InMobi, the world’s largest independent mobile advertising network, has announced the appointment of Isis Nyong’o as vice president and managing director for Africa.
Nyong’o has come on board to drive InMobi’s African business strategy, facilitating the expansion of the company’s continental base. She takes over from Stephen Newton who recently left the company to pursue other opportunities.
Nyong’o previously led Google’s business development initiatives in Africa, where she specialised in mobile partnerships and was responsible for the development of Google’s strategy for Africa content.
“We are thrilled to have Isis join our team, especially at a time when InMobi is seeing such a huge increase in ad-impressions across its African businesses. With her wide sector and regional experience, Isis makes a valuable addition to the InMobi family and we look forward to having her on board during what we believe will be one of the most exciting periods in the history of Africa’s telecoms sector,” said Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO of InMobi.
Speaking on her appointment Nyong’o said, “A move to InMobi seemed a natural ‘next step’ for me. Firstly, because of the confidence I have in the organisation’s leadership team and secondly for the opportunity to build a scalable mobile business in Africa.
“This continent has the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. If you combine this with the fact that more Africans access the Internet from mobiles than any other platform, it means the market for mobile advertising is set for strong levels of growth.
“The availability of local content for use on mobile platforms is still a challenge, but I am confident that we, in the mobile advertising industry, can and will succeed in fostering a stronger content development focus on the continent.”
Prior to her role at Google, Nyong’o gained extensive media and tech experience while driving the launch of MTV Networks in Africa where she was responsible for commercial relationships including distribution and sales. She also developed the marketing strategy for Kenya’s first online recruitment service, MyJobsEye and holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Business School.
She was named as one of the Top 40 Women under 40 in Kenya, where she will be based.
