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Speakers 
 Mr Christie Alwis,
Chief Network Officer,
Sri Lanka Telecom, Sri Lanka
Mr. Christie Alwis is a Professional Engineer working as the Chief Network Officer in Sri Lanka Telecom. He has counted more than 25 years of service in telecommunication field covering most of the fields such as Switching, Transmission, Out Side Plant, Maintenance and Planning, Billing and Collection, and Regulations and Interconnections. Previously he has been working as the Director/Customer Services in SLT and instrumental in development of the functionalities from the inception like Customer Complaint, Operator Services, Call Centres etc.,. In providing New Connections, he involved in network rollout and became the 6th in the world in 1999 according to the ITU reports. He has worked as a Senior Expert in ITU, APT as well as in Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization.
Further he has been a Visiting Lecturer to the Engineering Undergraduates in University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in the subject of Telecommunications Engineering and up to date entrusted the same. He has counted 20 years service as a Visiting Lecturer.
Currently he is serving as a Chairman for Financial and Administrative Sub-committee of SEA-ME-WE 4 and is responsible for devising Financial Procedures of the same. Also was responsible in developing SEA-ME-WE 4 and SEA-ME-WE 3 general websites to be used for the managing and marketing work of the respective consortiums.
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 Mr Andrew Batten,
Head, Next Generation Technology Practice,
BT Global Services, Malaysia
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 Ms Fiona Beck,
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Southern Cross Cable Networks, Bermuda
Ms Beck is the President and Chief Executive Officer for Southern Cross Cable Network. She was appointed to this position in May 2001 where prior to this she represented Telecom NZ as a Director on the Board of Southern Cross Cables and various other major companies such as EDS (NZ) and ConnecTel. Ms Beck was a senior manager within Telecom NZ responsible for Telecom’s corporate planning, EVA analysis, capital investment reviews and corporate advisory service.
She is a chartered accountant and holds a Bachelor of Management Studies (Honours) degree in Accounting and Finance from Waikato University, New Zealand.
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 Mr Owen Best,
President, Asia Pacific,
FLAG Telecom, Hong Kong
Before joining FLAG Telecom in June 1998, Owen Best was Vice President of Telstra Japan (1995-1998) and Regional Director for Telstra Korea (1994-1996).
He has over 22 years experience in the telecommunications industry, and has worked extensively in the Asia Pacific region in various senior engineering and operational positions with Telecom Australia, Telecom Australia International, OTC, and Telstra.
Owen has a Bachelor of Engineering Degree (Electronics/Communications), a Master of Engineering Studies, and an MBA - all from the University of Queensland, Australia.
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 Daryl Chaires,
Marketing Director,
Xtera Communications, USA
Daryl Chaires, Marketing Director at Xtera Communications, is responsible for product-strategy development, requirements, positioning, and market communication. Prior to Xtera, Daryl worked at Alcatel and at various optical networking start-up companies. Daryl began his career working in various field and system engineering positions, where he designed and implemented wireless, optical and unrepeatered submarine networks. He has focused on technical marketing for the past 10 years. He has been in the communications industry for 20 years. Daryl received his BSEE from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
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Mr Benny Choo,
Regional Director, Asia Pacific Marine Sales,
Tyco Telecommunications, USA
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 Mr Simon Cooper,
Director, Business Development, Global Transmission Services,
VSNL International, Singapore
Simon Cooper is Director for Global Transmission Services (GTS) with VSNL International. As part of the senior management within the GTS team of VSNL International, a subsidiary of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), Simon is responsible for establishing and implementing strategies surrounding VSNL International’s global network investment and cost base.
Simon has a wide range of technical and project management experience. As Director for GTS, he works closely across all lines of businesses to identify VSNL International’s future needs and business opportunities. His core responsibilities also include working extensively with VSNL International’s partners and technology suppliers.
Prior to his employment with VSNL International, he was at Level 3 Communications where he started out as the Transmission Engineer responsible for the roll out of Level 3’s European fibre, DWDM and SDH network. He then took on the role of Project Manager for the Yellow T/A submarine cable network. Subsequent to that, he managed a 40-strong European Customer Service Activation team. Following which, he became the Director responsible for planning and implementing Level 3’s European network investments. Finally, as the Director of Transport Services, Simon managed the $50M European Transport Services line of business for around 18 months.
In his earlier tenure with Cable and Wireless, his accomplishments included many international connectivity projects of both building new cables and existing cable repair management. Some of the major projects included The ECFS, Gemini and The Cayman-Jamaica cable systems.
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 Mr Patrick Duncan,
Consultant,
PDQ Advisors
Patrick is an independent telco/IT consultant supporting networking solution developers looking to launch products & services into the Asia Pacific telco, enterprise and government communications market segments. Patrick brings to his clients a 20 year telecom networking career and 9 years of living experience in the Asia Pacific region. His primary focus is to provide guidance on country specific telecom carriers & large enterprises, develop new business projects and to engage the best channel sales & service partners for further market development & product support.
Having been in the Asia Pacific Region since 1997, Patrick has lived and worked in a number of different countries in leadership positions such as Vice President & Managing Director APAC – Alvarion, Ltd (Singapore),
Vice President WW Sales – NexG Systems, Ltd (Singapore), Vice President – Lucent Technology SE Asia Channels (Singapore), COO & Business Dev Director – Lucent APAC Channels (Hong Kong), COO & Managing Director – Avaya Australia (Sydney, Australia)
COO – Avaya Greater China (Beijing, China).
