Hardware

Altona CEO, co-founder leaving after 18 years

Photo provided.

August 9, 2021

Atlona CEO and co-founder Ilya Khayn will depart on Sept. 15, nearly three years after Panduit's acquisition of the company. Jamey Swigert, Atlona director of AV sales and business development, will become executive director after Khayn's departure, according to a company press release.

Khayn co-founded Atlona, an AV connectivity solutions provider, in 2003 with his brother Michael, Atlona's former VP of engineering who left the company in 2020. The entrepreneurs transformed Atlona from a two-person, garage-based company focused on home AV connectivity products to a global supplier of AV collaboration, control, and distribution solutions. Khayn was largely responsible for strategizing Atlona's partner network, which has established the company's brand in business regions worldwide.

Swigert

Atlona's push toward AV over IP product innovation captured the attention of Panduit, an IT networking and infrastructure solutions company. The acquisition introduced a new base of IT consultants, resellers and integrators seeking networked AV solutions for their end users, according to the press release.

"One example of our successful integration is the increased collaboration of our two sales teams to uncover new business opportunities," Khayn said in the release. "Our mutual partners are finding the combination of AV and infrastructure products offered by Panduit and Atlona to be advantageous. The company continues its aggressive new product program with a stronger focus on quality assurance to build a solid foundation for winning enterprise AV and IT projects worldwide. With a strong and experienced leadership team and knowledgeable professionals in all key positions, the time is right to transition following 18 years of hard work."

Khayn said it will be "business as usual for Atlona" as Swigert assumes the leadership role and anticipates that Panduit's strategic approach to product quality, innovation, and simplicity of deployment and operation will keep the company focused on producing AV products that are IT compatible.

"Nearly three years ago we entered into an exciting growth industry through our acquisition of Atlona," Swigert said in the release. "We understood how important it was to invest in talent, product innovation, and business strategy while allowing Atlona to operate without interference. I have worked very closely with the incredible Atlona team over this period and I am honored to lead the company and continue the legacy of developing customer-centric AV products and solutions that Ilya and Michael created."

In 18 years of leading Altona, the Khayn brothers helped launch 12 4K/UHD commercial AV products in 2015; early-generation AV over IP and BYOD solutions in 2016-17; Velocity, the industry's first IP-based AV control solution in 2017; and the Omega series of collaboration and presentation systems for corporate and education customers in 2019.

Atlona is based in San Jose, California. Panduit was founded in 1955. Headquartered in Tinley Park, Illinois, the company operates in 112 locations.