With effect from 1 October 2007, Christina Meade will become European Business Development Director with responsibility for establishing partnerships with key vendors and reseller partners that share Brightstar Europe’s aims to develop business opportunities in the converged market space. Meade joined Brightstar Europe in May 2007 with a specific brief to recruit a senior management and sales team for the UK operation.
Also effective from this date is the appointment of Richard Baxendale as UK Managing Director of Brightstar Europe. Baxendale, who has over 11 years experience in the mobile distribution sector, has joined the company from 20:20, where he was until March this year. Rod Millar, President of Brightstar Europe, will now also assume overall control for all European operations. Millar, who also joined Brightstar from 20:20 earlier this year has been unable to work in the UK until this time due to specific clauses in his previous employment contract.
Millar says that the appointments signal the beginning of the next stage of Brightstar Europe’s strategic business plan. “Brightstar is in Europe for the long-term. We see tremendous opportunities in the developing market for converged voice and data products and through Tech Data’s existing customer base, access to over 100,000 data resellers across the region. Brightstar Europe is bringing a brand new approach and value proposition to the European market. We have made a commitment to this market and we have a strategic plan which we are implementing step by step. We now have an extremely strong and experienced management team in place, ready to put our plans into action.”
Commenting on her new role, Christina Meade says: “With the smart phone market predicted to grow at around 18 percent a year and an increasing convergence of mobile wireless data and voice services, there are significant opportunities for Brightstar Europe and for resellers from both the communications and IT communities to develop new and long-lasting revenue streams. Brightstar Europe will be helping both vendor and reseller partners to make the most of those opportunities through a series of educational and business development programmes and by leveraging the tremendous reach and logistical resources of Tech Data in Europe.”
Baxendale says that he is looking forward to running Brightstar in the UK. “This is an exciting challenge and a great opportunity for me personally and for the entire mobile and IT channel. I am thoroughly looking forward to working with our partners and colleagues to build a successful and dynamic business for Brightstar in the UK. Christina has done an exemplary job in setting up the UK operations and recruiting a management team. It is now down to us to show how effective Brightstar Europe’s new and innovative approach to the market is going to be.”
Brightstar Europe is a joint venture between Tech Data Corporation and Brightstar Corp. The company is headquartered in the United Kingdom and has access to sales offices in 16 countries and nine logistics centres throughout the continent. It is already distributing mobile phones and other wireless devices to a variety of customers including mobile operators, dealers, agents, retailers and e-tailers throughout Europe. It has already signed distribution agreements with Motorola and Samsung and is in negotiation with a number of other leading players in the market.