Vaddio

 Vaddio expands executive operations by appointing Mark Steen as Chief Operating Officer and Darrin Thurston as VP of Product Development. 

Appointing Steen to the role of COO is a natural move as a result of Vaddio’s rapid growth and expansion. Steen joined Vaddio in April 2007 as both a Product Manager and member of the management team for the company. During the past five years Steen has been an integral part of the organization, collaborating on many of the products that have helped to differentiate Vaddio in the marketplace. 

Prior to joining Vaddio, Steen spent 12 years at American Express Financial Advisors (now known as Ameriprise Financial), in a variety of media technology roles. He led both the pilot and implementation phases of interactive satellite and videoconference technologies for their field offices, as well as the design and build of two distance learning and network operations facilities for the organization. During his tenure at American Express, Mark was also a board member of the Polycom User Group, an industry organization. 

Steen earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and his MBA from the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, MN. 

“Vaddio is a truly unique organization, both in terms of the people that work here, and the products that we create for our customers,” says Steen.  “I enjoy coming to work every day, and I am excited to begin my new role as COO for the company.” 

Thurston joins Vaddio from ClearOne Communications where he was Vice President of Product Management, responsible for collaboration and conferencing products lines. During his tenure, the professional audio conferencing product lines garnered market share leadership in the industry. He was also instrumental in introducing a new class of USB and telephony conferencing products leveraging the mass adoption of Unified Communications in the enterprise space. Prior to his position of VP of Product Management at ClearOne, Thurston held the role of Director of Engineering. Thurston holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from South Dakota State University. 

“I am excited to be part of the Vaddio team and look forward to the opportunity to assist in the continued creation of AV products with cutting-edge technologies,” says Thurston. “Vaddio has a unique opportunity for market innovation by integrating its camera technologies with new audio technologies to create AV peripheral solutions for Unified Communication or Lecture Capture platforms.”