Meet the Experts Behind Cloud 9 AV Inc.

Jeff founded Cloud 9 AV after years of working in IT outsourcing and telecommunications. His vision was to help clients with the growing complexity of technology in their every day lives. The “integration” industry was in a transformation from an analog to digital world and he wanted to lead the industry in solutions that made our lives easier, safer and more enjoyable.

Jeff spends his time with clients designing solutions and ensuring they fit within the visions of the architects and designers we work with daily to create beautiful and functional living spaces.

When he’s not working, you may find him exploring mountain bike trails with his trail dog, DOT who can also be found at the office most days. Jeff is a PMBIA certified mountain bike instructor who teaches adults in the Don Valley trails.

Fun fact: Jeff is not his real name. It is short for JF. Jean-Francois was born in Quebec City but his family moved to Ontario in the early 80s and he has been living and working in Downtown Toronto since 1995.

A self-proclaimed “details guy”, Kevin spends a lot of his time working with spreadsheets and managing the company finances. Following a 16-year career as a visual effects artist in the world of post-production, where he worked on hundreds of television commercials and films, Kevin joined Cloud 9 AV in 2011.

He started out as an assistant installer and, in the 13 years since, has spent at least a little bit of time dabbling in every position imaginable within the company. Kevin considers the growth of the company, the people he has worked with and watching a project come together from inception to completion, to be the most rewarding elements of his tenure with Cloud 9.

In his spare time, Kevin loves to cook and play or watch sports, particularly; hockey, baseball, cycling and golf and he enjoys nothing more than spending time at his Bancroft cottage with his wife, Barb, daughter, Grace and Lilly the dog.

Fun fact: Kevin has seen Bruce Springsteen live in concert more than 35 times (so far)

Matthew is a seasoned engineer with extensive experience in the smart home industry. He successfully led his own company from 2005 until its sale in 2018. In 2022, Matthew joined the Cloud 9 AV family, seeking to deliver innovative, streamlined solutions for large-scale projects.

Before venturing into the smart home sector, Matthew served as the founder and CFO of a successful internet content management business.

His passion for the tech industry is rooted in his love for music and film. When not immersed in movies or enjoying music at an exuberant volume, Matthew relishes travelling with his family, cooking and doing community work.

Fun Fact: Before getting into the tech sector, Matthew was a school teacher with a collection of over 700 DVDs. It was evident in 2003 that he would end up in the smart home industry after he was featured on the cover of the New York Times. ”You can really enjoy the impact of an action film on DVD, especially with a large screen and a powerful set of speakers,” Mr. Grossman said. ”And, you might want to watch it more than once. With a romantic comedy or something, you watch it and laugh and never look at it again.”

David has been in the technology business for 23 years. It started out as a hobby in the evenings and on weekends for 10 years before it became a full-time, all-the-time professional endeavour.

He started out in retail, selling TV’s on September 11, 2001 – perhaps the most watched TV day in history.

Dave says that the best part of his job is finding solutions to problems that others determined to be “impossible” and then being called a genius for it.

Our gentle-giant loves his football – NFL not CFL, watching F1 racing, and is a self-proclaimed VERY SUCCESSFUL Crypto investor. He is also a cat-dad to 2 fur-babies and a human-dad to a teenage girl and a pre-teen boy.

Fun fact: Dave is the undefeated Chicken-Wing Eating King of Toronto. He once defeated 6 other men by eating 102 meaty chicken wings for breakfast on a radio show in 2000. The guy who finished second only ate 60!!

After starting his career working in aerospace with Bombardier and several of it’s east Asian partners, Jay eventually found his way to Lighting Design and A/V / Automation sales. After 12 years in the lighting business and 5 years in the A/V business, he says that it is not about what you know, but who you know.

Jay loves his current role of helping clients figure out how they want their lighting to look and feel and supporting their visions for a smart home and a great living experience. Hearing from customers that their lighting and automation turned out better than they had expected is the most gratifying part of his job.

Away from the grind, Jay lists his three main passions as pickleball, downhill skiing and travelling with his family.

Jay has been happily married for 18 years and he and his wife have two daughters. The eldest is pursuing a business degree at the University of Western Ontario and their youngest is completing her high school education with her sights set on medicine. Their family is rounded out by Seamus who is an 85 pound Bernadoodle and he is a big loveable, goofy boy!

Fun fact: Jay is fluent in Japanese after having lived there for 6 ½ years

Bryan has been working in AV business for 19 years. He started out as a junior system designer in 2005.

In the time since then, Bryan has spent time designing, installing and programming. In 2020, he joined the team at Cloud 9 where he has handled system design and estimating duties.

When asked what the most rewarding part of his job is, Bryan replied that he loves any free food, tools, t-shirts or paraphernalia from suppliers and employee discounts on equipment. Oh, he also appreciates seeing jobs from the drawing board, through the quoting stage to the actual finished product.

Bryan considers himself to be a foodie who is into retro gaming and he loves tinkering with technology related to home automation and entertainment.
Bryan is married with two beautiful children and their cuddly puppy named, Fluffy.

Fun fact: Not only is Bryan a fast eater who can down a plate of hakka chicken in less than 90 seconds, he also thinks he can challenge Dave for the Chicken-Wing Eating King title.

Having been in the AV industry for more than 15 years, Dan previously had an electronic engineering background with experience in industrial and consumer electronics, research, programming, installation and project management. On top of all of that, Dan has a degree in economics.

