IEEE ComSoc President-Elect Debate

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first-ever President-Elect Debate Blog! We appreciate your active interest in our ComSoc election process and hope it was helpful to you in making an informed decision as you prepared to vote. We were fortunate to have two extremely well qualified candidates for your consideration (and both from Torino, Italy!). 17.5% of our membership voted in this year’s election, up 2% over last year.

Sincere thanks to both candidates, Sergio Benedetto and Roberto Saracco, for their willingness to help us develop this new debate format and for responding to the many questions posed to them.

Hearty congratulations to Sergio, our new President-Elect!!

As we prepare for future elections, please provide feedback on how we can continue to improve the election process. This blog will be left active for these final comments and then it will be archived. Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts with us.

Best regards,

Doug Zuckerman, Chair - Nominations and Elections Committee

Merrily Hartmann, Debate Moderator

IEEE ComSoc President-Elect Debate

Candidates: Sergio Benedetto, Roberto Saracco

Moderator: Merrily Hartmann

>> Submit a question for our IEEE ComSoc President-Elect Debate. It's your opportunity to challenge the candidates!

The annual IEEE Communications Society election process has begun. The result of this year's elections will fill the 2013 President-Elect position (as well as four Members-at-Large) on the Board of Governors. We encourage you to use this blog to submit questions to the two President-Elect (P-E) candidates providing them the opportunity to better amplify their positions.

The process is simple: submit your question (50 words or less) in the comment box below. Our candidates will reply/rebut accordingly.

Thanks for participating! Voting for this election closes 26 July 2012 at 4:00 p.m. EDT! Please vote!

Sergio Benedetto

Throughout my professional life, I have been an active participant in the IEEE Communications Society, first as a member and then as a young researcher dealing with publications and conferences. Over the years I became more deeply involved as a member and chair of technical committees and finally as an elected officer, including Vice President for Technical Activities, Vice President for Publications, and Vice President for Member Relations. My view of ComSoc has been, and continues to be, a professional Society offering excellent publications and conferences, developing enthusiastic volunteers, and run by capable officers.

Over the past few years, ComSoc has found itself facing a number of major problems: a reduction in membership from over 60,000 to below 45,000, a decline of participation from industry, both as members and as attendees to our major conferences, serious budgetary problems leading to a cut in member services, a geographical representation at all levels of responsibilities that does not match the members’ distribution, and a serious gender issue. If elected, I will identify and put in place appropriate measures to change these imbalances.

Sergio Benedetto is a professor at Politecnico di Torino. He received the “IEEE Communications Society Edwin Howard Armstrong Award” in 2008, and the Communication Theory Technical Achievement Award in 2011. He has been Chair of the Communication Theory Technical Committee, was TP Chair of the Communication Theory Symposium at ICC 2000 and ICC 2006, and General Chair of the Communication Theory Workshop in 2004. An IEEE Fellow, Sergio has been Area Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications and a Distinguished Lecturer of ComSoc. He has been Vice President of Technical Activities of ComSoc in 2006-2007, Vice-President for Publications in 2008-2009, Vice President for Member Relations in 2010-2011. He is currently ComSoc’s Director of Magazines and Director of Online Content.

Roberto Saracco

In the last ten years I have held various leadership roles at ComSoc and, as part of my profession, I have been in touch with many researchers, engineers and enterprises around the world. These relationships have given me a keen understanding of the variety of interests and needs of our potential constituency.

During 2011, I led the work that led to the COMSOC 2020 Vision, a comprehensive scenario for our Society’s future one decade from now. The report contains facts, forecasts and more importantly many action points for the Society leadership aimed at keeping ComSoc as our community’s preeminent professional organization as the world continues to change. If elected I will dedicate my time to serve and to set the stage for our volunteers and staff to build the Society into a main actor in the communications evolution and become our community’s benchmark association by 2020.

During the last ten years, Roberto Saracco has been looking at the economic aspects of telecommunications, particularly as Director of Telecom Italia Future Centre in the impact of technology evolution on the market. He has worked at the European level serving as advisor and expert in the future of services and networks. Most recently, he left Telecom Italia to become the first director of the Italian Node of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology.

He has been an active member of ComSoc, holding various leadership positions, such as CNOM and EntNet Chair, VP of Member Relations, Marketing Director, Online Content Director, and Sister & Related Societies Director. He has served on many ad hoc committees, most recently chairing the COMSOC 2020 Vision. Roberto is the recipient of the ComSoc Salah Aidarous Award and the Donald McLellan Meritorious Service Award.. Roberto participated in the DLT program with 8 tours and is currently participating in the Distinguished Speaker Program with several lectures given.

IEEE ComSoc President-Elect Debate

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