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Posts tagged People
Purple Labs Names Simon Wilkinson CEO
Oct 11th
Purple Labs, a leading supplier of embedded Linux solutions for the wireless industry, announced today the appointment of Simon Wilkinson as chief executive officer of the company.
Previously Wilkinson was founder and CEO of Magic4, a market leading provider of messaging solutions to wireless terminal manufacturers. He took Magic4 through all stages of development, from venture capital fundraising to the recruitment and management of a senior team of industry professionals to a global organization of 150 people located in offices in the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Hong Kong, France and India. Magic4 was acquired by Openwave in 2004. In 2002, Wilkinson was personally recognized as the Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year.
‘It is a pleasure to join Purple Labs at this pivotal time in the company’s strategic growth,” commented Wilkinson. ‘Purple Labs has successfully developed a powerful software platform and established its credibility in the wireless marketplace. We are now primed to grow the company operationally and commercially in order to achieve ambitious milestones.”
Wilkinson will recruit a number of proven individuals to round out the existing Purple Labs team, creating a formidable team with the collective experience and expertise necessary to accomplish the company’s aggressive growth plans.
Purple Labs recently announced the closing of a $14.5 Million USD (10.5 Million €) round of venture capital funding. The financing was led by Sofinnova Partners (Paris), Earlybird (Munich) and Partners Group (Zurich).
Acision appoints new CEO
Oct 1st
Acision today announces the appointment of recognised industry stalwart Rory Buckley as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Acision, the messaging and charging company of choice for over 300 network operators and service providers worldwide, was formed in June 2007 following the purchase of LogicaCMG’s Telecoms Products division for £265m (US $525m) by a consortia led by Atlantic Bridge and Access Industries.
Buckley joins Acision from Ericsson where his accomplishments over 30 years have seen him advance from technical trainee to top executive positions across EMEA, North America and Asia Pacific, including tenures as Executive
Vice President Middle East and Africa, Executive Vice President USA and finally President and Head of Ericsson, North East Asia.
Buckley will take up the position as CEO on 1st October 2007, taking over from Chris McDermott who leaves the company to pursue new opportunities. Larry Quinn, Chairman for Acision commented on the appointment: “In acquiring Acision at the start of this year we demonstrated our belief in the potential for the messaging market and in Rory we believe we have found the right leader to take the company forward. We thank Chris for his hard work in driving the company to where it is today, and look forward to welcoming Rory to lead the team in Acision’s next phase of consolidating its global market leadership as the experts in messaging and charging.”
Rory Buckley commented: “Since its launch, Acision has often been described as a half-billion dollar start up, and as such it offers an exciting leadership opportunity. From a firm market leadership position we are perfectly equipped to undertake innovative product development in the areas of messaging and charging to ensure we continue to support our customers’
market strategies. On a personal note I am excited at the opportunity to lead Acision through its next stage of development and to work closely with the team as we continue to make the name Acision synonymous with innovation, assured. This will ultimately contribute to our customers’ growth and success.”
Bubble Motion appoint new CEO
Sep 11th
Bubble Motion, providers of Voice SMS product BubbleTalk, have appointed Tom Clayton as CEO and President with immediate effect.
According to the company, Clayton – previously the Worldwide General Manager for BEA Systems’ Telecom business – was appointed to the role based on his track record of success across a number of high profile leadership roles and his ability o thrive in entrepreneurial positions. In his various roles, Tom onsistently succeeded in rapidly building very loyal, high-calibre rganizations which capitalized on high-growth markets. Prior to BEA Systems, Tom also consulted at the very highest levels of Government and business and has attended some of the world’s leading universities including Harvard Business School and UC Berkeley.
Gaurav Garg at Sequoia Capital commented: “Tom’s appointment is great for Bubble Motion and for the whole of the Voice SMS market. Tom has consistently delivered incredible results and growth in numerous early stage markets and he understands the dynamics of the global telecom market extremely well. Looking at the quality of the management team and the technology that they are pioneering, I think it is fair to expect great things from Bubble Motion.”
