Speaker Biographies

Confirmed speakers

Moderators

Arijandas Sliupas

Vice Minister for Transport and Communications, Government of the Republic of Lithuania

Arijandas Šliupas – Vice-minister of the Ministry of Transport and Communication of the Republic of Lithuania since 21 December 2012. The Ministry is the state policy-making institution in the areas of transport and communication as well as the main coordinating body of the Lithuanian road, railways, water, air transport, post and electronic communication sectors.

Within the Ministry, Vice-minister A. Šliupas is in charge of the civil aviation, information society policy, international co-operation and also of the following institutions, which fall within the regulation of the Ministry: Civil Aviation Administration, Information Society Development Committee, SE „Air Navigation“ SE „ Vilnius International Airport“, SE „Kaunas Airport”, SE „International Palanga Airport“, JSC “Lithuanian Post“, JSC „ Lithuanian Radio and Television Centre“.

Before entering the post of Vice-minister, Arijandas Šliupas headed the SE “Kaunas Airport”.

Gilles Brégant

Chair, RSPG and Director General, l'Agence nationale des fréquences (ANFR)

Biography to appear here shortly...

Luis Lucatero

Chief of Regulatory Policy, Cofetel, Mexico

Luis Lucatero is the head of the Telecommunications Regulation Research Unit of the Mexican Federal Telecommunication Commission since July 2011. Considering the time evolution of smartphone price erosion, computing processing power, and traffic patterns, Mr. Lucatero has applied an assumption of recurrent congestion risks with 100% mobile internet penetration as a basic paradigm for spectrum management in Mexico. In the last five years, Mr. Lucatero has actively advocated for network-crunch-proof spectrum management throughout the world, and since September 2010, following the 9th APT wireless forum meeting, Mr. Lucatero has actively worked for the global harmonization of the 700MHz band following the APT model. Mr. Lucatero studied semiconductor physics at Hokkaido University in Japan and laser physics and nonlinear optics at Ecole Polytechnique, France. Before joining the Mexican Federal Government, Mr. Lucatero worked at Alcatel-Lucent in France for 12 years where he held various positions including research scientist, network development engineer, technology marketing, technical sales, network financial analysis, and global government affairs.

Ruprecht Niepold

Advisor to the Director General on Spectrum Policy, European Commission

Ruprecht Niepold is an adviser on spectrum policy at the Directorate General for Information Society and Media of the European Commission (DG INFSO). He holds a Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Karlsruhe and a PhD from the University of Stuttgart. From 1977 he worked at the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft in applied research for industry in the field of industrial automation before joining the European Commission in 1989 where he became responsible for relations with Japan and South East Asia in the field of telecommunications policy. As of 1997 he led the unit dealing mobile and satellite communications regulatory aspects. Between 2003 and 2008 he headed the unit in charge of developing radio spectrum policy from a Community perspective. Since May 2008 he advises the Director General of DG INFSO on radio spectrum policy issues.

Andreas Geiss

Deputy Head of Unit, Radio Spectrum Policy, European Commission

Andreas Geiss is currently Deputy Head of Unit for Radio Spectrum Policy in DG CONNECT of the European Commission. His responsibilities include the implementation of the inventory in accordance with the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme.

Andreas has been working for the European Commission since 2002. He started his professional career in 1991 at the German Regulatory Authority in the area of telecommunications. From 1994 until 2002 he worked for the European Radiocommunications Office (ERO), where he was project leader for many projects dealing with terrestrial and satellite mobile communications. He has been involved in the European preparations for World Radiocommunications Conferences since 1995. Andreas is a telecommunications engineer by profession and enjoys all sorts of sports in his spare time.

Andy Hudson

Group Head of Spectrum Policy, Vodafone

Andy is responsible for managing spectrum policy and auctions across the Vodafone Group. He has recently been very busy in India, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Albania. Over almost 10 years he has held various marketing, strategy and public policy roles within Vodafone, leading the development of mobile broadband software and Built-in connectivity. Before joining Vodafone he was part of the senior management team which spun an internet payments and encryption company out of NatWest.

He was a Management Consultant for NatWest and was previously at Sharp Laboratories of Europe and Sony Corporation, based in Japan. He has a doctorate in Engineering Science from Oxford University and an MBA.

Graham Louth

Director of Spectrum Markets, Ofcom, U.K.

Graham Louth joined Ofcom, the UK’s converged communications regulator, in December 2003 as Director of Spectrum Markets, tasked with making the changes necessary to allow spectrum users to decide how to make best use of this invaluable national resource, rather than being dictated by the regulator. More recently as Director of Spectrum Policy, Mobile and Auctions, he has been responsible for ensuring that existing and prospective mobile network operators are able to make the best possible use of existing spectrum, and have access to critical bands of new spectrum such as the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands, so as to be able to deliver the best possible mobile services to UK consumers and citizens at competitive prices.

Prior to joining Ofcom, Graham spent over 10 years working as a consultant with the leading telecoms strategy advisors Analysys, ultimately as head of their regulatory practice worldwide. Whilst at Analysys Graham played a leading role in the development of regulatory thinking and practice in a number of economic and policy areas, working closely with clients such as the European Commission, the IDA in Singapore, and Oftel in the UK.

