Mobile payments and messaging aggregator OpenMarket has appointed Andrew Darling as associate director of marketing and communications. Darling will support the market and business development team as it continues to drive OpenMarket’s growth in Europe and further afield. He has spent more than a decade working in the mobile industry as a journalist, event producer and independent consultant.
OpenMarket serves customers with direct billing, messaging and application connectivity to Tier 1 mobile operators across Europe, the US, Latin America and Australia. The company works directly with brands such as Virgin Media, NHS, Twitter and Amazon, as well as digital agencies such as Sponge, We Love Mobile and TigerSpike in the UK.
“I am exceptionally pleased to be joining OpenMarket at such an interesting stage of its international development,” says Darling. The company has a fantastic pedigree, the best technology, and a great commercial team who have developed solid and reliable relationships with operators, brands and agencies in Europe and the US. When OpenMarket approached me about coming on board, it was an easy decision to make.” 
Darling graduated from Southampton University with a degree in Philosophy and Economics, before studying legal practice qualifications at Nottingham Law School. After spending two years working for an international law firm, he gave up legal practice to pursue a career in journalism, starting out as a reporter in the Northwest Frontier of Pakistan, before returning to London to become a correspondent on various newspapers and business magazines covering telecoms and the internet. He established a private consulting business, West Pier Media, in 2005.
“I am delighted that Andrew has agreed to join OpenMarket at this exciting time,” says Alex Moir, general manager Europe, at OpenMarket. “His industry expertise, communications skills and long-standing experience of the international mobile services market will be a great asset to us as we drive the business further forward in the UK and Europe.”
