Board welcomes new executives to help drive acceleration of global enterprise digital transformation

AT&T and Verizon Executives Join MEF Board of Directors

LOS ANGELES, June 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MEF, a global industry association of network, cloud, and technology providers accelerating enterprise digital transformation, today announced the appointment of two new members to its board of directors. Debika Bhattacharya, Chief Product Officer, Verizon Business, and John Nolan, Vice President, Global Connection Management, AT&T, join a distinguished group of visionary leaders in the service provider and ICT industries.

“MEF is thrilled to welcome Debika and John to our board of directors. We look forward to leveraging their leadership and extensive industry experience to advance the MEF 3.0 vision through a better-together ecosystem of service, technology, and cloud providers,” said Nan Chen, President, MEF. “John has been an extraordinary champion for MEF’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs adoption globally, and Debika brings an important strategic enterprise perspective to the board. MEF’s board of directors and our entire member community will benefit significantly from the industry contributions and leadership of our newest board members.”

“I am excited to join the MEF Board of Directors and help shape their strategy for automating and standardizing new technology to advance the fully connected economy of the future,” said Debika Bhattacharya, Chief Product Officer, Verizon Business. “I look forward to working together with global service, cloud, and technology providers to accelerate enterprise digital transformation and help businesses achieve revenue faster.”

“Debika will be a tremendous asset to MEF’s Board,” said Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business. “Her knowledge of the most in-demand customer needs, combined with strategic and technical acumen, will be instrumental in MEFs work to transform the way services and technologies are delivered and managed.”

“MEF’s standardized LSO APIs are playing a strategic role in the transformation and automation of AT&T’s global supply chain ecosystem,” said John Nolan, Vice President, Global Connection Management, AT&T. “I look forward to joining an inspiring group of executives on MEF’s Board of Directors, bringing global perspectives to the table, leading industry collaboration and driving adoption of MEF’s important automation efforts.”

“John’s leadership and experience in the global telecommunications industry makes him an excellent fit to serve on the board and help advance the MEF vision,” said Chris Sambar, Executive Vice President, AT&T Network. “He has an extensive track record in building service provider relationships and that will further MEFs efforts to implement inter-provider service automation globally.”

Bhattacharya and Nolan join MEF’s world-class board of directors who guide the advancement of the MEF baseline for LSO supply chain automation, MEF 3.0 standardized services, and test, training and certification, allowing service and technology providers and the enterprise to differentiate with on-demand, cloud-like experiences for their customers. Bhattacharya leads product management across all customer segments for Verizon Business and is responsible for the company’s product portfolio and its strategy and alignment with Verizon’s Network-as-a-Service framework. Nolan leads a team of professionals in more than 30 countries responsible for AT&T's voice, data, international roaming, IoT, and performance relationships with other telecommunications providers in support of AT&T’s wireless and wireline businesses objectives around the world.

MEF Board of Directors:

• Debika Bhattacharya, Chief Product Officer, Verizon Business

• Nan Chen, Head of The One Network, Ericsson

• Frederick Chui, Chief Commercial Officer, PCCW Global

• Andrew Dugan, Chief Technology Officer, Lumen

• Shawn Hakl, Vice President, 5G Strategy, Microsoft

• Daniele Mancuso, Senior Vice President Chief Product Management, Sparkle

• Franck Morales, Vice President, Connectivity Services, Orange Business Services

• John Nolan, Vice President, Global Connection Management, AT&T

• Robert “Bob” Victor, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Comcast Business

• Mirko Voltolini, Vice President, Innovation, Colt Technology Services

• Jeremy Wubs, Senior Vice President, Product, Marketing and Professional Services for Bell Business Markets, Bell Canada
  

About MEF
MEF is a global industry association of network, cloud, and technology providers working together to accelerate enterprise digital transformation through a better-together ecosystem. MEF delivers service standards, LSO frameworks and APIs, and training and certification programs for services, technologies, APIs, and professionals. The MEF 3.0 Framework enables automated delivery of standardized Carrier Ethernet, IP, Optical Transport, SD-WAN, SASE, and other digital services across multiple provider networks. For more information visit MEF.net and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Media Contact:
Melissa Power
MEF
pr@mef.net

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b5fb1087-afb4-4bda-86df-b4e81a084b32