Our Board & Officers

Musa Unmehopa

Musa Unmehopa is Head of Wireless Standards & Regulations at Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), where he is responsible for all wireless lighting control, visible light communication, application protocols, data protection, and cybersecurity standardization and regulatory activities. His professional experience in technology and innovation spans 25+ years and covers mobile communications, the Internet, and lighting.

Prior to joining Signify and Philips in 2013, Musa held positions with Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, and Alcatel-Lucent. Musa has held senior leadership roles in various standards bodies, trade organizations, and industry consortia. These include the chairman of the Technical Plenary of the Open Mobile Alliance, treasurer of the Zigbee Alliance, and Secretary General of the Zhaga Consortium.  Furthermore, Musa served on the executive boards of the Zigbee Alliance, The Connected Lighting Alliance, the Emerge Alliance, and the Parlay Group. Author of two technology books, Musa has been an invited keynote speaker and panelist at various industry events. His publications include numerous papers in technical journals and conferences, as well as patents. Musa received a BSc. and MSc. degree in Computer Science from Twente University and MBA degree from TIAS Business School in The Netherlands and the University of Bradford School of Management in the UK.

Tobin Richardson

As President and CEO of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, Tobin Richardson is on a mission to simplify and harmonize the Internet of Things (IoT) through open, global standards and by creating a place where the world’s leaders and innovators across the IoT value chain can work together to create a more connected, accessible, sustainable, and equitable world.

From facilitating international trade and commerce relationships to driving large scale digital and business transformation, Tobin’s career is rooted in driving human-centric change and enabling purposeful collaboration. Bringing together his early days as an advisor and consultant with his work in public policy, Tobin was drawn into the IoT in 2008, when he helped establish Zigbee Smart Energy as the open connectivity standard for the utility industry.

Since 2014, Tobin has led the Alliance, which now includes over 695 member companies in 45 countries across the IoT value chain. The Alliance is both a member-driven standards development group, known for technologies like Zigbee, and an industry association – guiding the industry forward, driving growth for members, delivering value to customers and consumers and creating standards that matter.

Under Tobin’s leadership, the Alliance launched a first-of effort between the largest IoT ecosystem players (Amazon, Apple, Google, Comcast & Samsung SmartThings) to create an IP-based standard intended to knock down the “walled gardens” of the IoT. Matter – the interoperable, secure connectivity standard for the future of the smart home – now has more than 230 member company contributors.

In addition to evolving the Alliance into a multi-standards organization that is setting the foundation and future of IoT, Tobin also sits on the World Economic Forum’s Council on the Connected World, as Chair of the WEF’s initiative focused on strengthening collaboration across enterprise, regulators, consumers, and NGOs.

Prior to leading the Alliance, Tobin led large-scale tech transformations and new service/product rollouts across Fortune 500 companies, world-leading technology firms and public sector organizations. He holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis.

Kevin Kraus

Kevin Kraus recently joined Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. as part of the Divestiture of Yale and August North America from ASSA ABLOY. Kevin is the V.P. Technology Alliances and IoT Business Development for Fortune Brands, prior to the Divestiture, Kevin was V.P. Technology Alliances and IoT Business Development for ASSA ABLOY Smart Residential Group. Prior to being promoted Kevin was Director of Technology and Partner Integration since 2018 and is responsible for defining key product technologies and developing partner integration strategies and tools to support seamless lock integration. Prior to becoming the Director of technology and partner integration, Kevin was Director of product development for Yale Residential Locks. Responsible for product strategy, product development, and technology. Prior to joining ASSA ABLOY/Yale in 2009; Kevin spent 11 years as director of product management electronic locks for the Schlage Residential Business. Prior to Schlage Kevin spent 7 years with Honeywell’s Security Group as product manager for Honeywell Residential Security Products. Kevin has extensive experience in the IOT, Residential Security, and Home Automation Business and is regarded as a subject matter expert in residential electronic locks, residential security and home automation systems and residential systems communication technologies. Kevin has majors in both Electrical Engineering and Business Administration. Kevin is also on the CSA Alliance, Z-Wave Alliance, and Thread Board of Directors. Kevin is currently Vice Chair of the CSA Alliance and Treasure of both the Thread Group and Z-Wave Alliance.

