People: Hires and Promotions in the Audio Industry for August 2020

L-Acoustics

In creating its new Americas Division, L-Acoustics has promoted BJ Shaver to business development director for the installation market and appointed William Cornell business development director for the rental market. Both report to division head Alan Macpherson. Shaver spent more than seven years developing the southwestern U.S. market as regional sales manager for L-Acoustics. During that time, his sales and support focus was heavily invested in the house of worship vertical. Prior to joining L-Acoustics, Shaver rose to the position of vice president of installation at Elite Multimedia in Memphis, TN. Meanwhile, Cornell previously spent nearly 15 years with d&b audiotechnik, where he built and managed sales operations in the Americas and rose to the position of CEO of the manufacturer’s U.S. subsidiary.

Sound Productions

Pro audio retailer Sound Productions has opened an office near Madison, WI, that will be used by Kyle Kjensrud, the company’s new vice president of sales, and Ryan Mauer, its new vice president of marketing and ecommerce. Kjensrud has a background in product management, merchandising and ecommerce that he developed over a 20-year career at Full Compass. Mauer, who also worked at Full Compass, as director of sales, will be responsible for leading the Dallas telesales team and the growing Madison team, while identifying and expanding Sound Pro’s reach into new markets.

Sweetwater

Pro audio internet retailer Sweetwater has promoted Phil Rich to the newly-established role of chief supply chain officer; additionally, the company appointed three new managers in its distribution center, which opened in February. A 10-year veteran of Sweetwater, Rich will be responsible for leading the retailer’s merchandising and distribution center teams. Meanwhile, Robert Gerwig is the new senior vice president of distribution. Gerwig previously spent six years managing Macy’s global supply chain in Chicago. Demarcus Austin is the new senior director in the distribution center; before relocating to Fort Wayne, IN, Austin was head of distribution operations at Newegg in Los Angeles, CA. Jeff Harrison is the new director of fulfillment, 2nd shift. He grew up in northeast Indiana and most recently worked in Indianapolis, where he was a manager at Walmart’s largest ecommerce facility.

Listen Technologies

Listen Technologies has promoted Sam Nord to vice president of global sales, where he works with the company’s partners to sell Listen’s audio and content solutions to their customer bases. He also oversees Listen Technologies’ outside and inside sales teams. Nord has spent his entire career in the AV industry. He joined Listen Technologies in 2013 after having been a customer for many years in previous roles as a dealer and integrator. Most recently, he was director of global sales at Listen Technologies. Under his leadership, the sales team achieved record year-over-year growth.

Audio-Technica U.S.

As part of its global product development activities, Audio-Technica U.S. has made two appointments to its product management team: Kurt Van Scoy has been named executive director of product management for ATUS, and Gary Dixon has been promoted to product manager for ATUS. Van Scoy will be responsible for directing the product development/management efforts at ATUS, as well as overseeing the ATUS quality control department. He previously spent four years serving A-T as global product manager, based in Japan. Meanwhile, Dixon previously was sales engineer of installed sound at A-T, where he served as a technical resource for the Audio-Technica sales channel in the broad contractor market.

Symetrix

Symetrix has named Dan Lynch vice president of marketing; he will oversee the growth and development of the marketing, product management, and technical support teams. Lynch began his career in live music production as a monitor engineer for a regional sound company in Des Moines, IA. Joining BSS Audio in 2004, he worked as an application engineer supporting the development of BSS SoundWeb. After eight years, Lynch was brought onto the Biamp team, where he directly supported AV installers with their projects. By 2014, he owned his own firm, which designed and programmed thousands of systems.