CC- Submarine Summit 2022 - Lisbon 26^th & 27^th May

Mr. Hugo MENDES is currently serving as the Portuguese Secretary of State for Infrastructure. In the previous government, he served as Deputy Minister for Communications.
Mr. Mendes was born in 1976, in the city of Porto. He graduated in Sociology, in 1999, and obtained a Master’s degree in Public Policy, in 2019, from ISCTE-IUL. He attended Graduate School in Sociology at Warwick University (UK) and in Political Science at ISCTE-IUL. He also has a postgraduate degree in Communication and Political Marketing from ISCSP and in Analysing Data Analysis in Social Science from ISCTE-IUL, and attended a postgraduate degree in Tax Law at the IDEFF. He lectured in postgraduate degrees both at IPPS-IUL and at Nova SBE.
He served also as an advisor to the Minister of Education, from 2006 to 2009, and assistant to the Secretary of State Assistant to the Prime Minister, from 2009 to 2011. He was advisor to the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group for the Budget, Finance and Public Administration Committee, from 2011 to 2015. For the next four years he was assistant to the Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, and, in 2019, assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing. From 2019 to 2020, Mr. Mendes served as Chief of Staff of the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing.

Based at Lago di Como in Italy, VSC provides strategic advisory services in M&A, Business Development & Media for the telecommunication industry. Over the last 25 years, Erik developed extensive expertise and deep domain knowledge working at major telecom companies. His international career includes senior & executive level positions. Over the years, Erik has been a regular speaker & moderator at major international telecom conferences.

Carlos Paulino is Equinix’s Managing Director for Portugal, position that he holds since 2017 following the acquisition of the data centre business of Itconic – company that he joined in 2000, being involved in the firm’s business development, leading several projects and becoming a member of the board in 2010. Through Carlos leadership, the Portugal facility became one of the best interconnected data centres in Europe’s West coast.

Carlos has over 25 years of experience in the telecoms and technology sector. He held leadership roles at Maxitel, a telecom company, in Product Development, introducing cutting edge products to the market, and in Customer Services, leading the Customer Support Center to achieve top scores and industry recognition. Earlier in his career Carlos was CTO of Madem, a telecom startup delivering voice and data services to Madeira island.

Carlos has an M.B.A from IESE/AESE Business School, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Lisbon Institute of Engineering, a B.S. in Information Management and a PH.D in IT management from Nova Lisbon University.

Geoff Bennett is the Director of Solutions & Technology for Infinera, a leading manufacturer of Intelligent Transport Network solutions. He has over 25 years of experience in the data communications industry, including IP routing with Proteon and Wellfleet; ATM and MPLS experience with FORE Systems; and optical transmission and switching experience with Marconi, where he held the position of Distinguished Engineer in the CTO Office. Geoff is a frequent conference speaker, and is the author of “Designing TCP/IP Internetworks”, published by VNR.

CEO of aicep Global Parques since July 1^st 2018, managing Sines Tech - Innovation & Data Center Hub

Until then he was serving as Economic and Commercial Affairs Consul of Portugal in San Francisco, and before that in Shanghai, for AICEP - Portuguese Trade & Investment Agency. While at AICEP, has also worked at the "Context Costs and National Interest Projects Division" in Lisbon, as well as at the Press Office and the Office in Madrid.

Represented Portugal at the International Telecommunications Union (Geneva, UN); and as a shareholder at Inmarsat (London); Eutelsat (Paris) and Intelsat-ITSO (Washington, D.C.).

Held several appointed positions at the Portuguese Administration, such as Managing Director of EU funding at the Portuguese Ministry of Internal Security and Chief of Staff of the Minister of Justice.

His private sector experience includes teaching, consulting and economics and international affairs journalism.

Holds an MSc in Economics “International Development and Cooperation” and is a PhD candidate in International Affairs “Security and Strategy Studies”.

Mr. Qadir is the Vice President of Omantel Wholesale Business Unit. He is responsible for International wholesale businesses and is also looking after the business for national interconnect partners and mobile resellers. He has more than 20 years of senior management experience in a broad range of IT & Telecom segments with a specific focus on International Wholesale business. Before joining Omantel he was the COO in Worldcall Telecom. Mr. Qadir holds B.E. in Computer Systems and Masters in Business Administration.

