Curriculum Vitae – James S. Pyper

Personal Details

Full Name:      James (Jamie) Spencer Pyper

Age:                 35

Nationality:     British

Status: Married

Objectives:

·        To work in a challenging, ground breaking environment which allows me to use my creativity and personal determination to create success.

·        To build highly motivated, creative and successful teams to drive the business opportunity and help them to develop their abilities and realize their potential.

·        To create working environments which are fun to be a part of or interact with.

Employment History

Summary

14 years of widely varied hands-on experience in most aspects of the hand held Industry, both in Europe and for six years in Silicon Valley.

Front-line pioneering: Extensive cross-functional experience in strategic planning and execution, especially in new territories and markets, new-business development, relationships, general management and troubleshooting.

Strong record of team building and organizational management. Consistent record of breaking new ground to define and achieve company goals.

Sound grasp of technology: mobile and wireless computing, wireless content and services, client-agent-server, and software development life-cycle, in both Consumer and Enterprise environments.

Extensive communications experience: From broad audience presentations to working with individual senior executives. An everyman attitude with a great deal of empathy. A proficient writer with a number of articles published in trade magazines.

March 2000 to Present      -           Palm Europe Limited, London – UK

Director of Alliances EMEA – Platform Division

I was moved by Palm from the US to the UK to form an alliances group to address the EMEA region, with the core European markets as a priority. With six direct reports, expected to increase to 18 in the coming financial year, my group is responsible for market development in consumer, enterprise and emerging technology markets, account management, developer relations and developer support. The group forms and maintains desirable industry alliances for Palm and it’s licensees and controls to a large extent the nature of business that Palm performs now and in the future.

The ‘Platform’ group addresses the extended ‘Palm Economy’, including licensees and any place where Palm ‘touches’ a developer or partner. In the ‘food chain’ I report directly into a Senior Director in the US, who reports to the Platform COO.

Building on virgin territory with extremely limited resources I have been responsible for:

·        Defining, prioritizing and implementing the partnering strategy for Palm’s EMEA region, incorporating existing relationships from the top tier (such as Oracle, Sybase, SAP, Siebel, IBM, etc.) down to the 30,000 plus Palm Developer Community in EMEA.

  • Annual Budget responsibility $2.5m (US)
  • Defining and implementing Palm’s general European Enterprise strategy.
  • Building a strong team to focus on the core business initiatives I have set, such as Enterprise, Wireless and the general Developer Community in Europe.
  • Creating productive and collaborative business relationships with Licensees in Europe.
  • Ensuring excellent relationships, alignment and agreement in strategy and working practices across functions such as sales, marketing and channel support, both in EMEA and the US H.Q. 
  • Defining, designing and implementing Palm’s annual three day European partner conference ‘PalmSource’.
  • Defining and implementing Palm Platform’s presence at Palm Sponsored shows such as Cebit.
  • Definition and control of Palm Platform’s European budget, hiring and other direction / group management.
  • Building a group with a genuine sense of community, motivating them, and creating a fun environment for them to work productively in.

 

Primary Achievements: The creation process has been extremely ‘hands-on’ and has required a very positive and pioneering approach to succeed. I feel my greatest achievement has been tackling the many inherited complexities and relationships, to provide coordinated strategies and successful business models across functional groups. My other prime achievement has been building stronger community and cooperation towards common goals across Palm in Europe generally.

1999 to March 2000            -           Palm Incorporated, Santa Clara, CA – USA

Account Manager – Business Development Group

Acknowledgement of my involvement in account management, my managerial capabilities, industry knowledge and foreseeing the need for a European Alliances operation, it was felt that I should be moved to full time account management to shape me for the European Alliances director role.

Primary responsibilities were:

·        Identifying joint technology strategies and business development opportunities within SAP and Oracle.

  • A rapidly changing group and low resources plus my historical knowledge of other Global accounts meant that I also continued my involvement with Sybase, IBM, PeopleSoft, Lotus, Remedy, CA, Tivoli and ‘tier two’ accounts such as Aether and Puma.
  • I also spent a large amount of time reviewing partner applicants and evaluating the potential opportunities they offered.

 

Primary Achievements: Being selected and preparing for the European role, while also managing Palm’s two toughest Global accounts and maintaining the Systems Engineering team.

