MUMBAI: Hungama Digital Media has announced the appointment of Ralph Simon on its board of directors.
Simon, who is the Chairman Emeritus and founder of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Americas, is considered an icon in the international mobile content and entertainment business. He has also been named as one of the top 50 mobile entertainment executives in the world for two years in a row. He is currently the CEO of Mobilium, the international Strategic Advisory Group with business in Asia, India, USA, Europe and Africa.
Over the last decade he has been a prominent global trailblazer and innovator, growing the mobile entertainment and content industry, and playing a central role in its impact and presence worldwide. He now joins the board of directors at Hungama Digital Media, South Asia's leading digital entertainment company.
Says Simon, It gives me great pleasure to work with Neeraj and Hungama as a member on their board. In a short period, Hungama has created a benchmark in the Indian mobile entertainment and is a strong global entity with regards to Bollywood and Indian content. Together we hope to do many great innovations in digital entertainment and bring creativity and expansion in the South Asian mobile entertainment industry....
According to Hungama managing director Neeraj Roy, Ralph Simon has been my friend and an advisor for many years. He is credited as being one of the pioneers of the mobile entertainment industry over a decade ago and has over the years worked on some revolutionary initiatives in both, the mobile and entertainment industries. We are very delighted as he now joins us as a director on the Hungama board. With his immense understanding of the global market, we look forward to raising the bar in the digital entertainment in India as well as the rest of the world....
Simon, who heads the London-based Mobilium International Advisory Group, which provides high level strategic advice and guidance to mobile operators, handset and technology companies, media companies, movie studio & TV networks, brands, ad agency groups, and platform providers around the world Specifically, Simon recommends unique ways to business growth and profitability, growing revenues and maximizing impact from the usage and distribution of mobile entertainment content, mobile music, messaging, mobile media technology and applications.
Prior to his leadership in the mobile entertainment industry, Simon co-founded the independent Zomba Group of music companies (and record label, Jive Records) in London in the 1970s, building it into the music industry's leading independent music company In the mid-90s, he came to the US as Executive Vice President of Capitol Records and Blue Note Records in Hollywood and started EMI Music's global New Media division
Simon correctly predicted in 1998 that mobile phones would become the indispensable voice/social networking-and-music companion for consumers and their increasingly mobile lifestyles He persuaded US music publishers to embrace this new mobile medium by granting the very first ring tone rights This spurred a whole new mobile entertainment industry in the US and internationally, and Simon was dubbed as �Father of the Ring Tone.' He started the first ring tone company in the Americas, Europe, UK, Australia and Africa in 1997 called Yourmobile The company was purchased in 2003 by Vivendi Universal and renamed Moviso, was the leading content aggregator in the USA for many years.
Between 2005-2008, Simon produced the mobile portion of the three highest profile concerts in recent global TV history: Live 8; Al Gore's Live Earth; and the TED Conference organization's Pangea Day Working with Sir Bob Geldof, Bono and the Live Aid organization, Simon brought mobile connectivity to the Live 8 concert that occurred simultaneously in 12 countries and delivered a television audience of over 700m viewers Live 8's substantial worldwide visibility influenced the G8 world leaders ultimately to commit $50bn in aid for Africa's poor.
He was subsequently recruited as mobile producer for Al Gore's Live Earth global event in 2007 – the first worldwide green event attracting massive cross-platform participation Spanning 10 countries, it reached a global TV audience of over 300m viewers That success led to working as mobile producer for the TED conference's 2008 Pangea Day, a global telecast featuring short films from film-makers all over the world – it was the 2007 TED Prize-winning project Simon arranged for Nokia to partner with TED and Pangea Day.
The influential trade publication Mobile Entertainment magazine has twice included him as one of the world's Top 50 executives in Mobile Entertainment (2005, 2006), and in 2007, he received its special award for Outstanding Contribution to the Global Mobile Entertainment Industry.
Simon works closely with the GSM Association, the global governing body of the mobile phone industry, providing expert advice on the future of mobile usage and mobile entertainment He also serves on the Visionary Committee for Midem/MidemNet, the international record industry's major international convention that helps shape the global record and music industry's best practices for use of intellectual property and music copyrights.
He is an internationally popular speaker on mobile entertainment. Ralph Simon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK and a member of the Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in the USA.