Ahmad Al-Ghanmi
Director of Network Operations
Zain
Saudi Arabia

I am working as the Director of Network Operation in Zain Saudi Arabia where I am responsible for all operation aspects of mobile networks in the company. This includes Radio Access, IP/MPLS backbone, Value Added Services, Core, IN, and other GSM/ 3G/ HSDPA and broadband equipments. I am also responsible for the Managed Services contracts already deployed in Zain Saudi Arabia and delivering 90% of our operations.

I have a 20 years of experience in different industries where I have more than 11 years in the telecom industry. I hold an Master in Business Administration (MBA) since 2002 and a BSc in Computer Engineering since 1988.

Bassam Al-Ibrahim
Technology Vendor Manager
Vodafone
Qatar

Fazal Hussain
Chief Executive
Helios Towers
Nigeria

Mr. Hussain ,Chief Executive Officer of Helios Towers Nigeria has over twenty years of executive experience in the telecom industry, having worked in the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, and Pakistan.  He joined HTN from PTCL (Pakistani incumbent telecom operator), where he was Senior Vice President, with responsibilities for providing shared infrastructure solutions to carriers.  Prior to PTCL, he was the CEO of Telecard/Instaphone where he successfully launched the first CDMA network in Pakistan.  He also worked in various senior management positions with Nortel for over 12 years before joining Telecard. Mr. Fazal holds a Bachelor of Science in Electronics from the University of Wales and an MBA from Kingston University, both in the United Kingdom.

Frank Vernieuwe
Network Deployment and Maintenance Director
Wataniya Telecom
Algeria

Frank Vernieuwe is the Network Deployment and Maintenance Director of Qtel’s Algerian subsidiary Wataniya Telecom (Nedjma). Working both for operators, equipment vendors and service suppliers, Frank has over 15 years experience in deploying and maintaining mobile cellular networks in Europe, Africa and Asia. In this capacity he has been managing a wide variety of subcontractors and service suppliers and has been strongly involved in the evolution towards outsourcing projects and responsibilities as managed services towards chosen partners in emerging economies.

Hatem Bamatraf
Senior VP Network Development
DU

With nearly 13 years of rich experience in the region's telecom industry, Hatem’s previous role was Director Network Development in Mobily KSA, where he was responsible for planning, designing and implementing the mobile network of mobily kSA.

A telecom Engineer by qualification, Hatem was earlier posted at Etisalat as Chief Engineer Mobile system and was responsible for strategizing, planning and development of mobile access network, aligned with Etisalat business plans. In his long and distinguished career as a telecom expert, Hatem’s many achievements include playing a crucial role in the remarkably successful launch of Mobily’s products and services, completing the build out and launch of Mobile network in just six months  , building and leading a team to develop the mobile Access network for etisalat during the early introduction of GSM network.

Hatem holds a bachelor degree in electrical and electronic engineering and graduated with owner degree.

Hinal Patel
Partner
DLA Piper

Jamal Faraj Al Nahdi 
Director
Qatar Data Centre

Jamal Faraj Al Nahdi is Director (acting) of the Qatar Data Centre, the world-class facility that provides the network backbone for Qatar’s business community, managed by QTEL. He moved to this role in 2009, following a decade of service at QTEL. Among his roles, Jamal has worked as a Product Management Specialist; Senior Engineer, Data Networks; and Engineer Data Network Operations. He holds a Bachelors of Sciences, Electrical Engineering from Qatar University. 

Joe So
VP of Global Technical Service Department,
Huawei

Joe So is Vice President of Global Technical Service Division for Huawei Technologies. He has over 22 years of experience in customer service, operation, technical support, sales and business development with multi-national organizations.

Prior to Huawei, Joe was the Senior Operation Manager for New World Telephone. Before that, he worked in Newbridge Networks as Director of Sales & Support (Asia Pacific) and Alcatel as Director of Business Development (Asia Pacific). Before moving to Asia, he worked in IT industry in Canada for over 12 years.

Joe holds a Bachelor Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from University of Waterloo in Canada.

