Atlantic Technology Navigates Change At Helm

By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 4/5/2004

NORWOOD, MASS. — Control of audio supplier Atlantic Technology returned to its original board after management and consulting firm OAC Group sold the majority interest it purchased early last year.

With the change, OAC partners Oscar Ciornei and Joshua Cooper have become consultants to Atlantic. Ciornei, a former Russound executive, had been Atlantic's president and CEO for the past year, and Cooper had served as creative director and industrial designer. Atlantic founder and board chairman Peter Tribeman returns to active management, adding the president and CEO titles.

The board, whose members regain 100 percent ownership with the change, said it "reluctantly accepted" Ciornei's resignation as president and CEO. The board also said it would continue to implement the business plan that the OAC group developed during the past year and that it plans no distribution changes.

Ciornei said he resigned because "Atlantic Technology is well on its way toward making a stronger market presence." And he added, "I have found that I am the most passionate when I am able to work with many companies and products simultaneously rather than being limited to a single manufacturer and product line."

The change, he added, "will free me and The OAC Group to once again assume our original role as one of the industry's leading consulting firms."

Atlantic "will basically proceed in very much the same direction it was going in the past year," Tribeman said, saying Ciornei "energized the product line" and "refocused some of the distribution."