Hartwig Tauber & Nadia Babaali

Biographies:

Hartwig Tauber is Director General of the FTTH Council Europe since 2007. He has more than 15 years of experience in the broadband and ICT fields. Hartwig Tauber managed several national and international broadband projects in Austria and holds a professor-title for e-business management at the IMC University of Applied Sciences in Krems. In his senior position as Director General of the FTTH Council Europe Hartwig Tauber is involved in several European and global projects to accelerate the adoption of fibre to the home. Since 2011 Hartwig Tauber also chairs the FTTH Council Global Alliance Group which coordinates the activities of the five global FTTH Council industry organisations.

Over the course of her 20-year career in the international ICT world Nadia has held various positions in the field of European Affairs, International Development and Public Relations with large Groups such as BT Group and Telindus-Belgacom, but also with industry organisations and networks such as Opticsvalley and System@tic Paris-Region. Nadia holds an MBA from London Business School, an MA in Economics from the University of London and an MA in Mandarin Chinese from the University of Paris. 

Gunnar Hökmark

Biography: Gunnar Hökmark is a Member of the European Parliament since 2004. In January 2007 he was elected Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament.
Present positions: Gunnar Hökmark is Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. In the EPP Group Mr Hökmark is responsible for Neighbourhood Policy.
He is the leader of the Swedish delegation to the EPP and active in the Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee of Industry, Energy and Research. He is a member of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis as well as the Special Committee on the Policy Challenges and Budgetary Resources for a Sustainable European Union after 2013.
Mr Hökmark is the Chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee and active in the Delegation to the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly.
He is Chairman of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association.

Anthony Whelan

Biography: Anthony Whelan studied law at Trinity College Dublin and Cambridge University, and qualified as a barrister at King's Inns, Dublin. He began his career as an academic at Trinity College Dublin Law School, specialising in public and constitutional law. He then worked as a référendaire (legal secretary) at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, before becoming a member of the European Commission Legal Service. In that capacity, he represented the Commission in a number of important court proceedings concerning the interaction between competition law, interoperability requirements and intellectual property rights, as well as numerous cartel and merger cases. He has also published extensively on international law, constitutional law, criminology and penology, and EU law, especially competition law. In 2006, he joined the cabinet of Commissioner Neelie Kroes, then responsible for competition policy, and became her head of cabinet in 2008. Since early 2010, he has continued as head of cabinet for Vice-President Kroes, who is responsible for the Digital agenda for Europe in the Barroso II Commission.

Chi Onwurah

Biography: Chi Onwurah is a British Member of Parliament representing Newcastle upon Tyne Central and is also the Shadow Minister for Innovation & Science.
Prior to Chi’s election to Parliament in May 2010 she worked as Head of Telecom's Technology at the UK regulator Ofcom focussing on the implications for competition and regulation of the services and technologies associated with Next Generation Networks.
Prior to Ofcom, Chi was a Partner in Hammatan Ventures, a US technology consultancy, developing the GSM markets in Nigeria and South Africa. Previously she was Director of Market Development with Teligent, a Global Wireless Local Loop operator and Director of Product Strategy at GTS.  She has also worked for Cable & Wireless and Nortel as Engineer, Project and Product Manager in the UK and France.
Chi is a Chartered Engineer with a BEng in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College London and an MBA from Manchester Business School. She was born in Wallsend and attended Kenton Comprehensive School in Newcastle, where she was elected the school’s ‘MP’ in mock elections aged 17. 

Karin Ahl

Biography: Karin Ahl started to get engaged with the FTTH Council Europe through the, at that time, new Business Committee and its work on the Business Guide during 2009. Karin’s contributions was at that time, apart from taking an active role in the discussions about how to dispose the Business Guide, to contribute her knowledge in concrete business cases, business models and an outlook in general. This is something that Karin in here daily work as business developer at Rala Infratech in Sweden is very well aware of. In early 2010 Karin was appointed with the vice chair position in the Committee and later on during the General Assembly in Amsterdam she was elected for the chair position.
In 2011, Karin was elected as a Member of the Board and Treasurer, and since March 2012 she has held the position of President of the Board.
Karin started to work at Rala Infratech in early 2005 within the project management. Today her role is divided into business development as well as project management. Before that Karin worked as business developer at Utsikt Linköping, one of the first real open networks in Sweden and still today one of the largest.
Besides this Karin holds a position as board member in Sweden Broadband Alliance and is also currently in charge of, and founder of, a network for professional women in the telecom sector in Sweden.
Karin holds a master degree in Social and Political Science and Economics from the University of Linköping. Karin graduated in 2002.
Today Karin lives in the southern part of Sweden close to Linköping.

Alexander Bard

Biography: Having made a habit of lecturing dressed in haute couture shorts and an impressive fin de siècle beard, scribbling his notes on huge whiteboards rather than parading just another predictable power-point presentation, the larger-than-life Alexander Bard's simultaneously entertaining and earth-shattering lectures have consistently topped the ratings at major business and management conferences around the world. And as any good speaker does, Bard takes pride in practicing the message he preaches. Alexander Bard, born in 1961, is a philosopher, writer, artist, record producer and a highly sought-after lecturer. Bard studied Economic Geography at The Stockholm School of Economics in the 1980s while building an immensely successful career as a songwriter and record producer. In 1992, Bard co-founded Stockholm Records, which quickly achieved global success and became Scandinavia's biggest independent record company. His first band Army Of Lovers sold over seven million records in the 1990s. He is currently a member of the internationally platinum-selling electro-rock band Gravitonas (http://www.gravitonas.net). In 1998, Bard sold his shares in Stockholm Records to global giant Universal Music and co-founded the internet incubator area26.com (http://area26.com), which went on to house and nurture eight successful companies, including the business improvement marketplace interesting.org (http://interesting.org), Scandinavia's biggest youth culture website Bomben, and the music management company Bullgod. Throughout, Bard has remained one of Scandinavia's leading songwriters and record producers. Bard has given lectures on the sociological and economical implications of the interactive media revolution at the Stockholm School of Economics and other institutions worldwide since 1996. A series of lectures on history seen through a cybernetics perspective in 1998 caused a sensation and led to a bidding war between publishers for Alexander's first book The Netocrats (first published in English by Pearson in 2002 as Netocracy - The New Power Elite And Life After Capitalism), based on his lecture series and co-written with media theorist Jan Söderqvist. Merging Nietzsche and Darwin with French poststructuralists and cybernetics, "Netocracy" was Number 1 for four consecutive months in the Swedish non-fiction bestseller list before being picked up by Reuters/Pearson in London in 2001 for international release. The Netocrats has so far been translated to 17 languages and sold in excess of 340,000 copies. Bard & Söderqvist have since extended their authorship on the interactive revolution into an oeuvre known as The Futurica Trilogy (http://www.youtube.com/embed/EO9dwP1yc_4/). The second book, titled The Global Empire, deals with the political ramifications of the information technology revolution. The third book, titled The Body Machines, crashing Freud against Darwin in a particle accelerator, deals with the death of The Individual and its replacement by an entirely new human ideal: the schizoid character known as The Dividual. The entire Futurica Trilogy was first published in English by Stockholm Text in the spring of 2012 (http://stockholmtext.com/titles/the-futurica-trilogy/). Bard was a fundamental force in creating the Swedish music export sensation - making his small native country the world's third biggest exporter of music - and promoting the information technology revolution. He is also a front figure for the new export of radical Scandinavian thinkers and has repeatedly been named one of Sweden's brightest minds. Personally he considers his biggest and most important contribution as being one of the founders of The Syntheist Movement citing this effort as “the one thing in me that is truly bigger than myself and my theories” and “the one meme that will truly survive me and for which I’m merely a small instrument”. Among the topics Bard speaks on are:
-Homo Technologicus: Human history as the History of Information Technologies
-The Ethics of Interactivity - The revolutionary move from Morality to a new Ethics in The Network Society
-Attentionalism: How Network Dynamics changes Business and Marketing as we know it - forever!
-Netocrats vs Consumtarians - The online-driven borderless class struggle of the Interactive Age
-Medialization: The paradigm shift from mass media to interactivity
-The Art of Imploitation - how the value of information increases by NOT exploiting it!
-The Global Empire: Local vs Global Politics in the Age of Globalization
-The Body Machines: The Dividual as the new human ideal after the Death of The Individual
-Syntheism - the radically new metaphysics emanating from Interactivity, replacing all religious and philosophical models for society previously known to mankind 

Jeffrey Andrick

Biography: D. Jeffrey Andrick has over twenty years of entertainment finance and related experience. Through his boutique advisory company, XL.Ent Media Group, Mr. Andrick’s clients have ranged across financial institutions, Forbes 400 and other private investors, large US and international equity interests, studio-based and independent production companies, international sales agents and U.S. distributors.  XL.Ent engagements have included strategic advisory, planning and modeling for production, distribution, P&A, international and U.S. soft money structures, corporate M&A, video game development and publishing, television production, media buying, bridge/finishing funds, distressed and other library transactions, and a music label restructure.  Mr. Andrick maintains an active group of client engagements with occasional ongoing strategic and/or principal roles in funding and corporate ventures.  Mr. Andrick has evaluated, negotiated and arranged financing for hundreds of films, and has extensive global industry relationships in film and new media.
Mr. Andrick previously served as Managing Director of Continental Entertainment Capital, a specialty financing venture with Citigroup, which deployed a variety of debt, mezzanine and equity capital through project, slate, corporate and structured finance transactions.  Mr. Andrick helped found and ran the Entertainment Industries Group at Comerica Bank, a US$50B commercial bank, where he served as First Vice President and Group Manager and was responsible for all industry lending and related banking activities.  Mr. Andrick also helped found and build the Entertainment Industries Group at Imperial Bank, and began his entertainment lending career at City National Bank in 1987.  Mr. Andrick performed an asset management/ investment role with Shearson Lehman Hutton’s real estate investment banking unit, and separately helped form an international real estate joint venture.  Mr. Andrick holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University (Netherlands), Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College, and resides in Los Angeles. 

William Fay

Biography: WILLIAM FAY has been a successful producer and executive producer for over 20 years. He was most recently President of Production at Legendary Pictures, a private equity backed film production company with more than $1.5 billion in total financing and a 7-year, 35-picture producing and co-financing deal with Warner Bros. A founding member of Legendary’s management team, Fay has served as Executive Producer on a number of films including the box office hits “300,” “Clash of the Titans,” “Superman Returns,” and Todd Phillips’ smash comedy “The Hangover,” which earned $469 million worldwide and quickly became the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. Legendary also joined with Warner Bros. on “The Dark Knight,” which grossed over $1 billion at the box office, and “Inception,” which grossed over $800 million; they were nominated for eight Academy Awards® each, winning six between them.
Prior to his work at Legendary, Fay was President of Centropolis Entertainment, one of the most successful production companies in Hollywood. During his tenure, Fay was Executive Producer on films that totaled nearly $1.5 billion in worldwide box office, including “The Patriot,” starring Mel Gibson, and the blockbuster “Independence Day,” which at the time of its release was the second-highest-grossing motion picture of all time, taking in more than $800 million worldwide.  Under his leadership, the company also successfully developed digital entertainment ventures such as Centropolis Effects, a top-tier visual effects house, and mothership.com, a leading sci-fi online vertical sold to USA Networks in June 2000.
After attending Stanford University, Fay was an award-winning student filmmaker at UCLA Film School. A frequent guest lecturer at film schools, Fay serves in Stanford’s mentor program for graduates and current students. He is a member of both the Producers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America.

