MARTIN SCHAFFEL

"When a student leaves Marty’s classroom at the end of the semester, there are two things he can be certain of..." After stepping down as CEO at AVI, Marty had a void. For so many years, Marty spent day after day trying to help his employees be successful. He enjoyed acting as a mentor and coach. This led to Marty returning to the University of Florida as a guest lecturer over 10 years ago. For the past four years, Marty has been teaching courses at the University of Florida

"The moment this product hit the market, Marty recognized the opportunity before him." During the Learning stage of his life, Marty encountered two hurdles: getting kicked out of the University of Florida’s MBA program and fired from his job. During his second to last semester at the University of Florida, Marty enrolled in the Macroeconomics course. The professor would transcribe extensive mathematical equations on the board indicating that students would utilize these equat

"He ran home, grabbed a 5-gallon container of kerosene and a box of matches, figuring he could burn them out." In the 1970s, Marty Schaffel graduated from the University of Florida, and, eventually, went on to start his first company, Audio Visual Innovations (AVI) out of his two-bedroom apartment in Lakeland, Florida. Today, known as AVI-SPL, the company is world’s largest distributor and integrator of audio-visual equipment for boardrooms, classrooms, conference rooms, and