Thursday, July 17, 2008

Beaudoin named CFO of Nuance

By Mass High Tech Staff

Speech and imaging software maker Nuance Communications Inc. has said that Thomas Beaudoin will be appointed executive vice president and CFO, replacing current CFO Jamie Arnold.

Beaudoin is scheduled to begin the new position on August 12, reporting to Nuance (Nasdaq: NUAN) chairman and CEO Paul Ricci.

The incoming CFO has more than 30 years of experience leading business operations and finances, including a previous role at Polaroid Corp. as president, CFO and COO, where he was responsible for reorganizing the worldwide finance team and growing the company’s consumer electronics business.

Prior to his work with Polaroid, Beaudoin served as senior vice president of finance and interim CFO at Parametric Technology Corp.; CFO for infinite supply at 12 Technology; and several executive and financial management positions at Compaq Computer Corp.

Beaudoin earned his bachelor degree and MBA at Babson College.

Nuance, founded in 1992 as Visioneer Inc., was named a finalist in the MHT/ACG 2007 Tech Dealmaker Awards, and acquired seven companies during 2007. In April, it announced a $363 million acquisition of eScription Inc., a Needham-based provider of computer-aided medical transcription technology.

In June, Nuance filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Vlingo Corp. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, claiming that Cambridge-based Vlingo infringed a Nuance patent covering a technique for adapting a speech recognition system to the speech of individuals or groups.
During the fiscal year ending in September 2007, Nuance reported a net loss of $14 million on revenue of $602 million.