Ran Avital is responsible for Ceragon Networks marketing strategy and positioning the company's product in next generation all IP mobile backhaul networks.

Prior to joining Ceragon, Ran led ECI's broadband solutions marketing focused on delivering IPTV, VoIP, and Mobile services over IP based broadband networks. He has more than 15 years of extensive and varied experience in the telecommunications industry.

In prior positions, he has served as R&D project manager, product marketing and solution marketing. Ran holds a MBA and a BSc degree in Physics and Computer Science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

As Technical Marketing Director at Transmode, Jon has responsibility for Strategic and Technical Marketing and Market Communications.

Jon has spent 20 years working in the telecoms industry, primarily in optical and packet-optical systems. He joined Transmode in 2004 and has previously worked for Lucent Technologies and Sycamore Networks in a variety of sales and marketing roles.

Jon is a Chartered Engineer and holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Electrical Engineering and Electronics from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).

Kevin Baughan is an experienced and innovative telecoms professional, actively exploring new business opportunities resulting from cutting-edge technologies and evolving Virgin Media's communication and entertainment portfolio.

In his current role, Kevin is responsible for developing Virgin Media's metro wireless propositions, which included the recent acclaimed rollout of WiFi on the London Underground across 72 stations, in time for the 2012 Olympic Games. In his previous role, he was responsible for Virgin Media's technical strategy, guiding the company into leadership positions through the rollout of next generation broadband (DOCSIS 3.0) and TV (Tivo) platforms. Kevin sits on the Virgin Media Board Committee for Technology & Operations.

He has a proven track record of delivery for both UK and European service providers. Prior to Virgin Media, Kevin co-founded a start-up carrying out pioneering research into novel networking technologies for the US Air Force Research Labs with colleagues at the University of Birmingham. Kevin has also had a distinguished career with Nortel Networks, in both R&D and as the company's chief architect for cable operators across Europe. Kevin holds a BSc from Birmingham University, an MSc from Aston University and an MBA with distinction from Imperial College. He was an Honorary Professor from 1999 to 2008 at Birmingham University, where he advised the University's communications research team.

Murat Bilgic joined EXFO Europe as the Director of Wireless Technology within the CTO Office in August 2011, and his role is to advise EXFO Sales and Product teams and help formulate EXFO's strategy in providing solutions to wireless service providers and equipment manufacturers.

Before joining EXFO, Murat led his wireless consulting company, Wirelesse2e, where he advised start-up companies, semiconductor manufacturers and wireless infrastructure companies.

Prior to Wireless2e, he worked for T-Mobile USA for over 15 years. Most recently he was the Director of Data Systems and Services Engineering. Murat Bilgic is the (co)-inventor of 11 US patents related to wireless communications.

Johan Brandt received a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours, 1st Class), Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 1996. He has been employed in Telenor Norway since 1996 – in Network planning until 2003 and in Network development, design and strategy since 2003.

Johan's areas of expertise include: Ethernet, IP/MPLS, mobile backhaul synchronization, SDH, NG-SDH, OTN, xWDM. He is currently project manager for the Mobile Backhaul project in Telenor Norway, developing and deploying all-IP backhaul solutions for 2G, 3G and LTE.

Gabriel Brown is Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading and focuses on wireless technologies and services, including 802.11 wireless LAN, ultrawideband, WiMax, and 3G.

He has covered the wireless data industry since 1998, previously as Chief Analyst of the monthly Unstrung Insider, published by Heavy Reading's parent company Light Reading; he was additionally responsible for the overall editorial planning of Light Reading's entire line of Insider research newsletters.

Prior to joining Unstrung, Brown was the editor of IP Wireline and Wireless Week at London's Euromoney Institutional Investor. He often presents research findings at industry events and is regularly consulted by wireless networking technology leaders. He is based in the UK.

Tommy Cook is the Founder and CEO of Calnex Solutions, a leading global supplier of test solutions for the evaluation of Synchronisation-over-packet-networks. He has 30 years experience in the Telecoms Industry, primarily focused on Test and Measurement.

Prior to founding Calnex, his career has seen him gain experience of every aspect of product development from hands-on design through to Product Line Management. He has held senior positions, leading Business Teams with P&L responsibility for the specific market segment.

Tommy has participated in a number of Standards forums during his career. He is currently participating in ITU-T Study Group 15 & MEF in the discussions on Timing-over-Packet solutions.

Wayne Cutler is an independent consultant with over 25 years' experience in the telecoms industry. He has attended the MSF since its inception and has been heavily involved in all aspects of its activities and has been the chair of the MSF's Technical Committee since 2008 and CTO since 2010.

