Protocall Technologies Announces the Appointment of Mark Benedikt as Chief Executive Officer
June 13 2005 - 11:56AM
PR Newswire (US)
Protocall Technologies Announces the Appointment of Mark Benedikt
as Chief Executive Officer Microsoft Technical Manager to Lead
Company; Brings Seasoned Management Experience and Deep Technology
Expertise COMMACK, N.Y., June 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Protocall Technologies Incorporated (OTC:PCLI) (BULLETIN BOARD:
PCLI) announced today that the Board of Directors has appointed
Mark Benedikt as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2005.
Mr. Benedikt is currently on the Board of Directors of Protocall
and will retain his seat on the board. Mr. Benedikt joins Protocall
Technologies from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), where he
holds the title of Senior Engineering Manager for Worldwide
Operations Security Services. In that role, Mr. Benedikt has been
the lead Research and Development Engineer responsible for all key
anti-piracy features on all optical media platforms, for all
product families, all channels, all regions, inclusive of the
company's flagship Windows and Office product lines. Mr. Benedikt
will be leaving Microsoft at the end of June to take the senior
leadership role at Protocall. On April 15, 2005, Mr. Benedikt was
appointed to the Protocall Technologies Board of Directors to Chair
the Technology Committee. In addition to the board
responsibilities, Mr. Benedikt has been serving as the company's
Interim Chief Technology Officer until such time as a final
candidate is selected and offered this leadership position. In
these roles, Mr. Benedikt has been instrumental in formulating the
strategic vision and technical roadmap necessary to drive the
company forward to new opportunities with new prospective
customers. Mr. Benedikt, in his current capacity at Microsoft, is
the technical lead responsible for product security research and
development efforts of next- generation intellectual property
protection measures and systems. Mr. Benedikt is considered to be a
thought leader in the field of optical media security architecture
at Microsoft. Mr. Benedikt has designed and developed a significant
number of novel optical media-based security devices and systems
that are patent pending for Microsoft with the US Patent and
Trademark Office and other worldwide intellectual property
protection organizations. Mr. Benedikt has supported Microsoft in a
number of key legal matters, from a technical perspective,
including providing expert witness testimony for the post-DOJ
multi-state Over Charge Case (OCA). In addition, Mr. Benedikt has
lectured on the topic of Next Generation IP Security Features,
Measures and Systems to both internal and external audiences,
including U.S. government security agencies. Mr. Benedikt has
received several Technical Excellence Awards from Microsoft senior
management for significant contributions to advancing proprietary
manufacturing engineering technology. Prior to joining Microsoft in
2001, Mr. Benedikt had been a successful entrepreneur founding,
owning and driving three distinct and successful engineering
technology concerns: Epixion, LLC from 1998 to 2001, where Mr.
Benedikt drove the software consulting concern that provided rapid
software prototyping services to Seattle-based high-tech start-ups;
PointSource Systems, P.S. from 1987 to 1998, where Mr. Benedikt was
the lead engineer providing IT infrastructure security services;
and Decision Technologies Corporation from 1983 to 1987, where Mr.
Benedikt managed the successful development and deployment of an
industrial engineering decision support AI system for mass scale
industrial applications such as integrated circuit wafer
fabrication process systems as deployed by Intel and AMD. Mr.
Benedikt received his undergraduate degree in Electrical
Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Mark is a
member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
(IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Bruce
Newman, founder and current CEO, is stepping down to pursue other
interests. Mr. Newman stated, "I am very proud of our progress over
the last several years and look forward to supporting Mark as he
steps up to lead Protocall at an extremely exciting stage of our
development. I am confident that Mark's vision, technology
expertise and senior management skills will create tremendous value
for our shareholders." "We are very excited about Mark assuming the
role of CEO and the strong leadership he will provide. His
extraordinary career at Microsoft and earlier track record as a
seasoned manager of cutting-edge technology will keep Protocall at
the forefront of the media-on-demand marketplace. Mark has been
working very closely with the Board as a Corporate Director over
the past several months. In addition, Mark has been serving the
Board as our lead technology consultant, helping us to drive key
strategic technology decisions. Therefore, Mark has had an
opportunity to truly understand the company and its potential. I
believe that Mark is well positioned to take on this senior
leadership role," stated Peter Greenfield, Chairman of the Board of
Directors. Mark Benedikt stated, "I have had the pleasure of
working closely with the Board of Directors since early February of
this year reviewing and advising the company on technology matters
related to systems development, product strategy and technology
budgeting and investing. This vantage point has given me the
opportunity to clearly recognize the value that the Just-in
Time/Build- to-Order, on-demand operating model has to offer in the
marketplace. "There is no question that on-demand media production
is going to be a key component of delivering bits to end customers
for many years to come. There are several key enabling technologies
that have only recently come together to truly make this a viable
alternative to the traditional stamped media manufacturing supply
chain model. "Protocall has devoted the past four plus years to
developing a world- class, fully automated, proprietary IP-based,
highly extensible, industrial strength end-to-end system. This
technology platform is now going to set new standards for
excellence in both the B2C (Business to Consumer) as well as the
B2B (Business to Business) vertical applications marketplace.
"Protocall is well positioned for success since that they are the
market leaders as well as the market makers. I am honored to serve
in this senior management role and look forward to taking the
company to new levels of achievement and market leadership." About
Protocall Technologies Protocall Technologies Incorporated is the
innovator of on-demand digital content distribution. Its flagship
product line, the SoftwareToGo(R) electronic delivery system is the
industry's standard for on-site production of brand name software
media, for both traditional and Web "eTailers". Protocall provides
retailers and software publishers with specialized systems
programming, digital rights management and electronic merchandising
services for front and back-end fulfillment operations. Market
leaders CompUSA and TigerDirect.com are both early adopters of
Protocall's on-demand business model. Certain statements in this
press release may contain forward-looking information within the
meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6
under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the
safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than
statements of fact, included in this release, including, without
limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and
objectives of the companies, are forward- looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that
such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and
future events could differ materially from those anticipated in
such statements. Technical complications that may arise could
prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant
plan(s) outlined above. The company cautions that these
forward-looking statements are further qualified by other factors
including, but not limited to, those set forth in current and
periodic reports and other documents filed by Protocall
Technologies with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Protocall Technologies undertakes no obligation to publicly update
or revise any forward-looking statements, whether, as a result of
new information, future events, or otherwise. DATASOURCE: Protocall
Technologies Incorporated CONTACT: Donald J. Hoffmann, Vice
President and Chief Operating Officer, Protocall Technologies,
+1-631-543-3655, ext. 210
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