 |
|
Steven van der Velden (Chairman & CEO)
Steven van der Velden (1956) Chairman & CEO, has extensive entrepreneurial experience in logistics, telecommunications, e-commerce and investment management. Mr. van der Velden is involved in various ICT ventures throughout Europe, North America, the Far East and Caribbean. He co-founded E-commerce Park NV in Curacao, which developed a 50,000 sq.ft. data centre and Internet hosting facility, the International Telemedia Association (known today as Network for Online Commerce), and InTouch Telecom SA/NV, where he served as CEO until the company was successfully sold to GTS in 1999. Mr. van der Velden earned his MBA from Rotterdam School of Management and his Master's Degree in Law from Leiden University. |
 |
|
Johan Dejager (Director)
Johan Dejager (1959) has profound and varied knowledge of the Belgian industry. He is a partner of the private equity fund QAT in Belgium. Mr. Dejager is managing director and owner of several companies, including Osta Carpets - a specialized niche producer of area rugs with production plants in Belgium and a distribution center in Barcelona - and Gaverdal, a finishing plant for the carpet industry. In addition, he is shareholder and director of Keyware - a provider of identity-related solutions and services - and of Sparnex, an engineering company developing and industrializing DSL products for the telecom industry. Mr. Dejager is a member of the board of Febeltex, the federation of the Belgian textile companies. As vice-president he is in charge of the subdivision of interior textiles. Mr Dejager holds a degree in commercial engineering from the University of Louvain and an MBA from Insead Fontainebleau.
|
|
|
|
Rijkman Groenink (Director)
Rijkman Groenink (1949) career spans nearly 35 years at ABN Amro, starting in 1974 at Amro, prior to its merger with ABN. He served for more than seven years as Chairman of the Managing Board of ABN Amro Holding NV. Under Groenink's leadership the bank has been streamlined to focus on its core activities, while bolstering its operations through successful acquisitions, such as Banco Sudameris de Brazil, Delbrück & Co. and Bethmann Maffei in Germany, Michigan National and the acquisition of Banca Antonveneta. Mr. Groenink was elected European Banker of the Year 2005. In November 2007 he left as Chair at ABN Amro, following the acquisition of the bank by a consortium of banks, comprising of RBS, Fortis and Santander. He is currently a partner at Altas NV, an investment vehicle. Mr. Groenink received a royal knighthood, when he was appointed Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix in 2006. Mr. Groenink received a law doctorate from the Univerity of Utrecht, a diploma in Business Administration from Manchester Business School and a diploma Honoris Causa M.B.A. in International Business from the MIB School of Management in Trieste, Italy.
|
 |
|
Phil Hickman (Director)
Mr. Hickman (1950) is regarded as an expert in Payments Processing and the development of new solutions for financial transactions. He was previously CEO of Intelligent Processing Solutions Limited, a role that naturally evolved from his previous 30 year career within HSBC; including Head of Strategy & Planning for the Commercial Bank. Mr. Hickman is also Chairman of ValidSoft, a subsidiary of Elephant Talk Communications. |
|
|
|
Jacques Kerrest (Director)
Jacques Kerrest (1946) served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer ActivIndetity Corp. Prior to that he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Virgin Media Inc. a communication company based in tyhe UK. Mr. Kerrest was Managing Director and Chief Officer of Equant NV, a global enterprise communications infrastructure company. He served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Harte-Hanks Inc. a worldwide direct and targeted marketing company. He served as the Chief Financial Officer of Chancellor Broadcasting Company, a radio broadcasting company as well as the Chief Financial Officer of Positive Communications, a private Telecommunications company. He recently was a board member and Chairman of the Audit Committee of CKX Inc, a company engaged in the management of entertainment content, until it was sold to a large private equity firm. Mr. Kerrest has a Master in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona and an MBA from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. |
|
|
|
Charles Levine (Director)
Charles Levine has held leadership positions at several companies in the telecommunications industry. As Chief Sales and Marketing Officer and later as President at Sprint PCS until 2002, Levine led the fastest growing business in U.S. history. At Octel Communications Corp., as a Senoir VP, he was responsible for Octel's service business, the fastest growing and most profitable segment of Octel's business. Between 1986 and 1993, at AT&T, Mr. Levine helped turn around a money-losing Customer Products Business, and later, in a simular role, initiated a turn-around in AT&T's small business products market. At CadForms Technology, as CEO, he introduced new products and businesses. At General Electric Company, beginning in 1993, he served in product management and marketing, introducing and managing an innovative whole home control system. Mr. Levine began his career as a brand assistant at Procter and Gamble, rising to the position of brand manager. Since his retirement as President of Sprint PCS in 2002, he has been an independent Corporate Director for both public and private companies. He served as Chairman of the Board of Sierra Wireless and is a Director of Openware. He was chosen CEO of the Year 2001 by Frost & Sullivan and Marketeer of the Year in 1999 by MC Magazine. Mr. Levine holds an MBA in marketing, management strategy and finance from the Kellog School of Management - Northwestern University. |
 |
|
Martin Zuurbier (Director/CTO)
Martin Zuurbier (1959) Director and Chief Technical Officer, has over 12 years of direct experience in the telecommunications industry. He has been the Chief Technology Officer of Benoit Telecom Holding AG, a telecom service provider in Europe. Mr. Zuurbier served as director and founder of Vocalis Telecom Group located in The Netherlands and Switzerland. He was responsible for building, maintaining and operating a telecommunications network spanning eight countries in Europe including all back-office billing and CRM capabilities. Mr. Zuurbier was also instrumental in developing new switching technology.
