13 July 2006
Appointment Of Two International Telecommunication Specialists Completes Plus Sms Advisory Board
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: John Gregg and Juan Villalonga, senior members of the US and European media telecommunications
industries, have been appointed to the Plus SMS Limited Advisory Board. They join a group of prominent international
media and telecommunications entrepreneurs, executives and investors, who are working closely with the Board of Plus SMS
to accelerate global market penetration of the Group's vanity SMS number ranges.
Chaired by Rob Hersov, founder of Sportal.com, and now vice chairman of NetJets Europe, the Advisory Board is also
working with the Plus SMS Board to achieve the listing of the Group's Isle of Man-based operating subsidiary, Plus SMS
Limited, on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange later this year.
John Gregg is the founder and Managing Director of Bluewater Ventures LTD a private equity firm specialising in the
media and telecommunications sectors in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Most recently, he acted as a Managing Director of
Cablecom GmbH and iesy Hessen GmbH, two major European cable operators, and Managing Director of NTL Europe.
Prior to that, Mr Gregg was Chief Financial Officer of NTL Inc., a NYSE-listed U.K. broadband cable operator helping to
grow NTL from a standing start to a company with $4 billion in revenue and over 18,000 employees. Mr Gregg has also been
a Managing Director of Cellular Communications of Puerto Rico and Cellular Communications International. He was a
founder and Vice Chairman of Virgin Net.
In his career, Mr Gregg has acted as principal and executed over $25 billion of acquisitions, ranging from $5 million to
$13 billion in size, and has raised a total of over $35 billion of financing in the public and private markets. He holds
a BA from Georgetown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Juan Villalonga is a private investor and ex-Chairman and CEO Telefonica. He is a Board Director of Espirito Santo
Financial Holding, and an Advisory Board member of Ben Gurion University.
Plus SMS Holdings Limited Group Chairman, Jim Bracknell, says the appointment of John Gregg and Juan Villalonga
completes the composition of the Advisory Board. "We now have a superb panel of experts who understand the company's
products and their potential, and are firmly committed to helping us bring them successfully to markets around the
world.
Providing worldwide access, the company's unique range of vanity SMS numbers enables corporations to market their names
and brands via tens of millions of texts sent by mobile telephone users every day. The individualized short codes also
cover a wide range of generic names in the transportation, entertainment sports, special events and hospitality
industries.
ENDS