WINBC Pulls Together Industry Giants to Judge Wireless Innovation Contest 2007

WINBC calls for North American contestants to enter their wireless deployments by January 29, 2007

Vancouver, BC, January 25, 2007 – The Wireless Innovation Network of BC (WINBC) today announces the panel of judges that will both judge entries to the Wireless Innovation Contest 2007 (WIC’07: www.winbc.org/wic ) and reward winners with a one-hour mentor session. This year’s panel is represented by leaders in the following sectors: device and network manufacturers, carrier, mobile research, entrepreneur and venture capital.

The panel of judges includes:

• Tom Nyberg, Senior Manager, Product Management, Nokia Multimedia
• Chris Langdon, Vice President of Network Services, TELUS
• Ray Gilbert, AVP for IT and Enterprise Collaboration, Alcatel-Lucent
• Oliver Starr, EIR, Angel Strategies, CMO, Foldera and blogger, Mobile Crunch and MobHappy
• Tony Rizzo, Director, Mobile Technology Research, The 451 Group
• Madeline Duva, President, 3rd Eye Consulting
• Joseph Averkamp, Director of Product Strategy, Sprint-Nextel
• Ken Blakeslee, Chairman, WebMobility Ventures

“Now in our fourth year, we have an exciting mix of judges that are returning for the second or third year with WIC as well as new judges. We are very grateful for the time they will be putting into judging the contest as well as mentoring winners,” says Shana Korotash, Executive Director of WINBC, the producers of WIC’07. “Chosen for their expertise in diverse business sectors, the judges will provide different perspectives and insights to the entries. The winners gain a one-hour closed doors session with the full panel to receive constructive feedback on their company and solution to be held at CTIA Wireless in Orlando, Florida.”

The eight judges will review entries in the following categories:

Taking Care of Business:

• Public Sector: a solution that showcases new processes or models, improves productivity and/or saves money in the public service (utilities, health, government, fire or police services).
• Private Sector: a solution that showcases new processes or models, improves productivity or facilitates commerce in the private sector.

Taking Care of Yourself:

• Home & Entertainment: a solution that entertains or facilitates life at home.
• Sports & Recreation: a solution that showcases wireless in a sport, recreation, fitness or wellness setting.

Taking Care of the Community:

• Community & Citizenship: a solution that helps raise the bar for the disenfranchised (disabled, elderly, illiterate, immigrants, non-profits).

Student:

• Students submit in any category but are judged against other student entries.

A benefit valued at $100,000, Wireless Excellence winners are rewarded with targeted exposure in media and at trade shows, inclusion in a special case study publication to be produced by IDC, and a one-hour mentor session with the panel of judges during CTIA Wireless.

WINBC, the producer of WIC’07, is supported by key industry leaders Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia, TELUS and IDC, and marketing partners CTIA WIRELESS 2007, RCR Wireless News, FierceWireless.com, Wireless Industry Partnership, Outlook4Mobility, CCNMatthews, SymbianOne and Forum Nokia.

Contestants can learn more about entry requirements and rules at www.winbc.org/wic Deadline for entries is 9am (PST) January 29, 2007.

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About the Judges

Chris Langdon, TELUS
Vice-President Network Services

Chris Langdon is the Vice-President of Network Services for TELUS Consumer Solutions responsible for product development and management of wireless and future friendly home network services encompassing wireless and wireline voice services as well as wireless mobile computing, location and e-mail solutions. Chris has over 15 years experience in the telecommunications industry in a number of capacities including product management, service development, business development and marketing intelligence. He is a graduate of the University of Waterloo, holds an MA in Economics from the University of British Columbia.

Tom Nyberg, Nokia
Senior Manager, Product Management, Nokia Multimedia

Tom Nyberg leads the Global Product Management function for music focused Multimedia devices, based in Vancouver, Canada. Mr. Nyberg joined Nokia in 1998 and has since been having various responsibilities in Product Marketing as well as customer facing Business Development. During these years he has been working and living in Germany, US and now Canada.

Mr. Nyberg is a graduate of Helsinki University of Technology, where he earned a Master's degree in Supply Chain Management.

Ray Gilbert, Alcatel-Lucent
AVP for IT and Enterprise Collaboration

Ray Gilbert is the AVP for IT Enterprise Collaboration for the Alcatel-Lucent Corporate IT organization. He is responsible to oversee CIO-IT partnership initiatives with CIO-IT communities and associations, suppliers, customers and other CIO-IT peers in major enterprises.

Most recently, Ray has been concentrating his efforts on sharing Corporate-IT views on the potential and business opportunities enabled by Network Centric IT strategies and services. One area of particular attention has been on the business benefits, plus technical experience of end users who have been trialing new Wireless Data technologies and infrastructures.

Over the last 18 years, Ray has held a number of senior positions with telecom vendors that have involved domestic & international assignments and responsibilities. He supports his corporate role from his home location in Toronto.

Ray has a BASc, MASc and MBA from University of Toronto. He is a registered professional engineer, a member of SIM International (Society for Information Management) & member of the IEEE & other professional societies. He also volunteers time to support teaching initiatives at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management & participates in various advisory groups for the WINMEC Consortium & Anderson Business School conferences at UCLA.

