Speaker Biographies

Speakers include:

Moderators

Neelie Kroes

Vice President and EU Commmisioner for Digital Agenda, European Commission (video presentation)

Neelie Kroes is currently Vice President of the European Commission and European Digital Agenda Commissioner. She was born 1941 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where she also attended school and helped to build her family’s transport business. She studied economics at Erasmus University, before working there for six years as an Assistant Professor. Her political career started on the Rotterdam Municipal Council, and in 1971 she was elected as a Member of the Dutch Parliament for the liberal VVD party. From 1982-1989 she served as Minister for Transport, Public Works and Telecommunication in the Netherlands. After politics she was appointed President of Nyenrode University from 1991-2000, and served on various company boards, including Lucent Technologies, Volvo, P&O Nedlloyd. Prior to serving as European Commissioner for Competition from 2004-2009, her charity work included advising the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and World Cancer Research Fund, and she has an ongoing interest in mental health issues.

Ambassador Tom Hanney

Deputy Permanent Representative, Forthcoming Irish presidency of the EU

Sept 2011 - Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU.
2010-2011 - Ambassador of Ireland to the Kingdom of Belgium and Head of Ireland’s Liaison Office to the Partnership for Peace at NATO
2006-2010 - Joint Secretary, North South Ministerial Council, Armagh, Northern Ireland
2004-2006 - (on secondment) Taoiseach’s (Prime Minister’s) Department (EU coordination, European Council)
1999-2004 - Development Cooperation Division, Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin (UN agencies, globalisation, UN Millennium Summit)
1995-1999 - Permanent Representation of Ireland to the UN at Geneva (Conference on Disarmament)
1992-1995 - Economic Division, Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin (EU Institutions, Treaty of Amsterdam)
1989-1992 - Embassy of Ireland, Bonn, Germany
1987-1989 - Embassy of Ireland, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
1984-1987 - Anglo-Irish Division, Dublin
1980-1984 - Embassy of Ireland, Stockholm
1978-1980 - Anglo Irish Division, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Dublin Economic Division, DFA, Dublin

Maria Badia I Cutchet MEP

Rapporteur for Action plan for Europe on IoT, European Parliament

Maria Badia I Cutchet was a teacher of English at primary schools until 1984. Since 1985 to 1996 she has been involved in the "Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya" (PSC), collaborating with the First Secretary and coordinating the Secretariat of International Affairs of "Partido Socialista Obrero Español" (PSOE). In 1996 Head of the Department of the President of "Parlament de Catalunya". In 2000 elected member of the Board of PSC and Secretary of European and International Affairs. In 2004 elected Member of the European Parliament and Member of European Women Socialist Party. In 2009 leading candidate of the PSC for the European Parliament elections and elected Vice-President of the Group of Alliance of Socialist & Democrats.

Alejandro Sicilia Nistal

Global Horizontal M2M Product Director, Telefónica

Alejandro Sicilia is Horizontal M2M Products Director, reporting to Managing Director Carlos Morales.

Alejandro is developing Managed Connectivity services from Telefónica to meet the demands of the future M2M revolution.

He is a 16-year Telefónica veteran who leads a young and innovative group of amazing people. Alejandro joined the M2M TD group at the beginning of 2011 and has extensive experience in the Telecom industry with assignments in several countries in Europe and Latin America.

Alejandro earned a bachelor's degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

John Cornish

Board Member, EVP and General Manager, System Design Division, ARM Holdings plc

John Cornish was appointed EVP and General Manager, System Design Division in 2008. He joined ARM in 1998 as Director of European Marketing. From 2002 until 2007 he led the Processor Division’s marketing team, including the definition and launch of the Cortex family of cores. Prior to joining ARM he was with Texas Instruments and held a variety of chip design and marketing roles. He holds five U.S patents for the design of PC chipsets.

Stefan Ferber

Director, Communities & Partner Networks, Bosch Software Innovations GmbH

Dr. Stefan Ferber is Director for Communities & Partner Networks in the Internet of Things and Services at Bosch Software Innovations GmbH in Germany - a 100% subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH.

Dr. Ferber has more than twenty years experience in software development, software processes, software product lines and software architectures for embedded, computer vision and IT domains.

Dr. Ferber worked at the research center of DaimlerChrysler AG in Ulm in the field of 3D computer vision, robotics, and measurement technologies. In 2000 he joined Robert Bosch GmbH working on software architectures and software product lines as an internal consultant and researcher in Frankfurt. Starting in 2004 he was responsible for the Corporate Systems Engineering Process Group (C-SEPG) and the research department for software and system processes at Bosch in Stuttgart. Since 2009 he was the Product Manager for the Bosch eMobility Solution and therefore engaged internationally in the eMobility market, business models, standardization, and technology topics in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Dr. Ferber holds a Ph.D. and a diploma degree in Computer Science from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany and a MSc. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA.

Mário Campolargo

Director, Net Futures, DG CONNECT, European Commission

Mário Campolargo is Director for "Net Futures" in DG CONNECT responsible for Research and Innovation on what lies beyond the current Internet architecture, software and services and the EU-Strategy for the Cloud. Previously he has been Director for "Emerging Technologies and Infrastructures" in DG INFSO in charge of Future and Emerging Technologies, ICT based infrastructures for science and ICT trust and security, experimental facilities and experimentally driven research for Future Internet. Before joining the European Commission in 1990, he worked for 12 years in the R&D Centre of Portugal Telecom as a researcher and manager. He has a Degree in Electrical Engineering (University of Coimbra), a Master of Science in Computing Science (Imperial College London), a Post graduate in Management (Solvay Business School Brussels) and a European Studies Diploma (Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve).

Joseph Alhadeff

Vice President of Global Public Policy and Chief Privacy Officer, Oracle

As Oracle's Vice President of Global Public Policy, Mr. Alhadeff is responsible for coordinating and managing Oracle's international and Internet-related policy issues.

