iGo, Inc. President and CEO Michael D. Heil Interviews With The Wall Street TranscriptOn Monday March 7, 2011, 1:46 pm EST
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Michael D. Heil joined iGo, Inc., in June 2007 as its President and Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Prior to joining iGo, from 2004 to June 2007, Mr. Heil was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Astute Networks, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company focused on the computer storage market. Prior to joining Astute Networks, from 2003 to 2004, Mr. Heil served as an outside Director and Consultant to several early stage technology companies, including Locus Telecommunications, Maximize Wireless Solutions and Clearvue Technologies. From 2001 to 2002, Mr. Heil served as the Chief Executive Officer of Archway Digital Systems, Inc., a next-generation blade-server startup focused on the datacenter market. From 1999 to 2000, Mr. Heil served as the Chief Executive Officer of Broadstream Communications, Inc., a provider of a virtual head-end network and outsourced video service platform for the IPTV industry. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Heil was employed by Compaq Computer Corp., serving from 1998 to 1999 as its Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing, where he was responsible for sales, marketing, service and support for all Compaq products and services worldwide. From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Heil served as Compaq's Senior Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Products Group, where he managed the development, marketing and sales of all of Compaq's consumer products and services worldwide, and introduced the first portable computer designed for the consumer market. Prior to joining Compaq, from 1989 to 1995, Mr. Heil was President and General Manager of Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Company, a cellular phone operation company. From 1985 to 1989, Mr. Heil was employed by Sony Corporation of America, most recently serving as its President, Display Products Company, where he managed the direct view, projection television and Watchman product lines. Mr. Heil holds a B.A. from the University of Texas.
TWST: Please start with a history and a brief overview of iGo.
Mr. Heil: iGo (IGOI), for many years, has been a leading provider of mobile electronics accessories. Most recently, we have added to our intellectual property with what we have termed iGo Green Technology, which is essentially technology that eliminates vampire power. We have five U.S. patents and two U.K. patents already issued and others pending in other countries. Our vision is to attach all of our products and technologies to every mobile electronic device.
Recently, we've made several acquisitions that have broadened our portfolio. One was Adapt Mobile, which brings us into the protection market, meaning cases and screens for mobile electronic devices. The other was AERIAL7, which is an audio company that makes headphones and earbuds. We now play in three primary areas of mobile electronics accessories - power, which is our core competency, as well as protection and audio.
TWST: What are your leading products and what do they do?
Mr. Heil: Our leading products are laptop power adapters that incorporate iGo Green Technology; that is our bread and butter product if you will. We also provide chargers for cellphones, including iPhones and other electronic devices. Then we provide a wide variety of products focused at the mobile electronics accessories space, like cases, screen protectors, headphones and earbuds.
We've always been in the adapter and charger business, but by adding to the product portfolio, we're able to be more relevant to our consumer as well as our retailers in providing them a wide of variety of accessories. Whether they have an iPhone or an iPad or a laptop, whatever their electronic device is, we provide the power, protection and the audio accessories for those products.
TWST: How are your products distributed?
Mr. Heil: We sell in the U.S. primarily, direct-to-retail, so our products are distributed in Wal-Mart, Office Depot, Fry's Electronics, OfficeMax, RadioShack - most of the large retailers. The same is true in Canada, although we use a distribution partner in Canada. Internationally, it's a mix between distribution and direct-to-retail. We sell direct to Dixons in the U.K., for example, but many accounts in Spain, France and the Benelux area are sold through distribution.
TWST: You talked about eliminating vampire power. Why is that so important?
Mr. Heil: Every electronic device in your home or office, when they are in standby mode or turned off, still draws power if they are connected to a power adapter or charger that is plugged into an outlet. And that's all wasted power. To give you a sense for the size of that power usage, in U.S. households, the EPA estimates that it's about $10 billion per year that's wasted in vampire power. So it's a huge problem.
If you think of it, if you have your laptop adapter plugged in in your office and then you take your laptop on the road, you come back a couple or three days later, that laptop adapter has burned several watts of power because it's still plugged in. It is still burning power, which is being dissipated as heat in the adapter. And that is true across a myriad of electronics devices in your home or office. Our patented iGo Green Technology automatically eliminates that problem. We have a circuit that pulses the device to see if it needs power.
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