Master in Internet Business & Bachelor in Business Information Science. Since 2012, Darwin Costa worked at multinational Angola Cables. Along the past 7 years I had the chance to work at technical, sales and IP product specialist on the product side. Dynamic and adaptive individual who enjoys challenges and have a very high work ethic. Enjoys working in teams’ environments but excelled as an
individual. Likes to enlarge technical, business knowledge and take on new challenges with a high
sense of duty.
Always being innovative, creative, motivated for new challenges. Currently working at De-CIX Management GmbH largest IXP (Internet exchange point) in the world and with primary focus on premium network interconnection services as Senior Business Development responsible for Africa & LATAM region.

Aki is a Partner at Cambridge Management Consulting with responsibility for the Nordic region. He also leads all of Cambridge MC’s subsea and data centre projects, having worked extensively in both areas of digital infrastructure.
Aki started his career in telecommunications working as a Network Engineer/Manager and then Project Manager, before moving into carrier relations and then sales. He then transferred to work on data centres and was responsible for TeleCity’s (now Equinix) sales in Finland prior to founding NetHub.
As a Director for NetHub, Aki became responsible for Cinia’s technical and commercial development and their implementation of the C-LION1 submarine cable system in the Baltic Sea and their Arctic subsea project.
He also holds Board and Committee positions in different non-profit organisations.
Based in Helsinki, Finland, he is married with two children and has a love for riding both horses and motorbikes.

Augusto holds a degree in Computer Sciences and Management, with a postgraduate degree in Strategic Management of Information Systems, Leadership and Digital Transformation. 

He has collaborated, nationally and internationally, in several companies and major projects, having in recent years developed his action in the regulatory context, at ANACOM - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (Portuguese NRA). 

He continues to learn and add to the growing experience of more than 30 years in management, consultancy, research and teaching in the context of innovation, information systems and digital transformation. 

He aims to continuously share knowledge and deliver systems based on an innovation approach, bringing true value to the person, the organization and society. 

Diego is a professional in the Telecom and Internet Industry, with over 20 Years of experience. He started working with Dialogic in 1997 for ISDN and xDSL access equipment. He joined Teleglobe (now TATA communications) in the year 2000, as Internet Marketing and Sales for Med region, developing one of the first streaming CDN platforms. Since the year 2003 in Retelit, he held various management positions in Marketing and Sales for Telecommunications services (WiMAX, Fiber networks, Colocations). Currently, as Head of Retelit International BU, he's in charge of Retelit Investment in the submarine cable system and terrestrial backhaul networks.

Vincent has been part of the Sales & Marketing team of Alcatel Submarine Networks for 9 years, following the Ellalink project since its first days among other major systems developments.

Previously, Vincent has held various international positions within the Alcatel-Lucent group in India and Chile.

Vincent has an engineering degree from Institut Mines Telecom Lille Douai. He is fluent in French, English and Spanish.

Fuad Mohseni started his career at Batelco in 2004 and has worked in numerous roles gaining valuable experience in international capacity procurement and operations. His continuous innovation and keen eye for details have aided many challenges to become a leader in managing global network infrastructure for the Batelco Global Division as Head of Infrastructure & Projects. His recent activities include the successful development of Batelco Global Network (BGN) and Batelco Global Zone Datacenter where his extensive knowledge of the regional infrastructure and strong relationship with partners has enabled them to grow into recognized solutions for Batelco’s clientele.

Artur Mendes is the VP Sales 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 positions at Nokia Mobile Phone and Nokia Multimedia Network Terminals. 

As VP Sales for Angola Cables, he is currently responsible for global strategy and business development on core company geographies plus, dealing with key customers, he drives the relationship while advising on best solutions and partnerships to achieve sales growth.

As a C-level representative he has a comprehensive understanding of the projects and global network value proposition:

The Monet subsea cable network which has been in operation since the end of 2017 that connects Santos, in São Paulo to Fortaleza, Brazil to Boca Raton in the USA.  

The recently commissioned South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) linking Luanda, Angola to Fortaleza in Brazil. The SACS cable is the first and fastest link between Africa and the Americas with the lowest latency and provides a more direct routing for internet traffic in the Southern Hemisphere.

The third project is the upgrade to the Angola Cable’s Tier III Data Centre in Praia do Futuro on the Ceará coast of Brazil. The data centre incorporates the SACS and Monet submarine cable landing stations. The advanced upgrades being made to the data and collocation centre are due to be completed in April 2019.

Huda is a Computer Engineer holding a degree of B.A. electrical and computer engineering from Muscat, Oman and master of science information and communication technology business management from Paris , France, having a strong experience of 14 years in telecommunication , currently holds the position of Senior Manager capacity and submarine cables at Omantel responsible of Capacity and submarine sales and procurement enthusiastically , infrastructure expansion and business partnership.

Huda is an ambitious worker and she is  the first Omani woman working in the field of submarine business.

