Management Team
Our management team averages over 25 years of career experience in a broad range of relevant technology sectors. These include wireless networking; telecommunications; enterprise, personal and mobile computing; software; and internet services.
Hatim Tyabji – Executive Chairman
John Cole – Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific
Adrian Hall – Chief Operating Officer
Nick Henry – Vice President, Worldwide Systems Integration
Tom Hubbs – Chief Financial Officer
Chris Koopmans – Vice President, Product Development
Andy Missan – Vice President and General Counsel
Constantine Polychronopoulos, Ph.D. – Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Bob Riccitelli – Vice President and General Manager, North America
Ian Sandman – Vice President and General Manager, EMEA
Warren Simpson – Vice President, Worldwide Customer Support
Hatim Tyabji
Executive Chairman
Hatim Tyabji’s life and career are embodied in the words of the playwright George Bernard Shaw:
Some men see things as they are, and say, “Why?”
I dream of things that never were, and say, “Why not?”
As chairman and CEO of VeriFone (NYSE), Tyabji created the world’s first virtual company a decade before the advent of the Internet and two decades before the publication of Thomas L. Friedman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Tyabji is a recipient of the Academy of Management’s Distinguished Executive of the Year Award, the Silicon India Lifetime Achievement award, and the Point Of Sale (POS) Industry’s Lifetime Achievement award.
After three heart attacks and open heart surgery, Tyabji was told by his cardiologist that he would never ski again. Less than three years later, mind triumphed over matter, as he returned to the slopes and renewed his passion for the sport. In 2005, he completed one of the world’s highest bungee jumps at Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The same year, he dove among 16-foot great white sharks in the waters off Cape Town, South Africa. Tyabji has also gone cliff jumping and recently took trapeze lessons.
Living life to the fullest, both intellectually and physically, Tyabji has been relentless in his pursuit of excellence. He is committed to a system of values inculcated in him at an early age. He has instilled these values at the core of several successful companies under his leadership. Tyabji’s pioneering organizational practices are documented in two Harvard Business School cases.
Tyabji is executive chairman of Bytemobile, progenitor of the Fourth Wave of Computing — the Mobile Internet. He is also chairman of Jasper Wireless. Tyabji serves on the boards of Best Buy (NYSE), Merchant eSolutions, Sierra Atlantic, Touch Networks (Australia), and the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. He is ambassador-at-large for Benchmark Capital.
Tyabji previously served on the following boards:
- Public companies: Ariba, Bank of America Merchant Services, Deluxe Corporation, eFunds, Novatel Wireless, PubliCard, and SmartDisk Corporation
- Private companies: Saraide (chairman and CEO), Datacard Group (chairman), DepotPoint, Impresse, and Norand Corporation
- Carnegie Institute
- Dean’s Council, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University
- Dean’s Council, School of Engineering, State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo
Tyabji holds a B.S. and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a M.B.A. in International Business. He is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the State University of New York.
In 2007, Tyabji published Husband, Wife & Company: An Honest Perspective on Success in Life and Work, a book on the complex interrelationships between family and career. Rich in human anecdotes, historical and literary metaphors, and real-world examples of corporate leadership, the book captures the spirit of Tyabji’s personal and professional life. This spirit combines an abiding courage to dream with discipline, decisiveness, unshakable ethics, and integrity.
John Cole
Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific
John Cole has more than 20 years of sales, marketing, business development, and general management experience in the telecommunications industry. Before joining Bytemobile in 2007, he was senior vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific, at Tellabs. Over a five-year period, his staff of 180 achieved a cumulative sales growth rate of 100%, while reducing operating costs by 15%. Prior to Tellabs, Cole spent 12 years at Motorola, based in Thailand, Hong Kong and Indonesia. His last position was general manager and director of Operations, ASEAN Markets, in Motorola's Telecom Carriers Solutions Group, where he was responsible for sales of cellular infrastructure products, services and solutions in several country markets. At Motorola, he also served as director of Network Operations, Asia Pacific, in the Messaging Strategic Networks Division; director of Business Development, Asia Pacific, in the Information Products and Services Group; and general manager of the STARPAGE joint venture. Cole began his career as a senior accountant at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). He holds a B.B.A. degree in Accounting from the University of Portland.
Adrian Hall
Chief Operating Officer
Adrian Hall has more than 20 years of management experience in international sales, marketing and business development in the information technology and wireless data industries. At Bytemobile since 2002, Hall was vice president of Business Development and chief marketing officer before becoming chief operating officer. Previously, he spent 12 years at Hewlett-Packard Company, based in both Europe and North America. At Hewlett-Packard, Hall held a variety of global management positions, including general manager, Sales, Marketing, Professional Services, and Support, for two vertical industry business units spanning 46 countries; corporate program director for the PC business; director of the North America Alliance Channels organization; and director of marketing for the North America Enterprise Server Business. As director of Solutions Marketing and Industry Marketing, he was responsible for marketing, sales and services for Hewlett-Packard’s wireless products. Hall also directed Business Development at Visto Corporation, where he developed and managed strategic partnerships with Handspring, Microsoft, Kyocera, IBM, and Oracle. Previously, he was vice president, Business Development, at FlyteComm. Hall holds a B.A. in Business and Finance, with a specialization in Marketing, from Brunel University in the U.K.
