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Technology -
Diversified electronics,
Telecommunication, Medical
products, Military
solutions, Power
electronics
About Digital Power Corporation
(NYSE Amex: DPW)
41324 Christy Street,
Fremont, CA 94538-3158
Phone: 510-657-2635
www.digipwr.com
Company
Profile:
Headquartered in
Fremont, Calif., Digital Power Corporation
(NYSE/Amex: DPW) designs, manufactures and sells high-grade customized and
off-the-shelf power system solutions. Its products are in use in the most
demanding telecom, industrial, medical and military applications. The
efficiency and flexible platforms achieved in its products' small package
sizes emphasize the company's commitment to a reduced environmental
footprint.
 Amos
Kohn
President and CEO
Amos Kohn
has served as a member of the Digital Power board of directors since 2003
and was appointed president and chief executive officer in June, 2008. Mr.
Kohn is a seasoned executive manager with more than 20 years experience in
convergence technology development, business management, corporate
operations, and product management. He has an extensive background in
diverse industries, including telecommunications, cable television,
broadband and broadcast platform solutions.
His background includes
serving as the President of TechLead, a company specializing in professional
services and consulting services to telecommunications, cable television,
broadcast and wireless industries (since 2003); Vice President of Business
Development at Scopus Video Networks, Inc., a Princeton, New Jersey company
that develops, markets and supports digital video networking products (2006
through 2007); Senior Vice President of Solutions Engineering at ICTV Inc.,
a leading provider of network-based streaming media technology solutions for
digital video and web-driven programming, located in Los Gatos, California
(2003 through 2006); Chief Architect at Liberate Technologies, a leading
company in the area of developing a full range of digital media processing
for telecommunications and cable television operators, located in San
Carlos, California (2000 through 2003); and Executive Vice President of
Engineering and Technology at Golden Channel, the largest cable television
multiple-systems operator (MSO) in Israel, where he had executive
responsibility for developing and implementing the entire nationwide cable
TV system (1989 through 2000).
Mr. Kohn holds a degree in
Electrical and Electronics engineering and is named as an inventor of
several United States and international patents.
Interview
conducted by Lynn Fosse, senior editor, CEOCFOinterviews.com, Published -
March 18, 2011
CEOCFO:
Mr. Kohn, how has Digital Power changed under your leadership?
Mr. Kohn: I managed the strategic
realignment of products from standard lines to custom solutions for vertical
markets. Additionally, we transformed our corporate culture from an emphasis
on products to a focus on product solutions. We identified and penetrated
new niche markets, created loyalty with new strategic customers and
revitalized existing accounts by providing unique cutting-edge solutions and
immediate support. We also improved operations and instituted efficient
management tools in all functional areas.
CEOCFO:
Would you tell us about your technology?
Mr. Kohn:
We develop products with extremely flexible architectures, enabling rapid
modifications to meet unique customer requirements for non-standard input
and output configurations. We are a market leader in developing and
supplying high density power systems to meet growing demand for more
functionality in smaller packages. Our high efficiency power systems are
designed to conserve energy and increase system-level reliability. Our
innovative designs use the most advanced resonant topologies and power
commercial, medical and military applications. Our power systems support a
power range of 50 W to 25 KW. We develop a broad range of rugged military
product solutions that can operate and survive in harsh environments and
that use specific product modifications or full custom design. These product
solutions are designed to withstand combat environments and support mission
critical operational requirements.
Examples of applications that use our products in our various markets
include, in the commercial market, routers, servers, fiber optic networks,
scientific equipment; in the medical market, imaging, oxygen concentrators,
endoscopy, surgical equipment; and in the military market, naval, airborne,
land based communication, missiles.
CEOCFO:
What is the competitive landscape; what is the marketplace in general for
what you provide?
Mr. Kohn:
There are many companies that provide power systems, and some are better
known than others. However, we are focusing on advanced power solutions that
use cutting-edge technology implemented in custom or other solutions. These
solutions are based on our high-grade, featured-rich products and fit well
in niche markets or mission critical application. Our strategy is to compete
on quality features and technology, not necessarily on high-volume, low-cost
products.
We provide some of the most
dense and efficient products that are available today for commercial
applications. We generate more power and waste less energy while switching
power than other market players. In addition, some of our products are
designed to meet tough specifications that many other power supply companies
just cannot support. Some of our competitors that focus on high volume do
not approach the unique opportunities for which our technology know-how and
size provides an advantage.
CEOCFO:
Is it all custom solutions or is it a combination?
Mr. Kohn:
Our products line split as follows: standard (off-the-shelf),
modified-standard and custom.
CEOCFO:
Do you sell directly to your customers or is this through distributors?
Mr. Kohn:
We sell through both. We sell directly mainly customers for whom we are
developing custom products. To some other customers, we sell through
manufacturing representatives and through distributors. The process of
developing full custom designed product solutions requires many direct
interactions with the customer, from qualifying the requirements and
developing prototypes, through qualification, approval and transition to
production. This process might take 12 month or even more to complete and
requires a tight relationship with the customer. We register these customers
as "house accounts."
CEOCFO:
What is your geographic footprint?
Mr. Kohn:
We sell our products globally. We serve North America through our Silicon
Valley, CA headquarters. In Europe, we sell products through our UK-based
wholly- owned subsidiary, Digital Power Limited. However, in today’s
economy, we are facing more and more market globalization; for example, we
may "design-in" a product for a U.S. based company and after it approved by
our customer, we receive production orders from the customer’s offshore
(mainly in Asia) contract manufacturing (CM) arm. To fulfill these orders,
in many cases we user our own offshore CM to drop-ship our products directly
to our customer’s CMs. This globalization means that although we design-in
our product for a U.S. company, the products that we deliver never reach
this country. Nevertheless, we continue to use our local resources to
manufacture products for military applications, for prototypes, for short
production runs or that require quick turnaround.
CEOCFO:
How has business been over the last couple of years and have you seen a
change as the economy seems to be improving?
Mr. Kohn:
2009 was tough for us. The global recession affected our business as it did
many other companies. Our customers and our raw-material suppliers scaled
down, which affected on our business. Because we manufacture products that
are components in a system, we were one cycle behind and did not take a hit
until 2009.
Despite the difficulty in
2009, we moved out back to a growth path in 2010. We took to production in
2010 some of the custom design products that we developed in 2009, which
positively affected our revenue. We also won some higher volume business
that requires our high-grade, reach-feature products with some custom
modification. Moving to 2011, we will continue to focus on releasing custom
design products to production, wining new designs and selling more of our
off-the-shelf products.
CEOCFO:
Do you do much investor outreach?
Mr. Kohn:
We meet several times with different investors and analyst forums and
alliances, mainly in NYC. However, we are not currently actively engaged
with any specific investment group. In the future, we might take a different
direction and we will be happy to discuss the right opportunity when it
comes.
CEOCFO:
In closing, why should potential investors pay attention to Digital Power?
Mr. Kohn:
Investors should pay attention to Digital Power, because we have innovative
power technology, robust product solutions and a large customer base. The
company has been in the market many years, is well established and
recognized by the market place. The size of the company vs. what the company
brings might also trigger investors to take a serious look at the company.
It is a mature and well organized company.
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