Executive Profiles
Denis O'Shea (CEO & Founder)
Prior to founding Mobile Mentor Denis spent 15 years with Nokia in a variety of management positions worldwide. His career spanned product development in Finland, project management in Sweden, account management in New Zealand, and General Management in Switzerland. His final role was as a Director of Nokia New Zealand. Whilst at Nokia Denis built long-term partnerships with the leading mobile operators including Vodafone and Orange to position Nokia as the sole supplier for GSM and 3G networks and associated professional services.
Denis has a proven ability to develop sound strategies, then build and lead high-performance teams across different cultures. He has successfully built and managed large business units with annual sales over Euro 100 million and has a strong operational focus to ensure that results are achieved.
He was educated first in Ireland obtaining a 1st Class Honours Degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Limerick, then a Master's Degree in Telecommunications Systems from the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland and in 2003 he took a sabbatical and completed an Executive MBA from IMD in Switzerland. Denis also speaks Finnish and French.
Jamie Macdonald (Managing Director, Mobile Mentor UK)
Jamie joined Mobile Mentor as an advisor and Director in 2005. Jamie has extensive business experience at senior management level in New Zealand and Europe including 3 years as Vice President, Wireless Data Division for Navman NZ Ltd, one of New Zealand's most successful hi-tech exporters.
After a career in Telecom Jamie left his role of General Manager Marketing for Telecom Mobile in 1996, and spent 6 years in Europe in a variety of roles including Chief Commercial Officer for Orange Switzerland, COO/CEO for Eurotel in the Czech Republic, and Chief Operating Officer for Webraska- a location based services start-up in France.
With over 12 years international experience, in a career spanning 3 decades, Jamie has led successful start-ups, organisation development, performance improvement and change management programmes for both new ventures and established businesses. He is a Director of Ion Consulting Limited.
Educated in the UK, New Zealand NZCE (Telecom) & REA he attended the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Jamie was Chairman of the Advisory Board of Mobile Mentor during its early commercialisation phase and is now the Managing Director of Mobile Mentor UK
Robin Nijor (CEO, Mobile Mentor USA)
Robin joined Mobile Mentor in July of 2008. Prior to this Robin was Vice President of Sales & Marketing at LightSurf Technologies where he played a key role in marketing the first Picture-Messaging (MMS) service in North America with leading wireless operators including Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and many others. After becoming the market leader for Picture-Messaging services in the USA, LightSurf was successfully acquired by VeriSign (VRSN) in 2005 for $300M.
Prior to LightSurf, Robin was Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Starfish Software where he & his team developed and deployed the industry’s first On-Demand service for web-based calendars, address books & and mobile-device synchronization. Starfish customers included Yahoo! Excite, America Online, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Dell, Motorola, and many other leading consumer brands. Starfish was successfully acquired by Motorola (MOT) in 1998 for $250M.
Robin’s early career was spent with some of Silicon Valley’s leading hardware & software start-ups including Logitech and eFAX. Robin has a 20 year track record of building winning sales & marketing teams and profitable, high growth businesses from early-stage through IPO & acquisition.
Mike Benner (General Manager, Mobile Mentor Japan)
Mike has been involved in developing telecoms and media related businesses in Japan and Asia for over 19 years. His career has spanned senior operating roles, business development and consulting positions.
At Vodafone Japan, Mike overhauled and realigned the corporate sales organization, growing the customer base significantly. He also played key roles in reorganizing and selling various Japan businesses for Vodafone. At MediaOne, Mike was responsible for building a highly successful broadband Internet business which became a cornerstone of Jupiter Telecommunications.
In addition to operational roles, Mike has worked extensively in private equity and investing, consulting on various projects for Macquarie, TPG / Newbridge and others. He also spent two years at the Monitor Company consulting on AT&T's Asian strategy.
Mike grew up in the US, but has lived in Japan for 17 years and is fluent in Japanese. He holds bachelor degrees in Electrical Engineering and Japanese Studies and an MBA from London Business School.
Dennis Hamann (Director of International Markets)
Dennis joined Mobile Mentor as Director of International Markets in May 2008. He has been involved in the creation and distribution of digital multimedia products and services for over twenty years in various positions throughout the information communications technology industry, including time spent in senior management roles at leading companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, LightSurf and VeriSign. Dennis has been involved in the creation of numerous consumer technology services and most recently was engaged in early-stage investment and consulting with emerging technology companies through his personally-founded company, EnGamba LLC.
