Saturday, August 25, 2007

WISeKey Selected by the World Economic Forum as one of the top 500 mould-breaking companies New Champions

WISeKey Selected by the World Economic Forum as one of the top 500 mould-breaking companies New Champions

The WEF is creating, in close partnership with the government of the People’s Republic of China, a community of “the New Champions”, with their own Davos-like summit in the booming city of Dalian.

The inaugural meeting will take place from 6 to 8 September 2007 and will bring together New Champion CEOs with existing members, creating a powerful platform for interaction and cooperation between traditional and new actors.

The meeting will welcome 1,500 participants to the Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions. CEOs will be joined by international government leaders, leaders of the world’s most competitive cities and the fastest growing regions and states, gurus of the Web 2.0 world, some of the most remarkable leaders from our Community of Young Global Leaders and the international media to make this an exceptional event.

WISekey is selected as one of the top 500 mould-breaking companies New Champions. The WEF call these mould-breaking companies New Champions. Why? Because they have a proven track record of success - but also because they are ready to take the next step and join the global top-500 companies within the next five to ten years.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Carlos Moreira Men of the Year Patrick De Smedt Speech


Patrick presentation during the event. Patrick is now member of WISekey Boartd of Directors. Before his appointment as Chairman of Microsoft EMEA, Patrick De Smedt became Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa in February 2001. His responsibilities lay in Southern & Central Europe, including Austria, Benelux, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland as well as Africa.

Previous to that role, Patrick was Vice President of EMEA, responsible for Enterprise Business Development. He dedicated his time to engaging with EMEA global accounts, helping to win the top regional enterprise projects and being a spokesperson for the many CIO and CEO events across the region.

Prior to this, since July 1998, Patrick headed the Enterprise Group for Microsoft EMEA, also in a Vice President capacity, where he was responsible for Microsoft's sales, marketing, enterprise partners and services for enterprise customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Patrick De Smedt was also General Manager of Microsoft Benelux, managing the operations in the Netherlands and Belgium subsidiaries. He founded both the Netherlands and Belgium subsidiaries in 1986 and 1989 respectively.

Patrick De Smedt began his career at Microsoft in 1983 at Microsoft France as the OEM Sales Manager for Southern Europe. In this role he was responsible for the sales of Microsoft products and applications to hardware manufacturers and large accounts in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux region.

Before joining Microsoft, De Smedt was a software manager for Altos Computer Systems and was responsible for the acquisition and support of software products on Altos hardware for the European market. De Smedt started his career at Tymshare as project leader for the Benelux region.

Born in 1955, De Smedt received a Commercial Engineer degree from the University of Louvain, Belgium in 1977, where he is a Honorary Fellow.