OCZ's President and CEO Ryan Petersen Resigns

[Rob Williams]

In a press release issued mere hours ago, OCZ has announced the immediate departure of its President and CEO, Ryan Petersen. Having co-founded the company, Peterson had been there for over a decade, and according to the release, had been responsible for much of OCZ's successes over the years. In his place, at least in the interim, will be the company's EVP and CMO, Alex Mei.

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

 

[Greg King]

Alex is a super guy and I'm certain he will lead them forward without issue.

So long Ryan, and thanks for all the smokes. We wish you the best of luck going forward.

 

[Kougar]

Make or break time for OCZ... they need someone smart to steer the company over the next two years. Right now OCZ's brand image is significantly tarnished... I mentioned this to Rob when this subject came up.

I keep an eye on sites like Fatwallet and Slickdeals.net. Anyone familiar with OCZ knows their modus operandi is to use steep MIRs and brief promotions with retailers in order to grab customers with spur of the moment buys, or yank people off the fence.

Over the last several months I've seen many OCZ deal threads on those sites, and every one ends up with a "don't buy" tone or general consensus for OCZ SSDs. When a general consumer (Not a tech enthusiast, not a geek, but a general Joe public) recognizes the OCZ name as a brand to avoid for SSDs, the company has a big problem. The next two years will probably decide if they can fix it or start to flounder.