Speaker Biographies

Speakers

Moderators

Roberto Viola

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 Director General of DG CONNECT, in the European Commission.

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.

Brendan Carr

Commissioner, FCC

Brendan Carr was nominated to serve as a Commissioner of the FCC by President Donald J. Trump and was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on August 3, 2017. He was sworn into office on August 11, 2017.

Commissioner Carr brings to the position over a dozen years of public and private sector experience in technology and communications law and policy.

Most recently, Commissioner Carr served as the General Counsel of the FCC. In that role, he served as the chief legal advisor to the Commission and FCC staff on all matters within the agency's jurisdiction. Previously, he served as the lead advisor to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai on wireless, public safety, and international issues. Before that, he worked as an attorney in the FCC's Office of General Counsel, where he provided legal advice on a wide range of spectrum policy, competition, and public safety matters.

Prior to joining the Commission in 2012, Mr. Carr was an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP, where he worked in the firm's appellate, litigation, and telecom practices. He represented clients in both trial and appellate court proceedings, including complex litigation involving the First Amendment and the Communications Act.

Earlier in his career, he served as a law clerk for Judge Dennis W. Shedd of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Mr. Carr graduated magna cum laude from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law and obtained a certificate from its Institute for Communications Law Studies. He also served as a Note and Comment Editor of the Catholic University Law Review. Mr. Carr received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

Commissioner Carr lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two children.

Jonas Wessel

Chair, RSPG

Jonas Wessel is Director of the Spectrum Department at the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS). He is also Chair of the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) for the 2018-2019 period. The RSPG is a high-level advisory group that assists the European Commission in the development of radio spectrum policy. Jonas holds a MSC from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Industrial Engineering and Management. Jonas started his professional career as a strategy consultant, working mainly with business development in the telecoms and IT-sector.

In 2003, he joined the PTS as advisor on radio spectrum policy issues. After several positions within the Agency, including responsibility for auctions, he was assigned Director of the Spectrum Department in 2014. Jonas has been one of the driving forces behind the transformation of spectrum management in Sweden and has also been working with these issues internationally, mainly through the RSPG where he has been a delegate since 2004. He was Vice Chairman of the RSPG for the 2016-2017 period.

Takehiro Nakamura

SVP and General Manager of 5G Labs, NTT DOCOMO

Mr. Takehiro Nakamura joined NTT Laboratories in 1990. He is now SVP and General Manager of the 5G Laboratories in NTT DOCOMO, Inc.

Mr. Nakamura has been engaged in the standardization activities for the W-CDMA, HSPA, LTE/LTE-Advanced and 5G at ARIB in Japan since 1997. He has been the Acting Chairman of Strategy & Planning Committee of 5G Mobile Communications Promotion Forum(5GMF) in Japan since October 2014.

Mr. Nakamura has also been contributing to standardization activities in 3GPP since1999, including as a contributor to 3GPP TSG-RAN as chairman from April 2009 to March 2013.

He is also very active in standardization of C-V2X/Connected Car in ARIB and ITS Info-communications Forum in Japan. He is now a leader of Cellular System Application Task Group of ITS Info-communications Forum.

Carlota Reyners Fontana

Head of Unit, Investments in High Capacity Networks, DG Connect, European Commission

Carlota Reyners Fontana is Head of Unit of the Investments in High Capacity networks in DG Connect at the European Commission. The unit is in charge of developing and implementing a consistent EU Broadband policy and stakeholder relationships to support the cost-effective deployment and take-up of very high-capacity broadband networks required for the Digital Single Market.

The unit leads for the deployment of broadband networks on the current and future use of EU-level financial resources, such as the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) and the Structural and Cohesion Funds.

Until December 2017, Carlota was Deputy Head of the Radio Spectrum Policy unit and leading the negotiations of the European Electronic Communications Code, in the areas of access regulation, spectrum and universal service. Between April 2012 and November 2014, she was Member of cabinet of Vice-President Neelie Kroes, Commissioner responsible for Digital Agenda under the Barroso II Commission. She joined the Commission in 2000 in the Competition Directorate General where she dealt with antitrust and cartel investigations in several sectors until 2006. During a leave from the Commission, she worked for about four years as an in-house competition lawyer of a leading European telecommunications company.

Before joining the Commission, she was a lawyer in the EU Competition team of a Brussels based law firm. She holds a law degree from Madrid University and a Master in European law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Alexander Lautz

Senior Vice President 5G, Deutsche Telekom

Dr. Alexander Lautz is currently Senior Vice President 5G. In this role, he is responsible for 5G from a business and technology part across all business units and is leading Deutsche Telekom´s 5G projects and initiatives.

Mr. Lautz joined T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH in 2002, first as Head of Business Marketing, before taking over as Head of Consumer Marketing in 2004. When Deutsche Telekom launched congstar as its second brand in Germany in 2007, Mr. Lautz took over as Managing Director of the newly-founded company. In 2011, he moved to T-Systems International GmbH, where he was responsible for implementing innovative B2B2C products and solutions within the business units Connected Car and later Connecting Customers. Prior to 5G Mr. Lautz led the groupwide IoT/M2M activities of Deutsche Telekom from 2014-2017.

Before his career at Deutsche Telekom, Mr. Lautz held different management positions at both CNI GmbH and Mannesmann Arcor AG and was Managing Director of an IP provider for business customers.

Aarti Holla

Secretary General, ESOA

Aarti Holla has been Secretary General of the ESOA since 2004. She was named one of the Faces of Satellite of 2014 by the Society of Satellite Professionals International and is Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Space Technology.

