Welcome to the fourth edition of the Capacity Power 100. This global index lists 100 of the most influential people in the wholesale carrier and ICT communities. Those named are not only powerful people in their respective fields, but also innovators, disruptors, critical thinkers and agents of change – who push the conversation forward in some way or another.
In our fast-changing industry, the 2022 list includes carriers, vendors, service providers, data centre operators, hyperscalers, mobile and messaging players, internet exchanges, towercos and those in satellite, subsea, networking, wireless, software and investments.
As always, the Capacity editorial team had a difficult task in whittling down the nominations, but would like to highlight that all selections were made independently with no outside influence from our advertisers or commercial partners.
Just sure to check out the index in the June/July issue of Capacity magazine.
Nominations for the 2023 list will open in April, 2023.
Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business
Over the past 12 months, Chitkara has overseen the investment of US$673 million into its data centre division Nxtra. At the same time, he led on the joint venture between Airtel and Hughes Network Systems to combine their VSAT operations to provide satellite broadband services in India, as well as the acquisition of a minority stake in Cnergee Technologies.
Robin Khuda, Founder and CEO, AirTrunk
In the last year, Khuda led AirTrunk to grow its platform to reach 1.2GW of IT capacity, this includes opening a second data centre in Sydney, expanding existing data centres in Sydney and Melbourne, opening and fully leasing its data centres in Singapore and Hong Kong, launching its first data centre in Japan and announcing Asia-Pacific’s largest data centre in Western Sydney.
Andrew Schaap, CEO, Aligned Data Centers
Under Schaap, Aligned has expanded into three additional markets, grown the business nearly three-fold, and has become a leading provider of adaptive, sustainable data centres. In the last year, the company met and exceeded its core ESG objectives and key performance indicators enabling it to increase its senior secured credit facility – the first US data centre sustainability-linked financing – by $250 million to $1.25 billion.
Dexter Goei, CEO, Altice USA
As of September 2021, Goei assumed direct responsibilities for the telecommunications division of Altice USA following the resignation of Hakim Boubazine, chief operating officer and president of telecommunications. Since then the company has focused on driving its fibre deployment strategy across its Optimum and Suddenlink footprint, with a target to reach 6.5 million passings by the end of 2025.
Adolfo Hernandez, VP of the telco business unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Having entered the role at AWS in 2021, Hernandez has led on a number of cloud-based telco projects. The has seen Telefónica Tech and AWS invest in joint go-to-market activities, develop new cloud solutions, and expand AWS cloud skills and capabilities of Telefónica Tech’s employees. This year, BT entered into a five-year agreement with AWS as its preferred cloud provider.
Peter Van Burgel, CEO, AMS-IX
The last 12 months for van Burgel and AMS-IX have focused on collaborations and growth. From the launch of EG-IX – the first open-access internet exchange in Egypt, in partnership with Telecom Egypt – to its collaboration with Alliance International Management to build six new internet exchanges in the Gulf region and the launch of AMS-IX Singapore with HGC Global Communications.
Nigel Bayliff, CEO, Aqua Comms
An industry subsea cable veteran, Bayliff oversaw the delivery of Aqua Comms’ CeltixConnect-2 and North Sea Connect subsea systems, as part of its ownership in the Havhingsten cable co-owned with Bulk Fiber Networks and Meta. Boasting a number of technological firsts in its design and construction, Havhingsten is the world’s first aluminium conductor powered subsea cable system.
Mahesh Jaishankar, CEO, Arc Solutions
Jaishankar is credited with having moved Arc into an execution phase, leading on the build of the first links between hubs in the UAE and Israel. Most recently, under his leadership Arc partnered with DCConnect to radically simplify how users around the globe connect across the Middle East. He also led Arc’s partnership with Console Connect by PCCW.
Ana Romero Osés, Head of network engineering and architecture, Arelion
In her role, Osés is responsible for the team, comprised of engineers and architects with expertise in IP/DWDM technologies, designing and developing Arelion’s Tier 1 network. At present, she is leading innovative 400G-ZR/ZR+ deployments to maximise efficiency in investments and costs, as well as a massive next-generation routing silicon deployment helping to retire power-hungry platforms.
John Nolan, VP, global connections and alliance management, AT&T
Nolan is responsible for managing and transforming AT&T’s multi-billion-dollar third party connectivity ecosystem. Leading a team of 650 professionals, Nolan manages AT&T’s data, voice, international roaming and IoT needs along with accounts payable, network expansion and carrier performance. He is also driving industry collaboration around the adoption of the MEF’s Sonata APIs and advocating diversity and inclusion.
