Pauline Alker, Co-Founder, CEO & President Frederick Kiremidjian, Co-Founder, Vice President of R&D Jörg Sperling, Vice President, EMEA Business Development Jiping Wang, Vice President, China Operations Steve Kirmse, Chief Financial Officer Margie Gong, Vice President, Operations Pauline Alker Co-Founder, CEO & President Mrs. Alker co-founded a la Mobile, Inc. in June 2005 with over 40 years of experience in the high tech industry and a serial entrepreneur with multiple success track records. Prior to a la Mobile, Mrs. Alker was CEO & President of Amplify.net, Inc., a provider of solutions to ensure business continuity over broadband networks to maintain resiliency and secure access with predictable traffic flow. Amplify's technology and product rights were acquired by its Japanese partner, Takechiho Koheki Corporation, in 2004. Today the products continue to be marketed successfully to all the major telecommunication carriers in Japan. From 1991 to 1998, Mrs. Alker was President and CEO of Network Peripherals, Inc. (NPI). Under her leadership, NPI underwent a successful IPO in 1994, earning Wall Street Journal's and USA Today's award for best IPO performer that year. Following its IPO, Mrs. Alker conducted the company's successful secondary offering gaining NPI recognition by Inc. Magazine as #1 on its list of the Silicon Valley Technology Fast 50 companies in 1995. Prior to Network Peripherals, Mrs. Alker was founder and CEO of Counterpoint Computers which was acquired by Acer in 1987. Following the acquisition, Mrs. Alker served as President of Acer's Network Computing Division Counterpoint as well as President of Acer America's Sales and Marketing. Between 1965 and 1984, Mrs. Alker held various management positions that include Vice President of Marketing and General Manager of Special Products Division at Convergent Technologies (acquired by Unisys), and Marketing Manager at Intel Corporation and Four Phase Systems (acquired by Motorola), among others. Mrs. Alker holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with dual majors in Mathematics and Music from Arizona State University. ^ Return to top Frederick Kiremidjian Co-Founder, Vice President of R&D Fred Kiremidjian is a la Mobile's co-founder and Vice President of R&D, bringing over 30 years of engineering and executive engineering management experience. From 1998 to 2004, Mr. Kiremidjian was Vice President of Engineering of Amplify.net, a provider of technologies and solutions to ensure business continuity over broadband networks. Prior to Amplify, Mr. Kiremidjian was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Network Peripherals' NuWave Business Unit developing its next-generation gigabit stackable switching solutions. Previously he was Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations where he was responsible for all of NPI's North American and Asian product development and manufacturing. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Kiremidjian was Vice President and General Manager at Xerox Corporation's Personal Products Business Unit where he directed the successful development of the Xerox Work Center 250 multifunctional product. In 1984 Mr. Kiremidjian co-founded Counterpoint Computers, Inc. with Pauline Lo Alker where he served as Vice President of Engineering. Other positions Mr. Kiremidjian had held include Director of Engineering at Convergent Technologies and Sr. Development Engineer at Fairchild Corporation. Mr. Kiremidjian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Columbia University, and a Masters of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from New York University. ^ Return to top Jörg Sperling Vice President, EMEA Business Development Jörg Sperling joins a la Mobile with particular expertise in the broadband industry (wire line and wireless). Most recently Mr. Sperling founded Altos Advisors, a sales and business development accelerator assisting overseas technology companies entering the European telecom market. In addition to 7 years of experience as an active Venture Capitalist in Silicon Valley, Mr. Sperling headed Infineon’s North American Venture activities and worked in senior sales and marketing positions at Infineon Technologies both in the US and Germany. In his sales functions, he was in charge of customers including Nokia, Ericsson and Siemens among others. Mr. Sperling holds a Masters Degree of Electrical Engineering from the RWTH Aachen and completed post graduate research in the field of semiconductors at the Technion Institute of Technologies in Israel as well as at AT&T Bell laboratories ^ Return to top Jiping Wang Vice President, China Operations Jiping Wang joins a la Mobile with expert knowledge and experience in Linux OS Mobile Handsets, particularly in the China market. Mr. Wang is the founder of ArcherMind Technology (Nanjing) Co., Ltd., a leading software outsourcing firm in China. Prior to ArcherMind, Mr. Wang founded MobileSoft Technology (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. in 2001, and was a key contributor to the company’s tremendous growth and development into the leading mobile phone software provider in China. Prior to MobileSoft, Jiping was the Division Manager for Handheld Devices and subsequently the Deputy General Manager of Communication Intelligence (China) Corporation (CIC), where he was in charge of product development for embedded devices such as PDAs and smart phones, including the development of the Jot handwriting recognition software, which was licensed to Microsoft, Ericsson, Nortel, and many other OEMs. Jiping Wang earned his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Beijing University, China and his Masters degree in Mathematics from the State University of New York at Buffalo. ^ Return to top Steve Kirmse Chief Financial Officer Prior to joining a la Mobile, Steve Kirmse was an executive advisor to early stage companies, developing business models to commercialize technology platforms and providing advice on fundraising. Between 1999 and 2004, Mr. Kirmse held the position of Chief Financial Officer at Amplify.net, Inc. leading the company in all its financial and strategic operations as well as financing events and its subsequent acquisition. Mr. Kirmse brings over 29 years of U.S. and International banking expertise with J.P. Morgan & Co., Inc. Mr. Kirmse was the Managing Director of JP Morgan's Regional Investment Banking Office in San Francisco, CA where he lead multiple IPOs and billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions in the high-technology arenas. Prior to this, Mr. Kirmse was JP Morgan's Managing Director of the Client Banking Group and Corporate Financial Services in New York, NY. He has also held Vice President positions with JP Morgan's banking and strategic investment divisions in Europe as well as Asia. Mr. Kirmse holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from Princeton University. ^ Return to top Margie Gong Vice President, Operations Ms. Gong joined a la Mobile at its inception, working closely with the co-founders to establish the company's infrastructure. Ms. Gong continues to be responsible for its tactical operations from human resources to corporate communications. Previous to a la Mobile, from 1998 to 2004 Ms. Gong was Manager of Business Administration, progressing to the position of Director of Corporate Communications at Amplify.net. Over the course of her time with the company, her varied duties included formulating and implementing corporate policies and procedures and managing business operations, all human resource functions including recruitment, and managing and liaising among worldwide sales and marketing teams. From 1987 to 1998, Ms. Gong held several positions at GTE Government Systems. In her position as Contracts Administrator she proposed, negotiated, and managed multiple Government Prime contracts, ensuring delivery of contractual obligations and full compliance with Federal regulations. She was a key member of team that delivered system requirements on a major $40M subsurface multi-year contract, on time and 28% under budget Ms. Gong holds a Bachelor degree in Psychology with emphasis in Organizational Behavior from the University of Southern California. ^ Return to top