Binatone announced four new hires to the Binatone corporate executive staff to bring its Hubble IoT Connectivity Platform to mainstream markets. This move is an integral part of Binatone transformational strategy to enhance emotional experiences of consumers through IoT connected products.
David Westendorf has been named President, overseeing product management, marketing, sales, engineering, operations, and supply chain for Binatone and Hubble Connected. He will split his time between Binatone’s Hong Kong headquarters and San Francisco. Most recently, Mr. Westendorf was hired by Google as Vice President of Product Management at Motorola Mobility, where he managed the Companion Products Division, including mobile accessories, audio, and wearable products. Under his leadership, Mr. Westendorf has groomed consumer electronic products to receive such recognition as Engadget’s “Best of CES” and TIME Magazine’s “Best Inventions.”
Ochintya Sharma, will join as Vice President of Global Engineering. Mr. Sharma was Vice President at Samsung R&D, India where he managed large teams in the areas of IoT, multimedia, voice recognition and UX and convergence. Software developed by his teams is shipping in all flagship Samsung smartphones. Mr. Sharma has proven track record in incubating and building new competencies in the areas of web services, data analytics, computational photography and smart services. Based in Bangalore, he will provide technical leadership for Binatone to create and deploy new products and services from its multiple engineering centers worldwide.
Appointed CMO/Vice President of Marketing, Frank Durden will be responsible for brand strategy, communications, demand generation, public relations and social media across Binatone and Hubble Connected. A seasoned marketing and communications expert at the helm of multiple award-winning global campaigns, London-based Mr. Durden comes from Ogilvy & Mather where he acted as Global Planning Director for the past 10 years. Over the course of Mr. Durden’s tenure, he has overseen the creation and execution of prestigious campaigns for American Express, Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, Hellmann, Motorola, BP, Barclays, and Philips.
David Harris will join Binatone Global as Vice President of Global Product Management. In Mr. Harris’s new role, he is responsible for product management across Binatone and Hubble Connected products, and also manages the newly created Smart Audio Products Group, focusing on cloud connected audio products and services for personal, home and professional use. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Harris served as Senior Director of Product Management, Portfolio Planning and Partnerships at Motorola Mobility. Mr. Harris has also held product roles at Xerox and Texas Instruments, and spent six years in consulting with Sapient.
“I am so pleased to welcome these accomplished executives to the Binatone Global leadership team” said Dino Lalvani, Chairman and CEO of Binatone. &ldquo.After 56 years of leadership in electronics, this marks a new connected era in our company history. The experiences and successes of this new roster of industry thought leaders, combined with each of their deep rooted understandings of the consumer electronic marketplace, will be key as we scale our global business.
As part of its transformation initiative, Binatone had named Kanwar Chadha as Executive Chairman in April. Mr. Chadha was a founder of SiRF, and Chief Marketing Officer with CSR post its merger with SiRF. He later founded Innovi, which was acquired by Facebook, where he continues as Marketing Advisor, Infrastructure. Continuing members of the Binatone executive team will be Neil Scanlon, Chief Commercial Officer, Rikki Malik, Head of Corporate Development, Mert Ulusoy, Chief Financial Officer, and Collin Wong, Head of Hubble Partners. Kitty Lo will act as Head of Supply Chain, in tandem with her role as Vice Chairman.
The new team will also oversee the launch of VerveLife, a new line of lifestyle electronics targeted at mainstream consumer that aspire to live a healthy, active and social lives. In partnership with Motorola, these products will be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, 2016. The team will also be responsible for bringing Hubble Connected experiences to Motorola and to-be-named third party IoT products.