Mr. Billstin began his career in the hardware technology industry with Precision Digital Images (PDI), a manufacturer of high-end image capture hardware, where he was quickly promoted to Manager of Customer and Technical support. As manager of the support teams, he was responsible for identifying potential add on sales opportunities and decreasing the support wait time from days to less than 20 minutes.
In 1996, Mr. Billstin was recruited by Appian Graphics to focus on enterprise sales, where he won numerous accounts with fortune 500 companies, including JP Morgan, Chase Manhattan, Paine Webber, Morgan Stanley, and ABN AMRO. Appian Graphics was then able to leverage these wins further into OEM offerings by IBM, Dell, and HP.
In late 1999, Trikinetic Technologies recruited Mr. Billstin as their VP of Sales and Marketing. During his tenure, he achieved month over month profitability through the execution of exclusive marketing and distribution agreements with Cybercore (acquired by Charles Schwab), Data Translation News – DTN (acquired by Financial Times), and Equis (acquired by Reuters), in addition to establishing a distribution channel for the market focused hardware.
In 2001, Mr. Billstin was re-recruited by Appian Graphics, where he ultimately assumed the position of Director of International and North American Sales. The team implemented a major distribution strategy throughout the US in addition to successfully expanding distribution through Europe and Asia. When Appian Graphics was acquired in 2005 by Colorgraphic Communications, Mr. Billstin was promoted to Acting Vice President of Sales where he then transitioned the company from a direct sales model to a distribution and channel model. Because of the successful transition, sales doubled within two months and continued to increase 15% every month thereafter.
Mr. Billstin graduated from Central Washington University with a B.S in Business Administration, emphasis on Marketing. Hobbies include spending time with his wife and son, skiing, boating, and bicycling.
