Joseph E. H. Lumban Gaol - CEO

Having believed in the ‘5 values’ in living his professional life, Joseph Lumban Gaol, who prefers to be referred to as Joe, has converted m-STARS from a mere white paper idea into a profitable company with a long term vision and solid business plan for the last 9 years. Not being able to resist his entrepreneurial desires, he decided to leave PT.Excelcomindo Pratama, a GSM Operator in Indonesia, where he was Senior Product Marketing Manager for 2.5 years, and co-founded m-STARS with his colleague, Hafni Tri Setiadi, in 2000.

“Exploring what Mobile Phones can do other than voice call and text messaging is my passion. It’s like a journey to the highest mountain”, says Joe, “I am not sure where the peak is and when to arrive, but every milestone gets me excited for sure”, he continues. He discovered his passion in mobile ever since he was hired to join Excelcom’s team to develop and implement Product Marketing Strategy in the beginning of 1998. A new horizon was opened for him through this job.

His 5 Year fast track career path, and an extensive international exposure in Product & Marketing Management in GE Lighting, a General Electric Company of USA, combined with various professional development and training he gained in GE, were critical factors for Excelcom Management’s decision to hire him. During his 5 year service in GE Lighting, he received a Company Stock Options for 3 years in a row as an award to his outstanding performance.

Moving to XL, he gained significant recognitions from Management, as well as from other key Telco Industry players, through some achievements he and his team made. His Strategy of “Merging Postpaid and Prepaid Starter Pack as a Single Entry for users to subscribe to proXL Service”, and “VIP Customer Loyalty Program that improved customer retention and increased pro-XL subscriber ARPU (Average Revenue per User)” were some of his key achievements that got distinguished recognition from Excelcom’s Management.

This recognition might have consequently made Excelcom accept m-STARS’s proposal to legally bind for a Mobile Banking Service Provisioning, which happened to be m-STARS’ first service as a start up company in 2000. Think Big, Focus, Never Give Up, Continuous Learning, and Fun and Professional are the values that he has always been living his life with.

He strongly believes that these values can be shared by anyone at any context, whether its business, personal or social life, in order to achieve anyone’s goal. Therefore, as a CEO and Co-Founder of m-STARS, he continuously preaches to ensure those values become Shared Values within his organization. “Should I not have lived those values, I wonder if m-STARS could come to where we are now”, asked Joe rhetorically.