Under Aarti’s leadership, ESOA & the CEOs of its member companies lead the effort to showcase the benefits of satellite communications for a more inclusive and secure society and foster a better environment to allow users to profit from satellite services that are available anywhere, anytime - vital to bridging the world’s digital divide and achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Since joining the association, Aarti has lead the expansion of ESOA from a European association to one that represents the interests of 20 global and regional satellite operators based in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She reports directly to their Chief Executives.

Aarti has twenty years' experience in the aerospace industry, starting at Daimler-Benz Aerospace (now Airbus) in Germany. In 2000, she moved to Brussels, representing Airbus interests in the European satellite navigation program: Galileo.

Aarti holds a Masters of Business Administration from HEC, France & Stern Business School, NYC, USA. She qualified as Solicitor of the Supreme Court in the UK in 1995, holding a 2:1 graded LLB Hons Law with German Law degree from King's College, University of London & the University of Passau, Germany. Aarti is of British-Indian origin and holds British and Belgian nationalities. She lives in Brussels, has 3 children and speaks 5 languages.

Mauro Martino

Head, Office of Spectrum Management, AGCOM

Mauro Martino is currently head of the Telecoms Spectrum office in AGCOM, the Italian National Regulatory Authority for telecommunications and broadcasting. He is responsible for telecoms spectrum management and policy issues.

He joined AGCOM almost 20 years ago soon after its institution and since then he has been responsible for spectrum management and licensing procedures preparing for the AGCOM decisions. Some of the main proceedings he carried out are those regarding the regulation and licensing of UMTS, Wireless Local Loop, Radio-LAN (Wi-Fi), BWA at 3.5 GHz, LTE at 800 and 2600 GHz, the 900 and 1800 MHz band refarming, the GSM and BWA renewal, up to the recent award procedure of the 5G pioneer bands at 700 MHz, 3.7 GHz and 26 GHz, which raised 6.5 billion euros.

At EU level, from its creation in 2002 he is member of the Radio Spectrum Committee, that deals with the spectrum harmonisation and implementing measures, and from 2008 of the RSPG, the Radio Spectrum Policy Group, advisor to the Commission for spectrum policy issues, within the Italian delegation.

Over time he was also member or chair of numerous Working Groups in Berec (former ERG), IRG (Independent Regulators Group), RSPG and Cocom, dealing with spectrum management or mobile market issues. In 2005 he chaired a Working Group that developed a Common Position on International Roaming after the first pan-European market analysis, and paved the way to the EU Regulation, and was the first proponent in 2008 of the so called “local break out” solution, that was later introduced in the EU Roaming III regulation in 2012. He assisted the AGCOM chairmanship of ERG in 2007 and RSPG in 2009 and 2012, and was member of the related leading groups.

Before joining AGCOM in 1999, he had worked for more than 10 years in the private sector, with leading companies in the telecommunications and ICT sectors.

Catherine Bohill

Director, Spectrum Strategy, Telefonica

As Director of Spectrum at Telefonica, Catherine works to pursue efficient and innovative approaches to Spectrum assignment and use. Working within the Corporate Strategy team and supported by regulatory, network and local teams, Catherine’s mandate is to optimize the management of current spectrum and contribute to defining the future pipeline across Telefonica’s footprint. Over the last 5 years Catherine’s team has valued spectrum in Telefonica’s 17 countries of operation, participating in primary and secondary market transactions both in auction and beauty contest scenarios. The spectrum team also leads Telefonica’s spectrum strategy towards WRC preparation and works closely with the GSMA in the pursuit of ever more efficient use of the radio-frequencies that are essential to improving the service we provide to over 300 million customers worldwide.

With over 22 years of experience in the Telco World, Catherine has spent 17 of those with Telefonica working on mobile transactions in M&A, Wholesale and most recently Spectrum. Before joining Telefonica, Catherine worked for Daimler Chrysler in Germany and Holland and with the World Bank in Washington DC. She also spent a year lecturing in the University of Havana and writing for Timeout. Catherine has a BA in European Business and a Diplom Betriebswirt (ESB Reutlingen FH) and a Masters in Finance from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. Catherine speaks English, German and Spanish - all with an Irish accent!

Philip Marnick

Group Director, Spectrum, Ofcom

Philip is Group Director, Spectrum at Ofcom, where he is responsible for setting and implementing the strategy for managing spectrum including clearing, awarding, licensing, monitoring and enforcement.

Philip is also Chairman of the EU’s Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) bringing together all the EU’s national spectrum authorities and the Commission.

Philip has over 30 years’ experience within the wireless communications industry. He has held senior executive positions covering technology, operations and strategy in both. Philip has worked in both start-up (from initial concept to sale) and large corporates in companies ranging from UK Broadband, O2, Orange, BT, J-Phone in Japan (now Softbank Mobile), Extreme Mobile and SpinVox (now Nuance).

Chris Woolford

Director of International Spectrum Policy, Ofcom, Chairman, ECC, CEPT

Chris Woolford is Ofcom’s Director of International Spectrum Policy where his responsibilities cover the UK’s international spectrum interests, especially in relation to the ITU, CEPT and EU. He is a member of Ofcom’s Spectrum Executive Team and Strategy Steering Group.

Chris is active in various European spectrum committees and currently represents the UK on the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG). He has closely engaged for the UK on a number of key European and international spectrum initiatives and led the UK delegations to WRC-15 and WRC-12.

Before joining Ofcom, Chris worked in various UK Government Departments, including 6 years at Oftel, where he worked on different aspects of telecommunications regulation. Chris has a degree in mathematics and statistics from Manchester University.

Branimir Stantchev

Head of Sector, Spectrum for Wireless Broadband, European Commission

Branimir is responsible for developing and implementing EU-level policy initiatives with focus on wireless broadband and 5G. These relate to the harmonised and flexible use of spectrum, in particular for mobile broadband and vertical applications as well as a long-term strategy for the long-term use of UHF broadcasting spectrum.

