Speakers

Albert Almeida, Chief Operating Officer, Hungama Mobile

 

 

 

Albert Almedia is the Chief Operating Office for the Mobile Business at Hungama where he is responsible for Hungama’s Domestic and International Mobile business covering Entertainment, Platforms and Applications Businesses. Under his guidance, Hungama Mobile is creating convergence opportunities in media, entertainment and marketing for our telecom partners. These innovative and strategic concepts result from Albert’s experience of over 20 years in the field of media, entertainment and marketing.
Prior to joining Hungama he led the team at Sony Entertainment Television in the position of Executive Vice President and Business Head where he was responsible for building the brand via content, marketing and promotional strategies. Prior to Sony, Albert worked with J. Walter Thompson (JWT) - WPP GROUP, Mumbai and New York as Vice President and Regional Account Director. Synergizing his vast experience with excellent management skills, Albert comes across as an inspirational leader who has effectively managed teams and business in local and international markets.
Albert holds a Bachelors Degree in Commerce from Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics and a Masters in Management Studies from Sydenham Institute of Management Studies.
Hungama Mobile provides content to consumers across 43 countries, including North America, United Kingdom, the European Union, South Africa, Australia, Germany and South East Asia, through over 150 mobile operators. Despite being a late entrant, Hungama Mobile has emerged as the clear thought leader in the industry and No. 1 in terms of content acquisition within the country. Through the company's relationships with leading carriers and direct access to established Media & Entertainment companies, Hungama Mobile is able to secure the biggest entertainment properties. The company extends the brand value through personalization of content, games, images, applications, videos and various different promotions, spanning the entire gamut of digital entertainment.

 

Daniel Angel, Head of mobile payments, Everything Everywhere/Orange

 

 

 

Daniel Angel currently heads up Mobile Payments at Everything Everywhere. He is responsible for devising business strategy to drive new 3rd party revenue in the mobile payments space through innovative mobile technologies. He is also responsible for maximising the operator billing solution for partners through Payforit and premium SMS
In total Daniel has worked within the TMT sector for 14 years, 6 of which were spent at Orange creating new partnerships in the fixed mobile convergence space for companies such as Google and eBay. He most recently led the engagement with Barclays that has sired the Orange Credit Card powered by Barclaycard and the forthcoming mobile NFC launch. Prior to that, he was part of the launch team of a dotcom start-up (which became part of FT.com) with Pearson, demonstrating the value of commercial partnerships within the digital space.
Daniel has a particularly geek-like passion for mobile, is an avid consumer of business and technology news which contributes to a near encyclopaedic memory for digital and mobile business facts. He is also a seasoned south Londoner who refuses to move out of zone 1.

 

John Bovill, Group I.T. Director, Aurora Fashions

 

 

 

John joined Aurora Fashions via Oasis in 2001, taking on the role of Supply Controller managing a team responsible for sourcing, quality and product development.  He was then appointed Director in 2003 responsible for business development, such as mergers and acquisition, business integration and the deployment and formulation of the shared services and e-commerce strategy.
He started his current role as Group I.T. Director in December 2006 and has since integrated two I.T. teams, delivered international, e-commerce, mobile commerce, multichannel and single systems strategy and won 9 industry awards.
Previously, John led the Supply Chain development team at Warehouse and worked at Sears Womenswear within the Logistics team, in both an Operations and Project Management capacity.  Prior to working at Sears he was on the Harrods graduate training scheme.  His early passion for retail is revealed by the five years he spent selling clothing from a market stall.
He has an executive MBA, is an RSA fellow, Associate of the Institute Wine and Spirits, lecturer for Duke Corporate Education and an honorary member of the Wa-Wa-Kiya Tribe!

 

Andrew Bud, Chairman, MEF and Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, mBlox Inc

 

 

Andrew Bud is the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of mBlox Inc., the world’s largest mobile transaction network.  He co-founded the business in 2000, was CEO until 2003 and Executive Chairman until 2009.  Last year mBlox processed 3.5 billion application-to-person SMS messages and premium payments worth $500m on behalf of enterprises worldwide, and is a market leader in the United States, Europe and APAC.
He is the Global Chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum, the industry body representing the value chain supplying this $35 billion global market.  He has served as Chair since 2008, having been an elected member of the Board since 2001.
He also serves as a non-executive director of several companies and initiatives, and in 2009-10 chaired Bloomberg NEF’s Consortium on Digital Energy.  From 2005-2008 he was a Board director of PhonepayPlus, the agency of UK regulator Ofcom.
During his career, Andrew was one of the founders of Omnitel in Italy (now Vodafone Italia) where, as Olivetti’s Head of Mobile, he led the technical design.  He chaired several committees for ETSI, and built Europe’s first wireless LAN business.  His early background was in nuclear engineering.
Andrew is a Fellow of the IET and a graduate of the University of Cambridge.