Obaid Rahman, Head of group wholesale, Axiata Group Berhad
Since joining Axiata in 2020 and taking responsibility for its wholesale and carrier services portfolio, Rahman has been focused on not just driving synergies across telcos and infrastructure, but he also actively powers industry agendas under his work as a Global Leadership Foundation board member. He continues to lead the shift from legacy wholesale to a more digitally evolved wholesale operating model.
From overseeing BDx’s impressive data centre expansion across China, Hong Kong and Singapore to a recent $300 million joint venture in Indonesia, one of the biggest foreign investments in the country, Singh is described as “making an impact across the sought-after Asia-Pacific region”. His commitment to sustainability has led to partnerships with renewable power suppliers and the development of sustainable management solutions.
Ivan Mihaljevic, President, Bell Wholesale, BCE Global
President of Bell Wholesale since 2017, Mihaljevic and his team have ushered in a number of technological accomplishments over the last 12 months. In late 2021, the company partnered Nokia to test 25G PON fibre broadband technology. More recently, Bell launched the first public multi-access edge computing with AWS Wavelength in Canada.
Gatta assumed the role of CEO of BICS in 2021 and has left an indelible mark during this time. Most notable has been his role in encouraging EU operators to “remove all charges on voice calls coming out of Ukraine and terminating into their networks”. This was followed by a joint statement signed by 27 operators agreeing to do just that.
Li Feng, Chairman and CEO, China Mobile International Limited
Under Li’s leadership, China Mobile International (CMI) continues to invest in infrastructure with the construction of the SEA-H2X subsea cable, connecting southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Hainan, as well as a new data centre in Hong Kong. CMI is also the only Chinese operator investing in the 2Africa subsea cable. His leadership at CMI has been recognised with industry accolades including Global Carrier Awards.
Jamie Jefferies, VP and GM, Ciena
In 2021, Jefferies was promoted to VP and GM of the Ciena business – taking on an international role after his success supporting and growing the European business and team, during which Ciena reported a 20% increase in EMEA revenue year-on-year. He also renewed his commitment to building teams by focusing on recruitment, creating advocates and becoming a mentor for junior team members.
Jaya Deshmukh, EVP, strategy and transformation Colt Technology Services
Deshmukh has led Colt’s strategy, product suite and critical partnership programme for a year. Within her first six months as executive vice-president of strategy and transformation, she had built the future direction of Colt’s strategy, operationalising the DNA strategy and articulating the business’s next steps to becoming more relevant to the enterprise and to co-creating with partners.
Wendell P. Weeks Chairman and CEO, Corning
Amid the biggest global fibre shortage in decades, Weeks is leading Corning though the crisis. Under his leadership, the company has responded in a timely manner with plans for a new optical fibre manufacturing plant in Mszczonów, Poland. In addition, it has pledged $150 million to expanding its manufacturing facility in North Carolina, along with the addition of 200 employees.
Mike Cunningham, CEO, Crosslake Fibre
In late 2021, Crosslake completed CrossChannel Fibre, the first subsea and terrestrial network build between the UK and France in two decades, and the first subsea and terrestrial network build across Lake Ontario connecting Canada and the US. Cunningham is also credited with creating the first ‘metered fibre product’ in the industry.
Raul K. Martynek, CEO, DataBank
This past year has been a transformative one for DataBank, marked by significant acquisitions and growth across existing markets. In 2022, Martynek has engineered the $670 million acquisition of four Houston CyrusOne data centres, spearheaded DataBank’s strategic $30 million investment in EdgePresence, and recently announced the deployment of an EdgePod in Orlando, Florida.
Ivo Ivanov, CEO, DE-CIX International
In 2022 alone, DE-CIX reached a number of milestones under Ivanov’s guidance. In March the company unveiled its fifth internet exchange with the launch of DE-CIX Phoenix, which is directly interconnected to DE-CIX Dallas. During Capacity Middle East 2022, Ivanov signed a strategic partnership with Iraq-IXP to develop an interconnection internet exchange platform in Iraq.
Rolf Nafziger, SVP Deutsche Telekom Global Business, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier
Nafziger and the Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier have ushered in a number of network trials and product expansions. The most recent was the expansion of its European Aviation Network with the addition of five North Sea cellsites operated by Tampnet. During ITW 2022, the company also confirmed it is developing an automated valet parking system for cars, with BMW and Valeo.
As founder and chairman of Digicel, O’Brien has been instrumental in its growth. In 2021, Digicel inked an agreement with Orange to build its Deep Blue One subsea cable and extend the system from Trinidad to French Guiana. That same year, he helped orchestrate the ongoing sale of Digicel Pacific to Telstra Corporation for an estimated $1.6 billion.
Bill Stein, CEO, Digital Realty
Stein was CFO of Digital Realty from 2004 but has been CEO since 2014. Under his leadership the group has acquired Ascenty and Interxion, before this year expanding to Africa by acquiring a 55% stake in Teraco in a deal that valued it at $3.5 billion and officially made it Africa’s largest data centre services provider.