Rob Alexander

Rob has worked on IoT devices, wireless protocols, and embedded devices for more than 13 years. He is a Principal Architect at Silicon Labs working with the embedded software team to integrate wireless stacks into Silicon Labs hardware and software. Since 2013 Rob has served as the Chair of the Zigbee Pro Core Workgroup, which defines the mesh networking layer, application transport layer, and the interactions with the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer. Rob serves on the Alliance Board of Directors and the Thread Board of Directors.

Tim Böth

Rob Bultman

Rob has more than 25 years of experience in the home appliances industry primarily focusing on embedded systems in roles ranging from firmware developer to systems architect to engineering manager in almost every major appliance category.  Rob is currently Engineering Director for IoT for Midea North America where he helps guide Midea’s IoT strategy.

Lisa Corte

Chris Daniels

Chris Daniels is an Advanced Engineer at The Kroger Company, where he is responsible for Advanced Systems Concepts and the Next Generation IoT efforts. Throughout his 15 years in engineering, he has gained experience leading large development teams on research and development and other innovation efforts. During his time at Kroger, he spearheaded the adoption of numerous software and architecture standards with various innovation efforts such as Temperature Monitoring (over 1 million IoT devices deployed) and Kroger Pickup eCommerce fulfillment. Chris’ business and engineering experience also spans crowdfunding, financial, and aviation industries through leading efforts from startups and non-profits to BigCos. He is an active member of the Cincinnati startup community and has been the co-founder and CTO of multiple startups. Chris has a BS in Computer Science from Northern Kentucky University.

Chris DeCenzo

Chris DeCenzo is a Principal Engineer at Amazon where he focuses on Smart Home for the Alexa Devices group. Prior to joining Amazon, Chris spent 9 years as the Chief Architect at Icontrol Technologies, a pioneer in the Connected Home space. Icontrol was split up and sold to Xfinity and Alarm.com in 2016.

Francis Dell’ova

Francis Dell’ova has been working with STMicroelectronics for more than 35 years, holding various positions ranging from chip designer, design center manager, business unit manager and more recently director of IP portfolio and advanced business development within the Microcontroller and Digital Group of ST.

Aside from his contribution in the wireless, RFID and NFC businesses, Francis has also served as a board member for other industry alliances. He has issued several patents in the video processing and RFID domains and presented at various international conferences. Francis is a graduate of Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Brest.

Jeff Drake

Jeff has been working on connectivity, IoT devices, software and infrastructure for more than 15 years. He is the Software Chief Architect at GE Appliances, a Haier Company working to guide the software architecture across GEA and Haier businesses to provide best-in-class software platforms for the next generation of connected appliances. Since 2008 Jeff has worked with many wireless standards and organizations including the Zigbee Alliance, Bluetooth SIG, Allseen Alliance/OCF, Home Connectivity Alliance, and Thread to promote adoption and design of consumer-friendly open connectivity standards in the home.

Arseni Faber

I am Connectivity & Cybersecurity Director for the Home & Distribution Division in Schneider Electric. I am with the company for more than 10 years and have continuously worked with connected devices. By education I am an engineer for information and communication systems, and I continued my passion for connectivity in my professional career. After some years of software engineering for industrial automation I joined Schneider Electric and was leading different aspects of connected products for Home Automation and Energy Management Systems.

Andreas Gal

Based in Cupertino, CA, US, Andreas works on HomeKit technology and strategy. Prior to joining Apple, Andreas was Chief Technology Officer at Mozilla where he, among others, launched Firefox OS. After leaving Mozilla Andreas founded the embedded machine learning startup Silk Labs before joining Apple in 2017. Andreas holds a MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Magdeburg and the University of California, Irvine, respectively.

Kazim Guven

Director for Technology and Product Development at Verizon.  Currently leading 5G Home, Fios Broadband, Device Security and Device Management teams for Verizon’s industry leading network.

