Pronto Games Hires Four Key Employees to Lead Development of a New Wii Title

EMERYVILLE, CA (PRWEB) October 19, 2006

Pronto Games, Inc. today announced the hiring of four key new employees. Tod Frye, J.R. Jones, Andrew Mayer, and Ken Vollmer have all been hired for an upcoming project on the Nintendo Wii.

Tod Frye, Lead Console Engineer, is an industry icon. He started at Atari in 1979 and created numerous titles for the Atari 2600, including PAC-Man. Making the transition to 3D 32 bit consoles in the nineties, Tod developed products on the Saturn, the PS1, the N64, and the PS2. At 3DO, Tod was promoted from Lead Developer to Technical Director, and provided advisory technical oversight on a studio-wide basis, as well as hands on assistance to almost every product completed by the 3DO Studio from 2001 on.

J.R. Jones, Project Art Director, is an 8-year industry professional. He has provided his artistic talent to such licenses as Dungeons & Dragons, Tomb Raider, Shrek, and Lord of the Rings. From environmental art to world and character design, J.R. has a broad range of both production and conceptual accomplishments. J.R. has shipped titles on platforms ranging from PC to PS2 to Xbox 360 while at Stormfront Studios, Crystal Dynamics, and Shaba Games.

Andrew Mayer, Lead Designer, joins Pronto Games from PlayFirst, Inc. where he designed and produced several casual titles including TriJinx and Connect Four Cities. Prior to Playfirst, Andrew served as Associate Creative Director at Cartoon Network, where he provided design and direction for more than 30 unique games based on the network?s characters and licenses for the top-rated Games and Toonami sections of their web site. Andrew also played an integral role in the ?Reader Rabbit? brand and DVD creation at the Learning Company and designed and the top-selling interactive toy, Tonka Power Tools, for Hasbro Interactive while at Imaginengine.

Ken Vollmer, Lead Project Engineer, is a veteran game programmer with 10 years of industry experience, specializing in AI and gameplay. He has served as the lead engineer on RPG, action RPG, and racing projects, and has also worked on FPS and MMO titles. His shipped titles include Underlight, an early MMO, Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, and Nicktoons Winner's Cup Racing, a Pronto Games title.

About Pronto Games

Pronto Games is a leading developer of games for mobile phones, handhelds, toys, and casual/downloadable, including consoles. Pronto specializes in creating products that are Small, Fast, and Fun (SmaFF); removed from platform or project size, these games have an easy to understand mechanic at the core that all players can immediately embrace. Pronto Games can be found on the web at http://www.prontogames.com.

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Unified Communications Provider SimpleSignal Hires Industry Veteran Ron Ireland to Head Finance and Business Development

Dana Point, CA (PRWEB) January 27, 2012

SimpleSignal, Inc., the leading cloud-based Unified Communications and Collaboration provider for business, today announced they have hired Ron Ireland as Senior Vice President, Finance and Business Development. Ireland will have oversight of SimpleSignal?s day-to-day financial operations as well as taking a significant role in business development. He will be responsible for introducing SimpleSignal?s products to a larger indirect channel audience and for helping the company manage their rapid growth. Ireland is a proven leader in the telecom and VoIP industry, having steered a leading nationally certified reseller through several business cycles, achieving growth and profitability in every year of his tenure. This industry experience, coupled with previous positions in banking and consumer finance, add up to knowledge and competency in growth management, finance, strategic planning, and operational efficiencies.

Ireland has been actively involved in the indirect agent channel for the last 14 years. He most recently served as VP, Channel Development for GLOBALINX, a facilities-based provider of IP services to the residential and small business markets, following their acquisition of TMC Communications, a leading reseller of switchless voice and data services for the SMB market, in December of 2010. There he held the dual title of President and CFO, where he coordinated the activities of all sales, accounting, collections, HR, pricing, IT, and revenue assurance staff, and ensured performance goals were met and profit margins grew.

"I've admired SimpleSignal from afar for the last several years, and observed their commitment to the indirect channel and to providing a full-featured unified communications solution to both the SMB and enterprise markets as a winning strategy in today's quickly changing communications environment," said Ireland when asked about the move. ?SimpleSignal is being recognized as one of the most innovative companies in the industry, and I?m really excited to be a part of bringing their new cloud technologies to companies small and large.?

In addition to its flagship cloud-based PBX and SIP Trunking products, SimpleSignal provides a growing suite of unified communications solutions including mobile integration, integrated voice-powered applications and cloud services like backup and storage, audio and video conferencing, call recording, and desktop collaboration tools to tens of thousands of business users throughout the United States, and was recently named to Inc 5000?s list of fastest growing private companies.

"We're excited to have Ron join our team as we continue on our path of market leader in unified communications," said SimpleSignal CEO Dave Gilbert. "Ron brings a diverse skill set and a lengthy list of industry connections to the table. He knows every angle of the business and he is a very welcome addition to our already talented growing team.?

Since beginning his career in 1988, Ireland held positions of increasing responsibility and leadership in the banking industry as controller and then CFO at California Thrift and Loan and Bank of Ventura before transitioning to the telecom industry, joining TMC in 1998. Ireland graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor?s degree in Economics from Westmont College and received a Masters degree in Business Economics with a focus on Accounting from UC Santa Barbara.

About SimpleSignal

SimpleSignal is a hosted PBX and cloud-based Unified Communications service provider, delivering IP phone applications and cloud-based collaboration services to tens of thousands of satisfied business users throughout the US and Canada, with a growing list of multi-office clients in many International locations. SimpleSignal has created some of the most innovative and advanced voice ?mashups? in the communications industry, leveraging voice technology for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Salesforce.com, among others. SimpleSignal has offices in Denver, CO, and Dana Point, CA. Find us on the web at http://www.simplesignal.com. For sales, call 866-434-4404. Read our blog: http://www.simplesignal.com/blog/.

Media Contact:

Donna Sudderth

donna(at)simplesignal(dot)com

949.777.5150

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