Column – Pharma 4.0: It Is Time for the Pharmaceutical Industry to Introduce Smart Factory
Column - 4D Bioprinting: A Technology for the Future
Leadership change at MERICS
Kang Mi-Hwa CEO of CONSEL is advancing Korea into the global market through the collaboration of blockchain and fortune-telling
Thomas Van den Driessche and Frederik Simoens Appointed to Key Executive Roles for ST Engineering iDirect
Milestone Systems appoints Ritesh Deokar as new country manager, India
Lee Byung Wook of South Korea Wins IMSTA FESTA’s 2018 Songwriting Competition
Statement by the Supervisory Board of LOT Polish Airlines
The world admires with inspiration : Kim Jin-sook CEO & Chairman of Karasadae Co., Ltd.
u-blox announces Markus Schaefer as new Executive Director for Global Marketing and Sales
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CTO Moon-Ok Cho, “Hdac Will Boost the Korean Industry in the Era of Fourth Industrial Revolution with the Blockchain Technology”
The blockchain has been regarded as the core technology that will lead the fourth industrial revolution, but there is a sharp contrast between the conflicting views on the blockchain technology in Korea. Large companies such as Samsung, Kakao, and SKT have already made dedicated blockchain teams/departments and announced their own business models. However, there is still no government policy to encourage them. In the face of these domestic situations, there is an indigenous company that has entered the blockchain industry as a global player. Dae-Sun Chung, CEO of Hyundai BS&C, a third generation of Hyundai Group, founded Hyundai Pay, a Fintech company in December 2016, and established Hdac Technology, a blockchain technology company in Crypto Valley, Switzerland, in October of the following year to respond quickly to IT trends. Hdac, which unveiled its MainNet in May 2018, pursues a blockchain technology company that can pervade every aspect of markets and industries based on the technology development strategies prioritizing commercialization. For this, Hdac will provide services from blockchain-based B2C services, including a simple payment service or a smart home, which can be easily used by ordinary users to enterprise blockchain solutions that will bring innovation to the industrial field through convergence with innovative technologies such as IoT, AI, FinTech, and Big Data. Hdac said in the press conference in March that it plans to launch a blockchain-based simple payment service and P2P asset-trading service. In addition, the Hdac Enterprise Blockchain Solution can be applied to a wide range of industries including construction and real estate sectors such as smart home, manufacturing sectors such as electronic contracts, purchasing, and production history management, and financial and distribution sectors such as membership points and remittances. Moon-Ok Cho, CTO & CSO of Hdac, in charge of a helmsman as a strategic and technical supervisor in Hdac, which has begun to blow the blockchain innovation in various fields, emphasized the visions for blockchain ecosystem through the interview with ACROFAN. Q1. What do you think about the current status of the domestic blockchain industry? It is true that the domestic cryptocurrency market had been so hot that the so-called ‘Kim-P (abbreviation for ‘Kimchi Premium’, which means that the market price of the domestic cryptocurrency is higher than that of the foreign cryptocurrency) was coined. The abstruseness of the blockchain technology and coin economy brought scammers and speculative forces, and also various negative effects. Due to the speculative frenzy started before the blockchain proved its usefulness, the misunderstandings to view blockchain and cryptocurrency as the same concept, as well as negative publicity about cryptocurrency, have stiffened. Fortunately, domestic companies are doing well. The reason why the blockchain industry in the whole world is paying attention to the Korean market is not just about 'Kimchi Premium'. There have been companies that challenge entrepreneurship in an environment that is not friendly, and I believe that the efforts and intentions of these companies are the driving force for putting Korea in the position of a blockchain powerhouse. In recent years, large corporations in Korea have been making efforts to foster relevant businesses such as building a dedicated blockchain organization, which is a very encouraging phenomenon. Q2. What do you think about a lot of skepticism about the impact of blockchain? A blockchain is a technology that makes transaction information into data blocks and links them, and it prevents data from being forged or falsified through distributed computing method. Therefore, it is the best way to apply to finance or payment services for enjoying the technical characteristics of blockchain. However, these areas are closely related to the national economy and governance of governments, and as such, they are strictly controlled at the national level. That's also why the government takes time to prepare related laws and regulations. However, companies are limited to the development of related business until the institutional framework is established. In addition to financial and payment services, there are areas which can take advantage of the technical characteristics of the blockchain such as services managing important documents including copyrights, legal documents, and contracts, and industrial areas including logistics and trade. Especially, when blockchain is applied to supply chain management (SCM) area, it is expected that the effective value for all the supply chain participants will be very great. In the process of supply, from raw materials to manufacturers, wholesalers and finally end consumers, many processes exist and participants with various roles are involved. The only technology that guarantees the reliability, security, transparency, and scalability of the data generated here is blockchain. The cost reduction by simplifying unnecessary verification procedures and manual work is the main aspect, and the power of the blockchain, combined