Dean Bubley
- Director, Mobile Technology & Futurism Analyst / Consultant, Disruptive Analysis
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.
Paul became the CEO of the Scotland 5G Centre – the national centre for the acceleration of the deployment and adoption of 5G in Scotland – in May 2020 and has quickly made his mark on the 5G ecosystem. He is passionate about mobile telecommunications and delivering socio-economic benefit to a broad range of stakeholders to enable digital connectivity.
Previously, as founder of his consultancy practice, Paul advised both private and public-sector organisations on major strategic initiatives, taking advantage of the latest wireless capabilities to develop coherent plans to deliver organisational goals and increased business value.
Paul began his career on the first graduate training scheme run by Orange, now EE, and rose through the company to become head of strategic development. There, he played a key role in establishing the UK’s first deployments of 4G services in rural communities.
George Glass
- Chief Technology Officer, TM Forum
George is an experienced telecoms professional and business manager with over 33 years experience in the IT sector in all aspects of software engineering. His specialist skills cover the areas of architecture and business transformation, in particular: architecture operating models, digital transformation, service-oriented architecture and APIs.
Having joined the TM Forum in 2018 as VP of Architecture and APIs, George became CTO of the TM Forum in 2020. Through industry collaboration, George is the leading the creation of architectural transformation patterns, Open APIs, AI enabled operational models, self-healing autonomous network services and industry standard data models that show digital service providers how to transform their IT and network estate to help them deliver digital efficiency internally and digitally enable them externally to prepare them for the digital revolution that is happening across all industries today.
Prior to joining the TM Forum George was the Chief Systems Architect for BT. George led architectural transformations within BT for over 15 years. He was one of the original authors and creators of BT’s Service Oriented Architecture, built upon TM Forum standards, which has persisted, and evolved, and has enabled the transformation of BT from a telephone company to the digital service provider that it is today. Whilst at BT George was an active contributor to the TM Forum, having received an outstanding contributor award in 2016 and was appointed a TM Forum Distinguished Fellow in 2018.
Andrew Palmer
- Consulting Director, CGI
Andrew has more than 33 years of experience in IT, Telecoms and TV and Media, having worked in various roles for IBM, AT&T, Ericsson, Motorola and Arris. Andrew's present role is to leverage existing CGI capabilities that match the needs of our clients in the Space, Defence and Intelligence sectors, as well as building new capabilities that will support the emerging and changing needs of our client base. Andrew has proven experience in developing and delivering complex SI and Services solutions that meet both business and technology needs.
Andrew has co-authored "UK Telecoms For Dummies", an essential guide to the complicated UK Telecoms sector as well as articles for publications such as the Cambridge Wireless Journal including "How do we build the new world of 5g?". He frequently speaks at conferences and provides media commentary on industry topics like 5G, IoT and Smart Cities, as well as being a member of the techUK Spectrum Policy Forum and the Cambridge Wireless Virtual Networks Special Interest Group.
Tony Sceales is Head of Programme Development on the DCMS 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme.
The £200m Programme has been central to the funding and development of a wide range of 5G testbeds, creating momentum and accelerating deployment of 5G networks across the UK.
Tony has spent over 25 years in the telecoms and technology industries, working on major projects at global firms including BT, IBM, Telstra, KPN, Swisscom, Prudential and China Gas, as well as with growth start-up innovators.
He is an Ambassador and former Executive Committee member of the TM Forum, and collaborated in producing some of the key thinking around partnership business models and B2B2X trading.
His role at DCMS is to drive engagement with key players across industry sectors to encourage successful 5G investment and adoption in the UK.
Julie Snell has 35 + years’ experience as a business leader having successfully established new technology markets and leading technology innovation in telecoms / digital IT.
Julie was part of the leadership team that developed BT’s first public Wifi project, BT Openzone. She spent five years on the board of the global telco group Wireless Broadband Alliance, two years as Chair. In 2017, Julie was appointed as director and CEO of Bristol’s Smart City infrastructure and computer network company Bristol is Open.
Currently Chair of Scotland 5G Centre, Non-Executive Herefordshire & Worcestershire Health & Care NHS Trust, Non-Executive Director Worcester Local Enterprise Partnership Vice President of the Urban Technology Alliance, a global community of international smart city players, Non-Executive at Col8, and an Enterprise Advisor for The Careers & Enterprise Company mentoring to help young people realise their employment ambitions.
