About

Sally Washlow is an accomplished Board member and CEO with extensive experience in consumer products, automotive and trucking aftermarket products.  A multifaceted executive with corporate governance, human resource consulting and board experience.  Sally is adept at driving product innovation, market expansion, marketing and sales strategies along with organizational change, while improving profitability through expense management, cost reduction, and strategic alliances. 

Board Profile

Sally currently serves on the boards of public and privately held companies, CoStar Technologies (CSTI), DATA IO (NASDAQ: DAIO) Orion Energy Systems (OESX) and Matot, in various industries such as the automotive semiconductor, video surveillance and security, industrial products, consumer products and healthcare technology.  Sally’s private company experience includes Private Equity backed companies as well as 1st and 5th Generation Family-owned companies.  Sally also leads a Practice for the International Center for Executive Options, a boutique practice within LHH, a global talent advisory firm, serving C-suite executives as well as previous President of the Private Directors Association, Chicago Chapter.                                                                                                                               

Board Experience

Board governance experience ranges from being a management member of a board to an Independent Chair, Compensation Committee Chair, Nominating and Governance Chair and member of the Audit Committee.  As Practice lead of the International Center for Executive Options, Sally works with C-Suite and Senior Management from Fortune 100 companies to privately held companies on transition and succession planning.

Professional Summary

Sally was Chief Executive Officer and Board Director of Cedar Electronics, a $200M+ private equity backed holding company of the Cobra and Escort brands with market leading products for the consumer, automotive/ trucking aftermarket products and marine products.  As CEO, Sally led the integration of the Cobra and Escort electronics businesses, managing the company through the strategic transaction and significantly drove EBITDA improvement of 1700% in 2 years.

In prior roles, Sally was President and an Officer of Cobra Electronics (NASDAQ: COBR). Sally expanded product development, built the omni-channel sales strategy and revised go-to-market strategies, expanded into global markets, and negotiated strategic licensing partnerships. She partnered with the CEO and CFO of the NASDAQ-listed business to explore strategic options and drove M&A activities related to a successful transaction to a private equity firm where she then went on to lead as CEO.

Sally brings a global perspective with first-hand experience in global supply chain, manufacturing, and sales. Sally identified and enhanced strategic manufacturing relationships in Europe, China, Hong Kong, Korea, and the Philippines to minimize supply chain risk to one region. She expanded manufacturing partnerships to reduce costs and improve profitability. Global sales expansion included Europe, Asia and South America.

Throughout her career Sally was heavily involved in driving innovation through technology – launching new products, extending the life of existing products, and identifying opportunities in adjacent product categories. This work led to the launch of marine radios and the development of the marine segment of the business, vision systems and mobile navigation products for truck drivers, and invented a patented radar detector cloud- based system that was one of the first “app-cessories” sold in Apple stores. She also developed a strategic relationship with the University of Illinois at Chicago to sponsor a class on innovation, which led to several patent applications.  Earlier, Sally worked in market development and supply chain roles at Motorola in the mobile phone and automotive groups and LG Electronics, Zenith division launching Digital Television in the United States.

Recognition & Awards

• Private Company Director, Director to Watch October 2019
• Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Human Resource Leader 2021
• UIC Innovation Doctoral Consortium, Managerial Fellow 2014
• Women in Consumer Technology, Legacy Award, 2017
• US Patent holder – Mobile Communication System and method for analyzing alerts associated with vehicular travel. US Patent WO2014151793A3, issued Nov. 27, 2013

Personal

Married for 18 years with two teenage children.  Enjoy playing tennis competitively and for fun in various groups and leagues.  10 time marathon finisher.  Passionate about giving back to the community and mentoring. Serve as a mentor for a high school product incubator class.