Latin America. Christie announced the appointment of Diego Fernando López Villamil as general manager of NOLA (Northern Latin America), a newly created position at the company based in Bogota, Colombia, where Christie plans to open a new office throughout 2016.
Diego's appointment is part of Christie's expansion process in Latin America with the creation of two new commercial areas: NOLA, which includes Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and the Caribbean, and SOLA (Southern Latin America), which covers Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina and will be captained from Santiago de Chile by Jorge García.
To these two areas are added Christie's offices in Brazil and Mexico, inaugurated in 2013 and 2015 respectively. With this new organization, Christie wants to fully exploit the growth that its products and services live in the region and better serve its customers and partners through a more efficient and close service and a broader support team to give a faster response, which highlights the company's long-term commitment to the growth of its business in Latin America.
"We are very excited about Diego joining our company," says Juan Carlos Chavez, Christie's director for Latin America. "Diego has a multifaceted past of first level in different areas and positions of responsibility of the IT sector, both at the country and regional level, which has allowed him to accumulate a solid experience in the development of channels and management of corporate accounts. We are confident that his strategic vision and innovative thinking will contribute to continuing to make Christie the world leader in creating and disseminating the best visual and sound experiences."
"I am very excited to join Christie's team in Latin America and take on this fascinating challenge," says Diego Lopez. "I am convinced that with the support of the company and our regional team, we will be able to expand our business and consolidate our operations from Colombia for the entire region, strengthening the service for our customers and partners with Christie's entire portfolio of solutions," he adds.
Christie's business grows in Latin America
Diego López comes to Christie with 13 years of experience in the IT sector. He began his career at Epson holding different positions in his seven years with the company where he became regional general manager of the consumer products division in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Central America and the Caribbean. Later he was at Lexmark as business development manager in Colombia. Diego is an industrial engineer from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia and has an MBA from the same educational center.
Diego will have among its objectives the strengthening of Christie's partner network in NOLA, through the redesign and expansion of its distribution channel, with special emphasis on the specialization of distributors and the development of new incentive and loyalty programs to the channel.
Colombia, from where Diego will lead the new region, has stood out in recent years as an important destination in the organization of world-class events. "It is one of the main Latin American destinations for conventions, congresses and international events, so the rental & staging sector has a great dynamism," explains Juan Carlos Chávez. An example is the spectacular projection mappings that are usually carried out in the main cities of the country by companies such as Big Video or Vinilolab.
"But the region also has enormous potential in the market of control rooms for monitoring and security in large companies and organizations, where we offer our displays, videowalls, controllers and collaboration solutions," says Chávez. "And not to mention cinema, where Christie has just signed an agreement with Cine Colombia – the main exhibition company in the country – to equip its new rooms with projectors of the Christie Solaria™ Series and Christie Vive Audio™ sound systems," he adds.
Another of Christie's milestones in Colombia is the recent installation of a Christie MicroTiles video wall in the news studio of Caracol TV, the country's leading television network. Colombia is also home to Tecnomultimedia InfoComm Colombia, which this year will take place from October 11 to 13 with the presence of Christie as an exhibitor. Christie plans to open an office in Bogotá in 2016 that will include a showroom, as well as spaces dedicated to technical service and training.
