MGM Wireless - Directors
The names and qualifications of persons holding the position of Director of the Company, during the financial period and up to the date of this report are:-
Mark Fortunatow BSc BEc – Executive Chairman
Executive Chairman Mark Fortunatow, founder and chief executive of the Company’s subsidiary MGM Wireless Holdings Pty Ltd, brings more than 14 years of senior executive management experience in marketing, engineering, information systems, finance and customer support.
Mr Fortunatow previously founded three successful technology-based enterprises, Linx Computer Systems (developer and marketer of financial software), Timekeeping Australia (a leader in the Australian workforce management market) and Netline Technologies (a company designing, engineering, selling and distributing voice based mobile wireless solutions), accumulating substantial practical experience in the many disciplines required to successfully launch and sustainably grow a successful technology enterprise.
Mr Fortunatow is on the Board of Directors of the Asthma Foundation of South Australia Incorporated.
He holds a degree of Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Economics from Adelaide University.
Director since 3 October 2003.
No other directorships in listed companies in the last 3 years.
John S Dawkins AO
Mr Dawkins served for 11 years in the Federal Government as Treasurer and Minister for Employment, Education and Training among other posts.
Following his retirement from politics in 1994, he commenced building a career in business as a strategic advisor and board member. For nine years he was chairman of Elders Rural Bank and for nearly 10 years served on the board of Sealcorp Holdings, now Asgard Wealth Solutions.
His current appointments include Chairman of Retail Energy Market Company and Integrated Legal Holdings and Director of Genetic Technologies and Government Relations Australia.
He has maintained his interest in education policy, participating in education policy reviews for the World Bank and the OECD in five countries, including Ireland and Malaysia. In 2001 he undertook a review of Education Adelaide for the SA Government.
As well as holding a degree in economics, he has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of South Australia and Queensland University of Technology.
Mark Edwin Hurd BSc(Hons) – Executive Director
Mr Hurd is co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of MGM Wireless Holdings Pty Ltd.
He holds an honours degree in Mathematical and Computer Sciences and has received numerous awards for outstanding academic and software engineering achievements. He is the chief architect of MGM’s technology.
A regular active contributor to Microsoft technical forums, Mr Hurd is sought after internationally by leading software engineers and corporations for his advice and software architecture expertise.
Prior to MGM, Mr Hurd was Chief Technical Officer at Netline Technologies, and before that held positions with Logica and Coopers and Lybrand and carried out numerous academic research projects.
In 1998, Mr Hurd co-founded Netline Technologies to design, engineer, sell and distribute voice based mobile wireless solutions. The company achievements included Winner – Most outstanding Wireless Mobile Product.
Director since 3 October 2003.
No other directorships in listed companies in the last 3 years.
Shaun Collopy
In 2000, Mr Collopy founded Sofwrite Technologies in 2000 which in less than 2 years grew to a profitable business with revenues of $2.5m+.
In Aug 2001, he sold Sofwrite to Australian Publicly Listed Company, Amnet IT, for approx $1.2m where he worked as General Manager - IT Services which became part of Amcom Communications,listed on the ASX (ASX.AMM).
In Oct 2003 he negotiated a management buyout of the SMS (Mobile) business/ assets of Amcom to form Sol Mobile, which he grew to a profitable company with $15m+ annual revenue. In Feb 2005 Mr. Collopy merged Sol Mobile with Mobile Messenger where he was the 2nd largest shareholder, and was instrumental in Mobile Messenger’s success.
Mr. Collopy was a key driver in growing Mobile Messenger into a profitable company with revenues of $150m+, 150+staff, offices in 2 countries, and operations in 5 countries. (Exact Revenue & Profit Figures are confidential due to Mobile Messenger being a private company).
Both Sol Mobile and Mobile Messenger did not raise any outside capital and were EBITDA positive from day one.
In Oct 2007 he and his Partner sold a majority stake to the prestigious private equity firm – SilverLake (www.silverlake.com).
At the time of sale Mobile Messenger had a valuation in excess of $200m. SilverLake led the transaction process as the major investor, including additional investments from Trinity Ventures (www.trinityventures.com) and Montgomery & Co. (www.monty.com).
Mobile Messenger continues to grow achieving record revenue and profit in the first quarter of 2009.
Mr Collopy is currently contributing ongoing support to Mobile Messenger (Board Member and Mergers and Acquisition Strategic Committee).
Originally from Adelaide – where his family still reside, Mr Collopy is currently based in the US.