At Verizon, led network and marketing teams to launch 5G devices, including the first 5G smartphone and first 5G Fixed Wireless Access products in the world.  Launched best in class Wi-Fi routers to provide a superior in-home experience.  Successfully provided strategic and tactical vision for device and network teams to create a strong chipset ecosystem.

Have broad experience in wireless industry, beginning career in Europe with Alcatel in the design of GSM networks.  Worked as consultant for major wireless carriers in the US and Canada, and went on to Alcatel-Lucent, now Nokia, leading teams to build EV-DO, TDMA, LTE and 5G technologies for Verizon and AT&T.

Pär Håkansson

Pär Håkansson joined Nordic Semiconductor in 2015 and is currently Product Director for Nordic’s Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread, Matter, and Wi-Fi solutions. He has been in the low-power wireless industry since 2008, holding research and business/marketing positions. Pär Håkansson holds an M.Sc. EE and a Technical Licentiate degree in communication electronics from Linköping University.

Pekka Hakkarainen

Steve Hanna

Steve Hanna is a Distinguished Engineer at Infineon Technologies. On a global basis, he is responsible for IoT security strategy and technology. As a security expert, Steve is a leader in many standards groups.

• Within the Matter Working Group in the Connectivity Standards Alliance, he is the Vice Lead of the Threat Model Tiger Team, the Lead of the Security Design Tiger Team, and the Lead of the Security Use Cases Tiger Team. He is also Director on the Alliance’s Board and the Chair of the Product Security Working Group.
• Within the Trusted Computing Group, he co-chairs the IoT Work Group.
• Within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), he is a member of the Security Area Directorate.

Mr. Hanna has a deep background in information security, especially in software and systems. He is an inventor or co-inventor on 48 issued patents, the author of innumerable standards and white papers, and a regular speaker at industry events. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Harvard University.

Asad Haque

Asad Haque joined the Alliance as an alternate Board Director in 2016, representing Comcast. His focus was to further enhance security controls in Zigbee protocol used in home automation. That continues to be his focus even today. He believes firmly that security is the enabler, not a hurdle.

Asad Haque has over twenty-five (25) years of progressive responsibilities in Information Security Architecture, specializing in @scale security of IoT and embedded devices and system API’s to protect and preserve user privacy. Designed Blockchain-based decentralized and autonomous authentication and authorization for constrained devices. He possesses extensive hands-on experience as a Chief Application and Network Architect, including experience in systems management, information security, software development, large secure network (TCP/IP) design and deployment, departmental oversight, and management. 

Jonathan Hui

Jonathan Hui is a Principal Software Engineer at Google, where he is responsible for Thread implementation in products and is maintainer of OpenThread released by Google. Jonathan also serves as VP of Technology in the Thread Group.

Prior to Google, he was a Principal Engineer at Cisco, where he built some of the world’s largest IPv6 mesh networks for urban-scale, enterprise and utility applications. Prior to Cisco, he delivered the world’s first commercial 6LoWPAN networks at Arch Rock before its acquisition by Cisco.

Jonathan has also been deeply involved in developing standards (Matter, Thread, W-SUN, IETF, and IEEE) and co-authored foundational specifications related to IPv6 in low-power wireless networks. He is also a co-inventor on more than 200 USPTO issued patents.

Jonathan holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MS and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Amey Inamdar

Amey has over 21 years of experience in embedded systems space holding various roles in engineering, engineering management, product management and technical marketing. He is currently serving as Director of Technical Marketing for Espressif Systems. Amey has worked with customers in home automation, smart lighting and connected devices space helping with connectivity, system architecture and product security. Amey holds a computer engineering degree from Pune University.

David Kaufman

David Kaufman is a Director of Business Development for Resideo Technologies Inc. He has over 30 years of experience in automation holding various executive sales and marketing roles. David is known for leading successful strategic initiatives where he has consistently achieved organic business growth totally over $500M. He is currently the primary Resideo representative for any Internet of Things related standard or alliance. He has held key positions in the Wireless Industrial Network Alliance, the HART Communications Foundation, and the Open Connectivity Foundation. He was a charter board member of the Wireless Compliance Institute, the Energy Information Standards Alliance, and the OpenADR Alliance. He has been recognized with numerous awards for his industry contributions including 2 awards from the US National Institute of Technology (NIST). He has a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University, an MBA from St. Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania, and a Six Sigma Black Belt certification from Honeywell. David also holds multiple US patents. He is a published author on wireless technologies and a recent 4 time All American Triathlete.

