Wine Grenade, the wine maturation start-up, has appointed business-technology executive Phil Ridley as a non-executive director.

Currently CIO of Mojo Power, a new type of digital energy retailer whose technology allows customers to make better decisions about their energy use, Phil’s career includes senior roles in emerging technology companies including IoT, in both large business and start-up environments.

Chair Brett O’Riley says “Phil’s technology and commercial skills, and industry networks will assist our international expansion, particularly in Australia, while his experience in wireless internet will accelerate Wine Grenade’s strategy to add value to data captured by our devices during wine maturation.”

Phil’s previous roles include Chief Technologist, Major Accounts for HP Enterprise Services, CIO at Australian Power & Gas, CTO at Ubowireless, a multi-award winning analytics and business efficiency suite, and GM of Technical Operations for Unwired Australia, a challenger 3/4G wireless broadband carrier. He was CTO for seven years at Unwired Australia, part of Seven Network, leading its technology transition to 4G.

Phil says “Wine Grenade’s technology is an exciting development for wine producers. Using the power of advanced analytics and precision oxygen level management, wine producers have more control than ever over the quality and flavour of wine that they produce, year after year. Through my involvement in a winery in one of Australia’s premium wine producing areas, I recognise that technology such as this has far reaching and positive implications.”

A Fellow of Engineers Australia, Phil holds a BE (Hons) Computer Engineering, University of Newcastle, and Graduate Diploma of Management from Deakin University. He is the author of several international patents, and is a recipient of 5 Australian National Engineering Excellence awards including the prestigious Bradfield Award.