Annual Conference 2019

Denis O’Brien is chairman of Digicel Group, a Digital Operator headquartered in Jamaica. He has been chairman of Digicel’s board of directors since 2000.

Mr O’Brien founded Esat Telecom Group in 1991 to compete against the former state-owned telephone company in Ireland, Eircom plc. In October 1997, Esat, of which Mr O’Brien was chairman and chief executive officer, listed on Nasdaq Easdaq and the Iseq establishing itself as the number two telecommunications company across the full spectrum of telecommunications services, fixed-line, GSM mobile, data and internet services and brought real competition and choice to the Irish telecommunications market. Esat Telecom Group plc was sold to British Telecom Group plc in January 2000 for $2.8 billion.

Mr O’Brien was voted Ireland’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998 in the inaugural running of the worldwide competition organised and sponsored by Ernst & Young. He was also the recipient of a 2007 Business & Finance Award for Business Person of the Year.

Mr O’Brien is also a director of a number of private companies, which hold some of his other business interests including Quinta do Lago SA, and Topaz Energy Group Limited. Mr O’Brien was the chairman of Communicorp Group Limited until 2021, when Bauer Media Group acquired the company. In addition, Mr O’Brien chaired the 2003 Special Olympics Summer Games’ organising committee and now serves as the chairman of Special Olympics Ireland’s Council of Patrons.

Mr O’Brien is a philanthropist who established two foundations, the Iris O’Brien Foundation and the Digicel Foundation. The Digicel Foundation has invested over US$150 million into community development projects across Haiti, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and Trinidad and Tobago.

Mr O’Brien holds a BA from University College Dublin, an MBA from Boston College, and he has an honorary Doctorate of Laws from University College Dublin.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin was elected Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau on the 1st of November 2018. She took office on the 1st of January 2019.

A strategic leader with high-level experience in international and inter-governmental relations, she has a history of success in policy and strategy development, analysis and execution.

Ms Bogdan-Martin serves as Coordinator of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development and, from 2008-2018, led the Strategic Planning & Membership Department of ITU. She also served as Coordinator of United Nations affairs for the organization, putting ITU at the centre of digital aspects of sustainable development.

Ms Bogdan-Martin previously headed the Regulatory and Market Environment Division of the Telecommunication Development Bureau and was responsible for the programmes on Regulatory Reform and Economics and Finance.

Among her other achievements, Ms Bogdan-Martin was one of the principal architects of the annual Global Symposium for Regulators, directed ITU’s first global youth summit #BYND2015, and is currently driving ITU latest high-profile initiative – EQUALS, the Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age.

Prior to joining ITU, Ms Bogdan-Martin was a Telecommunications Policy Specialist in the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA), US Department of Commerce.

With a Master’s degree in International Communications Policy from the American University in Washington, DC, Ms Bogdan-Martin completed post-graduate certification in Strategies for Leadership at the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. She is also certified in Accountability and Ethics by the United Nations Leaders Programme.

Additionally, Ms Bogdan-Martin is an affiliate of the Harvard University Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society, currently serves as the Co-Chair of the United Nations Strategic Planning Group, Chair of the Academic Council for the Swiss Network for International Studies, and is a member of the Board of Governors of the UN Staff College.

Lord Clement-Jones is a Consultant of global law firm DLA Piper. Former positions within DLA include London Managing Partner (2011-16), Head of UK Government Affairs, Chairman of its China and Middle East Desks, International Business Relations Partner and Co-Chairman of Global Government Relations. Lord Clement-Jones is Chair of Ombudsman Services Limited, the not for profit, independent ombudsman service providing dispute resolution for the communications, energy, property and copyright licensing industries. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Airmic (the Association of Insurance and Risk Managers in Industry and Commerce) and Board Member of the Corporate Finance Faculty of the ICAEW.

Lord Clement-Jones was made CBE for political services in 1988 and life peer in 1998. Until July 2004 he was the Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman and thereafter until 2010 Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport, in the House of Lords. He is the current House of Lords Liberal Democrat spokesman for Digital and a former spokesman on the Creative Industries (2015-17). He is the former Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence (2017-18) and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence. Lord Clement-Jones is Deputy Chair of the APPG on China and Vice-Chair of the APPG on Intellectual Property. He is Chair of Council of Queen Mary University of London and Chair of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Ethical AI in Education, led by Sir Anthony Seldon. Lord Clement-Jones was an external member of the Council of University College London and Chair of its Audit Committee (2012-17). He is President of Ambitious About Autism, an autism education charity and school for children with autism and other communication disorders and its former Chairman (2001-08).

Susannah Storey was appointed Director General for Digital and Media Policy in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in July 2019.

Prior to this role, Ms Storey was Director General at the Department for Exiting the European Union. Before joining DExEU, she held a number of director roles at BEIS, DECC and UK Government Investments, including as a non-executive director of the Post Office.

Tom Hooper is the Oscar-winning film director of The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl. He is currently working on the feature film version of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical Cats. He is on the Board of Channel 4. He directed the two opening episodes of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials for BBC/HBO, due to start in November. Aged 13, Tom directed his first film – Runaway Dog.

Catherine Tait was appointed President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada on April 3, 2018, for a five-year term. She began her mandate on July 3, 2018. Catherine is also the Chair of the Global Task Force for Public Media, an initiative of the Public Media Alliance launched in September 2019.

As President and CEO, Catherine is responsible for overseeing the management of CBC/Radio-Canada to ensure that Canada’s national public broadcaster can deliver on the various aspects of its mandate and continue to offer Canadians a broad spectrum of high-quality programming that informs, enlightens and entertains, and that is created by, for and about Canadians.

Prior to her appointment, Ms Tait co-founded New York-based Duopoly Inc, an independent film, television and digital content company, which she led as President from 2002 to 2018. She also co-founded iThentic, a digital content company, in 2006 and Hollywood Suite in 2010, a broadcasting company in Canada. Catherine was also previously the President and COO of Salter Street Films from 1997 to 2001. She has experience working for the Government of Canada as Director and Cultural Attaché with the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, and as Manager of Policy and Planning for Telefilm Canada where her passion for Canadian film and television content was ignited.

She’s been a member of a number of industry-specific boards including Comweb Group, DHX Media LTD, Hollywood Suite (which she co-founded), iThentic Inc, eOne Entertainment, CHUM Ltd, Aliant Inc, Rogers Mobile Film Fund and the Canadian Film and Television Production Association.

Ms Tait holds a Diplôme d’Études Approfondies, Communications Theory from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (1983), a Master of Science from Boston University’s School of Public Communication (1982) and a Bachelor of Arts (Hon) in Literature and Philosophy from the University of Toronto (1979).

Ms Tait was named Playback’s Executive of the Year in 2019 and Woman of the Year 2021-2022 by Women in Communications and Technology.

Craig McMurtrie was appointed Editorial Director of the ABC in February 2019.

He is responsible for oversight of editorial processes at Australia’s national public broadcaster and provides advice on policy and editorial decision making, to ensure the ABC continues to deliver public interest journalism of the highest standard.

Mr McMurtrie has previously been Executive Editor and Deputy Director of News, Analysis and Investigations with oversight over network newsrooms, radio and television news networks, digital output and international news services. Prior to that he was Head of ABC Newsgathering from 2012 to 2015 and has held other senior news management positions.

He is a former ABC Parliament House Bureau Chief and served two postings in the ABC’s Washington bureau first as a correspondent and then as bureau chief. He is also a former foreign correspondent for Television New Zealand.

Mr McMurtrie media career spans four decades, he has been an ABC journalist for 27 years.

