Tobin Richardson

As President and CEO of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, Tobin Richardson is on a mission to simplify and harmonize the Internet of Things (IoT) through open, global standards and by creating a place where the world’s leaders and innovators across the IoT value chain can work together to create a more connected, accessible, sustainable, and equitable world. From facilitating international trade and commerce relationships to driving large scale digital and business transformation, Tobin’s career is rooted in driving human-centric change and enabling purposeful collaboration. Bringing together his early days as an advisor and consultant with his work in public policy, Tobin was drawn into the IoT in 2008, when he helped establish Zigbee Smart Energy as the open connectivity standard for the utility industry. Since 2014, Tobin has led the Alliance, which now includes over 695 member companies in 45 countries across the IoT value chain. The Alliance is both a member-driven standards development group, known for technologies like Zigbee, and an industry association - guiding the industry forward, driving growth for members, delivering value to customers and consumers and creating standards that matter. Under Tobin’s leadership, the Alliance launched a first-of effort between the largest IoT ecosystem players (Amazon, Apple, Google, Comcast & Samsung SmartThings) to create an IP-based standard intended to knock down the “walled gardens” of the IoT. Matter - the interoperable, secure connectivity standard for the future of the smart home - now has more than 230 member company contributors. In addition to evolving the Alliance into a multi-standards organization that is setting the foundation and future of IoT, Tobin also sits on the World Economic Forum’s Council on the Connected World, as Chair of the WEF’s initiative focused on strengthening collaboration across enterprise, regulators, consumers, and NGOs. Prior to leading the Alliance, Tobin led large-scale tech transformations and new service/product rollouts across Fortune 500 companies, world-leading technology firms and public sector organizations. He holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis.