Meet the judges... 

Chair of the Judges: Tony Lavender CEO Plum Consulting

Tony Lavender is CEO of Plum Consulting. He is an experienced business leader and telecoms professional with a proven track record developing the intellectual and commercial performance of consulting / research businesses, including driving change and acquisition. Tony specialises in communications industry strategy and in addition he has significant client development, project delivery and high level networking experience. He is recognised as a thought leader on a wide range of telecoms issues gained through more than 30 years experience spanning industry, regulatory and consulting domains. Prior to Plum Tony worked in the research and consulting field at Ovum and then with Analysys Mason. Tony’s industry experience was gained through 18 years with BT followed by 2 years working for the UK telecommunications regulator Oftel.

Euan Connor IT Director AstraZeneca

Euan joined AstraZeneca, as an IT Director in 2011.  He is based in the UK, as part of the Corporate IS function.  He has global responsibility for Telecom & Collaboration Services provided to the AstraZeneca business. Euan has over 15 years experience in the telecoms market, in service provider and customer roles, most recently working with Unilever in global role.

Carl R. Geppert Partner and Industry Leader Americas Communications & Media Practice

Carl is a Partner and Industry Sector Leader of KPMG LLP’s Americas Communications & Media Practice. He has over 28 years of experience in assisting communications and media companies address significant financial, regulatory, information technology and business issues. Carl is a member of KPMG’s Global Communications and Media Industry Steering Committee, responsible for overseeing the delivery of services to KPMG communications and media industry clients on a global basis. Carl is also the Global Partner in Charge of KPMG’s Margin Enhancement (ME) practice.  Products offered through the ME practice are designed to help communications and media companies effectively manage their revenue-related business risks to enhance voice, broadband and content revenues, manage costs and positively impact profitability.

 

Frederick Knops Partner and Vice President Booz Allen Hamilton

Booz Allen Hamilton Vice President Fred Knops is one of the firm’s Partners leading a team of more than 5000 IT strategy, systems development, infrastructure, and acquisition professionals who support the firm’s government clients in trade, defence, and homeland security.  During his tenure at the firm, Mr. Knops has leveraged his deep IT and telecommunications expertise to serve clients throughout the U.S., Europe, and Latin America in industries that include telecommunications, financial services, and energy.

 

Mary Lennighan Executive Editor Total Telecom

Mary manages Total Telecom's daily online news site. She joined the company in mid-2003 and has worked on both the online and print products, taking on the position of executive editor in 2007. Mary has 10 years' experience in the telecoms space, having previously worked for CIT Publications; a company that now forms part of Telegeography. She began her career at Reuters.

Audrey L. Mandela Independent Consultant/Co-Founder, Multimap Chair, The Locus Association

Audrey Mandela runs Mandela Associates, a consultancy that provides market research and consulting services for players and investors in the telecoms, new media, and geospatial markets. Audrey also chairs the Locus Association, an organization that works to encourage the public sector to maintain a trading environment that is fair and equitable, in particular in relation to the licensing and re-use of public sector information (PSI); she is also a director and company secretary for Women in Telecoms & Technology (WiTT). Audrey was co-founder and former board director of Multimap, Europe’s leading on-line mapping services company.

 

Manoj Menon Partner & Asia Pacific Managing Director Frost & Sullivan

Manoj Menon directly manages Frost & Sullivan’s business in Asia Pacific. Manoj started at Frost & Sullivan in December 1996 as one of the pioneers when the company was just beginning its trajectory into Asia. He has, since then, successfully grown the company’s presence and business in Asia Pacific by manifold.  Manoj continues to drive Frost & Sullivan’s expansion in the region, yielding the highest year-on-year growth to the group’s global business. Throughout his tenure at Frost & Sullivan, Manoj has consulted on multiple strategic and syndicated projects for leading multinational companies, regulators and government bodies, providing growth workshops and client counsels, among others.

Robert Millington Head of Telecoms Strategy Grupo Santander

Robert has over 20 years experience researching and investing in the Telecommunications industry on a European and Global basis at BZW, CSFB, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and currently Grupo Santander, where he is head of Telecoms Strategy, based in Madrid.  He has been ranked Best of the Buy Side, and was also number 1 ranked for European Telecommunications Sell-Side research, over a number of years, by both Institutional Investor & Extel.

David Molony Principal Analyst, IP Enterprise Practice Ovum

David Molony researches and reports on global managed services providers and multinational corporate users, focusing on convergence of voice, data, mobile and IT networks and services. David has more than 20 years’ experience in telecoms business journalism. He was formerly editor in chief of Total Telecom and editor of industry newspaper CommunicationsWeek International. David was awarded the title International Business Editor of the Year by the Association of Online Publishers in 2003.

