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The aim of this section is to provide a quick overview of main changes within organisations involved in the Information Society in Europe over the last three months: bodies associated to Information Society within national and regional governments, regulatory authorities, IS "forums" and expert groups, associations, telecoms operators, etc.
Austria On September 22nd 1998, Mr. Werner Kasztler was designated as head of Telekom Austria AG, the telecommunications unit of PTA – Post und Telekom Austria. Mr. Kasztler presently leads BEWAG, the energy utility in the federal province of Burgendland. Before, he was head of Schrack-Ericsson Austria. The public service broadcaster ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) has a new general manager. Gerhard Weis was elected by the Board of Governors with 28 of 35 votes on July 6th, 1998. He has served in the ORF for 31 years. His last position was general secretary and managing director of radio broadcasting. Weis will succeed Gerhard Zeiler, who is going to be the new managing director of RTL in Germany. Gerhard Weis will have to deal with the restructuring of the ORF per se as well as the alignment of the two TV channels and four radio stations to the increasingly competitive market situation. Although the public broadcaster did not loose as much ground to the private competitors as many people have forecasted, the new general manager Gerhard Weis is determined to strengthen the financial position of his company and thus to continue the path which his predecessor Gerhard Zeiler started. He will have to deal with some legal disputes staking off the claims between the ORF and private competitors. Finland Mr. Heikki Lehmusto, executive director of television at the Finnish Broadcasting Company Oy, was selected to the chairman of the Digital TV Forum Finland, that was established to promote the construction and standardization of the digital TV network in Finland. Mr. Matti Mattheiszen, the managing director of Helsinki Telephone Corporation was selected to the chairman of the Finnet Association. Mr. Harri Johannesdahl was appointed as the managing director of Saunalahden Serveri Oy, a new Internet services provider (ISP) company, established as the result of acquisitions and mergers of several mid-sized and smaller ISPs. Germany New head at o.tel.o: Starting in the middle of July, 1998 the member of the executive board at RWE, Thomas Geitner, has taken over as head director at the o.tel.o telecommunication provider. O.tel.o is one of the leading competitors of the Deutsche Telekom AG. New boss at Siemens private communications: Rudi Lamprecht has become the new head of the sector ‘private communication systems (PN)’ at Siemens. He is replacing Dietrich Bortsch. The change is part of a reorganisation of the areas information and communication at Siemens. Greece "Hellenic Telecommunication Organization S.A.": Pr. G. Papoulias, OTE 's chairman submitted his resignation. Mr. Rapanos, manager of Crete Bank, is the new chairman. "Telestet": From the first of September Mr. R. Rovera undertook the Chief Operating Officer duties. He is responsible for the Telestet 's operational activities, and he will report to the executive manager Mr. G. Cicchese. Mr. Rovera is the executive manager of Italian Telecommunication Organization (Telecom), the basic shareholder of Telestet. Ireland Esat Telecom has established a residential division and appointed a divisional Managing Director, Ms Lucy Gaffney. Italy The most important event concerning the development of Information Society in Italy was the beginning of the activities of the "Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni", which is an independent Authority for the communications and the radio-television system. The Authority has started its activity in mid 1998, for the establishing of detailed regulations in the sector and the monitoring of their application. The president of the Authority is Mr. Enzo Cheli (appointed in February 1998). In September 1998, the Authority, in order to continue the activities, designed four outstanding members:
In July 1998 was presented the project "ErgOnline – database for job search and offer", by Ministry of Labour, the person to contact for this project is Mr. Sergio Rosato at Labour Ministry. In July 1998 The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and handicraft presented the document "Policy Guidelines for the electronic Commerce", Mr. Antonello Busetto was the general coordinator of the document. The working groups comprised also a great number of persons who can be considered as experts for Information Society development in Italy. It is possible to see details at the following address: http://www.minindustria.it/Osservatorio/download.htm Portugal A new mobile operator, Optimus, is formally operating in the country since September 15, 1998. The Board members of this new company are:
A new President has been appointed for BRISA, the national highways company. It is Mr Van Hoof Ribeiro. The Vice-President of BRISA resigned in July 1998 and a new nomination for the job is awaited. Mr. António Luis Mexia assures the presidency of GDP, the gas holding company as well as of TRANSGAS, the company whose main activity is the transport and distribution of natural gas under high pressure. Spain Relevant changes have happened during the last months that show a more active participation of the Central and Regional Governments in the support and launching of initiatives and plans within the Information Society scope. One of the main issues is the summons of the Minister of Industry and Energy Mr. Josep Piqué i Camps, for setting up an Advisory Group in charge with the study and elaboration of strategic recommendations focused on the Information Society development in Spain (see Promotional activities report for Spain). This IS Advisory Group is formed by this set of distinctive members:
The Ministry of Fomento, has carried out certain modifications related to the re-distribution of positions and responsibilities. The new structure of the Directorate-General of Telecommunications (DGTEL) after the last changes, is as follows:
Concerning the Ministry of Education Mr. Jaime Denis and Mrs Carmen Candiotti were appointed as responsible for the Programme of New Technologies of Information and Communication. The Generalitat de Cataluña has created a specific Information Society Commissioner with the tasks to modernise the local and regional Government and launch promotion actions. In the short term can be underlined the development and completion of underway IS pilot projects (i.e. wide-band network in Municipalities). In the medium term the actions are based on the definition of a strategic IS Plan with a set of measures for making easier the transition to the Information Society. The Commissioner is Mr. Miguel Puig. Other important actions have been put into practice by other Regional Governments, such as Generalitat Valenciana, through the development of relevant projects. One of the main representatives is Mr. José Emilio Cervera Cardona who is Subsecretary for the Modernisation of the Public Administrations. Moreover, he is member of the Commission of Telecommunications Advisory Council. In the private sector, at the end of September 1998, Mr. Eugenio Galdón has been appointed as President of Lince, which is the company that received the third basic telephony license in Spain. |
