Dave Atkinson - Head of Programmes and Smart Place at City of York Council, City of York Council

Dave is the Head of Programmes and Smart Place at City of York Council and has a track record of delivering Transformation and Innovation. Leading the talented Smart Place team at York includes the DfT funded Smart Transport Evolution Programme (STEP). This seeks to put in place the platform for York to be a leading City for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles on the back of the council’s hugely successful Digital City work. He has over 20 years’ experience in national, regional and local government including Policy, Strategy, Programmes, Business Intelligence, ICT, Transport, Economy, Sustainability, Waste and has an MSc in Geographical Information Science.

Rhys Enfield - Programme Director Infrastructure Acceleration, West Midlands 5G (WM5G), Director of Infrastructure Acceleration, West Midlands Combined Authority

Rhys is the Infrastructure Planning and Deployment Lead at WM5G and part of his role is leading the ‘Barrier-Busting’ team.  He has a strong telecommunications background having worked for some of the big Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) such as Orange and Nokia, rolling out 3G and 4G networks and he was also involved in sales and bidding opportunities.  Rhys’ primary role is accelerating 5G, working with the MNOs and other vendors which gives him unique exposure to being both a delivery partner and supplier to councils.  He has a good understanding of the interest of an operator and likewise those of the suppliers that do the work for operators – really understanding the internal workings, the rules, regulations and legalities in terms of what can be done and can’t or more importantly what should and shouldn’t be done.  

Andrew Entwistle - Principal, Independent

Andrew Entwistle is a founding Partner of New Street Research, the foremost provider of independent equity and debt research on the global telecoms and tech sectors.  New Street works with the world’s largest institutional and hedge fund investors on valuation issues for developed and emerging market telecoms and tech stocks.   The telecoms practice focuses on the interaction of demand, technology and regulation in wired and wireless networks, covering over 120 companies that are active in over 130 national markets.   Before co-founding New Street in 2003, Andrew led the Incumbent Operators Practice at Analysys Consulting for over a decade, working on a range of strategic, operational, regulatory and financial projects in Europe, the US and Asia.   Andrew was closely involved with the European liberalisation programme in the mid 1990’s and the rapid development of mobile communications in Eastern Europe.  Prior to joining Analysys Andrew worked at Booz Allen & Hamilton, Arthur D Little / Cambridge Consultants and Rolls Royce plc.  He has an MBA from INSEAD and is a European Chartered Engineer.

Richard Fish - Trainee Patent Attorney, Independent

Richard Fish joined the Cambridge Office electronics team of Marks and Clerk as a trainee patent attorney in 2016. He graduated from Imperial College, London with an MSci degree in physics, including plasmonics and metamaterials, nanotechnology in consumer electronics, and solid state physics. As a final year computational astrophysics project Richard used image processing techniques to analyse magnetic features on the solar surface. Richard is also a competent programmer and has written, from scratch, financial software which has been successful.

Geoffrey Stevens - Urban Technology Lead, Independent

Urban Technology Lead at the Connected Places Catapult. Geoffrey works to deploy innovative products and services that demonstrate how IoT and other technologies can address urban challenges. Working between infrastructure, innovation and new technology he specialises in sustainability, integrated systems, buildings, smart grids and sensing. Before joining the Future Cities, Catapult Geoffrey worked for the Energy Saving Trust leading on smart grids, digital product development and new energy technologies.

Julian Thompson - Principal Product Manager, Telensa

Julian is part of the team guiding Telensa from the world leading Smart Street Lighting Controls company to a Smart Cities leader. He has over twenty years’ experience launching products in the Technology and Electronics Manufacturing sectors worldwide. For the past ten years he has been in Product Management and Business Development roles in the Set-top box and Parking industries, and more recently in Smart Street Lighting.

Simon Fletcher - CTO, Real Wireless

Simon joined Real Wireless in January 2016 as Chief Technology Officer, taking overall technical and technical strategy responsibility across the company. He has chaired various conference committees including the Cambridge Wireless Annual International Conference and is recognised as a regular speaker at industry events. He is a Small Cell SIG Champion. His long-standing association with the UK innovation eco-system through roles such as Director of mVCE and the Innovate-UK ICT-KTN brings a wealth of practical knowledge on open innovation to accelerate product and services delivery. Simon spent the past 20 years working in telecoms infrastructure systems and product development. In NEC Corporation he played a key role in the formation of Joint Ventures for development of 3G and 4G products and established a core team that developed the first-generation of technology for 4G systems culminating in a Steering Board position in the LTE SAE Trials Initiative (LSTI). In recent times he has directed projects on future cities, the application 5G and IoT in industry verticals with an event horizon towards 2030. His long participation in Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and then directing Real Wireless engagement in H2020 5G-NORMA, 5G-MoNArch and the 2016 NIC study on Future Comms infrastructure brings great foresight on a range of architectural evolutions underway in 5G architectures.

