Speaker Bio
Ralph Simon is acknowledged as one of the original founders of the modern mobile content industry. Over the last two decades, he has been a prominent global mobile trailblazer & innovator, helping grow the mobile content, mobile health and international mobile entertainment industry, while playing a central role in its impact and presence around the world.
Simon heads the international Mobilium Global Group, providing high-level strategic, political, investment, expertise & insight to telcos, tech companies, brands, media companies & professional organisations across the entire mobile spectrum. From Mobilium Global's offices in London, Helsinki, Mumbai, & Los Angeles, Mobilium provides high-level guidance to mobile device makers, telco operators, technology companies, social media companies, movie & TV networks, streaming platforms, global music & You Tube companies, ad agency groups, & platform providers around the world.
He guides & advises companies on high-level innovation & practical ways to expand revenues & mobile revenue development, through effective & practical mobile “disruption”. Mobilium special initiatives enhance brand development, product & mobile revenue growth, “community” building, political & reputational growth impact, & profitability. Expertise includes deep knowledge of the use & distribution of mobile on all web & social media in mobile platforms, apps, health & education content, entertainment content, mobile music, mobile video games & eSports, mobile money, mobile social media, AI, VR & latest mobile media technology & SIM technology applications.
In early 2014 Mobilium Global’s pan-Africa subsidiary launched the first comprehensive, pan-African and Africa-specific mobile health delivery network known as the Smart Health Hub. (http://www.gsma.com/newsroom/gsma-announces-mhealth-partnership/)
Simon works world-wide providing high-level mobile media & content guidance, counsel to global thought leaders, governments, ICT Ministers & government development, media companies & media properties, to identify global mobile revenue opportunities & shape mobile strategies worldwide. In addition, he serves on the Advisory Board of the GSM Association, the global governing body of the international mobile telecoms industry.
In May 2013, CTIA – The Wireless Association, based in Washington, DC, appointed Simon as its official Global Ambassador.
Simon began his career co-founding the Zomba Group of music & content IP companies (including successful record label Jive Records) in the 1970s, building it into the world’s leading independent music & music publishing businesses. In the early ’90s, he came to the USA & established a new media company in Silicon Valley. In the mid 90’s he was appointed Executive Vice President of Capitol Records & Blue Note Records in Hollywood, and built Capitol Records & EMI’s emerging New Media business into a successful & significant global enterprise & established new business models for the entertainment industry.
In 1997, Simon correctly predicted that mobile phones would become the indispensable voice/social networking and music companion for world-wide consumers & their increasingly mobile lifestyles. He created a start-up called Yourmobile & persuaded US & UK music publishers to embrace the new mobile medium leading to the very first ring tone rights & licences. Yourmobile became the first commercial ring tone company in the Americas, Europe, UK, Australia & Africa & spurred a whole new & international mobile entertainment industry. In 2003, Vivendi Universal purchased Yourmobile, renaming it Moviso, where Simon remained as an advisor. Today, Simon is popularly known as the ‘Father of the Ring Tone.’
Between 2005 and 2009, Simon served as the global mobile producer of 3 of the highest profile, live global broadcast events in history producing
"Live 8", Bono & Sir Bob Geldof’s massively successful global concert, that brought mobile connectivity to 9 major global cities and an international television audience of 800,000,000 viewers. This enormous people-powered call-to-action resulted in the G8 countries reducing the debt of the world’s poorest nations. He was also the Mobile Producer of Nobel Laureate Al Gore’s Live Earth global event & telecast, the world’s first eco-centric global event that spanned 10 countries & brought the vital message raising visibility of global climate change to a world-wide audience of over 500,000,000 television viewers & online participants. In 2009, Simon was the Mobile Producer for the TED.com’s (www.ted.com) Prize-winning project, Pangea Day from TED - a global multi-platform broadcast event from TED, featuring short films from world-wide international filmmakers. By integrating a mobile/SMS layer to all these worldwide events, Simon helped set the standard for integrating mobile technology as an essential element in global television & major global event broadcasting.
The influential trade publication Mobile Entertainment magazine named Simon as one of the world’s Top 50 Executives in Mobile Entertainment for 2005, 2006, 2008 & 2010, & in 2007, he received its special award for Outstanding Contribution to the Global Mobile Entertainment Industry. He continues to be recognised and honoured for his continuing impact in the global mobile industry.
Internationally, Simon is known as a highly impactive & popular speaker & moderator on all aspects of mobile commerce, content & the mobile creative digital industries. He has delivered keynote addresses at major international gatherings at the Mobile World Congress, in Singapore, Sri Lanka, India, the Presidential Innovation Forum Conference & Open Innovations Forum in Moscow, the Pioneers Tech Festival in Vienna, the TED Global conference, the World Copyright Summit (in Brussels & Washington, D.C.), Jakarta, Indonesia, Slush in Helsinki, Finland, the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) in The Netherlands, The Kofi Annan Centre for ICT Excellence in Accra, Ghana, the major Digital Entertainment World event in Los Angeles, the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance conference in San Diego, SXSW (South-by-Southwest in Austin, Texas), the Brilliant Minds Symposium in Stockholm, The Eurasian Partnership Summit in Yerevan, Armenia, the significant DLD Tel Aviv & Munich, “Techsylvania"in Romania, The African Leadership Network in Mauritius, the Africa 4 Tech congress in Marrakech, Morocco, & Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine Summit in San Diego - where he also serves on Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine Faculty. He is in much demand as a popular speaker at numerous other high-level mobile summits around the world.
Currently, a long-standing jury member of "The World Summit Awards" and "World Youth Summit Awards, the United Nations- linked global competition to reinforce the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs)’. Simon is the founding Chairman Emeritus of the influential Mobile EcoSystem Forum : Americas - The MEF (www.mobileecosystemforum.com) - the global voice of the international mobile eco-system industries.
Ralph travels the world on a relentless search for the latest in mobile & device innovation. He has formidable knowledge about ways to deliver mobile content, “social broadcasting” & grow mobile industries everywhere. He has a deep knowledge & understanding of what drives “Screenagers” the world over.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK (FRSA) & a member of the Recording Academy who organise the annual Grammy Awards in the USA. He is based in London, but almost always on a plane to where the latest mobile innovation is bubbling up.