About GPA

THE GPA DIFFERENCE

GPA is a representative of the new era of the collaborative shared economy. We are an organization built upon distributed accountability and ownership, shared knowledge and innovation, and individual benefit driven by a primary focus on overall community gain.

GPA encompasses 25 expert Regional Business Units (RBU’s) with localized delivery capability in 49 countries globally. We have over 4000 employees, and well over $1B in annual AV/UC related revenues.

Understand

We listen, therefore we succeed.

Inspire

Finding the Nuance.

fulfill

Outcomes delivered.

“Collaboration technologies only fulfil their true value when they bring communities of people together to share their ideas and achieve meaningful outcomes. Enabling this is the key vision of GPA”

– Byron Tarry, Managing Director GPA

GPA BV, our legal entity, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the GPA Foundation, which is collectively owned by shareholders made up exclusively of the GPA’s RBU’s. The Foundation is controlled through an elected 9-person Board of Directors drawn from within the RBU’s, while a permanent GPA BV staff then runs day to day operations of the B.V. entity.

As an organization, we have spent significant energy in challenging the status quo, and setting innovative new paths for ourselves, and for the industry. To be “better”, by its nature we need to do “different”, but actually following through on different takes courage. We encourage you to come on a journey with us where we at times will challenge you and push you towards “better”, where we will leverage our experience and knowledge to present you with new ideas and where we will offer you the support not just during the initial global project but in the years to come.

OUR VISION

Our tagline ‘think global, act global’ speaks to the vision of GPA and our core values of an honest, trustworthy, and loyal team who, spread out across the world, work, and act as one. It sums up the way we go about business every day. We want the world to know of and experience the GPA difference. It sets us apart from the crowd as our global clients, prospects, and stakeholders value the importance of a united global team.

Our mission is to ensure our technical and our global business expertise remains at the forefront of the industry by having superior product knowledge, developing appropriate training programs for our staff as well as openly share local information that can impact global businesses. We always put our customers first, and aim to satisfy every customer’s unique needs, ensuring that they can use their technology solution to its full potential.

Our History

In 2008 the GPA was formed, then as the Global Presence Alliance, to help customers have one global source for all audio, video and unified communications solutions. The vision was to have a combined talent pool of thousands of professionals delivering excellence, following the same protocols and procedures across the globe.

Over the last decade we have grown significantly as an organization, building stronger bonds, breaking down silos, openly sharing our knowledge and becoming the global AV integrator who truly wants to make a positive difference to the world.

With the combined strength of thousands of professionals sharing the same passion, culture and vision to innovate, GPA is uniquely capable of offering solutions that capture the imagination and exceed our clients’ expectations worldwide.

2008

Global Presence Alliance was formed, coverage in five countries

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2013

Global Presence Alliance organizational charter published, and an inaugural Board of Directors elected.

2014

Our global footprint hits 30 countries

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2015

Our Accredited Partner Program launches, ensuring global delivery consistency with our key Vendors.

2015

Total combined global revenue breaks USD$1B annually

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2016

We launched Insight, our global program tracking & management platform.

2016

Our “Global Care” service management platform and global service desk was launched

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2017

GPA B.V. was registered, solidifying our global organisational structure, truly becoming one!

2018

GPA University launches, giving our staff the ability to upskill on a global scale.

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2019

The “Velocity” solution portfolio launches, a “standardized” global enterprise collaboration strategy offering.

2020

GPA rebrand is officially unveiled at ISE2020.

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Our people are more than just business partners. They are friends and peers within a committed community that shares best practices, innovation, and thought leadership for the benefit of the common good.

For anyone who has been part of the GPA team over time, they can attest to the fact that our company has a genuine “family” feeling, and people are treated and respected that way. We operate as one tightly woven team, generating ownership, participation, responsibility and fun.

Byron Tarry

Managing Director

As Managing Director, Byron works directly with and reports to the GPA Board to define and execute upon the Alliance’s strategic goals and objectives in meeting its commitment to excellence in global delivery of collaboration technologies. Byron has been a highly active member of the GPA since its inception in 2008, serving as its elected President from the Board’s inception in 2014 until he joined the organization in a full time capacity as its first Executive Director in 2017. With more than twenty years of experience in the AV industry, Byron has extensive expertise in global partnerships, relationship management and operations for AV/UC solutions. He has also had an active industry leadership presence over the past decade or more with involvement in numerous initiatives and advisory roles within AVIXA (formerly InfoComm) including development of the “AV Best Practices” Black Book, the STEP Rating System, and their Professional Education & Training Committee (PETC).

Mike Stead

Director, Programs and Partnerships

As Director of Programs and Partnerships, and its first full time employee, Mike Stead works closely with the Managing Director and GPA Board, to implement and maintain the GPA’s efforts in aligning and delivering upon its member, vendor partner, and customer related initiatives and programs. He has key mandates for member engagement and awareness, communications and logistics, and operational and administrative alignment throughout the organization. Mike’s background is in mobile & IT program management, and more recently corporate deployment and management of global executive Telepresence and knowledge-worker AV solutions.