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About the TM Forum

New Board Appointments

Conference Room at TM Forum Headquarters


The TM Forum Board of Directors is comprised of senior executives from a global cross section of the industry, including leading service providers, solution suppliers and systems integrators. Their role is to shape and set the strategic direction for the organization.

To ensure that the Board continues to reflect a representative cross section of the membership, our Bylaws require that the Board proposes a Structure (i.e. the priorities to shape the Board to reflect the needs of the Membership) and a Slate of candidates for consideration and ratification of the Board appointments at the Annual Meeting of Members which took place on November 13, 2012.



Proposed Structure: It was recommended that the representation of service providers on the Board is strengthened – with a particular emphasis on broadening the types of service providers to reflect the growing breadth of the digital services market. The following structural priorities are proposed for the 2012 appointments:
  • Prioritizing the representation from a broader range of service providers and users: cloud and application service providers, defense; cable;
  • Prioritizing candidates from companies who have a strong track record of contribution to and adoption of the work of the Forum
Slate of Candidates: The following individuals have been selected and interviewed in line with the above Structure and have been approved to serve as members of the Board for a 2 year period commencing January 2013. In line with New Jersey law, Board seats are held by individuals not their companies.


New Board Directors:

Per Borgklint, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Multimedia, Ericsson, Sweden: Master’s degree in Finance and Marketing, Jšnkšping International Business School. Previously CEO of the Swedish operator Net1 (Ice.net). Prior to that he has been CEO of Canal Plus Nordic, CEO of the Dutch operator Versatel and, several leading positions at Tele2.




Bob De Haven, General Manager, Communications & Media, Microsoft, USA: Responsible for identifying trends and opportunities in the Communications and Media sector, partner strategy, strategic investments, field readiness and engagement integration with business groups across Microsoft and industry. Previously held several positions within the Communications and Media sector, most recently leading sales, marketing and business operations in the United States.



Erik Hoving, Chief Strategy, Innovation & Technology Officer KPN Group, The Netherlands: Responsible for driving the new KPN 2011-2015 strategy and ensuring that KPN focuses on the right options and enhancing our relevance for our customers and for society.” If you want to choose, you need options”, is his motto. Previously with Arthur D. Little , AT&T, Monitor Group, CEO of Zenitel and CEO NetCo at KPN Mobile International. Alongside his work with KPN Hoving was a member of the board of Stichting Lezen en Schrijven, which he co-founded. He is also a member of the board of Stichting Toekomst der Techniek.

Phil Jordan, Group CIO, Telefonica SA, Spain: Responsible for group IT worldwide. Previously CIO at Telefonica O2 UK and Regional CIO for Vodafone UK & Ireland a number of executive leadership roles in Europe and emerging markets covering IS/IT leadership, Product Development & Strategy. Prior to Telecoms, his experience includes IT leadership in the Chemical and Finance Sector.



Tony Kerrison, CTO Global Wholesale Banking at Bank of America, USA: Responsible for strategy, architecture, domain engineering, product management, design/build, operations and project delivery of the technology infrastructure for the company’s Global Wholesale Banking business. Previously CTO and head of Technology Infrastructure at ING, global CTO at Merrill Lynch, CEO at India Technology Services. He is a senior, innovative business leader with extensive experience in delivering strategic, client-focused business solutions and has held the chief technology officer role with four top-tier financial services firms.

David Laker, Global Senior Vice President, Industries, Salesforce.com, USA: Senior executive and proven leader with the experience to drive and build high performing teams, foster collaboration across multiple disciplines, retain and acquire top talent. Particularly focused on customer loyalty, growth of new customer acquisition and a passion for customer success.




Rami Schwartz, President, Products Business Group, Amdocs, USA: Rami has 25 years of executive and entrepreneurial experience including a vast knowledge of product and software development involving large, complex systems. Previously Chief of System Development with the Israeli Air Force, and has founded and led several successful startup companies in the fields of computer software, information and technology, and venture capital. Rami has a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.



