CC- Telco Infrastructure Summit 2021 - Rome 29^th & 30^th September

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.

Elisabetta Romano has thirty years of experience in the Telecommunications, IT and Media sector, where she has held roles with increasing amounts of responsibility. She has dealt with corporate strategies using an approach focused on sector development and transformation, in particularly challenging environments and contexts in Italy and abroad.

She began working as a Software Developer for Alcatel in 1987. In just a few years, she held various technical roles, first becoming System Engineer then Head of System Engineers; operating in Antwerp (Belgium) as well as Milan.

Following her technical experience at Alcatel, her career continued and developed at Ericsson, which she joined in 1998. In 2012, she was Head of Operations Support Systems based in Stockholm, where she developed strategies for telecommunication operators, introducing new business areas to the market. In 2015, she became Head of TV & Media, based in Santa Clara, California, where she was tasked with developing innovative solutions and services and cloud technology for TV operators and content providers in order to offer modern video experiences.

At Ericsson in 2017, she was also Head of Core Network, a department focused on the development of connectivity services, especially those related to 5G mobile broadband. She coordinated a global organisation of three thousand resources while pursuing the goal of enabling communication service providers to connect people and devices in new ways. She implemented and planned long-term strategies together with Ericsson’s board of directors in order to grow and maintain the company's leadership position.

On 1 July 2018, she joined TIM Group as Chief Technology Officer, with the responsibility of ensuring – at Group level – technological innovation and the evolution of Networks and Information Technology to support the journey towards digital transformation.

She was subsequently appointed Head of Chief Innovation & Partnership in November 2019.

Enrico Bagnasco has been appointed Chief Technology Officer in September 2019.

From July 2018 he has been TIM CTO’s Product & Portfolio Manager and from September 2016 he led TIM Technology Innovation with focus on 5G, network virtualization and slicing, big data analytics and cognitive computing. Prior to that, he held different management responsibilities in Telecom Italia in the areas of OSS, Service Platforms and Network engineering, including IP metro, CDN, wireline broadband access, home devices, VoIP/IMS, contact center, video platforms and IoT services.

He joined CSELT (Telecom Italia’s R&D center) in 1988 and led research and standardization activities on network management and service platforms in ETSI, ITU and TeleManagement Forum.

He holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Torino.

Daniele Mancuso became Chief Marketing Solutions & Business Development Officer for Sparkle Group in September 2019.

In the previous year, he served as Executive Vice President ICT Engineering, where he was in charge of the technological innovation, planning, engineering and development of Sparkle’s Global Network as well as of Information Technology.

From August 2016 he held the position of Director of Innovation & Engineering, in charge of the engineering and deployment of Voice, Mobile, IP and & Data Platforms as well as of Submarine Cables, ICT Security Processes & Platforms and Datacenters & Cloud Infrastructures, while leading the Network Innovation and Evolution processes.

Prior to that he was Director Architecture & Engineering.

He began his career in in 1991 in a Software House dealing with Robotics applied to Agriculture and, in 1993, he moved to Telecom Italia’s domestic Transmission department, focusing on the migration from PDH to SDH technology.

In January 2013 Daniele was appointed Director of Engineering, IT & Security of Sparkle Mediterranean & Balkan Region where, since 2001, he has been holding several positions within Engineering & Operations departments.

Daniele holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Catania.

Andy is Chief Operating Officer of Seaborn. He is responsible for leading all aspects of Seaborn’s global operations and engineering. Over the past three decades, Andy has developed and brought into operation numerous transoceanic and regional submarine cable systems connecting Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East.

Andy previously served as Head of Regional Submarine Networks at Global Marine Systems, a preeminent subsea cable installation company. Prior to Global Marine, Andy was an early member of Global Crossing’s Network Team, where he brought into service all of Global Crossing’s submarine networks, and he led engineering and implementation of network upgrades and provisioning of customer circuits on the global submarine network. He also led planning, construction, and operation of Global Crossing’s global NOC

Andy began his submarine telecom career with FLAG (FEA Submarine System), where he was responsible for the successful commissioning and bringing into service of all 15 segments of the Europe to Asia submarine system and for the centralized management of the entire system from the FNOC in Fujairah, UAE.

Most recently, Andy led the project management for a new 1,240 km submarine fiber optic cable system linking Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname.

Andy served in the Royal Air Force where he received a degree in Electronic Engineering and Aerospace Studies, and thereafter entered the telecom industry with NYNEX in the UK.

