In this new role Durkee will oversee both Da-Lite and Chief brands

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. USA (JAN 2012) - www.milestone.com - Milestone AV Technologies is pleased to announce that Steve Durkee has been promoted to the newly created position of President - Commercial Products. Durkee will now oversee both the Chief® and Da-Lite® brands at Milestone and all associated sales, marketing, and product development efforts. Most recently, Durkee served as President – Chief & Sanus Products for Milestone.

Steve’s new role is coupled with Milestone’s alignment into separate Commercial and Consumer customer-oriented global product groups. This alignment will allow the organization to focus on the unique customer needs of these two distinct market segments. Supporting both of these new product groups are unified finance, supply chain, and manufacturing organizations.

“We’re very excited to unite two of the best market-segment-leading brands in the commercial AV market under one experienced leader,” said Scott Gill, CEO of Milestone AV Technologies. “Steve has consistently demonstrated a singular customer focus and a real passion for product innovation. We're excited to continue growing the 100-year heritage of the Da-Lite brand, and the 30+ year heritage of the Chief brand, under Steve’s unified leadership.”

Durkee started his tenure at Milestone in April 2004 as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Chief products. During his more than seven years at Milestone, Steve’s roles have included management across Milestone product categories and global regions, providing broad experience as he moves into this new role. Prior to joining Milestone, he held a variety of technical and management roles at Graco, a technology supplier of industrial fluid management for commercial and industrial customers, most recently as the Worldwide Director of Sales and Marketing for Finishing Equipment. Durkee holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and an MBA from the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota.

As part of the new Consumer and Commercial Product organizational alignment, Milestone has also created a President – Consumer Products role and is conducting an outside search for this new leadership position. The new role will be focused on the Sanus® brand, driving Milestone’s Consumer-oriented marketing, product development, and sales efforts.