Former American Express Enterprise Architect and Open Group Architecture Forum Chair Chris Forde Joins Organization as Vice President
SAN FRANCISCO, May 19, 2010 – The Open Group today announced that former VP of Strategy and Architecture for American Express Chris Forde will be joining The Open Group management team as VP, Enterprise Architecture and Membership Capabilities. Based in Shanghai, Forde will be responsible for advancing the work of The Open Group’s Architecture Forum on a global basis and driving the organization to an even stronger position within the enterprise and IT architecture markets.
An active member of The Open Group Architecture Forum since 2005, Forde is a former enterprise architect and has held various leadership roles in business architecture, application development, information management and technology operations throughout his career. Prior to joining The Open Group, Forde held various member positions within the organization including company representative to the Architecture Forum (2006-2009) and chair of the Architecture Forum (2007 and 2008). During that time Forde was employed at American Express, where he worked for 10 years in various capacities, most recently as Vice President for Strategy and Architecture.
During his time at American Express, Forde led various initiatives within the technologies organization, including developing the business and reference architecture programs for the company, managing a multi-year program with the business partner to transform customer service capabilities for over 13,000 customer service professionals and directing a staff of up to 25. Prior to his tenure at American Express, Forde founded Information Technology Consulting, Inc., a consultancy for architectural design, and served as an Associate Vice President at First Interstate Bank.
“We’re very pleased to have Chris join The Open Group team and share his deep expertise in enterprise architecture with our organization as we continue to grow globally,” said Allen Brown, president and CEO, The Open Group. “Chris has been an asset to The Open Group for many years now in his role as a member representative, and he was particularly instrumental in helping drive the successful launch of TOGAF™ 9 last year. We look forward to working with him to advance The Open Group’s vision of Boundaryless Information Flow™ worldwide.”
Forde’s appointment and base in Shanghai is indicative of the tremendous momentum and growth The Open Group has recently experienced worldwide. In the past two years, The Open Group has opened offices in Arabia, China and India, bringing the number of international franchises the organization has to nine, also including France, Japan, South Africa, UK and two offices in the U.S.
In addition to establishing these global franchise operations, the organization has also seen continued momentum for its certification and standards growing worldwide, particularly for its popular enterprise architecture framework TOGAF™. With just over one-third (34 percent) of the total individual certifications for TOGAF worldwide now being given in the Asia-Pac region, Forde’s location in Shanghai is crucial to the organization’s strategic plan for expansion into this fast growth market.
For more information on The Open Group, please visit: http://www.opengroup.org/.
About The Open Group
The Open Group is a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral consortium, which drives the creation of Boundaryless Information Flow™ that will enable access to integrated information within and between enterprises based on open standards and global interoperability. The Open Group works with customers, suppliers, consortia and other standard bodies. Its role is to capture, understand and address current and emerging requirements, establish policies and share best practices; to facilitate interoperability, develop consensus, and evolve and integrate specifications and open source technologies; to offer a comprehensive set of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia; and to operate the industry’s premier certification service. Further information on The Open Group can be found at www.opengroup.org.
Note to Editors: Boundaryless Information Flow™ and TOGAF™ are trademarks of The Open Group. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
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