Joaquin Restrepo

Head, Outreach and Publication Services Division, Radiocommunication Bureau (BR), ITU

Joined the ITU in July 2012, acting as Head of Outreach and Publications Division at Radiocommunications Bureau, having in charge the Outreach Strategy for this Bureau.

During 2011-2012, was Senior Technical Advisor in REGULATEL. In 2010 Founder and 1st. Director General of the National Spectrum Agency, NSA, Colombia, in 2006 Director Office of International Affairs, Ministry of ICT of Colombia, in 2002 Director of Planning at COMPARTEL Program (universal service) at the same Ministry.

M.SC and Ph.D. Telecommunications, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications, Toulouse, France; Electronic Engineer and M.Sc. Technology Management, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín, Colombia., Extensive experience in meetings and conferences on ICT multilateral ITU, CITEL, CAATEL, COPUOS, etc. Project Manager regional satellite: Satellite Andean Colombian Satellite (SATCOL). More than 20 years of experience in academic sector, devoted to R&D projects in Radiocommunications. Author of numerous scientific papers in specialized magazines as: EEE, IAF, etc. Holder of several patents in the domain of Non-GEO satellite communications.

Eric Fournier

Director of Spectrum Planning and International Affairs, l'Agence nationale des fréquences (ANFR)

Graduated from Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (SUPELEC) in 1991, Eric Fournier is currently Director for Spectrum Planning and International Affairs in the Agence Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR), the French public agency in charge of spectrum management. In his position, he is directly responsible for preparing the revisions of the French national table of allocation and for the coordination of French positions in international meetings on spectrum within ITU, CEPT and EU. He was Chairman of the CEPT Conference Preparatory Group for the World Radiocommunications Conference 2012 (CPG-12) and, as French representative in RSPG, has chaired several RSPG working groups dealing with EU interests in international meetings and cross-border issues.

Nicholas Blades

Chief Regulatory Officer, Telefónica Europe

Nick is responsible for co-ordinating the European regulatory policy for Telefónica’s operating businesses in the region. In addition, he is responsible for spectrum auctions across the European footprint.

He joined O2 UK in 2004 and has undertaken a variety of regulatory and management roles within the business, always with a strong commercial focus. Most recently he was responsible for spectrum and auction strategy for Telefónica UK.

Peter Pitsch

Associate General Counsel and Executive Director of Communications Policy, Intel Corporation

Peter Pitsch is the Executive Director of Communications Policy and Associate General Counsel for Intel Corporation. He is responsible for the coordination of Intel policy surrounding communications and electronic commerce. Prior to joining Intel, Pitsch was the president of Pitsch Communications from 1989 to 1998 which represented telecommunication’s clients before the FCC and Congress, provided business and regulatory planning, and published and lectured on U.S. regulatory policy.

Pitsch was the Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the FCC from 1987 to 1989 where he advised the Chairman on all issues before the FCC including access reforms, price caps, major tariffs, and broadcasting. Before his move to Chief of Staff. Pitsch was Chief of Office of Plans and Policy. His responsibilities included managing the FCC policy office that provided recommendations on major issues such as access reforms, major tariffs, broadcast regulation, auction and spectrum allocations.

From 1980 to 1981, Pitsch was a staff member of the Reagan Administration Transition Team which developed recommendations for reforming the Federal Trade Commission with special focus on antitrust issues. He was a senior attorney at Montgomery Ward, Inc. from 1979 to 1981. He provided legal counsel and legislative lobbying of FTC, consumer protection, energy and international trade matters. Prior to that, he worked for three year as an attorney-advisor to Commissioner Calvin Collier at the Federal Trade Commission.

Mr. Pitsch received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1973 and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1976. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar, the Virginia State Bar, and the Federal Communications Bar Association.

Gerry Oberst

Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs & Government Strategy, SES

Gerry Oberst is responsible for regulatory matters at SES, where his title is Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory and Governmental Strategy. Gerry took this position after a long career as a partner in the Hogan Lovells law firm, in both Washington, DC, and Brussels. During his 30 years of private practice, Gerry advised many clients in the spectrum field as well as governmental agencies, including numerous projects for the European Commission. He is a prolific author and for twenty years wrote the global regulatory column for Via Satellite magazine. While in Brussels, he was the chairman of the European Satellite Action Plan Regulatory Group. He now works in Brussels and Luxembourg, and soon is moving to Washington, DC.

Rüdiger Hahn

Head of Department - Legal Aspects of Telecommunications Regulation, Frequency Regulation, BNetzA

In 1990 Rüdiger Hahn entered into the service of the Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and until 1992 he was the Assistant Head of Section “Principles of Regulation”. From 1993 Mr Hahn was the Assistant Head of Section “Legal Aspects of Regulation” and from 1996 he was the Head of Section “Mobile and Satellite Communications”.

From 1998 Mr Hahn was the Head of Division “Regulation and Licences” at the Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Posts and since 2001 he has been the Director, Head of Department “Legal Aspects of Telecommunications Regulation, Frequency Regulation” at the Federal Network Agency.

Hellen van Dongen

Director, Telecoms Market, Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs

Hellen van Dongen is the Director of the Telecoms Market division of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. She is responsible for telecommunications policy and regulation in the Netherlands. This encompasses a broad range of subjects such as fixed, mobile and satellite communications, implementing European telecommunications regulations, and representing the Netherlands in international forums such as the RSC, RSPG, and ITU.

