Speakers 2011
Please find below our current list of speakers for MEF Americas 2011 - keep checking back for further updates!
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Alternet Systems, Utiba Americas
Angel Pacheco
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
+Angel brings more than twenty years of experience in C-level positions for companies in the financial and mobile payment industries in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Most recently, he was a founder of mobile linked payments provider, Dinarii Systems, which provides end-to-end transaction processing technology to implement stored value card programs and mobile banking services. A serial entrepreneur and visionary technologist, Angel’s ventures focus on bringing efficiency to inefficient markets, which is what has inspired him to pursue the field of mobile payments and to join the Alternet team. As Chief Technology Officer of Alternet and its mobile commerce subsidiary, Utiba Americas, which was formed out of a joint venture partnership with Singapore based Utiba Pte, the leading global provider of mobile financial services software, Angel helps the two companies anticipate the convergence of prepaid, debit and credit cards and the mobile payment platform.
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Ardua
Lorena Aragon Durand
Partner
+Lorena Aragon-Durand obtained her law degree at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (1992) and received her masters in law at the Law School of University of Chicago (1994). She has developed her professional practice as a corporate and regulatory lawyer in private companies such as TV Azteca (the second broadcasting company in Mexico), Teléfonos de México (the second largest telecomm company in Latin America), ICA (one of the largest construction companies in Latin America), as well as working for the Mexican Stock Exchange. Ms. Aragon-Durand has also worked for the federal government as Deputy Secretary of the Commissioners’ Board with the Federal Telecommunications Commission. Ms. Aragon-Durand currently works for Aragon-Durand Abogados as a private practitioner, and advises the Information Society and Knowledge Unit with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Lorena is a professor at the Law School (Facultad de Derecho) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
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Billing Revolution
Andy Kleitsch
CEO
+Andy is a serial entrepreneur bringing a deep background in mobile operator billing technology and mobile data product management. Prior to founding Billing Revolution with its Single Click Checkout product, Andy was the Sr. Manager of the AT&T Wireless mMode portal. Before entering mobile, Andy was the founder of WeddingChannel.com (a leading wedding planning web destination) which was later sold to the Knot for $80+MM.
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Binbit
Jose Luis Gralla
CEO
+Jose Luis has over 15 years of experience in the Telecommunications Industry and Mobile Entertainment business. He is co-founder and CEO of the Binbit Group and has lead multinational mobile corporations in restructuring their operations overseas and personally directing acquisition processes for wireless companies.
Today, his guidance and impressive marketing skills have taken Binbit to new levels in just 6 years since its foundation. Currently, Jose Luis is developing new business opportunities for the Middle East, Oceania and Southeast Asia regions.
Jose Luis has a Masters in Telecommunications Management from the “Universidad Politécnica de Madrid”, and a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications Engineering from the “Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña”. He is co-author of the book “GPRS: Móviles de Generación 2.5 G”. -
Blast Radius
Gautam Lohia
EVP, Emerging Technologies
+Gautam Lohia is a savvy marketer who has been at Blast Radius for 11 years in various executive roles. In his current role, Gautam is responsible for bringing emerging technologies and media to clients. In the past three years, Gautam has helped build the Blast Seattle office while working collaboratively with Wunderman to grow the Microsoft business. Prior to this, Gautam led the Blast Global Delivery practice and steered the growth of three delivery hubs, led the implementation of an enterprise resource management system, established a global project management office, and rolled out the Managed Service line of business.
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BlueVia
Andrés Leonardo Martínez
BlueVia Developer Program Engineer
+Andrés Leonardo is currently a BlueVia Developer Program Engineer at O2 UK, in the Global
New Services Unit of Telefonica Corp. From 2007 to 2010 he was an OSS specialist in Telefónica R&D, and from 1998 till 2002, an engineer in R&D at Teldat, a network infrastructure maker. He was also an active member of the research group GyC/Libresoft of the Rey Juan Carlos University, and a teacher from 2002-2007.Andrés Leonardo started with OSS when he was a R&D engineer in Teldat, where he ported the Linux kernel to M860 architecture. Currently he is a member of the Morfeo Project organization, where he is involved in community management but also in initiatives such as an OSS marketplace or the definition of learning and certification framework of OSS technologies. He is involved in Vulcano and QualiPSo, which have similar goals: to promote the adoption of OSS in the industry. Andrés Leonardo has a Master’s in Computer Science from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
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Bureau of Consumer Protection Federal Trade Commission
Patti Poss
Counsel to the Director
+Patricia Poss currently serves as a Counsel to the Director (“CTD”) for the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. As a CTD, Ms. Poss works on a variety of law enforcement and policy matters. Ms. Poss heads up the Bureau’s Mobile Team, and has been involved in a variety of consumer technology matters. Before becoming a CTD in 2007, she spent several years investigating and litigating consumer protection cases that challenged Internet fraud (including phishing), spam, and telemarketing fraud. Prior to joining the FTC in 1999, Ms. Poss clerked for the Appellate Court of Illinois and the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Ms. Poss graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1996.
