CEE 2021 GCCM - Berlin 2^nd & 3^rd 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.

Mrs. Schönborn studied Computer Science at the Berlin Technical University and worked as a businesswoman since being a student. She founded and raised an IT-Consulting Company in 1994, a town-planning and smart city company in 1999 and an innovation and digital transformation consultancy in 2012. 

After working with the newest technology trends for over 25 years, now Mrs. Schönborns focus is on empowering the  digital readiness. She works as a consultant for the Management to find new Business Models and empower the employees for the change process. She leads towards a new vision, sets up the Digital Office and she is one of the few experts that train the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) in leading the digital transformation. Mrs Schoönborn loves to think different, out-of-the-box, unconventional and lateral to find new insights and solutions for processes and the way people collaborate. easily, agile and successful.

coming soon

Fabrizio Salanitri is CEO and founder of HORISEN AG, Swiss software company with 17 years’ long experience in telecommunication software and application solutions. Fabrizio’s in depth knowledge and experience in SMS business resulted in state-of-art SMS Platform, cloud based and carrier neutral suite for A-Z SMS Wholesale business.
During his career, he’s been working with companies and industries of all sizes. Therefore, all HORISEN’s products and services are perfect for both enterprise and retail customers – and all of them have one thing in common: they are designed professionally and they are meeting the highest production quality and standards.

Charmond leads DCConnect Global on business development activities in the region, focusing on establishing an ecosystem of Data Centre partnerships and alliances while engaging in thelarge-scale digital transformation’s consultation for carriers and service providers. He expanded DCConnect Global beyond Hong Kong into regional countries with plans to cater to the SDN, Cloud and Data Centre connectivity markets.

Before DCConnect Global, Charmond served in senior management roles managing product strategy and business development within telecommunication carriers and vendor sectors, covering APAC with renowned companies and conglomerates. His experience spans various technology solutions such as SDN and blockchains,  focusing on future-proofing business operations through digital transformation and the introduction of automated DCI and Cloud Connectivity solutions for Data Centres, wholesales and retail markets.

Jens Leuchters is the managing director at NewTelco GmbH, where Jens is responsible for sales as well as product development. Jens develops the strategy for the SME market entry, as well as the digitization of internal business processes.

Jens has been in ICT since 1993 and started his career in internal IT at BT. Since 2003 he has been responsible for international management functions, including Interoute (GTT) and NTT.

As Regional Manager starting from 2003, Jens built the carrier business at Interoute. Next to this he was driving the enterprise GTM as well as the integration & migration of the acquired hosting provider PSI-Net in the DACH region.  In 2009 he took over the management of the Japanese NTT Communication for CEE as Region General Manager.  In 2016, Jens took over the SVP Network Services position in NTT Europe, where he pushed ahead with the transformation of the corporate network to SDWAN solutions and transferred the European Network BU into a global network factory.

Jens lives in the area around Frankfurt and is a passionate scuba diver and classic car fan.

Rafal Nowak is Regional Director of Operator Partnerships DACH at Infobip, based in Vienna.

Rafal is responsible for nurturing and developing relationships with mobile network operators in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This includes cooperation on current innovations such as Omnichannel SaaS, Mobile Identity or RCS but also growth management of the mobile wholesale business. Rafal, together with his regional team, advises MNOs and MVNOs on the aspects of future monetization of clustered telecom platforms, taking a proactive role as integrator and direct business enabler.

Prior to joining Infobip, Rafal worked on multiple international functions in the fintech sector, being responsible for major mobile payment projects and online gaming, with a focus on global market entries. Rafal studied journalism and communication at the University of Vienna.

After 13 years in Banking industry working on the evolution of BI and Payment Systems ( ATM & POS), Randal Vinchira decided to slaw his career into the telecommunications industry. In this new phase,12 years ago, he has been working in different roles and companies, gathering a big knowledge of the E2E Roaming Business process. Actually as DCH & FCH Leader in TGS, he is working in maximizing the synergies of incorporating Blockchain into the BigD and AI world for Roaming Business and the implementation of these technology for TGS customers

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.

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.

coming soon

Igor Skutsenya has 6 years of experience in the telecom industry, being a member of the LANCK team since 2017. He is involved in revenue assurance & anti-fraud projects, value-added services, management and business development sectors, and presents LANCK Telecom global anti-fraud initiatives in GSMA, CFCA, GCCM and other mobile associations & events.

