CWIC 2023: From the Moon to the Deep Blue Sea

Mosaab Abughalib

Sr. Research and Development Director and General Manager - 5G/6G Network Emulation Solutions, Keysight Technologies

No bio provided

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Richard Anthony

Senior Application Engineer - Northern Europe, Protolabs

Highly qualified in Design and Engineering, over the past 12 years Rich has been an integral part of the team at Protolabs.

His current role is to provide expert advice and support to customers entering their journey from product development to deciding on the best manufacturing solution for their project. With extensive knowledge of the key manufacturing processes at Protolabs (injection moulding, CNC machining and 3D printing) Rich helps customer take advantage of Protolabs’ value, balancing the objective of satisfying customer requests with the potential of downstream risks to deliver acceptable parts on schedule. 

With a BA in Furniture Design and a MSc in Engineering by Research, which focussed on the applicability on Additive Manufacturing technologies within creative industries, Rich has a wealth of knowledge and is a go-to Engineer for process and capability advice.

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Ruth Brown

Principal Analyst - Mobile Networks & 5G, Heavy Reading

Ruth covers mobile network research for Heavy Reading. Key coverage areas include system architecture, core infrastructure and services, and supporting cloud technologies.

Prior to joining Heavy Reading, Ruth worked in mobile and fixed network research and design for BT for over 20 years. Her research interests have included convergence, mobile QoS, network slicing, private networks, cloud native mobile core technology and automation. She has filed more than 40 patents on both real world applications and enhancements to mobile core networks. Ruth is an advocate for women in engineering.

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Dean Bubley

Director, Disruptive Analysis Ltd. Network Technology & Futures Analyst / Consultant

Dean Bubley (@disruptivedean) is the founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm based in London. An outspoken analyst & futurist with over 25 years’ experience, he specialises in wireless / telecoms fields, with an eye on the broader technological, governmental and societal contexts. He is one of the leading market observers and forecasters covering 5G/6G, Wi-Fi, FTTX, edge/cloud compute, enterprise private networks, IoT, and policy issues including spectrum, competition and broadband wholesale. He is known as a contrarian and visionary, often with challenging opinions that go against industry consensus. Speaking at over 30 conferences and other events per year, and quoted by publications such as The Economist, FT & Wall Street Journal, he is an authority and provocateur. He regularly appears in technology industry videos, podcasts and blogs. Mr Bubley was formerly an equity analyst, covering communications stocks, with the UK arm of investment bank Robert W. Baird. Prior to that, he spent eight years at UK research firm Datamonitor, where he co-founded the company's Technology business, managed the Internet & Networking area and custom consulting operations, with roles of Chief Analyst & Director of Consulting. He holds a BA in Physics from Keble College, Oxford University.

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Andre Burgess

Strategic Partnerships, Security & Resilience, NPL

NPL’s nominated SIG Champion, Andre Burgess runs Strategic partnerships for the Digital Sector at NPL where he is also leading on its activities in CAV R&D as well as the development of new testing infrastructure for future integrated communications networks. Andre has a long experience in product and service innovation in the TMT sector, including NTL (now Virgin Media) and Three. He subsequently established a successful business designing and deploying disruptive digital end user products and services. More recently he turned his focus on the energy and environment sector, working with distributed generators, housing providers and local authorities, to develop innovative data centric services to optimise localised energy generation and affordable smart home services. With a mission to ensure data can be trusted and shared openly in the future, he joined NPL in 2017.

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Richard Claridge

Applied Physicist, PA Consultants

Richard is an applied physicist specialising in accelerating new physics-enabled technologies from the lab bench to viable capability and has a particular interest in and focus on near term applications of quantum technologies. Richard’s technical expertise is in applying fundamental science to understand and identify how new technologies can be used to bridge capability gaps, and to then design a system around them. Richard has led the technical delivery of PA’s activities in both quantum sensing and computing, including the “first piece of work to demonstrate quantum benefit using a NISQ machine to solve militarily important problems”. His other recent, work, outside quantum, includes the application of mathematics to the challenges of an increasingly complex and congested EM environment, development of non-linear optical systems and three separate approaches to 3D printing of chocolate.

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Neil Cooper

Head of Marketing, VividQ

Neil is Head of Marketing at holographic tech start-up VividQ. Over his 20+ year career, he's worked at many prominent Cambridge companies, including TTPCom, Cambridge Consultants, Analysys Mason, Team Consulting, ARM and Audio Analytic (which was acquired by Meta in 2022).

