International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC)

Elects Executive Officers and Board of Directors

Organization Announces Dates and Locations for Spring and Fall Forums and SuperOp

San Ramon, CA, December 15, 2000 – Members of the International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC) elected a new 15-member Board of Directors and slate of executive officers during the organization’s Fall Forum 2000 in San Antonio.

Announcing the new leadership team, Matt Collier, the IMTC’s President and Vice President of Business Development and OEM Alliances, Polycom , said, “Our new officers, Board of Directors and the leaders of our nine Activity Groups are already working on a new strategic vision and action plan for the organization in 2001 and beyond.    They are also planning a schedule of dynamic activities that includes a series of interoperability tests as well as the 2001 Spring and Fall Forums and the annual SuperOp event next summer. Our new officers and board members are committed to continuing the IMTC’s role as a vital partner that facilitates the development of standards, products and services for the multimedia communications industry.”   

The organization’s officers are:

President -- Matt Collier, Vice President of Business Development and OEM Alliances , Polycom , USA;

Executive Vice President -- Ian Parke , Portfolio Engineering Manager , Conferencing, BT, UK;

Acting Treasurer -- Vince Meriwether, Senior Programmer , IBM Corporation, USA;

Secretary -- Betsy Gillette , Vice President, Interprise Ventures, USA;

Vice President Americas -- Jack Toto , Vice President of Business Development; dynamicsoft, USA;

Vice President Asia -- Dr. Aloknath De , Divisional Head of Multimedia Signal Processing, Hughes Software Systems, India; and

Vice President Europe -- Graham Seabrook , Managing Director, Ridgeway Systems & Software, UK.

Members of the IMTC Board of Directors who are serving a two-year term that ends in November 2002 are:

Dr. Michelle Blank , Vice President of Galactic Marketing, RADVISION, USA;

Jim Coffman , Director of Definity Solutions Department, Avaya Inc. USA

Karen Frazier , Senior Manager, Worldcom Conferencing, USA;

Dr. Keith Lantz , Senior Manager, Engineering, Cisco Systems, Inc., USA;

Jean LeClercq , Development Manager, Teleconferencing Business Unit, France Telecom, France;

Patrick Luthi , Principal Research Engineer, PictureTel Corporation, USA;

Vince Meriwether, Senior Programmer, IBM Corporation, USA;

Dr. Istvan Sebestyen, Chief Engineer, Head of Department, Standardization, Enterprise Systems, Siemens; AG, Germany

Ben Schuurink, Program Manager Security, KPN Telecom, Netherlands; and

Mike Gutmann, Director of IP Telephony, Intel Corporation, USA.

These individuals continue as members of the IMTC Board and their terms expire in November 2001:

Raj Bansal, Research Manager, Internet Multimedia Networks & Site Manager, Nokia, USA;

Matt Collier, Vice President of Business Development and OEM Alliances, Polycom, USA;

Toby Nixon, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation, USA;

Ian Parke, Portfolio Engineering Manager, Conferencing, BT, UK; and

Joon Maeng, Chief Scientist, VTEL Corporation, USA.

The IMTC’s worldwide membership attended the successful Fall Forum program that was shaped around the theme “Next Generation Communications: Architecting the Network and Delivering Enhanced Services.” The program included a keynote address by Rubin Gruber, Founder and Chairman of Sonus Networks, as well as sessions focusing on such topics as DSL vs Cable – the great broadband debate; International Standards Update; H.323.

The organization also announced the dates and locations for the IMTC Spring Forum, Lausanne, Switzerland, May 22-24; IMTC SuperOp, Honolulu; September 10-14 and the IMTC Fall Forum, Seattle, October 16-18.

About the IMTC

The IMTC is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging and facilitating the development and implementation of interoperable multimedia teleconferencing solutions based on open, international standards adopted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the IETF, ETSI, and other organizations. The IMTC is also involved in developing and testing IP and circuit switched networks as well as hosting multimedia interoperability testing events and demonstrations throughout the world.Over the past three years, the IMTC has hosted more than 40 interoperability events to test Voice over IP products and services (H.323, SIP), H.320, H.324 and T.120, for compatibility with each other. The San Ramon, Calif.-based consortium comprises more than 150 member organizations from around the globe. Membership is open to any interested party, including vendors of audio, document and video conferencing hardware and software document, and video conferencing hardware and software; communications companies teleconferencing service providers; end users; academic institutions; government agencies; and non profit organizations. The consortium’s Web site address is http://www.imtc.org.