 

Kate Bulkley, Media and Technology Journalist and Commentator

 

 

 

An award-winning business journalist both on camera and in print, Kate contributes to national UK newspapers and also writes regularly for specialist publications, including DTVE (formerly Cable & Satellite Europe), Hollywood Reporter and Broadcast Magazine in the UK.
An American, Kate has lived and worked in London since 1990, first as International Editor for pay TV title Cable World magazine; then as Media Editor for European Business News, a 24-hour, pan-European channel, owned by Dow Jones & Co., where she created and co-presented the award-winning, daily half-hour media show called Media Report. From 1998 to 2001, Kate was on-screen Media and Telecommunications Editor at CNBC Europe, a co-venture between NBC and Dow Jones & Co.
Kate began her journalism career at CNN in Washington, DC and subsequently worked in radio and in print in Colorado where she was senior reporter at The Denver Business Journal.
Kate has a master's degree in international economics and politics from the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (part of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland), and an undergraduate degree in Modern European Studies from Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
Kate is past Chairman of The Broadcasting Press Guild, (2004 to 2006) an association of the UK’s media writers & TV critics (http://www.broadcastingpressguild.org) She has been the Awards Secretary for the Guild's annual Television & Radio Awards since 2007. She is past Chairman of the the Royal Television Society's Early Evening Events Committee (2006-2010) and she remains on the committee (http://www.rts.org.uk). Kate is also Chairman of IBC's Content & Innovation Project Stream for the 2011 conference overseeing 10 sessions at the Sept 2011 event in Amsterdam (http://www.ibc.org).

 

John Conlon, Senior Innovations Manager, Global Innovations, Barclaycard

 

Biography to follow

 

Alistair Crane, CEO, Grapple Mobile

 

 

Alistair Crane, a tenacious and charismatic entrepreneur, is the CEO and Founder of Grapple Mobile. Grapple work with brands, agencies and businesses to develop cross platform mobile applications that run on all the leading smartphone handsets and is already working with ten of the top European agencies as well as directly with brands and businesses from all the major consumer sectors.
Alistair possesses rare foresight into the trends in the mobile industry and a deep understanding of how to leverage the mobile channel in order to achieve business objectives.
Before Grapple, Alistair was the Head of Media Solutions at NAVTEQ which was later acquired by Nokia for over £5bn, and prior to that, one of the first members of the launch team for Blyk, an advertiser funded mobile network, founded by the Ex-President of Nokia. He was responsible for leading the agency sales effort and played a dominant role in attracting brands such as Nike, Unilever, Bacardi, Ford and Microsoft.
Alistair began his career in advertising by working for Northern & Shell, publishers of OK! Magazine, The Daily Express and The Daily Star. He has been privileged to work with some of the largest global advertisers such as VISA, Nokia, LVMH,Coca-Cola, BP, Ford, McDonald’s and L’Oreal and also worked with most of the major international agency groups.

 

Ron Czerny, Founder & CEO, PlayPhone

 

 

As founder, chief executive officer and board member, Ron Czerny serves as the visionary and driving force behind PlayPhone's corporate strategy. Czerny’s more than 16 years of experience in the digital entertainment industry has allowed him to help establish PlayPhone's dominance in the mobile media industry and position the company to compete and thrive on a global scale. In 2000, Czerny founded Atrativa, a mobile and Internet consumer entertainment company with operations based mainly in Latin America. As chief executive officer, Czerny led Atrativa to its current status as the premier Web game provider in South America, powering several major ISPs including UOL (South America's largest ISP), Yahoo!® Brazil, AOL® Brazil, MSN® Brazil, Ibest (Telecom Brazil), Terra Networks (North and South America) and many others. RealNetworks, Inc. acquired Atrativa in 2006. Czerny also played a key role in Latin America's video game industry between 1992 and 1999 as the co-founder of the Brazilian Entertainment and Video Game Association. Czerny is currently the Chairman of MEF for Latin America and a board member of MEF Global. Czerny holds a Bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in international business from San Jose State University.

 

Jonathan Davis, Digital Publisher, Random House

 

Jonathan is Digital Publisher for Random House, one of the world’s largest trade book publishers representing authors including Dan Brown, James Patterson, Nigella Lawson, Tony Blair and Jacqueline Wilson.   In his role at Random House, he is responsible for a combination of digital product and digital business development including the development of Random House’s strategic approach to the app space and the build and launch of numerous apps. Prior to joining Random House, Jonathan was VP Digital, Global Marketing for SonyBMG Music Entertainment where he spent seven years heading up the digital team at SonyBMG Music UK before joining the global team in New York. A digital pioneer, he co-founded the UK’s very first MP3 music download company iCrunch back in 1999 which was acquired by Music Choice PLC in 2001.

