Johan is a seasoned telecom executive with 20 years of experience working and doing business in Asia. Throughout his Asian career, he has worked in senior positions with Ericsson. Johan has been president and country manager in a number of countries including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Myanmar. He has also held positions as head of global services in South East Asia, head of business development in Asia and head of M&A in North East Asia.

In his current position as VP and head of Government and Industry Relations, he is advising governments in the region on matters related to policies and regulatory matters and driving Ericsson’s vision of a Networked Society. Johan is often appearing as a speaker at industry events speaking about the future of the ICT industry and its impact on societies. Before joining Ericsson in 1995, he worked for the Swedish operator TeliaSonera.

Cyril Annarella has over 18 years of experience in telecommunications and digital security industries, with senior roles spanning across marketing, business development, M&A, R&D, innovation and investment in start-ups.

Before joining Kacific, Cyril Annarella headed Soft Venture, the operating partner of Hera Capital, a Singapore-based private equity fund. Previously, he held management roles in Europe and Asia at Gemalto, the Paris-listed global leader of digital security.

Cyril has a MBA with honours from Chicago-Booth, as well as two Master’s degrees in Aerospace engineering from ISAE in France and the University of Texas at Austin.

Like all members of the Kacific team, Cyril is strongly committed to improve the economic well-being of Pacific and South-Asian nations with a new era of affordable Internet connectivity.

Cyril Annarella has over 18 years of experience in telecommunications and digital security industries, with senior roles spanning across marketing, business development, M&A, R&D, innovation and investment in start-ups.

Before joining Kacific, Cyril Annarella headed Soft Venture, the operating partner of Hera Capital, a Singapore-based private equity fund. Previously, he held management roles in Europe and Asia at Gemalto, the Paris-listed global leader of digital security.

Cyril has a MBA with honours from Chicago-Booth, as well as two Master’s degrees in Aerospace engineering from ISAE in France and the University of Texas at Austin.

Like all members of the Kacific team, Cyril is strongly committed to improve the economic well-being of Pacific and South-Asian nations with a new era of affordable Internet connectivity.

A veteran of the telecommunications industry, Mr. Barney’s career spans more than 15 years in Asia.

Mr. Barney was appointed CEO of Reliance Communications (Enterprise) in March 2015 to oversee the Enterprise, IDC and NLD (National Long Distance) businesses in India in addition to his role as Chairman and CEO of Global Cloud Xchange (GCX).

Mr. Barney joined the company in January 2014 as CEO of Reliance Globalcom, which later rebranded as GCX. Under his leadership, GCX has entered a new stage of growth and expansion with a successful debut in the international capital markets and the launch of the company’s next generation content and Cloud delivery platform across India and globally.

Earlier, Mr. Barney served as CEO of Pacnet for 10 years leading the company’s successful acquisition of regional ISP, Pacific Internet, which operationally merged with Asia Netcom and re-launched as Pacnet in January 2008. Under his leadership, the company achieved industry-leading growth and won numerous accolades from industry and media organizations. In 2008, Mr. Barney was named CEO of the Year by Telecom Asia and voted Best Asia Pacific Telecom Executive by readers of CommsDay in 2009.

Prior to Pacnet, Mr. Barney served as Asia Pacific President and CEO for MCI Worldcom (Verizon) where he led the company through a three-digit growth phase. Earlier Mr. Barney was Vice President of Global One (Orange Business Services), where he managed operations in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Mr. Barney began his career with AT&T, where he held a number of leadership roles in both international and domestic sales.

Across the telecom and technology sectors, Mr. Barney has been an advocate for regulatory and industry change and a major proponent of Cloud Computing and Open networks. His leadership also extends to 6 years on the Board of Governors for the Pacific Telecommunications Council.

Mr. Barney received his MBA from Columbia University in addition to a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University.

Anup Changaroth is Director of Portfolio Marketing, responsible for marketing Ciena’s range of next-generation Converged Packet Optical, Packet Networking, and Software solutions, as well as leading the marketing communications function for the company across the region.

Prior to Ciena, Mr. Changaroth held various positions at Nortel, including leading product marketing for the Metro Ethernet Networks business unit in Asia Pacific, and leading the Solutions Marketing team for Nortel’s Local Internet division prior to that. Mr. Changaroth holds an Honours Degree in Computer Systems Engineering from the City University, London; Marketing Management Diploma from Columbia University, USA; as well as a Diploma in Electronics Engineering from the Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore.

