AIA Honors Joseph Christenson with 2010 achievement award.
Press Release Summary:
Joseph Christenson, Director of Finance at Nonin Medical, Inc., was presented with 2010 Automated Imaging Achievement Award at AIA's 18th Annual Business Conference. As top leadership award for machine vision and imaging industry, it honors Christenson's industry leadership and contributions for over two decades. AIA President Jeffrey A. Burnstein said "Joe was one of the industry leaders most responsible for AIA's growth from a handful of members to nearly 300 today."
Original Press Release:
Joseph Christenson Honored with 2010 Automated Imaging Achievement Award
(Ann Arbor, Michigan) Joseph Christenson, Director of Finance at Nonin Medical, Inc., was presented with the 2010 Automated Imaging Achievement Award during a ceremony held today at the Automated Imaging Association's (AIA) 18th Annual Business Conference in Orlando, Florida, USA. This prestigious award is the machine vision and imaging industry's top leadership award.
Joe Christenson was nominated by AIA members and was selected from a talented pool of candidates by its Board of Directors. He is being honored for his industry leadership and outstanding contributions to the machine vision and imaging industry for more than two decades. The award was presented by Michael Cyros, AIA's Chairman and President of Allied Vision Technologies, Inc.
Joe Christenson served for 23 years at PPT Vision, Inc. PPT Vision was an early pioneer in the development and application of machine vision technology for high end manufacturing applications reaching back to the early 1980's. During his tenure at PPT Vision from 1986 through 2008, the company successfully deployed over 5,000 machine vision solutions in the electronics, automotive, medical device, packaging and general manufacturing industry categories worldwide. At PPT Vision, Christenson served most of his tenure as President and CFO. Prior to that post he held a variety of financial management, general management and sales and marketing roles at the company.
Since January of 2009 Christenson has been serving as Director of Finance at Nonin Medical, Inc., a privately held Plymouth, Minnesota based manufacturer of medical devices. In business since 1986, Nonin Medical is a global market leader in the development and application of near infrared spectroscopy technology and advanced signal processing techniques for non-invasively measuring oxygen saturation in blood and tissue. The company's products are accepted as a standard of care by healthcare professionals' worldwide.
Christenson served as a member of the Automated Imaging Association Board of Directors from 1990 through 2008. He was also a member of AIA's parent company, the Automation Technologies Council, Board of Directors from 2001 through 2006. During his tenure on the AIA and ATC Boards, he served one two-year term as Chairman of the AIA Board and one two-year term as Chairman of the ATC Board.
"Joe was one of the industry leaders most responsible for AIA's growth from a handful of members to nearly 300 today," said Jeffrey A. Burnstein, AIA President. "He was a great example of the 'leave your logo at the door' philosophy that has been critical to AIA's success."
Prior to joining PPT Vision, Joe received a BA degree in Economics from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, an MBA with a concentration in Finance and Marketing from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and worked for three years in commercial banking.
The annual award, sponsored by the AIA, honors one industry leader for outstanding contributions in promoting market acceptance of industrial and/or scientific imaging. Among the past winners are industry leaders such as Toshi Hori, GEViCAM; Don Cochran, Pressco Technology Inc.; David Dechow, Aptúra Machine Vision Solutions; the late Dr. Steven Case, CyberOptics Corporation; Dr.-Ing. Norbert Stein, VITRONICS; Dr. Savvas Chamberlain, DALSA Corporation; Perry West, Automated Vision Systems, Inc.; Amir Novini, Applied Vision Company; Nello Zuech, Vision Systems International; Dwight Carlson, Perceptron; Dr. Robert Shillman, Cognex Corporation; Ken Levy, KLA-Tencor; Pat Costa, RVSI, Inc.; and the late Stan Karandanis, Datacube.
The award is presented each year at the AIA's Business Conference, a members-only event that brings key industry executives together for two and a half days of networking, important machine vision business discussions and presentations that explore emerging markets and new technologies.
About AIA
Founded in 1984, AIA was organized specifically to promote the understanding and use of image capture and analysis technology and is now the world's largest machine vision trade group representing nearly 300 member companies from 30 nations. Members include leading suppliers of complete vision systems, vision components, system integrators, end users, OEMs, consulting firms, and research groups.
AIA is best known for its annual Machine Vision Markets Study; The Vision Show and Conference (May 25 - 27, 2010 in Boston, Massachusetts USA); The International Robots, Vision & Motion Control Show and Conference (March 21-24, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois USA); the annual AIA Business Conference; and Machine Vision Online (www.MachineVisionOnline.org), the world's leading resource for machine vision information on the internet.