Branimir has been working with the European Commission since 2008. He started his professional career in 1995 at the Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications Systems at the Dresden University, Germany. From 2000 until 2008 he worked with the companies Philips, Qimonda and Signalion in Germany in the area of wireless equipment design, manufacturing and marketing.

Branimir has a PhD degree in mobile communications from the Dresden University. He has contributions to Wi-Fi standardisation.

Peter Stuckmann

Head of Unit, Future Connectivity Systems, DG Connect , European Commission

Peter is managing the Commission's policy on 5G communication systems and the related research and innovation programme.

Before his appointment as Head of Unit he was managing the office of the Director General of DG CONNECT, Roberto Viola, coordinating the Commission's digital policy initiatives. The portfolio included Digital Single Market, Broadband Policy, Telecoms, Media and Online Policy, the Copyright Reform as well as the EU ICT Research and Innovation Programme.

Between 2010 and 2014 he had different roles in the Commission's telecoms policy Directorate. These included Head of Sector "Spectrum Policy", penholder of main elements of the Commission proposal on the Telecom Single Market and the Roaming regulation, and the implementation of the EU telecom rules in Germany and Austria.

Between 2005 and 2010 he coordinated the EU R&D programme leading to the 4G mobile communications standards.

Before joining the European Commission in 2004 he has occupied several engineering and management positions in industry, academia and start-ups. He holds engineering and doctoral degrees from RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Adrian Scrase

CTO, ETSI, CTO & Head of Mobile Competence Centre, 3GPP

Adrian Scrase is CTO within ETSI with operational responsibility for all of ETSI’s standards production activities. He has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications field, which includes 25 years of experience in standardization.

He played a central role in the creation of the “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP) and is responsible for the operations of the 3GPP Project Co-ordination Group. He heads 3GPPs’ Mobile Competence Centre (MCC) which is an International team of 20 experts who provide comprehensive support to the Project.

He was also principally involved in the formation of the “oneM2M” Partnership Project and oversees ETSI’s support to that initiative.

Gilles Brégant

Director General, ANFR

Gilles Brégant graduated from Ecole Polytechnique (1986) and from Telecom ParisTech (1988). Following a 8-year-career at France Telecom research center, Gilles Brégant was appointed technical adviser to the Minister in charge of Research (1996-1997). He had to coordinate international projects and themes in relation with Information Technology. He then worked for the department of Trade and Industry as deputy director in charge of Prospective. He was appointed secretary general of the ministerial task force “Digital Economy” (2001-2005). He was then appointed Technical Director of Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (the French Media Regulator) in 2005. Since 2011 Gilles Brégant is the CEO of ANFR. He was Chairman of the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) from November 2012 through 2015.

Luigi Ardito

Senior Director of Government Affairs, Qualcomm

Luigi Ardito is currently working as Director of government affairs for Europe, Middle East and North Africa at Qualcomm and drive Qualcomm spectrum and regulatory policy agenda in Europe and MENA dealing with various government entities and industry organizations. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Luigi worked for over a decade at Sony Corporation both in Japan and in the UK. Luigi gained also professional experience at France Telecom and at the Italian Public Broadcaster RAI.

Luigi has extensive experience in the Media and Telecom industry as well as the Semiconductor Industry gained through his assignments at Qualcomm, Sony, France Telecom and RAI. He holds an Electronic Engineering Degree gained at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy and a Master of Business Administration gained at the Henley Management College in the UK.

Stephen Pentland

Head of Spectrum, Vodafone Group

Stephen is Vodafone’s Group Public Policy Head of Spectrum and is responsible for managing the company’s spectrum and licensing policy across its 26 operating companies in Europe and AMAP. This includes setting the strategy for meeting the future needs of the business, engaging with national and regional regulators to shape policy, and managing spectrum licence valuation, acquisition and renewal activities.

Stephen studied Engineering at Cambridge and worked previously in the Japanese technology sector and as a strategy consultant in the international telecommunications and media sector.

Michael Knott

Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Michael Knott is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting and is based in London. Mr. Knott leads the Telecom, Media and Technology (TMT) practice in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He is an experienced telecom, media and technology advisor with 20 years of experience in transaction advisory, strategy and business consulting, performance improvement and business transformation.

Mr. Knott has experience serving as a transaction advisor on a wide range of aspects, including advising buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions; providing due diligence on behalf of corporates; financing sources and private equity investors; investigating financial synergies of merger transactions; preparing corporate strategies for acquisitions; identifying target companies and post-merger integration programme management.

Mr. Knott has extensive experience providing strategic consulting, corporate and business development, business planning, financial planning, and sales and marketing consulting services for various TMT clients across the EMEA. Clients include Vodafone, Telefonica, Orange, BT, Telenor, Swisscom, Eircom, MTN, Cable & Wireless, Telkom SA, Zain, Qtel, Viatel, QinetiQ, BBC, CBFW and Yota.

In addition, Mr. Knott has led a number of performance improvement and strategic transformation engagements. Clients include CME, Telefonica, BT, NTL, Dunn & Bradstreet, Logica, Orange, OTE and Eircom.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Knott held leadership roles at Booz & Company, including UK TMT partner lead and leadership roles at Accenture, including partner lead of Europe, Africa, Middle East and Latin America TMT strategy group.

Mr. Knott holds an M.B.A. from London Business School, a M.A. in economics from the University of Western Ontario and a B.A. with honours in economics from Queen’s University.

Elio Salvadori

Director, FBK Create-Net (representing the 5G-CARMEN Project)

Dr. Elio Salvadori is the Director of CREATE-NET Research Center within FBK; he is responsible for managing, organizing, executing and monitoring of the activities of the Center.

