John FitzgeraldElkhart, IN (January 21, 2011)–Crown Audio has reinforced its senior management team by naming John Fitzgerald, John Batliner and Matt Bush to new positions.
Fitzgerald, VP of program management at Harman Professional, will take the additional position of general manager for Harman’s Elkhart-based Amplifier Business Unit and will be responsible for all aspects of Crown Audio’s business. Batliner, VP of sales for Harman’s High Performance Audio Video group, will assume additional responsibilities as VP of sales for Crown. Bush, previously director of sales for Crown, has been appointed senior director of operations.
“With John Fitzgerald, John Batliner and Matt Bush, Crown Audio is placing proven leaders in positions of critical importance to our development and also Harman Professional’s development,” said Rob Urry, VP of Harman Professional’s Amplifier and Processing Business Unit. “Harman Professional is determined to strengthen its leadership position in professional-grade audio systems. Providing the world’s best sounding, most reliable, most versatile amplifiers is central to our ambitions and is similarly important to our customers around the world. Our determination to grow is matched only by our commitment to improve, and I am confident that these three leaders will back up that commitment.”
Matt Bush
As VP of program management for Harman International in Farmington Hills, MI, Fitzgerald developed and managed a portfolio of corporate programs to improve quality, streamline base cost and integrate newly acquired companies. As director, product engineering, he held leadership responsibilities for product development activities for the North American and Far East regions of the OEM division of Harman International.
Batliner has experience in the professional audio and custom home markets. This includes five years as Asia Pacific sales manager with Shure Incorporated followed by seven years as VP of international sales at dbx in Salt Lake City, UT. He has been in Harman’s High Performance AV group since 1996 and has been instrumental in the development and implementation of the group’s channel strategy.
John Batliner
Bush joined Crown Audio in October 2008 after establishing an operations team at Harman’s Sandy, UT Signal Processing Business Unit, and was the architect of HMG’s hybrid manufacturing and global supply chain strategies, directing all supply chain functions including a U.S. manufacturing facility, off-shore manufacturing, customer service and distribution centers in the U.S., Asia and Europe. He has also led group-wide programs in European logistics and key supplier negotiations, and has presented numerous times at Harman best-practice sessions.
Crown Audio
www.crownaudio.com
