Joe O’Konek was appointed as CEO in January 2014. Prior to joining the MRC, he was an independent consultant. Previously, Joe was CEO of CSL, Ltd., in Hong Kong from 2010 – 2013 and joined 3S Network, Inc., a Seattle based wireless engineering firm, in 2009. As the global head of business support systems for Nokia Siemens Networks in Munich, Germany, his business unit delivered prepaid and convergent charging solutions, active mediation, customer care, next generation intelligent networks (ngIN), as well as product related customization services for prepaid and convergence billing software products. He joined Nokia in 2005 and was based in Espoo, Finland, as the global practice head for the network design, service management and performance consulting practice. Prior to that, Joe was the head of business support systems business unit for Nokia Siemens Networks. Before joining Nokia, he served as COO and interim CFO for Singlestep Technologies, an autonomic computer software company partnering with IBM, providing IT network process automation software, based in Seattle.
O’Konek has spent his career infusing teams with a passion for developing, marketing and delivering innovative products and services. His leadership, combined with strategic development, marketing, sales and operations expertise, has allowed him to take leading-edge products and services businesses from the start-up phase to profitability.
As president of Far EasTone Telecommunications in Taipei, Taiwan, from 1997 to 2002, Joe led a team that in less than five years created a business with revenues surpassing $1 billion USD, 35% EBITDA margins, a customer base of over 3.8 million, successfully won a 3G license at auction, completed the IPO of the company, returning a 750% return to the founding partners and was recognized by the GSM Association for innovation in community service and business to business services.
Joe was a co-founder and director for get2all, a multi-media messaging provider. Additionally, he ihas been an advisory director to numerous companies including:
- TierOnes, an online marketplace revolutionizing the recruiting business model.
- NVSI, a disruptive solution solving the problem of Internet congestion caused by streaming video, adding an efficient broadcast component to the Internet
- DataPrism with AlertSync apps that enable organizations and families to easily keep up with the people and events in their lives delivering the power of Social Integration™.
- Infinian a cloud based closed-loop B2C marketing automation, loyalty and analytics platform for brands to connect, measure and track relationships with consumers across all channels – traditional, mobile and social.
- Cherry Picks, a Hong Kong based mobile marketing firm.
- Stadeon, a multi-player, multi-platform mobile gaming company, acquired by Yahoo in 2005.
Joe holds a Master of Science degree in education and administration from the National University, San Diego, CA, and a Bachelor of Science in industrial education from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He pursued post graduate studies at the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau, France, working on strategic business development and leadership competencies.