Keith Henry appointed as UK business development manager to grow UK business and support the 25 local authorities using its PLANet wireless street lighting central management system (CMS)
This critical addition to the UK team releases sales & marketing director Paul Dunn and CEO Will Gibson to spend more time with Telensa’s international sales team leveraging successful overseas pilots including several with North American and Latin American utilities and municipalities
CAMBRIDGE, England, September 6, 2013: Telensa, the market-leading ‘smart’ wireless street lighting technology company, has appointed street lighting industry veteran Keith Henry as business development manager for the UK.
Keith’s role will focus on continuing Telensa’s rapid growth in the UK market – already 25 local authorities have adopted its PLANet (Public Lighting Active Network) street light central management system (CMS). In addition to working with end-users, Keith will coordinate closely with contractors, specifiers, luminaire suppliers, and ballast suppliers, providing a full pre-sales technical and sales support capability to end customers.
Keith joins Telensa having spent over twenty-five years within the street lighting industry. He has worked in both the private and public sector in a variety of roles covering all disciplines of exterior lighting including consultancy, design, sales and commissioning of projects.
Keith began his career at Bristol City Council as an area lighting engineer and has since worked for Philips, Eclipse Partnership and most recently as a technical manager at SELC Electronics. Keith is also the vice president -technical for the Institute of Lighting Professionals.
Keith Henry’s appointment provides the necessary additional resource and expertise to support Telensa’s sales & marketing director Paul Dunn and CEO Will Gibson in the growing UK market while releasing more of their time to focus on Telensa’s growing overseas business.
Paul Dunn, sales & marketing director, Telensa, said: “These are exciting times for Telensa as demand for our ‘smart’ street lighting solution continues to grow both here in the UK and overseas. We are delighted to welcome Keith, a trusted pair of hands, to join our expanding team to support our UK customer base and to develop it further. His appointment will allow us to take advantage of our strong track record and exploit the growing interest in our solution from overseas companies and municipalities.”
Will Gibson, CEO, commented: “While the UK is heading the world in adoption of ‘smart’ street lighting (driven to a large extent by Telensa’s leading market share), we are now seeing real activity in several other markets. So while Keith’s appointment is focussed towards our core home market, it also demonstrates our confidence that now is the right time to grow our sales team overall, to help us extend further into the global market.”
Telensa’s PLANet system accurately controls switching and dimming of street lights. It also measures energy usage and detects faulty street lights. The system uses advanced ultra narrow band (UNB) wireless technology which differentiates it from other solutions on the market. UNB requires less infrastructure equipment for large populations of street lights, meaning networks can be rolled out more quickly and with simpler network management than competitor systems.