Los Angeles, CA – November 14, 2012 – The Open Mobile Alliance announced today that they have elected Francesco Vadalà of Telecom Italia as Chairman to their Technical Plenary. In addition, Kepeng Li of Huawei has been elected Technical Plenary Vice-chairman and will join Francesco Vadalà along with Technical Plenary Vice-chairman Roland Hechwartner of T-Mobile in leading the Technical Work Program at the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).


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“I look forward to working with Francesco Vadalà in his new role at OMA as Technical Plenary Chair,” said Mark Cataldo, OMA Board Chair. “OMA has a vibrant work program that drives the creation of our interoperable mobile data services across networks worldwide, and the entire OMA membership supports Francesco as he leads this work program into 2013 and beyond.”

An experienced telecom engineer, Francesco Vadalà has been working for cellular network operators for more than 10 years in different areas of expertise involving innovation, technical strategy and R&D. Since 2007 he has been working in the Service Layer and Messaging Innovation department of Telecom Italia where he analyses emerging technologies and coordinates standards activities in the areas of service layer such as messaging, service exposure, architectures for mobile applications and service delivery and social networks. He helps to create and refine standards strategies in support of deployment plans and roadmap evolution for the service layer, driving strategic and tactical interests in industry consortia and organizations, as well as acting as a consultancy for Telecom Italia’s partner operators. At OMA, he has been serving as Chairman of the Requirements Working Group since March 2009 and Vice-Chairman of the Technical Plenary since December 2010.

“I am honored to serve as OMA Technical Plenary Chair,” stated Francesco Vadalà, “and I look forward to continuing the good work done at OMA over the past 10 years. The services ecosystem has changed significantly in recent years, with OTT players becoming increasing relevant to the consumer and smartphones shifting focus from the network to downloadable applications. This is a crucial challenge that OMA is addressing as we define the future of mobile service enablers.”

Francesco Vadalà takes over as Technical Plenary Chair from out-going chair Musa Unmehopa of Alcatel-Lucent at this week’s OMA meetings in Los Angeles, California, when the OMA Annual General Meeting will also be held.

“As the former Technical Plenary Chair myself, it has been a pleasure working with Musa Unmehopa as Technical Plenary Chair over the past two years at OMA,” stated Mark Cataldo, OMA Board Chairman. “I speak for the entire OMA membership when I say that his contribution to OMA both in the technical work program and as a speaker promoting OMA service enablers has been invaluable.”

In addition to his term as Technical Plenary Chair, Musa Unmehopa has also served within OMA as Mobile Web Services Vice-chair, OMA Architecture Working Group Chair and OMA Technical Plenary Vice-chair. As Technical Plenary Chair, Musa Unmehopa oversaw the delivery of more than 100 mobile service enabler packages in the areas of Device Management, Content Delivery, Location and Network APIs amongst others.

“It has been a distinct honor and privilege to serve as an elected officer at OMA, and I am very pleased to be able to hand over the baton to Francesco Vadalà,” stated Musa Unmehopa, outgoing OMA Technical Plenary Chair. “I am confident that he will provide strong technical direction for OMA. OMA has a compelling value proposition, and I look forward to many new successes for OMA under Francesco Vadalà’s leadership.”