Audience

Audience has a strong executive management team with experience at both established and start-up companies in the voice, audio and semiconductor technology markets.

Peter Santos
President & CEO

Peter Santos brings to Audience more than 20 years experience in product management, business development and engineering in semiconductors, software and telecommunications. Before joining Audience, he was VP of Marketing & Business Development at analog IP & tools supplier Barcelona Design, where he led the company's product & business model definition as well as its product launch and early revenue. As VP of Marketing at DSL technology provider Voyan Technology, Santos led the company's identification and penetration of the DSL market opportunity. Previously, he was head of worldwide ASIC product marketing at LSI Logic, driving revenue from $600M to $1.2B. Santos also was Director of Design Services Marketing at Cadence Design Systems, providing operational structure which enabled a doubling of annual bookings two years running. He holds a BA in Chemistry from Colby College, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

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Lloyd Watts
PhD, Chairman, Founder & CTO

Lloyd Watts is the founder of Audience, and as CTO provides ongoing guidance and impetus for the company's core technology direction, as well as the vision of neuro-morphic computing for voice systems. Prior to Audience, he was principal researcher at Paul Allen's Interval Research Corporation, where he collaborated with the world's leading auditory neuroscientists on his vision of a machine that could hear as people do. Before Interval, Watts developed integrated circuits and software for satellite communications systems, telephony systems, optical character recognition systems and LCD displays for Microtel Pacific Research, Synaptics, and Arithmos. He also invented a low-delay digital speech coding algorithm that was sold to Cisco in 1999. Dr. Watts is the author of 3 issued and 7 pending patents. He holds a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, a Master's degree from Simon Fraser University in digital speech coding; and a BS in Engineering Physics from Queen's University.

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Bill Hoppin
Vice President of Sales & Business Development

Bill Hoppin leads sales activity worldwide for Audience and is responsible for all customer, service provider and partner relationships. Prior to joining Audience, Hoppin was VP of Sales & Marketing at video component supplier Adimos, where he drove numerous strategic design wins, as well as at high-speed interconnect supplier Accelerant Networks, where he re-aligned the product offering, gained key design wins, and led a successful IEEE standards strategy. As VP of Sales & Marketing at Celeritek, a leading provider of power amplifies for mobile terminals, Hoppin built a 60-person sales team and drove revenues to triple in 2001 to $130 million. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and is the author of numerous articles on wireless and data communications.

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James Huey
Vice President of VLSI Engineering

James Huey brings to Audience more than 25 years of experience in VLSI / system design and product management spanning the processor, video, and telecommunications chip sectors. Before joining Audience, he was senior director of VLSI engineering at Terayon, where he was responsible for cable modem and cable headend chip development, including the first production chip set for the Docsis2.0 standard. Previously, Huey was Director of VLSI engineering at C-Cube (acquired by LSI Logic) where he was responsible for the development of two generations of Video Settop Box and DVD chips. While at Intel, he was a designer and project lead in the designs of successive families of 8/16/32-bit embedded processors. Subsequently, Huey managed a VLSI development team for Fujitsu's Advanced Product Division. He holds a BS in EE/CS from Duke University and did graduate work at Georgia Tech and Stanford in electrical engineering and management science.

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Jennifer Stagnaro
Vice President of Marketing

A veteran technology marketing executive and serial entrepreneur, Jennifer Stagnaro has more than 20 years experience in bringing new innovative products to market. With a breadth of experience from product management, to sales engineering, to corporate marketing and investor relations, she blends her creativity, strategy, and practical tactics to establishing leadership positions in new market categories. Before joining Audience, Stagnaro was VP of Marketing at audio speaker innovator Tymphany, where she launched a subwoofer product into the consumer marketplace. As VP of Marketing at IP PBX provider ShoreTel, she helped solidify a leading product and market strategy to gain a foothold in the SMB marketplace. While CMO at Voice over DSL leader CopperCom, Stagnaro led the company's product & business model definition as well as its product launch and early revenue, establishing a leadership position for the company in this new market category. Previously, she led corporate marketing for Madge Networks, helped create the Data Warehousing space with Red Brick Systems, and held marketing and engineering positions at Oracle and Procter and Gamble. Stagnaro holds an AB in Engineering from Harvard University.

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Karim Younes
Vice President of Software Engineering

Karim Younes brings to Audience 20 years of experience in product development, strategy and engineering in software, DSP and telecommunications. Previously, he was executive director of Voice-over-IP Development at Mindspeed Technologies, where he created a highly effective worldwide engineering organization, which allowed the company to capture more than 40% of the worldwide VoIP market. Prior to Mindspeed, he was at Nortel, where he developed speech processing products for some of North America's first digital wireless base stations. Most recently, Younes held the position of senior director of Software at Borland, where he led the development of Configuration Management products for the Enterprise Software market. He holds a B. Eng. and a M. Eng. from McGill University, and an MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

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