2005 – 2026 · SOUN · CIK 1840856 · FY ends Dec 31
SoundHound AI Leadership
Three Stanford-trained engineers founded SoundHound in 2005 — Dr. Keyvan Mohajer, James Hom, and Dr. Majid Emami — and all three remain at the company today, twenty-one years later. Mohajer has been CEO continuously since 2005 (private) and across the April 2022 SPAC merger with Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners that produced the Nasdaq listing; Hom is CPO, a director, and (as of April 3, 2026) Interim CFO following Nitesh Sharan's resignation; Emami is Chief Science Officer and SVP Engineering. The post-merger acquisition wave brought no new executive officers into the proxy-named roster, but the dual-class voting structure (Class A 1 vote / Class B 10 votes) gives the directors-and-officers group 45.9% of total voting power. Sourced from the April 9, 2026 DEF 14A proxy statement, the FY2025 10-K, and the post-proxy 8-K record.
Sibling pages: SoundHound AI Financials · Roster row: SoundHound AI on /orgs/ · AI pure-plays: /ai/orgs/.
The 2005 Stanford co-founders — all three still operating-officers
SoundHound was founded in 2005 by three engineers with overlapping Stanford lineages who have all three remained as operating executive officers through the company's twenty-one-year history — the only matched-set leadership page on this site where every original co-founder is still in an officer role today. The pre-2022 SoundHound, Inc. went public via the April 26, 2022 SPAC merger with Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co., which the proxy refers to as “the Business Combination”; every founder bio in the current proxy traces tenure to the pre-merger entity (Mohajer and Hom since 2005–2006, Emami since 2006).
Operating CEO since 2005 (private) and across the April 2022 SPAC merger that produced the Nasdaq listing. Per the 2026 proxy bio, “a technical founder and visionary entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience scaling multiple companies” with “over 90 patents granted or pending” on SoundHound's core technologies. Holds 19.8% of total voting power on his own (43.5% of Class B). Education: B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Toronto (2000); M.S. Stanford University (2002); Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Stanford (2007). Named a Top 40 Under 40 business leader by Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2017.
Co-founder of SoundHound. Has served as VP Products and CPO since 2006 and on the SoundHound, Inc. board since 2006. Per the March 18, 2026 Item 5.02 8-K, the Board appointed Hom as Interim Chief Financial Officer effective April 3, 2026 following Nitesh Sharan's resignation; he previously served as CFO of the pre-merger SoundHound Inc. from its founding in 2005, which is the company-disclosed basis for the interim appointment. Holds 5.6% of Class B (2.6% of total voting power). Education: B.S. Computer Science, Stanford University (2005).
Co-founder of SoundHound. Has served as Vice President of Engineering since 2006; current title is Chief Science Officer and SVP Engineering. Leads SoundHound's research and development efforts in speech recognition and machine learning; holds 16 patents related to Voice AI technology. Holds the largest single voting stake on the board: 51.0% of Class B / 23.1% of total voting power — greater than founder-CEO Mohajer's individual stake. Education: B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Toronto (2000) (the same BS-EE-from-Toronto-2000 cohort as Mohajer); M.S. and Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Stanford (2007), with a focus in wireless communications.
The three-co-founder cohort accounts for 100% of Class B Common Stock outstanding (Mohajer 43.5%, Emami 51.0%, Hom 5.6%) and 45.5% of total voting power on its own. The Stanford / Voice-AI lineage is the through-line: Mohajer and Emami were both UToronto BS-EE-2000 graduates who finished Stanford EE PhDs in 2007; Hom completed his Stanford CS BS in 2005, the year SoundHound, Inc. was founded. Pre-2022 entity history: SoundHound, Inc. operated privately from 2005 until the April 26, 2022 closing of the SPAC merger with Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co. (NASDAQ:ATSP), at which point the combined company became SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN).