Annette Nabavi Managing Director Anchusa Consulting Ltd

Annette Nabavi is a specialist in strategic partnerships, business planning and financing strategy and runs an independent advisory business working with clients on business and financial strategy.  Annette also works closely with AHV Associates, a corporate finance advisory boutique, on M&A and capital raising projects for technology and telecommunications companies.

Jon Neville Research Manager IDC

Jon is a Research Manager at IDC and has more than 25 years experience in the IT industry, with more than 10 years at a major multi-national company specialising in telecommunications; particularly the deployment of IP networks, IP Telephony and more recently Unified Communications. Jon has also worked as a Practice Consultant at Wainhouse Research and was the General Manager of EVUA.

 

Anil Prakash Secretary General ITU-APT Foundation of India

Anil Prakash Graduated in Economics, a Diploma in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing & Management. He has been a specialist in government relations, regulatory and policy framework, and supporting business development in India. Having 29 years of domestic and international techno-commercial experience in telecom IT and entertainment industry, he intermingles with ease with the highest policy, regulatory authorities and  with the captains of the  Industry at the same time. He helped to establish PTC India Foundation a country chapter of Pacific Telecommunications Council www.ptc.org in India in 1994, Telecom Users Group of India in 1997 a country Association of INTUG www.intug.org , ITU-APT Foundation of India in 2003, a country Association of ITU in India www.itu.int  and IPTV India Forum in 2006.

 

Marlène Sellebråten Founder close to market media and consulting

Marlène Sellebråten is an independent industry analyst, advising stakeholders within the telecoms industry in the Nordic region. Prior to founding close to market, she spent four years working as editor in chief of Telekom Online, a leading daily trade newsletter dedicated to covering the Swedish and Nordic telecommunications industry. Marlène has also worked as senior editor at Communications Week International and as industry analyst at Gartner in the UK. She has moderated several industry conferences and many workshops for telecom professionals in Sweden.

 

Rosemary Sinclair Managing Director Australian Telecommunications Users Group

ATUG is a self-funded not-for-profit organisation focused on communications service issues affecting business and government organisations. ATUG advises members on technology, policy and market developments in fibre, mobile, broadband, digital, satellite and end user devices.The role requires regular dealings with Federal Government Ministers and departments and Parliamentarians including Ministerial officers on issues such as rural and regional communications services, Internet and broadband, and mobile phone services.

 

Jaap van Till Stratix Consulting B.V. and HAN University of Applied Science

Jaap is consultant to CTO’s and corporate telecom managers who has experience in the telecommunication, computer network and Internet-infrastructure fields, and is working at the cutting edge of new disruptive technologies and emerging peer-to-peer community tools, FttX and technology policy. He learned from his projects as a “Network Architect” in the corporate and factory networks of Akzo Nobel all over Europe. Later he helped to design large corporate computer networks for businesses, government ministries and the NL NREN (national research and education network) SURFnet and Netherlight lambda network.

Gigi Wang Chief Research Officer Yankee Group

As Chief Research Officer, Gigi Wang leads Yankee Group's team of analysts in defining the overall direction of research content for the firm. Wang works closely with analysts to track the evolving demands of connected users and the products and services that drive them, and she guides the delivery of data and insights to clients and the broader Yankee Group community.

 

Janet Watkin Director Ocean82

Janet Watkin, is a Director and founder of Ocean82. She successfully developed and launched the OCEAN (Outstanding Customer Experience Analysis & News) programme for evaluating user perceptions of service providers.  An expert in setting up and running customer satisfaction and loyalty programmes, especially with regard to ICT, international IPVPN and related data offerings Janet looks to find root cause for dissatisfaction and offers consultancy to clients on achieving world class standards of service aligned with customer priorities. Today, the Ocean82 World-class insignia and the Gold benchmark for outstanding perceived performance, have become the de facto industry standard for user perception measurement and competitive comparisons in the global data VPN market.

Michael Bartholomew

Success-driven 21st century entrepreneur and executive leader with 25+ years of experience driving improvements  in operational performance, bottom line profit and public/government relations for global leaders in telecommunications, entertainment and media industries.  Founding member Centre or Social Responsibility in the Digital Age. Served for  11 years as Director General  for ETNO, the main trade association for Europe’s largest 41 telecoms operators  in 34 countries,  where he was responsible for all government and regulatory issues. Prior to his work in telecoms, Bartholomew was Director for European Affairs for the Motion Picture Association representing the interests of Hollywood studios. He was also founder of a leading consultancy in Brussels . Bartholomew spent 25 years working as a journalist in the United States and Europe for international radios, wire services & newspapers.