Event speakers
Event speakers
Lenka Glynn is a partner and the head of Technology, Media and Telecoms team for the Middle East. Lenka is well known for her telecoms, IT and media work and has an established practice in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.
Lenka specialises in advising on commercial and regulatory aspects of telecoms, IT, e-commerce, and media industry-related transactions. In addition to contractual and regulatory work, she regularly assists her clients with structuring and management of large telecoms, IT or media projects and advises clients on commercial issues that need to be considered in the context of client's sector-specific transactions.
Lenka has significant experience in providing consultancy and advisory services to national governments and non-governmental organisations and drafting and commenting on telecoms, IT and media laws and various regulatory instruments. In addition, she has experience in assisting private sector clients in preparing regulatory lobbying strategies and white papers advocating various IT and telecoms regulatory trends in the context of her clients' operations.
Dr. Annegret Groebel has been Head of Section ‘International Co-ordination’ in German Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Post since 2001. She also holds key positions at the Independent Regulators Group (IRG, a group of European National Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities created in 1997) since 2001 and was appointed IRG Coordinator in September 2004. She is also actively involved in the work of the European Regulators Group (ERG) and helped organizing BNetzA’s I/ERG Chairmanship 2009.
Since 1997 Dr. Groebel has been working for the German Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Post, which was renamed Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway in July 2005. She started as a member of the Ruling Chamber for Interconnection and Access and took over the unit for International Coordination directly reporting to the President in 2001. Since then she is responsible for all contacts to other European and non-European regulatory bodies as well as for the contacts with the European Commission. Since July 2005 the coordination with the energy regulators including the relevant groups (CEER/ERGEG) were added. Since October 2005 she was promoted to become Chief of Staff (Managing Director) for all staff units reporting to the President (such as the litigation unit, press office etc.). On November 2 Dr. Groebel was promoted to become Head of Department “International Relations / Postal Regulation” adding postal regulation both national and international to her responsibilities.
She has an excellent knowledge of the European regulatory framework for electronic communications and its implementation. She has experience in advising public authorities on regulatory reform and sector specific regulation.
David Lewin is a principal consultant at Plum where he specialises in the area of telecommunications policy and regulation in a competitive environment. David is one of the founders of Plum consulting. He previously worked at Ovum, which he helped found in 1985.
Over the last few years David has worked extensively on broadband markets from both the demand and supply perspective. He has:
- Advised the European Commission on the regulation of next-generation excess
- Examined the extent of cross-platform competition between fixed and mobile broadband -- both now and over the next decade
- Carried out a review of universal broadband policies in 10 developed countries.
He has, in addition, just completed a large study for Vodafone on the effectiveness of government-funded measures for demand-side stimulation of broadband.
Specialty Advisory areas include: Telecom Regulation, Pricing, Next Gen Network development, Product & portfolio management,
Business process redesign and new product development process and Business planning & Business Modelling
Prior to this role he worked as senior manager and director in KPN and was responsible for network performance management and network innovations. Before that he was responsible for product & portfolio management for the Dutch business market, manager pricing&costing wholesale services and business analist.
He has been working in the Telecom Industry for more than 15 years.
Chris Woolford, Director of Spectrum and International Policy, Ofcom
Chris Woolford is Ofcom’s Director of Spectrum and International Policy where his responsibilities include the UK’s international spectrum interests, especially in relation to the ITU, CEPT and EU. He is also a member of Ofcom’s Spectrum Executive Team.
Chris has been closely involved in work to introduce greater flexibility and market mechanisms in spectrum management and has been the UK representative on European spectrum committees, including the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) and the Radio Spectrum Committee (RSC).
Before joining Ofcom, Chris worked in various UK Government Departments, including 6 years at Oftel, where he worked on different aspects of telecommunications regulation.
Jean-Jacques Sahel, Director & Government and Regulatory Affairs EMEA, Skype
Jean-Jacques joined Skype at the start of 2008 from UK Trade and Investment, the British Government’s external trade promotion arm. Before that, he served UK interests in many telecoms and IT negotiations and forums during his years in public service. They included the OECD - where he was a vice chair of the anti-spam task force, and chairman of the working party on the information economy; the ITU; the UN’s world summit on the information society; and the WTO. He’s the current UK signatory of the 2006 UN treaty on telecoms.
Recently, Jean-Jacques was involved in the discussions over the revision of the EU regulatory framework for electronic communications, in particular in relation to the topic of ‘net neutrality’ and the open Internet.
