THE GROUP MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
The AV User Group was originally formed on an ad hoc basis in the late 1990s and a more formal structure was put in place in 2009.
The group is now managed by a "not for profit" limited company which is chaired by Owen Ellis along with directors Deborah Jones (QEII Conference Centre) and Andrea Jupp .
The group is financed by sponsorship from our industry suppliers and all funds are used to deliver our meetings and network events. Any surplus funds are used for member benefits such as tables at industry events like the AV Awards, InAvation Awards and support attendance at AVIXA/InfoComm trade shows.
We maintain strong links with AVIXA, the industry trade body, media organizations who publish in this sector and other end user associations.
OUR TEAM - DIRECTORS PROFILES
Owen Ellis
ChairmanOwen’s career in AV started in 1984 and he has worked in a variety of roles from live events through project delivery at systems integrators that include Metro Group & Electrosonic. He also served for 17 years as a corporate enterprise end user at Morgan Stanley Investment Bank. He transitioned to a full-time role running the AV User Group in December 2017.
Owen became a member of the AV User Group in London in 2004 and was asked to serve as Chairman at the end of 2009. During Owen's time as Chairman he has extended the Groups reach into New York, San Jose (Silicon Valley) and Hong Kong.
Deborah Jones
Deborah Jones MBA CTS is Audio Visual and IT Sales Manager at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (QEIICC), London’s prestigious purpose-built venue in Westminster. The role has responsibility for promoting their technical facilities and she advises the clients on audio-visual design concepts within the Centre’s halls and offers guidance on how to budget for audio visual and IT equipment and labour.
She is also an active member of Avixa International (the association serving the professional AV communications industry) and the AV User Group (a community forum for AV Professionals). Previously, Deborah worked as a project manager for the audio visual team at the Centre, planning and managing the technical requirements across an extensive client portfolio and has spent her working life in the events and meetings industry.
Deborah was attracted to the audio-visual arena as it is the fastest moving and most challenging aspect of event management (it requires a constant skills update). She also enjoys the client liaison aspect of the job as AV staff spend a larger proportion of their time working on site and see tangible results in the events they help produce.
Prior to joining the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Deborah worked for the commercial arm of a charity organisation, The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, where she established the events unit. She has also worked for the publishers Macmillan, where she was responsible for organising events as part of the promotional strategy for their magazine company. Apart from her Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Deborah also holds the general Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) qualification as part of the AV Continuing Education Programme.
Andrea Jupp
Operations DirectorAndrea's work post college started with an apprenticeship for accountancy before heading into a role in Insurance. Then the travelling bug hit and she spent 6 months exploring Australia. It was upon her return from there that a career within recruitment began working for 2 different high street agencies working her way to Branch Manager. After some time out to have a family Andrea returned to work in bookkeeping & accounts roles.
Andrea joined the group in 2016 on a part time basis to carry out the bookkeeping with no previous experience in the AV industry. As the group developed this presented more opportunities for her to develop and grow within the company transitioning into a full time member of the team and more recently being promoted to Operations Director.
London
Steering Committee Leads
Jason King
Audio Visual Engineer at ConveneJason has over 18 years' experience in AV technology and is now the Audio-Visual Engineer at Convene. He was previously AV Specialist at WeWork. He is an active member of the Triumph Owners motorcycle club and thebikeshed.cc His interests include Motorcycle lifestyle and culture, photography, Modern Art, Sailing, fundraising and charitable work.
Steering Committee Members
Dave Patten
Head of New Media, Science MuseumDave Patten is Head of New Media at The Science Museum, London, where his role includes managing all aspects of new media and AV, from conceptual design, prototyping and production to project managing external developers and production companies. He has a background in electronics and computer science and has worked at the Science Museum for over 30 years, developing exhibitions and leading development teams.
Duncan Gunn-Russell
Information Services Audio Visual Co-ordinator, Harper Adams UniversityDuncan has been involved with the AV industry for 30 years initially providing and installing systems for the then big 5 accountancy Firms and top 5 UK Banks. In 2012 Duncan became an end user as an AV specialist at Britain’s Leading Land based subject University, Harper Adams. 2 years ago, when IT and AV joined forces Duncan became the Information Services Audio Visual Co-ordinator.
Michael Stanton-Jones
AV Technology specialist contracted to Google via NTTMichael has had a long career spanning IT, CC, AV and VC technologies with two decades of this being with AV and VC. Michael started his career in New Zealand, travelling with his family to the UK in late 2008.
Michael has been involved with the AV User Group since 2009/10 when he was leading Vodafone Groups Global Video Team providing video conferencing, a production studio and web streaming solutions. He also led Vodafone’s first foray into the mobile VC market for Enterprise clients with Vodafone Meet Anywhere.
