CableLabs Europe Conference 2019

Phil McKinney is President and CEO of CableLabs. In this capacity he heads the research and development organization responsible for charting the cable industry’s technology and innovation roadmap.

Prior to joining CableLabs, he was the vice president and chief technology officer of the $40 billion (FY12) Personal Systems Group at HP. He was responsible for long-range strategic planning, research and development (R&D) and product roadmaps for the company’s PC product lines, including mobile devices, notebooks, desktops and workstations. In addition, Phil was founder and leader of HP’s Innovation Program Office (IPO). The IPO was chartered to identify, incubate and launch adjacent and fundamentally new technologies, products and services that would become the future growth engines for HP.

Recently (February 2012), Phil released his first book on innovation and personal creativity titled Beyond The Obvious, published by Hyperion. The book is available in hardcover, digital and audio formats. The book will soon be available in Russian, Chinese, Portuguese (Brazil), Korean and Japanese.

His influence on innovation and creativity includes:

• Sharing his expertise in innovation and creativity, free of charge (in an approach he refers to as “paying it forward”) through his award winning podcast Killer Innovations™ (available on iTunes). It has been named by CIO Insight as a “must listen” podcast.
• Vanity Fair named him the “The Innovation Guru”
• MSNBC and FOX Business both call him “The Gadget Guy”
• His uncanny ability to predict what’s coming next caused him to be dubbed as the “chief seer” by The San Jose Mercury News.
• He was named as one of the “25 Most Influential People in Mobile Tech” by LAPTOP Magazine.
• He is a contributing columnist for Forbes where he writes the column “The Objective” for Forbes.com

Phil serves on the:

• Advisory Board for Hacking Autism
• Board of Directors for The Computer History Museum
• Executive Board of the Santa Clara County Council for the Boy Scouts of America

Rob Alderfer is Vice President of Technology Policy at CableLabs, the global innovation and R&D consortium of the cable industry. Rob brings sound science to bear in policy decisions by harnessing CableLabs’ technology expertise. His focus is empowering the industry to address technology policy matters of substantial strategic consequence.

Rob joined CableLabs from the Federal Communications Commission, where he guided United States wireless broadband policy as chief data officer of the agency’s wireless bureau. Previously, he shaped communications policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Rob has been engaged in significant policy decisions for over a decade, helping to shape today’s communications technology landscape. He has deep expertise in wireless spectrum and has facilitated the development of mobile and Wi-Fi technologies and services by bringing new spectrum to market. He is now responsible for CableLabs’ multinational technology policy and standards work, and he regularly provides guidance to board-level audiences across a range of strategic issues. Rob serves as chair of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) program committee, the world’s foremost communications policy research conference. He is also a partner with Social Venture Partners of Boulder County, helping promising non-profits in Colorado deliver stronger results.

James Assey currently holds the position of Executive Vice President of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Prior to his position at NCTA, Mr. Assey was a long time staff member on the U.S Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation chaired by U.S Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI). Most recently, he was Senior Democratic Counsel to the committee, and earlier was Senior Democratic Counsel on Communications and Media Issues. Mr. Assey also served as Telecommunications Counsel for U.S Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC). Mr. Assey has also held positions as Communications Associate in the Washington, D.C office of Willkie, Farr and Gallagher, Law Clerk for the Honorable Cameron M. Currie in the U.S District Court for the District of South Carolina, and Legislative Assistant to Senator Hollings.

Mr. Assey is a graduate of Stanford University and earned his JD from Georgetown University Law School. Mr. Assey is also a current adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University Law School.

In April of 2009, Mr. Assey was chosen to be on the Federal Communications Commission’s Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age chaired by Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps.

Always striving for a deep understanding of both business and technology Mr. Aveskogh has spent the last 15 years improving operational environments for service providers. He currently serves as Chief Architect & Head of Innovation at Tele2 / Com Hem, and amongst other things is responsible for an initiative called “Network Intelligence” delivering big data and machine learning solutions to measure, visualise and optimise customer experience.

He has held key positions in several of the major nordic service providers and previous to Tele2 / Com Hem held the position of CTO and Chief Architect of Visionael Corporation, a US based company delivering telco oriented support systems on a global basis.