Since starting her current posting in 2008 Hellen has been responsible for several frequency management issues such as liberalising frequency usage, implementing the New Regulatory Framework, freeing up the 800 MHz band, and most recently the Dutch Multiband frequency auction which, amongst others, included the 800, 900 and 1800 MHz bands.

Hellen started working at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1992 on trade policy, European integration and international relations. Until she started her current posting in 2008 she was part of the management team responsible for Dutch trade policy.

Scott McKenzie

Director, Coleago Consulting Ltd

Scott McKenzie is an experienced consultant with over twenty years background in the telecoms and high technology industries. His areas of expertise span: general management, strategic planning, operations, finance and M&A.

Scott started his career at Telstra where he worked in the company’s R&D laboratories as an engineer. He then spent seven years (including four years in the US) working for Ericsson (formerly Raynet) where he was a product manager responsible for a line of fibre access systems.

After business school, he spent several years working for the management consultancy Arthur D. Little servicing clients in the telecom industry primarily on strategy, M&A and due diligence assignments. He then spent six years as an equity analyst in the City covering European telecom operators for various investment banks including Société Générale. He then returned to the telecom industry as the Chief Strategy Officer for the Dutch operator KPN’s international mobile division before becoming the CEO of KPN’s mobile wholesale business. In this latter role, he was responsible for a €1bn business in five European countries dealing with over forty Mobile Virtual Mobile Network Operators (MVNOs) and brand partners hosted on KPN’s networks and platforms. He left KPN in 2008. He is a non-executive director of Edison Investment Research Ltd, a successful equity research boutique he helped found in 2003.

Born in Edinburgh, UK in 1965, Scott spent many of his formative years in Australia and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Melbourne University. He also holds an MBA degree from the Saïd Business School at Oxford University.

Gérard Lapierre

Radio Spectrum Project Officer, European Defence Agency

Military engineer and PhD from ENST Bretagne on signal processing and telecommunications, he started his activity in the French Defence Procurement Agency in 1998 to cover underwater acoustic communications. He joined in 2005 the French spectrum management authority (ANFr) to work on various subjects related to radio spectrum engineering and policy. In particular, he was deeply involved in the technical work carried out in relation to the WAPECS approach and Digital Dividend with the development of the Block Edge Masks (BEM). He joined the European Defence Agency in 2010 to act as a radio spectrum project officer.

Eduardo Martínez-Rivero

Head of Unit, Antitrust Telecoms, Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission

Eduardo Martínez Rivero was born in Oviedo, Spain, in 1965. Since January 2012 he heads the Antitrust Telecoms unit in the Competition Directorate-General of the European Commission. Eduardo was trained as a lawyer at the Universidad de Oviedo, where he graduated with honours in 1988. He then followed European law studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, and after some private practice in a Brussels law firm he joined the European civil service in 1991. During his more than twenty years at the European Commission, Eduardo worked first in the Directorate-General for the Internal Market and Industrial Affairs and then in the Competition Directorate-General. During this time, apart from telecoms, he worked in units responsible for financial services, transport, chemicals and the environment, steel and automobiles.

Benoist Deschamps

Chairman, PT FM50, CEPT

Dr. Benoist Deschamps is head of the Spectrum Engineering department of the Agence Nationale des Fréquences, the French spectrum management organisation.

He is leading the French delegation in the Working Group for Frequency Management of CEPT.

He has been chairing the L-band group of CEPT (FM50) from the creation of this project team.

Bengt G. Mölleryd

Senior Analyst, Competition, Swedish Post and Telecom Authority

Bengt G Mölleryd is a senior analyst at the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) since 2009 working with competition issues such as network sharing, investment analysis of operators, market research, regulation on fiber access and price regulation on mobil as well as fixed communication. He is also a guest researcher at Wireless@KTH (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) pursuing techno-economic research on valuation of spectrum, mobile broadband and network sharing. Prior to PTS Bengt worked as a telecom analyst in a number of investment banks following the Nordic telecom operators and equipment suppliers. He presented his Ph.D. at Stockholm School of Economics in 1999 which analyzed the role of Entrepreneurship in the development of the mobile communications industry in Sweden.

Urs von Arx

Head of Section, Mobile and Satellite Services, Bakom Switzerland

Urs von Arx is Head of Section Mobile and Satellite Services at the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (BAKOM). He is responsible for regulatory matters related to Mobile and Satellite Services and especially for the award of licenses for mobile and satellite operators. In his function, he leaded licensing processes for the award of GSM-, UMTS-, DVB-H and BWA- licenses. He was also in charge of the Swiss spectrum auction which took place in February 2012. He has over 20 years experience in the mobile communications industry.

Prior to joining BAKOM, he was Vice President Technical Services in the Radiocom Division at Telecom PTT Biel (today Swisscom) from 1991-1997. There, he was head of the regional network rollout for NMT-900 and GSM.

Urs holds a degree in electrical engineering from the school of engineering in Biel (Switzerland) and a degree in business administration from the Swiss school of business engineering.

Cengiz Evci

Director, European Spectrum Policy, Alcatel Lucent

Dr Evci is currently, Director, Spectrum Policy matters in the CTO office of the Alcatel-Lucent, Carrier Group/Wireless Technologies in Paris area, France. He received his Ph.D in speech coding for mobile communications from University of Technology, Loughborough, UK.

