CC - SMS Messaging Summit 2021 - Berlin 1^st & 2^nd September

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.

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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.

Rafal Nowak is Regional Director of Operator Partnerships DACH at Infobip, based in Vienna.

Rafal is responsible for nurturing and developing relationships with mobile network operators in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This includes cooperation on current innovations such as Omnichannel SaaS, Mobile Identity or RCS but also growth management of the mobile wholesale business. Rafal, together with his regional team, advises MNOs and MVNOs on the aspects of future monetization of clustered telecom platforms, taking a proactive role as integrator and direct business enabler.

Prior to joining Infobip, Rafal worked on multiple international functions in the fintech sector, being responsible for major mobile payment projects and online gaming, with a focus on global market entries. Rafal studied journalism and communication at the University of Vienna.

Andrey is a co-founder and CEO of Alaris Labs - a Singapore-based developer of voice and messaging software solutions for telecom carriers. After joining the telecom industry in 2003 he has been working in various positions in telecom software companies gaining extensive knowledge of the global interconnect market. Today Andrey and the Alaris team assist operators and aggregators all over the world by empowering them with advanced software tools that help them stay ahead of competition in voice and SMS trading.

After 13 years in Banking industry working on the evolution of BI and Payment Systems ( ATM & POS), Randal Vinchira decided to slaw his career into the telecommunications industry. In this new phase,12 years ago, he has been working in different roles and companies, gathering a big knowledge of the E2E Roaming Business process. Actually as DCH & FCH Leader in TGS, he is working in maximizing the synergies of incorporating Blockchain into the BigD and AI world for Roaming Business and the implementation of these technology for TGS customers

Ricardo Martins is Responsible for Voice Sales, Messaging (SMS A2P and P2P) and Mobility Services (MVNO) at NOS Wholesale Business Unit.

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Edwin is a technology enthusiast and an expert in Telecommunications with over 13 years worth of experience in A2P and P2P messaging, voice and signalling. Since starting in the telecom industry, Edwin has performed numerous commercial, technical and operational roles at messaging hubs and cloud communications platforms having been responsible for launching technically and operationally the Quintatech and HGC messaging hubs.
Currently Edwin works at Vonage as a Senior Carrier Services Director and is responsible for ensuring that customers have access to best in class telco connectivity.
Edwin holds an MSE in Mechanical Engineering with a specialisation in Automation and intelligent systems from the Technical University of Lisbon.

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Alpana Kaushal managing Carrier Relations with China Mobile International for Middle East region and responsible for business development with MNO and Aggregators (CMI) is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Mobile CMCC, China Mobile established CMI in December 2010, headquartered in Hong Kong, China. CMI has expanded its footprint in 37 countries and regions.

Prior to this, she was part of Carrier relations A2P with Tata Communications Limited. She has 8 years of work experience in International Sales having experience from Events and Telecom Industry, has completed MBA in International Business from Amity University Gurgaon in 2013. Currently based in Dubai.

As Vice President of Europe at Kaleya, Nick Millward currently oversees commercial, marketing and products. He is based in London, UK, and has a strong background within the digital and mobile eco-system.

With over 20 years’ experience in telecommunications, Nick has previously held several senior positions at Vodafone, EE and the Daily Mail. He has also co-founded various small enterprises on the global stage. In 2020, Nick was appointed board member for the Association for Interactive Media and Micropayments (AIMM), and Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) for his extensive expertise of mobile messaging.

Having recently launched the world’s first Mobile Payments within RCS messaging solution at mGage, Nick is passionate about improving the security around mobile transactions and the customer experience. By working closely with UK mobile network operators, technology providers (namely Google) and the Phone-paid services authority (PSA), Nick has played a key role in delivering a secure payment solution that provides brand verification. 

Looking ahead, Nick wants further enhancement of brand to consumer interaction through mobile messaging. With channels like RCS, Apple Business Chat and WhatsApp, Nick sees significant opportunities for enterprises to improve the customer experience & increase its revenues through mobile engagement.

