Management Team

Board of Directors

Medical Advisory Board

Samuel Thomasson is the President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Company. Sam has 22 years of experience in the analog and digital signal processing fields in general management, design, operations, quality and marketing management roles at companies including Acoustic Technologies (President and CEO), Medtronic (Quality and Reliability Manager, Manufacturing Manager), VLSI Technology (Design Manager, Marketing Manager, Quality Manager), and Motorola (Government Liaison, Quality Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer). Sam's experience includes extensive work with several major customers including AT&T;, IBM, Intel and Hewlett Packard. Sam earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. He has been granted 20 patents (several more pending) in the areas of audio and telecommunications technology.

Leon Humble is the Chief Operating Officer. Leon has over 35 years of experience in the Semiconductor industry and has held senior management, business development, operations and engineering positions. Most recently, he was with Microtune, Inc. serving in the Office of the President & Sr. VP of Wireless Business Group. Leon also has held senior management positions with major corporations, such as, On Semiconductor, Motorola Semiconductor, National Semiconductor and VLSI Technology. In addition, Leon has been a member of the senior management structure involving several start up semiconductor businesses. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration, from Arizona State University.

Jay Turner is the Vice President of Marketing. Jay has a unique combination of classic consumer packaged goods and start-up company Marketing experience. Jay previously worked at SKYY Vodka, where he ran the "viral/word-of-mouth" marketing efforts of a $125MM business with double-digit volume and profit growth. Prior to SKYY, Jay worked at Colgate-Palmolive and Nabisco, where he led the brand management, advertising, trade/consumer promotions, and new product development of the Softsoap, Murphy Oil Soap, Ajax Cleanser, and Cream of Wheat brands. Jay started his career in Sales at AriZona Iced Tea, where he learned how to market a brand "up-and-down-the-street" in New York City. Jay received his MBA in Marketing from the University of Maryland and BA from Trinity College.

Fan Wu Ph.D. is the VP of Manufacturing. Dr. Wu has over 15 years of experience in device design, process development and engineering management within the microelectronic and medical device industries. Mr. Wu has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from State University of New York, A Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York, A Masters of Science in Solid State Electronics from Huashong University of Science and Technology, and a Bachelors of Science in Solid State Electronics from Huashong University of Science and Technology. Dr. Wu has worked for world-class companies, which include Emerson Electric where he was a senior engineer in sensor design and manufacturing, Medtronic where he was an engineering manager and quality engineer for their semiconductor manufacturing operation, and Intel where he was a Staff Research and Development Engineer. Dr. Wu is a senior member of IEEE and has 3 patents/pending patents in design, process, and manufacturing of semiconductor and medical devices. He also has over 15 technical publications relative to solid-state physics within various international journals and conferences. Dr. Wu is considered an industry expert in low power medical electronics.

Thomas Wille is the Vice President of Retail Operations. Tom has over 22 years experience in managing retail/franchise operations, hiring, training, and managing medical-oriented professionals. As Regional VP for LensCrafters, Tom directed over 100 store locations and aided in the positioning of LensCrafters from a #2 player to a #1 consumer-oriented player in the optical field. Tom was then recruited again by the founder of Lenscrafters to operate the Poland and Argentinean retail operations for the UK based Vision Express, a start-up company with 120 stores that was ultimately sold to Grand Optical. He also held leading roles in the retail roll-out of new EyeMasters markets and Sight Resource Corporation acquisitions. Most recently, Tom held the position of VP of Franchise Operations for RealtyPro USA, where he served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Advisory Board for Synergy Holding Corporation. Tom earned his BA in Psychology from Southern Illinois University and became a board certified Optician.

Ed Petryk is the Vice President of Engineering. Ed has 30 years of experience in the design, development and manufacturing of a wide range of complex analog and digital systems. He has held senior engineering management positions with Honeywell-Bull, VLSI Technology, Inc and Philips Semiconductors where he was responsible for developments ranging from mainframe computer systems to custom to sub-micron CMOS system-on-a-chip solutions for low-power consumer applications. Ed has earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Case-Western Reserve University, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University and a Master of Business Administration from Arizona State University. He has been awarded patents in a variety of fields including fiber-optic communications, system-on-a-chip design methodology and computer system design.

