Talented individuals working in the AV industry in this year’s Inavate 40 Under 40 list we focus on AV professionals shaping, leading and often disrupting the industry across EMEA.
Achievements outlined in the nominations for this year’s 40 Under 40 are dominated by reactions to Covid-19, demonstrating remarkable resilience. The accomplishments and reactions to the crisis are broad, creative and impressive. Our list sees a few returning faces from our Class of 2019 and in each case clear examples of the individual notching up further achievements are detailed; it’s been wonderful to note those career progressions. Find out more about these talented professionals in our Guide to the 40 Under 40 Class of 2020 or via short introductions below.
Jamie Adkins – Adder Technology, VP Sales EMEA
Adkin has been at the heart of strategic changes to evolve Adder’s channel model and introduce a global partner portal this year. His leadership ethic values effective teamwork, prioritises empathy and encourages experimentation among his staff.
Sofia Marlasole Boer – Prase Media Technologies, Marketing Coordinator
Having started a digital learning programme three years ago, Boer was ready to make the most of the Covid-19 lockdown by quickly offering AV professionals online learning options, reaching more than 2,700 people in eight weeks.
Omer Brookstein – SyncPro, CEO and cofounder
Brookstein founded SyncPro to offer cloud-based deployment, management and monitoring of workplace technology amid the challenging backdrop of Covid-19. In getting the company off the ground he’s quickly developed partnerships with a number of leading AV manufacturers.
Inalina Canalis – Meyer Sound, Application Architect, Spatial AudioSpecialist
Canalis designed, programmed and applied immersive audio software before going on to join Meyer Sound and apply much of what she’d learnt in helping develop Spacemap Go. In a varied career she has navigated working in a male-dominated industry as a sound technician and taught in universities in Argentina and the UK.
Konstantina Chavgie – INFiLED, EMEA marketing manager
Chavgie has been a key part of INFiLED’s international expansion and been crucial in helping to navigate the challenges brought about by theCovid-19 pandemic including redefining the company’s marketing plan and redistributing budget while ensuring visibility for the brand in the market.
Alex Couzins – Absen, head of brand and marketing Europe
This year Couzins has increased media coverage for Absen by 25%. He took charge of communicating Absen’s positions and plans when Covid-19 hit to quickly reassure a market concerned bystock and supply chain issues. He was instrumental in offering further support to customers via online training.
Amy Cronshaw – Beyond Workplace Consulting, Founder and CEO
Cronshaw, who lost her own job due toCovid-19, tackled the problems brought about by the pandemic head on, launching an already profitable consultancy to support organisations in becoming virtual communities. She’s also mentored other young women in AV through the WAVE mentoring programme.
Sebastian Day – MiX Consultancy, Director
Day juggles a number of roles as company director of the MiX Consultancy as well as heading up its AV team and managing his own projects from start to finish. He’s steered the company of more than 30 people through Covid-19, keeping his team fully employed.
Tobias Enders – GMS Global Media Services, CEO
Since joining GMS in 2009, Enders started in business development and was promoted to CEO in 2012. He’s overseen growth from less than 15 employees to more than 100 at the AV integrator that is the German member of the GPA.
Mark Flowers – Ricoh Europe, strategic vendor manager EMEA
Flowers has established a supply chain model to access multinational opportunities and taken responsibility for European Partnership agreements with vendors as well as leading contract negotiations that has led to measurable growth. Has driven standards and best practice within Ricoh as well as setting up local vendor strategies with around 20 Ricoh operating companies.
Mike Fry – Visavvi, regional sales
Fry favours a partnership approach with clients in favour of simply responding toa brief in order to help them realise needs and aspirations. In two years with Visavvi he’s spearheaded global corporate sales across 36 international companies.
Laila Hede Jensen – ZetaDisplay, chief commercial officer
Hede Jensen joined ZetaDisplay this year and immediately had to navigate Covid-19 challenges. She implemented a cost control plan to ensure survival and implemented a strategy supporting customers in keeping environments Covid safe.
Jenny Hicks – Midwich Group, group head of technology
This year Hicks was instrumental in the acquisition of US distributor Starin Marketing and Midwich’s global HaaS programme in partnership with Zoom and Poly. The move turned out to be fortuitous as Covid-19 bit and videoconferencing demand grew.
Ryan Holmes – Visavvi, audio visual systems architect
Holmes puts technology at the heart of what he does and believes that good system design can deliver financial value and is a crucial aspect of winning projects. Has applied hard work and creative ideas to solve problems for clients.
Andy Hook – White Light, technical solutions director
The youngest board member of White Light, Hook has helped the integrator break into new markets including broadcast. He created the company’s innovations department to drive R&D and new product and service development, forming the division to continue development of the Smart Stage product that Hook pioneered.
Simon Hurst – MVS Audio Visual, managing director
Hurst worked his way up through MVS Audio Visual after joining in 2006 in sales. Through various roles he’s secured significant product wins and overseen a significant upturn in business on the corporate side.
Nathan Ihlenfeldt – Stage Audio Works, technical director
Led the projects team of this integrator in significant installations throughout EMEA. Headed up the architecture, development and implementation of a live streaming platform which enables events staging companies, churches and event venues take events online to navigate Covid-19 lockdowns.
Justin Joel Joy – Peerless AV, senior sales manager MEA
Joy has been instrumental in developing relationships with key distributors and rapidly increasing business for Peerless-AV in the new markets of GCC countries and India as well as starting to gain a foothold in the West African market.
