New board members strengthen TM Forum digital transformation vision

But three new members of TM Forum’s Board of Trustees are important representatives of the expertise, innovation, forward thinking and leadership that are helping the industry to accomplish change.

Sarit Assaf, General Manager, Amdocs Technology, is the newest addition to TM Forum’s Board of Trustees. She joins Kiran Thomas, President and CEO, Jio Platforms Limited, and Scott Petty, Chief Digital & IT Officer, Vodafone, who became board members earlier this year. Together they bring a strategic vision to TM Forum’s existing board at a pivotal point in our ongoing collaborative work to transform the telecoms industry.

Amdocs’ Assaf welcomes the opportunity to be part of driving both cultural and technological change in the industry.

“I’m thrilled to have been appointed to the TM Forum Board, joining such a diverse and globally-experienced team,” she says. “I’m passionate about the ways that technology, innovation and creativity are driving positive change throughout our industry. As a leader in cloud-native technology, computer science and software engineering and a proud sponsor and advocate of supporting women in tech, I’m looking forward to being part of TM Forum’s board and the power of its collective. Together we’re well placed to make an impact on the industry at large.”

Culture plays a crucial role in facilitating technology and business transformation and it is one of the areas where TM Forum members are taking a lead. They have successfully completed a trial of a new Inclusion and Diversity Score (IDS) – a single, universal index believed to be the first in the world to measure both diversity and cultural inclusiveness, providing a benchmark for real change.

When it comes to innovation, TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) components represent a marked shift in how telcos design and build software to drive their businesses and develop future service ecosystems. Designed to establish truly interoperable building blocks for the industry, they open a market for standardized, cloud-native software components. TM Forum’s members have already collaborated to deliver ODA component specifications.

TM Forum 70+ Open APIs continue to play an important and growing role in helping communications service providers (CSPs) modernize their software estates, with developers having downloaded more than 500,000 times to date.

Vodafone has played a foundational role in the development of Open APIs and ODA. Petty, who is at the forefront of the operator’s transition from telco to techco outlined in our recent report, will use his new role on the board of TM Forum’s trustees to share his experience and insight.

“I’m delighted to join TM Forum’s Board of Directors and support the Forum’s mission and commitment to driving industry change,” says Petty. “As Vodafone undergoes its evolution from a network service provider to a technology communications company, I’m excited to share my lessons, collaborate and exchange ideas to help other members thrive on their own transformation journeys.”

Jio has drawn on both Open APIs and ODA since its launch and was the first CSP to achieve TM Forum Open API Platinum conformance certification. “It’s an honor to join TM Forum’s Board at a critical moment for our industry,” says Thomas. “I look forward to working closely with other industry leaders to drive change that benefits the whole TM Forum member community, and more broadly our connected global society. Jio has been a member of TM Forum since our inception, and during this time we have gone from strength to strength through leveraging TM Forum’s work, most recently Open Digital Architecture and Open APIs.”

TM Forum is a collaborative effort. In addition to developing TM Forum Open APIs and ODA components, members create and share the information and business frameworks that underpin transformation. They also work together to solve problems and demonstrate which solutions are effective: To this end, during the last year, members from a total of 152 companies took part in 41

catalyst projects to deliver proof-of-concept solutions to challenges facing communications service providers and their technology partners. Reflecting this, Assaf, Petty and Thomas join a Board of Trustees who represent some of the world’s largest and most innovative telecoms and technology companies.

They are:

• Steffen Roehn, Expert VP, Bain & Company (Chair);
• Anthony Rodrigo, GCIO, Axiata;
• Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, BT (Vice-Chair);
• Li Huidi, Vice President, China Mobile;
• Peter Leukert, GCIO, T-Mobile;
• Haiping Che, CDTO, Huawei;
• Michael Lawrey, Independent; SME Member, Constituency Rep (Vice-Chair);
• Koen Vermeulen, GCIO, Orange;
• Shankar Arumugavelu, GCIO, Verizon;
• Ruza Sabanovic, EVP & Chief Technology Officer, Telenor;
• Jan Karlsson, SVP & Head of Business Area Digital Services, Ericsson;
• Jason Rutherford, SVP Communications Applications, Oracle.

“I am delighted to welcome the addition of these innovative and forward-thinking industry leaders to our Board,” says TM Forum CEO Nik Willetts. “Their combined expertise and experience is a real asset to our members, as our industry transforms to seize the enormous growth and impact potential of this digital era.”

“I would like to express our sincerest thanks to our board members for another year of service and welcome the truly impressive collective expertise of our newest members,” says Steffen Roehn, Chair of the Board, TM Forum. “We’re proud to have a Board of passionate, collaborative activists who bring their unique talents and perspectives to the work of TM Forum. Together we’re furthering our purpose of driving transformation within our industry and creating a better digital future for all.”