As Chief Privacy Strategist, Mr. Alhadeff oversees Oracle's strategic planning and advocacy related to privacy, personal information protection and management across all Oracle operations and product areas as well as global fora.

In addition to his role at Oracle, Mr. Alhadeff serves a prominent role in several influential international organizations dedicated to Internet policy, security and privacy. Mr Alhadeff serves as the BIAC Chair to the OECD ICCP Committee, head of industry delegation to the OECD Security Steering Group, and a Vice Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce's Digital Economy Committee. In the EU, Mr. Alhadeff serves as Chair of the Data Protection, Governance and Identity Management working group of the EU Expert Group on Cloud Computing. In the US, Mr. Alhadeff chairs the Digital Economy Committee for the US India Business Council, co-chairs EABC's Information Governance working group and is Vice Chair of USCIB's Information Policy Committee. Mr. Alhadeff is also the Chair of the US ASEAN's Malaysia Committee, Vice-Chair of the US-ASEAN Business Council's Technology Committee and serves on the NCAPEC Board. Mr Alhadeff also serves on the advisory boards of the Digital Security Council of India, and Wiredkids.org.

Prior to joining Oracle, Mr. Alhadeff was General Counsel and Vice President for Electronic Commerce for the US Council for International Business (USCIB) in New York. Mr. Alhadeff holds an M.B.A. in management and information systems from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and a B.A. from Oberlin College.

Jacqueline Minor

Director for Consumer Affairs, DG Health & Consumers, European Commission

A lawyer by training, Jacqueline Minor began her career in the European Institutions at the Court of Justice in 1984. She moved to the Commission three years later to work on the recognition of diplomas and later enjoyed a second spell at the Court working as referendaire to the British judges Gordon Slynn and David Edward.

Returning to the Commission in 1992, she spent 16 years in the Directorate-General responsible for the internal market, heading, successively, the units responsible for the regulated professions, policy co-ordination and resources. A director since 2003, she has been responsible for the knowledge economy (including intellectual and industrial property regulation) and for horizontal policy development, participating for example on the Commission’s Single Market Review in 2007.
On 1 April 2008, Jacqueline Minor became the Director for consumer policy.

The Directorate deals with the integration of consumers' concerns into other areas of the Commission's work, consumer credit, cosmetics and medical devices, product safety and cross-border co-operation in solving consumers' problems and protecting their interests. It is also responsible for monitoring of consumer markets and produces the Consumers' Scoreboard.

Nick Coleman

Global Cloud Security Leader, IBM

Nick Coleman is the Security Cloud Leader at IBM. He is leading for IBM in securing infrastructure and cloud computing services worldwide. He was formerly the UK Government Reviewer of Security and his report "the Coleman Report' is published by the Cabinet Office and placed in the Houses of Parliament. He is an appointed advisor to the European Security Agency (ENISA) where he serves on the Permanent Stakeholders Group. He has an MBA with Distinction from Manchester Business School. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS). He was founding Chief Executive Officer and currently serves on the Board of the Institute of Information Security Professionals.

Peter Hustinx

European Data Protection Supervisor, EDPS

Mr. Hustinx (1945) has been European Data Protection Supervisor since January 2004 and was re-appointed by the European Parliament and the Council in January 2009 for a second term of five years. He has been closely involved in the development of data protection legislation from the start, both at national and at international level. Before entering his office, Mr. Hustinx was President of the Dutch Data Protection Authority since 1991. From 1996 until 2000 he was Chairman of the Article 29 Working Party. He received law degrees in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and in Ann Arbor, USA. Since 1986 he has been deputy judge in the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam.

Paulo Andrez

President, The European Trade Association for Business Angels (EBAN)

Paulo Andrez is an angel investor. He is Vice-President of FNABA (Portuguese Business Angels Federation), President of Cascais Business Angels, Member of the Board of DNA Cascais (BIC). He chaired (2010-2012) the EBAN Research Committee, which produced the first EBAN Co-Investment and Tax Breaks reports, in cooperation with BDO. Paulo Andrez was chairman of the World Business Angels Leaders Forum (Estoril, 2007) that decided to create the World Business Angel Association, and participated under FNABA scope in the design of the first Business Angel co-investment fund in Portugal. In 2010 he also participated in the design and implementation of the first Business Angels Tax Break in Portugal. Paulo Andrez has a background as serial entrepreneur and has created several companiesin areas like IT software, training, real estate and industrial resins. In 2000 he participated as entrepreneur (seller) in the IPO in Euronext, of Novabase, the largest national IT provider in Portugal, with more than 1900 employees, working in 33 countries and from then he became Business Angel, helping entrepreneurs to achieve results. He is an IT Engineer and has a MBA from Nova University in Lisbon.,

Mike Byrne

CEO, GS1 Ireland

Mike took office as Chief Executive Officer of GS1 Ireland in March 2012. Prior to joining GS1 he was Chairperson and Commissioner of Ireland’s Electronic Communications Regulatory Authority (ComReg) and was also the elected Chair of the European Commission’s strategic advisory body on the use of radio spectrum for commercial and civil use, the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG). Prior to joining ComReg, Mike was a Director of Vision Consulting, the international management and technology consulting firm. Mike is a qualified Chartered Director from the UK’s Institute of Directors (IoD) and also holds a Master of Science Degree (Management Practice) from TCD, and a Bachelor of Science Degree from University College, Galway (NUIG). He has also completed post-graduate executive education programmes at University College, Cork (UCC) and Stanford University, USA.

