Zhaga Appoints New Secretary General

Musa Unmehopa is Director of Standardization at Philips. He has been involved in international standardization across several industries for almost 20 years, serving in various chair positions and directorships.

As Secretary General, Musa will head the consortium and represent its best interests in a company-neutral manner both internally and externally.

“It is my pleasure to be appointed to this challenging position of Secretary General, serving the leading companies in the lighting industry around the globe,” said Musa Unmehopa. “I am looking forward to the many exciting opportunities ahead, as I firmly believe that the Zhaga Consortium has a pivotal role to play in helping the lighting industry with its transformation towards LED.”

Menno Treffers, the outgoing Secretary General, is leaving both Zhaga and Philips to take the position of Vice-President New Business Development at One-Red LLC, a company that manages patent license programs for LG Electronics, Philips, Pioneer, Sony and for One-Blue LLC.

Menno has been the driving force behind the success of Zhaga, which has grown into an influential organization with more than 200 members from throughout the lighting industry. Zhaga has produced a series of specifications for interchangeable LED light engines, and more are in the pipeline. Based on these specifications, Zhaga members have already certified hundreds of products.

“Zhaga has been the first new approach to standardization in the lighting industry, reflecting the technology change towards LEDs that is taking place,” said Jan Denneman, chair of the General Assembly of Zhaga.

“As Secretary General, Menno has supported the Zhaga members with processes to enable smooth and effective ways to develop specifications. Due to Menno’s work and leadership, hundreds of companies around the globe are working directly together to create interface specifications for LED light engines.”

Within Philips, Musa Unmehopa leads a number of standardization projects that support the transformation to LED. He represents Philips on the Board of Directors of the ZigBee Alliance (intelligent control for connected lighting) and the EMerge Alliance (standardizing low-voltage DC power distribution).

Musa received an MSc degree from the University of Twente, as well as MBA degrees from TiasNimbas Business School in the Netherlands and Bradford University School of Management in the UK.

Zhaga at Light+Building:
Musa Unmehopa will represent Zhaga at the Light+Building tradeshow in Frankfurt, Germany, which runs from Sunday March 30 to Friday April 4. The Zhaga booth is A15, Hall 4.2.

Musa will be available for meetings and interviews during Light+Building, where he will be happy to discuss Zhaga’s current work, progress and future directions.

In addition, Musa will present a seminar giving an overview of Zhaga and the forthcoming changes that will result in independent interchangeability of LED modules and drivers. The seminar will be presented on Tuesday April 1 at 14:00, and again on Thursday April 3 at 11:00. Full details are available at www.zhagastandard.org/lb.

About Zhaga:
The Zhaga Consortium develops interface specifications that enable the interchange of LED light engines manufactured by different companies. Zhaga is a global cooperation, with members that include luminaire makers, lamp manufacturers, LED module makers, and companies that supply components and materials to the lighting industry.
Zhaga’s approach is to specify the interfaces between LED light engines and LED luminaires. Each Book defines the interfaces – mechanical, thermal, photometric, electrical and control – for different categories of LED light engine. Using Zhaga specifications, a luminaire maker can use LED light engines from different suppliers without having to change the design of the luminaire.