Micha Berger joined the Telenet Group in July 2013 and as Chief Technology Officer (“CTO”), leading the Technology and Innovation Telenet team, he is responsible for Mobile and HFC Network Build and expansions, Network Operations for our HFC and Mobile services, Field Operations, Converged Fixed & Mobile Engineering and Innovations and to deliver Telenet services such as video platform, etc … Micha is driving several programs to remain the leading provider in superior connectivity with a converged fixed and mobile network. As of July 1, 2013, he also joined Telenet’s SLT, reporting directly to the Company’s CEO. Mr. Berger has worked for Liberty Global since 2006, initially managing the Engineering Department at UPC Nederland. As Vice President at Liberty Global since 2010, he has been responsible for Horizon Next Generation digital TV development and product roll-out. Before these endeavors, he gained his first experience in the cable industry at HOT Israel, where he was responsible amongst others for the development of the interactive digital service platform and the roll-out of video-on-demand.

Ralph Brown guides CableLabs’ technical staff in delivering innovative solutions to the cable industry. He leads standards strategy, supplier relations, and the industry’s participation in the FCC’s Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee (DSTAC).

Prior to CableLabs, Ralph worked for Excite@Home as Chief Architect, Set-top Systems where he worked on broadband applications for set-top terminals and entertainment devices. Before joining Excite@Home, he worked for Time Warner Cable as Chief Software Architect in their Advanced Engineering Department where he worked on the Orlando Full Service Network and was a key contributor the Time Warner Cable Pegasus Program. While at Time Warner Cable and Excite@Home, Ralph was also an active participant in the CableLabs OpenCable™ project.

Ralph earned a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His Master’s thesis was in the field of Speech Recognition. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from North Carolina State University.

Scott has been a long time technologist and entrepreneur with a strong history of building companies from inception to profitability. Currently, Scott leads startup/venture capital relationships for the global cable industry as part of CableLabs. In addition, Scott is the Managing Director of UpRamp, a platform to connect radical entrepreneurs to the global connectivity industry. The UpRamp Fiterator is new type of startup accelerator sponsored by CableLabs, that is designed to help emerging technology companies find true product market fit with the cable & broadband industry. UpRamp has a focus on doing deals, not demo days.

Previously, Scott was the CEO/Founder of bounce.io – the bounce intelligence company, CTO/Founder of Kronovia, a Compliance Cloud Service for Social Content and Relationships, and the SVP & General Manager of the messaging division of Bakbone Software. Prior to that, Scott was the CTO & Co-founder of ColdSpark; a messaging infrastructure company that specialized in high-performance email systems for global financial services companies (acquired by Bakbone Software in May of 2009).

Scott holds numerous patents related to email messaging, infrastructure, marketing and compliance technologies, was named one of 40 under 40 by the Boulder County Business Review and has been recognized as a leading technology innovator.

Luk Bruynseels is Vice President of Engineering of Telenet, the leading converged connected entertainment provider in Belgium spanning over 2 million fixed and nearly 3 million mobile customers and accounting for EUR 2.4 billion of annualized revenue. He, together with his team, is responsible of designing future-proof innovative solutions & networks for both the mobile and the fixed service including television and entertainment.

In his previous role as VP Mobile Technology and Roll Out, after the merger with Base, he was responsible at Telenet for the mobile technology strategy, engineering and execution of the mobile network upgrade of the Base and Telenet network and realizing the M&A synergies.

He brings a record of success and expertise in driving large technical transformation to keep the company on the forefront of innovation

Brief background on current role and responsibilities:
In my current role I’m responsible for:
– Leading the Access Network organisation for the Liberty Global Pan European network
– Developing network strategy and driving innovation to satisfy future business demands
– Delivering Access Network capacity in time and at best economics
– Substantially expanding the Liberty Global network and connecting millions of additional subscribers by utilising best-in-class HFC and fiber technologies
– Standardising infrastructure and processes to benefit from Liberty Global’s scale
– Continuously improving network quality and applying best practices across all access network related activities

Where I have worked:
– Liberty Global Operations (since 2011)
– Unitymedia Germany (since 2001)
– Various German and international Telcos (Vodafone, Viag Interkom, RSL COM)

What I Do For Fun
Skiing, Hiking, spending time with friends and family.

Mircea Damian is the Access Network Roadmap & Innovation Director at Liberty Global since November 2016. Liberty Global is the world’s largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in 10 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC.