Thomas Usländer

Head of Department Information Management and Production Control, Fraunhofer IOSB

Dr.-Ing. Thomas Usländer holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, and a PhD in Engineering of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. He is head of the department “Information Management and Production Control” and deputy speaker of the business unit “Energy, Water and Environment” at Fraunhofer IOSB. He has been IOSB project leader in several international research projects on the development of information and communication systems for production design, manufacturing, simulation and environmental applications. His research interests include the analysis and design of open geospatial service architectures where he has numerous publications. He is the representative of Fraunhofer in the architecture working group of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). He was editor of the Reference Model for the ORCHESTRA Architecture (RM-OA) that has become OGC best practices document 07-097. He was an invited expert of the European Commission in the Consultation Workshop ”Towards a Single Information Space in Europe for the Environment (SISE)” and the final workshop of “Connectivity between Environment and Health Information Systems (CEHIS)”. He received the Object Management Group (OMG) Application Award 2000 in the category “Best Application utilizing reusable components leveraged from of for use in other projects” and best-paper awards of the conferences “Towards eEnvironment” in Prague, 2009, and “ISESS 2011” in Brno.

Felix Marchal

Chief Business Development Officer, Telit Wireless Solutions

Mr. Marchal joined the Italian wireless expert Telit as Vice President Global Sales at the beginning of May 2006. Prior to this assignment, the French professional worked as Indirect Channel Sales Director EMEA for WAVECOM.

Based on its success in Europe, Telit aims to strengthen its m2m commitment in the US and Asia. Mr. Marchal will be responsible for establishing, adapting and expanding the relevant organisational processes and structures. This staffing coup further demonstrates Telit's growth plans as well as its role as challenger in the M2M market as Telit targets market leadership in the most important vertical m2m segments.

Adam Gould

CEO, Sensinode

Adam Gould is currently CEO of Sensinode, a world leading provider of software for the Internet of Things. Adam has more than 25 years of experience in the wireless industry, and has extensive experience in leading engineering development teams, business development, marketing and sales activities. Prior to Sensinode, Adam joined NextWave in 2005, and was the GM of the business unit developing consumer products around NextWave semiconductor products, as well as being Senior Vice President for semiconductor Sales and Marketing. His previous role at Nextwave was SVP Product Development, responsible for consumer product development, product planning, product management, program management and business development. Prior to joining NextWave, Adam was Chief Technology Officer and VP of Engineering for Nokia Mobile Phones' CDMA unit, where he worked for almost 13 years. In this role, he was responsible for setting the technology direction and strategy for the CDMA group as well as managing all of the Nokia CDMA technology development. Prior to his becoming CTO, he held various positions in management, signal processing, systems and software engineering development. Before joining Nokia, he was a member of the engineering team at Motorola that developed the world’s first GSM phone, where he developed all the signal processing software for that product. Adam holds more than 7 patents, and has degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Drexel University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently on the Board of Directors or on the Advisory Board for several companies.

Alicia Asín Pérez

CEO, Libelium

Alicia Asín, Libelium's Co-Founder and CEO. Computer Engineer by the Polytechnic Center of Zaragoza with studies at the Judge Business School of Cambridge and ESADE. She has research experience in computer security and power consumption in high performance processors. In 2007 she won the Best Paper Award in the Workshop on Computer Architecture Education (San Diego, CA). Speaker about Smart Cities and Sensor Networks in major events, she is TPC member of the S-Cube Conference on Sensor Systems and Software.

William Webb

CTO, Neul

William is one of the founding directors of Neul, a company developing machine-to-machine technologies and networks, which was formed at the start of 2011.

Prior to this William was a Director at Ofcom where he managed a team providing technical advice and performing research across all areas of Ofcom’s regulatory remit. He also led some of the major reviews conducted by Ofcom including the Spectrum Framework Review, the development of Spectrum Usage Rights and most recently cognitive or white space policy. Previously, William worked for a range of communications consultancies in the UK in the fields of hardware design, computer simulation, propagation modelling, spectrum management and strategy development. William also spent three years providing strategic management across Motorola’s entire communications portfolio, based in Chicago.

William has published 12 books, 80 papers, and 18 patents. He is a Visiting Professor at Surrey University and DeMontfort University, a member of Ofcom’s Spectrum Advisory Board (OSAB) and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the IEEE and the IET where he is a Vice President. His biography is included in multiple “Who’s Who” publications around the world. William has a first class honours degree in electronics, a PhD and an MBA.

Stephane Goubau

Managing Director, Western Europe Region, Intel Capital

Stephane Goubau, based in Belgium, is a Senior Director of Intel Capital. For many years he has been leading Intel’s WiMAX venture investment program in EMEA helping to accelerate the emergence of 4G technology and services.

He has pursued investments in SWRVE New Media, 4tiiToo, DBD (Deutsche Breitband Dienste), Pipex Wireless, Worldmax, Orascom Telecom WiMax Ltd, SNO, Medialario, Clear2pay and NetCentrex.

Previously, Stephane Goubau served as Managing Director for Intel Capital Western Europe and lead a number of additional investment programs in the region such as Digital Home and Telecom Infrastructure.

Prior to assuming his responsibilities within Intel Capital, Mr. Goubau was Vice President of Dialogic Corporation and Managing Director of Dialogic’s EMEA activities for 7 years, until the company was acquired by Intel Corporation.

Prior to that, Stephane Goubau held several general management and senior management positions in startup ventures as well as larger corporations including Eyemetrics, Société Générale of Belgium & Raychem Corporation.

Stephane Goubau holds an MBA from Harvard University (USA) and a Master in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ghent (Belgium).

Thibaut Kleiner

Member of Cabinet for Vice President Kroes, European Commission

Thibaut Kleiner is a member of cabinet of Neelie Kroes, where he is in charge of Internet policies at large (Net futures, media & data, trust and security, Internet governance) and robotics. He has worked for the European Commission since 2001, occupying a number of positions, notably in the field of competition policy, where he was head of unit in charge of coordination, and member of cabinet of Neelie Kroes in her previous mandate, where he notably supervised state aid (including during the banking crisis). An economist by training, he holds a Master from HEC Paris and a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Giuseppe Abbamonte

Head of Unit, Trust & Security, DG CONNECT, European Commission

Mr Abbamonte is an Italian qualified lawyer ("avvocato"). Mr Abbamonte have been working as a Commission official since June 1992.

