VoiceSignal Technologies Appoints Former Nokia Executive Richard J. Geruson As Chief Executive Officer

Voice Signal Technologies, the leading provider of embedded speech recognition for mobile devices, recently named Richard J. Geruson, as it's new Chief Executive Officer. Geruson, a 20+ year veteran in the wireless and networking industries, was previously a Senior Vice President for Nokia.

Woburn, MA (PRWEB) July 9, 2004 -- Rich Geruson will take over responsibility for Voice Signal's day-to-day operations from Voice Signal's co-founder and previous CEO, Dan Roth, who will assume the title of President and focus on company strategy. Geruson will drive growth through global expansion of Voice Signal's distribution channel, strategic partnering, ongoing development of state-of-the art products, and building the business infrastructure to support Voice Signal's rapid growth.

"Rich's record of energizing leadership, decisive execution, developing customer relationships, and charting strategic direction provides a corner stone to Voice Signal's management team," said Dan Roth of Voice Signal. "On top of this, Rich's proven skill at building companies and divisions from the ground up, and his extensive background in wireless, telecommunications, and networking are just what we need to drive Voice Signal's further success. We are very excited to have Rich Geruson on board as Voice Signal continues to strengthen its position as the leading supplier of voice recognition software to top tier mobile device manufacturers."

"Voice Signal is at the forefront of the market for embedded speech solutions on mobile devices," commented Geruson. "Voice Signal has the best technology and strategy and is currently the only speech recognition company shipping its products in phones and devices from top-tier OEMs. I believe that the potential for voice-activated solutions on wireless devices is enormous, and I am eager to help Voice Signal strengthen and extend its leadership position in this rapidly expanding market."

As a Senior Vice President at Nokia Mobile Phones, Geruson pioneered industry innovations in sales account management, branding, cooperative marketing, and service operations that helped propel Nokia in the Americas to the unprecedented achievement of number one in market share, brand, revenue, profit and volume. During his five-year tenure, the business in the Americas grew ten-fold to six and a half billion dollars and tripled in market share. Revenue, profits, and unit volume doubled every year for over three years. Total brand awareness grew five-fold to over ninety percent and spontaneous brand awareness grew seven-fold. Nokia became the fifth most valuable brand in the world and the only non-US brand on the top ten list. Geruson was also responsible for launching and deploying mobile Internet services across the Americas, and implementing Nokia's first e-commerce Internet site.

After starting his career in branch office sales at IBM, Geruson was later recruited back to IBM as one of the youngest IBM Vice Presidents. As Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for IBM's Networking Division, and later Vice President and General Manager of Networking Sales and Distribution, Geruson opened indirect channels for IBM's networking business and expanded worldwide indirect revenue almost ninety percent. During his four-year tenure in Vice President positions in Marketing, Business Operations, and Planning at Toshiba's mobile computer division, Toshiba doubled market share, going from a market share rank of five to number one. Geruson has also held senior executive positions at Stratus (now part of Lucent), Brocade, and the management-consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Rich Geruson has completed three graduate programs at Oxford University, including a Ph.D. in Business in the sub-faculty of Economics. While employed as a research member of the faculty at Harvard Business School, Geruson completed the highly regarded book he authored: A Theory of Market Strategy, published by Oxford University Press.

About Voice Signal Technologies

Voice Signal Technologies, Inc., is a privately held company based in Woburn, Massachusetts. The company specializes in developing state-of-the art speech interface solutions for mobile devices and electronic entertainment products. Founded in 1995, the company has received several honors for its speech recognition technology, which is currently implemented on several handset models worldwide. Additional information about the company is available at www.voicesignal.com.