OpenCloud Expands into Europe
June 26 2006, Cambridge, UK
OpenCloud Limited, the supplier of next generation application servers to the telecommunications industry, today outlined its expansion into Europe with the announcement of two senior appointments and the move of its headquarters from Wellington, New Zealand, to Cambridge, UK. Stephen Newton and Simon Joles have been named Chief Executive Officer and Vice President of Sales EMEA respectively, and their appointments add extensive industry experience to OpenCloud’s management team as the company advances its global position. The previous CEO Peter Barralet will become Chief Operations Officer based in Wellington, New Zealand, from where Research and Development, Support and Asian operations will continue to operate.
Following the company’s venture capital funding from No 8 Ventures in May 2006 to support further development of sales and marketing teams in Europe, the US and Japan, OpenCloud is set to experience an exciting growth period. Senior hires of Stephen Newton and Simon Joles’ calibre will be instrumental in ensuring OpenCloud’s success globally and in Europe.
Murray McNae, chairman of OpenCloud said: "Telecoms is on the verge of enormous change as new applications delivered by IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) proliferate and open the market up to developers looking to exploit them. Our leading edge technology complements and accelerates the emergence of these event-driven applications. Moving our headquarters to Europe shows our commitment to making OpenCloud a global player and will enable us to build a support infrastructure to continue to deliver optimum service to our customers."
As CEO, Stephen Newton is responsible for executing the company strategy of being the market leader in delivering open standard application servers. Stephen brings 20 years of international sales, marketing and general management experience in the IT and telecommunications industries. Previous roles include president of EMEA at Convergys Corporation and COO of Geneva Technology, the UK-based billing software company that was acquired by Convergys in 2001. Stephen is also an advisory director of the Telemanagement Forum.
Simon Joles joins as Vice President of Sales EMEA and his role involves winning new business in the region with OpenCloud’s strategic partners. Prior to OpenCloud, Simon’s most recent roles included vice president of sales at Vidus and vice president of sales EMEA at Convergys. Simon successfully expanded both companies geographically and also helped their business diversify into new markets.
"OpenCloud is at the forefront of open standards. We provide the platform for network services that will drive lean operation and innovation for networks today and in the future," said Newton. "OpenCloud has great engineers and technology coupled with a compelling proposition, and I am very excited about building the company into a global brand."
OpenCloud has successfully delivered open standard solutions at Vodafone and carriers in Japan. The company also works with leading network equipment providers, systems integrators and ISVs to create open platforms and applications for the telecommunications industry. In a recent study on the telecommunications sector*, Gartner stated that “event-driven application servers are amongst the most innovative evolutions in application platforms” and that OpenCloud are "technological innovators" within the sector.
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*Cool Vendors in Platform Middleware, Event-Driven Application Servers, Gartner, 2006
Notes to Editors
- OpenCloud’s Headquarters are at:
140 Cambridge Science Park
Milton Road
Cambridge CB4 0GF
United Kingdom - Photographs of Stephen and Simon are available upon request.
About OpenCloud
OpenCloud was formed in New Zealand in 2000 to create open standard software technology that would revolutionise the portability and interoperability of services in telecommunications specifically in the evolution to IP and 3G IMS. The company was founded on the vision that the use of Java in telecommunications would stimulate innovation, interoperability and simplicity in telecommunication systems. OpenCloud works with partners to deliver, integrate and support end-to-end solutions incorporating OpenCloud products to global network operators and service providers. OpenCloud has representatives in Cambridge, UK; Wellington, New Zealand; Madrid; Tokyo, and San Francisco. More information is available at www.opencloud.com.
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