George
Grobar, a 10-year Disney veteran, will lead the venture
as senior vice president and general manager of Disney
Mobile. Rod Egdorf and Sunir Kochhar have joined the
company as Disney Mobile vice president and chief
marketing officer and vice president product development
and operations respectively.
Heading up the business, Grobar is responsible for
all major functions including operations, business
development, sales and marketing and research and
development. He reports to Steve Wadsworth, president,
WDIG. Egdorf, who was previously with General Motors'
OnStar subsidiary, will oversee consumer marketing,
distribution, and media and advertising strategies.
Kochhar, who joins Disney from Iris Wireless, will
lead product development and operations. Egdorf and
Kochhar report to Grobar, stated an official release.
"We're
very pleased with the team we are building for Disney
Mobile. George has very strong operations experience
and with a long history in management at Disney and
its Internet Group. He is ideal to lead and grow this
new segment of our business," WDIG president
Steve Wadsworth said. "Rod and Sunir are true
pros who bring us deep mobile industry expertise,
which is clearly a tremendous asset to this new team."
Previously, Grobar served as vice president and general
manager, Disney Auctions, which is part of the Walt
Disney Internet Group, and as vice president and general
manager for the ESPN and NASCAR Online stores.
Egdorf
is a 14-year veteran of the telecommunications and
mobile industries with extensive experience in business
and service launches. He previously served as vice
president, wireless for General Motor's Onstar, overseeing
marketing and business development functions. Prior
to that, Egdorf was the Los Angeles area vice president
for Sprint PCS where he was responsible for the successful
start-up and launch of this sales region. Egdorf's
additional industry experience includes serving as
president of Citizen's Telecom, a start-up long distance
company in Connecticut, and as regional vice president,
sales and marketing for McCaw Cellular Communications,
Inc. He holds a master's of business administration
degree from Golden Gate University and a bachelor's
of science degree from Arizona State University.
Kochhar
has more than 20 years experience in the mobile and
telecommunications industries with expertise spanning
from operations and customer relations to billing
systems and partnership negotiations. He joins Disney
from Iris Wireless, a developer of global messaging
software solutions for wireless carriers, where he
was chief operating officer. There he oversaw operations,
as well as the company's customer service, billing
and data centers.