OCZ’s President and CEO Ryan Petersen Resigns

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.

Alex Mei, Center; Ryan Peterson, Right Photo Credit: Xbit labs

During his tenure with OCZ, we’ve seen quite a progression with the company. Ryan never had interest in releasing boring products, and had his sights on expansion – thus resulting in some of the niche products OCZ either released or had baking in the oven over the years. If there’s one product that never escapes my memory, its Ryan’s camo-inspired ‘Special Ops’ edition RAM – a kit I had in use in a PC here for a very long time.

At the helm, we’ve seen Ryan lead the company from one memory type to the next, eventually becoming one of the strongest players in the SSD market. With what we know of in OCZ’s pipeline, I’d say that things are only bound to get even better.

Taking over in the meantime is Alex Mei, an avid fisherman, great cook and all-around one of the nicest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet in the industry. It’s my hope that OCZ’s Board retains him as CEO, as I could see great things happening with the company if that becomes the case.