Commercial Integrator June 2022 - 42

Honor Roll
used to create those audiovisual
experiences.
Communications is in
Long's DNA. Her father was
a sports journalist who focused
more on facts; Long's
style is more colorful. She
particularly enjoys developing
content and strategy for
the company's social media
platform.
Long acknowledges
that the AV space can be
" intense " at times, and she
needs to step back occasionally.
Responding to a
question about her five-year
plan, Long sees herself
working more directly in
marketing and communications.
When not working, she
enjoys using her season tickets
to the Anaheim Ducks
and other local teams.
Connect with Alex Long via
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/
in/longalex.
university, painting portraits.
Kaplan not only expressed
his creativity through painting
but also through music
and would often paint underground
portraits during gigs
to differentiate their band.
The Wetlands in New York
City was a frequent band
spot for Kaplan.
Combining his love of music
and his passion for art, Kaplan
started a business building
handcrafted guitars and
speakers. The guitars did not
take off, but the speakers did.
That garage-based business
is now a multi-million-dollar
operation, with over 60
employees, that manufactures
audio products for both the
commercial and residential
spaces. Kaplan is a firm
believer that art and music
shape our culture and that a
business is like a sculpture: a
never-ending work in progress.
The same is true for our
30 to 50
Noah Kaplan,
president at Leon
Speakers
Noah Kaplan attended
the University of Michigan
School of Art & Design and
graduated in 1995 with a
bachelor of fine arts degree.
Tremendously creative, he
served as an artist for the
42
industry. Kaplan believes we
need a disruption in audio
and that we must embrace
more of a designer's mindset
into the manufacturing
process. What he learned
during the pandemic is the
need to bring the outside to
the inside, including incorporating
more biophilic design
elements. Biophilic design
is a concept used within the
building industry to increase
occupant connectivity to the
natural environment using
direct nature, indirect nature,
and space and place conditions.
Kaplan thinks outside
the box and often goes to
interior design shows to be
" part of the art. "
Kaplan is emphatic about
the need for diversity, and,
indeed, that is what Leon is all
Commercial Integrator JUNE 2022
about. " We're not a bunch of
white men, " he states. Diversity
fosters different types of
creativity and visions, and this
shows in the products that
Leon offers.
Earlier this year, Leon celebrated
25 years in business.
Connect with Noah Kaplan
via LinkedIn and wish him
congratulations: www.
linkedin.com/in/noahkaplan-b039ab1a.
environmental
health and
safety consulting firm.
Cerami modeled her
company on a business
ethos of people, then clients,
then money. She believes if
you focus any business in
the reverse order, you kill the
company culture by solely
pursuing sales and will not
survive. Focusing primarily
on people, Cerami's greatest
joy as a business owner has
been cultivating the skills
of the newer generation of
Cerami employees, and then
watching them flourish. She
believes the future of the
firm lies in their hands.
Cerami also believes our
Over 50
Victoria Cerami,
CEO of Cerami
& Associates
Victoria Cerami was thrust
into a career in AV when, in
1987, her father, Vito Cerami,
died suddenly and she was
faced with running Cerami
& Associates overnight.
With fortitude and perseverance,
she leveraged her
business relationships and
grew Cerami & Associates
to the largest woman-owned
acoustic design and technology
consulting firm in the
country. Cerami always had
her sights set on the company
having more of a global
presence, and she's now
one step closer to realizing
that dream. Recently, she
oversaw a merger with Trinity
Consultants, an international
AV industry is on the cusp of
technological disruption and
hopes the AV manufacturers
drive a disruption that is
more data-driven than black
box-driven. Her advice to any
newbies entering AV is to
work for a forward-thinking
company.
You can follow Victoria
Cerami on Twitter @vcerami
and via LinkedIn: www.
linkedin.com/in/victoriacerami
Industry Legend
Mario Maltese,
director emeritus
of AQAV
When you have an undergraduate
degree in microwave
engineering and a masters
in electrophysics, where
do you go career-wise? AV,
of course!
Mario Maltese started in
the '70s in AV at a company
called Norcon Communications,
where he worked as
an engineer. He filed his first
commercialintegrator.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/noah http://www.linkedin.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriacerami http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator June 2022

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