He joined Alcatel-Lucent’s R&I department in April 1988 and managed leading technical European projects that led to current 3G/UMTS technologies. Since 1998, he was first the Chief Frequency Officer at Paris PHQ and then at CTO office of the Wireless Technologies located in Vélizy and Villarceaux, France.

He is very active within UMTS Forum as the Chair of Manufacturers Group as well as member of General Assembly, Steering Group and Spectrum Aspects Group. Moreover, he is the Alcatel-Lucent’s lead representative in several international groups such as ITU–R (for ALU-France) Working Party 5D dedicated to terrestrial IMT, European based ECC/PT1 Group related to IMT and digital dividend issues. In addition, he is team leader for ALU concerning spectrum matters in NGMN as well as WRC-15 issue leader in TRPG of Digital Europe.

He has been an Alcatel-Lucent Technical Academy member since 2001 and also a Senior Member of IEEE since 1989 and is very active in IEEE organizations and he also acted as Executive Committee members of various IEEE events for panel organisations. Finally, he is presently author/co-author of over 100 publications in IEEE and other internationally well-known magazines.

Jeppe Jepsen

Board Member, TCCA

Jeppe has held several positions in the TETRA and Critical Communication Association right from the beginning in 1995 – he is a Director in Association and member of the Board. Jeppe is also the elected Chairman of PSC-Europe’s Spectrum group.

Jeppe’s host organisation is Motorola Solutions and since joining Motorola in 1979 he has been involved in System Engineering, International Business, Marketing and Sales. His international experience ranges from the Middle East, the Far East and Latin America. He has been based in Chicago, Copenhagen and now Brussels.

His specialty is Public Safety; an area where he has spend the last 30 years of his career.

Jeppe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

Mark Colville

Senior Manager, Analysys Mason

Mark Colville is a strategy consultant specialising in the telecoms, media and technology sectors and is part of the Regulation practice at Analysys Mason's Cambridge office. He joined Analysys Mason in 2003 and has advised a variety of clients including national regulators, fixed and mobile operators, media players, equipment vendors and investors on a wide range of projects across the globe.

Mark’s work focuses mainly on radio spectrum and wider regulatory issues across the telecoms and media industries. Amongst other topics, he has particular expertise in spectrum valuation and auction support, spectrum policy, and forecasting the future demand for spectrum. His recent project experience includes various projects assisting mobile operators with spectrum valuation in preparation for multi-band auctions. He has also recently led a project for Ofcom on calculating the opportunity costs of different uses (DTT, DAB, mobile, PMSE etc…) of broadcast spectrum, including the 700MHz band. Prior to that Mark led a project for the Danish regulator on forecasting the future demand for spectrum for fixed and mobile broadband services.

Mark’s other areas of expertise include media regulation, with a focus on competition issues in pay TV markets, content rights issues and TV advertising. His wider regulatory experience includes work on a range of competition issues including wholesale pricing, predatory pricing and margin squeeze analysis and core and access network cost modelling. Mark also has extensive experience in pricing of fixed and mobile telephony services and has managed several projects to advise operators on the introduction of new tariff plans.

Mark trained as a mathematician and has an MA from Cambridge University as well as a Diploma in Computer Science, also from Cambridge University.

Hans Borgonjen

Dutch Police and Vice Chairman, TCCA

The Vts Police Netherlands delivers the Dutch Public Safety services on applications, data + mobile communication, e.g. the C2000-Tetra radio network.
My main roles:
- Vice-chairman TCCA (Tetra & Critical Communications Association) + chairman Requirements Group CCBG (Critical Communications Broadband Group).
- Dutch representative LEWP-RCEG (Law Enforcement Working Party Radiocommunication Expertgroup) + chairman of the ‘Forerunner Group’, which is focussing on future communication for Public Safety in the European member states.
- Chairman PSRG (Public Safety Radiocommunication Group), an informal platform with 17 participating countries.

Matthias Kurth

Executive Chairman, Cable Europe

Matthias Kurth joined Cable Europe in October 2012 as Executive Chairman. Mr. Kurth sits on Cable Europe’s Executive Committee which has oversight of the cable industry’s main representational duties in Europe. Matthias lastly held the position of President of the German Federal Network Agency, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), the authority for telecommunications, postal, energy and railway markets in Germany, including frequency management and digital signature. He played an instrumental role in the liberalization of the German energy market and left behind notable achievements with respect to competition in the telecommunications market. Matthias also served as Chairman of the European Regulators Group (ERG) in 2009 to increase regulatory cooperation at the EU level.

Mr. Kurth worked as a judge and lawyer for 16 years prior to his roles of President of BNetzA and Chairman of the ERG. He served as State Secretary in the Hesse Ministry of Economics, Transport, Technology and European Affairs between 1994 and 1999.Mr. Kurth was member of the Hesse Land Parliament from 1978 to 1994 and also worked as a lawyer in Hesse.

James Cemmell

Coordinator for Regulatory Working Group, ESOA

James Cemmell deals with government relations matters at Inmarsat, the leading global mobile satellite operator. He is responsible for Inmarsat’s relationships with European bodies on topics covering Inmarsat’s core maritime, land, aeronautical businesses, which include public safety, disaster relief, security, M2M and others. In addition, he Co-ordinates the Markets Group of the European Satellite Operators Association (ESOA), serves on the Executive of UKSpace, the representative body of the UK’s 70,000 strong space industry and leads the Maritime Regulatory stream of the ‘Global VSAT Forum’, the association of companies involved in the business of delivering advanced digital fixed satellite systems.