 

Lee Epting, Content Services Director, Vodafone

 

 

 

Lee Epting is the Director of Content Services at Vodafone responsible for Vodafone's global content services portfolio, including portal, applications shop, music, games, tv/video and personalisation content as well as developer engagement activities.
Lee is an industry executive with over twenty years experience in the technology sector, was Vice President of Forum Nokia from 2003-2008, Nokia's global developer support community.
In this role, Lee was responsible for driving the business connections between Nokia and more than 3.5 million registered Forum Nokia software developers, mobile network operators, content aggregators, media companies and enterprises.
Prior to joining Nokia in 2003, Lee worked with Palm Inc. and later Handspring in technology development management, business development, and sales. She was instrumental in helping to build the Palm OS platform while working for Palm Inc, as well as recruiting, managing and supporting Enterprise ISV partners for the Palm OS platform, such as SAP, Oracle, Remedy, Lotus and Computer Associates. While working for Handspring, Lee launched the Springboard expansion platform for Visor handhelds, launched the wireless development platform for the Treo handheld communicator, and created the Handspring Enterprise Alliance program.
Lee served on the Board of Directors of Symbian Ltd. from 2006 through 2007. She also performs advisory roles with technology companies globally.
Lee earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Santa Clara University and is also a graduate of Santa Clara University’s International Business Degree Program.

 

Siobhan Fagan, Head of E-Commerce, Whitbread

 

 

Biography to follow

 

Rob Gelick, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBS Mobile

 

 

 

Rob Gelick is Senior Vice President and General Manager of CBS Mobile.  He is responsible for all aspects of the CBS Mobile business across more than a dozen CBS Interactive properties including CNET, CBS.com, CBSSports.com, GameSpot, and TV.com; CBS Television Network’s core entertainment, sports and news brands; as well as mobile development for The CW and CBS Paramount Television. Gelick also manages licensing of CBS brands on mobile platforms, and oversees all mobile-related video, advertising, games, alerts and interactive TV initiatives. Gelick joined CBS Interactive in 2008 as Vice President of CBS Mobile, overseeing operations and new business development.
Gelick has more than 16 years experience in the mobile industry, during which he has played a pivotal role in creating industry-leading products and services, developing standard practices that are widely adopted across the mobile industry today.  Prior to CBS, Gelick was one of the founding executives at Helio where he served as the Vice President of Data Services.  In that role, Gelick envisioned, developed and managed an award-winning portfolio of mobile social networking and media services including the industry’s first MySpace mobile service, the first complete YouTube Mobile offering, custom mobile Video and Music-on-Demand services, and a location-aware user-generated content publishing platform.
Before Helio, Gelick spent eight years at Motorola. There, he was instrumental in the company’s strategic alliance with Apple to bring iTunes to Motorola’s next generation mobile devices. While at Motorola he also helped pioneer the world’s first mobile commerce and downloadable media solutions.

 

Tim Green, Executive Editor, Mobile Entertainment

 

 

 

Tim is lucky enough to be executive editor of Mobile Entertainment. That means he has to work very hard. But it also puts him at the centre of developments in the very exciting mobile content space. What could be more thrilling than that? In six years, ME has come to be regarded as the premier destination for the mobile content exec in search of news and analysis. It's a website, an email service, the host of a very cool awards evening, and the organiser of the Monetising Mobile conference events and 'meet-up' networking parties.

 

Seth Hitchings, VP Platform Strategy, Evernote

 

 

Seth combines a decade of software development experience and a passion for working with customers and partners to help thousands of developers around the world build applications and services to extend the Evernote ecosystem. Before joining Evernote, Seth was the managing architect at CoreStreet, a global provider of digital credential validation solutions, and a software engineer at Vignette. Seth holds a BA in Computer Science from Dartmouth College.

 

Barry Houlihan, Founder & CEO, Mobile Interactive Group (MIG)

 

 

 

Barry entered the mobile industry in 1999 and has worked for companies including EMAP McClaren, Genie Mobile and O2’s Mobile Interactive Division, initiating big mobile interactive partnerships for landmark interactive events.
Barry founded Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) in May 2004.  Demonstrating entrepreneurial spirit, Barry won Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year, London Region, Nov 06 and in 2008 MIG ranked No.1 in the media momentum awards, securing the title of fastest growing digital media company in the UK and ranked No.1 in the Microsoft Sunday Times Tech Track fastest growing privately owned Technology Company in the UK.
With ambitions expansion plans, Barry oversaw the acquisition of mobile marketing and CRM provider Piri Ltd in June 2010 and mobile technology, marketing and services company GoldenBytes B.V. in February 2011 to broaden the group’s technology and services offering across the mobile services value chain and to fast track MIG services internationally.  Additionally, MIG has offices in the USA and operates in Australia through a partnership with MobileActive.
MIG specialist disciplines include mobile technology and services provision; mobile billing, messaging and mCommerce; mobile advertising and marketing; multi-channel digital solutions; the design, build and publishing of mobile internet site and applications, and user experience design.  Integration of these services has proven to be a recipe for success, enabling MIG to create leadership in certain markets such as media, broadcast, and with mobile network operators.

