HARMAN Luxury Update

I am pleased to share with our readers that Jim Garrett, the Face and Voice of the Luxury Audio Group for the past 15 years has been offered the Vice President of Product Planning for the newly acquired Sound United Business Unit for Lifestyle.

There is no greater feeling for a leader to see one of their team get promoted to the next level. As part of my senior leadership team for the past seven years, it is bittersweet for me to lose his presence at Northridge. Jim made my job easier. He has been my wingman as we have scaled new Summits and delivered the Radia of light to our industry.

Jim joined HARMAN in April 2010 as Market Manager for High Performance AV products. Prior to that he had 18 years of experience working in retail, manufacturing and at CEDIA as their Director of Technical Training.

Similar to the way the role of President of the United States changes the look of the individuals who are bestowed that role, as you can see there is a similar impact working within Luxury Audio at HARMAN.

In his new role, Jim will lead a product team of 15 based around the world. His leadership style will encourage future growth for the Sound United brands. As Sound United continues its path to integration with the rest of HARMAN, I am confident that Jim will play a meaningful role in how our two business units will come together.

Whilst the title of this article is Moving on Up, Jim and his family will be moving down to the Carlsbad area and will be working out of the Sound United offices there. He joins the leadership team that Lyle Smith has assembled including Casper Schraeder who has accepted the Vice President of Global Operations for the BU.

 Jim along with our talented GPLMs (Global Product Line Managers), have worked together along with our engineers to create a three year roadmap for product introductions. So, we are confident that his departure from our business unit will not impact our growth trajectory. We owe it to Jim to bring his product roadmap to market and will work together to make that happen.

Please join us in wishing Jim continued success in his new role and thank him for the memories he has created for all of us who have been fortunate to work with him.