Leon Perlman

Company: Cellular Online

WASPA Chairman 2005 - 2007

Leon Perlman is the founder and is the founding and current Chairman of WASPA.

A former scientist, he has been in the telecommunications industry since the early 1990's.

He holds the degrees BSc, BSc (Hons), MSc, BProc, LLB, and is currently completing a Doctorate of Laws (LLD) at the University of South Africa.

A sought-after international speaker, he has chaired and spoken at many international mobile, legal and telecommunications conferences worldwide for over 10 years.

He has lectured and taught technology convergence and technology law at Columbia University Business School in New York, the University of Cape Town, and the University of Toronto. He has headed the telecoms law division at Michalson's, a boutique ICT law firm based in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Published widely, he contributes to respected international telecommunications journals on various technology-related matters. He wrote the m-commerce chapter in the book, "The Hitchhikers Guide to Going Wireless" published in October 2005.

Neil Hutchinson

Company: Grapevine Interactive

WASPA Vice-Chairman and Marketing / Public Relations portfolio 2005 - 2007

Neil graduated from the University of Cape Town, Bachelor of Bus. Science (Honours) in 1984 and has spent most of his career in Corporate marketing where he launched and branded many new products and services in the SA market.

He spent 6 years working in various marketing roles within the Rembrandt Group. In 1990 he left his role as Marketing Manager at Stellenbosch Farmers Winery to join the multi-national Guinness Group as Marketing Director of their spirits company, United Distillers. He was responsible for the marketing strategy of their leading international brands and oversaw the growth of Bell's to the no.1 position in South Africa.

Neil was largely responsible for successfully launching and developing Johnnie Walker in the new emerging market segments in South Africa. He also set up and commercialised the first Internet site for trading and delivering liquor in South Africa.

In 1996 he became General Manager of United Distillers SA and saw the business grow to generate turnover in excess of R540m by 1998. In 1999 Neil left the Guinness Group and joined Dimension Data as an executive member of the Dimension Data i-Commerce division. He focused on the convergence of technology and business/brands and spent time with the major Corporates building their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy to ensure their technology adoption was justifiably increasing customer value.

In March 2000 Neil co-founded Grapevine Interactive focused on providing automated digital communication systems for the corporate/branded market locally and abroad. Grapevine secured capital from Dimension Data and Brait who are minority shareholders.

Neil's experience in consumer segmentation and his links to the media and communications businesses have played a large role in the success of the Grapevine offering to date. Neil is Managing Director of the Grapevine Interactive Marketing (GVIM) business that specifically focuses on delivering digital campaigns across electronic and mobile channels including SMS, Voice, Email, WAP, MMS and Web. In 2007 GVIM was rated by the Naspers Group as the top Mobile Marketing services provider in SA in terms of gateway, campaign software and mobile marketing expertise.

Over the last 2 years Neil has introduced new thinking into the new media environment such as Consumer Digital Intelligence (Di) rating and Virtual Instant Prize (ViP) incentive models that have been used by brands to improve the ROI on their campaigns.

Angus Robinson

WASPA Treasurer 2007

Angus has extensive experience, gained over the past 12 years, in software development, gaming, cellular, internet and media companies at both strategic and operational management levels. This has been realised through working in both well-established businesses as well as in start-up environments.

Employment History and Experience

• Brandsh Social Media, Founder and CE, 2006 - Present
• iTouch SA, GM – Gaming and Portal, 2005 - 2006
• Striata Communication Solutions, Head of International Operations, 2003 – 2005
• Livebet Online (A division of eCompany Holdings), Chief Operating Officer, 2002 – 2003
• Verticalnet Africa, Divisional Director – Africa, 2001
• Metropolis Transactive, Development Manager, 1999 - 2000
• MIH Group (International Gaming Networks and MWeb Divisions), Asst Intl Bus Dev Manager, 1997 - 1998
• Bell Cablemedia (London) – 1996
• M-Tel and MTN, 1994 - 1996

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the University of South Africa with specialisation in Management and Marketing.
• Angus has attended numerous technical, management and self-development programmes.
• Angus has a specific interest in usability and user-interface design and has achieved certification in this field.

