Mobey Forum has appointed Sirpa Nordlund as its new Executive Director. Ms Nordlund succeeds Liisa Kannianen who stepped down from the role on November 1 2010.
Ms Nordlund has been selected by Mobey Forum due to her vast experience within the mobile services and near field communications (NFC) sector. With a career that spans over ten years with Nokia, Ms Nordlund worked in the research and development of NFC following the handset manufacturer's decision to invest resources in this area. Once the concept began to advance, Ms Nordlund drove NFC in Business Development and sales. More recently, Ms Nordlund was responsible for the sales in selected European markets at Venyon, a subsidiary of Giesecke & Devrient which provides trusted NFC services, a position which she held for three years.
Commenting on her new role, Ms Nordlund says: "I am delighted to be appointed as Executive Director of Mobey Forum. The not-for-profit organization has worked hard over the last years and created the industry-leading body which has engaged the market and created materials that support a sustainable and prosperous mobile financial services ecosystem. Representing more than 450 million banking customers today, I do look forward to drive Mobey Forum advancing this effort further.
"This is an exciting time for mobile payments and payments in general as we have seen many potential players recently confirm their commitment to the ecosystem. Banking has always been international in nature and for mobile payments to achieve its potential and deliver ultimate user convenience, the ecosystem has to have the possibility to interact globally. This means interoperable systems and technology. I believe Mobey Forum is perfectly positioned to assist the market in realising this aim due to its active and diverse membership base, which has dedicated resources for over ten years."
Ron van Wezel, Chairman of Mobey Forum and Director of Emerging Payment Streams at Deutsche Bank, comments: "Ms Nordlund has extensive experience in the mobile payments landscape and we are pleased she has decided to join the association. She has previe has previously been a guest speaker at Mobey Forum events to share her mobile payments expertise and we were impressed with her depth of knowledge. Within the role, Ms Nordlund will be responsible for the direction of Mobey Forum initiatives and for overseeing the daily operational management of the group. We welcome the contribution that she will make during this progressive time for the industry. "