Gentner  - known by its dealers for high-end,

best-in-breed audio 

Technology, Communications Equipment

 NASD: GTNR

Gentner Communications  

1825 Research Way
Salt Lake City, UT 84119

  

Ms. Frances. M. Flood
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer  

Interview conducted by: Walter Banks , Co-Publisher  

CEOCFOinteriviews.com

January 2001  

                                                                             BIO OF CEO

Frances M. Flood is currently President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Gentner Communications Corporation. She has more than 25 years experience in a variety of executive-level management positions, including product development, marketing, and sales culture creation. In each of these assignments, her primary focus has been in the area of change management. While the majority of her work experience has been with established companies, her entrepreneurial spirit and vision have effected substantial cultural and financial changes within the organizations of which she has been a part. 

Ms. Flood’s past experiences include serving as Senior Vice President of a large regional bank holding company and founder of an international sales and marketing firm. Prior to joining Gentner in October 1996, she served as an Area Director of Sales and Marketing for Ernst & Young, LLP, an international accounting and consulting firm.

Ms. Flood has been a public speaker for more than 10 years and has made numerous presentations in North America, Europe, Australia, and South America. As an energetic, experienced speaker, she consistently receives high marks for presentation and content. Her dynamic personality motivates and inspires her audiences as well as those with whom she works. She has twice been a keynote speaker at Inc. Magazine’s CEO Symposium.

Ms. Flood was named President of Gentner in December 1997, Chief Executive Officer in June 1998, Chairman in November 2000, and has been instrumental in the revitalization of the organization. She was brought on to effect a change in the direction of the company. Since its inception, Gentner existed to invent. While many of its inventions were successful, many were not. Ms. Flood’s charge was to maintain the entrepreneurial spirit upon which Gentner had been founded, while simultaneously transitioning the company into a professionally managed organization focused on profitability.

During Ms. Flood’s tenure, the company has produced 15 consecutive quarters of profitability—a first in its nineteen-year history. Revenues have nearly tripled while net income has increased almost 800 percent. The culminating effect of these efforts can be seen in the price of Gentner’s stock, which has risen over 2,000 percent. In addition, Gentner has received numerous awards under Ms. Flood’s direction, including: Ernst & Young’s 2000 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Arthur Andersen’s Best Practices Award, Frost & Sullivan’s Market Engineering Award, Excellence in Manufacturing Award from the Utah Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and the International Company of the Year Award from the World Trade Association of Utah.

ABOUT GENTNER

                                               Conferencing Products

Gentner's Audio Perfect^® products have revolutionized the conferencing industry. Now, there's no need to huddle around a box on the table to teleconference with remote sites. By combining several individual products into single units, our audioconferencing products eliminate clipping, distortion, echoes, and other problems that frequently muddle the sound of teleconferences. Corporate boardrooms, distance learning environments, courtrooms, telemedicine facilities—no matter what the setting, audio makes the meeting.

Gentner's audioconferencing products provide clear, lifelike audio in even the most challenging environments.

With the addition of the APV200-IP videoconferencing system to our product line, Gentner provides a perfect complement to our best-in-class audio products. The APV200-IP delivers an integrated unit at a set-top price. Combining the exciting APV200-IP with our AP800 or AP400 gives you a complete solution for all your conferencing needs.

The Gentner ClearOne conference phone is the latest addition to our conferencing suite of products. VTM^® (Voice Tracking Microphone) technology, easy operation, and best sound quality are a sampling of the many advantages to using the ClearOne Conference Phone. 

Conferencing Service 

Gentner’s 1-800 LETS MEET^® conference calling service helps thousands of businesses—large and small—save money, improve productivity, and increase effectiveness, every day. With Gentner you get the clearest sound, the most reliable technology, the most detailed billing in the business, and special, customized features. You'll find our best-in-class service and dedication to quality is unparalleled.

Gentner’s Instant Access Conference Calling™ service give you the freedom to conduct reliable, clear sounding conference calls quickly and easily from any location, any time—without a reservation. Instant Access Conference Calling allows you to conduct a conference call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, from the office or from the road, and is convenient and simple to use. To initiate a call, simply enter your personal account number and pin code via a touch-tone phone or click on the Login button below to initiate your call online. That's it. You're in control of your own conference call. 

TheDataPort.com is a Webconferencing service that enables you to conduct live, interactive meetings with anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world, right over the Internet. All you need is a connection to the Internet and your PC. Your presentation can include graphics, slides, graphs, charts, Q & A, even video and audio. Plus, your event can be saved for people who may have missed it live. All for a fraction of the cost incurred through travel.

CEOCFOinterviews – Ms. Flood, please give us a brief history of Gentner Communications, and where you expect to be in three years.

Ms. Flood – “Gentner was founded in 1981 and our roots are in the broadcast market.  We developed the technology that enables radio and television talk show hosts to bring telephone callers “on-air” live by taking audio off of the telephone line and cleaning it up to create a broadcast-quality audio signal.  Our broadcast audio products were so effective at eliminating such audio problems as feedback and echo that a few years later we migrated the technology into high-end audioconferencing products for such applications as boardrooms, courtrooms, and distance learning environments.  Despite a tremendous technological base, the company had experienced very desultory performance.  It had been run as an entrepreneurial, invention driven company, rather than one that was a professionally managed and publicly traded.  As part of a management change in December 1997, I was appointed president and the new management team developed a plan whereby we would profitably grow the corporation.  Looking back at Gentner’s performance, you can see that we have delivered on the numbers. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 1997, six months after the change in management, we returned the company to profitability and have been profitable every single quarter since, having just reported our 15th consecutive quarter of profitability.”

CEOCFOinterviews – Could you tell us about the strategy, which turned Gentner around?

To receive a complete copy of this interview call: 570-839-0236