President’s Award for Outstanding Innovation Presented to China Merchant Bank, Huawei, City of Yinchuan & ZTE; Andrew Thomson and Michel Burger Named TM Forum Distinguished Fellows; Keith Willets Presented Lifetime Achievement Award
TM FORUM LIVE!, Nice, France — June 3, 2015: TM Forum, the global industry association for digital business, today celebrates the exemplary contributions of several members, along with the achievements of the Forum’s founder and former chairman and CEO, Keith Willetts.
President’s Award
At the TM Forum Live! 2015 VIP Gala dinner, Peter Sany, president and CEO of TM Forum, presented the inaugural President’s Award for Outstanding Innovation to China Merchant Bank and Huawei, and the award for Outstanding Innovation in Smart Cities to the City of Yinchuan and ZTE.
China Merchant Bank and Huawei are recognized for their excellent application of TM Forum best practices in a new industry vertical, enabled by the Huawei BSS Platform, which is conformance certified against TM Forum Frameworx™.
Yinchuan Smart City and ZTE are recognized for their exceptional development and acceleration of smart city potential by China’s National Pilot Smart City, the number one smart city in the world. Their work is enabled by ZTE’s ZSmart products which are based on Frameworx and being used to enable innovation through intelligent data analytics.
“Our sincerest thanks to China Merchant Bank, Huawei, ZTE and the City of Yinchuan for helping enable a successful decade of digital industry growth,” said Peter Sany, president and CEO, TM Forum. “Their dedication and enthusiasm have been instrumental in helping TM Forum move the digital industry forward, and we look forward to watching our partnerships grow in the future.”
Distinguished Fellows
TM Forum’s Distinguished Fellows are individuals committed to advancing the principles of TM Forum and contributing to its technical excellence. Only 27 people have received this award in its history. This year’s winners were also recognized at the TM Forum Live! 2015 VIP Gala dinner.
Andrew Thomson, director for Infonova R6 solutions at BearingPoint, is recognized for his sustained service as a leader and mentor to TM Forum’s Strategy & Adoption Subcommittee and Open Digital Program Steering Group. Andrew has also been instrumental in driving forward the use of TM Forum standards by Infonova, and is an executive sponsor for TM Forum’s Catalyst program.
Michel Burger, chief architect of service provider platforms at Apigee Corporation, is recognized for his significant contributions to the Digital Services Reference Architecture, and sustained leadership on the Strategy & Adoption Subcommittee and Open Digital Program Steering Group. Michel has also helped advance the Digital Services Management APIs and portal.
“Congratulations to our newest Distinguished Fellows, who join a prestigious list of innovators and pioneers,” continued Sany. “Andrew and Michel have not only shown a sustained and valuable record of service to our industry, but have proven their commitment to TM Forum and its members to establish and increase the adoption of digital industry best practices.”
Lifetime Achievement Award
The final award of the evening was the TM Forum Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to Keith Willets. Keith was one of the founders of TM Forum at its inception over 25 years ago and went on to lead the Forum as chairman and CEO until 2014. His vision and expertise steered the growth and strategic direction of the organization through the huge industry transformation brought about by the digital era, always keeping the mantra “for the members, by the members” at the heart of TM Forum’s mission.
Accepting the award, a surprised Willets said, “Thank you to our members for coming together here in Nice to connect, collaborate, and to continue the great work of tackling the common challenges facing the digital ecosystem.”
Get in on all of the exciting TM Forum Live! news and buzz by visiting and bookmarking the Forum’s Inform channel, a dedicated news and opinion portal for the who’s who of the digital ecosystem. The action can also be followed on Twitter using hashtag #TMFLive.
About TM Forum
TM Forum is a non-profit global industry association which helps its members transform and succeed in the digital economy. The collective experience and interests of our member community comprised of tens-of-thousands of professionals within 900+ market-leading global enterprises, service providers and technology suppliers drives everything we do, from thought-provoking research and publications, to practical guidance, collaboration programs, tools and best practices, hands-on events, and training for business and IT leaders.
Through three key programs – Agile Business and IT, Open Digital Ecosystem, and Customer Centricity – we provide a unique platform for our members to connect and collaborate with individuals and groups from around the world to solve key challenges and rapidly innovate to deliver new services, improve business agility, partner for success, reduce cost and risk, and enhance customer value and loyalty. To learn more about the Forum and join our digital journey as a valued member and collaborator, please visit www.tmforum.org.
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