Tech Developer Avid Hires New Chief Marketing Officer

Avid, whose products include the widely used Media Composer editing system and ProTools postproduction sound system, named Kyle Kim-Hays its new chief marketing officer. He’s Avid’s first senior exec to be based in Los Angeles, which is the company’s largest U.S. market.

Kim-Hays comes from Verizon Digital Media Services, where he served as vp and head of product marketing. Before that, he spent five years at Warner Bros. Entertainment, as vp consumer digital distribution, and earlier worked in marketing at Microsoft.

This signifies a shift in focus for the Massachusetts-headquartered, publicly traded company. It’s looking to bring more key employees to Southern California to be closer to its customers in the postproduction, broadcast and music industries.

In his new role, Kyle-Hays replaces Jennifer Smith, who parted ways with Avid last spring.