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James Crawshaw

Practice Leader, Service Provider Transformation, Omdia

James leads Omdia’s service provider transformation team, which covers telco IT (operations support systems, business support systems, and analytics) and telco cloud & automation (software-defined networking, network function virtualization, etc.). James’ own research focuses on operations support systems, including service assurance, orchestration, order management, inventory management, network security, self-organizing networks, and radio access network intelligent control.

Before joining Omdia, James led Heavy Reading’s communications service provider IT & automation research service. James holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering in electrical and mechanical engineering from the University of Manchester, England. Earlier in his career, while working as a financial analyst, James passed the three exams required to obtain the Chartered Financial Analyst qualification. In addition, James has a Master of Science in electronic engineering from the University of Surrey, England. 

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Harry Cronin

Iprova

Dr Harry Cronin is an experienced invention engineer who leads on a diverse range of invention projects at Iprova. Additionally, Harry heads up Iprova's ground-breaking activities in Standards, where he is responsible for defining and delivering Iprova's new software module, which uses AI to help professionals in 3GPP member companies and the wider telecoms ecosystem. He holds a first degree in physics, an EngD in materials science and has worked as a research engineer and R&D manager in the fields of infrared detectors, printed electronics and photovoltaics, and is named inventor on over 35 patent applications.

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Dr Maya Dillon

Head of AI Capabilities, Cambridge Consultants

Dr Maya has a love for science and technology, and its application in augmenting human ingenuity and empowering the world. She has a had a varied career; from astrophysics to running her own business as an executive coach to working as a data scientist and AI specialist before finding her platform at Cambridge Consultants. Her experience is a vibrant mix of academia, entrepreneurial work with start-ups and multi-national corporates. Dr Maya is passionate about AI for Earth and AI for Good, with its particular application, in solving climate and humanitarian issues, conservation of species, and creating sustainable solutions, where humanity and nature can flourish together.

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Paul Dupont

Director, Business Development – UK, Intralink

Paul has been in sales and business development roles in and around Asia since 2010 and has built extensive networks in high tech areas including photonics, automotive and healthcare. At Intralink, Paul helps Western technology companies looking to expand to Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and/or ASEAN, and work with them to develop and implement the right approach. Prior to joining Intralink's UK team, Paul was head of sales at a high-growth SaaS start-up with a strong APAC focus. Paul received a BSc in Physics from St Andrews and an MSc in Optics & Nanotechnology from the UTT in France. Paul is fluent in Mandarin and French and is based in Intralink's London office.

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Walter Everetts

Vice President, Space and Ground Services, Iridium

Walt Everetts is Vice President, Space and Ground Services for Iridium Communications Inc, where he is responsible for overseeing and monitoring the Iridium space-based network operations, the teleport network of antennas around the world, the Gateways and the development & deployment of upgrades to support future system enhancements. His responsibilities encompass all aspects of constellation and ground management, as well as space/ground engineering supporting software enhancements to fully serve the end user communications needs and expected availability.

Mr. Everetts started his career working in the aerospace industry with specific responsibilities in commercial communication satellite integration, testing, and launching. In 1996, he joined the satellite communications division at Motorola as the manufacturing manager responsible for the delivery and deployment of the Iridium program spacecraft constellation. After completion of the original Iridium satellites, Mr. Everetts took on a new program management position at Motorola, where he was assigned to projects in more than 40 countries and a multitude of different product lines in the telecommunication industry. In February 2008, Mr. Everetts rejoined Iridium as the Space Systems Operations Director. In 2013, he was promoted to VP, Space Operations and Engineering. In 2021, he was promoted to his current role of Space and Ground Services 

Mr. Everetts holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University.

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Paul Febvre

CTO, Satellite Applications Catapult

Paul is Chief Technology Officer at the Satellite Applications Catapult, responsible for establishing a future vision for the sector and directing the technology strategy for the Catapult. Paul leads a small team of solutions architects and technologists that work across the Catapult to provide industry support in the creation and realisation of technologically innovative solutions to real world challenges. Prior to joining the Catapult, Paul was Design Authority for the Inmarsat BGAN system and responsible for managing Inmarsat’s activities under the European Space Agency (ESA) ARTES (Advanced Research Telecommunications Systems) programme. This included the Alphasat-Extension programme to integrate advanced technologies into the Inmarsat systems, and the Iris programme under SESAR (Single European Skies Advanced Research) joint undertaking to develop the next generation of aviation safety services for air traffic management communications systems over Europe. Paul previously worked for many years at BT Research Laboratories in Ipswich, developing mobile and satellite radio communications systems, advanced modulation and coding, data transmission protocols, and information security architectures.

