AL SNYDER, the former chief operating officer of Nasdaq-quoted Carrier Access, has taken over as chief executive of Belfast telecoms software firm Aepona.

Mr Snyder has served on the board of Aepona since 2006 and was previously a senior manager in the Belfast offices of Openwave. That operation was formed following the sale of Apion to Openwave in 1999 for €228 million, at which time Aepona was spun out.

"I have a lot of respect for the ability of the team in Belfast to be customer focused and deliver," said Mr Snyder.

Former venture capitalist Brian Caulfield had been serving as interim chief executive following the sudden death of top executive Isaac Olasoko last year.

Mr Snyder will be based in the US to spearhead a push into that market but says he will spend a lot of time in Ireland as well.

Aepona has established a US subsidiary based in Denver, Colorado, and says it has won deals with unnamed tier-one US and Canadian operators in recent months.

Established in 2000, Aepona's new software is the glue that enables traditional web applications to be meshed with telecoms networks to create new mobile applications.

"I think there is a huge opportunity to mobile-enable enterprise applications with telco web services," said Mr Snyder.

"Look at the Apple Software Development Kit [ SDK] that's just been released for the iPhone - we enable that by allowing web services talk to the network," added Mr Snder.

Aepona's software is installed with 30 telecoms carriers. It currently employs 160 people - 80 in Belfast, 20 in Malmo, 20 in Bristol and 15 in Ukraine, with the remainder being sales and support staff located near customers.

Mr Snyder's immediate priority will be to create a network of partners to develop web services based on Aepona's technology.

Recently filed accounts show that Aepona Group, Aepona's Dublin-registered holding company, made a loss of £5.9 million (€7.5 million) following an investment of more than £2.2 million in research and development.