with technologies such as IoT, cloud, and AI, will be enormous. Q3. It has been quite a while since Hdac had collected substantial funds through ICO in 2017. Isn’t there any materialized business yet? The story of collecting 300 billion won in ICO follows us, but the price was based on the time when the Bitcoin price was over 20 million won. Now, since the bubble has burst, it is time to pay more attention to every step. As we avoid ‘showing off’ marketing activities that deceive people’s eyes and ears like some other blockchain projects, it might have seemed that there is no materialized content, but it is not true at all. Hdac is working diligently and steadfastly to be worthy of the title 'Hyundai Group' and is carefully executing budgets to avoid waste of the funds. As stated at the press conference held in March, Hdac has completed or is carrying out multiple POC projects for Hyundai group companies in various industries. In the public sector, discussions on the actualization of business are underway since the signing of MOU between Busan City and Hyundai Pay in February, and there are still many other things that have not been disclosed yet. I would like to take this opportunity to say that Hdac has worked with Hyundai Heavy Industries to complete the POC for applying the blockchain to the existing electronic contract system, and is currently negotiating the contract of the further project. Q4. It seems that the government still has not decided responses to blockchain. What do you think about it? As long as the blockchain provides the ability to issue a cryptocurrency, it is, in fact, desirable for the government to be cautious about this. It is true that the negative effect of the speculative frenzy of cryptocurrency was considerably big, but the time given to a player in the IT competition is very short. Because the whole world is competing in real time without the border and day and night, it is likely to miss the 'Golden Time'. I think a cautious decision does not necessarily to be long. The operating system installed in most smartphones around the world is Android which was developed by Google and first launched in 2008, or Apple's iOS first announced with iPhone in 2007. Now, even if an outstanding operating system is developed by a Korean company, I think it is almost impossible to go through between them. No one will want to use an operating system that does not have an available app, and no developer will develop an app for an operating system without a user. The similar situation can occur in the blockchain. A major global IT company, Oracle's vice president of the blockchain development group, said in a recent media interview that more than half of the world's enterprises will use blockchain technology in three years. If we cannot avoid blockchain as it is the current of time that cannot be defeated, it may be better to prevent the side effects by putting it in the system. Furthermore, I believe that 'post-Android' could be a blockchain platform developed by a Korean company if the government provides a promotional policy for Korean companies to lead the global market in the long period. Q5. How do you foresee the trends of blockchain market for the next five years? While international standards are important, 'De Facto standards' are more important in the IT field. There are a number of international standards organizations such as IEEE, W3C, GSMA, and ISO, but now, the technologies and services created by open-source projects and companies based on them, Google or Amazon for example, becomes the standards. In other words, when people use it a lot in the real market, it becomes the standard, and we must be able to lead this de facto standard. At present, I think that Etherium is the closest to the de facto standard. Various technology standards starting with ERC become projects, and many developers voluntarily gather here to create a strong ecosystem based on spontaneity. It may be due to the technical superiority of Etherium, but the advantages of 'what people use most' are great. The more users there are, the easier it is to get relevant information. Also, a lot of information will make it easier for new users to come in. It is difficult for such an ecosystem to form in a short time. From this point of view, the future of the blockchain market is likely to become a battle for hegemony. However, it is not easy for followers to take the lead in platform competition, because it depends on how many people use it, rather than how well a particular blockchain is technologically superior. As such, long-term and aggressive promotion policy of the government is urgent. I went to MWC held in Barcelona this year. Although IoT, AI, 5G were the mains, it was not difficult to find companies preparing blockchain technology everywhere. I thought that the blockchain would be in the overall IT industry with IoT and AI at a point in the near future. Blockchain somehow got the spotlight a little early, but it is starting now. Ju-yung Chung, the founder of the Hyundai Group, always said, "Hey, have you ever tried to do it?" I think it is a spirit of the times that we all have to remind ourselves of. ### Moon-Ok Cho, CTO & CSO of Hdac, in charge of a strategic and technical supervisor in Hdac Technology and Hyundai Pay, is a representative FinTech specialist in Korea, who was responsible for ‘T Pay,' the mobile payment service of SK Telecom. In early 2010, he was attracted to the potential of a service model that combines blockchain and FinTech by encountering the blockchain technology for the first time through Hoh Peter In, a professor at Korea University’s Blockchain Research Institute. Moon-Ok Cho is the first-generation architect who introduced SOA(Service Oriented Architecture) to Korea at the time of working at Samsung SDS. Taking the first step into the IT industry as a developer, he has a higher level of understanding and experience than anyone else in both IT and finance, the core attributes of blockchain technology. Recently, he has written a book on Hyperledger development which is to be published.