Tony Rizzo, the 451 Group
Director, Mobile Technology Research

Tony is a longtime technology industry veteran. He brings to The 451 Group a varied 24-year background in technology and technology publishing. He was an early user of email in the 1980s, and was on the Internet when it was still known as ARPANET. His industry experience includes stints as a programmer and network development specialist early in his career, Assistant Director of The Information Technologies Institute at New York University, and many years in the publishing industry as an editor and analyst.

Tony was a founding editor of Microsoft Systems Journal; a founding editor of Network Computing magazine; the Editor in Chief of Netguide, the first publication devoted to covering the Internet; and the Editor in Chief of Internet World magazine. Tony has also served as an Internet technology consultant in New York, and spent a year at Ernst & Young working on delivering Internet-based financial consulting services. In the three years prior to joining The 451 Group, Tony conducted extensive research into all aspects of e-business, especially in the area of Fortune 500 use of the Internet and mobile technology to deliver best business practices.

Oliver Starr, Angel Strategies and Foldera,
Executive in Residence & CMO

Oliver Starr is an Executive in Residence with Angel Strategies, a $300 Million Venture Capital Fund, as well as the Chief Mobility Officer and Director of Business Development for Foldera, a Web2.0 Communications and Collaboration Company

A serial entrepreneur and former professional cyclist who was on the US National Team alongside Lance Armstrong, Oliver’s high energy and voracious appetite for information have been an essential component in his many and varied successes.

Having been involved with computers as early as 1976 Oliver has long been a user and proponent of wired and wireless technology. From using infrared binoculars and radio-telemetry for biological research, to in-ear radios during international cycling competitions to his current work with Hello managing Fortune 1000 company pay phones, Oliver has uniquely broad perspective on mobile technology along with the desire to support its further advancement.

Madeline Duva, 3rd Eye Consulting
President

Ms. Duva, an embedded software entrepreneur with over 20 years experience (17 years in Silicon Valley), has been instrumental in developing and executing strategic initiatives throughout her career. After several years at Fidelity Investments, she moved to Silicon Valley where she has held senior managerial posts at Communication Intelligence Corp, PenOp, Dejima, and Revere Data. Before starting her own consulting firm advising start-ups, Ms. Duva was CEO of China MobileSoft. In 2005, CMS was successfully acquired by PalmSource, where she held the position of VP Silicon and ODM partners. Ms. Duva sits on the advisory board for a number of companies in the mobile industry, including 3jam, Eye-Fi, and MSX. Ms. Duva received her BA and MA with honors in LAS/Economics from Vanderbilt University.

Joseph Averkamp, Sprint-Nextel
Director of Product Strategy

Joseph (Joe) Averkamp is the Director of Product Strategy for Sprint-Nextel. In his role, Mr. Averkamp is responsible for identifying the next generation of products and services for Sprint-Nextel as well defining the strategy for current products in the portfolio. Previously, Mr. Averkamp was Director of Sprint’s Emerging Business Organization. In that role Mr. Averkamp was responsible for developing next generation strategies & solutions for location-based services, mobile financial services, automotive wireless solutions & telematics, wireless directory assistance solutions, networked home products, and other emerging technologies & products.

Prior to joining Sprint, Mr. Averkamp worked at Motorola, where he led the Motorola Customer team that focused on winning and executing telematics opportunities at GM OnStar. Motorola currently provides OnStar with key telematics system components including wireless transceivers and GPS devices.

Prior to his tenure at Motorola, Mr. Averkamp worked in a variety of sales, product planning, and engineering positions at Ford, focusing on the development of automotive electronics systems and wireless communications products.

Mr. Averkamp graduated with his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and earned his MBA at the University of Chicago.

Ken Blakeslee, Chairman, WebMobility Ventures
Chairman

Ken’s involvement over the past few years has been specifically in the area of private equity investing in the mobile sector, and his previous experience in developing telecoms, IT and web commerce business strategies spans 25+ years. His recent focus has been on the emerging new media content, applications and commerce methodologies, and the merging of these with the ubiquitous, personal access of mobile.

Ken’s Company, WebMobility Ventures, focuses on private investing and advising companies on bringing innovations in multimedia mobility to market. Prior to that he was Chairman of WirelessWorks with The Vesta Group, managing the investments of one of Europe’s top networked venture capital funds, Frontiers Capital. Now fully invested, this fund focused on Mobile Internet enabling technologies and was a joint initiative between Vesta and the Carphone Warehouse. In addition to being a venture partner, he established and was Chairman of their Board of Advisors. He has also served on the board of directors and advisory board of several companies, all innovatively active in various sectors of mobile investment, product definition and service delivery. Previously, he was VP of Business Strategy for Wireless Internet at Nortel Networks.

About WINBC
WINBC (Wireless Innovation Network Society of BC) is the producer of WIC’07. WINBC is the focal point for wireless in BC and a leading industry association in Canada. British Columbia has a 25-year history of successful wireless design and innovation and has grown to over 250 wireless companies representing all areas of the wireless value chain from infrastructure and devices to enabling software, enterprise applications, games and peer-to-peer solutions. Companies include Sierra Wireless, Nokia, Digital Dispatch, Colligo, Air G and others. To find your wireless partner go to: www.winbc.org. To see if you are eligible for the contest go to www.winbc.org/wic.

For further information please contact:
Asa Zanatta
WINBC Media Relations
Email: azanatta@spiritcommunications.ca