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Ka Vin built his first data centre company i-STT in 1999 and brought Equinix to Asia with a merger in 2002. He spent the next 5 years growing the Equinix platform in Asia. He continued his successful career for the next 20 years where he built up 1-Net North, CyberCSF (now known as NTT Nexcenter) and TCCT Bangna. Well-connected in the data centre industry, Ka Vin co-founded Data Center First with the vision of building the NexGen DC platform that will be the crossroads of the digital world.

Artur has many years of general management and sales experience in an international environment predominantly within the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining Enxoo, Artur worked at T-mobile as a Chief Commercial Officer responsible for the B2B market in Poland, and before that, held different positions at GTS Central Europe incl. Senior Vice President of Infrastructure Services, Head of Marketing and Head of International Wholesale.

Between 2000 and 2009, Artur spent 10 years at TeliaSonera International Carrier where he was managing regional operations for West Europe, Central & Eastern Europe as well as Asia.

In his career, Artur played instrumental roles in conducting a transformation and restructuring telecommunication operations in multiple countries and regions. Artur has also driven a number of M&A activities successfully acquiring and integrating infrastructure operators in various markets.

Artur holds a master's degree in Management from Warsaw University and later obtained an Executive MBA from Warsaw University of Technology. Artur attended a number of executive programs including those at Stanford University, IMD and London Business School.

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25+ years experience in telecommunication, 15 years in sales dealing with Service Providers, major enterprises and System Integrators

Anuradha is an expert in the field of Telecom & Technology and currently working as a Senior Enterprise Solutions Architect at Sri Lanka Telecom. He has 18+ years of industry experience in strategy, architecture, engineering, design, plan, implementation, maintenance of CSP Networks, and solution designing. He is actively involved in the strategy formation of his company’s Digital Transformation, Softwarization (SDN, NFV, Cloud), and R&D.

He is an Award-Winning MEF Subject Matter Expert for SD-WAN.

Anuradha is also a regular invited speaker at many conferences. He also worked as a Visiting Industrial Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, as a guest lecturer at the University of Peradeniya, and as a faculty at CTO, UK. He holds a BSc. Eng.(Hons). He is also a senior member of IEEE, member of IET, BCS, and ISOC.

Director Supplier Management joined Expereo in 2015 but has been loving, living and breathing Internet since 14K4 modems in 1995 and still remembers the sound. Experience from content development to hardware distribution and from gaming to managed services. Always looking for partnerships with a win-win. Likes to keep things simple. Data-driven with a passion for automation. Fun fact: Loves to compare the quality of internet services with food and tailormade clothing.

Robert Jenkins is the co-founder and CEO of CloudSigma. Robert graduated from Cambridge University reading Economics and worked in the City of London’s financial district at companies including Bankers Trust and Deutsche Bank in their corporate finance divisions. He later specialised in early-stage capital investment and venture capital before becoming an entrepreneur in his own right. CloudSigma was founded in 2009 and Robert is responsible for leading the technological innovation of the company’s pure-cloud IaaS offering. Under Robert’s direction, CloudSigma has established an unprecedented open network of cloud-as-a-service locations with service providers worldwide.

Alessandro has 30 years of experience in telecoms and ICT, with particular skill in innovation and transformation. He covers the Italian market for Cambridge MC.
Alessandro carved out his career at Telecom Italia before moving to Telemedia International (TMI) where he was responsible for the design and implementation of the global backbone network and management of OPEX budgets. His input created OPEX savings of tens of millions (Euros).
Alessandro has also been a Director at Telecom Italia Sparkle, the subsidiary delivering international wholesale and corporate services. He was involved in a continuous network architecture review as well as innovative voice, roaming and messaging services.
Alessandro has served as Chairman of the Technical/IMS Group, the i3 forum and a member of the Steering Committee. He produces resources to provide international carriers with best practice guidelines for IP migration.
Alessandro lives in Rome and is interested in history, plays tennis and enjoys international travel.

Gint Atkinson is Vice President Network Strategy and Digital Architecture and leads the transformation for SES’s 5G, virtualization, cloud, and network platform architectures that unify multiple satellite constellations and deliver 5G services from the edge to the cloud. Prior to SES he was head of technology for Colt where he pioneered and launched the first large scale SDN, SD-WAN, and global Datacenter Interconnect services in 2012 offering on-demand elastic terabit services across 100 datacenters in Asia Pacific. Gint has worked in the networking, mobile, and emerging media industries over 32 years as a serial entrepreneur and innovator for start-ups and large service providers including T-Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, AT&T, KDDI, Virgin Media and others where he has led the development and first to market launch of industry changing technologies and services.