He joined CREATE-NET in 2005 and since then he has served different roles within the organisation: from 2007 to 2012 he has been leading the Engineering and Fast Prototyping (ENGINE) area. From 2012 to 2014 he has been acting as SDN Senior Advisor while holding a position as CEO in Trentino NGN Srl. He then moved fully back to CREATE-NET acting as Research Director till end of 2015.

Prior to CREATE-NET, Dr. Salvadori has developed a mixed industrial and academical background: he graduated in 1997 at Politecnico di Milano through an internship pursued at CoreCom, a research lab funded by Politecnico and Pirelli Optical Systems (now Cisco Photonics). Afterward he has worked as systems engineer at Nokia Networks in Milan and then at Lucent Technologies in Rome. In 2001 he won a research grant at the University of Trento to pursue his PhD on Information and Communication Technologies. He received his PhD degree in March 2005 with a thesis on traffic engineering for optical networks.

During his research career, he has been involved in several national and European projects on SDN and optical networking technologies as well as on Future Internet testbeds.

His current research interests include software-defined networking (network virtualization and distributed controller architectures), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and next generation transport networks. He has published in more than 100 International refereed journals and conferences. He is a member of IEEE and ACM.

Frank Kruger

Head of Digital Society and Infrastructure, German Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), Vice-Chair, RSPG

Frank Krüger is head of the Directorate “Digital Society and Infrastructure” at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI). After training as a bank officer, he studied economics and, in 1994, began working as press desk officer at the Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. In 1998, Mr Krüger started working for the Federal Ministry of Economics in the same position. Since 1999, he has been working in the field of telecommunications, and since 2008 his focus has been on broadband policy. From 2005 to 2008, Mr Krüger represented Germany in Brussels in the fields of telecommunications and audiovisual media. In 2011, he was appointed to a Head of Division for broadband policy. In 2014, he switched to the BMVI and was appointed to a Director.

Sverker Magnusson

Director, Spectrum Standardisation, Ericsson

Sverker Magnusson joined Ericsson in 1995, initially at Ericsson Research where he held various positions including that of Master Researcher and Manager for Radio Network Algorithms. Subsequently he has spent more than a dozen years working with spectrum matters, in particular participating in CEPT and ITU-R meetings, and is currently Director of Spectrum Standardization at Ericsson’s CTO office. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering Physics from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and received a Ph.D. in Operations Research 1994 from Cornell University.

Gerard Pogorel

Professor of Economics & Management, Telecom ParisTech

Gérard POGOREL is Professor of Economics and Management-Emeritus, Telecom ParisTech Graduate School of Engineering, France, and an independent international expert in telecommunications and the digital economy. He published recently widely circulated and influential position papers: in 2017 Spectrum 5.0
Improving assignment procedures to meet economic and social policy goals, and in 2018 Spectrum 5.0 Re-thinking Spectrum Awards for Optimal 5G Deployment
(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328163354_
Spectrum_50_Re_Thinking_Spectrum_Awards_for_Optimal_5G_Deployment).

He co-authored in 2014 a report to the Prime Minister of Italy assessing the investments by operators in Broadband networks in the European Digital Agenda perspective. He was an independent member of the Organo di Vigilanza of Telecom Italia Open Access (2009-2013) monitoring access to the incumbent’s network. He co-founded and acted as Chair/Rapporteur and was a frequent speaker of the European Spectrum Management Conferences (Forum Europe 2006-2018). He was previously Chair of the European Union Framework Research & Technology Development Programme Monitoring Panel, and Chair of the Monitoring Committee of the EU Information Society and Technologies Research Programme. He participates in numerous Government-level and regulation Authorities Committees and Scientific Committees on telecom and media policy and regulation in Europe, America and Asia.

Andy Hudson

Head of Policy, GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with over 350 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. Andy has global responsibility for spectrum and regulatory modernisation, as well as the regulatory and policy aspects of the future networks, IoT and identity programmes.

Previously, he was Director of Spectrum Policy at Ofcom for three years, where he led the Mobile Data Strategy, including the release and sharing of public sector spectrum for civil use, and the 2.3/3.4 GHz auction team (the auction recently ended for £1.4m). Before that, Andy spent 12 years at Vodafone, where he held various senior product development, corporate strategy and public policy roles. As Head of Spectrum Policy, he was responsible for managing spectrum policy and auctions across the Vodafone Group. He was frequently in Brussels and further afield supporting Vodafone’s local operating companies, and over four years he managed the acquisition or renewal of spectrum in over 20 countries for a total of €9.5bn.

In 2000, he was part of the senior management team which spun an internet payments and encryption company out of NatWest. He was formerly a management consultant and a research scientist at Sharp Laboratories of Europe and Sony Corporation, based in Japan. He has a doctorate in Engineering Science from Oxford University and an MBA. He is married with two boys (17 and 14) and lives in a small village close to Oxford.

Lasse Wieweg

Chairman, Spectrum Group, GSA

Lasse Wieweg, Director, Government and industry relations at Ericsson, has worked with telecommunications his whole professional career, starting in 1973 with Ericsson. In 1986, following some over-seas assignments, he took up a position at the Frequency Management department within the Swedish Telecommunications Authority (now PTS). In 1994, he took up a new position within the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), on Frequency Management for the Swedish Defence Forces. Since 1997, Lasse is back in Ericsson, particularly addressing international policies in the Radio Regulatory and Spectrum domains within the Ericsson Group Function in Stockholm, Sweden.

Bernard Barani

Deputy Head of Unit, Future Connectivity Systems, European Commission

Bernard Barani graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne in 1982. He then worked as communications engineer in industry on military infrared systems and then with the European Space Agency on advanced satcom programmes.