Jean-Jacques holds dual French-British nationality. He read Foreign Languages, and also took a BA in European Management and holds a Master’s in International Peace and Security. He’s fluent in three languages and comfortable in two more. Jean-Jacques chairs the UK Chapter of the International Institute of Communications (IIC) since May 2009, and was elected vice-chair of the OECD’s Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) for ICT matters in early 2009.
Catherine Rutten, Member of Counsel, Tele2 AB
Catherine Rutten (1969) was appointed as a Member of the BIPT Council in 2003 for a six-year term. In 2009 she has been reappointed for another six-year term.
She received her law degree from the University of Leuven (Belgium) (1992) and holds an LL.M. (1993) in European Law from the College of Europe (Bruges) and a LL.M. (1994) in Intellectual Property Law from the London School of Economics.
She began her career in 1994 as a lawyer at the Brussels Bar, advising clients on media, telecommunications, IP/IT and commercial law at Loeff Claeys Verbeke.
In 1997 she joined BT where she was in charge of regulatory affairs in Belgium and Luxembourg and member of the Management Team.
Peter Mackie, Title Head of Regulatory & Policy Practice, Ovum Consulting
Peter Mackie is Head of the Regulatory & Policy Practice at Ovum Consulting, one of the leading international consultancies focussing on telecommunications regulatory matters. Peter has over 30 years experience in telecommunications, having worked for BT in the UK, in Brussels and internationally - as well for Ovum Consulting since 2006. He was involved in the initial telecommunications liberalisation process in the UK in the 1980s, in Brussels in the 1990s and is now leading a team of expert consultants supporting clients – both regulators and operators- in countries around the world. As well as his regulatory experience, Peter has worked on many M&A and Due Diligence projects, leading negotiations and supporting clients on fixed, mobile and other ICT opportunities in EMEA. Asia Pacific and the Americas. He has also been a Board member of Cegetel/SFR in France as well as of INET in Italy.
LANGEHEINE Bernd, Director DG INFSO-B, European Commission
Bernd Langeheine has been the Director for e-Communications Policy at the European Commission’s Information Society and Media DG since 1 July 2002.
Before that he headed the General Policy unit in the European Commission’s DG Competition for three years. From January 1996 to June 1999, he was in charge of the Trade Section in the Washington Delegation of the European Commission. From 1990-1996, Mr Langeheine was a Member of the Commission’s Legal Service and before that, he spent three years as law clerk (référendaire) at the European Court of Justice. From 1983 to 1987, he worked in the Trade Policy Division of the Commission’s DG for External Relations.
Mr Langeheine spent the academic year 1993/94 as an EU Fellow at the Business School of the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash. He studied law and political science at the Universities of Hamburg and Berlin and holds a Ph. D. in law.
Bio dr. Jos Huigen, Director Regulatory and European Affairs, KPN
Jos Huigen has been active in the communication and IT sector since 1995 in various capacities. He held various senior positions within the Dutch government (Ministries of Transportation and of Economic Affairs) and within the Dutch regulator OPTA, e.g., for interconnection issues, for broadband and broadcasting markets and consumer issues.
He has also worked for companies in the IT sector, currently as director of Regulatory and European Affairs with KPN.
Jos Huigen holds a doctorate in social and political sciences and a Masters in Public Administration and Public policy.
Robyn Durie, Regulatory counsel, T-Mobile
Robyn is Regulatory Counsel at T-Mobile (UK), a position she has held for 7 years. Her job involves the legal aspects of all regulatory matters, including spectrum, and competition law. She also heads up the regulatory and competition department. Her responsibilities include all spectrum matters, competition litigation, major transactions and advising on the regulatory aspects of mobile tv.
Prior to joining T-Mobile she was a partner at Linklaters for 11 years, heading up their communications practice. In her deep dark past she worked in television for 3 years for Rupert Murdoch in Australia.
She has been on the boards of various arts organisations, including Adzido Pan African Dance Company, and is also a director of T-Mobile (UK) Limited Pension Trustee Limited.
Mike Corkerry, Executive Director, EMEA Government Affairs, AT&T
Mike Corkerry heads the external and regulatory affairs function for AT&T’s EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Region. Based in London, he is responsible for coordinating AT&T’s regulatory affairs, public policy and government advocacy in the Region, including towards the EU Brussels institutions. Prior to this, Mike performed a similar role at Concert, the AT&T/BT global venture.
Mike joined BT in 1980 and worked in a number of BT functions in the UK and continental Europe, including Regulatory Affairs, Corporate Strategy, Strategic Relations and Business Development. Between 1994 and 1997 he was based in BT’s Brussels office where he was responsible for relations with key EU institutions.
Mike currently serves on the Board of Directors of the UK Competitive Telecommunications Association (UKCTA) and BritishAmerican Business.
