LAKE FOREST, Calif.,
Jan. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Voice
Assist, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VSST), a leading developer of
hosted speech services and voice "in-application" technology, today
announced the appointment of new key executives. Michael
Silva joins Voice Assist as its new CFO & Vice President of
Corporate Development, Vic Boyd as
Chief Information Officer, Tracy
Roberts as Chief Product Officer, Andrew Fox as Vice President of Developer
Partnerships and Programs, and Lisa
Porter as Vice President of Marketing and
Communications.
"We are excited to have secured such an experienced executive
team to help drive our consumer, enterprise and in-application
developer programs," said Michael
Metcalf, Chairman and CEO of Voice Assist. "We are at the
stage of our company where we needed to expand our executive
management capabilities to help us further accelerate the marketing
and development of our product offerings so that we can offer a
higher level of safety and productivity to consumers and enterprise
accounts."
Michael "Mike" Silva was the former Chief Financial Officer of
Voice Processing Corporation, a pioneer in speech recognition, and
has served as a strategic consultant to Mobile Carriers, Network
Equipment Providers and startups. Mr. Silva has invested in,
advised and worked with communications and emerging technology
startups in the speech recognition, computer telephony, voice and
video over IP, and web services segments. Previously, Mr.
Silva was responsible for Wireless Data Marketing Strategy at
AT&T Wireless, headed up Business Development for Qpass through
its acquisition by Amdocs, and supported a management-led spinout
of UIEvolution from Japanese gaming giant SquareEnix. Mr.
Silva also served as Vice President of Strategy for Jabra prior to
its acquisition by GN Netcom. Mr. Silva has spent the past
two years in the non-profit industry, most recently serving as COO
of the Mobile Giving Foundation. Mr. Silva holds a Master of
Science in Finance from Bentley College
in Waltham, Mass. and a BBS degree
in International Business from Loyola
Marymount University.
Vic Boyd is a seasoned technology
executive, supporting global enterprise voice and data
infrastructure for the past 17 years. Prior to joining Voice
Assist, Mr. Boyd consulted for SpeechPhone and was responsible for
developing, coordinating, and implementing the voice and data
infrastructure supporting users throughout the United States and multiple foreign
countries. Mr. Boyd has consulted for dozens of public and private
Fortune 1000 companies in the U.S. and abroad developing and
deploying not only global voice infrastructure, but also high
performance, secure data networks. Some of the organizations
Mr. Boyd has maintained engagements with in the past include
AT&T, SBC, MCI, UUNet, Level3, Avaya, Cisco, T-Mobile and
Verizon Business, among others. Mr. Boyd has held director
and management positions in multiple public and private companies
in his career and specializes in secure, physical and virtual,
scalable network infrastructure design and deployment.
Tracy Roberts brings over 25
years of experience in new product development to Voice Assist,
having brought to market innovative products and services in speech
technology, mobile products and services, web services and
communication solutions. Previously, she led product
development at SpeechPhone and was instrumental in the design and
development of the original Voice Assist functionality.
Before that, Ms. Roberts was Vice president of Marketing for
Loquendo (Telecom Italia) – a speech technology products and
services provider. Previously, Ms. Roberts was also the
Senior Director of Product Management for AltaVista, providing
product leadership during its formative days which helped it grow
to be one of the top ten most trafficked web sites globally.
She was also responsible for the launch of AltaVista Korea and
international strategy for Asian markets. Ms. Roberts has
also held a number of product and user experience leadership
positions at Nortel Networks and Bell-Northern Research in the U.S.
and Canada.
Andrew Fox brings over 15 years
of experience to Voice Assist in the mobile and wireless networking
industries. Prior to joining Voice Assist, Andrew served as
President and CEO of Mindzap Media, a digital media-consulting
agency focusing on helping organizations develop technology,
distribution and revenue strategies around digital media in the
mobile, Internet and consumer electronics marketplace.
Previously he also served as a Founder and EVP of Sales and
Business Development of Oasys Mobile, Inc. where he built both
carrier channel relationships as well as content relationships with
leading entertainment companies.
Prior to Oasys Mobile, Mr. Fox started High Speed Net Solutions
– an interactive marketing agency – and also worked as President
and CEO of the company (which was later merged with Summus LTD).
Previous to High Speed, Mr. Fox worked for RealNetworks as
its, Senior Marketing Manager where he helped launch industry
leading products such as RealAudio 3.0 and RealVideo 4.0. In
his formative business years Mr. Fox spent 10 years at IBM in sales
and marketing and was Manager for Sales and Marketing for IBM's
Mobile & Wireless Networking Group.
Mr. Fox has an MBA in marketing from Fuqua School of Business, as well as a Bachelor
of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Duke University.
Lisa Porter brings 20-plus years
of demonstrated accomplishments in the wireless industry in
marketing and communications, public relations, product and sales
marketing and support, and implementation and delivery of various
types of training programs. Prior to joining Voice Assist,
Ms. Porter was the president and co-founder of Porter Creative
Group, Inc., a high technology public relations agency servicing
clients in the wireless, semiconductor and other high technology
segments. In this capacity, she was a lead strategist and
account manager for the variety of clients serviced by the agency
and managed a team of public relations and marketing personnel to
deliver complete public relations, marketing communications,
advertising and photography services in a highly effective, cost
efficient manner.
Previously, she was also Director of Marketing and
Communications for CMD Technology, joint-chairperson on the USB
Implementers Forum marketing committee, and Vice President of
Marketing and International Sales at Jabra. Porter holds an
MBA from the University of Phoenix and
Bachelor of Science degree from Gardner-Webb
University.
About Voice Assist, Inc.
Headquartered in Lake Forest,
Calif., Voice Assist is a hosted and speech services company
that enables voice in any application, network and device.
The company's cloud-based speech platform eliminates the need
to use a keyboard or keypad to interact, and enables users to
communicate, connect or transact using any application on any phone
or other communication device. The Voice Assist platform
includes a fast and safe way to make calls, manage your e-mails,
send text messages and post to social networks such as Facebook and
Twitter by voice commands and provides a scalable solution for
developers to add voice to any application. For more
information on the company, visit http://www.voiceassist.com.
Forward-Looking Statement: The statements in this press release
regarding any implied or perceived benefits from appointment of
these key executives or our technology are forward-looking
statements. Statements such as "We are excited to have secured such
an experienced executive team to help drive our consumer,
enterprise and in-application developer programs." ; and "We are at
the stage of our company where we needed to expand our capabilities
to help us further accelerate the marketing and development of our
product offerings, ultimately bringing a higher level of safety and
productivity to consumers and enterprise accounts." ; and "The
company's cloud-based speech platform eliminates the need to use a
keyboard or keypad to interact, and enables users to communicate,
connect or transact using any application on any phone or
communication device." involve risks and uncertainties, including,
but not limited to, our ability to retain the executives, the
continued ownership and operation of the company, functionality of
our technology, and any other difficulties related to risks and
effects of legal and administrative proceedings and governmental
regulation, future financial and operational results, competition,
general economic conditions, and the ability to manage and continue
growth.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize,
or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes
may vary materially from those indicated. Important factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from the
forward-looking statements we make in this news release include
market conditions and those set forth in reports or documents we
file from time to time with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to
revise or update such statements to reflect current events or
circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of
unanticipated events.
SOURCE Voice Assist, Inc.