CC - SMS Messaging Summit 2019 - Berlin 13th & 14th May

Based at Lago di Como in Italy, VSC provides strategic advisory services in M&A, Business Development & Media for the telecommunication industry. Over the last 25 years, Erik developed extensive expertise and deep domain knowledge working at major telecom companies. His international career includes senior & executive level positions. Over the years, Erik has been a regular speaker & moderator at major international telecom conferences.

An expert in wholesale voice and SMS messaging with over 20 years’ experience in the telecom industry as former VP of Sales & Carrier Relations at tyntec, one of the largest A2P SMS service providers globally and as Regional Manager at Verizon where he headed up a team responsible for international voice services in Europe. José also previously managed operator relations in Central and Southern Europe for Netsize, a Gemalto company. José holds a degree in business administration from the Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt a. M.

Specialties:
Launch SMS services / Shift from Voice to Messaging / A2P SMS Monetization / MNO revenue assurance / SMS platforms / P2P SMS Cost optimization / Training Sales and Carrier Relations / Wholesale Voice / VoIP / Integration of Operators, Carriers, Aggregators into value chain of OTT services / Off-net connectivity for OTT services.

Fabian Teichmueller leads Partnerships for Communications Products & Services for DACH, Central & Eastern Europe, Russia and Italy. Since joining Google in 2010 he worked in various marketing roles as well as leading Android Partnerships for the UK.

Dr René Arnold is Head of Department Markets and Perspectives at WIK – a leading German think tank focusing on ICT Policy. He holds a PhD in Marketing / Consumer Behavior from the University of Edinburgh. His research revolves around the socio-economic impact of OTT applications as well as digitization across various verticals. Recently, he has published various studies on mobile messaging applications. Prior to joining WIK, René was a research analyst with the consulting subsidiary of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research. Next to his professional career, he has engaged as a guest lecturer at various universities across Europe.

Simeon is Chief Strategy Officer at AdaptiveMobile Security and has over 25 years’ experience within the mobile fixed line and IT infrastructure markets. With a career spanning Marketing, Product Management, Business Development and Operations roles, Simeon has worked for Telecom Infrastructure providers and solution providers with 9 out of the top 10 largest carrier groups.

Simeon has worked with AdaptiveMobile since the foundation of the business, assisting Service Providers on the protection of their subscribers and network through a range of senior management roles, and is currently responsible for the development and execution of the Company’s strategic initiatives.

Surash leads the RealNetworks business in EMEA and has over 25 years of experience in telecommunications. Prior to joining RealNetworks, Surash worked at mGage, the global mobile engagement provider, where he held roles of Chief Strategy officer as well as COO for Europe.  Surash was also previously instrumental in helping Velti through its meteoric growth and NASDAQ listing. Surash has worked for KPMG, Accenture, O2 and BT in various consulting and business development positions. Surash has an MBA from London Business School and a BEng(Hons) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Brunel University.

Julia Lehmann is a pioneer of Digital Transformation and has executed more than 100 digital projects across many industries over the past ten years. She has participated in and managed projects with leading brands, including DAX 30 companies. As Founder of OnFore she is helping customers with the strategical and technical development of digital business models and products, specialised in the area of AI and Cognitive Computing.

OnFore has built the first chatbot for WhatsApp Business in Germany and expects a reduction of up to 70% of services costs through automation while improving customer experience.

Since 2019 Julia is also a lecturer for Digital Marketing & Management (MBA) at the University for Applied Sciences in Nürtingen.

Sam Barker is a Head of Analytics & Forecasting with Juniper Research. Sam’s focus areas lie across IoT & M2M and Telco Service Provider streams, covering key research topics including, mobile messaging, mobile voice, A2P messaging, 5G and Virtual Reality. He previously worked as project support analyst for a major online retailer, planning, forecasting, and reporting on budgets for large company projects.

Supporting Telefonica's operating businesses across our global footprint. Helping to secure the networks, monetise Telefonica's share of the growing global A2P market and enrich the messaging portfolio withnew products and services such as RCS.

