Management Team
Junaid Sheikh / Co-founder, President & CEO: Junaid has over 30 years of experience in the professional broadcast industry. Junaid received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1976. He began his career in the video industry as a design engineer at the Audio Video Systems Division of Ampex. He was a member of the project teams that developed the industry’s first commercially available Electronic Still Store system (ESS) and the first commercially available electronic paint system, the Ampex Video Art system, (AVA). In 1981 Junaid moved into marketing and became the product manager for AVA and ADO.
In 1982 he co-founded Abekas Video Systems and served as its vice president of Marketing. In 1988 he co-founded Accom, Incorporated and served as its Chairman, President and CEO till 2005. He also helped co founded Axial Systems in 1990, which was later acquired by Accom. In 2005 he co-founded Abekas, Incorporated and currently serves as its President and CEO.
Phil Bennett / Co-founder, VP Engineering: Phil gradated from Essex University in the United Kingdom and went to work for Quantel in the UK. This was in the early days of digital video; Phil helped develop Video Effects, Still Stores and Standards Conversion equipment for the professional television industry. Later moving over to Ampex Corporation in California, he was a key developer on the very successful "ADO" digital video effects project.
In 1982 he co-founded Abekas Video Systems and as VP Engineering oversaw the development of a wide range of lower cost, high performance products, including the first widely used broadcast digital disk recorders.
He joined Accom Incorporated in 1998, prior to co-founding Abekas Incorporated (again) in 2005.
Douglas Johnson / Chief Product Manager: Douglas has been actively working in the professional broadcast video marketplace for over 26 years, starting with Ampex Corporation in 1981 working as a field support engineer in Los Angeles. In 1984, Douglas moved north to the San Francisco bay area, and helped lead the management of technical support services at the original Abekas in Foster City, California.
Over the next several years, his career at Abekas expanded to product management positions for several products, including digital disk recorders, digital effects systems, and production editing systems. In 1992, Douglas joined Accom as product manager for digital disk recording products, and led the development of several key products at Accom. In 2006, Douglas joined the new Abekas as lead product manager for all new product development.
