Renewed Vigour for WASPA Management Committee

The 2012 Management Committee (Mancom) announced by the Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association of SA (WASPA) looks much the same as the 2011 Mancom, except for the inclusion of Ryan Birkin who takes over from veteran Mancom member, Gavin Penkin.

While the names of the members of WASPA’s Mancom for 2012 and the portfolios and working groups they will be responsible for are largely unchanged, members say their increased joint experience will stand the Association in good stead as its promotes its mandate of encouraging mobile uptake.

“South African mobile users will only explore the mobile content and applications offered by WASPA members if they feel comfortable and secure doing so.

“This means WASPA will continue promoting the industry as well as enforcing and refining its Code of Conduct,” said WASPA chair Leon Perlman.

The new face on the WASPA mancom is Ryan Birkin who becomes chair of the Public Relations Working Group. “I am excited to represent WASPA, and our member WASPs, at a very public level. It is clear that both mobile consumers and the mobile industry are interested in what WASPA has to say. We will work hard to keep the two-way flow of communication open this year,” said Mr Birkin. He is currently Interactive Director at eXactmobile.

The other 2012 Mancom members together with their areas of responsibility are as follows:

• Smartcall Technology Solutions’ Janene Matsukis will chair the Networks Working Group together with Ryan Birkin.
• Casper de Villiers, Clickatell’s co-founder and operations director, has again taken on the responsibility of chairing the Finance Working Group. He has more a decade of experience in the WASP environment and is Clickatell’s representative at the GSM Association. De Villiers has served on the WASPA Code of Conduct Working Group in the past.
• Leon Perlman, the founder of WASPA, is again taking the role of chairman as well as of chair of the Regulatory Working Group. A former scientist, he has been in the telecommunications industry since the early 1990’s. WASPA’s founding and chairman since 2004, Perlman has also served on the WASPA’s regulatory portfolio since the organisation was established.
• Dieter van Rooyen, currently the operations director of Integrat, one of the largest mobile VAS aggregators in South Africa, will chair the Aggregators Working Group.
• Deon van Heerden, chief operating officer at ViaMedia, is an accomplished entrepreneur and technology professional with more than 17 years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies in a number of countries. He will chair the Membership Working Group.
• Russel Stromin, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry and head of Strike Media, will chair the Code of Conduct Working Group.