Prior to joining Inmarsat, James worked with a telecommunications policy and regulatory consultancy serving satellite operators, service providers, governments and others. Before joining the telecommunications sector, James worked on European and global higher education policy matters where he focused on developments at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) / GATS as well as European and other global policy developments.

Mark Falcon

Head of Economic Regulation, Three

Mark is responsible for regulatory and policy at Three, including spectrum auctions, international roaming and net neutrality. Mark is closely involved in Three's overall strategy, including propositions and pricing, and the wider “3 Group” across Europe.

Three is the fastest growing mobile network in the UK and part of the 3 Group, present in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Sweden and Denmark. The 3 Group is owned by Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.

Mark joined Three in 2010 from Frontier Economics, a consulting firm, where he led Frontier's financial services practice.

Mark is also a Specialist Adviser to the UK House of Commons Treasury Committee.

Roberto Ercole

Senior Director, Spectrum Regulation, GSMA

Roberto Ercole is a Chartered Engineer in Europe, specialising in mobile radio systems and radio spectrum regulation. He graduated with a degree in Applied Physics in 1988, and a Masters in Electronic Engineering in 1990. He also has a post graduate certificate in EU and UK Competition Policy and Law.

He worked as a radio spectrum regulator in the UK for 7 years, following that he worked with a UK GSM1800 operator as a spectrum engineer, specialising in regulatory issues for 2 years. After that Roberto worked for the UK telecoms competition regulator (Oftel) for 5 years.

Prior to joining the GSMA in 2006, He worked as an independent consultant advising on radio spectrum engineering issues, as well as in spectrum valuations. At the GSMA his role is as a Senior Director of Spectrum Regulation, responsible for Future Spectrum. Roberto also headed-up the GSMA’s promotion campaigns at WRC07 and 12 to help secure global spectrum for IMT/mobile broadband.

Lars Backlund

Secretary General, Broadcast Networks Europe

Lars Backlund graduated in the mid seventies from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm with a masters degree in telecommunications and microwave engineering. He has also diplomas from executive programmes at the Swedish Institute of Management and from various courses at INSEAD.

Mr Backlund has held several positions at AEG Telefunken (telecommunications) and the Swedish Space Corporation (satellite and remote sensing systems).

Mr Backlund has also represented the Swedish Government on the communications satellite board of the European Space Agency and has also been a consultant to the World Bank on various communications system study missions to South East Asia and Africa.

Mr Backlund moved Teracom in the mid 90ies. Teracom is the operator of the Swedish terrestrial broadcasting networks in Sweden. He has held positions in charge of international business development, strategic planning and regulatory affairs including responsibilities for liaison with Swedish Government Departments and Swedish National Regulatory Authorities. Mr Backlund is also responsible for Teracom’s relations with the European Institutions and is a board member in various international organisations such as DVB and DigiTAG.

Mr Backlund is currently also Secretary General of Broadcast Networks Europe (BNE) which is a trade organisation for operators of terrestrial broadcasting networks in Europe.

Alan March

Vice President, Association of Professional Wireless Production Technologies (APWPT)

Alan March was born in 1963 in England. He has over 25 years of experience in the Pro Audio industry and during that time has worked in sales, marketing, applications engineering and business development roles. Alan sits on the 'British Entertainment Industry Radio Group' (BEIRG) – Steering Committee and has accumulated experience in dealing with UK spectrum regulator Ofcom in matters relating to the UK ‘digital dividend’ and how this will impact on spectrum availability for the PMSE – Programme Making and Special Events – sector.
Alan is also a member in the APWPT Executive Commitee.

Tony Lavender

CEO, Plum Consulting

Tony Lavender is CEO and a partner at Plum consulting. He has extensive industry experience gained through more than 30 years working in the telecommunications industry. Tony has advised clients on a wide range of matters including: radio spectrum, the digital dividend, the implications of next generation networks and wholesale markets.

Tony’s consulting career has included working at Analysys Mason and Ovum. Tony has also worked at Oftel where he was deputy technical director and then deputy compliance director. He started his career at BT where he held several positions over an 18 year period.

Tony has a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering; he is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

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.

Wassim Chourbaji

Chair of the Spectrum Working Group, DIGITALEUROPE

Wassim Chourbaji serves as Senior Director of Government Affairs Europe, Middle East and North Africa for Qualcomm, Inc. In this capacity, he leads Qualcomm’s spectrum, regulatory and technology policy agenda in the region.

Wassim is currently Chairman of the Spectrum Group at Digital Europe (EU ICT association) and Vice-Chairman of the Communications and Policy Council at Intellect (UK ICT association). Prior to joining Qualcomm, Wassim was the Head of France Telecom Group Spectrum Office. Wassim is a graduate engineer from Supelec (France) and holds a Master of Science in Wireless Communications from the University of Paris.

Roland Beutler

Spectrum Manager Südwestrundfunk (SWR); and Chairman of the Strategic Programme in Cooperative Terrestrial Networks, European Broadcasting Union

Roland Beutler studied Physics at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and went on to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics from the Max-Planck-Institute for Metal Physics, also in Stuttgart. Between 1995 and 1996 he worked at the Università degli Studi di Lecce, Italy, under a Fellowship of the European Commission within the program “Human Capital and Mobility” of the 3rd Framework. In 1993 he joined SWR to work in the frequency planning department and is currently responsible for international frequency management issues and distribution strategy.

