Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, 52-year-old Clinton Smith joined Penn Elcom in 2021 as Australian Branch Manager.
Before starting this role, Clinton held numerous high-level roles across companies in both Sydney and Victoria, including National Workforce Solutions Manager for Campbell Page, National Sales Manager for Matric Piping, National Business Development Manager for CVCheck and held roles of Strategic Development Manager, National Retail Business Manager and Norther Regional Manager at Rinnai Australia – a truly impressive CV! Whilst coming from outside of the Professional Audio industry, Clinton shows all of the attributes needed to be successful in this role at Penn Elcom and we are excited to see his progress.
Prior to his roles in sales, development and business, Clinton was a stockbroker for 15 years. His second wife Lyana also has a background as a trader and a financial analyst for Mitsubishi Bank. “Lyana is Indonesian but only made her way to Australia last February after getting the first part of the PR Visa done. It was hard, but it is now so great that we are all together in Australia”.
Clinton is enjoying his new role at Penn Elcom and is already producing some great relationships with customers;
“I’m really loving it! It’s been a huge learning curve and challenge coming from outside the industry, but I’m coping well and enjoying the change. I’ve worked in a number of different industries over my career and enjoy learning new things.
My favourite thing so far has been the people. I’ve had a great deal of support from everyone and really enjoy the comradery and spirit of the organisation.”
Some interesting projects that Clinton has already been involved with in his short time at Penn Elcom include working closely with Theatre Safe Australia (TSA), a first-time customer, to build custom flight cases and cable packers for the entertainment industry.
TSA was pleased with the service and products provided by Clinton and his team. TSA’s Cameron said:
“This is TSA’s first time using Penn Elcom hardware. We have used many of their products in a recent project to build custom flight cases and cable packers. This has included single-angle and hybrid extrusion, ball corners, latches, hinges, handles and braces. We approached Penn Elcom because of their wide range of products, local support, and their reputation as a leading supplier of flight case hardware. We were very satisfied with the Penn Elcom products used during this project and look forward to utilising their services again in the future.”
Another customer that Clinton has been working with is Australian Target Systems who have purchased flight panels to make targets on their firing ranges. Not the usual environment of our case panels, but it goes to show the diversity of Penn Elcom products, and how Clinton and the team in Australia are using strategic thinking and product knowledge to broaden our customer database.
A family man, Clinton enjoys spending time with his 3 children from his previous marriage, Gabrielle, 21, Xavier, 18, and Nate,15. “I also love sport – Aussie Rules, soccer, basketball, baseball… I try and see the Sydney Swans play in Melbourne whenever I get the chance, and I used to play baseball as a kid so enjoy watching the LA Angels. Both my boys play Aussie Rules so I go to watch them on the weekends too.”
But he’s not just a sports fan – Clinton enjoys films, especially Asian cinema. “I’m a sucker for Hong Kong action films of the '80s and '90s, and a good Samurai movie!” as well as reading economic and political works.
When he’s not reading or watching sports or films, Clinton and his wife love to travel “We’re looking forward to going back to Jakarta to see Lyana’s family soon”.
A very warm welcome to Clinton - We are excited to have you as part of the Penn Elcom team!
