Sophia Antipolis, 6 December 2016
Award granted for outstanding contribution to ETSI’s work
On 29 November, during the 68th General Assembly, ETSI awarded three ETSI Fellowship awards to Alain Maloberti, Francisco da Silva and Oliver Wheaton.
All three received their awards in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the work of ETSI.
Alain Maloberti has been intensively involved in the research, development and standardization activities of the GSM system since the mid-80’s and has contributed heavily to standardization bodies. In ETSI he chaired the SMG2 group, in charge of the radio aspects of GSM for 10 years. In addition, he chaired the UMTS group preparing 3G standardization from 1990 to 1992. Alain Maloberti was active in promoting the GSM solution outside of Europe and therefore has contributed to a true global adoption of the standard. He is currently Senior Vice-President at Orange Labs Networks.
Francisco da Silva was influential in the CEPT committee that triggered the establishment of ETSI, as well as e.g. in the CEPT group that determined the relative 
allocation of responsibilities on Radio spectrum matters between CEPT and ETSI. He was the chairman of ETSI General Assembly from 1998 to 2002 and chairman of the ETSI Board from 2002 to 2008. He continues to be active in the technical standardization work of ETSI and is a member of the Board of ETSI. He is currently Senior Counselor for standardization and Technical Regulation at Huawei Sweden.
Oliver Wheaton was the founding chairman of TC ERM from 1997 to 2005. During this time it grew to be one of the largest technical committees in ETSI in terms of participation and workload. He was instrumental in leading the group in drafting some of the most important ETSI standards, including those related to the R&TTE Directive, which continues to have a huge impact on the regulatory environment today. Oliver was the Deputy Director for Mobile Services in the UK Radiocommunications Agency (RA). He has taken the lead for ETSI in GRSC, and has led for the UK in ETSI’s Technical Assembly and is currently the head of the UK delegation in ETSI’s General Assembly.
The ETSI Fellowship programme rewards individuals who have made an outstanding personal contribution to ETSI, to building the work of ETSI, or raising its reputation in specific sectors of standardization. Any individual representative of an ETSI member may propose a candidate for an ETSI Fellowship. Fellowships are awarded each year by an Award Committee composed of the ETSI General Assembly chairman and vice-chairmen, the ETSI Board chairman and the ETSI Director General.