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Bentley Systems Names Dr. Nabil Abou-Rahme as Chief Research Officer
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructuretoday announced that Dr. Nabil Abou-Rahme has joined Bentley as chief research officer for Bentley Institute’s Digital Advancement Academies. He will work from Bentley’s London offices, and will lead Bentley’s efforts in digital advancement research, collaborating with government, university, and industry visionaries to promote innovative solutions for advancing infrastructure. His new role was introduced today to fellow researchers attending the Future Infrastructure Symposium convened at Bentley’s London Digital Advancement Academy. Dr. Abou-Rahme joins Bentley from the global consultancy firm Mott MacDonald, where he was actively involved in digital transformation, most recently as head of smart infrastructure and global practice leader for data science, and prior to that, as divisional director for intelligent transport. His career began with applied research in network optimisation and control at the Transport Research Laboratory, where he went on to manage research teams and complete a PhD. Subsequent technical highlights from his consultancy roles include specifications for the EU ITS Directive, implementation of bank-led contactless payment systems on public transport in South Africa and developing operational regimes for the first “smart motorways” in the UK. Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley said, “We are gratified to have Dr. Abou-Rahme join us to inaugurate our chief research officer role. We are newly able to advance infrastructure engineering through digital twins, by converging technologies to simultaneously meet their essential requirements for digital context, digital components, and digital chronology. Accordingly, an appropriate priority for Bentley Institute’s Digital Advancement Academies is now to work with authoritative research organizations to explore and substantiate the growing benefits, which are already realizable from infrastructure digital twins. By virtue of his unique combination of infrastructure engineering expertise and research experience, and contagious zeal for ‘going digital,’ Nabil brings the perfect fit to lead these collaborative endeavors.” Dr. Abou-Rahme said, “Bentley has a clear commitment to accelerating the adoption of digital technologies, including advancing BIM through digital twins. A key part of digital advancement research is a portfolio of demonstrator projects, collaborative prototypes that allow us to explore the art of the possible, while leveraging the best of academic, technical, and industrial experience within those teams. Our commitment also extends to supporting academic institutions through sponsorship and making our technologies available as a learning and development tool. Bentley’s open and collaborative approach to innovation is well established, and I am excited to be leading this portfolio into the next phase of application.” A chartered engineer, Dr. Abou-Rahme holds a PhD in Bayesian statistics from the University of Southampton, a Master of Science from University College London, a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Imperial College London, and a general management certificate from Roffey Park. In his talk today at the Future Infrastructure Symposium, a two-day gathering of industry experts, university researchers, and thought leaders to discuss the future of infrastructure, Dr. Abou-Rahme referenced a number of Bentley Institute-sponsored research projects around the world, including demonstrator projects at University College London, University of Cambridge, and Imperial College, and encouraged parties interested in collaborating on future demonstrator projects to contact him at Bentley.Institute@bentley.com
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Ziften Appoints Enterprise Sales Veteran Mickey DiPietro as Vice President of Sales
Ziften today announced the appointment of industry veteran MickeyDiPietro as Vice President of Sales. DiPietro brings to Ziften over 20years of experience as a senior sales executive that spans thespectrum from start-up to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining Ziften, DiPietro was Vice President of Sales / GMAmericas at Cyren from 2016-2019 where he created a highlytechnical, strategic sales team from the ground up, significantlygrowing new customer acquisitions in less than 3 years. Prior toCyren, DiPietro was at Zscaler where he was responsible for newmid-market customer acquisition. And prior to that, DiPietro was responsible for leading andbuilding mid-market enterprise sales teams for Authenic8, Google Apps, and Postini. “Mickey is an experienced sales executive with a long track record of building, training, andmentoring high performing sales teams,” said Mike Hamilton, Chief Executive Officer, Ziften."Ziften is experiencing strong growth in the endpoint security software market, and we arefortunate to add someone of his caliber to help drive our expanding sales team. I have theutmost confidence that he will contribute strong leadership centered on the needs of ourcustomers and partners during this exciting time of growth for Ziften.” "I'm excited by the opportunity to take a fast growing cybersecurity company’s sales team tothe next level,” said DiPietro. “The rapid adoption of Ziften’s cloud-delivered endpointprotection plus visibility and hardening platform along with the team’s commitment toinnovation gives me the necessary tools to build and maximize the performance of itssalesforce.”
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Yang-ho Cho The Chairman of the Hanjin Group dies in USA
Yang-ho Cho, The Chairman of the Hanjin Group, died in the United States at dawn today(Korea time) on August 8. He is 70 years old.
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LINE Founder Jungho Shin Appointed Co-CEO
LINE Corporation announced today that Jungho Shin, the Chief WOW Officer (CWO) of LINE Corporation, has also been appointed Co-CEO of the company. Taking effect April 1, the decision was made during the company's board meeting today. As a result, LINE will have two representative directors: Takeshi Idezawa, the CEO and President, and Jungho Shin, the Co-CEO and Chief WOW Officer. Shin's new appointment as Co-CEO comes as the company moves towards its next stage of development. Uncompromising in his service-driven mindset and the pursuit of "wow," Shin has been behind the creation of countless services--including the globally popular LINE messaging app--and has spearheaded the company's growth internationally. As a representative director, Shin will now focus on bolstering the competitiveness of LINE's services and promoting innovation--assuming clear responsibility for creating groundbreaking services and the company's operations. CEO and President Takeshi Idezawa will focus on the management side, as well as revenue, organizational structure, human resources, and recruitment, to create the best possible environment for the LINE Group. By having Idezawa and Shin commit to their respective areas of expertise under this new structure, the aim is to strengthen and enhance LINE's management structure, enable nimbler decision-making, and deliver world-class services that will accelerate LINE's growth, both in Asia and globally. LINE began its "second growth phase" this year, moving into new business domains such as FinTech, AI, and blockchain. In February, the company appointed Shin as "Chief WOW Officer", committing more than ever to pursuing a service-driven mindset and "WOW"-inducing services. "Service-Driven" describes LINE's founding philosophy, which maintains that service competitiveness capable of eclipsing the competition is essential for a business to grow. "WOW" is a word that sums up the company's core value of delivering an unprecedented user experience, something that is truly newsworthy.