|
|
|
|
Yves van Sante (Observer)
Yves Van Sante (1960) studied Marketing, Communication and Commercial Management. He started his career in 1982 as an advisor at United Brokers and became sales manager for Brinkers International, the market leader in refining oil for the food industry, a year later. From 1987 until 1993 he served as Sales and Marketing manager Central Europe at 3C Communications in Luxemburg, where he launched Credit Card Telephony across Europe. Following this position, he became a business unit manager Public Telephony at Belgacom, the Belgium incumbent, where he managed a department of 650 employees and a € 40 million business. In 1994, together with Steven van der Velden, Yves van Sante co-founded InTouch Telecom. As its managing director he was responsible for business development, sales and marketing. In 1999, when achieving a turnover of € 25 million and having grown to 125 staff, InTouch was sold to GTS, a pan European Telecom operator. Mr. van Sante became vice-president Business Services with GTS in London, where he consolidated acquisitions and turned the voice Telco around into an IP operator. In 2000 he became Managing Director of Eport, a call centre owned by the Port of Ostend. After six months Eport was sold to the Dutch call-centre Call-IT, and Mr. van Sante became advisor to its Management Board. In 2002 he founded Q.A.T. Investments. Concurrently, he has held various Management and Board functions in companies in the QAT portfolio. Mr. van Sante is a member of De Warande and member of the Board of Directors of Festival of Flanders. |
|
|
Management
|
|
|
|
Pat Carroll (CEO ValidSoft Ltd)
Throughout his career, Pat Carroll (1958) has been at the forefront of industry thinking, representing organisations on industry bodies and leading participation in industry initiatives. At ValidSoft, he leads the R&D function and is responsible for intellectual property and new patents. ValidSoft is regarded by leading research analysts as an innovator and a leader in the field of security having received many name checks in key research notes. Prior to founding ValidSoft, Mr. Carroll was employed as Head of Electronic Trading Technology in Europe for Goldman Sachs International where responsibilities included technical strategy related to Electronic Trading, Client Connectivity ans Straight Through Processing (STP). In addition, he co-headed European Equities technology and was a technical advisor to the Investment Banking Division (PIA). Pat has extensive Financial Services & Technical experience (over 25 years) ans has previously worked in a senior capacity with J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse Financial Products and Bankers Trust Company. |
|
|
|
Mark Nije (CFO)
Mark Nije (1962) as general manager Europe 2007-2008, a function he held since the end of 2004 within the acquired Benoit Telecom Group. Mr. Nije has experience in project management, business development, investment management, logistics and telecommunications, with primary responsibilities in finance and business control. Mr. Nije started as project manager and management consultant for Tebodin Consulting Engineers and Reitsma & Wertheim Merger & Acquisition specialists, the Netherlands. In 1990 he co-founded Logistic Management International NV (LMI), an international cargo transportation and airport handling company at the airport of Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. During those years he served as a board member and vice-chairman of the Curacao Exporters Association. From 2000 - 2002 he became partner of QAT Investment SA, the Luxemburg venture capital fund, where he has been active as investment manager and/or board member in various ICT related ventures of QAT. Within the Benoit Telecom Group, he was GM/CFO and specifically managed the various asset acquisitions and audits. Mr. Nije earned hos MBA with focus on Finance & Marketing from the Rotterdam School of Management/Erasmus University, the Netherlands, and a bachelor of Science Degree in Building Construction Management from the University of Reading, United Kingdom. |
|
|
|
Alex Vermeulen (General Counsel)
Alex Vermeulen (1954) worked for twenty years as manager with ING, one of Europe's leading financial groups. He served amongst others as General Manager for the Caribbean area and General Manager Postbank Insurances, a leading direct writer in the Dutch market. In Italy he was responsible for all the life insurance activities of ING and was director of various ING entities, amongst which the funds investment company. In 2003 Mr. Vermeulen started his own consultancy company in Italy, initially with advisory services in the life insurance market and broadening later on to other sectors. In 2006 Mr. Vermeulen started working for Elephant Talk as consultant. In 2007 he joined Elephant Talk full time as General Counsel. Mr. Vermeulen studied law at the Leiden University and took his masters in 1981. |