Nielsen Mobile exec joins start-up rival Motally as CEO

Forese arrives at the company after a two-year stint as senior vice president of product management for Nielsen’s mobile media measurement business. Prior to that he spent five years in product management at Telephia, which was acquired by Nielsen in 2007.

Motally is looking to pick up new customers for its services, which track mobile web and application usage. Existing clients include Yelp Mobile, Verve Wireless and Ask.com owner IAC.

The start-up firm is backed by venture capitalist house BlueRun and angel investor Rob Conway.

Forese said: “Robust and accurate analytics are essential for anyone that wants to leverage mobile as a media platform, and Motally’s mobile web and application tracking is exactly what publishers and developers need to make data-driven decisions that improve audience size and engagement level.”

Motally has also hired Doug Garland, ex-Google product management VP, as a board member. At Google, Garland led the development of mobile and local ads products.