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Dr. Leilei Shinohara Joins RoboSense as VP of R&D
RoboSense, announced today that Dr. Leilei Shinohara has joined RoboSense as Vice President of R&D. With more than a decade of experience developing LiDAR systems, Dr. Shinohara is regarded as one of the most accomplished experts in this field. He previously served as the lead of Valeo’s SCALA® LiDAR project, the world’s first automotive grade LiDAR product. Dr. Shinohara brings RoboSense a wealth of valuable experience that will help with the growth and development of the automotive grade mass production of RoboSense’s LiDAR products. Prior to joining RoboSense, Dr. Shinohara was the Technical Lead for Asia OEMs at Valeo, responsible for multiple programs, including automotive LiDAR, automotive safety products, and sensor fusion projects. He managed an international sensor product development team located in six countries, responsible for the development and implementation of systems, software, hardware, mechanics, testing and validation, and functional safety, building the first automotive grade LiDAR product. “We are thrilled to have a top LiDAR expert like Dr. Leilei Shinohara joining our team,” said Mark Qiu, RoboSense COO and Co-founder. “Dr. Shinohara is one of the world’s most seasoned talents in the LiDAR industry, exceptionally well suited to lead the R&D department here at RoboSense. We are confident that Dr. Shinohara will bring his valuable experience to build automotive grade LiDAR products that can be mass produced to empower highly automated driving.” Dr. Shinohara graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology with a Bachelor Degree in System and Control Engineering and a Master Degree in Mechanical and Control System Engineering. In 2008, he began PhD studies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany, receiving his PhD degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2014. During his six years of PhD studies, Shinohara focused on LiDAR systems and was involved in several sensor projects, including the design and simulation of optical sensor systems, optical quality measurement (MTF) systems, coherent Doppler wind LiDAR systems, and 3D LiDAR technology based on MEMS micromirrors for autonomous driving. As an outstanding LiDAR project manager and the chief engineer, Dr. Shinohara and his research team at KIT developed a LiDAR system which was later acquired by a German Tier 1 company. “I was impressed by the innovation capabilities and technical acumen of RoboSense, which were the major reasons that attracted me to join the team,” said Dr. Shinohara. “I am honored to join such a dynamic and promising team in the field of LiDAR technology. At CES 2019, a group of autonomous driving industry gurus expressed their ambition to accelerate the commercialization of AV [autonomous vehicle] technology, which further indicated the urgent demand for automotive grade solid-state LiDAR products that can be mass produced. This year at CES, RoboSense exhibited its latest MEMS solid-state LiDAR, which has superior performance to its peer products. With RoboSense’s leading technology and my previous experience in this industry, I am confident that together, we can greatly accelerate the development of automotive grade LiDAR products that can be mass produced to make highly automated driving a reality.” As an honoree of the CES 2019 Innovation Award, RoboSense demonstrated its new automotive grade MEMS solid-state LiDAR to the world: RS-LiDAR-M1, which has attracted the attention of major international OEMs and Tier 1 automotive companies. The RS-LiDAR-M1 offers a wide 120 degrees horizontal field of view with very high resolution. It adopts a lower-cost, mass production-friendly 905nm Laser waveband that achieves a long 200 meter detection range.
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Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) Announces New Deputy Director and Organization Restructuring
Kim Bokkeun, new deputy director of Busan International Film Festival Busan International Film Festival has announced to fill a position which remained vacant since the late Deputy Director and Program Director Kim Jiseok passed away in 2017. Kim Bokkeun, a former head of CAC Entertainment film department and a film producer has been appointed as the new deputy director. Kim has produced 15 works of TV dramas and films which includes Art Museum By The Zoo, Interview, Whispering Corridors 5, He’s on Duty, Almost Che. Based on his long term work experience in filming, Kim will be in the forefront of reinforcing the festival organization’s administration, HR and structure. Other changes have been made along with the appointment of deputy director. Nam Dong-chul, Korean cinema programmer of Busan International Film Festival will serve as the new program director. Nam joined the Busan International Film Festival since 2009 as the head manager of Asian Film Market, after serving as the editor in chief of Cine21, which is a film magazine in South Korea. Nam will take the lead to derive change and improve the festival’s programming system according to many years of experience in the industry and programming field. Also, Moon Hyunjung has been appointed as the new general manager of the festival office. Moon’s various work experience at the Busan International Film Festival started in 2008 as public relations manager followed by marketing manager and program manager. She will undertake the household of festival office by actively interacting with the staffs. - Laying the foundation for the festival’s future plan with efficiency and interaction of the organization By restructuring process, the Busan International Film Festival aims for higher efficiency in order to lay the foundation for future planning to adapt the changing environment of the market. On January 2 festival office visited BIFF square in Nampo-dong, the originate of the Busan International Film Festival, for the new year kickoff meeting. Festival Chairman Lee Yong-kwan, Festival Director Jay Jeon, newly appointed Deputy Director Kim Bokkeun and office staffs made a resolution to improve the Busan International Film Festival as a film festival for the whole. The 24th Busan International Film Festival will be held from October 3, 2019 to October 12, 2019
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Lenzing Reinforces Textile Leadership with Appointment of New Senior Management
The Lenzing Group (Lenzing) today announced the appointment of Florian Heubrandner as Vice President of Global Business Management Textiles. Florian Heubrandner will be leading Lenzing’s global strategy and development across the textile value chain, bringing to life Lenzing’s transformation from a B2B fiber producer to a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) brand following the rejuvenation of TENCEL™, Lenzing’s textile specialty brand earlier this year and the launch of LENZING™ ECOVERO™, Lenzing’s sustainable viscose brand last year. “The appointment of Florian Heubrandner will enable us to grow from strength to strength in the global textile ecosystem,” said Robert van de Kerkhof, Chief Commercial Officer of Lenzing Group. “Over the past few years, Florian has played an integral role in Lenzing’s global leadership team and we are confident that under his leadership, our textile business will continue to grow and prosper, supported by stronger relationship with our partners and customers across the value chain.” Following the introduction of TENCEL™, Lenzing’s textile specialty brand, in February, Lenzing has been on a fast track to a B2B2C brand transformation while garnering steady growth via collaborations with consumer brands and participation in various fashion shows around the world. “Innovation and branding will remain our core focus in the textile segment,” said Florian Heubrandner, Vice President of Global Business Management Textiles. “Drawing on the synergies of our R&D center in Austria and the Application Innovation Center in Hong Kong, we will continue to empower the industry value chain with high quality fibers and value-added fiber and fabric innovation. One particularly exciting initiative will be the expansion of our production capacity for TENCEL™ Luxe branded cellulosic filament. A renewed focus on branding to drive stronger demand for TENCEL™ and LENZING™ ECOVERO™ branded fibers in the industry value chain will foster increased awareness of our brands among consumers and therefore generating demand for our fibers in the value chain.”
