Atlona announces that CEO and co-founder Ilya Khayn will depart on September 15, nearly three years after Panduit’s acquisition of the company. Jamey Swigert, Atlona’s Director of AV Sales and Business Development, will assume the company’s top leadership role as Executive Director on September 15.
Ilya co-founded Atlona in 2003 with his brother Michael, Atlona’s Vice President of Engineering through October 2020. The two young entrepreneurs transformed Atlona from a two-person, garage-based company focused on home AV connectivity products to a leading global supplier of AV collaboration, control, and distribution solutions. Ilya was largely responsible for strategizing Atlona’s now-global partner network, which has established the company’s brand in key business regions worldwide.
Atlona’s early and aggressive push toward AV over IP product innovation captured the attention of Panduit, a leader of IT networking and infrastructure solutions. The acquisition has differentiated Atlona from its competition by introducing the brand to an entirely new base of IT consultants, resellers and integrators seeking networked AV solutions for their end users.
“One example of our successful integration is the increased collaboration of our two sales teams to uncover new business opportunities,” said Khayn. “Our mutual partners are finding the combination of AV and infrastructure products offered by Panduit and Atlona to be advantageous. The company continues its aggressive new product program with a stronger focus on quality assurance to build a solid foundation for winning enterprise AV and IT projects worldwide. With a strong and experienced leadership team and knowledgeable professionals in all key positions, the time is right to transition following 18 years of hard work.”
Ilya adds that it will be “business as usual for Atlona” as Jamey assumes the leadership role and anticipates that Panduit’s proven strategic approach to product quality, innovation, and simplicity of deployment and operation will lead to a new era of substantial growth and success. This includes a continued emphasis on making high-quality AV products that are IT-friendly.
“Nearly three years ago we entered into an exciting growth industry through our acquisition of Atlona,” said Swigert. “We understood how important it was to invest in talent, product innovation, and business strategy while allowing Atlona to operate without interference. I have worked very closely with the incredible Atlona team over this period and I am honoured to lead the company and continue the legacy of developing customer-centric AV products and solutions that Ilya and Michael created.”
The tenure of the brothers is accentuated by several important milestones along the company’s initial 18 years. These positioned the company as an innovator ahead of industry trends including the launch of 12, 4K/UHD commercial AV products in early 2015; early-generation AV over IP (OmniStream) and BYOD solutions in 2016-17; Velocity, the industry’s first IP-based AV control solution in 2017; and the Omega series of collaboration and presentation systems for corporate and education customers – the company’s fastest-growing product line to date – in 2019. Ilya also worked closely with Panduit to develop the company’s new quality assurance strategy, which includes rigorous product testing and validation with an eye towards achieving ISO-9001 certification.
