MELBOURNE, Fla. – Tim Thorsteinson has been named president of Harris Corporation’s broadcast communications division.
Thorsteinson, 52, had been serving as president of the Leitch Technology business unit of Harris since the company bought Leitch in 2005. He succeeds Jeremy Wensinger who will take over Harris Government Communications Systems Division.
"Tim is well known and highly respected within the broadcast industry," said Howard Lance, chairman, president and CEO of Harris. "He has a proven track record of operational success within the industry and a vision that will keep Harris at the cutting edge of product innovation and customer responsiveness."
Thorsteinson joined Leitch Technology Corporation as president and CEO in November 2003 and led the Toronto company’s financial turnaround and expansion through job cuts, organic growth and acquisitions. Prior to joining Leitch, Thorsteinson was vice president of Grass Valley products for Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions.
Prior to joining Thomson/Grass Valley, he was with Tektronix, Inc., from 1991 to 2001.
Also announced today, Harris’ broadcast division has signed a deal to acquire Optimal Solutions, Inc. (OSi), a privately held provider of air-time sales, traffic and billing software systems to over 350 call-letter broadcast stations in North America for US$32 million.
"The acquisition of OSi will further strengthen our portfolio and commitment to provide total content delivery solutions to the industry," said Lance. "OSi expands our capabilities in enterprise-wide software for managing and scheduling advertising and programming for broadcasters, and complements the Harris next-generation H-Class(TM) platform." The H-Class(TM) platform will serve the diverse business models of broadcast networks, cable networks and media content providers as well as the emergence of new services such as IPTV, mobile TV, and on-demand video delivery.
