Conversa Names Michael Castle as EVP/CFO.Business Editors REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2000 Conversa, a global leader in enabling speech technologies that facilitate Internet access See how to access the Internet. through both mobile and traditional access devices, announced today it has hired Michael Castle as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Castle, a Seattle native, comes from Winchester Ammunition near St. Louis, where he served as vice president and CFO See Chief Financial Officer. since 1997. In his three years there, the $300 million company's profitability increased by $24 million and it returned to its historic leadership position in the outdoor sporting goods Noun 1. sporting goods - sports equipment sold as a commodity commodity, trade good, good - articles of commerce sports equipment - equipment needed to participate in a particular sport industry. "Michael has a lot of proven background in areas we consider very important," said Dave Anastasi, CEO/President at Conversa. "This includes not only the experience in taking a company public, but also in directing the financial flow to maintain a solid level of profitability and growth." In addition to the typical functional responsibilities as CFO at Winchester, Castle was also responsible for strategic planning Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. and information systems. He also negotiated and managed key strategic alliances, and led the selection, analysis and due diligence Research; analysis; your homework. This term has caught on in all industries, because it sounds so "wired." Who would want to do analysis or research when they can do due diligence. See wired. process of multiple acquisition opportunities. Prior to Winchester, he worked for more than 11 years at Olin Corporation; in his last 17 months there, he was vice president of finance and information technology at a division of Olin now called PRIMEX Technologies. He led this space propulsion systems Noun 1. propulsion system - a system that provides a propelling or driving force system - instrumentality that combines interrelated interacting artifacts designed to work as a coherent entity; "he bought a new stereo system"; "the system consists of a motor and a and electronics division through a successful public offering in late 1996, when it adopted the PRIMEX Technologies name. About Conversa Conversa (pronounced con-ver-say), founded in 1994, is dedicated to enabling seamless interactive voice access to Internet-based information, anywhere, anytime, on any device and from any network. Built on an innovative speech engine, Conversa(R) technology is speaker-independent, modular, scalable and accommodates unlimited vocabulary, making it ideally suited for embedded applications. It also drives award-winning products including a voice browser A voice browser is a web browser that presents an interactive voice user interface to the user. In addition, it typically provides an interface to the PSTN or a PBX. Just as a visual web browser works with HTML pages, a voice browser operates on pages that specify voice dialogues. , desktop and web developer tools, and a conversational server. Conversa is headquartered in Redmond, Wash., and is located on the web at www.conversa.com. Conversa is a trademark of Conversational Computing Corp. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. |
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