Caroline Gabriel - Co-founder and Research Director, Rethink Technology Research

Caroline has been engaged in technology analysis, research and consulting for 30 years and since 2002, has been focused entirely on mobile and wireless. As co-founder and research director of Rethink Technology Research, Caroline has developed a significant research base and forecast methodology, based around deep contacts with mobile and converged operators round the world. This addresses critical issues and trends in mobile and wireless infrastructure, and particularly operator deployment intentions for 4G, 5G, small cells, Cloud-RAN and other technologies. She is also a senior contributor to Analysys Mason’s Next Generation Wireless research programme. She has led research and consulting projects with a wide range of clients, including mobile infrastructure vendors, large and start-up operators, regulators, trade bodies, government agencies and financial institutions. Her advice and forecasts have helped inform strategic decisions at a wide range of vendors, operators, start-ups and finance houses. Prior to setting up Rethink, Caroline held various executive positions at VNU Business Publishing BV, then Europe’s largest producer of technology related B2B reports and publications. She was the European content and research director, and was a member of the leadership team for VNU’s online business. She holds an MA from the University of Oxford.

Neil Piercy - AVP System Engineering, Mavenir

Neil has been developing base stations for various communications systems for over 30 years, during which time he has performed roles throughout the whole development lifecycle, as well as management roles. Neil joined Mavenir as part of the ip.access acquisition in Sep 2020, having been with ip.access since it was formed as a spin-off from TTP Com back in 2000. His specialist areas include security and networking, as well as a focus on all aspects of protocol design and implementation, and on system performance and simulation across GSM, UMTS, LTE and now NR small cell RAN equipment and systems. Now as AVP System Engineering he is responsible for the development and delivery of ip.access products, as part of the Mavenir group.

Simon Saunders - Visiting Professor, King's College London, Advisor, Real Wireless

Prof. Simon Saunders is an independent advisor and researcher with deep industry and academic background in communication systems technology and a burgeoning interest in the intersection between real and artificial neural systems, communication systems and music. He is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and Trustee of the charity Music for All.

Simon is a specialist in the technology of wireless communications, with a technical and commercial background derived from senior appointments in both industry (including Google, Motorola and Philips), academia (University of Surrey, Trinity College Dublin) and regulation (Ofcom).

He founded the Small Cell Forum and chaired this industry association from 2007-12, growing membership to 150 companies and working with 3GPP to create the first standards for small cells. He acted as Director of Emerging & Online Technology for Ofcom, leading Ofcom’s Emerging Technology programme and creating their Online Tech team. At Google (2015-20), he worked with operators globally to enhance wireless connectivity via a range of advanced technology initiatives, combining wireless networks, artificial intelligence and network virtualisation. As co-founder and Director of Technology for independent wireless strategy advisory firm Real Wireless (2006-15), he was responsible for overall technical capability and direction, providing independent wireless expertise and advice to operators, regulators, technology and law firms and wireless users. In 2019 Simon organised the world’s first 5G music lesson on behalf of charity Music for All, led by famous musician Jamie Cullum.

He is an author of over 150 articles, books and book chapters, including a popular textbook on antennas and propagation. He has invented over 15 patented wireless technologies and served on technical advisory boards of several companies and universities.

Dejan Bojic - Director, High Summits Consulting

Dejan is an independent senior consultant advising a range of clients across both public and private sectors. His particular focus is development of open and shared connectivity and data infrastructure to support product development and service transformation within complex innovation ecosystems.

Dejan’s most recent work has included development of Digital & Innovation propositions for the Belfast Region City Deal, shaping and delivery of engagement workshops for DCMS’ 5G Urban Connected Communities project, and expert contribution to Future Cities Catapult’s Hyperconnected project. Prior to this Dejan has led the UK Smart Cities market strategy development for NEC Europe where he established a number of key partnerships, notably with Bristol Is Open and Digital Greenwich. And previous to Smart Cities Dejan has spent over a decade in technology marketing roles covering products and services in high speed optical transmission systems, mobile and wireless networks, and data communications.

