Rita Wezenbeek joined the European Commission in 2002. Before moving to DG CONNECT in December 2020, Rita was the head of DG Competition’s Anti-Trust and Telecommunications Unit, in charge of applying the European competition rules in the area of electronic communications. Between 2010 and 2017, Rita was the head of DG Competition’s unit dealing with Retail Financial Services and Payment Systems. The unit ia. dealt with the investigations against MasterCard and Visa and was responsible for the competition elements of the legislative processes leading to the adoption of the Interchange Fee Regulation and the Payment Services Directive II, opening the EU payment services market for non-bank players.

Before joining the Commission, Rita worked for sixteen years as a private lawyer, specialized in European and corporate law, at the Dutch/ Belgian law firm Nauta Dutilh. During fifteen years, she also was a Member of the Commission on European Integration, an independent advisory body on foreign policy to the Dutch government and Parliament.

Since 2014 Frank Krüger is head of the Directorate “Digital Society and
Infrastructure” at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI).
After training as a bank officer, he studied economics and, in 1994, began working as press desk officer at the Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. In 1998, Mr Krüger started working for the Federal Ministry of Economics in the same position. Since 1999, he has been working in the field of telecommunications, and since 2008 his focus has been on broadband policy. From 2005 to 2008, Mr Krüger represented Germany in Brussels in the fields of telecommunications and audiovisual media. In 2011, he was appointed Head of Division for broadband policy. In early 2014, he started working at the BMVI. 2020 and 2021 he chairs the Radio Spectrum Policy Group, RSPG.

Bio to appear here shortly.

Jonas Wessel is Director of the Spectrum Department at the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS). He is also Chair of the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) for the 2018-2019 period. The RSPG is a high-level advisory group that assists the European Commission in the development of radio spectrum policy. Jonas holds a MSC from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Industrial Engineering and Management. Jonas started his professional career as a strategy consultant, working mainly with business development in the telecoms and IT-sector.

In 2003, he joined the PTS as advisor on radio spectrum policy issues. After several positions within the Agency, including responsibility for auctions, he was assigned Director of the Spectrum Department in 2014. Jonas has been one of the driving forces behind the transformation of spectrum management in Sweden and has also been working with these issues internationally, mainly through the RSPG where he has been a delegate since 2004. He was Vice Chairman of the RSPG for the 2016-2017 period.

The Luxembourg-based satellite operator on public affairs and regulatory matters with the European Union (EU), the CEPT, the Council of Europe and the ITU, under the responsibility of the SES General Counsel. He‘s now responsible for SES regulatory affairs (advocacy and licensing) in Europe, Africa and Middle East.
Cécil looks back at more than 20 years of experience in dealing with regulatory affairs, specialised in ICT regulations for media and telecommunications. His dedicated expertise covers the supervision and impact of telecoms legislations and spectrum policies, in the context of increased liberalisation in radio frequency management and usage.
Cécil has been the chairperson of the working group on regulation in ESOA (EMEA Satellite Operators Association) for several years. In this capacity, he represents the satellite sector for the development of electronic communications regulation in Europe, Africa and Middle East, and he defends the interests of the space industry in multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations between the EU and the rest of the world.
As an active member of the Global VSAT Forum (GVF), Cécil Ameil is also contributing to the coordination of the satellite sector‘s efforts to defend access to and usage of essential radio spectrum at regional and ITU levels (including for WRCs).

Mark Colville (Principal) is part of Analysys Mason’s Regulation practice, and is based in the company’s Cambridge office. He joined Analysys Mason in 2003 and has advised a variety of clients, including national regulators, fixed and mobile operators, media players, equipment vendors and investors on a wide range of projects around the world.

Mark’s work focuses mainly on radio spectrum and wider regulatory issues across the telecoms and media sectors. Among other topics, he has particular expertise in spectrum valuation and auction support, spectrum policy, and forecasting the future demand for spectrum.

His other areas of expertise include media regulation, with a focus on competition issues in pay-TV markets, content rights issues and TV advertising. Mark’s wider regulatory experience includes work on a range of competition issues, such as wholesale pricing, predatory pricing and margin-squeeze analysis, and core and access network cost modelling. Mark has also advised on the pricing of fixed and mobile telephony services and has managed several projects to support operators in the introduction of new tariff plans.