He formerly held posts at Ericsson & Marconi as a System Designer and Standards Engineer and is a member of the IET (MIET), a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and holds an honours degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the University of Bristol, England.

Patrick Donegan is among the world's leading independent experts in backhaul network issues. His first Heavy Reading report, "Backhaul Strategies for Mobile Operators", was published in March 2006, encompassing extensive research with multiple leading mobile operators and equipment vendors.

Patrick has more than 20 years experience in the mobile communications and wider telecom market. He joined Heavy Reading from Nortel Networks in January 2006. At Nortel he spent five years as a senior manager of strategic planning for the company's wireless business – spanning GSM, CDMA, UMTS, WiMax, and other wireless technologies. Prior to Nortel, he spent two years in business research for Motorola's Corporate Strategy Office in EMEA and two years as a wireless analyst for the Yankee Group.

Markku Ellilä is vice president and general manager for the Mobile Routing business unit at Tellabs. He is responsible for setting strategies, growing Tellabs' business and developing the Tellabs Smartcore® 9200 Content-Aware Routing Series, the Tellabs® 8800 Multiservice Router Series, the Tellabs® 8600 Managed Edge System, the Tellabs Smartcore® 9100 Series and the Tellabs® 8100 Managed Access System.

In addition, he also oversees profit and loss responsibilities, product development, product planning and product marketing for these product families.
Markku is based in Espoo, Finland. Previously, he served as Head of Strategy and Business Development in the Network Systems organisation at Nokia Siemens Networks. Before that, he held a series of increasingly responsible R&D and management positions at the Nokia Corporation, including Head of the Mobile Broadband Program and Head of Strategy and Portfolio Management in the Radio Access organisation.

Markku holds a Ph.D. in Technical Physics from the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland and a Master of Science degree in Technical Physics from Helsinki University of Technology.

Matthias Fricke has been working at Deutsche Telekom in Darmstadt for more than 15 years in the area of "Network development and evolution".

Currently his main responsibility is the evolution and design of the Deutsche Telekom's nationwide packet based transport. He is in charge of techno-economics studies concerning Packet-optical transport systems.

Mansoor Hanif is Director of Network Integration and LTE at EE, and has spent 18 years designing, building and optimising Mobile networks around the world.

Mansoor's most recent activities before joining EE included managing the 1st commercial launch of HD-Voice in the world and designing the 1st commercial LTE network in France Telecom Group.

Since November 2011 he has been preparing EE's 4G launch and the integration of the legacy T-Mobile and Orange UK networks.

Glen is the Principal Analyst for Transport and Routing Infrastructure, at Current Analysis, where he provides competitive analysis related to next generation service provider infrastructures.

His analysis covers a broad range of routing and switching technologies including mobile backhaul and evolved packet core solutions. Since joining Current Analysis in 2004, he has provided analysis of packet microwave trends, mobile backhaul, mobile packet core as well as IP Services Edge and Core routing solutions.

Glen has held various senior marketing and product line management roles at Advanced Switching Communications, Netrix, Sprint International, Dynatech Communications, and Tesdata Systems.

Glen holds a B.S. from The American University, Washington DC.

Uka Ibe is the Team Lead, Transmission Access Planning in charge of MTN Nigeria's Microwave, Topology and Infrastructure Planning at the Access Layer. He joined MTN Nigeria in October 2006 as Transmission Planning Engineer. Prior to joining MTN Nigeria he worked with GS Telecom (now Vodacom Nigeria) as a Senior Field Support Engineer and Senior Project Engineer where he was exposed to Satellite and Microwave transmission Technology.

Uka graduated with an Upper 2nd Class Honours in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and he is also an MBA holder from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and is currently on Thesis/Project (Final) Phase of an MSc Degree Programme In Telecommunication at Birmingham City University in the United Kingdom.

He has featured in many conferences and workshops on transport convergence and transmission architecture.

Peter Jennings is responsible for all of MLL Telecom's technical pre-sales engagements as well as delivering the very best network architectures and designs for our customers. He is also responsible for Product Marketing within MLL Telecom.

Before joining MLL Telecom Peter was director of the Account Technical Sales Group for Europe, Middle East and Africa for Motorola Networks and then Nokia Siemens Networks.

Peter has a background in management, pre-sales, marketing, consulting, business development, operations and support in companies as diverse as small start-ups through to Cisco Systems.

Andy Jones founded jonesthefone consulting in September 2009 after a 20-year career with Vodafone. Andy's business is based in the UK and serves an international client-base including network operators, network equipment providers and investors.