Magnus Brooke is Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at ITV plc with overall responsibility for ITV’s policy and regulatory strategy and its interaction with UK and European regulators and government. Mr Brooke is a non-executive director of the news provider ITN as well as a number of ITV subsidiaries and joint venture companies including SDN and Digital UK. From 2014-19 Magnus was Chairman of the Board of the Brussels based Association of Commercial Television in Europe which represents Europe’s commercial broadcasters to the EU institutions. Prior to joining ITV in July 2006 he was Head of the BBC Director General’s Office for three years first for Greg Dyke and subsequently for Mark Thompson. Mr Brooke began his career as a solicitor specialising in regulatory and competition law for media companies and investors at city of London solicitors Ashursts where he also trained.

Adrian Cannon started as a lawyer in feature films and factual content at Beyond International and then Becker Entertainment (Dendy Films) developing, acquiring and distributing entertainment content. He then moved into sports content at FOX SPORTS Australia. Following two years in private practice, he took on regional roles at ESPN STAR Sports in Singapore, FOX Networks Group in Hong Kong and Eleven Sports Network (Singapore). After seven years in South East Asia, Mr Cannon returned to FOX SPORTS Australia to provide legal services for the content and technology behind several OTT platforms and continued his advocacy work on content protection and regulatory matters.

Mr Cannon is a member of the ASTRA Legal and Policy Committee and has a passionate interest in content, music and technology. He is also a professional musician and post-production digital audio engineer.

Adriana Labardini Inzunza is currently an independent public interest lawyer and consumer rights expert, she has always acted afar from political, partisan and corporate interests and has fought to deter anticompetitive practices and eliminate barriers to competition. She has promoted initiatives to bridge the digital divide, promote rural and indigenous connectivity and media, at the same time as she has insisted to embed innovation in the agency, build consumer empowerment tools, work permanently towards gender equality and effective implementation and enforcement of regulation.

Ms Labardini served as Secretary of the Board of COFETEL, the former, telecommunications agency (1999-2003); practiced law in a major law firm, specialising in the areas of corporate, administrative and telecommunications law (1986- 1998). Upon her return to Mexico after completing the H. Humphrey Fellowship in North Carolina, UNC and Duke (2003-2004), she co-founded Alconsumidor, a nonprofit watchdog, pioneer in advocating for consumer rights and consumer class actions, a project that ended in a constitutional and legal reform.

Ms Labardini is a Fulbright scholar and a Hubert Humphrey and Ashoka Fellow. She is a professor at the Escuela Libre de Derecho LLM program in Mexico City and has lectured at CIDE, UNAM, ITAM, ITESM, UP as visiting professor.

She obtained her law degree cum laude from Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City in 1987 and her Masters degree (LLM) from Columbia University in New York, on a Fulbright scholar in 1991. For four and a half years she has served as Commissioner at the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT), the Mexican independent regulatory body and competition authority for telecommunications and broadcasting industries. She also chaired the IFT for an interim term in the fall of 2017. Her tenure ended on February 28th, 2018.

In such capacity she has successfully led efforts to create a research center within IFT, strengthen regional and international relations among regulators, such as FCC, CRTC, and through Regulatel, BEREC and IIC; she has fought for pluralism in media, truly independent public media as well as initiatives for inclusion & accessibility and innovating the regulator. During the first two years of her tenure, she was the Commissioner in charge of transparency and access to public information at IFT and a member of the Ethics Committee.

Dr Andrea Jelinek became head of the Austrian Data Protection Authority on 1 January 2014.

Since February 2018, she has also been the Chair of the Article 29 Working Party.

While still a student, Dr Jelinek started her career working as a consultant at the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), later as a trainee lawyer and from 1991 as a legal officer at the General Secretariat of the Austrian Rectors’ Conference. Two years later, she moved to the Ministry of the Interior, where she first worked as a legal officer and later as head of department in the legal and legislative department. One of Dr Jelinek’s specialisations – asylum and immigration law – helped determine her further career. From October 2010 to June 2011 she was head of the Vienna Foreign Police. Before that, in 2003, she was the first woman in Vienna to be appointed head of a Police Commissioner’s Office.

Andrew Barendse is Head of Regulatory Affairs Vodacom SA where he is responsible for managing all regulatory issues in SA.

Dr Barendse offers over twenty five years’ experience in the telecoms sector, including five years at Board level (Telkom International [Pty] Ltd, International Institute of Communications) and over ten years in academia (Delft University of Technology, University of Witwatersrand). Dr Barendse is a published researcher presenting a global footprint in telecoms policy (including a five-year residence in the Netherlands).

He holds a Ph.D from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, an MBA from the University of Cape Town and a B.Ed from the University of Johannesburg.

Angel Fu is an associate in the antitrust team at Clifford Chance, Sydney. Her experience includes advising firms in the tech and media sectors as well as on a broad range of matters including merger clearance, investigations, litigation and market / sector inquiries.

Ann LaFrance retired from Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP on 30 June 2022.  She was a senior partner in the New York office of Squire Patton Boggs and a founding member of the Firm’s global Data Practice. She was also an active participant in the Firm’s Communications Law Practice. Her experience covers a broad range of issues affecting the provision and regulation of advanced digital services and applications in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

Ms LaFrance began her legal career in 1980 with Squire in Washington, DC, where her practice focused on US and international telecommunications transactions, regulation and legislation. In 1996, she moved in-house to work as Chief International Counsel of MCI Communications Corp. (now Verizon), based in Washington, Brussels and London. Following her return to private practice in the Firm’s London office in 2004, she has advised a broad range of tech, telecom and multinational clients operating across a variety of sectors, as well as government and regulatory bodies, on data protection policy, GDPR compliance, international transfer agreements, AI ethical guidelines, blockchain, regulation of dominant operators, and the interplay between regulated “electronic communications” status and privacy laws in Europe, the U.S. and around the globe. Since her return to the U.S. in 2019, Ms LaFrance continues to advise on complex cross-border data protection, e-privacy and cybersecurity matters, including transfer risk assessments post Schrems II and integrated approaches to global data protection compliance. She is currently advising clients on the new wave of U.S. state privacy laws that will take effect in 2023.

Ms LaFrance served as the Firm’s first Data Protection Officer in the UK and the EU and on the Firm’s data governance board. She is a Member of the Board of the International Institute of Communications and currently serves as its Vice President.

She is admitted to practice in New York, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia and is a Registered Foreign Lawyer in England and Wales.

Bojana Bellamy is the President of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL), a preeminent global information policy think tank located in Washington, DC, London and Brussels. With more than 20 years of experience and deep knowledge of global data privacy and cybersecurity law, compliance and policy, she has a proven industry record in designing strategy, and building and managing data privacy compliance programs. Ms Bellamy was one of 20 privacy experts to participate in the transatlantic “Privacy Bridge Project” from 2014 – 2015 that sought to develop practical solutions to bridge the gap between European and US privacy regimes.

Currently, Ms Bellamy sits on the Datum Future Advisory Board, the Internet Commission Advisory Board and the OECD’s Privacy Guidelines Expert Group. She participates in many industry groups and is a regular speaker at international privacy and data security conferences. Ms Bellamy was also the recipient of the 2019 International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Vanguard Award, which recognizes privacy professionals for outstanding leadership, knowledge and creativity in the field of privacy and data protection.

Prior to joining CIPL, Ms Bellamy served for 12 years as the Global Director of Data Privacy at Accenture, and worked for eight years as Principal Consultant with Privacy Laws & Business.

Dr Bruno Soria is an Associate Director in NERA’s Communications, Internet, and Media Practice, based in Madrid. He has extensive experience advising companies, trade associations, and public administrations throughout Europe and Latin America on economics, regulation, and strategy of telecommunications and other digital services. Dr Soria’s work focuses on the economics of competition and deployment of fibre and mobile broadband networks; the impact of regulation and competition policy on the digital economy; and the valuation of spectrum and Internet businesses.