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Citibank
Alejandro Leyva
SVP, Latin America eBusiness
+Alejandro has over thirteen-years of experience in the digital industry, having spent the last ten at Citibank Latin America in different e-business roles. He currently holds a leadership role overseeing the digital strategy across Latin America, and leads all Internet and Mobile strategic initiatives including product development, digital sales and mobile payments. Alejandro previously worked at Universo Online (Brazilian online service provider) and Ernst & Young. He holds an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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CorFire
Keith Smith
President & COO
+Keith is responsible for delivering on CorFire’s mission to bring the mobile commerce lifestyle to North America and the rest of the globe. With financial backing from a multi-billion dollar parent company, SK C&C, CorFire leverages its 10+ years of mobile payments experience to provide a scalable and trusted technology that helps companies quickly and securely move their mobile commerce platforms forward. At CorFire, Keith Smith leads a team of payments and mobile veterans who collaborate with financial institutions, retailers, technology innovators, and mobile network operators to develop innovative and interoperable services for mobile commerce.
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CTIA
Rob Mesirow
Vice President, Operations
+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 “Top25 Association Executives” in the United States. Prior to joining CTIA, Mesirow served as director of Strategic Alliances for the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA). -
Dada Entertainment , a Buongiorno Company
Massimiliano Pellegrini
CEO
+Max Pellegrini has 10+ years of international expertise in the mobile ecosystem, including content, marketing and revenue generation. Max is currently the CEO of Dada Entertainment, a Company acquired by Buongiorno –a global leader in the mobile commerce ecosystem for developing and managing paid apps and services that help consumers get greater enjoyment from mobile devices.
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ICT168 Capital, LLC.
Jeff Belk
Managing Director
+Jeffrey Belk is Managing Director of ICT168 Capital, LLC, focused on developing and guiding global growth opportunities in the Information and Communication Technology space. Formerly, Belk spent almost 14 years at Qualcomm, where prior to his departure in early 2008, he was SVP of Strategy and Market Development. Belk currently serves on the Board of Directors of Peregrine Semiconductor, InterDigital Corporation, and the Wireless Life Science Alliance.
From 2000 until 2006, Belk was SVP, Global Marketing, leading a team responsible for all facets of the company’s corporate messaging, communications, and marketing worldwide. In 1999-2000, Belk was SVP & GM of Qualcomm Eudora Products.
Prior to Qualcomm, Belk spent ten years in the PC industry, primarily with Proxima Corporation, in distribution, product management, and international roles.
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ImageVision
Steven W. White
President & CEO
+Steven leads ImageVision’s corporate strategy, media and engineering efforts. Prior to co-founding ImageVision, he was with Netsocket, a real-time IP service assurance provider, and Netrake, acquired by AudioCodes, the leading provider for real-time delivery of voice and multimedia solutions across IPnetworks. Prior to these two technology startups, Steven was with Nortel Networks employing his research, design and architecture skills pioneering solutions for integrated voice, video and data solutions over converged wireless/wireline networks.
With ImageVision, Steven has created EyeGuardian, visual recognition and image filtering technology with market applications for Enterprise, Mobile and Social Networking. EyeGuardian for Facebook is an online safety and security app giving parents visibility into their child(ren)'s online activities. Steven is a nationally renown expert on the issues of Cyberbullying and SEXTing, conducting interviews on CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX News stations across the country.
Steven holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Dallas.
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Impact Mobile Inc.
Drew Pitts
Senior Director of Sales
+Drew joined Impact Mobile in 2005 as an account manager based in Toronto. He has over 10 years experience working in mobile with carriers, hardware, software, and rich content companies. He has been working with live events in Entertainment and Sports, activating media and driving fan engagement since 2006. Drew has been instrumental in driving application sales and landing and supporting large clients at Impact Mobile including: Coca Cola, PHD, OMNICOM, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, House of Blues and American Eagle. He has extensive experience consulting on integrated mobile marketing campaigns in a number of different verticals and possesses extensive knowledge of mobile technology.
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Impact Mobile Inc.
Gary Schwartz
President & CEO
+Over the past nine years, Gary has played a leadership role in the mobile industry, founding 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) (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 helped 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. 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. -
InComm
Jeff Kiedrowski
VP & General Manager
+Jeff is Vice President and General Manager of InComm, an industry leading marketer, distributor and technology innovator of stored-value gift and prepaid products with over 250,000 retail partner locations globally. He currently leads sales and business development divisions focused on specialty retail, wireless services and mobile commerce.
Jeff has over 20 years of experience in the retail distribution and telecommunication industries and previously held sales management positions at T-Mobile, Qwest, and AT&T.
Jeff proudly represents InComm on his recent election to the MEF global board.
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InMobi
Archie O’Connor
Head of Business Development, North America
+Archie spearheads InMobi's growth efforts by focusing on strategic alliances as well as managing publisher relationships. He has played a key role in developing the company's business strategies throughout North America and has over 15 years of experience in the online advertising, technology and media innovation sector. Prior to InMobi, Archie was Executive Vice President for Corporate and Business Development at Mixercast where he developed a rich-media publishing platform that generated over a billion monthly engagements. He created Master Service Agreements for top-tier Creative and Digital Agencies including; BBH, DDB, Digitas, Deutsch, DraftFCB and Universal McCann and has partnered with top 100 brands and media companies including; Viacom, Comcast, News Corp. Nike, Puma, McDonalds, Intel, Best Buy, Universal, and Nokia to innovate their digital strategies and increase their consumer engagement.
