Chairman of GILF

Dr. Saad Al Barrak, CEO, Zain Group

Dr. Al Barrak is a distinguished engineer and businessman of international repute. Since his appointment in 2002, under his tutelage Zain’s (formerly MTC) customer base has increased from 600,000 to a conglomerate of 24 operations with over 69.5 million active customers across the Middle East and Africa. In this period, Zain's market capitalization on the Kuwait Stock Exchange has increased from less than US$2.5 billion to now exceed $20 billion (September 30, 2009). Dr. Al Barrak holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering, an MSc in Systems Engineering from Ohio University, and a PhD in Information Systems & Technology Management from the University of London. He is also an alumnus of Harvard University. Prior to his appointment with MTC, Dr. Al Barrak was Managing Director of International Turnkey Systems (ITS), one of the leading IT companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Under Dr. Al Barrak, ITS’s revenues grew from $5 million in 1985 to exceed $100 million in 2000. Dr. Al Barrak was Vice-Chairman of the Social Development Office (SDO) of the Amiri Diwan in Kuwait; Chairman of Egyptian software developer IT Soft; Chairman of Arab Telecom; and a non-executive Director of Arab Management Association in Cairo. In 2005 he received the Middle East’s ‘CEO of the Year’ award in the Information Communication Technology sector, and in 2003 he received the ‘E-businessman of the Year’ award in the region. Recently in September 2007, Dr Al-Barrak received the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from leading industry magazine COMMSMEA. Dr Al-Barrak is also an Executive Board Member of Celtel International and a Member of the Board of the GSM Association.

Moderator Session 1

Mr Stewart White, Stewart White Consulting

Stewart White is a lawyer by training and has spent more than 25 years specialising in ICT and media law, regulation and policy as well as other regulated sectors. He is CEO of Stewart White Consulting, which he established in 2005. He is also the Public Policy Advisor of Solaris Mobile. He is currently part of the team advising the Australian Government on the creation of NBN Co, the next generation broadband network provider.

Originally from Australia, he moved to Europe in 1988 to join a UK based law firm where he advised on satellite related issues for the Murdoch group and on the first satellite procurements of SES-Astra. He has advised a number of satellite operators, such as PanAmSat and Thuraya, as well as service providers such as CNN, and has been an expert advisor to the European Commission on a range of policy issues in the ICT sector.

From 1999 to 2005, he was the Group Public Policy Director of Vodafone Group, where he was described by its CEO, Sir Christopher Gent, as ‘Vodafone’s Foreign Minister.’

He has had a long involvement with the ITU and has also advised a number of governments on sector reform, drafting legislation to implement and establish regulatory authorities, drafting licences and interconnection agreements, particularly in the Middle East.

He moderated the REG 1 Session at ITU World 2009: Regulating in times of crisis.

Moderator Session 2

 Mr Reza Jafari, eDevelopment

Moderator Session 3

Walda Roseman, CEO, CompassRose International

Panelist

Mr. Tom Phillips, GSMA

Tom Phillips graduated from Manchester University in 1981 with a degree in Physics and joined the Space and Communications Division at British Aerospace (BAe) in the same year. During a ten year career with BAe, Tom undertook a series of major project management roles and, by 1986, led its business development activity in South East Asia.

In 1988, Tom graduated with MBA degrees from Cranfield in the UK and the University of Washington in the USA and helped start mobile operator Orange, where he led the company’s UK licence application. Following Orange, Tom moved on to start two further businesses, both in the broadcasting sector.

In 1991, Tom joined PA Consulting Group’s London Practice, where he specialised in strategy and market analysis within the telecoms and IT sectors.

In 1995, Tom joined Cable & Wireless as Strategy Director and played a leading role in the development of the Group’s long term, global strategy. In 1998, Tom was appointed Group Director, Public Policy, responsible for Cable & Wireless’s relationships with governments, regulators and policy influencers in over 50 countries. Tom also ran Cable & Wireless’s business in China and its Corporate Social Responsibility agenda.
Tom joined the GSM Association in March 2004, as Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer, where he leads the public policy agenda with governments, on behalf of the Association’s 600+ members, who in turn deliver service to over one billion mobile users, world-wide.

Tom is a Chartered Engineer and a keen sailor. Tom, his wife Nicola and their two children live in London.

