GLOBALPLATFORM BOOSTS LEADERSHIP WITH NEW APPOINTMENTS
LONDON, JUNE 1, 2000 - Two new appointments have been made to the leadership of GlobalPlatform, the cross industry, infrastructure development organisation for multiple application smart cards.
Graeme Ward, chief strategy officer of the Electronic Commerce Business Unit of TSA Inc, has been appointed corporate secretary of GlobalPlatform, and Bob Beer, vice president of Smart Card Solutions at Datacard, has taken up the position of chairman of the Systems Infrastructure Committee. Both appointments were made following meetings in Miami on 4 and 5 May, held in conjunction with the Cardtech/Securtech conference.
GlobalPlatform now totals forty-three members from across Europe, USA, Australia, Japan and Korea, including issuers, manufacturers, and vendors of multiple application smart cards, such as Nokia, American Express, Motorola, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, as well as several government bodies.
Commenting on the appointments, Steve Brown, chairman of GlobalPlatform said, “I am delighted to welcome Graeme and Bob on board the leadership team. GlobalPlatform is an organisation that aims to make things happen and it is crucial that we have strong participation from members, and enthusiastic people to take developments forward. In this way, progress can be made quickly and effectively.”
Said Graeme Ward, “TSA and ACI are active supporters of GlobalPlatform because we believe that the next great step in the information age is to establish facilities for consumers to obtain the services that they want, delivered the way that they want, through a medium of multiple function smart cards and wallets. We provide the underlying systems and recognise the importance of working with other market leaders to bring this concept to reality. GlobalPlatform is the ideal forum for defining how it can be made to work, without competitive pressures getting in the way of progress.”
The Systems Infrastructure Committee is currently defining system components and interfaces for the issuance and management of multiple application smart cards and devices. The objective is to provide card issuers with maximum choice when selecting smart card components such as cards, applications and devices. Significant progress has been made in defining business requirements and implementation models, and work has already started on defining required systems modules and the interfaces required between each module. As the work progresses, vendors will be encouraged to use this architecture to start developing commercial products.
Bob Beer said, “We at Datacard want our vision of a world of Open Platform cards, where applications can be successfully loaded, updated, deleted using standard, non proprietary interfaces, to quickly become a reality. GlobalPlatform is a fresh, high energy organisation that can make this happen, and I am keen to be a part of it.”
GlobalPlatform works across industries, bringing issuers, manufacturers and vendors together to create global standards. There are three working committees, apart from the Systems Committee, to ensure that every aspect of smart card development is considered. The Business Committee is responsible for developing and maintaining licensing provisions, managing intellectual property, and promoting business opportunities for members. The Systems, Card, and Devices Infrastructure Committees define business, compliance and functional requirements for the development of open specifications.
Meetings for the Systems Infrastructure, Card, and Business Committees will be held in August and the next Devices Committee meeting will be in July. An All Member meeting will take place at Cartes 2000 in Paris in October.
Further information on GlobalPlatform can be found at www.globalplatform.org
-ENDS-
For further information, please contact:
Laura White at Sinclair Mason
Tel: +44 207 7470 8737 Fax: +44 207 470 8738
E-mail: london@sinclairmason.com
Deborah Lightfoot at Sinclair Mason
Tel: +44 113 237 0777 Fax: +44 113 237 0888
E-mail: deborahl@sinclairmason.com
NOTES TO EDITORS
GlobalPlatform is the only cross-industry forum focused on the development, management and promotion of specifications for multiple application smart cards, smart card applications, and enabling devices. With support from its global member organizations, GlobalPlatform promotes a standard framework facilitating the implementation of smart card programs in any industry around the world. GlobalPlatform allows flexibility in the choice of technologies and vendors through an emphasis on open standards for cards, terminals and support infrastructure.
The Open Platform card and terminal specifications are the first open standards adopted by GlobalPlatform and will provide a solid foundation from which the organization will define the future of multiple application smart cards.