He also served as Co-founder and CEO of Syng.fm, where he developed the technology and royalty licenses for the first legal, free, on-demand ad-supported digital music service sanctioned by the top four music-label groups and publishers, helping create the structure that is now the industry standard for online ad-supported music services. He is a frequent consultant for several Private Equity groups, VC’s, Brands, Media Publishers and Start-ups and is a regular lecturer at universities and industry panels.
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Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
Sarah Hudgins
Director of Public Policy
+At the IAB, Sarah Hudgins is responsible for government relations and communications with the United States Congress and Executive Branch of the Federal Government, and serves as the industry’s liaison to third-party organizations and regulatory bodies to help advance advertising policy issues including telecommunications and mobile platforms, privacy, and the First Amendment.
Ms. Hudgins is a founding Board Member of the Global Women’s Innovation Network, and member of the Federal Communications Bar Association and American Intellectual Property Law Association.
She holds a J.D. from the Catholic University of America and a B.A. in Political Science and Communication Studies from the University of Iowa.
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KPMG LLP
Sanjaya Krishna
Advisory Principal & US Digital Services Leader
+Sanjaya Krishna is the US Digital leader within the Advisory Practice at KPMG LLP. In this role he helps companies in all industries navigate the increased opportunities and challenges afforded by digital, social and mobile technologies. Areas of focus include the creation, management, distribution, and transaction of digital/mobile content, social media governance, online/mobile advertising, mobile payments and mobile commerce.
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Macy's & Bloomingdale's
Johann Huber Gutierrez
Strategy & Product Development
+A pioneer in cross-platform marketing and commerce, with global experience spanning Europe, Asia, and the USA. He has developed and introduced a wide range of cutting edge technologies to enable and support cross-channel marketing and multi-channel commerce in his work with companies such as Sprint, Merck, Ogilvy, Lacoste, Bauer, Lotte, LIONSGATE, Fiat, Manchester United, Coty, Ford and other Fortune 500 companies on innovative mobile and digital marketing strategies and campaigns. Most recently, he has been a key contributor to cross-channel strategies and product development for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s.
In addition, he has a deep background in startups and pioneering innovative technologies with commerce and marketing applications. He partnered with a team from NASA in Evryx Technologies, where he contributed to the development of mobile visual search technologies used by companies such as Barnes & Noble, OMD, Nestle, Buy.com, and others. While at Evryx Technologies, he was responsible for the creation of the largest mobile price comparison engine in Japan, and the first multi-modal mobile and augmented reality search platform utilizing a comprehensive range of recognition, contextual, behavioral, and location awareness technologies. He worked with companies such as GetJar.com, the world’s largest open platform app. store, on mobile application management, monetization, and marketing, and has also been a recognized as an industry expert by Forbes.com, where he has been a contributor to Forbe’s list of America’s Most Promising Companies.
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mBlox Inc.
Andrew Bud
Chairman, MEF & Founder and Chief Strategy Officer
+Andrew Bud is the Founder, Chief Strategy Officer and Board member of mBlox Inc.. He co-founded the business in 2000, was CEO until 2003 and Executive Chairman until 2010. Last year mBlox processed 4.4 billion application-to-person transactions globally and recently launched its Entrust mobile payments product.
Andrew is the Global Chair of MEF. 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. From 2005-2008 he was a Board director of PhonepayPlus, the agency of UK regulator Ofcom.
During the 1990’s, Andrew was Head of Mobile at Olivetti in Italy and was one of the founders of Omnitel ProntoItalia (now Vodafone Italia).
Andrew is a Fellow of the IET and a graduate of the University of Cambridge.
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MEF
Rimma Perelmuter
Executive Director
+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 establishing MEF as the global community for mobile content & commerce. As Executive Director, Rimma leads MEF in its mission to shape the industry, connect thought leaders, drive monetisation opportunities and provide competitive advantage to members; overseeing the Executive, driving the Global Board and its regional chapters in Asia, EMEA (including a ME Office co-founded by Qtel), 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.
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MEF
Vildan Hasanbegović
Deputy Director
+With extensive experience in the mobile & web space, Vildan joined MEF in 2011 with a wealth of knowledge of the mobile content and commerce industry. As Deputy Director, Vildan is responsible for directing the MEF programme of membership services and the development of MEF’s global policy and initiatives, in collaboration with the Global Board and MEF’s regional chapters in Asia, EMEA, LatAm and North America.
Prior to joining MEF, Vildan served as Product Manager with Sony Ericsson playing a key role in the definition of the Xperia product series including content strategy with a strong focus on apps, real-time Web and future content types. Vildan also played a pivotal role in defining the new Sony Ericsson global outreach strategy, creating a thriving ecosystem of brands, technology partners, developers and content providers. -
MEF LatAm
Filipe Roup Rosa
General Manager
+Filipe began working at MEF LATAM as General Manager with the launch of the regional chapter in November 2009. He aims to help the region to grow in revenue and innovation, becoming one of the world’s leading markets in Telecom.
He has worked for more than 11 years in Mobile Value Added Services, and has been a Partner at Result since 2008, working as a consultant and interim manager of several leading Global mobile companies as they enter the Brazilian market.
Filipe started his professional career as a Product Manager at TMN (Portuguese Mobile Carrier), and later in 2002 he moved to Brazil to drive the Business Development efforts at VIVO (Top5 carrier in the world). He then jump started his entrepreneurial spirit by founding and becoming CEO of Mobile Fun, one of the TOP MVAS companies in Brazil, which he later sold in 2006 to Itouch-Movilisto (currently part of the Buongiorno group).