Ryan Kincaid

Ryan Kincaid serves as Allegion’s Director of Global Technology, Connectivity & Sensing. In this role, he works closely with business partners to transform product needs into technology roadmaps, identifying relevant, emerging technologies and readying them for integration with Allegion solutions. Ryan’s commitment to producing customer-driven technology solutions spans over 20 years and includes roles in New Product Development, Global Engineering and Advanced Development. Ryan earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering Technology at Purdue University and his MBA from Indiana University, Kelley School of business, focusing in Finance and Entrepreneurship.

Sujata Neidig

Sujata Neidig has over 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and has served in a variety of roles ranging from product engineering to marketing and business development. Sujata is currently the Director of Product Marketing for NXP’s Kinetis 32-bit ARM(r) Cortex(r)-M and wireless connectivity microcontrollers (MCUs). In addition to being a member of the Alliance board, she is also on the Thread Group board where she has the role of VP of Marketing and the Marketing Committee chair. Sujata earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Jean-Michel Orsat

Jean-Michel Orsat has over 30 years of experience in the home automation industry, within industry alliances and EU regulatory bodies. He is Director of the Systems & Solutions of Connectivity Department at Somfy, overseeing technology partnerships, connectivity and wireless networking technologies and overall system architectures.

With a strong focus on Interoperability, he has been deeply involved in the development of protocols with other leading home equipment manufacturers. The department he is heading deals with wireless protocols developments, focusing io-homecontrol, Thread, Zigbee and other open standard solutions for the Somfy Group.

He is also a member of the Thread Group Board of Directors and a member of the Executive Board within the Alliance. Jean-Michel Orsat is graduated with an Engineering Degree from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers.

John E. Osborne II

John Osborne is Chair Emeritus of the board for the Alliance and Vice Chairman of the Z-Wave Alliance. In these capacities, he helps educate and grow the IoT market globally.

John has extensive experience in new product development, rapid product commercialization, systems innovations, and operations improvement. He has demonstrated the ability to manage and inspire multi-cultural, international-external teams. He is a skilled communicator and presenter and has a sound background in budgeting, resource allocation, and operations efficiency.

Damir Smrkovic

Damir Smrkovic is a System Architect currently working with the technical design of the IKEA Home Smart system and guiding its technology roadmap. Damir holds a degree in Computer Science and Telecommunications Engineering. His previous experience includes working in the IoT, Medtech, and Mobile industries.

Mark Trayer

Henk Veldhuis

Based in Leuven, Belgium, Henk currently drives the international Smart Home & IoT standardization related activities at Huawei CBG. With the key focus on the ‘overseas’ markets, Henk supports the Huawei Consumer Business Group, for the overseas IoT standardization strategy and consumer product strategy. Henk is Huawei’s executive director in wireless IoT standards bodies like CSA and GIIC.

Smart Home IoT and standardization for consumer markets has been ‘in Henk’s DNA’ since… well… since forever. Prior to his role at Huawei, Henk was leading the global business development for testing and certification services for the Smart Home segment at TÜV Rheinland; as well as TÜV’s standardization manager for Smart Homes in the Zigbee Alliance and ThreadGroup.

Henk began his career as a young electronic engineer at the Philips Consumer division. Throughout the years he moved from international product management & product marketing roles, technology management, to wireless IoT standardization for consumer markets. He served as a standardization manager for IPTV and focused on Copy Protection for video and Digital Rights Management, like Marlin.

During the last years at Philips, he worked at the Lighting division (now Signify) with the main focus on standardization for wireless connectivity, as well as technology evangelist for the consumer lighting market. He serves at the Zigbee Alliance since 2011, and was part of the development of Zigbee Light Link and Zigbee 3.0 specifications, Zigbee interoperability testing, and Zigbee marketing worldwide.

