On-Ramp Wireless Appoints Kevin Hell as President and CEO

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On-Ramp Wireless, developer of wireless solutions for energy automation and M2M communications, today announced that Kevin Hell, an experienced public market CEO and board member, will join On-Ramp Wireless as president and CEO, effective Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

“Kevin’s experience, energy and demonstrated record of success make him the ideal CEO candidate to achieve these goals. We look forward to working with Kevin to utilize On-Ramp’s unique technology to expand our partner network and promote rapid customer adoption.”

“Having demonstrated the superiority of its wireless solutions in operational deployments with major utilities, On-Ramp is now positioned to scale its offering and diversify its markets,” said Don Telage, Chairman of On-Ramp’s Board of Directors. “Kevin’s experience, energy and demonstrated record of success make him the ideal CEO candidate to achieve these goals. We look forward to working with Kevin to utilize On-Ramp’s unique technology to expand our partner network and promote rapid customer adoption.”

Mr. Hell has over 20 years of experience leading technology and wireless companies to success. He formerly was the Chief Executive Officer of DivX, Inc., a publicly-traded technology company. Over his eight-year tenure with the company, Mr. Hell was instrumental in transforming DivX into a market leader in the rapidly emerging digital video market, connecting high-quality Internet content with consumer electronics. Under Mr. Hell’s leadership as CEO, DivX significantly grew and diversified its licensing business, made two successful acquisitions to drive product diversification, and secured format approval from major Hollywood studios before being acquired by Sonic Solutions in October 2010.

“I am honored that the Board has selected me as CEO,” said Mr. Hell. “My predecessor and On-Ramp co-founder, Joaquin Silva and the rest of the On-Ramp team, have done a tremendous job building a company that is poised for rapid growth. On-Ramp’s game-changing wireless technology is well-positioned to transform the energy automation and M2M communication industries and deliver on the true promise of wireless communications for utilities. I look forward to working with the impressive On-Ramp team.”

Until recently, Mr. Hell was the chairman of EvoNexus, San Diego’s successful community-supported technology incubator and a program of CommNexus. Under his leadership, EvoNexus companies received over $90M in early-stage financing. Additionally, Mr. Hell serves on the Board of Directors of Hold-Free Networks, Perminova, Inc, MicroPower Technologies and Pixon Imaging, Inc.

Before joining DivX, Mr. Hell served as Senior Vice President of Product Management for Palm’s Solutions Group, where he managed the Palm branded products and wireless services division worldwide. Prior to Palm, he was Vice President of the Connected Home for Gateway and was responsible for pioneering a variety of digital home products and services beyond the PC. Earlier in his career, Mr. Hell spent seven years with The Boston Consulting Group, where he consulted with a variety of clients including electric utilities and telecommunications companies on industry trends and corporate strategy. Kevin earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. He also earned an M.B.A. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

About On-Ramp Wireless

On-Ramp Wireless has developed the first wireless system purpose-built to efficiently connect billions of hard-to-reach devices in metro scale and other challenging environments. The On-Ramp Wireless Network enables low-power monitoring and control applications within Smart Grid, oil and gas operations, water efficiency, industrial sensing, and location tracking. Operating in unlicensed spectrum, the signal processing innovation finds weak signals even in high noise environments, yielding extreme coverage, immunity to high interference, and significantly lowers cost. For more information, visit www.onrampwireless.com or follow @onrampwireless.