Dr Soria holds a PhD in Economics, a MSc in Telecommunications Engineering and a MBA. He is a guest professor at the University of Barcelona, where he lectures on Telecommunications Economics and Regulation in the Master’s Degree program on Economics, Regulation and Competition in Public Services. He regularly presents his work at academic conferences and publishes in telecommunications books and peer-reviewed journals.

Camilo Alberto Jiménez Santofimio is Commissioner, Commission for Communications Regulation of Colombia (CRC).

Mr Jiménez has worked for various private and public telecommunication companies, such as Leading Projects Engineer for the National Television Commission (CNTV), Engineer, Spectrum Management and Planning Section at the National Spectrum Agency (ANE), Senior Consultant at Commission for Communications Regulation (CRC), and the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications (MinTIC), where he led the Infrastructure Division.

Mr Jiménez is an Electronic Engineer from the National University of Colombia and a specialist in Projects Management from EAN University. He holds a Master’s degree in Administration from Javeriana University.

Carlos Rey-Moreno holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and is the co-founder and board member of Zenzeleni Networks. Currently, he coordinates the Policy and Regulatory work of the Associations for Progressive Communications to create a more enabling regulatory framework for small operators and community networks. As part of that, he has provided training to regional regulatory associations and policy makers in Africa, authored reports and written submissions to public consultations on the topic and participated frequently as speaker and convener in internet governance and similar telecommunications policy fora. In addition, while studying how to scale Zenzeleni Networks, he has contributed to the community networks movement in Africa by participating in the deployment of other community networks, mapping the initiatives in the continent, co-organising the first four editions of the Summit of Community Networks in Africa, and authoring an in-depth report on the topic.

Cate Nymann is a Senior Manager with Cisco’s Government Affairs and Public Policy team and is an expert on EU broadband and telecoms policy as well as digital trade. She takes a leading role within industry amongst others as the chair of DIGITALEUROPE’s Working Group on Digital Infrastructure and Services as well as one of the Vice-Chairs of the Digital Economy Committee of AmCham EU.

Prior to joining Cisco, Ms Nymann was the Head of Office for a Danish Member of European Parliament (MEP), at the time Vice-Chair & Coordinator in the Parliament’s Industry Committee (2009-2014). She has also worked as an advisor on European Affairs in the Danish national Parliament.

Ms Nymann holds an MSc in EU Politics and Government from the London School of Economics and Political Science

Professor Chen-Ling Hung is Director of the Graduate Institute of Journalism, National Taiwan University (NTU). She is also Director of the Multimedia Center at NTU.

Between 2016 and 2020, Professor Hung served as the Commissioner of the National Communications Commission, the media regulator in Taiwan. During her term, she worked on regulation regarding media content and structure and helped to improve enforcement of truth verification of broadcasting news.

Professor Hung works with media reform organisations and sits on the board of directors of the Taiwan Media Watch Foundation. She was the Convenor of the Campaign for Media Reform and is now a member of the council in this organization.

Chris Chapman was appointed President of the International Institute of Communications on 1 April 2016. He is also Chair of the IIC Nominations Committee.

Mr Chapman previously held the position of Chairman and CEO of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). He was appointed in February 2006 and was re-appointed for a 2nd five year term in October 2010 until April 2016. He was appointed an Associate Member of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in September 2007.

Mr Chapman is a seasoned executive with experience in the media, broadcasting and film, internet, telecommunications, sports rights and infrastructure development worlds.

Before joining ACMA, Mr Chapman held a number of senior management positions with the Seven Network, Stadium Australia Management, Optus and Babcock & Brown. He has also been the Chairman of Film Australia and Sports Vision Australia, and a previous member of the National Film and Sound Archives’ Advisory Council.

Mr Chapman has a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales and has completed the Harvard Business School AMP program.

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 sits on various Ofcom Steering Groups.

Mr Woolford is active in various European spectrum committees and is currently Chairman of the CEPT Electronic Communications Committee (ECC). He has closely engaged for the UK on a number of key European initiatives, including the development of the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme, and UK initiatives in relation to the ITU. Mr Woolford led the UK delegations to WRC-15 and WRC-12 and is currently preparing to lead the UK Delegation to WRC-19.

Before joining Ofcom, Mr Woolford worked in various UK Government Departments, including 6 years at Oftel, where he worked on different aspects of telecommunications regulation.

Mr Woolford has a degree in mathematics and statistics from Manchester University.

Clare Sumner CBE joined the BBC in January 2014 as the Chief of Staff to the BBC Director-General during the Charter Review.

Ms Sumner is now the BBC’s Director, Policy leading the development of UK and EU public policy in areas of strategic importance to the BBC, as well as leading the BBC’s government relations at UK and EU levels. Ms Sumner is also responsible for the BBC’s regulatory strategy and the relationship with the BBC’s regulator, Ofcom.

Prior to this, Ms Sumner worked for the Civil Service in a variety of roles including leading the Civil Service Reform Programme, managing the Criminal Courts and working in the heart of Government both in the Cabinet Office and as Private Secretary to the Prime Minister leading on the legislative programme and Prime Minister’s Questions. Over her career Clare has advised on a wide range of Government policy and has specialised in constitutional, media and criminal justice policy.

Ms Sumner has held board level positions as a NED/trustee in the charity sector, education and the NHS.

Cordel Green is Executive Director of the Broadcasting Commission, which regulates radio, television and cable in Jamaica, and he is helping to lead Jamaica’s Digital Television Transition process.

Mr Green has been appointed to the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO and represents Jamaica on UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Council for the Information For All Programme (IFAP). He is also Vice-Chair of the International Bureau for IFAP and Chairman of the IFAP Working Group on Information Accessibility. His other affiliations include being a Vice-Chair (Caribbean), International Centre for Information Ethics (ICIE); Member of the Law Committee for the IEEE Global Initiative for Ethical Consideration in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems; Member of the IEEE Working Group on Trustworthiness in News; Member of the IEEE Working Group on Recommended Practice for Organizational Governance of AI; Advisory Board member of the Society for Scientific Advancement (SOSA); and honorary member of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (Washington DC).

Mr Green holds Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) and Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) degrees from the University of the West Indies, a Master of Laws Degree with distinction, from the University of Sheffield in England, a Master of Business Administration degree from the Mona School of Business, and is an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education Programme and a Chevening Scholar.

David Fares joined The Walt Disney Company in March 2019 as Vice President, Global Public Policy. Previously, Mr Fares served as Senior Vice President of Government Relations at 21st Century Fox and Vice President of E-commerce and Telecommunications at the United States Council for International Business (USCIB).

Mr Fares is a graduate of the European Union Today and Tomorrow Programme at the Institut, d’Etudes Politique de Paris, the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (MIA), Capital University Law School (cum laude, JD) and the University of Notre Dame (BA).

Derek Wilding is based in the Faculty of Law at University of Technology Sydney where he is the Co-Director of the Centre for Media Transition.

Dr Wilding has worked in statutory and industry-based regulatory positions, specialising in media and communications regulation. He was Executive Director of the Australian Press Council, manager of media ownership and control at the Australian Communications and Media Authority and Director of the Communications Law Centre at University of New South Wales. He has also worked for the Office of Film and Literature Classification and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

Dr Wilding is currently a chief investigator on a three-year research project examining media pluralism and online news (funded by the Australian Research Council) and a two-year research project on consumer and public participation in industry rule-making in the communications sector. The Centre for Media Transition is conducting externally-funded research into the impact of digital platforms on news and journalistic content and the state of trust in news media.

Dr Wilding is a member of the IIC Board and is Chair of IIC Programme and Market Insight Committee.