In 1994, he joined the European Commission and was responsible for implementation of research and policy issues in wireless communication, Internet, audio visual systems, Software and Services. He has been Deputy head of unit for research and policy in the field of Internet of Things systems.

He is currently Acting head of unit in charge of research and innovation on Network Technologies in the CONNECT Directorate General of the European Commission. He is responsible for the definition and implementation of the research strategy related to future networks under the 5G Public Private Partnership and to systems based on connected objects (IoT) in support of EU industry competitiveness. He is also responsible for the 5G/IoT standardisation and IPR related work.

Jayne Stancavage

Global Executive Director of Communications Policy, Intel

Jayne Stancavage is the Executive Director of Communications Policy for Intel Corporation. In this role, she leads Intel’s communication policy efforts globally, which includes regional and national levels worldwide as well as the International Telecommunications Union/World Radiocommunication Conferences.

Jayne joined Intel in 2000, focusing on communications policy. She has previously led Intel’s spectrum policy efforts supporting Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies. In addition to her policy work, she has also worked within Intel business units where she coordinated Intel’s internal efforts to embed Wi-Fi capabilities into notebook platforms. Jayne served multiple terms on the Wi-Fi Alliance Board of Directors.

Jayne currently chairs the Terrestrial Services group (IWG-2) within the FCC’s WRC-19 Advisory Committee. She has also been a voting member of the IEEE 802.18 Radio Regulations Technical Advisory Group, the Wi-Fi Alliance Regulatory Committee and Chair of the WiMAX Forum Regulatory Working Group.

Jayne received both her bachelor's and master's degrees in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lise Fuhr

Director General, ETNO

Lise is ETNO’s Director General since January 2016. At ETNO, she leads and oversees all the activities and she is the main external representative of the Association. On behalf of the Association, she is also a Board and an Administrative Committee member in ECSO, the European Cybersecurity Organisation. Lise has also been appointed to the Internet Society Public Interest Registry Board of Directors for a three year term as of July 2016.

Prior to joining ETNO, she was Chief Operating Officer of DK Hostmaster and DIFO, the company managing the .dk domain name. In the period between September 2014 and December 2015 she also chaired the Cross Community Working Group for the IANA Stewardship Transition, building on her strong network within the internet community.

Lise has 10+ years of experience in the telecoms industry. She started her career at the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation (1996-2000) where she wrote and implemented regulation for the telecommunication markets. After that, she worked for the telecoms operator Telia Networks (2000-2009), where she led various teams dealing with issues as diverse as interconnection agreements, mobile services and industry cooperation

Stéphane Ros

Spectrum Director, SNCF

Stephane ROS is the industrial telecoms officer for SNCF, in charge of delivering future services based on networks, whether they are wired or wireless, internal, external or hybrid, from optical fibers to GSMR and IoT.
Stéphane ROS also created and currently manages the SNCF’s spectrum bureau, in charge of collecting the SNCF needs and representing them in the external and official forums.

Antonio Nicita

Commissioner, AGCOM

Michael Calabrese

Representative, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance

Michael A. Calabrese directs the Wireless Future Program at New America’s Open Technology Institute, a non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C. He develops and advocates policies to promote ubiquitous, fast and affordable wireless broadband connectivity, mobile broadband competition, and more efficient spectrum use, including expanded unlicensed access and dynamic spectrum sharing.

Mr. Calabrese has served as an appointed Member of the U.S. Department of Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) since 2009. He served as an Invited Expert on President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) spectrum reform working group during 2011-2012.

Mr. Calabrese has previously served as General Counsel of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, director of domestic policy at the Center for National Policy, an attorney at the national AFL-CIO, and as a clerk to California Supreme Court Justice Allen E. Broussard.

Calabrese is a graduate of Stanford Law and Business Schools, where he earned a JD/MBA degree; and a graduate of Harvard College, where he earned a B.A. in Economics and Government.

Massimiliano Simoni

Network Planning Manager, TIM; Chairman, FREQ, GSMA

Massimiliano Simoni, Master in Telecommunication Engineering and Bachelor in Business Administration, has been working for TIM (Telecom Italia Group) since 1996 in the Network Engineering department and in the Network Planning department since 2001, where he has been dealing with the spectrum engineering and frequency management of the fixed and mobile terrestrial and satellite applications (Radio Relays, Earth Stations registration, Earth Station line-up and ITU-R filing).
He has also been in charge of the radio relay planning tool, used for radio links filing, planning and coordination.

In his career he has been representing the company and the stakeholders’ associations in many national and international meetings and conferences, such as ITU WRCs (since 1997), CPMs, TGs and WGs and CEPT Working Groups and Project Teams as well as other workshops. He has also been in charge of the development and maintenance of the industrial cost analysis predictive model as well as for the cost accounting model evolution for the Mobile Network in TIM.

He has been the chairman of the Spectrum Working Group of the ETNO (European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association) from 2006 to 2014.
He is the chairman of the Frequencies Operator Expert Group of the GSMA (GSM Association) since 2015.

Joost Vantomme

Smart Mobility Director, ACEA

Joost Vantomme has over 25 years’ experience in legal, regulatory and public affairs.

He served telecommunications and postal incumbent operators as legal and regulatory/public affairs director, combined with leading policy making roles in European associations such as PostEurop and FEDMA and at UN level (UPU).

He was also member of the cabinet of the Belgian Minister of Economy and Director at the EU consultancy firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies. As frequent speaker at conferences and academic audiences, he engages with stakeholders on European policy issues in the digital agenda context. Joost is author of a large number of papers on regulatory policy topics in network industries, transport and (e-) commerce.

He became director at Febiac (Belgian automotive federation) in November 2014.

