Broadband Forum appoints Thomas as CEO
October 11, 2023
The Broadband Forum’s Board of Directors has selected industry veteran Craig Thomas to be the Forum’s next Chief Executive Officer.
Thomas will be responsible for leading the Forum, reshaping it to transition from connectivity-driven to delivering standards for intelligent, services-led networks that prioritise the user experience.
“We are entering a new era for broadband where speed is no longer a constraint for subscriber services. Innovations in broadband connectivity allow the industry to capitalise on the potential of broadband beyond residential connectivity services,” said Thomas. “We can create additional QoE-sensitive monetised lifestyle services for consumers and open up the broadband network to be a ubiquitous one that also meets business, IoT and converged services demands.”
Thomas continued: “The Broadband Forum and our members remain focused on driving a broadband ecosystem that end-to-end has increased service differentiation, intelligence, and agility from the cloud all the way to the user’s device. Open standards and open software are critical to how operators will build these new, efficient networks.”
Thomas’ term as CEO will start on January 1st 2024, following current Managing Director Ken Ko’s retirement at the end of the year. Thomas has been with the Forum since 2020, serving as Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Business Development. His experience in the telecoms vendor and service provider industry includes roles at Calix, Tellabs, Tiscali UK Business Services, Cosine Communications, Ericsson and Alcatel / Newbridge Networks.
“Craig’s selection as CEO was a natural choice for Broadband Forum and we are confident the leadership transition will be smooth,” Broadband Forum Chairman John Blackford said. “During Craig’s time with the Forum, we have seen a ten-year high in membership and contributions from companies large and small, representing innovative vendors, application and content providers, and network and service providers.”
Broadband Forum develops fixed and wireless-wireline converged open standards and open source software that drive multi-vendor interoperability and certification programmes for deployable industry-wide standards, architectures, and best practices. Last year, the organisation published 39 new standards, test plans, marketing reports, and open software releases.