Vincent Maher, who has worked in the online industry since 1996, has joined Kagiso Media, a Kagiso Tiso Holdings company, as chief innovation officer.
Maher was co-founder of mobile community specialist, Motribe. When Motribe was acquired by social network Mxit, in 2012, he took on the role of chief product officer at Mxit. While there, Maher spearheaded the social network's migration from feature phones to smartphones, says Kagiso Media in a statement.
Kagiso Media is positioning itself so it can take advantage of changes in the way technology is used and consumed, and is moving into the realm of linking its broadcasting assets and digital entities to obtain a deeper understanding of its audiences.
The group has several radio assets, including East Coast Radio and Jacaranda FM, as well as new media firm Gloo, property and geospatial data company Knowledge Factory, and a majority stake in Urban Brew.
Maher's role as chief innovation officer will incorporate the development of new and innovative concepts, prototyping new products in the mobile and apps space, and looking at technical standards across the group.
"The zone where audiences, media and technology collide is where you find the greatest opportunity to innovate and create new media that never existed before. I am looking forward to getting right into the thick of it at Kagiso Media," he says.
Before Motribe, Maher was commercial manager for mobile advertising and portfolio manager for social media at Vodacom. "In this role, he was responsible for the rapid growth of The Grid, Vodacom's location-based social network and instant messaging platform. Maher also helped launch Legends of Echo, a multiplayer location-based mobile game," Kagiso Media notes.
Maher has also held the position of strategist at Mail & Guardian Online and co-founder of the blog search engine and article aggregator Amatomu.com. He enjoyed stints as director of the New Media Lab at Rhodes University School of Journalism & Media Studies, and as digital commerce and multimedia director at VWV Interactive.
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