The Board of Directors provides the leadership and vision to make everything work. All members are elected to the Board.

Our current Board Directors are:

Bern Werner
Salar Inc.

Chris Haydon
Quadrem

Don Brown
PartNET

Donald Hillman
Lehigh University

George Bond
UKNCB

Larry Barth
McGraw-Hill

Peter Benson
ECCMA

Pieter Strydom
PiLog Data

Rick Maison
Consultant

Sheron Koshy
ECCMA India

Bern is a former Marine Corps Officer. During his six-year career he served in a variety of leadership and technical project management positions. A 1988 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he led a team of marines through systems testing of a state-of-the-art command and control (C2) system now in use by the Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard. He spent his last two years of service as an instructor at the Marine Corps Communications & Electronics School, teaching communications theory, system maintenance and operation.

In 1994, after leaving the military, Bern joined Management Science Associates and was involved in the implementation of a large Supply Chain data management system for a Fortune 10 CPG customer. The system involved the collection, cleaning, and data warehousing of terabytes of information for large CPG companies. In recognition of his achievements, he was promoted to Group Director and rapidly grew the business into the most profitable division of the company.

In 1998 Bern co-founded Innovative Resource Group, Inc. (IRG), an information management business which grew to more than 150 employees in just three years while maintaining both profits and revenue growth. IRG was purchased and then merged with iGate Global Solutions Ltd (IGS), an independent operating company of iGate Corporation. iGate has more than 4,000 employees and 30 offices on 5 continents.

Bern has extensive experience in data warehousing and has consulted with banking and retail clients on large-scale CRM implementations. He can be reached at bernwerner@gmail.com

Chris is responsible for Quadrem’s solutions marketing strategy and product roadmap. Before joining Quadrem in 2000, Chris worked for Comalco Ltd in Australia bringing with him over eight years’ experience in procurement strategy, purchasing, logistics, strategic sourcing, content and business operations, from both a site and corporate level. Prior to his current role, he was Vice President – Marketplace Operations and oversaw product delivery, global customer support and implementation.

He is also a member of the board for the Open Network for Commerce Exchange (www.connect-once.com). The mission of ONCE is to provide marketplace operators, their suppliers and customers, service providers and others dedicated to B2B e-Commerce, a collaborative forum to advance global trade, while being the leading authority and advocate for its Members on issues affecting international electronic commerce. He can be contacted at chaydon@quadrem.com

Don Brown  (Back to top)

Dr. Don Brown is the CEO and Founder of PartNET, an enterprise software firm that automates supply chain interactions for over ten years. He was also Executive Vice President for Engineering at Medibuy (now Global Health Exchange), a leading B2B exchange of supplies and equipment for hospitals. Dr. Brown served as a tenured faculty member at the University of Utah as Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Adjunct Associate Professor of Computer Science. There he received several awards for a commercial product that rehabilitates young cerebral palsy patients. Previously, Dr. Don Brown was a member of the Schlumberger Palo Alto Research technical staff, a lab that pioneered work in artificial intelligence. He has authored or co-authored over 27 technical publications and is an inventor or co-inventor on 9 patents or patents pending. He holds a B.S. degree from the University of Utah and was awarded M.S. and PhD degrees by Stanford University. He can be contacted at don.brown@partnet.com.

Dr. Donald Hillman is a professor in the Computer Science and Engineering division of Lehigh University. He has held several other positions inside the University including Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Director for the Center for Information & Computer Science, Head of the Division of Information Sciences as well as Associate and Research positions. His professional experience includes the role of current President of DJH Consulting, Inc.He was also a member of the Information Systems Task Force of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Regional Editor of Information Systems, Pergamon Press, a member of the Metals Information Committee, American Society of Metals, Member of the Science Information Council and Chairman of the Biomedical Study Section of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Hillman has done consulting projects with Bethlehem Steel, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Naval Ship Research and Development Center, Institute Exxon, Institute for Scientific Information and Arthur D.Little, Ford Foundation. He has received recognition of achievements and been awarded contracts for the following: Ben Franklin Advanced Technology Center (10 awards), North American Treaty Organization (2 awards), U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (3 awards), National Science Foundation (17 awards). He is currently the Director of the Taxonomy Mapping Using Ontology Structures Project supported by the US Defense Department Defense Logistics Information Service (2007-2009) Other honors and awards include: National Academy of Sciences Manufacturing, U.S. State Department Representative, Ford Foundation Representative to the University of the Philippines, Fellow, NATO Institute for Advanced Study (The Hague, Netherlands), Fellow, NATO Institute for Advanced Study (Venice, Italy), Robinson Award, Lehigh University and National Science Foundation Travel Fellowships. He also developed software for the Federal Aviation Administration, Hilton Systems and the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, CA. Mr. Hillman received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in Mathematical Logic from Cambridge University. He can be reached at Donald.Hillman@eccma.org

George Bond joined the UKNCB in December 2001 as Head of Business Management and took up the position of the Head of the UKNCB in April 2004. He was elected Chairman of AC135 in December 2006.

He joined the UK Ministry of Defence in 1972 after gaining a MA (Honours) degree in Geography from St Andrews University and has spent his career in a variety of Personnel and Logistic Support/Policy posts at London, Bath, Broughton Moor, Rosyth, Coulport and Beith.