Keith Donahue
Vice-president,
Global Network Services,
Aviat Networks

In his current role, Mr. Donahue is responsible for advancing the professional services portfolio that Aviat Networks delivers across all global markets. From January of 2009, he has built Aviat’s capabilities to deliver new advanced services including managed network services, integrated service assurance, NOC and network optimization, IP migration planning, and maintenance and spare parts management.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Donahue served as Head of Product Line Management, responsible for overall direction of the company’s core backhaul and transport radio portfolio, and for managing strategic OEM partnerships. Prior to the merger that created Aviant in 2007, he was Director of Business Development & Growth Programs for the Microwave Communications Division of Harris Corporation.

He has also held product management and marketing assignments at Premisys Communications (acquired by Zhone) and AiT (acquired by 3Com). Mr. Donahue holds a BA from McGill University, Montreal and an MBA from University College, Dublin.

He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife and three young children.

MianMutti UrRehman
Costing and Regulatory Economist
Mobilink

Philippe Lucxey
CEO
Orange
Uganda

Salman Albadran
CTO
Viva
Kuwait

Shankar Haldar
Group CTO- Access Network Group 
Bharti Airtel Limited.
India

Shankar Halder is currently Group CTO- Access Network Group of Bharti Airtel Limited.  Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is India's leading integrated telecom services provider with an aggregate of 100 million customers as of end of March 2009. Bharti Airtel has been rated among the best performing companies in the world in the Business Week IT 100 list 2007. Bharti Airtel is structured into three strategic business units - Mobile services, Telemedia services and Enterprise services.

Mr. Halder has been associated with Indian Telecom Industries over last 26 years having served in R&D, Manufacturing and Service sector. He has also been intensely involved with many national and international industry bodies like GSMA, ITU etc. He was pioneer in rolling out first Mobile Network in India in August 1995 at Calcutta.

Mr. Halder has been working with Bharti Airtel since April’04 in different role and in his current role; he heads the network and technology function of Fixed Line, Broad Band and media business of the Group and is also leading the IP Transformation of the Company. 

Mr. Halder has got his degree in Electronics and Communication from Bengal Engineering College, Calcutta University. 

Thierry Langlais 
Vice President for Managed Services Business Development 
Alcatel-Lucent

Thierry Langlais is Vice President for Managed Services Business Development in Europe, Middle East, Africa and India. Over the last 2 years Alcatel-Lucent Managed Services in this region grew more than 200%, including significant contracts with major service providers such as Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Reliance (India), Airtel-Bharti (India), Base (Belgium), Orange (Uganda), confirming Alcatel-Lucent as a leader in Managed Services partnerships.

Thierry joined Alcatel-Lucent in 2004 as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for ICT Services. Prior to that, he held several senior management positions in the international telecommunications sector, driving or contributing to major network outsourcing projects with Fortune 500 multi-national companies as part of SITA and Equant.

Thierry graduated in 1984 from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris.

Vikas Arya  
Head National O&M Department, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited
MTS India

Mr. Vikas Arya, Director, National Network Operations, MTS- India, brings over 16 years of global experience in developing solutions and managing operations of leading telecom companies.

 Vikas has a proven track record in Solution Sales, Network Operations, and Outsourcing of functions related to telecom product portfolio including 2G/3G (Switching and Radio Systems), Charging, Packet Data Services, IMS, Convergence, LTE, SAE, Applications, VAS, OSS etc. and has been a pioneer in outsourcing projects during the last decade.

 Having started his career with Siemens Mobile he played a key role in winning project worth several hundred Mil$. Later on, he led the deployment of first 3G Networks in USA. Prior to joining MTS-India, he served as Senior Director - Sales, Huawei Technologies at Atlanta, handling the AT&T account in the North American markets. At MTS India he is instrumental in developing and implementing National Telecom Network Operations, Networks Outsourcing projects and OSS architecture and deployment to create a differentiation for MTS amongst other Indian telecom operations. He is currently leading the Managed Services Project definition and deployment for MTS-India and strongly believes that some of best practices need to be redefined to meet current market needs.

 An MBA from the University of Phoenix, Arizona, Vikas is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), Pennsylvania. He holds a B.E. in Electronics and Communications from the Manipal Institute of Technology, India.