22-Feb-2010
Pioneers in Internet Response Technology Reunite to Launch Speak2Leads (S2L)
(San Diego, CA, February 22, 2010) Four US entrepreneurs with a history at
a venture-backed Bay Area start-up, reunited recently to launch
Speak2Leads (S2L), a lead response management company.
George Wu, Ron Tamura, G.E. Szeto and Sammy James worked at Promeo Technologies between 1999 to 2003, developing and marketing a telephony application that provided song recognition and ad response via an 800 number. The application enabled offline media to use key words and a much-publicized 800 number to close the gap between the advertising message and response, helping to increase interactivity and engagement.
Sammy James, Founder and CEO of Speak2Leads, has reassembled the team of innovators to provide small- and medium-sized business the most comprehensive, advanced response management tools on the market.
“I’m thrilled to bring the team back together to help produce the most complete and effective collection of lead response tools ever assembled,” said James. “On the increasingly popular, fast and borderless Internet, consumers are empowered to jump from competitor to competitor with a click of the mouse. Responding to these consumers quickly is becoming crucial to any business that wants to provide exceptional customer service, grow market share and increase revenue.”
Individually, these US innovators’ roots in interactive marketing span back to the late 1980's, with the first interactive voice response system application for database marketing. Individually, they went on to establish several interactive marketing ventures that revolutionized the industry, from song recognition technology and interactive outdoor media, to Internet reward programs for radio and TV, as well as social bookmarking and personalized radio applications.
The Speak2Leads (S2L) executive team comprises:
Sammy James – CEO and Founder
Sammy James heads up Speak2Leads’ efforts to continuously develop world-class lead response management technological solutions. He helped revolutionize direct response marketing and telephony applications more than 20 years ago when he developed database marketing revenue applications for media using IVR systems to build audience reward programs for radio and TV. The tireless entrepreneur went on to build and manage a long list of technological firsts, and founded and oversaw Internet marketing agencies MarketingAnd and Get Starts, which were ultimately merged to form Speak2Leads.
George Wu – President
George Wu runs company operations with focus on sales, marketing, and strategic partnerships. He’s a pioneer and patent holder in multi-modal response technologies, and has more than 18 years of technology and marketing experience across several industries, including consumer products, hardware, software, and IT services, with companies such as HP and Clorox.
Ronald A, Tamura – Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)
Ron Tamura is responsible for business and product strategy, and oversees finance and administration. Prior to Speak2Leads, Ron was the founder of Nascent Consulting, a partnership providing in-depth consulting services to new technology ventures spanning North America and Asia. He has chaired numerous boards in the US and Japan, and held executive, technology development, product management, business development, marketing, finance, and client services roles with start-ups and corporations, including Apple and Hewlett-Packard.
G.E. Szeto – Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
G.E. Szeto’s role is to design and build the lead response management platform, and push product innovation. Through founding and co-founding several innovative companies, and having held key executive and engineering positions at ground-breaking companies, such as Toyota, he’s a seasoned technology and media executive with several years of diverse experience in software and music industries.
George Wu, Ron Tamura, G.E. Szeto and Sammy James worked at Promeo Technologies between 1999 to 2003, developing and marketing a telephony application that provided song recognition and ad response via an 800 number. The application enabled offline media to use key words and a much-publicized 800 number to close the gap between the advertising message and response, helping to increase interactivity and engagement.
Sammy James, Founder and CEO of Speak2Leads, has reassembled the team of innovators to provide small- and medium-sized business the most comprehensive, advanced response management tools on the market.
“I’m thrilled to bring the team back together to help produce the most complete and effective collection of lead response tools ever assembled,” said James. “On the increasingly popular, fast and borderless Internet, consumers are empowered to jump from competitor to competitor with a click of the mouse. Responding to these consumers quickly is becoming crucial to any business that wants to provide exceptional customer service, grow market share and increase revenue.”
Individually, these US innovators’ roots in interactive marketing span back to the late 1980's, with the first interactive voice response system application for database marketing. Individually, they went on to establish several interactive marketing ventures that revolutionized the industry, from song recognition technology and interactive outdoor media, to Internet reward programs for radio and TV, as well as social bookmarking and personalized radio applications.
The Speak2Leads (S2L) executive team comprises:
Sammy James – CEO and Founder
Sammy James heads up Speak2Leads’ efforts to continuously develop world-class lead response management technological solutions. He helped revolutionize direct response marketing and telephony applications more than 20 years ago when he developed database marketing revenue applications for media using IVR systems to build audience reward programs for radio and TV. The tireless entrepreneur went on to build and manage a long list of technological firsts, and founded and oversaw Internet marketing agencies MarketingAnd and Get Starts, which were ultimately merged to form Speak2Leads.
George Wu – President
George Wu runs company operations with focus on sales, marketing, and strategic partnerships. He’s a pioneer and patent holder in multi-modal response technologies, and has more than 18 years of technology and marketing experience across several industries, including consumer products, hardware, software, and IT services, with companies such as HP and Clorox.
Ronald A, Tamura – Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)
Ron Tamura is responsible for business and product strategy, and oversees finance and administration. Prior to Speak2Leads, Ron was the founder of Nascent Consulting, a partnership providing in-depth consulting services to new technology ventures spanning North America and Asia. He has chaired numerous boards in the US and Japan, and held executive, technology development, product management, business development, marketing, finance, and client services roles with start-ups and corporations, including Apple and Hewlett-Packard.
G.E. Szeto – Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
G.E. Szeto’s role is to design and build the lead response management platform, and push product innovation. Through founding and co-founding several innovative companies, and having held key executive and engineering positions at ground-breaking companies, such as Toyota, he’s a seasoned technology and media executive with several years of diverse experience in software and music industries.
