Raffi Vartian Hooks Up With signagelive
January 2, 2012 by Dave Haynes
This was done weeks ago, but the official word is now out that UK-based signagelive has hired on Raffi Vartian to build up the company’s business in North and South America.
Raffi has been around the space for several years, first on the proximity marketing side with his own BlueTooth-based startup and then the last couple of years with CoolSign, pre and post the Haivision acquisition.
Vartian, says a press release, will be responsible for establishing strategic partnerships, securing resellers and distributors, and directing marketing strategy. With this move, signagelive is committing the resources necessary to bring its cost-effective, multi-lingual, web-based management system to the Americas’ markets.
“Raffi is well known and respected in the digital signage industry and a fantastic addition to our team,” says Jason Cremins, CEO of signagelive. “He brings broad industry experience, a track record of anticipating market trends and a relentlessly positive attitude that will be well received by resellers, strategic partners and end-customers alike.”
Vartian was a looking at a few options after he and Haivision parted ways, and says he’s happy how things shook out. “The product is amazing, my fellow team members are so impressive, and the business model has the capacity to become the new standard in the industry. I am energized to engage with new and existing partners to share our clear vision for the market: a reliable, flexible and fully-supported product that delivers a predictable business model for your media delivery needs.”
He works out of Chicago, but will be in Amsterdam at the end of the month for the Integrated Systems Europe show.
This seems a nice fit (disclosure: I’ve done work with both) as Jason really needed more than just a strong reseller (PingHD) on the ground in North America to build things up. You can only do so much here, from there (Cambridge, England). Raffi knows a pile of people, and has the relationship building thing, the biggest part of this gig, pretty much down.
Many thanks for the coverage, securing Raffi’s services is just the start to 2012 we were looking for and enables us to accelerate our growth in the Americas, as part of our overall global strategy.