Control4 announced today that Charlie Kindel, formerly of Amazon, has joined the company as senior VP of products and services.
Kindel spent the past five years at Amazon where he created and led the Alexa and Echo Smart Home program. He previously had a 21-year stint at Microsoft where he was general manager of the Windows Phone Developer Experience, driving the Windows Phone 7 ecosystem. He also helped create Microsoft’s Premier Supper, Windows home networking, and Windows Media Center.
See: Kindel Recounts Alexa’s Creation
While a coup for Control4, this news might come as a bit of a surprise to anyone following Kindel’s career as he left Amazon in April 30 of this year, writing on his personal blog, “The pace of the past five years has finally gotten to me and I simply need to catch my breath. I have a car restoration project that is two years behind schedule. My home automation system needs a complete revamp (it’s gotten a bit crusty since it was installed in 2001). I was originally just going to take a temporary leave, but I like the idea of having total freedom of thought to decide what’s next in my life.”
See also: Control4 Opens Certified Showrooms Worldwide
Kindel said he has already started working on updating that automation system, something his wife referred to as “the stupid house.” He replaced all the old components with new Control4, Triad speakers, and Pakedge gear, including multiroom AV distribution, intelligent lighting, security, cameras, and more.
“The idea of the smart, connected home is decades old and has been poised to take off many times,” said Kindel. “It’s gratifying to see individual and industry persistence paying off as connected home solutions are finally hitting mainstream households. However, many products and systems are still too complex and don’t work well across an entire home. By being customer-obsessed, Control4 has become the leader in whole-home connected solutions that are highly-refined, reliable, and simple to use. I’m excited I now get to focus on leading the smart home revolution from this different perspective.”
When asked if he would be leveraging his experience with Alexa and voice control to focus on developing that further with Control4, Kindel said, “Voice control is rapidly improving, with the sophistication of what it understands getting better every quarter. But voice is just a part of the overall puzzle. Voice is a natural user interface and customers find it delightful and simple, but voice is not the only UI. There are lots of scenarios where pressing a button on the wall, a phone or a remote is just easier, so all of those modalities are important. Fortunately, Control4 already has deep investments in all of those modalities.”
Kindel will be taking on a leadership role within Control4, reporting directly to CEO Martin Plaehn.
Control4 went public in 2013 and has 370,000 homes under management, with 60,000 new installs last year. Since going public, Control4 has purchased five companies (Triad, Pakedge, Ihiji, Leaf, Card Access) and Plaehn said the company has “more cash today than when we went public. Our focus is on delivering compelling solutions for the connected home, and we continue investing heavily in R&D, having spent $45 million in the trailing 12 months. We hope the custom channel and our dealers look at Charlie’s coming aboard as another big investment in the company’s future. He brings talent, experience, and proven judgement. We are unequivocally committed to building the best products and delivering the best user experience and committed to being excellent.”