A firm believer in creating value through collaboration between public and private sectors and across technology layers, Dejan’s aspiration as a SIG Champion is to shine a spotlight on market innovation opportunities through CW’s uniquely rich network of experts and influencers.

David Brown - Partner, forty two

David has spent the past 15 years helping start-up/scale-up companies in the UK building successful Customer Service, Customer Success, and Professional Services teams. He has done this mainly as a player/coach; initially working with customers himself and only building teams once he’s gained a clear understanding of what's needed to support the company's unique customer base. In 2015, he used the knowledge gained from years of working in web analytics to found Adavow, an ad suppression platform that enables advertisers and ad networks to stop serving digital ads to consumers who have recently purchased a similar item, which increases digital budget efficiency by 10% or more. David is a keen believer that the best way to become successful is to help others become successful and "What comes around, goes around."

Mary-Ann Claridge - Founder, Mandrel Systems

Mary-Ann is the Lead data scientist at Mandrel Systems. She started her career with research into sonar (think Hunt for Red October without Sean Connery). She is now embracing application and technical domains including education (all the analysis, modelling and visualisation for BestCourse4Me), smart city, retail, voice and speech recognition, and financial and logistical optimisation.

Daniel Clarke - Smart Cambridge Strategy and Partnership Manager, Connecting Cambridgeshire

Dan is the Programme Manager for the Smart Cambridge programme which was set up to explore how data, innovative technology and better connectivity can be used to transform the way people live, work and travel in the Greater Cambridge area and beyond. Local councils, technology businesses, university researchers and partner organisations are working together to find smart ways to tackle city challenges, such as transport and air quality.

Paul Copping - CTO, Fawley Waterside, CEO, Maxathon Ltd

Paul Copping is CTO at Fawley Waterside, a new build £1B+ smart city development in the Solent which will form an international merchant city, see www.fawleywaterside.co.uk  He is also Vice President Corporate Development at Sightline Innovation Inc of Toronto, with a focus on data trusts and privacy.  He is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group AI Task Force on Data Governance.  Paul was previously Chief Innovation Officer at Digital Greenwich (2014-2018) while chairing an Industry Specification Group at ETSI called City Digital Profile.   His earlier career includes leadership roles in telecoms (Nortel, BT) and transport (TRL).

John Davies - Senior Advisor, CW (Cambridge Wireless)

John has carried out a unique mix of strategic and operational roles with placements in the USA and Europe and partnerships in Asia. Over recent years much of his private sector and Government activities has been in the area of mobile and wireless communications, digital media, Smart Cities, Cloud and Big Data and M2M/IoT as well as emerging and disruptive technologies. Helping technology start ups in the UK and internationally sourcing technology and partners as well as provide due diligence in areas of M&A and stock listings. Operating as a UK Government Advisor John has briefed both UK and International Government Ministers and Departments on Smart Cities and respective technologies and applications. This has included providing international workshops, mentoring and consulting at senior levels. John has designed and ran awareness and implementation workshops for international companies and led international delegations to overseas markets, the most recent to Singapore and Malaysia in partnership with InnovateUK. John is an active member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Smart Cities. John will be engaging with potential new international companies and organisations, and supporting CW member companies.

Shahzad Nadeem - Head of Smart Cities Business, Plextek

Shahzad is the Head of Smart Cities Business at Plextek. He has extensive international experience of working in the Telecoms market. His focus is delivering business value utilising technology innovations. Development of a major IoT connectivity platform is one of Shahzad’s recent works. He specialises in Smart Cities, mobile networks, MNOs, MVNOS, MVNEs, Wholesale, m2m and IoT and has keen interest in both technical and commercial aspects. Working cross functionally with businesses, customers, technology, marketing and suppliers – he has delivered complex solutions in the mobile networks and IoT industry. Previous to Smart Cities, Shahzad has spent 15 years in different technology roles and a decade in business development roles.

Roni Ram - Senior Manager Market Development, Pelion Ltd

A Senior Manager Market Development in Pelion, an IoT company providing Connectivity and Device management platforms (previously an Arm company). I have worked for 3 years in the ecosystem group responsible for Partners and Channels engagement, collaborating with many IoT companies to jointly provide value to IoT projects.