Automation society is top non-profit.

The International Society of Automation (ISA) has been named a 2026 Top-Rated Nonprofit by GreatNonprofits, the primary platform for community-sourced reviews about nonprofit organizations. This is the third year ISA has received this recognition.

Claire Fallon CEO ISA

“We are proud to be named a 2026 Top-Rated Nonprofit, and to celebrate our third year in a row with this special distinction,” said Claire Fallon, ISA CEO and executive director. “ISA experienced another year of sustained growth in 2025. Since 2021, ISA membership has grown by 50% and the society’s revenue has increased by 84%. It is inspiring to see our dedicated volunteers and members celebrating and spreading the word about this meaningful momentum. We are grateful that the ISA community has created so many impactful experiences for automation professionals around the world. We would like to thank GreatNonprofits for showcasing our mission to create a better world through automation.”

The Top-Rated Nonprofit Award is based on the five-star rating and number of reviews that ISA received from its volunteers and members. Review contributors with a wide range of experiences shared how ISA has transformed their professional lives:

• “ISA does a great job of bringing people together in a way that feels approachable and collaborative, especially for younger professionals trying to grow their network and get more involved in the industry. Through volunteering, I’ve gained leadership experience, expanded my industry knowledge and met people from all over the world who are passionate about automation and helping others succeed. I’m grateful to be part of an organization that invests so much in its members and volunteers.”

• “ISA provides a very encouraging forum where professionals can interact with each other on subjects of interest, contribute and hear from the experts in their field. It’s also a lovely organization to interact as a volunteer with excellent values. If you are in the field of automation, you should definitely think about participating as a volunteer.”

• “What began as a way to stay connected to the automation world has grown into a true family, a place where people support one another, celebrate each other’s successes and work together with generosity and purpose.”

•“ISA gives me the opportunity to give back to the industry I love and whilst doing so create connections and friendship that go far beyond mere networking.”

GreatNonprofits is the leading website where people share stories about their personal experiences on more than 1.6 million charities and nonprofits. The GreatNonprofits Top-Rated Awards are the only awards for nonprofits determined by those who have direct experience with the organizations — as donors, volunteers and recipients of aid.

---

@ISA_Automation @GreatNonprofits @automation_com #Pauto #Research

Bus organisation directors.

The CAN in Automation (CiA) nonprofit association has re-elected its board of directors. 

Christian Schlegel (CHS Consulting), CiA Business Director, chairs the CiA Business Committee (BC), comprising five elected CiA members (Bosch, Emsa, ESD, Microcontrol, and Vector) and representatives of established CiA Marketing Groups. The BC proposes the annual budget and manages worldwide the CiA marketing activities.

Magnus-Maria Hell (Infineon), CiA Technical Director, leads the CiA Technical Committee (TC). Participants of the TC are five elected CiA members (Bosch, Emsa, ESD, Microcontrol, and Vector) and representatives of established CiA Interest Groups (IGs). This committee coordinates the development of CiA technical documents (specifications, guidelines, etc.).

Holger Zeltwanger is the re-elected CiA Managing Director, organizing the daily business of the nonprofit association promoting the internationally standardized CAN (Controller Area Network) serial communication system. This includes also CAN-based higher-layer protocols (HLP) such as CANopen, J1939, etc.

Magnus Hell, Christian Schlegel, Holger Zeltwanger

The CiA organisation comprises currently more than 700 members. The TC has established seven IGs: CANopen, CANopen FD, Profiles, Lower layers, J1939, Safety + security, and High availability. The IG “Ethernet on CAN” is in foundation. It is intended to specify the mapping of Ethernet frames to CAN frames. In the first step, a mapping to CAN FD frames is planned.

Additionally, CiA is establishing the Special Interest Group (SIG) “radar sensors”. It is planned to specify an application layer independent profile and the mapping to CANopen and J1939. Main use cases of these radar sensors are commercial road vehicles and off-highway as well as off-road vehicles. Automated-guided vehicles (AGV) und autonomous mobile robots (AMR) are other application options.

---

@CANopen #PAuto #Communcations

New Chairman and board for data transfer standards body.

Dr. Holger Kenn (Microsoft), Mr. Claudius Link (SAP), Mr. Andreas Faath (VDMA), Mr. Aurelien Le Sant (Schneider-Electric) and Dr. Kazuhiro Kusunoki (Mitsubishi Electric) have been elected to the Board of Directors of The OPC Foundation. and names Dr. Kenn as the Board’s newly elected Chairman.

Dr. Holger Kenn

Dr. Kenn replaced Ms. Veronica Schmid-Lutz, as the chairperson. Dr. Kenn has extensive technical and business-related IoT experience gained working with Microsoft customers and partners for over a decade. His insights from an IT company perspective and leadership will play a key role in helping the Board navigate the challenges and opportunities in the increasingly mixed IT and OT business landscape.