Edward Zhou is Vice President of Global Public Affairs for Huawei. He is in charge of government communications aiming to be the advisor to national governments, contribute to ICT policies and standards formulation in host countries, expand the market for Huawei, and build competitive edges.

Mr Zhou joined Huawei in 1996 and has over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry and played a key role in many of global milestone projects in Huawei.

Mr Zhou has held several senior positions in the company. He worked as Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Europe, participating in the development of the European telecommunication market. After this he took over the position of Vice President for Huawei Japan which was responsible for solutions and marketing, focusing on Carrier Business. Mr Zhou was leading the collaboration with Softbank, NTT Docomo, SKT and other leading telecom operators in 5G trial and wireless network reconstruction in Japan and Korea.

Fanny Hidvegi (@infofannny) is Access Now’s Europe Policy Manager based in Brussels. She develops Access Now’s European policy strategy and manages the EU office. Ms Hidvegi got appointed to the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, she serves on the board of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), and she is a Marshall Memorial Fellow (2019-20). Previously, Ms Hidvegi was International Privacy Fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC where she focused on EU-US data transfers. For three years Ms Hidvegi led the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Program of the HCLU where she engaged in strategic litigation with journalists and other NGOs, participated in the fight against the national data retention law in Hungary, and promoted privacy enhancing technologies. There, she gained experience on how to operate as a human rights advocate in a restrictive environment. Ms Hidvegi has also worked as a consumer protection lawyer both in the public and the private sector.

Ms Hidvegi has a law degree from Eötvös Loránd University Budapest and she spent one academic year at the University of Florence.

Gabriel Solomon is Head of Government & Industry Relations, Europe & Latin America. He runs Ericsson’s regulatory and policy practise across some 110 countries. He has more than 25 years international experience of the communications industry, in roles spanning the different business functions.

Before joining Ericsson, Mr Solomon served as Vice President, Public Policy at the GSMA where he developed a comprehensive portfolio of policy and regulatory strategies and led multiple advocacy initiatives. Earlier in his career, Mr Solomon worked in management consultancy and established commercial technology ventures in Africa, Asia and Europe.

He has a MBA from INSEAD and volunteers as Chairman of the UK Telecommunications Academy.

Gita Sorensen is the Founder Director of GOS Consulting, specialising in regulatory and commercial strategy in electronic communications. Ms Sorensen has 29 years’ experience including 12 years in senior management and director roles before becoming a consultant. Ms Sorensen provides consultancy and expert witness services. She has worked for fixed and mobile operators, service providers, governments, regulators, suppliers and investors worldwide.

Giuseppe D’Acquisto is Senior Technology Advisor for the Italian Data Protection Authority (the Garante). He represents the Garante within the Technology Expert Subgroup of the European Data Protection Board, being rapporteur in various opinions and working documents (e.g. anonymization techniques, cloud computing, collaborative intelligent transport systems, e-privacy GDPR interplay). He has been appointed national expert by the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) in the development of guidelines for Privacy by design in Big Data and of guidelines for personal data security risk assessment, and by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the implementation of a policy for the anonymization of clinical data records.

He holds a full degree in electronic engineering and a PhD in computer science.

Grace Koh is Head of Office and Vice President, Government Affairs, North America, Nokia. Before coming to Nokia, she served as the U.S. Ambassador to the International Telecommunication Union’s World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, where she led the 125-member delegation in negotiating successful outcomes for U.S. spectrum and satellite policy.

She has also served as Special Assistant to the President for Technology, Telecom, and Cyber-Security Policy. In this role, she advised the President and other senior White House staff on all matters pertaining to technology policy. Koh previously served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Her primary role was to advise the chairmen and committee members on policy and legal issues arising in the telecommunications and technology sectors. Ms Koh has also held jobs in the private sector, as a partner in the Telecom Law Group at DLA Piper LLC and also as Policy Counsel at Cox Enterprises, Inc.’s Public Policy Office. She began her legal career at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Hanna Stjärne started her journalistic career as a reporter, news anchor and foreign correspondent at Sveriges Radio, moving on to various management positions at the company. She eventually left public service to become CEO and Editor in Chief at the newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning, and during her leadership, the paper was awarded several prizes – among them a prize for best digital cultural journalism.

In 2010 Ms Stjärne was awarded Best female media executive. In 2014 she left commercial media to return to public service as she was appointed CEO at SVT. A new vision for SVT ”We contribute to a more informed and inquisitive Sweden” has been launched during her leadership. A leadership that has focused strongly on digitalization and creating a modern public service company that engages all of Sweden.

Dr Hielke Hijmans is Chairman of the Litigation chamber and Member of the Board of Directors of the Belgian Data Protection Authority (“Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit/Autorité de la Protection des Donnnées).

On a part time basis, he is affiliated to the Brussels Privacy Hub. He is Member of the Meijers Committee on EU fundamental rights and teaches at various universities. He is the author of The European Union as Guardian of Internet Privacy: The Story of Art 16 TFEU (Springer 2016), which was based on his doctorate thesis.

Until April 2019, Dr Hijmans delivered services on a structural basis to the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (Washington, London, Brussels) and Considerati (Amsterdam). For 12 years (until 2016), Dr Hijmans served at the offices of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), inter alia as head of unit policy and consultation. Before joining the EDPS in 2004, he held a post as member of cabinet/legal secretary at the Cabinet of Advocate-General Geelhoed at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. Furthermore, Dr Hijmans was counselor at the Directorate of Legislation of the Ministry of Justice in The Hague.

Dr Ian Walden is Professor of Information and Communications Law and Director of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London.

Dr Walden is a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group to support the application of the GDPR and a member of the Code Adjudication Panel at the Phone-paid Services Authority (2016-). His is also a solicitor and Of Counsel to Baker McKenzie. He leads Queen Mary’s Legal initiative and is a principal investigator on the Cloud Legal Project.

Dr Walden has been a visiting professor at the universities of Texas, Melbourne and KU Leuven. Dr Walden has been involved in law reform projects for the World Bank, European Commission, Council of Europe, Commonwealth and UNCTAD, as well as numerous individual states. He was an ‘expert nationaux détaché’ to the European Commission (1995-96); Board Member and Trustee of the Internet Watch Foundation (2004-09); on the Executive Board of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (2010-12); the Press Complaints Commission (2009-14), a member of the RUSI Independent Surveillance Review (2014-15).

His publications include Media Law and Practice (2009), Free and Open Source Software (2013), Computer Crimes and Digital Investigations (2nd ed., 2016) and Telecommunications Law and Regulation (5th ed., 2018).

Bio coming soon ……

Jacquelynn (Jackie) Ruff has more than 25 years of experience in global law and public policy around policy frameworks for digital services, Internet governance, digital trade, expansion of broadband connectivity, and women and technology. Since February 2019 she has been a consulting counsel at the law firm of Wiley Rein where she provides legal, regulatory and public policy guidance on international issues impacting telecom, media, and technology industries.

Previously, Ms Ruff was Vice President of International Government Relations and Policy at Verizon Communications. Her responsibilities included leading work in international organisations such as the UN International Telecommunication Union, the OECD, ICANN, and the Internet Governance Forum, and regional organisations CITEL and APEC. She also represented Verizon on federal advisory committees to the US Department of State, the US Trade Representative, and the US Department of Commerce. Ms Ruff was a board member of the US Telecom Training Institute and co-chair of the Digital Trade group of the US Council for International Business, and she participated in the Policy and Spectrum Groups of the GSM Association. She is currently a Director of the International Institute of Communications. She is also a professorial lecturer at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.

Ms Ruff joined Verizon in 2004 from the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where she was Associate Chief and Chief of Staff for the Bureau. Previously she practiced with the communications and Latin America groups of an international law firm and served as staff for a US Senate Committee.

