Hear from our industry experts
Julie Bradford
Ruth Brown
Professor Ian Corden
Michaela Eschbach
Mark Grayson
Paul Harris
Andy Jones
Vicky Messer
Moray Rumney
Dr Ian Wassell
Professor William Webb
Julie has worked in the wireless industry for over 15 years. At Real Wireless, she is a thought leader in 5G business case analysis including understanding 5G use cases, quantifying (in financial terms) the operational and socio-economic benefits of 5G services and understanding network dimensioning and cost implications under 5G virtualised networks.
She has most recently been working with city councils around their wireless strategy and related Green Book outline business case development. She also led Real Wireless’ techno-economic analysis on the EC Horizon 2020 5G-MoNArch project. Inspired by the project’s smart sea port testbed constructed by HPA, Nokia and DT in the Port of Hamburg, this analysis included quantifying the operational benefits of 5G to port authorities and other port users and the cost implications of delivering these industrial grade wireless services from existing mobile infrastructure via network slicing supported via the virtualised 5G-MoNArch network architecture.
Previously, Julie was Communications Engineer at QinetiQ UK, consultant at PA Consulting UK, and Senior Systems Engineer for Airvana UK. In addition to working at Real Wireless, Julie is a CW board member and champion for the CW Virtual Networks Special Interest Group (SIG).
Bringing over 20 years of experience in mobile and fixed network research and design from her time at BT, Ruth is a leading authority on network evolution at Heavy Reading. Her expertise spans system architecture, core network technologies, and services. A prolific inventor with over 50 mobile network technology patents, Ruth is also a passionate advocate for women in engineering.
Ruth provides insights on mobile network energy efficiency, QoS, private networks, analytics, AI, and Wi-Fi. Her coverage explores leveraging new network capabilities for differentiated services and new revenue streams.
Ian brings over 30 years of experience in the telecoms, technology, and digital sectors, gained via numerous roles and engagements in global industry and consulting. His experience covers the full industry life cycle from start-ups and investor funding, through strategic planning and M&A advisory, to procurement, hands-on engineering, systems architecture, expert witness, tech & commercial due diligence, and programme delivery and recovery, together with extensive expertise in policy development, telecoms regulation, telecoms finance, and radio spectrum management.
Formerly with PwC TMT Strategy London, PA Consulting, Nokia, Oracle, and Bell Labs, Ian’s experience spans both technology and commercial domains and includes digital strategies, radio spectrum planning and valuation, investment / transaction advisory, C-suite advisory, performance and process improvement, bid development, network and IT systems transformation, and large-scale technology programme management. His client base includes national and local governments, industry bodies, regulators, telcos, ISPs, enterprises, vendors, investors, banks, and law firms. With Bell Labs USA, he was awarded the President’s Prize.
Michaela has an impressive track record as a Founder and Director, both in the not-for-profit and for-profit space.
As co-founder of Form the Future CIC, Michaela drove strategic direction and operations for this multi-award-winning organisation which connects young people with career opportunities. As Managing Director of Founders4Schools, Michaela led the operational, financial and cultural transformation of this ed-tech charity.
Michaela is known for her passion and dedication in successfully driving companies through growth and challenges.
She was winner of the Cambridge News ‘Cambridge’s Most Influential Businesspeople Award’ in 2017 and was included in the EU-Startups’ Top 100: Europe’s Most Influential Women in the Startup and Venture Capital Space in 2023.
Michaela says, "As CEO of Cambridge Wireless, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead this exceptional organisation through a period of dynamic change in the tech landscape. Together with our dedicated members, we will harness the power of innovation to not only adapt to the evolving industry but to also drive it forward, ensuring Cambridge Wireless remains the cornerstone of technological advancement and value creation."
Mark Grayson is a Cisco Fellow in Cisco’s Global Technology and Standardization Group, where he currently has broad responsibility for supporting Cisco's 5G/6G strategy. Mark has been granted over 200 patents in the area of mobile communications. Mark’s current work includes defining the role of Wi-Fi based access in 5G/6G environments, chairing the WBA’s OpenRoaming program that defines a roaming federation of private wireless networks, leading Cisco’s multi-vendor RAN virtualization efforts, being co-chair of the O-RAN Alliance’s Fronthaul Working Group, as well as supporting Cisco’s enterprise team defining systems for supporting 5G enterprise use cases.
