Mxit chief product officer Vincent Maher has left the social network, where he spearheaded the transition from feature phones to smartphones, and has been named as chief innovation officer at Kagiso Media.
Maher, who co-founded Motribe with Nic Haralambous — the business was later sold to Mxit — will look after the development of new concepts and prototype new products in the mobile space, Kagiso Media said in a statement.
Kagiso Media Limited manages the Howzit MSN portal under licence from Microsoft. Other new media properties in the stable include Zalebs and Adfu. Its biggest assets are in radio, where it owns Jacaranda FM, East Coast Radio and other stations.
“The zone where audiences, media and technology collide is where you find the greatest opportunity to innovate and create new media that never existed before. I am looking forward to getting right into the thick of it at Kagiso Media,” says Maher in the statement.
Previously, Maher was also commercial manager for mobile advertising and portfolio manager for social media at Vodacom. While at Vodacom, he led development of The Grid, a location-based social network and instant messaging platform. He also helped launched Legends of Echo, a multiplayer, location-based mobile game. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media