ATIS Announces 2007 Annual Award Recipients

ATIS Awards Recognize Leadership, Critical Contributions to Communications Industry Standards

May 16, 2007, Washington – ATIS has announced the recipients of its 2007 Annual Awards, recognizing industry subject matter experts and leading technology experts for their contributions to communications standards development, and support of ATIS committees and forums.

Award winners were recognized May 1 during the 2007 ATIS Annual Meeting of Committees Awards and Recognition Luncheon. The event took place April 29 through May 4 at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“These awards recognize the dedication, team-building efforts and strategic intelligence of our committee leaders and participants,” said Susan M. Miller, president and CEO of ATIS. “Their work helps deliver the open standards and end-to-end solutions that form the basis for timely new communications network products and services.”

Awards were given in four categories: the ATIS Award for Distinguished Service in Communications Standards; the ATIS Award for Leadership in Standards Development; the Award for Outstanding Contributions to an ATIS Forum or Committee; and the ATIS President’s Award.

The 2007 Distinguished Service Award was presented to Paul Levine of Telcordia Technologies for his nearly 20 years of technical contributions and leadership in ATIS. Recipients of the Distinguished Service Award are ATIS committee participants who have provided unique and outstanding contributions to the work of ATIS committees for five or more years.  Paul’s contributions to the formulation and success of telecom standards include all of the many Coding and Language Data Representation standards created at ATIS, as well as related standards established by the ITU-T and UNIFACT and OASIS (ebXML) standards – all of which are widely implemented.

Martin Dolly of AT&T received the 2007 ATIS Award for Leadership in Standards Development. The award is given to an ATIS committee leader whose vision and leadership have resulted in ATIS standards and recognition of ATIS’ committee work within the industry within the past 12 months. Martin was recognized for his strong leadership within the Signaling, Architecture and Control Subcommittee of the ATIS Packet Technologies and Systems Committee. Under Martin’s leadership, the subcommittee successfully completed many critically needed standards with regard to Next Generation Network architecture, Emergency Telecommunications Service, Operator Services and other areas. Martin has also introduced many NGN standards contributions from ATIS into the ITU-T.

The Award for Outstanding Contributions to an ATIS Forum or Committee is presented to individuals who have provided valuable contributions to the completion of ATIS standards that meet industry needs. Recipients have demonstrated significant efforts to support acceptance and use of ATIS standards throughout the industry. The following ATIS participants received this year’s award: Michael Bilca, Tridea Works; Linda Garbanati, Alcatel-Lucent; Ken Havens, Sprint-Nextel; Connie Hunt, AT&T; Doug Langley, AT&T; Jim Mahler, Verizon; Christian Militeau, Intrado; Gustavo Pavon, TruePosition; Lavinia Rotaru, Sprint-Nextel; Ron Ryan, Nortel; Viqar Shaikh, Telcordia Technologies; Peter Silverman, ASSIA; Dave Whitney, AT&T; and Steven Wright, AT&T.

Individuals who are unsurpassed in the level of, quality of, and strategic nature of contributions made to ATIS receive the ATIS President’s Award. The 2007 President’s Award was received by Daniel J. O'Callaghan,Verizon, and Richard C. Brand, Nortel, f or their outstanding contributions to ATIS through dedicated and creative leadership of the ATIS IPTV Interoperability Forum (IIF). O’Callaghan and Brand serve as the chair and vice chair of the ATIS IIF, respectively. The IIF is recognized globally as the leader in IPTV standards development, enabling the interoperability, interconnection and implementation of IPTV systems and services, including video on demand and interactive TV services. More than 50 ATIS member companies are actively engaged in ATIS’ IPTV standardization efforts through the ATIS IIF, including Verizon, Qwest, AT&T, BT, Alcatel-Lucent, Siemens, Nortel, Cisco, Motorola, Intel, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, among others.

About ATIS

ATIS is a leading standards development and technical planning organization committed to rapidly developing and promoting technical and operations standards for the communications and related information technologies industry worldwide using a pragmatic, flexible and open approach. Participants from more than 300 communications companies are active in ATIS’ 22 industry committees, Incubator Solutions Program, and other activities. www.atis.org