Mark trained as a mathematician and has an MA from the University of Cambridge, as well as a Diploma in Computer Science, also from Cambridge.

Bio to appear here soon.

Bio to appear here soon.

Luigi Ardito is currently working as Director of government affairs for Europe, Middle East and North Africa at Qualcomm and drive Qualcomm spectrum and regulatory policy agenda in Europe and MENA dealing with various government entities and industry organizations. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Luigi worked for over a decade at Sony Corporation both in Japan and in the UK. Luigi gained also professional experience at France Telecom and at the Italian Public Broadcaster RAI.
Luigi has extensive experience in the Media and Telecom industry as well as the Semiconductor Industry gained through his assignments at Qualcomm, Sony, France Telecom and RAI. He holds an Electronic Engineering Degree gained at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy and a Master of Business Administration gained at the Henley Management College in the UK.

Mr Jochum is a Senior Expert Public & Regulatory Affairs at Deutsche Telekom AG (DT). Jan joined DT in 2009 and has worked in the regulatory sector since 2014. Prior to joining DT he was working in different projects in Europe for a management consultancy firm. Jan holds a Master of Arts in Political Sciences from the University of Bonn, Germany.

Philip is Group Director, Spectrum at Ofcom, where he is responsible for setting and implementing the strategy for managing spectrum including clearing, awarding, licensing, monitoring and enforcement.

Philip is also Chairman of the EU’s Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) bringing together all the EU’s national spectrum authorities and the Commission.

Philip has over 30 years’ experience within the wireless communications industry. He has held senior executive positions covering technology, operations and strategy in both. Philip has worked in both start-up (from initial concept to sale) and large corporates in companies ranging from UK Broadband, O2, Orange, BT, J-Phone in Japan (now Softbank Mobile), Extreme Mobile and SpinVox (now Nuance).

Stefan Zehle, MBA, (CEO) Stefan is a co-founder of Coleago, was a Director Strategy, Marketing and Regulatory Affairs of a mobile operator. With 28 years telecoms experience, he is an expert in telecoms marketing strategy, spectrum valuation, and business planning. Stefan was responsible for many successful mobile licence bids and spectrum auctions and worked in 40 countries in developed and emerging markets. Stefan holds an MBA with distinction. Co-author of the Economist’s Guide to Business Planning.

Jennifer McCarthy is responsible for the company’s regulatory and government affairs agenda. Jennifer is a telecommunications regulatory attorney with over 25 years of experience in the wireless sector having held a variety of government affairs, business development, and operations positions for several of the industry’s leading technology innovators.

Most recently, Jennifer was with MVP Capital, working with wireless spectrum license holders, TV and radio station owners, and other online content service providers on a variety of M&A projects. Prior to that, Jennifer was Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Operations for NextWave Wireless Inc. and part of the executive management team of MediaFLO USA Inc., a subsidiary of QUALCOMM Incorporated, where she identified, purchased, and cleared the TV Channel 55 spectrum used to deploy the nation’s first network dedicated to the reception of mobile television programming and other multimedia services. She was also the head of QUALCOMM’s international government affairs team responsible for regulatory and international trade strategy at the International Telecommunications Union and related organizations. Early in her career, she worked with Freedom Technologies, Inc., a boutique Washington, D.C.-based telecommunications consulting firm and its associated law firm.

Ms. McCarthy has a B.A. in political science from Yale University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. She is a member of both the California and Washington, DC Bars.

Chief Technology Officer and Comptroller UWB Alliance, Vice Chairman IEEE 802.15.4z, Treasurer IEEE 802.15, Executive Committee Member IEEE 802, TE of multiple versions of 802.15

Elodie Viau was born in Angers, France. She gained her MSc degree in telecommunications from Télécom SudParis in 2007, an MSc in Space Studies and Management from the International Space University in 2008 and an MBA from the Open University in the UK in 2018.

For the past 12 years, Elodie Viau has worked for SES, one of the world’s leading satellite owners and operators, based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. She began her career with SES on a two-year Leadership Development Programme, working in a variety of roles on four missions within SES subsidiaries in Luxembourg, the Netherlands and USA.