Post-merger acquisition timeline — three deals in 21 months
Three acquisitions closed since the April 2022 SPAC merger reshaped the customer mix and the post-acquisition-mix-shift narrative the financials page tracks. None of the acquisitions added a named executive officer to the proxy-disclosed roster — the founder cohort plus Zagorsek (COO since November 2020) and Sharan (CFO since September 2021, resigning April 3, 2026) is the same five-officer team that has run the public company since the SPAC merger.
Sources: January 3, 2024 Item 2.01 8-K (SYNQ3 close); August 8, 2024 Item 1.01 / 2.01 8-K (Amelia close); September 9, 2025 Item 2.01 8-K (Interactions close).
Current executive officers
Four executive officers as of the April 9, 2026 DEF 14A's record date (March 30, 2026), reduced from five with the April 3, 2026 resignation of CFO Nitesh Sharan. Click any row for the bio detail. The proxy lists Sharan in the “Current Directors and Executive Officers” table with a footnote that his resignation became effective April 3, 2026 and that James Hom is serving as Interim CFO until a successor is chosen and qualified.
Dr. Keyvan Mohajer
48
Active · Chief Executive Officer; Director
2005 (founding)
Co-founder. CEO continuously since 2005 (private) and across the April 2022 SPAC merger that produced the Nasdaq listing. See the founders strip for the operating-role bio. Mohajer signs the company's annual proxy notice as CEO and Director.
James Hom
42
Active · Interim CFO · Chief Product Officer; Director
2005 (founding)
Co-founder. Chief Product Officer since 2006; director since the SoundHound, Inc. board's formation in 2006. Per the March 18, 2026 Item 5.02 8-K, appointed Interim Chief Financial Officer effective April 3, 2026 following Sharan's resignation; the appointment cites his prior service as CFO of the pre-merger SoundHound Inc. from its founding in 2005 as the basis. The proxy notes a search firm has been engaged to identify a permanent successor.
Dr. Majid Emami
49
Active · Chief Science Officer and Senior Vice President of Engineering
2006
Co-founder. VP Engineering since 2006; current title is Chief Science Officer and SVP Engineering. Leads research and development efforts in speech recognition and machine learning. Holds 16 patents related to Voice AI technology. See the founders strip for the full bio and voting-power detail.
Michael Zagorsek
51
Active · Chief Operating Officer
July 2016
Chief Operating Officer since November 2020; principally responsible for company operations, oversight of business workflow, company planning, reporting, goal-setting, and strategy. Joined SoundHound in July 2016 as Vice President of Product Marketing (a role he held until the COO promotion). Pre-SoundHound: Head of Product Marketing for Core Products at Square, Inc. (October 2014 – July 2016); VP Product Marketing at Leap Motion Inc. (October 2012 – March 2014); Director of Marketing Communications at Apple Inc. (2007 – 2012), overseeing apple.com, email marketing, the Apple Online Store, and retail digital marketing communications. Education: B.Comm Carleton University (1998); M.A. International Business, Bradford University (1998).
Ages, positions, and tenure as listed in the 2026 DEF 14A “Current Directors and Executive Officers” table. Family-relationship disclosure: the proxy notes that Kamyar Mohajer, the brother of CEO Keyvan Mohajer, is an employee of SoundHound — the only family relationship inside the company. There are no family relationships among the directors, officers, or director-nominees.
Board of directors — five seats, annually elected, two co-founders
Five directors as of the April 9, 2026 proxy. Three of five are independent under Nasdaq rules (Marcus, Sroka, Ball); two are not (Mohajer and Hom, both founder-officers). The board is elected annually — one-year terms, every seat up at every Annual Meeting. There is no classified-board structure of the kind BigBear.ai or Veritone use; the entire slate stood for re-election at the May 23, 2025 Annual Meeting and was unanimously re-elected. The 2026 Annual Meeting is scheduled for May 22, 2026 (virtual).
