The Cloud announces reign of ex-FT man

Wi-Fi wholesaler The Cloud has hired former Financial Times UK and EMEA managing director Zach Leonard as chief operating officer.

The move comes as the network operator expands. It received additional venture capital funding in July from 3i and Accel Partners Europe and at the same time announced the appointment of ex-Colt CFO Gerard Small and former Orange IT chief Peter Elliott as chief network officer.

The Cloud said today that Leonard, who launched FT YourMoney and FT MarketWatch.com as well as making FT.com a paid-for service, has a history of developing new products but will also help with operational discipline and profitability.

While The Cloud has been one of the world's foremost builders of Wi-Fi hot spots, mainly using the IEEE802.11b standard, the whole industry is still hampered by a lack of profitability.

In unrelated news, Vodafone has announced that it is making it easier for its customers who use a data card in their laptop to access its own GPRS or 3G cellular networks to use Wi-Fi. That deal has been done with BT Openzone, which has around 1,200 public hotspots and which itself partners with The Cloud.