Mformation Names Ed Forker Executive VP of Sales and Alliances
1Mformation Technologies Inc., a provider of mobile device management (MDM) solutions, announced the appointment of Ed Forker, former SVP of Sales at Opalis, as Executive VP of Sales and Alliances.
According to a release, Forker is responsible for Mformation’s worldwide sales, services and alliances.
"Ed has a rich high-tech and telecommunications sales management background, having run high-performance sales teams selling into carriers, large enterprises and managed-service providers, as well as working with global systems integrators," said Todd DeLaughter, Mformation’s CEO. "The need for device management is currently expanding to cover a growing population of device types-from mobile devices to computers and connected machines-as well as a broader range of customers. Ed’s global experience and proven ability to sell into multiple verticals will be invaluable to us at this critical stage of our growth." Ed Forker joins Mformation from Opalis, where, as SVP of Worldwide Sales and Field Engineering, he built a global sales team and grew revenues 100 percent year over year, contributing to the successful acquisition of Opalis by Microsoft. Prior to Opalis, Forker built up and ran worldwide sales for Integrien, a real-time performance analytics company, and ran worldwide sales for Blazent, an IT outsourcing company. Before Blazent, Forker built and ran worldwide sales for Smarts, a company specializing in IT root-cause and impact analysis software, as they grew from $10M to $70M before being acquired by EMC. Forker’s experience includes strategic sales management positions at Metromedia, Lucent Technologies, CIDCO, Bay Networks (formerly Synoptics), Digital Equipment Corp., Citibank Credit Card Services, AT&T and New York Telephone.
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)) HEADLINE -Allianz Life Survey: Americans Choose Financial Professionals over Personal Trainers for New Year’s Resolution More Americans would rather connect with their nearest financial professional than sign up for a personal trainer and gym membership come Jan. 1, according to the second annual New Year’s Resolution survey from Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America.
When asked which type of professional service provider they would most like to use in 2011, 44 percent chose a financial professional, besting the next most popular answer - personal trainer at 26 percent - by 18 percentage points. The survey showed that the number of people interested in enlisting help to enhance their fiscal fitness in the New Year was on the rise from the previous year, while those choosing physical fitness was declining.
According to a release, even with the increased interest in using a financial professional, Americans are torn between fiscal fitness and physical fitness when it comes to follow-through. When asked which 2011 resolution they are most likely to keep, managing their money better (39 percent) was nearly equal to improving their exercise/diet (40 percent). This mirrored last year’s results, which saw the same percentage of people feeling more confident in their ability to have success with their exercise/diet than with their personal finances.
What’s more, despite the desire to enlist the help of financial professionals, only 33 percent of the Allianz Life survey respondents indicated that they will actually include a financial plan in their list of 2011 resolutions. The top response for why they won’t include a financial plan: "I don’t make enough money to worry about it" (34 percent) - matched the response in 2009. But the idea that plans are either too complex (6 percent) or too scary (4 percent), remained low year over year.
"People who don’t believe they make enough money to plan for their financial futures are potentially jeopardizing their financial safety and security," said Katie Libbe, who leads Consumer Insights at Allianz Life. "Regardless of income level, sound financial planning helps ensure that individuals are prepared for life’s events and challenges - and can reduce the uncertainty that surrounds retirement." The company noted that Americans have a more positive financial outlook for the New Year than they did in 2009. When asked which 2010 movie best represents their financial outlook for 2011, 40 percent chose one of the two positive choices - Toy Story 3 (positive) at 32 percent and The A Team (extremely positive) at 8 percent. This was up two percentage points over the positive responses in 2009. Uncertainty remains, however, the single most popular answer - The Backup Plan (uncertain), 37 percent - was two percentage points higher than the uncertain response for 2009.
"The fact that Americans today are more optimistic about their personal finances than at this time last year is good news. Yet, it’s alarming that people still lack the confidence to manage their own finances and feel trepidation about getting more involved in the financial planning process. There’s a wealth of information, resources and financial expertise available-and no valid reason for people not to take advantage of it," said Libbe.
According the survey results, regardless of how they feel about the health of their own finances, people agreed with last year’s contention that the government should resolve to create more jobs and reduce unemployment as their top priority in 2011 (50 percent), although the top response was down three percentage points from last year. More people now believe that the U.S. should focus on fixing the country’s finances, with 35 percent choosing that option as the top priority versus 32 percent in 2009.
