Speakers 2019
Xavier Bettel
Luxembourg Prime Minister, Minister of State; Minister for Communications and Media; Minister for Religious Affairs; Minister for Digitalisation ; Minister for Administrative Reform
Following the legislative elections of 20 October 2013, Xavier Bettel was appointed Prime Minister, Minister of State, Minister for Communications and Media and Minister for Religious Affairs on 4 December 2013 in the coalition government formed by the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the Green Party (déi gréng). Following the resignation of Maggy Nagel from the government, Xavier Bettel was appointed Minister of Culture on 18 December 2015.
After the legislative elections of 14 October 2018, Xavier Bettel was appointed Prime Minister, Minister of State, Minister for Communications and Media, Minister for Religious Affairs, Minister for Digitalisation and Minister for Administrative Reform
on 5 December 2018 in the coalition government formed by the DP, the LSAP and déi gréng.
Roberto Viola
Director General, DG CONNECT (Directorate General of Communication, Networks, Content and Technology), the European Commission
Roberto Viola is Director General of DG CONNECT (Directorate General of Communication, Networks, Content and Technology) at the European Commission. He was the Deputy Director-General of DG CONNECT, European Commission from 2012 to 2015.
Roberto Viola served as Chairman of the European Radio Spectrum Policy group (RSPG) from 2012 to 2013, as Deputy Chairman in 2011 and Chairman in 2010. He was member of the BEREC Board (Body of European Telecom Regulators), and Chairman of the European Regulatory Group (ERG).
He held the position of Secretary General in charge of managing AGCOM, from 2005 to 2012. Prior to this, he served as Director of Regulation Department and Technical Director in AGCOM from 1999 to 2004.From 1985-1999 he served in various positions including as Head of Telecommunication and Broadcasting Satellite Services at the European Space Agency (ESA).
Roberto Viola holds a Doctorate in Electronic Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA).
Alain de Muyser
Secretary-General adj., BENELUX
After studies of international and comparative law in Aix-en-Provence (FR) and Tübingen (GER) in 1986, Alain de Muyser worked for the Luxembourg Development Aid (Lux Development Sàrl.) in Luxembourg, Tunisia, Cap-Vert and Mauritania before joining the Luxembourg Foreign Service in 1989. After various positions in Brussels at the Permanent Representation to the EU and in the Ministry as well non-resident postings at the Council of Europe (Strasbourg) and Poland, he was appointed in 2004 Ambassador of Luxembourg to Portugal and in 2006 non-resident Ambassador to Cap-Vert. In 2012, he joined the General Secretariat of the Benelux as the Luxembourg member of the “Collège des Secrétaires généraux”. Besides, he is professor in political science at Miami University Luxembourg and actively involved in several charitable and cultural institutions.
Fredrik Zetterlund
EVP OnePhone Group, Chief Business Development Officer BT OnePhone Ltd
Mr. Zetterlund is Co-Founder and EVP at OnePhone Group, where he is responsible for business development, group technology and product management. He is also a founding team member of OnePhone’s joint venture with BT, BT OnePhone Ltd, where he serves as Chief Business Development Officer. BT OnePhone’s proposition is to via BT offer UK companies to replace their traditional fixed office telephony and standalone mobile subscriptions with an all-in-one cloud-based solution which is natively mobile. BT OnePhone serves companies in the UK from 5 to 3000+ employees and the users have the flexibility of using only the mobile phone or a combination of mobile, soft or desk phones as they require, leveraging native mobile technologies such as VoLTE, the BT/EE national mobile network as well as indoor mobile networks where needed for a good experience and full fixed-mobile convergence. At OnePhone Group, Mr. Zetterlund was also CEO of OnePhone Services where he led the establishment of the OnePhone operators in Germany and the UK.