In 2010, Elodie moved to SES Technology, Space Systems and Operations, in Toulouse, France, as a Satellite Programmes Senior Engineer. Here she served as Deputy Programme Manager for six satellites (ASTRA 1N, 2F, 2E, 2G, 5B and SES-6) built by Airbus Space. Between 2014 and 2018, Elodie was the Programme Manager for the SES-10, SES-12 and SES-14 satellites built by Airbus Space.

In 2018, Elodie moved back to Luxembourg to become Senior Manager and then Director of SES New Space Segment Development and, until recently, she was Vice-President for SES Technology Programme Management.

Bio to appear here soon.

uy Pinto was appointed Chief Technology Officer of SES in January 2019.

Ruy joined SES from Inmarsat, a loyal journey that spanned two and a half decades and various technical and managerial roles, including two years as CTO of the company. His last three years with Inmarsat were spent in the role of Group Chief Operations Officer, where he was responsible for all operational functions.

His portfolio includes two years as the Chairman of UKSpace, the UK space industry trade association, and four years as a Director and VP of Space for the Association of Defence, Security and Aerospace Companies (ADS). Ruy also recently completed a six-year appointment as Non-Executive Director of the Space Application Catapult, established by the UK government to foster the development of space applications in the UK. Previously, he worked with VSAT data communications networks and data communications software.

Ruy has dual British/Brazilian nationality, holds a degree in Electronics Engineering, and has completed post-graduate studies in Digital Telecommunications Systems from the Rio de Janeiro Catholic University (PUC-RJ).

Chris McLaughlin is a space-sector specialist, with multiple launches and service introductions and is past Secretary to the UK Parliamentary Space Group. He also has extensive political experience, including an elected public official; approved parliamentary candidate and a political campaigns director.

An LSE Graduate, he gained a Masters at University of Freiburg, Germany within a United Nations University programme. Chris has been involved with numerous cutting-edge technologies and market introductions. He is an experienced publicly-listed company executive board member and qualified Non Executive Director (NED). He was Chief Marketing Officer at Inmarsat plc and a Non Executive Director, at Avanti Satellite.

He received the PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association) achievement award for his work across all media on the missing MH370 airliner. Chris also arranged and staged the only London commercial visit by President Xi of China, receiving congratulations from the Palace and the UK and Chinese Governments.

As a consultant, his clients have included Inmarsat; Rolls Royce Aviation; Transas Group, Meadow Private Equity; Satcom Direct; Avanti Satellite and OneWeb. Most recently, Chris played a key role in the UK Government decision to become an equity partner in OneWeb, alongside Bharti Global.

Bio to appear here soon

Lee has over 20 years’ experience of advising operators, regulators and government bodies across a broad range of topics, including network sharing, fibre networks and transaction support. Notably, Lee has extensive expertise in spectrum issues and has led numerous projects to help operators to develop spectrum strategies and to value spectrum. He has supported operators to prepare for and bid in more than 25 spectrum auctions worldwide. He has also led several high-profile spectrum-related studies for leading regulators such as the European Commission, Ofcom (UK) and the IDA (Singapore).

In 2015/16 Lee was seconded to Telstra’s network strategy team, where he led a range of spectrum and network strategy projects.

Lee holds B.A. and M.Eng. degrees in Manufacturing Engineering, both from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Bio to appear here soon.

After a state exam of law at the University of Osnabrück, Mr Kühn has been working since 1998 in the area of legal internship (e.g. at Regional Court) of the Federal Network Agency, Germany; changing to national and international spectrum regulation on different levels in 2005. Nowadays he is the deputy head of section for international affairs and utilization concepts. His responsibilities cover strategic frequency utilization concepts and the transposition of those to the international level of CEPT, EU and ITU. Doing this and having been active in the preparation of three WRC’s, national and on CEPT CPG level, Mr Kühn participated in a number of international Groups, also as Head of the German Delegation. He has also chaired several groups and subgroups in the ITU and CEPT. Since 2005 he is responsible for national preparation of the WRC’s and served as CPG Vice-Chairman from 2010 to 2013 and as CPG chairman from 2013 to 2015.
Mr Kühn has been appointed as Chairman of the CEPT CPG in March 2016.