Michael Hainebach

Company: Viamedia

Code of Conduct Committee Chair 2005 - 2007

Education:
BSC in Computer Science (UCT), BSC Honours Degree (WITS)

• Deans Merit list and Richard Solomon Scholarship for all 3 years at UCT

Experience:
13 years in IT and Marketing (including 3 years of programming, 3 years in Latin America, 6 years at iTouch SA, 2.5 years at ViaMedia).

• Marketing Director ViaMedia
• Previously General Manager iTouch Direct
• Built 35050 brand – voted best consumer service 2004
• Published and presented many papers on mobile technology and strategy
• Launched WAP in SA
• Business owner & IT Developer

Michael has gained broad and practical experience in the mobile space.

For the last 8 years Michael has been intimately involved in the development of this industry, gaining both local and international experience with a leading WASP, iTouch. From the first SMS services, through WAPs hype, demise and revival, Michael has experienced many failures and successes, including the pain and celebration of a successful London listing.

As a member of a leading international group, Michael had the benefit of learning from many different markets at various stages of development. He has had access to and tapped the minds of the leaders of this industry.

Michael has been on both the technical and marketing sides of the industry, understanding the technical opportunities and limitations as well the minds of the customers.

Now as the Marketing Director of ViaMedia (one of the most successful South Africa WASPs), Michael’s responsibilities span both consumer and corporate services, including all mobile bearers and technologies. His passion, understanding and concerns therefore span the entire industry.

Gavin Penkin

Company: Exactmobile

Royalty Working Group Chair 2005 – 2007
NetCom Working Group Chair 2007

Gavin is a Director of Exactmobile and has been working in the Mobile Services industry for over 6 years.

Since WASPA was formed Gavin has worked closely with all the players and provided valuable input to protect the consumer and ensure an environment where consumers have been protected against misleading services. Gavin works closely with the network operators due to services provided to the networks. Gavin participates on Codecom and Netcom and is a key player on the Mobile Rights working group working to find an amicable solution to the rights issues.

The value that Gavin brings to Mancom is a deep understanding of the Mobile industry and specifically mobile services. Mancom plays a vital role in forming the way the industry moves forward and needs people that can contribute in a positive way to build the industry.

Mark Smith

Company: Foneworx

Mark graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BA LLB in 1982 and was then admitted as an attorney in 1986.

Mark completed his articles and practised as an attorney for a few months before joining Shield Trading Corporation Ltd ("Shield") as legal advisor.

In 1987 Shield was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and Mark played a pivotal role in the listing of the company. Two years later he was appointed as the legal director for Shield as well as joint managing director of Success Wholesale Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Shield.

Mark was also the managing director of Infophone (Pty) Limited which operated telephony services in the premium rate service industry where he gained experience in the audiotex telephony platform. In 1991 Mark was appointed joint managing director of Shield. In 1992 Massmart Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Wooltru Limited, acquired 66% of Shield and Mark was appointed the managing director of Shield.

In May 1995, Mark was also appointed a director of Massmart Holdings (Pty) Ltd, the holding company of Shield, Makro and Dion. As managing director of Shield, Mark was responsible for 450 franchised outlets and responsible for sales of R1.3 Billion. The total market share of Shield’s outlets totalled (collectively) approximately R6 Billion. In February 1997 Mark phased out of Shield to start FoneWorx.

Mark was appointed as CEO of FoneWorx in 1997 and holds that position to date. Mark listed FoneWorx on the JSE in 1999 on the VCM and on the 13th of June 2007 converted the listing to AltX.

Mark has extensive knowledge in the FMCG markets and the integration with telecommunications.

Dr. Pieter Streicher

Company: Celerity Systems

Technical Committee Chair 2005 - 2007

Dr Pieter E. Streicher graduated from WITS with a BSc-Eng (Civil) in 1991. In 1996 he received his PhD from UCT. He worked as a civil engineer for four years at HHO Africa.

In mid-2000 Dr Streicher, along with Richard Simpson, (BSc-Eng (Civil), MBA), established Celerity Systems (Pty) Ltd.

BulkSMS.com was set up as a division of Celerity Systems to focus on SMS solutions for business and mobile users.

Today, the Cape Town based company is a leading wireless application service provider offering services nationally and internationally.

Dr Streicher is active in the Wireless Application Service Providers' Association (WASPA) and heads up the Technical committee.