A Sit Down with Sony's New CI Chief

Earlier this year, Sony’s custom integration division went through a rather major transition.

- Interview by Rob Stott

Jeff Goldstein, a longtime industry veteran who's responsible for some of the biggest pro-channel launches, announced his retirement after 28 years with the company. His understudy, Kathleen Thomas, was tapped as his replacement and stepped into the lead role back in April.

Thomas, a lifelong veteran of the consumer electronics and custom integration channel, carries her own wealth of knowledge and experience into her new role.

Early into that transition, Residential Tech Today took the opportunity to check in with Thomas, learn a little more about her background, dive into Sony's CI strategy, and more.

Residential Tech Today: First of all, congrats on the new gig. An exciting time for you, for sure. For those who might not know you or be familiar with your background, share a little bit about yourself with us.

Kathleen: Absolutely. Super excited about the new role. So, a fun fact about KT is that I actually have been in the industry since I was two weeks old. Born into it. Both of my parents were working at a hi-fi store in Atlanta, Georgia, called Hi-Fi Buys that later got bought by Tweeter back in the day. But I was in their first commercial when they opened their doors in 1973. So, we're not supposed to say how old we are, but, you know, now everybody can find out.

So yeah, I literally grew up in hi-fi stores. My parents were later sales reps, and I pretty much grew up packing literature and in the summers taking orders on the phone for, you know, Denon receivers and Canton speakers and all that kind of stuff. When I got out of out of college with an insanely useful degree in art, it was pretty easy to go, hmm, what do I want to do? And I called up the folks at Hi-Fi Buys, which by then was a 10-store chain, and said, “Hey, guys, I need a job.” I was fortunate enough that—I'm a total nepo baby, I admit it. They gave me a job, which is how I got my start in this industry.