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Yan Fen Lee

Senior Research Associate, University of East Anglia

No bio provided

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Paul Harris

Principal Wireless Architect, VIAVI Solutions, University of Bristol

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.

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Luke Ibbetson

Group R&D Director, Vodafone

No bio provided

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Yasrine Ibnyahya

Senior Director of the Advanced Concepts and Technologies, Inmarsat

With over 17-years in the space industry, Yasrine Ibnyahya has spent her career to date fostering innovation and championing entrepreneurial initiatives. Today, she is the head of the engineering department in charge of Advanced Concepts and Technologies within Viasat’s Global Space Network division.

Yasrine is the creator of various services and products that have enabled the company to enter new markets. Alongside building a large portfolio of mission concepts, she led and won various innovation programmes funded by large institutions such as NASA, UKSA, ESA or JAXA. 

In the past, Yasrine managed the expansion of the company’s L-band infrastructure on the ground and across various orbits, led the development of the company’s cutting-edge Aviation and Maritime Safety infrastructures, and was part of the creation of the European Aviation Network, further demonstrating her expertise and commitment to technological advancement within the satcom industry.

Yasrine honed her skills at Airbus Company's STTL, overseeing the development and manufacturing of their first geostationary satellite. Prior to that, her tenure at CLS America, saw her taking charge of Maritime terminal development for the US fisheries market at their US office in Washington DC.

In terms of academic accomplishments in the field, Yasrine is a proud alumnus of the University of Cambridge, UK, where she completed her 2 years Executive MBA in 2018. Moreover, she holds two Masters of Science degrees - one from the ENST (Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications) in France, and another in Communication Systems and Signal Processing from the University of Bristol, UK.

As an ambassador for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Yasrine founded the Inmarsat Women’s Network and is a regular advocate for STEM education

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Nick Johnson

Head, UKTIN

Nick was founder and CTO of ip.access, the leading small cell infrastructure business based in Cambridge UK from its inception in 2000 to acquisition by Mavenir in 2020. As well as leading the ip.access product line from GSM to 5G, he chaired the Radio and Physical Layer Working Group in the Small Cell Forum and introduced the world to FAPI - the industry standard software/platform interface for small cells.

Nick brings an unequalled commercial experience to the UKTIN and is looking forward to it helping those seeking to exploit and contribute to the unrivalled inventive spirit of the UK, as well as informing the UK Innovation ecosystem into the foreseeable future.

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Peter Kibutu

5G NTN Market lead, TTP plc

Peter has been working in the cellular industry for over 15 years, specialising in modem system architecture and physical layer development. Before joining TTP, Peter worked in the development of 2G/3G/4G wireless modem products and small-cell base station projects for a number of leading cellular equipment vendors. At TTP Peter has worked with a wide range of clients in the satellite and cellular communication domains, specialising in end-to-end system engineering, modem system development and advising on commercial aspects. Currently Peter is the TTP technical lead for 5G/6G activities and represents the company in range of industry bodies including 3GPP and UKTIN.

: http://www.ttp.com
: @https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-kibutu-4a78531

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Paul Lee

Partner and Global Head of TMT Research, Deloitte LLP

Paul Lee is a UK Partner and the Global Head of Research for the technology, media, and telecommunications (“TMT”) industry at Deloitte.

Paul has held research roles in the technology, media and technology sector since 1993, and every year advises hundreds of clients globally on how to capitalise on emerging trends and business models. He authors the annual Predictions for TMT and the Digital Consumer Trends reports which provide key insights and recommendations on how to navigate the ever-changing digital landscape.

Paul speaks frequently at major industry and business conferences, and his views have featured frequently in major media, including a column in Financial Times. He has also provided evidence to various committees, including the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee. He formerly worked at Gartner, Ovum and IBM.

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Professor Andrew Lord

Senior Manager, Optical and Quantum Networks Research, BT

No bio provided

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Maria Maragkou

VP of Product, Riverlane

Maria has over a decade of experience in quantum technology. As Head of Business Development at Riverlane, she built a network of global partners and a deep understanding of the global quantum computing ecosystem. As VP of Product, she is developing solutions that address those needs.

