Niren Hiro

20 years of start-up & leadership experience at high growth internet, mobile, media, & entertainment companies, including AdMob, Yahoo!, CBS Sportsline, MTV Networks, Plus Channel, and BPL Mobile.

5 years of angel investment, board, and advisory experience with several early stage mobile companies in the areas of social networks, UGC, VOIP, messaging, image recognition, smartphone applications, m-commerce enablement, games, entertainment, publishing.

Niren Hiro’s Specialties:

Domains: mobile + internet media, interactive advertising, TV, entertainment, consumer products, licensing & merchandising, consumer telecoms.

Operations: Start-up/expansion/turn-around leadership experience @ start-ups & public companies, profit center responsibility w successful track record, team building & leadership experience across functions + international markets, strategy, finance, partnerships, corporate development, sales, operations, marketing, industry groups

Niren Hiro’s Experience

Vice President & Managing Director, Asia-Pacific & Latin America

AdMob Inc.

(Privately Held; Wireless industry)

November 2008 — Present (1 year 2 months)

AdMob is the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace, serving billions of ads every month -- to millions of mobile internet users -- who are accessing thousands of AdMob partner web sites -- in over 200 countries.
VP - Business Development

AdMob Inc.

(Privately Held; Wireless industry)

November 2006 — Present (3 years 2 months)

Built, & led the team responsible for AdMob's strategic partnerships & traffic/publisher acquisition in North America & worldwide, and responsible for kicking off the company's business expansion into Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Africa.
Investor, Board Member

Bluepulse Inc.

(Privately Held; Internet industry)

November 2006 — Present (3 years 2 months)

A mobile social media company
Investor, Advisor

3jam Inc.

(Privately Held; Wireless industry)

November 2006 — Present (3 years 2 months)

A multiparty mobile text messaging platform and service
Investor

Edgeio Inc.

(Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

November 2006 — Present (3 years 2 months)

A classified ads distribution & monetization platform
Investor, Advisor

Mig33

(Privately Held; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

November 2006 — Present (3 years 2 months)

Giant global mobile community, integrating the most popular Internet applications together with affordable VOIP & SMS for anyone with a mobile phone.
Advisor

Snaptell Inc.

(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

November 2006 — Present (3 years 2 months)

Image-based search engine which drives queries in the form of photos taken on camera phones, and returns relevant & immediate search results to the user's device.
Investor, Advisor

Acme Mobile (Southeast Asia)

(Privately Held; Entertainment industry)

July 2005 — Present (4 years 6 months)

Southeast Asia's leading distributor of mobile entertainment content including branded games, images, music and video, with a network of more than 70 carriers and portals across 14 Asian countries.
General Manager, Yahoo! Mobile - Asia Pacific

Yahoo Inc.

(Public Company; YHOO; Internet industry)

November 2004 — November 2006 (2 years 1 month)

Founder of this business unit. Today, Y! Mobile portals, oneSearch, & the Yahoo Go applications integrate news, financial info, weather, Flickr, Answers, images, movies, flight status, Wikipedia, currency conversion and Mobile Web sites and cater to users in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
General Manager, Yahoo! Southeast Asia

Yahoo Inc.

(Public Company; YHOO; Internet industry)

December 2001 — December 2004 (3 years 1 month)

Led the 40-strong post-bubble turnaround team responsible for Yahoo!’s advertising, search, wireless, alliance and e-commerce businesses across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. Including strategic planning, ad sales, partnerships, marketing, distribution, production, engineering, hr, legal, and finance for Yahoo!'s localized internet & mobile websites.
President, Sports.com Asia

Sportsline Inc.

(Online Media industry)

April 2000 — December 2001 (1 year 9 months)

Sports.com Asia = CBS Sportsline.com global network, JV with Asiacontent.com (publishers of MTV, CNET, FTV & E!Online Asia sites). Kicked off this start up targeted at male sports enthusiasts in Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, leveraging global partnerships with Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neill, Tiger Woods, MLB, PGA, & Manchester United.
Senior Director, Licensing & Marketing, Asia

MTV Networks Asia

(Public Company; VIA; Entertainment industry)

January 1996 — March 2000 (4 years 3 months)

Today, MTV Networks Asia comprises 17 websites and 22 channels which are seen via 24-hour and programming blocks in various parts of Asia. Responsible for MTV’s overall and territory-specific marketing strategy and the brand licensing & merchandising business unit (including magazines, luggage, credit cards, footwear, CD's, clothing, accessories, etc)
Head - Marketing & Sales

BPL Mobile / France Telecom

(Public Company; BP; Oil & Energy industry)

January 1994 — December 1995 (2 years )

5th employee, responsible for overall subscriber acquisition & brand at India's first GSM wireless operator (acquired by Vodafone/Essar)
Founder, President

Hiro K.K., Japan

(Food & Beverages industry)

October 1989 — December 1993 (4 years 3 months)

Innovative category-leading processed foods firm which marketed sauces & specialty foods nationally to Japan’s leading department stores & supermarket chains.

Niren Hiro’s Education

Boston University - School of Management

MBA , 1990 — 1992
Boston University

BSc.BA , Finance , September 1986 — August 1989
Canadian Academy, Kobe, Japan

September 1977 — August 1986

Additional Information

Niren Hiro’s Websites:

Niren Hiro’s Groups:

Internet Advertising Bureau, Singapore – Honorary Treasurer - until 2005

National Internet Advisory Committee, Gov’t of Singapore, Managing Committee Member – until 2005

National Trust Council, Infocom Dev. Authority, Gov’t of Singapore, Board Member - until 2005

Indian Chamber of Commerce in Japan, Managing Committee Member – 1990-1993

Timeless Jokes Blues & Classic Rock Band, Drummer & co-Business dude, 1990-1993

MobileMonday
SAMMA - South Asians in Media, Marketing & Entertainment
Yahoo Alums
Boston University Alumni
MTV Networks Asia Alumni
Mobile VAS and Content - Professionals
IAB Mobile
AdMob
Hard Work, Hard Tennis
Turnaround 3.0: Connecting Turnaround Professionals and Solutions with Public and Private Companies