At Vodafone, Andy led strategy and architecture teams, serving as Technical Design Authority for the UK Network Simplification Programme, and as Global Head of Transport Networks he conceived and led the Converged Packet Network, Backhaul Evolution and Backbone Network Scalability programmes, each of which culminated in major RFPs for network equipment vendor selection across Vodafone's global markets.

At jonesthefone consulting, Andy offers his clients a customer chooser's perspective, helping clients to gain a deep understanding of the nascent requirements and real priorities of the Mobile Network Operator as a customer. Andy enjoys bringing disruptive architecture to market and is currently working with clients on network innovation to assure sustainable mobile network profitability, including: smart backhaul, end-to-end traffic management and mobile content delivery.

Robert is a highly trained and experienced research engineer with two published patents in the field of process engineering.

Having left the engineering world to use latent skills in communication and management, Robert spent 10 years in the events business working for a global events organisation, during which time he developed an astute judgement of what will work commercially and how to meet customer expectations, launching and growing events that were highly successful in Europe, Asia and South America.

Robert has drawn together senior professionals with both events and industry backgrounds to build a unique business information platform.

Aditya Kaul leads research activities at ABI Research on the changing nature of mobile networks including radio access, backhaul, core networks and managed services.

Prior to joining ABI Research, Aditya led the Emerging Wireless Practice at Pioneer Consulting. Aditya has also worked as an independent analyst for firms like Juniper Research and Light Reading. Aditya started his career at Qualcomm doing wireless chipset design and test.

Aditya has two Masters degrees in Engineering, the first in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University, and the second in Industrial Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Johannes Lessmann is Senior Researcher at the NEC Labs Europe in Germany. As part of the Mobile and Wireless Networks group, he is the project manager for internal as well as customer and EU R&D projects in the domain of mobile backhaul and core networks. His major research topics here are network planning, end-to-end resource and QoS management, SDN for transport networks and mobile carrier cloud.

Before joining NEC, Johannes was Siemens Fellow working on cross-layer support for real-time applications in wireless multi-hop networks.

As a researcher, Johannes is author or co-author of a large number of standard contributions, journal and conference publications.

CJ Meurell has more than 30 years international sales and P&L experience in test equipment and service-related companies in the wireless communication ecosystem. He currently serves as Vice President & General Manager of JDSU's Mobility business, with responsibility for delivering interoperable wireless test solutions in RAN optimisation, protocol test, capacity load test and RF test.

Previously, CJ held VP and GM roles with Aeroflex Test Solutions, Agilent Technologies, Azimuth Systems, and Aehr Test Systems (AEHR). He has a MBA from Union College, NY, earned a BSEE, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and an ASEE With Distinction from Penn State University.

Dr. Sigbjørn Næss holds a Ph.D. in Microelectronics and has extensive experience from both the telecom sector and IT industry. Former employees include Nera Satcom AS, a leading Norwegian manufacturer of Inmarsat mobile terminal and land earth stations for satellite communication, Fast Search and Transfer, a leading Norwegian- based Internet search engine software company, and Microsoft GmbH in Germany and Microsoft Norway.

Sigbjørn has been with Telenor Norway since 1 September 2011 and currently holds a position as Chief Security Architect for Mobile systems. He is also member of faculty staff at the University of Oslo and holds a position as Associate Professor and teaches analogue electronic design.

Security related works include the overall security design of satellite system offering IP access to consumers in South-East Asia, contributions to EU projects in DVS-RCS IP access terminals, vulnerability analysis and hardening of mission critical search-engine deployments and lately, overall responsibility for security of Telenor's mobile systems.

Aaron Partouche is Director of Corporate Wireless Strategy at Colt Technology Services.

He joined Colt after nearly 8 years of service to Alcatel-Lucent, where he occupied several leading positions in different department operational, pre-sales and business development in Carrier Mobile Operators environment, particularly on the 3G/4G Data explosion & Offloading solution. Before joining the Alcatel-Lucent he developed advanced performance monitoring services for introducing the UMTS networks at Nortel.

Aaron has 12 years' experience globally in major mobile technology players (Nortel, EADS-Telecom, Bouygues-Telecom & Alcatel-Lucent) and is graduated from French Telecommunication Engineering Degree (Institut National des Télécommunications).

Dr Andreas Schieder is Managing Consultant in the business unit Mobile Network Architecture and Services within the Competence Practice Communications Technology at Detecon.

He has been involved in the evolution of modern communications networks for the improvement of their efficiency and user friendliness for more than 15 years. Before taking a position as technology consultant at Detecon, he worked in development, standardization, and research.

The focus of his work as a consultant is on architecture development for Next Generation mobile networks and the development of migration strategies for mobile networks.

