EESPA re-elects Basware CEO Esa Tihilä as Chair

EESPA re-elects BasWare CEO Esa Tihilä as Chair


Tihilä will chair the trade association for a large community of e-invoicing service providers for the third 2-year term

ESPOO, Finland, 3 December, 2015 - At its recent Annual General Meeting, Esa Tihilä, CEO of Basware, the leading provider of e-invoicing and purchase-to-pay solutions, was re-elected as Chair of the European E-Invoicing Service Providers Association (EESPA). At the same time, Marcus Laube, Managing Director of crossinx, was elected as Co-Chair.

As a measure to strengthen the association's operational management, Charles Bryant, formerly Co-Chair, was appointed to the new position of Secretary General of EESPA.

EESPA acts as a trade association at European level for a large community of e-invoicing service providers which are its members. EESPA encourages and drives the adoption of e-invoicing and works to support the vision and implementation of public policy towards compliant e-invoicing.

"The adoption and awareness towards e-invoicing have increased significantly over the recent years, and a critical mass of e-invoicing has already been reached in several countries. This has been well supported by those e-invoicing service providers, which support an operator-driven model, ease of use of e-invoicing, performant technologies, as well as the Business to Government (B2G) e-commerce initiatives that are being increasingly encouraged and mandated across the world," said Esa Tihilä, CEO of Basware.

"Interoperability, harmonization of standards and e-invoicing 'go-to-market' approaches continue to be the focus areas for EESPA. EESPA has made considerable progress over the past years in terms of building both membership and governance. We will need to continue to influence policy makers, industry analysts and influencers, provide an accurate picture of our industry capabilities, and increase awareness to accelerate the adoption of e-invoicing," added Marcus Laube, Managing Director of crossinx.

EESPA was formed in 2011 as an international not-for-profit association to be a strategic asset for its members delivering industry leadership, influence and a framework of support. It acts as a trade association at a European level for a large and dynamic community of e-invoicing service providers, drawn from organisations that provide network, business outsourcing, financial, technology, and EDI (electronic data interchange) services. With its current over 60 full and associate members, EESPA focuses on public policy issues, the creation of an interoperable eco-system and championing the widespread adoption of e-invoicing for the benefit of economic efficiency and growth. Based on a recent membership survey, participating members processed around 1 billion electronic invoices in 2014.

More information:
European E-Invoicing Service Providers Association (EESPA): www.eespa.eu

Contacts:
Sirje Ahvenlampi-Hyvönen
Communications Director, Basware
sirje.ahvenlampi@basware.com, tel. +358 50 557 3822