MEF EMEA
MEF launched its newest chapter in Paris back in November 2006, with an event themed around ad-funded mobile entertainment.
The first board elections were held in February 2007, following which the chapter championed vital areas of European policy, responding to EU consultations on key issues such as child safety and content online, and also produced a members’ practical guide to the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
In 2008, the chapter’s remit was extended to cover the Middle East and Africa regions and a newly expanded MEF EMEA board was elected during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The board is committed to creating local trade development opportunities for members; providing exclusive regional market insight and data; and advising members on legislative issues affecting their businesses.
MEF EMEA General Manager
Sarah Roberts
MEF EMEA General Manager
Sarah began working for MEF as their Music & Communications Advisor in 2004. Her first project was planning the launch of the official ringtone chart, where she leveraged her industry insight and knowledge to attract significant media coverage and help build legitimacy for the mobile entertainment sector. Other assignments have included the launch of a German ringtone chart, devising a comprehensive chart strategy, as well as providing issue-based editorial and marketing support for MEF initiatives. In April 2006, Sarah was appointed PR Director with responsibility for setting and overseeing MEF's PR strategy. Since August 2007, Sarah has been promoted to the role of MEF Europe (which recently expanded to EMEA) General Manager.
Starting out with a degree in French, German & Economics, Sarah subsequently trained as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse. After qualifying, it seemed a natural progression to work in the record industry where Sarah spent 8 years with the BPI (trade association for UK record labels) heading up their PR & Event activities.
Sarah has also worked as a PR Manager for BT Retail, implementing their PR & Comms strategy in the London region and in 2004, co-managed the PR for London's music & fashion festival 'City Showcase'.
MEF EMEA Board of Directors
Gerrit Jan (GJ) Konijnenberg
MEF EMEA Chairman
EVP Strategic Development, Comfone
GJ has been involved from the outset in activities to extend MEF’s reach in continental Europe. As head of MEF's Mobile TV initiative, he was responsible for driving a consultation with members on the controversial EU Television Without Frontiers Directive. GJ has also represented MEF at various international conferences and MEF business development events in the Middle East and Turkey. Press coverage of these activities and GJ's role as an advocate for MEF have contributed to raising MEF’s profile beyond its traditional audience.
GJ joined Comfone, a worldwide roaming/hubbing specialist with 300 operator clients in 125 countries, in Spring 2009. Previously he was CEO of Comsys where he was responsible for their operations in the UK and throughout Europe. GJ was founding Director of 3G Media Consult (winner of a Euroward for best start-up) which was acquired by Comsys in 2006. In 2002 GJ published a book on i-mode via Academic Services.
Born in The Netherlands in 1963, GJ lives with his wife Barbara and their 5 kids in Luxembourg and manages to balance family and work life and still have time to indulge his passion for sports. He speaks fluent Dutch, English, French and German.
Mark Kortekaas
MEF EMEA Co-Vice Chairman
FM Controller Audio & Mobile,
BBC
Mark took up the role in April 2009, and is responsible for all of the corporation’s Mobile Media activities. He works closely with the BBC’s Content Groups (Vision, Journalism, Audio & Music) to ensure that the work carried out within BBC Future Media & Technology’s Mobile, Audio & Music and Rapid Application Development team’s feeds into and inspires new multimedia products and services for our audiences. Mark’s remit includes the hugely successful BBC iPlayer on mobile which launched to UK audiences in 2008.
In a 20-year career in digital multimedia, he has held senior technology roles at CBS, Sony Online Entertainment, NBC and most recently, Chief Technology Officer at Project Kangaroo. Mark has a strong track record in delivering technology solutions that audiences value: both cost-effectively and on-time.
Mark originally hails from Chicago Illinois but relocated to New York in 1988 with a brief two year stint in Boston where he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Colin Yeh
MEF EMEA Co-Vice Chairman
Head of Group Product Development
Qtel Group
Colin oversees Product Innovations across Qtel’s operations in 17 markets spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. With creating more mobile innovations for end-consumers in mind, Colin is working closely with MEF to promote opportunities for key industry players to collaborate in the MENA region, starting with a joint-event in Barcelona – Innovation Exchange 2009.