Before joining the Commission Mr Abbamonte was an associate in the law firm Allen & Overy in Milan for four years (1989/1992). In his private practice Mr Abbamonte dealt mainly with commercial law and competition law.

In the Commission Mr Abbamonte has worked in five DGs (TREN, COMP, SANCO, JLS and INFSO). During my first five years (1992/1997) in TREN, Mr Abbamonte was responsible for State aid control in the air transport sector, where he was the desk officer in some major restructuring and recapitalisation cases (e.g. Air France, TAP and Aer Lingus). During this period Mr Abbamonte acquired a good grasp of business accounting, elements of corporate finance and microeconomics.

Mr Abbamonte joined COMP in 1997 as State aid expert and for one year Mr Abbamonte was mainly responsible for some complex State aid cases in the French postal sector.

Mr Abbamonte joined the Merger Task Force in 1998, where for four years he worked as desk officer on numerous prominent mergers and acquisitions cases. Those were the years of the "new economy" and the dot-com bubble, and Mr Abbamonte became an expert in mergers in digital media markets, particularly those involving online distribution of audiovisual content. Mr Abbamonte was the main case handler in AOL/Time Warner (at that time the largest merger in US business history) and in EMI/Time Warner. Mr Abbamonte worked on several mergers between telecoms companies (e.g. Telia/Telenor: the merger of the main Swedish and Norwegian telephone and TV operators). During these years Mr Abbamonte enhanced his understanding of microeconomics, and particularly industrial economics. Mr Abbamonte also obtained sound knowledge of the telecommunications industry and Internet economics.

Mr Abbamonte moved to SANCO in 2001 as deputy head of a legal unit, responsible for most of EU consumer laws. Mr Abbamonte became head of unit in 2005, and was promoted to AD13 in 2008.

In SANCO Mr Abbamonte acquired deep knowledge and experience of EU policy making and the impact assessment culture. He was tasked with the revision of the existing old regulatory framework to bring it up to date with market developments, particularly on-line. Producing good legislation, which is principle based and technologically neutral has been a major challenge. Mr Abbamonte’s main legislative files were the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive -which regulates commercial practices on-line and off-line- and the proposal for the Consumer rights Directive, which will set out the regulatory framework for consumer contracts, and in particular for on-line consumer contracts.

As a result of the reorganisation of the Barroso II Commission, my unit was moved to JLS where Mr Abbamonte was responsible, in addition to consumer law, for developing general European contract law.

Since January 2011 Mr Abbamonte has been the head of the electronic communications policy development unit in INFSO. My main files include on-line privacy, universal service obligations, net neutrality and the CEO Roundtable on the sustainability of the Internet ecosystem and the broadband investment framework.

From the first of July 2012 Mr Abbamonte will be the new head of the unit dealing with Trust and Security matters in the new DG CONNECT (former INFSO).

Mr Abbamonte is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre of Competition Policy of the University of East Anglia.

Andrea Benassi

Secretary General, European Association of SME's (UEAPME)

Andrea Benassi was unanimously elected as new Secretary General by the UEAPME General Assembly on 8 November 2007. He previously served as Director for European Integration and Foreign Markets at the Italian crafts and SMEs organisation Confartigianato, a position he occupied since October 2005. He also served as Director of Confartigianato’s Brussels office from October 1999 to September 2005.

A member of the Advisory group for Internationalisation at the Italian Ministry for International Trade and a Development Cooperation SME Expert at the Italian Foreign Office, Mr Benassi also sits as expert in a number of Committees and Technical Groups at UN and EC level. He has been recently appointed as member of the SEPA Council and of the High Level Group on Key Enabling Technologies.

James Pace

Managing Director, UK & Ireland, Silver Spring Networks

James is Managing Director, UK / Ireland at Silver Spring Networks UK. James has been with Silver Spring since 2003 when the company relocated to Silicon Valley. During his first six years at Silver Spring, James ran software product management, where he was responsible for defining a scalable, reliable, and secure networking solution designed to address both Smart Grids and Smart Metering. He is currently based in London, where he is responsible for commercial operations and new market development in the UK and Ireland.

Prior to Silver Spring, James accumulated over 15 years of TCP/IP networking experience while serving in a broad range of management and engineering roles for Silicon Valley-based networking companies such as Loudcloud/Opsware (the world's first scalable, data center management solution), @Home Network (the world's first massively scalable cable modem networks), and the NASA Science Internet (a far-reaching, global precursor to the commercial Internet).

Richard Thomas

Global Strategy Advisor, Centre for Information Policy Leadership, Hunton & Williams

Richard Thomas is Global Strategy Adviser with the Centre for Information Policy Leadership, the think tank associated with Hunton & Williams, the leading international privacy law firm.

He was the Information Commissioner for the United Kingdom from November 2002 until his retirement at the end of June 2009. He was appointed by HM Queen and held independent status, reporting directly to Parliament, with a range of responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 1998 and related laws. The functions of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) include promoting good practice, ruling on complaints and taking enforcement action.

He is also Chairman of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council which reviews the accessibility, fairness and efficiency of the arrangements for resolving disputes between government and individuals.

His other posts are:
• Deputy Chairman of the Consumers Association (publishers of Which? magazine);
• Trustee of the Whitehall and Industry Group; and
• Board Member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

In 2008 he was awarded “Privacy Leader of the Year” by IAPP and was voted 3rd in Silicon.com’s global “IT Agenda Setters” poll. In July 2009, he was included in the “Law 100” - the London Times list of the 100 most influential British lawyers.

Richard has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Southampton and is a visiting Professor at the University of Northumbria.

