The board of the Application Developers Alliance has named Jake Ward as its new president.
Ward had been serving as acting president since the surprise announcement last month that then president Jon Potter was resigning. Ward's selection as permanent president was no surprise given that he was one of the cofounders of the alliance with Potter in 2012.
The alliance boasts upward of 60,000 individual members and more than 200 corporate members, with staff in the U.S., London and Brussels.
Ward, who is based in Washington, has a full agenda on the policy side that he has already begun to implement, including battling patent "trolls," pushing for upholding the 2000 safe harbor for data transfers between the European Union and the U.S. -- a hot-button issue after last week's EU court decision that that voluntary harbor should be invalidated given the Edward Snowden leaks about mass surveillance, which call into question any U.S. assurances of privacy protection, the court suggested.
The app developers are also pushing for a comprehensive plan for freeing up more wireless spectrum, which is the fuel for all those apps.
"Jake is the natural choice to succeed Jon, and we are all very excited about the vision Jake has presented as we continue our mission of supporting developers as innovators and an essential workforce," the board said in announcing its selection.