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BIzzabo CEO Eran Ben-Shushan Recognized as a Top 50 SaaS CEO of 2018
Bizzabo, today revealed that its Chief Executive Officer, Eran Ben-Shushan, was recognized as a Top 50 SaaS CEO of 2018 by The SaaS Report. The SaaS Report provides a comprehensive source for business news, investment activity, and corporate actions related to the SaaS and software markets. For this year's report, the Top 50 CEOs were selected based on detailed reviews from their respective employees and industry colleagues. Nearly 5,000 nominations on behalf of hundreds of CEOs were received this year. CEOs were assessed across a number of key areas including integrity, intelligence, energy, company culture, and company growth, among other areas. The list was developed to honor leaders of SaaS companies who have driven revenue growth while creating cultures that foster innovation. Since Eran co-founded Bizzabo in 2011, the company has enabled thousands of professional events around the world with its multi-award winning cloud platform. Its modern suite of tools create impactful and rewarding professional events that drive impactful in-person experiences, networking opportunities and business outcomes. Before founding Bizzabo, Eran was the CEO of Rosh-Pina Media Convention, one of Israel’s most prominent yearly events. He was also a project leader and system engineer at Elbit Systems. Eran began his career at the Israeli Air Force, serving as an officer for 9 years. He graduated cum laude from The Interdisciplinary Center Herzeliya, where he studied for a BA in Business and participated in the prestigious Sam Zell entrepreneurship program.
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[Column] Quantum Computing Age to Come ... Big Blue IBM Seeking Opportunities for a New Leap
"I'm not happy with all the analyses that go with just the classical theory, because nature isn't classical, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you'd better make it quantum mechanical..." At 'Physics of Computation Conference' in 1981, a physicist Richard P. Feynman first delivered the message that quantum computing is needed. Since then, after several decades of steady development and research, we are now in the process of defining quantum computing and developing algorithms. So, IT companies such as Microsoft, Google and IBM are developing a 50-qubit quantum computer and are working hard on research. When quantum computing is applied to various fields in the future, a number of things that the existing computers could not do will become possible. Existing computers computed and processed information using a binary system of 'Bit' using 0 or 1. Quantum computers, however, use the principles of quantum physics, also called quantum mechanics. They use 'Qubit (a.k.a Quantum Bit)' which allows 'superstition' state of 0 and 1, such as 00, 01, 10, and 11. Since they exist in an 'entangled' state, once a change occurs in one qubit, the other entangled qubit can quickly process it. In this way, as quantum computers can simultaneously exist in multiple states and act on all the states, it becomes possible to do numerous calculations separately at the same time with only one processor. Today, there are about 3 billion transistors in smartphones. To double the performance of this smartphone, about 6 billion transistors will be needed. On the other hand, the performance of quantum computers can be expressed as 'n square(s) of 2' with n qubit(s) because of the property of 'superstition' state. For example, if you want to double the performance of a device that has 16 qubits, you only need to add 1 qubit. Quantum computing is incomparably faster than computers using 0 and 1 bits. It will be possible to calculate the formula that humans calculate for hundreds of years within a few seconds. ▲ IBM has made it possible for anyone to experience Quantum Computing through IBM Q. (Image source: www.research.ibm.com/ibm-q) IBM has spent the past 100 years cultivating the foundations of IT and seeding it, and now it is changed to a completely different shape. Vacuum tubes, switches, punched cards, quantum computers and AI all exist in the history of IBM. Moreover, cutting out the history of x86 hardware that it had started and the shift from massive hardware- to technology-centered is also a specialness of IBM's history. Therefore, its history and journeys have a special meaning and need to be watched with interest. IBM pointed out three areas as the possible application areas for quantum computing in the future. First, it is expected to be a field of Chemistry including material design, oil and gas, and drug discovery. In fact, IBM published the results of the simulation using quantum algorithms with chemistry in September 2017 in the international science journal, Nature. The second area is predicted to be Artifical Intelligence (AI), which is a key technology of the 4th industrial revolution, including classification, machine learning, and linear algebra. Lastly, the quantum computing will take effect in a field of Financial Services, especially in the sectors of portfolio optimization, scenario analysis and pricing. Quantum computing's development phases include 'Quantum Foundations', which defines the basics of everything in quantum computing, 'Quantum Ready', which can develop algorithms and expand the sizes. And finally, 'Quantum Advantage' is a phase to commercialization and application to reality with quantum computing. Currently, IBM and also other IT companies researching quantum computing are at just beyond the middle of the 'Quantum Ready' phase. In fact, IBM expects quantum computing to be the mainstream in the next five years, and by 2020 it will be at the phase of 'Quantum Advantage'. In preparation for 'Quantum Ready' phase, IBM launched the Quantum Computing Platform called IBM Q Experience in 2017, making it accessible to anyone including students and researchers. At first, only 5 qubits were available, but now, up to 16 qubits are available. Released with IBM Q Experience, the Quantum Information Science Kit (QISKit) is an open source quantum computing system for developers to help make today's quantum development process and research more active. IBM