He was awarded the honour of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for public service in June 2009.

François Carrez

Project Coordinator, FP7 IoT-i project

Dr François Carrez received a PhD in Theoretical Computer Science from the University of Nancy – France in 1991. For 18 years he has then been working for the Alcatel Research centre in Paris in areas such as Security, Distributed Artificial Intelligence, AdHoc Networking and Semantics. He recently joined the CCSR forces (2006) and is currently “Architecture” WP leader in IOT-A -the European flag-ship project on IOT Architecture- and Project Coordinator of the FP7 Coordination Action “Internet of Things Initiative”, the main goal of which was to set up the IOT International Forum.

Alessandro Bassi

Technical Co-ordinator, FP7 IoT-A project, Hitachi Europe

Alessandro Bassi graduated in Computer Science from the University in Milan in 1994, with soft computing and software engineering as majors.

He joined Amadeus in January 1997, and he moved to the University of Tennessee in 2000, where he was involved in the seminal work of the Internet Backplane Protocol. From 2002 he then held a Research Visitor position at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon, France. After working one year for RIPE NCC, in November 2004 he joined Hitachi Europe.

Since September 2010 an Independent Consultant, working on topics related to Internet of Things technologies.

He was the deputy project coordinator of the FP5 6QM project, and the project coordinator of the FP7 "Autonomic Internet" project.

Since 2005, his research interests are focused on the integration of autonomic properties into ad-hoc networks, RFID technologies and, more broadly, the Internet of Things.

Since 2007 he is the chair of the Internet of Things WG of the European Technology Platform "EpoSS", focused on Smart Systems Integration. In this function, he co-organised, together with the European Commission, a number of events including the workshop "Beyond RFID - The Internet of Things", held in Brussels in 2008. He is an expert for ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency, on possible threats coming from the adoption of IoT technologies, and he was part of the group that wrote the Strategic Research Agenda on Future Internet.

Currently, he is the Technical Coordinator of the lighthouse project regarding the Internet of Things in the Framework Programme 7, 'Internet of Things - Architecture" (IoT-A).

Dan Caprio

Senior Strategic Advisor, McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP

Dan Caprio brings over 25 years of experience on legal and policy issues involving the convergence of internet, telecommunications, and technology. He has substantial knowledge and experience in the areas of privacy, cyber security, and the Internet of Things, a term used when everyday objects are connected to the Internet. Mr. Caprio works with clients to define and capitalize on public policy strategies in the United States and Europe.

From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Caprio served as Chief Privacy Officer and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy at the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) where he advised the Secretary of Commerce and the White House on technology policy and privacy protection. While at the DoC, he oversaw activities related to the development and implementation of federal privacy laws, policies, and practices. He served as Chairman of the DoC Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) working group and Co-Chairman of the Federal RFID interagency working group.

In 2011, Mr. Caprio was appointed as a trade policy advisor to the Secretary of Commerce and United States Trade Representative. From 2007 through 2011, Mr. Caprio advised the Secretary of Homeland Security on Data Privacy matters. In 2010, Mr. Caprio was appointed as a transatlantic subject matter expert to advise the European Commission on the Internet of Things.

Prior to his tenure at the DoC, Mr. Caprio served as Chief of Staff to Commissioner Orson Swindle at the Federal Trade Commission. In 2002, he was appointed to represent the United States in revising the OECD guidelines on information systems and networks. Mr. Caprio holds an active security clearance for classified matters.

Thomas Weber

Frequency Management, ECA and Satellites, European Communications Office (ECO)

Thomas Weber joined the European Communications Office in 2010 as expert for spectrum management and is the chairman of the WG FM Maintenance Group on Short Range Devices (SRD/MG). He is also responsible for the frequency management project teams in the WGFM dealing with spectrum monitoring, satellite services, direct-air-to-ground communications and the European Common Allocations Table.

Before that, he worked for the Federal Network Agency in Germany in 2001-2010 and was the chairman of several ETSI standardisation groups dealing with ITS, PMR, DMR, GSM-R and UWB as well as the chairman for the DIN/DKE German National standardisation committee on radio devices. He also worked several years for several satellite operators and in the industry in satellite communications. He holds a degree in Communications Engineering acquired at the University of Applied Sciences in Dieburg, Germany.

Maurizio Salvi

Head of the EGE Secretariat, EC President’s Bureau of EU Policy Advisers

Maurizio SALVI holds a MBA in Modern Literature (University of Rome, Faculty of Literature, 1985-1991), a MBS in Philosophy (University of Rome, Faculty of Philosophy, 1991-1995), a post degree specialisation diplome in Bioethics (University of Rome, Faculty of Natural, physical and mathematical sciences, 1995), a PhD on Health Sciences (Ethics, Law and Governance, University of Maastricht in conjunction with the Higher Institute of Philosophy, University of Leuven, and the Konrad Lorenz Institute, Vienna), and in 2002 he obtained the European PhD in biotechnology from the European Association for Higher Education in Biotechnology. He has done research on ethics and biotechnology, inter alia, at the University of Rome (1994-1999), the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (1999-2001), the University of Maastricht (WTMC Institute -1996-1998), the International Forum of Bio philosophy (1998-2001). He was the Director of the Bioethics Course at the Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik (1999-2001).


In 1998 he joined the European Commission, (Directorate -General Research) as a Scientific Officer responsible for both Bioethics research in FP 4-5 (FP4, ELSA BIOMED, BIOTECH, FAIR Programmes, FP5 Quality of Life), and policy actions on different fields of research (ELSA aspects) such as, inter alia:

Genetic testing, Biobanking, stem cells, embryo research, nanotechnology, ICT, animal cloning, transgenic animals, biometrics, security, clinical trials both within the EU and with non European countries, developing countries (Africa, poverty related diseases), SARS (china in particular), data protection (genetic data), bioterrorism and bio weapons etc..

