California and China : Bytemobile, Inc., the global leader in mobile video optimization solutions, has announced the appointment of JD Howard as vice president and general manager of Asia Pacific. Based in Beijing and reporting to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hatim Tyabji, Howard will be responsible for all of the company’s sales activities and customer relationships throughout Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Howard brings to Bytemobile more than 20 years of experience in selling network infrastructure solutions to carriers in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and other Asian markets. He held senior executive positions at Lucent Technologies, including president and director of Lucent Technologies Japan and vice president and general manager of Japan. Prior to Lucent, Howard spent nine years at Nortel Networks, where he held the positions of vice president and managing director of Taiwan and director of Wireless Business Operations for China.

“The Asia-Pacific region includes a number of strategic markets for Bytemobile. Industry forecasts show that there will be 1.22 billion mobile subscribers in China alone by the year 2014,” said Tyabji. “With his strong track record in selling to major carriers and building relationships with senior executives, JD Howard is highly qualified to lead the Asia-Pacific sales team through the next phase of our growth. I am confident that he will be able to deepen our relationships with the region’s largest and most influential network operators, including China Mobile and China Telecom, and continue to build Bytemobile’s global market leadership.”

Before joining Bytemobile, Howard was founder and chief executive officer of Momo Ventures, an investment firm, and chief executive officer of two mobile applications start-ups, Longboard and Phonetic Systems (acquired by Nuance).

Howard earned an MBA from Keio Business School in Tokyo and holds a B.A. degree with highest honors from the University of Tennessee. He is fluent in Mandarin, Japanese and English.