Joe Christenson, now director of finance at Nonin Medical (Plymouth, MN, USA), was presented with the 2010 Automated Imaging Achievement Award during the Automated Imaging Association’s (AIA) 18th Annual Business Conference in Orlando, FL, USA (January 21-22).
Christenson is being honored for his industry leadership and outstanding contributions to the machine vision and imaging industry for more than two decades. Christenson served for 23 years at PPT Vision (Bloomington, MN, USA), an early pioneer in the development and application of machine vision technology for high end manufacturing applications. During his time there from 1986 through 2008, the company deployed over 5,000 machine vision solutions in the electronics, automotive, medical device, packaging, and general manufacturing industry categories worldwide.
Christenson served as a member of the AIA Board of Directors from 1990 through 2008. He was also a member of AIA’s parent company, the Automation Technologies Council, Board of Directors from 2001 through 2006. During his tenure on the AIA and ATC Boards, he served one two-year term as chairman of the AIA Board and one two-year term as chairman of the ATC Board.
“Joe was one of the industry leaders most responsible for AIA’s growth from a handful of members to nearly 300 today,” said Jeff Burnstein, AIA president. “He was a great example of the ‘leave your logo at the door’ philosophy that has been critical to AIA’s success.”
Christenson received a BA degree in economics from St. Olaf College and an MBA from the University of Michigan, and had worked in commercial banking.
