Ralph Simon |
Mr. Ralph Simon is one of the founders of the modern mobile entertainment industry and popularly known as ‘the father of the ring tone’. He has also had a distinguished career in the recording and music publishing business prior to entering into the mobile business in 1998. He co-founded what became one of the world's most successful independent music and music publishing companies – the Zomba Group of companies and Jive Records (whose artists included Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Justin Timberlake).
Ralph moved to the Silicon Valley from London in the early 90's and was there at the birth of the CD ROM movement. He was invited to relocate to Los Angeles in 1993 to restructure Capitol Records and Blue Note, the jazz label (both EMI subsidiaries) – and established EMI's first global new media division operating out of Hollywood. Shortly thereafter he left to found a start–up in Santa Monica, California, that initiated the first commercial ring tone service in the USA and internationally. Thus his popular title: "Father of the ring tone". He is a prominent mobile visionary, and innovator, helping grow the global mobile social networking, content data and “social broadcasting” industries world-wide since 1998.
Mr. Simon Ralph founded the Mobile Entertainment Forum - Americas (MEF) in 1999, became Chairman Emeritus and he continues to serve on the MEF global board; Mobile producer of Live 8 in 2005 - Bono & Geldof's drive to Reduce Poverty in Africa, & Mobile Producer of Al Gore’s Live Earth 2007 environmental global call and event; Strategic mobile advisor to Madonna, U2, and Lady Gaga; speaker at TED Conference in 2010; named among Top 50 Executives in Mobile Entertainment in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2010.
Based in London, Ralph’s entire cross-continental career has always been deeply intertwined with protecting the rights of composers and writers, and ensuring that copyright and creative rights were respected in the mobile arena, and speeding up creative content innovation. He has participated in successive World Copyright Summits and has a deep knowledge of rights, copyright and trans-national usage of audio-visual content and copyrights. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts in the UK, and a member of the National Academy of Recorded Arts & Sciences in the USA.