Patrick holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering & Management from Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia, USA
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Sturt Eastwood,
Director, Voice and Satellite Services,
REACH, Australia
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 Mr Tony Frisch,
Director, Product Marketing,
AZEA Networks, UK
Tony Frisch began his involvement with submarine systems by joining BT Research (UK), where he was involved in R&D for regenerated and unrepeatered submarine optical links. In 1988 he moved to Alcatel Australia to lead the overall test and commissioning of the TASMAN 2 cable. After this project he joined AT&T Bell Labs (in the US) to work on terminal equipment for the first generation of optically amplified systems. This was followed by a move back to Alcatel (in France) where he worked in Technical Bidding and then Marketing, making a gradual move towards more commercial interests. Recently he moved to Azea (UK) where he is responsible for Product Marketing.
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 Mr Marc Fullenbaum,
Product Marketing Group, Manager,
Alcatel, France
Marc graduated from Ecole Superieure d’Optique in 1991. He started his career at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center (NY) , carrying out research in microscopy for alignment purposes. He then joined the French Delegation of Armaments, looking after trajectography systems as a project engineer. Afterwards Marc joined Com Dev (Ontario) where he was involved in the optical and RF inter satellite link field, moving from an engineering to a marketing position. He joined Alcatel Submarine Networks in 2000 and is currently in charge of Product Marketing.
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 Mr Gilbert Fung,
Director, Carrier Network, ASEAN and Pakistan,
Nortel, Hong Kong
Gilbert Fung is director, Carrier Networks where he manages a regional team that focuses on the marketing of Nortel’s industry leading Carrier solutions in the ASEAN and Pakistan regions.
Fung started his career in the telecommunications industry with Nortel in 1991 at the company’s Research and Development headquarters in Ottawa, Canada. Fung has been involved in a number of R&D projects in the areas of Wireless and Wireline Voice solutions. In the course of his career with Nortel, he has assumed numerous management roles and responsibilities covering marketing, product management, R&D and business strategy.
In 1998, Fung relocated to Hong Kong, where he has held a variety of product and solution management positions. Initially focused on managing the Intelligent Network product for Nortel in Asia Pacific, in 2001 he assumed the leadership of GSM regional marketing, managing the market development of Nortel’s GSM portfolio across Asia Pacific. From 2003 to 2005, Fung was marketing leader of Wireline Voice solutions, and earlier this year he took on an expanded role where he is in charge of all Carrier Products for the ASEAN and Pakistan regions.
Fung studied at the University of Manitoba, Canada, where he completed a Doctorate degree in Computer Science, specialized in the area of computational algorithms.
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 Mr Glenn Gerstell,
Partner,
Milbank
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 Mr Craig Ginsberg,
Chief Technology Officer,
ANYTIME Pte Ltd, Singapore
Craig’s career includes broad experience and success within the telecommunications and information technology industries. Craig brings a combination of hands on technical expertise and deep experience managing technical sales teams in Asia. Craig has spent the last 13 years in the software industry of which 5 of those years were in Asia. Craig is based in Singapore.
Craig is responsible for the development and support organization at ANYTIME managing the existing and new customer base along with addressing all future strategic ventures from an architectural and design perspective. Craig is also responsible for working directly with Hollywood studios for any required technical approvals.
Craig joined ANYTIME from CSG Systems in Singapore where he was the Asia Pacific Director of Presales Consulting responsible for the technical sale of the billing and customer care solutions. Craig also worked for Lucent Technologies in their network software division and designed and implemented a software innovations centre demonstrating end to end working scenarios over CDMA, ISP, VoIP and DSL networks. He also worked for a start up company in Boston called ON Technology prior to moving out to Singapore.
Craig received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of New York at Albany and his MBA from the University of Chicago.
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 Mr Osamu Harada,
General Manager, Submarine Networks Division,
NEC Corporation, Japan
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 Mr John Hibbard,
Chief Executive Officer,
Hibbard Consulting Pty Ltd, Australia
Since 2001, John Hibbard has been a consultant with his own company, Hibbard Consulting Pty Limited, focusing primarily on the many facets of international telecommunications. John spent most of his career with Telstra and OTC. In the 7 years prior to his departure, John was Managing Director, Telstra Global Wholesale responsible for a team maintaining and growing Telstra’s international carrier business around the globe. John was also the Chairman of the Australia Japan Cable from its formation, having conceived the project and over-sighted its execution. He was also elected by the industry to the Executive Board of the prestigious Pacific Telecommunications Council and is currently a member of its Advisory Council.
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Richard Huggins,
Regional Sales Director,
MSN, Singapore
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 Mr Mike Hynes,
Chief Operating Officer,
AZEA Networks, UK
Mike Hynes has worked in the telecommunications industry for over 25 years. He has held various senior positions in both STC Telecommunications and Nortel Networks. Mike started his career in manufacturing operations and procurement before moving into senior project management roles.
In later years he undertook a number of roles in leading Product Management and R & D teams. He was General Manager for Nortel’s International Optical business unit with revenues exceeding $1B pa.