Panelist

Mr. Ahmed bin Ali, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications, Etisalat

Ahmed bin Ali took ownership of Etisalat’s corporate communications in 2003. He has since led Etisalat’s communications strategy through the greatest period of change in the company’s history. Today he leads Etisalat’s group communications across its seventeen countries of operations whose combined populations now exceed 1.8bn people.

Ahmed bin Ali has supported Etisalat’s transition into one of the largest twenty companies in the world. He has led communications through the company’s restructuring in 2006, and also in response to the launch of its first competitor in its home market in 2007. He has also established the company’s sponsorship and CSR strategy, which has seen Etisalat positioned as a role-model national company supporting the development of the UAE.

Ahmed joined Etisalat’s engineering department in 1991, where he practiced key account management servicing large private companies and federal government organizations. He was then appointed to lead the commercial launch of a public Internet service in the UAE, which was successfully implemented in 1995. In this role, Ahmed was the corporate’s key ambassador to the business community, public sector and general consumer.

Four years later, Ahmed worked as manager of Commercial and Operations, and was later promoted to manager, sales and business development in 2001. He was appointed Manager Corporate Communications in 2003, promoted to Vice President Corporate Communications in 2007 and recently promoted to Senior Vice President Corporate Communications.

Ahmed has a Ba Electrical Engineering from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, USA and an MBA from the University of Hull in England. He has participated as a board member of Arabsat for three years - 2005-07 and as the Vice Chairman of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) - 2006-07. He is also a member of IEEE (Europe) and the USA Speakers Association. He has represented Etisalat in hundreds of conferences, seminars and forums, regionally and internationally.

Panelist

Peter Pitsch, Executive Director of Communications Policy and Associate General Counsel, Intel

Peter Pitsch is Associate General Counsel and Executive Director of Communications Policy for Intel Corporation. He manages Intel’s global spectrum and telecom policy team.

Prior to joining Intel, Pitsch was the president of Pitsch Communications from 1989 to 1998 which represented telecommunication’s clients before the FCC and Congress, provided business and regulatory planning, and published and lectured on U.S. regulatory policy.

Pitsch was the Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the FCC from 1987 to 1989 where he advised the Chairman on all issues before the FCC including access reforms, price caps, major tariffs, and broadcasting. Before his move to Chief of Staff, Pitsch was Chief of Office of Plans and Policy. His responsibilities included managing the FCC policy office that provided recommendations on major issues such as access reforms, major tariffs, broadcast regulation, auction and spectrum allocations.

From 1980 to 1981, Pitsch was a staff member of the Reagan Administration Transition Team which developed recommendations for reforming the Federal Trade Comnission with special focus on antitrust issues. He was a senior attorney at Montgomery Ward, Inc. from 1979 to 1981. He provided legal counsel and legislative lobbying of FTC, consumer protection, energy and international trade matters. Prior to that, he worked for three year as an attorney-advisor to Commissioner Calvin Collier at the Federal Trade Commission.

Mr. Pitsch received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1973 and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1976. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar, the Virginia State Bar, and the Federal Communications Bar Association.

Panelist

Robert Pepper, Vice President, Global Technology Policy, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Robert Pepper leads a team driving Cisco’s global agenda for advanced technology policy in areas such as broadband, IP enabled services, wireless, security and privacy and ICT development including working with governments across the globe on developing national digital and broadband strategies. He joined Cisco in July 2005 from the FCC where he served as Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development beginning in 1989 where he focused on issues cutting across traditional boundaries and led teams implementing telecommunications legislation, planning for the transition to digital television, designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions, and developing policies promoting the development of the Internet. Before joining the FCC, he was Director of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy. His government service also included Acting Associate Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiating a program on Computers, Communications and Information Policy at the National Science Foundation. His academic appointments included faculty positions at the Universities of Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and as a research affiliate at Harvard University. He serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), advisory boards for Columbia University and Michigan State University, and is a Communications Program Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and the UK’s Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board. Pepper received his BA. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Panelist

Ms Olga Madruga-Forti, Vice President, Regulatory and Legal, Iridium

Olga Madruga-Forti is Vice President, Regulatory and Legal, for Iridium Satellite where she oversees the company's global regulatory operations. In addition, Ms. Madruga-Forti is in charge of global distribution contracts and corporate structure. She has more than 20 years experience as a senior executive in the telecommunications and satellite industries. Prior to joining Iridium, she was Vice President, Legal and Regulatory for Loral CyberStar. She also served as Chair of the VSAT Satellite Working Group of the Organization of American States, CITEL. Before joining Loral, she served nine years at the FCC as Special Counsel for International Satellite Policy and Chief of the Domestic Services Branch of the Common Carrier Bureau. In her earlier career, Olga was an associate with the Washington firm of Scott, Mcleod, Pires & Price, and the Assistant County Attorney for The Dade County Attorney's Office in Miami, Fla. She earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, graduating with high honors as the Belgrano Scholar to the OAS. She also graduated summa cum laude from Emory University, majoring in English and French Literature.

