Officers & Board of Directors

Koichi Tagawa, co-Chairman, NFC Forum, has been with the organization since its founding in 2004. Initially serving as the Vice Chairman, Mr. Tagawa was elected as Chairman in 2008, and co-Chairman in 2017. During his leadership tenure, he has been an advocate for NFC market expansion, and has overseen the development of over 20 standards-based specifications which are the foundation for interoperable NFC-based solutions worldwide. Mr. Tagawa is the General Manager of Global Standards and Industry Relations at the C&I Center in Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP). DNP is the largest printing company, and the largest NFC solution provider, in Japan. Prior to DNP, Tagawa worked in the consumer electronics industry at Sony for 41 years. He now is devoted to promoting the expansion of NFC solution businesses worldwide by fusing his consumer-oriented background with his passion for NFC technology.

Alexander Rensink is business segment manager in the Business Unit Security & Connectivity at NXP Semiconductors. At NXP, Alexander drives a business that establishes the further deployment of contactless technology into a multitude of applications, including access management, loyalty, micropayments, device pairing, smart media and gaming. Throughout his career, he has gained considerable ecosystem experience in working with infrastructure suppliers, application developers and service providers to deliver end-to-end solutions for vertical markets. Prior to joining NXP’s Security & Connectivity business unit in 2007, Alexander worked at Philips Digital Networks and later Philips Semiconductors in marketing, business development, and strategy roles. Alexander has served on the NFC Forum Board of Directors since March 2012 and was elected Vice Chairman in December 2013 and co-Chairman in 2017. Alexander studied Electrical Engineering and holds a Ph.D. degree.  

Frank Dawidowsky is Principal Engineer at the European Technology Center of Sony Corporation, located in Stuttgart, Germany. Frank has been active in the NFC Forum since its inception. He has more than 14 years of experience in standardization and has been an active contributor in a number of specification organizations and industry associations, including ETSI and the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Laurent Sourgen is the Director of Strategic R&D Programs for Microcontrollers and Digital ICs Group within STMicroelectronics, and he is also involved in strategic partnerships. After graduating in Electronic Engineering, he started working with silicon integrated circuits. Over the past 20 years, he has been in charge of the team developing smartcard and other secured integrated circuits, where he designed and supervised work for different secure contact and contactless product generations. With good knowledge in related technologies and architectures, he is also involved in various cooperative R&D programs as project leader and expert. He represents STMicroelectronics in different professional organizations such as NFC Forum and Eurosmart.

Paula Hunter manages the day-to-day affairs of the NFC Forum under the direction of the Chairman, Officers, and Board of Directors with responsibility for strategic planning and direction, membership development, budgeting, evangelism for the Forum and its mission, and outreach to liaison and vertical market partners. She has almost two decades of executive technology association management experience beginning in 1999 when, while working for Compaq, she was a founding board member for the ASP Industry Consortium. Ms. Hunter has served as Executive Director of the NFC Forum since 2013. Her experience also includes key roles in several technology companies, ranging from small start-ups to large multi-national corporations. She won the 2018 The Women in IT Awards in the North American Business Leader of the Year Award category from Information Age. Ms. Hunter is a frequent presenter at industry events and contributes regularly to TechTarget’s IoT Agenda.

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Bjoern has more than 20 years of experience in the electronic components industry and is currently holding the position of Senior Director, heading the Product Line Payment and Wearables at Infineon Technologies. He assumes worldwide responsibility for the P&L of security controllers and
solutions used in Payment & Wearables applications.

Prior to this role he worked for over 15 years in various positions within the Marketing team of the Security & Chip Card ICs division for Payment. Transport and Communication.

Before joining Infineon in 2000, he started his professional career in 1997 with the Ceramic Components Division at Epcos AG as Product Marketing Engineer for automotive, industrial and consumer applications.

