Whereabouts do you hail from and where are you based now?
I grew up in New Rochelle, NY, a suburb of New York City in Westchester County. Despite having travelled the world and visited forty-two US States, and twenty plus countries around the globe, I live not far in a neighbouring city.
How did you get started in the industry?
I worked in the technology industry my whole career, including with Microsoft Corporation for twenty years and then a few stints in the Advertising Technology arena as a CRO. When Samsung called to recruit me for the Display Division, I thought they were talking about Advertising! Lo and behold, I have now been in this role for three quick years!
What advice can you give someone starting out in our wonderful industry?
How bad do you want it? The best people starting out are hungry to learn, roll up their sleeves to do whatever it takes (no task is below you!), and try to be a helpful teammate.
Read, read and read more. Read all about your product or service, read about your industry and other industries. Absorbing the Wall Street Journal every day should be like brushing your teeth.
Lastly, have fun and enjoy life. These “salad days” will be among the most lively and vivid in your career. You will make lifelong friends well beyond your tenure at whatever company you’re at.
How did you fill your time during lockdown? Any new hobbies?
I definitely had a lot of family time, and meals together which were a welcome break from all the travel. I also embarked on building two massive LEGO structures,
The Roman Colosseum in 2021, and the Titanic in 2021. (You can read more and see a stop-motion video of the Colosseum here on my LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leading-managing-through-monotony-lego-colosseum-c-19-harry-patz/.)
What football/rugby/other sports teams do you support?
I live and die with the football fortunes of my beloved alma mater Boston College, for whom I am a season ticket holder. On the professional side, like my dad before me, I all about the New York Mets in baseball and New York Jets in football.
Tell us something about you that may surprise people – don’t hold back!
I detest any kind of condiment: ketchup, mustard, with a special distaste for mayonnaise. I do make an exception for raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing. I don’t drink red wine but like sangria; I don’t drink white wine but love champagne. I read random Wikipedia articles at night. I’m weird.
If you could change just one thing about your life, what would it be?
I feel blessed to have a wonderful life with my wife and two teenage daughters. If I could change anything, it would have been for my parents (who both passed in the past 15 years) to still be around see my daughters grow up.
How did Samsung fare during the Covid-19 pandemic? What plans have you got for the display division as we continue to move forward?
With a compelling product portfolio combined with increased consumer consumption, Samsung was able to weather the storm and outperform overall. The Display Division took a punch to the gut in Q2 2020 when folks could not fully experience some of our key industries in Retail, Hospitality and Sports and Live Events but we rallied to have exceptional years in 2021 and the first half of 2022.
We continue to drive our business forward, including success with wins such as the New York Mets. Going forward, we have all new sorts of product, software and services offerings including Kiosk, EV Charging Stations with Programmatic Advertising and scaling our MagicINFO cloud software. Thanks to my team and our great R&D, I believe we have a very bright future!
