It takes determination to lead a company, and if you’re in pro audio, it also helps to have a lifelong fascination with technology and sound. As it happens, Gabriel Medrano has all of the above, and they have served him well throughout his career. While today he is the president and COO of Adam Hall North America, a division of German pro-audio mainstay Adam Hall Group, Medrano says, “I’ve always been passionate about electronic equipment. My dad was an electronics engineer who built TVs and radio equipment back in the 1980s. As a kid, I would spend a lot of time at his workplace, playing around with speakers and connecting them to other devices to make some noise.”
Graduating with a degree in international business, Medrano jumped into Spain’s pro audio industry, helping manufacturers export their products by assisting at trade shows and organizing international efforts in other countries. That led to him meet Adam Hall Group founder Dave Kirby at Frankfurt Musikmesse in 1999; soon after, he was named Adam Hall’s sales manager for Spain. “When I joined Adam Hall, we were just starting to sell LD Systems speakers and Palmer products in Spain, France and Italy, so my background meant I was the perfect fit to develop sales in those territories,” he says.
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Of course, technologies and customers’ needs have changed dramatically over the last two decades, and in response, the company has invested deeply in R&D, logistics and marketing to ensure it can both reach customers and answer their needs. “In the last few years, we built an experience center in Germany with an integrated R&D department, anechoic measuring room, various endurance and climatic test rigs, a photometric laboratory and ample space for designing, modelling and 3D prototyping,” Medrano said. “We also opened up two showrooms—one in Barcelona and one in New Jersey—to offer our customers a better purchasing experience, and launched the Adam Hall Academy, where our customers and team members can learn and develop better skills to work in the field of professional event technology.”
Those approaches are a crucial part of Medrano’s strategy for the North American division. “We’re committed to making our brand as well-known and respected in North America as it is in Europe,” he said.
For the U.S., the focus will be on relationships with musicians, DJs, and pro audio professionals. “We will be launching a B2B shop which will provide enhanced customer-orientation features, such as individual pricing, real-time inventory visibility and detailed information on products, orders and invoice history,” said Medrano. “To offer that kind of transparency and flexibility to customers, we’re developing the capabilities of our sales, warehouse, logistics and customer service teams, with our supply chain management and IT/digital departments leading these operations.”
Adam Hall North America was founded in 2018, and despite the pandemic, continues to make progress, achieving the company’s goals by helping customers achieve their own goals: “We have a highly motivated team that works with heart and soul every day, full of initiative and creativity that help us to drive what we do—enabling musicians and event tech professionals to turn their creative ideas and visions into reality.”
