CEDIA and Icontrol Co-Founder Chris Stevens is Key Exec in Jim Clark’s CommandScape

CEDIA and Icontrol co-founder Chris Stevens is a key executive of CommandScape, the new high-end home-automation and building-control system from Netscape founder Jim Clark. Two ADT alums also involved.

Published: August 23, 2017Julie Jacobson

So it seems CommandScape has some IoT and CEDIA-channel experience in its executive ranks. Chris Stevens, co-founder of Icontrol and the CEDIA, is a key executive of the new high-end home-automation and building-control company launched by Netscape founder Jim Clark.

When we posted the news yesterday about CommandScape's launch, a reader commented:

I can’t imagine that CommandScape wants to get into the installation and support of any aspect of what we do as professionals. Support alone on “bullet proof” solutions in the CEDIA channel is ridiculously expensive. … If they have any other end game in sight, I wish them luck, as I/We know how hard it is to impact this industry, especially if you have never been in it.

So it seems they have been “in it” before, with Stevens on board as VP of distribution.

Stevens was a long-time home-technology integrator as founder of Phoenix Systems in 1976. He and several other dealers launched CEDIA in 1989, and Stevens became the first recipient of the organizations Lifetime Achievement Award.

He went on to serve as president of Harman/Kardon and was a co-founder of Icontrol Networks, one of the first (successful) SHaaS (smart home as a service) companies that recently was acquired by Alarm.com and Comcast. He also spent time leading Cisco's foray into the digital home.

In addition to Stevens, key execs at CommandScape include another ADT alum, Scot Hulshizer, serving as VP customer development. Previously, Hulshizer led the Remote Patient Monitoring business for ADT Health, and prior to that led business development and strategic partnerships for ADT.

CommandScape president and CEO Don Boerema served nearly 20 years at ADT as chief marketing officer, as well as president of the Health Business Unit.

Earlier partners in the venture included Mike Snyder and Dennis Kozlowski, former CEOs of ADT and parent company Tyco, respectively. A CommandScape spokesperson says the former CEOs are not now involved with the company, and they “had minimal impact on the founding of the business.”

CommandScape is not exhibiting next month at CEDIA 2017, the trade show for home-technology integrators. But if they were … you would have heard about them in the upcoming Ultimate CEDIA Preview.