Tom Clayton, CEO and President, Bubble Motion said: “Many industry observers see a very bright future for ‘Voice SMS’ and I agree with them. I particularly admire Bubble Motion for having the vision and skills to create and grow a new sector in the way that they have. All that, combined with the quality of the management team and its investors made me sure that this was a company that I wanted to be involved with.”
Bill Crawley, VP Bubble Motion commented: “Candidates of Tom’s quality do not come along very often, so we are thrilled that he will be joining us. I think it is testament to the quality of our technology vision and our current team that we have been able to attract such an excellent candidate.”
Telsis announce two key board appointments
Aug 14th
Intelligent SMS routing experts Telsis have today announced two key appointments to the board as it prepares for a major development and expansion programme.
Simon Brown, chief executive officer and Pax Andersson, group sales director, join with extensive experience of growing high-technology companies.
UK headquartered Telsis invented and was first to market with Intelligent SMS routing (ISR) - which is (as they say) “the next generation messaging system that lets operators grow text revenues with unprecedented throughput and advanced applications”. In simple terms, ISR removes the bottleneck normally seen around the operators short message service centre (SMSC) and makes things shift a lot faster. If you’re an O2 or Vodafone UK customer you’ve probably already used ISR technology without even noticing.
Anyhow.. back to the appointments. Simon Brown has more than 20 years’ experience in sales and operations management in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining Telsis, Brown was chief executive of Neustar Next Generation Messaging following senior EMEA and APAC roles at Nokia and others.
Pax Andersson was previously general manager of 3-Com EMEA and over his 35-year career has held senior posts at IBM, Network365 and Timeplex.
Orange expert joins Dialogue
Aug 4th
News in from interactive mobile specialists Dialogue. They’ve just appointed ex-Orange UK Head of Support Operations Steve Lovell to the team as Head of Technical Servies.
Steve, 35, from Leeds, was responsible for multimedia technical operations and services. More recently, at BT his role as Service Operations Centre Manager, involved overseeing technical support teams responsible for all live NHS
services provided by BT.
“I am really looking forward to working with a team of people that already have an excellent reputation in the mobile arena,” said Steve. “One of my main objectives is to further develop Dialogue’s technical infrastructure and procedures, in order to continue to improve platform and service reliability. My other main focus is to provide the best possible customer service to new and existing customers as well as meeting and forming good relationships with Dialogue customers.”
Hugh Spear, Dialogue’s Managing Director is excited to have Steve on board: “We are all very excited about Steve joining our management team and he will be an integral part of helping drive the business forward. Steve’s technical knowledge and expertise will help continue to improve Dialogue’s reliable platform, and ensure we continue to provide a great service to our customers.”
Of course you shouldn’t confuse this Steve Lovell with the Aberdeen football striker, who’s career has included stints at Bournemouth, Exeter City, Sheffield United, QPR, Portsmouth and Dundee. Although the Steve Lovell from our industry achieved 100% uptime of his remit during his time at Orange, it’s unknown whether he also scored 34 goals in 84 appearances like the footie Steve did at Dundee.
Tony Blair learns how to text
Jul 13th
Link: BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair gets to grips with mobiles
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has taken one of the biggest steps in his new career since leaving office last month – by learning how to use text messaging.
Speaking to a Labour Party fundraising events, he admitted he’s only just got the hang of texting, having only bought his first mobile phone last October - and his first message got a reply back asking: “Who are you?”
(Thanks to Krystal for spotting this one!)
Hotxt co-founder profiled in The Independent
May 24th
Link: Doug Richard: Exit the dragon – Independent Online Edition > Profiles
But Richard, an American who has lived in the UK for five years, has high hopes that Hotxt can become a seriously big business. The start-up has already secured nearly £4m in funding, and its founder believes it can be a big hit with mobile users around the world. The Hotxt website says that the company offers a service that enables mobile users to send text messages to each other over the internet. But this is not a clue to what the company will become, according to Richard. “What it is now will not be what it becomes in the future,” he says.
Thanks for John and Tom for spotting this!
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