Swedish digital audio pioneer Dirac today announced the appointment of Anders Storm as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, according to Dirac Chairman Johan Sedihn. Storm’s appointment as CEO comes at a time when the company is experiencing record breaking growth in the automotive and home audio markets, driven by new and expanded commercial partnerships with some of the industry’s biggest players – as consumer demand for premium sound across all platforms continues to grow.
“We are very excited to have Anders join Dirac at this critical moment in the company’s 20-year history,” Sedihn said today. “His deep experience in software, semiconductors, and hardware-software engineering, coupled with his C-level leadership record, aligns perfectly with the current and future direction of our company. He has what we need to leverage our current core competencies in new market opportunities and identify the new technologies that will accelerate our growth in the future.”
According to Sedihn, Dirac is on a strong growth journey. From 2022 to 2023, the company’s net sales increased by 59 percent, driven primarily by record-breaking sales in the automotive channel, which grew by 62 percent in 2023 and 52 percent thus far in 2024. Dirac’s Home Audio consumer sales also grew significantly during the same period, currently up 35 percent in the first half of 2024.
In recent years, Dirac has also grown significantly through partnerships with leading semiconductor companies like NXP, Analog Devices, and BES to port their digital audio solutions onto chips, which enables an end-to-end ecosystem for OEMs to adopt Dirac at an even larger scale.
“Anders’ deep background in software development, coupled with his more recent semiconductor industry experience, makes him the ideal CEO to chart our future success in the intersection of audio signal processing and semiconductor chips,” Sedihn stressed. “These two traditionally distinct industries are merging in ways that will redefine what can be done with audio – and Anders is equipped to help us leverage this integration for the betterment of our customers worldwide.”
“Since its founding in 2001, Dirac has advanced the frontiers of digital audio in every market and application where sound matters,” Storm said today. “As such, they have justly earned the reputation of being the world’s most innovative audio company. I am very excited to join this team of sound pioneers and I look forward to applying my talents and experience. Dirac is in a unique position and has endless possibilities in all parts of the ecosystem, which will help the company to grow faster in more categories, more channels, and more markets around the world. Dirac’s business model offers digital distribution with impressively high gross margins, which is ideal for solid growth and long-term profitability.”
Anders Storm comes to Dirac from Sivers Semiconductors AB (STO: Sive), an internationally recognized semiconductor company focused on wireless (5G, SATCOM) photonics, where he first served as COO before becoming CEO in 2016. As CEO of Sivers Semiconductors, Mr. Storm grew revenue by CAGR 44% from 2016 to 2023 and listed the company first on Nasdaq First North and later also on the Nasdaq Stockholm main market. Before this, he worked as Vice President of Engineering and Operations at Birdstep Technology and Head of Program Management Development, Smartphones, at Sony Ericsson.
He has also served on the Board of Directors of Sivers Photonics and EpinovaTech AB and holds a master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Lund University.
