2017 SPEAKERS

Ian is a Principal at Analysys Mason and one of its leading experts in broadband, with extensive experience in developing policies, building network cost models, appraising commercial models and designing delivery strategies. He has managed over 40 broadband projects for public authorities that...

Julian Ashworth is the Group Director of Policy Strategy for BT responsible for leading the development of group-wide industry policy strategy across a broad range of priorities in media, internet and infrastructure. In addition to these responsibilities, he leads the strategic development of...

Simon has a wealth of experience gained from over 30 years’ in the information technology, broadcast and telecoms sector.  He previously helped guide the strategy and operations of Samsung Electronics’ network business in Seoul, Korea. Prior to this he was CEO of UK-based Digital Mobile Spectrum...

Nick is responsible for a multi-disciplinary regulatory team based in Madrid, Brussels and London; reporting to Telefónica’s Chief Policy Officer.  Regulatory responsibilities include sector regulatory frameworks, spectrum policy and specialist economic analysis.  Competition and data policy...

Alex has been involved in telecoms policy and regulation since 1991. Originally a civil servant with responsibility for implementing the 1991 Duopoly Review, Alex led market liberalisation projects at Oftel in the mid-1990s and was Project Director for Ofcom’s Telecoms Strategic Review in...

David Brunnen is editor of Groupe Intellex, director of the UK’s Foundation for Information Society Policy and co-founded Community Study Tours.  He chairs the NextGen Digital Challenge Awards and the UK Steering Group for the ICF Global Summit in 2018.

Dean Bubley (@disruptivedean) is the Founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm. An analyst & futurist with over 20 years’ experience, he specialises in wireless, mobile, and telecoms fields. He is one of the leading market observers covering...

Andrew is a member of the Senior Management Team of the GLA.  He runs the GLA Intelligence Unit, a collection of teams (economics, public opinion research, city data team, demography and policy analysis) whose job it is to provide the insight and analysis and evaluation services that feed policy...

Andrew Conway is the Head of Network Strategy at Telefonica O2 UK Ltd reporting to the CTO.  In this role, he is responsible for developing the strategy and evolution of the O2 UK Network and running the underlying programmes to help O2 play a broader role in our customer’ digital lives.Previously...

Malcolm is CEO of the Independent Networks Co-operative Association, linking together private, public and community sector organisations building the next generation of digital infrastructure in the UK. His role involves liaison with government, regulators and businesses in the sector; policy...

Ian is a Director with Plum Consulting, with over twenty years of experience in strategy and technology consulting in the telecoms and digital sectors.Formerly with PwC Strategy Consulting (TMT) London, and Coopers & Lybrand MCS (Telecoms) London, also with extensive industry / international...

Marco Cordoni, Partner at Analysys Mason, has been advising on strategic, operational and corporate finance matters within the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) sectors for more than 20 years. Since joining Analysys Mason in 2006, he has supported numerous M&A and debt financing transactions ...

David was originally a Non-Executive Director in 2012, advising the ITS board on broadband market strategy. He was responsible with the ITS board for developing, securing and establishing ITS’ approach to major concession networks.David has over 30 years of leadership experience in the...

Michael Dargue is a Principal at Cartesian, a specialist provider of consulting services and managed solutions to the global communications, technology and digital media industries.Michael leads strategy and regulatory engagements for service providers, network operators, equipment vendors, and...

Arun is a pioneering management consultant with 24 years of experience in media, telecoms, finance & management. Arun has been a trusted advisor within leading professional service firms including PWC, TMNG & Analysys Mason, grounded with industry roles within BSkyB and Orange.Arun founded...

Shany Elkarat, Director of Product Portfolio Management for Colt, responsible for driving Colt’s Optical services’ portfolio and roadmap strategy, driving Colt’s high bandwidth Wave, Spectrum, Backhaul and Dark FIbre propositions. Shany has been with Colt since 2014. Shany has held a number of...

Jean-Francois (JF) Fava-Verde is Innovation Lead (Digital) in the Emerging & Enabling Technologies sector of Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency. He works with businesses, the research community and across government to turn scientific excellence and innovation into economic...

Never afraid to challenge the status quo of existing technology and traditional industry thinking, Matthew Finnie is one of the most provocative technology thinkers in Europe. When Matthew became Interoute¹s CTO, he had a vision that if companies centralised technology development, then Europe...

Gemma is Strategic Design Lead at the Future Cities Catapult, leading teams of designers and technologists developing scenarios and strategies for future urban environments. She uses her skills as an architect and service designer to re-imagine city spaces and systems to respond to human behaviours ...

Josh is CBI Deputy Director-General for Policy and Campaigns.An experienced corporate affairs specialist, Josh joined the CBI from Tesco where he was Group Director for Corporate Responsibility. This role focused on leading on the integration of social and reputational issues into the international ...

Matthew is the founder and Chief Executive of Ultrafast Fibre Broadband network operator Gigaclear plc.  Gigaclear builds and operates brand new all fibre (“FTTP”) networks in rural parts of the UK, delivering Gigabit broadband to homes and businesses.  Matthew founded Gigaclear in 2010 after...

David is the CEO and founder of Mentor, a services business specialising in accelerating the delivery of business-critical programs. He’s a hard-core specialist in program execution - winning the trust of many CEOs across industry with the fast-track results of his battle-tested execution wisdom. ...

Alexander has worked in the Digital Directorate of the Scottish Government for the past three years. His current role is as architect and Head of CivTech® - a groundbreaking programme whose mission is to drive daring, ingenuity and innovation within the public sector, delivering better public...

