A true visionary, a trend spotter, truly innovative and the driving force behind OnRelay.
Just some of the plaudits from those that voted OnRelay’s CEO and co-founder Ivar Plahte as smartphone-biz.news’ Person of the Year 2008.
In second place was Ofer Tziperman, president and co-founder of LocatioNet, the mapping and location applications company.
As CEO of OnRelay for the past seven years, Plahte has established himself as a key thought leader in the Fixed Mobile Convergence space.
Prior to OnRelay, Plahte was director of IP telephony at Telenor, where he created and was the general manager of the Telecom over IP business unit.
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| Ivar Plahte, CEO OnRelay |
His team produced several world-first launches and was among the first public operators worldwide to establish a voice over IP based revenue stream.
Before Telenor, Plahte was Ericsson’s global product manager for IP Services.
He has a BSc in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Voters who recommended Plahte spoke of his vision and drive.
"Ivar has been at the forefront of Mobile telephony for his entire career," said one reader.
"He founded OnRelay to develop cellular FMC and only recently has the market managed to get over the WiFi hype and start to take the cellular option seriously.
"Ivar has been there all along, and now has his company well positioned to capture the market as it looks for the right solution."
Others described him as a "telecoms pioneer" whose vision predicted FMC shift back in 2000 and did something about it – "picking the right tech and staying at it".
The last word must go to one supporter, who simply said "he rocks". Praise indeed.
The runner-up, Ofer Tziperman, has over a decade of extensive experience in international business and in the marketing of high-tech products.
LocatioNet provides mapping and location enabled applications to tier one telecom and defense customers around the world.
Under Tziperman’s guidance the company has become one of the leading technology providers in the LBS and C4I markets, with an international presence in Europe, USA, Latin America and Asia.
Prior to establishing LocatioNet, he served as VP Marketing for OTI, a public high-tech company listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and NASDAQ that specializes in contactless smart card technology.
Tziperman played a major role in turning OTI from a young start-up company to an international organization with subsidiaries and front offices around the world.
An attorney who practiced commercial and business law, he holds an LLB degree from the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University and is a graduate of the Israeli Naval Officers Academy.
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