Simon Blagden CBE

Simon Blagden is Chair of Larkspur International Limited and has 30 years experience in the IT, Telecoms and Digital industry. He was previously non-executive Chairman at Fujitsu UK, a post he held for 14 years. His career began at GEC where he was International Commercial Manager. In 1991, he joined Quante AG as UK Managing Director and then joined the Main Board in 1995 as CEO, managing operations worldwide. In 2000 he joined Spescom in Johannesburg as CEO to head up its international telecoms and IT business.

Simon is also Chair of the UK Government’s Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Advisory Council, Industry Chair of the Parliamentary Internet, Communications and Technology Group (All Party Parliamentary Group), co-Chair of the Research Institute of Social Mobility and Education and a member of the Trade Advisory Group at the Department of International Trade. Simon was appointed MBE in 1997 for services to export and was appointed CBE in 2016 for services to the economy. His previous appointments have been member of the Government's Apprenticeship Delivery Board and member of the expert panel advising Government on Technical and Professional Education.

Robert Driver - UK5G

Bob currently is a senior advisor for the UK Telecoms Innovation Network (UKTIN), having been interim head of this new organisation to February 2023. Bob has helped to create an innovation network for the UK Telecoms industry, bringing together industry, academia, and government to catalyse telecoms R&D investment, cooperation, and commercialisation.

Founded in 2022, UKTIN is delivered by a consortium of four partners - who draw on their distinct strengths in a collaborative approach: The Digital Catapult (Lead), Cambridge Wireless, WM5G and the University of Bristol. UKTIN has been initially funded by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to drive the Telecom Supply Chain Diversification Strategy.

From 2018 to October 2022 Bob led the UK5G programme on behalf of CW. CW was the lead partner for a consortium chosen by the Department of Digital, Culture Media and Sport, to create and deliver the national 5G Innovation Network. The consortium included CW, the KTN and TM Forum. UK5G brought together and marketed the UK’s 5G eco-system - including the national Testbed & Trials programme along with other business-led 5G initiatives.

Bob was CEO of CW from May 2015 to November 2018 focusing on leading the development of the organisation, broadening its reach with other sectors and clusters, while retaining the unique culture and dynamism of the CW community.

Prior to working at CW, Bob was Director for Technology at UK Trade & Investment (now part of the Department for Business and Trade) where he successfully led national teams helping UK tech companies to access overseas opportunities as well as attracting technology inward investment into the UK. He also coordinated the UKTI science and innovation agenda and was responsible for the delivery of UKTI events from small missions to large trade fairs.

Simon Fletcher - CEO, Real Wireless

Simon joined Real Wireless in January 2016 as Chief Technology Officer, taking overall technical and innovation strategy responsibility across the company. He is a member of the UK5G AB, co-chair of the International WG, and member of the Climate WG. 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 his formative years 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 and the 2016 NIC study on Future Comms infrastructure brings great foresight on a range of architectural evolutions underway in 5G architectures, in particular for Open RAN and Diversification. He is a CW Small Cell SIG Champion, and in February 2022 the Small Cell Forum (SCF) appointed Simon as their Chief Strategy Officer, drawing on 25 years direct industry experience and work as an advisor to governments, regulators and big business.

Evie Ioannidi - Senior Interoperability and R&D Lead, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)

Evie has a keen interest - and an academic background - in how telecoms policy and regulation can be designed in a way that supports both industry and consumers. After doing her MSc dissertation on the UK’s 5G Strategy, Evie joined DCMS as a telecoms policy professional. She has had the opportunity to deliver the Shared Rural Network, a joint programme between the Government, Ofcom, and the four mobile operators for extending 4G coverage, and she has done parliamentary handling for the Telecommunications (Security) Bill. Since July 2020, Evie has been leading the Interoperability and R&D team within the Telecoms Diversification Unit - first publishing the 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy (Nov 2020), and then designing a programme of work to accelerate the development and deployment of open-interface technologies, like Open RAN.