Avid Hires New Chief Marketing Officer

BURLINGTON, MASS.–Avid has tapped marketing executive Jennifer Smith to be the company’s new senior vice president and chief marketing officer. Based in the company’s Burlington, Mass. headquarters, Smith will be a key member of Avid’s Executive Leadership Team, the company said. Smith replaces Sean Ford.

Reporting directly to Avid president and CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr., Smith will be responsible for driving all aspects of Avid’s worldwide market presence and growth, including its strategic positioning, go-to-market strategies, and all marketing disciplines within the organization. She will be responsible for promoting the company’s Avid Everywhere concept to help media organizations and content creators connect with their audiences through technologies such as the Avid MediaCentral Platform. Smith will also oversee Avid’s strategic collaboration with customers via the Avid Customer Association.

“Jennifer has a reputation for inspiring creativity, deepening customer relationships, and driving value in global technology organizations,” said Hernandez. “We welcome her fresh ideas, strategic thinking, customer focus, and results-oriented approach as Avid continues its journey to help shape the future of the media industry and redefine what our customers can achieve in media creation, distribution, and monetization around the world.”

Smith brings 15 years of senior management experience in technology marketing at major software companies both in the U.S. and internationally. She joins Avid from Progress Software, where she held increasingly senior leadership roles on the marketing team before becoming the company’s chief marketing officer and senior vice president. Before her seven years at Progress, Smith held marketing leadership positions in several different companies in Europe, including Peoplesoft and Microsoft

Tom Butts

Tom has covered the broadcast technology market for the past 25 years, including three years handling member communications for the National Association of Broadcasters followed by a year as editor of Video Technology News and DTV Business executive newsletters for Phillips Publishing. In 1999 he launched digitalbroadcasting.com for internet B2B portal Verticalnet. He is also a charter member of the CTA's Academy of Digital TV Pioneers. Since 2001, he has been editor-in-chief of TV Tech (www.tvtech.com), the leading source of news and information on broadcast and related media technology and is a frequent contributor and moderator to the brand’s Tech Leadership events.