The GlobalPlatform Board of Directors has announced the appointment of Kevin Gillick to the newly-formed position of executive director to take effect immediately.

GlobalPlatform, the world leader in smart card infrastructure development and deployment, established this permanent position to drive awareness and accelerate adoption of the organization’s technology standards. The Executive Director will be responsible for the coordination and management of the organization’s strategic planning, as well as overseeing all marketing and business development initiatives within key market sectors, namely finance, mobile telecoms, government, transit, retail and healthcare.

Mr. Gillick was selected by the GlobalPlatform Board on the basis of his vast experience within the smart card industry. In addition to his previous roles as Chairman for the Smart Card Alliance and Marketing Executive at Datacard Group, he acted as GlobalPlatform’s Marketing Center Chair since 2002.

In this new role, Mr. Gillick will focus his efforts on aligning GlobalPlatform with relevant associations and organizations in the smart card industry and related markets, in order to cultivate relationships and collaborate on mutually beneficial activities leading to market growth.

Reporting directly to the Board of Directors, Mr. Gillick’s role will be aligned with the organization’s Technical Director, Gil Bernabeu, Technical Advisor for Gemplus’ Financial and Security Services Business Unit, and the three existing technical committees; Card, Device and System. This alignment will strengthen the teams’ ability to move quickly from technical activities being undertaken, to driving the technology into global markets.

Bob Beer, GlobalPlatform Chair, comments: “On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am delighted to welcome Kevin Gillick to the position of Executive Director. His in depth knowledge of the smart card industry, coupled with his strong marketing experience, will enhance our standing in the marketplace and, in doing so, add significant value to our members.”

“Appointing a full-time Executive Director establishes a consistent “external voice” for the organization, industry analysts, researchers and the media. Kevin will also champion the formation of a new Advisory Council to provide input and guidance on the impact of strategies and tactics specific to GlobalPlatform’s development.”

About GlobalPlatform Driven by 50 cross-industry member organizations, GlobalPlatform is the leading, international association, focused on establishing and maintaining interoperable specifications for single and multi-application smart cards, acceptance devices and systems infrastructure that deliver benefits to Issuers, service providers and technology suppliers.

These specifications are known as the standard for smart card infrastructure, thanks to their balance of technical superiority and business justification. GlobalPlatform specifications are available royalty-free and have been adopted in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia by many public and private bodies. Currently, there are over 35 GlobalPlatform-based smart card implementations world-wide and approximately 75 million GlobalPlatform cards are in global circulation.

GlobalPlatform is an independent, not-for-profit organization and its strategy is defined and prioritized by a Board of Directors. GlobalPlatform is currently chaired by Robert E. Beer, Vice President Business Development, Datacard Group, and vice-chaired by Marc Kekicheff, Vice President Product Technology, Visa International. For further information: www.globalplatform.org.