She has a BA from Radcliffe College/Harvard University, MA from Harvard University, and JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Jean-Jacques Sahel was appointed Asia-Pacific Information Policy Lead at Google in November 2019, overseeing Google’s public policy approach in the region for issues including misinformation, online safety and intermediary liability.

He has been involved in international government and regulatory affairs for over 15 years in both the private and government sectors. Before joining Google, Mr Sahel was Managing Director of ICANN’s Brussels office and led the organisation’s corporate strategy and operations across the European region. He also led ICANN’s strategic plan for outreach, support and engagement with governments, private sector, and user groups throughout Europe, and worldwide for civil society.

Previously, Mr Sahel headed government and regulatory affairs for Skype, then digital policy at Microsoft for Europe, Middle-East & Africa regions. He had started his career in the City of London, before spending several years in the UK Government, leading in particular its international telecommunications policy.

Ex officio, Mr Sahel chaired the UK Chapter of the International Institute of Communications (IIC) from 2009-2019.  He currently serves on the IIC’s Board and is Chair of the IIC Strategy Committee. He was a member of OSAB, the Advisory Board of UK communications regulator Ofcom for 2 terms until 2016. He has authored articles and research in both mainstream media and academic publications particularly on Internet policy and governance.

Jenni Sargent, Managing Director of First Draft is responsible for the overall leadership and strategic development of First Draft’s programme of work and partnerships. Ms Sargant founded First Draft in 2015, devising initiatives to support organisations tackling the challenges of trust and truth online.

As a specialist in digital verification, Ms Sargant pioneered CrossCheck, a global network that connects competing newsrooms around the world to collaboratively investigate and report misinformation.

Jeremy Godfrey has over 30 years of regulatory, government and business experience in the communications, technology and online sectors, in Ireland and Hong Kong.

Mr Godfrey was previously Chairperson of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). He served eight years as a Commissioner and Chairperson of the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). During that time, he also served as Chair and vice-Chair of BEREC, the coordinating body for EU telecoms regulators. In Hong Kong, he served as Government Chief Information Officer, as a management consultant and as a senior executive in the telecommunications sector.

Mr Godfrey has been involved in regulatory developments such as the EU’s Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the Open Internet Regulation. As Hong Kong Government CIO, he had responsibility for the e-government programme and cloud computing strategy, as well as for Internet governance, digital inclusion and promoting online safety. As a consultant, he advised clients about online business strategies and on regulatory issues in the communications, energy, transportation and financial services sectors. While in the telecommunications industry he was involved in the launch of the world’s first commercial online video-on-demand service as well as in many regulatory issues.

Mr Godfrey started his career as a civil servant in the UK government. He holds an MA from Cambridge University, where he studied mathematics

Building on her distinguished public service career spanning more than three decades at the state and federal level, Julie Brill now leads Microsoft’s international work to elevate privacy as a fundamental human right.

Leading the team at the forefront of many of the regulatory issues that underpin the digital transformation, Ms Brill serves as a global authority concerning policy and legal issues involving privacy; internet governance; telecommunications; accessibility; and corporate standards. In 2018, she spearheaded Microsoft’s global adoption of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and now leads Microsoft’s advocacy for complementary privacy mandates around the globe. In addition, Ms Brill serves as an advisor on data protection to Microsoft’s commercial customers, to help them remain on the cutting edge of privacy improvements.

Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate, Ms Brill served for six years as a Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission. As Commissioner, Ms Brill worked actively on issues of critical importance to consumers, including privacy, fair advertising practices, fighting financial fraud, and maintaining competition in all industries, including health care and technology.

Prior to Microsoft, Ms Brill joined the global law firm Hogan Lovells as Partner and Co-Director of its privacy and cybersecurity practice. She assisted clients with navigating the complex regulatory environment governing privacy, data breaches, cybersecurity, advertising and competition issues around the globe. Under her leadership, Hogan Lovells’ privacy and cybersecurity lawyers were named the top privacy practice in 2017 by Chambers.

Earlier in her career, Ms Brill served as Senior Deputy Attorney General and Chief of Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the North Carolina Department of Justice; and as Assistant Attorney General for Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the State of Vermont for more than 20 years. Ms Brill led the National Association of Attorneys General Privacy Working Group during her tenure at the North Carolina and Vermont Attorneys General offices.

Ms Brill is active in civil society, serving as co-chair of Business at the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s Committee for Digital Economic Policy; board member of the Center for Democracy and Technology; advisory board member of the AI Now Institute; and member of the National Academy of Sciences Intelligence Community Study Board.

Ms Brill has received numerous national awards and plaudits for her work, and, in 2013, Ms Brill was elected to the American Law Institute.

Ms Brill graduated, magna cum laude, from Princeton University, and from New York University School of Law, where she had a Root-Tilden Scholarship for her commitment to public service.

Lisa Felton leads the public policy strategy and engagement with policy makers in relation to global policy programmes for Vodafone across its global footprint. She has over 20 years’ experience as a lawyer and in policy both within Vodafone and in private practice.

Ms Felton is a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute and Chair of the GSMA Mobile Commerce Operator Expert Group

Ms Felton holds an MA from Oxford University in Law and a Masters in International Law of Human Rights.

“As the industry faces unprecedented challenges, which are all the more urgent in a global environment of great political change, it is important to invest in and strengthen Australian journalism.”

Louisa Graham started her media career at Network Ten and is now Chief Executive of the Walkley Foundation for Excellence in Journalism. For more than ten years she has worked collaboratively with the media, government, corporate and community organisations to build a broad funding base to support journalism. Ms Graham has also worked as Executive Director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, NSW and UNWomen, Australia. Ms Graham is currently a board member with Media Diversity Australia and the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom.

She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has a BA in Communications.

Manuel Kohnstamm is Senior Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for Liberty Global. He is responsible for developing and implementing Liberty Global’s regulatory strategy, public policy, government affairs and corporate communications. Mr Kohnstamm is an executive officer of Liberty Global and sits on Liberty Global’s Executive Leadership Team and the Regulatory Committee.

Mr Kohnstamm joined the Europe operations of Liberty Global’s predecessor in September 1999 and held several positions in corporate affairs, public policy, and communications. He was appointed to his current position in January 2012. From 1992 until he joined Liberty Global, Mr Kohnstamm worked at Time Warner Inc., most recently as Vice President of Public Affairs in Brussels for its subsidiaries Time Inc., Warner Bros., and Turner Broadcasting. Prior to joining Time Warner, Mr Kohnstamm worked with the consulting group European Research Associates in Brussels where he conducted macro-economic and policy studies on the telecommunications and defense industries.

Mr Kohnstamm is a member of VodafoneZiggo’s Supervisory Board as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Global’s subsidiary Telenet Group Holding NV, a Liberty Global subsidiary and a Belgian public limited liability company.

Mr Kohnstamm is Co-chair of GIGAEurope, an industry association bringing together independent private telecoms companies. In addition, Mr Kohnstamm is a trustee of the non-profit organisation Street Child, a charitable organisation focused on improving the lives of some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in the world.

Mr Kohnstamm graduated in Political Science and holds a Doctorandus Degree in International and European Law from the University of Amsterdam. He also holds a Postgraduate Degree in International relations from the Clingendael Diplomat School in The Hague, and successfully completed the Cable Executive Management Program from Harvard Business School, Boston (MA).

Mario Girasole has been Senior Executive Vice President for Regulatory, Institutional and Press Relations at TIM Participações and a member of the Board of Executive Officers, since 2010. He is also Chairman and Managing Director of the TIM Institute and member of boards and councils in national and international entities.

