2024 SPEAKERS

Since January 2018 Jon serves as Technologies Director & Industry Advisory, Strategic Clients for Vertiv in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), defining Communications and Edge Network strategy through ‘Voice of the Customer’ and segment facility trend; focusing on power, cooling and energy...

Telecommunications Engineer and Entrepreneur with an MBA in Business and Administration from IESE Business School with more than 20 years of experience working for telecommunications operators. For the last 10 years, Norman has been holding the Chief Executive Officer position at AFR-IX...

Over the past three decades, Andy has developed and brought into operation numerous submarine network systems totaling over 260,000 kilometers of global, international, and regional networks, delivering disruptive, sustainable connectivity into regions that previously suffered within a...

Naaz has deep submarine cable system and telecommunications industry experience gained over 2+ decades in both operational and marketing roles. She has formed close relationships with people across many countries and in many areas of business, in subsea and beyond. Naaz was formally responsible...

Pal Beres, Vice President Strategic Projects – Azertelecom International Pal has a MSC degree on Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest and an MBA degree from Budapest University of Economic Sciences. He worked for 10 years at Ericsson in various positions, including the ...

Erik-Jan Bos works for NORDUnet, the Nordic regional R&E Network serving the National R&E Networks in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. His role at NORDUnet is "Senior Advisor". His main assignment at the moment is Polar Connect, the ambitious plan for a submarine...

Business Development specialist with 25 years' experience in the international telecoms industry across a number of Strategy, Finance and Sales-supporting roles.  Joining Colt in 2012, Steve has managed the Network Expansion function for a number of regions across Europe and North...

Kent Bressie is a partner with HWG LLP in Washington DC and heads its international practice.  An expert on telecommunications, international trade and investment, and national security regulation, he represents communications and technology companies and investors in a wide variety of cross-border ...

Eckhard Bruckschen is the CTO of the project company IOEMA Fibre Ltd.Director, Undersea Cable ConsultancyManaging Director & Editor, SubCableNewsEckhard is a Director of Undersea Cable Consultancy Limited, offering his expertise and knowledge of the submarine fibre/power cable industry to the...

Graduated in 1993 with a MBA obtained in Lyon School of Managment, Laurent Campagne has more than 30 years of experience in industrial area mainly in project management and commercial activities. In particular, he has worked more than 15 years in Submarine Cables industry with a specific...

Zvika has over 25 years of experience in international telecom infrastructure, specializing in submarine cables. He developed and built the first private cables in the Mediterranean (Lev and MedNautilus systems). He is member of BlueRaman management committee.

Bertrand Clesca, Partner of Pioneer Consulting, a leading international consulting firm focused on subsea cable system development, offers more than three decades of experience in the subsea cable industry, combining both technical and business expertise.  Bertrand has advised numerous project...

Welcome to Peira Consulting. We are fully independent UK-based experienced consultants and industry leaders dedicated to providing business and technical consulting solutions for clients in the telecoms and adjacent digital sectors. Our credentials are solid and are cut from decades of experience...

Mike Cunningham is the founder and CEO of Crosslake Fibre and has over 16 years experience in the telecommunications and investment industries. Mr. Cunningham is also on the board of Quintillion Subsea, a 1700 mile subsea and terrestrial cable system serving the north coast of...

Philippe Dumont is a member of ‘2020 Capacity Power 100’ an elite group of the most influential people of the wholesale carrier community. He is a CEO with over 25 years of international experience in the Telecoms industry. His strong leadership style is supplemented with an entrepreneurial...

Darwin Evans currently serves as Senior Director Product Line Management at Ciena. In this role he is responsible for product direction for submarine applications. From 1999 to 2010 he worked in a number of engineering and product development roles at Nortel Networks. In 2008 he was a founding...

Matt Fouch currently serves as President and Co-Founder of Subsea Data Systems, a new startup dedicated to the development of SMART (Sensor Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications) Cables. He is also Chief Scientist and Co-Founder of Samara/Data, a science, technology, and software consulting...

Leigh joined Xtera in early 2018 and serves as the Chief Operating Officer and key architect of the company’s strategy. Leigh brings with him a wealth of senior level and hands-on experience, backed up by a network of strong industry relationships at all levels in the customer, supplier and finance ...