He holds a degree (Dipl. Wirt.-Ing.) in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Munich university of applied Science

Eddy Van de Velde represents Mastercard on the Board of Directors of the NFC Forum. Eddy works for the EMV & Digital devices department in Mastercard. He has more than 20 years’ experience in smartcard payment technology and is currently in charge of the team specifying solutions for digital payment devices based on EMV technology. He has been involved from the first smart card applications up to the HCE-based payment applications in smart phones. As part of his responsibilities, he has contributed to different EMV workgroups and other standardization initiatives.

Alexander Rensink is the strategic marketing director in the Business Unit Identification at NXP, which he joined in 2007. In his current position, Alexander focuses on the significant potential for identification technology in the mobile market and aims to further deploy NFC based solutions into mobile phones and tablets. Prior to joining NXP Identification, Alexander worked at Philips Digital Networks and later Philips Semiconductors in various marketing, business development and strategy roles. He has kick started important digital media innovations such as digital television, DVD systems and various innovations for mobile phones. Alexander has a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Twente and obtained his Ph.D. at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Neeraj Bhatia is a Product Manager at Qualcomm, where he has been since 2011. Previously, he has worked as a Private Equity Consultant at Kurt Salmon Associates, in Investment Banking at Cappello Capital, and as a Product Line Manager at Marvell. He has an MS in Computer Networking from the University of Southern California, and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Jack Lee is Senior Engineer at the Standards and Technology Enabling Team of DMC R&D Center, Samsung Electronics which serves as the central standards coordination body of Samsung Electronics. His current focus is on convergence connectivity standards and related industry initiatives. As part of his current responsibilities he has worked on the areas of Connectivity, IoT, Automotive and Smart Home. Prior to his current work he has collaborated with industry partners to create new industry alliances for IoT and Mobile Printing. His previous experiences include regulatory affairs, digital broadcasting and connected healthcare. He has represented Samsung on the Board of Directors of NFC Forum since 2014 and has also held leadership roles in OMA and Wi-Fi Alliance.

Yo Tabayashi works for the Global Standards and Industry Relations Department in the FeliCa Business Division of Sony Corporation. He has more than 6 years experience in Sony FeliCa Contactless technology from market planning to strategic alliance activities, and also has over 10 years experience in the smart card industry. Yo joined the NFC Forum activities in 2006 in San Diego, and has held key NFC strategy roles in Sony.

Laurent Sourgen is currently director of Strategic R&D programs for Microcontrollers, Memories & Secure Group within STMicroelectronics, and he is also involved in strategic partnerships. After graduating in Electronic Engineering, he started working with silicon integrated circuits. Over the past 20 years, he has been in charge of the team developing smartcard and other secured integrated circuits, where he designed and supervised work for different secure contact and contactless product generations. With good knowledge in related technologies and architectures, he is also involved in various cooperative R&D programs as project leader and expert. He represents STMicroelectronics in different professional organizations such as NFC Forum and Eurosmart.

Giampaolo Marino serves as Thinfilm’s Executive Vice President of Hardware Solutions. With nearly 20 years of product leadership and go-to-market experience in the areas of mobile, IoT, consumer, and industrial applications, he is responsible for overseeing product management, engineering, corporate quality, and ecosystem strategic partnerships. Prior to Thinfilm, Giampaolo held leadership positions at NXP Semiconductors, Monolithic Power Systems, Texas Instruments, Intersil, and Analog Devices. He holds an MBA degree from the Franklin W. Olin School of Business at Babson College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from San Jose State University.

Doug Deibert is Senior Director, Digital Solutions at Visa Inc. In this role, Doug is responsible for the certification and solution approval for all Digital Solutions including tokenization and Visa Ready digital programs. Doug also manages mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) product efforts and mobile standards. Doug has been with Visa for the last 17 years, holding several different product development and management positions across EMV chip, mobile and contactless/NFC business areas. Prior to Visa, Doug co-launched World Blood Inc., a biotech start up in San Diego, California. He also held various management roles in the Consumer & Life Sciences division at BASF Corporation. Doug holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University and a Master of Business Administration degree from New York University, Stern School of Business.