NanoLumens Appoints Award-Winning Lighting Designer Simon Deary to Position of Regional Sales Director EMEA

To better serve its growing customer base in the EMEA region, NanoLumens® (www.nanolumens.com), a leading manufacturer and marketer of visualization solutions, today announced the appointment of Simon Deary to the position of Regional Sales Director EMEA, reporting directly to David DaCosta, NanoLumens Managing Director EMEA.

“As NanoLumens continues to expand throughout the EMEA region, we need to have someone of Simon’s experience join our team,” DaCosta said today. “Through his unique background in lighting design and LED engineering, Simon has a well-versed understanding of the industry, and will be able to show a variety of businesses how our solutions can help them to achieve their customer engagement goals and objectives.”

Before joining NanoLumens, Deary founded Son Et Lumiere, an LED design firm specializing in high-end events. Deary worked on projects such as the Expendables 3 premier in Cannes and London, W Hotel Verbier, and the Cosmopolitan Awards. Prior to this, Deary was the Director of LED PoisonÔ, a market leader in supplying product solutions, technology, and visual solutions to the biggest names and shows in Entertainment, including X-Factor, the Alice Keys World Tour, Justin Timberlake World Tour, Britain’s Got Talent, Deal or No Deal, and more.

Deary also served as Area Sales Manager at Philips Color Kinetics, an LED lighting distributor and installer, as well as lighting design positions with theater companies throughout the UK, including Bill Kenwright Limited, Green and Lenagan Limited, and Show Credits Theatre. Simon Deary received an Honors Degree in LED Electronic Design and Engineering from Boston University.

“From working on LED and lighting design for The Who to crafting unique visuals at the Olympic Ceremonies, Simon Deary’s vast knowledge of LED product design, manufacturing, sales and support is an incredible asset to NanoLumens,” DaCosta concluded.

Burt Smith Appointed Executive Vice President For Business Development at NanoLumens

Emphasizing the importance of developing its core business outside of the United States, NanoLumens (www.nanolumens.com), the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of visualization solutions, today announced the appointment of Burt Smith to the position of Executive Vice President for Business Development, reporting directly to NanoLumens CEO Rick Cope.

“While we continue to build our base of sales in North America, NanoLumens must and will broaden the focus of its business development efforts throughout the UK, Europe, Middle East, and Asia,” Cope said today. “Burt Smith has the global business development experience that we need to help us achieve our sales objectives in all of these critically important target markets.  He has driven sales, marketing, and business development programs in small and large software and hardware companies in developing high tech markets.”

Karen Robinson, who has held the position of Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing since 2010, is moving on to direct the company’s mergers and acquisitions initiatives. “Karen’s talents make her the ideal executive to identify companies and technologies that complement and extend the NanoLumens eco-system of visualization,” Cope said today.  “She has done an outstanding job over the last five years in building out our executive team and I expect she will do the same in her new role with the company.”

Burt Smith has more than 25 years of success in professional sales management, channel sales management, marketing management and operations experience with large and small technology companies. With an electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech, he has spent his entire career in technology, helping to launch numerous category-defining products. He has strong international channel sales development experience in the UK, EU, Middle East and China and has been directly involved in successful IPOs/acquisitions/exits including the sale to Autodesk of the Constructware SaaS (Software as a Service) collaboration software, the sale of the industry leading content management solution MediaBin to Interwoven (now HP) as well as the international IPO for MediaBin. 

Smith’s industry experience spans many fast growing markets including the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) market for Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM), content management for consumer brand advertising, healthcare/medical SaaS solutions, high-end graphics visualizations systems and most recently big data and predictive analytics. 

As Executive VP for Business Development, Smith and his teams will be focused on expansion of the sales pipeline of business opportunities through targeted sales programs, direct marketing and messaging. Additionally, he and his teams will drive the marketing and evolution of the company to become the industry’s top provider of visualization solutions, utilizing the Visualization as a Service (VaaS) model, through the expansion of whole product solutions that offer increased value, greater repeatable sales, increased margins and substantial revenue growth. 

