Executive Biographies
Ivar Plahte, CEO (Co-Founder)
Ivar is an experienced and visionary executive who sets the direction for the company and actively contributes to its commercial and technical results. Ivar has through his tenure at OnRelay established himself as a key thought leader in the Fixed Mobile Convergence space, and was e.g. in 2007 short-listed among the World Communications Awards’ 26 Most Influential Persons in Telecoms. Earlier in his career Ivar was awarded by the Norwegian Computer Society for having brought Norway to the forefront of the early IP Telephony market.
At his former assignment as Director of IP Telephony at Telenor, Ivar created and was the general manager of the ‘Telecom over IP’ business unit, which quickly became an internationally recognised IP Telephony Service Provider. His cross functional team produced several world-first launches and was among the first public operators worldwide to establish a voice over IP based revenue stream. Ivar’s assignment included managing Telenor’s pan-European business VoIP services for their 10 ISP subsidiaries, as well as all enterprise, consumer and carrier VoIP services for Telenor corporate.
Previously, Ivar was Ericsson’s Global Product Manager for IP Services, where he established Ericsson’s market entry strategy for IP services, initiated Ericsson’s first-mover IP telephony soft-switch product line, initiated worldwide product management and R&D organisations for IP services, and lead US & European partnering negotiations within the IP services and IP telephony sectors.
Ivar holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Marie Wold, President and CFO (Co-Founder)
Marie is among the very few successful UK female high tech entrepreneurs. As OnRelay’s President and CFO, Marie has been responsible for fundraising and strategic partnerships since the company’s inception. In 2006 Marie also took full responsibility for the company’s business development activities, leading the company in its successful indirect sales model and later, its cloud computing initiative.
Before co-founding OnRelay, Marie was a strategy consultant at Braxton Associates, Deloitte Consulting, where she developed mobile voice and data strategies for large global mobile operators in Europe, Asia and North America. As the Head of Deloitte’s European Communications Research Institute, Marie developed Deloitte’s thought leadership platform for the communications marketplace.
Previously, Marie was a senior telecoms analyst for the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), supporting the US executive branch negotiations in the 1997 WTO agreement on Basic Telecommunications. Wold started her telecoms career at the law firm of Wilmer Cutler and Pickering in Washington DC, where she worked with cases involving the first and largest mobile mergers in the United States. Marie has held several secret security clearances from the US government and has had a stint with the US Foreign Service and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
Marie was a Stevie Award finalist for Best Entrepreneur in EMEA in 2010 and short listed for UK Business woman of the Year for technology in 2007 and 2008.
Marie holds an MA with distinction in International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington DC and was selected as one of 60 Presidential Management Intern (PMI) Scholars in the United States. She also holds a post graduate work in economics from St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, and a BS from the University of North Dakota (her home state), Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.
Thomas Mackey, Vice President of Sales
Thomas has over 20 years’ executive leadership experience in the Software-as-a-Service, business information and security technology industries and has worked for companies ranging in size from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Thomas has held executive roles with industry leaders that include Melbourne IT, as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Partner Solutions, InfoUSA, as Senior Vice President and General Manager, CD-ROM Division and Symantec Corporation, as Senior Director, North American Retail Sales.
Tom has earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of California at Berkeley and has completed graduate coursework toward a Master of Business Administration Degree at California State University, East Bay and St. Mary’s College of California.