“I am honored by the trust and confidence placed in me by my fellow board members. With the future opportunities in the domain of OT that are offered by the cloud, but also emerging technologies such as autonomy, AI, and the industrial metaverse, there has never been a better time to work together within the OPC Foundation.”

Reflecting on the broader context an organization like the OPC Foundation plays in the global community, Dr. Kenn added, “At the same time, we all realize that disruption can occur rapidly, like global catastrophes such as the COVID-19 pandemic. But also, the far-reaching consequences of the climate crisis and the necessary decarbonization reminds us that it is also up to the engineers and technologists like us to ensure a resilient and safe future of our planet.”

The OPC Foundation sincerely thanks Ms. Schmid-Lutz (SAP), Dr Fabrice Jadot (Schneider-Electric) and Russ Agrusa (ICONICS/Mitsubishi Electric) for their years of service on its Board of Directors and wishes them all the best in their retirement or new business role.

• Mr. Link, Senior Vice President of Engineering for Manufacturing and Industrial IoT at SAP, will replace Ms. Schmid-Lutz on the Board
• Mr. Le Sant, CTO Industrial Automation and SVP Innovation & Technology, will replace Mr. Jadot as the Schneider-Electric representative
• Dr. Kusunoki, Chief Technology Officer of Factory Automation Systems Group, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation replaced Mr. Agrusa. Russ Agrusa has been representing Mitsubishi Electric Japan on the OPC Board since the acquisition of his company, ICONICS in 2019. He has the long-term experience on the BoD first been elected in November 2003 representing ICONICS

The OPC Foundation members elected Mr. Faath, Managing Director of the Machine Information Interoperability Department (MII) at VDMA as a new member on the Board of Director. Mr. Faath looks after member companies’ OPC UA needs by coordinating OPC UA-based information model definition efforts via OPC Foundation Joint Working Groups. Mr. Faath has wide-ranging exposure to the changing needs of businesses in process and discrete markets. He is actively involved in the broader Information Model standardization and harmonization efforts globally.

Commenting on the role OPC UA plays in the industry, Mr. Faath explained, “The machine and plant engineering industry favors OPC UA communication technology for Industry 4.0. This is reflected in the enormous OPC UA Companion Specification development efforts being put in by more than 600 European and international companies as they develop industry-specific interfaces via over 40 OPCF [OPC Foundation] joint working groups under the leadership of the VDMA.”

“Through this worldwide unique technological breadth of the numerous working groups, we also succeed in harmonization in the so-called OPC UA for Machinery. In summary, we are developing the world language of production based on OPC UA."

Stefan Hoppe, President OPC Foundation said “OPCF started as an OT dominated organization – we extended the board representatives to IT in 2015 and now it’s the second time an IT company is elected as chairperson. Microsoft has been spent huge efforts over years supporting open international standards – electing Dr. Kenn is reflecting these efforts.

"As OPC UA is more than just a protocol and instead the value is to transport standardized information models it’s a logical consequence that VDMA with pushing half of the 65+ information models is represented on the BoD now. Mr Faath is getting the honor of all the efforts from all more than 600 VDMA member companies around the world trusting the promise of industrial interoperability.” Hoppe continued: “The mix of OT and IT companies comprising the OPC Foundation Board of Directors attests to how far the organization has grown from its shop-floor-centric OT roots to playing a key role in enterprise-wide and cloud-based IT solutions.“

@OPCFoundation #PAuto #Communications #Standards

Survey and inspection.

Ashtead Technology has joined The Survey Association (TSA) as a supplier of rental equipment to the survey and inspection industry.

The TSA is the trade association for commercial survey companies in Great Britain. It promotes best practise in the survey industry, provides guidance on new methods and techniques, and lists suitably qualified and experienced companies who carry out surveying or who supply the survey industry.

This comes as Ashtead Technology has grown its suite of survey and inspection equipment which includes GNSS systems, levels, pipe lasers, scanning systems, total stations, utility locators and CCTV drain inspection cameras.

Ben Travis, Regional General Manager, says: “We are delighted to have been accepted by The Survey Association as a Supplier Member in recognition of the rental equipment we offer to the survey and inspection industry. We are looking forward to all of the opportunities our membership will create.

“Further to this, we are excited to be attending GEO Business where we’ll be showcasing our growing range of survey equipment (Stand GA49-18th-19th May 2022 - London GB). We’re looking forward to meeting and talking to plenty of experts in the geospatial field.”