We invest in the infrastructure and digital platforms that empower our customers to make the most of the video, internet and communications revolution.

Our substantial scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation, fibre-based networks that connect over 21 million customers subscribing to 44.7 million TV, broadband internet and telephone services. We also serve over 6.4 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi services through 12 million access points across our footprint.

Mircea has 23 years of experience in the Cable business and holding different execution and management roles along the way.
In November 2011 Mircea moved from the local operation in UPC Romania to the central team in Amsterdam to oversee all DOCSIS Engineering and Strategy activities.

Mircea holds a degree in Automatics and Computers from the University Politehnica in Bucharest graduating in 2003 with a thesis called “Implementation of DOCSIS protocol in Romanian cable companies”.

Mr. Elliott joined CableLabs in 2010 and is responsible for engaging the startup community to source new innovations for the cable industry, and for developing and commercializing game-changing innovations for the cable industry. In addition, his team assesses markets, competition, costs, and technology trends on behalf of CableLabs members.

Previously, Mr. Elliott held senior executive operating and strategy roles at Level 3 Communications and Unity Business Networks, and also was president and founder of Practiq Strategy Consultants. Mr. Elliott co-founded the International Softswitch Consortium in 1999 and served as its President and Chairman for three years. He began his career in software development and network architecture, and is an inventor on over two dozen patents and continuations.

Frode Elverum is Head of Broadband at Get, a leading broadband and TV and content provider in Norway, and a subsidiary of Telia.

During the past 12 months Get has both launched gigaspeeds with DOCSIS 3.1 as well as launching MESH WiFi as a service in order to claim the #1 position on WiFi in the Norwegian broadband market.

A total of 500,000 homes and business are currently connected to Get’s fibre-based network, and more than 1 million private and business customers use Get services on a daily basis.

Prior to Get, Frode served as Head of Products for Norwegian mobile operator One Call. He holds a Master of Science from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm and a Bachelor’s from Gjøvik University College (HiG).

Stijn Eulaerts is Director Product Management at Telenet. Heading up the team working on platform selection, product definition and roll-out of connectivity solutions for the residential market. With a background in engineering and over 10 years’ experience in marketing he combines both worlds to bring new value propositions to market.

Mike Fries is Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of Liberty Global, the largest international TV and broadband company in the world, with operations in 12 European countries and 52 million broadband, video, voice and mobile subscribers. Liberty Global is recognized as a global leader in entertainment, media and communications, spearheading gigabit broadband speeds, actively integrating traditional video and OTT platforms, and converging fixed and wireless services with quad play bundles. Annual group revenue is $15 billion. The Company also owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a Dutch joint venture, which has 10 million fixed line subscribers and 5 million mobile subscribers. Fries was a founding member of the management team that launched the Company’s international expansion 28 years ago, and has served in various strategic and operating capacities since that time. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company in 2005 and serves as a member of its two-person Executive Committee along with Chairman, Dr. John C. Malone.

Fries is also Executive Chairman of Liberty Latin America (LLA), a leading broadband and mobile operator
in Chile, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and other parts of Latin America. LLA serves 9 million broadband,
video, voice and mobile subscribers across 20 consumer and over 40 B2B markets and generates $3.6
billion of annual revenue. LLA was recently split off from Liberty Global to focus purely on organic and
strategic growth in the region. Fries also serves on the corporate boards of Grupo Televisa and Lionsgate
Entertainment.

Fries is an engaged industry and community leader. He also serves as trustee for Cable Labs, The Cable
Center and The Paley Center for the Media and he chairs the board for the Museum of Contemporary Art
Denver and the Biennial of the Americas. He is a Digital Communications Governor and Steering
Committee Member of the World Economic Forum and a member of Young Presidents’ Organization.
Recognition for his achievements includes EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Media, Entertainment and
Communications, Industry Leader of the Year by Digital TV Europe, and inductions into the Broadcasting
& Cable Hall of Fame and most recently the Cable Hall of Fame, which recognizes pioneers and leaders in
the cable industry. Mike holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, where he serves on the Board of Trustees,
and an M.B.A. from Columbia University, where he is a member of the Board of Overseers for the Business
School.