Latin Percussion®, Toca® and Gibraltar® Percussion Brands Return to KMC Music as Part of New Distribution Agreement

Underscoring its unique ability to provide manufacturers with a broad and deep reach to every segment of the MI retail marketplace, KMC Music (www.kmcmusic.com) today announced that it has been appointed by Drum Workshop, Inc. (www.dwdrums.com) to serve as the preeminent United States distributor with the largest selection of Latin Percussion®, Toca®, and Gibraltar® percussion brands.  Drum Workshop acquired the brands three months ago in an asset sale agreement with then KMC Music owner, Fender Musical Instruments, Inc. 

“We welcome the return of these great brands to the KMC Music family,” KMC Music President Mark Terry said today.  “This is a great moment for our dealers, who can now again order the Latin Percussion, Toca, and Gibraltar brands from the industry’s best high value added distributor, KMC Music!  Drum Workshop’s appointment is a true testament to KMC Music’s unique capabilities.”

Under the terms of the agreement announced today, KMC Music assumes immediate responsibility for selling, marketing, and supporting the three industry leading percussion brands to all non Drum Workshop house accounts, providing KMC Music’s sales team with the ability to bring the brands to some 6,000 additional MI dealers across the country.  “This appointment reaffirms KMC Music’s distribution strengths,” Terry emphasized, “And, in the process, it effectively cements our position as the industry’s most complete one-stop shopping resource for any MI dealer looking to offer their customers the broadest range of percussion brands and options at every major price point.”

The Latin Percussion, Toca, and Gibraltar brands now join KMC Music’s existing arsenal of percussion lines that include Remo drumheads, Vater Percussion, World Percussion, Vic Firth Drumsticks, Evans Drumheads, ProMark Drumsticks, DW Hardware, PDP hardware and drums, Regal Tip drum sticks, and Innovative Percussion. 

Commenting on the appointment today, Drum Workshop, Inc. President Chris Lombardi noted that, “KMC Music is the logical solution considering the history they have with these iconic brands.  They are a natural complement to our own sales organization and they possess the field sales and telemarketing teams, the service and support staffs, the year-round promotion programs, and the logistics and fulfillment capability needed to bring the Latin Percussion, Toca, and Gibraltar brands to the widest possible audience of musicians.  We very much look forward to working with the entire KMC team.” 

Core Brands Promotes Gordon Isaac to National Director of CI Channel Sales

In recognition of the outstanding contributions he has made to building CI channel sales throughout the southwest, Core Brands, LLC today announced the immediate promotion of Gordon Isaac from Southwest Region Sales Manager to National Director of CI Channel Sales, reporting directly to Core Brands Vice President of Sales Jeff Costello. 

Effective immediately, Isaac assumes responsibility for the development and implementation of all regional and national sales programs for all brands sold through custom installation dealers.  “Gordon is an outstanding sales professional who has the skills and experience that will help our nationwide network of CI dealers grow their businesses for many years to come,” Costello said today.  “Core Brands is now bringing to market the broadest range of control and audio solutions in our history, and Gordon’s 20 years of experience in the CE and CI channel makes him the right sales leader to launch of these products in the channel.”

Since first becoming involved in the CE and CI industries in 1994, Isaac has held a number of industry-specific retailer, manufacturer, sales rep, and systems integrator sales and management positions, resulting in a uniquely broad perspective that promises to be of great value to dealers and the company’s sales rep partners, according to Costello. 

Prior to serving as Southwest Region Sales Manager at Core Brands, Gordon Isaac was West Coast Sales Manager for SpeakerCraft.  Other previous positions include Regional Sales Manager for Crestron Electronics, Southwest Territory Manager for rep firm Sound-Tech Marketing, Market Representative for Bose Corporation, Store Manager for Ultimate Electronics, and the Director of Finance, Marketing, and Vendor Relations for R2W, a $20-million residential and commercial systems integrator. 

“I have been deeply involved with selling, specifying, and installing the Core Brands portfolio of best-in-class brands since 1996, and I understand the business needs of our dealers and our rep partners,” Isaac said today.  “I believe in creating real business partner relationships with our customers and our reps, and becoming more than just another vendor to the people we do business with. I’ve spent the past 10 years in the field meeting with all types of dealers and love working closely to help them further their success.  For me there is no better feeling than being in front of our customers, and I look forward to working face to face with them, understanding their needs and challenges, and doing whatever we can do to improve their businesses.”