When I started our little company, I had a vision of working only with people that have, in addition to camaraderie, my utmost respect. So far, I share that with every single member of the GigaOM team, and today I would like to announce two more additions: Michael Wolf, who is taking over as VP of Research, and Jaime Chen, who is our new Director of Product Management.

Wolf comes to us from ABI Research, where he served as digital home practice director, tracking the rapidly changing world of consumer electronics and the digital home. His views on topics such as networked devices, machine-to-machine networks and the growing importance of user interfaces in consumer products mirrored my own worldview. Over a period of two years, he became one of my favorite analysts, thanks mostly to his ability to connect the dots; it was only a matter of time before we offered him a position at our scrappy little startup helping with our own research efforts.

I met Jaime Chen through friends in the web design and development community, while she was working for San Francisco-based Second Life. During our conversations about the future of web design and architecture, she brought a user-centric point of view that was all about enhancing user experience. She is helping us improve the current line-up of blogs and also managing some exciting future efforts.

Join me in welcoming this very talented duo!