Since 1 Sept 2016, he holds the position of smart mobility director at ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association where he combines his telecoms and regulatory experience with the challenges of connected and automated mobility.

Simon Watts

Global Network & Services Policy, ESOA

Simon M Watts has worked in the telecommunications industry since graduation from Manchester University with a BSc in Physics in 1981, with the majority of his experience gained from within the satellite communications industry. Simon has extensive experience of satellite communications and network design having overseen deployment of major satellite networks for BT International and Hughes Network Systems.

Simon has worked with Avanti in a Principle Consultant role from early 2012 on multiple ESA, UK, FP7 and H2020 projects looking at the integration of satcom in to 5G. He has brought wide experience in the telecommunications and broadband network industries at a technical and commercial level to ensure technical and commercial direction. These projects have covered areas including the integration of satellite and terrestrial networks, 5G future satellite networks, modem/antenna design, cellular and Wi-Fi backhaul, mobility, and the network design for incubator services projects in East Africa offering Wi-Fi and multicast content delivery.

He was Hughes Network Systems Europe – Chief Engineer between 2001 and 2011 Prior to this he worked at HNS Europe in multiple other roles between 1996 and 2001. His career started at BT International initially helping to design and implement ground station systems before providing VSAT systems in the North Sea for Oil Companies and a VSAT network in southern Africa for a major UK bank.

Simon regularly presents and participates in discussion panels and has supported multiple technical papers whilst at Avanti. Simon is the Avanti representative on ESOA’s 5G Standards Working Group. He is an MIET.

Sergio Ramos Pinto

Representative, European Utilities Telecom Council (EUTC)

Sérgio Pinto holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Porto and an Executive-MBA from INDEG-ISCTE. He began his professional activity in EDP, planning and deploying Radio and PLC networks for SCADA connectivity, he then joined the management team that founded a new Telecom Operator (ONI), where he led the initial specification, procurement and operation of nationwide telco infrastructures in the fields of Backbone Transmission and Fixed Wireless Access.

During his 18 years at ONI, he was also involved in the implementation of a leading IP-MPLS network, Carrier VOIP and convergence services for enterprise and carrier markets, implementing and certifying E2E managed solutions, developing cross-functional managerial experience by holding directive positions in Engineering, Operations and Customer Care, leading to is latter position as the company’s CTO.

Back in EDP Distribuição since 2014, he is actively involved in the transformation of EDPD’s digital platform for mission critical services, focused on platform and service strategy in a heterogeneous network and technology environment, including fixed and mobile services and technologies, and addressing the strategic potential being driven by IoT and Edge Computing.

Andreas Mueller

Head of Communication and Network Technology, Bosch Corporate Research

Andreas Müller is the Head of Communication and Network Technology in the Corporate Research Department of Robert Bosch GmbH in Stuttgart, Germany. As part of this role, he is coordinating Bosch’s research activities in the area of future industrial connectivity infrastructures as well as the topic “5G for Industry 4.0” within the Bosch group. This is done in close collaboration with various business units and external partners. In addition to that, he is the Chairman of the Board of the “ 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation” (5G-ACIA), which has been established in order to make sure that 5G for the industrial domain becomes a success. This is done by providing a global forum for discussing related technical, regulatory and business aspects and by brining all relevant stakeholders together.

Prior to joining Bosch, Andreas was a Research Staff Member at the Institute of Telecommunications of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, where he was contributing to the further development of the 3GPP Long Term Evolution towards LTE-Advanced. Besides, he was working as a Systems Engineer for Rohde & Schwarz, developing a novel software- defined radio based communication system for the German Armed Forces. Andreas holds a German Diploma degree as well as a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering (with distinction) and a M.Sc. degree in Information Technology, all from the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

Jane Rygaard

Head of Mobile Networks Marketing, Nokia

Arnaud Vamparys

Senior Vice President, Radio Networks and 5G Lead, Orange

Arnaud Vamparys, 47 years old, a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (X-Mines), joined the Group in 1995 to work since in a number of positions in France, in the Netherlands and in Spain, within the mobile, internet and business markets.

As chief of engineering of Dutchtone, he built a new mobile network in the Netherlands between 1998 and 2000. From 2000 to 2003, he was CTIO for Spanish ISP Wanadoo which became number two on his market after Terra (Telefonica). From 2003 to 2007, he was the VP Products and Services Development for Orange Business Services (France Telecom, Transpac and Equant) creating the Orange Business Livebox a new multimedia router product line used today by more than 75% of the French business sites.

His next position was Orange Labs Mass Market VP and in charge of the group historical R&D site of Issy-Les-Moulineaux.

Arnaud Vamparys has been working three years between 2011 and 2014 as “Seamless Wireless Access” Group Strategic Program Director for Orange executive committee. Inside Conquest 2015, the strategic program objective was to become leader in mobile internet customer experience for Europe and Middle East Africa.

Since 2014, Arnaud Vamparys is our Senior Vice President for Radio Networks inside Orange. He is as well our 5G group champion since October 2017.

Thomas Lebecque

Representative, European Wireless Infrastructure Association (EWIA)

Thomas is the head of Innovation for American Tower. In his role, he is responsible for defining the new products and new businesses that will ensure ATC’s sustainable long-term growth as the leading telecom real-estate company. Such new products include neutral host fiber, neutral host indoor and outdoor small cell solutions, IoT, Smart City and Smart Building infrastructure solutions, Power-as-a-Service and Edge Computing. Thomas is a telecom industry veteran, having worked 20 years in business development and strategy for Lucent Technologies / Bell Labs, Orange, Samsung and Nokia.

