Paul Roberts named Symetrix CEO as Dane Butcher becomes chairman
Published: ASIA
WORLD: Symetrix founder Dane Butcher has stepped back from the role of CEO, naming long-standing vice president of sales and marketing Paul Roberts as his replacement. Mr Butcher is now chairman of the corporation that he started in 1976.
Speaking to Pro Audio Asia shortly after his promotion to CEO, Mr Roberts described the change as ‘an exciting move’. Regarding Mr Butcher, he added: ‘After being in charge of the corporation for 36 years he’s decided he wanted to take a break from the day to day running and be more involved with the technology that we’re currently in the midst of.
‘We’ll continue to work together and I consider that a great fortune. It will be a nice transition because he’s still in the office and he’ll be able to advise as we move forward. It’s a great opportunity for me and I consider myself unbelievably fortunate to be appointed to this position at this particular time in Symetrix history.’
Mr Butcher founded Symetrix, drawing on his experience as a musician and a recording engineer, originally aiming to deliver cost-effective but high quality analogue products for the recording sector. In recent years the company has successfully changed direction, instead focusing on DSP, resulting in the recent launch of Symnet Edge, an open-architecture DSP feature Dante and modular I/O.
‘I am very much looking forward to my role as chairman,’ enthused Mr Butcher. ‘After many years of wide-band executive responsibilities, I’m moving to a purely strategic role. I will now focus 100 per cent of my time on my passion for providing our current and future customers with innovative software and hardware solutions. In Paul Roberts, I am grateful to have such an intelligent, capable, and enthusiastic individual ready and willing to take on the responsibilities and the opportunities of CEO. Symetrix has never been stronger than it is right now, and Paul is ideally situated to continue our forward momentum.’
Mr Roberts concluded: ‘My passion to lead Symetrix is matched by my enthusiasm for the products we offer, the team we have in place, our loyal world-wide customer base, and the game-changing technology we have in development.’