PARIS - (Business Wire) The NFC Forum (
www.nfc-forum.org), a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, today announced the newly elected Chairman and Vice Chairman of its Board of Directors. The association also announced the publication of its new white paper titled "Essentials for Successful NFC Mobile Ecosystems."
Heading up the organization is new Chairman Koichi Tagawa, General Manager of the Global Standards and Industry Relations Department of the FeliCa business at Sony Corporation. Mr. Tagawa has been involved in promoting the adoption and standardization of NFC technology since 2002. He actively contributed to the founding of the NFC Forum, and formerly served as founding Vice Chairman of the organization. Mr. Tagawa replaces outgoing Chairman Christophe Duverne of NXP Semiconductors.
The newly-elected Vice Chairman of the NFC Forum is Simon Pugh. Mr. Pugh is Group Head, Center of Excellence for Mobile for MasterCard Worldwide’s Advanced Payments group. In this role, Mr. Pugh is responsible for developing and executing MasterCard’s strategy for mobile commerce. Mr. Pugh also works as a liaison with strategic business partners to promote the development of programs to support MasterCard’s advanced payments initiatives.
"As prominent leaders of one of the world's largest NFC technology providers and a top payment solutions provider, respectively, Mr. Tagawa and Mr. Pugh possess the vision, insight and global perspective to continue the NFC Forum's progress in fulfilling its mission," said outgoing NFC Forum Chairman Christophe Duverne. "We welcome them both in their new roles and look forward to the exciting developments to come as more commercial NFC solutions are rolled out in the coming year."
"Under the leadership of Mr. Duverne, the NFC Forum has grown from a promising idea into a vibrant, productive, global association comprising over 1600 individuals from 150 member organizations," said Koichi Tagawa. "In the past four years, Mr. Duverne has led the NFC Forum in releasing 11 development specifications that have established the foundation of interoperability necessary to create a successful and substantial NFC industry. We thank him for his leadership, his wisdom and his tireless effort."
Elected by a vote of the NFC Forum Board of Directors at its September meeting in Orlando, Florida, Mr. Tagawa and Mr. Pugh join Vice Chairman Gerhard Romen of Nokia and Secretary and Treasurer Martin Bührlen of NXP as Board officers.
The NFC Forum made the announcement today at a press and member event held at CARTES & IDentification 2008. In addition to presentations by Mr. Duverne and Mr. Tagawa, NFC Forum members Infineon Technologies, NEXPERTS, StopLPaN, Toppan Forms and Visa gave presentations on newly available NFC products as well as the latest results of NFC projects and rollouts. Also this week at CARTES 2008, NFC Forum members LEGIC, NEXPERTS, SEL, StoLPaN and Toppan Forms are demonstrating NFC products at the NFC Zone, Booth 4 Q104.
NFC mobile services are an important emerging area for NFC technology, with great potential for growth. The NFC Forum has published a white paper titled "Essentials for Successful NFC Mobile Ecosystems." The paper describes a "big picture" of the NFC mobile world, explaining what is needed to realize successful NFC mobile services, including a technical framework, key technologies, typical use cases, and the structure of the overall ecosystem. The paper analyzes how to expand the existing contactless card ecosystem to enable NFC mobile services and identifies new functionalities in this ecosystem. It aims to provide ecosystem participants, particularly mobile network operators and service providers, with detailed information to help them evaluate opportunities and develop their markets. The 24-page paper includes graphics, technical references, a glossary of acronyms and an appendix of example implementations. It is available for download in PDF format from: http://www.nfc-forum.org/resources/white_papers.
About Near Field Communication Technology
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a standards-based, short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables simple and safe two-way interactions between electronic devices. NFC technology allows consumers to perform contactless transactions, access digital content and connect devices with the simplicity of a single touch.
Near Field Communication (NFC) technology provides global interoperability of contactless identification and interconnection technologies. NFC operates in the 13.56 MHz frequency range, over a typical distance of a few centimeters. The underlying layers of NFC technology are based on ISO, ECMA, and ETSI standards. NFC technology is supported by the world’s leading communication device manufacturers, semiconductor producers, network operators, IT and services companies, and financial services organizations. NFC is compatible with hundreds of millions of contactless cards and readers already deployed worldwide.
About the NFC Forum
The NFC Forum, www.nfc-forum.org, was launched as a non-profit industry association in 2004 by leading mobile communications, semiconductor and consumer electronics companies. The Forum’s mission is to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services, and educating the market about NFC technology. The Forum’s 150 global member companies currently are developing specifications for a modular NFC device architecture, and protocols for interoperable data exchange and device-independent service delivery, device discovery, and device capability.
The NFC Forum’s Sponsor members, which hold seats on the Board of Directors, include leading players in key industries around the world. The Sponsor members are: HP, MasterCard Worldwide, Microsoft Corp., NEC, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Panasonic, Renesas Technology, Samsung, Sony Corporation, and Visa Inc.
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