Board of Directors and Management

Mark D. Burish

Mr. Burish, age 60, has been Sonic Foundry’s Chairman of the Board since October 2011, and a director of Sonic Foundry since March 2010. He is a founder and shareholder of the law firm of Hurley, Burish & Stanton, Madison, WI, which he helped start in 1983. He is the founder and CEO of Our House Senior Living, LLC, Milestone Senior Living, LLC and Milestone Management Services, LLC which he started in 1997. Mr. Burish received his BA degree in Communications from Marquette University in 1975 and his JD degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978.
Gary R. Weis

Gary R. Weis, age 65, has been Sonic Foundry’s Chief Executive Officer since April 2011. He has been a member of Sonic Foundry’s Board of Directors since February 2004 and was President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Cometa Networks, a wireless broadband Internet access company from March 2003 to April 2004. From May 1999 to February 2003 he was Senior Vice President of Global Services at AT&T where he was responsible for one of the world's largest data and IP networks, serving more than 30,000 businesses and providing Internet access to more than one million individuals worldwide. While at AT&T, Weis also was CEO of Concert, a joint venture between AT&T and British Telecom. Previously, from January 1995 to May 1999 he was General Manager of IBM Global Services, Network Services. Mr. Weis served as a Director from March 2001 to February 2003 of AT&T Latin America, a facilities-based provider of telecom services in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Columbia. Mr. Weis earned BS and MS degrees in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Kenneth A. Minor

Kenneth A. Minor, age 51, has been Sonic Foundry’s Chief Financial Officer since June 1997, Assistant Secretary from December 1997 to February 2001 and Secretary since February 2001. From September 1993 to April 1997, Mr. Minor was employed as Vice President and Treasurer for Fruehauf Trailer Corporation, a manufacturer and global distributor of truck trailers and related aftermarket parts and service where he was responsible for financial, treasury and investor relations functions. Prior to 1993, Mr. Minor served in various senior accounting and financial positions for public and private corporations as well as the international accounting firm of Deloitte Haskins and Sells. Mr. Minor is a certified public accountant and has a B.B.A. degree in Accounting from Western Michigan University.
Robert M. Lipps

Robert M. Lipps, age 41, has been Executive Vice President of Sales since April 2008, joining Sonic Foundry in April 2006 as Vice President of International Sales and assuming expanded responsibility for U.S. central sales in 2007. Mr. Lipps leads the company’s global sales organization including oversight of domestic, international and channel sales. He holds 15 years of sales leadership, business development and emerging market entry expertise in the technology and manufacturing sectors, including sales and channel management at Adaytum (now Cognos, an IBM company), Esker Software and Best Power (now Eaton Corporation). Mr. Lipps has a B.S. degree in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Frederick H. Kopko, Jr.

Frederick H. Kopko, age 57, has been Sonic Foundry’s Secretary from April 1997 to February 2001 and has been a Director since December 1995. Mr. Kopko is a partner of the law firm of McBreen & Kopko, Chicago, Illinois, and has been a partner of that firm since January 1990. Mr. Kopko practices in the area of corporate law. He has been a Director of Butler International, Inc. since 1985 and a Director of Mercury Air Group, Inc. since 1992. Mr. Kopko received a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Connecticut, a J.D. degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Chicago.
David C. Kleinman

David C. Kleinman, age 77, has been a Director of Sonic Foundry since December 1997 and has taught at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago since 1971, where he is now Adjunct Professor of Strategic Management. Mr. Kleinman has been a Director (trustee) of the Acorn Funds since 1972 (of which he is also chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Committee on the Investment Advisory Agreement), a Director since 1984 of the Irex Corporation, a contractor and distributor of insulation materials (where he is non-executive chair of the Board of Directors), a Director since 1994 of Wisconsin Paper and Products Company, a jobber of paper and paper products, with operations in Milwaukee and Madison, a Director since 1993 of Plymouth Tube Company, a manufacturer of metal tubing and metal extrusions (where he serves on the Audit Committee), a Director since 2000 of AT&T Latin America, a facilities-based provider of telecom services in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Columbia (where he is chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Compensation Committee) and a member of the Advisory Board of DSC Logistics, a logistics management and warehousing firm. From 1964 to 1971, Mr. Kleinman was a member of the finance staff of the Ford Motor Company. Mr. Kleinman received a B.S. in mathematical statistics and a Ph.D. in business from the University of Chicago.
Paul S. Peercy

Mr. Peercy, age 72, was appointed to Sonic Foundry’s Board as a class I Director in February 2004. Since September, 1999, Mr. Peercy has served as Dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering. Since 2001 Mr. Peercy has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2000, then-Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson named Mr. Peercy to the Wisconsin Technology and Entrepreneurship Council. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin in September 1999, Peercy served as president of SEMI/SEMATECH, an Austin, Texas-based non-profit consortium of more than 160 of the nation's suppliers to the semiconductor industry since 1995. Prior to that position he was director of Microelectronics and Photronics at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is the author or co-author of more than 175 technical papers and the recipient of two patents. Mr. Peercy received a BA degree in Physics from Berea College and MS and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Brian Wiegand

Brian Wiegand, age 44, has been a director of Sonic Foundry since July 2012. A serial entrepreneur, he has successfully founded and sold several internet-based companies. He is currently the co-founder and chair of the board of Alice.com, an online retail platform that connects manufacturers and consumers in the consumer packaged goods market. Prior to Alice.com, Mr. Wiegand co-founded Jellyfish.com, a shopping search engine, in June of 2006. He served as CEO until October 2007 when the company was sold to Microsoft. Mr. Wiegand continued with Microsoft as the General Manager of Social Commerce until May 2008. He also co-founded NameProtect, a trademark research and digital brand protection services company in August, 1997 which was sold to Corporation Services Company in March 2007. In addition, Mr Wiegand founded BizFilings in 1996, the Internet’s leading incorporation Services Company. He served as the president and CEO until 2002 when the company was acquired by Wolters Kluwer.
Michael H. Janowiak

Michael Janowiak, age 49, has been a director of Sonic Foundry since April 2011 and is a Principal at Pinnacle Investments, a boutique private equity and financial consulting group. He has 26 years of experience in the information industry, with focus on education, training, research publications and trade conferences for professionals in the communications and semiconductor sectors. Mr. Janowiak was President of the International Engineering Consortium (IEC)’s online learning and publishing group, co-founder and Principal of Professional Education International (PEI), where in concert with academia and companies such as Microsoft he led product development of online training and education. He has served on the Board of Directors of Mercury Air Group from September 2002 until September 2005, the Advisory Board of the Midtown Foundation since January 2001, as Industry Advisor to the Illinois Institute of Technology since January 1999, as the Subsidiary Director of CIB Marine Bancshares since November 2001, as member of Liquio Corporation since August 2002, and as member of the Advisory Board of Idynta Systems since December 2001. Janowiak is also co-founder and president of HRDRive, Inc., which is the North American subsidiary of SMR technologies, a publicly-traded, human resources software company based in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and Chennai, India. Mr. Janowiak attended the University of Arizona’s Business School and the Stanford University Executive Program.

Board of Directors and Management

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