is working on a 100-qubit quantum computer with the goal of developing it by 2020. The 100-qubit quantum computer has the ability to simulate all the atoms in the universe. ▲ The development of quantum computing will reduce this entire data center to just a few racks. (Image source: Samsung SDS) The performance improvements of existing transistor-based computer systems so far are approaching a certain physical limitation. Semiconductor processes are already nearing the level of physically close to the size of electrons, and the interest in what will happen to the next generation of silicon-based semiconductors is growing. Accordingly, the quantum computing has long been anticipated as an innovative way to go beyond "physical barriers." Given the impacts of quantum computing on us, it is likely to lead the changes beyond the cloud than what we see in the near future for various practical issues. This may be because the operation conditions of the initial system will be as tricky as a superconductor. On top of that, quantum computing is evaluated as a "double-edged sword". This is because it is expected to have the power to cause the collapse of the existing encryption system as well as the change in both the existing infrastructure and service structure. In fact, in March 2017, the world's largest security conference, 'RSA 2017', discussed the threats and countermeasures of quantum computer's threats to the existing encryption technology. Especially, the National Security Agency (NSA) has predicted that quantum computing technology could destroy the current code order since 2016. Canadian research institute 'Global Risk Institute' also claimed that it is higher than 50 percent that the current encryption system is collapsed due to quantum computers in 2031. For now, if quantum computing is commercialized and exploited, it is expected to pose a major threat to any industry based on IT technology. Worldwide web communications, Internet banking, and even cryptocurrency will be exposed to the crisis, and it will be time to change all the systems and structures. With these peculiarities in mind, quantum computing researchers will not only focus on the development of quantum computers but will also work in a direction of enhancing the quality of life after its commercialization. In other words, they should be focused on harmoniousness with other industries. That will be a major premise of 'Quantum Computing' for humans.
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Apstra Announces Chief Marketing Officer to Accelerate Intent-Based Networking
Apstra® Inc. announced today that Michael Wood has joined the company as chief marketing officer and will head up all marketing and product efforts for the company. Wood is a seasoned strategic leader who brings nearly 30 years of experience to Apstra at a time when the company is expected to change the competitive landscape as a pioneer in intent-based networking. Prior to Apstra, Michael was at VeloCloud (acquired by VMware) for three years, where he was VP of worldwide marketing. Prior to VMware and VeloCloud, he was at Akamai, Cisco and Stratacom (acquired by Cisco) in product leadership and engineering roles. Michael brings with him extensive experience in the areas of product management, product marketing, scaling businesses, driving revenue, incorporating process, and outbound marketing to create lead and demand generation. He has experience scaling organizations within high growth startup environments and extensive hands on experience in networking as a service, virtualization, and the cloud and security sectors. “We are thrilled to welcome Michael to our growing team,” said Mansour Karam, CEO and founder of Apstra, Inc. “Michael has a great depth and understanding of what it takes to scale product management, product marketing and deliver results in a fast-paced startup environment which was really important for us to consider in this critical hire. He is a proven marketing executive with the ability to effectively lead our talented global marketing team.” “It’s an exciting time at Apstra and I am looking forward to helping to leverage our deep expertise in intent-based networking to transform data center operations,” said Michael Wood. “Apstra has an incredible amount of traction and I look forward to working with this passionate team to help enterprise, service provider and cloud customers realize massive TCO savings through data center network automation solutions.”
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Global Shop Solutions Celebrates 25-Year Anniversary of Erika Klein, Vice President of R&D
Global Shop Solutions is proud to celebrate 25 years of ERP software excellence under the leadership of Vice President of R&D Erika Klein. As the daughter of Dick Alexander, founder of Global Shop Solutions, Klein has lived and breathed the company since she was a young girl. From joining her parents at the office after school, to running our R&D department of nearly 100 people, Klein has been a visionary in 40+ years of company success. Klein’s journey as an employee started in Global Shop Solutions service department helping customers navigate our software, but she quickly transitioned into the role of Chief Software Designer. During her tenure, she has led the release of dozens of applications that simplify manufacturing for our customers. Each of the products released in the past two decades – Business Intelligence, CRM, Quality Control, FLOOOM, Document Control™, Advanced Planning & Scheduling, GAB, and Dashboards for Manufacturers – all have Klein’s design and manufacturing leadership. Every application within the system has made a direct impact to customers resulting in a better return on their investment and simplified manufacturing. “Twenty five years ago my remarkable sister, Erika Klein, walked through the doors of Global Shop Solutions for the first time as an employee,” says President and CEO Dusty Alexander. “Since then, she’s grown to lead our R&D department managing four teams and nearly 100 people earning the respect and admiration of all employees. Our manufacturing customers around the world benefit from her ability to lead others as her team brings great products to market every day.”