Takahiro Sumimoto is SVP Marine Cable of NTT Ltd. (UK) since 2019 and also serves as CEO of Pacific Crossing (California, USA) since 2011.  He previously held senior positions in global business at NTT Communications and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.  He holds an MBA from HEC in France.

Fredrik Hane is co-founder of Eastern Light, and is a pioneer within fiber optic infrastructure in the Nordic region. In 1995, he founded the operator Utfors which built the first large-scale private fiber network in Scandinavia, and in 1999 he founded fiber infrastructure company IP-Only. Fredrik has also worked for many years as an officer in the Swedish Defence within the area of satellite and telecommunication systems, and in 2007 he was awarded a silver medal by the Swedish king and a monetary prize from the War Science Academy for his contributions in the telecommunication area for the country’s defence.

Senior management and consultancy experience in multinational companies, with responsibilities, and relevant and measurable achievements in several geographies and market sectors.

A professional with very high energy levels, with a strong focus on tangible results, a strategic thinker on the way innovation and technology can (must) drive business transformation on this digital era, harnessing New Generation Networks, Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Analytics and IoT / 5G as tools for the digital transformation challenge.

Deep experience and knowledge on product strategy and development, alliances and partnerships, business development and go-to-market models, and project delivery on medium and large companies.

Rui is the General Director of RENTELECOM the wholesale telecoms and IT provider of REN, the Portuguese energy group.

He entered Marconi (Portuguese telecoms carrier, now Altice) in 1989 having different responsibilities in technical and business areas, namely as Regional Director in charge for the European market. In 1998, he joined the founding team of Oni holding different management positions including being the founder and General Manager of the Wholesale Business Unit of Oni. From 2008 to 2010, he was Chief Sales Officer for T-Systems (Deutsche Telekom) in Portugal. From 2010 to 2011 he was the Partner in charge for the launch of nae (Spain based ICT consultancy) in the Portuguese market.

Passionate about B2B sales, Rui is invited Professor at the School of Economics & Management of the Lisbon University.

Emrah Yorulmaz is an Account Manager at AMS-IX, one of the largest Internet exchanges in the world. He has more than 10 years of commercial experience at various Telecom and Internet companies. Before joining AMS-IX sales team in 2019, Emrah held different roles at Veon Group and Turk Telekom International. He is particularly interested in the topics of Internet and Connectivity.

As a digital transformation expert, Ethan Lawlor is leading Enxoo's growth strategy in the UK and Ireland. Ethan has been working with telecommunications companies globally to help drive automation to grow and scale their digital transformations.  As a trusted expert to telecom service providers, he works closely with C-level executives to define and develop a holistic, strategic approach to digital business processes.

Prior to joining Enxoo, Ethan worked across Europe in industries such as Utilities and Financial Services, and designed a successful sales strategy for a vibrant Polish StartUp. Ethan now lives in Poland, but regularly travels across the globe to meet new customers and start new relationships. 

Philippe Dumont is a CEO with over 25 years of international experience in the Telecom industry, and a strong leadership characterized by entrepreneurial attitude and long term vision.

Philippe is currently the Group CEO of EllaLink, the operator of a subsea cable linking Portugal and Brazil. He is also a co-owner of PCE Services, a supplier of FFTH networks in France.

Prior to this, Philippe was, for 6 years, the President & CEO of ASN (Alcatel Lucent Submarine Networks), a worldwide leader for turnkey Telecom Submarine Cable systems. before this, he served for 5 years as President of the Wireless Transmission activities at Alcatel Lucent

Philippe holds an engineering degree from the Arts & Metiers (ENSAM) and an MBA from Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in Paris. Married with 3 children and he speaks fuently French, English and Italian. 

Carlo D’Asaro Biondo has been Google’s EMEA President of Partnerships and Strategic Relationships until April 6^th 2020.

Carlo d’Asaro Biondo joined TIM in April 2020 with the task of steering the Group’s partnerships activities and as Leader of the cloud project that brought to the creation of Noovle S.p.A. of which is currently CEO.

For more than 10 years at Google, he covered the role of President SEMEA Operations (Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa) from 2009 to 2015, and then from 2015 to 2020 President EMEA for Strategic and Institutional Partnerships & Relationship.

Prior joining Google he was President and CEO of KPMG Consulting – French subsidiary, Vice President and Managing Director EMEA Telecommunications and Media at Unisys, President and CEO of AOL France and later of AOL Europe, CEO of International Operations for Lagardère Active Media.

Carlo is a board member of ONG Optic Humana Technology and of B2B Retailer Manutan.