9 May 2011
 Laurent Cremer will lead OSPT’s push to establish CIPURSE (TM) as the primary e-ticketing open security standard for next-generation transit fare collection systems
Laurent Cremer appointed as the first executive director of OSPT Alliance

The Open Standard for Public Transport (OSPT (TM)) Alliance announced the appointment of Laurent Cremer as the organisation's first executive director. A global business development executive with extensive experience in the technology and transit industries, Mr. Cremer will lead OSPT's push to establish CIPURSE (TM) as the primary e-ticketing open security standard for next-generation transit fare collection systems.

"My mission is clear, and that is to promote the CIPURSE open security standard, as well as all the benefits that come from such open standards, by building support for it amongst all participants in the ecosystem as a viable alternative to current proprietary solutions," said Laurent Cremer, executive director for the OSPT Alliance. "As an open standard, CIPURSE promises to optimise interoperability and increase the availability of multiple sources to enable simple and fast integration of CIPURSE-certified products and solutions into public transport schemes."

According to Cremer, CIPURSE will enable transit operators to choose from among a much broader array of solution vendors, consultants and integrators offering a wider range of innovative, flexible solutions to help them deploy or upgrade to more secure and cost-effective transit fare collection systems.

"Laurent brings a wealth of technical and business development experience and expertise to the OSPT Alliance, and we welcome him in his new position as executive director," said Axel Lange, group vice president purchasing at Giesecke & Devrient and board chairman for the OSPT Alliance. "It is our goal that under Laurent's leadership and guidance Alliance membership will grow significantly, and the CIPURSE open security standard will achieve the broad industry acceptance we believe it deserves."

The OSPT Alliance is working to establish an ecosystem of transit operators, technology suppliers, consultants and integrators, government agencies, and mobile ecosystem product and service providers, as well as other industry associations. The goal is to develop new, interoperable transit fare collection solutions based on the CIPURSE open security standard that are able to support both current and future fare collection systems.

Mr. Cremer will be representing the OSPT Alliance at the Cards Brazil 2011conference and exhibition being held May 2-4 at the Frei Caneca Convention Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The OSPT Alliance will be exhibiting in Booth 5 at this event, and Mr. Cremer will be a featured speaker with a talk entitled, "A New Model for Contactless Public Transportation in Brazil," on May 2 as part of the Contactless Technologies speaking track.