The Commercial Team

People Who Know
This Industry

Our commercial team brings together more than a century of combined experience in professional AV. From consultative sales to technical specification, they are here to support integrators at every stage of every project.

Timmi Thorsen, Commercial Sales Director at Habitech Pro
Commercial Sales Director

Timmi Thorsen

Timmi Thorsen brings 25 years of AV experience to his role, underpinned by a career that began where few others do: in the technical infrastructure of smart buildings. In the early stages of his career, he programmed lighting control systems across C-Bus, Lutron, and KNX platforms, and worked with building management systems built on ABB and Siemens architectures. That foundation gave him an instinct for integration that distinguishes him from specialists who arrived at AV from a single discipline.

Running his own AV company deepened both his passion for audio and his commercial acumen, bringing the kind of operational perspective that only comes from building a business from the ground up. It was during this period that Timmi became an early adopter of Dante audio networking, helping to pioneer its adoption at a time when networked audio was still largely uncharted territory. That early investment in understanding how audio and IP infrastructure converge has since become one of the defining competencies of modern AV design.

Holding a degree in Project Management, Timmi has been a cornerstone of the Habitech team for 18 years. He combines deep technical fluency with the discipline to take complex, multi-disciplinary projects from concept to completion, specifying and designing AV solutions across audio, control, and signal distribution with the confidence of someone who has built these systems himself.

Chris Southern, Commercial Business Development Manager at Habitech Pro
Commercial Business Development Manager

Chris Southern

Chris Southern brings over 30 years of experience in technology to his role, with more than two decades focused specifically on AV. What sets Chris apart is the breadth of his industry perspective: he has worked across all three levels of the AV channel, from manufacturer and vendor side with Sony, through distribution with Steljes, Sahara, Midwich, and Habitech, to the integration channel with Accurate AV and Roche AV. That full-spectrum experience gives him a genuinely rounded understanding of customer needs and pain points that few individuals can claim.

His technical knowledge spans the AV landscape in its entirety, allowing him to engage with complete systems rather than component parts. Over the course of his career, Chris has developed a particular specialism in interactive displays and meeting room technology, from huddle spaces through to large-scale auditoriums, across both commercial and education verticals.

For Chris, AV is more than a profession: it is an industry defined by constantly evolving technology and, above all, by the quality of the people within it.

Mani Kalidas, Commercial Business Development Manager at Habitech Pro
Commercial Business Development Manager

Mani Kalidas

Mani Kalidas has over three decades of experience in technology and AV, spanning a career that has placed him at the centre of the industry's most significant transformations. Beginning in the late 1990s at Pinacl Communications, he has witnessed the evolution of the sector from satellite systems and overhead projectors through to today's intelligent, networked AV ecosystems, including platforms such as Fluid One.

Throughout his career, Mani has worked across the full sales and integration chain, encompassing end-user engagement, ProAV integration, distribution, manufacturing, and consultancy. That breadth of experience gives him a rare, end-to-end understanding of how AV solutions are conceived, specified, delivered, and supported, and it informs every client conversation he brings to the Habitech commercial team.

Matt Short, Commercial Business Development Manager at Habitech Pro
Commercial Business Development Manager

Matt Short

Matt Short brings almost three decades in the technology sector to his role, with a career that spans both IT and AV. After ten years working in IT, he transitioned into the AV world some 20 years ago and has since built an extensive body of experience working with distributors and manufacturers, including over 16 years on the manufacturer side.

His work has encompassed audio and video distribution, live and on-demand content creation, and streaming, with a particular focus on the higher education sector. Notable roles include Regional Manager for UK, Ireland, and the Nordics at Sonic Foundry, and Senior Business Development Manager for Education across EMEA at Harman Professional. Throughout his time at Harman, Matt worked closely with the marketing team and participated in a number of company-wide initiatives, including management groups and internal coaching programmes.

Matt now brings that wealth of manufacturer-side expertise to the Habitech commercial team, where he works with integrators across the UK to promote the Habitech brand portfolio as part of the company's expanding commercial division.

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