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

BARCELONA, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- 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.

About WBBA

The World Broadband Association (WBBA) is a multilateral, industry-led association, providing leadership for digital broadband across the next decade. The WBBA provides an open, multilateral organization and platform for future-facing broadband cooperation and partnership across the industry, championing the business, consumer and citizen outcomes that broadband is capable of delivering across the world, through converged network and cloud infrastructure. The mission of the WBBA is to unify broadband industry stakeholders to address and drive forward shared goals of maximizing the social and economic benefits of equality of broadband for all. Through the joint efforts of all the founding members, the WBBA was officially entered into the Swiss Directory of International Organizations.

The WBBA welcomes new members including telco operators and vendors, government regulators and policy makers, industry organizations, the investment community, OTTs and ISPs, and demand-side organizations.

Find out more about the  WBBA at worldbroadbandassociation.com.