Maria has a PhD in Physics from the University of Southampton and an MBA from Kedge business school. After 4 years of post-doctoral research on single photon sources, she worked in science publishing as a Senior Editor at Nature Materials. Outside of work, she swims, works on her headstand and plays with her sons.

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Richard Murray

Co-founder/CEO, ORCA Computing

Richard co-founded ORCA Computing in 2019. He is an accomplished business executive and technologist with a PhD in quantum atom-optics and over 15 years of experience managing scientific teams working on disruptive early-stage technologies such as quantum, AR/VR and other consumer and industrial applications of photonics. Under his leadership, the company has grown to 45 people, expanded globally and developed a roadmap focused on building a fault-tolerant universal quantum computer. Previously, Richard worked for the UK government alongside Sir Peter Knight creating the £270m UK quantum technologies programme. He was also pivotal in the early stages of the €1 billion EU quantum flagship programme.

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Olu Orugboh

CEO and Founder, Synergy Solutions

Olu is the CEO and Founder of Synergy Solutions, a specialist management consultancy practice, focussed on helping companies stay at the forefront of evolving technology and the ever-changing world of customer expectations, whilst remaining resilient and futureproofing their business.

As a senior leader and seasoned professional with over 20 years’ experience, leading businesses through change, transformation and migration into digital environments, Olu has assisted a range of companies from start-ups, through to high growth scale ups to FTSE listed companies both in the UK and Internationally to embrace digital technology, safely, whilst remaining resilient and responsive to the rapidly changing environment. Olu has deep international experience, assisting enterprises to turnaround their failing operations through to putting in place infrastructures to support growth initiatives and introduce digital innovation. She has extensive business experience having had the opportunity, through both her own business and other executive level positions to shape the strategy for a wide array of businesses and introduce digital technology, providing a range of companies with the opportunity to speed up response and enhance the quality of that response, which she believes to be vital in the delivery of an agile business.

Olu is  highly committed to assisting organisations to become resilient and future proofed. In addition to running a business, Olu is a mother to two wonderful children  and is passionate about growing the impact of digital technology in underserved communities.

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Catherine Page

Deputy Director Future Telecoms, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Catherine Page OBE is a Deputy Director in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology where she leads the development of policy on future telecoms - one of the five critical technologies identified in the Government’s Science and Technology Framework. [This includes supporting the ecosystem for UK telecoms companies to grow, the diversification of the 5G supply chain and the transition towards future evolutions of networks.] Prior to this Catherine has held posts in Government covering science and innovation policy and international relations. She has worked in the Prime Minister’s office, Cabinet Office, the British Embassy in Ireland and the Department for Business. 

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Graham Peters

Managing Director Government Services, Arqit

Graham Peters is a co-founder of UKQuantum and member of its Executive Committee.  He is also the Managing Director of Government Services at Arqit and current Independent chair of the cross government/industry/academia Space Partnership Board.  He was chair of the UKspace trade body from 2018 to 2020.  He has 30+ years' experience in the telecommunications and space sectors with extensive c -level relationships across industry and government.   Prior to joining Arqit he ran the Applied Technologies and Government Services business at the satellite broadband provider Avanti Communications.  Previous to that he had general management and engineering roles at Telespazio-Vega and British Aerospace. He holds a BSc(Hons) in Physics from London University.

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Dr Mike Short CBE

Chief Architect, Satellite Applications Catapult

Dr Mike Short leads a portfolio career in research & innovation including Chief Architect at the Satellite Applications Catapult. He examines new coverage approaches with converged Mobile/Satellite services and supports the adoption of new technologies including AI and Quantum. He chairs advisory boards for both the UK Telecomms Labs (NPL) and the UK Telecomms Innovation Network, and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey and UCL. Mike was appointed Chief Scientific Adviser for DIT (now DBT) in 2017, where he led technical aspects of the department and worked on UK engineering exports and inward investment. He represented DIT on HMG committees for Telecomms, Space, Health and Quantum, and led overseas delegations to international trade events such as MWC Barcelona and CES Las Vegas. He was an active member of GoScience as a CSA,  and Board member at Innovate UK (part of UKRI). His 30-year tenure at Cellnet/O2 UK/Telefonica Group included launching 2G (GSM) and 3G mobile technologies, winning mobile licenses overseas, and later led international research and standards (including 4G / 5G) for Telefonica. He also ran trials for Mobile TV, Smart metering, Driverless cars, Digital Health, and IoT, and managed the company EU office in Brussels. Mike is a former Chairman of the international GSM Association, the UK Mobile Data Association, EM3 LEP , and was President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in 2011/ 2012. Board roles have also included ETSI, Innovate UK, UK 5G, Phonepayplus, and Trustee of the Archives of IT.

