Harman promotes Scott Robbins

1 October 2008

USA - Harman Professional has announced the promotion of Scott Robbins from senior vice-president of sales, Crown Audio to group-wide vice-president of sales with the specific mandate to work with brand-level sales executives to strengthen existing sales operations and to grow Harman Professional's sales presence in emerging markets. Today's announcement was made by Michael MacDonald, , to whom Robbins reports.

"Scott Robbins is a tremendous asset to Harman Professional and a resource to our distribution partners and customers alike," said Michael MacDonald, Harman Professional's executive vice-president of marketing and sales. "In his new position, his experience, energy and intelligence will benefit all of our brands and not just Crown Audio whom he has served so well and grown so effectively. I look forward to working with Scott to grow the Harman business in emerging international markets and, in doing so, to raise the threshold of expectation for performance, integration, quality and value in those markets where we have yet to gain a significant foothold."

Commenting on his appointment, Robbins said: "Harman Professional has operated very successfully as a constellation of independent, category-leading brands but we have systematically capitalized on the group concept by sharing manufacturing resources, R&D, marketing, accounting and market intelligence. Now, as we take a more systems-approach to sales operations, I am very pleased and honored to lead this initiative. Working with Michael MacDonald, the new regional sales offices and the sales teams at our brands, my goal is to make it easier for our distribution partners and customers around the world to do business with Harman Professional."

Robbins holds a bachelors degree in Organizational Management and joined Crown Audio's service department in 1987. He was progressively promoted to more senior sales positions within the company. During this time, he helped grow the sales in all geographic and vertical markets and was responsible for organizing and managing sales partners across the globe.

An early initiative that Robbins will spearhead will be the successful start-up of Harman Professional's new sales offices in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

(Lee Baldock)