Thor Johnsen, Head of digital infrastructure, Digital9
Thor Johnsen, the fund manager for D9 Infrastructure, has more than 15 years’ experience in infrastructure investment and more than 22 years in M&A, deploying more than $3 billion. Under his leadership, D9 has acquired Aqua Comms and Verne Global, an Icelandic data centre company, as well as SeaEdgeUK, a north-east England data centre asset and subsea fibre landing station.
Ganzi created DigitalBridge three years ago by merging existing investment operations and divesting property interests to focus on digital infrastructure. In 2021 it took control of Vertical Bridge, with the determination to make it the “world’s first carbon neutral towerco”. Revenues for 2021 were $966 million, up from $417 million in 2020. In May, the investor announced plans to buy Switch for $11 billion in cash.
Hatem Dowidar, CEO, e&
Dowidar joined e&, then Etisalat, as COO in 2015 and became international CEO in 2016. A former Vodafone executive, he was CMO and then CEO of Vodafone Egypt and later, the group’s chief of staff. In May he became a significant figure in the future of Vodafone – which is under some pressure from investors – when e& took a 9.8% stake, saying it supported Vodafone’s strategy and does not intend to make a takeover bid.
Randy Brouckman, CEO and co-founder, EdgeConneX
Brouckman led and oversaw the successful acquisition of EdgeConneX by EQT Infrastructure. Over the past year, the company has entered new markets, including India and China – through its investment in Chayora – as well as Indonesia and Israel. On ESG Brouckman leads EdgeConneX to deploy “more creative universal and market-specific solutions”, and be a “good neighbours” to the communities around its facilities.
EdgeUno this year named industry veteran Bax as its new COO. His appointment supports EdgeUno’s aim to provide innovative and leading engineered network solutions while focusing on customer service and workforce development. Bax entered the role with 30 years of experience in senior leadership at Nynex, Flag, Global Crossing and Seaborn Networks.
Michel Robert, CEO, Epsilon Telecommunications
As CEO of Epsilon, Robert leads the executive leadership team and played an instrumental role in the $145 million acquisition of Epsilon by KT Corp and Daishin Private Equity. Robert believes in building integrated solutions through partnerships to deliver best-of-breed services to customers. Epsilon’s recent partnership with Aruba means customers can deploy an industry-leading SD-WAN edge platform to simplify their WAN infrastructures.
Judith Gardiner, Vice president of growth and emerging markets, Equinix
In her current role, Gardiner focuses on establishing and growing Equinix’s reach in the EMEA region, upholding its commitment to be the place where companies come together to realise new opportunities and accelerate business, IT and cloud strategies. She joined Equinix in 2013 as director of sales strategy and operations for EMEA and has also been chief of staff for EMEA, leading acquisitions and integration programmes.
Ekudden sets the future direction for Ericsson’s technology leadership strategy in the areas of research and innovation. He is fascinated by technology in its widest form and says he enjoys exploring the range of future technologies which will empower an intelligent, sustainable and connected world. His role is to predict future technology trends so Ericsson can continue to help clients to achieve competitive advantage with new technology.
Martijn Blanken, CEO, Exa Infrastructure
Former Telstra executive Blanken was named to lead the company carved out of the infrastructure division of GTT Communications when I Squared Capital bought it for $2.1 billion in 2021. He had been associated with the US investor before the announcement, working on data centre strategy with its earlier acquisition, HGC Global Communications. At Exa, he is upgrading the old GTT infrastructure, including building new subsea cables.
The US Senate voted in December to confirm Rosenworcel as chair of the FCC for the next five years, following her nomination by President Biden. She had been acting chair since January 2021. Rosenworcel is the first woman to head the FCC. In 2017, she said that the Trump FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality rules was “on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American public”.
Carl Grivner, CEO, Global Cloud Xchange
Grivner was CEO of Colt Technology Services until his appointment to lead Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) in July 2020. At the top of his agenda there is GCX’s imminent acquisition by UK investor 3i Infrastructure for $512 million. Grivner had taken over a company in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owned by its lenders, who replaced Reliance Communications of India. Before Colt, Grivner spent three years in Singapore as CEO at Pacnet.
Regina Donato Danhalstrom, CEO, Globalconnect Carrier
Former Telia executive Dahlström headed the enterprise, wholesale and media business of IP Only, which was absorbed into GlobalConnect in 2019 when it was acquired by EQT. In March, the company completed 100,000km of trenched fibre, covering Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Finland. Dahlström is also CEO of GlobalConnect Sweden.