Survey and inspection companies hire this equipment when their own is unavailable, or when they need more during peak demand. Hiring survey and inspection equipment is also an excellent way to try new technologies before committing to purchase, and it offers significant cost savings. Ashtead Technology offers market-leading rates and is currently offering generous discounts on rental quotes to new customers.  

@AshteadTech @surveyassoc @_Enviro_News #TandM #Britain

A new dawn in the automation industry!

Industrial leaders and pioneers have joined together to form UniversalAutomation.org (UAO) and advance the world of industrial automation. Vendors, end users, OEMs and academics will share a common automation software layer across their automation technology regardless of brand. This technological collaboration will drive the development of an ecosystem of portable, interoperable, “plug and produce” solutions, creating an entirely new category of industrial automation.

Current founding & intended members include: Aalto University, Advantech, Asus, Belden, Cargill, eaw Relaistechnik GmbH, ESA, ETP, Flexbridge, Georgia-Pacific, GR3N, Hirschmann, HTW Berlin, Intel, Jetter, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Kongsberg Maritime, Lawrence Technological University, Lumberg Automation, Phoenix Contact, ProSoft, R. Stahl, Schneider Electric, Shell, VP Process, Wilo, Wood and Yokogawa. Others are expected to join soon, with the organization actively recruiting new members.

Portability is already a reality in other market sectors. For example, mobile applications are developed to run across different smartphone vendors, enabling rapid advances through collective innovation. Until now, the industrial world has worked differently, with closed proprietary architectures and hardware-dependent software.  UAO will create a new era of openness and collaboration, decoupling software and hardware by sharing a reference runtime implementation of the IEC 61499 standard. 

“We are excited to be part of UniversalAutomation.org because it promises to be a complete gamechanger,” said Jac Opmeer, Principal Automation Engineer at Shell Global Solutions B.V. “It opens up a new world of possibilities for organisations like ours. Unlocking valuable data currently buried in proprietary systems, making the connectivity and deployment of new technologies like AI quick and simple. As part of UniversalAutomation.org we are actively collaborating with and supporting like-minded organisations to create an exciting new open era in operations and automation.”

UniversalAutomation.org will provide the basis for interoperable and portable automation software that can run with almost any Universal Automation-compliant hardware, creating an entirely vendor-agnostic ecosystem for automation software development. By merging both the information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) worlds, the organization seeks to unleash the full potential of Industry 4.0. 

“The creation of UniversalAutomation.org is the dawn of a new era within automation technology; over the course of the next five years, it will create a sea change for the future of automation software development,” said Dmitrii Drozdov, Chief Technology Officer at Flexbridge. “We are delighted to be a part of UniversalAutomation.org, driving the development of a “plug and produce” system which will help the industry keep up with the increasing demands of flexible manufacturing. There is no doubt that as members continue to join the organization and reap the benefits of collaboration and openness, that industry-wide change will follow.” “UniversalAutomation.org brings together vendors and users of technology, opening up the opportunity for continuous dialogue between members to share their knowledge. We’re excited to work with other members to enhance and develop our research and help combat the challenges currently facing industry,” said Valeriy Vyatkin, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Aalto University. “The IEC 61499 standard will help industry have a common platform for different types of software functionalities in automation, allowing organisations to achieve a certain level of reliability and predictability, as well as increasing flexibility of production plants.” “Wood is excited to be part of defining the future of automation and transforming profitability and productivity for the customers in our industrial markets. UAO technology will enable business innovation, increased digital adoption and agility with its open, interoperable and portable solutions- building business resiliency and empowering our clients to be future-ready,” says German Carmona, President of Wood’s Applied Intelligence business.

Members are working together to develop and adopt the next generation of Universal Automation solutions by collectively incrementing a runtime following shared source principles. Members will have access and the ability to shape the next generation of automation. The new organisation is actively recruiting new members. All entities looking to help advance industrial automation are encouraged to join.

Time for Universal Automation “Industrial operations are undergoing a total transformation,” said John Conway, President of UniversalAutomation.org. “As the IT sector has proven, advances in machine learning, augmented reality, real-time analytics, and the IoT hold great promise for step change advancements in performance, agility, and sustainability. However, within industry this promise is being held back by closed and proprietary automation platforms that restrict widespread adoption, hamper innovation, are challenging to integrate with third-party components, and are expensive to upgrade and maintain. Using a shared runtime changes all that.” Greg Boucaud, Chief Marketing Officer of UniversalAutomation.Org commented: “With the formation of UniversalAutomation.org, we are hitting the reset button on automation technology.  Using the IEC 61499 standard for distributed systems, we can create a new, open industrial environment that will lead to a more sustainable, efficient future.  UniversalAutomation.org will remove the barriers to innovation in automation by decoupling hardware and software and providing end users with the freedom they have been asking for — to easily integrate different technologies regardless of where they came from and fully optimize their automation systems.”