Mr Girasole joined Telecom Italia Mobile in 1997 and then headed the TIM Group relations with the European Union institutions in Brussels from 2000 to 2004, when he was also appointed Deputy-Chairman of the European mobile association (GSMA Europe). In July 2004, he moved to Brazil as Public and Regulatory Affairs Director at Telecom Italia America Latina and at TIM Brasil, and during this period, he served as a Member of the Board for Entel Bolivia and TIM Participações.

In 2018, Mr Girasole was awarded as Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy, by the President of the Italian Republic and with the Peacemaker Medal and the Medal of the Army by the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, for promoting friendly relations and co-operation between the countries.

Mr Girasole has a Master’s degree in Economics (LUISS, Rome), an LLM in International Business Law (University of London), post-graduate education in International Commerce and in Modern Economic History and executive education at Harvard School of Government, Columbia Business School and INSEAD.

Mark Basile is a Director at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Up until June 2019 Mr Basile led the ACCC’s work on the competition aspects of the recently completed Digital Platforms Inquiry. Prior to this, Mr Basile was a Director in the ACCC’s Merger Investigations branch. Mr Basile is currently on leave from the ACCC and is working for the UK Competition and Markets Authority on its market study into digital advertising and online platforms.

Mark Lichtenhein is the Chairman of the Sports Rights Owners Coalition (SROC), representing the collective interests of some 50 international and national sports bodies around their Intellectual Property Rights. SROC seeks proper recognition of the value of sport from Governments across the world, and effective protection for their rights under law.

Mr Lichtenhein has worked in the sports and sports technology industry for some 25 years, from technology startups in California to the administration of European sports bodies. Working primarily in men and women’s golf, he has served both as Chief Executive of golf’s Ladies European Tour (LET) and as Managing Director of the European Tour’s television production and distribution company, European Tour Productions (ETP).

A software engineer by education, Mr Lichtenhein previously held a number of positions in the European software industry with Siemens and the Cap Gemini Group before becoming the first Director of Business Development for the industry-led European Software Institute in Bilbao, Spain, co-funded by the European Commission.

Martin Cave is an economist specialising in competition law and the regulation of network industries, particularly communications. He is also chair of the GB energy regulator, Ofgem.  He has held professorial positions at Warwick Business School and the London School of Economics, where he is now a visiting professor.

From 2012 to 2018 he was an inquiry chair at the UK Competition and Markets Authority. He is the co-author of several books in the regulation field, including Taming the Corporation – How to Regulate for Success, Oxford University Press, 2021 and Spectrum Management, Cambridge University Press, 2015. He has written extensively on many aspects of telecommunications regulation and on spectrum management, and advised regulators and other bodies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australasia, and Europe. In addition he undertook independent sectoral regulatory reviews for the UK Government in the fields of airports, social housing, spectrum management and water.

Nerida O’Loughlin was appointed Chair and Agency Head of the ACMA from 14 October 2017 for five years.

Prior to joining ACMA, Ms O’Loughlin was Deputy Secretary in the Department of Communications and the Arts providing policy advice across telecommunications, broadcasting, online content and the arts. Ms O’Loughlin has also been responsible for major projects in the communications portfolio, including leading the Digital Television Switchover Program. Ms O’Loughlin served as interim CEO of the Digital Transformation Agency from 2016 to 2017. Over her career, Ms O’Loughlin has also held senior positions in the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments, predominantly across the technology and cultural sectors.

On 6 April 2019, Ms O’Loughlin was appointed as an Associate Member of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. On 10 June 2019 Ms O’Loughlin was awarded a Public Service Medal in the Queen’s Birthday honours for ‘outstanding public service through contributions to a more digital Australia and government’.

Nomonde Gongxeka-Seopa is currently a Councillor at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), which regulates the Telecommunications, Broadcasting and Postal Services sector. She possesses over 26 years’ experience in the broader media sector having worked in the space of content development, production and scheduling, and the broader broadcast media value chain. Most of the programmes that she has worked on span across television, radio and print and were mostly supported by outreach programmes.

She has previously worked for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and occupied different roles, namely; Programming Manager, Business Development: Funding and Partnerships Executive, and subsequently Group Public Affairs Stakeholder Manager. She has also worked for MultiChoice Africa as Head: Africa Regulatory Stakeholder Management.

In the area of research, amongst others, Ms Gongxeka-Seopa, formed part of a research team that undertook the Africa Domain Name System (DNS) Market Study, commissioned by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN – 2017). In 2014, she presented an Academic Paper at the Keio University in Japan, at the bi-annual ReVisionary Interpretations of the Public Enterprise (RIPE) Conference.

Ms Gongxeka-Seopa is the current Chairperson of the Digital Migration Advisory Council (DMAC). She has served on various Boards, including the Media Diversity and Development Agency (MDDA); the SADC Media Awards, South Africa’s National Adjudication Committee (Chairperson); and the African Leadership Academy (ALA).

Ms Gongxeka-Seopa holds a Master’s degree in ICT Policy and Regulation from the University of Witwatersrand. She has also completed Training on Business Models, Innovation and Regulation of the Digital World from the European University Institute, Florence School of Regulation, Italy.

Ondrej Socuvka is currently working as Senior Public Policy and Government Affairs Manager with Google EU in Brussels. Previously, Mr Socuvka worked as Economic Advisor to the US Ambassador in Slovakia, following his previous appointment as Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Slovak republic. He is co-founder of Slovak Alliance for Internet Economy and is member of Slovak chapter of the Fund for American Studies.

Mr Socuvka graduated his Masters studies at the Faculty of Business Administration with the University of Economics in Bratislava, where he specialised in Corporate Finance. He completed exchange programs in Italy, in Washington DC and in Rotterdam. In 2015 he completed his PhD research with focus on online marketing and communication

Patricia Cooper has led SpaceX’s global satellite government affairs practice since 2015. She directs regulatory and licensing activities for the Starlink satellite constellation in the US and overseas, as well as policy initiatives on broadband connectivity, trade and competition, spectrum, innovation and space safety. Starlink is a next-generation satellite network capable of connecting the globe with reliable and affordable broadband Internet services.

Ms Cooper has over 25 years of experience in satellite and communications policy and regulatory matters. Prior to joining SpaceX, Ms Cooper led the Satellite Industry Association (SIA) for seven years as its President, directing policy and advocacy efforts in regulatory, export control reform and national security arenas. She served at two pioneering satellite operators, Intelsat and PanAmSat, and at Internet infrastructure start-up Core Express. An economist by training, she has held senior positions at the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) International Bureau and began her career promoting satellites and telecom liberalisation at the US Department of Commerce.

Ms Cooper has served on expert advisory committees to the FCC, US Departments of State, Commerce and Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the International Telecommunications Union. She has testified before the US Senate and House of Representatives, and participated in multiple ITU World Radio Communications Conferences, and US delegations to United Nations space, development and finance organisations. She was an expert contributor to trade negotiations including the World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Agreement.

Ms Cooper holds a Master’s Degree in Economics and International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and graduated summa cum laude from Kansas State University with Bachelor’s Degrees in Political Science and German.

Dr Peter Lovelock is Principal, Fair Tech Institute, Access Partnership. Prior to its acquisition by Access Partnership, Peter Lovelock was the Director of TRPC, along with Professor John Ure.  Peter and John established the Telecommunications Research Project (TRP) at the University of Hong Kong in 1993 and the Telecoms Infotechnology Forum (TIF) in 1996. Peter subsequently established the TRPC offices in Beijing (1999) and Singapore (2006) and expanded the academic collaborations in both locations, initially with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and subsequently with Qinghua University and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Between 1999 and 2004, Peter built and ran China’s leading IT research consultancy, and prior to that he was a lead policy analyst at the UN in Geneva, where he was principal author on the World Telecommunications Development Report amongst others, including many of the ITU Secretary General’s speeches from this period.