 

Neil Johnson, Managing Director, A&N Media

 

 

Neil runs A&N Mobile & TV, the platform specialist unit for A&N Media, the consumer publishing division of the DMGT Group. A&N Media operates the leading newspapers Metro, Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. It also operates FindaProperty.com, Primelocation.com, Motors.co.uk, Jobsite.co.uk and Teletext Holidays. As a group A&N Media uniquely reaches 60 million people each month.
In his current role, Neil runs the development of A&N Media brands on Mobile and Television across the group. This includes the relationships with Apple, Google, Nokia, RIM and Microsoft.
A key focus is on building the Metro Apps (apps.metro.co.uk) brand, an international publisher and marketer of the hottest smartphone Games and Lifestyle apps, combining great content with powerful print, TV, digital, mobile and social media marketing channels. Metro Apps partners with international Indie Developers and Brands for strategic partnerships and publishing deals.
In addition, Neil runs three profitable TV channels on digital terrestrial television in the UK and assists the management of the groups TV interests including its investment in Inview Technology, a IPTV startup with European focus.

 

Rob Jonas, VP & Managing Director, Europe & ME, InMobi

 

Rob joined InMobi in December 2009 as Vice President and Managing Director, responsible for building InMobi's business across Europe and the Middle East. He brings with him a deep understanding of the complexities of the market as well as experience building and scaling digital advertising businesses in the region.
With access to an in-house research team, Rob is in a postion to leverage InMobi’s global network of 179 million consumers in 115 countries and provide research and consumer insights to MEF Global. This data capability can be leveraged in every major country in the world.
Before joining InMobi, Rob worked at Google as Director of Strategic Partnerships for EMEA where he managed some of Google’s largest commercial relationships in the region. Prior to Google, he was part of Yahoo!, having joined through the acquisition of Overture Europe (formerly GoTo.com). Rob is a graduate of Oxford University and a frequent speaker at industry conferences.

 

James Kane, Founder, Two Bulls

 

 

James Kane founded mobile studio Two Bulls to focus on creatively combining emerging technologies for brands and agencies. In January 2009 James launched The Hidden Park, a revolutionary location based game described by Advertising Age as ‘the iPhone’s gold standard immersive app’. Two Bulls has gone on to create innovative mobile solutions with many of the world’s leading brands, including GE, Sesame Street, Victoria’s Secret and Qantas. In 2010, a project with Norway’s Ministry of Culture and NetCom, Den Hemmelige Parken, took out top awards at both of Scandinavia’s premier digital marketing events. At the Mobile World Congress in 2011, Two Bulls won the Brand App Challenge presented by Coca-Cola and the GSMA. James is a member of the New York Bar Association. 

 

Rob Lewis, Executive Chairman, Omnifone

 

 

 

Rob Lewis is Executive Chairman and co-founder of Omnifone, the leading independent provider of cloud based music services for consumer electronics vendors, ISPs, automotive and mobile companies globally. Responsible for high level global relationships with the company’s key stakeholders, Lewis secured the first international licensing for unlimited music services with all four major music labels and leading independents in 2007 and is responsible for the rollout the company’s multi-award winning MusicStation® powered unlimited music services across 22 countries with the likes of Sony, HP and Sony Ericsson.
At CES 2009 Omnifone announced a partnership with Gracenote to bring cloud based interoperable unlimited music services to multiple device platforms including mobile, PC, in-car and in-home devices winning a ‘Best of CES’ award for an interoperable in-car entertainment system with MusicStation unlimited music service. In 2008 Omnifone won Best Mobile Music Service at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards, Best Mobile Internet Service at the Mobile Industry Awards, the Juniper Research Future Mobile Award’s Gold Award for Mobile Music, the Red Herring Global 100 Award and in 2007 the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Music Service Meffy.
In 2010 Lewis was elected as a Global Board Director of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) and is a 2009 Ernst & Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year and was named PwC UK Technology, Innovation & Growth Awards 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year. Lewis was also named a Mobile Entertainment magazine Top 50 mobile content executive and a Mobile magazine Power 50 executive in 2008, as well as a Billboard magazine Top 10 Mobile Music Executive in 2007.
Lewis previously founded Business & Technology Magazine (sold to Dennis Publishing) and along with Omnifone co-founders Phil Sant and Mark Knight, founded internet software developer Cromwell Media (sold to InterX for £850m in 2000). He was also the founder and CEO of Silicon.com (later sold to CNET Networks) and its sister companies, Paris-based Silicon.fr and Munich-based Silicon.de.  Omnifone is headquartered in Island Studios, London, with its Asia Pacific HQ in Hong Kong http://www.omnifone.com.

 

Ewan MacLeod, Founder and Editor, Mobile Industry Review

 

 

Ewan MacLeod is Founder and Editor of Mobile Industry Review. With a monthly audience of 250,000 mobile industry executives and fanatics, Ewan oversees the site's daily diet of news and opinion pieces, along with the site's hugely influential weekly newsletter. In early 2009, Ewan established Mobile Developer TV to chronicle the movers and shakers in the increasingly exciting mobile applications industry.
Ewan is a serial entrepreneur, particular in the mobile industry, where his first business, Impulse, provided text-to-screen entertainment services for millions of nightclubbers.  His other companies include Eventscope (provision of online networking services for the conference industry) and consultancy firm, Interactive Energy.
Ewan is a non-executive director and angel investor in a number of other businesses.

