GlobalPlatform Announces 2018 Board of Directors

6 December 2017 – GlobalPlatform, the standard for secure digital services and devices, has announced its new Board of Directors for fiscal year 2018. With five board seats open in the closely contested election, the following individuals have been appointed to serve a two-year term:

• Rob Coombs – Security Marketing Director, Systems & Software – ARM (re-elected)
• Stéphanie El Rhomri – Vice-President, Technology – FIME (re- elected)
• Rémi de Fouchier – Vice-President, Marketing – Gemalto (re- elected)
• Sebastian Hans – Principal Member of Technical Staff – Oracle (re- elected)
• Olivier Van Nieuwenhuyze – Senior R&D Architect  – ST Microelectronics.

Marc Kekicheff, Vice President of Chip Innovation at Visa Inc., has retained his position as GlobalPlatform Chairman for the eighth consecutive year, while Nils Gerhardt, Group Vice President with global product responsibility for financial institutions at Giesecke & Devrient, will continue in his role as Vice Chairman for the third consecutive year. Both Marc and Nils have now completed the first year of their current two-year terms on the Board. Stephanie El Rhomri, who joined the GlobalPlatform Board in 2015, has been appointed to serve as Secretary and Treasurer.

Marc comments: “In the past decade, many industries have capitalized on the digitalization of services. As more consumers, in more markets, use a growing number of digital services, the number and type of devices that can access these services is increasing exponentially. GlobalPlatform brings service providers and device manufacturers together to address the very real security challenges that this dynamic landscape creates. GlobalPlatform Specifications ensure that all devices can implement a market-defined level of security to protect against threats and attacks, and so enable the delivery of secure digital services to end users. Collaboration is at the heart of this effort and the diversity and experience of the Board will ensure the continued advancement and adoption of GlobalPlatform Specifications.”

Kevin Gillick, Executive Director, GlobalPlatform, adds: “As a not-for-profit association, GlobalPlatform relies on the Board’s wealth of knowledge and expertise to steer the organization, ensuring the various functional and security requirements of rapidly evolving markets are met.

“For example in 2018, with the consumer and industrial IoT ecosystems poised for rapid growth, we will continue to highlight the need for standards to ensure security for IoT devices, regardless of the use case, to prevent them becoming a platform for attacks. GlobalPlatform secure components have a key role to play in securing digital services and devices and, to further advance this mission, our Board and sector-specific task forces welcome contributions from around the industry.”

Learn more about GlobalPlatform’s Board of Directors by visiting the GlobalPlatform website.

-ENDS-
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Notes to editors:
The GlobalPlatform Board of Directors, in its entirety, consists of the following GlobalPlatform members:

• Marc Kekicheff – Senior Director of Chip Innovation – Visa Inc. GlobalPlatform Chairman.
• Nils Gerhardt – Group Vice President with a global product responsibility for financial institutions – Giesecke & Devrient. GlobalPlatform Vice Chair.
• Stéphanie El Rhomri – Vice-President, Technology – FIME. GlobalPlatform Secretary / Treasurer.
• Olivier Van Nieuwenhuyze – Senior R&D Architect – STMicroelectronics.
• Christophe Colas – SVP Products – Trustonic.
• Rob Coombs – Security Marketing Director, Systems & Software – ARM.
• Rémi de Fouchier – Vice-President, Marketing – Gemalto.
• Sebastian Hans – Principal Member of Technical Staff – Oracle.
• Mark Lipford – Director Global Standards & Ecosystem Development – Sprint.
• Eikazu Niwano – Producer in the R&D Planning Department – NTT Corporation.
• Jeremy O’Donoghue – Principal Engineer / Manager – Qualcomm Inc.

About GlobalPlatform
GlobalPlatform is a non-profit industry association driven by over 100 member companies. Members share a common goal to develop GlobalPlatform’s specifications, which are today highly regarded as the international standard for enabling digital services and devices to be trusted and securely managed throughout their lifecycle.

GlobalPlatform protects digital services by standardizing and certifying a security hardware/firmware combination, known as a secure component, which acts as an on-device trust anchor. This facilitates collaboration between service providers and device manufacturers, empowering them to ensure the right level of security within all devices to protect against threats.

GlobalPlatform specifications also standardize the secure management of digital services and devices once deployed in the field. Altogether, GlobalPlatform enables convenient and secure digital service delivery to end users, while supporting privacy, regardless of market sector or device type. Devices secured by GlobalPlatform include connected cars, set top boxes, smart cards, smartphones, tablets, wearables, and other Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices.

The technology’s widespread global adoption delivers cost and time-to-market efficiencies to all. Market sectors adopting GlobalPlatform technology include automotive, healthcare, government and enterprise ID, payments, premium content, smart cities, smart home, telecoms, transportation, and utilities.

GlobalPlatform’s legacy of successful technical specification development is thanks to two decades of energetic and effective industry collaboration.  Members influence the organization’s output through participation in technical committees, working groups and strategic task forces. GlobalPlatform technology is developed in collaboration with numerous standards bodies and regional organizations across the world, to ensure continual relevance and timeliness. For more information visit www.globalplatform.org.