Mike was also President and GM of Nortel’s Submarine initiative. He has been with Azea Networks in his present role since the formation of the company in 2002
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 Mr Rajesh Kheny,
Head, South Asia,
David Ross Group, India
Mr. Rajesh Kheny is currently with the David Ross Group as one of their lead consultants in undersea cable and international telecommunications networks working with customers primarily in the South and South-East Asia regions and based in Bangalore, India.
Mr. Kheny has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry in a variety of areas including network planning, system engineering, sales & marketing and project management. He has operated an independent consultancy, based in India, since 2003, prior to which he was based in Singapore, from where he managed the Asia-Pacific region for Tyco Telecom. He began his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories in the US. He holds Master’s Degrees in both Electronic Engineering and Business Administration from the US.
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 Mr Howard Kidorf,
Managing Director,
Pioneer Consulting, USA
Howard Kidorf is currently a managing partner in the firm Pioneer Consulting. Mr. Kidorf has been an important spokesman about the technologies used in the submarine system marketplace. Once a researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories and technical director at Tyco Submarine Systems, he has been responsible for translating the impact of technology choices on the all-important bottom line: cost, schedule and quality/reliability.
Kidorf has authored the Pioneer Consulting report “Suppliers of the World’s Submarine Fiber-optic Telecommunications Systems: The New World Order.” He also has authored over 36 technical papers, and co-authored four text books related to submarine systems and optical transmission. Kidorf has also been credited with 13 United States and numerous foreign patents.
Howard has contributed to the advancement of submarine system technology for more than 20 years first at AT&T Bell Labs and then at Tyco Submarine Systems. His earliest contributions were to the first undersea fiber optic crossing of the Atlantic, TAT-8. Since then, he has worked to develop the optical components used in regenerative undersea systems and has been responsible for the design of Tyco’s first optically amplified repeater and extensions to terabit transmission using DWDM and Raman amplifiers.
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 Mr Vinod Kumar,
President,
VSNL International, Singapore
Mr. Kumar is responsible for expanding VSNL International’s roadmap and charter into the global communications market. Enhancing the service capabilities and customer facing activities in strategic markets beyond the shores of India in a nut shell
sums his mandate. Besides heading these strategic initiatives, Mr. Kumar is also responsible for the Wholesale Data, Global Mobile and International Enterprise lines of business and meeting the company’s ambitious targets.
Mr. Kumar has a wide range of cross-functional experience in the telecommunications industry. He also has an impressive track record in developing business strategies and creating fast growth organizations.
He was previously Senior Vice-President of Asia Netcom and responsible for all aspects of generating top-line growth, including strategy formulation, product marketing and sales. He was actively involved in all aspects of the financial restructuring, and eventual
asset sale of Asia Global Crossing to China Netcom, resulting in the formation of Asia Netcom.
In 1999, Mr. Kumar joined WorldCom Japan as Chief Executive Officer and prior to that, he held various senior positions in Global One in the United States and Asia where he has had major responsibilities in market management, sales, marketing, product management,
multinational account management and operations.
Mr. Kumar holds a Masters in Business Administration from The American University.
He also graduated with honors in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.
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 Mr Wilfred Kwan,
Chief Technology Officer,
Asia Netcom, Hong Kong
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 Mr Andrew Kwok,
Vice President, International Business,
Hutchison Global Communications, Hong Kong
Andrew Kwok is Vice President - International Business at Hutchison Global Communications Limited (“HGC”), a member of the Hutchison Telecommunications Group of companies (“Hutchison Telecom”). Hutchison Telecom is a leading listed telecommunications operator (SEHK:2332 NYSE:HTX).
Mr. Kwok spearheaded the formation of the company’s International Business Division and leads the extension of HGC’s business beyond Hong Kong’s borders. Now, HGC has 11 offices in the region, including one in the USA and three in Mainland China. Mr. Kwok possesses 25 years of experience in the international telecommunications industry. Prior to joining HGC in 2002, he assisted Teleglobe in building and managing its operations in Asia in the position of Vice President & Managing Director, covering more than 15 countries in the region. Mr. Kwok also held various management positions at MCI International in Asia.
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Kelvin Law,
General Manager, International Business,
Hutchison Global Communications, Hong Kong
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 Ms Anne LeBoutillier,
General Manager,
Terrapinn Pte Ltd
Anne LeBoutilllier is currently the General Manager for the Telecoms and Media Team at Terrapinn Pte Ltd, an organizer of business-to-business conferences and trade shows. The team is responsible for trade shows throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Previously, Ms LeBoutillier was Director, Asia-Pacific at T Soja and Associates, Inc. (TSA), managing all of TSA sales, marketing, research and analysis activities for the Asia Pacific market which included telecom service providers, infrastructure developers, equipment manufacturers, banks and financial institutions. In her position at TSA, Ms. LeBoutillier was a frequent guest on CNBC News, providing commentary and analysis on subjects such as market demand and corporate activities in the Asia Pacific region, and global telecom markets. She spoke frequently at regional and global telecommunications conferences and also provided commentary to numerous telecom publications on telecommunications demand requirements, market and financial analysis, telecom networks, and the undersea fiberoptics marketplace.