In LANCK Telecom Igor works as a Business Development Manager.

Vladimir Smal is heading Sales & Procurement in the Global Messaging department of LANCK Telecom over the last 3 years. He was promoted to this position after proving himself as a successful team leader of Middle East, Africa & Asia market of Voice Sales department.

Vladimir has a profound experience in the Wholesale Telecom market, both in Voice & SMS. Over the last 13 years he has visited all major Telecom events. Vladimir is an active member of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum.

Vladimir started his job at LANCK Telecom as a Carrier Relations Manager in 2008 after graduating from Saint Petersburg State University. He holds degrees in Linguistics and Sociology.

After joining Expereo 11 years ago and setting up the first international Expereo office in Singapore back in 2008, Sander now works out of the HQ in Amsterdam as the Chief Commercial Officer. His team is spread out globally across 5 offices. Before joining Expereo Sander worked out of Australia for BT Global Services and Infonet Services Corp. His telecom career started in 1997 with Unisource Business Services and AT&T Unisource in Europe. Nice to know fact: before Sander went into telecom he was a helicopter pilot.

Krzysztof Zych, business transformation expert with over 25 years of experience in helping businesses to achieve ambitious goals with technology-led changes.  Founder and CEO of Enxoo - one of the fastest-growing independent Salesforce partners, specialized in the communications industry.

Prior to founding Enxoo, Krzysztof was CIO of GTS Central Europe responsible for business transformation and new, unified B/OSS architecture design and implementation with the largest Salesforce deployment in CEE at that time.

In the past, he created a CRM team in AMG.net (today part of ATOS) and managed a number of transformation projects for well-recognized brands like Orange Poland, Credit Agricole Leasing, Wana/Invi in Morocco, GTS Central Europe.

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 transformation.

Joanna is a global telecoms expert with close to a decade worth of experience in mobile messaging market. Since starting in this field, Joanna has performed numerous commercial and operational roles in the industry including launching the global A2P SMS hub for HGC Global Communications Limited as a part of core leadership team.

Currently, Joanna heads up Global Market Intelligence unit at HAUD  with a strong focus on working with Mobile Operators to help them stay in control of their networks, increase A2P revenues and build great customer experience.

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.

Daniel is a co-founder of Preiskel & Co and has over 20 years’ experience working in the telecoms, media and technology sectors, advising across the globe.  He has been ranked for over 15 years in major independent research guides as one of the world’s leading communications lawyers.

He is particularly recognised for commercial and regulatory work in the UK and overseas. He also advises various clients (including a major Korean handset manufacturer) on international investments and acquisitions as well as on major privatisations.  Recent work includes advising a group of mobile operators and content providers in reversing a decision of a European telecoms regulator.  He has recently been advising Japanese and Middle Eastern mobile network operators on MVNOs as well as advising a range of MVNOs & MVNAs in various continents.  Daniel, together with his international team, typically advises companies on the legal aspects of their multi-national services, with an increasing amount of advice on cloud issues, software as a service, privacy and data retention issues.

With over 27 years of managerial experience in different telecommunication fields, including six years as Security Executive Director - Chief Information Security Officer, and 6 years as Internal Audit Executive Director, Sami has extensive knowledge of information security, Telecom Fraud & Security, Cloud and multi-cloud Security, Internal Audit, Risk Management and Internal Control. As Telecom Engineer, Sami has also good expertise of telecommunication technologies and trends. He was Mobile Operation & Maintenance Director with Tunisie Telecom and supervised as Regional Director the infrastructure development for both fixed and mobile networks in three Tunisian departments.  Additionally, Sami is an expert assistant at the Tunisian University where he teaches Management Information Systems and Information Security. He holds an MBA of Paris Dauphine University-France and two Telecom Engineering diplomas of SUPCOM Tunisia.

Robert Staniszewski has been active on Poland’s mobile telephony market for 21 years now.

Since 2009 he has been the Director of the Wholesale Department at Polkomtel Sp. z o.o. (the operator of Plus mobile network) and Cyfrowy Polsat S.A. (the biggest pay TV provider in Central and Eastern Europe).

