October 25, 2001: Official Statement From Mackie

Personnel Moves and Strategies Clarified

 Over the last few weeks, Mackie Designs (NASDAQ: MKIE) has been implementing a number of changes to its worldwide organization in order to better achieve its strategic business goals, as the company continues to grow and move forward. The primary purposes for these changes are to streamline our internal product development process, dedicate significant new resources toward external customer contact, and prepare the company for an uncertain economy.

One major change has been to consolidate our product development and market management groups into three new market development teams. These new teams are divided into three categories:

Live Sound Reinforcement, headed by Ivan Schwartz;
Recording/Broadcast, headed by Keith Olsen;
Contracting, headed by Costa Lakoumentas.

Each director of market development will continue to report to Lori Stutsman, executive vice president of marketing, and will have team members located all over the world. These teams will utilize Mackie’s many resources and technology centers throughout the world to develop new products for all Mackie brands.

In addition, Mackie has announced the creation of two new sales positions that will be dedicated to strengthening relationships with national Mackie and EAW customers and a third position that will lead key initiatives in the areas of forecasting, sales analysis and key contact information.

Frank Loyko will lead the national account efforts for EAW while Dave Firestone will head up national account efforts for Mackie, both as vice president, national accounts. Doreen Shoda has joined the Mackie team to fill the third role as manager of worldwide sales operations. These positions will report directly to Jamie Engen, chief executive officer at Mackie.

Finally, Mackie has recently completed the implementation of Oracle in their Woodinville and Whitinsville facilities. This, along with the new organizational objectives described above, has prompted the careful examination and consolidation of some positions throughout the company. As a result, Mackie has eliminated some redundant positions within its worldwide organization.

Mackie is committed to delivering innovative products and superior customer support, while remaining financially strong. We, too, feel the pressure of economic uncertainty, but our sales are solid and we currently have more products in development than ever before in Mackie’s history.

Our recent acquisitions have provided us with a wealth of engineering and technical resources. Our software development teams at Sydec and Acuma are continuing work on new Mackie products. In addition, an impressive number of new Mackie and EAW branded speakers will be introduced in late 2001 and early 2002. In all, Mackie is looking forward to a prosperous future.