Prior to joining TSA, Ms. LeBoutillier held management positions in business development, strategic marketing, and product management with AT&T International Operations Group, AT&T Submarine Systems, Inc., AT&T Labs, and Tyco Submarine Systems, Ltd. Upon opening Tyco's Singapore regional office in 1998, Ms. LeBoutillier directed business development and marketing efforts for Tyco Submarine Systems Ltd. throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Ms. LeBoutillier also spent five years with the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. Her diplomatic assignments included a political advisorship to the U.S. Ambassador at the United Nations in New York City, and an assignment as political officer in Khartoum, Sudan.
Ms. LeBoutillier received an International MBA from Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management and holds a bachelors degree in Political Science and International Economics from the University of Illinois.
Ms. LeBoutillier resides in Singapore with her husband Kris, a professional photographer.
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 Mr John Lindsay,
Carrier Relations Manager,
Internode and Agile, Australia
John Lindsay stands out as a champion for change in the furiously fast-changing telecommunications industry.
As Carrier Relations Manager, John's role is to identify and actively push for Internode and Agile Communications to reach their full potential as telecommunications barriers tumble in the Internet age.
John Lindsay has managed various parts of Internode and Agile since September 2001 and overseen the growth of Internode from a single city dial-up ISP to an international full-service telco.
John’s primary focus is optimizing the path between consumers and content by finding the best technology and services while negotiating around the incumbent and regulatory roadblocks.
He has formerly held senior positions with iiNet Ltd in Perth and Chariot Internet in Adelaide.
He majored in Computing and Philosophy at Adelaide University.
He lives in Adelaide, South Australia and is married with two young children.
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 Mr Andrew Lipman,
Partner and Head of Telecommunications Group,
Bingham McCutchen LLP, USA
Andrew Lipman has spent more than 25 years developing the firm's Telecommunications, Media and Technology Group into one of the largest practices of its kind in the nation. He practices in virtually every aspect of communications law and related fields, including regulatory, transactional, litigation, legislative and land use. The TMT Group is international in scope, representing clients in the U.S., Central and South America, Europe, Asia and other parts of the world.
Andy represents clients in both the private and public sectors, including those in the areas of local, long distance and international telephone common carriage; Internet services and technologies; conventional and emerging wireless services; satellite services; broadcasting; competitive video services; telecommunications equipment manufacturing; and other high-technology applications. In addition, Andy has managed privatizations of telecommunications carriers in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Andy has been involved in nearly every new legal and regulatory policy at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), at state public service commissions, in Congress and before courts to open the U.S. local telephone market to competition. He also helped shape crucial provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and has used similar approaches to promote the opening of foreign markets. He also obtained one of the first competitive local service and interconnection agreements in continental Europe and the first competitive fiber network application in Japan. Andy's expansive practice includes the strategic analysis of companies' telecom user agreements, including renegotiating existing agreements, and when necessary, negotiating new, more favorable telecom user agreements.
For nearly a decade, while maintaining his partnership at the firm, Andy also served as senior vice president, legal and regulatory affairs, for MFS Communications, the nation's largest competitive local services provider. One of the founders of MFS, Andy helped guide the company from start-up to its eventual sale for $14.4 billion to WorldCom.
A frequent author and speaker on telecommunications related topics, Andy has published over 170 articles and is the author of five books, including two Dow Jones books on telecommunications. He has appeared as a commentator on National Public Radio, C-SPAN, Bloomberg News Network and ABC News. In addition, he has served on the editorial advisory boards of Phillips Publishing Company, Internet Law and Regulation, Telecommunications Alert, Telecommunications Reports, Telecommunications Regulatory Monitor and The Satellite Compendium. Andy also served as general counsel to the International Teleconferencing Association and as legislative/regulatory counsel to the International Satellite Users Association. He sits on the board of directors of five public companies trading on the NYSE, NASDAQ and Toronto Stock Exchange.
Andy is co-founder and the first chairman of the Association of Local Telecommunication Services (ALTS), the national trade association for competitive telecommunications carriers.
Prior to entering private practice, Andy participated in the legal honors program at the U.S. Department of Transportation and served in the Office of the Secretary of Transportation. He also served as an extern law clerk to Justice Raymond Sullivan of the California Supreme Court.
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 Ms Yali Liu,
Director, Asia Pacific Network Planning & Engineering,
Verizon Business, Hong Kong
Yali Liu is Director of Asia Pacific Network Planning & Engineering. Her responsibilities include network planning, carrier management, local access (GlobaLink) support, network trading / routing management, technical facilities, transmission, voice, data, IP and VoIP network engineering, design and implementations for the Asia Pacific region.
Yali joined MCI in 1995 in Texas, USA. She held various engineering and management positions in MCI and supported successful rollout of ATM, Frame Relay, IP and MPLS networks in the US and Globally. Her last position prior to moving to the region was Director of International Network Planning where she was responsible for MCI international data, IP, submarine cable systems and transmission networks planning. Prior to joining MCI, Yali worked in the IT/communications industry in the US and in China including 4 years with IBM China as Systems Engineer.
Yali holds a B.S. degree in Applied Mathematics from Beijing University in China, a M.S. degree in Computer Sciences from University of Texas, and an MBA in Management Information Systems from University of Dallas in the US. Yali holds a patent in VoIP and was recognized as a Distinguished Achiever in Technology by the US National Women of Color Technology Awards Conference in October 2005.
