Omdia Innovation Awards
at ShowStoppers® @ CES 2022

As the leader of the consumer electronics and display applications service area, Paul Gagnon overseas research on TVs, smartphones, mobile PCs, smart home, home appliances, desktop monitors, and professional AV displays. Paul has more than 20 years of experience within the consumer electronics industry. His interests are the intersection of consumer electronics technology, devices, and applications. Paul is an expert on supply chain factors and their impacts on product featuring and strategy, and the likely end-market consumer response to those decisions. He is knowledgeable about display technologies and their application in consumer electronics. Paul joined Omdia, formerly IHS Markit, in 2014, after leading the TV sets research team at NPD DisplaySearch. He also has years of experience working within consumer electronics manufacturing and retailing. Paul holds a Master of Science in business analytics and a Bachelor of Science in business from San Diego State University in San Diego, California.

Paul Gray leads the home devices research, spanning television sets, smart home, consumer electronics, and domestic appliances. His main research area is TV sets, focusing on the European region, broadcast technology, smart TV, and new TV features. Paul is also heavily engaged in researching the development of the Ultra HD ecosystem. He joined Omdia, formerly IHS Markit, more than 10 years ago. With more than 30 years’ experience in the TV set supply chain working for NXP and Philips in semiconductors and displays, Paul continues to research the TV set business. He has also worked on wearable and media devices and has tracked and forecast the smart TV business from its very beginning. Paul has been cited by, among others, the Financial Times, Korea Times, Korea Daily, Nikkei, and Le Monde. He has also offered expert viewpoints in online, radio, and television programming. Paul holds a degree in electrical engineering and a diploma in industrial studies.

As part of Omdia's Components and Devices team, Ken Park heads the Professional AV Devices research team, specializing in global TV set market research with display technology expertise and various industry experiences. His Pro AV team main research areas are digital signage, LED video displays, desktop monitor and specialty display devices. Ken provides excellent leadership in leading Professional AV devices research team and insightful viewpoints in analyzing and forecasting the global TV market and brand strategies at the same time. Consequently, Ken covers both TV and professional AV market and technology perfectly. Prior to joining Omdia, formerly IHS Markit including DisplaySearch acquired by IHS, in 2008, Ken was in marketing and sales, starting with software engineer in the visual display division at Samsung Electronics. He has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Kookmin University in Seoul, Korea.

As part of the consumer electronics team of Omdia, Nina Rao explores converging technology trends across consumer electronics applications, working to incorporate new data sources and to strategically renew research areas. Her research interests include emerging trends in interface adoption across the consumer electronics spectrum, including USB-C and AV, and developments in mature markets such as monitors and TVs. She provides key insights into these areas and strategic consulting for special projects. Before joining Omdia, formerly IHS Markit, in 2019, Nina worked as an investigative reporter and editor. She holds a master’s degree in environmental journalism from the University of Colorado in Colorado, the US and a bachelor’s degree in economics and French from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.

Gerrit Schneemann has amassed significant experience in the global mobile handset market, covering the space for over a decade. In his current role, he is a regular contributor to reports and databases, providing insightful perspective on the current forces and anticipated technologies of consequence at work in the smartphone space. Gerrit examines the smartphone market from a consumer’s perspective while monitoring developments in the wireless carrier space, keeping track of the applications and services that impact smartphone usage and trends. For his expertise, Gerrit is regularly quoted in print and online publications. Prior to his coverage of the smartphone market, Gerrit specialized in the portable navigation device and location-based technologies and services space for the consumer market. Gerrit has an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and a Master of Science degree in predictive analytics from Northwestern University.

Michael Yang brings a wealth of experience to his key research areas of DRAM and flash memory, and storage solutions that includes solid-state drives (SSDs) and hard-disk drives (HDDs). Michael can attribute his expertise to many years of high-level work in the memory business of industry majors. At Samsung Electronics, he led product marketing efforts for flash memory components and SSDs, while also expanding the company’s mobile memory business. He also held corporate strategy and product management roles at US chipmaker titan Intel Corp., Western Digital and Fujitsu, the Japanese multinational equipment and services provider. Michael earned his MBA at the University of California in Davis and obtained his Bachelor of Science degree at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California.