He is an active industry participant, holding voting membership positions at the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the Audio Engineering Society.

Vern Fotheringham has dedicated his professional career to bringing the benefits of true broadband communication services to the global population. He has been and continues to be a catalyst for change and progress in driving this evolution forward.

He has specialized in early-stage company development and maturation through the IPO and M&A stages. Together with highly skilled and experienced professional colleagues, he translates his clarity of vision into efficient operations and self-sustaining profitability. Mindful of all fiduciary duties, he is a proven steward of investment capital who is focused on protecting the interests of all stakeholders.

Mr. Fotheringham has been a serial entrepreneur in telecommunications, serving as a founder, CEO, Chairman or board member of eighteen innovative telecommunications companies, including Norcom Networks, Digital Satellite Broadcasting Corp, Advanced Radio Telecom, Bazillion, Broadstorm, Terabeam, Adaptix, Mead Instruments, Castanet, Kymeta, V-Satcast and LeoSat.

Wan Faizal is Assistant Vice President in Group Regulatory Affairs in charge of policy and regulatory advocacy and strategic support for the South East Asian region, with responsibility to shape the regulatory environment for Axiata Group’s operating companies in order to optimize business opportunities, minimize regulatory risks, and enhance shareholders value.

He has served Axiata Group for close to 12 years in various regulatory portfolios as well as in strategy and business development roles.

Previously, he was attached to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission in the economic regulation function and prior to that, served in economic and equity research role in an investment bank in Kuala Lumpur.

Wan Faizal graduated with an LLB (Hons) from the University of East Anglia, Norwich and holds a Master’s degree in International Commercial Law from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Rekha Jain is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India and the Executive Chair of the IIMA-IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence. She received her Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. She was a recipient of the senior Fulbright Fellowship on Telecom Regulation in 1997-98.

She has consulted with several leading national and international organizations in her areas of research interests such as Telecom Policy and Regulation, ICT Strategy and Management, Spectrum Management, Internet Governance, Information System Implementation and Impact Assessment in the ICT domain.

She has several publications in national and international journals. She is on the editorial board of Journal of Global Information Management (JGIM) and Board Member of several professional organizations. She has been a member of several key national level committees in the telecom and IT sectors.

Dr. Heikki Kokkinen is the founder and CEO of Fairspectrum. Fairspectrum is a Finnish company, which provided the geolocation database service for Europe’s first TV White Space radio license based on a geolocation database and the repository service in the world’s first Licensed Shared Access (LSA) 2.3 GHz field trial.

He holds a doctoral degree in Computer Science, an academic entrepreneur degree from Aalto School of Business, licentiate degree in telecommunications and industrial economics, and Master’s degree in electronics.

Heikki is a requested speaker in spectrum, sharing events globally. He is devoted to marketing, research and development, financing, system integration, piloting and deploying of spectrum sharing technologies.

Haris Kremo received the Dipl.Ing. degree from the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2000. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 2005 and 2010, respectively.

From 2000 to 2002, he was a Research Engineer with ENERGOINVEST dd, Sarajevo. From 2003 to 2010 he was a Graduate Assistant with the Wireless Information Networks Laboratory (WINLAB), where he was one of the engineers responsible for the design and maintenance of the ORBIT wireless testbed.

In 2010, he was with the EDGE Lab, Princeton University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. Currently, he is a Researcher with Toyota InfoTechnology Center, Tokyo. His research interests include dynamic spectrum access, vehicular wireless communications, and automated driving systems.

Vaibhav Magow is Regional Head for APAC in the International Division at Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes). In this capacity, he is responsible for the sales and business development of Hughes products and services for the Asia Pacific market.

Vaibhav has worked extensively in India and Asia Pacific markets and works along with Telco’s, Service Providers, System Integrators, Satellite Operators and other Industry members in one of the most dynamic regions for Satellite services. Having worked on winning large and prestigious projects over the years, he has considerable insights into the current trends shaping the industry.

Vaibhav began his career at Hughes in 1998 in Hughes Escorts Communications Limited, India as a Channel Sales Manager. Prior to his current position, Mr. Magow was Sr. Director, Marketing for Fusion Services and was in charge from the inception of the division for creating products and services for the Indian Market meant for bridging the digital divide. During this time, HughesNet Fusion had more orders for deploying 20,000 terminals and up until July 2009 had deployed 6,000 of those terminals.