June 1997 to 1999              -           Palm Incorporated, Santa Clara, CA – USA

Systems Engineering Manager / Account Consultant – Business Development Group

My broad hand held industry experience was the prime motivating factor to bring me into Palm’s comparatively industry inexperienced Business Development group. I was brought on board as the Manager of Systems Engineering but worked primarily on relationship strategy and as a troubleshooter in accounts. The primary goals of the group were to recruit and manage licensing opportunities, strategic technology partners and OEM relationships. My primary role in this small but close-knit team was to review opportunities with existing and potential partners as well as guide partners through the various technical and business organizations within Palm. Accounts that I worked with included: Symbol, IBM (OEM and pervasive computing), Franklin Covey, SAP, Oracle, Sybase, PeopleSoft, Lotus, Remedy, CA, Tivoli and many second tier accounts.

  • I built a team of three more technically orientated Systems Engineers around the US territory.
  • I also worked extensively on partner and industry trade show planning and execution.

 

·        The group evolved considerably through Palm’s growth and internal reorganization. I was one of the founding members of the Platform OS group and worked extensively on Symbol and IBM OEM/Licensing deals.

Primary Achievements: Using my experience to guide the often-hesitant partners and often ‘hand held industry inexperienced’ account managers in mutually beneficial direction. Demonstrating a high degree of flexibility and involvement at many levels to help make the group a success.

1994 to 1997            -           Psion Incorporated, San Francisco, CA - USA

West Coast Manager

I was moved to the US by Psion to build a west coast operation for Sales, Marketing, Channel management and support, from the ground up. The position meant I was to wear many hats simultaneously, and was extremely challenging, but highly rewarding. Roles included:

·        Strategic management of U.S developer relations and the related Marketing Communications, Evangelism and Business Development.

·        Member of the Executive Management team working to develop corporate strategy and business development in the United States.

·        Guidance of west coast Corporate and Industrial sales staff in planning solution sales to companies such as Ford, General Motors, IBM. Also working with Integrator partners and Var’s, to create solutions for market.

·        Working with the channel reps to build compelling retail SKU’s and general relationship management in accounts such as Circuit City, The Good Guys, Sharper Image, J & R Computer World.

·        Worked with Psion’s multiple UK based manufacturing companies to ensure products are appropriate for US market.

·        Managed a team of eight technical support people throughout North America.

·        Managed US Information Systems department.

A primary contributor in Psion’s US trade show presence.

Primary Achievement: Utilized my commercial, marketing and technical solutions experience to establish Psion’s west coast office and built a team to drive our presence in this market.

1990 to 1994            -           Psion Plc - London - UK

Export Support Manager

Managed Export support services to 60 countries worldwide. Provided technical & commercial advice for international subsidiaries and sole importers. Worked with International Sales Department to develop International sales strategies and select distribution partners. Primary international liaison with Psion development departments. Created proactive systems to assist international support departments.

Primary Achievements: Established a set of support services specifically for Psion’s international distributors. Successfully developed on-going long term corporate relationships between Psion & key distribution partners.

1987 to 1990            -           Psion UK Plc, London - UK

Technical Support:

Joined Technical support department and learned various functions through on site experience. Starting in end user technical support, I developed many other roles such as:

·        Corporate sales support. Working customer faced on solution sales with companies such as BT and British Gas.

·        Retail sales support, working with channel managers in accounts such as Dixons.

·        Developer Technical Support, working on development issues with development partners.

·        Information Systems, maintaining a large part of Psion’s in house PC network and phone systems

·        I also developed a large part of Psion’s best selling Finance Pack II software for the Organiser II handheld as part of an unofficial development team we started in the support group.

1984 to 1987            -           Bournemouth Water Company, Bournemouth - UK

Design Engineer:

Responsibilities: Construction design for civil engineering and small building projects. Surveying, site management.

1982 to 1984            -           Coaster magazine, Bournemouth - UK

Music Journalist:

Responsibilities: Writing record reviews, live performance reviews, putting together the monthly gig guide, assisting with magazine design layout, paste up and production.

Education

1984 to 1987 – Bournemouth University (formerly DIHE)

Studied Civil Engineering and Architectural Design (General Building Studies) at Bournemouth University in the UK.

Higher National Certificate – General Building Studies

Ordinary National Certificate – General Building Studies

Schooling – Porta Via House School, Bournemouth

High grades of GCE ‘O’ levels in: English Language, English Literature, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Technical Drawing, French and Art.

Interests

Music, reading, motorcycling, house renovation, art & design, cycling, walking around London or the countryside, writing, good company and real ale.