Taptu announces new U.S. office to be lead by new President, Mitch Lazar


Taptu, the company indexing mobile touch friendly content, announces today that they’re opening an office in the U.S. “to drive business development, marketing and product management” in response to rapid growth in the North American audience. The new office, to be located in Denver, Colorado will be lead by Mitch Lazar, formerly of Yahoo! Mobile Europe.

Some details are on the Taptu blog, along with the following press release:

Taptu Expansion To United States And Mitch Lazar Takes Up Role As President And COO

Cambridge, UK – June 15, 2010 – Taptu, the mobile search engine that indexes the Mobile Touch Web today announced it is opening a US office in Denver, Colorado to drive business development, marketing and product management locally, a move prompted by Taptu’s rapidly growing American audience. Former Yahoo Mobile European MD, Mitch Lazar, who joined the Taptu Board as Non-Executive in March 2010, will head up the new office as he steps into the role of President and Chief Operating Officer at Taptu.

Taptu Inc will be located in the Denver Techn Center (DTC) – one of Colorado’s major technological hubs, while its R&D will remain at the company’s UK headquarters in Cambridge. Lazar will be primarily based in Denver.

Lazar said: “I am excited to be leading the effort to build Taptu’s presence in the United States. Taptu is at a pivotal juncture as our audience continues to grow and the product continues to evolve. We recognize that establishing our formal presence stateside is a critical step in the next phase of our company’s development and Denver is an ideal place for Taptu with its technology hub and convenient access to both the East and West coasts.”
Taptu CEO Steve Ives said: “It’s fantastic to have Mitch move from Non-Executive to President and COO. With Mitch joining and the opening up of Taptu Inc. this represents another milestone for Taptu. The US is one of the largest markets for Taptu and we already have a footprint in the market. A dedicated team on the ground will help us consolidate our position and take it to a new level.

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About Mitch Lazar:
Mitch has more than two decade’s of experience in the media industry and has spent over 10 years building mobile businesses for some of the world’s largest media companies. Most recently, he was MD of Yahoo! Mobile in Europe, overseeing Yahoo’s mobile business and operations in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Before joining Yahoo! in 2005, he spent 12 years at Time Warner where he drove AOL’s and Turner Broadcasting’s wireless strategy and mobile distribution efforts worldwide. In the role, he partnered with hundreds of mobile operators worldwide to launch CNN and Cartoon Network mobile services. Mitch was an early pioneer in digital media and one of the founders of CNN.com in 1995. He began his career as a broadcast journalist, working in the US and South Korea.

About Taptu:
Since early 2009 Taptu has pioneered the index and crawling of media specifically designed for touch screen mobile devices. Consumers can now, for the first time, search and explore millions of mobile touch Web sites, apps, images and the real time Web. Consumers can experience this for themselves by visiting http://taptu.com on any touch device or by downloading from the App Store or Android Market place. Taptu is also making this unique index available to third parties via an API. Taptu is privately held and capitalized by leading investors, Sofinnova and DFJ Esprit.