Voice Assist Adds to Its Executive Management Team

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.