President, Christie Digital Systems, Inc.
Chairman and CEO, Christie Digital Systems, USA, Inc. and Christie Digital Systems Canada, Inc.

Hideaki Onishi is president of the Christie^® holding company, Christie Digital Systems, Inc., and chairman and CEO of Christie Digital Systems, USA, Inc and Christie Digital Systems Canada, Inc. He has more than 30 years of management experience in various positions within the Ushio, Inc. group.

Hideaki began working for Ushio in 1989. Known for a strong aptitude in sales, he has also continued to demonstrate impressive management skills throughout his career. He has a broad and extensive range of experience in various roles, having worked at Ushio Lighting, Taiwan Ushio Lighting, Adtech Engineering, Ushio Asia Pacific (Singapore), Vietnam, Thailand, and Ushio Europe. Among many highlights, Hideaki was entrusted with guiding the manufacture and sales of the printed circuit board (PCB) exposure machines that Ushio acquired in their 2012 acquisition of ADTEC Engineering. The next five years saw the business reach a position of strength, which culminated in his appointment as president of Ushio Asia Pacific in 2016. Hideaki joins Christie in 2022 from his previous role as president of Ushio Europe.

President and CTO

Zoran has almost 30 years of global AV industry experience. His range of business and technical roles span the worlds of engineering, product quality, strategic business unit management, sales, and product management. He brings a customer-centric approach to business that contributes to Christie’s reputation for delivering quality, award-winning products and solutions that are backed by an unprecedented level of customer support.

As president and CTO, Zoran is responsible for Christie’s strategic product line direction and managing the development of new products and system solutions by adopting core technologies for a rapidly changing global marketplace.

Zoran has a bachelor of applied sciences in computers and automation and an MBA. He holds a professional engineering designation from Professional Engineers Ontario and a certificate in system engineering from Marconi College in Chelmsford, England.

Chief financial officer

As CFO, Mike Phipps is responsible for Christie’s global financial operations and consolidated financial reporting. His responsibilities include accounting operations, financial planning, and sales support functions such as contract administration and revenue recognition.

Mike joined Christie in 2008 as an assistant controller and has since held roles as VP, finance, USA controller, and corporate controller.

Prior to joining Christie, Mike worked at the Sara Lee Corporation as a plant financial manager and Hayes Lemmerz International as a plant controller. Mike holds a BA in finance from Michigan State University and is a Certified Public Accountant in California.

Chief information & marketing officer

With more than 35 years in the movie exhibition industry, David’s held positions in information technology, operations, and marketing. David’s career revolves around customer experience and innovative uses of technology.

David joined Christie in December of 2018. Prior to Christie, David worked at Regal Entertainment Group for 16 years, where he held positions as VP, IT business planning, and chief information officer.

Prior to Regal, David was executive director and VP, sales and marketing, at a world-leading syndicator of movie and cinema information.

David started his career at Mann Theatres, where he worked his way up from usher to general manager, having managed some of the most prominent cinemas in Colorado and California.

Executive vice president, cinema

With more than 30 years of experience, cinema is in Brian Claypool’s DNA. As EVP, cinema, Brian leads a team of experienced innovators, marketers, and customer relations specialists who work to meet the evolving needs of filmmakers, production houses, and exhibitors worldwide. Brian champions Christie’s ongoing mission to create the products and services that allow global audiences to enjoy the best-possible cinematic experiences.

Since Brian’s first job as a projectionist in Ohio, he’s worked in exhibition, production, and post-production with companies such as Lucasfilm Ltd.’s THX division, at radio and television stations, for Avica Technology, and more. Brian’s served on the board of governors of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and is an active member of the International Cinema Technology Association and Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, and contributes to the European Digital Cinema Forum and China Digital Cinema Forum.

Brian speaks at global trade shows and events and works closely with leading directors and technologists in the industry who, together with Christie, continue to push the boundaries of the cinematic experience. He’s also a regular contributor to respected industry publications.

Executive Vice President, Enterprise

Michael’s incredible 30+ years of AV industry experience started in the UK at a rental staging company that supplied the West End theatres in London. After moving into a business development role, he moved back to Australia and worked as a general manager with Staging Connections in Brisbane. His next move? Creating his own design visualization solutions company, VR Solutions Pty Ltd. (VRS), which grew to include offices in Australia, India, and Malaysia. When Christie acquired VRS in 2013, Michael managed the Christie Australia office and served as head of Asia Pacific sales for the enterprise division.

With significant experience that spans rental staging, theme park and visitor attractions, control rooms, and product distribution markets, Michael is well-positioned in his role as EVP, enterprise. In this role, Michael leads a division that creates innovative AV solutions for many customer markets, from control rooms, government solutions, and education, to rental and staging, museums, giant screens and planetariums, and more.

Executive vice president, professional services

Sean James is responsible for Christie's global professional services (GPS) division. Prior to this role, Sean led the global enterprise/ProAV team.

GPS is a solutions-focused team that supports Christie’s clients with project architecture, technology and software selection, interactive programming as well as installation and post-launch support. The GPS team provides these services for a variety of applications including ProAV, simulation, visualization, digital signage, and many others.

