Kiana Pourrahimi, Sales Director, Lutron EA, provides an insight into her career with Lutron and the solutions now available from the lighting and shading specialist.
Tell us about your role at the company. What are your main duties?
I look after Lutron’s residential business for the UK. I’m responsible for sales but work closely with our business unit, product management and marketing. I want to make sure that if Lutron is investing in new products, whether it’s hardware or software, it’s always relevant to market needs in the UK. I’m responsible for bringing the product to market and sales, and ultimately, I’m always thinking about the end-user experience. To me, having an amazing system is one thing, but knowing that the homeowner loves using it and is happy with it is the most important. So, a lot of the decisions I make are around, ‘How does this work for the homeowner, and does it represent the channel and Lutron the right way to that market?’
Tell us a little about your career before joining Lutron?
Before joining Lutron, I had over 10 years of experience in the electrical industry, working for market-leading brands selling anything from low-voltage electrical equipment to wiring accessories into electrical wholesalers, targeting tier-one and tier-two electrical contractors.
Whilst this gave me a really good understanding of the electrical portion of construction, I didn’t understand luxury. The market we sell into at Lutron is much more about the end-user experience as opposed to the product being a commodity.
You joined Lutron in 2016. What changes have you seen during this time?
I’ve seen a huge evolution at Lutron since joining. We were seen as a manufacturer that supplied hardware into a dealer channel that then took care of everything for us. We had the ambition to grow rapidly but also sustainably, and this needed a new approach. Creating demand for our product was the way to do this. We realised that we not only needed to speak to more decision-makers on projects but also identify product gaps. We needed to ensure that as a manufacturer, we were able to fill those gaps to bring Lutron lighting and our systems to more people.
We also needed to make sure that as we were developing products, we were considering the product lifecycle to ensure that when these investments are made, they are built to last. We need to continue to deliver high-quality products to the customer.
Realising this is one thing. Building a strategy is another. And then executing it takes time. If we look at where we are today, we’ve set out what we wanted to achieve, and we have grown significantly year on year since 2016. We’ve implemented processes, programmes and strategies that help create growth within our channel in a sustainable way. We’ve also become the brand of choice with luxury designers and continue to collaborate with designers to ensure that as trends move in luxury, we continue to be a leading manufacturer of not just technical products but aesthetics too.
RadioRA 3 has launched. Can you tell us about the genesis of this platform?
RA3 is the most exciting thing I’ve been involved in during my time at Lutron. I watch our systems day in and day out being specified for the most exquisite luxury homes. But something that always bothered me was all of the other existing buildings that just couldn’t justify a full rewire to have a system like ours.
Working really closely with our business unit to make sure something was developed that would meet the requirements and needs of end users in the UK was critical. In total, it was probably a three-year conversation of research, development, redevelopment and redesign. Because when Lutron brings a product to market, it has to be of the highest quality. A lot goes into making that happen.
The most exciting thing about RadioRA 3 is that it gives you a streamlined version of all of the clever features that are in HomeWorks. It’s a robust, tried-and-tested RF system that eliminates the need to rewire your home, opening up thousands of homes for end users to have the features and benefits that a system can give them, but on a streamlined, more cost-effective version.
Vierti was another major launch alongside RadioRA 3. Tell us about this range?
A picture speaks a thousand words. I don’t need to tell you how beautiful it is! Every part of this keypad was designed to please a discerning customer. We knew the look of the keypad was more important than anything else—it’s the one part of the system that the homeowner gets to see. So this was critical; a homeowner needs to want it on their wall.
We’ve always sold a retrofit solution of a Pico and a faceplate, but we knew it wasn’t hitting the mark of the design aesthetic of the home. It needed to be made of authentic brass, to be made of the same finish as our signature metals that are successful with Alisse and to be flat on the wall. When you press your finger against the faceplate, it needed to feel like luxury. We also wanted to ensure consistency and continuity in how our buttons were engraved. The end-user experience was always at the forefront of our minds.
Lumaris RGB + tunable white tape light represents a first for the company. Tell us a little more?
Lutron in the US introduced the intelligent light source a few years back, so this is something that the company globally has been working on for some time. But whilst we’ve known about it, Lumaris is our first introduction to intelligent lighting in the UK.
But what does this mean? It’s a fully tunable white LED tape and also has colour, but what makes this special is the part where it’s intelligent. Like other things Lutron makes, the Lumaris system was developed to natively work in our systems. This means we developed everything from the start to make sure that when our systems get put together, they work intelligently with no risk of things going wrong.
All three new products were launched at a major London event. Can you tell us how it went?
When we were building the sales strategy, we wanted to make sure from the start that we also worked on a communication plan. We launched some major products during COVID, and trying to get a new system in front of a lot of people usually ends up being at a trade show. We were adamant we didn’t want this at a trade show. We felt that it was such an exciting, market-expanding new system that it deserved its own platform.
The event was hugely successful and unlike anything that Lutron had done before in our region. But the hard work is always afterwards— the training and follow-ups come now. However, being able to reach a wide audience in person and see them as excited about something as we were made it all worthwhile.
The company exhibited at ISE 2025. How did the show go?
ISE came straight off the back of the RA3 launch. We didn’t just stop there. We managed to keep Aviena a secret, (new toggle switch option) and it was shown for the first time globally on our stand at ISE.
The stand was all about the experience of how natural and artificial light are lived with, and how they can impact us. The way the story was told, and the way we gave the experience, rightfully won us the award of best large stand at the show. If you didn’t experience it, you missed out!
What has been the reaction and impact of this trio of launches?
RadioRA3 is a new system. Vierti is a mains-powered keypad that has a version in the RA3 platform as well as HomeWorks. Lumaris is a new category. And Aviena is a final puzzle piece of what we needed in HomeWorks. We’ve never had as much new product in one go as we have this year. It’s super exciting and we’re working to make sure our integrators understand that their toolbox has grown and that they now have a much wider range of components to please different consumers in different homes and applications. We’re using training, product specialists, and sales to arm our dealers not just with the products, but the support and knowledge they need to grow their business with Lutron. We’ve already trained hundreds of dealers, with future dates out till June getting booked up as we speak.
If an integrator is not making Lutron a part of their offering, what would you say these new releases offer to increase appeal?
Our HomeWorks business is the most mature in the UK and a leading brand in the ultra-high net worth home. And we had RA2 Select as more of an entry-level system. We didn’t have something
that met the needs of anything retrofit or slightly more cost-effective, but offering the same aesthetic and desirability of HomeWorks.
As we mentioned previously, LED tape is not new, everyone has some in their home, but the quality and the pain is felt by most, so offering that to more dealers in an easy way is attractive.
The desirability of having these products is higher in more homes and now it’s easier to have a streamlined system. People also might not renovate the entire home in one go. You can start with a small system in your home and build on it. For example, you might just want the lounge done to start and then to add your bedrooms later. This gives the integrator the opportunity to start small and expand over time with not just lighting and lighting control, but window treatments as well.
What is next for Lutron?
We have lots of training dates. We are planning to host sales webinars, sales training, networking events where we bring dealers closer to designers – 1:1 support on the sales team on business development and so on.
We’re trying to communicate on different platforms and in different ways because we respect people’s time. Between webinars and in-person events, there will always be technical salespeople that can help dealers – whether it’s on business development calls or to ensure that they are designing the best systems they can with the tools that they’ve got.