Displaying items by tag: Appointment

The Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Bernadette Lewis to lead the organization as its first female Secretary-General in its 120 year history. Ms. Lewis, a national of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, was recruited for the position following a competitive selection process.

Prior to her appointment, Ms. Lewis led the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) and was also its first female Secretary-General. She is credited with revitalizing and re-establishing the CTU as a credible, vibrant and relevant information and communication technologies (ICT) organization and ensuring its success and growth at a time when rapid technological innovations were disrupting the telecommunications industry.

Ms. Lewis brings to the CTO, expertise in ICT and more than 25 years of experience working in the public and private sectors, as well as national and international ICT organizations. A passionate and strong advocate for ICT-enabled development, Ms. Lewis has received many awards for her pioneering work in the ICT sector.

Speaking about her appointment, Ms. Lewis stated, “The COVID- 19 pandemic has changed the world forever. I believe that the CTO has a very important role to play in supporting its members in making effective use of ICT to transform their nations and to become more resilient in the face of the impact of COVID- 19 and the other challenges that will assail us all in the 21st Century.” Ms. Lewis also stressed the need for every citizen of the Commonwealth and beyond to have affordable access to ICT and to be able to use them effectively to improve the quality of their lives.

DASAN Zhone Solutions, a leading enabler of the emerging hyper-connected, hyper-broadband world, has announced the appointment of Charlie Vogt as president, CEO and director.

Vogt, a distinguished information technology and communications executive, joins DZS from ATX Networks, where he remains a member of the board. He succeeds Yung Kim, who has retired after a successful 40-year international telecommunications career and nearly four years at the helm of DZS.

“It has been an honor to lead DZS as we’ve grown into a global top five next-generation broadband access vendor,” said Kim. “I am pleased to now pass the reins to Charlie, a transformation specialist in the communications industry who is well-known for his work driving acquisition integration, innovation, and rapid growth. His depth of experience in broadband, combined with his energy, entrepreneurial spirit and leadership skills, uniquely position him to lead DZS into its next chapter.”

“Yung Kim has led DZS through a critical period marked by mergers and acquisitions that have elevated the company’s position as a leading global broadband and networking solutions provider to many of the world’s most innovative service providers and enterprises,” said Min Woo Nam, chairman of the DZS board of directors.

“We thank him for his leadership and look forward to his continued support while serving as an advisor to the company. As the communications industry evolves at an ever-increasing pace, we are confident that Charlie, with his clear vision and experience transforming both companies and industries, will strengthen the leadership role of DZS in ushering in a new era of broadband connectivity, and enabling the leading communications service providers and enterprises of the future.” 

“I am thrilled to lead DZS as innovations in fixed and wireless broadband access solutions and SDN, NFV, and analytics technologies enable the dawn of a hyper-connected world with new opportunities for agile service providers and enterprises,” said Vogt.

“Throughout my career, I’ve helped transform industries through generational change – from TDM to VoIP in telecom, from baseband to IP in media broadcast, and most recently, extending the life of broadband service provider networks by 25 years through cutting-edge Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial and spectrum innovation. How people and devices connect, the scale and speed at which they communicate, and the intelligence that informs the quality and optimization of their experience will rapidly transform the communications industry and create extraordinary opportunity. DZS’ innovation and strong relationships with industry leaders uniquely position the company to capitalize on this sea change, and I look forward to working closely with the company’s outstanding team, board, partners and customers to transform this promise into reality,” he added.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Vogt has spent the past two decades leading organizations through high growth and rapid change in challenging and competitive environments. Vogt was most recently president and CEO of ATX Networks, a leader in broadband access and media distribution, where he led the company through extensive transformation and growth.

Prior to ATX, Vogt spent five years as president and CEO of Imagine Communications, where he directed the company through revolutionary change as it evolved its core technology, including large-scale restructuring and rebranding and multiple technology acquisitions as he implemented a disruptive vision and growth strategy. Before joining Imagine Communications, Vogt was president and CEO of GENBAND (today known as Ribbon Communications), where he transformed the company from a startup to the industry’s global leader in voice over IP and real-time IP communications solutions.

His professional career has also included leadership roles at Taqua (Tekelec), Lucent Technology (Nokia), Ascend Communications (Lucent), ADTRAN, Motorola and IBM.

Vogt will be based in the new DZS headquarters in Plano, Texas.

Hélène Auriol Potier has been appointed Executive Vice President, International at Orange Business Services. She joins Orange from Microsoft where she spent 10 years, most recently as General Manager, Artificial Intelligence, Western Europe.

“Hélène’s deep knowledge of B2B customer needs, as well as her expertise in digital technologies will help our customers shape their innovation and is a perfect match with our ambition to become a leader in a new global, data-driven ecosystem where people, objects and business processes are all connected both inside and outside the company. This is what we envision as the “Internet of Enterprises,” said Helmut Reisinger, CEO, Orange Business Services.

Bringing information technology industry expertise gained in the US, Europe, Africa and Asia, Auriol Potier will help drive forward the company’s growth in areas that are key to support multinational companies in their data journey, including IoT, SD-WAN, cloud, analytics, big data and cyberdefense.

This strategy has already delivered significant results for Orange Business Services, with over 100 new major international customers signed up in 2018.