In 2005, Sean helped develop and deploy the world’s first digital cinema rollout of nearly 4,000 screens across the United States. He also led the development of Christie’s first NOC (network operations center) in 2002, its successor in 2009, and additional NOCs in Asia Pacific.

Sean joined Christie in 1997 and was instrumental in developing support programs and relationships with many leading Hollywood studios as they transitioned to digital cinema. He successfully won and developed one of Christie’s first major service and network operations contracts.

Sean plays a key role in driving Christie’s expansion in the AV industry. His insights into Christie’s goals and vision have been crucial in enhancing Christie’s reputation as a global leader in digital services and systems integration.

Executive vice president, ventures

As EVP, ventures, Clark Williams is responsible for all engineering and product management resources for Christie’s content management and processing products—including Christie Spyder, Phoenix^®​, and Pandoras Box^®.

Building on the success of Christie’s content management and image processing portfolios, Clark’s team accelerates the number and range of customer applications in this area and meets the growing need for unified, application-specific solutions.

Clark started Vista Systems, Corp., in 1996 in Phoenix, Arizona when he realized there was a huge demand for the hardware tools he developed as part of his technical consulting business.

In July 2007, Clark became VP, windowing and compositing solutions, after Christie acquired his company, Vista System, Corp. This acquisition allowed him to focus on high-end image processing products while taking advantage of Christie’s sales strength and global footprint. In October 2016, following a successful consulting period, he re-joined Christie as EVP, content management and processing.

Executive vice president, business development, Echo

A renowned AV-over-IP thought leader, Max brings over 35 years of experience in electro-optics, electronics, and information technology to Christie. As a product manager at Christie in the early 2000s, he led the development of Christie Network Solutions (ChristieNET™). Since then, Max has held successive industry roles in leadership and market development at Barco, Kramer, Legrand AV, and AMX. He’s also worked as a sales engineer at Proxima, and manager of training and consultant relations for both Proxima and InFocus.

Christie also worked with Max and his independent company, gravitation TECHnologies. Max has served as a senior academy faculty member for AVIXA University for more than 17 years and was awarded Educator of the Year in 2010. Max is the author of two books geared toward the AV/IT industry that focus on sales and training (The Art and Science of Da Vinci Sales and The Art and Science of Tesla Teaching).

Max returns to Christie as EVP, business development, Echo. His role focuses on Echo technology and platform development and works in sync with Clark Williams, EVP, ventures.

Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary, Christie Group Companies

​Robert Ranucci brings almost 30 years of experience to his role as Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of the Christie Group of Companies​. In this role, Robert is responsible for all legal matters affecting the Christie Group of Companies and oversees​ Christie’s team of attorneys and legal specialists.

Before joining Christie in December of 2014, Robert gained more than 14 years of experience in the lighting and display industry, with tenure as the Vice President, General Counsel at VIZIO, ViewSonic, General Displays & Technologies (a GE joint venture), as well as Senior Director of Licensing and Business Development for the LED lighting and display technology division of Rambus. In addition to his corporate and litigation background, Robert is experienced in leveraging innovative supply chain, customer channel and licensing arrangements to solve complex challenges and drive successful outcomes.

Robert is a faculty member on the Advanced Licensing Agreements program offered by Practising Law Institute. Robert received his Bachelor’s degree in Economics at Claremont McKenna College and earned his Master of Arts, Economics and Juris Doctorate from the University of Southern California. He is a member of the Bar in California and Ari​zona.

Executive vice president, global human resources

Brian Gifford is EVP, global human resources. Brian's career spans more than 40 years, with much of that in the oilfield services industry, leading the global HR function with companies such as Lufkin Industries, Schlumberger, and Ensco International. Prior to Christie, Brian was SVP of human resources at Signode Industrial Group.

His expertise knows no borders, as he has lived and worked worldwide, including in the Americas, South and East Asia, and Canada. Being a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, Brian has worked, lived, and traveled extensively in Canada, the US, and internationally. Brian is a graduate of the University of Windsor, where he received a BA in psychology. He studied at the Levinson Institute and is a strong proponent of accountability management.​​

President, Nationwide Video

Bret Tracey is president of Nationwide Video (Nationwide) and is responsible for directing wholesale subrental sales and operations in North America. Nationwide is a leader in creative, alternative video equipment rental solutions for the ProAV industry, from time-saving gear casing solutions to freight-free shipping.

Acquired in 2003, Nationwide now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Christie. Nationwide operates in Canada and the U.S. and provides rental equipment, 24/7/365 customer and technical support, and technical training to AV staging professionals.

Bret joined Nationwide in 1999, as the director of sales, marketing, and business development, became VP in 2003, and was promoted to president in 2009. Bret has seen Nationwide grow from a two-man operation in a 1,200ft2 office to a 40-employee organization with six offices across the U.S. His detailed attention to operational improvements, staff growth, and improved inventorying have seen Nationwide revenues increase by at least 30% year over year.

Bret graduated with honors and distinction, Honorable Discharge Hospital Corps., U.S. Navy (Naval School Health Sciences), and attended Ferris State University in Michigan.