Dr Beutler has been participating in EBU Technical activities for more than 10 years and has chaired several EBU groups dealing with the future of broadcasting. Currently he is chairman of the “Strategic Programme on Cooperative Terrestrial Networks” and the focus team “Sharing with Digital Broadcasting”.

Roland Beutler is also involved in ITU and CEPT work and has been responsible for several of their working groups. He participated in RRC-06 and was heavily involved in the preparation of this conference. During RRC-06 he acted as vice-chairman of the “Coordination and Negotiation Group 1” which established the frequency plan for Europe. Dr Beutler participated in WRC-12 as member of the German delegation. Moreover, he has published several articles and three books on frequency and network planning for digital terrestrial broadcasting systems and the Digital Dividend.

Marc Eschenburg

Manager, Aetha Consulting

Marc Eschenburg is a Manager at Aetha Consulting, a specialist telecommunications strategy consultancy which advises players in the industry on major strategic and regulatory decisions.

For the last years, Marc has been particularly active in the area of spectrum management, advising operators and regulators on issues such as spectrum valuation, spectrum strategy, auction support and spectrum pricing. His main area of expertise lies in the development of valuation models which cover all relevant areas of spectrum value. He has been involved in a number of recent spectrum award processes worldwide as he has supported spectrum managers and bidders in the Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Belgium, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Malta and Switzerland.

Prior to setting up Aetha, Marc was employed at Analysys Mason, another specialist telecommunications consultancy. He graduated from the University of Maastricht, with an MSc in Infonomics, a study assessing the economics of the information society.

Bram van den Ende

Project Manager, TNO

Bram van den Ende (1964) received his degree in Electrical Engineering at the TU Delft in 1989 and has been working at TNO in the Netherlands since 1990, except for a 1,5 year sabbatical period at Siemens Nederland in the late nineties. Bram’s area of interest is predominantly wireless communications which he explored first in the military domain until his sabbatical, during which he advised the Dutch MOD and was active in NATO working groups. Since 2000, Bram changed his interest to innovations in public broadband infrastructures and led various applied research and consultancy projects, mostly for accounts in the Dutch public and private sector. A specific area of interest in the wireless field is spectrum management and spectrum policy. On the international level, Bram also took management positions in FP6/7 projects like BROADWAY (Broadband WLAN) , WINTSEC (Software Defined Radio) and SAPHYRE (Resource sharing in Mobile Networks), and in contracted consultancy for the EC and recently also for the EP.

Steffen Ring

Senior Director, International Government Affairs, Motorola Solutions

Steffen Ring was born 1949 in Copenhagen and is a citizen of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Steffen Ring received an MScEE Degree (1976) from the Danish Technical University, and joined General Electric (GE) Inc, Lynchburg, Virginia as responsible for the integration of microprocessor technology in advanced railroad radio communication systems. He became GE’s Manager of Systems Engineering, Europe, for special radio systems aimed at utilities, transit and public safety. Ring was also responsible for liaison with the European Regulatory authorities to align radio products in accordance with the often complicated European regulatory landscape. Through an acquisition 1986 of the GE subsidiary in Copenhagen Ring joined Motorola Inc. and became responsible for the product marketing and regulatory issues surrounding the fast growing but fragmented analogue cellular market in Europe. 1990 Steffen Ring became engaged in the TETRA standards work of ETSI (known initially as MDTRS) and was appointed chairman of TC EPT WG4 (Packed Data Profiles). Today TETRA plays a focal role for Public Safety Communication on a global scale.

Olivier Blondeau

Director Frequency Planning & Management, Orange

Olivier Blondeau, graduated from the “Institut National des Sciences Appliquées”, started his career at Siemens in 1980 and joined France Telecom R&D in 1983. He was first in charge of R&D projects addressing the operational and maintenance tools for the subscriber local loop. From the 90’s he took part in the technical development of new radio communications services. He led different projects such as designing public cordless Telepoint services (“BiBop”) and fixed/mobile convergence services, involving DECT/GSM technologies and Intelligent Network. In 1999, he moved to the French broadcaster TDF, as Frequency Department manager, in charge of DVB-T frequency planning and associated measurements. Then in 2003, he joined the « Autorité de Régulation des Communications Electroniques et des Postes” ARCEP as Head of Frequency department where he particularly involved himself in the Digital Dividend issue. From the end of 2006, he moved back to France Telecom, as Head of Mobile TV Convergence & Standardisation within the Group Strategy Marketing, then in charge of spectrum strategy within Orange France. Since 2011 he is Director of Frequency Planning & Management at Orange Group level.

Dimitry Tur

Deputy Head of Spectrum Regulation Division, Russian Ministry of Communications

Dmitry Tur graduated from the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics with a diploma of engineering of “means of communication with mobile objects” in 2006. He started his professional career in 2005 at the Radio Research and Development Institute (NIIR), where he worked in the frequency planning laboratory. Here, Mr Tur's work focused mainly on electromagnetic compatibility calculations, projects of frequency plans for terrestrial television and associated measurements.

He participated in RRC-06 as a delegate from the Russian Federation. During the conference he was responsible for frequency planning of the Black Sea region. After that Dmitry worked on the DTT implementation projects in Russia, conversion of spectrum projects, and studied the issue of cognitive radio.

