TCCA Adds Two New Board Members Representing Nokia and ESMCP

Two new Board members were co-opted at the TCCA Board meeting this week. Philippe Agard, Global Public Safety and Defence Segment Leader at Nokia joined the board as well as Ari Toivonen who represent the UK Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP).

They join Board chair Mladen Vratonjić, and existing Board members Ali Helenius, Airbus Defence and Space; Dr. Barbara Held, BDBOS Germany; Francesco Pasquali, Leonardo; Jeppe Jepsen, Motorola Solutions; Malcolm Quelch, Sepura; and independent consultant Tero Pesonen.

Chairman of the board, Mladen Vratonjić: "We believe that these appointments will broaden the competence of the Board and enable us to increase support for all our members. A wider membership representation on the Board means we can better focus our work on all operations of the Association. We look forward to the contributions of Philippe and Ari and expect that they will take part in all Board activities - from everyday business to important strategic decisions."

There were two vacancies on the board. One of the vacancies was the position of Tony Gray, who resigned from the Board to be CEO of the TCCA, and one position that was unfilled at the last elections at the 2017 AGM.

Both Agard and Toivonen are now co-opted Board members until the 2018 AGM, at which point they will stand for election.

Philippe Agard

As Global Public Safety and Defence Segment Leader at Nokia, Philippe Agard currently leads a team which develops the Nokia business in this segment globally through direct customer engagements. It includes defining the market requirements, driving discussion with the Business groups to define the corresponding solutions and developing the relevant partner ecosystem.

Philippe Agard has spent his entire career in the communication Industry, within Alcatel, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia.

Currently, Philippe represents Nokia at TCCA, Public Safety Communication Europe and Cyber Excellence Cluster in France.

Ari Toivonen

Ari Toivonen is Spectrum and Technology Strategy Manager at the UK Home Office and more than 15 years focused on delivering mission critical communications, first at Nokia before moving to deliver the current Airwave system and the future Emergency Services Network in Great Britain. 

Toivonen has taken an active role in several related national and international working groups over these years including chairing the TETRA user requirements standardisation working group for three years. Since 2010 he has worked closely with other UK government departments and spectrum regulator Ofcom on the government’s spectrum strategy and the public sector spectrum release programme. Ari is the current chairman of the UK’s Public Safety Spectrum Policy Group, reporting to the UK Spectrum Strategy Committee.