Simina Mazureac – Legrand Integrated Solutions & BTicino
As the industry reeled from Covid-19, Mazureac decided you can either “get stuck and wait” or take control. Opting for the latter, she delivered a digital live event, as well as helping curate and organise more than 30 webinars.
Vivek Mishra – Mindstec Distribution, sales director
Mishra has made notable gains increasing Mindstec’s business in Qatar and helped to set up and expand the distributor’s business operation in Eastern and Central Europe. Has also helped bring new brands into the Mindstec portfolio.
Umaidullah Najimi – Involve Visual Collaboration, Solutions Architect
When use of Involve’s healthcare calling platform surged due to the Covid-19pandemic, Najimi responded with a free virtualised training session for its users. The education effort lowered user queries all while usage increased.
Gary Newson – Netgear, marketing manager EMEA
Newson is at the heart of highlighting Netgear products and fostering understanding of networking within the AV market to support the transition to AV over IP. He’s successfully gone from a UK role to devising suitable strategies for EMEA.
Raj Patel – Vanti, director
Patel spearheaded an expansion of Vanti’s core AV integration business out into the development of its own product. Vanti’s desk sensors will be a standalone product as well as an asset in the company’s toolkit.
Kieran Purdie – Netgear, pro AV channel manager, technical manger UK & IRE, business development manager
Purdie worked from the ground up to lead the charge in the UK market to bring Netgear switches into AV; finding partners, resellers and distributors to meet the challenge.
Matthew Scott – Allsee Technologies, head of UK sales
Scott acquired new skills to expand his sales role into management when he took on his role. He puts a lot of his success down to learning from colleagues in the management team and makes efforts to help his team develop and grow.
Elman Sharifov – Proav, director of projects
Sharifov headed up a transition for this Baku based integrator to shift document storage of system diagrams for clients to a cloud system. Prior to this company only provided cabling drawings. Also updated the office with a new showroom.
Michael Sherman – Henri, CEO
Heading up this integrator, Sherman has grown turnover and opened up new subsidiaries across France. Having set up a dynamic business was able to adapt quickly to navigate the challenges of Covid-19.
Evgeny Stepanov – dreamlaser, development director
Stepanov has overseen a huge increase in sales at the company thanks in part to his reorganisation of the sale process. Quickly pivoted to a focus on online and virtual offerings as the Covid-19 crisis hit.
Attila Sukosd – Airtame, CTO & Cofounder
Sukosd has overseen the creation of a new hardware product, from inception to mass production, now boasting 90,000 devices in the market. Expanded from a technical background to take on management roles with success.
Charlie Sullivan – ZeeVee, head of business development – UK & Ireland
Sullivan measurably boosted sales of ZeeVee products in the UK during his first year with the company. He’s pinpointed the need to adopt an educational approach to AV-over-IP sales and supported the ZeeVee team a number of major project wins across EMEA.
Petteri Timonen – Varjo, computer vision engineer
A self-taught software developer, Timonen has been working since the age of 15 including roles at Google and Nokia. As part of Varjo’s mixed reality team he’s contributed to human-eye resolution VR/AR/XR headsets, playing a crucial part in bringing an impressive VR product to life.
Michael Tulip – Philips Professional Display Solutions, UK signage sales manager
Tulip has developed relationships to deliver sizable projects for the manufacturer including a number of successes throughout the Covid-19 lockdown. He has applied a background in IT to support internal teams and enhance the company’s Android SoC platform.
Tom Van de Sande – PVS – Audac, CEO
Van de Sande has set out and achieved ambitious goals. He prizes agility and creativity and was able to lead the quick development of online resources in response to Covid-19.
Toni Viñals Burés, Netipbox Technologies, co-founder & CEO of Netibox technologies
Viñals Burés co-founded Netipbox at the age of 26 and has continued to build a successful company that, despite the ravages of Covid-19, is continuing to support clients such as IKEA with digital transformation strategies.
Jan Walter – Christie, regional sales manager (DACH, Baltics, Poland, Netherlands
Walter conducted strategic planning with distributor and integrator partners and with a new distribution partner on board in Switzerland dramatically increased sales in the country. Is also active in product development, obtaining feedback on prototype products.
Mark Wadsworth – Digital Projection, vice president of global marketing
Wadsworth has effectively brought product research and education among customer groups into his marketing strategy, overcoming challenges ofCovid-19 to still reach customers during lockdown and deliver a strong outlook for 2021.
Mark Walker – B-Tech International, operations director (UK)
Walker navigated challenges brought about by Covid-19, which forced shutdowns of factories during what should be the busiest time of the year for the manufacturer. He implemented a new stock plan and transitioned to all staff (including engineering teams) working from home.
James Wilder – Espirit Digital, head of special projects
Wilder started at Esprit at the age of 18 as a runner, rising through the ranks of the digital signage company. In the last 12 months he has racked up significant project wins across EMEA including a high value contract secured during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Jack Wilson – Clevertouch, international sales territory manager
Willson started with Clevertouch as a sales executive 14 years ago. In his current role, he’s rapidly increased the manufacturer’s international division from 10% of the company’s turnover to 70% including securing a significant project win in the Middle East.
Mark Worger - TouchscreenRentals.co.uk, owner/managing director
Worger started the company in 2014 with virtually no investment and has now served more than 400 clients across Europe, delivering more than 1,000 projects. He is currently setting up a European branch to avoid problems from Brexit and is successfully weathering the Covid-19 storm.