Ken Zadoorian is the Vice President of Human Resources. Ken has over 25 years of extensive Human Resource experience in large organizations as well as smaller, growing companies. Ken began his career with Eli Lilly & Company in 1974. Following various assignments in engineering, IT, and Human Resources, he transitioned to IVAC Corporation in 1982, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly & Company, where he was Manager of Human Resources through 1986. Following that assignment, he took on the Human Resources responsibility for Lilly Sales and Marketing. In 1989, Ken then evolved to Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, another subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company, where he was Vice President of Administration/Human Resources. He returned to Lilly in 1992 with the Human Resources responsibility for the Lilly Corporate Staff groups, and in 1993, became responsible for the HR activities of Lilly Manufacturing, Engineering, and Quality Control. In 1995, Ken then joined PCS Health Systems as the Senior Vice President, Human Resources. Then in 2002, Ken joined Cox Communications as the Vice President of Human Resources where he was responsible for all aspects of human resources for the 3,000 employee Arizona region. Ken joined Superior Home Services in 2003 as Chief Operating Officer. Ken acquired his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from Purdue University, along with attending the Executive's Business Consortium at Indiana University. Ken has many community affiliations; he is a current board member and a past Chairman of the Board for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Scottsdale. Ken is also a Board Director for the Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation.

Doug Klein is the Chief Financial Officer. Doug has 15 years of experience as Chief Financial Officer for public and privately-held companies in the consumer electronics and consumer durable goods industries, including multiple start-ups and early-stage, fast-growth companies. Prior to joining Zounds, Doug was Chief Financial Officer of Connelly Billiards, a leading game room retailer and manufacturer. Earlier positions included serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of Adcom, LLC, which develops, manufactures and markets worldwide a broad line of high-performance consumer electronics, and as Chief Financial Officer of Pinnacle Distribution Concepts, Inc., which markets and distributes in the western U.S. branded building products manufactured by DuPont Corporation. From 1993 to 1999, Doug served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Go-Video, Inc., a publicly-traded consumer electronics company that grew from $16 million to over $100 million in revenues during his tenure. Doug earned his Masters in Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science in Management from Purdue University.

Michael Gannon is the Vice President of Sales. He will primarily be responsible for creating an integrated sales team to reach physician and audiology practices and establish strong demand for Zound's new products. Mike brings over 25 years of Sales Management to the leadership team with a unique blend of Pharmaceutical and Capital Equipment Sales Management where his was responsible for building fully integrated Sales and Marketing teams from the ground up. Most recently Mike was the VP of Sales and Marketing for Sysmex, a Japanese diagnostic manufacturer with products to Hospitals, IDNs, Commercial Laboratories, Federal Government etc. Mike has diverse Sales Management experiences selling to physicians, hospitals, retailers, wholesalers and the Federal Government with Takeda, Bayer, and Pfizer/Roerig Pharmaceutical companies. He holds a Biology degree from the University of Southwest Louisiana.

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William Turner is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Company's board of directors. Mr. Turner is Managing Director of Signature Capital, a venture capital firm that he co-founded in 1997, and an affiliate of the Placement Agent. From 1983 to 1989, Mr. Turner served as President, COO and a director of Automatic Data Processing (ADP - NYSE), a computerized transaction processing, data communication and information services firm with 1989 annual revenues of over $2 billion. In 1989, Mr. Turner formed Turner and Partners, a management services firm, specializing in the management of leveraged buy-outs. For one client, Forstmann Little, he served as Executive Chairman and/or Chief Executive Officer for over thirty separate business units with combined annual sales of over $2.5 billion. From 1979 to 1983, he served as the President of Texas Instruments Consumer Products Division. Earlier in his career, he held systems engineering, marketing and senior management positions at Sylvania Electronics and minicomputer maker, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). He has served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac - NYSE) since 1990 and currently serves on the boards of several private venture capital companies including Acoustic Technologies, NetNumber, Tango Networks, Helium Exchange, and VIRxSYS Corporation.