Brendan has over 20 years of professional related experience in sales and business development, marketing & customer experience; the development & implementation of new strategy and business plans. Brendan has impressive experience in leading teams to achieve exceptional results. He has previously held various senior management roles in Sales, Product development & Marketing functions in the Telecommunication industry. Working for Etisalat, UAE under the capacity of VP – Group Multinational Corporations, then as VP – UAE Global Services and recently working for Orange Business Services, UK as a Global Lead Director – Business Development.

Max Roettgermann is responsible for the portfolio of DDoS Defense products & services for Deutsche Telekom and its subsidiaries and has worked within the IP &  Peering team since 2009.

Max was part of the European research project ETICS (Economics and Technologies for Inter-Carrier Services), which contributed to the objective "Network of the Future".

Max joined the Deutsche Telekom group in 2001 and has held various positions within the company, including Head of Order and Project Management in the trade fair and event management department. Here he took responsibility for the IT services at several leading exhibitions at Messe Düsseldorf and the annual shareholder meetings for major German stock corporations.

Maxim Akinin has more then 20 years’ on telecom experience, including 6+ years’ management roles in Systems integration business in Russia and CIS, 4+ in business and sales management in Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel. Before joining Rostelecom Maxim was managing Level 3 Communications business in Russia and CIS in Country manager role. Since June 2017 Maxim Akinin is responsible for International Carrier Business at Rostelecom.

Ivo A. Ivanov is Chief Operating Officer of the DE-CIX Group AG and also - as Chief Executive Officer of DE-CIX International - responsible for the global business activities of the Internet Exchange Operator. Ivo has more than 15 years of experience in the regulatory, legal and commercial Internet environment.

Ivo joined DE-CIX in January 2007. In recent years, he has been deeply involved in the establishment of DE-CIX sites in North America, Southern Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia, as well as several DE-CIX consultancy projects in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Ivo has an educational background focused on Law and Business. Fluent in German, English, Russian and Bulgarian, he graduated from a German business school in 1995 and holds two Law degrees, from the Universities of Sofia (Bulgaria) and Bonn (Germany). After graduation, he worked as a lawyer, with a focus on e-commerce law, IP law, telecommunications law and data protection law.

Coming soon

A self-made technopreneur, academician and an ICT professional, Mr. Edsel Paglinawan has been
contributing more than 20 years of highly specialized experience in Telecommunications and IT
industries covering such domains as Network Operations, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources and
Product Management.
He is currently heading Product & Innovation Division of Eastern Communications, and is accountable in
formulating solutions portfolio strategy and roadmap, creating programs to achieve product
performance, and executing every phase of a product’s lifecycle: from ideation & development, to
market positioning.
A true business chief with a 'can do' attitude and a sustained passion for extreme customer delight, Mr.
Edsel Paglinawan is the customers’ advocate within his Eastern.

Martin has enjoyed a varied career in the telecommunications as both a Consultant and Senior Manager at different times and he has much experience in Network and Internet services. Prior to joining Equinix he worked in Cyber-Security for some years with leading three-letter agencies worldwide.

Martin has worked at Equinix since 2011 as a subject matter expert in networking and latterly business development focused on peering and interconnection. Martin’s role promotes all forms of peering and interconnection, primarily leveraging Equinix products: operated and hosted Internet Exchanges, Cloud Exchange Fabric, dark fibre infrastructure and Metro Connect services

Martin has two grown-up children and four grand-children and lives in the New Forest, Hampshire UK with his wife and stepson.

Carsten Schiefner has worked professionally with the Internet since 1996, especially with the DNS. His focus is on technical and non-technical aspects such as Internet policies, the interactions of the Internet with politics, society and the economy, and the service concept with new basic technologies. From 1996 to 2002, he was responsible for the external relations of Internet Service Provider TCP / IP and Primus Telecommunications. From 2002 to 2004 he was in the same position at RIPE NCC in Amsterdam. Carsten Schiefner then represented Deutsche Telekom as International Coordination Consultant and Telnic as "Registrar Relations and Policy Director" at Telnic. Carsten Schiefner has been a member of ICANN meetings since 1999 and has also been a member of DENIC's eGovernment Board since 1998.

Telecommunications Engineer with an MBA in Business and Administration from IESE Business School with 20 years of experience working for telecommunications operators.

Chair of the ACE submarine cable Commercial Group and responsible for the development of the commercial model. For the last 5 years has been holding the CEO position at AFRIX Telecom, developing state of the art Data Communication Networks in Africa.