Brian O'Shea

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Brian O’Shea has over 18 years of experience in the independent sales/financing and distribution industry. 
Currently, Mr. O’Shea is the CEO of The Exchange, a commercially-minded and creatively-spirited international sales company committed to strong relationships with filmmakers, investors and distributors.  The Exchange has sold and/or financed the new Sebastian Silva film "Magic Magic" starring Michael Cera, Emily Browning and Juno Temple, Young Ones starring Casey Affleck and Elle Fanning, and Higher Ground directed by and starring Vera Farmiga.
Prior to The Exchange, Mr. O’Shea was President of Worldwide Sales and Distribution for Affinity International, creating the entity five years ago when it was called Odd Lot International and making it into one of the leading independent film production, sales and distribution companies in the United States.
In his role at Affinity, Mr. O’Shea was directly responsible for all international acquisitions, sales and distribution activities. Mr. O’Shea’s most recent success includes the critically acclaimed Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, Casa de mi Padre starring Will Ferrell, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, Beastlystarring Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfore from CBS Films and Drive starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan.
Mr. O’Shea was previously Senior Vice President of Worldwide Distribution at Media 8, Senior Vice President of International Sales at First Look International and Vice President of Legal Affairs and International Sales at Concorde-New Horizons.  During his tenure at those companies Mr. O’Shea was instrumental in securing, financing and selling such films as Monster, Upside of Anger, Before Night Falls, and Waking Ned Devine.
Brian is an active member of the Board of Directors of the Independent Film and Television Association (IFTA) since 2008. He is also a member in good standing of the State Bar of California.

Abstract: Points: Overview of what a sales agent does
- The decline of video and how it effects indie producers
- The cable delivery and the current value increase.
- The application of that transition to financing and sales models
- The movement to create new technology content  how the exchange is trying to take advantage of that

Mitch Singer

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Mitch Singer is Chief Digital Strategy Officer at Sony Pictures Technologies. In this capacity, Singer collaborates with Sony Pictures’ various business units on studio-wide strategies to address the on-going digital transformation of the entertainment industry – helping to identify digital business opportunities, exploring new products, formats, and services, representing SPE in industry forums, and working to mitigate digital theft. He focuses on emerging and disruptive technologies and evaluates and develops adaptive business models to stay ahead of the technological curve. In addition to developing new consumer usage models, Singer plays a central role in Sony Pictures’ worldwide anti-digital theft and digital rights management efforts. Singer has been the lead negotiator for Sony Pictures in content protection technology licensing issues.
Singer represents the studio in numerous standards setting activities. He currently serves as President of DECE, the 75-member, cross-industry consortium behind UltraViolet (http://www.uvvu.com), the effort to create open standards for digital entertainment distribution enabling consumers to acquire and play content across a wide range of services and devices.
Singer sits on the boards of Motion Picture Laboratories, DVD CCA, Entertainment Technology Center USC, the HDBaseT Alliance as well as the HQME (“High Quality Mobile Experience”) Steering Committee. He also was appointed to the copyright committee for The National Academies’ Board of Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP). In 2012, Singer was inducted into the Variety Home Entertainment Hall of Fame.
Singer joined Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1990 as Counsel in the Litigation Group. In 1991, he became Counsel to the Television Legal Group, and was promoted to Senior Counsel in 1992. He was named Assistant General Counsel in 1994 and became Vice President in the Television Legal Group in 1996. That same year, he was named head of Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment Legal Affairs. In 1997, Mr Singer became Senior Vice President and transferred to the Intellectual Property Department for SPE. In this capacity he was responsible for traditional intellectual property issues such as copyright and trademark, new technology licensing and content protection.
Mr Singer received both his JD and MBA from the University of San Diego.

Abstract: For over a decade, Mitch Singer and the team at the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) have been developing and implementing new ways for consumers to enjoy movies and TV programmes digitally with the same ease and flexibility audiences experienced when the DVD revolutionised the entertainment marketplace.  UltraViolet, the cloud-based digital rights locker recently launched in the US and UK has already garnered over 10 million users and represents a giant leap forward in the industry’s quest for a “buy once, play anywhere” approach to online entertainment. Now Chief Digital Strategy Officer at Sony Pictures and President of UltraViolet, Singer will update on Hollywood’s roadmap for the new digital platform that is changing the way consumers collect and access their content online.

Ian Livingstone OBE

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Ian Livingstone is one of the founding fathers of the UK games industry. He co-founded iconic games company Games Workshop in 1975, launching Dungeons & Dragons in Europe, and White Dwarf magazine. In 1982 Ian, together with Games Workshop co-founder Steve Jackson, created the best-selling gamebook series, Fighting Fantasy, which has sold over 16 million copies to date in 28 languages. In 2012 he wrote Blood of the Zombies to mark the 30th anniversary of Fighting Fantasy.
He made the leap to computer games in 1984, designing Eureka, the first title released by publisher Domark. He joined the company in 1992 as a major investor and director, overseeing a merger that created Eidos Interactive in 1995, where he served as Executive Chairman until 2002. At Eidos he helped secure and bring to market some of its most famous properties including Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Hitman. He is now Life President of Eidos.
Ian is a games industry advisor to government and the British Council. He sits on the board of several indie games companies, is vice chair of trade body UKIE, is a trustee industry charity GamesAid, chair of the Video Games Skills Council, co-chair of NextGenSkills campaign, and a member of the Creative Industries Council.
In 2011, he co-authored the Next Gen review for the government, recommending changes in education policy to bring computer science into the national curriculum as an essential discipline.
In the Wired 100 list for 2012, Wired magazine ranked him the 16th most influential person in the UK’s digital economy.
He has been awarded an OBE, a BAFTA Special Award, a British Inspiration Award, The Develop Legend Award, an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by Bournemouth University and an Honorary Doctorate of Technology by Abertay University for his contribution and services to the UK video games industry.

Abstract: The games industry is the largest entertainment industry in the world
The games industry is driven by advances in technology.
Games are moving from a physical product to a digital service.
What are the opportunities for games developers in the FTTH era?

Graham Finnie

Biography: Graham Finnie has been working as an analyst and consultant in the telecommunications sector for more than 20 years. He joined Heavy Reading in 2004, following a ten-year tenure at the Yankee Group, and has been responsible for a wide range of research, focusing primarily on next-generation broadband networks and policy management. He became Chief Analyst at Heavy Reading in 2007. Finnie's recent work has included the Heavy Reading report Next-Gen PONs & Fiber Access: A Market Perception Study, published October 2010, and the White Paper, Mapping the Route to NG PONs, published May 2011.
Finnie has also hosted numerous Webinars and Live events for Light Reading, and is a regular speaker at other major industry events, including the annual FTTH Council Europe conference, where he is responsible for the Council’s annual 5-year forecast for FTTH.
Before becoming an analyst, he was editor-in-chief of the award-winning industry paper Communications Week International and has edited several other leading trade publications.
Finnie is based in the U.K. and can be reached at finnie@heavyreading.com. 

Jozsef Soos

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Jozsef Soos has over 30 years of experience with telecommunications infrastructure in the fields of military systems, data communications, mobile base station sites, outside plant and fiber optic networks. He has spent over 15 years at Ericsson, primarily in Asia Pacific, but also Europe. Jozsef has been involved extensively with Ericsson's FTTH activities globally, and is currently based at Ericsson Services head office in Kista Sweden coordinating technical and strategic aspects of Ericsson's FTTH services portfolio and customer solutions.

Abstract: The increased complexity in today's networks and those of tomorrow set new requirements of the network design process. For example, when designing a network for FTTH you also need to take in consideration mobile backhaul both for traditional sites for macro base station, but increasingly more for Small Cells, WiFi and Het Net. The sheer volume of work required to produce all needed documentation makes a high degree of automation mandatory. A well-defined and documented design process is key to achieve automation. The automation also caters for freeing up the scarce resources for the parts of the design that needs special attention.

Steve Ramel

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Steve Ramel is a Telecommunications executive born in London, England in 1964.
Steve is a member of the Executive Management team in the UK and is currently responsible for the Communications Market Unit of HUBER+SUHNER(UK) at their premises in Bicester, England.
His mission is to increase the sales of customer specific solutions for all aspects of the Communications Market.
Since joining HUBER+SUHNER in 2002 Steve has helped the company to develop and deploy, fully integrated connectivity solutions into the Operator and OEM markets of the UK. Steve is also part of the Global Team responsible for developing the companies Fibre Optic portfolio into new customers and areas of business throughout the world.
2000-2002 Senior Customer Programme Manager for Viatel where Steve was responsible for connecting 3rd party customers and transmission equipment to the company’s fibre Optic Network throughout Europe.
1995-2000 Network Build Manager for NTL and was part of the original team instrumental in building the company's professional fibre Optic Network throughout the UK.
Steve holds an HNC qualification in Electronics and Communications and an HND in Computer Systems Engineering.

Abstract: Talking about fiber today also means having a foresight into the future. Different aspects of our lives are already influenced by fiber optic solutions. But: fiber to the Home doesn’t have to end at the walls of buildings, in buildings or in dwellings. Future fiber solutions won’t just support the upgrade to 4G LTE in the Mobile communication (FTTA) or the communication on board of trains.
Fiber is a technology that revolutionises our accepted customs… our lives. Many possibilities that can be realised by fiber optic technology haven’t even been developed yet. Fiber to the chip and fiber in the device have been discussed for some years and optical communication between individual computers have already commercialised. Within a short period of time, optical communications will also enter the computer, connecting one circuit board to another. And in a few years, chip-to-chip communication will also enter the market. It is only a question of time before light revolutionises the connections on the chip itself . . .
What does this mean for fiber to the Home developments?
Today the need for FTTH connectivity is basically driven by the increase of data rates (3DHD TV, Video, and Internet). But more and more FTTH developments will be driven by devices that are populated with fiber optics, by the needs of smart homes, smart grids etc.
This means that the requirements regarding connectivity from central offices, outside plants and buildings will change dramatically in the coming years.
Our presentation takes a look into the future showing the evolving challenges in fiber to the Home developments.

Alessandro Pirri

Biography & Abstract

Biography:
Alessandro Pirri has an Aerospace Engineering degree, and he has worked at Prysmian Group since 1998, when the company was still Pirelli.
Passing through several Plant Responsibilities in the Special Cables Division, he’s been involved in TLC activities since 2001, first as Data Cables Product Manager, then as TLC cables Design Manager and finally he’s the Director of Connectivity and FTTx with the goal to bring together and maximize the extensive knowledge and experience of the access network technologies already existing in the former Prysmian and Draka.

Abstract:
Since technology has now reached a good level of maturity in the development of efficient solutions in high density scenarios, operators and players are starting to devote their attention to those areas where the return on the investment is still not very much appealing.
The community of the passive components manufactures keeps on developing breakthrough solutions targeting a significant reduction of installation costs along with the traditional practices and the existing infrastructure.
Furthermore optical fibre finds here its full exploitation as the length of the last drops of the current copper networks dramatically limits the performance of xDSL technologies.

Dr. Gerlas van den Hoven

Biography & Abstract

Biography:
Gerlas van den Hoven started his career at Philips Research in the area of components for long haul and metro networks. He worked as product line manager for optical amplification at JDS Uniphase, where he became part of the JDSU Netherlands management team. After JDSU, Gerlas worked for Genoa Corporation as VP Products. Here, he developed the market for low-cost integrated optical amplifiers for the metro-access market. In 2002, Gerlas co-founded Genexis, a company focused on the development of home gateways for fiber-to-the-home. He is currently CEO of Genexis. In addition, he is member of the board of the FTTH Council Europe. Gerlas van den Hoven holds a PhD on the subject of silicon-based photonic materials.

