Throughout her career, Leigh Ann Ryals has been applauded for her unique ability to create innovative and highly successful business, product, and marketing strategies that revolutionize new and existing companies and enables them to compete in highly competitive global industries.

Ryals is the COO & Co-founder of Able Device having joined the company at its inception in 2010. Ryals served as the company’s CEO from 2012-2014, and she was nominated as Rookie Entrepreneur of the Year for the 2013 Full Steam Ahead Awards presented by WRAL Tech Wire.

Prior to Able Device, Ryals co-founded M2MV, a leading international M2M/IoT business and strategy consulting firm. Ryals currently serves as the firm’s Managing Member and a senior consultant where she leads a wide array of investigatory projects, extracts key data to identify optimal market opportunities, designs powerful penetration tactics, and compiles market development metrics. Leveraging her extensive experience and advanced business acumen, she is a key asset to both the firm and clients in uncovering and mitigating risks, and discovering and capitalizing on opportunities.

Previous to M2MV, Ryals served as the Global Director of Strategic Marketing for Telit Wireless Solutions, a leading M2M technology corporation. Leading the marketing analysis and planning activities that supported the company’s global decision-making processes, Ryals played a valuable role in transitioning the company into a worldwide organization and was instrumental in positioning the Telit brand as a rising global leader in M2M. As a major contributor to the development and publishing of the esteemed Telit2Market magazine, she kept readers abreast of the latest advances within the industry, while engaging them in real-world examinations of the latest statistics and metrics affecting the marketplace in her feature column, “TelitMarket.”

Prior to her recent endeavors, Ryals served as the Senior Planner of Business and Product Strategy for Sony Ericsson’s M2M division. Developing and communicating the market message and unique value proposition of each product and offering as well as the entire portfolio, she provided clearly defined analytically based roadmaps for technologies used in numerous industries.

Before joining Sony Ericsson, Ryals dedicated herself to analyzing diverse business cases to ensure the maximum return on investment (ROI) was achieved on mobile device software development projects for the venture-backed international corporation Taproot Systems. Designing multiple processes and activities, she then led the company through all aspects of its critical growth and expansion phases. Conceiving and managing strategic multimedia marketing, brand development, and special event planning, Ryals provided the growing company with an invaluable service by amplifying its corporate and brand visibility on an international scale.

Tasked with driving profitability and growth across the Americas region as a Marketing Manager for Ascom Wireless Solutions, the leader in workplace wireless communications, Ryals demonstrated her talent for formulating high-impact strategic business, marketing, brand, and public relations plans. Spearheading the penetration and expansion into the Americas market, she transformed a start-up team into a marketing powerhouse. As a key contributor to the company’s global marketing organization, she contributed to transitioning Ascom’s sales and marketing strategy from product-focused to solution selling.

Beginning her leadership career as a Product Marketing Manager with Ericsson, Ryals quickly made a name for herself by repairing stressed and fractured relationships with clients following the end of life process for a leading enterprise wireless solution. Restoring confidence among customers, she then pushed the bar by incorporating user concerns and feedback into the optimization of organizational planning and management.

Ryals holds an MBA from Campbell University and a B.S. in Marketing from Meredith College. She was the recipient of an award for her “Superior Event Management of the 2004 National Sales Conference” by Ascom, and her work on the magazine, Telit2Market was recognized when the publication placed as a 2007 finalist for the prestigious Sabre Award. Additionally, Ryals was selected as a judge for the 2018 WoM2M awards.