Band-X
Stephen Beynon was hired as Band-X’s new chief executive officer. He was previously in a management position in the data and business services division of Cable & Wireless Optus.
Electrofuel
Patrick R. McCool was appointed the vice president of sales for Electrofuel Inc. He was previously with Mitsubishi Wireless, where he was executive vice president of sales and was responsible for sales in the United States and Canada.
Classwave
Charlotte Burke moved from her position as Classwave Wireless Inc.’s vice president of mass market data/IP to her new appointment as vice president of global marketing and business development. She will oversee the company’s ongoing strategic marketing initiatives and its global presence. Burke has more than 15 years of experience in the technology industry and was most recently with Bell Mobility.
Informio
Yankee Group heavy hitter Mark Lowenstein joined Informio Inc. as its chief industry strategist, where he will help guide the direction of the company’s business and technologies. He will also lead road-map activities and continue playing a visible role in the industry. Lowenstein has more than 10 years of experience in the wireless industry. During his tenure with the Yankee Group, he managed a team of 20 analysts in the areas of mobile services, networks and wireless Internet, and he authored dozens of industry reports. Before joining Yankee Group, Lowenstein was a consultant with International Data Corp.
InterDigital
The board of directors at InterDigital Communications Corp. appointed Howard E. Goldberg as the company’s chief executive officer and a member of the board. Goldberg is replacing Mark Gercenstein, InterDigital’s CEO since April, who is leaving the company. Goldberg has been with InterDigital since 1993. He has served as president of the company’s intellectual property business and as interim president of the company since September of last year. During his time as interim president, InterDigital detailed its strategic plan, focusing on Wideband CDMA system-on-a-chip solutions.
IP Unity
Arun Sobti is the new chairman of the board and chief executive officer for IP Unity Inc. IP Unity’s former CEO, Ahmed Afroz, will continue as president of the company. Sobti has more than 30 years of experience in executive technical positions. As the president of the broadband access and transport group at ADC Telecommunications Inc., Sobti was responsible for a large number of ADC’s business units. Before working for ADC, Sobti spent 25 years with Motorola Inc. in a variety of positions, including vice president of solutions engineering.
NLS Group
NLS Group announced a change in its management lineup. James R. Riley will be the company’s new president. Jessie B. Green Jr. will be the executive vice president and chief operations officer, and Carl W. Gehring will be vice president of development and general counsel. The company’s chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Jeffrey M. Deuink, will continue in his position.
Cell-Loc
Cell-Loc Inc. appointed James M. Hill as its new chief financial officer. Hill has more than 25 years of experience in corporate finance. Before Cell-Loc, Hill was the chief financial officer at DALSA, where he worked to create strong planning and budgetary systems. Hill has also held positions at Revolve Technologies, Fracmaster, Nowsco and Price Waterhouse.
Cable & Wireless
Marc Lefar was appointed Cable & Wireless’ new executive vice president for marketing, where he will lead a team of workers in product development, business development, public relations and marketing. Lefar was previously at Verizon Wireless as vice president of data services and e-business, and was responsible for strategic planning, product development and marketing operations. Lefar has also worked for GTE Wireless and Procter & Gamble. Also at Cable & Wireless, the company appointed Trey Smith as its chief technology officer for Cable & Wireless Global. Smith previously worked for Road Runner, where he was senior vice president and chief technology officer and was responsible for the scope and reliability of the company’s network. Before that, Smith worked for Compaq Computer Corp. and IBM Corp.
Orange
Orange announced its newly rearranged executive board and top management structure, following France Telecom’s acquisition of the company. Michel Bon, France Telecom’s chairman and chief executive officer, will become chairman of Orange. Hans Snook, Orange’s chief executive officer, will retain his position until the flotation of Orange and will then become special adviser to the chairman and the board of Orange. Jean Francois Pontal, France Telecom’s executive vice president of the company’s mass market products and services division, will become chief executive officer designate. Graham Howe, Orange’s deputy chief executive officer and chief financial officer, will remain in his positions in the enlarged group.
H.O. Systems
Russel S. Akins was appointed H.O. Systems’ new chief operating and technical officer, where he will be responsible for emerging technologies, systems programming and network support. Akins was previously VisionAIR’s chief technology officer, where he was responsible for technology and infrastructure development. Prior to that, he was chief information officer at BellSouth, where he oversaw all the company’s wireless systems, including customer care and billing systems, operating support systems and sales and marketing.
Bridgewater
Mike Ozburn, former vice president and general manager of Nextel Online, now is the president and chief executive officer of Bridgewater Systems, a global provider of profile-based access control and service creation software. Ozburn also acted as vice president and chief information officer at Nextel, and prior to that, held the positions of general manager for the Telecommunications Group at General Instrument Corp. and the director of North American marketing for MCI Communications Corp.
Airspan
Airspan Networks Inc. announced it appointed Matt Desch, former president of the service provider solutions division at Nortel Networks Corp., to chairman of Airspan’s board of directors.
OmniSky
OmniSky Corp. expanded its management team to bring in four new executives. Elan Amir will be the company’s new chief technology officer, where he plans to overhaul the technology vision for OmniSky. Before joining the company, Amir was the vice president of technology for Puma Technology Inc. Dave Rensin was appointed OmniSky’s chief product officer, where he will be responsible for the overall product direction for the company. Previously, Rensin was chief scientist for Aether Systems, where he helped develop the company’s ScoutWare Platform. Dave Menconi will be OmniSky’s new vice president of engineering. Before joining OmniSky, Menconi was with Palm Computing as its manager of the Wireless Applications Group. Before working at Palm, Menconi spent 15 years creating computer games. OmniSky’s final appointment was Kristine Stebbins, who will be the company’s vice president of marketing. Stebbins was previously director of advertising for Microsoft, where she helped launch Windows 2000.