From 2001 to 2006 he was the deputy Head of the Unit on Ethics and science at the European Commission with specific responsibilities on policy aspects of ethics and science at both EU and International level, including the design and implementation of the Ethics frame to adopt in FP6 and FP7. Between other things, Dr Salvi was the Secretary of the European Union Forum of National Ethics Committees (NEC Forum).

He has published extensively on bioethics, ethics and biotechnology and philosophy of biology in Europe, USA, Japan, South America and New Zealand and was a member of the Drafting Working Group of several EC policy papers (from the ERA strategy to Nanotechnology strategy, from Science and Society Strategy to the Life sciences strategy, from the Commission working paper on human embryonic stem cells to several protocols to the Bioethics Convention of the Council of Europe).

Dr Salvi has organised around 30 international EC meetings of different kind and nature, from large conferences (e.g. EC conference on genetic testing and research ethics committees) to inter-institutional events (e.g. the inter-institutional seminar on bioethics –EC, Council and EP), from target workshops (e.g. EU-USA workshop on ethics, law and biometrics or the workshop on capacity building on research ethics in developing countries) to Meetings of the NEC Forum hosted by the rotation Presidencies.

Dr Salvi is member of several associations on bioethics and gave lectures on ethics and science in the EU, Japan and USA .

In April 2006 he was then appointed as Policy Advisor to the President of the EC (BEPA) with specific tasks on ethics (act as the Head of the EGE Secretariat, coordinates actions on ethics within EC Services and represent the EC with third parties).

Steve Purser

Technical Competence Department Head, European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA)

Steve Purser was born in the UK and attended the universities of Bristol and East Anglia where he obtained a BSc. in Chemistry and a PhD in Chemical Physics respectively. He started work in 1985 in the area of software development, subsequently progressing to project management and consultancy roles. From 1993 to 2008, he occupied the role of Information Security Manager for a number of companies in the financial sector. He joined ENISA in December 2008 as Head of the Technical Department and is currently responsible for all operational activities of ENISA.

Steve is co-founder of the 'Club de Securité des Systèmes Informatiques au Luxembourg' (CLUSSIL) and is currently the ENISA representative on the ISO SC 27 working group. He frequently publishes articles in the specialised press and is the author of 'A Practical Guide to Managing Information Security' (Artech House, 2004).

Adam Lapede

Senior Director, Product Management, Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.

Adam Lapede joined Atheros (now Qualcomm Atheros) in 2010 and has been leading QCAs’ Internet of Everything initiative driving product innovation and industry adoption of standard based low energy wireless and power line connectivity for a wide variety of use cases such as home and building automation, automotive, energy management and low power consumer devices. Mr. Lapede brings nearly 20 years of hands-on development, managerial and business experience in RF systems, semiconductors and communications industry. Prior to joining QCA, he held several marketing, product management and engineering positions at Texas Instruments. Mr. Lapede earned a Master’s degree in management and business administration from Derby University. He also holds a Bachelor in Science and Technical degree in electrical engineering from Tel-Aviv University in Israel.

Olivier Burgersdijk

Head of Business Demand and Products, Europol

Academic staff member in the serious and organized crime department of the Rotterdam-Rijnmond police force (1998-2001),
• Conducting various evaluations on major criminal investigations into serious and organised crime;
• Contribution to the development and implementation of a regional model for intelligence led policing;
• Participating in several regional and national task forces regarding the restructuring of criminal intelligence and investigation processes;
• Strategic analysis.

Independent consultant to regional police forces and prosecution services in The Netherlands (2001-2006),
• Supporting regional, interregional and national police and prosecution services in the Netherlands in restructuring their investigation processes and improving their performance;
• Participating in the development and implementation of a national computerized quality and evaluation model for criminal investigation and prosecution;
• Consulting regional police forces on information management and on restructuring their intelligence organisations.

First Officer Information Management at Europol (2006-2008)
• Supervision of information exchange with non-EU States and other cooperation partners;
• Drafting and implementation of various strategies in the area of information management;
• Project management of key initiatives in the area of information management.

Head of Unit of the Information Management Coordination Unit at Europol (2009)
• Programme management and supervision of various projects in the area of information management;
• Project manager of the first phase of SIENA (Secure information exchange network application);
• Management of the implementation of EU policies in the area of information management, including the Swedish Initiative and the Principle of Availability.

Head of the Business Demand & Products Unit at Europol (2010-present)
• Management of the entire portfolio of Europol information management products and services;
• Programme management and supervision of projects in the area of information management.

Thomas Dailey

Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Verizon

Mr. Dailey is Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Verizon where he is responsible for providing legal and strategic level advice to Verizon’s Global Strategy group on the future direction of the corporation in numerous areas including video, cloud, identity management, security, health care and M2M. Mr. Dailey also serves as chief Internet counsel responsible for developing Verizon’s US and global Internet policies and business practices for Verizon’s world-wide operations in a wide array of areas, including security, law enforcement compliance, net neutrality, online safety, anti-piracy, content regulation and privacy. In addition, he oversees the legal team responsible for all programming acquisition for Verizon’s FiOS TV and multi-platform content delivery services.

Mr. Dailey has testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress and various state legislatures on Internet safety, security and anti-piracy issues, including most recently before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the Protect IP Act. He is the Chair of the Center for Copyright Information, the organization jointly created by the major content rightsholders and ISPs to oversee the industries’ recently announced anti-piracy agreement in the US. Mr. Dailey is also a member of the of the board of directors of the US Internet Service Provider Association (USISPA), an industry organization based in Washington, D.C. comprised of many of the largest Internet service providers and network companies in the United States. He is the former Chair of USISPA and continues to serve as Chair Emeritus of the organization.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Dailey served as lead counsel to Verizon’s Chief Marketing Officer, where he was responsible for providing legal advice regarding the advertising and marketing of the company’s consumer and business mass markets products and services. He has been Verizon’s chief Internet counsel since 1998 and before that he spent six years in the state regulatory organization serving as General Counsel of Bell Atlantic Vermont, and two years as Labor and Employment Counsel. Before joining Verizon, Mr. Dailey was an Associate with the Boston law firm of Goodwin Procter LLC. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Colby College and his Juris Doctorate from Suffolk University Law School, where he graduated cum laude and served as an editor on the law review and as a member of the national moot court team.

