Thumbspeed Announces New Advisory Board and VP of Product Management; Wireless Industry Veterans Kendra VanderMeulen, Steve Elfman, and Ivar Michelsons Join Thumbspeed

Business Wire, Sept 22, 2005

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Thumbspeed, a leading developer and publisher of mobile applications, today announced the appointment of wireless industry leaders Kendra VanderMeulen and Steve Elfman to its Board of Advisors. In addition, the company also announced the appointment of startup veteran Ivar Michelsons to the position of vice president of product management.

"Kendra VanderMeulen and Steve Elfman are pioneers in the mobile industry," said Hank Skorny, president and CEO. "They know we have the best mobile instant messaging application and can port it quickly to any platform. Perhaps more importantly, they share our vision of bringing messaging to mobile entertainment and productivity applications -- whether it is a mobile dating community or sharing a ringtone with a friend on your IM contact list."

Thumbspeed's new Vice President of Product Management Ivar Michelsons has more than 19 years of experience in product management, business development and entrepreneurial finance. "Ivar has a long track record of bringing innovative products to market and helping to build successful startup companies," said Anup Kejriwal, Thumbspeed CTO and founder. "These key product skills, combined with his startup through IPO experience at two prominent technology companies, Adobe and Visio, make Ivar a valuable addition to Thumbspeed's executive team."

New advisory board member VanderMeulen believes Thumbspeed is on track to become a leader in mobile applications. "Having been involved with the wireless internet since the earliest of days, I immediately got excited about Thumbspeed's approach to mobile applications," said VanderMeulen. "Their messaging-centric design means users can communicate within every application. By leveraging the core value of mobile devices, Thumbspeed creates compelling new applications for mobile users."

"I am excited to work with Thumbspeed's founders, who helped build the AIM and ICQ mobile instant messaging systems that drove the explosive growth in mobile IM," said Michelsons. "This deep messaging expertise, combined with Thumbspeed's unique mobile applications platform allows us to innovate rapidly and support virtually any device."

VanderMeulen recently served as InfoSpace Mobile executive vice president. She joined AT&T Wireless (formerly McCaw Cellular Communications, now Cingular) in 1994 to lead the formation of the wireless data division. Prior to McCaw, VanderMeulen served as COO and president of the Communications Systems Group of Cincinnati Bell Information Systems (now Convergys). She also held a variety of business and technical management positions at AT&T in the fields of software development, voice processing, and signaling systems. VanderMeulen received a B.S. degree in mathematics from Marietta College and a M.S. degree in computer science from Ohio State University. She is the recipient of the 1999 Catherine B. Cleary award as the outstanding woman leader of AT&T.

Elfman is currently Executive Vice President of Technology and Operations at InfoSpace. In this role Steve heads all engineering, product realization and operations for InfoSpace's delivery of content to consumers. Before joining InfoSpace, Elfman was the Executive Vice President of Operations at Terabeam. Previously, Elfman was chief information officer of AT&T Wireless Services. He also held senior technical management positions at GE Capital Fleet Services and 3M. Elfman has a degree in Computer Science and Business from the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

Michelsons joins Thumbspeed from Sound Venture Partners, where he was a managing director. Previously, he served in various product marketing and business development roles at Adobe Systems and Visio, contributing to their growth from startups to successful public companies. Michelsons holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science and is a graduate of Harvard Business School.

About Thumbspeed

Thumbspeed develops and publishes messaging, personalization, entertainment and productivity applications for mobile phones and wireless devices. Our messaging-centric design means users can communicate (IM/E-Mail/SMS) within every application. By leveraging the core value of mobile devices along with the addictive and viral nature of messaging, Thumbspeed creates compelling new services for operators, device manufacturers and brand owners. Thumbspeed's applications are available on devices from all major manufacturers including J2ME, BREW(R), BlackBerry(R), Symbian(R), Windows Mobile(R), and WAP environments. Thumbspeed is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. For more information, please visit www.thumbspeed.com.