Jan Färjh has been appointed new chairman of The Electrum Foundation after former chairman Ulf Wahlberg resigned. Jan Färjh is currently Vice President, Head of Standardization and Industry at Ericsson. In his role, Jan is responsible for Ericsson’s standardization strategies and industry alignment in the areas of Telecom, Data/IT and Media.
What is your thoughts about the development in the ICT sector in recent years?
We can now see what we have been talking about for a long time, i.e. the convergence of telecom, IT and media. It has been a great development in the area and the use of mobile communications has grown in many different areas. Despite this development, the effects of digitalization is constantly presenting new demands, there are still large areas that will benefit and change by this technology development. Many industries are undergoing a change in digitalization. The vision we created at Ericsson 10-15 years ago, that all information was to be accessible anywhere at any time is becoming a reality.
Regarding that, what do you think is going to the biggest challenges in a nearby future?
The need for reliable high performance technology that operates on a global basis is always an exciting challenge. As data becomes more accessible, we must ensure that we have reliable systems that maintain security and that we share what we want. We need to continue the interaction between research, standardization, development and regulation that enables innovation. As dependency between industrial segments increases, more and more collaborations are required to establish successful ecosystems. A project that creates a meeting place like that is Urban ICT Arena.
What do you hope to contribute with, now that you are the new Chairman of the Electrum foundation?
I believe that my experience within research, standardization, development and various industrial collaborations will be a big asset for the Electrum Foundation and in the interplay between these different stakeholders! To make use of this and be able to connect this with activities is an exciting challenge I am looking forward to work with it!
Jan, before we let you go, tell us something about you that you usually don’t bring up?
When I don’t work, I spend most of time training to perform as best as possible on Ironman, triathlon. It ´s a lot of hours you have to put in! It was kind of a dream to finish an Ironman triathlon, but I thought it would be impossible and overwhelming. Even with the experience of being quite active in training during my years, training for an Ironman seemed to be an unthinkable task. But in the recent years I have been competing in Ironman and fulfilled my dream to finish an Ironman, triathlon a several times.
