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

Audix

Audix has named Steve Johnson vice president of sales and marketing. Johnson has served more than 30 years in the pro audio and communications industries and has a background in engineering, marketing and senior management roles. Most recently, Johnson was the CEO of Community Professional Loudspeakers. Prior to that, he held positions at Bosch Communications Systems, Harman Music Group and Shure.

Point Source Audio

Point Source Audio has named Joe Cota its customer education specialist, while Justin Hall has been named key account manager and Mitchell Ho has become account manager, western United States. Cota is a professional singer and musician by trade, while Hall is a seasoned account manager who has served customers, managed projects and dealt with international distributors for much of his career. Ho’s position as account manager is in fact his first job outside of minor league baseball, though he has been around professional audio his entire life.

Dirac

Dirac has named Mats Oberg chief sales officer. He will report to Dirac CEO Mathias Johansson. Oberg comes to Dirac from Waystream, a provider of advanced digital infrastructure components and services, where he served as CEO since 2017. Before this, he served as managing director at Sabre Corp., a technology solutions provider of data-driven business intelligence, mobile, distribution and SaaS solutions. From 2000 to 2016, Oberg was at Agilent Technologies, which deals in analytical solutions for the biotech, chemical and pharma industries, where he served in various managerial roles.

Yamaha Corp. of America

Yamaha Corp. of America has promoted Preston Gray to a newly created position of field sales engineer manager for commercial audio and Nexo products. Gray is responsible for managing field sales engineers who provide channel partners with presales and technical design support, while closely aligning with their business activities, including project development, engineering, procurement and installation/support. Gray joined Yamaha in 2016 as a district manager representing Nexo systems. Prior to working for Yamaha, he was the audio department manager at Morris, based in Nashville, TN and has extensive experience as a system engineer on top-grossing country tours.

Synthax

Synthax, U.S. distributor of RME, Ferrofish, Digigram, Appsys and myMix, has appointed Marie Sorenson as marketing coordinator for the Americas, and Andrew Pernetti as regional sales manager. Sorenson has 30 years of industry experience working as a musical artist and audio engineer. She has taught audio classes at the university level and previously worked for a marketing services company that supported hospitals and national businesses. In her new role, Sorenson will develop and implement marketing strategies for both the North and South American markets. Meanwhile, Pernetti has more than 20 years of professional audio and sales experience in the system integration, live sound, pro audio, broadcast and MI markets. Prior to Synthax, Pernetti worked as Powersoft Audio’s sales manager for eastern North America.

L-Acoustics Creations

L-Acoustics Creations, a new division of L-Acoustics, has appointed Nick Fichte to the role of business manager. Fichte has had a 15-year career in the AV industry that began with a job at custom installer Audio Vision when he was still a student. Fichte later held sales roles at London-based custom installers Olive Audio Visual and Inspired Dwellings; then, prior to joining L-Acoustics, at Crestron, where he was a residential business development manager. For the past four years, he has acted as regional sales manager, residential, interfacing as a trusted counterpart with many of the company’s dealers in the Crestron Residential reseller network.

Xilica

Xilica, which develops DSP technology for AV and installed sound, has hired Mark Ullrich as senior manager, application sales, and promoted Joe Orlando to product manager, systems. Based in Bend, OR, Ullrich will lead application support and major project sales for dealers, distributors and systems integrators in the United States, Canada and select global territories. Ullrich is well versed on DSP technology and solutions, with nearly 20 years of cumulative experience in the pro audio and commercial AV markets, tackling application and technical product support, international sales and distribution management, and cultivating partner relationships. Ullrich spent more than 10 years at Symetrix, where he acted in technical sales engineering roles before being appointed as the firm’s international sales manager, responsible for all sales outside the United States.

d&b audiotechnik

d&b audiotechnik has appointed Anand Narayanan to serve as territory manager APAC and president, d&b audiotechnik Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. He will be responsible for d&b’s business in Asia Pacific, which includes strategic business development, sales and services, expansion of d&b’s brand positioning and general management. Narayanan succeeds Michael Case, who is taking another strategic role within the d&b group. Narayanan comes to d&b from Danfoss Industries, where he was the Asia Pacific regional director. Narayanan also previously served as the regional commercial leader of projects for Korea and Japan at General Electric.

Stage Tec

Stage Tec in Berlin is getting a new management team: René Harder, who has been a vice president for many years, and Sascha Khelifa, who is new to the team, are being appointed as managing directors. Khelifa has worked in the pro audio industry for 20 years, including in the role of managing director of Meyer Sound Laboratories Germany from 2008 to 2018. At Stage Tec, he will be responsible for sales and commercial management. Meanwhile, Harder began working at Stage Tec as a software developer in 2003 and has gained experience in various areas as assistant to management and vice president since 2013. As managing director, Harder will be responsible for production and technology.

Shure

Shure has brought on Mike Knappe as associate vice president of musician and consumer audio product development. He will be responsible for all listening products and microphones sold in the retail segment, as well as the company’s MOTIV digital microphone line. Knappe comes to Shure from Harman, where he led its lifestyle division’s technology team for next-generation consumer and automotive audio experiences, including cloud personalization and health and wellness. He brings global experience from his positions at Nortel, Cisco, Juniper and Fuze, where he led international development teams for security, wireless, SaaS, analytics, UX/UI, NLP, mobile apps, and device+cloud fabrics, with a balance across hardware and software development. He has a graduate electrical engineering degree from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, with research in adaptive algorithms and psychoacoustics.

Martin Audio

Martin Audio named Will Harris a product support engineer. The latest addition to the manufacturer’s product support group, Harris will provide the Martin Audio team and resellers with demos, system design and implementation. He will also commission installations and provide technical support to customers. Based in Las Vegas, NV, Harris has experienced all aspects of the pro audio industry, from musician on stage to live sound engineer and technical support for a high-profile manufacturer.

Riedel Communications

Riedel Communications has appointed Lutz Rathmann director of the managed technology division, effective June 1. An engineering graduate, Rathmann most recently served as CEO at APS, an agency in the field of automotive events. He also previously held management positions at Riedel, including deputy head of global events. Rathmann’s tasks include the expansion of new strategic business areas and partnerships and the continued development of the Riedel solutions portfolio.