Profile: Owen Ellis, Morgan Stanley

Owen Ellis has just been appointed chairman of client body, AV User Group. He officially takes up the role in January 2010, with a mission to build the 102-strong membership, increase the number of sponsors, and encourage wider participation. But his day job is as investment bank Morgan Stanley’s vice-president, multimedia engineering, EMEA.

He’s been at the investment bank for nearly 10 years, though his career has spanned stints at the Metro Group and Electrosonic.

- What are your main responsibilities?

Morgan Stanley has three main hubs: London, New York and Hong Kong, each with its own qualified engineers dedicated to the av department. I sit on a global multimedia engineering and system design team that is responsible for producing global standards for Morgan Stanley’s facilities, reviewing new technologies, and following up on challenging new client requests. I also oversee all system installations and their maintenance across the EMEA region, which I manage through teams of outsourced engineers, project managers, installers and consultant engagement where it’s required.

- Has your role changed since the credit crunch?

Only in that the focus has changed from new systems implementation to strategic planning and developing new designs and standards in preparation for the next upturn. We’re making what we have work much harder.

- Has the role of av changed in investment banking?

It’s a cliche but true: our technology is merging more closely with IT. Since the multimedia department sits within Morgan Stanley’s corporate services, we’re working much more collaboratively with our IT colleagues than say five years ago. It can be a double-edged sword, but it’s definitely efficient since IT takes care of all our delivery infrastructure.

The other change is a move away from lower-end services and technologies – like portable projectors and tripod screens in meeting rooms. We’ve provided more installed systems and raised the standard of our operations’ technicians to provide a greater level of remote support for our standard facilities. And we’ve provided training for them to better support our higher-end auditoria and the global senior management conferences and open forums that these spaces host.

- What’s the most impressive piece of kit you have used?

For pure technology, telepresence. For services, it has to be the remote room support systems we’ve developed ourselves, building on initial shells from the likes of Crestron.

- What makes you tick?

Obviously the exciting technology we get to work with every day, but it also has to be my work/life balance: I work in the city but home is comparatively country, with a 3,500-gallon pond complete with koi, and a garden that’s home to cats, a rabbit, tortoises, and ducks.