As Officer in Charge of the Rosyth Naval Stores Depot he was responsible for the closure of that establishment and its sub-depots as part of the Defence Re-organization programme in the late 90's. He also spent two years on secondment as Director Scotland of a charity which found employment for people with disabilities.

George is married to Margaret a music teacher; they have two children Jenny and Christopher who are both at Aberdeen University studying Medicine and Engineering respectively. He can be reached at george.bond501@tig.mod.uk.

Larry Barth was a founding director of ECCMA.

Mr. Larry Barth has served as the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Corporate Services Division of Register.com. Prior to joining Register.com, Larry was the Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing of ELCOM, Inc., an E-Commerce Application Service Provider.

From 1991 to 2000 Larry worked at Dun & Bradstreet Information Services in the Supply Chain Solutions business unit, as the Vice President & General Manager; where he was responsible for strategy, sales, marketing, alliances and operations.

From 1988 to 1991, Larry was the Assistant Vice President of Corporate Development, at W.R. Grace & Co, where he structured and executed merger and acquisition transactions.

Larry received his B.A. in Government at Franklin & Marshall College and holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. He can be contacted at Larry.Barth@eccma.org.

Mr. Peter Benson is the Executive Director and Chief Technical Officer of the Electronic Commerce Code Management Association (ECCMA).

Peter is an expert in distributed information systems, content encoding and master data management. He designed one of the very first commercial electronic mail software applications, WordStar Messenger and was granted a landmark British patent in 1992 covering the use of electronic mail systems to maintain distributed databases.

Peter designed and oversaw the development of a number of strategic distributed database management systems used extensively in the UK and US by the Public Relations and Media Industries. From 1994 to 1998, Peter served as the elected chairman of the American National Standards Institute Accredited Committee ANSI ASCX 12E, the Standards Committee responsible for the development and maintenance of EDI standard for product data.

Peter is known for the design, development and global promotion of the UNSPSC as an internationally recognized commodity classification and more recently for the design of the eOTD, an internationally recognized open technical dictionary based on the NATO codification system.

Peter is the Project Leader for ISO 22745 and ISO 8000 as well as the ISO TC184/SC 4 Quality Committee convener. He is an expert in the development and maintenance of Master Data Quality as well as an internationally recognized proponent of Open Standards that he believes are critical to protect data assets from the applications used to create and manipulate them.

Peter Benson holds a French Baccalaureate in Mathematics and Physics, a bachelor's degree in Agriculture and a Master's degree in Marketing from London University. Peter has four children and lives in Pennsylvania. He can be reached at Peter.Benson@eccma.org.

Mr. Strydom has a Mechanical Engineering degree from University of Pretoria, South Africa, and furthered his studies with a MBL from Unisa. He started his career at Eskom as Maintenance Engineer in the nuclear field. He was member of the nuclear governance body monitoring and controlling all nuclear related activities at Koeberg Power Station where he managed a number of research and development projects on behalf of Eskom. Mr. Strydom continued his career with Starnode and is currently the Operations Director for Starnode. Mr. Strydom is well known in South Africa and the Middle East for his expertise in Master Data Quality mangement. Mr. Strydom is contracted by numerous clients to assist with the establishment of a Master Data Management strategy for their companies. Mr. Strydom is involved with the development of Master Data Quality standards and was one of the initiators and developers of a Master Data standard and methodology for services. Mr. Strydom is currently a member of the ECCMA board of Directors and the secretary of the ECCMA Services Industry Content Standardization Council (SICSC). He can be reached at pieter@pilog.co.za.

Mr. Maison held a wide range of increasingly responsible positions in government service leading to his tenure as Deputy Commander, the senior civilian of the Defense Logistics Information Service (DLIS) from 1999 until his retirement in 2007. DLIS is a field activity of the Defense Logistics Agency located in the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in Battle Creek, MI. DLIS provides a broad range of information systems and data services support to the Department of Defense and U.S. Federal Agencies, to Industry and the private sector, and to allied nations around the world.

Maison also served as the U.S. Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Allied Committee 135, the Group of National Directors of Codification, responsible for NATO Codification System (NCS) policy and data exchange standards used by 57 nations around the world. He was twice elected as Chairman of NATO AC/135. In July 2008, Maison was inducted into the DLA Hall of Fame by Lt. General Robert Dail in a ceremony at HQ DLA, Ft Belvoir, VA in recognition of his career achievements.

Maison has an Associate degree from Macomb County Community College, Warren, MI., a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master’s in Public Administration from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI.

Maison currently serves as an independent consultant. In addition to his role on the ECCMA Board, Maison is a member of the Leila Arboretum Board of Directors and is a certified Master Gardener. Rick and his wife, Mary, have a daughter, Rachel, a nursing student at Lake Superior State University and a son, David, a sophomore at Michigan State University.

Maison can be reached at rmaison5873@hotmail.com.

Sheron is currently the President of ECCMA India. He has been working with the development and maintenance of cataloging standards, implementation of these standards in cataloging projects and development of customized cataloging applications for the last 8 years. Beyond his responsibilities in the day to day management of ECCMA India, he is an expert in the design and development of computer assisted cataloging solutions designed for large volume outsourced cataloging. He has a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and Engineering and a Masters Degree in Technology from the Vellore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India. He can be reached at sheron.koshy@eccma.org.