Dr. Belal Hamzeh is the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at CableLabs; a non-profit R&D organization funded by the global cable industry for the development of technologies and specifications for the secure delivery of high-speed data, video, voice and next generation services. In this position, Belal leads CableLabs’ long-term technology vision and plays a key role in driving new technology innovations critical to the cable industry’s evolution across Wired (HFC and Optical), Wireless, Network Convergence and Security Technologies.

Most recently, Belal led CableLabs’ wireless R&D activities across fixed, mobile and emerging wireless technologies in addition to leading the technology development for the DOCSIS 3.1 and Full Duplex DOCSIS^® technologies. Prior to joining CableLabs, he led R&D efforts for 3G/4G technologies including technology and product development, certification and network deployments.

Belal holds a Master of Science and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University along with multiple issued and pending patents.

Dr. Curtis Knittle is the Vice President of Wired Technologies at CableLabs, the non-profit research & development lab funded by the global cable industry. Curtis and his team are responsible for specifying scalable deployment solutions in both hybrid fiber coax and all-fiber access networks for CableLabs member companies. DOCSIS^® technologies, Full Duplex DOCSIS, Distributed CCAP Architectures, and Point-to-Point Coherent Optics are a few current high priority projects under his leadership.

Prior to joining CableLabs, Curtis lead an engineering team that developed the world’s first CMTS-in-a-node and Ethernet-switch-in-a-node, both solutions representing the first instantiation of what today is called deep fiber distributed architecture solutions for the cable industry. Currently, Curtis is the Chair of the IEEE 802.3ca 50G-EPON task force, helping to usher in the first 50 Gb/s PON solution.

He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico, and Master and Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University.

Matthias Kurth joined Cable Europe in October 2012 as Executive Chairman. Mr. Kurth sits on Cable Europe’s Executive Committee which has oversight of the cable industry’s main representational duties in Europe. Matthias lastly held the position of President of the German Federal Network Agency, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), the authority for telecommunications, postal, energy and railway markets in Germany, including frequency management and digital signature. He played an instrumental role in the liberalization of the German energy market and left behind notable achievements with respect to competition in the telecommunications market. Matthias also served as Chairman of the European Regulators Group (ERG) in 2009 to increase regulatory cooperation at the EU level.

Mr. Kurth worked as a judge and lawyer for 16 years prior to his roles of President of BNetzA and Chairman of the ERG. He served as State Secretary in the Hesse Ministry of Economics, Transport, Technology and European Affairs between 1994 and 1999.Mr. Kurth was member of the Hesse Land Parliament from 1978 to 1994 and also worked as a lawyer in Hesse.

Vincent Muniere took over the role of SVP Engineering with SFR Group in Paris, France, in July 2018. This role includes being responsible for architecture, vendor selection, engineering rules, lab and field acceptance, network design and planning, contract management, project management across all technology domains, including also Network-related IT & OSS activities. Some of the key challenges include accelerating fiber roll-out, keeping up with huge traffic growth across the network, transforming the network by shutting down old networks while preparing for 5G and delivering the best customer experience.

Prior to that, he held multiple roles at SFR since 2008: VP Engineering for Fixed Access and Data networks, VP Network Planning, RAN Operations Director and Mobile Access Engineering Director.

Previously Mr. Muniere held multiple positions with Alcatel-Lucent including Director of Network Design (2007 – 2008), Head of RAN Competence Centre, Network Design (2003 – 2006), and Development Project Manager for Systems Engineering (2000 – 2003).

He was also a Senior Systems Engineer for User Terminals Development with ICO Global Communications (1997 – 2000), based in London, United Kingdom.

Mr. Muniere holds a Master of Engineering in Telecommunications from Telecom Paris Tech.

Philip Nutsugah is Senior Vice President – Product Development & Management for Cox Communications in Atlanta, GA. In this role, Philip oversees the end-to-end development and lifecycle management function for all residential and business data, video and voice products and services.

Since joining Cox in 2006, Philip has served in various leadership roles in the product organization, recently guiding the development and launch of Cox Gigablast and Panoramic WiFi. Prior to joining Cox Communications, he worked for Verizon and GTE in various leadership roles in Tampa, Dallas, St Louis, and Atlanta.

Since 2011, Philip has been named each year by CableFAX magazine as one of the most influential minorities in cable. He has been a speaker and panelist at a number of industry conferences, including CableLabs, NECTA and INTX (The Internet & Television Expo).