Graduated from Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (SUPELEC) in 1991, Eric Fournier is currently Director for Spectrum Planning and International Affairs in the Agence Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR), the French public agency in charge of spectrum management. In his position, he is directly responsible for preparing the revisions of the French national table of allocation and for the coordination of French positions in international meetings on spectrum within ITU, CEPT and EU. He was Chairman of the CEPT Conference Preparatory Group for the World Radiocommunications Conference 2012 (CPG-12) and, as French representative in RSPG, has chaired several RSPG working groups dealing with EU interests in international meetings and cross-border issues.

Ulrich Rehfuess holds a diploma degree in Electrical Engineering of Technical University of Munich, Germany and one in Industrial Engineering of Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany. Of his more than 20 years of professional experience in Siemens, Nokia Siemens Networks and lately Nokia Networks, he spent more than 15 years in R&D, business strategy, system architecture and product management of mobile radio network systems covering GSM, EDGE, UMTS with HSPA, Flash OFDM, WiMAX, LTE and LTE Advanced. Starting June 2011, he assumed responsibility for spectrum policy and regulation within Nokia Networks’ industry environment team. Ulrich Rehfuess is vice chair of the BITKOM Spectrum working group in Germany and chairs the DIGITALEUROPE spectrum working group in Brussels.

A founding director of Cullen International in 1988, Philippe has worked extensively on EU regulation affecting the telecoms and internet sectors and the implementation at national level across Europe. He is widely regarded in the industry as one of the leading experts in the field. Philippe pioneered the practice of cross-country benchmarking of national regulation – the core methodology used across all of Cullen International’s intelligence services. He leads business development activities for the company – focussing on building Cullen International’s business outside of Europe, in particular in Latin America, the Middle East & North Africa. Philippe frequently presents Cullen International research at industry conferences, client briefings and training courses.

Graham has extensive experience in all aspects of spectrum policy, management and regulation as well as having worked in areas such as regulatory accounting, incremental cost modelling (fixed and mobile), retail and wholesale price control, margin squeeze, universal service provision and tariff analysis.

Graham Louth joined Aetha in 2014 from Ofcom, where he was Director of Spectrum Policy, Mobile and Auctions. Prior to joining Ofcom in 2003, Graham worked at Analysys Mason (then Analysys Consulting).

Graham joined Ofcom, the UK’s converged communications regulator as Director of Spectrum Markets, tasked with making the changes necessary to allow spectrum users to decide how to make best use of this invaluable national resource, rather than being directed by the regulator. More recently, as Director of Spectrum Policy, Mobile and Auctions, he has been responsible for ensuring that existing and prospective mobile network operators are able to make the best possible use of existing spectrum, and have access to critical bands of new spectrum such as the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands, so as to be able to deliver the best possible mobile services to UK consumers and citizens at competitive prices.

At Analysys Consulting, Graham was in charge of the Pricing, Costing and Regulation practice. During that time he was instrumental in the development of numerous telecoms network cost models, for both regulatory and commercial purposes, for clients around the world.

Scott has been involved in introducing new telecom technology for almost 25 years. He got pulled into the world spectrum management at the IEEE in 2004 after proposing a real-time mapping-based method for allowing mobile devices to make use of what has come to be called TV whitespace. He represents Microsoft in dialogs with regulators as well as at organizations including the ITU, CEPT, ETSI, IEEE, 3GPP and Wi-Fi Alliance. In 2018 Scott moved to Oulu, Finland, a major center for both test and early commercial 5G networks, where 6G research is already underway.

Tuck is part of the Spectrum Engineering team in the Spectrum Group within Ofcom, the UK regulator. He has worked on various national spectrum related projects such as TV white spaces, mobile data strategy, shared access licence, etc. Tuck has also been actively contributing to international groups (e.g. ITU-R and CEPT) on technical and regulatory subjects including coexistence analysis between IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications) and other services e.g. satellite, fixed, etc. These are mainly in preparation for the International Telecommunication Union – World Radiocommunication Conference (ITU WRC).

Before joining Ofcom, Tuck has over a decade of experience in Research and Development (R&D) on wireless communication for broadcast applications – system level simulation, algorithm development, hardware prototyping, and experimental field trials. He graduated with an Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree from Imperial College, University of London.