Abstract:
Rolling out FTTH involves next-generation technology and is cost-intensive - this is known. Ranging from equipment suppliers to service providers, everyone works hard to make the business case. During this process we sometimes forget a very important element: the end-user. But, it is the end-user that creates the demand, makes the choice and pays the bill.
This presentation tells the story of FTTH through the eyes of the end-user. What are his needs? What makes the end-user want fiber? And, what can the industry do to involve the end-user more?
The home gateway plays a crucial role in this process. For many people, it is still that anonymous grey box in the metering cabinet. In reality, the home gateway is that one element connecting the end-user to the network and the services. The home gateway enables a new approach to the marketing of FTTH. Based on the concept of choice, the end-user is now attracted towards the benefits of FTTH. The home gateway makes this choice tangible; in fact, it becomes the embodiment of FTTH for the end-user.

Eric Festraets

Biography: Eric Festraets was born on July 15th, 1961 in Ukkel, near Brussels (Belgium). He obtained the civil engineering degree (electronics) at the University of Louvain in 1985, married in 1993 with Lies Vandeveegaete and has two boys, Jakob (1995) and Klaas (1998).
Eric started his career with IBM Belgium as Systems Engineer for Midsize Mainframe Systems in 1986, offering techno-commercial support for customers of the Government and Public Sector (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Internal Affairs, NATO,…).
Eric joined Alcatel in 1993 as Product Manager for ATM products, being responsible for the decision review process of the ATM Subscriber Unit, being predecessor of the ATM DSLAM, the product bringing Alcatel to broadband access (DSL) market leadership in the later nineties.
From 1999 onwards, Eric focused in Alcatel more on Solutions and Product Marketing for Broadband Access and in 2002, he founded the Alcatel Fast Forward Program, covering consultative marketing for broadband operators. The Fast Forward team (with Eric as team-leader) conducted successfully longer term projects with major DSL operators in Europe, APAC (China, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines) and Latin America (Mexico, Brasil). Topics being covered were Broadband Marketing, Competitive Analysis, Broadband Strategy, Economics and Operational Excellence (all domains beyond products and network architectures). Step by step, all Fiber-To-The-Home aspects were added to the total broadband picture. Today, Fast Forward is helping all market players marketing, deploying, planning and operating broadband (copper and fiber) networks.
In 2007, Eric joined the FTTH Council Europe as vice-chairman of the Deployment and Operations Committee and in March 2009, Eric took over the chair position of this D&O Committee. Promotion of FTTH is thereby achieved by means of webinars on specific deployment items, stimulating innovation with awarding valuable initiatives and the availability of the FTTH Handbook, covering all aspects of FTTH deployments, at the active and the passive layer.
Eric Festraets was re-elected Board member in April 2012. He was first elected Board member in April 2010.

Janez Öri

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Janez Öri has graduated at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana in 1997. He has more than 15 years of experience in telecommunication industry. He started as R&D engineer in Iskratel. His experience includes also system engineering and account management for service providers at Cisco Systems where he worked for three years. From 2003 he was involved in technical solutions and business development activities for broadband solutions and IP networking at Iskratel. In 2011 he became Director of Product Management and Marketing at Iskratel. In latest role as CTO of Iskratel he is responsible for product and technology strategy of Iskratel.

Abstract:
- Does it make sense at all?
- QoS vs. OTT; merging benefits of both worlds
- How to monetize tomorrow's services?
- How can telcos keep pace with rapidly growing OTT services?
- Not only small species managed to outlive great changes in the past...

Dieter Verdegem

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Dieter Verdegem is Director of Fiber Product Management EMEA for the Telecom Networks business of TE Connectivity.
He has more than 10 years experience with TE and in the telecom industry. Before joining the product management organization he held various positions in operations and business development within Telecom Networks.  Prior to his current role, Dieter was part of the TE Corporate Strategy team, supporting strategy projects for various TE business units.
Mr Verdegem holds a Commercial Engineering degree from the Catholic University of Leuven, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Abstract: At first sight, the EU’s Digital Agenda objectives seem sufficient to provide a minimum service level to the customer. However, latency and symmetry objectives (currently not part of the Digital Agenda) should be added in order to support new services and cloud computing. These objectives cannot be achieved without FTTH. Consequently, it is no longer a question of whether or even when FTTH is needed, but rather how it will be implemented.
Today, carriers consider many ’local’ parameters such as competition, legacy infrastructure, financial situation, local regulations, etc. before deciding whether or not – and how – to deploy FTTH. As a consequence, each carrier paves his own optimized road for greenfield and brownfield areas.
However, in order to create a sustainable network and a viable business case, carriers need to consider a set of additional parameters.  In this presentation, we will address these parameters, including installation speed, convergence capabilities, network migration, quality of service and OPEX.

Thierry Valette

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Mr. Valette has started his carreer as consultant in the security and telecommunications. He spent 14 years in the telco environment dealing with IP and broadband networks on network implentation and development topics. He was appointed as FTTx technical director of the France Telecom Orange Group in 2006 and focused his activities on technology and strategy. He joined the telecom industry on the vendor side in 2011 by becoming the Access Network CTO in Western Europe for Huawei.
He is now deeply involved in designing new fixed network solutions for telcos in Europe.

