DEI Shifts Management

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DEI Holdings, parent to Directed Electronics, announced new executive changes, effective immediately.

Jim Minarik, the current President & CEO of DEI Holdings, will become Chairman of the DEI Board of Directors in addition to his CEO duties.

Minarik and Duffy
Jim Minarik and Kevin Duffy of DEI Holdings

Kevin Duffy, the current CFO of DEI and President of Directed, is being promoted to President of DEI Holdings and will continue as CFO and a member of the Board of Directors.

Mike Simmons and Julien Joly are being promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer, respectively, of the Directed Electronics division. There will be no changes in the senior management of either Polk Audio or Definitive Technology.

“We acquired DEI in June 2011 based on our underlying belief that the company is well-positioned to capitalize on the increasing presence of a mobile culture, fueled by the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets,” said Michael Choe, Managing Director of Charlesbank Capital Partners. “We believe these executive appointments will provide the needed focus and resources to innovate in headphones, personal audio products, and soundbars, as well as accelerate our development of automotive telematics solutions through our successful Viper SmartStart platform.”

As President of DEI Holdings, Duffy will accelerate the development of smartphone-related products, while maintaining leadership in DEI’s core products. Duffy joined DEI in 2003. Prior to that he worked at Clarion Corp., Bain & Company, and Deloitte & Touche. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Simmons has been instrumental in developing Directed’s innovative Viper SmartStart product line. Prior to DEI, he worked at Saleen, Sonance, and Ford Motor Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Joly previously worked at Vigil Locating Systems, Datacom Wireless, and Bombardier Aerospace. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from l’École Polytechnique de Montreal and an MBA from Sherbrooke University.

In additional management changes, Veysel Goker is appointed to the newly created position of Vice President of Finance and Information Technology. Also Dan Brockman has been hired as Corporate Controller and Treasurer.

Source: DEI Holdings

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