Queen, a 20-year veteran with Verbatim, was promoted from vice president of operations to president in early 2002. Since then he has guided the growth and expansion of the company beyond optical storage to encompass four operating units – hard disk, flash memory, accessory products and optical.
Prior to his current position, Queen headed the firm’s global operations group for two years. He joined the company in 1989 as part of the corporate engineering team supporting minidisk manufacturing. In 1991 he moved to Verbatim’s Microdisk subsidiary in Chesapeake, Va. A year later he transferred to the company’s media coating and $&D operation in Sunnyvale, Ca. In 1998 he returned to the firm’s Charlotte headquarters as vice president of technology and business development.
What role has Verbatim played in the removable storage media market?
Since its founding as Information Terminals Corporation in 1969, Verbatim has been at the forefront in the development of data storage technology – from floppy disks and magneto-optical storage media to the CD and DVD formats and the latest high-definition Blu-ray media.
In the early years, the company joined industry leaders such as IBM in rolling out the 8-inch floppy diskette and Shugart in announcing the 5.25-inch floppy diskette. To reflect its expanding product line, the company changed its name to Verbatim in 1978.
Between 1983 and 1987, Verbatim joined Sony in introducing the 3.5” micro diskette (1MB) and continued to focus on increasing its share of the rapidly growing market. During that time, the company launched its high-density 1.6MB mini diskette, its 2MB micro diskette and the DatalifePlus® (Teflon-protected) diskette. Verbatim soon became the world's largest producer of floppy disks.
In the early ‘90s, Verbatim continued to expand its product range, adding 5.25” magneto-optical (MO) media and 3.5” MO media. As the need for higher capacities and higher performance storage solutions grew, Verbatim took a leadership role in the development, manufacture and advancement of CD and DVD media followed by BD, HD DVD and UDO media. The company also saw the need for more portable storage solutions and responded by expanding its offerings to include flash-based products and removable hard disk products.
Today, in its 40th year, Verbatim is known worldwide for delivering the latest storage solutions as well as a full range of accessories with the reliability, performance and broad compatibility resellers and consumers have come to expect from Verbatim brand products.
When did Mitsubishi acquire Verbatim?
Verbatim was acquired by Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation (MKC) in 1990. Five years later, MKC and Mitsubishi Petrochemical Corp. merged to form Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC). Recognized as Japan's largest chemical company, MCC is composed of more than 40 subsidiaries, including Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. Verbatim’s parent company.
How did the Mitsubishi acquisition benefit Verbatim?
In the three years following its acquisition by Mitsubishi Kasei, the company introduced more new data storage products than any other company and earned a reputation for being one of the industry's premier media manufacturers.
As part of MKM and the Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Group (MCC), Verbatim benefits from outstanding research and development on new dyes, coatings, base media and production processes that have enabled so many of the innovations shaping today's storage media market.
Verbatim works directly with the standards groups and leading drive manufacturers to co-develop next-generation removable storage solutions. These co-development efforts and MKM's extensive R&D capabilities have helped Verbatim maintain an unmatched history of being first with the industry's fastest optical media while maintaining its reputation for providing the highest levels of reliability and durability.
What are some of the products that Verbatim was first to launch?
Verbatim's leadership role has been is especially apparent in the evolution of the CD, DVD and BD family of optical products.
In the optical industry, Verbatim is credited for being first to introduce:
- CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) media
- 16x extended-capacity CD-R discs
- 4x-speed DVD+RW media
- 32x Ultra Speed + CD-RW discs
- 8.5GB DVD+R DL media
- Mini DVD+R DL media
- 15GB HD DVD-R recordable media
- Mini DVD-R DL media
- Mini BD media
- Color-background LightScribe DVDRs
- LightScribe-certified 8x DVD+R DL media
What factors have contributed to Verbatim’s dominance in the recordable CD and DVD media markets?
Verbatim/MKM’s worldwide dominance in the recordable CD and DVD media markets can be attributed to a number of factors, including the ability to combine high reliability, stability and longevity with high performance and broad compatibility.
MKM and Verbatim continue to overcome the challenges that each new optical media performance enhancement presents. With each performance increase, new manufacturing techniques for platter flatness must be developed in combination with dyes and chemistries that can be reliably written to at extremely high spin rates.