Mr. Deedman’s role in Inmarsat is to ensure that the necessary international spectrum regulations are in place for the continuing operation of the current Inmarsat satellites, network, and future systems. He is involved in CEPT spectrum activities and the ITU-R working parties, most recently on issues such as new regulations for Ka-band mobile terminals (ESIMs) and protection of the L-band MSS spectrum for proposed terrestrial LTE systems. He has participated in all of the ITU World Radiocommunication Conferences since 1997 and has been closely engaged in the regional preparations for WRC. Mr. Deedman joined Inmarsat in 2000, having previously worked for the Radiocommunications Agency, and has an honours degree in telecommunications from the University of London (Queen Mary College).

Mr. Yates is an expert in spectrum auctions, 5G-spectrum and broadband strategy, licensing, financial modeling, telecom and licensing policy and regulation as well as wireless and network technologies. His consulting experience includes projects in the US, Canada, Europe, North Africa and Australia.

Mr. Yates has supported bidders through the entire spectrum auction process, from the initial public consultation, to bidder training, simulations and mock auctions, game analysis, bid tactics and in-bid room support. Mr. Yates is co-leader of the development of the LYA Auction Platforms that support Combinatorial Clock Auctions (CCA), Simultaneous Multiple Round Ascending (SMRA) Auctions, Sealed Bid Auctions as well as Clock Auctions. He has also developed the LYA Auction Management Tools used to manage round-by-round bidding and decision-making.

Mr. Yates has provided regulatory and business planning support to operators and government agencies with respect to broadband investment, regulatory and deployment issues in rural and remote areas.
Prior to co-founding LYA, Mr. Yates held positions with Nortel Networks and Bell Canada. Mr. Yates holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Operations Research/Management Science, both from the University of Toronto. He also has an MBA from Concordia University in Montreal.

Chris Woolford is Ofcom’s Director of International Spectrum Policy where his responsibilities cover the UK’s international spectrum interests, especially in relation to the ITU, CEPT and EU. He is a member of Ofcom’s Spectrum Executive Team and Strategy Steering Group.

Chris is active in various European spectrum committees and currently represents the UK on the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG). He has closely engaged for the UK on a number of key European and international spectrum initiatives and led the UK delegations to WRC-15 and WRC-12.

Before joining Ofcom, Chris worked in various UK Government Departments, including 6 years at Oftel, where he worked on different aspects of telecommunications regulation. Chris has a degree in mathematics and statistics from Manchester University.

Head of Sector ‘Spectrum for Wireless Broadband’ at the Radio Spectrum Policy Unit of DG CONNECT, European Commission

Branimir is responsible for the development and implementation of EU-level spectrum policy for wireless broadband and 5G as well as the integration of research and innovation policies. Specific topics include the 5G spectrum roadmap, harmonised spectrum allocation, coordination of authorisation practices, spectrum management for vertical sectors, international cooperation.

Branimir has been working for the European Commission since 2008.

He started his professional career in 1995 at the Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications Systems at the Dresden University, Germany. From 2000 until 2008 he worked with the companies Philips, Qimonda and Signalion (later National Instruments) in Germany in the area of wireless equipment design, manufacturing and marketing. He has made contributions to Wi-Fi standardisation.

Branimir has a PhD degree in mobile communications from the Dresden University.

Peng is Director of Government Affairs and Policy in OneWeb. He is an experienced public policy executive, with focus on licensing and spectrum policy for both mobile and satellite industries, advising governments and telecom industry globally.

Before joining OneWeb, Peng was responsible for the GSMA’s global campaign ensuring optimal licensing conditions for mobile operators. He was leading a team of policy experts across Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle-East to engage policy makers and regulators, and advocated for industry’s best practices on telecom policy.

Peng recently obtained an Executive MBA at London Business School. He has an engineering background, and hold an MS in Telecommunication Systems from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne. Besides English, he speaks French and Mandarin fluently.

Mr. Mario Maniewicz was elected Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He took office on 1 January 2019.

Mario Maniewicz is an electronic engineer specialized in telecommunications. He has been with the ITU for over 30 years, where he has held various positions of responsibility in the Radiocommunication and Development Bureaux as well as in ITU Regional Offices.

As Director, Mr. Maniewicz is responsible for the management of the Radiocommunication Bureau, which organizes and co-ordinates the work of the Radiocommunication Sector whose aim is to ensure the rational, equitable, efficient and economical use of the radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits.

Dr. Alexandre Kholod is Head of International Frequency Planning at the Swiss Federal Office of Communications OFCOM. In this role, he leads Swiss preparations for World Radiocommunication Conferences and is also responsible for international satellite coordination.

