IBM TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE

MICHAEL HILL

JANUARY 11TH

Michael G. Hill, General Manager, IBM Global Telecommunications Industry, will speak at the weekly meeting of the Y's Men of Westport/Weston on Thursday, January 11th. His talk is titled, "Business Innovation and the Telecommunications Industry Challenge." The meeting begins at 10AM at the Saugatuck Congregational Church, 245 Post Road East.

As general manager of IBM's global telecommunications industry, Mike Hill is focused on helping IBM's telecommunications industry clients succeed in a converging ecosystem comprised of telecommunications, media and entertainment, IT and consumer electronics industries. Hill envisions an ecosystem that's built on open, standards-based frameworks, technologies and end-to-end business processes. He believes that IBM's telecommunications clients will increase their odds of delivering sustainable value in this evolving ecosystem by embracing the notions of openness and end-to-end integration.

Hill, who joined IBM in 1978, is uniquely positioned to realize this vision. He is currently responsible for managing IBM's business and strategic initiatives with the top 100 service providers in the world, as well as the key software vendors and telecommunications equipment manufacturers in the marketplace.

Prior to his current position, Hill was vice president, business transformation/chief information officer, managing IBM's global voice and data infrastructure and application development. He was a member of the executive team managing IBM's internal transformation to an e-business in the 90's, which helped turn IBM's business into a new model of growth in the 21st century.

In 1996, Hill was named vice president, marketing, IBM eServer iSeries, formerly known as the AS/400 server division. He repositioned the AS/400 as the simplest, most scalable server for handling the fast-growing Web and client/server computing models. Previously, he was general manager, southeast and south Asia, where he managed IBM's operations in 17 Asia Pacific countries. Hill restored that organization to a fast growth by leveraging skills on a regional versus country basis. IBM reentered the India and Vietnam markets during his tenure. Hill also was the administrative assistant to the IBM chairman of the board and chief executive officer.

Before his work in Asia, Hill held a variety of positions in the U.S. including south Florida regional manager; Florida trading area general manager, IBM United States; and director, communications industry, IBM North America.

Hill earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the University of Florida. He has previously spoken at Globalcomm, USTA's Telecom, CT World Forum at CeBIT, 3G World Congress, and Broadband World Form Americas and, most recently, spoke at ITU Telecom World 2006.

He is on the board of the Florida Foundation at the University of Florida. He is also on the board and executive committee of Take Stock in Children, which guarantees four-year college scholarships and mentors to at risk middle school students in all counties of the State of Florida.

For more information about the Y's Men, contact Bill Meyer, Membership Chairman at 226-3704 or Jon Fox, President at 227-2679 or visit their website: www.ysmenwestportweston.org