Kanouff Leaves SeaChange

VOD Vendor Sheds President in Cost-Cutting Move

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 2/6/2012 12:01:00 AM

In the latest management shakeup at SeaChange International, the company announced the departure of its president, Yvette Kanouff , and said it eliminated her position as part of its ongoing plan to cut costs.

Kanouff joined SeaChange in 1997 and served in a variety of roles at the video-ondemand and advert ising systems vendor, including chief strategy officer and then president.

“Over the past few months, Yvette has been discussing her desire to pursue other interests and we support that and wish her well,” SeaChange interim CEO Raghu Rau said in a statement. “We sincerely thank Yvette for her years of dedication to SeaChange, her technical knowledge, and her contributions toward building the company’s video-on-demand business.”

Kanouff, in a statement supplied by SeaChange, said: “I’m proud that I played a significant role in establishing SeaChange as a leader in video-on-demand worldwide and in transitioning from a hardware-centric to a software-centric company. I think SeaChange is well positioned for the future; however, it is the right time for me to move on, and I look forward to my next endeavor.”

According to SeaChange, she is bound by a one-year noncompete agreement that bars her from joining a rival company.

Kanouff was named president of SeaChange in March 2010. In 2005, she was elected the first woman chair of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers. Kanouff is a member of Multichannel News’ Wonder Women class of 2001.

Prior to SeaChange, Kanouff served as director of interactive technologies for Time Warner Cable and worked as a signal-processing mathematician at Lockheed Martin.

SeaChange last week said it cut an unspecified number of jobs in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, which along with write-downs associated with underutilized facilities that the company intends to sell will save more than $5 million per year.

In November, SeaChange founder, chairman and CEO Bill Styslinger left the company and Rau, a member of the board, assumed CEO duties on an interim basis. Earlier this month, SeaChange named Michael Bornak, previously chief financial officer of Tollgrade, as its CFO. He replaced Kevin Bisson, who left the company to join Mercury Computer Systems as CFO.