Scott Blue

Principle Program Manager, Spectrum Policy, Microsoft

Scott has been involved in introducing new telecom technology for almost 25 years. He got pulled into the world spectrum management at the IEEE in 2004 after proposing a real-time mapping-based method for allowing mobile devices to make use of what has come to be called TV whitespace. He represents Microsoft in dialogs with regulators as well as at organizations including the ITU, CEPT, ETSI, IEEE, 3GPP and Wi-Fi Alliance. In 2018 Scott moved to Oulu, Finland, a major center for both test and early commercial 5G networks, where 6G research is already underway.

Saul Friedner

Associate Director Spectrum Services, LS telcom

Saul Friedner is Associate Director of Spectrum Services at LS telcom in the UK. Saul has worked in the spectrum and regulatory domain his whole career starting at Ofcom, and its predecessor the Radio Communications Agency in 2000. He has spent the last 11 years working as a consultant in areas of spectrum strategy, policy, licensing and management aspects. Saul also understands the wireless technology landscape and has delivered various projects and training related to the preparation and deployment of all wireless technologies including 5G. Most recently Saul has worked for the UK government on 5G infrastructure requirements and for the European Commission on spectrum authorisation approaches to support the roll-out of 5G.

Christophe De Hauwer

Chief Development Officer, SES

Born on 15 April 1971, Mr Christophe De Hauwer was appointed Chief Development Officer of SES as of 1 August 2015.

He is a member of the Board of SES ASTRA. Mr De Hauwer joined SES in 2003, holding several positions of responsibility in the areas of Strategic Marketing, Strategic and Business Planning and Corporate Development, as well as Fleet Development and Yield Management. Mr De Hauwer played an instrumental role in many transactions, such as the acquisition of New Skies in 2005, the GE share redemption in 2006 and the investment in O3b in 2009.

Prior to joining SES, Mr De Hauwer worked in the Strategy Consulting practice of the European Telecommunication and Media Industry with Arthur Andersen. He holds an Engineering and a PhD Degree from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Mr De Hauwer is a Belgian national.

Sergio Buonomo

Counselor, Study Group 5, ITU Radiocommunication Bureau

Sergio Buonomo is Counsellor at the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Sergio joined ITU in 1999 in the space service department dealing with the radio interference analysis for satellite systems. In 2007 he moved to the Study Groups department where is now responsible for the activities on Terrestrial systems which includes fixed services, radio navigation, maritime and aeronautical services, wireless access, and land mobile systems.

He is involved in the standardization and regulatory aspects of land mobile systems (IMT) as well as the frequency sharing studies with respect to other radio communication services.

In the past, he worked for about ten years as microwave engineer at European Space Agency in charge of antenna and propagation studies to support space projects.
Sergio holds a Doctor degree in Electromagnetics Engineering and a PhD in Physics.

Mani Manimohan

Senior Director Public Policy, GSMA

Mani has a diverse track record that blends more than 10,000 hours in each of technology innovation, product strategy and policy making with leadership of bold initiatives at large technology firms, tech start-ups, regulatory authority and industry bodies. At GSMA, he leads the global policy research and in-market delivery activities across a portfolio of digital policy and regulatory topics. In his early career, he developed statistical algorithms and designed real-time software systems for innovative tech products, including the first 2G/3G handsets and software defined base-stations. Before joining GSMA, he worked with OFCOM (UK) on a number of regulatory reviews. In recent years, he has authored and collaborated on thought leadership pieces on internet value chain, open internet, online platforms, data economy, 5G infrastructure, competition frameworks and licence models. Mani is a Master’s Scholar of the University of Cambridge with a First Class Honours degree and a Doctorate in Information Science

Bo Andersson

Rapporteur for 5G, RSPG, Chief Economist, Swedish Post and Telecom Authority

Bo Andersson has been the Chief Economist of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) since 2006.

Mr Andersson has more than 20 years of experience from infrastructure industries. Bo Andersson has a Ph.D. in economics from Stockholm School of Economics and has a background as a researcher. He has written several papers and journal articles on price formation and competition in deregulated markets. Prior to his current position as Chief Economist he has worked as a market analyst in the power sector and as a consultant, working primarily with infrastructure issues, for different government agencies and industries.

Konstantinos Masselos

President, EETT Greece

Professor Konstantinos Masselos has been appointed as the President of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) in February 2018. He has been elected to serve as BEREC Vice-Chair for 2019.

In 2006 he joined University of Peloponnese, where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications. He served as Rector of the above university the period 2012-2017.

During the period 2005 to 2008, he was Lecturer in digital systems at the Imperial College London. From 2001 to 2004, he joined Intracom Telecom SA in Greece. .

He has been involved in several research and development projects and has consulting experience in industry and public organizations. Since 2005 he has been regularly involved as an expert in different European Commission units. He was member of the Scientific Committee of European COoperation in Science and Technology (COST) organization from 2015 to 2017. He has authored more than 120 papers in international journals and conferences.

Professor Konstantinos Masselos received his first degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece (1994) and an MSc in VLSI Systems Engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, United Kingdom (1996). In April 2000 he received a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Patras, Greece in cooperation with the Inter-university Micro Electronics Centre (IMEC) in Belgium, where he was a researcher from 1997 to 1999.

Reza Karimi

Director, Corporate Strategy, Huawei Technologies

Reza Karimi is Director, Corporate Strategy, at Huawei Technologies, with focus on technology standards and spectrum regulation. Prior to this, he was Technical Policy Director at the UK communications regulator, Ofcom, with responsibilities in a range of spectrum management initiatives, including a review of the UK’s licence exemption framework, the auction of spectrum for 4G mobile communications at 800 MHz/2.6 GHz, and database-assisted access to TV white space spectrum.