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JASK Appoints Recognized Cyber Market Maker Greg Fitzgerald as CMO and Unveils HQ2 in Austin
JASK, the provider of the industry’s first Autonomous Security Operations Center (ASOC) platform, today announced the appointment of Greg “Fitz” Fitzgerald as chief marketing officer (CMO). Fitzgerald is responsible for the global strategy and execution of JASK’s go-to-market functions to drive brand, demand and expansion for the company’s artificial intelligence-driven platform. Fitzgerald brings more than 25 years of technology leadership experience to JASK, most recently serving as chief operating officer of Javelin Networks. Prior to that, he was a founding executive member and CMO of Cylance, where the artificial intelligence (AI) endpoint protection and detection provider realized record growth, from idea to 1000 employees, in less than four years. Cylance transformed the anti-virus industry with AI and machine learning, and Fitzgerald’s innovative ideas for competitive differentiation, brand recognition and global expansion were paramount to its success. “Greg’s evangelical, cultural and leadership skills, earned from years in both start-up and public companies, make him a great fit to join the JASK team in disrupting a legacy market by creating a new one focused on autonomous security operations,” said Stuart McClure, CEO and co-founder of Cylance and JASK board member. An experienced cybersecurity marketing leader, Fitzgerald held CMO positions where he accelerated awareness and growth at Fortinet, Sourcefire (later acquired by Cisco) and TippingPoint (acquired by 3Com and HP). Currently, he is an advisory board member for Cylance, HYPR, Javelin Networks and Trustgrid, and chairman of the board of directors for Cyberforce Security, a global cybersecurity managed security service provider (MSSP). Additionally, he is on the boards of Reconstructing Hope and Knights of the Austin Symphony. “I’ve been blessed in establishing markets for some of the leading cybersecurity companies by focusing on the pain that security operations teams experience. After advising JASK for a year, I know this is the perfect time to join the team as we leverage modern technologies to automate manual processes and improve how enterprises approach cyber defense,” said Fitzgerald. “I join a leadership team made up of some of the most prominent industry leaders and the brightest talent in data science and engineering, and I look forward to building on our rapid growth, significant industry adoption and international expansion.” The appointment of Fitzgerald aligns with JASK opening its second headquarters today in Austin, strategically placing JASK in the Domain Northside where other key technology and cybersecurity companies are establishing a major presence. The company, which also has headquarters in San Francisco, is home to 40 Austin-based employees with plans to exceed 100 by the end of 2018. Fitzgerald joins JASK’s Austin-based leadership team that includes Chief Technology Officer (CTO) J.J. Guy, Vice President of Engineering Rob Fry, Vice President of Sales Brent Thompson, and Vice President of Product Rocky DeStefano. “Greg brings tremendous security industry experience, insight and energy to the team as we build our culture and significantly expand our sales and marketing presence,” said Greg Martin, CEO and co-founder, JASK. “His leadership and business expertise will be essential as we grow our channel network, build our technology alliances and enter new markets at rates he is used to driving. I’m amazed at the caliber of our team in Austin, a rapidly growing tech-focused city that is the perfect complement to our San Francisco team.” JASK’s expansion into Austin intersects with recent milestones including new Fortune 1000 customers across healthcare, financial services, retail, telecommunications and government organizations. The company’s recent momentum is a result of its unique approach to security operations. By providing security operations center (SOC) teams with the visibility and context needed to make optimal decisions, JASK enables security professionals to properly defend against cyber threats, while significantly decreasing the number of alerts they’ve had to deal with historically. “We are excited to welcome a company on the leading edge of cybersecurity as our first office tenant on Rock Rose,” said Jonathan Tate, principal at Endeavor Real Estate Group. “We're confident that opening their HQ2 at Domain Northside will help JASK recruit top Austin talent.”
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Blockchain Advisory Expert, Ian Scarffe Joins Pool of Stake Advisory Board
Pool of Stake, the first decentralized pool for Proof of Stake blockchains, is pleased to announce the addition of Ian Scarffe to its Board of Advisors. As Pool of Stake continues to attract international attention, Ian brings extensive experience within investor relations and Blockchain markets to support the Pool of Stake fundraising process. As a Blockchain expert, Ian is on the advisory board of multi-million-dollar Blockchain start-ups. “As a highly experienced and seasoned Blockchain Advisor, Ian’s expertise will be an asset to the Pool of Stake ICO and its continued global expansion” Davide Luigi Borella, Chief Executive Officer Ian Scarffe is a serial entrepreneur, investor and consultant with business experience from around the world. As a leading entrepreneur, Ian is on a personal mission to develop a culture of entrepreneurship, helping startups achieve their full potential as well as helping to expand existing companies. A leading expert in Bitcoin, Blockchain and Crypto industries, Ian is at the very heart of revolutionizing the financing industry across the globe and currently consults and advises for a range of multi-million dollar companies. Ian’s overall mission is to foster a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens, contributing to the improvement of their communities across the world.
