DOCOMO Digital appoints Dheeraj Soni as Chief Commercial Officer to scale Payments Platform Business

Soni will oversee the implementation of company’s new OTT & merchant-focused growth strategy

Global alternative payments provider, DOCOMO Digital, has today announced the appointment of Dheeraj Soni as its new Chief Commercial Officer to lead the OTT and Merchant-focused strategy, with payments platform services sitting at the heart of the company.

The appointment comes at a pivotal time for DOCOMO Digital, as it has restructured into Commercial and Product and Digital Marketing business units in order to effectively execute a scalable global growth strategy. Soni joined the executive board on the 1st of February and will be responsible for the commercial organisation.

Soni will have a dual focus: firstly, to strike new OTT partnerships and secondly, to extend DOCOMO Digital footprint enabling frictionless payment capabilities to additional countries. There will also be a clear emphasis on emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America, as well as technology and innovation hotspots like the U.S.A.

Soni has developed his career as a business leader having strong entrepreneurial skills with a focus on strategy, business development, innovation and execution. He joins DOCOMO Digital from Swisscom where he built a successful Internet Services business focused around Payments and Identity which he ran like a start-up with end to end responsibility.

Commenting on his new role, Soni said: “I was drawn to DOCOMO Digital because of its brand, reputation, track record and focus on innovation within the payments ecosystem. DOCOMO Digital’s vision to offer source-agnostic and trustworthy payment services to a big chunk of global population driving financial inclusion in countries with constrained banking is very inspiring. I am very excited to be able to drive the company forward and be part of this journey.”

Hiroyuki Sato, CEO of DOCOMO Digital said: “We are delighted that Dheeraj has joined us as our Chief Commercial Officer. Dheeraj has outstanding experience as well as a great professional network within both the telecoms and OTT sectors. He will be key to us delivering the needs of the industry in times of a mobile centric economy and helping us to drive our vision of being connected to five billion users by 2020.”