Daniel Kitscha

Policy officer, Radio Spectrum Policy, European Commission

Daniel Kitscha works as policy officer in the Spectrum Unit of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT). His main tasks concern the development of spectrum harmonisation measures for short-range radio applications as well as policies for efficient spectrum use particularly in regard to the shared use of frequency bands.

Prior to joining the European Commission in 2010, Daniel Kitscha was a member of the corporate CIO-Office at Metro AG, where he worked as an advisor on IT-related regulatory affairs and the IT innovation management framework. He holds a M.A. degree in medieval and contemporary history, political science and communication studies from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.

Karim Antonio Lesina

Vice President, International External Affairs, EU, Caribbean, Central and Latin America, Trans-Atlantic Relations, AT&T

Karim Antonio Lesina is the Vice President of AT&T, covering International External Affairs for the European Union, Caribbean, Central and Latin America Regions and in charge of the Trans-Atlantic Relations. In this role he leads AT&T's advocacy in those regions. AT&T is a premier global communications company, providing wholesale services and mobile roaming services to over 220 countries and territories, and providing business enterprise services to countries representing over 99 percent of the world’s economy.

In addition to developing and implementing market access strategies to enable AT&T’s global expansion to satisfy customer needs, other responsibilities for Mr. Lesina include ensuring compliance with international telecom regulations, and advocacy on a wide range policy matters related to the stable growth, innovation and investment by the information and communications technology sector.

Mr. Lesina is based in AT&T’s Brussels (Belgium) office. He is an active member in several industry and community organizations, including current service as: Chair of the Presidency Group and of the Digital Economy Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU. He is a Board Member of the European Internet Foundation. He also represents AT&T in different associations such as ETNO, EABC, GSMA, ECTA, TPN, etc.

Prior to joining AT&T, Mr. Lesina held senior positions with another leading US-headquartered ICT company (Intel Corporation), and a number of leading public affairs agencies in Brussels. Born in Dakar (Senegal) Mr. Lesina is an Italian-Tunisian national and has a Master Degree in Economics of development at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium.

Ilias Chantzos

Senior Director, Government Relations and Public Affairs, Symantec

Ilias Chantzos is Senior Director of Symantec’s Government Relations and Public Affairs programmes for Europe, Middle East & Africa as well as the Asia Pacific and Japan regions. Chantzos represents Symantec before government bodies, national authorities and international organisations advising on public policy issues with particular regard to IT security and data risk management and availability.

Prior to joining Symantec in 2004, Chantzos worked as legal and policy officer in the Directorate General Information Society of the European Commission focusing on information security policy. He covered the council of Europe Cybercrime Convention and the Framework Decision on Attacks against Information Systems. In addition, he managed a number of EU legislative initiatives relevant to information society and security, including directives on Privacy on Electronic Communications, the Data Retention Directive and the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). He also represented the European Commission in various international debates and conferences.

Chantzos holds a law degree from the University of Thessaloniki and a Masters degree in Computers and Communication Law from the University of London and is a member of the Athens Bar. He serves as Chair of the Executive Board of TechAmerica Europe and appointed member of the Permanent Stakeholders Group of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) for a third consecutive term. Chantzos chaired for two consecutive terms the executive policy council of the Business Software Alliance, Europe. He speaks Greek, English, Dutch and German and is a member of the Oostakker Kickboxing Club and the Greek Circle, a thought leadership club in Brussels.

Rob Van Kranenburg

Founder, Council

Rob van Kranenburg is an innovation and media theorist involved with negociability strategies of new technologies and artistic practice, predominantly ubicomp and RFID, the relationship between the formal and informal in cultural and economic policy, and the requirements for a sustainable cultural economy. He has been teaching at various schools in the Netherlands (UvA, EMMA Interaction Design, Industrial Design) and has worked at several Dutch cultural institutions; de Balie, Doors of Perception and Virtual Platform. Until April 1 2009 he was Head of Public Domain at Waag Society. Currently he teaches at Frank Mohr and Fontys Ambient Intelligence. He lives in Ghent, Belgium. With friends he has set up Council, a consultancy/thinktank on the Internet of Things for governments, cities and citizens.

Michael Kende

Co-Head of the Regulatory Sector, Analysys Mason

Michael Kende is the co-Head of the Regulatory Sector at Analysys Mason. Michael is an economist by training, with a Ph.D. from MIT. After MIT, he spent five years as a professor of Economics at INSEAD, a business school near Paris, before joining the Federal Communications Commission. At the FCC, Michael was the Director of Internet Policy Analysis, where he was responsible for managing a wide range of policy analyses and regulatory decisions on Internet policy (including interconnection), broadband deployment, and mergers.

At Analysys Mason, Michael has worked with operators and regulators in six continents, providing advice on a variety of Internet issues. He has worked on projects relating to Internet backbone interconnection, spectrum assignments, broadband deployment, Voice over IP and IPTV. His clients have included the World Bank, the IDA in Singapore, OSIPTEL in Peru, AT&T, and the European Union. Recent strategy projects include assisting an operator develop an Internet portal strategy, the development of an Internet Exchange Point business model, and an assessment of online service provider strategy.