More recently Michael has been working with Google and NTT delivering Product Management of Google meeting room products that are installed in all Google sites globally.
Michael outside interests include classic cars and he is involved in a number of forums around the early models. Michael is also a member of FCC Charity which brings cricket to all members of the community.
Ben Pain
Head of Audio-Visual resources, Royal College of PhysiciansBen is a technology enthusiast with over 20 years’ experience as a technician and manager in the AV and IT fields.
He has worked in roles across a range of technology environments from the creative arts and live events to unified communications and solution design holding positions at The British Library, Church House Conference Centre, Eclipse Presentations (at Wembley Conference Centre) and Royal College of Physicians.
Ben has been a member of the AV User Group for over 10 years.
New York
Steering Committee Leads
John Hoyt
Vice President, UCC, BlackRockJohn has been a member of BlackRock's Global UCC team for the past 10 years. John is responsible for AV infrastructure, design build projects, streaming and digital signage at BlackRock Financial. Combining new and existing technologies to deliver a world-class experience for all audiences regardless of location, medium, or business unit.
John moved into his current role after working as a contractor for Blackrock for two years providing daily operation support to the Multimedia team. Prior to this he worked at Wyckoff Medical center as the head of Multimedia.
Steering Committee Members
Haydn Miller
Senior Director of Broadcast & Audiovisual Experiences at TravelersHaydn Miller serves as the Lead Technology Engineer within the Video Capabilities Team at Travelers with responsibility for strategic visioning of audiovisual collaboration technology solutions. Previously Haydn served as the AV Infrastructure Manager at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. Prior to that, Haydn served within the innovation and engineering group at Aetna and as Program Manager for the Aetna/Samsung Stronger Together partnership in Seoul, South Korea. Haydn holds a number of industry certifications including: AVIXA CTS, Crestron Master Programmer, ITIL v4 and Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt. Haydn received his B.S.B.A. with a focus in Business Management from the Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
Idan Zoran
Vice President, Senior AV Engineer, Infra Tech | Neuberger BermanIdan has been a senior engineer on Neuberger Berman's AV engineering team for the past 8 years. He is responsible for the firm's AV infrastructure, conference room technology design and integration, project management, IPTV, and digital signage. He is also responsible for the management of UCaaS platforms, from tenant management to end-user PCs and their peripherals, as well as UCaaS endpoints for conference rooms.
Idan moved into his current role after working as a Manager of Conference Room Technology at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, where he oversaw the AV support team and the design and implementation of room technologies firm wide. Prior to that, he owned a business that offered network and desktop support services to mostly tech startups.
Idan received his BSc. in CIS from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He holds various certifications in IT and AV related fields.
John Kaminsky
Audio Visual Supervisor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterJohn has worked in AV since 2002. He joined the AV department at Hunter College and supported classes, meetings and live events learning as he went along. He also had a few side ‘AV gigs’, focusing on live audio mixing and lighting.
He freelanced for MSKCC for a few years prior to being hired full time. During his time there he focused on the client experience and upgraded the Conference Center. Advancing through the ranks he is now the audio-visual supervisor and works with a team that supports all aspects of AV at MSKCC.
Erich Baker
Infrastructure Engineering Senior Manager, Wells FargoErich has over 25 years of experience in the AV industry, working extensively in infrastructure & design engineering, project implementation, on-site operations, event support, and production. Prior to Wells Fargo Erich was Asst Director at EY, VP of Multimedia Implementation at JP Morgan Chase and VP in Multimedia Engineering and Operations at Goldman Sachs. He originally honed his “AV chops” in the hotel industry and received a BS in Television-Radio Communications from Ithaca College.
Scotland
Steering Committee Leads
David Pammenter
AV and Multimedia Officer, University of EdinburghDavid currently runs the AV design and provision for the University of Edinburgh Business School. David has over 15 years of experience in AV having started as an AV installation engineer and then moved into networks before taking up a position in the University of Edinburgh AV design team. One of David’s passions is working on bespoke projects and coming up with innovative solutions to difficult AV issues. He also likes tinkering with any electronics, and his favourite YouTube channels include Scott Manley’s rocket videos as well as Bigclivedotcom
Steering Committee Members
Gary Aitken
Audio Visual Technology Specialist, Information Services, University of StirlingGary has been involved in Audio Visual technology in Higher Education for over 10 years, initially providing support for learning and teaching spaces and now responsible for the integration of AV in over 80 centrally managed spaces. Notably, Gary has been involved in facilitating a change in approach from contracting out all aspects of AV integration, to bringing AV design and installation management in-house, including responsibility for control system programming.