Panelist

Mr. Adam Denton, Head of Regulatory Policy, GSM Association

Adam Denton joined the GSMA in 2006. As Head of Regulatory Policy, Adam is responsible of the development and communication of global mobile industry positions addressing current and future regulation and policy. Within this remit Adam is also responsible in leading collective industry activity in areas of social responsibility including child protection and environment.
Before joining the GSMA, Adam spent eight years as a management consultant with PwC and Accenture, specialising in telecoms. Previously he worked on a variety of strategy and market entry activities across Europe, Middle East and Africa for telecoms vendors. Adam has a business degree from Liverpool and a Masters degree in Marketing from Kingston University. He has over 20 years experience of the telecoms industry.

Panelist

Mr Jeff Molobela, Chairman, Telkom South Africa

Mr Jeff Molobela has been appointed as a non-executive director and as Chairman of the Telkom SA Ltd Board of Directors from 1st of November 2009.

Mr Molobela holds a BSc (Eng.) Honours degree from the Imperial College (London University) and an MBA from the Imperial College Business School (London University). He has extensive experience in financial services, has served on numerous company boards and board committees and consulted to Denel and Armscor.

Mr Molobela has served on the boards of Africon Engineering Limited, Transnet, Primegro Limited, CBS Properties Limited, Growthpoint Properties Limited and Decillion Limited. Mr Molobela currently serves on the boards of N3TC Limited and Cashbuild Limited.

Panelist

Mr Navaidul Islam Khan, President, VNL

Known popularly as the turnaround specialist in the industry, he has a proven record of leading businesses from existence to substance.

Present Engagements :

FROST & SULLIVAN, New Delhi Executive Director- South Asia, Middle East & Asia Pacific. Frost & Sullivan is an International Consulting and Research Organization. Refer to www.frost.com.

SHARDA UNIVERSITY, Greater Noida President. Sharda Group is north India’s largest Private Education Institute. Refer to www.sgi.edu.in.

VNL Ltd, Gurgaon President- Business Development. VNL is a startup company Promoted by SHYAM Telecom Ltd.for providing low cost telecom solutions for Rural and low population markets. Refer to www.vnl.in.

IMI mobile, Hyderabad Chief Strategy Officer. IMImobile is a leading VAS company in Telecom and Media domain. Refer to www.imimobile.com

He is advising these above organizations for their growth strategies.

Before taking up the current assignments, Mr. Khan was President, Global Businesses at Spice Group, spearheading Group expansions across the globe in Information, Communication and Entertainment domains. Before Spice he was the Director of External Relations with Bharti Airtel Ltd, advising the top over business environment sensitivities. His over 39 years of rich professional experience is vast and varied, starting from early days of manufacturing, FMCG and now services in senior leadership capacities including his Before taking up the current assignments, Mr. Khan was President, Global Businesses at Spice Group, spearheading Group expansions across the globe in Information, Communication and Entertainment domains. Before Spice he was the Director of External Relations with Bharti Airtel Ltd, advising the top over business environment sensitivities. His over 39 years of rich professional experience is vast and varied, starting from early days of manufacturing, FMCG and now services in senior leadership capacities including his responsibility as the Chief Executive Officer of various telecom companies.

He is credited with the first launching of prepaid mobile services that revolutionized the Indian cellular space and holds 75% of total mobile market in the country.

He was active member of many high powered committees of various industry forums, CII, FICCI, and ASSOCHAM. His people oriented management style has helped evolve a comprehensive interface with the Industry Chambers and relevant Government Ministries. Among his many contributions is the proactive approach in setting up the Cellular Operators’ Association of India for voicing the concerns of the GSM players of the country.

An Engineering graduate from BITS Pilani, despite his hectic schedule, Mr. Khan always finds time to pursue his passion for golf.

Panelist

Pablo Pfost, Director of Regulatory Strategy, Telefonica, S.A.