Dr. Keyvan Mohajer
48
Co-Founder · CEO · Director (management; not independent)
2005 (private) / Apr 2022
Management director (not independent). Director of SoundHound, Inc. since 2005 (private) and of SoundHound AI, Inc. since the April 2022 Business Combination. Holds 19.8% of total voting power on his own (43.5% of Class B). See the executive-officer row for the operating-role bio.
James Hom
42
Co-Founder · CPO · Interim CFO · Director (management; not independent)
2006 (private) / Apr 2022
Management director (not independent). Director of SoundHound, Inc. since 2006 (private) and of SoundHound AI, Inc. since the April 2022 Business Combination. See the executive-officer row for the operating-role bio.
Larry Marcus
60
Independent · Chair, Compensation · Chair, NomGov · Member, Audit Committee
2009 (private) / Apr 2022
Independent director. Joined the SoundHound, Inc. board in 2009 (private) and continued onto the SoundHound AI, Inc. board after the April 2022 Business Combination. Career: Co-Founder and Managing Director of Marcy Venture Partners (February 2018 – April 2025); Managing Director at Walden Venture Capital since June 2000; previously a digital-media sell-side equity research analyst at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown (1995 – 2000). M.B.A. (1993) and B.A. Political Economy of Industrial Societies (1987), both from UC Berkeley. Per the proxy's related-party disclosure, his brother is a Senior Advisor to Guggenheim Securities; Mr. Marcus did not participate in the Company's January 2025 decision to engage Guggenheim Securities in the at-the-market equity program. Holds 200,054 Class A shares.
Diana Sroka
53
Independent · Member, Audit Committee
April 2022
Independent director since the April 2022 Business Combination. Career: 24+ years at HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) since 2001 in finance and business leadership roles — current global product leader for HP's Consumer Services Business since May 2023; Chief of Staff to HP's CEO (March 2017 – November 2020) responsible for review and approval of internal SOX controls related to Executive Leadership Team matters; Head of Investor Relations (November 2015 – March 2017); Investor Relations Officer (June 2014 onward). Pre-HP: Business Planning Analyst at Visteon Corporation; Product Engineer at Ford Motor Company. Concurrent governance: elected to the Board of Professional Business Women of California in November 2022, Treasurer of the Executive Committee from July 2023, and President and Chair from September 2024. Education: B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Penn State (1995); M.B.A., University of Michigan (2000). Holds 234,605 Class A shares.
Dr. Eric R. Ball
62
Independent · Chair, Audit · Audit-committee financial expert · Member, Compensation & NomGov Committees
March 2021
Independent director and Chair of the Audit Committee; designated audit-committee financial expert. The longest-tenured non-founder director: joined the Archimedes Tech SPAC (the SPAC that merged with SoundHound) at its March 2021 IPO, and remained on the post-merger SoundHound AI board. Career: General Partner of Impact Venture Capital (Silicon Valley early-stage applied-AI fund) since 2016; Chief Financial Officer of C3 AI (now NYSE:AI) from 2015 to 2016; Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Oracle Corporation (2005 – 2015). Pre-Oracle finance roles at Flextronics International, Cisco Systems, Avery Dennison, and AT&T. Concurrent: Chairman of Archimedes Tech SPAC II (NASDAQ:ATIIU) since February 2025; Chairman of CapConnect+ since 2020; previously a director and Audit Chairman of Glu Mobile (2013 – April 2021). Co-author of the book Unlocking the Ivory Tower. Education: Ph.D. management, Drucker-Ito School of Claremont Graduate University; M.B.A. finance and M.A. economics, University of Rochester; B.A. Economics, University of Michigan (with honors). Holds 543,741 Class A shares.
Committee composition (per the 2026 DEF 14A)
- Audit Committee: Dr. Eric Ball (Chair), Larry Marcus, Diana Sroka. Each qualifies as independent under Rule 10A-3 of the Exchange Act and Nasdaq rules.
