Sonic Solutions announce executive changes

Sonic Solutions has announced that Bob Doris, founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sonic Solutions, will become non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Dave Habiger, currently President and Chief Operating Officer, will become President and Chief Executive Officer. In related moves, Mary Sauer, co-founder of Sonic, currently senior vice president of business development, will also remain a non-executive member of the Board of Directors. Clay Leighton, senior vice president and Chief Financial Officer, has been promoted to executive vice president and CFO, and Mark Ely, senior vice president of strategy, has been promoted to executive vice president of strategy.
“Over the past several years, we’ve built a great team at Sonic that has enabled us to register excellent growth in revenues with even greater growth in profits,” said Doris. “The executive team now in place has an average tenure with Sonic of almost 10 years – an extraordinary statistic for a high-tech company like ours. This is a chance for Dave Habiger, Mark Ely, Clay Leighton and the other members of the team to take on a broader role in running the company they’ve had a big hand in building.”
Habiger joined Sonic in 1993 and has been instrumental in the company’s growth. Most recently, he has held the title of president and chief operating officer for the company.
Leighton joined Sonic in 1993 as vice president of finance and played a key role in Sonic’s successful IPO in 1994. During his tenure at Sonic, he has managed both the finance and operating units of the Company, including sales, manufacturing, information technology and customer support.
Ely joined Sonic Solutions in 1992. He has held positions in product support, sales, product management, marketing and business development and was general manager of Sonic’s Desktop Products Group. Ely and his team in the Strategy Group are instrumental in shaping Sonic’s product and business strategy and play a key role in technology and IP licensing, business development and partner relations and mergers and acquisitions.
(SP)