Abstract:
Maximize usage and revenues by building convergent FTTH networks
-Develop retail services
-Develop enterprise services
-Develop backhaul solutions
-Develop city services

Dr. Partho Mishra

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Dr. Partho Mishra is Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Service Provider Access Group which is part of Cisco’s Service Provider Networking Group. In his current role, he is responsible for Cisco’s worldwide products/solutions for
- Mobile Backhaul – MWR 2941, ASR 901/903
- Carrier Ethernet - ME 3400/3600/3800
- Packet Optical  - CPT 50/200/600
- Small cell wireless - including residential and enterprise femto-cells and SP-WiFi
He was previously Vice President and General Manager at Marvell Semiconductors, where his business unit developed WiFi, Bluetooth and WiMax chip-sets for laptops, smart-phones, digital cameras, gaming platforms and access points. This included pioneering low power and MiFi wireless technologies that were adopted in consumer electronics devices such as the SONY PSP/PS3, Microsoft Xbox and Apple Iphone.
He has been involved as part of the initial technology/founding team in two Silicon Valley start-ups: Airgo Networks (acquired by Qualcomm) and Iospan Wireless (acquired by Intel) that developed the first MIMO Wireless LAN and Wireless WAN technologies/products respectively. Prior to that he was at AT&T Labs-Research and AT&T Bell Labs-Research where he worked on network architecture and basic research.
He has more than 40 issued US patents and several applications outstanding. He has more than 30 published papers in IEEE/ACM journals and conferences.
Dr Mishra holds a B.Tech (Hons) degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology - Kharagpur (1988) and MS/PhD degrees in Computer Science from University of Maryland – College Park (1993).

Abstract: Traffic in the Internet continues to grow exponentially, and the traffic will be dominated by video in all its forms. This poses particular strain on the access networks which have to provide more and more bandwidth with low latency.
The increased use of smartphones, tablets, notebooks with only wireless interfaces, but also the use of high-performance desktop computers and high-resolution TV-sets in subscribers' homes and home offices require versatile access networks using macro cells, small cells and high-performance wireline access. This will inevitably lead to fibre-rich access networks because only fibre can provide the necessary bitrates for native wireline access and backhaul for the entire variety of wireless base stations and access points which will have to handle hundreds of megabits per second for every site.
The presentation will focus on the synergies between all the future types of access which will meet the requirements of video-rich services in wireless and wireline environments.

Ardel Iddin

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Ardel Iddin spent the first 14 years of his career in the optical communications industry with BICC Telecommunication Cables. Joining as a project engineer in 1983 to work on optical cable reliability, he eventually went on to become General Manager of their optical connector business. In 1998 he joined Lucent Technologies as a technical consultant for their Optical Networking Group, and designed SDH/OTN solutions for a number of major projects. He then spent 6 years in the optoelectronics industry as European Sales and Applications Engineering Manager for Intel and more recently with Furukawa Electric. He is currently Sales Manager - UK & Ireland for Nexans Opticable. He holds a BSc in Pure and Applied Physics from Salford University and a DMS from Henley Management College. He has co-authored 3 papers on optical fibre reliability.

Abstract: In many European countries, the focus of next generation broadband deployment has been on urban and suburban metropolitan areas where the population densities are sufficiently high to justify the business case. Whilst it could be argued that the social benefits resulting from the potential applications, enabled by next generation access could have greater impact in remote communities, the cost of reaching them is substantially greater.  Not only are the cable routes from the central office longer, but the separation between individual dwellings and clusters present a fundamental challenge in determining where to site potential fibre drop/access points relative to the subscriber base in order to address the conflicting requirements of: minimising the upfront CAPEX, enabling the drop point to be accessed by as many subscribers as possible, and allowing a reasonable connection time for the subscriber drop once a service request has been received.  In this presentation a number of techniques will be put forward which attempt to resolve this dilemma.

Bob Whitman

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Bob Whitman is responsible for Carrier Networks Market Development, to include strategy and execution of Corning’s Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), Fiber-to-the-Antenna (FTTA) and Carrier Switching Center initiatives. Active for 16 years promoting optical fiber networks through education and public policy, Bob has developed commercial and technical expertise in all aspects of optical communications. He is one of the three founding individuals of the FTTH Council NA. Previously, Bob was the director for global FTTH program management and has held a variety of engineering, marketing and market development positions. Prior to joining Corning in 1997, Bob served as a Nuclear Power Engineering Officer in the U.S. Navy.

Abstract: How can a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) passive optical network become even more future proof in the multidwelling unit (MDU)? Have it enable wireless. Designing for the FTTH-MDU has been researched and studied for some time. However, when you consider that internet navigation via wireless devices continues to grow at double-digit annual percentages, it makes sense to consider a wireless passive optical network overlay. This presentation will explore the following:
What does it look like to enable wireless? In the MDU, a wireless passive optical network overlay collapses neatly on top of the cable and hardware physical infrastructure. The ratio of fiber-fed remote antenna unit (RAU) to dwelling will likely be less than 1:1; power requirements for the RAUs will typically dictate use of composite cabling in the horizontal from a consolidation point.
What is the radio frequency (RF) design process, and how does that complement the FTTH design process? Wireless design considerations include the following:
a. What is the environment (open medium, dense)?
b. What is the received signal strength indication (RSSI) desired? 
c. How many buildings/floors/living units will the network service? 
d. How many sectors, carriers, and bands shall the network enable?
What are the incremental costs when deploying the passive network components at the same time? The networks can share cabling and hardware most of the way. This presentation will lay out the options, and how different the options can look, depending upon building size, as well as the network design component selection.
What are the benefits of a consolidated passive optical network to the carrier and the end user, both near- and far-term? This presentation will lay out both present and future benefits to network owners (ability to deliver more services, including smart-grid applications that help solve some MDU management issues), as well as the upsides to MDU dwellers (more wireless bandwidth, for starters).
A wireless passive optical network will be complementary to an FTTH network in the MDU. Designing for both is the ultimate in hedging bets on technology adoption.

Martin Kellenberger

Biography & Abstract

Biography:
Martin Kellenberger is Head of Consulting at Reichle & De-Massari AG. He is responsible for internal and external consulting, sales support and training in the business segment "FTTX Networks" on a global base. In this role he is involved in many FTTH projects not only in Switzerland and Europe also in the Middle East and Asia region. Martin Kellenberger has more than 20 years of international experience in Public Networks and is a real expert in fiber optic technology.

