Chief Marketing Officer
GSMA
As chief marketing officer for the GSMA, Michael O’Hara is responsible for the GSMA’s global marketing and communications strategy, working in close partnership with the organisation’s membership to identify, prioritise and execute on strategic marketing issues for the mobile industry.
Before joining the GSMA, O’Hara was the general manager for marketing and industry management within the Communications Sector at Microsoft. In this role, O’Hara led Microsoft’s initiatives to deliver world-class software solutions to the communications industry, including telecommunications companies, hosting service providers and media & entertainment organizations.
Prior to Microsoft, O’Hara was vice president, marketing at Sonus Networks, a leading provider of carrier voice over IP solutions, where he drove the company’s marketing strategy and oversaw all marketing functions. In that capacity, he spearheaded the business strategy to re-focus Sonus into the wireless communications market, and established the company as a major player in the voice over IP domain.
Previously, O’Hara served as chief marketing officer at Nortel Networks in Europe. In that role, he had responsibility for Nortel’s marketing and sales operations programs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, directing functions such as public relations, advertising, government relations, analyst relations, events, customer training and field marketing. Prior to that, O’Hara was vice president of global business operations reporting to the chief operating officer, and he also held management positions in a number of areas including sales, operations, customer service and manufacturing engineering with Nortel Networks in Europe.
He holds an honors degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the Queens University of Belfast.