CTO / Mobile Geo Social Technology Innovator
Sydney Area, Australia
- Current
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- Director, Technology - Xumii Services at Xumii (acquired by Myriad Group, August 2009)
- Past
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- Program Director, Digital & Wireless Innovation at Lonely Planet
- CIO at Genos
- CTO at Legion Interactive
- General Manager Online Solutions at Chandler Macleod Group
- Founder and CEO at Bags Of Time
- Product Development Director at News International
- Internet Developer & Consultant at Various
- Computer Game Developer at Self-employed
- Education
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- University of Leeds
- University of Nottingham
- University of Nottingham
- Recommended
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6 people have recommended Bob - Connections
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302
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Bob Hitching’s Summary
• 20 years in tech, including 15 years of online and mobile engineering and product innovation
• CTO leadership of technology teams
• Product Management and Innovation
• Hands-on technology R&D
Bob Hitching’s Specialties:
• Mobile + Geo + Social
Bob Hitching’s Experience
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Director, Technology - Xumii Services
Xumii (acquired by Myriad Group, August 2009)
(Public Company; MRYN; Telecommunications industry)
April 2008 — Present (1 year 9 months)
• Building and leading the technology team for this venture capital funded mobile social networking startup - see http://www.xumii.com - which in August 2009 was acquired by Myriad Group (SIX:MYRN), Europe's largest mobile software company and provider of software to more than 2 billion mobile phones worldwide
• Responsible for the delivery of an ambitious and innovative product roadmap requiring a massive technology set, including web, mobile web, native iPhone, Android and J2ME applications, Java, PHP, MySQL, OpenSocial, XMPP, Drupal, GWT, AJAX, SMS, and integration with Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, iMeem, Flickr, YouTube, MSN Chat, Google Talk, Yahoo! Chat, and AOL Messenger
• Successfully achieved product evolution from stealth R&D mode through private beta into public launch of a suite of prototype products which within a few months were helping over a million people stay connected via social networking on their phones
• Grew the team’s capability and the technology offering from a direct-to-consumer downloadable mobile application to a powerful mobile social networking platform suitable for international mobile operators and handset manufacturers -
Program Director, Digital & Wireless Innovation
Lonely Planet
(Privately Held; Publishing industry)
2006 — 2008 (2 years )
• Built an Innovation Lab spanning Australia, North America, and Europe, to focus on the development and launch of a portfolio of social, mobile and geo travel products, establishing a scalable innovation capability for the business.
• Mobile travel products included global SMS services and mobile internet sites.
• (Geo) Invention of the LPmaps geo platform, built on top of Google Maps for users to explore multi-layer geo content and navigate between a diverse set of Lonely Planet websites (plus Google Earth and Facebook applications). Responsible for strategy, product management, technology architecture, hands-on engineering, and operations. LPmaps included an open developer API which rapidly scaled to handle 20m monthly transactions.
• (Social) Managed the re-invention of Lonely Planet TV as a web2.0 user-generated travel video website, uniquely seeded with high quality travel videos produced by Lonely Planet itself. LPTV was the first UGC video site to feature content discovery and navigation via an interactive map (using LPmaps). -
CIO
Genos
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Human Resources industry)
2004 — 2007 (3 years )
• Start-up; commercialisation of Emotional Intelligence IP into a global online solution that helps employers measure and develop their people's EQ; technology building and product development; helped through to first VC round in Dec 06; Genos is now bigger than I can cope with for a job-on-the-side.
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CTO
Legion Interactive
(Public Company; Marketing and Advertising industry)
2005 — 2006 (1 year )
• Led the Engineering, Product Development, Infrastructure and Operations teams of 30 people to design, build, launch and operate products and services combining web, phone (IVR), and mobile (SMS, MMS, WAP, J2ME, and IVVR video), for customers including Australia’s leading brands (e.g. Coca Cola), media companies (e.g. Channel 7, Channel 9 & Network 10, ninemsn, Fairfax, and News Corp), and telcos (e.g. Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Hutchison/3).
