Tru Appoints Steven Robertson as Chief Executive

Ex Openreach Chief Joins World’s First Global Mobile Network

Aug. 22, 2011 -- Tru, the world’s first global mobile network, today announces the appointment of Steven Robertson as Chief Executive Officer.
 
The new Tru supremo said, “These are exciting times for Tru, I’m looking forward to helping the company realize its vision of becoming the world’s first truly global mobile network.”
 
He continued, “The current state of the voice and data roaming market is untenable. People who live and work internationally expect to stay connected. Right now the costs of staying in touch are so high that most users simply turn off their handsets abroad – it’s clear the market isn’t working.”
 
“Tru has the potential to turn the market on its head, building a new type of network that spans multi-country borders and eliminates roaming as we understand it today."
 
“It’s going to be an enormous operational challenge, I already know some of the executive team and it’s a talented group of people - I’m absolutely confident we can deliver on the tasks ahead of us – but there’s a lot of work to do.”
 
Prior to joining Tru, Steven Robertson served as CEO of Openreach, from its inception until April this year. He replaces ex Vodafone and Yahoo stalwart Geraldine Wilson, who has led the organization since 2008 and stepped down last week. Coen van Breda, CFO, has also left the business.
 
Steven Robertson – short biography
Appointed as CEO Openreach on September 22, 2005 - a multi billion pound business, with 30,000 employees, responsible for running the UK's local access network infrastructure. As CEO of Openreach, Steve's delivered the services required by all of the UK's communications providers, in a completely fair and equal way, so as to ensure that the UK has a healthy and vibrant telecommunications industry. Prior to this appointment, Steven served as Managing Director of BT Wholesale Operations where he was responsible for the overall performance and operation of the whole of BT's UK mainland telecommunications network. He re-joined BT from COLT Telecommunications in October 2002. In this role At COLT, Steven served as managing Director, responsible for the design, deployment and operation of their pan-European infrastructure as well as product management and sales for COLT's pan-European business. Steven held a number of positions across BT Group including Director of Data Products responsible for product management and marketing of BT's £1.2bn Data portfolio, as well as a range of product management and engineering roles focussed on BT's international business. Between 1994 and 1998 Steven worked at Concert, BT's joint venture with MCI. As Senior Vice President Network, Systems and Operations, he was responsible for the design, deployment and operations of Concert's global network and systems with teams in fourteen countries around the world.
Steven's education includes an MA from Edinburgh University and an MSc from the London School of Economics
 
About Tru
Truphone is the world’s first truly global mobile network operator, helping people and businesses around the world thrive. We provide communications services that save them money and simplify their lives.
 
Founded in 2006, the company uses innovation to drive convenience up and costs down. The company’s flagship GSM service, Tru, helps international business by charging local rates instead of roaming rates, and low cost international calls, text and Data.
 
In a growing number of countries throughout the world, (currently UK, Australia and US – with Spain, Netherlands and Hong Kong due to launch in 2011) Tru offers customers the option of having multiple local numbers on one SIM card, allowing customers and contacts to reach each other without footing the bill of high international call charges. 
 
The company is also a pioneer in the mobile VoIP space. It launched the first downloadable mobile VoIP app for Nokia in 2006 and has since been the first on the iPhone, iPod and iPad devices.  Tru supports all leading mobile platforms and devices including Blackberry, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Nokia E and N series, and Android.