LONDON, Feb. 10, 2001 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the establishment of a new Microsoft TV EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) team. The organization is distributed across the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France, Spain and Portugal, and further demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to the enhanced TV industry in Europe.
Alan Yates, the U.S.-based vice president of Sales and Marketing for Microsoft TV worldwide, said,
“The establishment of this new Microsoft TV team demonstrates our continuing commitment to the region and coincides with the first deployments of Microsoft TV-based services by European customers. The European TV industry is a very important area for us as, in many ways, it is the most advanced and exciting industry in the world. With the European team in place, we will build on our work with companies from all areas of the industry to help deliver the best possible enhanced TV experience to consumers, not only in Europe but also in the emerging enhanced TV markets in the Middle East and Africa.”
The members of the newly established Microsoft TV EMEA management team, all based in London, include the following:
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Mark Le Goy , marketing director. Le Goy is responsible for promoting Microsoft® TV within the terrestrial, cable, satellite, telco and content industries across the region. Le Goy comes to Microsoft from online retailer iMVS.com where he joined as marketing director before the company merged with Boxman. His television industry credentials include management consulting work with Booz Allen and Hamilton, where he analysed European and Asian TV markets, and worked with United Kingdom broadcasters and producers. Le Goy also spent seven years working for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which took him to Cairo, Egypt, Jordan and Casablanca, Morocco.
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Jim Beveridge, director of Market Development. Beveridge is responsible for overall market development of Microsoft’s Enhanced TV business in the EMEA region. Before joining Microsoft, Beveridge was director of Worldwide Business Development for Pace Micro Technology where he spearheaded Pace’s introduction of digital set-top boxes. Beveridge has held management positions at NDC (now NDS ltd.), the conditional access arm of News Corp., Motorola Semiconductor and International Data Corp.
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Andrew Adamyk , director of Content Developer Programs. Adamyk drives Microsoft activities across the European content and media production communities. Before joining the Microsoft TV group, Adamyk was a Strategy Consultant for Microsoft Consulting Services. In that role he was sent on assignment to the cabinet office, where he worked on a strategy report for the United Kingdom government looking at the future electronic delivery of government services such as claiming benefits and tax returns on platforms such as interactive television and the Internet. Before joining Microsoft, Adamyk served as a TV and interactive TV producer at the BBC.
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Sean Hayes, director of TV Standards. Hayes is responsible for helping define and promote open standards for the TV industry on a global basis. He represents Microsoft in worldwide industry and standards groups including DVB, TV Anytime Forum, OpenCable and ITU. Before joining Microsoft, Hayes held management positions in Hewlett-Packard’s Chai research and development division where he worked on a number of multimedia projects.
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Stephen McBride, director of Business Development . McBride is responsible for all client business development with Microsoft TV in EMEA. In this capacity, McBride and his team work closely with Microsoft’s network operator customers and other industry partners to develop enhanced TV services based on the Microsoft TV software platform. Before his current position, McBride was the industry marketing manager in Microsoft United Kingdom responsible for communicating Microsoft’s work management, customer management, data warehousing and computer telephony integration (CTI) strategy. Before joining Microsoft, McBride was European Sales Manager at Superscape plc and worked in the Key Accounts division of Computer Associates plc.
About the Microsoft TV platform
The Microsoft TV platform is a standards-based, client and server software family that enables network operators and their partners to deliver the most compelling enhanced TV services to consumers. The platform supports a range of TV devices – from current and next-generation set-top boxes and digital video recorders, to integrated television sets, entertainment appliances and other computing devices. Through the platform, network operators and hardware providers can team up to offer consumers an unparalleled range of services, from e-mail and Internet on television to interactive programming, electronic program guides and digital video recording.
Microsoft TV also creates significant new economic opportunities for network operators and the more than 1,000 companies worldwide that have chosen to work with the platform to deliver or supply the services, programming, hardware and software for the interactive TV industry. Microsoft TV supports open standards, and is backed by the technical expertise, support and broad third-party developer community Microsoft is known for. It is an integral part of Microsoft’s .NET vision of empowering people through great software – any time, any place and on any device. More information about the Microsoft TV platform can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/TV/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
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