Weve CEO Sear Leaving Mobile Joint Venture

David Sear will be leaving his post as chief executive of Weve Ltd. as soon as the London-based mobile commerce transitions to his successor, the company says.

Sear joined Weve, a joint venture of mobile network partners Vodafone UK, Everything Everywhere and Telefonica O2 UK, in February 2013. Sear previously worked at Travelex and VocaLink.

In a prepared statement, Weve did not specify how long Sear would stay with the company, saying only the CEO will leave his position "in due course" and lead the firm until a new CEO is in place. The company also would not say where Sear will work in the future.

Weve, a brand based on the phrase "We've Joined Up Mobile," originally operated as Project Oscar, a mobile marketing and payments system to be developed for U.K. merchants.

In its first phase, Weve turned its attention to mobile marketing and customer loyalty, introducing Weve Pouch earlier this year for merchants. For its payments phase, Weve announced in February that MasterCard had signed on as the first card network to participate in Weve, which has still not unveiled its mobile wallet.

Much of the early planning stages for Weve involved overcoming regulatory scrutiny from the European Commission, which reviewed complaints that the project was attempting to block out competitors. The commission approved the project in September 2012.