Pablo Pfost is Director of Regulatory Affairs at the corporate level of Telefónica Group (Telefónica SA) since January 2005. Main areas of activity include co-ordinating and defining the positioning of Telefonica Group in EU regulatory affairs. Likewise, he is since 1998 a member of the Executive Board of the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO).

Having joined Telefónica in 1983, Mr Pfost has held several responsibilities within Telefonica, including international strategy and business development. Furthermore he has been deputy-director of Telefonica’s Representative Office in Brussels for over five years.

He holds a degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid, a post-graduate degree in Economics and Management of Telecoms from the Carlos III University and a degree in Business Administration from IESE Business School in Madrid.

Panelist

Mrs. Gabrielle Gauthey, Senior Vice-President of Public Affairs at Alcatel-Lucent

Gabrielle Gauthey is Senior Vice President, in charge of Public Affairs for Alcatel-Lucent.

Gabrielle Gauthey is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and holds a postgraduate degree in economic analysis. She began her career with France Telecom and joined DATAR in 1992 as head of the foreign investment department in France and as General Secretary of the “Invest in France” network. From 1995 to 1997 she worked at the office of François Fillon , Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Space Affairs as a technical adviser on telecommunications and information technologies. From 1998 to July 2000 she was Deputy Director-General of Sofirad and CEO of “Le SAT”, the first satellite-based operator of French-language digital TV and radio services in Africa. Till January 2003, she was Director of the Information and Communication Technologies Department at the Caisse des Depots et Consignations, responsible for investment in the” regional digital development” programme by mandate of the state.
From 2003 to 2008 she was Commissioner at the French Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP).

Panelist

Lynne Dorward, Group Chief Regulatory Officer, Zain

Lynne Dorward has more than 25 years of experience across all major telecommunications technology sectors and a broad range of expertise in areas including business planning and development, M and A, regulatory affairs and organizational change management. Ms Dorward has been active internationally for the last 20 years in more than 60 countries and has been an active participant in telecom liberalization from the outset in the late 1980’s and was directly involved in some of the earliest international privatizations and cellular/mobile licence bids in both advisory and investor roles. She has published articles for and made presentations to the ITU and other regulatory bodies on a broad range of topics including 3G, licensing and licensing fees, quality of service, content regulation and competition safeguards. For the last six years, she has been involved in numerous projects in the MENA region (amongst others) with respect to regulatory issues and M and A Mrs. Dorward joined Zain in April 2007 as Group Advisor – Regulatory Affairs, a new department formed in recognition of the ever increasing importance of telecom regulation in the Middle East and Africa. In January 2008, Mrs Dorward assumed the role of Deputy CRO – Regulatory Affairs and subsequently, in April 2009, became Group Chief Regulatory Officer for all of Zain’s 24 operating companies in the Middle East and Africa. Mrs Dorward is fluent in English, French and Spanish and holds dual Canadian and EU (Irish) citizenship.

Panelist

Mr Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy General Director, VIETTEL

In the position of VP, Mr Hung has directly managed Viettel Corp. to achieve 200% growth in five consecutive years (2004 -2009), driving Viettel network & subscriber base moving up from No.4 to No.1 after only 4 years, boosting the mobile market in Vietnam. The oversea investment strategy that was initiated by Mr. Hung also became a success which help Viettel turned to be the largest network infrastructure and fastest growing operator in Cambodia (branded Metfone) and Lao (branded Unitel). Those activities gave Viettel the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Award 2009 for Emerging Market Service Provider of the Year and laying among Top 100 mobile brands by Informa Plc.

Mr Hung graduated Bachelor of Electrical radio Engineering of Ulianop University in Russia and got Master of Telecommunications of Sydney University in Australia

Panelist

Mr Don Gustavo de la Garza, Chairman, Marcatel

Gustavo M. de la Garza Ortega was born on July 7th, 1937 in Monterrey, N.L., México, attended private Catholic Schools, later on, he attended the distinguished Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores Campus Monterrey (I.T.E.S.M.) for his bachelor, Civil Engineering and Business Management studies.

Founder, CEO of Independent Television Broadcast Network in Mexico in 1960, breaking the Azcárraga´s Family television monopoly.

Founder, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Radio Beep, the first paging company in Latin America in 1965.

Founder, President and Chairman of the Board of Marcatel. Marcatel (http://www.marcatel.com) was the pioneer company to emerge from the privatization of the telecommunications sector in Mexico to break the Telmex monopoly, and now is one of the few successful survivors in the telecommunications carrier industry in Mexico.