In April 2013 Dmitry started his work at the Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications as deputy head of the spectrum management division with responsibilities for spectrum management policy.

Branimir Stantchev

Spectrum Policy Developer, Wireless Broadband, DG CONNECT, European Commission

Branimir Stantchev works in EU level spectrum policy development and implementation for wireless broadband and broadcasting. His responsibilities include harmonised and flexible use of spectrum, broadband policy and convergence, and implementation of the spectrum inventory in accordance with the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme.

Branimir has been working for 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. He has made contributions to Wi-Fi standardization and currently coordinates the work of the Radio Spectrum Committee. Branimir has a PhD degree in mobile communications from the Dresden University.

Hu Wang

Senior Manager, European Standard Department, Huawei

Mr. Hu Wang graduated from University of Kaiserslautern in 2001 with a Master degree. Then he joined DoCoMo European Research Labs in Munich Germany and worked on network security technology research for the 4th Generation mobile communication systems.

In 2005 he joined Huawei Technologies in China. Since then he has made considerable contributions to 4G mobile system standardization and spectrum regulation, in ITU-R Working Party 5D, APT Wireless Group and the Wireless World Research Forum. Mr. Wang is the Chairman of Sub Working Group Evaluation of the ITU-R Working Party 5D, and was elected as 2007 WWRF Vicechair for Asia-Pacific Region. In 2012 he moved to Paris France and is now a senior manager of Huawei European Standard Department, in charge of technology standard and spectrum regulation.

Gareth Stevens

Defence Spectrum Policy, Ministry of Defence, U.K.

Gareth graduated from the University of Southampton in 2008 and subsequently entered the Ministry of Defence through their Engineering & Science Graduate Scheme. He undertook a broad range of technical, analytical and policy-based postings including a 6-month stint in the British Embassy, Washington before joining the spectrum policy team in March 2012.

Within the spectrum policy area, Gareth’s primary responsibilities revolve around coordinating and overseeing a wide range of technical co-existence, remediation/re-farming and band planning activities in support of the Ministry of Defence’s spectrum release and sharing initiatives and influencing internal policy decisions accordingly. Gareth also participates in a variety of CEPT ECC project teams where harmonisation measures under discussion will impact on the Ministry of Defence’s release project.

In terms of day-to-day policy business, he is actively involved in developing Ministry of Defence positions for specific Agenda Items through the WRC-15 preparation process and the development of internal policy relating to the testing and development and use (both operationally and for training exercises) of spectrum dependent systems ranging from radio relays to radar systems to satellite earth stations.

Wolfgang Bilz

Senior Manager Product Management and Regulatory Affairs, Shure Europe

Wolfgang Bilz started his career with Shure Europe GmbH in 1995 with his final diploma thesis on the subject related to RF engineering. He is head of Shure Europe’s product management group responsible for the EMEA region and member of Shure’s global spectrum strategy group.

Wolfgang Bilz is board member of the user organisation www.APWPT.org representing the PMSE industry. In this role he joined several CEPT and ETSI groups related to different topics on PMSE, WSD and spectrum strategy. He is co-chairman of the ETSI STF386 team on C-PMSE investigating cognitive technologies for PMSE equipment.

Darko Ratkaj

Senior Project Manager, Technology & Innovation, European Broadcasting Union

Darko is a senior project manager at the EBU's Department of Technology & Innovation where he works on technical, regulatory and policy issues related to spectrum management and media delivery technologies.

Darko has been active in radio spectrum management and spectrum engineering for over 20 years, both at the national and the European level.

In the domain of media technologies his interest is on media distribution models and their evolution. In particular he works with the public service media organisations on making their content and services universally available.

He regularly participates in international conferences, regulatory forums such as CEPT and ITU, and maintains working relationships with broadcast and telecommunications industries, market analysts, national administrations, and the European Commission.

He holds a masters degree in electrical engineering from the University of Zagreb.

Jim Beveridge

Director of International Technology Affairs, Microsoft Europe

Jim Beveridge is Director of International Technology Affairs for Microsoft Europe. Jim is based in London and is responsible for an International team based in Beijing, Geneva, Winchester and Paris. In the area of Energy efficiency, Jim’s team works closely with XBOX, Mediaroom and Windows Embedded Business units.

Martin Cave

Visiting Professor, Imperial College Business School, U.K.

Martin Cave is a Deputy Chair of the UK Competition Commission and a visiting Professor at Imperial College Business School. In 2010/11 he was BP Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics, and from 2002 to 2010 he was a professor at Warwick Business School. He is a regulatory economist specialising in competition law and regulation, especially of the communications sector. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degree and a D Phil in economics from Oxford University. . He is the co-author of Essentials of Modern Spectrum Management (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and co-editor of the Handbook of Telecommunications Economics (Elsevier, 2002, 2005). Cave has conducted two reviews for the UK government on spectrum matters (Review of Radio Spectrum Management, 2002, and Independent Audit of Major Spectrum Holdings, 2006). He has taken part in independent reviews of spectrum strategy for the Australian and Canadian governments. He has also advised several regulators on spectrum matters, in countries including Colombia, Georgia, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Moldova and Singapore.

