The appointments of these Board-level positions underpin the importance placed on the delivery of the collaborative work and strategic vision of the GLF’s members, who include many of the largest international ICT service provider carriers globally.
Elisabetta, Marisa and Eloy join previously elected Chairs: Chair of the Governance Committee: Emmanuel Rochas, CEO of Orange International Carrier. Chair of the Critical IoT Working Group: Rolf Nafziger, SVP, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier. Chair of the Network Security Working Group: Michael Wheeler, EVP, Global IP Network, NTT
Chair of the GLF Board: Elisabetta Romano
Initially elected for a two-year term in April 2022, Elisabetta Romano has been elected by the GLF Board to serve a second term as Chair of the GLF. In her role as Chair of the Board, Elisabetta is responsible for driving the ultimate vision of the GLF in addition to ensuring a holistic, strategic approach to achieving the organisation's vision.
In October 2022, the GLF set out its programmatic mission statement “Tomorrow’s Telco” which is tabled to be updated October 2024 to reflect the changing demands on global connectivity infrastructure.
Upon her election, Elisabetta Romano commented: “I would like to thank, through the Board, all the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum members for their trust in giving me the honour and the opportunity to lead the GLF board for a second term.
"It is also a great responsibility that I take on with renewed commitment and with the awareness that, with my elected colleagues, we have built a lot and will continue to design “Tomorrow’s Telco”. Just as importantly, I would also like to pay a well-deserved tribute to the staff of the GLF for their daily work that has been fundamental to achieve the organisation’s goals and promote its mission”.
Chair of the Anti-Fraud Working Group: Eloy Rodriguez
Eloy Rodriguez succeeds Judit Albers (A1 Telekom Austria) in the role as Chair of the Anti-Fraud Working Group. The Anti-Fraud Working Group has delivered on behalf of the industry since its inception. Its success can be quantified and tracked in the annual GLF Fraud report.
In addition to its current collaborative work with the i3Forum on international voice which includes maintaining and measuring compliance against a Code of Conduct (which was revised in February 2024 to limit the abuse of premium rate numbers for international revenue share fraud).
In the last 18 months the Working Group has focussed on driving similar impact for international messaging fraud with principles and an anti-AIT (artificially inflated traffic) charter to be announced and signed at ITW 2024 (Washington DC, May 14 – 17), again in collaboration with the I3Forum. The GLF Board also formally announced its support for the One Consortium in February of this year.
Eloy Rodriguez stated: “I am honoured to take on the leadership of the Anti-Fraud Working Group. The working group has already made significant advances to take us closer to achieving our mission of having an industry that is free of fraudulent traffic, but the increasing challenges in voice and messaging fraud mean the fight continues.
"We will build on the successes so far, driving existing activities forward whilst implementing new initiatives and advocating even greater collaboration which I believe will have a positive impact on reducing fraud to ultimately benefit the entire industry.”
Chair of the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Working Group: Marisa Trisolino
Marisa Trisolino succeeds Eric Cevis (Verizon Partner Solutions) who was the founding Chair of this important working group.
The Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Working Group forms part of the “People” pillar of the GLF’s work which also includes the GLF Accelerator executive talent programme.
Marisa Trisolino took on the leadership of the GLF’s talent work in the Autumn of 2023 and has now been elected to take on an even greater portfolio with the addition of the DIB Working Group.
The DIB working group is set to publish its fifth annual report at ITW 2024 (May 14 -17, Washington DC) which is the most comprehensive view of the state of inclusion in the international connectivity ecosystem.
2024’s report will include Gender benchmarking for the first time, in addition to a look at the impact of AI on inclusion and revisit on last year's key finding that 30,000 people in international communications will need to be up or reskilled in the next 5 years.
Upon the announcement of her appointment, Marisa Trisolino said: “Championing diversity, inclusion and belonging within the telecommunications industry isn’t just about ethics, it's also a competitive advantage. Our industry thrives on innovation, and this can only be achieved through a workforce as diverse as the customers we serve.
"I’m looking forward to working with our global community to continue making positive change across our industry, with a number of exciting new initiatives to explore.”