Previously, he was with Bell Laboratories at Lucent Technologies, and Motorola GSM Products Division. He received a first class honours degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Surrey, UK. He also holds a MSc/DIC degree in Digital Communications, and a PhD in Adaptive Array Signal Processing, both from Imperial College, UK. He is the author of over sixty publications in international conferences and peer-reviewed journals, and is co-inventor in over thirty patents. He is also visiting professor at Imperial College, London.

Karin Thurberg

Product Management, Wireless Networks, Huawei

Karin Thurberg is working in Product Management of Wireless Networks at Huawei.

Her area of focus include 4G and 5G infrastructure and related spectrum matters.

Thurberg has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, working in positions ranging from sales, to product management and R&D.

Thurberg has a M.Sc. in engineering physics from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden, and an MBA from Uppsala University in Sweden.

Amit Nagpal

Partner, Aetha Consulting

Amit Nagpal is a Partner at, and one of the co-founders of, Aetha Consulting. Amit has over 20 years of experience on spectrum management issues having started his career with the Radiocommunications Agency (now part of Ofcom) in the UK. Amit advises regulators/government bodies, fixed and mobile operators, broadcasters, financial institutions and industry associations on a wide range of issues including spectrum policy development and spectrum valuation and auction support. Amit’s experience includes leading studies for the European Commission on the introduction of spectrum trading and a harmonised approach to the digital dividend. Amit has undertaken projects for clients in Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia and North America and is therefore able to bring a global perspective to his work. He recently supported a mobile operator in Colombia with its preparations for the AWS
spectrum auction.

Marc Eschenburg

Partner, Aetha Consulting

Marc Eschenburg has worked in the telecoms industry since 2008 advising fixed and mobile operators as well as regulators and other government bodies on a wide range of commercial, technical and regulatory issues. He has been very active in the area of radio spectrum policy, advising more than 30 operators worldwide on their spectrum strategy and assisting them to value spectrum ahead of spectrum auctions. In addition, he has worked with regulators and industry bodies on key spectrum management issues, including work on incentive pricing, forecasting future spectrum demand and identifying measures of efficient spectrum use. Further to his work on spectrum, Marc advises clients ahead of major market transactions and has carried out various projects on next-generation broadband as well as in the TV and media space. Marc holds a Masters in Infonomics from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Janette Stewart

Principal, Analysys Mason

Janette Stewart is a Principal at Analysys Mason, specialising in wireless technology, radio spectrum management and valuation. She has nearly 25 years’ experience of working in radio engineering, spectrum policy and spectrum management through 2G to 5G. She is based in Scotland, UK. Janette began her career working for the UK spectrum regulator (now Ofcom) where she held various roles, latterly Senior Spectrum Engineer in the 3G Auction Team, responsible for determining UK spectrum plans for the 3G licence award and interacting with CEPT and ITU working groups. Since joining Analysys Mason in 2001, her 17 years of consulting experience includes advising on market opportunities within the wireless sector, technology strategy, business planning, spectrum strategy, valuation and auctions. She has worked with a wide range of public and private sector clients including national regulatory authorities and policy makers, fixed and mobile network operators, broadcasters, equipment vendors, wireless industry trade associations and spectrum users. Recent projects have included advising on 5G strategy, valuation of spectrum in 700MHz and 2.3GHz bands, 5G readiness in different world markets (in a published report for US industry association, CTIA) and a study on benefits of extending mobile coverage in the UK. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Edinburgh, UK and a Master of Science degree in radio frequency engineering from the University of Bradford, UK.

Tony Lavender

CEO, Plum Consulting

Tony Lavender is a partner at Plum Consulting. He has more than 35 years experience spanning industry, regulation and consulting. He has worked on a wide range of communications policy, telecoms regulation and radio spectrum issues. His clients include governments, equipment vendors, network operators and regulators. Tony was a specialist adviser to the UK Parliament Culture, Media and Sport Committee Inquiry into “Establishing world class connectivity throughout the UK”, he chairs the Steering Board of the UK Spectrum Policy Forum and he was a member of the UK Government’s Expert Panel, established as part of the UK Spectrum Strategy, on “Incorporating Social Value into Spectrum Allocation Decisions”. He has worked on a wide range of studies on spectrum policy and management including on the 5G mmWave ecosystem, spectrum sharing, spectrum valuation and more broadly on telecoms infrastructure strategy. Tony is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Vesela Gladicheva

Senior Correspondent, Telecoms, Media and Technology, MLex

Vesela reports on topics including telecom regulation, privacy, cybersecurity and copyright, focusing on EU regulatory and legal risk in the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) sectors. She holds a Master's degree in journalism from City University London, and works in English, Spanish, French and Bulgarian.

Paul Adamson

Chairman, Forum Europe

Paul Adamson is chairman of Forum Europe and founder and editor of E!Sharp, an online magazine dedicated to covering the European Union and Europe's place in the world. He is also a Senior Adviser at Flint Global.

Paul is a member of the Centre for European Reform’s advisory board and Rand Europe's Council of Advisors. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, King’s College London, a patron of the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.

In 2012, Paul was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to promoting understanding of the European Union” and in 2016 he was made a Chevalier in the Ordre national du Mérite by the French government.

Philippe Defraigne

Director, Cullen International

Philippe Defraigne is a founding director of Cullen International, a company monitoring regulatory developments in telecommunications, digital economy, media, postal and competition law. He is an economist by training and has spent the last 30 years analysing telecommunications regulation and market developments. He is a regular fixture on the conference circuit, frequently speaking at and chairing events in Europe, Latin America and MENA.

He started his telecommunications career as a researcher at the University of Namur in the 80s. Between 1991 and 1994, Philippe worked for the European Commission where he was mainly involved in the legislative process that lead to the adoption of the ONP Leased Lines Directive. He now travels extensively and advises regulators and operators across 50 countries.