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 Mr Simon Lower,
Co-Founder & Director,
Soundbuzz Pte Ltd, Singapore
Simon plays an important role in designing the company's strategy together with Soundbuzz CEO, Sudhanshu Sarronwala. Simon’s responsibilities include heading operations, content and product development, in addition to having bottom line responsibility for Soundbuzz’s Australian operations.
Simon has been instrumental in the development and launch of major online, 2.5G and 3G music services throughout the Asia-Pacific. This has involved him working with mobile operators, ISPs and device manufacturers including M1, Singtel, Optus, Vodafone, Telstra BigPond, Indiatimes, Nokia and Creative Labs to name a few.
Simon's previous experience includes being part of the management team of a high profile London-based start-up. He also headed sales for the Healthcare and Biotech
practice of a leading London headquartered international search firm. Simon holds a B.Sc. (Biotechnology) from The University of Technology, Sydney.
Soundbuzz is Asia’s largest online and mobile music retailer and provider of digital music services to broadband ISPs, mobile operators, hardware and handset manufacturers. It operates online and mobile music stores for 50 online and mobile music properties.
Partners and clients include numerous high profile Asia-Pacific players such as Creative Labs, Airtel, iriver, Indiatimes, Singtel, Telstra, Optus and Windows Media Player.
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 Mr Andy Lumsden,
Director, Engineering, Network Engineering,
Asia Netcom, Hong Kong
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 Mr Grahame Lynch,
Editor-in-Chief,
Decisive Media, Thailand
Grahame Lynch founded the Communications Day newsletter in 1994. He won the Australian Telecommunications Users Group Journalist of the Year award in 1996 and the Service Providers’ Association of Australia Media Excellence award in 1997. He then took leave-of-absence from Decisive, joining Advanstar in Hong Kong as group editor of Telecom Asia and Telecom China. Here, he launched Wireless Asia magazine. In 1999, he was promoted to group editorial director of Advanstar Telecom Group, in charge of America’s Network, Telepress Latino America and the aforementioned Asian titles. Under his stewardship, America’s Network was nominated for a record six National Magazine Awards in 2001. In April 2001, he returned to Decisive to spearhead the company’s Asian expansion. Lynch has also written a book, Bandwidth Bubble Bust: The Rise and Fall of the Global Telecom Industry, published in the US in July 2001. He has also been extensively published in Australian business and tech titles, including BRW, The Bulletin and The Australian.
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 Mr Takanobu Maeda,
Director, Planning & Delivery, Global Network, Next-Generation Network Planning,
NTT Communications Corporation, Japan
Takanobu Maeda assumed his current position with NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the long-distance and global telecommunications arm of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), in September 2003. Mr. Maeda is now responsible for planning, construction of NTT Communications’ next generation global network. He joined NTT in 1988.
Mr. Maeda was one of the original international project members and contributed to start-up NTT Com’s International business at NTT America in July 1997. As a Director of Network and IP Division, he defined systems requirements, ensuring that those plans were consistent with the overall functional requirements of the global network and planed system upgrades, ensuring such systems both met current functional and integration requirements and could be upgraded to meet NTT Com’s long-range communications objectives. After transferring to NTT Com in September 2000, he continued his career as the network specialist, expanding his responsibility to next generation network. Before that, he was Chief System Engineer with the Long-Distance Communications Sector of NTT.
He has a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Meiji University.
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 Mr Emilio Manso-Salinas,
Managed Services Director, Asia,
Lucent Technologies, Singapore
Emilio Manso-Salinas currently manages Lucent's Managed Services offer in Asia, and manages large outsourcing opportunities across the region as Director, Managed Services.
Prior to joining Lucent, Emilio spent some time in academic research projects as Research Fellow in INSEAD (France) and at the University of Hong Kong. Before INSEAD, he was the global head of Strategy in Equant N.V., based in Amsterdam and London, and managed a number of strategic projects including several acquisitions, restructuring work and the company's successful IPO in the NY stock exchange. Emilio had previously worked in the AT&T-Unisource joint venture closing large, complex commercial deals for corporate telecommunication services across Europe.
A native of Spain, Emilio holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Business from the University of Hong Kong, a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) degree from the International School of Economics (Rotterdam) and has completed INSEAD's International Executive Programme.
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 Mr Russell Matulich,
Managing Director, Asia Pacific Sales,
Tyco Telecommunications, USA
Russell Matulich is a 20 year veteran in global telecommunications. He spent his first decade in telecommunications while at MCI and has held executive sales positions in North America, Europe and now Asia. Recently Mr. Matulich has managed the Asia Pacific Region for Tyco’s Global Network (TGN). In this position he led the region in exceeding all performance goals set for capacity sales on the TGN Pacific system. Building on this success, Russ expanded his role to lead all TGN Asia Pacific sales and operations during the next 2 years. Russ has a MBA from St. Mary’s College in California and resides in Napa Valley where he is testing his skills as an amateur wine maker (Petit Syrah) and has two boys, ages 5 and 3.
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Russell Matulich,
Managing Director, Asia Pacific Sales,
Tyco Telecommunications, USA
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 Mr John Paitaridis,
Regional Director, Asia,
Telstra Global, Hong Kong
During John’s tenure, Telstra Global Business Asia has become a strong regional leader in telecommunications and IT services solutions, with deeper market penetration, more sophisticated customer service and solution orientation, and fundamentally more cost-effective network services to customers.
