# Geoff Hollingworth

> Geoff Hollingworth is the chief marketing officer of Rakuten Symphony and a software engineer turned telecom executive whose career spans CERN, Ericsson, AT&T innovation work, MobiledgeX and Rakuten. He is known for challenging mobile operators to treat networks as software, connect technology investment to customer and business outcomes, and use Open RAN, cloud and AI as tools rather than ends in themselves.

- **Role:** Chief Marketing Officer at Rakuten Symphony
- **Organizations:** Rakuten Symphony, MobiledgeX, Ericsson, AT&T, CERN, Aston University
- **Education:** First-class honours bachelor's degree in computing science; Computing Science Prize of Excellence, Aston University
- **Known for:** Received Aston University's Computing Science Prize of Excellence., Helped deliver what Rakuten Symphony and GSMA biographies describe as the world's first live global mobile sports channel for the Volvo Ocean Race., Led Ericsson digital media work associated with 2006 Web Marketing Association awards for a telecom microsite and rich-media mobile channel.

## Career timeline

- **Before 1991** — Worked at CERN writing accelerator beam-control software.
- **1991** — Joined Ericsson as the 2G era was beginning.
- **2006** — Led digital media work for Ericsson's Volvo Ocean Race program; related mobile and rich-media projects won Web Marketing Association awards.
- **2008-2009** — Led Ericsson's Volvo Ocean Race multimedia work, helping deliver live race content across television, web and mobile.
- **2012** — Served as Ericsson's head of IP Services Strategy for North America and as a Networked Society evangelist; began embedded work with AT&T on Silicon Valley innovation initiatives.
- **2018-2021** — Served as chief marketing officer of Deutsche Telekom-founded edge-computing startup MobiledgeX.
- **2021-present** — Joined Rakuten Symphony as chief marketing officer.
- **2026** — Authored a Rakuten Symphony series on operator control, software-scaled networks and new telecom business models, and led its Industry Growth Report argument.

## Achievements

- Received Aston University's Computing Science Prize of Excellence.
- Helped deliver what Rakuten Symphony and GSMA biographies describe as the world's first live global mobile sports channel for the Volvo Ocean Race.
- Led Ericsson digital media work associated with 2006 Web Marketing Association awards for a telecom microsite and rich-media mobile channel.
- Worked across software R&D, mobile network deployment, consulting, business development, marketing and strategic communications during more than 30 years in mobile communications.
- Served as CMO of MobiledgeX and later Rakuten Symphony.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Rakuten Symphony published its 2026 Industry Growth Report, with Hollingworth arguing that telecom's growth crisis is rooted in business-model and measurement choices rather than a technology gap.
- **2026-06** — Appeared on the Telecoms.com Podcast episode 'Rakuten, Ericsson and social media' to discuss Rakuten and traditional telecom business models.
- **2026-02** — Published the third article in a series on designing telecom businesses for the AI era, following essays on control and scaling networks as software.
- **2026-01** — Published an argument that operators risk irrelevance and should pursue practical enterprise, Open RAN and AI opportunities rather than wait for 6G.

## Links

- Website: https://symphony.rakuten.com/leadership-team/geoff-hollingworth
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffhollingworth

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/geoff-hollingworth
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-11