Alexandre has assumed various chairing and drafting tasks in both CEPT and ITU. He serves currently as Chairman of CEPT Conference Preparatory Group.

Alexandre holds a PhD degree in mathematics and physics from the Belarussian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics and a Dr. Habilitation degree from the Aix-Marseille University.

Glyn Carter’s expertise spans a range of areas, including technology strategy, spectrum and other regulatory issues, standards, and the specification and procurement of voice and data terminals and services. Glyn’s knowledge of mobile telecoms technologies includes LTE, UMTS/HSPA, CDMA/EV-DO, GSM/GPRS and TETRA.

Glyn currently works in the Future Spectrum team at GSMA, preparing for the next ITU World Radio Communication Conference (WRC). In particular, Glyn is developing technical studies into compatibility and sharing between mobile and other services in spectrum bands. Before joining the GSMA in February 2012, Glyn spent over 10 years working for mobile operators in countries including Portugal, Romania and the UK.

As a consultant, Glyn has participated in numerous projects for regulators, operators and users of telecommunications, including replanning the radio spectrum in South Africa and other spectrum management projects for regulators in the UK, Japan, Sweden and Jordan. Glyn also undertook spectrum compatibility studies in CEPT and was editor of ECC Report 42 on spectrum efficiency. Before this, Glyn designed communication terminal products for Racal Electronics. Glyn has a bachelor of science degree in mathematics and a PhD in cryptography from London University.

Arturo Baglioni is responsible for Rai’s frequencies management. He joined Rai group in 2000 dealing with frequencies planning for sound and video broadcasting over terrestrial platforms. He is currently involved in the preparatory activities of the upcoming national refarming of the 700 MHz band (which is taking place in Italy from September 2021 to June 2022).

Arturo has been member of the Italian delegation at three ITU World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC-03, WRC-12 and WRC-15) and at the Regional Radiocommunication Conferences for digital terrestrial television planning in Europe and Africa (RRC-04 and RRC-06). He has been following national and international activities for the next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23). He also participates in EBU (European Broadcasting Union) technical working groups which deal with spectrum policy.

Arturo holds an Electronic Engineering Degree gained at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and a Master of Business Administration gained at the “Politecnico” of Milan, Italy.

Born in Chambéry (France) in 1963, Gilles Brégant graduated from Ecole Polytechnique (1986) then from Telecom ParisTech (1988). Following a 7-year-career at France Telecom research center, Gilles Brégant led the transition project from “Minitel” electronic directory to its companion web site, www.pagesjaunes.fr. He was then appointed technical adviser to the Minister in charge of Research (1996-1997). He had to coordinate international projects and themes in relation with information technology. He then worked for the department of trade and industry as deputy director in charge of Prospective. He was appointed secretary general of the ministerial task force “Digital Economy” (2001-2005). He was then appointed Technical Director of Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (the French Media Regulator) in 2005. Gilles Brégant is the CEO of ANFR since 2011. He was elected President of RSPG in November 2011.

Eric van Rongen graduated in biology at the State University of Leyden, the Netherlands in 1980. Subsequently he performed research on tumour and normal tissue radiobiology at the Radiobiological Institute of the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research TNO and received his PhD in 1989. Since 1992 he is senior scientific staff member with the Health Council of the Netherlands and primarily involved with non-ionizing radiation. As Scientific Secretary of several Expert Committees he has written many advisory reports on the health effects of low and high frequency electromagnetic fields, UV and ionizing radiation, but also on non-radiation subjects. He is member of the International Advisory Committee of the WHO International EMF Project and cooperates closely with WHO on the development of Environmental Health Criteria monographs on EMF, currently the one on radiofrequency fields. He is member of several national and international organizations and committees in the field of non-ionizing radiation and President of the European Bioelectromagnetics Association (EBEA). He has been serving ICNIRP as Consulting Member since May 2001, as member of the former Standing Committee II Biology since November 2006 and has been elected in the Commission in May 2010. He was the ICNIRP Chair from 2016 until 2020 and is now serving as the ICNIRP Vice Chair since May 2020.

