We’d like to announce that Tom Peckham is retiring after 40 amazing years with AVFX. Sarah Hearn is stepping into the managing director role in Boston. As he departs, we want to take a moment to honor Tom’s many contributions to our company and to the industry.Tom started at AVFX (originally Media 1) in 1982. The company’s third employee, he programmed slideshows using anywhere from 2 to 30 projectors. He then delivered video systems and audio equipment for client meetings in a Dodge Caravan.
As technology shifted from slide and 16 mm film to video, he began to split his time between programming slideshows and staging events. AVFX was an early adopter of video technology and video wall technology, and Tom also programmed the company’s first video wall system, which used 28” CRT monitors for displays. He’s grateful for the many opportunities he had to work across the country and worldwide.
Throughout his career, Tom has worked in every type of meeting space imaginable – ballrooms, cafeterias, theaters, libraries, museums, fields, tents, airplane hangars, private homes, corporations, and college campuses. He has worked with former U.S. presidents and world leaders, scientists and medical pioneers, artists and musicians, professional athletes and actors, and nonprofit organizations working to make our world a better place.
The stories he has to share are awe-inspiring. Be sure to ask him about hearing the Dalai Lama, Colin Powell, and Red Auerbach speak. And about a tense Russian Embassy event guarded by men with automatic weapons. And the outdoor funeral service he planned for MIT police officer Sean Collier after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, an event attended by 10,000+ police officers, politicians, celebrities, and a team of sharpshooters atop the surrounding buildings.
Tom, AVFX founder Murray Lapides, and our entire team are responsible for AVFX’s growth over the years. Clients recognized that our caring, dedicated, and driven team is interested in innovating and creating exceptional experiences. Clients learned firsthand that our smart, tech-savvy, creative team is collaborative by nature and genuinely interested and invested in their success.
From the start, Tom has ensured all of us at AVFX never forget that we’re in the service industry. He has always emphasized that we’re problem solvers who don’t do anything halfway. “We help people communicate,” he says. “It’s our job to ask our clients what they hope to achieve and what they want their audience to feel. It’s also our job to listen. On the day of our client’s event, that event is the most important event in the world.”
Tom’s forty-year career at AVFX is definitely one for the books. As he notes, “When you’re doing work you enjoy with people you admire,” he says, “the time flies by.” While all of us at AVFX will miss Tom greatly, his influence and inspiration will live on.