• Presided over Australia's busiest ever mobile interactive events including Big Brother and Australian Idol voting. -
General Manager Online Solutions
Chandler Macleod Group
(Public Company; CHD; Human Resources industry)
2002 — 2004 (2 years )
• Led the product development and commercialisation of an online self-service psychometric testing solution, globally unique in delivering 'better people decisions' through a special blend of computer-generated plus psychologist-written assessment reports.
• Generated monthly online revenue of A$500,000 within 3 months of launch, representing a 60% increase over pre-online levels. Enabled international expansion; online solutions exported to 20 countries. -
Founder and CEO
Bags Of Time
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
2000 — 2002 (2 years )
• Built and led the UK's first online 60-minute shopping service in London.
• Achieved the UK's fastest ever online shopping delivery @ 17 minutes from order to delivery, and broadcast live on BBC Radio.
• 'Best Customer Service' finalist at European E-Commerce Awards 2000. -
Product Development Director
News International
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Newspapers industry)
1999 — 2000 (1 year )
• Created and managed 'dot corp' incubation unit for News International (News Corp UK).
• Directed the launch and development of numerous online products including online auctions, shopping, jobs and property marketplaces, an ISP, and news and entertainment sites representing brands such as The Times and The Sun that together reach over 20 million customers.
• Managed the Product Development team through many exciting dotcom moments, including the UK's highest profile live web chat with Prime Minister Tony Blair. -
Internet Developer & Consultant
Various
(Internet industry)
1994 — 1999 (5 years )
Learnt the internet trade, by supplying strategic consulting, product management, website design, hands-on engineering, integration to legacy systems, testing, and support to numerous clients, including:
• Text Media Group (Sydney, 1999) - Established the online division of Australia’s largest contract publisher. Projects included content syndication to food, property, financial services and directory sites.
• Ezishop (Sydney, 1998) - Directed this multi-channel television / catalogue / phone / internet retailer from start-up to its first television media contract. Managed the launch of an e-commerce website, and an outsourced call centre engagement, and designed an innovative live TV / IVR auction application.
• Dragoman Travel (London, 1997) – Created ground-breaking Group Travel Blog, charting online an adventure through the archaeological sites of Central America.
• Benetton (London, 1995) – Single-handedly designed and built one of the first e-commerce websites, selling Benetton Formula 1 merchandise. -
Computer Game Developer
Self-employed
(Computer Software industry)
1984 — 1985 (1 year )
• My childhood included an introduction to computers and entrepreneurship when I wrote ‘MegaFruit’, a slot machine program for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, squeezed into just 16,384 bytes of raw Z80 machine code. The game enjoyed some commercial success from a publishing and distribution deal with Thor Computer Games. Nowadays, I can play MegaFruit on an emulator on my mobile phone.
Bob Hitching’s Education
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University of Leeds
M.Sc. , Master of Computer Science & Virtual Environments , 1994 — 1995
> Focus on internet, artificial intelligence, search algorithms, virtual environments
> Thesis: 'Commercial Applications of the Internet' (!)
> Graduated with Distinction -
University of Nottingham
Dip. App. Psych. , Diploma in Applied Psychology , 1990 — 1991
> Focus on human-computer interaction, ergonomics
> Devised customer-centric technology development methodology for ICL -
University of Nottingham
B.Sc. , Psychology , 1987 — 1990
> Focus on human-computer interaction
> Graduated with 2:1 Honours
> Special Award for Top Honours Student from class of 50+
Additional Information
Bob Hitching’s Websites:
Bob Hitching’s Interests:
• GeoMeme is a pet project. See http://www.geome.me - it’s a web app (and also a mobile web app for iPhone and Android) to measure real-time local Twitter trends. It mashes up content from Twitter, Google, and Yahoo, and it sells personalized t-shirts. GeoMeme was awarded “Mashup of the Day” by ProgrammableWeb.com • I contribute Open Source software for Wordpress; the “Fresh From FriendFeed and Twitter” plugin keeps 5,000 Wordpress blogs always fresh by regularly adding the latest and greatest content from FriendFeed and Twitter. See http://j.mp/18GPYK • Co-founder of the Nangqian Tibetan Foundation; a grassroots, charitable community work organisation which aims to improve the poor health and illiteracy of Tibetans living in a remote, mountainous region on the Tibetan Plateau in China • Volunteer member of my local rural fire brigade
