Calver was most recently worldwide president and chief operating officer at Riverdeep, the interactive digital education and productivity software company.
Before this, he was general manager and vice-president of Dell's UK & Ireland Home and Small Business operations. He has also held senior roles at PepsiCola, as international vice-president of sales in the US and as general manager of PepsiCola in the UK, where he worked on the launch of Pepsi Blue.
Calver's appointment underscores Video Island's intention to extend its leadership position and further accelerate its growth to become a multinational platform for on-demand home entertainment services, continuing to expand its reach beyond the letterbox into digital distribution.
In order to achieve these objectives, Klein and the board of Video Island identified the need to have an experienced multi-territory CEO to lead the next phase of the growth plan. Klein has not revealed his plans for the future, except to say he is in the early stages of entrepreneurial ventures in the US and Europe.
Klein said: "Simon's experience in direct selling, e-commerce, consumer marketing and high-volume operations will be invaluable in taking Video Island to the next level, and continue to focus on the strategy established in 2003: to build a world-beating platform for delivering on-demand home entertainment services."
Video Island launched in September 2003, and was ranked as the number one online DVD rental business by Computing Which? magazine. It has expanded to cover 100,000 customers, following its merger with ScreenSelect in August 2004, as well as its acquisition of DVD365 at the end of June.
It also provides white-label services for Tesco, ITV, MSN and EasyGroup, and has partnerships with Dixons, Boots, Virgin Megastore, Real Networks and the Radio Times.
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