The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) celebrated its second anniversary and announced two new Steering Committee positions by special election. Launched in March 2014, the IIC now boasts over 250 member organizations, an increase of 150 in the past year, including large global corporations, start-ups, systems integrators, research institutions, universities and government agencies. 

During its second business year, the IIC achieved a number of goals and milestones. Publication of the Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA) and a Vocabulary Technical Report established two important reference resources for driving the adoption of the Industrial Internet. The organization also announced testbeds across many vertical areas including manufacturing, public sector, healthcare, energy, and transportation. Working Groups are actively establishing priorities and enabling technologies of the Industrial Internet in order to accelerate market adoption and drive down the barriers to entry. Event participation and sponsorship included the IoT World Congress in Barcelona, Spain; an Industrial Internet Energy Summit in Houston, TX, USA; and an Industrial Internet Security Forum in New York, NY, USA.

As a result of the Consortium's membership increase, the IIC Steering Committee created and held elections to fill Chair and Vice-Chair positions. The strategic additions of both Steering Committee Chair and Vice-Chair will expand IIC's governance as the Consortium develops. A special election was held to fill these positions, and representatives from SAP, and Schneider Electric have been elected as follows:

Steering Committee Chair: John Tuccillo, Senior Vice President Global Industry & Government Affairs, Schneider Electric

Steering Committee Vice-Chair: Dr. Tanja Rueckert, Executive Vice President, P&I LoB Digital Assets & IoT, SAP SE, SAP

"In just two years since inception, the Industrial Internet Consortium has gained significant momentum and credibility. We're building practical methods of technology adoption for the Industrial IoT across many businesses and industries, and we have a global force of leading organizations committed to the success of the ecosystem," said Dr. Richard Soley, Executive Director of the Industrial Internet Consortium. "The commitment to their new roles as Chair and Vice-Chair of the IIC Steering Committee, made by both Schneider Electric and SAP, will keep our testbed development program on track and accelerate additional strategic business initiatives."

The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee will provide strategic direction and management of the Steering Committee. The Chair position requires a 2-year commitment, and the Vice-Chair is a one-year term. The Steering Committee member organizations include representatives from Bosch, Fujitsu, GE, IBM, Intel, MITRE, Real-Time Innovations, SAP, and Schneider Electric as well as IIC Executive Director, Dr. Richard Soley. The newly-elected Chair and Vice-Chair officially accepted their positions on April 5, 2016.

"The IIC is gaining terrific momentum, building practical methods of adoption for the Industrial IoT across economic sectors, businesses and functions globally," said John Tuccillo. "Our work will ensure the rapidly growing ecosystem of IIoT technologies is founded on open and interoperability standards. We have a huge task before us and it gives me great pleasure to serve as the inaugural chairman of the IIC Steering Committee. Together, we see many specific opportunities for IIC collaboration with complementary technical standards and government regulatory communities as well as select industry groups."

"The Industrial Internet Consortium continues to be a major strategic asset to the entire Industrial Internet of Things ecosystem. Its groundbreaking and essential work in technology & architecture, security, business practices, and testbeds is laying the foundation for success of the IIoT, its members, and the broader IoT community, as it enables faster implementation times and an increased time-to-value through pre-validated end-to-end solutions. It's emerging collaborative relationship with the Industry 4.0 initiative and with the leading IoT standards setting organizations to collaboratively develop next-generation solutions is truly unique in the community," said Dr. Tanja Rueckert. "As IIC continues with this important work, I am honored in the trust my fellow Steering Committee members have placed in me and look forward to working with John Tuccillo as Chair and the other members as we continue to move IIC forward as the pre-eminent IIoT consortium."