GlobalPlatform Announces 2017 Board of Directors

Focus remains on safeguarding connected devices and establishing a security baseline for protection of digital assets

GlobalPlatform has announced its Board of Directors for fiscal year 2017. Six Board seats were open in the election and an extremely close voting process resulted in each of the following individuals being appointed to serve a two-year term:

• Marc Kekicheff – Senior Director of Chip Innovation at Visa Inc. Marc retains his position as GlobalPlatform Chairman for the seventh consecutive year.
• Nils Gerhardt – Group Vice President with global product responsibility for financial institutions at Giesecke & Devrient. Nils retains his role of Vice Chair.
• Christophe Colas – Senior Vice President Products at Trustonic (re-elected).
• Mark Lipford – Director Global Standards & Ecosystem Development at Sprint (newly elected).
• Eikazu Niwano – Producer in the R&D Planning Department at NTT Corporation (re-elected).
• Jeremy O’Donoghue – Principal Engineer / Manager at Qualcomm Inc (newly elected).

Marc Kekicheff comments: “Connected devices have become intrinsic to our everyday life. Securing devices and ensuring the applications that they host are trusted has become a key priority for many, if not all, commercial and public entities. GlobalPlatform’s mission is to advance specifications which create a trusted security baseline for the provision of digital services, and validate the compliance of products that adhere to them. This promotes transparency, interoperability and openness that enables all entities to benefit from the implementation of secure services.”

Kevin Gillick, GlobalPlatform Executive Director, adds: “While our work continues to be of global relevance to the marketplace, 2017 will also see us have a special focus on standardizing security within IoT and increasing engagement with China. We recently launched a dedicated China Task Force which will work directly with Chinese industry and standards associations to confirm regional requirements. This insight will enable GlobalPlatform Technical Committees to evolve specifications in line with the needs of this vast and dynamic economy.

“To achieve its ambitions, GlobalPlatform depends on the knowledge, passion and experience of its membership, and the new Board is a perfect example of those qualities. This strong leadership team will ensure that GlobalPlatform Specifications evolve in line with industry requirements. Beyond our technical offering, GlobalPlatform continues to be committed to engaging and educating all connected with the ecosystem through our advanced training, conference, webinar and hackathon programs. I look forward to the contributions of the Board, and wider membership, to ensure we have another successful and progressive year which delivers tangible results.”

Learn more about the GlobalPlatform Board members by visiting the GlobalPlatform website. For further information on how GlobalPlatform secures digital services globally, watch this short video. Want to get involved? Become a member.