With over 14 years of industry experience, Colin has held senior management positions across Telecom and New Media sector in Asia. He has successful track records in managing the development and marketing of new products, and establishing global strategic partnerships with major brands, Content Providers, as well as Application Developer Communities around the world. In addition to building the Advanced Mobile Service divisions for both Sunday and New World Mobility in Hong Kong, Colin also spearheaded the successful launch of the World's first Celebrity Prepaid SIM to deliver a basket of Mobile Entertainment experience for young consumers in 2002. Passionate about how mobile can deliver true value to enhance people's lives, Colin has also worked extensively with Digital Media companies, Banks, and Online start-ups to implement their mobile strategies.
Colin is a PhD candidate at the City University of Hong Kong specializing on Mobile Commerce and holds an MBA degree from Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Jiella Esmat
Director Digital Expansion
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Jiella Esmat recently joined Sony Pictures Home Entertainment after 6 years with Paramount Pictures. Jiella played a pivotal role in building Paramount’s Digital EMEA business from inception in 2006 and successfully negotiated, delivered and managed global accounts including Sony Ericsson, Samsung, PlayStation and Xbox. Her current responsibility at Sony is to leverage content across digital distribution platforms, including online, wireless and portable devices. Jiella’s role is to conceptualise, establish and monetise opportunities that drive the uptake of digital film consumption through collaborations with cutting edge technology partners.
Jiella has an ability to deliver far reaching sales and marketing campaigns, and uses her unique insight and backing of a major content provider with a global footprint to help drive the strategy of MEF and its partners and members. Jiella is working with MEF on digital business models and evolving a multi-platform strategy to bring rich entertainment offerings to mobile connected devices.
Barry Houlihan
CEO & Founder
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.
Over the past few years Barry has overseen the launch of five new businesses within MIG; mobile advertising agency 4th Screen Advertising, creative digital agency Jigsaw, M-commerce, messaging solutions and interactive platforms business Mobile Interactive Technology, mobile Internet publishing business Kilrush and mobile interactive agency New Toy. Integration and collaboration within the group 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.
Jonathan Jowitt
Senior Technical Marketing Manager
Dolby Mobile Content Solutions
An illustrious history in music and broadcast technology has paved the way for JJ’s career having managed interactive product development for Paul Allen at Interval Research, developed Playstation games, and prior to that, directing R&D at Drawmer.
Before joining Dolby, JJ held various strategic decision-making positions at Orange for 8 years. As head of enhanced multimedia product development he created award-winning multimedia technologies, bringing successes with Fireplayer (Winner: Digital Music Awards), Music Player (Voted best mobile app 2005), Orange TV and other mobile content channels. JJ also created Ananova – the world’s first virtual newscaster; holding worldwide patents. Ananova offered a broad knowledge in delivering great real-time user experiences to world-wide audiences.
Early recognition for his multifaceted talents came when he started engineering nascent drum machine synthesisers, the Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams…” utilising his technology in 1983.
Dolby has been traditionally linked to entertainment for over 40 years and is committed to providing a more immersive experience to mobile entertainment consumers. Many of Dolby’s partners will also be partners of MEF member companies, even if their brand is more traditionally from Broadcast, Cinema and other mainstream entertainment. In a converged world, it is important to strengthen these ties as we move towards the mobile High Definition experience in mobile sound and vision.
Emma Kaye
CEO
Gate7
Since 1995 Emma has honed her skills in the fields of animation and entertainment and, in the past two years, in mobility and new media.
Before setting out to giving sustainable business direction to an African brand in new media for the mobile screen, Emma did much the same for African animation and entertainment. Her credentials as co-founder of Triggerfish Animation (leading animation company), AnimationXchange (the largest grassroots forum for content creators), AnimationSA.org (the official animation organization), and the first animation festival in Africa, stand out.
Recently, her experience has catapulted her into the field of new media; first as CEO of Breakdesign, and currently as founder and CEO of Gate7, a mobile media, entertainment and content company.
Emma has a plethora of contacts and wealth of entertainment experience in Africa and is currently driving key projects and initiatives including Mobfest 2008, Africa’s first made-for-mobile festival. Mobfest aims to facilitate the successful expansion, consumption and creation of premium mobile content in this exciting emerging mobile entertainment market.
Javier Lorente Martínez
Global Project Manager, Mobile Data Group
Telefónica
Javier has worked in Mobile Data for the last 12 years, gathering experience in both network and Value Added Services enabling delivery of mobile content. He has been involved in Mobile Internet since the early stages of pre-WAP technology and was responsible for Emoción (Content Portal of MoviStar) from 2000-2009. His role in Telefónica has given him experience in the different markets/regions and with the key players across all Mobile Content Delivery ecosystems.