Returning Directors:

Liu Aili, Executive Vice President & Board Member - China Mobile Communications, China: Responsibility for network O&M, enterprise IT infrastructure deployment, information security management, etc in China Mobile. Previously responsible for China Mobile’s business expansion and M&A execution Including acquisition included acquiring "Peoples", (Hong Kong) and Paktel Limited, ( Pakistan) as well as major stakes in media company, Phoenix and Far Eastone Telecommunications. Mr Liu is a professor-level senior engineer with over 27 years of experience in the telecommunications industry.


Alpna J Doshi, Chief Information Officer - Reliance Communications, India: and CEO of Reliance Tech Services. Recently awarded the “Woman CIO of the Year” award by CTO Forum India and honored by IEEE Communications for her pioneering work in Telecommunications. Previously at Mahindra Satyam; Telcordia Technologies and Deloitte and Touche Management Consulting leading major initiatives in telecom, media and entertainment. She has been an active contributor and Board member of the Forum for over 7 years as well as the DAVIC video consortium, ATM Forum, IPv6, IEEE and CSI.


Fari Ebrahimi, SVP & CIO - Verizon Services Operations, USA: Mr. Responsible for all systems and infrastructure, handling Wireline Network Services, Supply Chain Services, Common Financial Services, Corporate Real Estate and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Additionally, he is responsible for Corporate Systems and Intranet, across Verizon and Verizon Information Technologies, LLC. Previously Senior Vice President responsible for Verizon’s Retail e-Business; co-founder and Assistant Director for Computing, at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Systems Research and GTE – Contel.

Bhaskar Gorti, Senior Vice President & General Manager - Oracle, USA: responsible Oracle’s global business in the communications sector. Previously CEO of Portal Software and executive roles at OnDemand, Hewlett Packard, Aluminum Company of America, Sun Microsystems, and ARPANET—Office of Naval Research. Bhaskar holds a Master of Science degree from Virginia Tech.



Michael Lawrey, Executive Director, Defence Engagement - Telstra Corporation, Australia: Reports to Telstra CEO, responsible for strategic relationships with Australia’s Department of Defence. Previously responsible for Architecture, Online & Media and as Executive Director Network & Technology was responsible for all planning, architecture, design and engineering. Recognized as Telstra Executive of the year and serves as a Director of 3G Infrastructure Sharing entity a Telstra joint venture. He has served as a Director of the Forum for 9 years and chairs a number of important Board committees.


Pascal Viginier, EVP and Group CIO - FT/Orange, France: Responsible for IT across Global Orange group including Orange business services, Orange mobile, internet or fixed communications and contents across 50 countries worldwide. Previously managed the preparation of the merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK leading to Everything Everywhere, now the #1 mobile operator in the UK and numerous executive roles in France Telecom Orange Group balanced between IT, Technology and operational management




The above slate of new and returning Directors will join the existing members of the Board who are:

David Burton, Chief Technology Officer and Director Allied Command Transformation, NATO.

Mark Francis, Vice President Operations, AT&T

Kenneth Frank, EVP & President, Solutions, Alcatel-Lucent

Albert Hitchcock, Group Chief Information Officer, Vodafone

Dr Che Haiping – CTO, Huawei Software

Karl Penaluna - President 21st Century Transformation Program, BT Group

Don Rae, Senior Vice President - Group Business Development & Regional Operations, Axiata Group Berhad;

Scott Stainken, General Manager, Global Telecommunications Industry, IBM

Dean Walters - Chief Information Officer and Managing Director, UPC Liberty Global



Retiring Directors:

Gene Reznik, Global Managing Director, Communications Industry, Accenture

Lucy Hood, Executive Director, University of Southern California (Institute of Communications Technology Management)

Doug Gilstrap, Senior Vice President & Head of Strategy, Ericsson

Vladimir A Filippov, Vice President, IT & Technical Director, Vimpelco