He brings more than 25 years’ experience in telecoms, technology and media to these undertakings, including regulatory assessments, implementation and execution projects, and due diligence and market entry strategic guidance projects throughout Asia.

In recent years, Dr Lovelock has provided advice to governments and companies alike regionally on digital enablement and digital transformation, including to ASEAN on its ICT Masterplan, and to APEC on the Internet and Digital Economy principles and roadmap; as well as authoring reports on global data networks and bandwidth developments, cross border data flows and the economic impacts of data localisation, digital transactions, authentication and digital identity.

In the financial services and fintech spaces, Dr Lovelock has been involved in the establishment of new payments regulatory regimes in Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Zambia, focused on facilitating fast access channels and furthering financial inclusion He has advised and authored thought leadership on blockchains, digital and crypto currencies and national payment gateways and is currently working with multilateral donor agencies on the development of regulatory financial sandboxes in several jurisdictions and national eID schemes. Dr Lovelock is advising the Central Bank of Myanmar on their QR code standardisation and adoption, and is an expert on TV White Spaces and other non-traditional connectivity options for extending access.

Dr Lovelock is an advisor to PECC on digital and internet economy developments and sits on the board of the International Institute of Communications (IIC). TRPC provides Executive Director and Secretariat support to the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) and the Asia Pacific Spectrum Innovation Group (APSIG), among others.

Between 1999 and 2004 Dr Lovelock built and ran China’s leading IT research consultancy. Prior to that, Peter worked at the ITU in Geneva.

Dr Philip Marsden is Professor of Law and Economics at the College of Europe, Bruges. He also has a number of UK government roles, including being Deputy Chair of the Bank of England’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee, and case decisionmaker at the Financial Conduct Authority, the Payment Systems Regulator and OFGEM. In September, 2018, the Chancellor appointed Dr Marsden to the Treasury’s Digital Competition Experts Panel, which produced the ‘Furman Review: Unlocking Digital Competition’. In November 2018, Dr Marsden also affiliated with Charles River Associates International as a Senior Advisor on policy and strategy issues. In June 2019 he was appointed to the government’s Open Finance Advisory Group, advising the FCA on how to extend Open Banking to other financial services and sectors.

For ten years until October 2018, Dr Marsden held various roles at the UK competition authority, first as member of the Board of the Office of Fair Trading, then as Inquiry Chair and Senior Director, Case Decision Groups, at the Competition and Markets Authority, where he decided on Phase II mergers, market investigations and antitrust cases, post-Statement of Objections. He was also a Board member of the Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities.

Dr Marsden is also co-founder and General Editor of the European Competition Journal, and the Oxford Competition Law case reporter series. He has for many years also been Counsel to the fifty-CEO Board of the Consumer Goods Forum, and advised governments on competition agency effectiveness and decision-making under the auspices of the ICN, OECD, UN, ADB, EBRD, World Bank and IMF. He has also been Senior Research Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and Director of its Competition Law Forum. In private practice he worked at major law firms in Toronto, Tokyo and London.

Dr Marsden earned his doctorate in law from the University of Oxford.

Assistant Professor Prapanpong Khumon (PhD) is an Associate Dean of School of Law, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand. He is the President of Academy of Public Enterprise Policy, Business and Regulation (APaR). He also acts as an Expert Committee in the Personal Data Protection Committee of Thailand.

Professor Khumon leads a number of research projects for the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission of Thailand (NBTC) including a comparative study about media regulation in ASEAN, a comparative study of media regulation of the EU and ASEAN, and a study on regulation of the pay TV sector, child online literacy, market access and communications satellite services liberalisation, and ASEAN cross-border personal data protection. He also heads a research project for the Thai Council of State on Digital Economy regulations for Thailand.

Professor Khumon has published a number of scholarly articles on cross-border data protection and trade in services in a number of academic journals, including the law and development review and Asian Journal of WTO and International Health Law and Policy.

Ramiro Camacho Castillo was appointed Commissioner of the Federal Telecommunications Institute of Mexico (IFT) in March of 2019 for a period of nine years.

Commissioner Camacho has worked as an economist at the competition and telecommunications authorities of Mexico for the past twelve years. He was General Director of Economic Consulting at IFT and Deputy General Director of Economic Studies at the Competition Commission (COFECE). Previously, he was an Associated Professor at the University of Guadalajara for eleven years.

Commissioner Camacho holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from the University of Guadalajara, and three master’s degrees: In Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; in Operations Research from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM); and in Energy Economics from Scuola Superiore Enrico Mattei in Italy.

Richard Allan joined Facebook in June 2009 to lead the company’s public policy work in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

In March 2018, he moved to a new role developing solutions across a portfolio of global policy issues. Mr Allan’s current focus areas include the conduct of politics online, the digital economy, messenger services, and global connectivity.

Prior to joining Facebook, Mr Allan was European Government Affairs Director for Cisco Systems from September 2005. He has also been an academic visitor at the Oxford Internet Institute.

From 2008 to 2009 Mr Allan was Chair of the UK Cabinet Office’s Power of Information Task Force working on improving the use of government data.

Mr Allan was an elected Member of the UK Parliament between 1997 and 2005, and was appointed to the House of Lords in 2010.

In the early part of his career Mr Allan was an archaeologist and created software for the UK’s National Health Service – he remains equally fond of Latin and SQL.

Richard Hooper CBE has devoted his career to the converging worlds of telecoms, media and technology. After senior management roles in the BBC, BT and satellite television he has spent the last thirty years advising Governments and businesses and sitting on a range of Boards. He was founding deputy chairman of Ofcom (the UK communications regulator) and Chairman of its Content Board. He has just stepped down from the Board of VocaLink which runs the national payments infrastructure in the UK, after its successful acquisition by MasterCard.

He is Chairman of the Broadband Stakeholder Group which advises Government and Ofcom on broadband policy.
In 2016 Richard Hooper was a member of the panel of experts advising the Australian Government on the future of the ACMA.

Robert Pepper helps lead Meta’s connectivity and technology policy activities focusing on new technology development, deployment and adoption. Dr Pepper previously was Cisco’s Vice President for Global Technology Policy for more than a decade working with governments across the world helping them develop their digital strategies and address areas such as ICT and development, broadband plans, IP enabled services, wireless and spectrum policy, the Internet of Things, security, privacy and internet governance.

As Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development at the FCC for 16 years beginning in 1989, Dr Pepper led teams designing and implementing the first US spectrum auctions, developing policies promoting the development of the internet, implementing telecommunications legislation, and planning for the transition to digital television.

Before joining the FCC, he was Director of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy. His government service also included Acting Associate Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiating a programme on Computers, Communications and Information Policy at the National Science Foundation.

His academic appointments included faculty positions at the Universities of Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and as a research affiliate at Harvard University. He chairs the US Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy and has served on the board of the US Telecommunications Training Institute, the US Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and the UK’s OFCOM Spectrum Advisory Board.

Dr Pepper received his BA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Roger Taylor is chair of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation.

He has worked as an entrepreneur, a regulator and a writer. He has argued for a rebalancing of control over data and information towards citizens and civil society. He is chair of Ofqual, the qualifications regulator and a member of the advisory panel to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Mr Taylor co-founded Dr Foster which pioneered the use of public data to provide independent ratings of healthcare. He has also worked as a correspondent for the Financial Times in the UK and the US and as a researcher for the Consumers’ Association.

Mr Taylor has written two books: God Bless the NHS (Faber & Faber (2014) and Transparency and the Open Society (Policy Press 2016).

Rosa Barcelo was appointed Partner, McDermott Will & Emery in April 2022.

