Ryan Birkin

Company: Exactmobile

• Joined Mancom 2012

Ryan is currently Director of Operations for Exactmobile and has been in the industry since 2003. He has extensive experience in the planning and implementation of corporate client and consumer products and has strong relationships within the Mobile Network Operators VAS divisions. He has extensive experience working on all mobile bearers and platforms. Ryan was on the original committee that came up with the first version of the WASPA Code of Conduct and is currently active on the Lobby Group committee and MNO meetings.

Casper de Villiers

Company: Clickatell

• Codecom - 2008
• Finance WG - 2010-2011
• Treasurer - 2010-2011

Casper de Villiers is currently the Senior Director of Supplier Connectivity at Clickatell. He completed his MBA at the University of Stellenbosch in 2010.

After completing his studies in Retail Business Management at the Cape University of Technology in 1994, Casper focused on skills development among youths and in the corporate sector. With charisma as natural impetus, the following five years provided Casper with a strong foundation for entrepreneurship and leadership.

In 2000 Casper became a co-founder of Clickatell, a global mobile messaging entity pioneering corporate short message services (SMS) within the online realm. Casper was initially responsible for all financial and operations duties, but soon moved to core operations management and was also responsible for the formation and coordination of a world class support centre.

Previously involved with WASPA's CodeCom working group, Casper became a Finance working group chair and management committee member in 2009. Casper was re-elected as Finance working group chair and was appointed as WASPA deputy-chair and treasurer in 2010. His official WASPA duties will focus on clarifying/defining financial processes and maintaining sound financial protocol. His personal goals are to improve on the finance-related communication to all WASPA members and to maintain a high standard of financial controls.

Anthony Ekerold

Company: Integrat (Pty) Ltd

• appointed to Mancom 2013

Anthony Ekerold currently manages the in-house legal department for Intgrat.

Janene Matsukis

Company: Smartcall Technology Solutions

• Lobbying WG co-chair, PR WG co-chair - 2012

Janene has 15 years experience in the mobile industry (initially with Cointel and then Smartcall Technology Solutions) covering all aspects of the business ranging from aggregation, content delivery, billing, and all bearers of delivery without exception.

Janene has been involved with developing one of the original WASPs (Cointel) into a power house of a business. During this time her understanding of the industries requirements as well as the needs of the consumer allowed her to set trends as to where the industry should focus to ensure success in the mobile telecoms environment.

With billions of billing tickets processed under her management, Janene is a trend setter for requirements in the past, present and her recommendations, suggestions and influence would be invaluable asset in the future. Understanding all aspects of the requirements and has an unlimited wealth of knowledge at her disposal to ensure this ingredient is available.

Building, concluding and sustaining relationships locally and internationally Janene has ensured that all partners dealing with her have been able to place a large amount of trust in her and decisions she makes, knowing that their business is in safe hands.

Leon Perlman

Company: Cellular Online

• WASPA Chairman 2004 - 2012
• Regulatory portfolio 2005 - 2011

Leon Perlman is the founder and is the founding and current Chairman of WASPA.

A former scientist, he has been in the telecommunications industry since the early 1990's.

He holds the degrees BSc, BSc (Hons), MSc, BProc, LLB, and is currently completing a Doctorate of Laws (LLD) at the University of South Africa.

A sought-after international speaker, he has chaired and spoken at many international mobile, legal and telecommunications conferences worldwide for over 10 years.

He has lectured and taught technology convergence and technology law at Columbia University Business School in New York, the University of Cape Town, and the University of Toronto. He has headed the telecoms law division at Michalson's, a boutique ICT law firm based in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Published widely, he contributes to respected international telecommunications journals on various technology-related matters. He wrote the m-commerce chapter in the book, "The Hitchhikers Guide to Going Wireless" published in October 2005.

Russel Stromin

Company: Strike Media

• Membership WG 2010
• Codecom, Code WG - 2011
• Mancom 2010 - 2011

Russel Stromin is Head Honcho of Strike Media, South Africa's premier full service mobile marketing agency. Russel is a 28 year IT veteran, pioneering cutting edge corporate communication technologies in South Africa. His previous business was purchased in 1998 by a large listed IT organisation and incorporated as a whole as the Internet division of the company. He was employed by the purchaser in a number of executive roles, finally as Group Technical Strategist.

Russel has proven his management and leadership qualities more than once and assists corporates and organisations in capitalising on the latest mobile marketing campaigns and technologies.

Capable of managing large teams and adept in developing and implementing innovative IT strategies, Russel has made a name for himself in the industry. He is skilled at conceptualising technology and information services and solutions. Russel also has a background in all areas of computing, networking, software, application development, process design, security and hardware.

A highly self-motivated individual who works well independently or part of a team, Russel is a highly experienced public speaker with great communication skills and is thus a fantastic communicator all round. Russel has served in the WASPA Management Committee since 2010, spent one year as chairman of the Membership Working Group and one more year as chairman of the WASPA Code of Conduct Committee.

Deon van Heerden

Company: Viamedia

• Mancom 2011 - 2012

Deon is an accomplished Entrepreneur, IT & Telecoms Professional and Management Consultant with more than 17 years experience working with Fortune 500 companies in a number of countries. The first part of Deon's career was spent as an IT Manager and Management Consultant working for Sanlam, Accenture (both in South Africa and the United Kingdom) and a niche strategy consulting firm in London. During this time, Deon also briefly worked as an Equity Analyst for one of the largest Asset Managers in South Africa in their Technology, Media and Telecoms Team.

Deon's involvement in the Mobile VAS industry started in 2000 when he was involve in the start-up of Clickatell. He joined Clickatell on a permanent basis in 2005 and was responsible for establishing the Clickatell UK local presence. During his time with Clickatell in London, Deon was intimately involved with PhonePayPlus and PayForIt as a registered member. Deon later returned to South Africa to take up the Country Manager role and progressed to Executive Vice President - World-wide Sales & Operations before he resigned in 2010.

Deon is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Viamedia (Pty) Limited.