With over 20 years experience in Telecoms and Datacomms Matt Stagg is well placed to develop an ongoing strategy for mobile voice and data within EE. Matt has responsibility for the strategy in the core network as well as voice interconnect, peering and content delivery across all brands. Matt is in the process of developing the network strategy to address the predicted rise in mobile video.

Matt had a 6 month secondment at the beginning of the year as Technical Lead for the LTE program therefore has a significant understanding of the end to end challenges of developing a 4G network

Previous to transferring into EE – previously Everything Everywhere, Orange UK and T-Mobile UK joint venture – Matt was responsible for IP architecture and strategy for Orange UK. Matt regularly presents at key industry events.

Andy Sutton is a telecommunication network architect with over 25 years of experience. At Everything Everywhere, he is responsible for transport network architecture and strategy with particular emphasis on mobile backhaul.

Andy became part of Everything Everywhere when Orange UK and T-Mobile UK merged in 2010. Andy previously worked for Orange having returned to the company in March 2007 to take up the role of Principal Design Consultant, and spent the previous two years working for 3UK, initially as a WAN Specialist and then as Lead Network Architect. Prior to 3, Andy was with Orange for 12 years and prior to that, he worked for Mercury Communications on fixed network transmission, switching and synchronisation systems.

Andy is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET) and is active within the MEF and MGMN Alliance on mobile backhaul topics.

Today Rémi Thomas is Director of the LTE/EPC Program of France Telecom-Orange, the purpose of which is preparing the commercial launch of LTE EPC in the different Orange operations. He is an alternate member of the NGMN board, and was a member of the LSTI Steering board while it was active.

Rémi was born in 1959 and graduated from the "Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications" (Paris) in 1982. In 1983 he joined France Telecom R&D where he contributed to the research and standardisation for GSM.

From 1995 to 1999, he chaired ETSI/SMG7, the ETSI sub technical committee in charge of the testing and type approval of the GSM Mobile Equipment. In 1999 he joined Orange France where he has been director of the “UMTS network project”.

Rémi contributed to “GSM and UMTS – The creation of Global Mobile Communication” which is the GSM history book. He contributed as well to the “Wireless Engineering Body of Knowledge” (WEBOK) edited by the IEEE Communications Society.

He is on the “GSM Roll of Honour list” released in 2001 by the GSM Association.

Global Marketing Co-Chair | MEF

Phil Tilley currently holds the position of Head of IP Portfolio Strategy in Europe for Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Division. His responsibilities include developing the market awareness of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP product portfolio, working with service providers to ensure success with their business services portfolio and building the required IP skills within Alcatel-Lucent to support a market leading IP portfolio.

Phil is also the Global marketing Co-Chair for the MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum) where he is working with other vendors and service provider members to increase awareness and adoption of Carrier Ethernet.

Phil has more than 15 years engineering and marketing experience. He has worked closely with many carriers throughout Europe advising on the latest market trends. He joined Newbridge Networks in 1992, prior to its acquisition by Alcatel, starting as an approvals engineer. Phil has a Bachelor of Science degree in electronic engineering from the University College of North Wales.

Mr. Jan Vandenhoudt is a Senior regional Product Line Manager for Fixed and Mobile IP for the EMEA region at Alcatel-Lucent, based in Antwerp, Belgium.

Jan supports operators of fixed or mobile networks as they introduce new technology; mainly in (evolved) Packet Core, IP/MPLS Backbones, IP/MPLS backhaul networks, and residential and business service networks. He has worked for fifteen years in the Telecommunications and networking industry in Belgium, the US and Canada, for Alcatel and several start-ups.

Jan holds a Masters in Engineering (Mechanical Engineering Sciences and Mechatronics) and a Masters in Business Administration.

VP Technology & Business Development | DragonWave

Rami Yaron serves as Vice President of Technology and Business Development at DragonWave, a leading provider of high-capacity packet/hybrid microwave radios and pseudo wire Ethernet switches. His responsibilities include: technology and standards, solutions architecture, and product portfolio strategy.

Rami has over 16 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He is an active participant at the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) and the Broadband Forum (BBF). Within the MEF he is a Mobile Backhaul Ambassador, Inaugural Member of the Marketing Leadership Council, and a member of the Mobile Backhaul technical and marketing sub committees. At the BBF, Rami serves as an ambassador and is involved with the End-to-End Architecture, Network Core, and Marketing working groups.

Prior to his current role in DragonWave, Rami held various senior positions in architecture, product management, and business development at Axerra Networks, Carrier Access, and Paragon Networks. All companies focused on network and transport solutions for the mobile backhaul market. He holds an MS in Computer Science and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Haven.