Mike Conradi, Partner, Kemp Little LLP
Mike is a partner at specialist technology law firm Kemp Little LLP, and his focus is on giving both commercial and regulatory advice to clients in the communications and technology sectors. His interest in the sector dates back to 1998-9 when he was placed on secondment to OFTEL, as it then-was, advising on international telecoms regulation. The legal guide Chambers and Partners says of him that “[he] produces punchy and straightforward answers - he’s direct and commercial, and gets to the point quickly.
Mike is the editor of the Communications Law Handbook, published by Bloomsbury Professional in November 2009, and is a guest lecturer on UK telecoms law to the telecoms law LLM programme at University College, London. He is listed as one of the world's leading telecoms lawyers at www.expertguides.com.
Dieter Staudacher, Senior Analyst, Legal Department, Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications
Dieter Staudacher is a graduate lawyer and has been working in the Aviation Business for 6 years. After that he started to work as a Senior Analyst with the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications which he joined in 1999. He has worked in the competition regulation division at the Austrian NRA for eight years. His responsibilities included during this time to prepare draft decisions for the Telecom-Control-Commission across the broad range of regulatory matters, but particularly so in interconnection, Carrier Selection, Carrier Preselection, Number Portability (for fixed, mobile and new networks), Competition Law, Procurement Law and Mediation matters. Since 2008 he is responsible for International relations within the Austrian NRA, regulatory policies and to represent the Austrian NRA in various International Organisations such as IRG, ERG and BEREC.
George D. Ritchie, Head of Major Projects, Competition and Regulatory Law International Practice Group, BT plc
George is an experienced regulatory, competition and public law lawyer who has worked for BT since 1995. He now heads the team responsible for meeting the competition and regulatory law needs of most of its UK business.
George also has specialist legal expertise in relation to the Enterprise Act Undertakings offered by BT in 2005. He was a member of the negotiating team and one of the draftsmen, and was closely involved with the establishment of Openreach as a functionally separate division of BT. He has written the Undertakings chapter of the recently published Communications Law Handbook [ISBN 978-1-84766-311-5].
George is currently advising BT in relation to the Undertakings changes necessary for roll out of its Next Generation Access network and the forthcoming Wholesale Local Access and Wholesale Broadband Access market reviews which, between them, will lay down the regulatory framework for NGA in the UK.
Stefano Nicoletti, Principal Consultant, Ovum
Stefano is responsible for providing expert advice on regulatory topics to Ovum customers around the world. He is an expert in the area of economic regulation and interconnection.
Stefano is a principal consultant, and one of Ovum's regulatory experts. He has a strong background in economic regulation, gained through his work as a regulatory economist specialising in tariff regulation. Since he joined Ovum in 2003 he has worked as an industry analyst and as a senior manager on the development of the concepts and content of the Regulation@Ovum service.
Before joining Ovum, Stefano was involved in implementing the new regulatory tariff regime within the Italian water services regulatory framework. He holds an MSc in Economics from the Universita' degli studi di Siena and a BSc in Economics from the Universita' degli studi di Firenze, Italy. Stefano constantly monitors international developments in the Regulatory arena and contributes on a daily basis to Ovum research production in the Regulatory area.
Patrick Dehmer, Head of Legal & Regulatory, Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd
2004-2006 Head of Legal Services Bluewin Ltd (Former Internetprovider of Swisscom)
2006-2008 Head of Legal & Regulatory Swiscom Fixnet Ltd
Since 2008 Head of Legal & Regulatory Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd (also responsible for Reguoatory Accounting)
Patrick is currently President of the Swiss Streaming Association (Swissstream). Managing a team of 56 people (legal counsels, economists). His core responsibility are dealing with all legal and regulatory matters of Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd.
John Berry, Director, Spectrum & Wireless, InterConnect Communicatons
John Berry is a wireless consultant with 30 years’ experience in the mobile, fixed, radiodetermination and broadcasting services and in military radiocommunications. Prior to joining InterConnect, John lead a series of major wireless network planning and spectrum management consultancy and software engineering projects which contributed hugely to Europe’s telecommunications infrastructure and spectrum management policies. He has led project teams to design and implement twenty wireless networks worldwide. At InterConnect his most recent consulting projects have included the re-farming of GSM bands, the development of policy in the IMT bands and the development of bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements for border roaming. John has presented some 60 technical papers and 20 technical/management workshops across Europe on wireless topics. He consults in spectrum management and in wireless network design and implementation. John has a BSc degree from Loughborough University, a BA in international studies and MBA from the UK’s Open University Business School. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
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