Industry advancement with interoperable automation software
Adopting a common runtime, shared across vendors, will provide limitless opportunities for growth and modernization across industry. The ARC Advisory Group found this move  could save the industrial market $30 billion (ca €26b) each year, which is currently spent servicing and maintaining the installed base of proprietary systems alone.  

UniversalAutomation.org members anticipate the adoption of this reference implementation-based approach to industrial automation to deliver a range of benefits, including: 

• Portability and reuse of software components on different systems, improving return-on-investment for software intellectual property (IP)
• Greater Innovation through the faster integration of new technologies and systems, development of new business models, easier connectivity, and flexibility to deliver customer requirements at greater speed 
• Extending the lifespan of existing industrial tools, devices and systems, and easier upgrading of systems reaching their end of life 
• Simplified training and skills (with teams only needing to learn one common system), making automation industry OT entry more accessible to IT professionals and the new generation of automation professionals
• Development of AppStore-like platforms to share apps around automation applications 

@Join_UAO @arc_advisory @teamlewisglobal #PAuto #Automation #61499

Valve company to develop DTMs meeting industrial application demand.

Valtek Sulamericana (VALTEKSUL), a developer of mainland control valves, is the newest member of the FDT Group™. The company will be developing Device Type Managers™ (DTMs™) for its valve positioners to meet customer application demands.

Founded in 1979 in São Paulo, Brazil, VALTEKSUL serves the oil & gas, mining, pulp & paper, power, chemical and petrochemical industries and has received market recognition for the design, geometry, and shape that differentiates its control valve line in the commercial market. VALTEKSUL’s control valves for industrial processes and co-generation power plants are used worldwide.

End user requests for FDT device DTMs is a common trend in the industrial automation marketplace, and especially for critical actuator device types, where a single device can bring a process to a halt due to malfunction.

“Uptime is key in today’s industrial environment where demand is high and downtime leads to major losses,” Glenn Schulz, FDT managing director said. “FDT DTMs provide the smarts for any process or discrete device, providing operators with a comprehensive diagnostic view of the health of the device, network, and process. We are pleased to welcome VALTEKSUL to the FDT family of leading manufacturers flourishing in the market with FDT-enabled devices.”

“Application requirements for DTM support for our control valve family used both domestically in Brazil and internationally was a driving factor in our decision to become an FDT member,” commented Daniel Andrade, technical coordinator for VALTEKSUL. “We look forward to offering the standardized and enhanced technical benefits of FDT DTMs along with customized parameter functions that match our differentiation philosophies. The result will be a superior solution for our customer applications across the diversified automation markets.”

From planning, configuration, and commissioning to diagnostics and maintenance, the FDT DTM is the sole intelligent device software-based driver that empowers plant and factory operators with seamless access to industrial lifecycle functions and device data. This includes online and offline configuration capabilities from any FDT-enabled hosting environment (e.g., desktop, PLC, asset management application) and holds true for both on-premises and remote access depending on the setup and needs of the application. Millions of DTMs are currently in use around the globe.

@FDTGroup #VALTEKSUL #PAuto #Brazil

New name new direction same service.

The Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC®) has changed its name to Industry IoT Consortium® (IIC®). They also have a new logo and tagline: “Technology Innovation. Business Transformation.”

This new brand reflects a new direction. This recognises the need to focus on technology deployments to solve technical problems and apply that technology to address pain points that improve end-user business results. THe mission is now to bring transformative business value to organizations, industry, and society by accelerating the adoption of trustworthy IoT systems.

Work on best-practice frameworks, innovative testbeds, and liaising with Standards Development Organizations will of course continue, as will targeting services toward members in core verticals of IT, Networks, Academia & Research, Manufacturing, Energy & Utilities, and Healthcare.

Industry organizations and technology providers continue to turn to IIC and its members to provide credible resources for IoT support and guidance. "Our new focus on driving technology innovation that fosters business transformation will help our members and their customers get a return on IoT investment," said a statement.

@IIConsortium #IIoT #PAuto 

AI board instituted.

Global trade group to promote adoption of AI in industrial automation, focusing on new certifications, standards, education programs and events

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) has created a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology Strategy Board of leading AI experts, part of a major initiative to promote education and adoption of the applications of artificial intelligence in automation industries.

This new board places AI leadership at the same level as A3’s existing technology groups: robotics, vision & imaging, and motion control & motors. The AI Technology Strategy Board will be comprised of senior executives from leading AI and technology companies. This is the first time the global trade association has added a technology group to its leadership since adding motion control in 2006. A3 represents 1,100 companies from across the automation industry.

