ASK Proxima today announced that Sam L. Malik will be their new Vice President and General Manger of Sales and Marketing. Malik will serve as the day-to-day general manager, drawing upon over 17 years of executive experience in the presentation industry including 2-years as VP for Premier Mounts, 3 years with SANYO as VP-GM for the Projector Display division (prior to Panasonic’s purchase; when they were dominating the top-5 in nearly every projector sales category) and a 14-year career as Director of National Sales and Marketing for Toshiba America.

Long-time ProAV’ers may remember Proxima as the brand that InFocus destroyed. Back in mid-2000, InFocus bought Proxima for nearly $500 million at the perfect time – they were the top projector manufacturer in the so-called “Install” market dominating projectors used in boardrooms, conference rooms and classrooms – ranked at the top brand in all three categories. InFocus found a way to ruin all that over a 3-year period of time. By the end of 2003, the Proxima brand was nearly gone and neither InFocus nor Proxima were top-5 brands in the “Install” market. Back in 2010, InFocus dumped the Proxima brand for only $39 million (great investment, huh?). ASK Proxima, Inc is a USA sales and distribution subsidiary of Shenzhen ACTO Digital Video Technology Co., Ltd of China.

Sam Malik is the right guy to build this brand back. We think it’s a good move – if they give him the power to make the decisions needed to make their brand a leader, again.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to assume this key role with ASK Proxima Inc.’s management team,” says Malik. “With the ability to be involved in all aspects of launching this great brand name, I look forward to meeting the goal of growing and establishing ASK Proxima Inc. as the technology leader in the presentation industry, and continuing our sales growth in the consumer, commercial and Pro AV channels.”

According to Mr. Hiroyuki Taira, Executive Vice President of ASK Proxima, Inc., “We are very pleased to announce the addition of Sam Malik to Vice President of ASK Proxima Inc, and his new role as General Manager. His energy, depth of experience and comprehensive background in presentation technology make him well suited for this new position and responsibilities. We will rely on his leadership skills to provide the direction needed to effectively grow our organization.”

Here is the entire ASK Proxima product line.