Filipe has a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from the Universidade Católica in Portugal, as well as MBA from the Fundação Gertulio Vargas in Brazil.
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Mentez
Juan Franco
CEO and Founder
+Juan Franco is the CEO and Founder of Mentez and Paymentez. Mentez is the largest gaming publisher in Latam and Paymentez is the monetization platform of virtual goods in Latam. Paymentez is used by the market leaders, such as Zynga, Playfish, Sulake, etc.
Juan is a board member of Cuponidad, one of the biggest local deal companies in Latam. Besides of being an entrepreneur, Juan was leading market development, sales and distribution for companies such as VMware, EMC, Salesforce and 3Com in the last 15 years.
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Miami Dolphins
Tery Howard
Senior Vice President/Chief Technology Officer
+Tery Howard is entering her 13th season with the Miami Dolphins and Sun Life Stadium as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer. She joined the Dolphins after 15 years with Carnival Cruise Lines, where she gained experience managing all of Carnival’s shipboard technologies. As the CTO, Howard is responsible for managing and directing the technology initiatives and strategic direction of business operations at the Miami Dolphins and Sun Life Stadium. Her primary focus includes infrastructure, telecommunications, business systems and broadcast media, converging the technologies and services to position Sun Life Stadium and the Miami Dolphins at the forefront of the industry. Respected throughout the industry, Howard is frequently called upon to contribute to IT presentations, panel discussions and workshops. She earned a Bachelor of Science and a Masters in Business Administration from Florida International University (FIU).
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Mobilium Int’l, MEF North America
Ralph Simon
CEO,Mobilium Int’l/Founder & Chairman Emeritus,MEF NorthAmerica
+Ralph Simon is one of the founders of the modern mobile entertainment industry. Over the past 15 years he has been a prominent mobile trailblazer, visionary and innovator, helping grow the global mobile and digital content and entertainment industries, and playing a central role in its growth, impact and presence world-wide.
Founder & Chairman Emeritus of the American chapter of the influential Mobile Entertainment Forum, (now known as MEF North America), he is popularly known as the “father of the ring tone” as he and his team created the first commercial ring tone company and service in the late 1990’s. He continues to raise global industry standards and uncover significant telco and smartphone innovation to boost brands, companies, artists, their managers and their music.
Simon currently heads Mobilium International in London, LA and Mumbai, providing high level strategic advice and guidance to the music and entertainment business, multi-national telco operators, handset & tablet makers, technology infrastructure companies, media companies, brands, ad agency groups, major recording artists and platform providers around the world.
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Movile
Fabricio Bloisi
Founder & CEO
+Fabrício is the Founder and CEO of Movile, a pioneer mobile entertainment company in Brazil. Movile has its Head-Quarter in Brazil and operations in 10 countries in Latin America, with more than 200 employees. Fabrício guided the company through strong growth in Latin America, including consolidating the market through M&A. Fabrício believes that Mobile services will be bigger than Internet services, especially in emerging markets, therefore Movile´s vision is to connect 100 Million persons in Latin America to the Internet through their mobile phones. Movile has South African media group Naspers as its major shareholder since 2008.
Fabricio Majored in Computer Science at the State University of Campinas. He presently acts as Chairman of Unicamp Ventures, and participates in mobile associations for developing the mobile market, including MEF.
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MTV Networks
Joe Lalley
Director of Product Development for Global Digital Media
+Joe Lalley is responsible for managing the mobile internet and SMS/MMS, subscription ringtone businesses amongst six Viacom Brands; MTV, VH1, CMT, Comedy Central, Spike and LOGO.
In this role, Joe is directly responsible for the oversight of each brand’s mobile internet sites including features and general product roadmap. In addition, Joe is responsible for developing and managing all text messaging campaigns including recurring content delivery and participation television through mobile.
Before joining the mobile group, Joe worked at within MTV Networks’ Digital Music team, managing product rollout and technical implementation.
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Myxer
Jeffrey Sass
VP, Chief Evangelist
+Jeffrey Sass is Vice President & Chief Evangelist for mobile entertainment company Myxer. Long a leader in ad-supported downloadable mobile media, with over 50 million users and more than 8 million mobile app installs, Mxyer recently added streaming entertainment with the launch of Mixer Social Radio™. Jeff has 30 years of experience in the technology and entertainment industries and first got involved in mobile in 1998 as a co-founder and CEO of mobile commerce pioneer BarPoint.com. Before that he was a senior marketing exec in the video and computer game industry and he has also written and produced for film and television. Jeff is a frequent speaker and panelist at mobile, music and digital media events, and has had articles published in AdAge Digital, DMNews, Mobile Marketer, iMedia Connection, MediaPost, Forbes and others. Jeff has served on the MMA's Education and Evangelism Committee and is a founding Board Member of the Mobile Internet Content Coalition (MICC) and Mobile Monday Miami. He is also an adjunct professor for the University of San Francisco's online mobile marketing training program. A recognized blogger and social media enthusiast Jeff has been a Sony DigiDad and an Intel Advisor. Jeff grew up in New York and graduated from Cornell University.