Richard Marsden

Vice President, NERA Economic Consulting

Richard Marsden is a Vice President at NERA Economic Consulting, where he specialises in auctions and economic issues concerning radio spectrum. He has more than 12 years of experience in microeconomics, political economy, and business consulting. He has managed projects on regulation, competition, public policy, and business strategy for a diverse client base, including regulators and private companies in more than 25 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Richard has undertaken auction projects across a wide range of sectors, including airport slots, broadcasting, mobile telephony, power generation and renewables, retail sites, and wireless broadband. His project experience includes the design and implementation of combinatorial auctions (both multiple-round and sealed bid) for radio spectrum in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nigeria, and the UK, and SMR auctions in Hong Kong and Norway. He has provided strategy advice to bidders in spectrum auctions worldwide, including Canada (AWS, 2008 and PCS, 2001), Finland (2.6GHz, 2009), and 3G/cellular mobile awards in Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the UK.

Prior to joining NERA, Mr. Marsden was a Director and Managing Consultant at DotEcon, where he focused on auctions, public policy, and strategy projects. While there, he regularly managed projects involving teams of programmers, econometricians, academics, and technology consultants. Notably, he managed the project team advising Ofcom on UK spectrum auctions between 2005 and 2010. He also completed major studies for the European Commission on allocation of the digital dividend, and on spectrum trading and liberalisation.

Scott Marcus

Director, WiK Consult

J. Scott Marcus is a Director, Department Manager and Senior Consultant for WIK-Consult GmbH (the consulting arm of the WIK, a research institute in economics and regulatory policy for network industries, located in Bad Honnef, Germany). Previously, he served as Senior Advisor for Internet Technology for the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a position equivalent in rank to the Chief Economist or Chief Technologist. Prior to that, he was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Genuity, Inc. (GTE Internetworking), one of the world's largest Internet backbone service providers at that time. Mr. Marcus holds a B.A. in Political Science (Public Administration) from the City College of New York, and an M.S. from the School of Engineering, Columbia University. In 2004, Mr. Marcus was attached to the European Commission (DG INFSO) while a Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

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.

Johanne Lemay

Co-President, Lemay-Yates Associates

Ms. Lemay is Co-President of LEMAY-YATES ASSOCIATES INC. She has more than 25 years of experience in the communications industry including the first 10 years at Nortel (Northern Telecom) and Bell-Northern Research.

LYA is a leader among management consulting firms in Canada owing to the breadth of its knowledge ranging from traditional telecommunications to cable TV and fixed and mobile wireless. LYA brings unparalleled understanding and analysis of the Canadian communications market at large.

LYA’s wireless practice has been expanding for a number of years and we have been assessing and forecasting the market for mobile media in Canada as well as on a worldwide basis. LYA’s expertise in auctions has been retained by key industry stakeholders in every auction held in Canada since 1999, both for preparation prior to the auction as well as ongoing management and decision making during the auction.

Ms. Lemay is a recognized expert in telecommunications and broadcasting, with particular emphasis on the development of business plans, due diligence, market research, development and assessment of pricing plans and estimation of capital investment requirements to offer new services. Ms. Lemay has also been actively involved in regulatory proceedings and in consultations for the development of public policy in communications, including the new rules for the AWS spectrum auctions as well as the framework for mandated roaming and tower sharing.

Ms. Lemay has co-authored many independent market research reports published by LEMAY-YATES ASSOCIATES INC.

Prior to founding LEMAY-YATES ASSOCIATES INC., Ms. Lemay was in charge of International Marketing for all Nortel transmission equipment product lines. At Nortel, Ms. Lemay also created a fiber multiplex product line which was extensively deployed by operators in the US and Canada.

Ms. Lemay is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and seminars in Canada, in the United States and abroad as well as on BNN and other media. She holds an Engineering Physics degree from Laval University and an MBA, Executive Option, from Concordia University.

Andrea Renda

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Dr. Andrea Renda is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), where he started and currently manages the Regulatory Policy Unit and the CEPS Digital Forum. He is Professor of Economic Analysis of Law, Antitrust and EU policymaking at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, as well as Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. Andrea sits in the Scientific Board of the International Telecommunications Society and of the European Communications Policy research (EuroCPR), as well as in the Editorial Board of "Telecommunications Policy". He is the author of several publications and expert reports in the field of telecommunications and Internet policy.

Chris Buist

Director, Coleago Consulting Ltd

Chris has 30 years international senior management experience in the Telecommunications and Media sectors. He has worked in more than 20 countries at the CxO level for network operators, equipment vendors and media companies. His main areas of expertise include: business/technology strategic planning; product/service development and operations; and, network/OSS/BSS performance improvement – particularly through managed services (MS) and network sharing.

He worked for 18 years at a major management consultancy including 7 years as Head of the Communications & Media sector practice, based in London. He has also founded and successfully grown two start-up companies.

Fabio Colasanti

President, International Institute of Communications

President of the International Institute of Communications (London, UK) since April 2010, Fabio Colasanti was previously a Director General in the European Commission for over ten years.

He headed first the department called “Enterprise” and, from July 2002, was in charge of the department for "Information Society and Media". This department is responsible for developing and overseeing European regulatory policies for electronic communications and for the audiovisual sector, as well as promoting a faster take up of Information and Communication Technologies throughout the European Union.

Mr Colasanti holds diplomas in economics from the University of Rome and the College of Europe in Bruges. An Italian national, he works regularly in English and French, is fluent in German and Spanish and speaks some Greek.