Ernest Cu,Executive director, president and CEO, Globe
Cu, who has been CEO of Globe since 2009 – a few months after joining the group as deputy CEO – has a reputation for entrepreneurship and finding new enterprise business solutions. He has been driving a sweeping transformation, including modernising Globe’s network and IT infrastructure. It is building fibre-to-the-home connections, having rolled out 1.4 million in 2021.
Villalobos designed and led the creation of the LatamConnect platform for GoldConnect, the feasibility analysis algorithm. He led the complete interconnection of thousands of sensors and core hardware to the platform in order to provide a full-service performance monitoring and alarm system. He understands the deficits in Latin America, and has dedicated the past four years to creating a technology to resolve such problems.
Michael D Francois, Network infrastructure strategy and investments, Google
Francois’ responsibilities include matters related to cloud computing, undersea and terrestrial fibre, network planning and engineering, data centre, colocation, peering, streaming, content distribution and latency optimisation. His team develops infrastructure serving Africa, the Middle East and Europe, including subsea routes in the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.
Before his 2019 appointment as head of GTT’s Americas division, Ortega was CEO of Towerstream, and held senior executive roles at Colt, Cogent and XO Communications. When Rick Calder exited the financially challenged company in 2020, Ortega became interim CEO and then was confirmed in the still uncompleted task to lead it out of Chapter 11. His aim is to make GTT a capex-light, asset-light managed services company.
Carl Roberts, Partner, Hadaara Consulting
Roberts has been a consultant and adviser for many years corporate roles that took him from IBM in Paris to WorldCom International and MCI, becoming Verizon Business. He left Verizon with a lifetime achievement award from the Global Carrier Awards, to join Epsilon Telecommunications for two years from 2016. Now, he assists and advises a broad spectrum of corporate clients, telecom operators, start-ups and entrepreneurs.
Often known by his western name of Howard Liang, he holds a doctorate from Wuhan University of Technology. As chairman of Huawei’s board of directors for the past four years, he has faced the company’s exclusion from US and many other western markets, and shifted the focus of the business to future technologies and R&D. Still present in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, today Huawei is also increasingly active in the data centre space.
Ravindran Mahalingam, SVP, international business, HGC Global Communications
Mahalingam has been with what’s now HGC Global Communications since 2011, and with its former parent Hutchison Global Communications since 2002. He has been a prominent face of the company, especially since it was bought by US investor I Squared Capital for $1.9 billion in late 2017. He has played a significant role in taking HGC into cybersecurity services for the Asia-Pacific region.
Vanesa Matamoros, Principal, innovation and new business development, iBASIS
Matamoros encourages and mentors women in the field of telecoms. Well versed in the challenges of navigating the industry, she is a role model, mentor and sponsor who supports other women in technical careers and leadership roles. She nurtures iBasis’s customer relationships and has helped it to transform its service approach. With her engineering background, she helps to bridge customers’ complex demands with new services.
Marisa Viveros, VP of strategy and solutions for global telecommunications and media, IBM
With IBM since 2010, initially in cybersecurity, Viveros leads a team of engineers working on integration and pre-testing, to get the best solutions for clients. She believes that another type of major transformation is on the horizon, with telcos readying to take on the big hyperscalers by capturing their share of new revenue streams. She says that all the company’s systems deal with security from the bottom up, in all the layers of its products.
Xavier Niel’s telecoms interests include not only French company Iliad, which he took private for €10 billion in 2021, but its Iliad Italia offshoot is the fourth biggest operator in Italy. Niel owns Polish operator Play, bought in 2020 for €2.2 billion, as well as Irish incumbent Eir, Monaco Telecom, what was MTN Cyprus, the former Tigo Senegal, and the former Vodafone Malta. If that’s not enough, he controls two French newspapers.
Juan Carlos Bernal, Industry advisor, Independent
Bernal left his CCO role at Telefónica Global Solutions in 2021 after almost 22 years with the business. Over that time he helped create and develop the international wholesale unit and B2B operations. Today he acts as an independent industry adviser to the B2B blockchain company Clear, Phoenix Tower International and STC, for which he is an independent board member at the MENA Hub.
Heard’s career has taken him from Lucent in 1990 through a number of big-name companies. Appointed COO of Infinera five years ago he was responsible for solution innovation and operational excellence. As CEO since 2020 he has seen Infinera speed up subsea and terrestrial cables – Zayo carried 800Gbps on a 1,000km terrestrial network earlier this year and the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 subsea cable will run at 800Gbps.
Rajeev Suri, CEO, Inmarsat
Former Nokia CEO Suri took over the top job at Inmarsat only in March 2021 and Viasat’s $7.3 billion acquisition of Inmarsat is expected to be completed later in 2022. Though the combined company will keep a presence in the UK and the two have promised to increase R&D spend. But he spent six months with Warburg Pincus before Inmarsat came calling, and he has non-executive roles with Singtel and others.
