ROK Entertainment Group has announced the appointment of Laurence Alexander as Chief Executive Officer. Alexander was formerly a director at O2, where he was responsible, among other things, for bringing the first Blackberrys to the UK and driving mobile data usage. More recently he was CEO of mobile handset manufacturer Emblaze. He joins the board of ROK as the company undergoes an Initial Public Offering through a share exchange with US publicly listed company CyberFund, Inc.
Formed in 2003, ROK Entertainment Group currently employs 150 staff worldwide and has, to date, been privately financed. ROK has filed more than 40 patent applications for a suite of mobile technologies it has developed, ranging from unicast mobile TV streamed over 2.5G, 3G and wi-fi networks, through to content-loaded memory cards and mobile VoIP and content applications.
Laurence is a highly respected player in the mobile industry, with a proven track record of success through his leadership, vision and insight says ROK Chairman and Founder, Jonathan Kendrick. He will bring renewed dynamism and focus to the already rapid deployment of our mobile technologies worldwide”.
ROK is in the midst of its plans to deploy more than 30 on-demand Mobile TV services streamed over existing mobile networks with selected operators worldwide by the end of this year. As part of this on-going roll-out, it recently announced the launch of its mass-market Mobile TV services with Telenor in Pakistan and with AIS in Thailand.
Ive been amazed and impressed at all that Jonathan and the team at ROK has achieved over the past three or four years and Im delighted to be joining the company at this exciting time” says Alexander. Well be looking to consolidate our position as a world leader in the provision of mobile entertainment services and applications through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world”.
ROK aims to secure significant chunks of the Mobile TV market worldwide – an industry forecast to grow into a multi-billion dollar business – as well as the mobile content market, through its ROK Media Store initiative.