The firm develops and commercializes broadband telecom products and services for vehicles, and it's poised for dealmaking. Interestingly, though, USTelematics Inc. didn't create a traditional corporate development role, instead adding a
senior adviser, George Lauro, to its board to handle strategic alliances and capital structuring. The rocket scientist's (yeah, really) resume looks like a good one for a business development pro.
Lauro is a former rapid commercialization manager of IBM Corp.; an investment banker with Wasserstein Perella, Needham & Co. and C.E. Unterberg; a director of new business development for Motorola Inc.; and aerospace group marketing manager for General Electric Co. During his investment banking career Lauro has covered everything from deal sourcing, term sheet negotiation, syndication, diligence and post-transaction company building to exit negotiation.
Lauro will also put his MIT pedigree to work as USTelematics tries to revolutionize the "wired car," delivering high-speed data and entertainment content to private and commercial vehicles. News from Chrysler LLC should have given executives a smile. The third-largest U.S. automaker said it would
create a wireless Internet system for its vehicles in the U.S.
Earlier this year, USTelematics
signed a landmark contract with D&H Distributing, one of North America's largest distributors of
electronics, to distribute the company's telematics
products to the country's top consumer electronics retail chains and
stores, including Circuit City, Amazon.com and Gamestop among others.
The "wired car" revolution will certainly be met with criticism, though probably not from text-messaging teens. Still, it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you shouldn't use most of the gadgets while driving. -
Baz Hiralal
USTelematics hires Ex-Motorola, GE, IBM, Wasserstein executive George LauroAccessorize your Chrysler with Wi-FiUSTelematics joins Microsoft, Lenovo, Samsung, Cisco and other major electronics brands
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