Under John’s leadership, Telstra has established local sales and supporting offices across North and South-East Asia over the past four years, now serving hundreds of multi-national corporates and service providers in Asia. Telstra operates one of the largest and most diverse high-speed cable networks in Asia-Pacific, offering an unparalleled range of data network solutions.
Telstra recently acquired the KAZ Group, a leading IT service company in Asia and has integrated the IT service with it’s traditional telecommunication services, creating true ICT solutions to customers in Asia.
Graduated from Monash University, major in Economics, John holds directorate in several Telstra’s overseas vehicles, including Telstra Japan KK, Telstra Singapore Private Limited, Telstra India Private Limited, KAZ Computer Services HK Ltd, KAZ Computer Services (SEA) Pte Ltd and Damovo HK Ltd in addition to his regional director role of Telstra Corporate.
Before joining Telstra in Asia, John served a range of senior positions in Telstra Corporate including sales, marketing, business development and product management capacity in Australia and Europe. He has been in the industry for more than 15 years.
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 Mr Julian Rawle,
Managing Partner,
Pioneer Consulting, USA
Since joining Pioneer Consulting, Julian has brought his broad international industry experience and his knowledge of the market to bear on the issues facing the submarine fibre optic industry today. He co-authored Pioneer’s latest submarine market report which combines a worldwide forecast of supply and demand with a comprehensive study of the equipment market and suppliers’ competitive positions. He is currently researching a transatlantic and Europe Atlantic report, having just completed a Traffic Study for the West Africa Festoon System (WAFS). In February 2006, Julian became a Managing Partner and co-owner in the company.
Julian has a first degree from Manchester University, U.K. in Russian Studies and a MBA from Cranfield, one of Britain’s top three business schools. He began his career with British Petroleum and was instrumental in developing BP’s first downstream activities in Russia before and immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He went on to provide marketing and strategic consultancy services to Chevron International Oil Company in Eastern Siberia, Kazakstan, and Azerbaijan before switching to telecom. He spent 4 years as Cable & Wireless Representative Director in Moscow, building up a large and profitable business, based on aggregation of international PSTN traffic and provision of managed data services to multi-nationals. He then accepted a post with Cable & Wireless Global Marine as International Marketing Director, Japan. Based in Japan for two years, he assisted Global Marine’s Japanese joint venture partner, NTTWEM, to develop and implement a new international marketing strategy.
Since joining Pioneer Consulting in January 2001, Julian has written and published numerous reports on different aspects of the submarine fibre optic industry and has also led Pioneer’s optical networking practice in many client-specific engagements. He has written articles for a number of publications ncluding “Soundings”, “Lightwave”. “Submarine Telecom Forum”, and “Submarine Cable News” and is frequently quoted in the world’s Press on submarine fibre optic issues. He is also a regular speaker and chairperson at industry conferences.
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 Mr Michael Rieger,
Chief Operating Officer,
Tyco Telecommunications, USA
Mr. Michael Rieger is Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Project management at Tyco Telecommunications. He has been with Tyco Telecommunications since May, 2000. In his current position, Mr. Rieger manages the company's Sales & Marketing, Business Development and Project Management organizations. Prior to joining Tyco Telecommunications, Mr. Rieger held the position of Solutions Executive at IBM where he managed the Network Management business for IBM's Telecommunications and Media Business Unit. Mr. Rieger has also held the positions of Senior Software Engineer for Bellcore (Now Telcordia) and Analyst for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
Mr. Rieger graduated with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey USA. He has been a board member of the Network Management Forum while at IBM.
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 Mr Steve Rogers,
Head, Production, New Media,
BBC World, UK
After working in the Gillette research labs for the Braun brand, Steve Rogers left England to work for Philips Electronics in 1986 as a product designer. Continuing his career with Philips, he moved to Vienna in 1989 and to California in 1996 to help establish the Multi Media incubator centre in Silicon Valley. His last position with Philips was as Design Director USA with responsibility for all Philips Design studios in the States. Before Joining the BBC Rogers was VP Product Development at Razorfish digital consultancy in San Francisco. Here he had global responsibility for the design of physical and service related products. In his first position at the BBC from August 2001 as Head of Design & Navigation, Rogers was responsible for defining the users’ experience of the BBC on the Web, interactive TV and emerging platforms. In September 2002 he was appointed to his current position where he is responsible for all the teams, technical, content, and user experience who create the core BBC New Media services.
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Mr Michael Ruddy,
Managing Director,
Terabit Consulting Inc, USA
Michael Ruddy is the managing director and co-founder of Terabit Consulting, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the author of Terabit’s the 950-page Undersea Cable Report and oversees the company’s customized research for a client base that spans more than 60 countries on six continents. Most recently, from late-2004 to mid-2005 he directed the market analysis for the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) after being commissioned by a group of investors led by the World Bank. Other recent Terabit projects have also included a detailed analysis and forecast of international telecommunications infrastructure in almost every country in the world on behalf of a major multi-billion dollar client.
