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Former China Telecommunications Corporation CEO elected as World Broadband Association Board Chairman

The World Broadband Association (WBBA) Board of Directors held its first meeting in Barcelona where Li Zhengmao, former CEO of China Telecommunications Corporation, was elected as the Chairman of the Board.

On 26 February, the World Broadband Association (WBBA) held its first board meeting in Barcelona. The Board of Directors consists of twelve industry leaders, including network operators, equipment manufacturers, and network testing manufacturers from China, Switzerland, New Zealand, South Africa, Finland, the United States, Jordan, Canada, Gambia and Egypt. The establishment of the Board marked a milestone for the WBBA to enter a new stage of development. The Association is committed to serving the members and speeding up development and expansion with the strong leadership of the Board.

Li Zhengmao, the former President of China Telecommunications Corporation was elected as the Chairman of the Board at the pre-board meeting. Twelve newly elected members of the Board attended the meeting, including Tang Yongbo, VP of China Unicom; Richard Jin, President of Optical Business Line, Huawei; Markus Reber, EVP Networks of Swisscom; Sandy Motley, President of Fixed Networks, Nokia; Chip Strange, Chief Strategy Officer of Ookla, and Maged Tawfeek, Access Planning Director of Telecom Egypt, among others.

At the meeting, the Board appointed Martin Creaner as the Director General of the Association and established its Nomination and Governance Committee. Martin Creaner, as the Director General of the Association, reported to the board about the “2022 Work Summary and 2023 Work Plan”. With general consent, the meeting passed two motions namely “The Motion of Appointing the Director General of the Association” and “The Motion of establishing the Nomination and Governance Committee of the Association”. Subsequently, the Board members had constructive and fruitful discussion on the establishment of the Oversight Committee, WBBA development roadmap, etc.

Li Zhengmao pointed out that, the rapid advancement of the broadband industry is promoting the world’s digital transformation at a quick pace. He hopes, through the joint effort of all its members and the Board of Directors, the WBBA can address the industry-wide challenges and difficulties, pursue open cooperation to stimulate the potential of cloud and broadband to benefit individuals, industries and the whole of society.

In the future, by leveraging a series of activities and events coming up, the Association will play an important role in uniting the cloud and broadband industry chain, promoting the construction of integrated information infrastructure and innovative development of the cloud network, helping solve many challenges facing the development of the industry, and realizing the sustainable and prosperous development of the global broadband industry.

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Martin Creaner
Director General of the World Broadband Association

Martin Creaner is one of the leading strategic thinkers in the global communications industry with a successful career as an executive with Motorola and British Telecom, as well as over a decade as President and CEO of the TM Forum.

Martin currently advises the boards of a number of companies in the communications and high tech industries, ranging from up-and-coming digital economy companies, to market leaders.

Martin has been named among the 25 Most Influential People in Telecom Software by Billing World and has twice been named as one of Global Telecoms Business’ Top 100. Martin holds a Master of Business Administration from Cranfield University, Cranfield School of Management; a Master of Science in Telecommunications from the University of East Anglia; and Bachelor’s degrees in Engineering and Physics from Dublin City University and the University College Dublin, respectively.

Martin is also a recognized thought-leader on digital transformation and the trends of the emerging digital economy. His most recent book “Transforming the Telco” explains the opportunities and challenges that digital transformation presents and outlines how the Telco might navigate this difficult process.

Previous books include “Delivering the Digital Economy”, which outlines the dynamics of the digital economy, and “Frameworx Distilled” & “NGOSS Distilled”, which provide a detailed guidebook to the standards that underpin the Telecom software industry.

Martin was appointed unanimously to the role of Director General by WBBA members.

Martin lives in Cork, Ireland.