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Naranya
Arturo Galván
CEO
+Arturo Galván has spent his entire career establishing and cultivating the online industry in Latin America. For these efforts, the Wall Street Journal named him “Apostle of the Internet” for the region in 2000 and Bill Gates twice awarded him the Microsoft Award of Excellence (95-96).
Arturo was the CTO & VP of Business Development for leading newspaper group Grupo Reforma for 16 years. In 1988, he co-founded Infosel, the first online service company in the Spanish-speaking world, and launched the popular Infosel Financiero financial information service in 1990. In 1995, the company launched Mexico’s first Internet portal and became the first Internet access provider in Mexico. In 1999, Grupo Telefónica acquired Infosel as part of its online network in Latin America, Terra Networks, and Arturo was named President of Terra Mexico, representing the company in its IPO that year.
In 2002, Arturo launched Naranya, a Mobile Media Group focused to the Latin American markets and providing innovative services around the convergence of mobile & interactive technology, entertainment and marketing.
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Neomobile
Gianluca D’Agostino
CEO
+Gianluca D’Agostino is a successful entrepreneur and a pioneer in business innovation in the Mobile industry. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Neomobile, the global Mobile Media & Commerce Group, market leader in Europe and Latam.
Gianluca has a cumulated 20 years international experience both in starting up mobile initiatives (Neomobile, Fusion and Freever) and before in corporations such as TIM, Telecom Italia and Kpmg.He's today an evangelist in Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Commerce and Mobile Marketing, lecturer and speaker in mobile industry events worldwide (MEM, MEF, MMA).
In 2009 and 2010 Gianluca was named in the Top 50 Execs by ME Magazine and in 2011 elected “Media Momentum Man of the Year”.
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Netbiscuits
Craig Besnoy
Managing Director North America
+Craig is responsible for the generation of new business for Netbiscuits in North America. His mission is to ensure that the company continues to grow from strength to strength in all sectors of the fast-paced mobile market across the region. He is an ardent proponent of the Netbiscuits philosophy, having implemented the Platform on numerous occasions as a customer.
Craig has worked for over a decade in the digital music and entertainment business in the United States. Prior to joining Netbiscuits, he served as Vice President of Business Development for the Universal Music Group (UMG) where he developed UMG's mobile strategy and direct to consumer initiatives for popular artists. Craig holds a Bachelors degree in Accounting from the University of Alabama and a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and is also a licensed attorney and CPA in the State of New York. -
Nokia Corporation
Marco Argenti
SVP, Developer and Marketplace
+Marco Argenti is a consumer technology industry veteran with more than 20 years' experience and currently serves as Senior Vice President, Developer & Marketplace for Nokia. Argenti is globally responsible for support and growth of Nokia’s developer community and broader ecosystem across the entire product portfolio. In this role, Argenti also provides the strategy, delivery and support for Nokia’s on-device application marketplace.
Argenti is a frequent speaker at industry conferences in Europe and North America and in 2008, 2009 and 2010 was named by Mobile Entertainment Magazine as one of the top 50 Mobile Entertainment industry leaders worldwide.
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OnStar
Steve Schwinke
Director of Advanced Technology
+Steve Schwinke is responsible for the design and development of mobile apps, smart grid, new service innovation and hardware platforms.
Schwinke began his career with OnStar in February 1997 as a Hardware Manager where he was responsible for the design and development of the first factory installed OnStar system. In 2000 he was promoted to Director of System Operations responsible for end to end system performance and management of the wireless carrier relationships. In 2007 Steve was appointed Director of Service Line Management overseeing all the OnStar service offerings and roadmap for future services. His expertise is in the area of wireless communications, antennas and GPS systems.
Prior to arriving at OnStar, Schwinke worked at Ford Motor Company from 1991-1997. He holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University and a BSEE from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
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Open Market
Jay Emmet
Sr. Vice President
+Jay currently serves as Senior Vice President of Amdocs and General Manager of OpenMarket™, the largest mobile payments and messaging processor in the US and UK, with aggressive global expansion plans. Prior to joining OpenMarket, Jay was President-Americas at mBlox where he led the successful market launch of premium SMS services into the US consumer markets. Jay was previously Senior Vice President of Operations for ATG, and prior to that he was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at New Edge Networks.
Jay has more than 15 years of multi-functional communications experience, including leadership positions at LightNetworks, Logix, and MCI. He also worked at Andersen Consulting (currently Accenture) and served 6 years as a United States Marine Officer. Jay currently serves on MEF’s North America Board of Directors. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and was Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee. Jay has an MBA from American University and a BA from St. Anselm College.
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Payment One
Joe Lynam
President, CEO and Founder
+More than a dozen years ago, Joe Lynam envisioned a new payment process that would allow all consumers to participate in the emerging digital economy. Today, the digital economy is in full swing and the company Joe founded, PaymentOne, has emerged as the industry's fastest-growing direct to bill (D2B) payments provider, bridging personal computer-based eCommerce and mobile commerce. Joe has spent the last two decades as one of the leading pioneers of digital payments. His early work in online payment methods, authentication tools and comprehensive fraud control techniques are now emerging as industry-wide standards, and have earned his company multi patents.
Joe is an accomplished entrepreneur and seasoned executive with proven ability to lead companies through profitable double and triple digit growth. Under his leadership, PaymentOne has more than doubled its revenues in four consecutive years, culminating in two Deloitte Fast 50 Awards, recognition as the 11th fastest growing technology company in Silicon Valley and 33rd fastest growing company in North America.