On the job, Dan finds it rewarding when customers are happy with his work and he also finds great satisfaction in successfully trouble-shooting difficult technical issues.

When he is not on the job, Dan enjoys running in the mornings, listening to classical music, repairing things, and is a nature lover who can’t wait for his next hike in the mountains or trip to a remote beach where he can bask in the sun. He also loves his evening walks with his wife and dog and he is extremely proud of his daughter’s career achievements.

Fun fact: Dan finds himself to be quite funny (sometimes)

Prior to her 20 years of bookkeeping in Canada, Helen was an accountant in the Ukraine and Israel.

She says that being a bookkeeper allows her to make the most of her curiosity and problem-solving skills. These skills are put to the test regularly when she finds herself having to dig deep into financial and banking reports to get to the bottom of any issues and discrepancies.

Helen enjoys cooking and trying new dishes from Instagram. She is Mom to two “somewhat pleasant” kids and a grandmother to one “amazing” child.

Fun fact: Helen has been known to surprise her Cloud 9 colleagues with homemade movie/video montage on their milestone birthdays.

John joined the Cloud 9 team in 2020 as the manager of our warehouse. His previous work was in sales support and purchasing in the IT field. He enjoys learning about all of the upcoming AV projects and the products required and he also loves working with all of his “awesome co-workers.”

John has been married for 19 years and he and his wife have two boys – one is in university and the other is in high school. When he is not spending time with the boys or walking through the neighbourhood with the family, John can be found riding the open roads on his motorbike.

A true veteran of the AV industry, Matthew started his career in 1989. In the early days, he started out as a lighting control programmer with Lite Touch, X10, PHAST, AMX and Lutron Homeworks on DOS. Matthew has also had experience with PBX setup, programming and has done system design and consulting work. He studied computer engineering at Seneca and also worked for Celestica and IBM and claims to have been all around the world installing and solving problems one at a time.

With all of these years of experience, Matthew says that he still enjoys the different challenges presented by new and old project. He never gets tired of seeing customer satisfaction after solving difficult problems.

Mr. Wong lists his hobbies as; choir, volleyball and eating ice-cream and fried chicken.

Fun fact: Matthew speaks Chinese and English and he usually spends Victoria Day weekend in Algonquin Park with the family.

Growing up as a 3rd generation hardwood flooring professional and working in high-end homes for 13 years, Derek developed more passion for the technology which was going into these homes than the floors. In 2012 he did his CEDIA training to become a certified technician and started to gain more experience working on high-end residential and commercial projects throughout Ontario. In 2015, Derek joined Cloud 9 AV and rapidly became a key member of the team. While not only being a magician in the field, Derek also designs all of our lighting, shade and control projects. He finds great satisfaction following a project from the initial conception/design through to the completed system and seeing the excitement of our customers when the new systems are revealed.

When Derek isn’t busy pleasing customers, he loves spending time with friends and family, skiing, snowboarding, cottaging and travelling the world.

Fun fact: As a young man, Derek trained to be a pilot and took his first solo flight before he could legally drive a car solo!

Preston joined Cloud 9 AV during COVID. He loves tools and technology and has recently received his CEDIA certified Cabling Infrastructure Technician. His collection of tools follow him into every job, and we might need an extra vehicle soon just for the tools he might need.

When working on projects, Preston enjoys finding solutions to problems in every step of the process. Whether running cables, installing equipment or AV networking, he finds it very satisfying when everything starts to come together. Preston also loves to learn new solutions from his peers.

Away from work, Preston is a performing and recording musician who loves music and sharpening knives. He insists that a sharp knife makes kitchen prep fun.

Preston and his wife are the proud parents of a baby girl who also loves music and fruit smoothies. Dad’s dream is for his baby girl to become a chef, a bass player in a band or an AV tech.

Fun fact: Preston used to be a wedding videographer, has a degree in Behavioural Psychology, and all of his strength comes from the length of his hair. Without it, he is powerless.

Prior to joining Cloud 9 AV 2 years ago as the master schedule juggler, Michael worked in construction for 10 years – first on the tools and then in an office position.

The thing Michael has found most rewarding about his role with Cloud 9 has been the ability to work on such unique projects and being able to work on challenging tasks with such a great team.

In the office, Michael likes to keep it light and can be counted on for some entertaining commentary and dialogue – usually with Bryan.

In his down time, Michael loves live music, travel and the outdoors.

Fun fact: Michael owns 10 different pairs of sneakers. 5 Nike, 3 Adidas, and 2 Converse.

In his 15 years of working in the Smart Home space, Yama has worked on both residential and commercial projects in various roles. He started as an office manager and this is where he fell in love with the industry. From office manager, he moved into the field as a technician and worked his way up to become a senior technician where he was responsible for managing projects from start to finish.

Prior to moving to Canada, Yama studied International Relations at the Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus, and then continued his studies at Seneca College in Toronto, where he earned a diploma in International Business.

Yama takes great pleasure from integrating electronics into our client’s everyday lives by providing reliable and easy to use systems which enhance their experience in entertainment, security, comfort, energy efficiency and convenience. He says that the most rewarding part of his job comes from the amazing feedback he receives from customers due to the “wow” factor we add to their spaces.

Aside from technology, Yama’s passion is the outdoors and in his free time he can be found up north portaging and connecting with nature.

Fun fact: Yama was born in Afghanistan and has lived in 6 different countries in his lifetime.