Samuel Thomasson is the Co-Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Company. Mr. Thomasson has 22 years of experience in the analog and digital signal processing fields in general management, design, operations, quality and marketing management roles at companies including Acoustic Technologies (President and CEO), Medtronic (Quality and Reliability Manager, Manufacturing Manager), VLSI Technology (Design Manager, Marketing Manager, Quality Manager), and Motorola (Government Liaison, Quality Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer). Mr. Thomasson's experience includes extensive work with several major customers including AT&T;, IBM, Intel and Hewlett Packard. Mr. Thomasson earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. He has been granted 20 patents (several more pending) in the areas of audio and telecommunications technology.

Bannus Hudson is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Beverages & more!, bringing an impressive 29-year track record of successfully building and managing business entities. From 1995 to 1997 Hudson served as President and CEO of Equity Enterprises, Inc., an independent strategic advisory service for CEO's and corporations during periods of growth, start-up, turnaround and expansion. As President and CEO of United States Shoe Corporation (NYSE) from 1990 through 1995, Hudson successfully turned around the company's $700 million Footwear Group and completed a major restructuring of the company's $1.2 billion Apparel Retailing Group, which included the Casual Corner & Petite Sophisticate specialty retail chains. He negotiated the sale of the Footwear Group for a substantial premium to Nine West Group and the sale of U.S. Shoe to Luxottica SpA of Italy in 1995. U.S. Shoe's market capitalization was $400-500 million in the Fall of 1993, when most of the restructuring and management team changes were completed; this nearly doubled over the following twelve months, and was increased to about $1.4 billion with the final merger negotiations with Luxottica SpA. Hudson joined U.S. Shoe as part of LensCrafters in 1985, where he served as President and CEO. Hudson was instrumental in helping the company to achieve worldwide industry leadership and growing the chain from 25 stores and $40 million in annual sales in 1985 to over 600 stores and $900 million in sales. Previously, Hudson enjoyed a seventeen-year career with Procter & Gamble where he held senior level positions in manufacturing, brand management and category management for a number of the company's most successful brands. Hudson has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas.

Steve Cone is Managing Director and head of advertising and brand management at Citigroup Global Wealth Management which includes The Citigroup Private Bank, Citigroup/Smith Barney, and Citigroup Investment Research. Along with two other senior executives he also coordinates worldwide brand management for all of Citigroup's businesses in more than 100 countries and encompassing 200 million customers. Prior to joining Citigroup, Cone was president of Fidelity's retail business and Fidelity's Chief Marketing Officer. At Fidelity, he launched a successful advertising campaign featuring renowned former portfolio manager Peter Lynch, helping drive significant increases in the sale of Fidelity mutual funds. He also managed Fidelity's successful expansion into discount brokerage, making it the world's largest provider in that industry. Over his thirty-year career-half of it in financial services-Cone has earned a reputation for innovative marketing, with stops along the way at Key Corp, an earlier stint at Citibank, and seven years at American Express managing their branding strategy worldwide. Steve's first book was published by Bloomberg Press in the fall of 2005, titled Steal These Ideas: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You A Star! It has been distributed in 15 foreign language versions and was the #1 Marketing Book in America in the winter of 2005/2006. In 1972, Steve graduated magna cum laude from Coe College with a degree in English literature.

