After several months of hard work, our Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation has passed a major milestone since its establishment. On 22 September 2016 we received the confirmation from the Belgian authorities that the King has approved the application of AIOTI to establish an Association under Belgian Law. This means that we can now act as a formal representative for our stakeholders, as well as establish financial management, create cooperation agreements and much more. This transformation was essential to secure AIOTI’s future but also to enable us to have more impact. We are now able to take the next steps in building a European Technology Platform (ETP) relationship with the European Commission.
Special credit goes to our 21 founding members. They have not only committed to provide AIOTI with the starting capital that has enabled us to establish the Association in the first year, but they also invested their time and competencies to draft the By-Laws that define our operating model under chairmanship of our legal expert Luuk van der Laan. The By-Laws can be adapted to the future needs of our members, ensuring that we can keep an up to date operating model that serves their interests.
Three of the existing AIOTI Board Members have signed up to legally represent the AIOTI Association in the initial phase. Juergen Sturm as secretary, Ovidiu Vermesan as treasurer and Kees van der Klauw as chairman. Furthermore, the full AIOTI board will manage the transition to renewed management structure and we will have elections for all key positions in the new Association in Spring 2017.
I am very happy that we have successfully finished this important step for AIOTI so that we can now focus on the content of our programmes that is of relevance for our members.
Kees van der Klauw, Chairman