Belgium The WIN society has been created mid-September to manage the fibre infrastructure of the Ministry of Equipment of the Walloon region (see "Alternative Infrastructure report"). Mr Arnaud HURET has been designated as Administrateur-délégué. Mr J.NEELS, General manager of BELGACOM Mobile will retire on 1st of January. Mr Ph. VANDER PUTTEN, former manager at Kraft Jacob will succeed in the position. Denmark The Department of Informatics at the Copenhagen Business School has established "The Center for Electronic Commerce". The purpose with this centre is to create an organisational frame for research in all types of electronic commerce in a broad extent – i. e. every kind of IT-supported co-operations between economic units and all types of electronic commerce, whether it is business to business or business to consumer. Mr Niels Bjørn-Andersen, professor, is head of the Center for Electronic Commerce. Ms Claudia Loebbecke, Denmark’s first professor in electronic commerce, is also attached the Center for Electronic Commerce. Mr Per Helle is elected as new vice-chairman of the Danish Data Association. Mr Per Helle is also Director in Realkredit Danmark. The Danish Government has appointed Mr Michael Mathiesen as chairman of the board of the Danish Center for IT-research (CIT). Mr Michel Mathiesen is director for the firm 2M. The 1st of October 1998, Ms Louise Ry starts on the job as Director of Communication in Tele Danmark. France Mr Jean-Pierre Dardayrol, Telecommunications General Engineer has been appointed head of the "Inter-ministerial Mission of Technical Support for the Development of ICTs in the Administration" (MTIC). This mission, which will last 3 years, has been set up by a Prime Minister's decree issued on August 27, 1998 and aims at leading, supporting and assessing actions carried out by public administrations for the development of their information and communication networks. Since last year, Mr Dardayrol, 46 years old, has been head of the telecommunication service in the telecom Ministry and in the Industry State Secretary. The set up of this mission lies within the framework of the government action plan to prepare the entry of France in the Information Society which was presented by Lionel Jospin in January 1998. Ms Lemonnier is head of CEDIT, an agency from "Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris" (APHP- Paris's department of health services) which focuses on the assessment of the use of ICTs in medecine. The objective of CEDIT is to provide, within APHP, a support to the decision concerning use of ICTs in medical practise. Mr Stéphane Treppoz, has been appointed in June chairman and managing director of AOL/CompuServe France by Cegetel and Canal+. Stéphane Treppoz, 32 years old, joined the Management of Cegetel in December 1997, to be in charge of negociations concerning the AOL/Bertelsmann/Canal+ agreement. Prior to joining Cegetel, he was, in CGE, project manager. of Teleriviera Multimedia, an experimentation of Internet and multimedia service access via cable TV networks. Mr Thierry Scaron is "Mr Internet" in the Association of Mayors in Ile-de-France region. This association recently decided to offer to the City Halls of the region Ile-de-France a computer and an access to the Internet at a low price in order to foster the use of ICTs (see Promotion Actions in France). Mr Jean-Jacques Aillagon is president of the "Mission for Celebrating the year 2000"; a mission whose working fields are close to ICTs issues. Luxembourg Full details about the internal organisation of the ILT (Luxembourger regulatory body) have been made available ILT this summer. It is organised in 3 main departments: Policies & External affairs, Networks and Markets, Networks and Frequencies. It has also an internal administrative department and a judicial expertise staff. It is placed under the authority of a Council and managed by Mrs Odette Wagener, Director and Jacques Prost and Edouard Wangen, Deputy Directors. More details are available on ILT Web site: http://www.ilt.lu. In Spring 1998, TV/COM has created Access Media Group Luxembourg (AMG), a Luxembourger company, which will develop and launch in September 1998 the first Luxembourger-based European digital bouquet, called AURORA. This service is meant to offer in the middle-term digital broadcasting to over 2.5 million households in Luxembourg and surrounding countries, starting with a targeted 1 million households in the Netherlands in 1999. The announced services would include digital TV broadcasting, tele-shopping, Internet access and NVOD ("AURORA Personal Cinema"). Netherlands After the elections in Spring 1998, the new Ministers and Secretaries of State were appointed on August 3rd 1998. Wim Kok remains the Prime Minister. Those with some Information Society association are as follows:
Effective 1 September 1998, Roland Vonk will start working at E-Trade, the joint venture of IBM, Roccade and ABN AMRO, as managing director. He will replace Jan Luik who has accepted another position. Schuitema NV and Telindus became new members of the Electronic-highway Platform Nederland (EPN) in the third quarter of 1998. Sweden The IT-Commission in Sweden has been given a new mandate for five new years. The new IT-Commission will work closer to the government and actively participate in the strategic work and IT-issues. "The IT-Commission moves on from a visionary work to a more concrete and focused work", says the Minister of Communications Ines Uusmann. The IT-Commission will keep the staff at the secretariat. The new members of the IT-Commission has been appointed. Ines Uusmann will continue as the chairman. The new members are the following:
United Kingdom During the last quarter there was a Governmental reshuffle and some new appointments have been made. Those with some Information Society association are as follows:
The key civil servants administering various Governmental programmes remain the same. BT announced changes in its structure in August 1998 to take effect from October onwards, to help focus more on customer service, and to increase efficiency. The Group Managing Director, Bill Cockburn remains the same, changes to his team include:
Cable and Wireless announced the appointment of Graham Wallace to the Board of Directors, with immediate effect, in September 1998. |
