Working closely with Management team, the VOSS Board provides corporate governance and guidance essential to the company’s continued growth and success.
Mike Frayne, Chief Executive Officer
Mike Frayne joined VOSS in 2006 as chief executive officer, taking responsibility for the company’s strategic direction, sales, profitability, and aggressive growth plans. Mike brings to VOSS a background of managing high-growth companies and successfully taking them to IPO.
Before joining VOSS, Mike was co-founder and Executive Chairman of Intec Telecom Systems PLC. Prior to founding the Intec Group he worked as a consultant for a number of years, following IT management roles in the investment banking industry.
Mike holds an MBA from Wits Business School, Johannesburg, and a BSc in Information Technology and Psychology. Mike was named Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in 2001. Mike’s business interests are truly global, ranging from companies in the USA, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Mark Farmer, Non-Executive Director
Mark has 25 years' experience as entrepreneur and manager in the telecommunications software industry and is a co-founder of Eden Ventures. In 1991 he co-founded Metrica Systems, which became the leading supplier of performance management software to the telecommunications industry. During his time there Mark grew sales from zero to $28m, winning over 150 customer installations worldwide. Metrica was acquired by ADC Telecoms in 1996. Mark subsequently co-founded Smartgroups, one of the first communities web sites, (acquired by Freeserve for $95m), and Cramer Systems, which emerged as the leading supplier of inventory systems to the telecommunications industry (acquired by Amdocs for $425m).
With a strong investment track record and considerable management experience, Mark brings extensive domain knowledge of the telecommunications industry and sales skills to the Eden team. Mark was awarded the VC Personality of the Year Award, 2007, by Investor AllStars.
Cyril Bertrand, Non-Executive Director
Cyril Bertrand is a Partner at Xange Captial where he is responsible for core-technology investments and for the German-speaking area. Cyril has prior venture capital experience at DVC (Munich, Germany) where is was responsible for the Telecom & Semiconductor investments, and at TeleSoft Partners (San Mateo, CA). Prior to that, his 7-year tenure at Alcatel brought him to the position of Director in charge of creating and growing Alcatel’s first generation of 802.11 products across France, Spain and Israel in 2000.
Cyril is also a non-exec board director of Apertio (UK), MergeOptics (Germany), Panoratio (Germany), Powerlase (UK) and is an observer at BigMachines (US).
Derek Lispcombe, Executive Director
Derek Lipscombe is a co-founder of the company and is responsible for EMEA Sales. Derek has 18+ years experience in IT & T solutions sales, with a number of senior sales positions with Tandem Computers, Vicorp, Olivetti & Intec Telecoms Systems.
Whilst engaged in previous sales and sales management roles, Derek has also developed long term and fruitful business relationships with BT, HP, 3, O2, Cesky Telecom, Energis and Vodafone. At Intec, in the role of Sales Director for EMEA, Derek developed the sales team which delivered 800% revenue growth and 30 new clients over a three year period. He was Head of Sales in EMEA for JacobsRimell, where he lead the IP Telephony busisness development – responsible for the Cisco relationship.
Derek co-founded CapeConnect Ltd - a consulting business specialising in the design and implementation of wholesale and content settlement systems for telcos and he formed the EdgeAlliance EMEA based sales and business development network in partnership with Dr. Stefan Peters. Derek has a BSc in Mathematics from Heriot-Watt University.
Marcos Battisti, Managing Director, Intel Capital
Marcos Battisti became a VOSS board member in February 2011, following Intel Capital’s investment, as part of the VOSS series C round of funding. Marcos is the Managing Director for Intel Capital in Western Europe and Israel, having joined the firm in 1998, and is a founding member of the European team.
Marcos has extensive experience in the mobile sector with many successful exists including Azure Solutions (acquired by Subex), eTel (acquired by Telecom Austria) and Imagination technologies (publicly listed in the LSE). He is a Naval Architect and Marine Engineer with a degree from Polytechnic School of the University of Sao Paulo and an MBA from INSEAD.
Brian Collins, CEO, Adaptive Mobile Security
Brian brings a wealth of telecommunication experience to the VOSS board, having joined in February 2011 as part of the series C financing round. Educated in Ireland and in the US, he is currently the CEO of Adaptive Mobile Security, the world leader in securing mobile networks, and another Intel Capital portfolio company. Brian has previously held senior positons in Pacific Bell, Telenor, Etisalat and Digicel, and has also recently been an advisor to a number of Private Equity companies, namely TPG and One Equity, regarding transactions in the telecom sector.