Pradeep Bhardwaj
Senior Strategy Director and Head of Industry Standards, Syniverse
As Senior Strategy Director and Head of Industry Standards at Syniverse, Pradeep Bhardwaj serves as a senior technology adviser overseeing strategic initiatives to advance the adoption of leading-edge technologies and standards, such as 5G. Mr. Bhardwaj has built a career spanning over 28 years with telcos including some historical moments – India’s 1st Public Email service, India’s 1st Public Internet service, India’s 1st Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) service, one of India’s 1st International Digital Exchanges, setting up mobile and international telecom services in Seychelles, a stint in Melbourne Australia designing high-speed data network using constellation of satellites, before settling in the UK. Mr. Bhardwaj’s emphasis is on technology strategy, industry standards, and architecture.
Chris Reznicek
LG Uplus, South Korea
Edwin Bussem
Strategic Business Development Manager and 5G Lead, KPN
Mr. Bussem is Strategic Business Development Manager and 5G Lead for KPN’s mobility-related business. After several roles in KPN and Vodafone, he has advised telecommunications provider throughout EMEA for PricewaterhouseCoopers and has extensive experience in renewable energy as well, working for one of the largest energy companies in The Netherlands before returning to KPN in his current role.
Mr. Bussem hold an engineering degree from The Hague University of Applies Sciences and an MBA from University of Oxford
Cliff Konsbruck
Director, POST Luxembourg
A graduate of RWTH Aachen, Cliff Konsbruck started his career at Goodyear as an engineer. In 1999, he joined P&T Luxembourg (which became POST Luxembourg in 2013) were he has held the positions of Head of Internet Services, Head of Applications IP and, since September 2013, Head of Customer Services. In 2016, Cliff joined the management of POST Luxembourg as director of POST Telecom.
Didier Charvet
CTIO, Orange Europe
Didier Charvet is currently in Orange, Europe Division, Technical and Information Technology Director. He has had a very broad experience in telecommunications for more than 30 years. Graduated from Ecole polytechnique and Telecom-Paris in France, he has worked in France and in various countries in Europe and outside of Europe, as technology director in different affiliates of Orange and also as business unit director, regional director and CEO, in various organization of the Orange group. He has worked for retail, Business market and wholesale market.
Matteo Gatta
Director of Technology Strategy and Innovation, Proximus
Matteo holds the position of Director Technology Strategy & Innovation at Proximus (www.proximus.com, previously Belgacom). Matteo oversees largest investment files from inception to securing highest level of approval and beyond into first implementation steps. His current responsibilities include technology strategy, tecno-economics, partnerships, incubation, corporate venturing and innovation funding activities.
Prior to his current role, Matteo covered several executive positions within Strategy, driving M&A files, partnerships and moves in growth markets. Matteo led Scarlet (www.scarlet.be, 100M€+ revenue, 300 employees) through post acquisition transition period driving commercial and operational synergies. Previously Matteo led marketing and product management at BICS (www.bics.com), seeding and growing carrier mobile data business. Matteo started his career with hands on experience in software development, product development and program management.
Matteo is Board Member of BICS, Tessares and is founding director of LoRa Alliance (IOT). In the past Matteo held several Board Positions in SME or startups, including Scarlet (AltNet Telco) and Tunz (Mobile Payment, Ingenico).
Matteo has University Degree (Laurea) in Electronic Engineering with full marks from University of Pavia (Italy), a Master in Information Technology from Polytechnic of Milan with full marks. Matteo has just completed the Executive Master in Finance at Solvay – ULB – Brussels (A score).
Simon Clement
Advanced Technology Consultant, Liberty Global & founder member of the Light Communications Alliance
Simon is responsible for discovering and supporting new technologies and services, which when mixed with Liberty Global's incredible network and scaling capabilities can really create something unique and innovative. With 20 years’ experience researching, analyzing, trialing and influencing technology innovation and adoption in various positions and companies in the technology sector, Simon has a passion for the art of the possible.