Nick Henry
Vice President, Worldwide Systems Integration
Nick Henry directs all services related to systems integration for the deployment of Bytemobile solutions in customer networks worldwide. System components include third-party hardware, operating systems, load balancers, switches, and application software which support the Unison™ Mobile Internet Platform. Based in the U.K., Henry has over 20 years of management experience in systems integration, business development and sales in the telecommunications and media segments. Before joining Bytemobile in 2008, he was head of the Consulting and Integration Practice for the Communications, Media and Entertainment Sector at Hewlett-Packard Company. There he was responsible for the design, development and delivery of total system solutions for major network operators and media companies in the U.K. He had previously been sales director, HP Service, for the same business unit. Prior to Hewlett-Packard, Henry was sales and business development director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at InfoSpace Mobile, a global provider of mobile application services to network operators. He was also a principal consultant in the Information, Communications and Entertainment practice at KPMG Consulting and head of Product Management, Switching Systems and OEM Products in Motorola’s GSM Division. He began his career as a telecommunications account manager at IBM U.K. Henry holds a M.B.A. degree from Henley Management College and a diploma in Business and Finance from Farnborough College of Technology.
Tom Hubbs
Chief Financial Officer
Tom Hubbs joined Bytemobile in October 2001, following a career in financial management spanning the prior 35 years. At Bytemobile, he directs the finance, human resources and administrative functions. Hubbs led Bytemobile’s Series B and Series C rounds of private equity financing, raising a total of approximately $42 million, and the acquisitions of Broadcloud, Daedalus and ProQuent Systems.
Prior to Bytemobile, Hubbs’s experience encompassed the following milestones:
- Led three successful initial public offerings (IPOs):
- interWAVE Communications International (Nasdaq), a provider of microcellular technology and cellular networking solutions for emerging markets (2000)
- VeriFone (NYSE), a leader in transaction automation, focusing on electronic payment systems in a broad range of retail environments (1990)
- Ungermann-Bass (Nasdaq), which led the emergence of local area network (LAN) technology for inter- and intra-office communications (1983)
- Orchestrated several mergers and acquisitions, including:
- interWAVE’s acquisitions of Microcellular Systems Corporation (2000) and Wireless, Inc. (2001)
- VeriFone’s acquisition of ICOT Corporation (1989)
- The sale of Phoenix Technology to Bridge Communications (1986)
- Ungermann-Bass’s acquisition of Amdax Corporation (1983)
Hubbs currently serves on the boards of directors of the following companies:
- Linktone (Nasdaq), a leading provider of wireless interactive entertainment products and services in China, where he is chairman of the audit committee and a member of the compensation committee
- DCL, a privately held provider of logistics management and supply chain services
- Provista Software International, a privately held supplier of information technology software for government applications
Hubbs’s early career included financial management positions at Four-Phase Systems, Hewlett-Packard Company and Price Waterhouse & Company (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Lehigh University and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.
Chris Koopmans
Vice President, Product Development
Chris Koopmans, a founding engineer at Bytemobile in 2000, is responsible for engineering, product management and information technology (IT). He has over 10 years of industry experience in hardware and software engineering and architecture. In eight years at Bytemobile, he has held a wide range of technical leadership positions. Most recently, he served as chief architect, with direct responsibility for the Unison™ Mobile Internet Platform and suite of mobile data, web, multimedia, and advertising services. Previous management assignments included director of Engineering for Optimization Services Node (OSN) handset solutions. He was also the architect responsible for product integration following Bytemobile’s acquisition of ProQuent Systems and subsequent transition of the Unison architecture to off-the-shelf hardware platforms and a fully interoperable product suite. Koopmans’ contributions include eight issued and pending patents covering wireless internet protocol (IP) services and optimization technology. Prior to Bytemobile, he held engineering positions at Intel Corporation's Microcomputer Research Laboratories and Silicon Graphics' Cray Research subsidiary. He earned a B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering with Highest Honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received the Bronze Tablet Award for outstanding academic performance as an undergraduate student. He also received an honorable mention in the CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Awards, which recognize the research potential of an elite selection of students. Koopmans was working toward M.S. and Ph.D. degrees on a fellowship from the National Science Foundation when he left to help found Bytemobile.
Andy Missan
Vice President and General Counsel
Andy Missan is responsible for all aspects of Bytemobile’s global legal affairs. He has over 20 years of corporate legal experience at companies in the mobile, digital media, internet services, and software industries. Before joining Bytemobile in 2009, he served as general counsel at MobiTV, Danger, ReplayTV, and Egreetings Network. His operational experience at MobiTV and Danger included the negotiation of complex software license, technology partnership, marketing, and distribution agreements with tier-one wireless network operators throughout North America, Latin America and Europe. Previously, he held legal management positions of increasing responsibility at Sony Music Entertainment, BMG Entertainment/RCA Records and WebTV Networks. Missan began his career in the litigation department of the law firm of Sidley & Austin in New York. During his career, he also operated his own outsourced general counsel practice, providing legal consulting services to both start-ups and publicly held companies. A member of the State Bar of both California and New York, he holds a J.D. degree from Northwestern University School of Law and a B.A. from Oberlin College.
