LEA Team Spotlight: Vice President of Marketing, Brian Pickowitz

What’s your current position at LEA?

Vice President of Marketing is what’s on my employee record, but I touch almost every aspect of LEA’s business.  Since we’re still in “startup mode” and growing our company everyone wears multiple hats.  My hats include Marketing strategy and execution, product and feature road map, and Business Development which you’d expect from a Marketing department.  Additional responsibilities include implementing our Oracle Netsuite ERP and CRM Systems, developing our Partner Sales Portal, as well as executing partner trainings.  There’s always something that we can do better or improve, so I’m focused on improving every aspect of our business on a daily basis.

What drew you into your specific field of work?

The one thing about the Pro Audio industry is every day is a different challenge.  I really enjoy being part of an industry where there are always new ideas and technology to apply to age old problems and finding the best way to solve those problems.  I don’t think I’d last long working in an industry where you just turn the crank and do the same job every day.  Growing LEA from the ground up + being in the Pro Audio Industry definitely keeps my day to day very interesting.

Why is your job important to LEA?

Being asked to grow an existing brand is a challenge.  I’ve had the opportunity to tackle brand growth for established brands in my past, but growing a brand from the ground up and also setting the course of the company for years to come was very intriguing to me.  I enjoy challenges and growing a new brand, letting our story be heard by customers around the world, and making sure LEA provides value to our users no other company can is what gets me up and going every morning.  I am always amazed when I hear about how many companies around the world have heard about LEA and what we’re about.  I have a great team that has helped make that happen and we’ve done a great job putting LEA on the map in a relatively short period of time.

What is your background in the industry?

I have my Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University.  Out of school, I started designing professional amplifiers for a major brand, so my professional career started in the Pro Audio Industry.  From there I worked my way up in Engineering when the Marketing staff took notice that I really liked talking to customers, so I made the move from Engineering to Marketing.  From there I wore many hats doing product development, Business Development, and even took a sales role for a while.  Given my experience stretches from Engineering to Marketing to Product Development to Sales, feel having experienced all of these different roles has set me up for my current role here at LEA.

What do you like about audio technology?

While the core purpose of most hardware in the audio industry is pretty straight forward; replicate voices, instruments, and sound as accurately as possible, I enjoy the many different philosophy’s the various companies in the industry have.  Many of the console companies all collect all of the inputs required and allow the Engineer to deliver the experience the artist wants for their audience, but each console company has a different way of getting to that end result.  Same with loudspeaker companies.  Each loudspeaker is taking the signal from the Amplifier and DSP and projecting it into the audience, but how you configure and setup that loudspeaker is different from brand to brand.  None of the philosophy’s are wrong and they are all solving the problem in different ways.  That’s what makes the technology in the Pro Audio Industry exciting to me.

What is the most exciting thing about joining LEA?

I was lucky enough be part of LEA early enough were I was able to bring my knowledge and expertise and help mold who we are today and who we’re going to be in the future.  It’s very rewarding to see something you’ve had direct influence on have an almost immediate impact.  Seeing the results of your decisions and actions almost immediately is very rewarding. 

What are your personal hobbies?

I don’t like paying people to do a job I can do myself or with a little effort can learn, so I do quite a few DIY projects at home.  I’m constantly wanting to improve or update something around the house.  I also really like cars, so I currently have more cars than drivers in the house.  I currently have an old Chevy Impala I restored over the course of 2 years and just recently restored a Jeep.

What’s your vision for the future of LEA?

When you start from the ground floor, there’s nowhere to go but up.  LEA is going to be an industry leader in technology in a relatively short amount of time but still provide value for a large group of customers.  Sometimes companies want to provide the best technology for the top 10% of customers in their market.  We want to pack the best technology and value into our products for the entire industry.  If you take into account some of our current amplifier technologies like Smart Power Bridge, 1U form factor, WebUI control and Monitoring, and add IoT and Cloud to the scenario, it’s a great set of features that add tremendous value for our customer in the install market.  As we expand our product ranges and delve into new vertical markets, you’ll see the same philosophy of packing new technologies and feature sets that customers want to see.

What makes audio tech so important?

Going to a concert, hearing an announcement at the airport, or going to a sporting event all have one thing in common.  If you can’t hear the music or message clearly it likely changed your experience or mood in a negative manner.  Our industry’s job is to make the tools to promote positive experiences around the world.