Sandra L. Rivera, EVP and GM data centres and AI, Intel
After 20 years with the company, Rivera now leads Intel’s development of leadership data centre products, including Intel Xeon and field-programmable gate array products. She previously led the Network Platforms Group of more than 3,000 employees that drove the transformation of network infrastructure to Intel-based solutions and now spearheads the company’s overall artificial intelligence strategy and product roadmap.
Lee Myall, CEO, Kao Data
Myall was appointed as CEO of Kao Data in late 2020 after an illustrious 25-year career working for privately owned tech companies. Following a stint as CCO of Epsilon Telecommunications, he was brought in at Kao at a critical time and oversaw the expansion of the company’s Harlow campus. Myall specialises in mission-critical digital infrastructure and software services.
Komarov is CEO of Ukraine’s largest mobile operator Kyivstar, which serves around 26.2 million mobile customers. The operator has been instrumental in recent times in helping its native Ukraine and most recently began offering free broadband to refugees in the country. Before the war with Russia, Komarov helped the company to achieve 90.3% population coverage for its 4G services.
Nic Rudnick CEO, Liquid Intelligent Technologies
Rudnick has been the CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies for just over 18 years. He led the 2021 rebrand of the company marking its shift into a one-stop-shop technology group. Under his leadership, the company has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s largest and fastest-growing technology companies and independent fibre networks, spanning more than 73,000km.
Laurinda Pang President of global customer success, wholesale and international, Lumen Technologies
Pang boasts more than 25 years’ worth of experience in telecoms. She now leads the business and operational results in the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Lumen’s wholesale business. Pang has driven significant business initiatives over the course of her career, while holding leadership roles with Level 3 Communications and Global Crossing.
Funke Opeke Founder and CEO, MainOne
A true trailblazer, Opeke spent 20 years in the US before returning to her native Nigeria in 2005 as CTO of MTN. She founded MainOne in 2008, which quickly became one of West Africa’s leading network providers. The company is well known for building West Africa’s first privately owned, open access 7,000km undersea high-capacity cable under her leadership.
Daniel Bar Lev VP Strategic Programs, MEF
Bar-Lev is responsible for the development and implementation of a range of strategic MEF programmes that are central to its strategy. This includes SD-WAN definition and certification, MEF 3.0 Products and the MEF Developer Community. Bar-Lev has been involved in the networking industry for more than 25 years, holding a number of positions in RAD Data Communications and co-founding Resolute Networks, where he held executive positions.
Javier Olivan, VP of central products, Meta
As VP of Meta’s central products, Olivan is heavily involved in the company’s international efforts, driving growth across its user base. He also oversees user adoption and product analytics at Meta, championing its core products such as Facebook Messenger. Olivan’s wealth of experience in telecoms includes previous roles at Siemens Mobile and NTT in Japan.
Frank Rey, senior director of global network infrastructure, Microsoft
Rey sits at the heart of Microsoft’s infrastructure deployments and developments. He was an integral part of the MAREA subsea cable – a joint venture between Facebook, Microsoft and Telxius. He is an active member of the wholesale community, having spoken at several Capacity events, and has previously served as an advocate for the Global Women in Telco and Tech initiative.
Frederic Shepens, CEO, MTN GlobalConnect
With a career spanning more than 26 years in telecoms, Schepens began by launching mobile operating companies in Netherlands and Belgium. Since then, he has pivoted to Africa, leading MTN’s major international and national infrastructure and platform activities including the international roaming fabric representing MTN’s 270 million-plus subscribers. Schepens is also the chairman of the Innovative Operators Executive Board.
George Szlosarek Chief Executive Officer, neutrality.one
Industry veteran Szlosarek has been the CEO of neutrality.one since 2020, having previously spent 17 years at Epsilon Telecommunications. He describes himself as a “citizen of the world”, having lived in Europe and Asia before settling in Singapore. Under Szlosarek’s leadership, the company has accelerated partnerships with the likes of Teridion and Arc Solutions in the Middle East.
Anita Döhler, CEO, NGMN
Döhler has more than 25 years’ worth of experience in various telecoms fields, including 16 years of senior management responsibilities with mobile operators. She has been a vocal advocate of sustainability and NGMN has started work to define 6G with targets to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. Döhler also offers coaching in a variety of areas including business management and innovation.
Seda joined NJFX in 2015 as the company looked to expand and manage the budgetary outlook while also overseeing the growth of its wider ecosystem. He plays an instrumental role in meeting the needs of vendors and clients as NJFX aims to continue bridging the gap between landing stations and landline fibre routes. In May, AT&T added a network point of presence at NJFX in New Jersey.
