The distinguished members of the NFC Academy Advisory Board include visionaries and pioneers of the NFC technology community:

• Paul Korczak - Assistant chief officer at MetroCard New York City Transit (USA)
• Sertac Özinal - CEO at BKM Interbank Card Center (Turkey)
• Tinboat Arslanouk - Director of business development at Du - Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (United Arab Emirates)
• Koichi Tagawa - NFC Forum chairman and general manager of Global Standards and Industry Relations Department at Sony (Japan)
• Michael Hegenbarth - Senior director of Standardization and Consulting at Bundesdruckerei (Germany)
• Remy de Tonnac - CEO at Inside Contactless (France)
• Kurt Schmid - CEO at Nexperts (Austria)
• Carlo Maria Medaglia - Professor at the University of Rome "Sapienza" (Italy)

"The caliber of the members that form the NFC Academy Advisory Board is an endorsement to a world-class initiative that will guarantee in-depth, up-to-date content as well as thought-leadership throughout this year's events," said Sophie B. de la Giroday, president of Wise Media.

"Wise Media's NFC Academy offers a chance for open dialogue and informative exchanges with notable experts and decision makers involved in the development and deployment of NFC, one of today's most exciting and innovative wireless technologies," says Koichi Tagawa, NFC Forum chairman and general manager of Global Standards and Industry Relations Department at Sony. "I am honored to be a supportive element of these conferences through my participation on the NFC Academy Advisory Board."

Throughout the year, the NFC Academy will gather top researchers, pioneer developers and advanced practitioners in the areas of mobile applications, short-range communication and contactless security to educate the market and foster the adoption of NFC technology. Each event will host a conference and live demonstrations that promote an open exchange of ideas on the deployment and growth of NFC technology in the field of contactless applications - including access control, ticketing and mobile payments.

The NFC Academy Advisory Board will contribute their recommendations on the most relevant and important topics to be covered during each conference and interact with the organizers to produce a calendar of vibrant networking initiatives.