Currently part of MDG, the Telefónica Competence Center for Content and Services, with a worldwide reach, Javier is involved in various projects including the new User Experience for delivering applications and services for all markets.
He brings to MEF knowledge of the value chain and a huge experience on service definition and deployment. The developers and different stakeholders require more standardization and more tools for the business, creating APIs and interfaces that reduce the cost and increase the quality of service and offering for customers. The ultimate goals are: bringing a seamless experience to different screens; monetizing the existing services in new ways; looking for new enablers and their standard definition; and improving the user experience.
Mark Ollila
Director of Publishing, Games & Services
Nokia
At Nokia, Mark is helping drive the next generation gaming strategy. He sits on the Global Management Team for Games and is leading Nokia Games Publishing efforts. During 2008, Nokia Games Publishing has released 10 titles so far including Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep (Meffys 2008 Winner!!). Previously he was also responsible for technology strategy and business development, industry relations and industry marketing, partnerships and Nokia internal collaboration and technology roadmapping. He then decided publishing games was much more fun!
Previous to joining Nokia, Mark was a well known entrepreneur and highly respected authority in media technology, frequently hosting lectures and publishing research on the sector. He has a PhD in Computer Vision and an MBA from London Business School. He hates processes and thinks they are an embedded reaction to a previous stupidity and we should be more agile.
Dominique Rougié
TV/Video Director
NexT.com, Orange Group
With a passion for products, Dominique spent 7 years at Motorola Semiconductor in micro-processors and micro-controllers, working first as an Application Engineer and subsequently in various Product Marketing, Sales and Business Development positions at a local and European level.
He remained with Motorola, spending the subequent 4 years selling End-to-End platform solutions and 5 years in Mobile Handsets in Portfolio Creation & Management, Product Development and Business Development for both European and global accounts.
Since joining Orange in September 2006, Dominique heads up the TV & Video services within NExT.com. NExT.com (New Experience in Telecom services) is a division of Orange, specializing in defining and launching new cross-platform digital media services. Orange Ketchup TV on 3 screens and 2424actu, the first video, audio & online search engine 100% dedicated to news, are just two of the innovative services being developed and launched from his lab.
Raghu Venkataraman
Executive VP, Corporate Strategy & Strategic Marketing
du
Raghu is tasked with overall strategy for du, leading business development and partnerships, and providing strategic direction for marketing activities. Du is the second network operator in the UAE with a full quad-play license. Du now has more than 1.5 million mobile subscribers in just 10 months of operation.
Prior to joining du, Raghu was the Director of Commercial Strategy & Assurance for Orange UK. Here he worked on establishing commercial relationships to secure mobile content and applications with music and media providers such as Lucasfilms, Universal, Sony BMG and web majors such as MSN and Yahoo.
His career extends from Fortune 500 IT companies in France, Scotland and the US to mobile operators in Taiwan, Egypt and Europe. Raghu has spent four years in senior executive positions with MobiNil, in Egypt. Prior to this, he was a strategy consultant at Gemini Consulting working on their C4 convergence practice.
Raghu believes that it will take innovation, stamina and local know-how to build the appetite for the next generation of mobile and web services, and partnerships and collaboration to build a new ecosystem of players in the region.
Gerard Grech
MEF EMEA Chairman Emeritus & Founder
Head of Content, Media and Games, Nokia
Gerard is Head of Content, Media & Games at Nokia. Prior to taking up this role he worked at Next.com, the Orange Group business unit specializing in defining and launching new cross-platform digital media services. Previously Gerard was director of Strategy and Business Development at Orange’s Content Division in Paris and Group Head of Music & Video, launching several multi-media services across multiple territories and negotiating over 25 strategic partnerships with companies including Facebook, Universal, Sony Pictures and Bebo.
Prior to that, Gerard, who holds an MBA, was new media correspondent for United Business Media, a founding member of Centric Records (signings included Craig David) and a new media consultant.
With the backing of the MEF global board, he founded MEF EMEA with great energy and commitment, believing it will add even more value to MEF’s membership. In two years, he has delivered the following:
- strong strategic and operational foundations for the chapter
- further localization by piloting a MEF Italy chapter and expanding activities into new territories including the Middle East
- fast-tracking important initiatives including a guide on the Audio Visual Media Services directive, reports on ad-funded content and content sales reporting.
- attracting several important partners and companies to the organisation