  With over 20 years in the telecommunications industry, Mattias Fridström can be considered a veteran – but his enthusiasm hasn’t faded. Mattias combines expert knowledge with anecdotes from behind the scenes and deep insight into the networked economy: What are the challenges of tomorrow for...

Executive and advisor in the Digital Infrastructure sector, especially in telecommunications and technology. Since 2016 CEO of Islalink, responsible for the internationalisation of the company, director of the subsidiaries in Greece and Italy.She has led the creation of new business models such as...

Chris is an independent consultant and project developer with over 35 years commercial and technical experience in developing and procuring domestic and international telecommunications infrastructure. Throughout his career Chris has been involved in key aspects of submarine cables from initial...

Steve Holden has over 39 years of experience in the Submarine and Telecommunications industries covering numerous shore and marine based roles; firstly, at Cable & Wireless (Marine) then Colt (Ex-Lumen/L3) and more recently at Global Marine where, as the company’s Head of Maintenance for the...

Hervé Jost is Director, infrastructure business development and Eurotunnel Connectivity Solutions, at Colt. His extended team has end-to-end responsibility for the delivery of Eurotunnel solutions, its commercialization and additional scope for other business development opportunities. Hervé joined ...

Valey Kamalov is an expert in subsea optical networking, most recently serving as a Chair of the Suboptic 2023 Paper Committee. Valey’s fundamental contributions into the industry include building 1st coherent cable (SJC), 1st open cable (Faster), 1st SDM cable (Dunant), 1st fiber switching...

Pat has overall responsibility for Analysys Mason’s business in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. He is an experienced telecoms adviser who has worked extensively in the design, implementation and project management of fixed, wireless and sub-sea telecoms systems. Working for major...

Paul Kirwan joined Trans Americas Fiber System in October 2023 bringing to the team more than 40 years of experience in global telecommunications. In 2013, Paul spearheaded the technical integration of the CWC & Columbus Networks international assets, under one NOC, one provisioning system and...

Mr. Christos Kossidas is a Telecommunications Engineer with a Master’s Degree and has been active in the submarine cable industry since 1999. He has been involved both in the deployment of new submarine cable systems and in the maintenance and repair activities of the existing network...

Andrew D. Lipman practices in most aspects of communications law and related fields, including regulatory, transactional, litigation, legislative, and land use. Andy’s clients in the private and public sectors include those in the areas of local, long distance, and international telephone common...

Ed has forty-five years’ experience in international business.  This includes many executive positions, directorships and advisory roles.  He joined Ciena in 2011 and served as Ciena’s General Manager of Submarine Systems from 2011 to 2016.  In that period, Ciena expanded its terrestrial network...

Artur Mendes: VP Sales, Angola Cables Artur Mendes is the Sales and Marketing Director of Angola Cables. Artur has more than 20 years of experience within the global telecommunications industry. Prior to joining Angola Cables in 2013, Artur spent 12 years working for Nokia, holding various...

Isabelle is President and Founder of HOT TELECOM, one of the most innovative and creative telecom research and consulting companies in the industry. HOT TELECOM has been supporting operators and vendors on a global basis for 20 years, more particularly on the subjects of International and...

Adam Parnell Director Maritime, the CHIRP Charitable Trust   Adam has been a professional mariner all his adult life and has significant experience of managing people, budgets, and driving organisational change in a wide range of multi-disciplinary appointments - both at sea and ashore - in the...

Stacie Pascale is based in Denver, Colorado and works at Aqua Comms as the Chief Product Officer overseeing the Product, Vendor Management and Procurement, Sales Engineering, and Marketing departments. Prior to joining the team, Stacie held the position of Director of Product at Zayo group where...

Alberto Teixeira Passos has a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering attained at Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa (1992) with a specialization in Telecommunications (5 years), a master’s degree in Marketing for Executives from Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics (2009) and a ...

Dr. Patsouras is an experienced International Specialist, with a proven history of successes, while working in the ICT industry. During the period 2003-2020, he was Senior Manager for Cosmote/OTE Technology Synergy Projects in the OTE Group Balkan subsidiaries and then DT Group EU region and...

23 years’ experience in the submarine fiber optic industry, together with a business development track record in emerging markets going back to 1990. Developed several new businesses in countries of the former Soviet Union, latterly with Cable & Wireless. Went on to lead international marketing ...