Philip Nutsugah is a member of Cox Communications’ National Diversity & Inclusion Council and actively participates in the Cox Mentoring Program as a mentor. Philip serves on the Board of Directors for Camp Twin Lakes, Inc., an Atlanta non-profit organization devoted to improving the lives of children with disabilities, where he is a member of the Executive Committee and chair of the Human Resources Committee. He is also a member of the Undergraduate Advisory Board, Department of Communications, at his alma mater, the University of South Florida.

Born and raised in the Netherlands, Derk studied Scandinavian Languages and Law at the University of Utrecht. He served as a reserve officer in the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps and worked as a consultant to the World Food Program in the Sudan before joining the Netherlands’ Foreign Service. Most time of his career was spent on European issues, ranging from the Common Foreign and Security Policy to legislation on transport, energy, climate, fisheries and telecommunications. Derk served as Deputy Head of Mission to Germany and as Deputy Permanent Representative to the European Union, one of the top negotiating positions in the service. After 26 years of diplomatic service, Derk Joined Liberty Global as Managing Director for Public Policy in April 2013. Amongst others, he is responsible for Liberty Global governmental relations, public policy formulation with a strong focus on European policy and legislation, thought leadership and industrial relations.

José Pascoal is the Service Platforms Senior Director at NOS since October 2013. NOS is a Portuguese media holding company whose main assets include a satellite, cable operator, and ISP, a mobile phone operator, a movie distributor (NOS Audiovisuais) and a virtual carrier of mobile phone services. NOS produces several premium channels for the TV platform, which include SportTV (joint-venture with Controlinveste) and TVCine. NOS Audiovisuais is also the home-video distributor of Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros., DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures releases in the Portuguese market, alongside of launching several independent and European titles.

He has a wide experience in telecom both in mobile and fixed operations. He has a vast experienced in Strategic network planning and network development. Mr. José Pascoal has managed a significant number of network roll outs to support high traffic demands and a high number launches of new services. He has participated in triple play and now quad play product deliveries. More recently José Pascoal has been leading the launch of none linear TV services, Over the Top (OTT) and converged fixed and mobile offers. He has also been appointed as the PMO to conduct the definition of a canonical data model both for commercial and technical catalogues transversal to the entire NOS organization. He is leading the core virtualization program. Mr. Pascoal has also a relevant experience in Data Center Operations and Network Maintenance.

Mr. Pascoal holds a Telecommunications Engineering degree from the Technical University of Lisbon and a MSc. in RF Communications from The Bradford University in the U.K. In 2012 he has successfully completed an Advance Management Program from the Kellogg School of Management.

In March 2013 José Pascoal was awarded the Cable Europe Fellow Award in recognition of his individual dedication, talent, consistent excellence and contributions to the cable industry. This award recognizes the dedication and contribution of an individual to the European cable industry.

As the Vice President of Technology Strategy and Networks, Damian Poltz is responsible for the development, alignment and communication of Shaw’s technology strategy, and the design, planning and evolution of Shaw’s wireline networks and infrastructure.

Throughout his 20-year career at Shaw, Damian has served in strategic leadership roles including: Director of Network Technology, Sr. Director Communication Systems, Director IP Application Services, Sr. Manager Video Application Development and Manager of Multimedia Communications.

Damian holds an MBA from Cornell University and Queen’s University, and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Calgary.

John Porter is the Chief Executive Officer of Telenet Group Holding NV, a Belgian public limited liability company. In this capacity, he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Company, spanning over 2 million fixed and nearly 3 million mobile customers and accounting for EUR 2.4 billion of annualized revenue. Telenet’s track record of substantial innovation around the customer relationship has delivered some of the lowest churn and highest net promoter scores in the industry. Prior to joining Telenet in 2013, Mr. Porter served as the Chief Executive Officer of AUSTAR United Communications Ltd., at the time a Liberty Global subsidiary and an Australian public company that was a leading provider of subscription television and related products in regional Australia. He held this position until AUSTAR was acquired by Foxtel, a joint venture between News Corporation and Telstra, in May 2012. Mr. Porter led the growth of AUSTAR since inception, becoming its CEO at the time of its 1999 initial public offering. Previously, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Asia/Pacific region for a predecessor company of Liberty Global. From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Porter was President, Ohio Division, of Time Warner Communications. He started his career at Group W Broadcasting and Cable, as Director Government Relations before becoming General Manager of Westinghouse Cable Systems in Texas and Alabama. Mr. Porter serves as the Chairman and a non-executive director on the board of the publicly listed company Enero, a diversified marketing services company Australia’s . Mr Porter has a Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon College.