James Denny is a retired corporate executive having been a senior officer for several Fortune 50 and 500 multinational companies. His last position was with Sears, Roebuck and Co., where he served as Chief Financial Officer and subsequently as Vice Chairman with oversight responsibility for several of the companies financial services subsidiaries. He retired in 1995 upon completion of the program to unbundle the financial services/retail conglomerate through a series of spin-offs and sales of its financial services businesses. Earlier positions include Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer with G.D. Searle and Co. (1978 - 1985), Chairman of Pearl Health Services, Inc., a publicly held Searle-affiliated company, and Treasurer of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company (1968-1977). He began his career as a lawyer, practicing in New York and Paris with the firm of Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer and Wood (1960-1968). Denny is a director of GATX Corporation and Gilead Sciences, Inc., where he also serves as Chairman. Previous board memberships include Allstate Corporation, Astra AB, ChoicePoint, Inc., General Binding Corporation, General Instrument Corporation, The Principal Financial Group, and Sears, Roebuck and Co. Since his retirement from Sears, he has been engaged in investment related activities as a member of the advisory boards of Evanston Capital Management (a fund of hedge fund managers), Westbury Partners (a SBIC venture fund) and Sandbox LLC., (an early stage venture incubator fund), as an advisor to William Blair Capital Partners, LLC. (a manager of private equity funds - 1995 to 2000), as a trustee of the Searle Family Trusts, and as Chairman of Navicure, Inc., a privately held healthcare claims processing company. He has also served as a consultant to the Pentagon and the World Bank. Denny is a director and a past Chairman of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare Corporation and is current Chairman of Northwestern Memorial Foundation. He is a former member of the Boards of Directors of Georgetown University and St. Benedicts College and is a Life Trustee of DePaul University. He also serves as a member of the boards of the Catholic Extension Society and the Catholic Theological Union, a member of The Bernardin Center National Advisory Board, and as a Vice Chair of the Finance Council of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Denny attended Princeton University from 1950 to 1954 and, following completion of military service in Korea, graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1957 and the Georgetown University law Center in 1960 where he was an editor / officer of the law review.

John Davis, Ph.D. is a Director. He is also a founder and Principal of the Technology Advisors Group, working with investors, boards and management teams of high tech companies. Dr. Davis has more than 40 years of experience in both management and consulting for technology-related companies, ranging from early-stage private entities to the Fortune Fifty. He has served on numerous boards and held senior executive positions including Chief Technology Officer of AT&T; Communications Services, Principal of GeoPartners Research and Director and Chief Technology Officer of Allied Riser Communications. Dr. Davis began his career at Bell Labs and spent 35 years in numerous positions, culminating in his role as CTO of AT&T; Communications Services. In the 1970's he conceived the architecture and led the initial development of the Bell System's No. 5 Electronic Switching System; and in the 1980's he managed the commercialization of AT&T;'s cellular technology, overseeing the installation of the first cellular systems in the US. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, his Masters degree from MIT, and his Bachelors degree from Georgia Tech, all in the field of electrical engineering.

Lawrence Michaelis, M.D. is a Director and is also Chairman of the Board of Advisors. He attended Indiana University Medical School and trained in General, Thoracic, and Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Virginia, where he also earned a Master's Degree in Surgical Physiology. After four years as Senior Surgeon at the National Heart and Lung Institute of the National Institutes of Health, he was recruited in 1975 as the first Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Northwestern University Medical School (NUMS) and Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) in Chicago, a position he held until 1989. From 1989 to 2000 he served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice-President of Medical Affairs at NMH and as an Associate Dean of NUMS. Dr. Michaelis has served as Vice-President of the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation and as President of Northwestern Healthcare Corporation. He has been a member of, and has served in an array of management and board positions in public and private companies - including Board Chairman of VIRxSYS. He has been involved with a wide variety of professional organizations including the Presidency of the American Heart Association of Metropolitan Chicago. He remains a tenured Professor of Surgery at NUMS and continues to assist in fundraising for the Northwestern Memorial Foundation. He is the author of over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Nigel Jones is a partner at the venture capital firm TWJ Capital LLC, with primary responsibility for investment due diligence and portfolio company oversight. Prior to joining TWJ Capital, Nigel was a principal on the U.S. leveraged buyout team at the Carlyle Group from 1999-2006. His responsibilities included leading the execution process for new investments, monitoring current investments, and sourcing new deals. Prior to joining Carlyle, Nigel was an associate in the Technology Group (Mergers & Acquisitions) at Goldman Sachs & Co from 1997-1999 and performed valuation, strategic analysis, structuring, and negotiation work. Nigel holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (1997), and a Bachelor of Arts degree (magna cum laude) from Harvard University (1991). Prior to business school, Nigel served as a junior officer in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years.

