Audio Collaborative 2021

Speakers

James Chapman - Qualcomm

James Chapman

Qualcomm

James Chapman is vice president and general manager at Qualcomm Technologies International, LTD, voice, music and wearables business unit. In this role, Chapman leads the business, product development and go-to-market strategies for solutions spanning a variety of segments. Before joining Qualcomm as part of the acquisition of CSR, he was responsible for CSR’s connectivity product line. Prior to CSR Chapman has held senior software management roles at Broadcom; he was also the Head of Research for TTP Communications. Chapman brings more than 20 years in the high-tech industry and has a Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics from the University of Oxford.

Martins Popelis - Sonarworks

Martins Popelis

Sonarworks

Serial entrepreneur with multiple previous exits, Martins is a unique combination of understanding business, technology and passion for building companies. Having achieved success with delivering reliable reference sound to over 100’000 music creators worldwide with Sonarworks Reference product Martins is now a firm believer of delivering individually perfected sound to all music listeners, thus eliminating sound translation problem at its core.

Johnny McClintock - Qualcomm

Johnny McClintock

Qualcomm

Jonny McClintock is director, product marketing of Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. where he is responsible for driving the adoption of Qualcomm aptX and Snapdragon Sound technology in consumer electronics, automotive and mobile categories. He joined Qualcomm in 2015, initially as Sales and Marketing Director and shareholder of APT Licensing prior to CSR’s acquisition, He has been involved with the aptX algorithm since 1993, licensing aptX into the professional audio market sector for use in digital cinema, radio broadcast, ADR and voice over applications. Prior to being involved with aptX, he was employed by Dolby for several years working on Dolby SR and Dolby Digital for cinema applications. Since joining CSR, and latterly QTIL, McClintock has been involved in introducing aptX into Bluetooth to ensure the consistent transfer of high quality music.

Pete Downton - MQA

Pete Downton

MQA

Pete has more than two decades of international experience working in leadership roles within the media and technology sector, including extended spells with Warner Music Group, Imagination Technologies and 7digital. Currently Pete advises the leading audio technology company MQA on strategic partnerships. MQA focuses exclusively on developing technology that is both better and more efficient at preserving realistic and natural sound when capturing, recording, distributing and playing back digital audio – a project of huge scope. Outside of MQA Pete advises a portfolio of businesses, entrepreneurs and investors, principally working at the intersection of technology and culture.

Nike Koch - Sony Music Entertainment

Nike Koch

Sony Music Entertainment

Nike joined Sony Music in 2007 after a few years of handling CD, vinyl, and merchandise production at an independent label and distributor. In almost 15 years with Sony Music, she has worked in Germany, UK, and the US in a variety of operational roles, from special packaging, to product lifecycle management, product compliance, to business & market analysis, amongst other projects. Vinyl records have always been a fascination and, alongside special packaging products, somewhat of an obsession. It seems fitting that she is able to bring this passion and knowledge into her role as Director Supply Chain Operations. Nike is originally from Germany and came to the UK to study for her A-levels at a specialist music school in the 90s. She holds an MA in Music Business from Liverpool University.

Andreas Kohl - Optimal Media

Andreas Kohl

Optimal Media

Andreas kicked off his career with booking underground shows and publishing music fanzines in the early 1990s leading to becoming a music journalist for VISIONS Magazine and a PR manager at EFA Distribution before he started his own labels Exile On Mainstream and Southern Records Germany as sister company for the now legendary Southern Records UK. Southern used to be a distribution, label management, PR and tour agency providing pretty much all services an artist from the US might be in need for in Europe. Together with even touring as a musician in bands his endeavours led to three decades of experience in pretty much every field of the music industry while maintaining a deep admiration for the undergrounds and independent business. In 2013 Andreas joined Optimal Media – one of the biggest pressing plants on the planet, now manufacturing almost 35 million records per year as well as CDs and all kinds of print products. Andreas works mainly in the vinyl department as senior manager in sales, customer service and quality assurance. Apart from this day job he still runs Exile On Mainstream Records with now well more than 100 releases under his belt. He also writes as freelance journalist for MINT – a magazine dedicated to everything vinyl. Andreas holds an M.A. degree of the Leipzig/Germany University in Communication and Political Sciences and in Economics. He lives just outside of Berlin with his wife and one daughter. In his free time, he builds speaker cabinets for fun, climbs up mountains in summer, skis them down in winter and still loves hanging out with musicians more than anything else.

