Imagine Communications Bolsters Leadership Team with Key Executive Appointments

DALLAS, Dec. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine Communications, empowering the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation, announced the appointment of several executives to head pivotal product and services initiatives that are designed to be critical contributors to the company's ongoing mission to advance the media & entertainment industry through an orderly and affordable transition to an agile and versatile technology foundation.

In addition to the expansion of its leadership ranks, the company has launched Imagine Communications Labs.  Imagine Communications Labs is an advanced service offering designed to help customers and partners quickly and efficiently test proof of concepts (POCs) and validate complex workflow integrations, including interoperability. In addition to providing media companies with hands-on experience working in IP and all types (public, private and hybrid) of cloud environments, Imagine Communications Labs will reduce the time it takes to validate, integrate and deploy next-generation technology solutions.

Imagine Communications Labs will be led by Peter Riordan, an industry veteran who recently joined Imagine Communications from Encompass Digital Media. Riordan has made significant contributions to the media industry over the past two decades as part of distinguished technology teams at HBO, Discovery Communications and Encompass. Riordan will be responsible for implementing best practices and managing next-generation engagements, including Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) partner interoperability testing on a global basis. 

Further demonstrating its commitment to customer service, Imagine Communications has promoted Ajay Kapoor to lead Global Services.  Kapoor, formerly the head of Avaya's professional services organization, joined Imagine Communications in 2014.  Kapoor will oversee a team of more than 200 support engineers and analysts in 30 countries.  

Imagine Communications has also promoted Sarah Foss to the position of Chief Product Officer (CPO) for the company's Advertising Management Solutions (AMS) portfolio.  In the newly created position, Foss will report to Imagine CEO Charlie Vogt and assume overall strategic responsibility for the global development and direction of Imagine's market-leading ad management product portfolio.

Recent appointments also include the promotion of Chris Sjerven to Vice President of Operations.  Sjerven, who will also report to Vogt, has more than 20 years of global manufacturing and supply chain experience. Prior to joining Imagine, Sjerven was with Flextronics, a $28 billion contract manufacturer. He has also held positions at Advanced Energy, Nexergy and Cornice, accumulating expertise in the data storage, power management and semiconductor capital equipment business sectors.

Rounding out Imagine Communications' leadership team appointments is Leonardo Emilo Gañán, who will lead the company's CALA sales region.  With more than 30 years of sales and executive management experience in the CALA region, Gañán brings a wealth of technology knowledge and client-facing relationships to Imagine Communications.  Over his distinguished career serving the CALA region, Gañán has held leadership positions at Grass Valley, Textronix, Thomson Broadcast and Quantel.

"After spending much of the past few years focused on the fulfillment of our strategic vision, Imagine Communications is now expanding its focus by providing our customers with industry-leading expertise and support to fully modernize their infrastructure and advance the revenue-generating capabilities of their businesses," said Charlie Vogt, CEO of Imagine Communications. "Imagine is sending a clear and resounding message to our customers that we will continue to invest in technology innovation and in the support resources required to provide exceptional customer service."

Vogt added, "Extensive research & development investments and timely acquisitions over the past few years have positioned Imagine Communications to lead and navigate our industry through an unprecedented era of change.  We are fully committed to the technology and services required to support today's revenue and operational infrastructure and are working closely with our customers to help them begin to realize the future of television today."

By delivering products and solutions that are designed from the ground up for fully virtualized, geo-dispersed environments built on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms, Imagine Communications is enabling media companies to evolve to next-generation architectures today and at their own pace, without fear of stranding assets or disrupting existing operations. Imagine's Cloud-Native, software-enabled solutions are powering dozens of IP-based deployments and account for more than 50 IP-based channels and over 3,000 live production streams.

Additional information about Imagine Communications Labs can be found here.

For more information about Imagine Communications, please visit www.imaginecommunications.com.

About Imagine Communications
Imagine Communications empowers the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation. Broadcasters, networks, video service providers and enterprises around the world rely on our optimized, future-proof, multiscreen video and revenue enablement solutions every day to support their mission-critical operations. Today, nearly half of the world's video channels traverse our products, and our software solutions drive close to a third of global ad revenue. Through continuous innovation we are delivering the most advanced IP, cloud-enabled, software-defined network and workflow solutions in the industry. Visit www.imaginecommunications.com for more information, and follow us on Twitter @imagine_comms. 

SOURCE Imagine Communications

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