Abstract:
The presentation is giving some insights to the FTTH-rollout challenges with a focus on the Layer 1 combination of fiber optic infrastructure as P2P, P2MP and WDM-PON. The presentation deals with topics such as:
- The general situation regarding FTTH sustainability and long-term investment
- Roll-out of the FTTH infrastructure as a collaboration of installers, operators, suppliers,
  associations and the government (regulator)
- Importance of Adaptation, Modularity and Flexibility to cover the future requirements
- Experiences from installing the FTTH roll-out: challenges, quality issues, teachings …

Christophe de Saint-Martin

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Christophe de Saint-Martin is Director of Marketing for Europe for fixed network products. His role covers product & solution marketing, marketing communication and strategic marketing for next generation fiber and copper access and digital home. He published articles in industry media and contributed to innovation awards wins for ZTE.
Prior to his current position, he was Marketing Manager for EMEA in Nortel Networks for 2G & 3G wireless access products and managed the wireless demo center. Deeply involved in wireless and wireline technologies with vendors for the past 20 years in sales and marketing activities, Christophe de Saint-Martin contributed to contracts signed with worldwide operators overreaching 100 million euros.
Christophe de Saint-Martin holds a Master Degree in Electronic Engineering from ESME Sudria (Paris).

Abstract: In traditional FTTH network construction, ODN is handled as dark resources which are hard to design, deploy and operate. In this session, ZTE speaker will describe the whole life cycle concept to build a visible, manageable and controllable fiber network.

Wolfgang Fischer

Biography: Wolfgang Fischer is Chief Architect for Next Generation Access Solutions, working for Cisco EMEA. He has more than 25 years of experience in Service Provider networking solutions covering ISDN protocols, ATM systems and network architectures, broadband access, voice, traffic and queuing theory. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Wolfgang Fischer has held various leadership positions in the FTTH Council Europe, including a 3-year term as a member of the board of directors. He is now leading its Deployment and Operations Committee.

Robert Visser

Biography & Abstract

Biography:
Bob Visser began his career at 3M as a ceramic engineer in the Abrasive Systems Division. During this period, he led teams within this division as a research supervisor, product development manager and laboratory manager.
In 2000, he became technical director of the 3M Abrasive Systems Division. Later, he led two additional 3M units as technical director: Superabrasives and Microfinishing Systems and Electronics Markets Materials divisions. These experiences helped expand his technical expertise in all three areas.
He is currently vice president of Research and Development for the 3M Electronics and Communications businesses.
Visser holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Iowa State University.

Abstract:
The telecommunications industry has changed dramatically over the past decade. Whereas in the past, consumers counted on a reliable phone line to stay in-touch with friends and family. Today, they expect the ability to be constantly connected to a greater network of people, places and things from multiple devices at work, at home, and on the road. Service providers were forced to evolve to stay relevant.
The vendor community has been there to assist them with a migration of product solutions that support the ultra-high-speed bandwidth required by consumers "at work" and "at play".  Behind this change, is innovation. Innovation in the devices consumers use.  Innovation in the methods for delivering the data in demand. Innovation in the development of products and methods that reduce the time, the effort and the dollars required for operator’s to migrate to - and operate - these new, behind-the-scenes telecommunications networks.
This presentation will touch on both the process of innovation and the result of the vendor community's efforts.

Jan van Tetering

Abstract:
While waiting for a killer application to justify fiber deployments, one may not realize that the killer application is already here: it is hundreds of current applications that create life changing experience. In a world that is tailored to an individual, THE application is for everyone different. To meet these needs, we will need all type of networks, but all of them have unique component: passive fiber networks. This session will explore how innovation in technology is transforming fiber into vital piece of any network and how transparent and future-proof fiber infrastructure is needed to support a long term evolution.

Dr. Wolfgang Spahn

Biography & Abstract

Biography:
In 1997, Dr Wolfgang Spahn gained a PhD in optical devices at Julius-Maximilian University in Würzburg, Germany. In 1998, he moved to Alcatel Corporate Research Center in Stuttgart, working on optical networks. From 2000 to 2001, Dr Spahn headed the office of the management board at Alcatel Components Division in Stuttgart and Paris as Assistant to the Board. From 2001 to 2006 he held various posts at RFS in Hanover, initially as Director Global Product Management & Business Development, from 2002 as Director Global Development & Product Management and from 2004 to 2006 as Executive Vice President, Product Line Manager for Base Station Antennae.
Dr Spahn has been CTO for Research and Development at KEYMILE since 2006, and since 2009 he has been working as Managing Director for KEYMILE AG, Switzerland.

Abstract:
When going to invest into optical fiber roll-outs network operators must take essential decisions today which determine the future upgrade-ability of their networks. In order to avoid costly modifications to the network at a later phase, fundamental thoughts must be given to the network topology in the light of the expected evolution of technology and bandwidth demand.
Besides considering the topology, when planning the use of the network another question is how to share it among various providers. Here Open Access gives fair access for all providers without discrimination. Sharing can take place at different levels and must provide proper separation between the different sub-networks, allow fair bandwidth allocation etc. As Triple play is a must, different options for offering TV have to be considered.
These premises (=Voraussetzungen) and options have consequences not only on initial deployment strategies, but also on the choice of the access equipment and FTTH technology used. In the presentation, Mr Spahn will go into the pros and cons of the various options, when investing into an FTTH infrastructure.

Olaf Storaasli

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Olaf Storaasli is the Global Marketing Manager for Fiber Optic Materials at DSM Functional Materials.  Olaf has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree.  Olaf has been in the telecommunications industry for over 13 years in various roles in Research & Development, Application Engineering and Product Management and holds 11 patents and has authored or co-authored dozens of technical publications in fiber optics.

