About Us

Martin Varsavsky: Argentine entrepreneur and philanthropist, Martin is the founder of highly successful companies such as Viatel, Jazztel and Ya.com. Martin also teaches at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain and is President and Founder of The Varsavsky Foundation and the Safe-Democracy Foundation, and was Ambassador-at-Large of Argentina up to 2005.

Jordi Vallejo CTO, Chief Technical Officer. Jordi has founded a VoIP IT company in Taiwan and another one in Spain (Coolnection and TelSIP) and acted as CTO in both. For the last 10 years, Jordi has been managing joined software/hardware developments between both Chinese and English/Spanish speaking engineering teams. Jordi is fluent in Chinese and has appeared on Chinese language TV programs and the radio show "Technology Paradise" in National Taiwan Radio. Jordi is specialized in both SIP technologies and Wireless technologies."

Antonio Fuentes FON CFO. Formerly COO and the Controller, of Jazztel,and General Manager of the investment holding company, Jazzya. He has an extensive experience in the mobile and fixed telecommunications industry mainly in the financial areas, both in Spain and abroad, USA and UK.

Alexander Puregger is Global Business Development Manager for FON. Before joining FON, Alex worked for more than 8 years as Strategy Consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH). At BAH he focused mostly on strategic projects in the area of fixed/mobile telecommunications and media. Alex helped establish the BAH office in Vienna, and led BAH's telecommunications team in Madrid, Spain. Alexander has worked in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and is fluent in four languages. He holds a degree in International Business Administration from University of Vienna and from Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Joanna Rees, Chief Fonera of FON USA and president of the US Advisory Board. Joanna began her career at DMB&B and is the founder of VSP Capital. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Posit Science, Sabrix, AccountNow, Danger, QuinStreet, The Threshold Group and the Board of Directors of the NVCA. In 2000, she was named Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, and Entrepreneur of the Year Rising Star by the National Association of Women Business Owners. Joanna is frequently featured in the press (Forbes, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN, Business Week), and serves as a spokesperson for the NVCA. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BS from Duke University.

Alberto Méndez is the General Manager of FON Spain. Alberto has a wealth of grass roots and community based management experience. Prior to joining FON, Alberto organized the world´s largest and most successful environmental volunteer effort to date, leading some 325,000 volunteer activities to clean up the 2005 Prestige Oil Spill for the Xunta de Galicia regional government. Alberto has also worked as an attorney in private practice.

In France, FON´s operations are managed by Jean Bernard Magescas, and Tariq Krim sits on the French Board. Jean Bernard is integrally familiar with the municipal WiFi movement in France. Jean-Bernard has been in the onsulting business for more than 15 years. He has participated in the Internet industry, and in particular in e-commerce projects with the first French online shop, and in advising the local authorities on how to offer Internet access through wireless technologies.

In Sweden, FON is led by the remarkable Internet entrepreneur Ola Ahlvarsson, named as one of the top 10 European Internet entrepreneurs by the Wall Street Journal.

In Finland we are working with Marko Ahtisaari, Director of Design Strategy at Nokia and founder and chairman ofAula.

In Italy, FON is led by Stefano Vitta. Stefano has more than ten years of IT experience and is now at the center of the web 2.0 in Italy as a leading blogger and new media consultant. Stefano founded the Pitbull Technology web agency in 1998 and the blogging platform, Bloggers.it.

In Russia, FON is managed by Oleg Pissartchik. Oleg was the CEO of the Russian branch of the satellite TV channels Fashion TV and World Fashion Channel. He worked for Sistema Mass Media where he was the Marketing Director of Kosmos TV, Russia’s oldest pay TV operator. Prior to that, Oleg was CEO of Digital Teleradiobroadcasting Ltd., Russia’s first DVB-T/H operator. He also holds degrees from Moscow State University and Tokai University.

Robert Lang is Chief Fonero for Germany. Robert was founder and CEO of Germany's largest WiFi operator: WLAN AG, sold to Swisscom Group in 2003 and renamed to Swisscom Eurospot, the current leader in the European hotel Internet access market. Before that, Robert was VP Business Development and Finance for iobox Germany, a subsidiary of a Finnish Mobile Entertainment startup. It was sold in 2000 for 230M Euros to the Telefonica-Group and became one of the largest mobile entertainment portals in Germany with 1.8M users.

Junichi Fujimoto, CEO of FON Japan. Junichi has been playing an integral role in the growth and development of Japan’s information technology sector, most notably his involvement in internet liberalization as the Founder and CEO of livedoor Co., Ltd., first ever free internet service provider in Japan, in 1998. After having built Livedoor and making it the leading free ISP in Japan, Junichi sold his participation in Livedoor and left the company in 2000 to dedicate his time to other challenges. As one of Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs, Junichi has founded and led numerous internet businesses in Japan, including eZuz Japan k.k., online comparative shopping site. With international educational background, Junichi’s expertise in global cross-cultural businesses has been widely recognized.

China is managed by Yat Siu. Yat Siu is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Outblaze. Yat has previously worked for Atari Germany, served as Director and Head of East Coast Operations for Lexicor, established Hong Kong Cybercity (the first free web page and e-mail provider in Asia, later renamed Freenation), as well as AT&T Solutions’ System Integration practice. Yat, who holds a degree in music from the Musik Konservatorium Wien, has been awarded for his past contributions to business and society a number of times and was named a Global Leader of Tomorrow for the World Economic Forum, and, more recently, a Young Global Leader 2006.

Yi-Kai has previously worked for Taiwan's leading network device producer Accton Technology and served as VP Marketing for Acction's China operation.Before moving to China in 2005, Yi-Kai held different position for marketing and management in Taiwan's several media, software and internet companies.Yi-Kai co-founded Taiwan's first open source software integrator Cyberwork Solution in 2000 and served as operational head,he was also the founding member of Taiwan's non-incumbent ISP Neto Corp in 1998 and helped company designing business strategies to compete with incumbent operators. Yi-Kai holds degree in Liberal Arts from Taiwan University and is an active writer of business topics and literature for years.