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In the Spotlight

Jan Ellsberger was elected as ETSI’s The following year ETSI was set up What initiatives can we expect
new Director-General at our 83rd by CEPT with a somewhat different to see marking your first
General Assembly in April 2024. structure from its ESO (European months as Director-General?
Taking effect on 1st July, his term of Standards Organization) peers CEN
office lasts for five years which can be and CENELEC, as a vehicle enabling My immediate priority is to take a
extended by a further three years at the rapid development of standards proactive stance in strengthening
the discretion of ETSI’s membership. to meet the needs of European ETSI’s role as an ESO and re-
He succeeds Luis Jorge Romero policymakers and industry. establishing its relevance within the
who served as Director-General for European standardization system.
thirteen years. ETSI became very successful right That means working closely with
from the first years of its operation, the Commission as well as other
Jan is no stranger to ETSI. From 1995 with early results including the policy stakeholders – the scope of
to 1998 he worked as a permanent globalization of GSM, the Smart Card ETSI is of course wider than just the
expert with responsibility for our Platform, and the creation of 3GPP, as 27 EU member states. So in the near
relations with the ITU-T secretariat, well as other initiatives like DECT and term I am keen to strengthen ETSI’s
SG.10 and SG.11 related to formal TETRA. Of course a lot has happened interfaces with the Commission and
methodologies for standards since, both in terms of technology other policymakers. We need to
development. He was closely development and within the European work more systematically, and from
involved in the development of INAP/ and global political and socioeconomic a perspective of the ETSI Secretariat
CAMEL, TETRA and ISDN standards, landscape. What’s important now is we will focus our use of resources
and methodologies for standards for ETSI to consolidate on that early in engaging positively with the
conformance test suites. success in a world where change is the Commission and other stakeholders,
only constant.
With a career spanning over and to further strengthen ETSI’s
three decades in technical While preparing for my candidacy role as a global platform for
standardization, Jan led Ericsson’s over the last year I’ve already been in technology innovation.
global standardization operations for several discussions with the European The fundamental way that ETSI
twelve years in his capacity as Vice Commission in my role representing creates standards through global
President Industry and Technology. one of ETSI’s member companies. collaboration is already very strong,
More recently, he has worked as an We have already established a good and I don’t see any need to change
advisor to clients and partners on foundation for collaboration, and this process dramatically in the short
industry trends in the automotive and together we’ve identified a number term. However we will continue
ICT sectors. Until 2023 he was Vice of areas of improvement. It’s my to look closely at our own working
President Industry Development and priority to address these right from methods, just as 3GPP, ISO and IEC
Standardization Officer Automotive the outset of my office. have been doing in recent years. It’s
at Huawei.
I’m a European citizen who’s worked certainly time to take a new look at
As incoming Director- for most of my career in European this and see what ideas we can adopt.
General of a world-class companies. Working most recently Hand in hand with this, another area
standardization organization in a Chinese company of course gives I want to look at with fresh eyes
valuable insights into the working
with some 950 members, practices and priorities of other non- is ETSI’s high-level strategy, with
what’s your starting point? European organizations. I believe this a clear understanding of our
experience will serve ETSI very well strengths and actionable items for
The origins of ETSI date back to in a landscape that is influenced by the Secretariat to execute. I’m very
a proposal in the shape of the and where ETSI works with entities much looking forward to discussing
Green Paper that was issued by from outside of Europe. with the Board and executives
the European Commission in 1987. from our member companies and
administrations to explore what can
be achieved in this area.

Enjoy! The ETSI Mag – August 2024 17