Abstract: Presentation content will deliver message of trends in user applications that young people, our next generation end users, want to see and expect to be made possible in terms of high speed broadband.

Eng. Valerio Battista

Biography: Graduated in Mechanical Engineering at Florence University, Valerio Battista is a manager with extensive knowledge and understanding of the industrial sector after more than 20 years of experience, initially with the Pirelli Group and then with the Prysmian Group, of which he took the lead in 2005.
He held positions of increasing responsibility in the Pirelli Group, particularly for restructuring and reorganisation of Pirelli Cavi, which in the period 2002-2004 was taken to being one of the most profitable and competitive in its industry.
In 2005 he played a key role in the creation of the Prysmian Group, leading to its flotation in 2007. The Group of which he is currently Chief Executive Officer is world leader in the energy and telecom cables industry, with approximately 22,000 employees and 97 plants around the world. 

Graeme Millar

Biography: A graduate from Cambridge University with degrees in science and engineering, Graeme is a highly commercial, innovative and energetic business leader. Graeme spent his early career in the finance industry with 3i before embarking on a career in telecommunications. Latterly focussed on marketing, sales and general management, Graeme is also extremely technically and financially literate. Operating at board level for the past decade, he has been involved in three significant business transformations. He has a successful track record of reinvigorating troubled telecoms operators and returning them to sustainable and profitable growth. He has also accelerated the growth rates of already successful businesses.
Graeme has lived and worked in the UK, USA, Russia, France, Netherlands, Hungary and most recently Jersey. During his 20 years in telecoms at Motorola, Vodafone, MTS Russia and JT (Jersey Telecom) he built up an extensive network of contacts in all areas of the business.
At JT Graeme has led the transformation of this tier 1 full service, state-owned business into a 21st century telco combining a mix of extensive cost cutting and modernisation of work practices together with an ambitious growth strategy which has so far resulted in JT becoming the largest provider of hosting in the Channel Islands; an increase in the number of customers served by almost an order of magnitude; and the commencement of a programme to roll point to point fibre out to every home and business on Jersey and create the world’s fastest ubiquitous broadband network in the next 4 – 5 years.

Anders Christjansen

Biography: Anders’ is CEO at Waoo!  – The leading fiber optic based triple play challenger in Denmark offering Internet & IP-TV, Broadband, Mobile and VoIP. He successfully led the launch of Waoo! and secured business growth to 72 million USD in less than 2 years through a combination of M&As and organic growth. Waoo! is the marketing and product house on a FTTH network now passing more than a third of the Danish households. For the second year in a row Waoo! has been awarded ‘Best broadband in Test’ among Danish customers.
Since 2007 Anders’ has served as a board member and co-founder of several technology start-ups and has held the title as President of European Tech Tour in 2009.
As Executive Vice President of TDC (The largest Danish Telco), Anders was P&L responsible for a division with revenues of $780 million and 470 employees. He transformed the business from single brand to a streamlined portfolio of brands and a conjoint differentiated product portfolio.
Anders’ was part of the team starting-up Sunrise, now the second largest mobile and fixed telco operator in Switzerland. For his results in growing the telco wholesale business from 0 to $52 million in three years, he was awarded British Telecom´s prize “Best Sales Director Europe” in 1999.

Murat Erkan

Biography: Murat Erkan has joined the Turkcell family in June 2008 as the Tellcom General Manager, started his carrier in Toshiba. He continued his career as the first “System Engineer” of Turkey at Cisco Turkey. He has worked on the pioneer projects of Turkey’s leading finance, telecommunication companies, holdings and public corporations such as Turkcell. Erkan carried on his carrier as Business Unit Management at Aneltech on solutions related to Telecommunication, Mobile, ICT, defense industry and industrial products sectors as from 2006, before his appointment at Tellcom. Erkan, managed the merge of Tellcom and Superonline in 2009 and graduated from Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering of Yıldız Technical University in 1992. He is working as Turkcell Superonline’s General Manager since 2008. 

Karin Ahl

Biography: Karin Ahl started to get engaged with the FTTH Council Europe through the, at that time, new Business Committee and its work on the Business Guide during 2009. Karin’s contributions was at that time, apart from taking an active role in the discussions about how to dispose the Business Guide, to contribute her knowledge in concrete business cases, business models and an outlook in general. This is something that Karin in here daily work as business developer at Rala Infratech in Sweden is very well aware of. In early 2010 Karin was appointed with the vice chair position in the Committee and later on during the General Assembly in Amsterdam she was elected for the chair position.
In 2011, Karin was elected as a Member of the Board and Treasurer, and since March 2012 she has held the position of President of the Board.
Karin started to work at Rala Infratech in early 2005 within the project management. Today her role is divided into business development as well as project management. Before that Karin worked as business developer at Utsikt Linköping, one of the first real open networks in Sweden and still today one of the largest.
Besides this Karin holds a position as board member in Sweden Broadband Alliance and is also currently in charge of, and founder of, a network for professional women in the telecom sector in Sweden.
Karin holds a master degree in Social and Political Science and Economics from the University of Linköping. Karin graduated in 2002.
Today Karin lives in the southern part of Sweden close to Linköping.

Faris Awartani

Biography: Mr Faris Awartani is the founding board member and the Chairman of the FTTH Council MENA. He is currently Moseco Group CEO with operations in Saudi, Jordan,Palestine,Qatar, and the UAE. Faris has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunication industry where he established several telecommunication companies in the Middle East region. He also participated in the policy setting of several companies regarding their investment decisions. In addition he participated in the liaising between the international chamber of commerce and the international chamber of commerce office in Jordan in order to create awareness for the local business community about the International Chamber of Commerce objectives and regulations to be as the reference for any possible conflict abroad.
Faris holds a BS of engineering management and operations research fromSMU,Texas, USA.