Whether it be Voice over IP in the dotcom days, TV content on the mobile when the first colour mobile phones launched or trialing, developing and promoting outdoor Wi-Fi, both above and below ground there have been, and continue to be, numerous technology opportunities to grasp and challenges to resolve.
More recently, focus has been on development and adaptation of innovative services and shared infrastructure opportunities to support the potential for 5G networks and IoT.
Simon is always looking to innovate and surface new concepts across the entire breadth of the technology plane, using a network of well-established links into technology vendors, start up organisations and academic institutions
Mauro Cordani
Responsible for ESA’s 5G Future Programmes
Mauro Cordani has over 30 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry. He is currently employed at the European Space Agency (ESA) and is responsible for ESA’s 5G Future Programmes. Previously he worked in the mobile industry for Giesecke and Devrient as SVP of Products and Solutions responsible for mobile security projects for MNOs and device makers. He is a veteran of the satellite industry having spent 20 years at Intelsat where he established the Intelsat Managed Services business. He has also worked as a self-employed consultant, and in leadership roles at Siemens, GTE and at a mobility start up in numerous telecom sectors.
Ingrid Moerman
Professor and Researcher, imec - Ghent University
Ingrid Moerman received her degree in Electrical Engineering (1987) and the Ph.D. degree (1992) from the Ghent University, where she became a part-time professor in 2000. She is a staff member at IDLab, a core research group of imec with research activities embedded in Ghent University and University of Antwerp. Ingrid Moerman is Program Manager of the ‘Deterministic Wireless Networks’ track at imec. Ingrid Moerman is also coordinating the research activities on mobile and wireless networking at Ghent University, where she is leading a research team of more than 30 members. Her main research interests include: collaborative and cooperative networks, intelligent cognitive radio networks, real-time software defined radio, flexible hardware/software architectures for radio/network control and management, Internet of Things, Next generation wireless networks (5G/6G/…), and experimentally-supported research. Ingrid Moerman has a longstanding experience in running and coordinating national and EU research funded projects. At the European level, Ingrid Moerman is in particular very active in FP7/H2020 programs, where she has coordinated and is coordinating several projects (CREW, WiSHFUL, eWINE, ORCA).
Ingrid Moerman was leading team SCATTER, consisting of researchers from IMEC-IDLab and Rutgers University, in the DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2). The SCATTER team has been awarded with two prizes of 750 000 USD each in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the DARPA SC2 competition, and was one of the 10 finalist at the DARPA SC2 championship event organized at Mobile World Congress in LA (October 2019).
Ingrid Moerman is author or co-author of more than 750 publications in international journals or conference proceedings.
Fernand Muller
Representative, Environment Agency Luxembourg
Fernand Müller received the M.Sc. degree in environmental science and technology from the FernUni Hagen and the degree of industrial engineer in electrotechnics from the University of Luxembourg. He joined the Environment Agency Luxembourg (Administration de l’environnement) in 1995 and has been involved in national authorization processes for classified installations in accordance with a law commonly referred to as the “loi commodo”.
In 2000 he is a member of the working group developing stricter national electromagnetic exposure levels and since then he works on the application of the precautionary approach in radio communication station permits and on the assessment of electromagnetic fields from radio base stations. As an expert he has contributed to the development of the national GSM-cadaster.