Nick is Chief Insight Analyst and Founder at Mobilesquared, and specialises in all aspects of the mobile and telecommunications industries, including; messaging and OTT, unified communications, mpayments, the enterprise, mobile marketing and advertising, premium rate services, automated platforms, mobile internet and social media, apps and content, as well as networks and technology.
Nick oversees all aspects of client projects; research, analysis, data modellling, and creative output, to drive awareness of clients' brands through white papers or reports, or provide our clients with market positioning and competitor analysis to support company expansion and product launches, as well as Mobilesquared’s own reports, including Global A2P SMS forecasts, 2015-2020.
Nick speaks at conferences around the world, and is a judge for the Global Mobile Awards, the MEFFYS and the EMMAs.
In his time as an analyst, Nick has written strategic industry reports on all of the subjects listed above.

Dario Betti worked in creating new business opportunities in the fast-changing digital world.

He enjoys the cultural challenges of working in different countries it gives deeper and richer engagement. Previously he has also worked in the Middle East, for Qatar based group Ooredoo (in Qatar, Myanmar and Indonesia). For Ooredoo he was part of the launch team for its greenfield mobile operator in Myanmar and repositioned the mobile brands of Indosat in Indonesia. He has also worked for XL Axiata. finding new ideas and developing them in strong businesses in this dynamic, and unique market.

At T-Mobile International / Deutsche Telekom he brought new service concepts and proposition into life focusing on new interface for data services (from portal to mobile apps). A key aspect of my work: included the international strategy for rolling out a portfolio to the entire European portfolio of mobile operators and the focus on transforming the company into customer centric organisation.

In his previous role as a Senior Analyst at Ovum, the consulting company, he specialised in the management and regulation of new media. At Ovum he led research and consulting projects on many different topics including digital television, video on demand, mobile multimedia messaging and business models for mobile content services.

As a member of the WirelessMultimedia@Ovum group, he advised operators, regulators, network and device vendors on services and product strategies and technologies including video, gaming, adult services, music, and location-based services.

Prior to joining Ovum, he completed an MSc in Media Management from the University of Stirling and a BA in Communication Studies and Management from Leeds University. He is fluent in Italian, English and Spanish.

Bianca has been with Deutsche Telekom for the last seven years and currently works on the development and evolution of communication products and Rich Business Messaging. She is a conversational enthusiast with a broad understanding of the customer impact and business benefits that RCS can deliver. Bianca has experience in both large, multi-national and small-medium enterprises in a variety of roles including sales, marketing and product management.

Fabrizio Salanitri is CEO and founder of HORISEN AG, Swiss software company with 17 years’ long experience in telecommunication software and application solutions. Fabrizio’s in depth knowledge and experience in SMS business resulted in state-of-art SMS Platform, cloud based and carrier neutral suite for A-Z SMS Wholesale business.
During his career, he’s been working with companies and industries of all sizes. Therefore, all HORISEN’s products and services are perfect for both enterprise and retail customers – and all of them have one thing in common: they are designed professionally and they are meeting the highest production quality and standards.

During the last ten years I have specialized in mobile, mobile marketing and mobile payment with even more business development and management responsibilities.
I started working in Wireless Solutions as System Specialist, with specialization in Telco and Aggregators setup. After the acquisition of Wireless Solutions by DADA I was appointed as Interconnection Senior Account.
During my last period in DADA I was appointed as Revenue Assurance Manager, in that position I integrated my skills with the analysis of billing trends in order to optimize and maximize the revenues and I consolidated my expertise in  the business intelligence for the Italian Country on this field. I was also active part in implementing the CASP (Premium Services Code of Practice) as member of the working team.
After my experience into the DADA Group, I moved in Mobyt, the first Italian Aggregator (based on traffic volume) as Routing & Procurement Manager with responsibility on LMA (Large & Multinational Account), then I moved to Milan to enlarge my network.

Started the career in ARTHUR ANDERSEN MBA CORPORATE FINANCE DIVISION, then CAP GEMINI ERNST & YOUNG SAS (strategic advisory services).

Worked since 2001 in the public utilities (mainly power generation).

Then in 2007 he set up a company, with a focus on renewable energy, that has been sold to a state owned company in Italy in 2011.

Since then he explores different industries (hospitality, specialty food) in order to optimise value creation.

