About Zong
Our Company
David Marcus
Founder & CEO
David runs the show. He’s a natural-born entrepreneur, having founded and run 3 companies since he was 23. He started his first company, GTN telecom, back in 1996 in Geneva, Switzerland. GTN became one of the top three alternative carriers in Switzerland and was acquired by World Access in 2000. In 2000, he founded Echovox, a leading mobile media monetization company that helps large media companies connect with their mobile audiences. In building out Echovox, David build direct relationships and connections with mobile operators around the world. This formed the foundation for Zong, which was spun out of Echovox . Convinced of the massive opportunity in front of him, David up and moved his company to the Silicon Valley, where he feels right at home.
Tim Armandpour
Engineering
Tim leads our global software development efforts across our applications, device platforms, and infrastructure. He brings over 12 years of software engineering and executive management experience with him to Zong. Prior to joining Zong, Tim spent the last 4 years as VP Engineering at SendMe, Inc., a recognized leader in mobile entertainment content in the U.S., and helped SendMe achieve annual revenues north of $120 million. Before that, Tim spent 7 years at Yodlee, Inc., a leading personal finance and payments management solutions provider and an early pioneer of data aggregation in the financial space. He was an early hire at Yodlee and was the Sr. Director of Engineering in charge of product development for their Bill Pay and Funds Transfer solutions. Tim holds a BS in Computer Science from UC San Diego and has been awarded 2 U.S. Patents.
Rogier de Boer
European Sales
Rogier leads our European sales efforts. Prior to joining Zong, Rogier worked as Sr. Business Development Manager Online Gaming EMEA for world´s premier payment services provider GlobalCollect. In this position Rogier has worked with many leading online game publishers to support them in defining their online payment & monetization strategies. He has worked for global players such as United Parcel Services, Air Express International (currently DHL) and Galileo by Travelport, a leading technology provider and global distribution system for the Travel Industry. At Galileo Rogier was responsible for the commercial operations in The Netherlands with the responsibility over a team of 5 individuals and an annual revenues of € 16 million.
Richard Borenstein
Strategic Partnerships
Richard is charged with identifying and forming strategic partnerships that grow the Zong network of merchants and carriers. He has over 20 years of deal-making experience, having most recently directed Business Development at Baynote Inc., a leading on-demand recommendations and social search solutions provider, where he was responsible for the growth of the channel sales organization, international markets, creating strategic partnerships with Google, Cactus Commerce (MSFT), and CSK of Japan. Prior to that Richard was the Vice President of Business Development for Airborne Entertainment, a top-tier mobile entertainment company, where he directed all worldwide sales and distribution strategies. Airborne was acquired by Japanese mobile powerhouse Cybird in a deal worth over $90 million.
Hill Ferguson
Product & Marketing
Hill leads the company’s product strategy and marketing efforts. He brings over 10 years experience creating and launching new consumer Internet products for both large and small companies. While at Yodlee, Hill helped develop and market personal financial management (PFM) and consumer payments products used by top-tier Financial Institutions. At Yahoo!, Hill was a Senior Producer for Yahoo! Finance, the leading online destination for financial content. He also has an entrepreneurial bent, having founded LoanBack, a web service for setting up and managing “friends and family” loan agreements.
Kurt Hemecker
Carrier Partnerships
Kurt is in charge of building out Zong’s extensive network of mobile operators. Prior to joining Zong, Kurt was VP Services of MobileChannel.Net, a leading wireless company known in the industry for launching the MTV Ringtones services throughout Europe and Asia. Before that, Kurt was COO of GTN Telecom and previously occupied senior management positions with companies such as British Telecom, Infonet and Plessey Communications. Kurt has worked with David for a long, long time.
Stephane Kasriel
Global Sales and Business Development
Stephane leads Global Sales and Business Development. He joined Zong from PayPal, where he ran PayPal’s Consumer Products division, launched award-winning new products and dramatically accelerated the growth of existing, mature products. Prior to this, Stephane was the Managing Director for PayPal France, where he took the business from its infancy to being a very significant contributor to PayPal’s global P&L. Stephane previously founded Fireclick, a leading provider of web analytics which was acquired by Digital River in 2004. Stephane holds a MS in computer science from Stanford University and an MBA from INSEAD.
Elena Krasnoperova
Analytics and Fraud Management
Elena is responsible for Analytics and Fraud Management. She has over 15 years of analytics, strategy, and risk management experience. Prior to Zong, Elena spent 7 years at eBay and PayPal, where she built and managed the Marketplaces Strategy team, the PayPal Business Analytics team, and held a variety of leadership roles in PayPal’s Global Risk Management organization. In her Risk Management roles, Elena helped shape the evolution of PayPal’s approach to managing risk-reward tradeoffs for both existing and new businesses around the globe. In her analytics and strategy roles, Elena significantly enhanced the company’s understanding of the behavior, segmentation, and profitability of its consumer and merchant base, enabling the company to make more robust and data-driven strategy and investment decisions. Prior to eBay Inc, Elena was a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, where she partnered with market-leading software, financial services and consumer goods companies in developing and implementing strategies aimed at accelerating profitable growth.
Bertrand Perez
Operations & Support
Bertrand manages all our technical and support operations worldwide. Prior to joining Zong, Bertrand was the CTO of Index Multimedia, a leading, listed European mobile entertainment company. At Index, he was in charge of all infrastructures (more than 300 servers in production) and development/operations teams (over 90 staff). Before Index Multimedia, Bertrand was with Ericsson Global Services in Madrid. He has been in the IT/Telecom industry for more than 15 years.
Sandy Taylor
Finance
Sandy is responsible for all things financial, including strategy, accounting and operations. She joined Zong from Microsoft, where she was Director of Strategy and Business Performance Management. Before that she was VP of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer at Danger, Inc., developer of the Sidekick smartphone. She has also held senior roles in financial operations and strategic planning for Respond Networks and Oracle. Sandy got her start at KPMG and is certified public accountant.