Guy A. E. Vandenbosch
Dep. of Electrical Engineering, division ESAT-TELEMIC, KU Leuven
Guy Vandenbosch is holder of a certificate of the postacademic course in Electro-Magnetic Compatibility at the Technical University Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
His research interests are in the area of electromagnetic theory, computational electromagnetics, planar antennas and circuits, nano-electromagnetics, EM radiation, EMC, and bio-electromagnetics (especially the issue of human exposure to electromagnetic waves). His work has been published in ca. 330 papers in international journals and has led to ca. 385 papers at international conferences. His work on computational electromagnetics and antennas has resulted in 8 book chapters on this topic. His work on antenna design has led to 7 patents in this field. Mr. Vandenbosch has convened and chaired numerous sessions at many conferences. He was co-chair and vice-chair of the European Microwave Week in Amsterdam in 2004 and 2012, respectively. In 2004, he chaired the TPC of the European Microwave Conference within this Week. He was a member of the TPC of the European Microwave Conference in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. He was one of the vice chairs within the team organizing the EuCAP conference 2014 in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Guy Vandenbosch was a member of the "Management Committees'' of the consecutive European COST actions on antennas between 1993 and 2017, where he was leading the working group on modeling and software for antennas. Within the ACE Network of Excellence of the EU (2004-2007), he was a member of the Executive Board and coordinated the activity on the creation of a European antenna software platform. After ACE, he started to lead the EuRAAP Working Group on Software and to represent this group within the EuRAAP Delegate Assembly (2007-2018).
Dr Martin H. Virnich
Building Biologist Expert for EMF/EMVU, Berufsverband Deutscher Baubiologen VDB e.V.
- Member of « Berufsverband Deutscher Baubiologen VDB e.V » (founding member)
- Head of expert group « Physics » at VDB
- VDB-certified Consultant for Building Biology (Baubiologie)
- Member of German Electrotechnical Commission DKE/K764 « Safety in electromagnetic fields » representing the German environmental organisations
- Author of expert books and articles
Corinne Lozé
Chief Executive Officer, Orange Luxembourg.
Corinne Lozé joined the Orange Group in 2000, taking over as Director of Alapage.com, the Group’s innovative e-commerce entity, after which she became Director of Internet Innovation. In 2006, she moved into an international career as Digital Marketing Director for the Orange Group. In 2009, she founded then became CEO of Orange Star Africa, an Orange entity that develops international mobile topping-up services for African countries (where Orange operates) and a pan-African content portal. In 2014, she took over as CEO of Orange Centrafrique, now the No. 1 mobile company in the
Central African Republic. In 2016, Corinne Lozé launched Orange Money, a money transfer solution for Orange mobile users in Central Africa. In this way, she created the conditions for the continued growth nurtured by her in the African subsidiary since 2014. Corinne Lozé became CEO of Orange Luxembourg on 1 February 2019.
Gerard Hoffmann
CEO, Proximus Luxembourg
Since January 1, 2019, Gérard Hoffmann has been the CEO of Proximus Luxembourg, which brings together the Tango and Telindus brands under one umbrella and employs 700 people. Both brands operate jointly to meet all the telecommunications needs of Luxembourg's residential and business customers.On 26 April 26, 2019, Tango and Telindus announced the first 5G connections, performed in Luxembourg. They thus become the first Luxembourg operators to have connected 5G live on their mobile network. The 5G core network is now operational for future deployments.
Proximus Luxembourg is a subsidiary of the Proximus Group, the leading provider of telephony, Internet, TV and ICT services in Belgium.
In addition, Gérard Hoffmann has been involved for many years in the following professional associations:
Gérard Hoffmann, now Honorary President, chaired the board of directors of ICTLuxembourg since its creation in 2014.He is a member of the board of directors of FEDIL-The Voice of Industry and chairs FEDIL’s ICT group of companies, FEDIL ICT; he is also a member of the boards of Cloud Community Europe–Luxembourg and of Finance & Technology Luxembourg as well as of the Groupement Luxembourgeois de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace. Through his participation in these industry associations, he contributes to create a favorable framework for investments into the digital economy in Luxembourg.
He has been a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Luxembourg since its creation in 2003. Gérard Hoffmann holds a degree in electrical engineering from ETH Zurich, a master's degree in economics from the University of Sankt Gallen (HSG in Switzerland) and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Luc Welter
Director of Brand & Communication, POST Luxembourg
Hosuk Lee-Makiyama
Director, ECIPE (European Centre for International Political Economy)
Hosuk Lee-Makiyama is Director of ECIPE (European Centre for International Political Economy), a Brussels based think tank on global economic issues and a leading author on trade diplomacy and the digital economy.
