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Ex Bebo chief Cordero leads InMobi Australian relaunch

mark fine inmobi

Head of marketing Fine

francisco cordero

General manager Cordero

inmobi_logo(Note: this article has been amended to reflect the fact that the company is relaunching, not launching)

InMobi, which claims to be the world’s largest independent mobile ad network, is to relaunch in Australia with a staff of around 20.

Among those on the team is digital veteran Francisco Cordero, whose previous roles have included launching the Australian operations of networking site Bebo and most recently local vice president of sales at group buying giant GroupOn. Cordero has also worked at Yahoo!7 and NineMSN.

He replaces Rob Marston, who has launched mobile marketing agency Zeus Unwired.

Also on the team is former Optus staffer Mark Fine who will be head of marketing.  Prior to leading the strategy for Optus’ mobile and online portals, Fine worked at Vodafone.

InMobi’s head of strategy is Brendan Watmore, previously in commercial roles at NineMSN and Yahoo. He also worked at ad agency BWM.  

Other staffers include Mark Mangune and former Southern Cross Austereo radio announcer Peter Bray (not the Peter Bray who works at digital agency Sputnik). Mark Copplestone has joined as head of sales for New Zealand.

InMobi’s founder and CEO Naveen Tewari is currently in Australia for the launch. He today told Mumbrella: “We are getting to the point of the curve in Australia where it is moving up very fast. You need to either be in the market today or not be in  it. It is taking off.”

The company claims that its main weapon in taking on Google is the technology behind its mobile ads. It bases its ads on HTML5, rather than on software specific to handsets including the dominant Apple and Google Android devices. Tewari claimed: “Google is the only competition we see across the globe. “Some of the creative engagement our technology can create is so phenomenal nobody else in the world can do it.

Tewari said of the Australian team: “We should cross to 50 or 75 people in a couple of years.”

Global brands that InMobi works with include Coca Cola, Dell, Microsoft, Nestle, P&G and Unilever.

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