Cliff Fluet – Lewis Silkin

Cliff Fluet

Lewis Silkin

Cliff joined Lewis Silkin LLP as a Partner in April 2006 after over a decade as in-house counsel in the music and broadcast industry. Cliff is now part of the team spearheading our Media & Entertainment sector for the firm and he now acts for some of the world’s largest names in mobile, brands, recorded music, mobile, live music, radio, audio-visual production and online. He also specialises in working with clients whom are embracing content-based entertainment for the first time such as FMCG and lifestyle brand owners, advertising agencies, digital agencies, investment funds and financial institutions. He has a passion for working on innovative new business models, advertiser-funded programming and in the monetisation of format rights. The Media & Entertainment Group is ranked in the “Legal 500” and “Chambers” and Cliff is ranked as a ‘leading individual’ in both directories. He is also the founder and a director of "Eleven", a business advisory company working with disruptive business models in the world of Digital Media, Film and Sport.

Anders Jessen - WS Audiology

Anders Jessen

WS Audiology

Anders Holm Jessen is Competitive Intelligence Manager at WSA, one of the major hearing aid manufactures worldwide. He graduated as an electronic engineer with focus on signal processing and acoustics in 1998 and joined the audiological research department at Widex A/S in 1999.Since then he has been working in Audiology Research, global audiology support and as an International Audiological Trainer. Today his main focus field is Competitive Intelligence, gathering in-depth knowledge about the competitive environment and future opportunities in the audiological field and facilitating knowledge sharing in these topics across the organisation.

Damon Johnson – Hyper X

Damon Johnson

Hyper X

Damon Johnson, Global Consumer Audio Product Director at HyperX, is responsible for the audio strategy for the Mobile Gaming and Lifestyle categories. Over the last 10 years Damon has lived and worked in the US, Europe, and China with several roles across sales, marketing and product development for global headphone suppliers including yurbuds, Harman and HyperX. Damon holds a B.A. from Miami University and an MBA from INSEAD. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and 2 children.

Andrew Bellavia – Knowles

Andrew Bellavia

Knowles

With a life-long passion for audio and a long history of supplying components to the industry, Andrew Bellavia is right at home in his present role as Director of Market Development for Knowles Corp. He is responsible for Knowles’ commercial in-ear transducer business and has collaborated with customers and partners in the true wireless space from the earliest days. Andrew is also an advocate for the role technology can play in addressing hearing loss including the coming convergence between hearing aids and hearables. He earned a BSEE from the Illinois Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.

Philippe Wargniez Jørgensen - Jabra

Philippe Wargniez Jørgensen

Jabra

Philippe Wargniez Jørgensen is a Vice President for GN Group (known for its brands like Jabra and ReSound). Philippe leads the Lifestyle Hearing business unit, which focuses on initiatives combining the GN capabilities within consumer electronics and hearing technology to bring new innovations to the market. A key initiative here is the announcement of Jabra Enhance Plus, a miniaturized hearing enhancement earbud for situational hearing support. Philippe joined GN in 2020, bringing with him 7 years of hearing industry experience. He holds a Master of Science in Mathematical engineering from Danish Technical University, and has worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company.

Ola Sars - Soundtrack Your Brand

Ola Sars

Soundtrack Your Brand

Ola Sars is a Stockholm based serial entrepreneur active in the music-tech space. He is the Founder, CEO & Chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand, the world's fastest growing music-platform for B2B. Before Soundtrack, he co-founded Spotify Businesses together with Spotify, a stand-alone effort to expand Spotify’s reach into B2B-streaming. In 2018, he pivoted Spotify Business into Soundtrack as a fully independent brand and business. Previous to co-founding Spotify Business, he was the co-founder and COO of Beats Music, acquired by Apple and transformed into Apple Music, as well as the co-founder of Pacemaker, the world's first DJ driven music platform. Ola’s driving force behind his repeated efforts in transforming the music market comes from his conviction that music is undervalued as an art-form and that the music industry offers significant opportunity for value improvement and growth. Through his multiple start-ups in the music-space, he has focused on unlocking that intrinsic VALUE, both in B2C and now in B2B. Ola has been featured in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Bloomberg and is a regular in music and technology publications. Ola was also selected as Billboard International Power Player in 2021

James Baker - SSE Audio

James Baker

SSE Audio

As Live Sound Specialist at SSE Audio, James identifies new routes to market while solidifying the company’s position as the go-to professional audio sales outlet. Baker has become well-known and respected in the pro audio industry during his twenty five-year career as a freelance Sound Engineer while working with Nile Rogers and Chic, Chase and Status, Girls Aloud, Kim Wilde and Gilbert O'Sullivan. This is in addition to his role as a Live Sound Sales Manager for Avid Technology, where he was instrumental in bringing the S6L range of consoles to the marketplace.