Michael is an entrepreneur, expert, and strategic advisor in Network & Cloud automation & Intelligent operations.  He is the  Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Amartus. He is currently spear-heading new product innovation in the area of Inter-Provider Service Automation. From 2003 to 2015, he was CEO and led the company from start-up to leading industry innovator. In 2015, he oversaw the successful exit of the company's orchestration product business to Huawei in 2015 where he assumed the role of VP of Fixed Network OSS, responsible for new product innovation in Network Automation & Autonomous Networking. Michael’s experience combines deep commercial & technical expertise with active involvement in industry groups & standards to deliver ground-breaking solutions. Michael was recently appointed as co-chair of the MEF LSO Commitee, where he is working to drive the development and adoption of Inter and Intra provider standards. 

Bernhard Pusch is Head of Global Internet Strategy at Telstra.

Based in Paris, Bernhard is responsible for developing and driving Telstra’s Internet business and peering activities globally. He joined Telstra in 2005, and prior to his current role was responsible for developing the wholesale business in Continental Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well as with European OTTs.

Bernhard has more than two decades of experience in IT and telecoms in Europe and Asia, spanning roles in sales, product management and marketing. Before joining Telstra, Bernhard was Sales Director for Global Accounts at Nortel, based in Hong Kong.

In November 2019 Bernhard was elected to serve on the supervisory board of AMS-IX (Amsterdam Internet Exchange) for 3 years.  He is currently a member of the finance committee there supervising reporting and forecasting processes.

Antonella Sanguineti graduated in Electronic Engineering at Genoa University in 1996.

She started her career in ITALTEL Central Research department, focusing on design and management systems for optical telecommunication systems, moving later to Pirelli/Cisco and Marconi R&D.

She played an important role in System Design for optical systems in Ericsson, where she approached Product Management in 2006, growing as a leader for IP, Optical and Fronthaul telecommunications networks. She guided several multinational Product Management teams in Ericsson.

Antonella joined Sparkle in 2021, as head of Product Management Secure Cloud and Network Solutions team, driving an innovative portfolio of connectivity, cloud and security for Enterprises.

Maria Spicciola is Sgraduated in Telecommunications Engineering at the Turin Polytechnic in 2004. She attended the Program Management course at Reiss Romoli Institute and the Executive General Management course at LUISS Guido Carli.

She joined Telsy in 2004, holding important roles as R&D Engineer, Program and Presales Manager, Head of Engineering, Head of Product Owner  and Security Management Units. Today, she holds the position  of Technical Marketing Manager.

Halil Kama is a peering advisor for the London Internet Exchange (LINX). The largest non-profit purely mutual Internet Exchange operator in the world. He has several years experience of working at the heart of the internet with vast exposure to over 750+ of the top ranking internet & telecoms companies globally, enabling connections to millions of users daily.

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Ljubica Draskic is Head of Sales and Business Development at Smart CIC, with over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry and IT sector. She is responsible for sales in Europe, covering 28 countries including Russia and CIS, and Turkey. Prior to CITIC Telecom CPC, Ljubica worked as Regional Director for the entire CEE region at Interoute, as EMEA Director of technical support for Lucent Technologies and as European director for Huawei. Her excellent knowledge of IT technologies and the IT market made her an expert in her field. Her strength lies in developing strategies to achieve company goals and sales targets in multinational environments. Ljubica has a master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Belgrade.

Cristiano Zanforlin is the Chief Commercial Officer of MIX, Italy’s leading interconnection platform. With more than 20 years’ experience and a track record in building Italian Internet ecosystem based in Milan, he joined MIX in 2018. Before that he served as Sales Director in some of the leading Italian Data Center companies gaining specific knowledge in helping global players like Tier-1, OTT and CDNs to start up their point of presence in Italy. Cristiano graduated in Statistics from Università Statale of Milan.

Maria Cristina Mascione heads up a team of TIM Product Managers tasked with defining new solutions/products/offerings based on 5G & IoT for the Italian enterprise market. The team focuses on Smart Manufacturing, 5G Private Networks, E-Tourism and Media, E-Health, Drone, Smart Port solutions. Maria Cristina has a strong and successful background in e-commerce and marketing with consolidated experience in the highly competitive field of Telecoms services. She is an energetic goal-oriented team-builder and team-player. She has a deep understanding of the organization and operations of large, complex telecoms organizations and of the products and services offered – in particular with reference to retail consumer markets and enterprise markets.

Cristina Conti is an experienced technology lead, focusing on helping customers in their journey transformation to the cloud, from migration to embedding AI applications. She currently leads a team of cross-vertical customer engineers at Google Cloud. Prior to Google, Cristina worked at SAS Institute for 10 years in the machine learning space.

Cristina holds a Master’s Degree in Statistics and Biostatistics from University of Bologna, preparing her thesis at University of California, Berkeley. She currently lives in Milan with her husband and two kids.

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.