Amit Nagpal

Partner, Aetha Consulting

Amit Nagpal advises fixed and mobile operators, regulators/government bodies, financial institutions and equipment manufacturers on a wide range of commercial, technical and regulatory issues. In particular, Amit Nagpal assists organisations with commercial & technical due diligence, radio spectrum policy development and spectrum valuation and auction support. Prior to founding his own consulting company, Amit was a Senior Partner at Analysys Mason, a specialist telecoms strategy consultancy, where he advised on several multi-billion dollar M&A and debt financing transactions as well as leading numerous high-profile regulatory studies. In the area of spectrum management, Amit's experience has included:

* leading high-profile studies for the European Commission (harmonised approach to the digital dividend, introduction of spectrum trading)

* supporting spectrum users (e.g. O2, KPN, UPC), industry bodies (e.g. GSM Association, UMTS Forum, TETRA Association) and regulations (e.g. Ofcom in the UK, NITA in Denmark, MinEZ in the Netherlands) on major policy issues such as (i) the future demand for spectrum e.g. for wireless broadband services (ii) liberalisation of mobile spectrum/GSM licence renewal and (iii) the award of the digital dividend (800MHz) and 2.6GHz bands.

Amit is able to bring a global perspective to his work having undertaken projects for clients in Europe, North America, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Keith Arundale

Expert and independent consultant on fund raising activity, issues and trends, Arundale Consulting

Keith is a university lecturer, executive trainer, author and speaker on private equity & venture capital. He is a Visiting Fellow at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading where he teaches the PE&VC modules for BSc and MSc investment banking, corporate finance and management and business administration students. He is carrying out research on the performance of VC funds in Europe and the USA at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Strathclyde Business School.

Keith is a chartered accountant and chartered marketer and was formerly with PwC where he was in charge of the venture capital programme and marketing & business development for PwC’s Global Technology Industry Group in Europe. This included reporting on investment and fund raising activity for EVCA and BVCA.

Keith is the author of the BVCA’s ‘Guide to Private Equity’ (2010) and “Raising Venture Capital Finance in Europe” (Kogan Page, 2007). He is an international trainer with Private Equity International and specialist consultant on private equity to Right Management (a Manpower Company). He was President of the English Technology Tour in 2007.

He is the Senior Independent Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, the community and mental health care provider for the county of Berkshire in the UK. He is a Freeman of the City of London, Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Marketors livery company in the City and a Liveryman of the Chartered Accountants and Spectacle Makers City livery companies.

Ovidiu Vermesan

Coordinator, European Research Cluster on the Internet of Things and Chief Scientist, SINTEF, Scandinavia

Dr. Ovidiu Vermesan holds a Ph.D. degree in microelectronics and a Master of International Business (MIB) degree and has 24 years of experience in Electronics and Telecommunications. He is Chief Scientist at SINTEF Information and Communication Technology, Oslo, Norway. His research interests are in the area of analog and mixed-signal ASIC Design (CMOS/BiCMOS/SOI) with applications in measurement, instrumentation, high-temperature applications, medical electronics and integrated sensors; low power/low voltage ASIC design; and computer-based electronic analysis and simulation. Dr. Vermesan received SINTEFs 2003 award for research excellence for his work on the implementation of a biometric sensor system. He is currently working with projects addressing nanoelectronics integrated systems, communication and embedded systems, integrated sensors, wireless identifiable systems and RFID for future Internet of Things architectures with applications in green automotive, internet of energy, healthcare, oil and gas and energy efficiency in buildings. He is actively involved in the activities of the European Technology Platforms ENIAC (European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council), ARTEMIS (Advanced Research &Technology for EMbedded Intelligence and Systems), EPoSS (European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration). Dr. Vermesan is the coordinator of the IoT European Research Cluster (IERC) of the European Commission, actively participated in EU FP7 Projects related to Internet of Things.

Chiara Giovannini

Senior Manager, ANEC

Chiara Giovannini holds a master degree in European Law. Since 2002, she works for ANEC as Senior Manager, Policy & Innovation. She is responsible for the management of Information Society, including information and communications technologies (ICT), Design for All (Accessibility), Nanotechnologies sectors and ANEC horizontal policies. Chiara represents consumers’ interests in several standardisation and European Commission Committees and Experts Groups (COCOM, ECCG, Internet of Things, ICT Platform).

ANEC is the European consumer voice in standardisation. This means we represent the European consumer interest in the creation of technical standards, especially those developed to support the implementation of European laws and public policies. The representation of consumers in the European standardisation process is a public interest activity dependent upon European public funding. Hence the ANEC budget is financed by the European Union (95%) and EFTA (5%). ANEC is an international non-profit association established under Belgian law with a central secretariat in Brussels, Belgium. We are recognised by the European Commission and EFTA Secretariat and are a full member of the European Consumer Consultative Group (ECCG). We are members of CEN, CENELEC and ETSI and have liaison status with several ISO and IEC Technical Committees.

Rasmus Blom

Director, Grundfos Connect

Rasmus Blom is Director of Grundfos Connect, a new business development area in Grundfos with the overall responsibility of defining the digital products and services strategy and developing a business platform for innovating and launching digital products, information services and connected solutions. Utilizing applications on smart mobile devices, ubiquitous connectivity, M2M communication and the evolution of Internet of Things (IoT) focusing on Water and Energy.

Speaker at 2nd annual EU-US dialogue workshop, on ”Business model innovation in a Global Manufacturing Industry Sector”, Princeton University, 08 JUN 2012. Keynote speaker at EU Future Internet Enterprise Systems (FInES) Workshop Co-located with the Future Internet Assembly on ”Into the Wise Space - opportunities and challenges from a European industry perspective”, Aalborg University, 09 MAY 2012.

Prior to Grundfos Rasmus worked with IBM, Deloitte Consulting, Ericsson and Huawei. He is also co-initiator of the first large deep sea metagenomic project in the Arctic and Antarctic focusing on finding novel industrial enzymes.

Rasmus holds a MSc from University of Copenhagen.