Los Angeles — I.am+, the wearables manufacturer helmed by musician Will.i.am, brought on former Sony Electronics exec Phil Molyneux as president and COO.
Molyneux officially stepped into the role four weeks ago, he told TWICE during a phone interview. He said he became acquainted with Will.i.am in 2012 at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
“Will and I were introduced by our mutual friend, and we started to talk about all things technology and trends, and where we saw the market going, and what we thought were the key players. I quickly inferred that Will had this very significant understanding of the consumer electronics and tech world, among all the other great things that he’s highly capable of doing.”
Molyneux, who served as president/COO at Sony Electronics until 2013, and later as a non-executive chairman, said he was able to wear I.am+’s first and only product, the Puls smart watch, and was “blown away with what [Will.i.am] had managed to bring to life as a start-up and as a small company.”
He added, “It came to the point where Will said, ‘We need to do something because I need someone there who has the capability of building the team out, building the strategy out to the next level — someone who has the capability to scale for not only on the U.S. and the U.K. basis but on a global basis as we go forward.’ ”
Molyneux will be tasked with establishing and growing the company in the U.S. and worldwide. “Part of my role is looking at the global rollout and where do we go next, and why do we go next,” he said. “I’m in the midst of building that strategy as part of our overall strategy. It’s a big world out there, and we’re fortunate to have fantastic initial investors that are very well-connected and very credible businesspeople, and strategic in the point they can help connect us up wherever we need connecting up in order to roll into other countries.”
See the full Q&A with Molyneux in the March 2 issue of TWICE.
