New positions created to support growing regional demand for SMART products
CALGARY, Alberta --- February 3, 2009 --- SMART Technologies announces the appointments of Axel Rosiefsky, Frederic Arneodo and Yvonne Biggins to key management positions with the company’s team serving Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Rosiefsky assumes the newly created position of director, sales operations and services for EMEA, with the mandate to build operational infrastructure in the region to deliver superior customer service. Arneodo assumes the new position of director, sales for EMEA, and will be responsible for optimizing SMART’s channel strategy and performance. Yvonne Biggins is appointed to the new position of manager, education business development for EMEA. She will manage a team of education consultants and marketing specialists who will work with teachers to improve student learning outcomes with SMART solutions. The appointments are part of a series of strategic steps aimed at expanding SMART sales, marketing and customer support activities in the region. Rosiefsky, Arneodo and Biggins all report to Patrick Lelorieux, SMART’s vice president and general manager for EMEA.
Rosiefsky brings 25 years of international business and management experience to SMART. He has held a series of senior positions in sales operations, channel services and alliances with the European operations of a number of well-known technology companies. Rosiefsky is multilingual and holds an MBA in international management and a bachelor of economics degree. Arneodo has an extensive background in international sales and marketing. For the past four years he was director of sales in southern Europe and North Africa for a leading network infrastructure company. Prior to that he was director of sales in EMEA for an internationally known telecommunications firm. Arneodo has a master of science degree. Biggins brings eight years of experience in education and business to SMART. Biggins was a business development manager with a leading global hardware and software company, and prior to that she held a similar role with Steljes Ltd., the exclusive distributor of SMART products in the United Kingdom and Ireland. She started her career as a teacher and holds an MBA and a bachelor of arts degree. These positions are added to the EMEA team, which already has four dedicated and well-qualified members. They are Xavier Trasancos, country manager for France, Jacqueline Cazeaux, director of marketing for France, Khoi Trinh education consultant manager for Europe and Sylvain Charat, education consultant manager, EMEA, southern region. These appointments reflect SMART’s continued growth in the region. In 2008, SMART’s share of the interactive whiteboard product category in EMEA rose to 45.4 percent, up from 43.3 percent in 2007.
“Axel, Frederic and Yvonne each bring the skills and background to further develop SMART’s business in EMEA,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “Beyond their individual capabilities, we expect that they will build strong a team to support our channel and end users with their adoption of SMART products.”