Vaibhav holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Pune, Maharashtra, India.

Wan Faizal is Assistant Vice President in Group Regulatory Affairs in charge of policy and regulatory advocacy and strategic support for the South East Asian region, with responsibility to shape the regulatory environment for Axiata Group’s operating companies in order to optimize business opportunities, minimize regulatory risks, and enhance shareholders value.

He has served Axiata Group for close to 12 years in various regulatory portfolios as well as in strategy and business development roles.

Previously, he was attached to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission in the economic regulation function and prior to that, served in economic and equity research role in an investment bank in Kuala Lumpur.

Wan Faizal graduated with an LLB (Hons) from the University of East Anglia, Norwich and holds a Master’s degree in International Commercial Law from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Hemant Mallapur is a Co-founder and Vice President of Engineering at Saankhya Labs – an innovative technology startup from India developing wireless broadband systems.

Hemant manages development of TV White Space products, which are the world’s first Base Station & Modem equipment compliant to IEEE802.22 & Wi-FAR standards. Prior to this he managed development of Saankhya’s award-winning Software Defined Radio chipsets.

He is an Observer on the Board of Directors of Saankhya, which is a privately-held fabless semiconductor company funded by Intel Capital.

Hemant holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communications from JNTU Hyderabad, India and has over 23 years of experience in semiconductor industry. Earlier, he was one of the early members of Sage Inc., which went IPO in 1999, where he managed development of chipsets for HDTV. In 2000 he was featured in the annual Innovator List by EDN ASIA magazine and holds 4 US patents.

Prior to joining COAI as Director General in April 2010, Rajan served in many senior executive positions such as CEO, COO and CFO of such major companies as Telargo (a JV of NTT DoCoMo), Afghan Wireless, Call Sciences, AT&T Wireless, Birla-AT&T (now IDEA), and as a senior financial executive at Beatrice International, Columbia-Tri Star Pictures, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Rajan specializes in international operations and start-up ventures, turn-arounds, mergers & acquisitions and venture financing. He assisted in raising over $1.5 billion of financing for companies through public and private offerings of equity, debt and private placements. He has managed companies in such diverse places including the USA, Afghanistan, India, UK, France, Germany, Belgium Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Rajan has served and continues to serve on the boards of several for-profit and non-profit organizations. He earned both his Master of Business Administration (Finance & Accounting) and Master of Arts (Economics) degrees from Rutgers University (USA) and he is a CPA from the State of New Jersey, USA.

Paul McCann is Managing Director of McCann Consulting International Pty Ltd. Paul has over 40 years of network planning & development experience in telecommunications both in international and domestic arenas.

Prior to returning to consulting in 2012, Paul spent over 8 years with Verizon in Asia Pacific, driving growth of Verizon’s network across Asia by developing & implementing plans delivering major operational cost reductions and improved service performance.

Paul is now Managing Director of his own consulting business where the core business focus is on “connectivity” with expertise spanning all aspects of planning and development for Satellite, Submarine cable and Domestic access technologies and business. Paul is well known for his personable nature, his rapport with customers and his ability to deliver on time.

Raakesh Menon is a Senior Segment Manager at Telstra based in Singapore. He is responsible for developing new segment strategies, product solutions and commercial offers for OTT segment thus enhancing it by supporting its growth. He has around 15 years of experience in global telecom markets and joined Telstra in September 2011 as the Senior Product Manager heading the global transmission product portfolio.

Prior to Telstra, Raakesh was employed by Tata Communications in Singapore where he managed the IPLs and IP Transit product lines for APAC and MENA markets. He has also worked at Airtel Enterprise Services and Reliance Infocomm in various capacities and roles.

Raakesh holds a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Instituto de Empressa (IE) Business School in Madrid, Spain.

As Executive Director of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, H Nwana assists with the development and execution of the organization’s strategic initiatives and outreach to and recruitment of potential partners and members across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.

Prior to this, Nwana was Group Director of Spectrum Policy at Ofcom, where he ran UK’s Spectrum Policy and spearheaded UK’s dynamic spectrum management activities, specifically focusing on TV White Spaces for broadband and other applications. Before this, Nwana was MD at Arqiva and earlier in his career he worked at Quadriga Worldwide Ltd and was instrumental in the introduction of digital technology and services to the hospitality industry across Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

With more than 17 years of experience in telecommunications related policy development Alex Orange directs Qualcomm’s public policy and regulatory agenda and oversees its relationship with Government and regulatory agencies in South East Asia and the Pacific.