Stefaan Vanhastel CTO for fixed networks, Nokia
Vanhastel heads the CTO function for Nokia Fixed Network and continues to lead global marketing for fixed products and solutions.Over the last year, Vanhastel has helped Nokia to introduce application containers enabling CSPs to easily install applications on customer premise equipment. Beyond that, he is a vocal advocate of sustainability and believes the telecoms industry has a critical role in helping to reduce emissions.
Michael Wheeler EVP, global IP network, NTT Ltd
NTT has one of the top-rated wholesale IP backbones in the world with Wheeler an integral part of that. He has overseen the expansion of the network into 20 markets around the world including Toronto, São Paulo, Boston, Bangkok, Dublin and Manchester. With 20 years of experience under his belt, Wheeler will play a central role in the company’s continued expansion.
Alper Tunga Burak CEO, Odine Solutions
As CEO of Odine Solutions, Burak takes an active role in building strategy for developing markets and new verticals at the company. He has played a key role in expanding its partnerships with 170 operators across 36 countries. More recently, Burak has spoken of the importance of digital transformation while helping telcos in shifting from legacy IT to virtualised infrastructure.
Mittal formed joint ventures with several leading companies including SingTel, SoftBank and Axa as the founder of Bharti Airtel – one of the world’s largest telcos. He then decided to venture into space, becoming co-owner and executive chairman of OneWeb. He took the satellite firm from bankruptcy to a planned satellite constellation launch which is set to be deployed this year.
Emmanuel Rochas, CEO, Orange International Carriers
Under Rochas’ leadership, Orange International Carriers generated €1 billion revenue in 2021 alongside an ambitious overhaul of its international wholesale product portfolio. A champion of digital transformation, Rochas believes that the company must “go beyond connectivity to offer personalised digital customer journeys, monetisation solutions, security design options and green technologies.”
Athens-based OTEGlobe is the wholesale arm of OTEGroup. It is the only carrier that reaches Western Europe through Greece over a fully mesh optical backbone network – something it achieved under the leadership of Andreou. Andreou is also a member of the board of directors of OTEnet Telecoms Ltd in Cyprus and has held this role since November 2004.
Marc Halbfinger CEO, PCCW Global
Halbfinger is regarded as an industry veteran, having served as CEO of PCCW for more than 14 years. During that period, he has spearheaded the group’s growth, while also serving as chair of the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum and the ITW Founders Council. Halbfinger was also a member of the Board of Governors of the Pacific Telecommunications Council.
Nicholas Laag Founder and CEO, Prime Data Centers
A fairly new player in the data centre space – Prime Data Centers is primed to make its mark in the industry. As founder and CEO, Laag has led its progress with new facilities in Chicago and California. All eyes are now on expansion, with Dallas and Phoenix tapped as potential markets it could explore for its next move.
Josh Snowhorn Founder and CEO, Quantum Loophole
Snowhorn has big ambitions in the data centre market. The former Terremark and CyrusOne executive founded his company Quantum Loophole with the aim of constructing a mass-scale data centre campus in Maryland. The project sets out to bring true innovation and change to the data centre industry as it looks to the future.
Tareq Amin Group CTO, Rakuten
Amin was only recently appointed as CEO of Rakuten after having served as its CTO since 2018. As CTO, Amin was responsible for driving end-to-end network evolution while managing all aspects of Rakuten’s network architecture. In his new role, Amin will oversee plans to accelerate 5G deployments across its native Japan.
Hannes Gredler CTO, RT Brick
Software engineer Gredler, at RtBrick since 2015 after working at Juniper Networks, describes himself as a “routing-protocol geek” who has been working on its architecture and implementation. Now, he says, he is “contemplating about building better routers in the age of white boxes”. Disaggregation became real in 2021, he says, “and will start to be deployed at scale in 2022”.
Anwar Soussa MD and CEO, Safaricom Ethiopia
Having been in the role for a year, Soussa was instrumental in helping Safaricom sign a five-year infrastructure deal in Ethiopia. Safaricom has finalised preparations to launch commercial operations to provide telecoms services to Ethiopians, becoming the first private and foreign entity to offer the services in the country. Before his move, Soussa cemented Vodacom DRC as the largest Vodacom operation outside of South Africa.
Avner Papouchado CEO, ServerfarmData Centers
With 25 years in the industry, real estate investor Papouchado founded Serverfarm a decade ago, bringing an innovative approach to data centre sustainability and growth – automating IT management to focus on innovation and adhering to sustainability measures. The company has data centres across the US and in Canada, Europe and, since 2021, Israel.
Steve Collar CEO, SES Networks
O3b, the company where Collar served as CEO before his role at SES, was named the fastest-growing satellite operator in 2015 under his leadership. Collar then joined SES by way of acquisition before becoming CEO of the company a few years later. Under his leadership, the company has used its mix of GEO and MEO coverage to deliver high bandwidth to the mobility market.