Constantine Polychronopoulos, Ph.D.
Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Constantine Polychronopoulos’ research in multithreading computer architectures and wireless network performance optimization at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) formed the core of Bytemobile technology. He founded the company in 2000 to pursue a vision of the Mobile Internet and recruited a few of his graduate students, including Chris Koopmans and Nicholas Stavrakos, today vice president, Product Development and chief architect, respectively, at Bytemobile. As a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UIUC since 1986 and director of the Center for Supercomputing Research and Development since 1995, Dr. Polychronopoulos led research efforts that have had a profound impact on both academic and commercial computing. His innovations included the Computational Network Federations, the first dynamic virtualization architecture; the Nanothreads prototype, used by Silicon Graphics and other companies; and the Parafrase-2 and Promis multilingual parallelizing compilers, which spawned nearly two decades of research and influenced compilers and run-time systems at Intel, IBM and Compaq. Dr. Polychronopoulos has chaired and served on the committees of more than 50 international conferences, served on the editorial boards of IEEE and ACM journals, and delivered more than 70 presentations by invitation at universities, conferences and industry events. He holds 10 U.S. and international patents and has published a book and over 150 papers in research journals and conference proceedings. Among other honors, he received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1989, the 1998 Bodossaki Foundation Award in Engineering and a Fulbright Scholarship. In 1999, he was recognized as Pascal Professor by Leiden University. Dr. Polychronopoulos holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, an M.S. from Vanderbilt University and a B.S. from the National University of Athens.
Bob Riccitelli
Vice President and General Manager, North America
Bob Riccitelli has more than 30 years of sales management experience in the telecommunications industry. He joined Bytemobile in 2009 as vice president, Worldwide Sales Strategy and Operations. In this capacity, he has managed the company’s global sales pipeline, led the structuring of strategic multi-year/multi-product deals, and overseen all commercial aspects of customer supply agreements. He is currently responsible for sales throughout North America as well as sales strategy and operations across all geographic regions. Previously, Riccitelli was vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), at RealNetworks, responsible for growing the company’s wireless operator business across multiple markets. Prior to RealNetworks, he spent 27 years at Nortel Networks, leading sales and support teams that targeted wireless and wireline service providers, as well as large enterprise networks. As Nortel vice president, North America, Riccitelli was accountable for more than $1 billion in annual revenue. He also served as major account vice president, AT&T Wireless. Riccitelli holds a M.A.S. degree in Telecommunications Management and Policy from the University of Denver and a B.S. in Business Administration from Syracuse University.
Ian Sandman
Vice President and General Manager
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Ian Sandman, a 15-year veteran of the wireless communications industry, joined Bytemobile in 2001 as sales director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and was promoted to area vice president in 2008. He was responsible for building the company’s strategic relationships with Vodafone Group, T-Mobile International, KPN, Mobilkom Austria Group, and other global telecommunications leaders. Sandman closed group supply agreements with Vodafone and T-Mobile, which led to deployments of Bytemobile solutions at multiple operating companies throughout Europe and other geographic regions. He also drove the selection of Bytemobile’s Unison™ Mobile Internet Platform for Vodafone’s Multi Service Proxy (MSP) and T-Mobile’s Mobile Internet Gateway (MIG). Prior to Bytemobile, Sandman was a senior account manager for satellite projects at Ericsson and held various sales training and customer support engineering positions at Nortel Networks and ICV Limited. Previously, he served for eight years in the Royal Corps of Signals, a combat support arm of the British Army that specializes in telecommunications and information systems.
Warren Simpson
Vice President, Worldwide Customer Support
Warren Simpson is responsible for serving and supporting Bytemobile’s worldwide customer base of network operators. He has over 20 years of technical customer support experience in the enterprise hardware, application software and telecommunications sectors, including 10 years of management and team leadership experience in mobile solutions and communications networks. Before joining Bytemobile in 2008, he spent eight years at Openwave Systems, where he was director of Technical Support for mobile and messaging product lines in Europe, Middle East and Africa; mobile products worldwide; and third-party stack technologies worldwide. At Openwave, he was responsible for more than $20 million in maintenance and support revenue and a staff of over 35 engineers, architects and customer support managers in eight countries. Simpson achieved industry best-in-class customer satisfaction levels regionally, built close customer relationships at the senior management level, negotiated all maintenance and support contracts and renewals, and created value-added services to develop new revenue streams. Prior to Openwave, he held technical support team leadership positions at Northgate Information Systems and McDonnell Douglas. He is based near Belfast, Northern Ireland and directs Bytemobile’s global customer support team in Europe, Asia and North America. Educated in the U.K., he holds a diploma in Technology and Engineering with distinction in Mathematics.
