The shareholders of Israeli wireless charging company Powermat have appointed former Blackberry CEO Thorsten Heins as the company’s CEO and chairman of the board in place of outgoing founder and CEO Ran Poliakine.
The appointment is part of the shareholders’ strategy of dramatically expanding the company’s global presence. The company’s wireless charging service will be launched today in California at over 200 stores of the Starbucks chain of cafes.
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The selection committee appointed by the company board in February 2014 recommended Heins for the job, stating that he was a manager with more than 20 years of experience in the mobile communications industry. Poliakine will be appointed deputy chairman, and will remain with the company.
Founded in 2006 by Poliakine and Amir Ben-Shalom, Powermat’s main offices are in Neve Ilan. The company has developed a wireless charging technology for smartphones using the PMA standard, which it initiated. This standard competes with a more popular standard called QI, which has been available for a few years in Google’s Nexus model smartphones and LG, Samsung, and Nokia smartphones. Powermat’s advantage is broad deployment of charging stations located in Starbucks branches in California and various recreational sites in New York.
“Powermat’s technology is on the cusp of mainstream adoption, ” Heins said. He said the company had agreements with international corporations, including Delta Airlines, Duracell, General Motors, and Starbucks, and was expected to announce additional agreements and an ongoing global launch of its technology in the coming months.
Heins continued, “It is built directly into devices and cars, and the list of public venues that have adopted Powermat is growing steadily. In the same way that wireless communications untethered people and allowed them to do more on their own terms, wireless power has the potential to free us from the power cords that limit the freedom of mobile technology. It is exciting and energizing to be joining such an entrepreneurial company, where the contribution of every employee is essential to our shared success.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com
