Vivox Management Team
Rob Seaver - James Toga - Monty Sharma - Rick Frye - Matthew Bellows
Rob Seaver
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Rob Seaver brings extensive experience in communications and online services to Vivox. Before joining industry pioneer Jeff Pulver in launching Vivox, Seaver was head of strategy, chief financial officer, and a member of the management board of Einsteinet AG, where he helped build the company from start-up to Euro 65 million in revenue and 440 employees. As managing director of Madrid-based Jazzya Investments, he planned and executed the launch of new communication and media ventures. Prior to that, he held positions in investment banking at Goldman Sachs International and as an attorney with Sullivan & Cromwell in London. Seaver holds a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, and an AB degree from Harvard College.
James Toga
Founder and Vice President Engineering
James Toga brings more than 20 years of technical and management experience in development and operations to Vivox. He joins Vivox from Free World Dialup where he served as chief operating officer responsible for driving technical and business direction of the Company's leading standards-based Internet Telephony Services community.
Before Free World Dialup, Toga co-founded mobile and premise-based wireless Internet access provider MobWifi, Inc. At MobWifi, Toga developed working prototypes of 3G - Wifi, self-contained mobile servers. Prior to MobWifi, Toga was director of engineering and vice president of operations at eDial, Inc., where he served as a member of the executive leadership team that developed the ASP/CPE-based conferencing and advanced collaboration platform. Toga has also held numerous management positions at companies including Intel Corp., Banyan Systems, Inc. and Xylogics, Inc. Toga earned an MS in Computer Science from Northeastern University and a BS in Chemistry from Tufts University. Toga is a published author and owner of five patents in the Internet and IP Telephony spaces.
Monty Sharma
Founder and Vice President Product Management and Marketing
With extensive experience in hosted services, broadband, and networking e-business models and markets, Monty Sharma is uniquely qualified to serve as Vivox's vice president product management and marketing. Before joining Vivox, Sharma was vice president of business development at Jamcracker, Inc., where he extended Jamcracker's market share as a leading provider of IT management platforms. Prior to Jamcracker, Sharma served as vice president of Novell Service Provider Network at Novell, Inc. and played a key role in creating an independent business unit and brand that provided software and professional services to carriers, ASPs, and Novell's extensive reseller channel.
Sharma also held management positions at Nova Scotia telecommunications service provider, MT&T, where he served as chief technology officer of Mpowered PC, deploying leading edge DSL and ASP solutions. He began his career working for consulting organizations including BDI Business Development Information, Inc. and Software Experts. Sharma earned a BA in History from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has held numerous positions on corporate and public boards and is the author of several trade press articles and a well-received speaker at industry events.
Rick Frye
Vice President of Sales
With almost 25 years of sales and executive management experience, Rick Frye brings proven leadership skills in driving profitable growth in a start-up environment to Vivox. Rick will be leading expansion efforts in key media markets including online gaming, social networking, virtual worlds and other large online communities. Prior to joining Vivox, he held executive positions at Gryphon Networks of Norwood, MA, including vice president of sales and vice president of business development, where he focused on new revenue generation through direct and partnership channels. Frye was formerly regional director of commercial sales at Castrol HDL North America, now a division of BP/Amoco, where he led direct B2B and distribution channel sales organizations for the U.S. and Canada. Frye earned a BBA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Matthew Bellows
Vice President Consumer Strategy
Matthew is responsible for all consumer-facing aspects of Vivox, the voice services leader for online games. Previously, he was the General Manager for Floodgate Entertainment, a top video games developer based in Boston, Massachusetts. Before joining Floodgate, Matthew was the co- founder, editor and publisher of WGR Media, the leading publication for mobile entertainment consumers. While leading WGR, he grew revenues to $1.5 million and distributed content through Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Yahoo! and many others. He sold WGR to CNET Networks in 2003. Matthew received his MBA with high honors from the Olin School of Management at Babson College.
