ETSI renews leadership team, appoints Mr. Simon Hicks as General Assembly Chair

Sophia Antipolis, 20 November 2014

At their 64^th General Assembly held on 18-19 November 2014, ETSI members have appointed Mr. Simon Hicks of the UK government Digital Economy Unit as Chair of the ETSI General Assembly, for a two-year term of office.

At the same time, ETSI members have appointed Mrs. Isabelle Valet-Harper of Microsoft, and re-appointed Mr. Peter Statev of SBS (Small Business Standards) as vice-chairs of the General Assembly.

Also in the General Assembly, the members elected a new ETSI Board and selected Mr Dirk Weiler of Nokia Networks as Chair of the ETSI Board.

Mr. Hicks is Principal Technologist in the joint departmental Digital Economy Unit, responsible for the development of UK policy for standards and technology activity in ICT, electronic communications and cyber security. A Chartered Engineer and corporate member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Mr. Hicks is also the UK’s representative on the European Commission’s Multi-Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardization. Mr. Hicks has served as vice-chair of the ETSI Board and has been a member of the Board of ETSI since 2002.

Mrs. Valet-Harper is Senior Standards and Interoperability Strategist at Microsoft. She has been a member of the ETSI Board since 2011, and has participated in a number of French, European and international standards bodies over the past 25 years, holding numerous official positions.

Mr. Statev is co-founder and chair of the managing board of the Bulgarian Cluster for Information and Communication Technologies as well as co-founder and vice-chair of the Bulgarian Association of Business Clusters. He is also chair of Smartcom Group, a leading telecom system integrator and developer in the Balkan region. He represents, Small Business Standards, the association established with the support of the European Commission to represent European SMEs in the standards making process at European and international levels.

Mr. Weiler is Head of Standards Management at Nokia Networks. He has served as chair of the ETSI General Assembly for the four years since 2010 and has served as chair of the ETSI IPR Special Committee since 2008. Dirk is also the ETSI representative to the European Commission’s Multi-Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardization. In addition to his ETSI roles, Dirk is a member of the German DIN Presidential Committee FOKUS ICT and Vice Chair of the German ICT industry association BITKOM Working Group on standardization.

ETSI’s Director General, Mr. Luis Jorge Romero, works closely with the leaders of the General Assembly and the Board in the management of the institute. The General Assembly is the highest authority of the Institute, it meets twice yearly and is made up of the entire ETSI membership. Its chair and two vice chairs are elected for a two-year term of office and can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.

The ETSI Board meets more regularly and operates under powers delegated by the General Assembly, in particular being responsible for managing ETSI’s Technical Committees. The new Board consists of 29 members, including representatives of SMEs and of Users. Members of the ETSI Board are elected for a three-year term of office.