Sonos CEO Patrick Spence Steps Down, Tom Conrad Appointed Interim CEO
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Posted January 13, 2025 at 4:38pm by iClarified
Sonos has announced that Patrick Spence is stepping down from his role as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. This decision follows the disastrous launch of a new Sonos app last year, which threw the company into turmoil for months.
Tom Conrad, a long-standing independent Board member since 2017, has been named Interim CEO. The Board has engaged a leading executive search firm to find a permanent CEO, stating its goal to identify "a leader who will build on the Sonos legacy of innovation and excellence in serving its customers while also driving profitable growth."
The company claims that this leadership transition is unrelated to its fiscal first-quarter results, which are scheduled to be reported on February 6, 2025. Sonos is not providing any updates on its financial performance at this time.
"On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Patrick for his contributions as CEO," said Julius Genachowski, Chair of the Sonos Board of Directors. "During his tenure, Patrick built on our pioneering success in wireless home audio and led the Company's expansion into premium audio for home theater, portables, and headphones. We appreciate Patrick's dedication to Sonos."
"Tom's mandate is to improve the Sonos core experience for our customers, while optimizing our business to drive innovation and financial performance. With his deep product expertise and long-term relationship with Sonos, Tom is uniquely suited to guide the company forward during the transition. The Board looks forward to partnering with him closely. We are excited about the opportunity ahead."
"I am deeply honored to step into this role at such an important moment for Sonos," said Conrad. "Nearly two decades ago, when I led the earliest initiative to integrate Pandora and Sonos, I got my first glimpse of the magic that Sonos could bring to millions of lives every day. I am excited to work with our team to restore the reliability and user experience that have defined Sonos, while bringing innovative new products to market. Together, we will focus on delivering extraordinary experiences for our customers and strong results for our shareholders."
Sonos provided a brief bio of Tom Conrad which includes time spent at Apple working on the user interface of the Macintosh.
-- Tom Conrad has served on the Sonos Board of Directors since 2017 and is a seasoned leader in consumer technology with over three decades of experience. He is the outgoing Chief Executive Officer of Zero Longevity Science, where he has driven growth for its subscription digital health platform since 2021. He previously served as the Chief Product Officer of Quibi, a short form streaming service where he helped build the team and product from scratch. Mr. Conrad was the Vice President of Product at Snap Inc., where he oversaw numerous product innovations that solidified Snapchat as a leader in the social media landscape, renowned for its creativity and user engagement. Tom also served as the Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Product at Pandora, where he was among the original creators of the pioneering music streaming service. During his decade-long tenure, he drove the development of Pandora's personalized music experience, helping the company scale to tens of millions of users and revolutionizing how the world discovers and listens to music. At the start of his career, Tom worked at Apple building the foundational user interface of the Macintosh. He holds a B.S.E in computer engineering from the University of Michigan. --