Paula Schmitz Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A., C.F.A. is the Secretary of the Company's board of directors and General Counsel. She has extensive experience in technology based companies, handling a variety of legal issues including patents and other intellectual property rights, as well as health care and technology licensing. Dr. Schmitz has worked in both large law firms and as inside general counsel to technology companies in biotechnology, software, hardware, internet, medical device, wireless communications and healthcare. In addition to her legal background Paula has an extensive professional background in corporate finance, is a Chartered Financial Analyst (C.F.A.) and an arbitrator for the N.A.S.D. Dr. Schmitz earned a law degree from The University of Texas at Austin, following her completion of a Ph.D. in finance as well as a M.B.A. also from The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Schmitz earned her undergraduate degree from Davidson College.

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James McDonald, Au.D., Sc.D. is a prominent audiologist who holds a Doctor's degree in Audiology and Science from the University of Arizona and Johns Hopkins University. Dr. McDonald is an active clinician and a driving force in American Audiology. He is past present of The Society of Dispensing Audiologists, is a member of the Accreditation Commission of Audiology Education, and currently serves as the Director of AuDNet; a nation-wide network of dispensing audiologists. He is a member of virtually all of the important national Audiology societies. Dr. McDonald's research interests include applied psychoacoustics as it relates to the diseased ear and the electrophysiology of audition, specifically to clinical applications of the auditory evoked potential. He is the author of a number of peer-reviewed publications and has presented his work at a wide array of prestigious national Audiology organizations.

Edward L. Applebaum M.D. is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Northwestern University Medical School since 2000. Previously, he served in that capacity at The University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a member of, and has served as President of, numerous prestigious academic organizations of ENT surgeons. Among his honors are the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the medical school at Wayne State University, the Distinguished Faculty Award from the University of Illinois Medical School and The Frank Netter International Award for 1999. He is the developer of two widely used middle ear implants that bear his name and for which he holds U.S. patents. His practice has been limited to otology for the past 25 years. Dr. Applebaum is the co-author of a book and has published over 130 scientific articles and book chapters. He was the Editor of the American Journal of Otolaryngology for five years and serves on the editorial boards of three otolaryngology journals.

Sean Conlon M.D. is an ENT surgeon in private practice in Fort Collins Colorado. He has a special interest in hearing loss. He completed his residency in Otolaryngology at Northwestern University Medical School and had additional fellowship training in Otology/Neurotology at Northwestern and the Ear Research Foundation in Sarasota Florida. Dr. Conlon has an extensive clinical practice with a strong emphasis on hearing disorders. He has published papers in peer reviewed journals and presented at national scientific organizations. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Otolaryngology and a member of a number of ENT societies. Sean is especially facile in the business aspects of hearing disorders and serves as a consultant to the Northport Private Equity Group.

John Zappia M.D., FACS is an Otologic Surgeon with the prestigious Michigan Ear Institute in Suburban Detroit. He is graduate of the University of Michigan where he did his Residency in Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery. He was an NIH Resident Research Fellow and had further training in Otology and Neurotology upon completion of his formal residency training. After his residency and fellowship, Dr. Zappia served for five years on the teaching faculty of Northwestern University Medical School. Among his numerous certifications, appointments, and professional society memberships; he served on the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery and was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Zappia is the author of 35 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters dealing predominantly with problems of the ear and he has made over 75 presentations to a wide variety of ENT and other medical and scientific organizations. He continues in an active teaching role at The Michigan Ear Institute.

Robert J. Oliveira Ph.D. is the founder and president of Hearing Components, Inc. Oakdale, MN, as well as a biochemist and an inventor. The National Institutes of Health have awarded Dr. Oliveira four Small Business Innovative Research grants (~$1.75 Million) for basic research to define the activity and geometry of ear canals and related product development to improve the physical fitting of hearing aids, earplugs, and instant fit starter-hearing devices. Dr. Oliveira has over 12 patents and has published over 30 articles or chapters on topics related to the human ear canal and has given numerous invited presentations internationally. He has been an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Hearing Industries Association and is his second term as an elected Board Director for the American Auditory Society. His background includes a doctorate in biochemistry from Iowa State University and post-doctoral work in bio/immunochemistry and aging at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

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