 

Faraaz Marghoob, Director of Digital Strategy, Saatchi & Saatchi

 

Faraaz has had the privilege of working as both a brand strategist and digital specialist for some of the world's biggest brands like MINI, BMW, Lenovo and Playstation. He now helps them navigate and make an impact  in the digital space. He most recent work includes a study looking at the risks of social networking amongst teenagers.

 

David Marutiak, Managing Director, Scanbuy UK

 

 

 

Dave is the Managing Director of the UK office for Scanbuy, a barcode services provider based out of New York City.   Since March 2011 he has been responsible for building a sales, marketing, and customer service organization in London to expand Scanbuy’s international presence in Europe.
Prior to that, Dave worked for Vodafone in London as the User Community Ambassador for the Vodafone 360 products and services, where he was responsible for engaging the social media community that was a primary focus for the 360 offering.
Before his move to London, Dave was the Director for Emerging Technology Planning for the Windows Mobile product line at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington.   He worked at Microsoft for over a decade helping to define and build a wide variety of mobile software products and services, with special focus on the needs and business development of network operators.
Prior to Microsoft, Dave was the Director of Wireless Technology for Wink Communications in the San Francisco bay area, and for over 15 years he was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff for Bell Laboratories in both the Bay area and New Jersey.  In both positions, his focus was on the needs and business development of public network operators.   He was also the Director of Engineering for RCA Network Services, a public and private network operator in New Jersey.

 

Steve McNickle, VP Europe, cVidya Networks

 

 

A respected professional with over 25 years of technical, sales and business accomplishment Steve joined cVidya in 2005 to spearhead the companies penetration and business success in Europe. A deep technical background and passion for innovation has afforded Steve on-going relationships with many of the world’s leading Service Providers based upon mutually successful projects combining innovative technology with creative people – on all sides.

 

Robert B. Mesirow, Vice President, Business Operations, CTIA–The Wireless Association®

 

 

 

Robert Mesirow is responsible for the strategic planning and oversight of all CTIA–The Wireless Association’s business development activities and related divisions—Conventions, Certification, Membership and Technology Programs. Mesirow manages industry interoperability initiatives, Common Short Code registries and two award-winning tradeshows. Under Mesirow's direction, CTIA recently launched the Latin American Common Short Code Administration, a centralized CSC registry that enables businesses to connect with the more than 400 million wireless subscribers in Latin America. In 2010, the International CTIA WIRELESS conference and exposition celebrated its 25th anniversary as the premier global mobile marketplace. Both of CTIA’s annual events have achieved the “Fastest 50” distinction within the tradeshow industry, and Tradeshow Week magazine has featured Mesirow as one of the “Top 25 Association Executives” in the United States. Prior to joining CTIA, Mesirow served as director of Strategic Alliances for the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA). 

 

Matteo Montan, Global Head of New Business, Buongiorno

 

Matteo is the Global Head of New Business at Buongiorno Group, the world leader in mobile entertainment, with operations in 57 countries, a staff of 1000+ and a business accounting in 2010 for 253M euro revenues and 37M euro Ebitda.
An executive with more than 20 years international experience in traditional and new media, Matteo is a pioneer of the industry and a forward thinker who has devoted the last decade to making the mobile revolution happen.
He holds a degree in Law but started as a journalist in the 1990s, working for leading Italian newspapers. In 1999 he was named "Reporter of the Year".  Matteo joined Buongiorno in 2000 as Editor-in-Chief, and since then has played several key roles in the Executive Team as Global Head of Products, Head of the Corporate Programme Office, and more recently Global Head of New Business, the division given the strategic objective to develop new major revenue streams.
Matteo reports into the Group’s CEO, is mainly based in London and leads a team  of 100 professionals in Italy, Spain, France and the UK that in the last 18 months have launched three new line of business  - Winga (skill gaming), Cashlog (mobile payments) and Connected Devices (social media propositions for global hardware manufacturers) - and an Innovation Hub in Shoreditch, East London, focusing on areas such as m-commerce, social gaming and social content discovery.
New Business ambitious plans (projected revenues of 100M euros by 2014) represents the forefront of Buongiorno's strategy as global enabler of the mobile connected life, a vision to which Matteo contributes in his daily work and that you can find in his blog http://www.buongiorno.com/blog.

 

David Murphy, Editor, Mobile Marketing Magazine

 

 

 

David Murphy is the founder and editor of Mobile Marketing, the leading magazine dedicated to the mobile marketing industry. The magazine launched online in November 2005, and now attracts over 30,000 unique visitors per month. The site is updated several times each business day, and also comes in print, iPad and mobile versions.
Mobile Marketing also runs webinars, conferences, and the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. 