Ron Reuss is the vice president of Technology Strategy at CableLabs where he is responsible for a team of strategists, data analysts, and innovation process professionals. His team provides strategic assessment of developments in technology, customer demand, and competitive dynamics for senior cable executives. Combining CableLabs’ technology expertise with financial analysis and empirical analysis of demand, Ron’s team helps cable operators more effectively plan for the future. Ron also oversees CableLabs’ innovation processes, helping ensure its ability to consistently bring game-changing innovations to cable operators.

With over 30 years of experience in the communications industry, Ron has held roles in product strategy, product development and venture investment at companies including Level 3 Communications, BellSouth, and Gray Ventures.

Ron holds a Master of Science degree in management from Georgia Tech, a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from University of Pennsylvania and Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science and Humanities from MIT. He is also certified as competitive intelligence professional.

Enrique Rodriguez is the Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer of Liberty Global, world’s largest international TV and broadband company, joining the company in July of 2018. Prior to this role, Enrique served as the President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of TiVo. Before becoming CEO, Enrique was Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of AT&T Entertainment Group from August 2015 to November 2017. From January 2013 to July 2015, he served as Executive Vice President, Operations and Products for Sirius XM and was Group Vice President of Sirius XM from October 2012 to January 2013. Prior to his employment with Sirius XM, Enrique was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Systems’ Service Provider Video Technology Group. Enrique also held various executive positions at Microsoft from 2003 to 2010, including Corporate Vice President for the TV Division and as Vice President of Xbox Partnerships. Prior to joining Microsoft, Enrique spent over 20 years at Thomson/RCA in a variety of engineering and executive roles where he was awarded over 25 U.S. patents and international derivatives. Enrique holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Mexico’s Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey.

Harald Rösch is Chief Executive Officer of Melita (Malta) joining in April 2016. He was previously CEO of blizoo (Bulgaria, 2014-15), Kabel Baden-Württemberg (Germany, 2009-2012) and HanseNet (Germany, 2003-2008).

Prior to this he held management positions in Telecom Italia and Infostrada and worked with McKinsey&Co for 6 years.

His experience in non-executive Board positions include Sky Germany, Internetstores, United Digital Group and SEAT Pagine Gialle.

Mr. Rösch has degrees in Business Administration from ESB Reutlingen and ESC Reims and holds an MBA from INSEAD. He is married with 2 children.

James Ryan is Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Liberty Global, a position he has held since January 2012. In this capacity, he is responsible for Liberty Global’s corporate strategy, across all regions. Mr. Ryan’s oversight of such strategy is key in delivering on Liberty Global’s customer centric goals. Mr. Ryan is an executive officer of Liberty Global and sits on Liberty Global’s Executive Leadership Team.

Mr. Ryan joined Liberty Global in May 2000 as Managing Director of Strategy and Corporate Development. Prior to joining Liberty Global, Mr. Ryan spent a number of years in investment banking, initially with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and then with Deutsche Bank and PriceWaterhouse Coopers advising clients in the telecommunications sector. Prior to that, Mr. Ryan held roles in Bain and Company and MMG Patricoff (now Apax).

Mr. Ryan is a Trustee of the Lessons for Life Foundation and holds an honors degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from St. John’s College, Oxford University.

Leo-Geert has over 20 years’ experience in various technical managerial roles, predominantly in telecom organisations. He joined Liberty Global in 2001 where he held several technical management positions, the last few years as Vice-President in the Technology team. Leo-Geert moved to Ziggo in 2014 where he became CTO in 2016. Vodafone and Ziggo merged in 2017. Leo-Geert since then is responsible for the Fixed networks in VodafoneZiggo, incl HFC, Access, IP/Core networks, Backbone, Video Services, Voice services, Internet services and Datacenters.

Prior to Liberty and VodafoneZiggo, Leo-Geert worked for Philips, TNO and IBM and during the 6 years at IBM took several development and management positions at Ahold and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Leo-Geert has a degree in language & speech technology from the University of Utrecht and he did his master thesis at Sheffield University.

