Riedel Communications has promoted Dave Caulwell to the newly created position of North American Channel Manager from his previous role as Business Development Manager for the Eastern U.S. He will report to Rich Zabel, Vice President of Sales for Riedel Communications North America.
Caulwell has more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of event technology and production, with a heavy background in video production.
Prior to joining Riedel in 2016 as Business Development Manager, he held both technical and managerial roles planning and supporting live events for many high-end corporate clients. He also was responsible for strategic direction and securing new business for several live event companies, including Alchemedia.
Before that, as an operations manager at NEP’s New Century Productions, Caulwell not only oversaw mobile production units serving major sports and entertainment broadcasters, but also negotiated key contract extensions. In addition, he served on the integration team responsible for bringing new mobile production companies into the NEP family.
“System integrators and VARs are an essential component of our go-to-market strategy, and it’s time to dedicate a resource to supporting them properly,” Zabel said. “Since Dave joined Riedel almost four years ago, he’s done an outstanding job of growing our business throughout the eastern U.S. He’s the ideal team member to serve as a single point of contact to provide the sales tools our channel partners need to further expand Riedel’s presence in the markets they serve.”
“Making sure our valuable partners have the tools they need to be successful is an essential part of this new role,” said Caulwell. “I’m excited to start working alongside our partners to provide those tools in order to grow overall awareness and adoption of Riedel’s innovative solutions.”
Telestream has announced that Dan Castles, one of the company’s original founders, has returned as CEO to lead the company through its next phase of growth. Scott Puopolo, who has served as CEO of Telestream since 2017, has decided to step down as CEO. Puopolo successfully developed and advanced Telestream’s strategy, which will drive the company’s growth in the years ahead.
Eli Weiss, Managing Director of Genstar Capital, Telestream’s majority shareholder, commented: “We are grateful for Scott Puopolo’s many contributions to the company. Scott has been a great partner to Genstar in our efforts to grow and expand Telestream. As we embark on a new decade which promises to bring fundamental changes to the broadcast industry, we are excited to have Dan re-join Telestream to help drive its growth strategy and continue to lead the industry.”
Under Castles’ 20-year leadership, Telestream experienced consistent year-on-year revenue growth, and strong profitability. The company has today become the recognized leader in enterprise-class video transcoding, quality assurance, and workflow solutions, addressing the numerous video format and device incompatibilities and service disruptions encountered when delivering video over any network.
“Broadcast business models need to evolve to meet rapidly changing consumption habits. Telestream is perfectly positioned to help organisations navigate the myriad challenges that face them. Our employees’ dedication to excellence, spirit of innovation and unwavering focus on customer needs are at the heart of our success and the reasons why I am excited to come back and help take the company into its next stage of growth and evolution,” added Dan Castles.
ZetaDisplay, has announced an updated organisational structure and the appointment of Laila Hede Jensen as new Chief Commercial Officer. Laila started with ZetaDisplay on February 1st, 2020.
Laila joined the company after 15 years of global sales and marketing experience with leading brands in the AV and technology sectors, including Unilumin, SiliconCore and Samsung. Based in the Nordic region, Laila will lead the business’s revenue plans and business development as well as strategic relationships and account management teams.
Most recently at the world’s largest LED manufacturer Unilumin Group as Vice President of Sales, Laila built a new international sales and support organisation in EMEA. Her role saw build new partnerships with leading system integrators, consultants, end-users and developers worldwide. She also holds a board position at the Digital Signage Organisation, providing its members with a strong voice in the digital signage industry, through learning and sharing best practices.
Ms Jensen commented:
“I have closely followed ZetaDisplay’s development during the past years and I am impressed about the determination to take the lead in the further development of our industry. I am excited to becoming a part of the journey and expand the business internationally. We are acting in a fast-growing market and we are preparing the ground to take the industry by storm. We have an exciting customer portfolio at hand that we intend to strengthen both locally but also across borders. It is a move towards bringing international alignment to the business enabling scalability of its sales, marketing and project functions.”
CEO Per Mandorf added:
“After a period of rapid expansion through the acquisition of seven companies, it is now time to align our resources and to capture scalability, move from national to international sales and operational focus. Laila’s appointment will enable us to better respond to customer expectations regarding international projects, complex deliveries, advanced product concepts as well as innovative software solutions. She will be a vital asset to bring our plans to life.”
RTI has announced the appointment of Joe Roberts as Chief Executive Officer. He will lead the company through initiatives that expand the RTI control platform with unique solutions for its global customers. Roberts takes over for interim CEO Mark Derus, who will return to his role as Chief Financial Officer.
