MTI's Leaders

Mark Abramson has served as CEO of MTI since 1989. He is responsible for strategic development of MTI's technology and expansion of the company's live agent services on a nationwide basis, advancing its presence in the areas of IVR, audiotext, direct response, dealer locator, and telemarketing.

Mark has more than thirty-two years of experience in digital computer technology and over thirty years of experience in speech technology. He began his career during his undergraduate and graduate studies, during which he engaged in various natural language processing ventures. He rewrote Naval Research Laboratory text-to-speech algorithms, which led to the creation of an inexpensive computer capable of speaking the Wall Street Journal^®.

Mark based his Master's Thesis on the work he conducted enhancing software developed by Dr. E. J. Corey, 1990 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry. Mark built a natural language interface for Dr. Corey's LHASA (Logic and Heuristics Applied to Synthetic Analysis) software and was the first researcher outside of the Corey's research group ever to have access to it.

Mark later consulted for General Electric on the use of speech recognition and received a grant from the company to develop a voice controlled lecture series about the anatomy of the human eye that would allow a lecturer to manipulate a television display and simple animation using voice recognition. As a result of his consulting work with General Electric, Mark also provided speech consulting to Hitachi .

Mark also gained experience in telephony, where he developed a voice-controlled telephone set and established Voice Computer Technologies, Inc. (VCT) in 1980. He was Chairman and Executive Vice-President of Research and Development and generated the world's first IVR college class registration system. Mark and his marketing partner succeeded in raising $4 million in venture funds and private financing for the company before it was sold to Davox Corporation in 1984.

Darrell Knight, President

A seasoned leader and long-time entrepreneur, Knight brings over 17 years of experience in management, operations, and leadership, with a distinguished record of year-over-year revenue increases and client base expansion. Prior to joining MTI, Darrell successfully established, built, and sold three separate technology companies. Most recently he co-founded Arizan Corporation (Sept 2000) a wireless software start-up based in Atlanta, which was acquired by Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) in July 2002.

Darrell began his career in semiconductors with Texas Instruments, where he served as Product Manager for Text-to-Speech and Speech Recognition technology. Knight then joined Rasterex where he developed their European distribution channel. In 1987 Knight established his own software and hardware distribution business (Expert Graphics) with offices in the UK and USA . In 1989, he sold the UK operation to Telemetrix Ltd, a public UK-based manufacturing company, and focused his efforts on building the US operations of Expert Graphics, Inc which was acquired in 1999 by Rasterex (International) a.s., a Norwegian software development company.

Dan Herhold, Vice President of Business Development

Dan Herhold brings over 10 years of experience in business development and sales within the technology sector. Prior to joining MTI, Herhold was Business Development Manager at CPT International where he led the commercial launch of their VoiceXML hosted service offering. While at CPT, he successfully implemented an indirect channel strategy and developed key partner relationships that drove substantial business opportunities for the newly launched offering.

Previous to working at CPT, Herhold served as Director of Business Development for Enterprise Software LLC, where he established the initial base of reference accounts for this startup company providing executive dashboard applications. He also served as Director of Business Development for SYNAVANT Inc., a $166M global, public company providing CRM products and services to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. At SYNAVANT, Dan established and managed the new business development and corporate alliance program for the U.S. SYNAVANT was successfully sold to Dendrite International in 2003.

George Broady, Chairman of the Board

Mr. Broady, a principal investor in MTI, has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company since March 1989. Mr. Broady is presently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kings III Emergency Communication, a leading provider of emergency communication solutions. Kings III offers turnkey solutions for commercial properties, including all necessary equipment, installation, 24-hour monitoring and full maintenance. With its patented telephone line seizure technology, the need for dedicated emergency telephone lines can be eliminated.

Previously, Mr. Broady was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ultrak Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTK), a worldwide supplier of security equipment (CCTV and access control) with over $200 million in revenues. Mr. Broady founded Ultrak in 1987 and grew the company to be a global leader in Enterprise Security Solutions (ESS) with operations in 15 countries.

Prior to founding Ultrak, Mr. Broady was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Network Security Corporation. Network Security Corporation listed on the NASDAQ in 1981 and was sold for $165 million to Inspectorate International, a Swiss conglomerate, in 1987. Mr. Broady is a principal investor and director in several privately held companies in the telecommunications and technology industry. Mr. Broady has served twice in the U.S. Army and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University.