Vice President, Entertainment Products with Liberty Global in Amsterdam.

Responsible for the complete current and future Entertainment Products portfolio management of Liberty Global. The product portfolio aims to deliver a full, consistent and rich entertainment experience across several set top boxes and other relevant mobile platforms for our consumers both in and out of the home.

Pieter has been with Liberty Global since 2015, when he joined Liberty as our VP Connectivity Products. Before that he has been at Ziggo since 2012 as an executive leading its product portfolio & innovation for connectivity, entertainment, digital & programming. Prior to his tenure in cable Pieter worked for 18 years with Philips in various executive international roles in finance, sales/marketing, product strategy and business management for the Philips TV group.

Bill Warga is Vice President of Technology at Liberty Global plc. His primary responsibilities include research and evaluation of new innovative technologies as it relates to Liberty’s business, strategic and operational objectives. With decades of experience in both the broadcasting and cable industries, Mr. Warga is currently serving in leadership positions across the cable industry’s initiatives and consortiums including: Chairman of SCTE/ISBE Board of Directors, RDK Management LLC, CableLabs Technical Advisory Committee and CableLabs European CTO advisory committee. He also a member of the SCTE/ISBE Foundation Board, as well as various technical advisory boards of fortune 500 companies.

Tony G. Werner serves as President of Technology and Product for Comcast Cable. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Technology and Product organization, including innovation, development and operations. The Technology and Product team leads the design and development of Comcast’s world-class customer-facing products, including the X1 Entertainment Operating System, second-screen apps, and ultra-fast home Internet and Wi-Fi. The organization also leads software development, systems engineering, next-generation access networks, cloud computing, technical operations and R&D within Comcast.

Under Tony’s leadership, Comcast has completed major platform developments, including DOCSIS 3.0, the Digital terminal Adapter/all-digital transition and the X1 platform. Today the company is delivering product innovation faster than ever before. In 2015, Comcast became the first company to connect a gigabit-class DOCSIS 3.1 modem on a customer-facing network.

The Technology and Product organization also designs and builds new X1 features like Kids Zone, the Sports App and X1 Voice Remote.

Prior to joining Comcast in 2006, Tony served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Liberty Global, Inc., in Englewood, CO, where he led the company’s global strategy for video, voice and data services. He has more than 25 years of engineering and technical management experience, having also held senior management positions with Qwest Communications, Aurora Networks, TeleCommunications, Inc. (TCI)/AT&T Broadband, Rogers Communications, Inc., and RCA Cablevision Systems.

Tony serves as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Foundation (2015-16 term).

A graduate of Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount, MN with a degree in Telecommunications, Tony resides in Philadelphia.

Andrew Wileman has worked in the cable industry for more than 20 years, during which time he has held commercial, legal, strategic and policy roles, across both UK and EU operations. He is currently Head of Regulatory Affairs at Virgin Media which, in addition to day-to-day regulatory responsibilities, includes a strong policy and strategic element.

Andrew has an engineering degree and a degree and Masters in Competition Law from Kings College London. He is a Director and member of the board of the United Kingdom Competitive Telecommunications Association (UKCTA) and chairs the Operations Board of the Broadband Stakeholder Group.

Gavin is responsible within Vodafone Group for the fixed broadband access technology strategy, architecture, standards and deployment best practises across the 17 countries where Vodafone currently has fixed access assets. This encompasses fibre, cable and DSL access technologies together with the associated fixed-mobile convergence and virtualisation aspects.

Gavin was previously Head of Strategy & Planning in Cable & Wireless Worldwide leading a team of architects responsible for the technology architecture and strategy for all network technologies. He was a founding member of Bulldog Communications (later acquired by C&W) where he held a variety of responsibilities from product development through to network operations and CTO. Prior to that, Gavin lead the Access Architecture & Design team at BT.

Gavin was a founding Director of the Broadband Forum where he was overall Technical Chairman for twelve years. In addition he has been co-chair of the UK21CN consultation’s Broadband Group, chair of the UK NICC’s DSL Task Group and also vice-chair of the NICC Ethernet Access Task Group. Gavin serves on the IET Communications Policy Panel, the Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board (OSAB) and the Broadband Forum’s executive advisory board. Gavin is a member of the IEEE, Fellow of the IET and Distinguished Fellow of the Broadband Forum.