Last autumn, A3 hosted its first virtual AI conference, the AI & Smart Automation Conference, with more than 1,600 virtual registrants. Last year, A3 released the whitepaper, “Intelligent Automation: 6 AI Applications That Are Changing Industry.” Focused on real-world use cases for AI, the 20-page paper has become the most-read whitepaper in the history of the association. The association’s website has devoted an entire section to AI. AI technologies will play a central role at A3’s two major trade shows in 2022, The Automate Show & Conference, June 6-9, in Detroit, (MI USA), and The Vision Show, October 11-13, in Boston (MASS USA).

Artificial intelligence is layering atop robotics, vision, motion control, and other automation technologies to create new solutions, great flexibility, and expanding opportunities. Big tech companies—once focused more on phones than factory floors—now view manufacturing, robotics and industrial automation as key segments of their business.

“Artificial intelligence—in many shapes and forms—will be the stitching that weaves together a new age of industry,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. “As the global trade group of the automation industry, we need to help prepare our members to seize this potential.”

The creation of the technology strategy board is the culmination of a three-year effort to educate and inform automation leaders about the growing importance of artificial intelligence. The board’s chairman is John Lizzi, Executive Leader-Robotics at GE Research, who has chaired and played a leading role in the A3’s AI efforts to date. Companies such as Amazon, GE, Google, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Siemens and others have helped guide A3’s initiatives. Robert Huschka, A3’s vice president of education strategies, will serve as the association’s liaison to the new board.

@a3automate #Automation #AI

Leaders in automation elected.

The results of the election of officers for the International Society of Automation (ISA) has been announced. The new President-Elect Secretary (2023 President) is Marty Bince. He is a Canadian and a member of the strong Calgary Section. He has held various volunteer offices in his section, district and on the central executive board for almost 20 years. He has also been active in the IEEE.

Marty is a Senior Automation Consultant for Schneider Electric. He is a former Wonderware Regional Manager and former owner of a Wonderware distributorship covering Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the USA. He has also acted as VP of Willowglen Systems (Enterprise SCADA systems), opening offices in Houston and working with representatives in the Middle East and Asia; Executive in Residence for TEC Edmonton (entrepreneurship grants); Key account Manager with Rotork Automation for large pipeline valve automation. VP with QFlan Systems, a systems integrator with clients uitilizing Digital Twin and IIOT.

He has worked on a number of projects in the oil&gas industry, pipelines, mining, pulp&paper, forest products, water/wastewater, food/pharma, manufacturing industries. His work has involved many journeys to many Staes & Provinces in North America and to over thirty other international territories and countries.

He is experienced in technologies including actuators, PLC’s, HMI’s, DCS’s, and software applications such as historians, asset management, large and small scale SCADA systems, mobile workforce, digital twin and IIOT. Communication systems include Modbus, HART, wireless and ethernet technologies.

Marty is married and he and his wife have four children and enjoys skiing/snowboarding, golfing, soccer, football (presumably American), scuba.

Other elected officers are listed below:

@ISA_Interchange @ISACalgary #PAuto #TandM

International cybersecurity expert panel announced.

ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance Members Schneider Electric, 1898 & Co., Dragos, and Idaho National Laboratory will serve as members of the international Operational Technology Cybersecurity Expert Panel* appointed by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA).

“Around the world, countries are planning their approaches to the persistent and significant cybersecurity threats to critical infrastructure and industrial operations,” said ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance Managing Director Andre Ristaino. “The US government is also painfully aware of the importance of protecting critical infrastructure, as highlighted by the recent attack on the Colonial Pipeline. This incident is only a wake-up call if you haven’t been paying attention. Our organizations have been advocating for smarter cybersecurity approaches for a decade or more through our standards committee, certification body, and most recently, the founding of the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance.

The 11 panel members  • Marco (Marc) Ayala (US), and is Director of Industrial Control System Cybersecurity (ICS) and sector lead at 1898 & Co, part of Burns & McDonnell • Christophe Blassiau (France), an executive member of the WEF Cyber Resilience in Electricity and Oil and Gas Communities, and senior vice-president for cybersecurity and global chief information security officer at Schneider Electric • Eric Byres (US), chief executive officer of aDolus Technology, and senior partner at ICS Secure; • Robert Hannigan (GB), the chairman of BlueVoyant; • Dr. Ong Chen Hui (Singapore), the cluster director for the BizTech Group at the Infocomm Media Development Authority; • Joel Thomas Langill (US), a managing member of the Industrial Control System Cyber Security Institute, and founder of Scadahacker; • Robert Lee (US), chief executive officer and co-founder of Dragos; • Dale Peterson (US), founder and chairman of S4 Events, and founder and chief executive officer of Digital Bond; • Maggy Powell (US), principal industry specialist at Amazon Web Services; • Zachary Tudor (US), associate laboratory director at the Idaho National Laboratory's National and Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate;  Kazuo Yamaoka (Japan), senior solution architect at NTT Security Japan.