Highlights of Dennis' career include leadership in the successful launch and management of 5 significant new industry product categories including: desktop scanners, multifunctional peripherals, handheld personal data assistants (PDA’s), online consumer photography, and wireless multimedia messaging; Successful growth and ultimate sale of LightSurf technologies to VeriSign Inc in April 2004; and championing of the growth and evolution of key, innovative industry initiatives through Board leadership with both the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).
Dennis was educated in the United States earning a bachelor’s degree with honours in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois. He subsequently also earned a Masters in Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University with concentrations in Marketing, Finance, and International Business.
Brian Schicker (President, Mobile Mentor Brazil)
Brian has been involved in the telecommunications industry for 30+ years both in New Zealand and now in Brazil. Prior to moving to Brazil in the mid 90's he was a senior executive in Telecom New Zealand, responsible for the sales and channel distribution of mobile phones.
In his initial years in Brazil, Brian was Managing Director of two mobile phone companies, plus was Sales and Marketing Director in two other mobile companies - all focusing on growing the telecommunications industry, which today has 124 million mobile phone users.
In particular, during the last 4 years, Brian has been a Director for Accenture, Brazil within their Communications and High Tech Group and more recently running his own Wireless Consulting business. He is currently a Board Member of the Brazil Beachhead Committee for NZTE, is also Chairman of the Board for a Mobile Marketing joint venture in Brazil, plus is a Board Member for a New Zealand dairy farm joint venture operation in central Brazil.
Today, Brian continues in Brazil as President of Mobile Mentor Brazil, as he now has extensive governance/management experience with operating companies within Brazil.
Kim Clarke (Managing Director, Mobile Mentor Australia)
Kim has over 15 years experience in the communications sector spanning 17 country markets and functions including sales, marketing, strategy, engineering and operations.
Prior to joining Mobile Mentor Kim was Global Director for Vodafone Business Segments in Newbury UK responsible for 17 country markets. Prior to this Kim was a Marketing Director at Vodafone Australia heading up their New Markets division and was on the board of Vodafone Australia.
Kim has an MBA from the AGSM, a Masters of Arts and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from UNSW.
Today, Kim is based in Sydney and is the Managing Director of Mobile Mentor Australia.
Pierre Meli (Managing Director, Mobile Mentor Central Europe)
Pierre has more than 20 years of experience in the ICT industry. He holds a degree in Information Technology from the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil, and completed his education in Economy at the University of Fribourg. Pierre has gained a great understanding of the Telco market from the angle of supplying IT companies such as Unisys, Computer Sciences Corporation and Sun Microsystems as well as from the operator perspectives. His large technological knowledge allows him to understand the challenges and opportunities of the converging worlds.
After various management roles in Swisscom, he joined the challenger Orange in Switzerland. Initially, Pierre was leading a network deployment unit and was Location Manager of the central region office for four years. For the last two years Pierre's role involved introducing the European Cost benchmark (ECB) in Orange Switzerland and setting up cost efficiency programmes with triple-digit million cumulated $US savings.
Pierre's career has always involved working in multi-cultural and cross-functional teams in many European countries and internationally. Pierre is fluent in German, French, English and speaks some Portuguese.
Paul Vodanovich (CFO)
Paul Vodanovich is a well rounded commercial manager and chartered accountant (CA member of ICANZ) with over 20 years experience in increasingly senior financial control and project management roles.
The majority of Paul's industry experience has been gained in substantial multinational marketing, distribution, technology and financial services organisations including Thomas Cook / Travelex, FUSION Electronics, Zespri International and ORIX New Zealand.
Paul has gained considerable international experience through commercial roles in London England (3 years), mainland Europe (Antwerp Belgium - 1 year), Sydney Australia (4 years) and Auckland New Zealand.
ZQ Shr (Business Development Director, Mobile Mentor China)
ZQ is the founder and managing director of GTM Solutions, which provides market entry consulting and outsourced sales solutions for technology companies wishing to crack the China market. ZQ was the co-founder of GTM Partners, which is the pre-cursor of GTM Solutions. Prior to his entrepreneurial stints with GTM, ZQ was General Manager and Chief Representative of Openwave China.
ZQ first came to work in China in 1996, as Sales Manager, Director and then General Manager of Motorola's Personal Networking Group, North Asia. During his tenure in China, ZQ established relationships with various levels of management at China 's telecom carriers, both at the headquarters and in the provinces.
Prior to working in China, ZQ held leading positions at Volt Information Sciences, Inc., and Ones & Zeros Software after his academic career as professor of linguistics in US universities. ZQ graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Ph. D in linguistics.