Martin Todd
Assistant Technical Manager, Dynamic Earth science centre and visitor attraction in EdinburghGraduated from Ravensbourne College in 2013 with a degree in sound design, then worked with Stage Electrics in their live events division and moved to Edinburgh to join Dynamic Earth in 2015.
Douglas McLeod CTS
Learning Spaces Product Engineer, University of DundeeDoug has over 30 years of experience in the AV Industry, in a variety of roles. His previous position was to manage the AV Support Team in the University and following a re-structure of the IT Department in 2015 moved into his current role.
Doug has responsibility for providing designs, standards and developing all our Learning and Teaching Spaces within the University. This includes Huddle Spaces, Meeting Rooms, Seminar Rooms, Teaching Rooms, Lecture Theatres, Collaboration Spaces, Labs and IT Suites. They have around 100 Centrally Managed Spaces and about another 250 which are School Managed. Any AV upgrades within the University are carried out using standards that Doug facilitates.
Jim Blyth
Infrastructure Analyst, University of the West of ScotlandSan Jose
Steering Committee Leads
Joshua Willmann
Deployment engineer, FacebookJoshua Willmann is a senior member of Facebook’s Collaboration Technologies team, where his role includes managing a large portfolio of AV integration projects.
In recent years Joshua has overseen several major AV projects at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. His multi-purpose event center was featured on the cover of AV Magazine’s May 2019 issue.
Joshua has been involved in Audio Visual technology in the commercial space for 15 years, initially providing support for companies such as Lockheed Martin, LinkedIn, and Google.
Steering Committee Members
Sean Kennedy
Director, Audio Visual Design & Engineering, Stanford UniversitySean is the Director of AV Design & Engineering at Stanford University primarily responsible for design and project management. Prior to this he worked at Santa Clara University and also worked as a PM for ETI, a boutique AV firm, and managed AV for San Manuel Casino. Along with his CTS, he holds numerous certifications from various manufacturers. His background is in recording classical music, which he still gets to do occasionally.
Chris Catlow
Americas AV Operations Manager, GoogleChris has worked in the AV industry for over 20 years and an active member of the AV User Group in the UK for around 8 years.
Starting out with British Telecom in the UK, Chris managed a VC helpdesk in the early days of corporate video conferencing, helping customers navigate issues with ISDN on PictureTel units for those of you old enough to remember those! From there he worked for a number of UK financial institutes in London delivering AV projects in their global offices.
In 2016 Chris moved from the finance industry to the tech industry joining Google in London to manage their AV Operations team deploying solutions for Google offices across EMEA. In late 2017 Chris moved to the Google head office in Silicon Valley where he currently manages the Americas AV Operations team.
Ed Cho
Director, Workplace Technologies, VisaEd has been in the enterprise AV and broadcast space for over 25+ years.
Ed’s team is responsible for all the technology and infrastructure to enable Visa employees to collaboratively work together in real-time. His team owns all the UCaaS platforms, enterprise streaming/webcast, AV infrastructure, broadcast event centers, training rooms, recording studios, and innovation centers. His team directly designs, builds, and supports all the technology that enables video conferencing, live webcasting, live event productions, and studio productions. In addition, Ed’s team manages all the enterprise voice/telephony services for Visa.
Rebecca Onchi
End User ConsultantRebecca has been in the AV industry for over 8 years supporting End Users experience from an enterprise level (previously PayPal) and as a consultant. She has been a member of the AV User Group since 2018. One of her accomplishments included launching a new global VC platform in 56 locations in just over 8 weeks. She also served on the AVIXA Board of Directors in 2017 and 2018, as the first End User customer ever on the board. She is currently looking for her next corporate position and staying current with the latest trends in collaboration tools and workplace technologies.
Sydney
Steering Committee Leads
Lex Strauss
APAC Office Project Consultant | Enterprise Workplace Technology Ernst & YoungLex Strauss has been part of the audio visual industry for the past 28 years, starting in live event production, then system designs, sales & management for numerous AV integration companies. He then jumped to the client facing side where he was responsible of AV & IT Project Management for office & factory relocations throughout Oceania for British American Tobacco and has since completed numerous contracts in the IT PM space for corporate & government clients, Lex is now the Internal In Office Experience Consultant for Ernst & Young, responsible for AV & UC across all EY offices throughout APAC.
Steering Committee Members
David Beattie
Director of ICT, St Catherine’s School, SydneyDavid Beattie is a seasoned AV and Broadcast professional with over 25 years of experience in the industry. His journey began in Video Production, where he served as a Technical Director for Jamie Oliver's live stage shows, spanning across Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.
David transitioned into Corporate AV and Broadcast, where he took on the role of managing a TV studio and multiple on-site teams, orchestrating live events.
