Andrew Bud, co-founder and executive chairman, mBlox

Prior to assuming the role of executive chairman in 2003, Andrew was the CEO of mBlox, which he co-founded in 1999. Headquartered in California, mBlox claims to be the largest provider of mobile content transmission and billing services in the world, with a particular focus on Europe and the US. In 2008 it processed 2.5 billion mobile transactions, worth $500m.

Bud saw the potential for premium SMS as a billing medium early and mBlox claims to be the biggest premium SMS aggregator in the US and Europe.

Coming from a mobile technology R&D background, Bud led the European development of DECT, seen as the predecessor of wifi, and launched Europe’s first wireless LAN system.

He also currently holds the position of global chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), which he helped found in 2001. But his career is not without controversy, from 2005 to 2008, Bud served on the board of PhonepayPlus, the UK regulator of premium-rate telecoms services but was forced to resign over a conflict of interests when serious compliance issues became a matter of course with mBlox’s customers.

Most recently mBlox launched the world’s first mobile cross operator ‘sender pays data’ trial in the UK. The model allows content providers and service providers to bundle together the associated data costs for the purchase of mobile content on behalf of the consumer at the point of purchase.

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