Paul is a wireless technology expert with experience across a range of areas including research, design, implementation and standardisation. He received his PhD from the University of Bristol for evaluating the performance of massive MIMO technology in the lead-up to 5G and is currently a Principal Wireless Architect within the CTO Office at VIAVI Solutions providing thought leadership on new and emerging technologies for 5G, 6G and beyond. In line with this he represents VIAVI within a range of bodies and fora including 3GPP, the O-RAN Alliance, ETSI, the Next G Alliance, the 6G-IA and the UKTIN. His experience prior to joining VIAVI includes representing Vodafone within 3GPP for radio performance aspects, contributing to the development of massive MIMO channel estimation solutions at Cohere Technologies, and working with customers as a domain expert at National Instruments to establish effective research solutions using software-defined radio. He is also a Chartered Engineer, Senior Member of the IEEE, Fellow of the ITP, and an Honorary Industrial Fellow at the University of Bristol.
A former Vodafone technology executive, Andy Jones is a globally recognised industry expert with 35 years of leadership experience. During his career he has made notable personal contributions to the development and adoption of 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, IP/MPLS, NFV, Telco Cloud and Open RAN. Andy is currently advising startups and research teams on 5G>6G evolution of robust wireless networking for Industry 5.0 with a particular focus on smart manufacturing and logistics. Andy founded Jonesthefone Consulting in 2009 and has worked with 60+ consulting clients over the last 16 years, while also serving as an advisor to DCMS/DSIT and to the Telecom Infra Project.
Vicky Messer is VP of Product Management at RANsemi with over 30 years of experience in product management, product marketing, research and development in the technology sector, primarily wireless. Vicky currently leads product management, technical marketing and partership activities at RANsemi, and is a work item lead and board member of Small Cell Forum (SCF).
Vicky was awarded the SCF ‘Outstanding Individual Contribution to SCF award’ in 2020, the SCF Industry Award 2023 for Women in Wireless and the Electronics Weekly Women of the Year (Design Focused) award in 2024.
Vicky is a certified IET registration mentor, and currently mentors a local young female engineer. In May 2023 Vicky joined Industrial Advisory Board Bath University Electronics and Electrical Engineering.
Moray Rumney received a BSc in EE from Heriot-Watt University in 1984. He joined Hewlett-Packard that year and remained with the company through the transition to Agilent Technologies in 1999 and Keysight Technologies in 2015. Moray joined ETSI in 1991 and 3GPP in 1999 where he participated in the development of cellular communications standards and conformance test methods. Recent work focused on radiated test methods for mobile phones. He was editor and major contributor to Agilent’s book “LTE and the Evolution to 4G Wireless”. From 2018 to 2021 Moray represented Keysight at 3GPP RAN plenary who oversee the development of the 5G radio standards. His recent interests include expert witness work, engineering consulting services, and the safety debate around cellular technology including the evolution of test methods to validate that base stations and mobile phones comply with safety regulations. He currently represents Eutelsat Group at 3GPP where he is leading work to add the Ku band (10.7 - 14.5 GHz) into the 5G NR standards enabling the use of 5G broadband on satellites.
Dr Ian Wassell joined the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory as a Senior Lecturer in January 2006. Prior to this appointment, he was with the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering for approximately six and a half years.
He received the PhD degree from the University of Southampton in 1990, where he investigated Viterbi Equalisation for wireless and mobile systems, and the BSc., BEng. Degrees from the University of Loughborough in 1983. He has in excess of 25 years experience in the simulation and design of radio communication systems gained via a number of positions in industry and higher education. He has published more than 200 publications since joining the University of Cambridge in May 1999, and has successfully supervised 23 PhD students and 6 MPhil students. He is now leading the research on wireless communications within the Digital Technology Group at the Computer Laboratory.
He is also a fellow of Churchill College and has supervised second year linear systems and communication topics to Churchill engineering students for a number of years. He is a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and has also served on the local Cambridge committee of the IET.
William is CEO of Commcisive, an independent consultancy providing advice across all telecommunications matters. He was one of the founding directors of Neul, a company developing machine-to-machine technologies and networks, which was formed at the start of 2011 and became CEO of the Weightless SIG, a body standardizing IoT technology. Prior to this William was a Director at Ofcom where he managed a team providing technical advice and performing research. He has worked for a range of communications consultancies and spent three years providing strategic management across Motorola’s entire communications portfolio, based in Chicago. He was IET President 2014-2015.
William has published 20 books, 100 papers, and 18 patents. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the IEEE and the IET, a Visiting Professor at Southampton University and a Board Member of the Marconi Society. He has been awarded multiple honorary doctorates by the UK’s leading universities and in 2018 was awarded the IET’s prestigious Mountbatten Medal for technology entrepreneurship.