Prior to helping found Terabit, Mr. Ruddy was the senior fiber optics analyst for Pioneer Consulting. Mr. Ruddy was responsible for all of Pioneer’s undersea cable research from 1998 until 2000. He was the creator of Pioneer’s Worldwide Submarine Fiber Optic Systems report and also authored more than a half-dozen feasibility studies that resulted in the financing of several billion dollars worth of systems.
Before joining Pioneer Consulting, Mr. Ruddy was an analyst at Kessler Marketing Intelligence (KMI) in Newport, Rhode Island, where he performed research on undersea cable markets, terrestrial equipment markets (including SONET and SDH), and emerging technologies. Before joining KMI, Mr. Ruddy was a market analyst at the United States Consulate in Montreal, where he researched Canadian market conditions.
Mr. Ruddy has presented papers at dozens of conferences worldwide, and has served as chair of more than ten conferences in all regions of the globe. His opinion and commentary on the undersea cable market has been featured in leading publications worldwide including The New York Times and Forbes, and he has also appeared on CNN's Moneyline News Hour.
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 Mr Gabriel Ruhan,
Managing Director,
Global Marine Systems Limited, UK
Gabriel Ruhan is Managing Director of Global Marine and is dedicated to delivering the company’s business plan.
He has extensive business experience and, prior to joining Global Marine Systems in 2004, spent three years consolidating the US-based IT hosting and outsourcing business, NaviSite.
Gabriel is adept at handling the challenges of realigning corporate strategy whilst maintaining tactical momentum and puts this into effect in each of the sectors Global Marine operates in.
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 Mr Robin Russell,
Chief Executive Officer,
Australia Japan Cable, Bermuda
Robin has over thirty years experience in the telecommunications industry, the last five as CEO of AJC. AJC construction was completed on time and under budget in 2001. After four years of operation, AJC has established itself as a provider of economical and reliable connectivity with Australia. Before AJC, Robin was Telstra’s GM, Indonesia, with multiple roles as President Director of Telstra’s flagship Indonesian company, Telstra Nusantara; an executive director of the fixed line joint venture, MGTI; and a non-executive director of the trunk mobile company, Jastrindo Dinamika. Robin had a 20-year career in corporate finance and information technology with Telstra before his Indonesian assignments. He holds a Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales.
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 Mr Eric Schoonover,
Senior Analyst,
TeleGeography Inc, USA
Eric began working as an Analyst for TeleGeography Research, a division of PriMetrica, Inc. in 2004. He specializes in internet and capacity infrastructure including colocation, metropolitan area networks, and long-haul capacity services. Eric holds a B.A. and an M.A. from American University.
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 Mr Stephen Scott,
Commercial Director,
Global Marine Systems Limited, UK
Stephen Scott is Commercial Director at Global Marine and, prior to joining the company, spent ten years in a variety of roles where he accumulated extensive experience in the global outsourced IT market.
Prior to this, he served in the Royal Navy as an Air Engineering Officer before resigning his commission in 1990.
Stephen’s expertise lies in telecommunications and systems businesses, including a pivotal role in the acquisition and restructuring of PSINet Europe, an internet infrastructure and services company, and the integration of IT hosting and outsourcing company NaviSite Europe with IT hosting firm ConXion Europe.
This experience, coupled with Stephen’s innate understanding of the requirements of Global Marine’s customers, render him a unique customer-facing asset to the company.
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 Mr Tejinder Sekhon,
Vice President and General Manager,
Orange Business Services, Singapore
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 Mr Darren Seow,
Senior Manager, Regional Network Planning Asia Pacific,
T-Systems Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore
Darren started his career as a product engineer in the electronics sector, after graduating from National University of Singapore in 1995 with an Honours Degree in Electrical Engineering. After 2 years, he moved on to work as business development manager for a systems integration company to develop the Voice over IP market in South East Asia, a time where internet telephony was virtually unheard of in the Asia region. In 2000, he was invited to join Deutsche Telekom in Asia as the Regional Network Implementation Manager to roll-out its Asia Pacific network infrastructure to be part of Telekom Global Net. Currently, Darren assumes the role of Senior Manager, taking care of the regional network planning for Deutsche Telekom in Asia Pacific.
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 Mr David Shin,
Senior Vice President, Commercial Development,
ESPN Star Sports, Singapore
David Shin is Senior Vice President, Commercial Development, based in Singapore. Shin has region-wide responsibility for developing new commercial initiatives for ESPN STAR Sports’ networks across Asia.
Shin brings over 13 years of international industry experience to the position, having held key senior appointments with leading media and technology companies, including the STAR Group.
He began his career in California, USA, working for PolyGram Film Entertainment and thereafter joined DIRECTV in the financial planning and business development areas before being appointed General Manager, Programming Finance for DIRECTV, Japan. Shin joined STAR, Hong Kong as Vice President, Business Development in 1999 where he oversaw business development activities across Asia Pacific and spearheaded STAR’s preparation into the India DTH market. In his most recent role as Chief Operating Officer for the Star Channel in Japan, Shin was responsible for spearheading major strategic initiatives aimed at improving the company’s bottom line.
Shin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of California and a post-graduate Fine Arts degree in Cinema-Television, from the University of Southern California.
