News
Senior appointments and new regional offices as INQ steps up growth phase
London - January 18, 2010
INQ Mobile is delighted to announce the opening of new regional offices in Beijing, Singapore and Silicon Valley.
The new offices are part of INQ’s expansion plans into key markets in 2010, developing strong local teams and building up relations with local operators.
The offices also have strategic value to INQ; bringing the company closer to internet brands in Silicon Valley, fostering business development opportunities to support INQ’s core objective of bridging internet and communication with best in class Social Mobile devices.
The expansion will strengthen the company’s position in Chinese manufacturing and commercial centres as well as giving INQ a powerful route into South-East Asian markets.
INQ has made five senior appointments.
Kinson Loo has joined as President of INQ, Greater China. Kinson comes from Sony Ericsson where he was Corporate Vice President and Head of Region. He is vastly experienced and respected in the Chinese market. He was recently included a Top Ten list of the most influential people in the Chinese mobile phone industry by the People’s Daily newspaper.
Kinson will take the reins at INQ’s new Beijing office and spearhead INQ’s push throughout mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Jim Hudak is heading up INQ’s North American operation as General Manager and VP for Americas. Jim has 15 years worth of experience in start-up businesses and large corporations. Most recently, Jim led global business development for social mobile internet firm, iSkoot. He previously had a similar role with social mobile firm mig33. He has also worked for Fonav and was CEO of AirTx.
INQ has also appointed Paul Murdock to run Sales Operations for Americas. Paul worked at Nokia for over 13 years where he held several roles as VP and was a central figure in the launch of Nokia’s Tablet device.
Separately, Henry Whicheloe joins INQ from Vodafone Wholesale to take on the role of Head of Retail and Distribution for Europe. Henry has a strong background in retail and distribution having run his own retail business as well as holding senior roles at Brightstar and Orange Business.
Ronnie Burnett is Head of Operator Sales for Europe. Ronnie worked for RIM for five years and, more recently, held several senior sales roles for Huawei, managing T-Mobile and O2 global accounts.
CEO Frank Meehan said: “We are gearing up for an exciting 2010. We laid some amazing building blocks during our first year in business, and we are ready to grow this year. More high calibre people will join the business over the coming months as we continue to pursue our mission to reinvigorate the mobile market with amazing communications and internet devices available to more people.”
About INQ Mobile
INQ Mobile makes devices for a new generation of consumers who value email, Facebook, IM and Twitter as much as voice and text.
INQ’s first handset, the award-winning INQ1, was launched in November 2008, and INQ produced its follow-up handsets, the INQ Mini and INQ Chat 3G later in 2009.
INQ has pioneered the idea of ‘Social Mobiles’ with innovative functionality such as integrated address books, multi-tasking and zero-click Facebook and Twitter widgets on the home screen.
INQ draws on the strengths of its parent company, Hutchison Whampoa, which has made investments in the biggest internet brands and was an early investor in 3G networks.
INQ has attracted interested from network operators around the world about potential distribution deals.
For more information visit: www.inqmobile.com or follow INQ on Twitter, @inqmobile.
For more information, contact:
Soheb Panja, INQ Mobile
soheb@inqmobile.com
Julie Blane, SPR Europe, a SparkPR Company
+44 (0)7949 251607
jblane@corp.sparkpr.com
(US)
Karen To, SparkPR
+1 415 321 1863
karen@sparkpr.com