LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2022

Mr. Yannis Sirros, WITSA chairmanMr. Yannis Sirros is one of the longest-serving WITSA Directors, having joined its Board in 2002. In 2004, Mr. Sirros managed and organized a highly successful World Congress in Athens, which was attended by over 2,000 delegates from 67 countries and featured a top-notch program with keynotes by Professor Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Lab, Dr. Vint Cerf –the “co-Father of the Internet” -and also a speaker at this the 2022 World Congress in Penang-, Robert Bishop of SGI, Michel Fromont of NEC Computers, Mr. Risto Siilasmaa, of F-Secure, and many others. From 2012 to 2018, Mr. Sirros served as WITSA’s Vice Chairman for Europe, helping to drive member recruitment and engagement. In the two years before becoming WITSA Chairman, from 2018 to 2020, Sirros worked as Deputy Chairman. Following his successful tenure in WITSA at the conclusion of the 2022 World Congress in Penang, Mr. Sirros will embark on his next phase as WITSA Chairman Emeritus.Dr. Jim Poisant, WITSA Secretary generalAs everyone in the WITSA community knows, no one has had a bigger part in the success of WITSA than WITSA Secretary General Dr. Jim Poisant. His tenure extends all the way back to 1996 in Bilbao, Spain, when he first started planning for his first World Congress which took place in Fairfax, Virginia in 1998. Dr. Poisant grew WITSA from being a subsidiary of an American member association to having its own independent Secretariat and extending over a 26 year period. Moreover, Poisant’s dedication to the WITSA global community has been obvious to everyone who knows him. The WITSA Congresses of the last few decades could not have happened without him. His professionalism and dedication and unique insights contributed more to WITSA’s growth as the voice of the global tech industry than anyone else. Dr. Poisant retires from WITSA at the end of September 2022.