The Forum is led by a slate of officers comprised of representatives of the Forum’s Sponsor Members and elected by the board of directors. The board governs the direction of the Forum and is chartered with helping the organization’s officers fulfill its mission and with seeing that the Forum operates in the best interests of its members and according to its By-laws.

Pictured here is Chairman Koichi Tagawa.

Officers

Koichi Tagawa, 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. 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.

Preeti Ohri Khemani is Director of System Engineering at Infineon Technologies and has 15 years of experience in various leadership functions within the semiconductor industry. Preeti is currently leading the system engineering global team in Digital Security Solutions Division. Her team is responsible for system compliance, integration and validation services for Identification, Payment, Transport, IoT and Mobile Transaction applications based on contactless and dual-interface security controllers. Prior to joining Infineon in 2015, Preeti was working at NXP Semiconductors as program head of the project responsible for delivering NFC Java-card mobile transaction solutions to leading mobile OEMs. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Telecommunication engineering from BIT, India.

Fabrice Punch is Marketing Director at NXP Semiconductors, currently leading the NFC segment for IoT and Smart Home, and is based in Caen, France. He has more than 15 years’ experience in B2B Marketing and Business Development of semiconductors solutions in high-tech industries worldwide. Fabrice joined the NFC Forum activities in 2018 and is fully dedicated to make our life more personal, convenient and exciting by adding NFC functionality to everyday devices. He holds a degree Master of Science in Engineering from Grenoble INP.

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.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors consists of one representative from each Sponsor Member.

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Bjoern Scharfen, Infineon TechnologiesBjoern 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.

Fabrice Punch is Marketing Director at NXP Semiconductors, currently leading the NFC segment for IoT and Smart Home, and is based in Caen, France. He has more than 15 years’ experience in B2B Marketing and Business Development of semiconductors solutions in high-tech industries worldwide. Fabrice joined the NFC Forum activities in 2018 and is fully dedicated to make our life more personal, convenient and exciting by adding NFC functionality to everyday devices. He holds a degree Master of Science in Engineering from Grenoble INP.

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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.

Masayuki Takezawa is Senior Manager in charge of marketing communications and business development for NFC / FeliCa business in Sony. After participation in product development throughout Sony for various consumer devices from audio / imaging products to the IT products, he was then involved for several years in business development for network products in collaboration with US technology venture organization. In 2003 he joined FeliCa Business as a business planner, and continues to contribute to business planning, global partnership, and the promotion of FeliCa / NFC technology and solutions.

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.

Barbara Patterson is a Vice President at VISA with extensive experience in developing groundbreaking payments and processing products. She is an expert in driving critical strategic initiatives, accelerating revenue growth, reducing costs, and creating competitive advantage. Having held a range of management roles at Visa, her experience includes providing business and technical direction for credit, debit, commercial, and prepaid solutions for the US and Global payments industry. Barbara has been leading various activities within digital payments solutions focused on tokenization and secure remote commerce. She leads the Digital Standards and Strategic Projects organization that oversees digital payment standards with a focus on new and emerging technologies, payment methods and security solutions.

A recognized Payment Industry and Visa expert, she is frequently called upon for understanding and designing creative solutions that solve complex business issues and address customer needs to drive competitive advantage for all aspects of the payment ecosystem.

Barbara has been granted a number of patents and has filed several more that are in review which support innovative development initiatives in the Payments Industry. She is an active participant in number of EMVCo working groups, including Tokenisation Working Group (TWG) and Secure Remote Commerce Working Group (SRCWG). Prior to joining Visa, held a number of positions at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco.