When he was growing up on a farm in northwest Missouri as the youngest of four boys, tending to thousands of hogs and cattle and 2,000 acres of crops, Steve Riley surely could not have envisioned he’d someday be celebrating more than two decades with one of the pro AV industry’s perennially successful companies.
AV seems like acres away from his agricultural upbringing. But even though farm work seems to have little to do with snaking cables, installing TVs and remotely monitoring AV systems once they’re in, Riley does find some transferrable skills between the job he grew up doing on the family farm and the career he’s been in for more than 20 years now.
“I’m not afraid to tear into anything,” says Riley, who in his spare time restored an antique tractor he enters in parades. “My dad taught me how to work, not just to work to be working but to work smart and accomplish things as you go. I’m lucky to also have a great mechanical ability and that works with restoring the tractor and solving problems on the AV side.”
Steve Riley
Years in Industry: 20+
Family: Married since 1998 to Monica; the couple has four children
Hobbies: Grows sweet corn, most of which he gives to friends, family members and co-workers
Opportunities Keep Knocking
He started with work at a structured cabling company out of college at Des Moines Area Community College and Northwest Missouri State University, before finding Minneapolis-based AVI Systems. Riley got his degree in telecommunications and thought he’d work for a phone company, but “this industry intrigued me a lot. There’s a lot of opportunity for upward growth.”
He knows of what he speaks, as evidenced by his move up the AVI corporate ladder since starting there as an entry-level install technician 20 years ago, when he was installing distance-learning classrooms in Iowa for three years alongside the man who now runs AVI, Jeff Stoebner.
From there, Riley moved to Kansas City in 1999 for a stint as a project manager, became a technology services manager in Des Moines in 2000, moved up to regional sales manager in Des Moines in 2002, ran the central engineering group in 2006, became manager of the central engineering group in 2010, was named director of engineering in 2012, before taking his current role in 2013.
Suited for Services Role
As VP of professional services, Riley oversees four groups: central engineering, customer support, digital media and videoconferencing. He expects to be in this role for a while, but never closes the door on a change in responsibilities.
“This is my dream job,” says Riley. “It’s exactly what I wanted, but it’s taken time for the company to need a position like this. I’ve always felt great satisfaction with the next advancement and I’m always surprised when there are new opportunities that present themselves.”
Although Riley never expected to be with AVI for this long, the relationship keeps him happy and fulfilled.
“Every time an opportunity has come up, it’s always been the best opportunity for me,” he says. “I’ve always believed in AVI and the culture of being 100 percent employee-owned. Loyalty is not something you advertise. It’s something you do.”
