The next chapter for the Home Technology Specialists of America is starting to take shape.
HTSA has appointed Shaun Schuetz as Managing Director, continuing the planned leadership transition the group first announced in July. Schuetz officially steps into the Managing Director role on October 1 and is slated to become Executive Director on January 1, 2027.
The move follows HTSA’s previously announced search for a new Managing Director, which marked the organization’s first major leadership change in more than a decade. At the time, current Executive Director Jon Robbins said the transition was not a retirement. Robbins remains with HTSA full time through December 31, with the goal of helping onboard the incoming leader and preserving continuity across the group’s culture, member relationships, and vendor partnerships.
Schuetz brings a mix of manufacturer and integration experience to the role, including 14 years of senior sales leadership with leading audio manufacturers and 13 years of leadership in the integration field. His background includes roles as Chief Sales Officer, Vice President of Sales for the Americas, and Vice President of ESS Channels for the Americas.
“HTSA’s strength is its members and the vendor partners who invest in them,” Schuetz said in a statement. “My priority is to listen first, build on the relationships that make this community successful, and make sure HTSA continues to deliver clear value on both sides of that partnership. Together, we can build on the strength of those partnerships to push beyond where we are today and be a force for what’s next.”
That focus tracks closely with the profile HTSA Board President Alex Lelchuk described to Connected Design when the search opened this summer. Lelchuk said then that the board was looking for a leader who understood the industry, the membership, the vendor community, and the broader stakes for the custom integration channel.
The board also emphasized at the time that it would not rush the decision. The right fit, Lelchuk said, mattered more than simply filling the seat by a fixed date.
A Broader Leadership Buildout
With Schuetz’s appointment, HTSA is also expanding the leadership structure around him.
Ellie Doherty has accepted the newly created role of Director of Member and Vendor Relations. In the position, Doherty will focus on HTSA’s relationships across its member and vendor communities. She brings more than 10 years of experience across custom integration and lighting, including manufacturer sales, integration, lighting design, specification, and business development.
Doherty is an American Lighting Association Lighting Specialist and has completed HTSA’s Lighting Levels I, II, and III courses, giving her direct familiarity with one of the organization’s major education and growth categories.
Jordan Fuchs, HTSA’s Director of Operations, will also take on an expanded role within the organization. The promotion reflects Fuchs’ growing role in HTSA’s daily operations and ongoing development, as well as the board’s confidence in his ability to carry broader leadership responsibility.
“This is about more than filling a position,” Lelchuk said in the announcement. “The Board set out to build the leadership team HTSA needs for its next chapter while preserving the culture, relationships, and momentum that make this organization successful. Shaun, Ellie, and Jordan give HTSA that team, and the capacity to serve our members and vendor partners at a higher level.”
Continuity During an Active Period
The transition comes during a particularly active period for HTSA. In May, the group joined AVIXA and ProSource in announcing RESIDE, a new co-located initiative at InfoComm 2027 that builds on the legacy of Lightapalooza and points to the increasing overlap between residential technology, commercial AV, lighting, education, and design-forward integration.
That initiative was part of the larger momentum Lelchuk pointed to in his July conversation with us, when he described HTSA as having “big ambitions and big goals” while continuing to support its members and vendor partners.
Now, with Schuetz, Doherty, and Fuchs in place, HTSA’s next phase appears less like a single succession move and more like a broader leadership buildout.
The task ahead is a meaningful one: maintain the culture and member-owned identity that Robbins helped shape while positioning HTSA for a market that continues to evolve around lighting, wellness, networking, design collaboration, education, and deeper vendor-member alignment.
Schuetz’s first charge, by his own description, is to listen. From there, HTSA’s expanded leadership team will be expected to carry the organization into the next phase without losing the relationships that made the group influential in the first place.
