Ray Walker is the Special Advisor on Trade Processes and Electronic Business Standards to the United Kingdom's Department of Trade and Industry. Previously, he was the Chief Executive of the UK's Trade Facilitation agency (SITPRO) for 13 years, and spent the earlier part of his career in a variety of senior international management positions in a global textile group.In his current role he is also seconded to the United Nations' Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, (UN/CEFACT) where he is a Vice Chair and the Chairman of its Steering Group (CSG). The CSG is responsible to the UN/CEFACT plenary for policy and technical initiatives, for the implementation and coordination of plenary decisions, and for the management of its work programme. It is also responsible for the UN's involvement in the MoU that coordinates the electronic business work of the four de jure global standards organizations, IEC, ISO, ITU and the UNECE.Ray is widely recognized as one of the driving forces behind the development of global electronic business standards such as UN/ EDIFACT — the global EDI standard which now has more than two million users - and ebXML, the emerging global standard for business interchanges based on XML, where he is a member of the executive group.He contributes regularly to trade facilitation and e-business developments and lectures on e-business at a number of leading European and US Universities. He is also the founder of a new not—for—profit organization, <Information-Poverty.org> that is focused on carrying out projects and research aimed at alleviating the growing digital divide.He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Economics and Organic Chemistry from the University of Lancaster, and for his contribution to the development of information exchange standards in international trade, has been made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty, the Queen.