 

Alex Musil, EVP Product Marketing, Shazam Entertainment

 

 

Alex Musil joined Shazam in January 2010, with more than 12 years’ experience on consumer internet products.
At Shazam Alex is responsible for product strategy, roadmap and user experience.
Prior to Shazam, Alex has held management positions in both engineering and product management at leading Internet corporations including Netscape, AOL and Yahoo and more recently led the product team at Photobucket.
As VP of Product at Photobucket he was responsible for product management and design for the most popular photo & video-sharing site in the world with over 80 million unique monthly visitors.
At Yahoo, Alex launched the first developer platforms for the industry-leading Mail and Messenger products as well as the first large-scale IM interoperability service with MSN.
Alex holds a degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.

 

Patrick Parodi, Vice President Ecosystem Development, LightSquared

 

For over 20 years, Patrick has worked in the wireless and mobile media space in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia. His areas of specialty include fixed and mobile wireless broadband, mobile video, mobile music, and mobile advertising. He has held management roles at Amobee Media Systems, Alcatel-Luncent, Packetvideo, Diveo Broadband Networks, Skytel, Teleworx and TVAnswer. He has recently been appointed the VP of Ecosystem Development at LightSquared the first 100% wholesale LTE and Satellite network being deployed in the USA.  Until January of 2011, Patrick was on the Board of Shazam Entertainment (http://www.shazam.com), the industry's leading music recognition company as a non-executive director and has been involved in several venture backed start-ups in the wireless and digital media space. Now back in the US after 12 years overseas and ready for the next big thing in wireless, Patrick is building LightSquared’s third party ecosystem to enable the most advanced and innovative set of wireless services on the market. A staunch activist in the world of mobile entertainment, Patrick was first elected Chairman of MEF in 2004, and remains an active global board member.  He holds a Masters Degree in Business and International Management from Thunderbird and a Bachelors Degree in Political Science and History from The College of William and Mary. Patrick is fluent in English, French, Italian and Spanish.

 

James Parton, Head of BlueVia Marketing, Telefonica

 

An influential thought leader and Chartered Marketer, James leads marketing for BlueVia the new developer platform from Telefonica.  In addition James is a global board director of MEF, and is the chair of the Technology Market Interest Group of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, the worlds largest organisation for professional marketers.

 

James Patmore, Managing Director EMEA, Boku

 

 

James has been leading business, strategy and general management functions at leading mobile and mobile services companies for over fifteen years. Before coming to BOKU he was Vice President of Amdocs Interactive division in EMEA and Asia Pacific. Prior to Amdocs, he worked as Vice President, EMEA at the digital commerce software and services provider Qpass. James has also led business development for O2 Data Products in the UK, as well as the digital music community, Vitaminic, which he helped lead to a successful IPO on the Italian Stock Exchange in 2000. James began his career with a number of years at British Telecom, where he held senior positions in the cable TV and Internet service provider businesses.

 

Erling Paulsen, CEO, Aspiro TV

 

 

 

Erling Paulsen has been CEO of Aspiro TV (previously Rubberduck Media Lab) since 2009, and prior to this was CEO of Aspiro Mobile Solutions, a sister company offering mobile payment solutions. He has additional experience from companies such as Elkem Solar and Boston Consulting Group. Paulsen was voted top 10 leader talents in Norway both 2009 and 2010 and is leading the transition from a mobile TV company only to a multiscreen tv and video streaming company with international clients such as Deutsche Telecom, Telefónica O2 and Telenor.

 

Rimma Perelmuter, Executive Director, MEF

 

 

Since joining MEF  in 2001, Rimma has been instrumental in executing MEF's rapid growth and extended global reach, forging relationships with industry leaders and key stakeholders, and positioning MEF as the mobile media industry’s global trade body.   As Executive  Director, Rimma leads MEF in its mission to facilitate the industry’s growth, protect revenues and create competitive advantage for members in collaboration with the Global Board and MEF’s regional chapters in Asia, EMEA, LaTam and North America.  Prior to MEF,  Rimma worked for an internet start-up and several global trade associations based in Washington DC.  A bi-lingual  English-Russian speaker, Rimma holds a Masters degree from the London School of  Economics and a Bachelors degree from Cornell University. 