Vladimir Smal is heading Sales & Procurement in the Global Messaging department of LANCK Telecom over the last 3 years. He was promoted to this position after proving himself as a successful team leader of Middle East, Africa & Asia market of Voice Sales department.

Vladimir has a profound experience in the Wholesale Telecom market, both in Voice & SMS. Over the last 13 years he has visited all major Telecom events. Vladimir is an active member of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum.

Vladimir started his job at LANCK Telecom as a Carrier Relations Manager in 2008 after graduating from Saint Petersburg State University. He holds degrees in Linguistics and Sociology.

Nadir Patel has 20+ years of experience in the wholesale telecom industry. Having worked in different countries from UAE, India, Nigeria and Oman, he has learned and gained good insights in the wholesale business.

From working in leading telco in the GCC to two green field projects, Nadir’s experience have enriched him both professionally and personally. His expertise is mainly in the Mobility products i.e. voice, roaming, messaging and mobile services with sound understanding of the wholesale data business. Nadir believes in simple living and high thinking

Kedar Gupte is the General Manager for Wholesale Mobility at MTN GlobalConnect, based out of Dubai, UAE. He heads a highly skilled team of sales, commercial, product and operations management experts responsible to wholesale MTN Group’s international mobile infrastructure.  Kedar has 20 years+ experience in the telecom and consumer electronics industry. His previous experience includes Reliance Communications, Reliance Globalcom, Vodafone India, Vodafone Group and Tanla Platforms focusing on International Markets.  He brings a global perspective and diverse business experience in sales, business development, product development, product management, process management and customer experience functions of enterprise and wholesale telecom segments.

Elias David is Sales Director Emerging Markets at Twilio. He leads Twilio's Go To Market efforts in Israel & Med , MEA and the CEE region. Prior to joining Twilio in March 2020 , Elias spent 5 years at Telia Carrier and was part of the team that built the Telia A2P Hub. 

Joanna is a global telecoms expert with close to a decade worth of experience in mobile messaging market. Since starting in this field, Joanna has performed numerous commercial and operational roles in the industry including launching the global A2P SMS hub for HGC Global Communications Limited as a part of core leadership team.

Currently, Joanna heads up Global Market Intelligence unit at HAUD  with a strong focus on working with Mobile Operators to help them stay in control of their networks, increase A2P revenues and build great customer experience.

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.

Anurag Aggarwal is managing CPaaS partnerships and alliances at Tanla Platforms, which is a market leader in the enterprise messaging space, and a pioneer in introducing blockchain-based solutions for mobile operators. He is responsible for increasing the global footprint of Tanla Platforms by collaborating with the world's leading mobile operators and messaging hubs/consortiums.

Prior to this, he headed the A2P commercial arm at Tata Communications, wherein he has played a significant role in steering the company’s messaging business onto a growth trajectory – including sign up of over 300 direct operator interconnects, handling the messaging requirements for some of the many well-known global enterprises and social networks as well as managing relationships with numerous messaging business partners worldwide. He has also been a Board Member of the well-known industry body Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF).

Anurag’s work experience spans over a decade and includes exposure to varied sectors including telecommunications, steel, chemicals, power and the retail industry. He is based in India and has completed his Engineering and MBA from Delhi University, India.

Daniel is a co-founder of Preiskel & Co and has over 20 years’ experience working in the telecoms, media and technology sectors, advising across the globe.  He has been ranked for over 15 years in major independent research guides as one of the world’s leading communications lawyers.

He is particularly recognised for commercial and regulatory work in the UK and overseas. He also advises various clients (including a major Korean handset manufacturer) on international investments and acquisitions as well as on major privatisations.  Recent work includes advising a group of mobile operators and content providers in reversing a decision of a European telecoms regulator.  He has recently been advising Japanese and Middle Eastern mobile network operators on MVNOs as well as advising a range of MVNOs & MVNAs in various continents.  Daniel, together with his international team, typically advises companies on the legal aspects of their multi-national services, with an increasing amount of advice on cloud issues, software as a service, privacy and data retention issues.