Austin Freshwater - DiGiCo

Austin Freshwater

DiGiCo

Austin Freshwater, General Manager of DiGiCo. As General Manager Austin helps lead the DiGiCo team to meet the fast paced demanding needs of its customers in the Live events business across the world, delivering cutting edge industry leading products through best in class sales and marketing activities. Austin joined the DiGiCo team from Canon, the world-leading innovator and provider of imaging and information technology solutions, where he spent 10 years working in sales, latterly becoming Sales Director for UK and Ireland. Prior to this Austin worked for a number of FMCG Blue Chip brands including Coca Cola, Twining’s Tea and Marriott International.

Michael Case - d&b audiotechnik

Michael Case

d&b audiotechnik

Michael “Mike” Case has been active in the pro audio industry as a musician and working in live production for over 30 years. Joining d&b more than a decade ago, a large part of Mike’s time was spent working and representing d&b in the APAC region culminating in him establishing a permanent d&b office in Singapore. Now back in the UK he’s using his broad industry experience to manage a dedicated team enabling artists and venues to connect with d&b and discover the power of tailored audio solutions, furthering their own ambitions in creating memorable audience experiences. d&b audiotechnik provides professional audio solutions to accurately transfer passions through high-end quality speech and music reproduction. d&b is internationally regarded as a leading company for sound reinforcement systems in installed and mobile applications, with a reputation for quality of construction, standard of service, system integration principles, and pioneering technological development.

Chris Merrick – Shure

Chris Merrick

Shure

Chris leads Shure’s global marketing function for Corporate, Government and Higher Education markets and is based at Shure’s Customer Experience Center in London. Chris’s team, based in the US, Europe and Asia, implement product launches, brand and demand programs, and channel marketing. Our aim is to best support our end-customers, their users and our network of channel partners and systems integrators in sourcing the best solutions, services and experiences to support their projects and organizational goals. Chris joined Shure in 2017 following a career in telecommunications and software solutions for governments, enterprises and education. He is always seeking to understand more, and advocate for, how organizations can collaborate, communicate and learn more effectively and efficiently throughout their working environments.

Scott Friedman – Google

Scott Friedman

Google

Scott works on Partnerships and Strategic Alliances at Google where he leads our enterprise hardware partnerships. This includes Google Meet hardware for video conferencing and the Series One Board 65 for digital whiteboarding solutions. Prior to his current role, he headed Google Fiber's relationships with Telecoms and Utilities Before Google, Scott was an economist at AECOM where he focused on navigation economics. Scott received his bachelor's degree in finance and economics from the University of Maryland masters in International Development from Tulane University.

Neil Fluester - Poly

Neil Fluester

Poly

Neil Fluester is a Senior Product Director and foremost product evangelist within Poly for 10 years. He started with Polycom and continued his professional career upon Polycom and Plantronics merging as Poly. As a valued and dedicated product director, he holds expertise in sales marketing and strategy, which have led him to pick up a side hobby of creating content on YouTube. Neil’s intention in creating an authentic and educational YouTube channel in 2016 was to become a helpful resource for resellers and end user customers to better understand products and solutions in video conferencing, collaboration, and unified communications. Neil’s YouTube channel has been a total success as he can be seen globally on his “Poly Weekly News” show. Neil has excellent and extensive working knowledge on sales, marketing and strategy planning, business case, development, managing overall product targeting, supplier relationship, and accreditation management. He is also excellent in presentation skills up to “C-level” executives. His wide and extensive industry and market knowledge of collaboration, unified communications, video conferencing, telepresence, IPTV, digital signage, audio visual and telephony distinguishes him as an individual and valued director at Poly.

Hanieh Motamedian - Sound Directions

Hanieh Motamedian

Sound Directions

Sound Directions is an engineering company focusing on solutions for acoustic challenges. As the sound masking expert at Sound Directions, Hanieh has unique insight into workspace across the UK. Using her experience and knowledge on absorption and sound masking technology, Hanieh works with stakeholders to integrate acoustic solutions into the workplace to create welcoming and productive spaces for staff to enjoy. With an interest in the impact of everyday sound on health, Hanieh promotes a better understanding of how acoustic treatments support human-centric design.

