The LoRa Alliance has changed-up its leadership team with outgoing chief and chair Donna Moore replaced by in a two-hander promotion by Actility’s Alper Yegin and Semtech’s Olivier Beaujard, as chief executive and board chair, respectively. Meanwhile, Ahmed Kasttet, head of innovation and standards at IoT company Birdz, joins the board of directors. The alliance, representing companies invested in LoRaWAN technology, said it is now on its “third phase” as LoRaWAN growth escalates more quickly (“moves into hyperscaling; the ‘hockey-stick ramp’”, it said)
It stated: “The alliance is bringing in fresh leadership to support this new phase… With several large enterprise brands having already rolled out services using LoRaWAN and network availability at an all-time high globally with terrestrial, community and NTN satellite options, paired with a robust LoRaWAN end-device ecosystem, the forecast growth trajectory is very strong. This third phase, it said, follows a startup period (“developing the LoRaWAN specification and the formation of the alliance”), and a build-up phase (about “organisational structure and maturity”).
The alliance has been around for nine years. Its decision to separate chief-executive and board-chair roles follows “industry best-practice”, it said. It stated: “As the alliance is maturing and its work is accelerating, the new structure will drive efficiencies and accountability, with the CEO responsible for providing strategic leadership and guiding the alliance’s day-to-day operations, while the Board Chair and Board of Directors provide oversight and governance.” Beaujard will serve as board chair for the first one-year term.
Yegin, chief technology officer at Actility and a stalwart at the alliance, commented: “I firmly believe LoRaWAN is the strongest LPWAN technology in the market – and the only one that is truly able to support massive IoT today. The standard’s maturity, advanced and diverse feature set, comprehensive certification program and tremendous global ecosystem differentiate LoRaWAN from other technologies. I look forward to collaborating with Olivier and the board of directors to maintain LoRaWAN’s position as the leading LPWAN technology.”
Rich Sanders, president at ZENNER USA, was involved in the review. He said: “Alper stood… due to his strong contributions to the development of LoRaWAN technology and deep knowledge of the market and customer requirements. [He] has been a key driver of LoRaWAN’s success, including eight years as chair of the technical committee and six as vice chair, in addition to 25 years of experience with wireless communication standards and alliance leadership, including with IETF, 3GPP, ETSI, and the Zigbee Alliance.”
