TOM BREITHAUPT: BACKGROUND AND FUTURE
First of all, let's get the resume stuff out of the way, move onto accomplishments, and into the future.


PHILOSOPHY
I am a dedicated technical professional with product and business skills, personality, and experience bridging business, technology, and international manufacturing. I analyze competitive markets, seek new business opportunities, develop products in highly competitive markets, and establish internal and external strategies. I am skilled in large presentations, technical writing, new product campaigns, and industry associations and constantly strive to translate alternative thinking concepts and high-tech into volume sales applications.

I strongly believe starting at "low level" team building often pulling unexpected results from unexpected people, inject urgency where needed, but also stress rigorous testing and quality standards. I am very comfortable and thrive inside international cultures with strong international supplier interface through extended work periods in Germany, S. Korea and long term living in China. My experiences include considerable live music exposure, portable A/V hobbyist, professional audio engineering market skills, and an active trumpet player (since retired). These skills compile into bridging the philosophies of Engineers with Manufacturing, Sales, and Management people while maintaining the end customer's perspective.

 

ThieleSmall

Tom Breithaupt meeting with creators of famous "Thiele'Small" parameter fame, Neville Thiele and Richard Small

EXPERIENCE
Audio is a love, not just a career and I can assure all that when you truly love something you put every effort into doing a great job with it. My work experience includes various skills in room acoustical research, electrical and loudspeaker engineering, Project Management, Sales support, converting high level projects and tasks to profitable and repeat sales. I am able to capitalize on diversified people and products with aggressive promotion of specialties translating into product and business successes. I focus on solutions driven profitable products with high benefit and brand ownership value, not just feature counts and high price.

The audio business is 100% a "people business" merging science and technology. I have been very fortunate in interfacing with industry greats that made huge impacts on the technology that redirected the business into huge new directions. The photo to the right is me (center) with Neville Thiele and Richard Small of "Thiele-Small Parameters" fame, the first people to model a loudspeaker in terms that could be easily manipulated mathematically.

I have been very fortunate working in large corporations learning the systems of big business which impose rigorous quality standards and organization. My 18 years at the Robert Bosch Corporation, the last 7 years in Asia, and 6 years for General Motors exposed me to international business, manufacturing, and most importantly the people which are the most important element of any business.

 

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
I have been fortunate to have been involved, and even lead, in several product and business developments that have truly changed the world of home and car audio.

  • Created category of thin loudspeakers for mobile which helped drive home thin subwoofers permitting installation in home walls. This has permanently impacted automotive and home audio systems in the market today.
  • 9 CES Product Innovations Awards with 2 in Best of Show (Thin speakers, Compact amplifiers)  First application of full-range automotive digital amplifiers focusing on small packaging for ease of installation.  U.S. Patents on loudspeaker mechanical adapter system allowing for multiple in-vehicle applications using a standard speaker, used by virtually every aftermarket manufacturer and many OEM auto companies.
  • Business success driving aftermarket sales from 10,000 to over 300,000 units over 7 years moving internal sales of the category from 5% to 25% of sales and boosting gross profits from 5% to 50% of division GP.
  • Ability to "internally" and "externally" sell unknown new concepts to a market that resisted such change (e.g., selling thin/lightweight speakers/amps to a market built on brute force size and weight)
  • Ability to take ideas from disparate markets and morph them into my products with unique style and benefit.
  • - Established Chinese full-line ODM home audio products fully development by a Chinese supplier. Focus on solutions driven products which are market-leading vs. conventional or brand-guided designs.
  • Developed full-line products giving market guidance for customers new to the home market requiring complete turn-key packages.
  • Provided product management processes to internal departments cutting time to market.
  • Initiated and assisted in the acquisition process of electronics R & D division yielding significant corporate development and return.
  • Initiated research on wireless and data over power-line audio products in home theater products using analog, digital, spread spectrum, Wi-Fi, and repeater based devices for multi-room audio application

 

OTHER TECHNICAL, BUSINESS, AND PERSONAL SKILLS & CAPABILITIES
Having spent over 30 years in the consumer electronics field I am able to add numerous other skill sets your company may be missing or simply weak on. Some of the other support functions we can provide include the following:

  • Plane Author catalogs, fliers, sales sheets, owners manuals, and installation manuals, publish via Adobe Indesign
  • Skilled in technical training, technical demonstrations, and Sales support presentations
  • On site factory visits and support
  • Chinese translations
  • Source additional test and measurement functions from industry colleagues
  • Website building, digital audio/video editing and authoring, publish via Adobe Dreamweaver
  • High level skills in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, and Photoshop.
  • Semi-pro grade photographer.
  • Licensed Private Pilot, Single-Engine Land rating.