"Nearly 50 member companies, acting individually and as a group, are serving as subject matter experts in nearly every world region to drive adoption and usage of the ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards as the foundational basis for assessing and managing cybersecurity risk across all industry sectors.”

This will no doubt be of interest in Ireland following the catastrophic ransomware cyberattack that caused all of its Health Service IT systems nationwide to be shut down since last Friday (14 May). Recovery from this attack which will take weeks and months and at time of writing it is thought that the attackers will release some of the data including personal details of patients and clients of the service in the "dark web." 

It is alleged that the attack on the Colonial Pipeline systems led to a payment a ransom however the Irish Government have firmly rejected this. "The only thing paying a ransom guarantees is more ransomware attacks" says Ciarán Martin, founding Chief Executive of the Britain's National Cyber Security Centre. (Irish Times 22/5/2021). 

Singapore’s approach to global concerns over cybersecurity includes a defined plan created by their government and the country’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA.) CSA launched its OT Cybersecurity Masterplan in 2019, providing guidance to professionals working in OT environments with a focus on security industrial control systems. The three objectives of the masterplan are:

• To create awareness of the OT challenges faced across industries within Singapore
• To align the efforts of OT cybersecurity initiatives and to address cyber-threats, including a recommendation to leverage the ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards within the Cybersecurity Code of Practice (CCOP) as one of the key components of a strong cybersecurity approach
• To guide the development of effective cybersecurity initiatives, solutions, and to encourage partnerships with industry leaders and stakeholders

The international Operational Technology Cybersecurity Expert Panel will discuss issues ranging from governance policies and processes, evolving operational technology technologies, emerging trends, capability development, supply chain, threat intelligence information sharing, and incident response. The panel will facilitate the sharing of information between the public and private sectors with a goal of strengthening local cybersecurity capabilities and competencies, protecting critical infrastructure sectors, including energy, water, and transport.

Singapore's operational technology cybersecurity practitioners, operators, researchers and policymakers from the Government, critical information infrastructure (CII) sectors, academia, and other operational technology industries will have direct access to the experts, leveraging their knowledge to shape codes of practice, strategies for training Singapore’s workforce, the proliferation of compliance programs for devices, components, and systems, and more.

In 2019, the ISA Security Compliance Institute announced an agreement with TÜV SÜD PSB, the German training, testing, and certification giant, to conduct certification assessments using ISASecure certification specifications in South East Asia. Simultaneously, the Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC) and ISA signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide certification body accreditations for the ISASecure® cybersecurity certification programs in the region, including the second certification body DNV GL whose Singapore office has also signed on as an ISASecure CB.

* Establishment of Operational Technology Cybersecurity Expert Panel (3/5/2021)

@ISA_Interchange @CSASingapore @IrelandISA @ncsc_gov_ie #PAuto #Cybersecurity #Singapore #Ireland

Smart manufacturing move.

CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing Institute™ has added Microsoft to their ranks of partners and members. "Interoperability and innovation that can scale are essential for a more competitive and resilient manufacturing environment, and it’s a pleasure to welcome market leaders that embody these values to our Smart Manufacturing (SM) ecosystem. A relentless focus on these values is essential to achieving CESMII’s vision to accelerate the democratization of Smart Manufacturing."

Microsoft brings their thought leadership, standards advocacy and enabling technologies to our members and our SM Innovation Centers™ and will engage with other industry leaders to participate in their Standing Committees, adding their insights to the Technology, Business Practices, and Education and Workforce Development efforts driving this ecosystem forward.

“This is a pivotal time for CESMII,” states John Dyck, CEO of CESMII. “We are making great progress on many fronts, addressing the real challenges preventing manufacturers from accelerating their Smart Manufacturing and digital transformation initiatives. Our focus on enabling manufacturing system interoperability will have a dramatic impact on our energy productivity, sustainability, and competitiveness as a nation. A big part of that is defining and enabling the adoption of industry standards that will significantly reduce the cost and complexity of deploying Smart Manufacturing solutions. We’re pleased to see Microsoft take this step with us, advocating for standards, for interoperability, and creating a community of thought leaders that can truly transform this industry.”

“We strongly believe in standards, as exhibited by our work with CESMII on key OPC Foundation initiatives, and we appreciate that CESMII is addressing some of the great challenges preventing the adoption of digital transformation at scale,” says Sam George, corporate vice president of Azure IoT at Microsoft. “The focus on interoperability, openness, and the crowd-sourcing of information models for manufacturing assets is an essential accelerator for our mutual vision to accelerate the democratization of Smart Manufacturing,” continues George. “We’re pleased to engage with CESMII and their ecosystem as an enabling force in this industry, working broadly to bring real transformation to this industry.”