- Compensation Committee: Larry Marcus (Chair), Dr. Eric Ball.
- Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee: Larry Marcus (Chair), Dr. Eric Ball.
The two-member Compensation and NomGov Committees are unusually small — the same two independent directors (Marcus, Ball) cover both committees. Sroka does not serve on Compensation or NomGov; her sole committee assignment is Audit. The Board held 4 meetings during fiscal year 2025; the Audit Committee held 5; Compensation and NomGov each held 4.
Ages, committee assignments, and director-since dates as listed in the 2026 DEF 14A. Independence determinations: Nasdaq listing rules for general independence, Rule 10A-3 for the Audit Committee. The Board's general counsel is Warren Heit, who is named as the proxy-card representative alongside CEO Mohajer (but is not a named executive officer under Rule 3b-7).
Voting structure — dual-class, founders hold 100% of Class B
SoundHound AI has a dual-class common-stock structure. Each share of Class A Common Stock entitles the holder to one vote; each share of Class B Common Stock entitles the holder to ten votes. All shares vote together as a single class. As of the March 30, 2026 Record Date there were 393,674,647 shares of Class A and 32,535,408 shares of Class B outstanding, representing a combined 719,028,727 votes.
Combined voting-power concentration. Per the 2026 proxy's beneficial-ownership table, all directors and executive officers as a group (8 individuals) hold 45.9% of total voting power. The two largest single voting-power positions are co-founders: Dr. Majid Emami at 23.1% (51.0% of Class B / a small Class A position) and Dr. Keyvan Mohajer at 19.8% (43.5% of Class B / a small Class A position) — the only matched-set leadership page on this site where the largest single voting-power holder is the Chief Science Officer rather than the CEO. Co-founder James Hom holds an additional 2.6% (5.6% of Class B). Independent directors Marcus, Sroka, and Ball each hold less than 1% of total voting power.
No 5%+ outside holders are disclosed in the proxy — the “5% Holders” row of the beneficial-ownership table reads “N/A.” All 5%+ positions are held by directors and officers. Compared to the other AI pure-plays on this site, SoundHound's structure sits between Tempus AI (Class B at 30:1, founder Lefkofsky 100% of Class B) and Palantir (Class F super-voting trust at variable votes) — less extreme than either, but with a similar founder-control logic. The May 23, 2025 Annual Meeting authorized an increase in Class A common shares from 455,000,000 to 755,000,000 to support continued capital raises (the January 2025 ATM equity program with Cantor Fitzgerald and Guggenheim Securities had a $250M total capacity, of which $201.5M had been used by the end of FY2025).
Source: 2026 DEF 14A “Beneficial Ownership Table” and “Required Vote” sections; May 30, 2025 Item 5.07 8-K for the 2025 Annual Meeting share-count and authorized-share-increase outcomes.
Post-proxy governance events
Two governance-relevant events filed on Form 8-K since the April 9, 2026 anchor proxy (the 2026 Annual Meeting on May 22, 2026 will produce a third). The Sharan-resignation card carries a sky left-border because it is a CFO transition with an interim-CFO arrangement — a category of officer change visitors specifically need to see.
On March 18, 2026, the Company announced that CFO Nitesh Sharan would resign effective April 3, 2026 to assume a leadership role at a quantum-computing company. Sharan had served as CFO since September 2021 (private SoundHound) and across the April 2022 SPAC merger. His resignation “is for personal reasons and did not arise from any disagreement on any matter relating to the operations, policies, financial results or accounting practices of the Company,” and he agreed to serve as a transition advisor. Co-founder, CPO, and director James Hom was appointed Interim CFO effective April 3, 2026; the Board has engaged an executive search firm to identify a permanent successor. Source: March 18, 2026 Item 5.02 8-K.
