[As discussed in Industry News in issues #25 and #26 . there have been a number of changes recently at McIntosh Group, the umbrella group for McIntosh Laboratory, Audio Research, Sonus faber, Sumiko, Wadia, and Pryma. The latest change is addition of an industry vet as co-CEO to longtime McIntosh president Charlie Randall. It appears McIntosh will be entering the OEM car audio market—a logical area of growth for the brand. It’ll be interesting to see how well they fare against the monolithic market share of Harman, whose OEM car audio brands include Becker, B&O, JBL, Infinity, Revel, harman/kardon, and Mark Levinson.–-Ed.]
McIntosh Group Names Jeff Poggi As Co-Chief Executive Officer
McIntosh Group, parent company of audio brands McIntosh, Audio Research and Sonus faber, has announced the appointment of Jeff Poggi to co-Chief Executive Officer and Board member.
Alongside Charlie Randall, Poggi will lead the strategic development of McIntosh Group, in particular the Car Audio segment that is a key growth opportunity for the Group. Poggi will also lead the development of the Lifestyle sector and will directly supervise the Sonus faber, Sumiko and Audio Research brands.
Prior to joining McIntosh Group, Poggi worked at Bose and Harman for 20 years. He is a well-known figure in the Car Audio industry: he led the General Motors account at Bose and subsequently was Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for the Car Audio business unit at Harman. Poggi also brings experience in the high-end audio space as he most recently was Vice-President and General Manager for the Luxury Audio business unit at Harman. Poggi is an Engineer by trade; he received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and his Master’s degree in Industrial and System Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. He also received his MBA from Duke.
Poggi has been a key figure in the industry and instrumental in the development of the car audio business. He has managed large global teams and is a highly-respected business leader. “Jeff will add a great deal to the roll out of our Car Audio strategy,” said McIntosh Group President & CEO Charlie Randall. “Jeff is a very talented and charismatic business leader, who will enhance and further structure the management team to achieve our common goals,” added Dominik Zwerger, representative of shareholders LBO France. “With Charlie Randall and Jeff Poggi, we have the perfect mix of managerial skills in order to continuously succeed in the Audiophile and Lifestyle sectors, as well as developing key shareholder value in the Car Audio segment,” added Roberto d’Angelo, representative of Yarpa spa.
LBO France is one of the larget private equity company in Europe with 4 bilion of assets under management in Pirvate Equity and Real Estate. The company operates in 3 business areas: small- middle market buyouts (the Hexagone funds and the White Knight funds), real estate (the White Stone and Lapillus funds) and secondary debt (the Altercap funds). LBO France counts over 45 professionals and it is wholly owned by its senior executives, a guarantee of independence and accountability. LBO France makes available to the portfolio companies the skills and financial resources to support their development processes through organic growth or through acquisitions, or through process improvement.
Yarpa spa is an holding company with a focus on fund of funds business through Yarpa investments SGR that has Euro 200 million of assets under management. For direct investments in Italy Yarpa operates in joint venture with LBO France. Yarpa has a hands-on approach in managing the Private Equity business with an high industrial angle and an holding period normally higher than 5/7 years. This approach comes from its shareholding structure including the main shareholder of Vittoria Assicurazioni and some business families of Genoa (Messina-Gais, Gavarone-Delle Piane, Bisagno-Zanetti, Passadore, and Azzoaglio), over the same LBO France. Yarpa and LBO France have closed five acquisitions in Italy over the last 3 years.
