Amsterdam, 28 July 2008 – TomTom NV (TomTom) announced a new structure to its portable navigation (PND) division. Corinne Vigreux has been appointed managing director, Ken McAlpine will join as senior vice president product design and Alex Batchelor will join as executive vice president marketing.
“These appointments reflect the high level of expertise and industry experience we are seeking and we look forward to benefiting from their insights and knowledge,” said Harold Goddijn, TomTom CEO. “By ensuring we have the right level of management within TomTom we will continue to meet our goal to deliver the very best in-car consumer navigation experience for our customers.”
Corinne Vigreux is a co-founder of TomTom and has played a leading role in growing the company from a small organisation into a global player in the consumer electronics market. Vigreux’s key responsibilities have focused on defining and driving the company’s global sales strategy and geographical expansion, overseeing product management as well as developing partner and retail relationships. She is a key visionary in the car navigation industry and has played an active role in this fast growing market from the beginning. In her new role as managing director she will be responsible for all aspects of TomTom’s retail business, including product management, P&L, sales, marketing and HR.
Ken McAlpine is an engineering professional with 27 years’ experience in consumer product design, manufacturing and project management. McAlpine was previously employed as director of engineering with Apple Inc, based at the head office in Cupertino, California. McAlpine was involved in the development of, among other products, the MacMini, AppleTV and iPhone. Additionally, McAlpine led Apple’s laptop engineering teams, which were responsible for engineering management, program management, electronic circuit design and support of all Apple laptop products.
McAlpine will be responsible for product design and usability within TomTom’s PND division ensuring that the user experience is consistent across all TomTom platforms.
Alex Batchelor has almost 20 years’ marketing and international brand management experience. He has guided, developed and managed world-class consumer brands, such as Orange and Unilever. His expertise lies in both marketing strategy and brand building--most recently he was marketing director at Royal Mail Group. He will be responsible for managing the TomTom brand internationally and positioning the combination of TomTom’s products and services as the premier in-car navigation solution.
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About TomTom TomTom NV is the world’s leading navigation solutions provider. TomTom's products are developed with an emphasis on innovation, quality, ease of use, safety and value. TomTom's products include all-in-one navigation devices which enable customers to navigate right out of the box; these are the award-winning TomTom GO family, the TomTom XL and TomTom ONE ranges and the TomTom RIDER. Additionally, independent research proves that TomTom products have a significant positive effect on driving and road safety. TomTom offers a portfolio of content and services for TomTom’s navigation products, which are easily available through TomTom HOME. TomTom also provides navigation software products that integrate with third party devices; the TomTom NAVIGATOR software for PDAs and smartphones. TomTom WORK combines industry leading communication and smart navigation technology with leading edge tracking and tracing expertise. TomTom’s products are sold through a network of leading retailers in over 30 countries and online. TomTom was founded in 1991 in Amsterdam and has offices in Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South Africa. TomTom is listed at Euronext Amsterdam in The Netherlands. For more information, go to
www.tomtom.com.
For more information, please contact: TomTom
Nina Breuning
T: 0031 20 75 74193
GSM: 0031 6 46623162
E-mail:
nina.breuning@tomtom.com