Rosa Barcelo has nearly 20 years of experience in European data protection and privacy, including expertise in compliance and policy. Her experience covers diverse sectors and is drawn from working in private practice, as well as in public service with the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) and the European Commission.

Rosa Barcelo advises clients on data protection and privacy, including compliance with the GDPR and the e-Privacy Directive. She has a particular focus on cutting-edge ICT issues, including AI, machine learning, autonomous vehicles, programmatic advertising and online tracking technologies.

Prior to McDermott Will & Emery, Ms Barcelo was Partner and Deputy Co-Chair, Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice Group, Squire Patton Boggs.

Ms Barcelo was also Deputy Head of Unit of the Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy Unit of DG CONNECT in the European Commission, where she led legislative deliberations over the proposed e-Privacy Regulation.  During her tenure with the European Commission, Ms Barcelo also worked in the Data Protection Unit where she was responsible for international data transfer issues (BCRs and adequacy decisions). Ms Barcelo’s work with the office of the EDPS focused on a wide range of ICT-related issues. In these roles, Ms Barcelo worked closely with national supervisory authorities participating in the former Article 29 Working Party (now the European Data Protection Board).

Ms Barcelo has also worked in academia and as a private lawyer in the Brussels offices of various international law firms, where she advised on EU privacy and data protection issues, as well electronic commerce and technology laws.

Ms Barcelo is a frequent lecturer on data protection, privacy and cybersecurity.

Sabine Chalmers is the General Counsel of BT Group Plc, one of the world’s largest communications companies listed on the FTSE with headquarters in London.

Prior to BT, Ms Chalmers was the Chief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer and Secretary to the Board of Directors of Anheuser-Busch InBev, one of the world’s top five consumer products companies and the leading global brewer, from 2005 – 2017.

In addition to over 10 years at Anheuser-Busch InBev, she served in a number of leadership positions, including General Counsel of the Latin American and US Businesses at Diageo plc, the world’s largest producer of spirits from 1993 – 2004. She also worked in private practice at the law firm of Lovell White Durrant and was a lecturer at University College, London.

Ms Chalmers serves on numerous boards, including those of AB Inbev, Coty, Inc., one of the worlds largest consumer beauty companies; the Royal National Theatre London; and is a former chairman of the Board of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the largest not-for-profit professional association serving the business interests of in-house attorneys around the world with more than 34,000 members in 85 countries.

Ms Chalmers holds a law degree from the London School of Economics and is qualified to practice in England and NY State.

Sean Kennedy is a Partner at DT Economics LLP, based in the UK. He is a telecommunications regulatory specialist with more than 22 years of wide-ranging international commercial and regulatory experience in public and private sectors. Mr Kennedy has specialist skills in network economics, cost modelling, telecoms strategy development, interconnection agreement negotiations and the economic impact of regulatory interventions in digital markets. His clients include leading telecoms multinationals such as Vodafone, BT and Etisalat and regulators such as Ofcom (UK), ICASA (South Africa), NCC (Nigeria) and CRA (Qatar). Mr Kennedy is a IIC Board member and Treasurer.

Mr Kennedy is Chair of IIC Finance and Governance Committee.

Simon McDougall joined the ICO in October 2018 as a member of the Executive Team. Mr McDougall is responsible for leading the work of the Regulatory Innovation and Technology Directorate, ensuring delivery of ICO strategic goals through stakeholder liaison, guidance, research and international activity.

His work includes helping the ICO identify, understand and address emerging technologies with privacy implications, supporting the ICO’s innovation agenda, and making the ICO itself more ‘tech savvy’.

Prior to this appointment, Mr McDougall led a global privacy consulting practice at Promontory, an IBM company, leading projects across Europe, the US and Asia. He previously also led a similar team for Deloitte in the UK.

Mr McDougall is qualified as a Chartered Accountant, and has read English Literature at Somerville College, Oxford.

An expert in the confluence of development and communications policy, Sonia Jorge has over 25 years of diverse international experience in a career spanning both the private and not-for-profit sectors. As a policy advisor, Ms Jorge has worked in numerous digital policy and development projects in over 40 countries and with international organisations, such as the World Bank, UNDP, UN Women, and for private sector companies, from mobile operators to industry associations.

Ms Jorge’s work has included ICT policy and regulatory advice and analysis, strategic industry planning, national ICT/broadband policy development, and the creation of new policy and regulatory frameworks to address issues around competition, cost-based pricing, spectrum management, infrastructure development and universal access strategy. Ms Jorge is an avid advocate for gender equality in development, and has worked extensively to promote gender analysis and awareness in the ICT planning and policy process, as well as an understanding of the importance of digital inclusion for development.

As a thought leader and expert, Ms Jorge was recognised by apolitico as as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government in 2019, and is a frequent speaker at international, regional and national events, including at the World Economic Forum, Stockholm Internet Forum, Transform Africa, Mobile World Congress, Internet Governance Forums, several ITU and EU-Commission events, among others. She also serves/ed as a member and expert in a number of Committees, including the ITU-UN Women EQUALS Partnership, The World Economic Forum’s EDISON Network, the Broadband Commission Working Group on the Gender Digital Divide, and the EU-AU Digital Economy Task Force.  Ms Jorge is an independent Board Director with KaiOS Technologies and an affiliate at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Dr Stephen Unger was until recently a Board member of Ofcom, the UK regulator responsible for digital communications. He had various responsibilities, including setting regulatory strategy for the UK, representing the UK internationally, and leading Ofcom’s technology programme. For a period he was Acting Chief Executive.

Before becoming a regulator Dr Unger spent several years in the private sector. He worked for a variety of high-tech start-ups who were developing and exploiting new wireless technologies.

Dr Unger’s current focus, working as a non-executive board member, consultant, and academic, is on the practical implications of disruptive technology change. He is a member of the IIC Board.

For more background see www.linkedin.com/in/ungersteve. Dr Unger can be contacted at swunger@swunger.com

Steve Song is a researcher, entrepreneur, and advocate for cheaper, more pervasive access to communication infrastructure. He is a 2019 Fellow at the Mozilla Foundation. He is also a research associate with the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) where he works to expand the use of wireless technologies through shared spectrum strategies. His strong technical knowledge and ability to communicate technical concepts to non-expert audiences have made his blog (http://manypossibilities.net) a popular destination for anyone interested in African telecommunications and Internet issues. Since 2009, Steve has been actively maintaining public maps of undersea and terrestrial fibre optic infrastructure in Africa. Mr Song is also the founder of Village Telco, a social enterprise that manufactures low-cost WiFi mesh VoIP technologies to deliver affordable voice and Internet service in under-serviced areas. Previously, Mr Song worked at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), where he led the organisation’s ICT4D program in Africa, funding research into the transformational potential of ICTs.

Chair of the Antitrust practice at Preiskel & Co LLP, Tim Cowen is independently recognised as one of the UK’s leading regulatory and competition lawyers focusing on the Technology Media and Tech sectors. He has vast experience of both in-house and private practice, having been a General Counsel at BT, a former Partner at Sidley Austin, and a member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. He now specialises in complex second phase merger cases and competition cases in the courts.

Yih-Choung Teh is Group Director, Strategy and Research at Ofcom. The group leads on setting Ofcom’s overarching strategy, drawing on insights from our research and analysis of the sectors we regulate. He has previously been a Director in Ofcom’s Competition Group, working on issues including Ofcom’s strategy to encourage investment in telecoms infrastructure, and overseeing Ofcom’s broadcasting and media competition programme.

Before joining Ofcom, Mr Teh worked for a strategy consultancy in the telecoms sector, providing policy and strategy advice to public and private sector clients globally. Prior to this he held an academic research post in the University of Oxford.