• Plattform Industrie 4.0 and CESMII announced their partnership to address similar challenges and needs related to Industrie 4.0 / Smart Manufacturing earlier this month: Industrie 4.0 and CESMII (14/4/2021)

@CESMII_SM @Azure @plattform_i40 #PAuto #Smart

Cybersecurity board appointments.

The ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance (ISAGCA) has appointed a chairperson—Megan Samford, VP, Chief Product Security Officer for Energy Management at Schneider Electric—and vice chairperson—Sharul Rashid, Custodian Engineer and Group Technical Authority of Instrumentation and Control at PETRONAS—to its advisory board.

Megan Samford (left) and Sharul Rashid - ISAGCA Board

Megan Samford is VP, Chief Product Security Officer for Energy Management at Schneider Electric, is a security executive with focus on industrial control systems security, critical infrastructure protection, and risk analysis. In taking her role at Schneider Electric, Samford became the first female CPSO for a major industrial without first being a CISO, a significant milestone for women in industrial control systems security. She is currently leading a community driven effort under ISAGCA known as Incident Command System for Industrial Control Systems (ICS4ICS), which seeks to establish an operational incident response organization by Q1 2021. ICS4ICS includes a common language for responding to cyber incidents and provide avenues for mutual assistance between organizations.

“As the first Founding Member of the ISAGCA, Schneider Electric remains deeply committed to collaborating across industry to help our customers and all end users, regardless of segment and geography, secure and protect their people, assets and operations,” Samford said. “The ISA Standards Committee created the prevailing ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards by leveraging use cases from more than 20 different verticals. Our goal now is to build on that great work by expanding awareness, adoption, and application of the standard. I am excited to work with the diversity of ISAGCA membership to develop the programs and create the resources we need to meet our objectives. I am also excited to see community-identified needs and focused initiatives, like ICS4ICS, come to life through ISAGCA and its relationships with other non-profits and governments from around the world. Together, we will drive a standards-based, end-to-end approach—encompassing people, processes, and technology—to help safeguard global industry from sophisticated cyberattacks.”

The Advisory Board Vice Chairperson, Sharul Rashid, is Custodian Engineer and Group Technical Authority of Instrumentation and Control at PETRONAS, Malaysia's fully integrated oil and gas company. Sharul has more than 30 years of experience managing and leading teams and strategies covering a diverse range of instrumentation and control issues in refineries, gas liquefaction, petrochemicals, and gas pipeline transmission. PETRONAS, the world’s fourth-largest exporter of LNG, will intensify efforts towards reducing direct emissions from operations and the electricity used by the company and recently pledged to become a net zero emitter of greenhouse gases by 2050.

“I am honored to work with my colleagues around the world to advance critical cybersecurity initiatives,” Rashid said. “Together, we will work to increase awareness and expertise, developing best practice tools to help companies successfully navigate the lifecycle of cybersecurity protection.”

#PAuto #Cybersecurity 

New board take office!

The Executive Board is the senior governing body of  the International Society of Automation (ISA). It is composed of the President, President-elect Secretary, Past President, Treasurer, 12 members with geographic, technical, and operational experience, the Parliamentarian (non-voting), and up to three at-large, competency-based members.

The board is elected by members for a period of one year however the President - elect Secretary is a three year commitment first as Secretary then as President and finally as Past President.  The 2020 President is Eric Cosman who succeeds Paul Gruhn (2019 President) and who will in turn be succeeded as 2021 President by Steve Mustard.

The Executive Board works closely with the ISA staff, made up of dozens of seasoned experts in areas like non-profit management, finance, event planning, marketing, publishing, training, and more.

The global head quarters of ISA is in North Carolina.

The 2020 ISA Board

#PAuto #TandM

New chair of M&C body.

Dr Attila Bilgic, CTO Krohne Group, has been elected as the new Chairman of the VDI/VDE-GMA (Society Measurement and Automatic Control) Executive Board for the period 2019-2022.

Dr Atilla Bilgic

Over the past three years, the Executive Board worked intensely on internationalisation and cooperation with other bodies. For his term of office, Dr Bilgic intends to promote the necessary fundamental changes in structures and ways of thinking associated with digital transformation, in order to strengthen the role automation technology plays alongside IT and communications technology. The close cooperation between industry and universities will be one of the main supporting pillars in this endeavour.