Robert Staniszewski has been active on Poland’s mobile telephony market for 21 years now.

Since 2009 he has been the Director of the Wholesale Department at Polkomtel Sp. z o.o. (the operator of Plus mobile network) and Cyfrowy Polsat S.A. (the biggest pay TV provider in Central and Eastern Europe).

Robert Staniszewski is responsible for wholesale cooperation with Polish and foreign carriers. His responsibilities include:

- acquisition of partners, development of cooperation and maintaining of relations with telecommunication operators,

- sale and purchasing of  wholesale interconnect services, traffic exchange,

- sale and purchasing of international roaming services on wholesale basis,

- sale of national roaming and other services to MVNO’s,

- development of wholesale products to be offered via wholesale channels of Polkomtel/Cyfrowy Polsat,

- support for process of regulation of the wholesale telecommunication market in Poland

- wholesale settlements with partners.

Robert Staniszewski is a graduate of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of Warsaw University where he studied International Economy and completed his studies with a major in economic sciences. Subsequently he completed doctoral studies at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of Warsaw University, obtaining a Ph.D. title in Economic Sciences. Until  2006 he worked as an Assistant Professor and lecturer at the Chair of International Economic Relations of Warsaw University’s Faculty of Economic Sciences.

Ankur is the Global Head of Cloud Communication Business at Tata Communications, he is responsible to lead and facilitate the creation of next generation, cloud native & nimble products that deliver value to both customers and the business. Known for reading the industry tea leaves to anticipate new market forces, orient business transformation efforts toward today’s & tomorrow’s relevant business model and quickly identify and capture high-ROI acquisition opportunities. He is a change galvanizer who positions companies as industry pace-setters, scales priceless word of mouth, and drives both organic and inorganic growth. Ankur is an alumnus of MIT Sloan School of Management, Engineer, Angel Investor and a mentor to few early stage startups.

Sandrine has been with the Orange Group for over 20 years, and held several different positions before joining the wholesale division, International Carriers’ in the Mobile Marketing team where she has since consolidated and grown her Marketing experience.  Beginning as a Project Manager in charge of developing Value Added Services on Signalling Roaming, Sandrine spent ten years in that role before joining the Messaging team in 2017. Since then, Sandrine has been in charge of developing the portfolio for Messaging Security, and her current focus is on the future evolution security for Messaging services.

Sandrine is a Masters’ Graduate in English & Spanish and she particularly enjoys spending her time in multi-cultural environments, both professionally and personally.

Alistair’s career spans over 20 years in the telecoms sector, during which time he has worked both within major UK telecoms operators including BT and Manx Telecom, as well as being instrumental in establishing and growing managed telecoms solutions providers. His focus on technical innovation combined with his experience in business development have enabled him to create strategic relationships to position these businesses at the forefront of their market and generate new revenue streams. During his time at Pod Group, he has been responsible for specialized projects within the Pod Solutions division, working with key partners and stakeholders to develop new products and services, drive the research and development of new technologies and build strategic partnerships with customers and suppliers.  

Bernardo Fonseca is the Wholesale Business Unit Director at Go4Mobility with more than 20 years experience in the Telecommunications Industry.

Leveraging this know how, Bernardo leads a successful team driving growth in the Messaging and Voice areas for global carriers and MNOs worldwide.

Miguel started in 1999 as a software developer and in 2002 he co-founded a network solution provider in West Africa. Further on, in 2007 he co-founded what would be the first Wi-Fi ISP in Cape Verde and the first company to break a 21 years local telecom monopoly. Five years later, Miguel accepted the invitation from Ezelink Telecom to revolutionize the company strategy in the Intelligent Hotspot, IoT and Smart City solutions as Director of Technology. During his tenure at Ezelink Telecom, the company launched several innovative unique products that did not go unnoticed and made Ezelink one of the references for Wi-Fi and Smart City solutions in the region.