 

Ty Roberts, Co-founder, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Gracenote

 

 

 

Recognized as one of the inventors of enhanced CD technology and credited with producing the industry's first enhanced CDs, Roberts can be considered one of the fathers of modern digital entertainment. He joined Gracenote in November of 1998 and helped found the company after it acquired ION, a multimedia and music technology venture he founded in 1993. Roberts serves as Gracenote's chief technology strategist, providing technology direction and overseeing the creation of products and services that leverage the power of the Gracenote database to deliver information services.
While at ION, Roberts produced the recording industry's first enhanced audio CD titles, including David Bowie's "Jump" and "Headcandy" from Brian Eno. He was the company's lead technologist and innovator in adding multimedia content to traditional audio CDs. ION was also widely recognized as a leading provider of enhanced CD production tools utilized by recording and multimedia development companies. In September 1993, Bertlesmann Music Group created the first interactive record label after acquiring a 50 percent interest in ION.
Prior to founding ION, Roberts was a founder and senior manager of LightSource, a software development company that produced multimedia and graphics editing software. Previously, he was a senior engineer at Pixar, where he created several award-winning, Apple-based music applications including "Studio Session" and "Jam Session." Roberts is Gracenote's representative to the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), an organization that is chartered with establishing standards for digital music and music playing devices.
Roberts is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist at digital media, entertainment, high technology and business events around the world.

 

Dan Rosen, Head of AKQA Mobile

 

 

 

Daniel is widely recognised as one of the global leaders in mobile marketing. His wealth of experience comes from over 15 years in the industry. As Founder and Head of AKQA Mobile, he has been behind some of the most notable mobile campaigns that have received international recognition, for brands including: Nike, Gap, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Volkswagen and Visa.
He is frequently called on by national and trade press for insights into mobile marketing and a regular contributor and evangelist at global industry conferences - from Cannes Lions to Mobile World Congress. In 2010 he was voted by his global peers as a ‘top 10 mobi thinker’. He was the inaugural Jury foreman of the ‘mobile marketing’ category in the world renowned creative awards body D&AD. Whilst at the helm, AKQA Mobile created the now industry standard whitepaper on mobile internet usage and the future of the platform.   Daniel sits on the IAB’s Mobile Leadership Council and the IDM’s Digital Council.
Prior to AKQA, Daniel was Managing Director of Associated Newspapers’ successful interactive subsidiary, Greenland. Here he launched mobile initiatives with mobile operator ‘3’, EMAP, ITV, Daily Mail, and GSK. In 2000 he launched 12snap UK’s mobile marketing business running pioneering campaigns with brands including McDonald’s, Coke, Proctor & Gamble, and Cadbury. He started his mobile career in 1995 as a client side marketer within Orange UK.

 

Steve Rothwell, CEO, Eagle Eye

 

 

Stephen Rothwell is a technology entrepreneur with a range of experience in a variety of sectors including mobile phone, payment systems, architectures and IT security.  Stephen is widely regarded as leading expert and evangelist in the world of Mobile Commerce.
Stephen founded Eagle Eye Solutions in 2003, with the knowledge that digital vouchers require true authentication at the Point of Sale. Stephen is joint inventor on the processing technology that underpins Eagle Eye Solutions, and it is this technology that has allowed it to become the number one vendor of digital voucher and coupon solutions for the retail sector in the world.
Eagle Eye Solutions has deployed its solution to retailers such as Comet, Oasis, Coast, Karen Millen, Blockbusters and Virgin Active.
Eagle Eye Solutions has won four awards in the last 12 months for its entrepreneurial innovation: -
Winner Best e-Commerce Payment Innovation 2010 - IMRG Awards
Winner Best Corporate Prepaid Programme 2010 - The Prepaid Awards
Winner  EPoS Initiative of the Year 2010 - BT Retail Week Technology Awards
Winner EPoS Initiative of the Year - retail systems awards

 

Gary Schwartz, CEO, Impact Mobile

 

 

Over the past nine years, Gary has played a leadership role in the mobile industry, founded Impact Mobile in 2002. and running the first cross-carrier short code campaign in North America.
In 2006, Gary founded the mobile committee for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) (http://www.iab.net) and has worked to publish literature such as the Mobile Buyer's Guide helping extend the digital buy into mobile (for which he received an IAB award for industry excellence in 2009).
In this role, Gary started work to help establish a joint task force between the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and the IAB with the aid of the Media Rating Council (MRC) to develop global, auditable mobile measurement standards.
In 2010, Gary was elected as the Chair of MEF North America (http://www.mefmobile.org) with a remit to develop a mobile commerce practice to service brands, retailers and content owners (for which he received a MEF award for industry excellence).
Gary is the recipient of the Asia and Japan Foundation Fellowship as well as the Macromedia People Choice Award and Dodge Foundation award for innovation. Gary is the author of an upcoming book call Click2K’Ching: The Mobile Shopper & The Impulse Economy.

 

Ingrid Silver, Partner, SNR Denton

 

 

Ingrid Silver is partner who specialises in providing commercial and regulatory advice to the media and entertainment sector with a particular emphasis on new media services such as interactive, online and mobile content services, issues arising out of convergence, customer ownership and privacy, and multi-platform strategies. She has acted for a wide variety of clients ranging from large corporates to cutting-edge new entrants, across all parts of the value chain.
Ingrid is recognised as a leading figure in the media sector. She is listed as an expert in her field in the 2010 edition of Who's Who of Regulatory Communications Lawyers and is described in the 2010 Legal 500 entry for broadcasting and digital carriage as a 'top notch European media law figure'. Ingrid last year published a chapter on Content Regulation for the Communications Law Handbook.  Ingrid is a Special Advisor to MEF.

