Thalmic Labs Expands Offices to San Francisco, Hires Chief Marketing Officer

Thalmic Labs has opened an office in San Francisco. The Waterloo-born company has also hired Tara Kriese as Chief Marketing Officer.

Thalmic, maker of the Myo armband, says it plans to hire engineering, sales, and marketing roles in San Francisco. The Canadian company will also continue to hire in its hometown of Waterloo.

Kriese is the former Senior Director and Head of Marketing at Samsung Electronics America. Her primary responsibility will be to oversee all marketing and communications efforts for the company.

“Tara is uniquely skilled at developing disruptive market opportunities, and we’re excited to begin leveraging her expertise as we take a big step in expanding the company,” said Stephen Lake, CEO of Thalmic Labs. “She’s a leader in identifying new markets, segments, channels and trends, with expertise in emerging product categories as reflected in all her accomplishments in her career.”

At Samsung, Kriese helped launch Gear VR, Gear 360, and the Samsung VR service.

“Thalmic Labs has already revolutionized the wearable technology space with the introduction of gesture control technology and the Myo armband,” said Kriese. “The company is eager to expand into new markets with a strong team of leaders and developers, and I am excited to utilize my experience in marketing emerging technologies to help Thalmic Labs in the next stage of its journey.”

With a mission to merge people and technology, the company is changing how we interact with technology. The Myo armband measures electrical activity in muscles to wirelessly control computers, phones, and other digital technologies.

Thalmic Labs was founded in 2012 by three graduates of the University of Waterloo’s mechatronics engineering program: Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey, Aaron Grant. In June 2013, Thalmic Labs announced the closing of a $14.5M round of Series A funding led by Spark Capital and Intel Capital.