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No, Truphone has not fired CEO James Tagg because of his iPhone idea

Truphone made its big breakthrough by offering VoIP for mobile phone users - quite a trick, because IP for phones is usually rotten. So when it recently launched VoIP for iPhone users (Apple doesn't like that!) people did predict trouble ahead. And now, founder and CEO James Tagg has been replaced by Geralldine Wilson. Trouble?

The announcement of Wilson's appointment, today, has already caused a stir. Truphone posts employee pix on Flickr (and advertising on YouTube) and the first response to Wilson's appearance in the company gallery was from a Flickr member called Arty999, who commented: 

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called rate my wife, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

- apparently, in recognition of the fact that Geraldine Wilson appeals to the stereotype male.

Today's announcement reveals that no, Wilson hasn't displaced Tagg. 

Previous CEO James Tagg, who originally invented and developed the Truphone service with CTO and co-founder Alistair Campbell, moves to the role of Chief Architect,

 it states. So Tagg's OK; so why hire Wilson? Truphone calls her appointment "a new phase of growth" for the company, and it's true that it has been increasingly successful in the last year, in persuading ordinary mobile users to hack into the esoteric SIP jungle.

Her immediate track record - Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo!'s European mobile division, Connected Life - may not elicit cries of "Oh, wow, that's big cred!" from industry specialists. Yahoo's history in Europe with mobile, sadly, has been a history of cowardly withdrawal from spectacular plans, and it's no place for an aspiring industry giant.

But Wilson earned her spurs doing real stuff. She joined Yahoo! from Vodafone "where, among others, she held the key positions of Chief Commercial Officer for Vodafone Sweden, and Managing Director of UK Content Services for Vodafone UK," says the official release. Before that, she was Managing Director of Vizzavi UK and Director for Prepay at Vodafone UK "where she was responsible for the successful launch of the company's "Pay as you Talk" proposition."

We're going to "watch this space" with interest in the next few months.

See also: "mobile calls to USA and Canada 1.5 cents" in Press Releases