Prior to PaymentOne, Joe founded and led VRS Billing Systems, a micro-transaction and third party payments company that was acquired by AT&T. In fewer than three years, Joe grew VRS from startup to powerhouse, with annual retail billings of more than $300 million. Joe also spent time at AT&T earlier in his career, designing and implementing the company’s nationwide third party payments platform.
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PayPal Mobile
Nick Macilveen
Director, Carrier Partnerships
+As PayPal Mobile’s Director of Carrier Partnerships, Nick Macilveen is helping build a new mobile payments industry by working with mobile carriers to establish mobile billing as a competitive payment method for internet merchants. His efforts include refining the business of mobile carrier billing for digital goods as well as bringing a wealth of PayPal mCommerce activities to operators. Mr. Macilveen also represents PayPal in trade organizations and industry forums. He originally joined Zong Mobile Payments as VP Carrier Partnerships & Industry Relations. eBay/PayPal acquired Zong for $240 million in August 2011.
Prior to Zong, Mr. Macilveen was the Senior Director of Strategic Corporate Development and Industry Relations at OpenMarket. Mr. Macilveen served on the Mobile Marketing Association Board of Directors for three years and is an active participant in the GMSA and CTIA Wireless Internet Caucus (WIC).
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Pery Ellis
Michelle Magallon
VP of Digital Commerce
+Michelle Magallon, Vice President of Digital Commerce for Perry Ellis International, is responsible for the ecommerce business and social media marketing. She has more than 20 years of experience spanning retail and consumer products.
Her team currently manages five e-commerce sites for Perry Ellis®, Original Penguin® by Munsingwear®, C&C California®, Rafaealla and Cubavera®, and leads social media for these as well as other brands within the company’s diverse portfolio, including Laundry by Shelli Segal®, Jantzen® and Gotcha®.
Prior to this position, she spent 11 years at IBM as an internal and external consulting in retail, e-business strategy and design as well as supply chain solutions and ecommerce. Among other career highlights, she was responsible for leading the development and then teaching the IBM eBusiness Strategy and Design Consulting methodologies for consulting engagements, and generated over $12 million for IBM in four years through the sales of enterprise solution software for large apparel, grocer and office products companies.
She holds a Masters in International Management from the University of St. Thomas and a Bachelors of Business Administration, Transportation and Logistics from Iowa State University.
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Play Phone Inc.
Ron Czerny
Founder & CEO
+Ron Czerny is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Play Phone Inc. and 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.
In 2000, Czerny founded Atrativa, a mobile and Internet consumer entertainment company with operations based mainly in Latin America. As CEO, Czerny led Atrativa to its current status as the premier Web game provider in South America, powering several major ISPs. 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.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in international business from San Jose State University.
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Playphone Social
Anders Evju
SVP & GM
+Mr. Anders Evju has been Senior Vice President and General Manager at PlayPhone, Inc. since October 2010. Mr. Evju is responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of the new platform in PlayPhone's transition from traditional mobile entertainment offerings into mobile social gaming. Mr. Evju is a mobile gaming industry pioneer and has extensive market leadership experience in wireless data and Internet integration with more than ... twelve years of wireless telecommunications experience. Mr. Evju served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Americas of Digital Bridges Ltd. (formerly, I-play), which he co-founded in 2000. He was an integral part of Digital's success resulting in the sale to Oberon Media in 2007. He then served as Senior Vice President of Oberon Media, where he managed the global online operations of the leading gaming platform provider. Prior to Digital, Mr. Evju served with MobileSpring Inc. as the Vice President of Business Development, which he co-founded. He has U.S. wireless carrier background from Omnipoint Communications, where he was responsible for strategic planning of Wireless Internet Solutions.
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Polar Mobile
Marlon Rodrigues
Director of Alliances
+Marlon Rodrigues is an alumnus of the University of Waterloo and an early member of the Polar Mobile team, helping to grow their app portfolio from 2 apps to over 700 today.
He first held the position of Director of Client Services where he brought brands like TIME, Businessweek and Sports Illustrated into the mobile applications business for the very first time. He then served as Director of Business Development, where he brought 95 Division 1 NCAA colleges to the Polar Platform.
Today, Marlon is Director of Alliances and is responsible for the relationships Polar has with major device manufacturers, technology vendors and monetization partners. He speaks regularly at industry events and educates new entrants into the mobile space about the merits and models of the mobile app business. -
Poynt
Margaret Glover Campbell
Senior Vice President Marketing & Communications
+Margaret has eight years' experience marketing software and over 20 years' traditional and online advertising, marketing and public relations experience including web-based apps and B2B solutions. Her track record includes driving millions of dollars in revenue. She has extensive experience with start-up companies, having previously worked for Cell-loc, AutoDesk Location Services and Vault. Additionally, Margaret has eight years' direct experience in the LBS space.
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Red Fish Media
Matt McKenna
President & Founder
+When it comes to mobile strategy and execution, Matt McKenna, Red Fish Media’s president and founder, continues to establish himself as a leader in the industry. McKenna has helped grow the initial grass roots company into a well-established mobile marketing agency responsible for executing successful national mobile marketing campaigns for brands like Ralph Lauren, Microsoft, Nike, MGM Resorts International, Anheuser-Busch, Fox News, Guitar Center, Mars, Saks Fifth Avenue, Coach, Perry Ellis and many more. With the increasing popularity of mobile marketing, McKenna’s roles have expanded to include published author and speaker at conferences and industry shows
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RegaloCard
Gregory Keough
Chairman & CEO
+Over the years Greg Keough has built and sold several companies and is known for his strength in building world-class companies and management teams. He has raised over $60MN in venture capital with a recognized ability of converting strategic vision to reality. He is frequently cited in the media for his expertise and has received numerous awards for his work including: Latin Trades Top Bankers of the Year, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, Washington's Top Technology leaders, Washington's Top International Leaders, The Intelligence Star (the CIA's highest honor for heroism in the line of duty), as well as other awards.
Keough is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and currently serves as CEO and Chairman of the Board of RegaloCard, guiding the company in its growth and strategic vision and managing the company’s operations in the US and LATAM. -
RIM
Anand Krishnaswamy
Director of Global Alliances
+Anand Krishnaswamy is the Director of Global Alliances at RIM and leads BlackBerry’s Alliances and Strategic partnership efforts in Latin America. Since joining RIM in 2008, he has helped to build a strong community of partners delivering applications and services for BlackBerry to consumer, large enterprises, government agencies and small businesses. Anand is currently focused on initiatives to expand the scope and impact of the BlackBerry Alliances Program in Latin America and in particular, to bring compelling consumer applications with third party application developers and key content providers.
Anand has an MBA in Finance from Wharton School. He also holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India and an MS in Computer Engineering from Carleton University.
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Samsung Electronics
Kevin Morrow
Director, Content Sourcing Group
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Shazam
Tracy Bromley
Senior Director, Business Development
+Tracy Bromley joined Shazam in August 2007, bringing over 15 years experience in mobile, advertising, business development and strategy, and emerging media. She began her career at Shazam managing North American carrier relations but soon led efforts to launch Shazam’s Advertising business and Shazam for TV. Tracy created the first Shazam for TV partnership with Docker’s for their campaign during the Super Bowl in 2010. Today, Tracy manages Shazam’s relationships with all of the US television networks and TV production companies creating partnerships with NBC Universal, SyFy, USA Networks, Discovery, Spike, and others. Tracy holds a B.A. from Simmons College with a dual degree in Art and Management.
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Sixth Sense Media
John Orlando
EVP of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development
+John Orlando is responsible for market and service strategy, corporate marketing, and partner development at Sixth Sense Media. John’s primary focus is to foster the use of mobile as an effective marketing and advertising channel for both mobile operators and brands.
A recognized figure in the mobile communications industry, John’s career has spanned the breadth of the mobile industry -- from technology platforms to mobile entertainment services, mobile marketing and advertising. John has worked with more than 30 mobile operators worldwide, capturing significant market share in the mobile media, entertainment, and content space. John was named to Mobile Entertainment Magazine‘s Top 50 Mobile Executives in 2008.
John currently serves as one of the Directors on the MEF North America and was previously Chair and Vice Chairman of MEF Americas.
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SNR Denton
Todd Daubert
Partner
+Todd Daubert is a partner in SNR Denton’s Washington, DC, office with nearly two decades of experience advising companies with respect to mobile and technology issues. Leveraging his dual backgrounds in engineering and the law, Todd helps his clients successfully overcome complicated legal, business and technological challenges by implementing creative solutions.
Todd has extensive experience advising companies that are developing, integrating or deploying new technologies in regulatory, transactional and litigation matters. Todd has helped numerous companies develop and implement privacy policies, and advised them regarding the handling and use of end user data, and obligations in the case of breach, as well as compliance with applicable regulations.
After graduating with honors from Duke Law School, Todd served as a law clerk to the Honorable Chief Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He also studied and worked in Berlin, Konstanz and Bonn, Germany, as the recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Federal Chancellor Fellowship.
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Sprint
John Carney
SVP of Consumer Marketing
+John Carney has more than 20 years of experience in retail marketing, multi-channel retail sales & distribution in the wireless industry. In his current role since June 2009, John leads the consumer marketing function for Sprint’s consumer brands including Sprint, Boost, Virgin Mobile and Assurance Wireless.
Prior to joining Sprint, John served as President and CEO for Affinity Mobile, a wireless MVNO mobile financial services provider. John was also a founding member of T- Mobile USA and built and led T- Mobile retail, third party retail, B2B, and web sales channels 1996-2006.
John received his Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from the University of Illinois, and earned a Master’s in Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
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Sybase 365
Mary Gramaglia
Director of Sales, US and Latin America, Mobile Commerce
+Mary Gramaglia is responsible for sales of Sybase 365’s mbanking solutions to select US financial institutions, as well as sales of the firm’s mbanking, mpayments and mremittance solutions into the Caribbean, Central and South America. She is the primary contact for the Mobile Commerce group’s Latin America market and partner development.
Mary has extensive international experience in both the telecom and financial services sectors and has worked in sales, marketing and business development for a broad range of blue-chip companies that includes Lockheed Martin, Sprint International and Citibank. Prior to joining Sybase 365 in January 2008, Ms.Gramaglia worked for Loral Skynet, a division of Loral Space and Communications, where she was VP of Network Sales and prior to that, in the areas of biometric authentication and mobile applications with two technology start-ups.