: https://sa.catapult.org.uk/

Professor Rahim Tafazolli

Research Fellow, University of Surrey

Rahim Tafazolli, Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, IET, WWRF and Regius Professor of Electronic Engineering, Professor of Mobile and Satellite Communications, Founder and Director of 5GIC, 6GIC and ICS (Institute for Communication Systems) at the University of Surrey. He has over 30 years of experience in digital communications, research and teaching. He has authored and co-authored more than 1000 research publications and is regularly invited to deliver keynote talks and distinguished lectures to international conferences and workshops. He was advisor to the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson) on London 2050 Infrastructure.

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Dr Kimberly Tam

DCE Marine and Maritime theme lead, Alan Turing Institute, University of Plymouth

Dr Kimberly Tam gained a B.S in Computer and System Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the USA and a PhD in Information Security from Royal Holloway University of London in the UK.  She is currently an associate professor at the University of Plymouth and researches the area of cyber-security in all things maritime.  She is currently the academic lead for the Cyber-SHIP project, PI of a Maritime Autonomous System AI security project, and co-I in a number of other maritime cybersecurity projects across a number of topics including security of vessels, ports, and offshore platforms.  

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James Thomas

CEO / Founder, JET Connectivity

James Thomas received a master’s in mechanical engineering from Brunel University in 2012 and has held varying engineering roles with technical and commercial responsibilities on numerous projects up to a $1.2B delivery. Having worked for a range of companies including, but not limited to, Ford Motor Company, Williams F1, Lockheed Martin, Ultra Electronics and TP Group PLC. In parallel to the delivery of these roles, James has founded and led an engineering consultancy firm, JET Engineering Services, which has been active and profitable for the last 7 years supporting several industries including maritime. Furthermore, James has now founded a second company JET Engineering System Solutions (JET) whose vision is to lead and deliver 5G connected technologies to provide environmental, security and safety benefits in the maritime sector. JET has managed to secure multiple 5G connected sea deployment contracts within the few years since the business was founded under James’ leadership, leveraging, and utilising his broad network acquired through the combination of his employment history and consultancy provided by JET Engineering Services.

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Dr Fionagh Thomson

Senior Research Fellow, Durham University

Fionagh is a visual ethnographer, human geographer, ecologist and ethicist. She is a research nomad and moves disciplines. Currently, she is a senior research fellow in the Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy (Durham university), where she studies the darker side of satellites, dark skies, dark matter – and the geopolitical nature of space policy.  Fieldwork locations include Papua New Guinean rainforests, Outer Hebridean islands, UK Accident & Emergency departments, mountaintop astronomical observatories and an earth observation start-up.

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Lory Thorpe

Quantum Safe Industry Lead, IBM

Lory Thorpe is an Executive leader with over 20 years senior level, global experience in telecommunications and digital transformation, with a technology, innovation and partnership background in next generation networks, security and connectivity enabled verticals across Private and Public sector.  Her experience includes both operator and vendor roles, working formajor telecommunication companies such as Ericsson, Nokia and Vodafone.  Lory was previously leading the IBM Consulting Global Strategy and Offering Portfolio Telco Transformation and has recently transitioned into the IBM Quantum team, leading the Quantum Safe for Telco agenda. She is the chair and one of the founders of the GSMA Post Quantum Telco Network Task Force. She was previously leading the IBM Consulting Global Strategy and Offering Portfolio Telco Transformation. Lory is based in London, UK.

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Ben Timmons

Senior Director, Business Development, Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd.

Ben joined Qualcomm in October 2002. He is based in the UK and is responsible for marketing chipsets, other products and software in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. He works with operators, customers and other partners to ensure that Qualcomm helps their customers deliver the best possible devices and services using highly integrated and feature-rich solutions. Previously Ben has worked at O2 plc as VP, Operations Europe; at Cable & Wireless Mobile as Director of Strategy and Marketing, at Mercury Communications and at the LEK Partnership. Ben has an MA in Economics from Queens College Cambridge.