Recently acquired the total Shares of the Canadian AldeaVision, (http://www.aldeavision.com)
intercontinental carrier of TV content, which the two fiber optic networks of both carriers, makes Marcatel a global coverage company.

This year bought the 100% of the Long Distance division of Protel in Mexico.

Member and Founder of different National Chambers and Associations: Association of Agricultural Products Suppliers of Mexico (APAMEX), Association of Telecommunications Concessionaries (ACTEL) and Mexican Association of Radio Paging Concessionaries (AMCOR).

Panelist

Ms Jacquelynn Ruff, Vice President, International Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Verizon

Jacquelynn (Jackie) Ruff is Vice President – International Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs for Verizon Communications. In addition to being a leading communications provider in the U.S., Verizon provides voice, data, and Internet services to customers in more than 150 countries. Ms. Ruff leads the group that is responsible for public policy development, advocacy, and guidance around international issues. She works with various business units to develop and implement public policy and regulatory strategy and is responsible for advocacy within U.S. and international forums, such as the International Telecommunication Union, the OECD, and APEC. She represents Verizon as a member of federal advisory committees to the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the Department of State and to the U.S. Trade Representative, and she is a member of the Board of the U.S. Telecom Training Institute.

Ms. Ruff joined Verizon in March 2004 from the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where she was Associate Chief and Chief of Staff for the Bureau. Before joining the FCC, Ms. Ruff practiced with the communications and the Latin America groups of an international law firm. She also served on the staff of a United States Senate Committee. Ms. Ruff holds a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center, a Master’s degree from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe College/Harvard University.

Panelist

Mr Michael Thatcher, Regional Technology Officer, MEA, Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Corporation

As Regional Technology Officer, Michael is responsible for Microsoft’s Technology Policy initiatives and engagements with Government and Academic leaders across the Middle East and Africa. Through this bi-directional dialog, he ensures that the unique needs of these constituencies are reflected in Microsoft’s technology and development strategies. He has been leading this function since June of 2005 from Istanbul, Turkey.

Michael has worked for more than 20 years in the development, management and sales of information technology. He has represented Microsoft in various international policy and ICT Standards setting forums as well as helped formulate corporate positions on technology policy matters including Assistive Technologies, Interoperability, Intellectual Property, Standards and more. Prior to his current role Michael spent more than 6 years at the corporate headquarters in technical development, marketing and policy strategy roles.

Before joining Microsoft, Michael spent more than 10 years developing and deploying technical systems for the scientific research of the world’s oceans. He is a co-inventor for 3 patents and has 2 pending applications in the area of enterprise management.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela and raised in the New York Metropolitan area, Michael graduated from Columbia University with a degree in musical composition. His focus on the enabling power of technology to achieve greater goals and improve quality of life has been constant throughout his career.

Panelist

Mr Bosco Eduardo Fernandes, Nokia Siemens Networks GmbH Co & KG

Bosco Eduardo Fernandes has more than 20 years of experience in Telecommunications, Information Technology and Media Industries. He has held different positions in R&D for Packet switching and Cellular technologies. Worked in the European Research Programme for three years and chaired many Working Groups as well as led International Consortia for a number of Projects. He has published a number of articles and papers and heads the EC Task Force for IPv6 deployment in all business sectors. He speaks regularly at international conferences and chaired a number of Conferences. Mr. Fernandes received a degree of Dipl. Ing. in Electronic engineering in Munich, Germany and holds an Executive MBA. He is a senior member of the IEEE communications society and a member of the International Telecommunications Academy of Russia (ITA). He is appointed Chair of the ITU Forum Advisory Committee. As of April 1st, 2007 he is in Nokia Siemens Networks Strategic Marketing and responsible for Industry Relations and Regulatory issues and introduction of future Technologies such as LTE/SAE.

Panelist

Mr Adry Elmilady, Director of Strategic Finance, Qualcomm

Adry joined Qualcomm in 2004 and is currently a director in its technology economics group. He is responsible for supporting global business development activities by highlighting the economic value of Qualcomm technologies for mobile operators. Prior to Qualcomm, Adry held engineering, marketing, and finance roles at Lucent Technologies and Intersil Corporation. He holds an MBA degree from the University of California at Berkeley, an MSEE degree from the University of Virginia, and a BSEE degree from Alexandria University in Egypt.

Panelist

Mr Philippe Vogeleer, Chief Strategy Officer/Secretary General, Orange Jordan