@krohnegroup @VDI_News #Germany

2019 President announced.

The International Society of Automation (ISA) has welcomed Paul Gruhn, PE, CFSE, and ISA Life Fellow, is its 2019 Society President.

Paul Gruhn

In his role as Society President, Gruhn will lead the ISA Board of Directors, which is responsible for governing, setting policy and establishing the strategic direction of the organization. ISA is a nonprofit professional association that provides technical resources and programs for those who apply engineering and technology to improve the management, safety and cybersecurity of modern automation and control systems used across industry and critical infrastructure.

“I’m honored to be the 2019 Society President,” said Gruhn, a globally recognized expert in process safety and safety instrumented systems who has played a pivotal role in developing ISA safety standards, training courses and publications. “Like any organization over the last 30 years, ISA has naturally had its ups and downs. To grow and remain relevant, we must adapt to both the changing times and the changing demographics of our industry.”

Gruhn is a Global Functional Safety Consultant with aeSolutions, a process safety, cybersecurity and automation consulting firm. He serves as a Co-Chair and long-time member of the ISA 84 standard committee (on safety instrumented systems), and continues to develop and teach ISA courses on safety systems. He also developed the first commercial safety system modeling program. Gruhn has written two ISA textbooks, numerous chapters in other books and dozens of published articles.

Gruhn earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in Texas, and both a Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) and an ISA 84 Safety Instrumented Systems Expert.

He suceeds Brian Curtis the 2018 whose term ended at the end of 2018.

@ISA_Interchange  #Pauto #Automation

Cybersecurity export to head automation body.

Marty Edwards is the new Managing Director of the Automation Federation*.  Edwards, a well known industrial control systems cybersecurity expert, is currently serving as Director of the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), an operational division of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Marty Edwards

ICS-CERT works to reduce industrial control system risks within and across all critical infrastructure sectors by coordinating efforts among federal, state, local and tribal governments, as well as industrial control systems owners, operators and vendors. Prior to his ICS-CERT role, Edwards was a program manager focused on control systems security work at Idaho National Laboratory and held a wide variety of roles in the instrumentation and automation fields, including field service, instrument engineering, control systems engineering and project management.

“ISA and the Automation Federation are proud and excited to announce this news,” said ISA Executive Director and CEO Patrick Gouhin. “Mr. Edwards brings a remarkable and unique skill set – he is unquestionably one of the world’s foremost experts in industrial cybersecurity, and he has a background in real-world instrumentation and automation engineering. His knowledge and experience will prove an invaluable asset for automation professionals around the world in his new role, as he builds on the hard work and vision of our current Managing Director, Mike Marlowe. We owe Mr. Marlowe a debt of gratitude for his tireless dedication as a leader of the Automation Federation, and he has left a legacy for Mr. Edwards to continue.”

"I am excited to be joining an organization that will allow me to get back to my instrumentation and control system roots, and contribute to the success of the highly critical field of automation," said Edwards.

The Automation Federation has a distinguished history of involvement and expertise in industrial cybersecurity. Upon request from the US federal government, representatives of the Automation Federation assisted in the creation of the US Cybersecurity Framework and helped to implement the provisions of the US Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014. The ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards—representing a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity—are integral components of the US government’s current and future plans to combat industrial cyberattack.

At the invitation of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—an agency within the that country's Department of Commerce—the Automation Federation also plays a prominent role in organizing and participating in workshops designed to educate executives and manufacturing leaders on the vital need to implement recommended US Cybersecurity Framework guidelines.

The Automation Federation also partners with a wide range of other US government organizations (such as the US Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the US Department of Labor and the US National Guard) and private-sector groups (such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Rural Water Association) as well as its own members and working groups to leverage the strengths of ISA/IEC 62443 in defense of cyberwarfare.

Edwards bigins his tenure at the Automation Federation later this month (June 2017). Current Automation Federation Managing Director Mike Marlowe will continue with the organization as Managing Director Emeritus until his retirement in December.

Edwards holds a diploma of technology in Process Control and Industrial Automation (Magna cum Laude) from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), and in 2015 received its Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2016, Mr. Edwards was recognized by FCW in their “Federal 100 awards” as being one of the top IT professionals in the US government.

• The Automation Federation—an association of non-profit member organizations—is dedicated to fostering economic growth and manufacturing innovation by helping industry harness the immense capabilities and potential of automation technologies and applications. Its initiatives and expertise are focused on three key areas: industrial cybersecurity; workforce development; and member advocacy.
As the umbrella and outreach association of the International Society of Automation (ISA)—the developer of the world’s only consensus-based series of industrial cybersecurity standards (ISA/IEC 62443)—the Automation Federation works with government and industrial leaders to mitigate IACS security vulnerabilities.

#PAuto #Cybersecurity #ISAuto