Anthony Impey is Founder and CEO of Optimity, which is pioneering a technology called Wibre to supply gigabit connectivity to businesses in London.  Last year, the company was ranked as one of the top fifty most disruptive companies in the Future Fifty Awards.Anthony also leads the Infrastructure...

Ronan brings over 20 years’ experience in the telecom industry. With firsthand experience deploying next-generation optical and copper networks, IPTV platforms, and microwave radio networks, he holds an unusually broad understanding of the challenges faced by today’s operators, incumbent and...

Ben is WarwickNet’s Chief Executive and a young entrepreneur who set up his first business, a web development company in 1998, upon graduation from the University of Warwick.He developed the concept of WarwickNet in 2008 at the Venture Centre, within the University of Warwick Science Park, where he ...

Zoe Laird is the Director for Community Broadband Scotland (CBS), an organisation established by the Scottish Government to support communities to develop innovative solutions to developing sustainable and affordable broadband in very remote, rural areas. With a current portfolio of over 90...

Tony Lavender is a partner at and CEO of Plum Consulting. He has more than 30 years of experience of telecoms and radio spectrum matters spanning industry, policy, regulation and consulting. Tony has worked on many consulting projects on spectrum including valuation, release, licensing and...

Andrew is the Executive Vice President of Europe, a position he has held since January 2017.  In this role he is responsible for Salesforce’s enterprise business across EMEA – Salesforce’s second largest region. He joined Salesforce in July 2013 as UK&I Managing Director and Senior Vice...

Francesco Liberatore advises clients on all aspects of the application of communications and competition law.On the behavioral side, Francesco's practice includes bringing and defending all types of regulatory and competition disputes before Ofcom, the Competition and Markets Authority and the...

Raj Mack is head of Digital Birmingham, a city wide partnership which aims to accelerate digital investment and opportunities for both businesses and citizens. Its key areas of focus include; attracting digital infrastructure and investment, improving digital skills and capabilities, and...

Susie Ruston McAleer is an accomplished digital practitioner and thought leader with over 15 years’ experience helping public administrations across the globe harness the transformational power of technology.   A founding partner of 21c consultancy, Susie regularly works with international...

Julian McGougan joins from member company Arqiva, where he ran the policy team, responsible for relations with regulators, politicians and Whitehall.Prior to this Julian was the Digital Policy Adviser at the BBC where he was on the launch teams for Freeview and Digital UK.Anticipating...

Lorne Mitchell is Founder and Managing Director of Objective Designers. Lorne is a seasoned consultant, commentator, interviewer and presenter at industry conferences in the Telecoms, Media and Technology sectors.  Lorne held senior positions in BT, MCI, AT&T, PwC and IBM before founding...

Alan is a digital business leader with an excellent track record of delivering successful digital strategy and service transformation in both public and private sectors. His recent successes include turnaround and delivery of two significant service transformations at DfT, and three of the...

Paul joined Vodafone in January 2011. He is responsible for Vodafone’s engagement across Westminster and Whitehall on the key policy and legislative challenges facing the company. Before joining Vodafone, Paul worked for Microsoft as Head of Government Affairs. He joined the software company in...

Guy joined Macquarie in 2008.Guy leads the European TMeT research team and has specific focus on Telecom Services. He has been covering UK and European telecom operators in all aspects of the telecom value chain. This includes traditional incumbents and wireless operators but also extends in to...

Amanda Pilkington is a partner in DLA Piper's telecoms practice having joined the firm in 2005. She regularly advises telecoms operators on both regulatory and contracting issues. She has worked on some of the largest network outsourcing agreements in the UK and Europe. Her diverse experience...

David has been working in the communications industry for nearly thirty years in marketing, strategy and regulatory roles.  In that time he has worked for fixed, mobile and converged operators in four continents.  David joined Virgin Media in July 2014 to lead their regulatory and public affairs...

As CEO of Openreach, Clive is responsible for the local access network - the fibres, wires and cables that connect tens of millions of homes and businesses to phone, broadband, data and TV services. This network infrastructure is used by over 500 communications providers, and ultimately serves over ...

Roy is one of the original founders and investors of ITS Technology Group. Roy played an instrumental part in ITS’ growth and direction since inception and continues to lead all commercial, legal and acquisition opportunities across the entire group. An MBA Graduate and an award winning senior...

Jeremy Silver is CEO of the Digital Catapult. He is an author and entrepreneur specialising in digital media, big data, music and the creative industries. He is a non-executive director of a number of early stage companies in music and media. He is a member of the UK Creative Industries Council and ...

Gary Stewart is the Director of Telefónica Open Future_ UK, which includes Wayra UK. Telefónica Open Future_ has committed more than $412 million to open innovation, has invested in more than 550 start-ups and is present in 18 countries, primarily in Europe, Latin America and Asia.  Wayra UK has...

Dana Tobak is Co-founder and Managing Ddirector of Hyperoptic, the UK provider of fibre-to-the-premises broadband. Founded by Tobak and business partner Boris Ivanovic in 2011, Hyperoptic was the first ISP to deliver gigabit symmetrical internet speeds in the UK, and its service remains over 135...

Fiona Vanier is a Senior Analyst at IHS Technology where she oversees the broadband access data models for 60 countries. She is also responsible for monitoring the impact of technical and regulatory developments in the broadband industry. She previously worked as a Senior Broadband Analyst for...

Richard Woodling is a well-seasoned Programme, Project Manager and Consultant with more than 30 years’ experience across a wide range of diverse industries.In his current role, Richard has had direct Programme Manager responsibility for the delivery to DCMS of the 5G project to evaluate the effect...