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 Mr Dieter Sieber,
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer,
T-Systems Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore
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 Mr Sharat Sinha,
Director Operations, Service Provider Asia Pacific,
Cisco Systems (USA) Pte Ltd, Singapore
Sharat Sinha is responsible for the Wireline business in APAC for Cisco’s Service Provider Operations. He has been with Cisco for over six years in Product Management and Marketing & Sales Management roles prior to his current role.
He started his career in Project Management & Operations in the area of Satellite Communication with VSNL, which is the International Telecommunications Service Provider in India. Subsequently he was responsible for the Operations of Internet and Data Services in VSNL. Following this he worked with Ericsson holding the responsibility for Product Management of TDM Switches, IN Services and Data Networks & IP services, before joining Cisco.
He has a Bachelors degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and Masters in Industrial Management from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). He has undergone executive education at Harvard Business School and Stanford University.
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 Mr Fabien Siouffi,
Head, Mobile,
Vivendi Universal Games, Singapore
Fabien Siouffi joined Vivendi Universal Games as Regional Manager for Asia South in 2003. Prior to VUG, he has held sales and marketing roles at Ubi Soft, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. A hands-on manager and a keen observer of the Asian game industry, Fabien will be leading the Asia Pacific business development efforts for VUG Mobile. His focus will be to develop mobile operators relationships throughout the region and ensure the adequation of VUG Mobile content in the largest mobile game market in the world. Fabien holds an Master Degree from the Ecole Superieure des Sciences Commerciales d’Angers (ESSCA) with a Major in International Business
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 Mr Thomas Soja,
President,
T Soja & Associates Inc., USA
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 Mr Jeffrey Soong,
Chief Executive Officer,
Broadband Network Systems Ltd, Hong Kong
Jeffrey Soong is the CEO of Broadband Network Systems Ltd, a leading Asia-focused IPTV enabler providing service operators with technology integration, content aggregation and strategy consulting.
Mr Soong has over 20 years of experience in the fields of entertainment, technology, and international finance, and is a recognized expert on the subject of entertainment and technology convergence.
Prior to co-founding BNS, he was CEO of Vodexa Networks, a U.S. technology company with major Hollywood studio clients. Over the course of his career, he has also held senior management positions with SVP International, a TV program production and distribution company, and CSSV Media Ventures and World Entertainment Network.
Mr Soong holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and undertook Ph.D. scholarship studies in Computer Science at Caltech.
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Mr Cory Spooner,
Head of Telecom Sourcing, Southeast Asia,
Orange Business Services
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Matthew Sturgess,
Vice President, Asia Pacific,
Limelight Networks, Singapore
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 Mr Bjarni Thorvardarson,
Managing Director,
Hibernia Atlantic, Ireland
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Mr Hiromitsu Todokoro,
Head, Submarine Cable Planning,
KDDI, Japan
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 Mr Glenn Van Zutphen,
President,
VanMedia, Singapore
In 20 years as a professional journalist, Glenn van Zutphen has done nearly every job in print, radio and television news -- while living in the U.S., Japan, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore. He is the founder and President of VanMedia, a Singapore-based media consultancy. His work focuses on freelance journalism projects, Media training and Seminar Moderating & Facilitating.
Most recently as News Editor for CNBC Asia/Pacific in Singapore, he oversaw the daily editorial content, direction and news coverage at the network’s Asia headquarters and for bureaus around the Asia-Pac region.
While a Producer, Anchor & Reporter at CNN International, van Zutphen helped to cover stories ranging from the NATO-led bombing of Yugoslavia and Millennium celebrations, to Gulf War II and the War Against Terror.
Prior to CNNI, van Zutphen was an Anchor, Reporter & Producer for Hong Kong’s Wharf Cable Television covering local and regional stories before, during and after the 1997 handover to China.
In Switzerland and Japan he worked for ABC News Radio (U.S.) and USA today newspaper. While in Tokyo he was also a television and radio broadcaster for NHK.
A native of Chicago, Illinois USA, Van Zutphen is a permanent resident of Singapore, where he lives with his wife, Kathleen and their daughter Kate.
He’s a member of the Singapore Press Club and the Foreign Correspondents Association of Singapore and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Southern California.
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 Mr Ragnar Vogt,
Marketing Director,
Nexans, Norway
Ragnar has over 35 years of experience in the telecommunications industry; the last 5 as the Marketing Director with Nexans Norway AS. Ragnar began as an R&D Development engineer in Alcatel Telecom Norway, and has for many years specialized in transmission infrastructure for digital networks including fibre optics cables with more than fifteen years experience from submarine cable systems.
Ragnar has an advanced training course in process control from the University of Manchester and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the University of Liverpool.
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 Dr Beng Yeoh,
Chief Executive Officer,
REACH, Hong Kong
Dr. Yeoh joined REACH as CEO on 1 September 2005, and is based in Hong Kong.
Prior to joining REACH, he was responsible for Motorola’s Network Services and Applications business operations in the Asia Pacific Region. Dr. Yeoh has held Managing Director, Vice President and general management roles with several IT companies, including Computer Power Group Limited and Tandem Computers.
During his 28 year career, Dr. Yeoh has worked in the UK, Australia and several Asian countries. This has included managing in multicultural environments, driving operational efficiency and business turnarounds, building customer-focused organizations, as well as developing joint venture companies and strategic alliances.
Dr. Yeoh holds doctoral and masters degrees from the University of Birmingham in England and has attended the leadership program at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
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