When Founder, President, and CEO, Tommy Draffen started ACI, he had one factory partner and the unshakeable idea that the audio home entertainment industry was about to go BIG.
Tommy grew up in the industry, learning the business from his father Gary Draffen, Founder and CEO of industry giant Culver-Tonegen until that company was sold in 1995. Like his father, Tommy learned the industry from the ground up, advancing from sales engineer apprentice to VP of Culver-Tonegen, before founding ACI in late 1995.
Tommy’s vision for ACI was and remains simple—designing and overseeing the quality manufacturing of a wide range of best-in-class audio products—and nothing else.
Today, ACI is the product development solution for the most recognized and trusted sound system brands across the U.S. and abroad. The main reason for ACI’s success is the collective brain power of its highly accomplished product development experts.
Meet the Brain Power Behind the Products—The ACI Team!
Our Team
Tommy Draffen
Founder | President | CEO
Tommy Draffen began his 30+ year audio industry career after graduating from Murry State University in Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a minor in Mathematics. A native of Mayfield, Kentucky, Tommy spent decades driving audio engineering innovation and empowering the next generation of engineering talent in his former role as VP at Culver-Tonegen and as founder, President, and CEO of ACI.
Married to his wife Sandy for over 32 years, the couple has four children and two amazing grandchildren. Tommy serves as Board Chairman for the Los Angeles County Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He has also coached youth and high school sports for the past 23 years. Tommy currently serves as volunteer Head Coach for the Palos Verdes High School Freshman football team. He loves golf, fishing, cycling, history, and traveling.
John Tchilinguirian
Vice President of Engineering
John Tchilingurian joined ACI in 2006 after a 26-year career at Audio Products International (API) in Toronto, Canada. In addition to building the proprietary acoustic testing systems at API, John worked in every facet of engineering and product development at API, ranging from Quality Control to Senior Design Engineering. Among his industry accomplishments, John developed the highly acclaimed Veritas series, Take series, and Connoisseur series.
In total, John has been awarded four design patents including a design patent for Mirage’s Omni-polar technology (US6996243B2, “Loudspeaker with shaped sound field”). His expertise covers all major acoustic testing systems and electro-acoustic simulation applications. John received an Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree from Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in Toronto.
Brian Radgowski
VP of Business Development
Brian Radgowski built his first home theatre at the age of 15 and was featured in Home Theatre Magazine. After earning a BSME at Virginia Tech in 2002, Brian began his professional career designing speakers at Klipsch and later advanced to head of product development at Jarno, where he designed the full range of products including THX Ultra certified speakers (including the first-ever-in-ceiling surround).
Brian went on to earn an MBA and an MSEI (Masters of Science Entrepreneurship and Innovation) from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His industry accomplishments include serving as a Senior Acoustic Engineer at Ultimate Ears in Camas, WA, where he led the engineering design of the UE Boom line(s) of Bluetooth speakers. Brian is credited with breaking sales records and increasing revenue across multiple businesses. He joined the ACI team in 2018. Brian is an avid mountain biker, hiker, and trail runner. He believes that anything worth doing is worth overdoing!
Zachary Etter
Senior Product Development Engineer
Since 2019 Zachary Etter has been managing ACI’s mechanical design and managing various speaker projects. Based out of Forth Worth TX, Zachary had previously served as the mechanical project lead for the portable BT speaker brand Ultimate Ears (Logitech). In his 10 years of developing audio products, Zachary has authored several patents and is experienced working with overseas factories, weatherproof speaker designs, Six Sigma DOE studies, and optimizing designs for manufacturability, assembly, cost, and reliability. Zachary earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Washington State University. He previously served in the US Marine Corps as an aviation electronics testing supervisor.
Vic Richardson
Electronic Specialist
Vic Richardson brings over 42 years of audio design engineering expertise. After earning a BSEE from the University of Washington in 1976, he launched his audio engineering career at Carver Corporation, working in the home audio, mobile, and pro audio divisions. He rapidly advanced, serving as engineering department head at both Carver and later at Sunfire, designing innovative highly efficient amplifiers and audio processors.
Vic joined the ACI team in 2011 as a senior electronic design engineer, where he perfected the designs of powered subwoofer amplifiers, powered full-range speakers, rack amplifiers, soundbars, Bluetooth LE speakers, and wireless audio kits. His extensive industry expertise includes embedded processor coding, DSP development, Dolby 7.1 design, wireless audio, and Bluetooth low energy control. Vic has a background in Broadcast engineering at television stations and in Amateur Radio equipment design and operation.
Senior Quality Engineer
Milind Patil
Milind Patil brings over 28 years of audio engineering expertise. He earned a B.E. in Production and he earned a Diploma in Management Studies and Quality Management. Milind is certified as an ISO 9000 Lead Auditor and in Kaizen Project Management processes.
Milind joined the ACI team as a Product Manager in 2015. His expertise in the design, development, and manufacturing of loudspeaker drive units has been instrumental to ACI’s success. His hands-on experience includes manufacturing, quality management, training, and sourcing. Earlier in his career, Milind worked with M/S Peerless Fabrikkerne India LTD in various roles including Chief Engineer and Manager of Business Development. He has also served as the Senior Director of Hermit Audio PVT before joining the ACI team.
Michael Draffen
Project Manager
Before joining the ACI team in 2016, Michael attended the University of Georgia. Between 2014 and 2016 he worked in Real Estate Management and earned a CAPM Certificate from the Project Management Institute. Michael still holds his real estate license in the State of Georgia where he and his wife Stephanie and their daughter Keeley currently reside.
Jessica Xie
Project Manager
Jessica Xie Joined the ACI team in 2015. She has over 10 years of experience in loudspeaker manufacturing processes, acoustic testing, quality control, project cost, and scheduling management. Before joining ACI, Jessica served for over 2 years in sales and as a project lead for Vecsonic Electronics. Jessica earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business English from Jiujiang University in Jiujiang, China.
Jessica DeMoss
Director of Operations
Jessica has been supporting operations for ACI for over two decades, “moving parts” beyond product design and engineering. Jessica graduated from the University of California, Long Beach with a degree in Business Administration Marketing. Following graduation, she began working for ABC7 Los Angeles as a Programming Coordinator before finding her way to the ACI team.
An avid traveler, it was no surprise when Jessica decided to permanently move from California to Kauai, HI. Whenever she’s not baking everyone’s favorite cupcakes, you might find her at the dog park with her Pit-bopotamus or out watching a local band perform.
Quincey Qu
Project Manager
Quincey Qu has over 18 years of project management expertise working with components, supply chain, product lifecycle, new product introduction (NPI), and MP processes.
Quincey is PMP Certified and she holds an undergraduate degree in Computer and Software Applications. She joined the ACI team in 2022, formerly serving as Lead System Engineer at Tymphany and as Cost Manager at 3Nod Digital Technology.