Alex works with Ministries, policy makers and independent regulators on national frequency allocation plans, licensing and regulations for 3G, 4G, mobile broadband and broadband wireless access systems. Alex also interfaces with multilateral organizations and governmental forums such as the International Telecommunications Union and the Asia Pacific Telecommunity, to coordinate regional and international efforts in support of Qualcomm’s next-generation wireless technologies.

Robert Pepper leads Cisco’s Global Technology Policy team working with governments and business leaders across the world in areas such as broadband, IP enabled services, wireless and spectrum policy, security, privacy, Internet governance and ICT development.

He joined Cisco in July 2005 from the FCC where he served as Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development beginning in 1989 where he led teams developing policies promoting the development of the Internet, implementing telecommunications legislation, planning for the transition to digital television, and designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions.

He serves on the board of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) and advisory boards for Columbia University and Michigan State University, and is a Communications Program Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, the UK’s Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board and the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy.

Pepper received his BA. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Julian Rawle has 15 years’ of experience in the submarine fiber optic industry together with a business development track record in emerging markets going back to 1990. He developed several new businesses in countries of the former Soviet Union, latterly with Cable & Wireless.

Julian went on to lead international marketing efforts for Japanese marine installer, NTTWEM, before joining Pioneer Consulting. He acquired Pioneer and transformed the business into a leading center for submarine expertise.

Julian is a member of Extended Team which successfully supported the Main One (Nigeria-Portugal) private submarine cable project. Member of Extended Team which successfully supported Brazilian investment bank, BTG Pactual, in acquiring GlobeNet (Brazil-US) submarine cable. He now operates independently and leads business development for the MYTHIC cable project between Myanmar, Malaysia, and Thailand.

With extensive experience working with telecom regulator, Mr. Abdul Samad serves as Member (Compliance & Enforcement) of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) since 2014. He is the head of four main divisions including Licensing, Enforcement, Internet Policy & Web Analyses, and Strategy & Development of PTA. Mr. Samad has played a magnificent role in the auction of 3G/4G spectrum in Pakistan and efficiently supervised the task of the Biometric Verification System (BVS) for issuance of Mobile SIMs in Pakistan. He has also taken various initiatives to curb illegal international grey traffic in Pakistan.

Prior to becoming the Member of PTA, Mr. Samad served on the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Frequency Allocation Board through various key positions with the responsibilities of Reforming/Vacating and Spectrum Planning, Licensing and License Enforcement Divisions of PTA. He also reformed spectrum for 3G licensing and prepared plans for spectrum reformation for IMT Advance/4G services.

Mr. Samad has attended various international conferences of World Radio Communication organized by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and participated in frequency coordination meetings with various foreign administration for satellite program of Pakistan. Additionally, he presented Pakistan in a SATRC Working Group on “Spectrum Management & Allocation and Spectrum Pricing.”

Mr. Samad has remained Faculty Member/Research Associate at Faculty of Electronics Engineering (FEE) Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIK), one of the leading Institutes of Engineering Sciences and Technology in Pakistan.

With more than 17 years of experience in telecommunications related policy development Alex Orange directs Qualcomm’s public policy and regulatory agenda and oversees its relationship with Government and regulatory agencies in South East Asia and the Pacific.

Alex works with Ministries, policy makers and independent regulators on national frequency allocation plans, licensing and regulations for 3G, 4G, mobile broadband and broadband wireless access systems. Alex also interfaces with multilateral organizations and governmental forums such as the International Telecommunications Union and the Asia Pacific Telecommunity, to coordinate regional and international efforts in support of Qualcomm’s next-generation wireless technologies.

Damien Spillane is the Director of Sales Engineering for APAC at Digital Realty (NYSE:DLR), responsible for interfacing with customers and their consultants around their data centre requirements with a remit that covers connectivity, sales, acquisitions, design and construction. He joined Digital Realty in 2011.

Previously, Damien acted as a functional head for a data center engineering consultancy within a global organization, leading a specialist team of more than 20 engineers. With more than a decade of global experience, Damien Spillane is a senior data center professional with experience in leading teams dealing with uncertainty, change and risk related to complex data center projects. Damien is an accomplished mechanical engineer with a history of delivering large, institutional-quality data center projects as a design consultant, main contractor and client-side representative.