Elisabetta Romano CEO - Sparkle, Chair - GLF
Romano builds and scales businesses with a forward-thinking and problem-solving approach. With 30 years of experience in ICT, she became CEO of Sparkle in August 2020, transforming it from a wholesale carrier into a global MSP through innovations in SD-WAN, SASE and other areas. Most recently, Romano was named chair of the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum.
Michael Nicolls Senior Director Starlink Network, SpaceX
Nicolls joined Starlink as a principal engineer in late 2020 as the firm expanded its satellite deployment with the aim to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband internet across the globe. In February of this year, he was named as senior director for Starlink Network. Previously, Nicolls founded LeoLabs, helping develop its radar systems, tracking technologies and data analytics platform.
Rayan Alsaedi Director, Global Infrastructure Development Director, stc
Alsaedi joined STC just over a decade ago and quickly demonstrated his experience and competency in subsea, earning himself the title of STC Wholesale Champion in 2020 for his contributions to STC’s subsea operations. During his time at the company, Alsaedi has worked on procurement for SEA-ME-WE- 4 and Africa-1. He holds an MSc in Telecommunications Management from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Bevan Slattery Founder - HyperOne, SUB.CO, Cloudscene, Superloop, Megaport, NEXTDC, Co-Founder - PIPE Networks, FiberSense
One of the most prominent entrepreneurs in telecoms, Slattery founded Megaport, Superloop and data centre provider NEXTDC, which all went on to IPOs on the Australian Stock Exchange. Slattery also co-founded PIPE Networks, which was later acquired by TPG, as well as SUB.CO and Cloudscene. His current mega-project is the A$1.5 billion hyperscale fibre network, HyperOne, which broke ground earlier this year.
Cato Lammenes MD, Tampnet International Carrier
A pioneer of the carrier-grade enterprise, Lammenes has taken Tampnet into new territories and services. He developed and has since led the carrier business unit by leveraging Tampnet’s assets in the North Sea. The network was originally deployed to connect energy facilities, and Lammenes has extended and re-purposed it to become one of the main arteries in and out of the Nordics.
Adel Hamed, CEO, Telecom Egypt
Hamed started his career with Telecom Egypt in the late 1990s as a network engineer, progressing rapidly to senior management. He headed international and wholesale business operations as general manager before specialising in the wholesale side of the business. Under his leadership, Telecom Egypt has pioneered the country’s largest international data centre and launched the first open-access exchange in Cairo.
David Hutton, Chief engineer, TIP
In his work with Telecom Infra Project (TIP), Hutton has been involved in a number of leading initiatives. He was part of the team that facilitated the formation of TIP’s open automated frequency coordination software group lead by Broadcom, Cisco and Meta (Facebook). More recently, he was involved in the launch of TIP’s fixed broadband project group, chaired by Vodafone and Telefónica.
Monique Lanne-Petit, Founder, Télécoms Sans Frontières
Lanne-Petit established the world’s first non-government organisation for emergency-response technologies just over 20 years ago. TSF maintains a fleet of satellite terminals and phones that can be deployed as required, and today the organisation responds to humanitarian crises, conflicts and natural disasters around the world, providing vital communications for aid agencies, governments, migrants, refugees and victims of war and disaster.
Leading Telia through the divestment of Telia Carrier, Kirkby’s leadership has seen the company post massive savings as it invests in digitalisation and system upgrades. In Q1 this totalled SEK80 million after 25% of legacy systems were removed. Kirkby’s leadership expertise extends to fast-moving consumer goods and retail, but in TMT she previously headed Denmark’s TDC Group and also acts a non-executive director of BT Group.
Oliver Camplin-Warner, CEO (International), Telstra
Camplin-Warner has driven Telstra’s key investments in growth markets, such as an equity stake in Southern Cross Cable Network; expanded its presence in new hubs such as the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea; and continued the commitment to global centres in the Asia-Pacific, Americas and EMEA regions. He also led the T22 strategy, driving EBITDA growth at the highest and fastest rate over the past eight years.
Rafael Arranz, COO, cable business, Telxius
In his current role for more than six years, under the leadership of Arranz Telxius has launched the Mistral and BRUSA cables, opened the 2,000km Tannat cable and launched the Derio Communications Hub. Further, it deployed 400Gbps Ethernet throughout the network in partnership with Ciena and Infinera. Arranz has more than 24 years of experience and holds a telecommunications engineering degree and a Masters.
