During a long career in Latin America, Aaron Yablon, of Israeli origin, has managed to develop an outstanding career in the technology industry, both audiovisual and medical.
Richard Santa
When he was in his fifth grade of elementary school, a friend showed him a primitive radio he built, called Radio Cristal, in which a diode detected the signal. At that time Aaron had an interest in technology and built his own radio, later managing to make a more sophisticated one.
Then, in high school, when television came to Israel, his native country, and televisions cost a fortune, he bought a French television from an immigrant that had another French analog secam standard. After reading several articles, he managed to transform it to the European PAL-B standard that worked in his country.
These are just two anecdotes that demonstrate the passion that Aaron has had since childhood for technology in general and electronics in particular. This passion materialized by performing military service in the Israeli air force as a technician, designing systems on different home and other aircraft, and then with his graduation as an engineer and higher education master's degree in electronics.
In parallel to his first job, he graduated as an electronic engineer and finished a master's degree with a thesis at Tel Aviv University, and some years later he finished at the same university studies in business administration with an emphasis on international marketing at the equivalent level of executive MBA.
After finishing his studies, the company where he worked, the Israel Aircraft Industries (Israel's aeronautical industry), offered him to go on a two-year mission in Ecuador as a representative for naval issues. Thus began his history in Latin America in commercial and managerial positions representing Israeli technology companies, a history that to this day has not ended.
He said in conversation with AVI Latin America that thanks to these different positions he managed to work and lead projects in the vast majority of the countries in the region, so he does not hesitate to affirm that he loves Latin America.
Experience in Latin America
Our Professional of the Month highlighted that the journey in Latin America has been long, with a lot of work and dedication to reach new clients who did not answer emails or phone, so he did an almost espionage job to locate them when he was traveling.
"On some trip to La Paz, in Bolivia I walked in a remote area looking for a company that did not respond to me or to Sao Paulo, in Brazil, I went by taxi to pick up customers at home, only with the direction and help of taxi drivers. So I got to know cities even better than some local customers, at the time when the Waze did not exist. It was a long job and a lot of importance was given to the InfoComm and NAB fairs in the United States, there we made important contacts and gave many seminars in Spanish, "he said.
Aaron recalled that in 2000, through a talent hunting agency, he was appointed as the first director for Latin America of Kramer, a company in which he was for 20 years and which upon his arrival had 4 clients and today totals more than 2000.
"In these happy years with Kramer, I participated in more than 100 exhibitions in different parts of the world, as well as about 200 seminars in the 10 largest countries of South America, 6 of the 7 countries of Central America, in the United States, several of the Caribbeans for the people of Latin America, as well as in countries that were not my territory, as in Europe and Asia. I will carry these 20 years in my heart as the best company in my life and I say it in the most sincere way," he said. During his long experience in our region, Aaron lived in: Ecuador – 2 times, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia.
Technological evolution
Although audiovisual is a dynamic industry with a constant evolution, Aaron stressed that one of the great changes he has experienced in his career is the transition from analog XGA to digital HDMI, as well as from SDI to HD and today to 4K/12G.
"If you ask me what's going to happen in the future, you don't see better technology on the horizon than digital. I think the world is left with digital technology, which has all the advantages, less you need more and more bandwidth. We are in a very interesting world," he said.
Another important change, he said, is that today the audiovisual market is much larger than the television market and even Kramer, which was born as a manufacturer of technology for television, is focused on audiovisual.
Dad and proud grandfather
Aaron ignores Holocaust survivors, which formed his disciplined and demanding character. He declares himself a proud father of three children living in Israel, all graduates of top Israeli universities and with advanced studies. The oldest is an art teacher, another is an administrator and the youngest is general manager of a company that installs charging stations for electric vehicles.
"The most beautiful thing of all, and this is the joy of life, is that I have 8 grandchildren, four men and four women. I am a happy grandfather. My plan for the future is to continue visiting Israel to be with the family."
Due to the economic situation of 2020, Kramer, the company in which Aaron spent the last 20 years, terminated his contract. But he assured to have all the energy, a deep knowledge of the region and to be very happy with what he has achieved, to look for another challenge, either in the audiovisual field, or in the high-tech medical field, where he also has experience, focused on Latin America.
"Doing business in Latin America is a little more difficult than doing business in Japan or the United States, but there are very nice things like the joy of the people, the fact that the whole continent, except Brazil and other small countries, speak the same language - Spanish. The best thing is that I have hundreds of great friends in Latin America who were first customers, bought millions of dollars and I hope they continue to buy," he concluded.