Elaine Reed leads the Submarine Engineering team at Vodafone Group, ensuring technical and operational best practice in the deployment, operations and decommissioning of submarine cable systems for which Vodafone have responsibility. Elaine joined Vodafone in April 2021, having spent the previous...

Dr Ranulf Scarbrough leads the Cayman Islands Submarine Cable Modernisation Project on behalf of the Government of the Cayman Islands, having previously been an independent advisor to the government since 2020.   He is based in Grand Cayman.  As an independent consultant he has advised multiple...

Joerg has a wide-ranging understanding and experience in how to develop and build submarine cable systems. He currently serves as Chief Partners and Solutions Officer at Xtera and is responsible for the Operations part of the business, including solutions engineering, supply chain, project...

Thomas Soerensen currently serves as Vice President, Global Submarine Sales, at Ciena. In this role, he leads the Global Submarine Solutions Group and is responsible for customer relationships, new business development and market positioning for consortia and privately owned cable systems.  Thomas...

Zack Spica is a Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan. Holding a PhD in Geophysics from the Universidad Autónoma de México, Zack has enriched his academic and research career while working at Stanford University and Tokyo...

Thorvardur Sveinsson, CEO Farice Thorvardur has held several key positions in the Icelandic telecoms market.  Prior to joining Farice as CEO in May 2020 he held executive positions at Vodafone Iceland including COO and CCO for enterprise and development.   Before joining Vodafone ,Thorvardur was...

Lynsey is a subsea specialist who has been involved in the international subsea business since 1995. She has a keen interest in corporate strategy development, network planning, project management and solutions marketing. She is experienced as a customer, supplier, consultant and trustee. Lynsey...

Rosalind is currently the Managing Director of SAEx International Management Ltd, Mauritius (SIML) and its subsidiary, SAEx South Africa (Pty) Ltd.  SIML is the Sponsor of the SAEx Southern Oceans Network (“SAEx SON”) submarine fibreoptic cable projects, comprised of the South Asia Express (“SAEx...

Mamy is currently the Chief Executive Officer of GUILAB. As a Fulbright alumnus, Mamy is certified PMP with nearly 20 years of combined experiences in Telecoms, IT, Project Management, and Public Policy with aproven track record in: Strategy planning, execution, and performance management - Team...

Gavin brings to Pioneer Consulting a diverse set of skills from the undersea telecommunications industry. Prior to becoming Managing Partner in the firm, Gavin served for three years as Pioneer Consulting’s Director of Submarine Solutions before being named Partner in 2018. Previously employed at...

Aki is a Senior Partner at Cambridge Management Consulting with responsibility for the Nordicregion. Aki also leads all of Cambridge MC’s subsea activity and is also working with data centreactivities having worked extensively in both areas of digital infrastructure.  Aki started his career in...

Giuseppe Valentino leads in Telecom Italia Sparkle the Backbone & Infrastructure Solutions - Product Management team. He joined the company in 2003 and he has held senior positions within sales, product management and innovation organizations. From 1996 to 2002 he worked, in Belgium and in...

Chris van Zinnicq Bergmann – CCO Unitirreno Submarine Network S.p.A. Chris has over 25 years of experience in the international telecommunications industry, particularly in the subsea cable sector. During his career, he has held various senior management positions in commercial and corporate...

Simon Webster is the Chair of the Sensing Working Group within the ICPC (International Cable Protection Committee), and at time of writing is also a member of the ICPC’s Executive Committee.  He has a degree in Physics from Oxford University, plus Masters and Business qualifications from the...

Alasdair joined the STC (now ASN) in 1985 having left Newcastle University with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Whilst at STC he worked on UK-Belgium 5, the first international optical submarine cable and subsequently numerous other submarine systems, mainly in the marine...

John is the Liaison Officer for ESCA, working to raise the profile of subsea cables with key stakeholders in Europe, engaging with Government departments, conservation bodies, other industry groups, and effectively liaising on all subsea cable related topics. John has worked in the submarine cable...

With over 15 years within the Submarine Telecom industry, Haitham has been involved in all technical and business aspects of Submarine and Terrestrial networks including Submarine Cable planning and engineering, project management, network operations, investment models and agreements, international ...

Marina Zanchi became Director of the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) on 16 February 2022. Ms Zanchi joined the European Commission in 1992, and has served as Head of Unit in a variety of posts in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, working on issues including...