Mike Sievert, President and CEO, T-Mobile US
Despite delivering “historic levels” of financial growth, Sievert’s leadership highlights have extended far beyond the bottom line. Focused on breaking the mould, Sievert launched the “un-carrier” strategy and T-Mo US is today using FWA to deliver affordable consumer connectivity. Sievert has also pushed T-Mo to achieve industry-leading sustainability. The firm is 100% powered by renewables, as of early 2022.
Alexandre Pébereau, Founder and CEO, Tofane Global
Pébereau founded Tofane Global with one promise: to enable operators to perform and transform, and achieve consolidation in the wholesale business to drive greater scale. His strategy has seen him establish the award-winning subsidiary iBASIS through acquisitions in international voice (2018), mobile roaming (2019), and messaging (2020). This year Tofane Global acquired Dutch start-up Simfony, adding IoT to the growing portfolio.
Andrew Shields, Head of quantum technology, Toshiba Europe
A pioneer of quantum cryptography, Shields has spent more than three decades with Toshiba Europe, which last year confirmed it had developed the world’s first chip-based quantum key distribution (QKD) system. This paves the way for the roll out of QKD into a larger fraction of telecoms and data networks.
Prior to the war, Ukrtelecom was advancing its €12 million nationwide fibre deployment with Iskratel. Today, Kurmaz leads his teams to maintain and restore connectivity after both cyber and physical attacks. In the face of unimaginable conditions, Ukrtelecom has carried out more than 100 repair and restoration projects, restoring connectivity to 300,000 users in 1,200 settlements, and in March dealt with a sustained cyberattack.
Eric D. Cevis, President, Verizon Partner Solutions - Global Wholesale, Verizon
Over more than 30 years, Cevis has risen through the ranks to today head one of Verizon’s most lucrative business units. Giving back whenever he can, he’s also a prominent and vocal champion of racial equality, youth opportunity, diversity and inclusion. As a member of the Global Leaders’ Forum, he has contributed to three white papers on gender imbalance, racial equity and, most recently, inclusion.
Jeanie York, CTO, Virgin Media O2
Previously working for Qwest, CenturyLink and Liberty Global, York has more than 20 years of experience in leading telco and cable business strategy, network planning, engineering, technology development and operations. She is a member of the Women in Cable Telecommunications (UK chapter), and she is also involved with Child Advocates – Court Appointed Special Advocates.
Shameel Joosub, Group CEO, Vodacom
In addition to his group CEO duties, Joosub holds board positions at Vodacom Group, Safaricom and a number of subsidiary boards across the group. He was instrumental in establishing the Safaricom Vodacom Vodafone consortium, which now holds a licence to operate in Ethiopia, and in driving the acquisition of a 55% stake in Vodafone Egypt.
Vinod Kumar, CEO, Vodafone Carrier Services
Responsible for Vodafone’s global B2B operations, Kumar holds more than 30 years of telecommunications experience gained in roles that have seen him based in Europe, the Asia Pacific region and the Americas. Prior to Vodafone, he worked for Tata Communications and Asia Netcom. He holds a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Joe Scattareggia, Executive Vice President, Windstream Wholesale
Under Scattareggia’s leadership Windstream has seen a 15.8% year-on-year increase in wave capacity sales; 19.4% year-on-year increase in dark fibre sales; and 29.4% year-on-year increase in Federal Government sales. The network has also grown via fibre builds in the Pacific Northwest; Salt Lake City to Portland and Seattle; Raleigh to Jacksonville; and Montreal to New York.
Chris Wood, Chief Executive Officer, WIOCC
Praised by colleagues for his business acumen and negotiation skills, over the last 12 months Wood has overseen the launch of a new WIOCC Group company; the continued build out of infrastructure, including a new edge proposition; the landings of both the Equiano cable in Lagos and 2Africa in Djibouti; and the expansion of WIOCC’s 16Tbps-ready, hyperscale national backbone.
Eli Katz, CEO and founder, XConnect
Telecom veteran Katz has a track record of refining how telecoms data is consumed and managed. Under his leadership, XConnect now services almost 24 billion queries a year across its tier one A2P, MNO and carrier customer segments. The business continues to expand its number information services and today manages one of the world’s largest number intelligence databases.
Andrés Irlando, President, Zayo
Prior to heading Zayo, Irlando spent 15 years at Verizon where he held a variety of leadership roles in several areas of the business including Public Sector, Verizon Business and Verizon Connect. He previously spent eight years as an intelligence officer in the US Navy Reserve and serves on the board of trustees for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Victoria Lamberth, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, ZenFi Networks
Building on her experience of deploying, managing and selling digital infrastructure in New York, Lamberth co-founded ZenFi Networks in 2013. Instrumental in the LinkNYC project, last year ZenFi co-designed Link5G, adding a multi-tenant, multi-technology siting solution as a toolkit for carriers in New York City. She is a board member at the Center for Hearing and Communication and is an advocate for children with hearing loss.