Robert Staniszewski is responsible for wholesale cooperation with Polish and foreign carriers. His responsibilities include:

- acquisition of partners, development of cooperation and maintaining of relations with telecommunication operators,

- sale and purchasing of  wholesale interconnect services, traffic exchange,

- sale and purchasing of international roaming services on wholesale basis,

- sale of national roaming and other services to MVNO’s,

- development of wholesale products to be offered via wholesale channels of Polkomtel/Cyfrowy Polsat,

- support for process of regulation of the wholesale telecommunication market in Poland

- wholesale settlements with partners.

Robert Staniszewski is a graduate of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of Warsaw University where he studied International Economy and completed his studies with a major in economic sciences. Subsequently he completed doctoral studies at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of Warsaw University, obtaining a Ph.D. title in Economic Sciences. Until  2006 he worked as an Assistant Professor and lecturer at the Chair of International Economic Relations of Warsaw University’s Faculty of Economic Sciences.

Florin Neamtu has over 25 years’ experience in electronics research and mobile telecoms in engineering and product technical/marketing roles. He is responsible for the introduction of new and innovative products into the signaling and data for the roaming market. Florin successfully launched iBASIS GRX/IPX service in 2011 and in 2013 the LTE Diameter Signaling for which today iBASIS is tier 1 player. In 2014 Florin launched iBASIS Award winning analytics platform - InVision, and under his leadership expanded the platform features to fully address international roaming traffic quality requirements. Florin is currently leading the development and market strategy of the iBASIS signaling and data security portfolio while driving strategic partnerships to implement unique set of solutions for the mobile roaming market. Florin is an active participant of GSMA Fraud & Security Working group and a passionate in cyber security research.

Worked at several TelCos (for example UUNET, LambdaNet, Level3, Colt Datacenter), in different areas like Enterprise Sales, Consulting, Datacenter Sales and Wholesales

Working for GlobalConnect since 2016

2018 Head of Marketing and PR with Berlin Internet Exchange

Now responsible within GlobalConnect Carrier for all German B-Ends and German GlobalAccounts in GCC

Alistair’s career spans over 20 years in the telecoms sector, during which time he has worked both within major UK telecoms operators including BT and Manx Telecom, as well as being instrumental in establishing and growing managed telecoms solutions providers. His focus on technical innovation combined with his experience in business development have enabled him to create strategic relationships to position these businesses at the forefront of their market and generate new revenue streams. During his time at Pod Group, he has been responsible for specialized projects within the Pod Solutions division, working with key partners and stakeholders to develop new products and services, drive the research and development of new technologies and build strategic partnerships with customers and suppliers.  

Paul Ruelas is Senior Director of Products at GTT. He brings over 30 years of expertise in telecommunications, networking, complex solution design, and product development. Paul has developed many products that enabled numerous global enterprises to transform their data communication infrastructures to improve business outcomes. Paul is an industry thought-leader in communication transformation and on topics such as AI, SASE/SD-WAN, NFV, and multi-cloud connectivity. Before joining GTT, Paul held senior product management leadership positions with Verizon, Frontier Communications, and Masergy.

Sunil David has 27 years of experience in the IT and Telecom industry and is the Regional Director ( IOT ) for AT&T India , and is  based in Chennai . He is  responsible for building the IOT strategy for the India and  the ASEAN regions and working with various internal stakeholders to ensure  successful execution , working on building a robust partner ecosystem for AT&T in the entire IOT value chain (Devices, Platforms and Applications ) and also working on a number of Marketing initiatives to help enhance the AT&T brand in the IOT space.

In March 2021 , Sunil was bestowed with the “ Indian Achievers Award “ for year 2020-21 for Outstanding Professional Achievement and Contribution in Nation Building conferred by the Indian Achievers Forum , a 20 year old Govt of India recognized body that promotes achievements which inspire Businesses and Communities.

On 7^th Feb 2020, Sunil was  awarded as “ India’s Fastest Growing Leaders 2019-20- Pride of the Nation ” at the 13^th edition of the Asian Business and Social Forum at Bangkok to recognize Asia’s greatest brands and leaders by an International media house Asia One Magazine part of UWG Holdings.

Sunil was  recognized by the World Marketing Congress in Nov 2017  as one of the 50 Most Influential Digital Marketing Leaders across India .   