Dr. Hector Lopez is a member of NERA’s Communications, Media, and Internet Practice, in which he uses game theory, optimization, simulations, econometrics, and experiments to design and/or provide strategic advice on tailor-made mechanisms such as auctions and complex private transactions. Dr. Lopez has provided on-site support, software tools, and expert reports for his clients.

Dr. Lopez has experience with the most common auction formats, including combinatorial clock auctions (CCAs), simultaneous multiple round auctions (SMRAs), clock auctions, and sealed-bid auctions. He also has experience with non-standard market mechanisms like auctions for dynamically trading wireless bandwidth and road capacity, and mechanisms to set subsidies on telecommunication services.

Dr. Lopez provided auction advice for a participant in the incentive auction. His client realized the highest return of all private equity participants. Dr. Lopez designed and implemented algorithms and techniques to simulate the auction and evaluate strategies. He also prepared comments submitted to the FCC.

Dr. Lopez has authored numerous comments and white papers on market design, telecommunication policy, open access, network sharing, and spectrum policy. He has presented his research at academic and industry conferences. Dr. Lopez has taught undergraduate and Ph.D. courses in microeconomic theory.

Sergio Bovelli, Ph.D. is Manager, Market Access and Regulation at Airbus Defence and Space in Germany. In his role Dr. Bovelli works closely with Administrations, Regulatory Authorities and Policy Makers in all regions to promote and develop new aeronautical and space technologies and communication.
With over 15 years of experience in aeronautics and space industry, he joined Airbus in 2005, where he held several positions, both technical and managerial. He is co-author of several scientific articles and holds a number of patents related to communication systems.
Sergio holds a PhD degree in “Information Engineering” and a Master degree on “Telecommunication Engineering”

Barbara has been leading the GSMA Drone Interest Group for the last few, to investigate and help the mobile industry to create a trusted solution for commercial unmanned aircraft. Exploring features and capabilities of 4G and 5G needed for the aviation. Since 2014, she has been the technical lead for the GSMA Internet of Things, working on several aspects of IoT for different industries. Barbara has over 20 years of experience in the mobile industry. Before joining the GSMA, Barbara worked in R&D in several areas of telecommunications, including Intelligent Networks, IMS, Service Enabling and M2M/IoT. She also participates in, and actively contributed to, several standards.

Barbara is one of the founders of the “Aerial Connectivity Joint Activity”, a joint initiative between GSMA and GUTMA, the Global Unmanned Traffic Management Association. She is also the Programme Manager for ACJA and Chair of the ACJA’s Decision Board.

Web site: www.gsma.com/iot

Sean has been at the forefront of innovation and deregulation of the fixed and mobile industry for over 30 years. Having started his first telecoms venture in 1989, the first competitor to the state fixed monopoly telecom company Telecom Eireann in 1993 and through the acquisition of 13 companies across 9 countries, established Netsource Europe ASA as one of the first Pan European fixed operators, which was acquired by GTS in 1998. Having launched the first ever commercial MVNO in 1998 the Imagine Communications Group was established in 2003 to identify develop and create strategic industry and regulatory driven market opportunities.

Established as an operator, strategic investor and advisor, identifying the potential of developing 4G/5G wireless to address the deficit and requirement for NGN infrastructure to meet the exponential growth in online data demand and usage, in 2009 Imagine acquired the two largest FWA operators in the Irish market. Having deployed an initial trial network in 2016 and secured 5G 3.6GHz spectrum in 2017, in 2018 Brookfield one of the world’s largest infrastructure investors acquired a strategic interest in Imagine.

Imagine is an industry recognised innovator in the deployment of dedicated Advanced 4G /5G Fixed Broadband as an alternative to FTTx. Working with its global vendors, suppliers and operator partners Imagine has optimised the Core, RAN, design and deployment of dedicated 4G/5G Fixed Broadband infrastructure to deliver industry leading network performance and a fixed broadband user experience alternative to Cable and FTTH.

Stefan Zehle, MBA, (CEO) Stefan is a co-founder of Coleago, was a Director Strategy, Marketing and Regulatory Affairs of a mobile operator. With 28 years telecoms experience, he is an expert in telecoms marketing strategy, spectrum valuation, and business planning. Stefan was responsible for many successful mobile licence bids and spectrum auctions and worked in 40 countries in developed and emerging markets. Stefan holds an MBA with distinction. Co-author of the Economist’s Guide to Business Planning.