Mary holds a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and an MA in International Economics and Latin American Studies from Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). -
The Coca Cola Company
Tom Daly
Group Manager, Strategy & Planning, Global Interactive Marketing
+Recognized in 2009 by OMMA as an Online Marketing “All Star”, Tom Daly has been a member of The Coca-Cola Company’s Global Connections team since joining the company in 2005. At Coca-Cola, he leads the company’s global efforts for mobile, search and iAgency management. Leveraging everything from SMS to NFC-enabled payments he’s contributed to many of the company’s highest profile programs for some of the world’s most valuable brands. For over 15 years, Tom has been a champion of the role emerging technology can play in the branding and communications efforts across diverse industries.
Tom lives in Atlanta with his wife and four children who have inspired occasional posts to his blog, www.travelingparent.com
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TIMWE
Ricardo Carvalho
Co-owner, co-founder and Managing Partner
+Ricardo is a co-founder and Managing Partner of TIMWE, a global provider of mobile monetization solutions, with operations in more than 75 markets in five continents, managed through 25 offices. Having launched TIMWE operations in LATAM in 2003, Ricardo continues to head TIMWE’s business in the region.
Prior to TIMWE, Ricardo was an entrepreneur and an advisor in the digital and technology arenas for 12 years. Before 2000, Ricardo owned and managed the sports web portal infodesporto.pt, which he co-founded in 1996, and sold to Portugal Telecom in 2000. Between 2000 and 2003, Ricardo was strategic advisor to leading mobile marketing and entertainment firms. Between 2000 and 2001, Ricardo was a Board Advisor of the leading Portuguese media group Cofina, specializing in Media, Internet and CRM fields. -
Turner Broadcasting System
Jeff Sawyer
VP, Mobile & Connected Device Solutions
+Since November 2010, Jeff Sawyer has been VP, Mobile & Connected Device Solutions for Turner, and is responsible for deploying technology infrastructure and engineering resources in support of Turner’s mobile initiatives globally.
Before joining Turner, Jeff worked at RealNetworks, where he led their platform engineering group. Prior to joining RealNetworks, Jeff helped launch MVNO Helio as VP of MIS, served as director of wireless operations at EarthLink and held other engineering and consulting roles in telecommunications and technology companies.
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UNTETHER.tv
Rob Woodbridge
Founder
+UNTETHER.tv brings insight and analysis about how the mobile industry is changing the way global business operates through entrepreneur interviews, industry-focused podcasts and insightful writing. No theoretical book learning, just straight insight from the people and companies on the ground building the mobile industry as you watch.
For two years Rob has been interviewing mobile entrepreneurs, authors and analysts and commenting on the mobile industry at UNTETHER.tv. With over 400 shows encompassing over 700 hours of content about the mobile revolution, Rob has documented the most incredible change agents in an ever changing industry. Rob has spoken at dozens of conferences, written for dozens of publications and has helped some of the largest brands shift their business to mobile.
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Variety Group
Neil Stiles
President
+As President of Variety, Inc., Neil Stiles is responsible for the global business operations of the Variety franchise including Variety, Daily Variety, Daily Variety Gotham, and Variety.com. Additionally he oversees MarketCast, the leading provider of marketing research for the film and television industries.
Neil, a native of Great Britain, has more than 30 years of experience in the magazine industry, beginning as a music industry journalist in the mid-1970s and moving into sales management and publishing management positions throughout the 1980s.
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VISA
Tom Purves
Senior Business Leader, Merchant Strategic Solutions
+Tom is a technology executive specializing digital payment systems, a futurist and sometimes entrepreneur recently based in the great city of San Francisco. Thomas is presently a Senior Business Leader of Product Innovation at Visa Inc. Tom leads Visa’s digital wallet strategy in the converging spaces of mobile, social, online and retail commerce. Prior to joining Visa, Tom helped design and create Canada’s ubiquitous person-to-person email money transfer network and the first online banking service at one of Canada’s largest Banks.
Tom holds an MBA from the University of Toronto and an undergraduate degree from Queen’s University in Canada.
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WAU Movil
Jorge Partidas
CEO & Founder
+Before founding WAU, Partidas was CEO at LatCel, a JV between WAU and the Cisneros Group. LatCel is a mobile service provider focused on serving US Hispanics. He currently serves as CEO and Founder of WAU Móvil, a leader in the field of mobile connectivity and billing throughout Latin America. WAU works directly with over 60 mobile operators with offices in 16 countries serving the leading global technology companies deploy their services throughout the region.Jorge Partidas is a successful entrepreneur with special interest in connecting the Americas as a unified marketplace. For the past 10 years Partidas has focused on new media and mobile ventures.
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Zed USA
Loic Maestracci
Marketing Director
+Loic Maestracci brings over 10 years of experience in digital content, product development and marketing to Zed USA, the U.S. outpost of the leading global player providing multi-platform marketing solutions and innovative value-added content services. As Zed USA’s marketing director, Maestracci spearheads marketing strategies, new product launches and consumer engagement campaigns.
Prior to joining Zed USA, Maestracci served as director of marketing at Groove Mobile (acquired by LiveWire Mobile), where he managed content licensing and marketing for 15 mobile stores around the world.
Previous experience includes co-founding Mocca, a mobile marketing company specializing in the entertainment industry, and holding several senior marketing and product management positions with emerging and established new media and e-commerce companies, including Apple.





