ETSI's General Assembly chairman reappointed, new vice chair representing SMEs

Sophia Antipolis, 1 December 2016

At their 68th General Assembly held on 29-30 November 2016, ETSI members have re-appointed Mr. Simon Hicks of the UK government’s Digital Economy Unit as Chairman of the ETSI General Assembly, for a two-year term of office.

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

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-chairman of the ETSI Board and has been a member of the Board of ETSI from 2002 to 2014. He has just completed his first term of office as ETSI General Assembly Chairman from 2014 to 2016.

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 including AFNOR, ETSI, ISO/IEC JTC1, IETF, W3C, 3GPP, Ecma International, OMA, the Multi Stakeholders Platform, etc. over the past 25 years. She held numerous official positions including Delegate, Editor, Chairman, President, Board Member and Liaison Officer. She has just completed her first term as ETSI General Assembly vice-chair, from 2014 to 2016.

Mr. Vladimir Poulkov has led many national and international industrial, R&D and educational projects such as the “Electromagnetic Compatibility of Communications Systems” R&D laboratories at the Technical University of Sofia. He is leading courses in the field of Information Transmission Theory, Broadband Transmission and Access Networks. He has also founded and chairs the Bulgarian Cluster of Telecommunications, a cluster whose members are leading telecom SMEs in Bulgaria, with portfolio covering almost the entire product range of telecommunication services.

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.