Damien is a chartered engineer and was educated in Bolton St., Dublin, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

As CTO and co-founder of Spectrum Bridge Inc, Mr. Stanforth is responsible for implementing the vision of Dynamic Spectrum Access via the Spectrum Bridge Spectrum Access System (SAS).

Prior to co-founding Spectrum Bridge, Mr. Stanforth was co-founder and CTO of MeshNetworks, Inc, where he was responsible for managing the strategic business and technical aspects of product development and operations. Prior to MeshNetworks, Mr. Stanforth held a variety of engineering and management roles in telecommunications startups and Fortune 100 equipment manufacturers.

Mr. Stanforth has authored over 35 US Patents on wireless technologies and has published numerous papers on Telecommunications Technology and Strategy. Mr. Stanforth Holds a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Teesside.

Chris is Facebook’s lead on spectrum policy and mobile access and in this role is one of the key stakeholders driving Internet.org’s connectivity strategy. Previously, Chris managed Facebook’s partnerships with mobile operators.

Prior to Facebook, Chris was VP of Business Development at LightSquared and VP of Global Development and Roaming at Sprint Nextel. During his career he has consulted with start-ups, wireless operators and also provided consultation to the FCC on a host of roaming and spectrum issues.

Early in his career, at Palm he helped launch the first wireless PDA, and at OmniSky, Chris led the product and business development for its wireless portal. He has an undergraduate degree from Marquette University and an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School.

Joe Weinman is the author of Digital Disciplines: Attaining Market Leadership via the Cloud, Big Data, Social, Mobile, and the Internet of Things, the number one new release in the computer and technology industry. He is also the author of Cloudonomics: The Business Value of Cloud Computing, and the Cloud Economics editor for IEEE Cloud Computing Magazine.

He has held a number of executive positions at Bell Labs, AT&T, HP, and Telx, and has been awarded 21 U.S. and international patents. He received his BS and MS in Computer Science from Cornell University and UW-Madison, respectively, and has completed executive education at the International Institute for Management Development.

With a background in engineering, Mrs. Woro has successfully served the Nation for more than 28 years in the Ministry of Communication and Information. She began her career in 1987, and in 2009, she began to lead the standardization and audit directorates as the director and continued to lead different directorates until she was mandated as the Senior Technology Advisor to the Minister in 2014.

Being a part of various telecommunication projects, she received an appreciation from the President in 1998. Mrs. Woro plays an active role in the development of telecommunication networks and regulations in Indonesia, and her efforts will continue to be dedicated to the nation.

Jeffrey Yan is the Director of Technology Policy at Microsoft, where he is part of a global team examining long-term, disruptive technology trends with associated policy implications and societal impacts. His areas of interests include telecommunications, cloud computing, Internet governance and trustworthy data management.

Jeffrey has over 20 years of technology, business and policy experience in telecom and the ICT industry. He spent the first 13 years of his career with Nortel Networks, where he held senior technology, product management, marketing, and standard management roles in North American and Asian markets. He joined Microsoft in 2006 and has held various senior positions in the Entertainment & Devices Division, Legal & Corporate Affairs Group, and the Technology Policy Group. He represents Microsoft in many international technology and policy forums such as ITU, IGF, IIC, and ICANN. He currently co-chairs the Singapore White Space Pilot Group, an industry consortium that spearheads TV White Space commercial pilots in Singapore.

Jeffrey graduated from Dalhousie University, Canada, with an honor degree in Computer Science. He also did post-graduate studies in Software Engineering and Business Management. He is currently based in Singapore with his family.

Dr. Qian Zhong is currently Managing Director, Asia Pacific Sales at TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. Company. He is responsible for the sales, marketing, and business development efforts for the region.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Zhong was Managing Director, Product Management, where he led the planning, marketing, and development of new products for the company. Previously, Qian also held various management positions at the company as Director of System Engineering, where he was in charge of the technical sales for the business, Director of Cable Development, and Director of Advanced Technology Research, respectively.

Qian started his career at the AT&T Bell Labs in 1992 where he worked at the Optical Fiber Research Department in Murray Hill, NJ. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University, a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the Stern School of Business of the New York University.