Sonic Foundry Announces Executive Appointments

Sonic Foundry, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOFO), a leading media solutions provider, today announced five key executive appointments, following the creation of its Media Services division, which has been designed to capture newly emerging business opportunities evolving from the migration of traditional audio and video media to the Internet.

Brad Reinke has joined the Company as Vice President of Sales and will oversee all aspects of the Company's direct, dealer, distributor, and upgrade sales efforts. Reinke was formerly with Universal Studios — Universal Music and Video Company, where he was Vice President of Sales and managed the entire U.S. video sales division. He previously was Director of Sales for Buena Vista Home Video, a division of The Walt Disney Company.

Jeff Conover has been appointed Vice President of Marketing and will oversee Direct Marketing, Product Management, Marketing Communications, Branding, and Research. Conover was formerly Director of Marketing with RPS, a division of Federal Express. As one of RPS' initial employees, he was instrumental in developing and executing strategic business and marketing efforts which, over fifteen years, culminated in sales of more than $2.1 billion. His marketing experience also includes e-commerce strategy and implementation.

Reinke and Conover succeed Roy Elkins, previously Sonic Foundry's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, who has left the Company to pursue other business interests.

Other new appointments include Ted Lingard, Vice President of Operations, who assumes responsibility for Information Systems, Operations, International Business, and Customer Service. Most recently, Lingard was International Business Manager for Advanced Input Devices, with responsibility for operations and sales and marketing in Europe.

Brad Fentress has been promoted to Vice President of Business Development. Fentress will have direct oversight for the newly formed Media Services division, while continuing to direct the OEM and Business Development efforts. Since March, 1998, Fentress was Director of Business Development. He was instrumental in the formation of many of Sonic Foundry's strategic partnerships with such industry leaders as Hewlett-Packard, RealNetworks, Creative Labs, and Microsoft.

David Mighell has joined Sonic Foundry as Director of Business Development for Media Services. Most recently, Mighell was ICP Deployment Program Manager for Windows Media Technologies of Microsoft. During his five-year tenure at Microsoft, he was at the core of developing and evangelizing streaming media production tools and solutions. From 1995, he charged media production systems development for MSNBC, launching in July, 1996, the first fully automated newsroom production process suite for streaming media.

Rimas Buinevicius, Sonic Foundry's Chief Executive Officer, said, "The expansion of our executive ranks through the addition of these world-class executives lends great credence to Sonic Foundry's vision for continued expansion and market penetration in the world's media markets. We are truly excited with the extraordinary opportunities ahead and are confident our new organizational structure will carry us a long way."