Quick Bio
Name: Denise Nemchev
Position: President and CEO
Company: Spitfire, the parent company of tvONE and Green Hippo
Overtime: Nemchev serves as an independent director on the Norbord (OSB) board of directors and as an advisory board member for Advancing Workplace Excellence (AWE). In her spare time, she can be found in the New England mountains skiing, hiking, camping, kayaking, or paddle boarding from her home in Rhode Island.
SCN: What is your position and what does it entail? What are your responsibilities?
DENISE NEMCHEV: I am the CEO of Spitfire, the legal holding company of tvONE and Green Hippo. Green Hippo was acquired in the fourth quarter of 2018 and is a leading real-time media playback solutions business. My job entails staying close to customer needs and trends and proactively managing available resources of people and capital while managing all associated risks. My business philosophy centers on engaging and empowering every employee within the company, with the sole mission of delivering exceptional value for our customers—including contractors, installers, consultants, set designers, and resellers.
SCN: How long have you been at this position?
DN: I’ve been in this position for almost four years.
SCN: How has your background prepared you for your role?
DN: I spent more than 20 years in progressing roles at Stanley Black and Decker (SWK). I was blessed to have worked with strong mentors as I gained experience and knowledge within several functional disciplines. For more than 10 years I was a president of several large global businesses primarily serving professional and industrial marketplaces with technology-based products and services.
In addition to over 25 years of relevant business experience, my mechanical engineering, psychology, and MBA/finance degrees from MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and RPI [Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute] have provided a strong educational foundation.
SCN: What are your short- and long-term goals?
DN: It’s a really exciting time right now with our recent acquisition of Green Hippo. Combining forces with the technology, product development, marketing, and global sales teams will strengthen both business units in the marketplace.
Longer-term, Spitfire will be exploring further complementary bolt-on acquisitions in the creative video processing space.
SCN: What is the greatest challenge you face?
DN: Our industry is full of change, with evolving technologies, changing customer preferences, and new competitors entering the market every day—not to mention the recent geopolitical challenges of Brexit and U.S. trade policy changes. The biggest challenge is maintaining the discipline to stay focused on the critical few business priorities that matter—weeding through the daily distractions while staying agile to deliver innovative quality solutions to our customers.
SCN: Where do you see the pro AV market heading?
DN: With the addition of Green Hippo to the family, our focus has expanded to include media servers in addition to professional video processing, signal distribution, and racking solutions. This market space is growing as the demands for more creative video enhancing experiences increases.
We are seeing greater needs in the areas of larger non-square video walls with higher resolutions, streaming video, and intuitive user interfaces. Our CORIO and Green Hippo technologies are well positioned to be flexible, adaptable, and easy to use as these trends continue.
SCN: Are there new initiatives we are likely to see from tvONE?
DN: We will continue our legacy of delivering innovative products under our flagship brands of Green Hippo, tvONE, Magenta, and CORIO. You’ll see products like the ONErack, a universal powered mounting system that vastly improves rack installation of small devices, designed specifically to remove some stress from a system integrator’s day. As system integrators continue to evolve from being contractors to being business partners with their clients, tvONE will, in parallel, evolve with new products and support initiatives that foster new managed services environments.
SCN: How can systems contractors better position themselves to profit from products and/or services you have to offer?
DN: Contractors are essential for the growth of tvONE and Green Hippo. We are always seeking new opportunities to help our end users and contractors save time, money, and aggravation. Getting us involved sooner in the development of a system solution is the easiest thing to do.
We recognize the loyalty of our customers when they specify our products by supporting their efforts through every aspect of the project. If you are a contractor who is looking for easy-to-use, profitable solutions, please contact us at www.tvone.com or www.green-hippo.com.
