Fountain Valley-based networking equipment maker D-Link Systems Inc. has hired a veteran of the consumer electronics segment of the tech industry for its top position in North America.
Dennis Walthers, who quietly took the president’s post in October, has been meeting with customers and distributors in his first few months on the job, commuting from his home in the Dallas area until he gets settled in Orange County.
“My heritage is all consumer marketing and consumer sales,” said Walthers, who counts stints at Dell Inc. in Round Rock, Texas, and Linksys LLC, the consumer electronics arm of San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc., on his resume.
D-Link employs more than 200 in Fountain Valley. Its Taiwan-based parent, D-Link Corp., has about $1 billion in annual revenue but doesn’t break down sales for its subsidiary here.
The company makes routers, other networking gear and surveillance cameras, with sales split about evenly between the business-to-business and consumer segments.
The Business Journal caught up with Walther last week at the company’s ballroom suite at the Venetian Resort Casino, where it introduced new routers and surveillance cameras at the 2013 International Consumer and Electronics Show in Las Vegas (see related story on Vizio, page 1; photos, page 4).
Walthers replaced interim president A.J. Wang, the company’s chief technology officer.
Wang took the helm a little more than a year ago after Nick Tidd abruptly resigned amid disagreements with senior executives at D-Link’s parent company, observers said at the time.
D-Link Systems Associate Vice President Dan Kelley told the Business Journal that Tidd’s exit was a mutual decision.
Tidd arrived at D-Link from Marlborough, Mass.-based 3Com Corp. in 2009. He started as vice president of marketing for North America and vice president of sales for Pan-American operations, and was promoted to president in early 2010.
Tidd’s experience largely centered on business-to-business sales, which reflected his experience at 3Com.
Walther’s hire indicates an emphasis on the consumer side could be shaping up.
