ProAV Watch List Released

In what has been arguably the most difficult 18 months for pro AV and its various sectors – and the world in general! – it was a pleasure to sit down with our advisory panel and compare notes on who we believe to be the most influential, up and coming industry figures: the ones to watch. Our choice of 25 are listed here (with an expanded version in our August edition, page 25), in no particular order, and we’re delighted to be able to say that women are in the majority, with 13 out of the 25  boasting two X chromosomes. This is certainly no surprise to us: the AV industry is blessed to have talent in abundance from Eve’s side of the apple tree, and is all the better for it.

Before you read on, we’d just like to take this opportunity to thank our panel for all their hard work in helping to put this Watch List together. Thanks to regular Installation contributors David Davies and Kevin Hilton; ISE content marketing manager (and a previous Installation editor) Paddy Baker; Systems Contractor News (SCN) content director Megan Dutta; and Roland Hemming, audio consultant at RH Consulting and director at Copper Leaf Media.

Finally, we were very sad to hear of the death of David Chiappini, AIMS Pro AV working group chair, in the week preceding our press deadline. David was very well regarded in AV circles, and indeed had made the cut for our shortlist of the ones to watch in pro AV. Consequently, we’d be grateful if you would consider this Pro AV Watch List a  25 plus 1, with David’s light still shining very brightly indeed. Our thoughts go out to all of his family and friends at this most difficult time.

Pro AV Watch List 2021

Tom Puorro
Exec VP and general manager, Poly

Brandy Alvarado-Miranda
AVIXA Women’s Council chair

Chris Jaynes
Founder and CTO, Mersive Technologies

Sean Wargo
Senior director, market intelligence, AVIXA

Frank Padikkala
AVIXA Diversity Council chair

Althea Ricketts
AVIXA Leadership Selection Committee, elected member

Nancy Knowlton
CEO, Nureva

Amnon Harman
CEO, d&b

Racheal Hamilton
Owner, I am Rachael

Nick Belcore
Executive VP at Peerless-AV

Gina Sansivero
VP marketing and corporate comms, AtlasIED

Jessica Golding
European brand manager at Absen Europe

Jamie Adkin
VP Sales EMEA at Adder Technology

James Hill
Director integrated systems, Shure UK

Stephanie Corinth
Senior VP, sales, EMEA, SharpNEC

Joshua Rush
Chief marketing officer, Audinate

Hailey Klein
Director of marketing and communications at PSNI Global Alliance

Amanda Wildman
Owner, Tru Media

Emma Bigg
Owner / director, Octavius RE

James Kirby
Senior market analyst, pro audio, Futuresource Consulting

Amelia Kallman
Futurist, keynote speaker, author

Ola Sars
Founder, CEO, and chairman, Soundtrack Your Brand

Cory Schaeffer
Director, alliances & ecosystem, QSC

Toni Moss
Owner / CEO CDEC

Tim Albright
Chief Marketing Officer at Conference Technologies, Inc; CEO AVNation TV