“We’re very fortunate to have Joe join us as CEO,” Derus said. “His passion for building a culture that consistently delivers exceptional service and innovative products makes him a perfect fit. Under Joe’s leadership, we look forward to expanding the business opportunities for our distribution partners around the world.”
RTI delivers the connected world to users’ fingertips via advanced control and automation systems for smart homes and businesses. Guided by a passion for delivering the ultimate user experience, the company’s award-winning solutions bring entertainment, environment, and security into harmony with a powerful ecosystem that is easy enough for anyone to use.
Roberts has a history of customer focus, product innovation and delivery, and is well-known in the industry for turning around Core Brands and re-establishing ELAN as a leading control brand. During his time at Core Brands and then Nortek, he and his teams had earned coveted awards including top dealer program, human interface of the year, customer service awards, and best product awards across multiple categories. Roberts will inject his brand of customer focus and leadership into RTI, accelerating innovation within the residential market, and positioning the company to expand its suite of solutions for the commercial market.
“I am excited to join RTI, where the team shares my passion for our dealers,” said Roberts. “We have a strong foundation with nearly three decades of creative solutions for both residential and commercial integrators worldwide. I look forward to leading the team to build on this momentum.”
Midwich has announced the appointment of Alister Smith as AMX’s Business Development Manager UK. Based at Midwich Group’s newly opened Innovation House showroom in Bracknell, Alister brings 20 years’ experience in the industry across distribution, manufacturing, reseller and integrator businesses within the Corporate, Residential and Commercial markets. Alister was Vice Chairman of CEDIA EMEA from 2014-16.
Midwich are the only distribution partner in the UK & Ireland to offer the full range of AMX products. Alister will take a central role in growing the brand and his experience allows Midwich to further enhance their reach within the channel partner community, as well as increasing engagement with end users.
Alister Smith commented: “I am delighted to be joining the AMX team at Midwich. I’m excited to get working with the rest of this technical team, where we are focussed on driving and growing the AMX brand. My experience in the audio visual and technical product areas, including AMX and their competing brands, will help drive the projected growth of AMX in 2020. I look forward to discussing my new role in the team and how we can assist our clients moving forward.”
Claire Coogan, Divisional Manager, commented:
“Alister joins us at an exciting time when AMX is relaunching a series of ground-breaking new products. Alister will play an integral role further strengthening the AMX and Midwich team presence. His wealth of industry, technical and product knowledge will serve him well in this position.”
Meyer Sound has promoted two managers to key high-level management positions. Amy Luley has been named Director of U.S. Sales Operations and Mary Molnar has been appointed Technical Services Manager, Americas. Both will be reporting to Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing John McMahon.
In her new position, Amy Luley now assumes direct responsibility for managing Meyer Sound’s team of 15 sales managers and sales engineers throughout the United States. Account management, dealer contracts and dealer relationships will be under her direction.
“We are transitioning to a new structure, moving away from strict geographical territory management to a more flexible account structure, allowing us to strengthen our dealer relationships and focus more on key vertical markets,” says Luley.
“We have positioned a team of local, regionally-based sales managers and sales engineers who will be working together to provide our U.S. dealers with exceptional service and dedicated attention. We are focusing on strengthening and expanding our dealer education program, with an emphasis on our unique, industry-leading solutions.”
Luley cites in particular a restructuring of sales in the Western United States, where the existing team will remain in place, but some specific shifts in accounts, territories and market emphasis can be anticipated. Since joining Meyer Sound in 2014, Amy Luley has served as Salesforce.com Administrator, Sales Operations Manager, and Sales and Business Development Project Manager.
In her newly appointed role as Technical Services Manager, Americas, Mary Molnar assumes overall responsibility of Meyer Sound’s newly integrated design services and technical support teams throughout the Western Hemisphere.
“My role is communicating with all teams involved in the design of technical solutions and ongoing support to ensure they respond quickly and effectively to customer needs,” says Molnar. “By integrating design services and technical support, we will get our design teams out in the field more often, giving them a feel for how their designs work in the real world. Our overall goal is to be more collaborative and team-focused, which ultimately benefits our clients.”
Molnar will be working in close collaboration with Technical Services Manager, International, Dennis Tholema, who carries parallel responsibilities for most of the Eastern Hemisphere. Tholema is based at the Meyer Sound Europe headquarters in Germany.
Molnar joined Meyer Sound in 2018 as Strategic Projects Manager. For the 25 years prior to that, she held key management and sales positions at San Francisco rental partner McCune AVL, overseeing company logistics and managing major projects.
