Michael Wallis-Brown

Michael Wallis-Brown (born 9 February 1972), is a South African business executive.^[1] He has been serving as vice president at Ericsson responsible for global mobile financial services since October 2023.^[2][3] In addition to his appointment, he has been serving as CEO at BAIA Global, a fintech company based in Singapore and Finland, since its founding in March 2018.^[4][5] From October 2007 until May 2009, Wallis-Brown was the Vice President at Openwave, in charge of Asia Pacific, Japan, India, and China.^[6]

Wallis-Brown served as global director at Nokia, in charge of internet channels and multimedia services from September 2005 until September 2007, following his elevation from regional director of Asia-Pacific at the same corporation, since January 2004. From March 2000 until January 2004, he served as IBM's chief of wireless software for Asia-Pacific.^[7][8] Wallis-Brown, who started his career in South Africa served technology industry in different corners of the world including in Australia, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and Finland.^[9][10][11]

Career

After graduating at University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Economics and Political Science in 1995, Wallis-Brown started working in South Africa as Managing Director at DigiOutsource, an online advertising and management consulting company, responsible for Go-To-Market and Marketing until 1998. Later he stepped into the position of Managing Director at i-Cue, a joint venture between Independent Online and iTouch.^[12] Later in 2000, Wallis-Brown left South Africa and joined IBM to serve as chief of wireless software in Asia-Pacific based in Sydney, Australia until January 2004.^[8] Subsequently, he joined Nokia to serve as Regional Director, leading Nokia Mobile Phones Enterprise Wireless business in Asia, based in Sydney and Singapore. He held this position until July 2005 when he was promoted to become global vice president in charge of internet channels and multimedia services at the same company, situated in Espoo, Finland, until September 2007.^[13]

In October 2007, Wallis-Brown joined Openwave and was appointed as the Vice President, responsible for Asia including India, Japan, and China with residence in Hong Kong, China until May 2009. In June of the same year, he joined early stage the startup Prove, formerly Payfone Inc., a New York based telecommunications service provider, as Vice President responsible for international growth until December 2013.^[14][15] In addition to this, in January 2013, Wallis-Brown founded Tapp Commerce Oy, a Finnish mobile e-commerce company.^[10][16] Wallis-Brown served as the CEO. He left the position after 2 years, in June 2015 when the company was acquired.^[17][11]

In July 2015, Wallis-Brown joined as CCO and Board Advisor to Route66 Ventures, based in London, England. In 2018 Wallis-Brown founded and was the main investor in Baia Group, a Fintech and Data Optimization Company. Other investors included Antler (venture capital firm), Launch Africa, Founders Factory Africa, and Todd Ruppert. He sold Baia Group in February 2024 to Fintex Group, a Silicon Valley Fintech Investment Fund. From January 2020 to January 2021, Wallis-Brown was brought on by Dr James Mwangi, Group CEO of Equity Group Holdings, as a group fintech innovation and financial services consultant at Equity Group Holdings. Wallis-Brown also served as a board member of Bioproton Europe Oy from October 2016 to November 2023

Personal life

Wallis-Brown is married to Petra von Hellens, a Miss Finland 1992 winner and runner up in Miss World 1992.^[18]

References