorities, but later released. Mexican officials said investigation was ongoing, but the event appeared to be an accident rather than a criminal act. Observers reported poor crowd control at the event, and also said spectators were not normally allowed at the site of the accident.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pedersen, Todd 1968 births Living people Latter Day Saints from Washington (state) Brigham Young University alumni Latter Day Saints from Idaho Latter Day Saints from Arizona Latter Day Saints from Utah