Since 2015, Miguel has been working in Silicon Valley and been involved in several projects to help Service Providers monetize their voice business by finding the best intersection point between real-time communications, collaboration, IoT, Machine Learning, and Ai. Currently, he is Vice President of Product Line Management at Vidyo an Enghouse Company.

His career also includes participation in the United Nations ESCAP as part of the regional connectivity task force and young entrepreneurship.

Bernardo Arnaud has built a career in telecommunications and mobile marketing since 2009, being involved with systems development since 2005. He is the founder of StarkSat, a company developing crop monitoring systems and urban area mapping solutions through satellite imagery analysis and IoT sensors hybrid systems. Mr. Arnaud also founded StarkSMS and UNIDIRE, messaging companies with focus on systems supporting IoT hardware and chatbot platforms with time sensitive delivery tasks in markets like Brazil, India, Europe and Africa. His companies multi-channel platforms serve clients in industries like farming, banking, healthcare, retail, logistics and entertainment.

Director of Sales at Anam, Clive has been involved in Mobile Messaging since 1996 when he joined Aldiscon, a hugely successful pioneer in the development and supply of SMSC platforms to Mobile Operators. (incidentally and via a long series of mergers & acquisitions, Aldiscon’s lineage can be traced to the present day Mavenir!).   Clive has huge depth of experience across the mobile industry in a variety of senior roles including establishing a sales and delivery organisation for mobile products in the UK and later building a product development centre focussed on new messaging technology areas.  Clive joined Anam’s commercial team in 2014  where he is responsible for driving sales activities worldwide and has led Anam’s successful growth as monetisation specialists for A2P grey route traffic.

Alok plays a critical role in the company's path of innovation and commitment to fight against fraud. He leads product development and innovation, focusing on customer experience, fraud prevention using AI-ML-based digital platforms for enterprises and the Telecom space.

In his earlier assignment, he successfully led the company in its pioneering efforts to deliver innovative telecom solutions. Worked extensively with mobile operators in the African continent intending to monetize messaging business for them, under the partnership with GTS. Deployed fraud management solution in East African telco space for fraud management. Prior to GTS, Alok has experience in developing Industry 4.0 solutions for the industrial automation sector.

Catherine Maguire is an experienced telecom professional with experience in the field of future messaging with a particular focus on Rich Communications Services (RCS).

Catherine is currently a Product Manager at BT with a focus on Future Messaging strategy and rollout. Prior to BT Catherine held the position of RCS Ecosystem Engagement Manager with GSMA, she convened the main users and providers of business messaging through a series of online and face-to-face events to evangelise and promote business messaging via RCS, leading to multiple network launches and successful campaigns. She was also responsible for steering and providing supporting collateral for go-to-market activities by field sales teams worldwide. Catherine also worked as an Account Manager at mGage where she managed the messaging strategy for a large British food retailer.

Before focusing  on messaging, Catherine worked as Co-ordinator for the mobile industries’ C-level co-ordinating body. Previous to working in telecoms Catherine worked as Project Manager at Fujitsu, a Policy Advisor for the Scottish Parliament and a paralegal for the NHS in Northern Ireland. She holds a Bachelor of Law degree from University of Dundee and is a qualified PRINCE 2 practitioner.

John Owen is the Chief Executive Officer-Europe & Americas at Route Mobile. He holds a Degree in Business Studies and Marketing from The University of Lancashire, and a Degree in Business Administration and Management from The Stanford University. He is also on the Advisory Board of Collaborate - an independent CIC focusing on the thinking, culture, and practice of cross-sector collaboration in public services and has an leadership expertise of over three decades in leading global organizations like Mastek Ltd, Serco, HP, Sycamore Networks, and Nortel.