Tim Carroll - Focusrite

Tim Carroll

Focusrite

Tim is the CEO of Focusrite Engineering, a publicly traded company that incorporates eight brands: Focusrite, Focusrite Pro, Novation, ADAM Audio, Sequential, AMPIFY, Optimal Audio and MartinAudio. Tim began his career as a touring musician back in the mid 80s and early 90s and became heavily involved in technology, including Digital Audio Workstations such as Pro Tools. Tim began working for Digidesign/Avid, the maker of Pro Tools , in 1997 and stayed with the company for almost 18 years, taking leadership positions in sales and marketing, product, and ultimately steering the entire P&L for Digidesign/Avid’s audio division. Under Tim’s leadership, the company successfully entered the large format console market with the ICON and S6 console, the live sound market with Venue and S6L, and in the Notation market with the acquisition of Sibelius. Tim came to Focusrite in January 2017 and under his leadership the company has experienced tremendous growth in all their core brands and with their acquisitions.

Joscha Kretschmann - Beyerdynamic

Joscha Kretschmann

Beyerdynamic

Joscha Kretschmann is an audio enthusiast from south Germany working for the renowned headphone manufacturer beyerdynamic. As a DJ and Producer the Audio industry was always in his focus and after his degree in marketing and product management he decided to start his professional career at beyerdynamic 10 years ago. Working in different departments like Product Management, Marketing and Business Development he takes responsibility for the professional Product Management-Team which includes professional headphones and studio microphones. His actual role at beyerdynamic includes the strategic portfolio development, product development projects and marketing and sales projects. With focus on professional audio products he and his team are working constantly to develop solutions for the growing content creator scene.

Francois Quereuil

AVID

Vice President of Audio Product Management

Francois Quereuil - AVID

Francois Quereuil

AVID

As Vice President of Audio Product Management, Francois leads the development efforts for Avid’s portfolio of software and hardware solutions supporting music, audio post production, and live sound, including the industry-leading Pro Tools® digital audio workstation. With over 20 years of experience in media technology, Francois has held senior marketing positions for Avid in France, the UK and the US, spent 10 years helping high-speed data transfer experts Aspera become the transport technology of choice for media organizations, and returned to Avid in 2018. Francois is a frequent speaker on technologies and trends around creative software and file-based media workflows. Passionate about music and the innovative tools that allow creative individuals to realize their vision, Francois is a multi-instrumentalist and producer that spends his spare time writing, recording and mixing songs in his San Francisco Bay Area studio. Francois holds a Master of Science in Management from HEC Paris and a post-graduate degree from Université Paris VIII.

Adam Levenson - DSP Concepts

Adam Levenson

DSP Concepts

The art of sound has sparked my imagination since I owned my first portable Panasonic cassette recorder, and the future of audio technology is what inspires me. During an 18-year journey in sound design for games I discovered the thrill of making business deals, aligning partnerships, and communicating genuine value through marketing. Those pursuits are now my bailiwick. I balance creative thinking with strategic analysis, a duality that's reflected in my unique Master of Fine Arts/Juris Doctor education background. I'm currently Head of Marketing at DSP Concepts. Based in Silicon Valley, DSP Concepts develops Audio Weaver, the low-code audio framework featuring a graphical design environment that enables product development teams to rapidly create audio signal processing solutions.

Returning to the Virtual Stage

Day 1 | 10th November | 14:00 - 18:00 GMT

Day 2 | 11th November | 14:00 - 18:00 GMT

James Chapman

Qualcomm

Martins Popelis

Sonarworks

Johnny McClintock

Qualcomm

Pete Downton

MQA

Nike Koch

Sony Music Entertainment

Andreas Kohl

Optimal Media

Cliff Fluet

Lewis Silkin

Anders Jessen

WS Audiology

Damon Johnson

Hyper X

Andrew Bellavia

Knowles

Philippe Wargniez Jørgensen

Jabra

Ola Sars

Soundtrack Your Brand

James Baker

SSE Audio

Austin Freshwater

DiGiCo

Michael Case

d&b audiotechnik

Chris Merrick

Shure

Scott Friedman

Google

Neil Fluester

Poly

Hanieh Motamedian

Sound Directions

Tim Carroll

Focusrite

Joscha Kretschmann

Beyerdynamic

Francois Quereuil

AVID

Adam Levenson

DSP Concepts