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Calix Senior Director Bernd Hesse Elected to Broadband Forum Board of Directors
Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced Bernd Hesse, Calix senior director of technology development, has been elected to the Broadband Forum’s Board of Directors during last week’s quarterly meeting in Athens, Greece. Hesse brings his extensive experience leading industry forums and creating momentum for leading-edge broadband innovations to support the Broadband Forum in its ongoing work to define and deliver ubiquitous, next-generation access technologies. Hesse is the Founder and Chairman of the Broadband Forum’s BASE events. BASE is a series of public workshops, which provide technical expertise as well as education on the latest technology and use cases for innovative broadband technologies. The most recent BASE workshops, held in Athens and at the 2018 OFC Conference in early March, drew more than 400 industry delegates. The workshops covered a range of topics including the managed home, 5G wireless/wireline convergence, virtualized broadband, cloud services, and the latest in next-generation access technologies. “The Broadband Forum is a world-class organization doing critically important work across the world to help shape how broadband evolves. I am honored to have been elected to the board,” commented Bernd Hesse, senior director for technology development at Calix. “My career has largely focused on progressing the development of the next wave of broadband technologies, so I am excited for this opportunity to further influence our industry through this position. For Calix, it further highlights the work our company has done for years across many influential standards bodies and keeps us engaged at the cutting edge of new standards as they are developed.” Hesse joined Calix in 2016 with more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He has founded several industry groups and technology forums, including the WDM-PON Forum and NG-PON2 Forum, the latter of which is now part of the Broadband Forum’s NG-PON2 Council. Hesse has been a catalyst for bringing together key industry stakeholders to increase the adoption of these technologies, create and drive interoperability programs, and develop partnerships across broadband access and metro networking. Bernd’s expertise in PON and optical access technology will bring a new depth of experience to the Broadband Forum Board of Directors. Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum said: “Bernd has been a very enthusiastic and experienced member of the Forum since he began to represent Calix and I am delighted that he has been elected to the Board, at what is a very exciting and challenging time for the Forum.” Hesse’s election is another milestone in Calix’s long-time commitment to industry standards. The company has been on the forefront of standards development and interoperability plans with the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) group, Wi-Fi Alliance, and the Broadband Forum for over a decade. Calix team members both lead and participate in many of the Broadband Forum’s workgroups, including those focused on driving momentum and adoption of Gfast and NG-PON2 technologies.
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Bridge Alliance Names Ong Geok Chwee as New CEO
Mobile operator alliance Bridge Alliance appoints Ms. Ong Geok Chwee as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective from 26 March 2018. Geok Chwee joins Bridge Alliance with more than 20 years of experience in the infocomm technology industry. She is a seasoned leader, having driven business and market development for emerging technologies and businesses in large and award-winning companies like Singtel. Geok Chwee brings a wealth of experience in building partnerships and alliances across regions to develop differentiated solutions for enterprises. The Board welcomes Geok Chwee to the Bridge Alliance team. "Geok Chwee has made her name in the ICT sector as an evangelist of open collaboration and a driver of innovation and new growth engines. Her track record of championing emerging businesses like the Internet of Things, big data analytics and software-as-a-service, lends edge to her new role. We look forward to working closely with her as she leads the Bridge Alliance team," said Mr Mark Chong, Chairman of the Board of Bridge Alliance. "I am backed by a strong team of leaders as we transit to the next phase. Continuous innovation and strong partnerships with our member operators will fuel the alliance's growth in the exciting and dynamic age of global connectivity," said Ms. Ong Geok Chwee. "Bridge Alliance has the strength and reach needed to harness the power of collaboration and shared-knowledge. I look forward to working with our member operators and partners to forge new growth frontiers together," she added.
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Infor Promotes Helen Masters to Senior Vice President & General Manager, Asia-Pacific
Infor, a leading provider of industry-specific cloud applications, today announced the promotion of Helen Masters to senior vice president and general manager, Asia-Pacific. Based in the company's regional hub in Singapore, Masters will be responsible for Infor's business across ASEAN, Australia, Greater China, Korea, and New Zealand. "Over the last 7 years, Infor has spent more than $3 billion dollars in R&D and developed the first set of mission-critical, industry-specific business applications in the cloud," said Stephan Scholl, president of Infor. "The company is poised for accelerated growth in Asia-Pacific, and Helen Masters has proven herself as the right leader to deliver this growth. I am especially pleased to announce her promotion as the company's first female geo lead today on International Women's Day." Masters has quickly ascended the ranks to become the first female to lead a major region at Infor. In 2016, three years after being hired as VP of the ASEAN region, Masters was promoted to vice president, ASEAN and the Pacific, which includes Australia and New Zealand. During her tenure in this role, Infor's business across the region grew considerably, as Masters took advantage of new developments at Infor including Infor CloudSuite, Infor Birst Analytics, Infor OS, and Infor Coleman to create transformational deals for some of Asia-Pacific's largest organizations and companies. "I am excited to lead Asia-Pacific, a region that continues to be a growth engine for the global economy," said Masters. "We are confident that organisations in the region will be able to capture the full benefits and tremendous business advantages that Infor innovation and the cloud has to offer. On International Women's Day, I wish to take this moment to celebrate the achievements of women from all walks of life, and the knowledge that we have real choices."
