Piggy-backing on the rapid spreading of mobile Voice over Internet Protocol systems around the world, Challenger Mobile today announced the addition of two key executives to its corporate leadership team: Cesar Albiz and Esa Pollari.

 

The pair will join a company that helps mobile operators and service providers enter new markets and reach new audience segments.

 

Albiz joins the company as its vice president of sales for North and South America. In his new role, Cesar will be leading the expansion of the company’s direct sales and partnership development activities. Albiz holds both a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Economics and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Stockholm University School of Business in Sweden. He is experienced in the telecom domain as he worked for 12 years with Ericsson (News - Alert) AB and Edgecom AB (acquired by Ericsson in 1998) in various senior-level roles across Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, according to the company.

 

Joining Challenger Mobile as its Director of Business Development, Esa Pollari will lead Challenger’s sales, partnership and channel initiatives throughout Europe and Asia. Pollari earned his Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. He worked with various consulting and technical account management roles within the European IT sector for 10 years and spent more than 11 years in various sales, business development and marketing roles for Nokia (News - Alert). Recently, he was the head of business development for rich media Internet applications in Nokia.

 

Both individuals are seen as critical to the company’s plans for regional expansion, Challenger officials say. They will be expected to contribute to the growing global adoption of Mobile VoIP communications services among service providers and mobile operators, officials say.

 

“As Mobile VoIP adoption begins to accelerate and take on the rapid trajectory of traditional VoIP technologies, Asia and the Americas represent enormous growth opportunities for Challenger in the coming months,” Christina Sundman (News - Alert), chief executive officer of Challenger Mobile. “We are fortunate to augment our leadership team with such experienced and talented professionals, and we look forward to their success as they expand our presence and penetration in these critical new markets for our company.”