 

Michelle Sklar, Director, Marketing & PR, Poynt, Europe

 

 

 

As an agent of innovation Michelle has focused her professional career development on bringing ideas from inception to execution. Her skill set in team building, connecting people, evangelizing, creative problem solving, contagious enthusiasm, and a strong work ethic, have enabled her to lead indeveloping new business opportunities and strategies.
As an on-line broadcaster Michelle has engaged with thousands of high level business leaders around the world in the Emerging Technology sector from start-ups to industry power-brokers.
Michelle is an advocate for industry and enjoys working with industry associations, community leaders and creatives! Michelle was recently elected as the first female President of Digital Alberta, the leading industry association for Alberta, Canada and serves on the Board of Directors for Missing Children's Society of Canada. Michelle has also served on the TEDxYYC Steering Committee for 2010 and 2011 and is an online video host and blogger with Techvibes.com

 

Reshma Sohoni, Partner, Seedcamp

 

 

As Partner, Reshma co-manages Seedcamp. Her investment focus is on B2B, Fashion, Gaming, Travel, and Financial Services.
Reshma helped found Seedcamp in 2007. During her tenure, she has managed companies like Mobclix (acquired by Velti), Zemanta, and Ubervu. Reshma was also on the board of Zoombu before it was acquired by Skyscanner and advises Launch48.
She joined Seedcamp from the Venture team at 3i. Prior to 3i, Reshma spent over 3 years at Vodafone in their Commercial Strategy team, working across the Europe and Japan footprints in marketing strategy and pricing functions. Her venture capital career started with eVentures India where she actively supported companies like Make My Trip (NASDAQ – MMYT), Contest2Win, and Clubgreetings. Reshma started her career in the US in investment banking with Broadview (now part of Jefferies).
She has a MBA from INSEAD and dual undergraduate degrees in Engineering and Business from the University of Pennsylvania.
She is also on the Advisory Board of Credo Ventures and the European Board of All Hands a non-profit organization that provides hands-on assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world.
In the limited to none spare time, Reshma enjoys having a laugh with friends and family; seasonal adrenalized sports, and pretending to cook.

 

Simon Torrance, CEO, STL Partners/Telco 2.0 Initiative

 

 

Simon leads STL Partners, an analyst firm specializing in business model innovation at the intersection of the Telecoms, Media and Technology (TMT) sectors. STL established the Telco 2.0 Initiative in 2006 to help catalyse change in the industry. The Initiative publishes research, runs special events and advises senior executives around the globe (http://www.telco2research.com). Particularly relevant to his panel at MEF Global 2011, Simon and Telco 2.0 have been working with the World Economic Forum for the last 18 months on their ‘Re-thinking Personal Data’ project – looking at how to create trust networks for leveraging this new class of economic asset. Simon has an MA in History from Cambridge University.

 

Paul Whiteing, CEO, PhonepayPlus

 

 

 

Paul was appointed Chief Executive of PhonepayPlus in March 2009. Prior to his appointment, Paul had been performing the role on an acting basis, and before that he was Director of Policy & Innovation at PhonepayPlus where he held responsibility for policy and industry relations. Paul is also Director of the Independent Mobile Classification Body (IMCB) – a subsidiary of PhonepayPlus. 
Paul has managed a diverse range of projects, including developing the new regulatory framework comprising a Code of Practice based on consumer outcomes, an industry Registration Scheme and an enforcement arrangement which encompasses the entire value-chain for premium rate services. This new structure was launched in March 2011. 
Prior to PhonepayPlus, Paul's background was in the public sector where he held a number of managerial positions, most recently as Contract Manager at the Legal Services Commission.

 

Colin Yeh, Senior Director, Group Innovations, The Qtel Group

 

Dr. Colin Yeh is Group Senior Director of Innovations at the Qtel Group.  Colin provides the leadership and strategy to drive Product Innovations across the Group's operations in 17 markets spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, with a total customer base of 75M+.
Colin is also the Vice Chairman for MEF on its EMEA Board of Directors. Colin works closely with MEF in co-founding MEF-Qatar to focus on fostering mobile innovations in the MENA markets.
With over 16 years of industry experience, Colin has held senior management positions across Telecom and New Media sector in Greater China & Asia. He has a successful track records in managing the development and marketing of new products, and establishing global strategic partnerships with major brands and Ecosystem Partners around the world.
In addition to building the Advanced Mobile Service division for both Sunday and New World Mobility in Hong Kong, Colin has also worked extensively with Digital Media companies, Banks, and Online start-ups to implement their mobile strategies in Greater China & across Asia.
Colin was awarded a PhD in Business at the City University of Hong Kong, for IS research with a special focus on Mobile Commerce. Colin also holds an MBA degree from Simon Fraser University, Canada.