Dawood has come from a long history within the mobile beginning at the edge with mobile parking, growing into mobile marketing and pioneering the regulatory framework of set tariff SMS short codes in Ireland as early as 2001. After leading Ireland's introduction to mobile marketing Dawood moved closer to the core of mobile network infrastructure.

He is currently Chairman at Cellusys whose systems at the core of controlling signalling for security, roaming, mobile broadband and IoT in mobile networks serving over 600 million subscribers.

Henrik Wapner has the role as a Strategic Business Developer within messaging at Carrier relations at Twilio. Henrik has several years within the business and is responsible for the commercial part with providers.  Henrik has built a strong network within the market for daily operations and organized a structure from a macro to a micro level on how to optimize the supply and demand for long- and short-term traffic streams from end users.

James is a technology expert with a passion for helping businesses communicate effectively with their customers. Over the last 20 Years, James has helped define one of the most successful applications for communication, 'SMS', and bring new programmable communication services to the market.

As Carrier Relations Director for Nexmo, James is responsible for making sure that Nexmo's leading communication platform is connected to every market globally. This involves working with each region and removing any local complexity, so our customers can focus on what they do best and provide brilliant services locally. These customers include Uber, Grab taxi and AirBnB. With Nexmo, businesses can connect to a simple platform (for messaging and voice services) rather than developing their own communications solutions. 

Prior to Nexmo, James led messaging for O2 UK and went onto run Telefonica's global messaging business. The role covered all of Telefonica's 19 markets across LATAM and Europe and James was responsible for creating and delivering the global messaging strategy. James is a main board Director for the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF trade association), where he has worked with both enterprises, operators and regulators to create the 'Future of messaging program'. James was privileged to work with Wefarm (the worlds largest farmer-to-farmer digital network) as a Telefonica business mentor and is currently a board advisor.

20 years ago, James built up the customer training division for one of the founding companies of MEF (Comverse Technology), 10 years ago he was managing carrier relationships with Mblox (an early pioneer in introducing A2P SMS to businesses around the globe) and now acts as Director of Programmes at MEF.

Even after 30 years active in all corners of the Telecommunications industry, James has not lost his passion and drive for promoting Telecommunications as a fantastic, positive means for development and change globally. He lives and breathes Business Messaging, Omnichannel, Customer Journey Orchestration, Mobile Subscriber Intelligence and Monetisation.

In recent years, James has travelled the world speaking on Customer Engagement and worked with both novice and seasoned entrepreneurs on scaling from an idea to a successful business, Business Messaging being a particular area of focus.

Where MEF is concerned, James has now come full circle – so many of his former customers are already members of our organisation!

Bruno Coindre is the Vice President, Messaging Solutions for iBASIS and responsible for the development of the messaging solutions portfolio for the company worldwide.

Bruno has a wealth of experience in telecom, fintech, and entrepreneurial tech ventures. Efficiently identifying high growth opportunities and fast-changing environments, Bruno joined iBasis post its acquisition by Tofane Global and set the strategic path and commercial strategy to broaden and enhance iBASIS’ messaging suite.

Prior to joining iBasis, Bruno was an early investor and Chief Operating Officer for TransferTo in Singapore, now known as Thunes and DTone. In this role, Bruno oversaw day-to-day business functions while managing cross-functional business units. He contributed to TransferTo's journey from 2009 to 2018, from a small organization out of a single location with USD10 million annual revenue, to a profitable and solid business of more than 120 people, with 3-digit millions in revenue, and a global presence across all continents. He co-sold the company to Ingenico (ING:PA) in 2010 and co-led an MBO in 2013, keeping the company operating under the public standard.

Prior to TransferTo, Bruno co-founded Mobile 365 in 1999, later acquired by Sybase in 2006 and by SAP in 2010, and now known as SAP Digital Interconnect.

Bruno holds an Engineering degree with honors from Ecole Centrale d’Electronique in Paris, France.

Coming soon

Scott has 9 years of experience in the mobile messaging industry across multiple roles in sales, account management and procurement. As Director of Emerging Services at S & BTS Global he is responsible for everything related to messaging including sales, procurement and product. S & BTS is a joint venture between SoftBank and BTS that is building the next generation of CPaaS platforms and provides services to enterprises, mobile operators and wholesale carriers around the world. Scott is passionate about how omni-channel messaging can simplify communication and improve customer experiences.