QDesign
Makes Key Executive Appointments
Industry
Veteran Frank Boosman Hired as VP Product Marketing; Ken Ashdown Appointed
VP Artist & Media Relations
November 22, 2000 - Vancouver, BC -- QDesign Corporation,
a leading provider of digital audio compression solutions for the Internet
delivery, broadcast and new media markets, today announced two key new
appointments in its executive ranks.
Effective immediately, Frank Boosman joins the company as Vice President
of Product Marketing, based in Seattle, Washington. Mr. Boosman brings
with him thirteen years' experience in product development, product marketing,
business development and other roles at a variety of software firms from
start-ups to larger, established corporations.
Prior to joining QDesign, Mr. Boosman served in a number of executive
roles at Be Incorporated of Menlo Park, California, a leading vendor of
software platforms that enable rich media and Web experiences on Internet
appliances and personal computers. During his tenure at Be, Mr. Boosman
served as Vice President of Developer Relations, Business Development
and Marketing Communications. Previously, Mr. Boosman was Vice President,
Product Development at Red Storm Entertainment of Morrisville, North Carolina,
where he was responsible for both long-term product direction and day-to-day
product management. Red Storm Entertainment was spun out from Virtus Corporation
of Cary, North Carolina, where Mr. Boosman served as Vice President and
General Manager of Virtus Studios, a business unit formed to create entertainment
software titles using Virtus 3-D tools and technologies. Virtus Studios
creations included Tom Clancy SSN, a submarine simulation for Windows
95. Mr. Boosman's career includes a term at Adobe Systems of San Jose,
California, where he was Senior Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Acrobat.
Simultaneous with the hiring of Mr. Boosman is the appointment of Ken
Ashdown to the role of Vice President, Artist and Media Relations. Mr.
Ashdown moves from his previous position as QDesign VP Marketing to focus
on management of the company's marketing communications and media relations
activities. Mr. Ashdown will also be responsible for maintaining and developing
relations within the music industry at the artist, management and label
levels and will be based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
A former print journalist and radio broadcaster, Mr. Ashdown's background
also includes extensive experience as a musician, songwriter and independent
label owner/operator. He joined Polygram Group Canada in 1983 where his
career spanned nearly 15 years and included positions in the national
product marketing and press offices, as well as regional marketing and
promotion posts in Quebec and British Columbia. In early 1995 he was named
Vice President, Promotion & Publicity, for the Mercury/Polydor group,
earning the company's first ever CCMA Award for Label of the Year and
leading the division to three consecutive years of growth with the success
of Shania Twain, Bon Jovi, LL Cool J and Andrea Bocelli, among others.
In 1998, Mr. Ashdown founded Komrad Communications Group to provide management,
promotion and marketing expertise to artists seeking to tap the global
reach and potential of the Internet.
"We're extraordinarily pleased to have Frank Boosman join our ranks,"
stated Richard J. Beaton, President and CTO of QDesign. "His experience
at the leading edge of the software industry will be invaluable to us
as we dramatically expand our business over the coming months. With Ken
Ashdown's new appointment, his extensive background in the recording industry
gives us a significant advantage in the digital music market and ensures
that we will always put first the needs of our customers: the artists
who create music, the engineers who record it and the record labels who
market and distribute it."
About QDesign
From the release of the world's first real-time MPEG audio compression
software in 1996 to the introduction of its own MP3, QDesign Music and
QDX technologies, QDesign has established itself as the leading provider
of the most advanced audio compression solutions in the broadcast, new
media and Internet delivery markets. Since the inclusion of the QDesign
Music Codec in Apple QuickTime as the audio compression solution for Internet
streaming, multimedia authoring and digital music, QDesign has received
numerous industry accolades for delivering the best web audio technology.
Last fall, the company introduced digital music to the masses with MVP,
the first software application for creating and managing the most complete
range of music and video formats on both Mac OS and Windows platforms.
Today, QDesign's audio technologies appear in hardware processors, digital
audio production, automation and distribution systems as well as consumer
multimedia software.
QDesign is a founding member of the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI),
the forum whose goal is to develop a voluntary, open framework for playing,
storing, and distributing digital music in a protected form. The specification
developed by SDMI will answer consumer demand for convenient accessibility
to quality digital music, provide copyright protection for artists' work,
and enable technology and music companies to build successful businesses.
For more information on QDesign and its products, please visit http://www.qdesign.com.
Contact:
QDesign Corporation
media@qdesign.com
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