Henk was part the Philips team that created of The Connectivity Lighting Alliance (TCLA) incl. Philips’ board member, and was part of the creation and start of Philips Hue. Henk was also the chair of the board for the international Smart Lighting Conference, yearly held in Europe. In his marketing roles he traveled all over the world to evangelize Zigbee and the of open standards in consumer products like Philips Hue.

Bruno Vulcano

Bruno joined Legrand as an RF engineer in 1997. Since 2016, Bruno is the R&D manager for the Legrand Group RF Skills Center and for the Digital Network devices for the Legrand Digital Infrastructure Business Unit. Previously Bruno spent 11 years as the manager of the Electronic and Software Department of the Legrand Group’s Radio Frequency & Voice, Data and Image Competencies Center and 10 years in the wired and RF telecommunication field in various R&D positions as electronic designer or project leader.

Bruno holds a master’s degree in electronic embedded systems from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France.

Klaus Waechter

Klaus Waechter joined Siemens (formerly Staefa Control Systems) in Stuttgart, Germany in 1991 as an engineering and commissioning engineer for building automation systems, where he was responsible for systems across Germany, including internal training and global headquarters contacts.

In 1997, Klaus moved to the international headquarters in Stäfa, Switzerland, as a system test engineer and led the tests of the new DESIGO system. Two years later, Klaus returned to the German headquarters in Frankfurt/Main with the responsibility of introducing the DESIGO system to the German market, including internal DESIGO training. In 2004, he returned to the global HQ of Siemens Building Technologies in Zug, Switzerland, as a product manager, with overall responsibility for DESIGO system issues and a focus on BACnet communication. In the same year Klaus joined the BACnet Interest Group Europe to represent Siemens in the marketing working group WG-M. Since 2009, Klaus has been responsible for standardization management in the building automation department at Siemens Switzerland.

Klaus is head of the Swiss delegation for the CEN TC247 committee, Swiss expert for the ISO TC205 WG3 and IEC TC57 WG21 committees and BACnet expert for the ASHRAE SSPC135 committee.

From October 2016 to September 2020, Klaus was President of the BIG-EU

Klaus has represented Siemens AG on the Thread Group Board since May 2018

Since March 2019 he has been Chairman of the eu.bac Business Development Group and on the Board of eu.bac

Since February 2020 he is a board member of the KNX Alliance

James Wang

James Wang is the Business Development Director for LEEDARSON IOT Technology and responsible for supporting leading IOT customers in North America, as well as defining key product roadmaps and integrations with platforms and applications. Prior to that, James spent 8 years at SAP working on wireless connectivity technologies and protocols, 4 years at Siemens on automation and industrial IOT communication protocols, another 8 years with a wireless communication stack startup and 5 years at an Open Protocol Communication (OPC) startup. James has extensive experience in IOT, wireless connectivity, IIOT, automation and enterprise SaaS.  James has an Electrical Engineering degree, an MBA and his PhD.

Don Williams

Don Williams is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the LG Innovation Center in Santa Clara, California. Don works with the LG Electronics Home Entertainment, Appliances, and Standardization groups on Smart Home products, strategies, and partnerships that cover televisions, smart appliances, and the ThinQ application. His group also manages the broader ongoing LG partnerships with large tech companies for a wide range of current and future LG products.

Don has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara. His career experience includes disk drives, storage networking, data center backup and security, video conferencing, virtual reality, and consumer electronics. Don has lived in Japan twice during his career and worked extensively with international companies and global partnerships.

Alex Yang

Since 2015, Alex has been in charge of business operations, international marketing, and global business expansion, and he is directly responsible for the growth of Tuya U.S Headquarters.

Before Tuya, Alex held several management roles at Alibaba. He was responsible for marketing, channel management, and operations in several corporate strategic business units, including e-commerce cloud, cloud OS, and mobile payments. Alex has more than a decade of experience in international operations and digital marketing for the internet and manufacturing industry.