Speaker Biographies

Speakers

Moderators

Sabine Verheyen

Member, European Parliament

Sabine Verheyen has been a MEP for the German Christian Democrats (CDU) since 2009. She is Coordinator for the EPP in the European Parliament’s culture and education committee and a substitute member in the internal market and consumer protection committee. She focuses in particular on media policy, intellectual property and digital agenda issues. She took part in the conciliation committee on the telecom package and has been a member of the European Parliament’s annual delegation to the Internet Governance Forum since 2009. As former mayor of Aachen (1999 to 2009) she focuses additionally on issues that are of relevance to the local authorities.

She has been a member of the Euregio Council since 1999 and a member of the council of the WDR, the West German public broadcaster, since 2003 and is a substitute member since 2009. She is furthermore a member of the European Internet Foundation.

Sabine studied architecture at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences.

Roberto Viola

Deputy Director General, DG Connect, European Commission

Roberto Viola holds a Doctor degree in Electronic Engineering (Dr. Eng.) and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA).
He is Deputy Director General of DG CONNECT, in the European Commission, with responsibilities for Electronic Communications Networks and Services Directorate, Cooperation Directorate - International and Inter-institutional relations, Stakeholders cooperation, Coordination Directorate - Growth and Jobs, Innovations and Knowledge Base, Media and Data Directorate.
From 2005 to 2012, he was the Secretary General in charge of managing AGCOM (Italian media and telecom regulator).
He was Chairman of the European Radio Spectrum Policy group (RSPG) from 2012 to 2013, and Deputy Chairman in 2011 and Chairman in 2010.
He was member of the BEREC Board (Body of European Telecom Regulators).
He was Chairman of the European Regulatory Group (ERG) in 2007.
He served as Director of Regulation Department and Technical Director in AGCOM from 1999 to 2004, in charge of inter alia, regulation in terrestrial, cable and satellite television, frequency planning, access and interconnection of communication services, cost accounting and tariff in telecommunication and broadcasting services.
From 1985-1999 he served in various positions as a staff member of the European Space Agency (ESA) in particular, he has been Head of Telecommunication and Broadcasting Satellite Services.

Michel de Rosen

Chairman, ESOA

Michel de Rosen
, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member, Eutelsat Communications, joined Eutelsat Communications in July 2009 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in November 2009. He is also a board member of Eutelsat Communications.

His career has included Chief Executive positions in international publicly traded groups and senior public service appointments.

He began his career in France in the Inspection générale des finances in the Ministry of Finance. He was Chargé de Mission in the office of the Ministry of Defence from 1980 to 1981 and from 1986 to 1988 was Chief of Staff of the Minister of Industry and Telecommunications.

Between 1983 and 1999 he held executive positions at Rhône-Poulenc, including CEO of Pharmuka from 1983 to 1986, CEO of Rhône-Poulenc Fibers and Polymers from 1988 to 1993, and CEO of Rhône-Poulenc Rorer (USA) from 1993 to 1999. From 2000 to 2008 he was Chairman and CEO of ViroPharma in the USA. He returned to France in 2008 to the position of Chairman and CEO of SGD.

Michel de Rosen is a graduate of the HEC business school and France’s National School of Administration (ENA - EcoleNationaled'Administration). He is also a Board member of ABB.

He is married with four children.

Ingrid Deltenre

Director General, EBU

Ingrid Deltenre took up the position of EBU Director General on 1 January 2010. The European Broadcasting Union is the most active and influential association of national broadcasters in the world.

Prior to joining the EBU, Ingrid Deltenre was CEO of Schweizer Fernsehen (SF), the leading public TV broadcaster in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. During her tenure there, she launched a strategy review which led to a new positioning of each channel, each targeting specific audience with appropriate programmes. She also succeeded in positioning the company in the new media world, developing and implementing a sound and focused multiplatform-strategy for the television channels, the website, and other distribution platforms. After starting the migration to HD she successfully launched the HD channel “HD Suisse” in December 2007.

From 1999-2004 she was CEO of Publisuisse, the commercial unit of SRG SSR and the leading marketer of television in Switzerland. There she developed and implemented a new business strategy which served to successfully reposition the company.

She also held the position of Chief Marketing Officer and Member of the Executive Committee Switzerland at Swisscard AECS (1998-1999). From 1991 to 1998 she worked for CASH Switzerland's leading business weekly, initially as Project Manager, then as Head of Marketing and ultimately as Managing Director where her major success was to make CASH the number one business weekly in terms of readership and advertisement revenues.

Ingrid Deltenre is a Dutch and Swiss national and speaks Dutch, German, English and French.

Freenasp Mobedjina

Vice President, Group Strategy and Business Development, TeliaSonera

Freenasp Mobedjina is currently Vice President of Group Strategy & Business Development at TeliaSonera following his previous role leading Strategy for the Business Area Broadband Services. Before that he headed the broadband business in Denmark where he started and built the broadband organization.

Before joining TeliaSonera, Freenasp worked for The Boston Consulting Group in their Stockholm and Dallas offices leading projects in several different industries but with emphasis on strategic and operative issues concerning technology and IT businesses, traditional companies as well as start-ups.

Freenasp holds a M.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Linköping Institute of Technology.

Aarti Holla

Secretary General, ESOA

Aarti Holla has been Secretary General of the European Satellite Operators’ Association (ESOA) since 2004. She was named one of the Faces of Satellite of 2014 by the Society of Satellite Professionals International and is Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Space.

Under Aarti’s leadership ESOA & the CEOs of its member companies lead the effort to showcase the benefits of satellite communications for society and foster a better environment to allow users to profit from satellite services that are available anywhere on land, at sea or in the air.

Aarti has seventeen years' experience in the aerospace industry, starting at Daimler-Benz Aerospace (now Airbus) in Germany, before moving to Brussels. She represented Galileo Industries towards European institutions on the European navigation system Galileo, working on the development of the public-private partnership scheme and management aspects of the Galileo programme. She has organized workshops on negotiation skills for young managers.

Aarti holds a Masters of Business Administration from HEC, France & Stern Business School, NY, USA. She qualified as Solicitor of the Supreme Court in the UK in 1995, holding a LLB Hons Law with German Law degree from King's College, University of London & the University of Passau, Germany. Aarti lives in Brussels, has 3 children and speaks 5 languages.

Paul Lee

Head of Research , Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Deloitte

Paul Lee is Partner and Head of Research for the technology, media and telecommunications industry at Deloitte.

In this role Paul has authored over 80 TMT reports including Deloitte’s 13th annual Predictions for the Technology, Media and Telecommunications series. In 2014 Predictions launched in over 75 countries and its points of view feature in broadcast, online and published media around the globe.

Paul also leads the Deloitte Global Mobile Consumer Survey, now in its fourth year, which tracks usage of mobile around the world, based on a 40,000 user survey fielded in 22 countries.
Paul comments regularly on the TV market, and has been invited to author the companion reports for the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Conference, the IBC Leaders’ Summit and the Guardian International Television Festival.

Paul is a frequent commentator on television, radio, online and press. Paul has published 32 columns in the Financial Times, specialising in analysis of current trends in the TMT sector from a numerical perspective.

Paul is a frequent speaker at industry and closed door conferences and was on the organising committees of the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge and London conferences.
As well as running the TMT research team globally, Paul also manages the industry research team for Deloitte UK.
Paul has written five books, including Convergence Conversations and Digital Dilemmas.

Prior to Deloitte Research, Paul was Director, Gartner Consulting, leading work in the telecommunications sector.