In cloud services and cybersecurity for example, Orange Business Services has posted seven consecutive years of double-digit growth globally, putting it well on the way to meeting its ambition for 50 percent of cloud revenues to come from outside France by 2022. This has also been driven by key acquisitions in the industry, including Basefarm and the opening of new data centers in Amsterdam and Atlanta.  

With 60 percent of the world’s data expected to come from enterprises in 2025 (vs 30 percent today)^[1], Orange Business Services continues to transform its core service portfolio, including network services with the development of its software defined network (SDN)-based offerings, including Flexible SD-WAN. That solution was recognized as Best Enterprise Service in the 2018 World Communications Awards and attracted many new customers, including Siemens, one of the biggest SD-WAN deals ever signed.

Thanks to the Orange international focus on innovation, the company has pioneered a co-innovation approach that facilitates collaboration among the customer, Orange experts and partners to deliver new ideas, test them and bring them to market.

Successes include a project where Orange and its partner Foxtrot Systems are developing a proof of concept to optimize logistics using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for one of its largest European manufacturing customers. With a collaborative open ecosystem of internal talent and partners, Orange Business Services is poised to continue developing innovative solutions to benefit its customers.

Uber’s newly-appointed CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has vowed to take the global ride-hailing firm public within the next three years. His appointment as CEO comes after months of unsettlement within the organization following the high-profile resignation of outgoing CEO Travis Kalanick.

Uber has been embroiled in a number of controversies and scandals that range from sexual harassment claims to engaging in illegal taxi operations. However, the new CEO who is the former head of travel website giants Expedia has declared the company ‘has to change’ in order for it to continue to grow its business and move past the issues it has encountered.

The incoming CEO is expected to take the helm at Uber next week. Reports circulating from his meeting with Uber staff in San Francisco last week are claiming that Khosrowshahi is focusing on regaining market share from its main competitor Lyft.

He has reportedly vowed to employees and stakeholders that he will take the company public in the next 18-36 months, but details on a potential IPO remain scarce. However, financial analysts have said that an Uber listing on the stock exchange would likely make it one of the biggest technology IPOs of the last decade.

Uber is the world’s most valuable private company, and is valued at $68.5 billion, and many commentators feel that its time the global ride-hailing firm went public as it could in many ways be held more accountable for the scandals that has marred the organization in the last number of years. However, Uber declined to comment when queried on a potential timeframe for the IPO.

Uber was left red faced when a leaked audio recording of his speech to staff was published by Yahoo. A fired-up Khosrowshahi told disclosed to staff how he landed the top job at Uber and outlined what workers can expect from him. He conceded in the audio recording that the company was in a battle, but insisted he would fight ferociously for all staff.

Khosrowshahi said, "I'm not going to bullshit you, and I will ask you not to bullshit me. We're in a battle here. I think everybody knows it. I'm here, I made the decision, I am all in, and I'm going to fight for you with every bone in my body."

The former Expedia boss said he was convinced by Spotify founder Daniel Ek to apply for the top job after initially telling a headhunter he wasn’t interested in the job. He also disclosed that he met with every Uber board member during an intensive interview process – and in addition to this, he also revealed how Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick who is still a board member of the ride-hailing company persuaded him to leave his role at Expedia and become the new CEO at Uber.

The new Uber CEO said of his meeting with Kalanick, "He spun this web, this dream, of transforming cities and the transportation grid and deliveries and robots taking food from the street corner to the home. And it's just this incredible vision. And I'm like, 'Well, I sell airline tickets and you can download them onto your phone.”

 Ericsson has endured a difficult number of years in the telecommunications market, but newly-appointed CTO Erik Ekudden has expressed his optimism moving forward – vowing that the Swedish vendor will focus on key trends they’ve identified such as ‘automation’. The CTO disclosed that the key trends were identified following intense discussions with Ericsson’s customers and its leadership team since his appointment on July 1st.

Ekudden believes that Ericsson is well-placed to deliver on some of the technology trends which have been established. However, he did concede that it must develop new skills and capabilities in conjunction with other key industry players in order to be in a position to capitalize on the remainder.

One of the key trends identified is providing an adaptable technology base by combining software and hardware. According to the executive Ericsson’s experience and nous ensures that it can improve the efficiency of networks and ultimately ‘lower costs’.

Other keys trends identified by Ericsson which were disclosed by Ekudden include the need to establish an advanced machine intelligence system - he claimed that the ecosystem for machine learning and AI platforms were maturing and that the Swedish telecommunications colossus was enhancing its operations in relation to the development of such network platforms.

However, it was in the area of ‘automation’ and IoT  which represents a great opportunity for Ericsson to assist its customer base in their ‘automation journey’ by offering better infrastructure and ultimately delivering an interaction between operations and networks which is much more intuitive and smooth.

Ekudden said, “Automation is a big theme among our customers. Ericsson is taking a leading role here, and we’ve got great experience in managed services and broader optimization capabilities. In addition to this, end-to-end security in IoT systems is crucial, and our goal is to establish what we call “hardware routes of trust” in every IoT device.”

However, the newly-appointed CTO stressed the importance of security and said it was imperative that it is considered when developing every new IoT device. He added, “It’s an architectural question, and it’s also about designing every node at a certain security level. This is something we take as a very important part of the products that we build on the network side.”