He is regularly consulted by the G7 governments and the principal international organisations on trade. He has given statements in the US Congress, European Parliament, UK House of Commons and other legislatures; he is a regular commentator in Financial Times, Wall St Journal, BBC, Reuters, Politico, CNBC, SCMP, CCTV, Al Jazeera and other international media.
Lee-Makiyama has researched on the impact of digitalisation on trade and security since 2009, long before they became publicly debated topics and was named “one of the most influential people for an open internet” in the Guardian UK. He is also a regular commentator on trade diplomacy and economic governance.
Prior to ECIPE, he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden with postings to the European Council, United Nations, World Trade Organization and chairing the EU coordinations in Geneva during Sweden’s Presidency of the EU. He also served in the private sector in public relations. Lee-Makiyama is also a Senior Fellow of London School of Economics in the department of International Relations.
Philip Lander
Director B2B, Samsung Europe
Responsible for the IT & Mobility market strategy for B2B for Samsung Europe. Delivering pan-European solutions, services, partnerships for large and small businesses both hardware and software to meet the needs of B2B customers. Driving a cross-functional team to drive Samsung’s success in delivering solutions for business customers: the portfolio includes; smartphones, tablets, wearables, accessories and solutions & partner relationships.
Phil Lander has 20+ years experience in the mobile & IT industry, from working within the mobile networks including Vodafone, Orange and BT Mobile through to extensive experience in manufacturers with BlackBerry and Samsung. With commercial leadership experience in product management, Sales, Commercial and Strategy disciplines, across consumer and Enterprise segments.Phil lives with his family in the UK spending free time enjoying gym, cycling, cookery, music and travel.
Philippe Lefebvre
Head of Sector - 5G Deployment Strategy, DG CONNECT,
European Commission
Philippe Lefebvre is responsible for the Commission’s 5G deployment strategy including policy development and economic aspects, in particular regarding the implementation of the "5G Action Plan for Europe".
Before his current position, he was responsible for the broadcasting sector as well as the general secretariat of the Radio Spectrum Policy Group in the EU spectrum policy unit. He also worked in several other Commission's departments between 1996 and 2003 including electronic commerce and financial technologies.
Prior to joining the European Commission, Philippe Lefebvre held middle management positions in the Belgian’s Generale Bank (1983-1986), as Vice President for MasterCard Europe (1987-1991), and as Director Debit Products with Visa International in the US (1992-1995).
Philippe Lefebvre was born in Luxembourg. He graduated in electrical & mechanical engineering (MS) from the Brussels University and in economics (MBA) from the same university.
Peter Poehle
CEO & Co-Founder, SponsorMyEvent.com, Director, media65.lu
Peter Poehle is a serial entrepreneur who created his first company media65 in 2001. Many endeavours lined up, always trying to connect the dots: Yappoint, Yappoint2b, ConferenceFilms and his most important project to date: SponsorMyEvent.Having been a passionate communicator, Peter was never afraid getting in front of the microphone or the cameras to either pitch his projects, moderate events or to host TV shows.
Pierre Goerens
Director, Electronic Communications at the Department for Media and
Communications of the Ministry of StatePierre Goerens is Director for Electronic Communications at the Department for Media and
Communications of the Ministry of State in Luxembourg since March 2011. He is in charge of policy in the areas of electronic communications networks and services, satellite and radio-electric frequencies.
He is born on 18 June 1960 in Luxembourg (Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg). He holds an academic degree as a Licensee and Master in Economic Sciences of Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. In 1985 he joined the Ministry of State (Prime Minister’s Office) in Luxembourg.
In 1991 he joined the Department for Media and Communications, part of the Ministry of State.
Prior to 2011 he was primarily active in the area of media policy. In June 2002 he was appointed as Government Commissioner at SES ASTRA, tasked with the supervision of the satellite operator which is holding a concession from the Luxembourg Government.