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Osman Turan

Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering, University of Strathclyde

Professor of Marine Design and the Director of Maritime Human Factors Centre at the Department of Naval Architecture, Marine and Ocean Engineering, University of Strathclyde.  He has internationally leading expertise in Safe and Energy-Efficient Marine design and operations, including maritime human factors. He was the founding partner and the technical director of Safety at Sea ltd between 1999 and 2007. He has published more than 90 journals and 200 conference papers while he organised several international conferences.

Prof Turan has extensive experience managing projects while serving as the international scientific advisor to the Norwegian National project ‘ Smart Maritime  Project’. He has been involved in more than 100 research and consultancy projects. Prof Turan has participated as an investigator in EPSRC’s largest-ever funded marine research projects in energy efficiency: Low Carbon Shipping (2010-2013) and Shipping in Changing Climates (2013-2017). Prof Turan was the coordinator of FP7 SEAHORSE project, which received the LR-RINA maritime safety award 2017, and the scientific co-ordinator for the recently completed H2020 SAFEMODE project in collaboration with the aviation industry.  Prof Turan was also the winner of the 2018 TRAVISION (TRA 2018) Senior European Researcher Award in waterborne transport organised by the European Commission.

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Dr Stephen Unger

Chair of the Board, Cambridge Wireless

Stephen has spent much of his career working with wireless technologies. He started out using radio telescopes for astronomical research, before gaining his first commercial experience with Ionica, the Cambridge company that built the world’s first fixed wireless network.

He then moved to Ofcom, the UK regulator for digital communications. He was an executive member of Ofcom’s Board, served as Ofcom’s Chief Technology Officer, and as Acting Chief Executive. He led the teams responsible for setting strategy for digital communications in the UK, and for representing the UK internationally.

Stephen now holds a portfolio of non-executive and advisory roles in the technology sector. A common theme across his portfolio is an interest in how innovators, entrepreneurs, and government can work together to generate economic growth and social value.

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Yue Wang

Head of 6G Research, Samsung

Yue Wang is the currently Chief Technologist at China Telecom. Prior to this role she was the Head of Advanced Network Research, and Head of 6G Research Group, subsequently, at Samsung Research UK. She leads a team of talented researchers working on cutting edge 5G and 6G network technologies such as system architecture, AI-native networks and O-RAN.

Yue is widely recognised for her extensive technical expertise, strategic and thought leadership in 5G, 6G, and AI within the telecommunication industry. She is the Chair of the UKTIN AI Expert Working Group, where she has the honour to lead a group of highly respected experts analysing telco AI’s forward-looking opportunities and challenges across technology, business, economy, and society. She has also led large scale (19 partners, 8M EURO) H2020 project, is an inventor of numerous patents, has been Secretary and Rappetour of ETSI ENI, delegate of O-RAN WG3, and a frequent speaker in conferences, having recently presented in events such as MWC and TMF DTW.

Prior to joining Samsung, Yue held various roles in the US and the UK, all on Communications Research and Standards. Yue received her PhD from University of Victoria, Canada. She is the recipient of ETSI ENI Award for her ‘extraordinary contributions’ in 2019, and CW 'Outstanding Woman Engineer of the Year Award' in 2020. 

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Professor William Webb

CTO, Access Partnership

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.

Peter Whale

Founder & CEO, Vision Formers

Peter is Founder & CEO of Vision Formers, the specialist consultancy that supports and mentors leaders of visionary technology businesses get product to market and turn ideas into reality.

Vision Formers works with start-ups and scale-ups, providing significant expertise in accelerating business growth through a focus on developing a robust product strategy, growing and coaching product and development teams, and providing operational excellence. Peter has a long track record of conceiving, developing and marketing successful technology-based solutions, deployed at scale, globally. Innovative products Peter has brought to market in digital, cloud, AI, consumer electronics and telecommunications have been used by countless millions of people on a daily basis globally, badged by the world’s leading digital and technology brands.

Peter also works with Digital Catapult as Programme Manager for UKTIN, working with partners and stakeholders to deliver UKTIN’s mission to transform the UK telecoms innovation ecosystem, capitalising on the country’s strengths in technology, academia, and entrepreneurialism, while positioning it for growth as new opportunities emerge in the industry.

Peter is a board member of CW (Cambridge Wireless), a Fellow of the IET, a Chartered Engineer, and a member of the Association of Business Mentors.

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