 For two years in a row,  Sep 2018 and Sep 2019  , Sunil was honored with the “ Eminent Jury Member “ award  at the Asian Business and Social Forum -2018 and 2019 : India’s Greatest Brand and Leaders 2017-18 and 2018-19 , Pride of India series organized by Asia One Magazine part of UWG Holdings.

Sunil has spoken at more than 100  Industry forums in India and abroad (including virtual events)  organized by leading industry bodies like  COAI,  CII,  IAMAI ,  Cyber Media, NASSCOM , ASSOCHAM ,Geospatial , IET , Singex  , Konnect Worldwide etc  ) and Educational institutions including IIM Shillong,   IIT Delhi ,  IIT Madras,  SITM Pune,  in the past 3 years  on topics related to IOT , AI , Cyber Security  , Digital Transformation  etc .  Sunil has also written articles related to Smart Cities, Use of IOT in Shipping industry ,  Digital Transformation , Disruptive Technologies, 5G,  IOT Security for leading B2B publications from ADI Media and CIO Review  that has a wide circulation amongst the CIO community in India.

Coming soon

Finn is Director of Product Management for CSG’s Digital Wholesale suite with global responsibilities. In this role, Finn leads the strategy and product directions for CSG’s wholesale offerings for the Carrier and Service Provider market. As an expert in digital wholesale, Finn regularly speaks at conferences around the globe on subjects ranging from trading, settlement, routing, antifraud to service assurance. Finn is also a member of several industry forums such as the GSMA, I3Forum, GSC and GLF/CBAN blockchain workgroup. With over 20 years of experience in the high-tech business, Finn held Product Management positions at Ericsson and Nortel Networks before joining CSG. He is also the co-founder of a routing optimisation business acquired by Intec Telecoms, now CSG.

Mundhir Al Raisi, is in Telecommunications industry since 1998 with broad experience in transmission systems (fixed and satellite). Currently heading Omantel Wholesale Service Delivery and Traffic Management department as Senior Manager. Mundhir is also an active contributor to the submarine world being a co-chair of Europe India Gateway (EIG) Assignment, Routing and Restoration subcommittee. In addition, playing a vast role in other leading submarine systems such as Bay of Bengal (BBG), Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1) and many others.

Mundhir holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Coventry University (UK) and is a certified member of Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM).

Mundhir was the project engineer of launching two MVNO’s, Leading and managing all related departments tasks to enable and integrate into Omantel network. Also, implemented all major content delivery network (CDN) nodes. Currently, working on upgrading AAE-1 cable system landing in France (Omantel France) PoP’s in Interxion MRS1 & MRS2 and team member of Equinix Oman data center buildup.

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.

Catherine Maguire is an experienced telecom professional with experience in the field of future messaging with a particular focus on Rich Communications Services (RCS).

Catherine is currently a Product Manager at BT with a focus on Future Messaging strategy and rollout. Prior to BT Catherine held the position of RCS Ecosystem Engagement Manager with GSMA, she convened the main users and providers of business messaging through a series of online and face-to-face events to evangelise and promote business messaging via RCS, leading to multiple network launches and successful campaigns. She was also responsible for steering and providing supporting collateral for go-to-market activities by field sales teams worldwide. Catherine also worked as an Account Manager at mGage where she managed the messaging strategy for a large British food retailer.

Before focusing  on messaging, Catherine worked as Co-ordinator for the mobile industries’ C-level co-ordinating body. Previous to working in telecoms Catherine worked as Project Manager at Fujitsu, a Policy Advisor for the Scottish Parliament and a paralegal for the NHS in Northern Ireland. She holds a Bachelor of Law degree from University of Dundee and is a qualified PRINCE 2 practitioner.

Bernardo Arnaud has built a career in telecommunications and mobile marketing since 2009, being involved with systems development since 2005. He is the founder of StarkSat, a company developing crop monitoring systems and urban area mapping solutions through satellite imagery analysis and IoT sensors hybrid systems. Mr. Arnaud also founded StarkSMS and UNIDIRE, messaging companies with focus on systems supporting IoT hardware and chatbot platforms with time sensitive delivery tasks in markets like Brazil, India, Europe and Africa. His companies multi-channel platforms serve clients in industries like farming, banking, healthcare, retail, logistics and entertainment.

coming soon