Continuing his journey, David took on the role of overseeing AV operations at a prestigious private school on the North Shore.
His career then took him overseas to London, where he joined Bloomberg's EMEA headquarters, working on complex AV and Broadcast projects in one of the world's financial hubs.
David returned to Australia, where he served in Dimensional's Broadcast department and now he's back in Education as the Director of ICT at St Catherine’s School.
Piers Craven
Audio Visual Manager, ING BankPiers’ career in AV commenced in 1994 at IHG Sydney. Since then, he has worked in a variety of roles ranging from live events to project delivery for companies that include Foxtel, Optus, and NEP. He served for ten years leading the AV support function at AMP.
In 2023, Piers became a member of the AV User Group in Sydney. His last engagement was at Sydney Masonic Centre where he managed the AV offering before moving to ING Bank.
Toronto
Steering Committee Leads
Andy Majury
Senior AV and Engineer, CIBCAndy has been part of the AV industry for 30 plus years with experience in live sound, film, live event staging, integration sales, operations and design. Currently working as Sr. AV Engineer at CIBC designing and managing multiple global projects, CIBC is one of the first companies to implement a multi-million dollar AV-as-a-Service project for their new tower in downtown Toronto. Experiences in Conferencing technology, Control Rooms, Digital Signage, Control Systems, Professional Audio, Streaming Media, Cabling, and Audio Engineering
Steering Committee Members
Robert Ramlall
Senior Manager, Audio Visual Technology Campus & Retail operations – TD Bank GroupWith over 25 years in the Financial Technology space, Robert has carved out a career identifying opportunities, leading efforts to simplify and provide a consistent colleague experience.
Over the last ten years, Robert has focused on leading TD’s AV portfolio in all facets of the program lifecycle, from conceptual design, implementation, Day 2 support and technology refresh.
Another career milestone at TD, has been the development of the Enterprise AV room standards. Since its inception, his influence has transformed TD’s approach to collaboration from costly, bespoke solutions to scalable, repeatable, and equitable meeting experiences. In addition to custom solutions for Conference and Amenity spaces for TD operations in Canada, USA, Europe, and APAC.
Robert has also developed Digital Signage standards and leads design efforts with extended project teams from TD Technology services, Enterprise Real Estate's Architectural and Design team, assigned Architect of Record, AV consultants & AV Integrators, for complex Digital signage solutions for Retail operations in Canada / USA.
Joel Landsborough
Director, Service Designer, Audio Visual Services, CIBCJoel has been active in the AV industry for over 20 years with early experience in theatre, corporate events, and facility AV operations. Following that Joel worked for 10 years as an AV Consultant leading a team of designers working on projects that included Hospitals, Higher Education, Corporate, Trading Floors, Casinos, Theme Parks, and Command and Control Centers.
Joel has recently joined CIBC as the Director of AV Service Design supporting Audio Visual Services for the organization and is accountable for all aspects of the AV services from technical design, solutioning, implementation and TCO.
Christopher Hewitt
Manager, Classroom Technical Infrastructure – University of GuelphChris is a highly experienced project manager who has successfully led large-scale IT and AV initiatives in various industries for over 20 years. His vast experience and knowledge of project management methodologies and techniques enable him to deliver successful outcomes for his clients.
In the higher education industry, Chris has made significant contributions by leading multiple large project management endeavours. One of his recent notable projects involved implementing new web conference classrooms for the University of Guelph in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This project required coordinating with a team of 35 individuals to design, develop, execute, and report the project from start to finish.
Chris has received several awards, including Employee of the Year awards from past employers, and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Technology Specialist from AVIXA.
Chris Gal
Sr Manager, AV Design and Architecture – PwCChris Gal is a Senior Manager in PwC’s Products and Technology team, where his role includes managing a large portfolio of AV integration projects.
In recent years Chris has overseen several major AV projects across Canada. He has transformed the AV space for PwC, upgrading over 300 rooms in the last year. The user experience has tremendously improved for all staff across Canada.
Chris has been part of a global group of AV designers across PwC. They come together to share, and collaborate on challenges that they are all working on.
WANT TO JOIN OUR USER GROUP?
Membership of the group is free to qualifying end users.
The current membership includes technology managers from the financial services community, government and the public sector, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, telecoms, professional services (including legal services, accounting and management consultancy), higher education, retail, business services and manufacturing.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPONSOR US?
There are many benefits to becoming an AV User Group Sponsor.
Whether you wish to become a ‘Presentation’ or ‘Platinum’ sponsor and take advantage of the presentation opportunities these afford, or simply sponsor our informal networking events as an ‘Evening Networking’ sponsor, please follow the link below to see all the benefits and to apply.
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