ClearOne Names Chris Wildfoerster as Vice President of Business Development

News provided by

May 06, 2010, 01:39 ET

SALT LAKE CITY, May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ClearOne (http://www.clearone.com) (Nasdaq: CLRO), the leading communications solutions company that develops and sells audio conferencing systems and other related products for audio, video, and web conferencing and collaboration applications, today announced it has named Chris Wildfoerster as Vice President of Business Development. In his new role, Wildfoerster will report directly to Zee Hakimoglu, ClearOne's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and will immediately assume responsibility for ClearOne's IP licensing strategy, StreamNet® Eco System partner development, new market development, direct large opportunities development, and a ClearOne partner affiliate program.

Wildfoerster has proven executive business development experience in the commercial and residential electronics markets with extensive knowledge and contacts in the audio and video arena. His expertise includes forming and leveraging strategic alliance partners and programs, market development, and product development. He has the ability to identify new product categories targeted towards new business and opening new markets. He has a successful track record in creating partner manufacturer programs with the ability to foster and manage these relationships.

Prior to joining ClearOne, Chris worked as Director of Business Development for Crestron Electronics for 10 years where he was responsible for building and growing strategic alliances with partner manufacturers, along with directing OEM sales to further sales opportunities for Crestron. He served as an independent consultant to CABA, the Continental Automated Buildings Association to assist member companies involved in the design, manufacture and installation of Intelligent Building Controls. Before Crestron, Chris worked for BOSE Corporation as Business Manager for the eastern region. At BOSE, Chris assumed sales management responsibility for all custom residential and professional audio products sold in assigned regions. Prior to BOSE, Chris spent 10 years with Bogen Communications as a National Sales Manager for commercial sound products. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from University of Montana.

"It is an exciting time to be working with ClearOne," said Chris Wildfoerster. "I look forward to working with manufacturing partners, installing dealers, specifying consultants and end users to increase ClearOne's leadership position and expand the professional market. My objective is to capitalize on the growing momentum of the market as IT and AV convergence accelerates and Unified Communications solutions blossom."

"This is a new and strategic position with the recent acquisition of NetStreams and the significant business opportunities this acquisition brings to ClearOne," said Zee Hakimoglu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ClearOne. "Chris is widely recognized and respected in the audio and video industry for his knowledge and focus. He is uniquely qualified and will play a key role in driving future relationships and revenue opportunities."

About ClearOne

ClearOne is a communications solutions company that develops and sells audio conferencing systems and other related products for audio, video, and web conferencing and collaboration applications. The reliability, flexibility, and performance of ClearOne's comprehensive solutions create a natural communications environment, which saves organizations time and money by enabling more effective and efficient communication.

ClearOne dominates the professional conferencing space with over 50% global market share and is a pioneer in audio conferencing technologies. We have developed a broad portfolio of award-winning products that benefit from our innovative leadership in areas such as distributed echo cancellation, automatic microphone mixing, signal routing, equalization, automatic level control, compression, and other advanced audio processing functions.

NetStreams, recently acquired by ClearOne, delivers the ultimate IP A/V experience by distributing high definition audio and video over TCP/IP networks. NetStreams' products, designed for commercial and residential use, offer unprecedented levels of performance, functionality, simplicity, reliability, and expandability. By combining audio/video content, meta-data and control signals into one stream and incorporating industry standards, NetStreams' newly patented StreamNet® solutions are a smart investment, enabling the Power of AV over IP™ – today.

NetStreams' StreamNet technology provides elegant solutions for streaming media & control applications such as digital signage, distribution of HD video and audio, LAN Cloud Matrix Switching™, and audio paging over data networks.