SiPort appoints David Rolston CEO

SANTA CLARA, USA: SiPort Inc., a leading supplier of integrated circuit platform solutions for digital terrestrial broadcast receivers, announced the appointment of Dr. David W. Rolston as chief executive officer (CEO).

Rolston brings to SiPort more than 25 years experience in the technology industry and a successful track record in building profitable businesses in both start-ups and multinational market leaders.

“David’s proven ability to develop and execute sound business strategies in fast-growth, competitive environments make him an ideal leader for SiPort”, said Dick Sanquini, Chairman of the Board at SiPort Inc.

“We became the leader in HD Radio IC shipments by working closely with customers to implement truly innovative products. David’s skill set helps build on that success across the entire worldwide digital radio market. David takes over the reigns from Aiman Kabakibo, a Founder and Interim CEO of SiPort. Aiman assumes a new role, Executive VP and Founder, responsible for SiPort’s products and the handset market segment. He will work closely with David to insure a smooth transition while ramping his new responsibilities.

“SiPort’s engineering and business teams have defined the platforms for HD Radio, the most dynamic segment of the worldwide digital radio market today, and we are just getting started”, said Rolston. “I’m really looking forward to helping the company achieve its full potential by continuing to design and deliver worldwide digital radio solutions that connect people to digital radio content.”

Dr. Rolston most recently served as chairman and CEO of Forterra Systems, a provider of enterprise-grade virtual-world software technology. Before joining Fonterra, he was general manager and vice president of engineering at ATI, Inc. where he managed the development of advanced graphics/video chips used in popular personal computers, mobile phones, HD televisions, and many well-known gaming consoles. He has also held general management and marketing positions at Silicon Graphics, Inc, and served as Chairman and CEO of Multigen-Paradigm. Dr. Rolston earned a BSE from Northern Arizona University, an MSE in systems engineering and a PhD in computer science from Arizona State University.

”SiPort has made important contributions to the growth of the HD Radio Market notably as the HD Radio chip supplier to Microsoft’s Zune HD personal media player,” noted Robert Struble, president and CEO of iBiquity Digital Corporation, the developer of HD Radio Technology. “We believe that under David’s leadership, SiPort will continue to be a driving force in the adoption of HD Radio Technology across many market segments. We are excited to continue our work with him and his team to bring the benefits of HD Radio ICs to a larger universe of listeners.”

HD Radio technology is a free over-the-air digital broadcast from radio stations in conjunction with their analog signals. This new technology enables radio stations to simulcast both digital and analog audio within the same channel as well as add new channels and data services.

By subdividing the data stream into sub-channels, HD Radio Technology supports many new features including pause, rewind, and play functionality, searchable content by genre, the tagging of a song for future online purchase, and digital data services.