MEF gets board members from Vodafone and EMI — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Content portability next initiative} MEF gets board members from Vodafone and EMI

28 Jun 2005 at 19:43 GMT Timo Poropudas

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has announced its new global Board following its annual general meeting on 14 June in central London.

At the meeting, five members were elected to the Board of 11 representatives, and the review of the year highlighted a period of incredible growth in membership* and influence for the organization. With membership now exceeding 80 companies, the widening reach of MEF confirms its importance as the voice of mobile entertainment throughout the world.

The new MEF Global Board is as follows:

Gilles Babinet, Musiwave, Chairman
Andrew Bud, mBlox, Executive Chairman
Charlie Carrington, Vodafone Group Services, Head of Industry Development
Ted Cohen, EMI Recorded Music, SVP Digital Develop’t & Distribution
Gerard Grech, Orange Group, Head of Music & Video
Sissel Henriette Larsen, Beep Science, Marketing Director
Patrick Parodi, Alcatel, Head of Mobile Video & Music
Claudia Pöpperl, Qpass, Marketing Director
Stefan Rust, Sun, Director Corporate Development, Wireless
Ralph Simon, Entriq Inc, Strategic Advisor
Dietrich Ulmer, Siemens Acceleration in Communications, CEO & President

Stefan Rust was appointed to the Board as Interim Chair of the MEF Asia local chapter. The newly appointed Board also voted to re-elect Patrick Parodi as Chair of MEF and Andrew Bud and Claudia Pöpperl as co-Vice Chairs.

In addition, the Chairman announced the appointment of Rimma Perelmuter to the position of MEF Executive Director, in recognition of her achievements to date in helping drive MEF’s growth and her expanded role in managing the organization.

“In the last twelve months, MEF’s influence has grown enormously. We’ve witnessed the significant impact of our industry-wide initiatives ranging from the localization of our official ringtone chart in Germany to the establishment of an industry-endorsed subscription services code of conduct,” says re-elected MEF Chair, Patrick Parodi.

“During the last 12 months MEF’s membership has increased by almost two thirds to over 80 companies and now includes broad representation from all sectors of the mobile entertainment value-chain including key mobile operators, venture capitalists, media companies, all the major record labels and even direct to consumer retailers. We’ve also widened our regional activities through an expanded Americas Board and the creation of an interim Asia branch, with supporting Secretariats in LA and Hong Kong. I look forward to working with the Board to help the industry realize its full revenue potential and further deepen our links within the entertainment sector,” concludes Parodi.

MEF Initiatives launched during 2004/5 include: Communities Initiative, DRM Initiative, Subscription Services Code of Conduct and German Ringtone Chart launch.

Key new initiatives in 2005/2006:

Content Portability Initiative - to recommend a best practice guide for music and games content owners and resellers that enables consumers to transfer or retrieve purchased content when a device is lost or replaced.

Mobile Education Initiative - establishes a panel of expert speakers to proactively educate company executives about the mobile entertainment sector, targeting key areas of the entertainment business.

New members since AGM 2004

AG Interactive
Materna Information & Communications
Arvato Mobile
Medialive
Best Buy
Melodeo
Countdown Media
MoMedia International
Digital World Services
Monstermob
DX3 Technologies
Que Pasa
Embience
Sanctuary
Entriq
Siemens Acceleration in Communications
Ericsson
Sony BMG
Glu Mobile
Sony Net Services
I-Deal
United Fun Traders
Info2cell
Verisign
Intent Media-Mobile Entertainment
Victoria Real
Jamba!
Warner Music Group
Jumbuck Entertainment
Wireless Information Network
Lucent Technologies
Zandan