Sonic Foundry Appoints Ray Hassell Vice President, International

MADISON, Wisconsin, May 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the recognized market leader for rich media webcasting, lecture capture and knowledge management, today announced the appointment of Ray Hassell as Vice President, International.

During the five years Mr. Hassell has worked with Sonic Foundry he has been instrumental in opening new markets across the regions of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Credited with securing some of the company's largest deals at universities outside of the United States, he has led his team to achieve up to 30% of the company's product billings. This appointment exemplifies Sonic Foundry's commitment to expanding the company's global presence and strengthening its international sales team as it invests in new high-growth markets like India and the Asia Pacific region.

Prior to working with Sonic Foundry Mr. Hassell spent 10 years with One Touch Systems where he designed and implemented satellite based interactive distance learning solutions in Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

"Overseas demand for Mediasite has grown under Ray's leadership, even in an extremely challenging economic environment. Ray has been instrumental in expanding our business in strategic regions such as Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and more recently India," said Rob Lipps, executive vice president of sales of Sonic Foundry. "Ray's technical expertise and knowledge of today's learning and communication challenges help him deliver real working solutions to our customers, making a positive difference to the learning outcomes for education and commercial organizations."

Signs of a robust international customer base are evident in the growing number of Mediasite User Groups (MUG) around the world, including MUG Netherlands, which has held three conferences, MUG Japan which has held two conferences and the newly-formed MUG Australia/New Zealand. The number of international customers who attend UNLEASH the Mediasite User Conference has grown 225% since the first conference five years ago. UNLEASH 2011 takes place May 16-18, 2011 in Madison, WI where customers from nine countries will be attending.

About Sonic Foundry(R), Inc.

Sonic Foundry (NASDAQ: SOFO, www.sonicfoundry.com) is the global leader for rich media webcasting and knowledge management, providing enterprise communication solutions for education, business and government. Powered by Mediasite, the patented webcasting platform which automates the capture, management, delivery and search of lectures, online training and briefings, Sonic Foundry empowers people to transform the way they communicate. Through the Mediasite platform and its Event Services group, the company helps customers connect a dynamic, evolving world of shared knowledge and envisions a future where learners and workers around the globe use webcasting to bridge time and distance, accelerate research and improve performance. Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of Sonic Foundry, Inc. or their respective owners.

Certain statements contained in this news release regarding matters that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Because such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, uncertainties pertaining to continued market acceptance for Sonic Foundry's products, its ability to succeed in capturing significant revenues from media services and/or systems, the effect of new competitors in its market, integration of acquired business and other risk factors identified from time to time in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.