BIG WIN FOR TROUTMAN AMIN AS MEF ADDS WOMEN BOARD MEMBERS: MEF’s Leadership Change and Installation of New Board Members Satisfies the Czar

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So as everyone knows, Troutman Amin, LLP and the Mobile Ecosystem Forum have not been getting along lately.

MEF president Dario Betti booted my partner off a panel at their event with no warning and in a very disrespectful way. We talk all about it on Deserve to Win (Ep. 23) out yesterday.

We put some pressure on the organization given its track record of underrepresenting women in leadership and on conference panels and webinars, and to their good credit–they listened to our concerns and have made changes.

Yesterday–amidst the flurry of protestors that sprang up at the MEF event in Miami, FL–MEF issued a release noting it had changed Chairpersons and added three women to the board– a 30% increase as they report:

The MEF Board will introduce a brand-new Emeritus position and increase the number of women on the Board.

Female appointments

In addition, MEF has increased the number of women on its Board to 30%. Better gender diversity is something that the MEF says it is committed to, not just at board level.

The new women on the Board are Divya Wakankar and Amira Akra, who join existing Board member Valeria Magoni from Kaleyra.

I was particularly moved by Magoni’s note in the release:

‘Women are still underrepresented in the telecoms sector,” Magoni said.

“Things are much, much better than they used to be, but the industry still has a long way to go. Over 50% of the staff employed at MEF identify as women, but once you get to Board level that number is much lower.

“This is something we are all committed to changing and are actively working on ways to encourage the talented women already working in the industry to step forward and apply to join the MEF Board.”

I like this quite a bit. Shows a real commitment to levelling things out over there.

BTW- I know one highly qualified female litigator who would be GREAT to sit on the board– her name is Puja Amin. She’ll be reaching out to you shortly Valeria. Hope you’ll take her call.

There’s another level to the leadership change as well, Robert Gerstmann, chief evangelist and co-founder at Sinch has been installed as the new Chair.

Well Sinch just happens to sit on the board of Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment (R.E.A.C.H.)–aren’t I the president of that organization?– and is a great company I have a lot of respect for.

So real big win all the way around here.

When you put together the addition of the new lady board members, the new commitment to advancing women in the organization AND the installation of a REACH-friendly chair, this is a package pleasing to the Czar.

So congratulations to MEF on making some smart choices and unwinding yourself from a bad situation. Smart thinking.

And Robert–as president of R.E.A.C.H. I look forward to working with you MEF folks more closely moving forward. Give me a call when you have a minute. Thank you.

Glad we can put all of this behind us and move forward productively. Thanks all.

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Published by Eric "Czar" Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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