Held May 23, 2025; 522,491,198 votes represented (out of 693,409,861 total). All five directors (Mohajer, Hom, Marcus, Sroka, Ball) re-elected to one-year terms expiring at the 2026 Annual Meeting; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP ratified as the FY2025 independent registered public accounting firm; the authorized Class A shares amendment passed (455,000,000 → 755,000,000); a separate amendment to Article XII of the Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation also passed. Source: May 30, 2025 Item 5.07 8-K.
Notable departures
One officer departure since the April 2022 SPAC merger: CFO Nitesh Sharan effective April 3, 2026. The page deliberately does not catalogue earlier private-company departures (pre-April-2022 entity history) because the public-company SEC-filing record begins with the SPAC merger; pre-merger officer transitions were not subject to Item 5.02 disclosure.
Sharan's resignation 8-K notes he will serve as a transition advisor to the Company; the proxy continues to list him in the “Current Directors and Executive Officers” table with a footnote because he was a 2025 NEO. Pre-SoundHound, Sharan was at Nike, Inc. (Treasurer, Head of IR, CFO of Global Operations) from May 2016 to September 2021, and at Hewlett-Packard (VP and Assistant Treasurer) from June 2001 to April 2016. CFA charterholder; Northwestern M.B.A.; Case Western B.S. in Management.
Read these primary sources
Most of the page's content is paraphrased from the URLs below. They are the authoritative places to read what SoundHound AI has said in its own SEC filings.
SoundHound AI SEC filings
The April 9, 2026 DEF 14A is the canonical source for the executive-officer roster, the five-director board, the committee composition, the dual-class voting structure, and the beneficial-ownership table. The FY2025 10-K supplements with the company-history narrative and the related-party disclosures around the ATM equity program and the Marcus / Guggenheim brother relationship. The post-proxy 8-Ks land the Sharan resignation and the 2025 Annual Meeting outcomes.
# 2026 DEF 14A — canonical source for officers, directors, voting structure
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1840856/000121390026041978/ea0285618-01.htm
# FY2025 10-K — company history and related-party disclosures
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1840856/000184085626000006/soun-20251231.htm
# Item 5.02 8-K — Sharan CFO resignation; Hom Interim CFO
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1840856/000121390026030707/ea0282324-8k_sound.htm
# Item 5.07 8-K — 2025 Annual Meeting vote results
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1840856/000121390025049463/ea0243781-8k_soundhound.htm
# Item 2.01 8-K — Interactions Corporation acquisition close (Sep 3, 2025)
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1840856/000121390025086243/ea0256604-8k_sound.htm
# Item 1.01 / 2.01 8-K — Amelia Holdings acquisition close (Aug 7, 2024)
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1840856/000121390024066351/ea0210680-8k_sound.htm
# Item 2.01 8-K — SYNQ3 acquisition close (Jan 3, 2024)
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1840856/000121390024000804/ea190917-8k_soundhoun.htm
# SoundHound AI on EDGAR — full filing history
https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001840856
# EDGAR submissions JSON — full filing index for SoundHound AI
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001840856.jsonSoundHound AI's own pages
The company's IR site hosts the corporate-governance landing (committee charters and governance documents) and a leadership-bio summary.
# SoundHound corporate site
https://www.soundhound.com/
# Investor Relations — Corporate Governance landing
https://investors.soundhound.com/corporate-governance
# Investor Relations — Annual Meeting
https://investors.soundhound.com/corporate-governance/annual-meetingSources: SoundHound AI's own SEC filings — specifically the April 9, 2026 DEF 14A proxy statement for the executive-officer roster, the five-director board, the committee composition, the dual-class voting structure, and the beneficial-ownership table; the FY2025 10-K filed March 2, 2026 for the company history and related-party disclosures; the post-proxy 8-Ks (Items 5.02, 5.07, and the three Item 2.01 acquisition closes) for the Sharan transition, the 2025 Annual Meeting vote results, and the SYNQ3 / Amelia / Interactions acquisition timeline. Last updated May 2026.
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