Voice Processing names David Levi president; Former CEO of Natural Microsystems to head speech recognition firm

Business Wire, Jan 31, 1996

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 31, 1995--Voice Processing Corporation (VPC) today announced that David Levi has been named president of the speech recognition firm. Levi will oversee the company's day-to-day operations and management, reporting to Merrill Solomon, chairman.

"David's leadership skills and extensive experience in growing computer telephony companies will be invaluable in driving forward VPC's growth," said Solomon. "He brings an aggressive and dynamic background as a strategist and marketing expert in addition to his proven business management and financial experience. David is a wonderful asset to the company."

"This is an exciting time to be at VPC and in the speech recognition industry," said Levi. "The industry is finally crossing the chasm from experimental adoption of the technology to mainstream demand. VPC's people, network telephony products and speech-driven applications put us in a great position to capitalize on the burgeoning demand. We clearly have the right products at the right time."

Levi takes on this new role after having been acting COO and general manager for the Telephony Business Unit at VPC for the past several months. Before VPC, Levi was president and CEO of Natural MicroSystems (NMS), a leading supplier of computer telephony products to OEM's, system integrators and VARs.

While at NMS, he led the eight-year old, $4-million per year company to five-fold revenue growth and double digit profitability in 45 months. Prior to NMS, Levi was CEO of Raster Technologies and executive vice president of Centronics Data Computer and Raytheon Data Systems.

Levi has also previously consulted to telephone companies and firms such as PictureTel. His background includes managing an IPO, raising venture capital, developing international markets and finding and negotiating successful acquisitions. Levi holds a bachelor of arts in history from Harvard College and a master's of business administration from Harvard Business School.

Founded in 1983, Voice Processing Corporation is a leading developer of robust, over the telephone speech recognition technology for the development of telecommunications, cellular, and personal computer speech applications. The company's VPro product line consists of field-proven speaker-independent and speaker-dependent continuous and discrete speech recognition hardware and software. These products allow original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), value-added resellers (VARs), system integrators and application developers to develop voice mail, voice-activated dialing, interactive voice response, computer-telephony integration and command & control of personal computers.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., VPC's customers include Creative Labs, Inc., Dialogic Corporation, Natural MicroSystems, Octel Communications and Wildfire Communications. VPC's end-users include Hewlett-Packard Co., GTE Mobilnet, NYNEX and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

CONTACT: Deb Persson or George Cohen

Voice Processing Corp. George Cohen Communications

(617) 494-0100 (617) 325-0011

http:/www.vpro.com