Bloomberg L.P. has named Oke Okaro global head of mobile for the Bloomberg Multimedia group. He discussed the company?s mobile strategy in an exclusive interview.

Mr. Okaro will oversee all aspects of Bloomberg?s consumer-facing mobile business including the development of new mobile products and building commercial partnerships with content distributors, wireless carriers and other industry participants. Mr. Okaro joined Bloomberg from ESPN, where he served as vice president of mobile, having first joined in 2004. 

Mobile Marketer?s Dan Butcher interviewed Mr. Okaro, who is based in New York. Here is what he had to say:

What will your responsibilities be at Bloomberg? What is your mandate as global head of mobile?
I'm responsible for all aspects of the consumer-facing mobile business. My primary mandate is to help the company fully leverage mobile globally as a means of driving increased time spent with Bloomberg and the growth of our multimedia business worldwide, which includes Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio and Bloomberg Mobile.

How will your experience at ESPN Mobile inform your contributions to Bloomberg Mobile?
I can't think of a better training ground for my current role. ESPN is an amazing company with an incredibly strong global brand much like Bloomberg in its space.

I was fortunate enough to have joined ESPN as the third employee in the mobile group, so I got to live through everything we did right and everything we learnt from over the last six years.

At Bloomberg, I get to start afresh and apply all those learnings that I've amassed over the years.

Bloomberg and ESPN share a similar culture?it's all about the customer, the best idea wins, no compromising on quality and let's get it done.

Does Bloomberg have a mobile Web site? Please list the company's various mobile apps and respective download totals.
Yes, Bloomberg has a mobile Web site, which is pretty basic, but the focus over the last few years has more so been on mobile apps, where the company has apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia devices.

The iPhone app has been downloaded more than 2.6 million times, the BlackBerry app has been downloaded more than 780,000 times and the Nokia app more than 1.2 million times.

What is the strategy behind the launch of Bloomberg's iPad app?
The strategy is quite simple and true to the Bloomberg tradition. It's to be a leading innovator in our space and to be where our target audience of business executives are. They'll be on the iPad and we'll be there to serve them.

What is Bloomberg's core demographic? Do you foresee strong adoption of the iPad from that audience?
For our multimedia business?the non-Bloomberg terminal users?the target is the global business executive. And, yes, we foresee strong adoption of the iPad amongst this audience.

Here is a screengrab of Bloomberg's mobile Web site: