2022 Speakers

Kevin Graham is Chief Executive of The Critical Communications Association, having taken up the position in January 2022.

He is also Founding Chair and Director of TCCA’s Australasian Critical Communications Forum since 2001. He has extensive experience in the critical communications sector, and in his career to date has worked for and with many TCCA member organisations.

With more than 40 years’ experience in the communications industry, his skills encompass engineering, sales and marketing, executive management and through his global consultancy and advisory services has accumulated a thorough understanding of standards organisations, regulators, industry associations and academia.

François GOUDENOVE began his career in aeronautics and worked as an engineer on the implementation of Navigation, Communication and Satellite Surveillance systems for civil aeronautics at AIRBUS.

In 2017, he joined SYNTONY as Commercial Director and was particularly involved in promoting SubWAVE, the innovative tunnel GPS coverage offer developed by SYNTONY to address the challenges of safety in a confined environment.

Dr. Fidel Liberal is a well-recognized expert in the mission critical communications environment. He currently works as a professor at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) where he leads different mission critical communications and 5G related research and development (R&D) projects. Among them, he has been the coordinator of the Mission Critical Open Platform (MCOP) and currently also leads the MCS TaaSting project, aimed at pushing flexible testing as a service mechanism for Mission Critical Solutions (MCS) certification. He has served as technical expert in NG112 and MCX Plugtests, interoperability events organized by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.

Harald Ludwig is the founder and managing director of Arico Technologies, a company offering consultancy, training and project management services for the professional mobile radio industry.

He has expertise in the fields of system and application design, test and integration, tender specifications writing and bid evaluation, general and technical training, intellectual property rights and licensing, critical communications and mission-critical public safety communications, broadband technologies, international standardisation and interoperability testing.

He has more than 20 years of experience in the professional mobile radio industry, e.g. in development and testing of safety-critical communication systems, integration of command and control systems and end-to-end design of nationwide public safety systems.

Harald was appointed chairman of the TCCA Technical Forum in 2006. The Technical Forum is responsible for the interoperability of TETRA equipment, including infrastructures, radio terminals  
and applications. He is now looking into interoperability aspects of Mission-Critical LTE.

Ricardo is currently Vice-president for Strategy in International markets in Motorola Solutions, leading an international team focused on market trends, competitive intelligence, growth opportunities & customer requirements.

Ricardo has worked in the mission critical communication business in Motorola Solutions during the last 25 years, in different positions and countries related to market analysis, competitive environments & market development.  A Spanish national, his international experience extends from Russia, Latin America, UK, Turkey & Germany

Ricardo holds a Bachelor degree in Economics & Business Administration, and an MBA in International Business, and is currently based in Berlin, Germany

Dr Juergen Tusch founded Dr Tusch Consulting in 2021 for consulting in utility telecommunications. He can draw on 20 years of experience in the utility industry and over 40 years in telecommunications.

Until the begin of 2022 he has been head of telecommunication of Westenergie AG at E.ON for almost a decade. In this function he was responsible for the development and implementation of telecommunication services to control and manage Germany’s largest power distribution grid. This included the initiation of the first LTE 450 MHz proof of concept in Germany to gain real world experience for the utility environment. Juergen joined RWE in 2002 and since then he held various management positions in the field of IT infrastructure and telecommunications for energy trading and power distribution.

Juergen holds a Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University.

Paolo Baracca is a Research Engineer at Nokia Bell Labs in Stuttgart, Germany, since 2013. He received the Ph.D. degree in Information Engineering in 2013 from the University of Padova, Italy. His research interests include signal processing, multi-antenna techniques, and resource allocation for 5G and 6G. He has co-authored more than 40 research papers and holds more than 30 issued or pending patents.

Harri Saarnisaari received his Ph.D degree from the University of Oulu in 2000, where he has been with Centre for Wireless Communications since 1994. He is currently a university researcher and his current research interest include remote area connectivity. He led the 6G white paper writing group about “remote area connectivity” during 2020. He is part of the 6G Flagship project targeting developing visions and technology for 6G. He has been researching military communications systems since 1997, participated 5G NTN standardization activities via the SaT5G project and many other things.

Robin Davis is an independent government advisor and technology advocate, who has advised government bodies and many public safety agencies around the world on the deployment of large scale leading edge technology projects and programmes. Specific to mission critical communications he has a detailed understanding of operational systems, LTE, TETRA radio, broadband and complex control room integration.

His experience covers working across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, India, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. He is a specialist in providing business case justification, benchmarking and procurement support for complex technology programmes and is currently advising various government, public safety, transport and utility organisations.

Robin is currently Chair of the TCCA Future Technologies Group; a role he has undertaken for the last ten years.

Bhagvan Kommadi is the Founder of Architect Corner - AI startup and has around 20 years of experience in the industry, ranging from large-scale enterprise development to helping incubate software product start-ups. He has done Masters in Industrial Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (1997) and Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (1993). He is a member of the IFX Forum, Oracle JCP, and a participant in the Java Community Process. He is a Tedx speaker.

 

Bhagvan has worked in Fortune 500 companies like JPMC, Fidelity, Oracle, Siebel, Citi, American Express, ING, ENBD, Pacific Corp, and Kaiser Permanente. He has provided technology and business process reengineering consulting guidance and implemented various new generation platforms for business enablement.Bhagvan Kommadi founded Quantica Computacao, the first quantum computing startup in India. Markets and Markets have positioned Quantica Computacao in the ‘Emerging Companies’ section of Quantum Computing quadrants. The company's focus is on developing quantum cryptographic tools which will be able to provide quantum-proof data security, which will help the banking institution to protect their transactions. 

 

He contributes to open source, blogs, latest technologies stack like go, python, Django, node.js & java, Mysql, Postgres, Mongo, and Cassandra. He has reviewed the Manning Book - Machine Learning with TensorFlow. He has written Packt Publishing - Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Go and Paytech book on The Payment Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs, and FinTech Visionaries. He has written a book titled “Quantum Computing Solutions". He has presented in IEEE, Avios, Astricon, Devcon, and PyCon before on topics such as Adaptive Learning, AI Coder, etc.,

Samuel Gustafsson has been at Airbus SLC since September 2019. In his role he is focused on leading the Airbus SLC Region Sales towards the next generation in Critical Communications & Situational Awareness solutions - with focus on MCX, IoT and beyond. He has a background from various B2B/B2G sales and business development leadership roles in communications, cloud and IoT areas, involving Secure Mobile Communications for Governments and Enterprise IoT Software Solutions.

Barbara Held is currently working as journalist and moderator for the German publishing and event organising company Behörden Spiegel (www.behoerdenspiegel.de) covering diverse topics in Critical Communications and future technologies. She also is team member and senior advisor at Friedrich 30, a German consulting and lobbying firm.

From 2012 to June 2020 Barbara Held was Head of Directorate at the German Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio (BDBOS), starting as Head of Directorate General Affairs, taking over the Directorate Operations in 2015 and setting up the Directorate Strategy and General as of 2018. During these years she was responsible for the international relations of the Agency.

Following a university career in Communication Science at Freie Universität Berlin, Barbara Held was hired in 2000 by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) to work for the Federal Coordination Board for ICT in the German Government. From 2004 to 2008 Barbara Held was seconded as National Expert to the European Commission (DG Entreprise and DG Informatics) covering various topics in the area of cross-border data exchange. Back in Berlin she became member of the unit “Police Information Matters” in the BMI. In that context she served as head of the German delegation in the relevant Council working groups (Schengen and DAPIX). In 2012 Barbara Held attended a six months course in “International Security Policy” at the German Federal Academy for Security Studies (Berlin).

She holds a PhD in Communication Science.

Adrian began his career in the traditional fixed telecommunications area within British Telecom but in 1984 he joined the Radio Regulatory Department of the DTI where he spent many happy years involved in radio investigation activities. This included a substantial amount of work with mobile radio systems. He began working for ETSI in 1992 when he moved from the South of England to the South of France.

Since joining ETSI, Adrian has worked with many different Technical Committees and has been Secretary of the former ETSI Technical Assembly and more recently the ETSI Board. As Secretary to the Board, Adrian was heavily involved in the discussions which led to the creation of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). I am currently the ETSI CTO, but still hold the role of Head of the Mobile Competence Centre (MCC) which has the primary role of supporting 3GPP.

Paul Steinberg is Senior Vice President of Technology, responsible for Motorola Solutions’ technology policy, standards and strategic technical projects. Prior to his current position, Paul was chief technology officer for nine years where he was responsible for technology strategy and venture capital investment. In his earlier career at Motorola, Paul was chief architect for carrier broadband wireless network infrastructure products in the company’s network infrastructure unit. Before joining Motorola in 1992, he was a distinguished member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he worked on operating system research and development.

Paul was recognized by Fast Company as one of 2020’s most creative people in business. He is a member of the executive board of the Telecommunications Industry Association and the executive committee of the National Spectrum Consortium. Paul also serves on the Federal Communications Commission’s Technological Advisory Council and Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council.

Nina is a TCCA director and board member, as well as deputy head of department at the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection, department of emergency communications. She holds a Master's in technology management and telecommunications strategy from NTNU.

Nick Smye is a Principal Consultant with Mason Advisory. Nick has more than 35 years’ experience in the communications industry. He previously worked in the electricity industry for nearly 10 years, where he gained valuable first-hand experience in the design, development and planning of mobile and fixed radio communications services.

Nick now focuses on public sector, delivering major projects for clients including major emergency service organisations, and government departments. He is currently Chair of TCCA’s SCADA, Telemetry and Smart Grid Working Group and has written a number of articles and whitepapers on IoT related subjects.

Adrian Grilli has spent 30 years in telecommunications, mainly energy focused.  He is a part-time Fellow of a UK radio spectrum management organization and Manager of the Radio Spectrum Group of the European Utilities Telecom Council (EUTC).  He also participates in global utility telecommunications organizations, speaking at events and writing reports.

For 25 years, he was Managing Director of the Joint Radio Company Ltd.  JRC is a joint venture between National Grid (UK) plc and the UK Energy Networks Association Ltd, representing UK gas and electricity generation, transmission and distribution industries’ radio communications interests.  JRC’s prime responsible is managing radio spectrum and providing strategic advice to support critical network operations.

Adrian Grilli was previously employed in the UK Technical & Scientific Civil Service for 20 years, including several posts in radio regulation before joining JRC.  He is a Member of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a former Director and Chairman of the Federation of Communications Services.

Sonia Miguel Sauco was graduated as a Master Engineer in Telecommunications by the Technical University of Zaragoza, Spain. Joined to Teltronic S.A.U in 2004 as Product Manager, has developed her activities in the Marketing Product Department to date.

The functions carried out in this department are oriented to both the company’s products vision as their adaptation to different segments of the national and international market from the point of view of user’s requirements, technical viability and benchmarking. Currently she’s responsible for the Teltronic’s product and solutions portfolio for transport sector.

He currently works in the CTO department of the Leonardo Cyber Security Division, where he follows FRMCS as innovation manager of the project. He is the Leonardo representative in UNITEL (UNIFE) for the standardization of the FRMCS communication system and for the digitization and cyber security groups. In this role he cooperates also with ERA, UIC and ETSI for the railway specification activity. Previously, before the merging with UNITEL, he was the representative since 2001 in the Railway Operational Communications Industry Group (ROC-IG) for the technical part (TIG), where he also held the role of chairman several times.

Gastón Gustavo Hughes Jenkins is the Manager and founder of OMT S.R.L., a telecommunications engineering and technology integrator company that provides design, engineering, implementation, maintenance and operations solutions for PMR systems, control rooms, IoT, AI, telemetry, networking, cybersecurity and software development. He received his diploma in Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Belgrano in 2001 and the master in radiocommunications from the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia in 2010.

He has extensive experience in TETRA technology from different vendors like Nokia, Airbus, Motorola and DAMM; working since 2003 in the design, implementation and maintenance of different projects in Latam, mainly in Oil&Gas and mining markets.

Currently in his role as OMT Manager, the mission is to promote continuous improvement and solve the most varied challenges in order to position itself as a regional leader, maintaining the highest quality standards.

Keith Ammons is Vice President of Market Development for PowerTrunk, Inc. and a Director of the North America TETRA Forum (NATF).  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Technology from Memphis State University and a Master of Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  He has spent over 35 years in the civilian and military communications-electronics field and his experience includes project management, communications systems operations and maintenance, communication security, and sales and marketing activities.

Jens-Peter Neumann has worked with telecommunication systems throughout his career as an engineer and later on Regional Director. Having worked for more than 30 years within the field, he has gained extensive knowledge and experience with trunked radio networks worldwide both in regard to planning, installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair and technical support. He joined the ErvoCom AG in 2018 as Senior Project Manager where he is responsible for a wide range of projects including Airport Zurich and Cochabamba Light Rail in Bolivia.

Dereck Orr is the Division Chief of the Public Safety Communications Division at NIST's Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL). He has also served as the Program Manager for the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) program since 2002. The PSCR program acts as an objective technical advisor and laboratory to the public safety community to accelerate the adoption and implementation of the most critical public safety communication standards and technologies. From October 2003 until October 2004, Mr. Orr was detailed to the Department of Homeland Security to serve as the Chief of Staff of the SAFECOM Office within the Science and Technology Directorate, to help establish the new program. Prior to working at NIST, Mr. Orr served as a professional staff member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, and Related Agencies under Senator Fritz Hollings. In that position, Mr. Orr was responsible for the appropriations accounts relating to state and local law enforcement issues. Prior to that, Mr. Orr served four years at the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) at the Department of Justice. Mr. Orr received a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the College of William and Mary and a Bachelor of Arts in American History from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sarah Hughes joined the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division's Open Innovation team in April 2018 and serves as a Prize Competition and Challenge Specialist. In this role, she manages internal and external R&D, communications, legal, administrative, and procurement resources to design and implement prize competitions and challenges to advance PSCR's mission. She is responsible for managing all aspects of the prize competitions and challenges assigned to her within the Open Innovation portfolio.

Sarah and the NIST Open Innovation team recently received their agency’s 2021 George A. Uriano Award in recognition for their outstanding leadership delivering public-private partnerships that drove the research and development of critical, life-saving communications capabilities for first responders. The group’s initiative in creating a novel Open Innovation program at NIST resulted in an increased capacity for advanced communications technology research and development and an increased number of researchers working in the field.

Prior to PSCR, Sarah supported entrepreneurs, small businesses, and innovation at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for five years in many different roles within Colorado and Washington, D.C. Sarah first started her federal public services as Presidential Management Fellow. Sarah holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from DePauw University.

Emergency Operations Technical Specialist, 11-year member of the Houston Fire Department (94 fire stations, 3800+ firefighters). Captain Hagan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Service Leadership from the University of Houston – Clear Lake. He has been deployed in multiple tactical and leadership roles during planned events and emergency incidents including Super Bowl LI, Hurricane Harvey, 2017 World Series, 2019 ITC Fires, COVID-19, and Hurricane Laura. He is a FAA Remote Pilot and sUAS Program Manager for Houston Fire Department. Captain Hagan has developed public safety programs and studies including rapid response sUAS deployment, virtual reality training study for use in the fire service, and local/regional all-hazard incident management team. He is experience in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Type 1 Urban Search and Rescue missions, cutting edge technology investigation and implementation in public safety arenas, and digital gap analysis between technology innovators and public safety administrators/end-users.

Dr. Mittermayr is Partner within Bell Laboratories, the research lab of Nokia. Bell Labs is focusing on techno-economic strategies especially on the intersection between emerging technologies, new business models and society impacts. Herbert is advising telecom services providers and enterprises by modelling and simulating new value creation strategies including the role of webscalers and public cloud providers.

He works in the telecom market for more then 25 years and held several senior roles in Mobile networks and Applications Divisions, including heading the value creation unit for Convergent Applications. 

Prior to Alcatel, Mr.Mittermayr was CEO of a start-up software company, where he gained valuable experience in innovative business models and venture capital financing. Besides, Herbert is also lecturer on the University of Applied Sciences Vienna.

Mr. Kari Junttila, Development Manager, is working in Virve 2.0 Mission Critical Broadband development project with key responsibilities on RAN procurement and implementation. His other activities include participation on TCCA, ETSI work as well as 3GPP standardization, PPDR co-operation and international projects.

Mr. Junttila holds a M.Sc. (EE) from the University of Technology in Helsinki and he has over 40 year working experience including RDI projects and development of Mission Critical ICT systems and wireless communication for public safety, TeliaSonera cellular networks and technology development, mobile handset manufacturer Benefon and Finnish Air forces. He has also broad experience in international cellular business.

Marko Höyhtyä received the D.Sc. (Tech.) degree on telecommunication engineering from the University of Oulu, where he currently holds associate professor (docent) position. He is an associate professor at the National Defence University as well. Since 2005, he has been with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. in various researcher and team leader positions. He is currently working as a New Space Co-Creation Manager, coordinating space technology research at VTT. He was a Visiting Researcher at the Berkeley Wireless Research Center, CA, from 2007 to 2008, and a Visiting Research Fellow with the European Space Research and Technology Centre, the Netherlands, in 2019. His research interests include critical communications, autonomous systems, space-based observation technologies and satellite-terrestrial connectivity.

Peter is Chief Technology Officer for Sepura, responsible for product strategy, technical roadmaps, strategic partnerships and standards bodies including ETSI and 3GPP.

He brings a wide range of experience spanning more than 25 years in the telecommunications industry covering mainstream telecommunications for public operators, SME's and start-up companies, involving network management, broadband wireless and private mobile radio. Whilst at Sepura Peter has been involved in the development of TETRA, DMR, Broadband and Enterprise Application products.

During his career Niklas Lagerblom has held several positions in Design, Line Management and Solution & Product Management and has spent more than 25 years with mission critical communication solutions and business development.

During the last five years, Niklas has been involved in groundbreaking work related to new opportunities in mission critical broadband evolution with TETRA and the Airbus application ecosystem for the mission critical market.

Anthony Sutton has been involved in international sales and business development for almost 30 years. During most of this time he worked in the ever-evolving wireless telecommunications industry nurturing a very loyal customer base. Anthony has built, nurtured and grown a number of sales, support and marketing teams. Starting as an engineering apprentice with AVO / Megger, Anthony transitioned into sales, beginning as a sales support for 2 years. From there, he moved to regional sales in the UK for 12 months before starting a career long affinity with international sales & business development that has taken him to all corners of the global in both the Telecommunication and Power industries and allowed me to rise to the position of VP Sales & Marketing at Cobham Wireless before joining Ranplan Wireless as Chief Commercial Officer in 2019.

Major General Eng. Mădălin-Virgil MIHAI is the technical Deputy Director of the Special Telecommunications and was appointed by the Decision no. 103 of the Supreme Council of National Defence, as of September 14th, 2017.

In 1990 he graduated “Ștefan cel Mare” Military High School, Câmpulung Moldovenesc, in 1996 he graduated the Faculty of Electronics and Informatics within the Military Technical Academy, consolidating his military and specialized training by various advanced training courses, the most recent of them being the Managerial training course completed in 2018.

After completing the specialized military training, he was assigned to the Ministry of National Defence where, for two years, he held the position of technical deputy commander of the 93rd Radiolocation Battalion.

In 1998 he transferred to the Special Telecommunications Service, as an officer. Since 2004 he has occupied various leadership positions within the Radio-communications Division: Head of Bureau, Head of Radio Design Sector, deputy commander of the Radio-communications Division, taking command of this unit in 2017.

For the results obtained, he was advanced in rank, in 2013 he was decorated with the Order „Manhood and Faith” in the rank of Knight, and in 2017 he was decorated with the Order „For Merit” in the rank of Knight.

Jarno Taskinen is Head of Product Marketing at Mentura Group with years of experience in building industry solutions for critical operations. Jarno is working closely with authorities, governments, operators and professional organisations helping with transition to broadband networks and supporting the digital transformation of critical operations.

Studied communications engineering at Vienna University of Technology
Managing director of Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Hermann Bühler GmbH.
Management consultant and engineering consultant since 1995.

Expertise in critical ICT, mobile and fixed radio, multi-technology networks, alarm systems, public warning, command and control and PSAPs. Experience in public safety, civil protection and crisis communication, NIS security and data protection, project management and public procurement

Antonio Fernandez Merino is the Business Development Director for Ericsson’s mission critical communications division, supporting market acceleration and transition from narrow band to 3GPP-based future-proof mission critical communications.

He comes with more than 20 years of working experience in the telecom sector, starting in Ericsson Spain in 2000 as sales support for Ericsson’s OSS and Radio Access Networks portfolio, and working for key communication service providers in Spain including Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange (Amena).

After his time in Ericsson, he worked in Rohde & Schwarz, driving communication systems for security and defense, with a focus in professional mobile radiocommunications (PMR) solutions. Antonio Fernandez Merino also spent over 13 years in Airbus Secure Land Communications, heading up sales in Spain, then as global head of business support and innovation, covering presales, business development and strategy implementation activities for mission critical and business critical market segments.

Fernandez graduated as a telecom engineer and did his postgraduate in Technologies and Systems for Security and Defense, both from Madrid Polytechnic University.

Silvia Fanigliulo holds a degree in Electronics Engineering from University of Florence, where she graduated in 2005, and she got an MBA in General Management in 2010.

She joined SELEX Communications – now become Leonardo – in 2005, and since then she has been involved in the Professional Mobile Radio Communications market covering different roles in Customer Service, System Engineering and Technical Sales before moving to Sales Department.  Since the beginning of her career, she has been always involved in the International Market, ranging from transportation to public safety and oil & gas sectors.

Since 2018 she is responsible for the Far East Area, with a specific focus on the Metro projects in Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, where she recently succeeded in closing a number of contracts to provide secure communications to the metro systems operators, integrated with cybersecurity features.

I have held various senior technical and executive roles over the past 30 years which included R&D Chief Technical Officer for Orange / France Telecom R&D, Head of payload systems Engineering   Airbus Space & Defence. I am currently Director of Ubiquitous Connectivity in the Satellite Applications Catapult and General Manager of the Westcott Site where we host our 5G testbed. I am leading on two major 5G projects , firstly a project funded by  SEMLEP for Milton Keynes Smart City 5G deployment and DCMS funded project for Dorset Council  providing  Rural connectivity using satellite and terrestrial connectivity.

Marie is in charge of the Mobile Broadband and IoT strategic product management for 4G and 5G radio access networks at Ericsson. Her main responsibilities include driving the evolution of 4G solutions to meet the growing demands on existing LTE networks. She is also involved in preparing for the launch and deployment of 5G solutions and new enabling technologies that 5G will bring.

Marie has worked in many areas within Ericsson from product development to product management spanning 3G, 4G and 5G technologies. She has worked with both radio and core network solutions as well as with transport, synchronization, and security solutions. Marie has represented Ericsson as a speaker at many conferences and workshops in Europe, North America and Asia, most recently covering such topics as 5G and Internet of Things (IoT). She is also the co-author of six patents.

Marie holds a Master of Science in Technology Management (gold medal winner) and holds a first-class honours degree in Electronic Engineering.

Francesco has been working for Leonardo since 1997, being always involved in the professional mobile radio business and in particular TETRA product management and marketing.

After many years of activities on TETRA standardisation in ETSI and even longer contributing to TCCA IOP activities as one of its pioneers, Francesco has been sitting on the TCCA board as one of the Directors for five mandates (October 2006 – present).

Since April 2018 Francesco has also been appointed as Chair of the TCCA TETRA Industry Group, driving the TETRA industry community on common marketing efforts in support of the TETRA standard and certain updates to the standard to ensure fit-for-purpose for at least the next 5-10 years.

Ildefonso de la Cruz is a principal analyst in the Public Safety & Critical Communications group at OMDIA. Based in London, UK, he is the lead analyst for the Critical Communications Mobile Radio Infrastructure (LMR & Broadband), providing market data and strategic insights into the evolution of the international landscape of critical communication solutions for Government Public Safety and Private Industrial connectivity.

Prior to his current role as a Critical Communications technology expert, Ildefonso's responsibilities included the innovative product strategy and commercial development of cellular 5G network solutions and the development of Private Connectivity Network deployments across different industries and a wide range of channels that include Service Providers and Telcos, large enterprises, SMB companies, and B2G government agencies across the globe.

Ildefonso holds an M.Eng. in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Imperial College London and an MSc in Wireless Communications from the Seoul National University.

Cumucore Senior Product manager, Mika Skarp is an awarded telecom network technologist, entrepreneur, and executive. A lead engineer at Nokia both in Finland and Silicon Valley, Mika was the founding president of the WiMAX forum. After over decade developing ground-breaking technology-enabled business models for Nokia including the GSMA award-winning Village Connection program, Mika consolidated his learnings and patents to launch Cloudstreet, the world’ first network slicing platform. Skarp is active in the telecom industry as a writer, commentator and mentor focused on digital transformation in support of net neutrality and a common, free, and open internet.

Peter Clemons has been involved in the global critical communications industry since he wrote his first TETRA report back in 1996. Peter founded the TETRA SME Group (now TETRA Industry Group – TIG) back in 2001, was Director of Communications at Spanish critical communications equipment manufacturer, Teltronic & is also a former Director & Board Member, TCCA, where he worked closely together with all key industry & community players to promote critical communications technology standards around the world.

Peter is currently President of France-based consulting firm, Quixoticity-EU, founded in 2021, which replaced UK-based firm, Quixoticity Ltd (2012-2021): member of ETSI, 3GPP, TCCA & now Vice-President, standards, EUWENA (European Users Wireless Enterprise Network Association) supporting harmonised spectrum and global standards for private networks across Europe.

He now spends most of his time studying, developing & helping to implement secure, end-to-end, full 4G/5G mission-critical solutions, having moved to France during 2020.

Kirsi started her career in ICT and digitalization at Nokia, where she was holding middle management positions in product and business development for more than 15 years. She was developing and launching several of Nokia’s innovations in mobile data, multimedia smartphones and consumer services. Kirsi has very strong background in partnering with leading international internet, cybersecurity and connectivity companies.

Kirsi has been working at the Finnish innovation funding and internationalization service provider Business Finland since 2015 and she is now the Head of the five-year Digital Trust Finland program with the vision to create multi-billion business through development of safe and cybersecure solutions. Digital Trust Finland program wants to enable nation states to achieve digitally trusted societies by creating compelling joint offerings on international target markets. One of the key goals is also to boost competitive, industry driven ecosystems and research innovations in public safety and critical communications, cybersecurity and fintech, and foster built-in security in all solutions.

As Global vertical leader, Thomas heads the Aviation & Public Safety segment in Nokia Enterprise.

Thomas brings 30 years of experience in telecommunications and networking technologies, serving in several general management, managed services and sales positions. In combination with his deep knowledge on aviation, working for Lufthansa as a young engineer, this experience is providing a deep understanding of what critical communications means for the public safety community.

His focus is on providing mobile broadband transformation and associated digitalisation strategies and solutions for our aviation and public safety customers.

He is based in Stuttgart, Germany.

David recently joined the Police Digital Service as director of engagement after retiring from the Metropolitan Police Service. He led the forces Command & Control services, which handles over 6 million emergency and non-emergency telephone calls every year, and dispatches police resources to over 1.6 million incidents per year. This team of over 1700 employees, works from three purpose-built facilities across London.

David has worked on a number of high-profile programmes both in London and internationally. Prior to his current taking the Command & Control Services post, David was the Programme Director for two of the Met’s transformation programmes – Optimising Response and Smarter Working.

David has a post-graduate Diploma in Leadership and Management, and his professional interests include coaching individuals to achieve their aspirations. He is an active coach and mentor to a wide cross section of people from both the police family and beyond.

David is a strategic communications and engagement leader experienced in supporting citizens, communities, leaders, and organisations to engage with each other effectively enabling communities to work together.

David undertook the role of Head of Communications at the highly successful National Enabling Programmes, before taking you his new role as Digital Engagement Manager for the Police Digital Service. He is also the Digital Engagement Subject Matter Expert for the National Police Chief Council and regularly provides strategic support across policing to help with all aspects of internal, external and stakeholder digital engagement. This included leading the NPCC Social Media Project driving and supporting change in forces to deliver a truly citizen focused social media enabled service.

With over 20-years of experience in communications and engagement, David is often called upon to provide expert support across the blue light sector and often beyond the UK. Providing a point of liaison between the different parts of the police service and key platforms including Meta and Twitter. David has Diploma in Public Relations from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Hannu Aronsson is the Chair of the TCCA Applications Working Group, and Head of Applications Technology at Portalify Ltd, which is part of Sepura and Hytera.

Hannu has extensive experience in mission critical data applications, from standardisation to planning, designing, developing and deploying mission critical operational apps up to nationwide solutions.

In December 2015, Trevor retired from the UK Home Office where he had been employed as the Operational Security Manager for the Airwave programme and latterly in some areas of its replacement the ESMCP programme.

Prior to joining the Home Office, Trevor was a serving police officer for 32 years, having been engaged in a variety of operational roles.

Trevor is Chair of ETSI Project TETRA WG6 (Security) and the TCCA Security and Fraud Prevention Group (SFPG) and, as such, has been appointed to perform the duties of the TEA2 Custodian on behalf of the TCCA.

Marc has spent his entire career with Alcatel, Alcatel-Lucent and now Nokia.

He held several management positions spanning from R&D on terminals to program management of wireless (2G, WiMax, 4G) network rollouts in various counties.

Since 2016 he is focusing on business development for Critical Communications, helping public safety agencies use broadband networks and digital technologies to improve the effectiveness of first responders.

Marc holds a Master's degree in Telecommunication and is PMP certified.

Urmas Ruuto is the Head of Technology Branch of CCDCOE, and joined the Centre in January 2021. The main focus of the Technology Branch is on technical aspects of cyber defence, including monitoring, penetration testing, malware analysis, digital forensics and industrial control systems.

Urmas has more than 20 years of experience in telecom sector and acquired his Master of Science degree in Telecommunication at the Tallinn Technical University.

Paul Bremner is a Principal Analyst in Omdia’s Public Safety and Critical Communications team. He is the Lead Analyst for the Command and Control Rooms Intelligence Service and Host of the Omdia Crit Comms Circle podcast.

Paul originally joined the video surveillance team in Omdia, formerly IHS Markit, in 2012, working closely with the security system integration community. He has written reports on a diverse range of topics, such as security end-user concerns across a range of different vertical markets, the security system integration market, and safe cities. Paul moved into the public safety and critical communications team in 2019.

Paul has more than 10 years’ experience providing industry insights for clients, regularly presenting at company and industry association events.

Based in the UK, Paul holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Exeter.

Laura is widely recognised as an authority in the white hat hacker community with a deep knowledge across the security landscape with a highly developed understanding of cloud security, mobile, privacy and stalkerware. Laura gained an even wider following across Finland when she recently appeared with two fellow professional hackers in a TV documentary series “Team Whack – everything is hackable”, which saw them hack into a variety of areas of people lives. Their targets included smart devices, a car, a smart home, a WIFI-network, an advertising board, as well as stealing personal identity information and cutting off a gaming stream plus dropping a drone from the sky. The hackers aim in the program was to help consumers, communities and businesses to protect from breaches and hacks, so to highlight exposure.

Laura spends much of her time sharing her knowledge across the security landscape through speaking at a wide range of events by providing guidance and exploring ideas to assist the public and private sector in addressing complex security threats and key society privacy vulnerabilities. This includes being active in a community of “cyber- firefighters” (https://kybervpk.fi/) founded during the Covid-19 pandemic, who offered help to companies in the health-care industry, schools, municipalities and also companies who financially cannot afford to solve cyber-related challenges. She’s also helping people to reclaim their privacy through her involvement with
Outreach https://www.outrch.org

From a very young age, Laura has been fascinated by computers and now brings this passion into her professional life.

Anders Berghäll has a background from public safety network, application and terminal business, and therefore has a wide perspective over the various mission critical communication technologies. At Bittium Mr. Berghäll is working closely with the Nordic public safety customers which give solid base for understanding the next generation public safety ecosystem from the technical but also economical point of view.

Ari is the owner of the Virve 2 mission critical broadband programme at Suomen Erillisverkot. He has over 20 years of experience from mission critical communications first from Nokia and then the UK Home Office before moving in 2018 to Erillisverkot, the operator of the Finnish public safety network Virve.

Ari has held several roles over the years e.g. providing strategic and technical guidance on various aspects of the mission critical communications landscape including security, functionality, technology roadmap, user requirements and spectrum needs. Over these years Ari has also had an active role in several national and international working groups, including serving as a director and member of the TCCA board and as the chair of the TETRA user requirements working group at ETSI.

Ari holds a Master’s degree on telecommunications and is a European Engineer.

Antti has been working in State Security Networks Ltd and VIRVE for 19 years, holding several positions during those years.

In his current role as Head of Department he is responsible for leading a project that to enable public safety users to migrate from narrowband TETRA to commercial broadband services.

Dr. Jens Specht is within Inmarsat responsible for business development in the global government market sector.

In his 25 years in the IT and communication industry he had a number of functions in product- and portfolio development, consulting, pre-sales engineering, sales, marketing and project management. Working for large players like British Telecom, experts in satellite communication as NDSatCom and Signalhorn as well as start-ups like StellaNeo.

He studied physics and economics in Heidelberg, Germany and Hamilton, Ontario and holds patents in the area of communication and encryption.

Dylan runs the Government business unit of the global communications company OneWeb. Dylan brings almost 30 years of experience in military and commercial satellite manufacturing, operations and sales for both satellite communications and earth observation missions.
He is responsible for market development, business strategy and sales of OneWeb’s Connectivity and Hosted Payload solutions for OneWeb’s US and International Civil and Military Government customers.

In his prior role as Chief Operating Officer at COMSAT Inc. he was responsible for both the day to day operations and business strategy of COMSAT’s U.S. and International Mil/Gov programs and the development of new services for US DoD customers AMC, NAVAIR, SOCOM to include the adaptation of Iridium’s Certus constellation based services for NATO, Australian Defence Force and UK MoD.

Prior to his role at COMSAT, he was Chief Commercial Officer of the U.S. office of Airbus Defense and Space and Vice President Business Development and Marketing at Airbus headquarters managing business development for European MILSATCOM programs, which included the UK Ministry of Defense’s Skynet-5 contract, which delivers strategic and tactical SATCOM capabilities in a unique Private Financial Initiative framework valued at over $5B.

Mr. Browne joined the AIRBUS group in 2006 when he sold his company, London Satellite Exchange, building the cornerstone of the group’s COMSATCOM capability and growth strategy. 

Prior to his roles at Airbus, he held a number of systems engineering posts including a four year assignment at the European Space Agency for the launch and operations of the LEO ERS and Envisat missions.

Mr. Browne holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Oxford Brooks University, a Master of Science from University College North Wales, and an MBA from London Business School.

John Winterbourne is Market Development Manager for Ballard Power Systems Norway, focusing on bus, truck, marine and back-up power applications in the Nordics and Baltics. He is active in NEK TC 105 Fuel Cell Standards committee and in Hydrogen Europe. John is an active member of both HE’s trucks and maritime working groups, helping the industry move faster towards a sustainable transport future.

Prior to joining Ballard Power Systems in 2020, John worked at the Embassy of Canada to Norway for over 20 years covering energy and environment in the trade section. He served on the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service Global Board and was a recipient of the Ken Sunquist Award for Service Excellence in International Trade.

John is a graduate of University of Strathclyde.

Ryan Poltermann has performed public safety communications design and consulting for over a decade, and has been involved in over half the US states and six countrywide systems.  He is a Wireless Communications Research Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with a focus on 5G communications.  He is also the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) Vice Chair of LMR LTE Integration and Interoperability Working Group and Co-Chair of the Public Safety Internet of Things (PS-IOT) Working Group

Marcus is passionate about helping organisations understand cyber, making the subject matter simple and actionable. Experienced working across Mission critical systems which span emergency services, energy & utilities and Public sector. Motorola Cybersecurity Sales Manager for UK, Ireland and Eastern Europe.

With an Engineering, IT Management and Digital Transformation Masters and background in telecoms working within Strategy and Intelligence. Related to cybersecurity, Sara is able to assist organisations achieve an excellent level of continuity and protection for Mission Critical Systems.

Brian Murgatroyd is an experienced Consultant Engineer who has specialised in TETRA technology over the last 22 years.

He has a first-class honours degree in telecommunications and electronics, is a UK Chartered Engineer and a corporate member of the Institution of Engineering Technology (MIET).

He has been chairman of ETSI TC TCCE (Technical Committee for TETRA and Critical Communications Evolution) since 2010 and previously chaired ETSI TETRA working group 6 (Security) for 4 years until retiring from this position at the end of 2006. During the same period, he chaired the TCCA Security and Fraud Prevention Group (SFPG).

Until he completed his service with the UK Police IT organisation (PITO) he led the Airwave Communications Security team. This team was responsible for ensuring the successful implementation of all security features on the UK national emergency service communications system (Airwave).

He has been managing a consultancy specialising in TETRA security since retiring from PITO and has been heavily involved in the architectural design and development of various TETRA end to end encryption equipment, TETRA security training and as a technical specialist assisting in patent litigation.

Mika works as Security and Cryptography Architect for Airbus Defence and Space. He got his first BSc degree in Computers and Programming in 1993, then the second BEng degree in Information Technology in 1998 and the latest MEng degree is in the domain of cyber security.

He has been working with embedded systems for over 25 years and most of his years of experience he has worked on topics like security architecture in mobile devices, technical risk assessments, threat modelling and product security certifications. Mika has also participated in the standardization work in CEN, ETSI and 3GPP standardisation groups and he holds a patent in the area of mobile security.

David is a senior technologist working for Motorola Solutions in the area of advanced system architecture and design, and a specialist in wireless communication system security.  He is active in the standardisation of mission critical communications systems, and holds a number of positions of responsibility in that field, acting as vice chairman of ETSI TC TCCE, chairman of TC TCCE WG4, responsible for high speed data and broadband services, and vice chairman of TC TCCE WG6, responsible for security.

David holds a BSc in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, England; and is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the IET.  He holds a number of patents in the field of radio communications systems.

Charlotte Roesener (PhD) was born in Vienna in 1977. After graduation from Vienna University of Technology / Austria and Keio University / Japan in the field of AI in 2007, Charlotte was at first active in research. Transferring into industry, Charlotte was product manager and technical team leader in public transport. Since 2013, she has been with Frequentis AG, where she has been driving critical communication applications in the public safety domain as product manager. Since 2018, Charlotte has been new business development manager and leading  mission critical broadband communication in Frequentis. In recent years, Charlotte has also been participating in and contributing actively to diverse TCCA and GCF working groups. Since June 2021, Charlotte has been elected as Chair of Technical Committee of Public Safety Communication Europe (PSCE) Forum.  Charlotte has been active in the public safety domain for more than eight years, driving innovation but also focusing on building resilient and sustainable solutions for the specific demands in Public Safety, especially on the European market.

Bert Bouwers joined Rohill in 1986, and has taken the responsibility of Managing Director Development from 1989 and as Chief Technology Officer from 2008. Bert is responsible for strategy and development of solutions on basis of TETRA and MCX core, access, gateway, dispatch and management components.

Bert has established the TetraNode and 3GPP IWF gateway architecture at the early stages of the
development, and has continuously adapted the architecture and design according the latest trends in
the IP networking and 4G/5G critical communications industry. The focus on smart software engineering and orientation towards open platforms and interfaces has gained Rohill a reputation of delivering innovative and adaptable solutions. Bert has a profound knowledge of TETRA and MCX standards, contributes on standards development, and has delivered a number of white papers and presentations on the subjects of TETRA-over-IP, Softswitching Technology, IP/MPLS, PMR-over-LTE, MCX Technology, Interworking solutions, and Cyber Security.

Renaud has been working in the telecommunications industry for 20 years before joining the RRF program led by the French Ministry of Interior in 2020. RRF, the future French PPDR Broadband Network, will guarantee a smooth transition from legacy heterogeneous narrowband networks and will respond to the ever-growing operational needs expressed by French PPDR users.

Renaud has been heading standardisation and innovation efforts and was recently appointed as head of international cooperation.

Jason Johur is head of strategy and market development for Ericsson’s Mission Critical Networks business, addressing the needs of Public Safety, Government, Utilities and Rail segments. In addition, Johur holds a board position in The Critical Communications Association (TCCA) – the largest critical mobile communications industry body. He is also the vice chair for the Broadband Industry Group (BIG) - a working group of the TCCA that leads industry efforts to bring 3GPP LTE/5G products and solutions to market for mission-critical communication users. Since 1995, Johur has been actively involved with the TCCA, contributing to the development of TETRA, LTE and 5G technologies.

Filippo Gaggioli, Portfolio Expert, Digital Industries Portfolio and Solutions within Enterprise Business group, joined Nokia in 2011 as part of the Motorola acquisition and has over 20 years of experience in the telco domain and a variety of technologies. He has gone through a broad set of roles globally from System Engineer to Solution Architect, Technical Account Manager, Solutions Consultant and now Portfolio Expert. His focus in Enterprise is Applications for Nokia Digital Industries relevant segments with a focus on Cyber.

Shen Minjun, senior marketing manager, Enterprise Wireless department, Huawei Technologies, he joined Huawei since 1998, has over 20 years of experience in wireless technologies and mission critical solution of enterprise and government, especially on public safety domain now, previously on railway domain also, his role in Huawei is marketing support and industry development.

Ms. Elina Avela’s career in Critical Communication dates back to 1991 when she started at Nokia. In the early TETRA years since 1995, she was among the small group of employees who started to ramp up the business globally. Since then she worked for over 16 years in various Project Management, Product Management and Global Sales Support positions at Nokia and EADS (later Airbus).

Ronny Harpe is Head of Rakel and command operating systems at the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, MSB. He is responsible for the procurement and development of the national mission critical communication network RAKEL, Swedish Government Secure Intranet (SGSI) and WIS, a national, internet-based information system created to facilitate information sharing between entities in the Sweden.

He has been at MSB since 2010 and has held different roles within total defence, command and control facilities, IT-security, cybersecurity, secure communications and protective security.

Koustuv is Vice President and the Head of Ericsson North America’s Utilities, Energy & Industrial verticals. He brings over 30 years of experience in the utilities, telecom and mission critical industry verticals. His domains of expertise, and areas of focus have been driving digital transformation strategies via private networks in industry verticals such as utilities, manufacturing, public safety, and municipalities. He has been increasingly engaged in the evolving confluence between electric power, telecommunications and electrification of transportation.

Professional background:
2015 until today GESAT GmbH, Satellite Communications Branch

Priorities: Inmarsat, Iridium and VSAT
Meshed communication – REDCOM Server
Tracking and security solutions

2010 until 2015: Vizada GmbH, Astrium Services, Airbus GmbH Key Account Manager for Northern and Eastern Europe

Priorities: Development and management of indirect sales channel in different business verticals

2000 until 2008: Regular soldier in the German Air Force with various services in Germany and NATO

Katariina Salmisalo is an accomplished communication professional with over 15 years of experience in various fields of communication and marketing. She is experienced in both internal and external communication, brand building, crisis communication and immaterial capitals.

Currently, she works as the Communications Director at Erillisverkot Group.

Noel is responsible for Market Development in Middle East and Africa for Government and Cities, for Nokia Enterprise.

He works with commercial and vertical operators to provide commercial and market-facing expertise and engagement support for their end-to-end commercial and mission critical solutions. He has also been working with Governments and regulators and associated industry organisations to enable the allocation of additional spectrum that will be required to develop the commercial and vertical markets.

He has been instrumental in development of the use of broadband wireless technologies to provide commercial mobile as well as mission critical solutions in the MEA region and globally.

Steven has worked for the Belgian Public Safety Operator ASTRID for over 20 years. The majority of that time has been spent working within the TETRA department, where Steven was responsible for the approval of TETRA devices and software, prior to their usage on the ASTRID network.

In 2021 Steven changed focus to the development of the future Belgian mission-critical broadband network, where he is responsible for devices, MCx functionality and migration from TETRA to broadband.

Steven has also been an active member of different TCCA working groups and task forces, where he has contributed to the implementation of the TETRA standard and numerous white papers.

Sanne Stijve is Global Business Development Director for Ericsson’s Mission Critical Networks offerings, focusing on the public safety and rail segments. He was Program Director at the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection where he was responsible for the development and future implementation of Switzerland's nationwide mission critical mobile broadband LTE/5G network for public safety.

Sanne Stijve has 24 years of experience working with 3GPP technologies from GSM to 5G in a variety of roles. He actively contributes to TCCA's task forces and working groups.

Topias is the CEO of Goodmill Systems - a company that specialises in critical communications broadband for vehicles and serves several public safety authorities globally.

He holds a Master of Science degree in computer science from the Helsinki University of Technology. Further, he has been trained as a reserve communications officer for the Finnish Defense Forces.

I have worked in the mission critical communications industry since 1987 in Nokia and EADS/Cassidian/Airbus. I'm a pioneer in TETRA and have 34 years of experience in related international business. I have extensive experience in commercial, technical and strategic management in critical communications business, and I have board level experience in both Nokia and Airbus business units.

Before the TETRA era, I addressed analogue PMR systems, then continued to TETRA and drove the concept definition of Nokia's TETRA solution and led the business program that enabled Nokia to enter international TETRA business. I managed the TETRA networks product business in Nokia, and continued in EADS where the scope was extended to include TETRAPOL and P25 product businesses as well.

My recent duties include strategy, strategic marketing, strategic partnerships and business development - key activities for critical communications industry especially during narrowband-broadband evolution era. I have also interest towards closely following the evolution of critical communication market and being in contact with different involved parties, including related associations. I was elected as Board Member of TCCA in May 2013, and since that I have served TCCA for various activities.

Jo Dewaele has been involved in ASTRID for more than 27 years. In 1994 he became involved in defining the user requirements for ASTRID as a representative for the Judicial Police and the Ministry of Justice.

In 1998 when the ASTRID organisation was created he became responsible for the TETRA radio network rollout in the pilot province. Since then he has served ASTRID in various positions: ETSI and 3GPP standardisation, customer technical advisor, product development, project portfolio management, enterprise architecture. In March 2021 he took on the role of Marketing Strategy Team Leader.

Iain founded Hermitage Comms in 2016, a specialist Telecoms & IT Consultancy working primarily with government and public safety organisations to help assess the benefits and impact of the rapidly changing telecoms industry.

His work covers evaluation of emerging telecoms standards, assessment of existing IT & telecoms systems and future strategies, including supporting clients in developing strategies for migration to emerging 3GPP Mission Critical based solutions.

Thomas Brandt (Ph.D.) is currently Head of Release and Change Management at the German Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio (BDBOS), which he joined in 2018. His responsibilities include being the executive project lead of BDBOS’ Network Modernisation Project (Project NeMo) and managing the operations of the organisation’s own testing lab, among others. Thomas has many years of experience in the telecommunication industry, including from Vodafone Kabel Deutschland, Nokia Siemens Networks and Siemens Germany. He holds a Doctorate of Engineering Technology from the Technical University of Berlin and has published several books.

Ms. Lisa Casias joined the FirstNet Authority as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer in November 2019. In this role, she is responsible for providing executive leadership and overall direction to key FirstNet offices and functions; assisting in the development and implementation of policies and strategies; and assisting in the oversight of FirstNet Authority day-to-day operations. Prior to joining the FirstNet Authority, Ms. Casias worked at the Department of Commerce, as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration (DASA) within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration (OCFO/ASA). She also performed the duties of both the CFO/ASA and DASA roles from January 2017 through January 2019. Immediately preceding her assignment as the DASA, Ms. Casias served as the Department’s Deputy CFO and Director for Financial Management. Ms. Casias is a Certified Public Accountant and holds her BBA in public accounting from Pace University. She is the recipient of the 2009 Presidential Distinguished Rank Award and has served as the National President of the Association of Government Accountants

Brian Hobson currently serves as our Sr Director of the Roadmap Development Division leading future planning for the advancement of the FirstNet network.  Previously, Brian has held multiple roles at FirstNet including Ecosystem and Roadmap Development within Enterprise Strategy, as well as the Product Lead, State Plans Director, and State Plans technical lead all within the Market Engagement Office. 

Brian started at FirstNet in 2014 but has worked on this initiative before the legislation was created.  Prior to FirstNet, Brian worked as a Navy civilian at Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) working on a variety of different wireless communications programs in support of the Navy, Army, USMC, Air Force, DARPA, DoD research laboratories, and DHS.  In supporting DHS, Brian served as the Chief Engineer of the Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program (ICTAP) working with public safety in all states and territories to solve their communications challenges. 

Brian has 20+ years of government service and graduated from Washington State University with a degree in electrical engineering.

Aleksander Gorkowienko is an experienced cyber security advisor, researcher, cyber security advocate and trainer with more than 20 years of practice, working in numerous industry sectors. He is a senior consultant and a part of the vibrant Spirent SecurityLabs team, developing their services and capabilities in the UK and across the EMEA and APAC regions. Aleksander has a passion for cyber security which he shares with the industry and business leaders, both through his work as a security professional and through his various public engagements. He is also researching cybersecurity of 5G, IoT and industrial control systems (ICS/SCADA). Aleksander’s primary focus is helping to build corporate cyber resilience through understanding and implementing cyber security as a continuous process. The process that engages the whole organisation at all levels and is a carefully tuned blend of strong cyber awareness and advanced technical measures.

Nils has over 20 years of experience in security, IT and telecommunications. Currently he is the head of Security Consulting and Managed Security Services Pre-Sales at Nokia CNS, based in Munich, Germany. The Security area covers all major operator technologies and expands nowadays into Cloud and IOT as well as multiple adjacent industries. Prior to his current role, Nils headed the Security Service Line as part of the Professional Service of Nokia Siemens Networks. In that role he led the worldwide security business, developed carrier-specific solutions (eg LTE Security) and supported the company’s strategy to ensure operator network security.

Nils joined Siemens in 2000 and has held several Engineering, Consulting and Product Management positions in the security area, gathering extensive experience in network and content security for large enterprises and operators. Nils was involved from the beginning in the R&D and later commercial roll-out of the 3GPP compliant Nokia Siemens Network LTE security solution.

Eetu Prieur is the Vice President for Elisa Polystar’s cloud initiatives, supporting network analytics and assurance transformation to cloud native.

He has more than 20 years of working experience in the telecom sector, starting in Nokia in 1999 in the R&D for 3G radio base station. After his time in Nokia, he has worked over 20 years in Elisa Finland at different positions in the network division, mostly in radio network from 2G to 5G but also heading the whole network division. Since 2015 he was Elisa’s lead representative in the planning of the new public safety network (Virve 2.0) in Finland.

In 2019 he moved to a new business unit in Elisa Corporate Customer division called Mobile Solutions and P&L responsible for Public Safety Network, Internet of Things, Private Mobile Network and Tailored 5G Solutions business areas. In 2021 Eetu joined Elisa Polystar into his current position to provide cloud native network assurance and automation solutions for telecom operators worldwide.

He holds a Doctor of Technology degree from Helsinki University of Technology in the field of semiconductor physics.

Thomas Scholle is currently Head of Directorate Strategy and Central Management at the German Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio (BDBOS). He joined BDBOS in 2008 as an employee of Strategy, TETRA Standards and Technical guidelines after an extensive career in the telecommunication industry at Siemens AG and Nokia Siemens Networks. He holds a Master Degree in Telecommunications from RWTH Aachen.

Julian Stafford is Technical Director of European Utilities Telecoms Council. His background includes a wide range of work in on rural broadband and mission critical utility communications. Having started work in the Electricity industry in Manchester UK, he has dealt with specification and implementation of a wide range of systems including PMR, SCADA, fibre optic systems and microwave radio networks. Julian also worked with Cable and Wireless on a range of new technology introduction activities – including 5.8 GHz point to multipoint systems and 28 GHz LMDS integration as well as smart metering solutions. Beyond work with operators, he has held several senior posts developing commercial and technical bid responses connected with mission critical connectivity in sectors including blue light, rail and utilities. Additionally he worked on a number of research projects into the development of the Wimax standard and also on the monitoring of flooding potential in steep sided valleys using dual frequency microwave systems. Since 2015 Julian has worked extensively with regulators in Europe and globally on the future requirements of utility smart grid systems and their essential part in the global drive towards decarbonising the energy and transport sectors.

Salla Levonen works as an Application Specialist in Emergency Response Centre Agency, Finland. She comes from an operational background and used to work as an ERC operator. She has over 20 years of experience and has worked most of her career developing and testing information systems that are used in emergency response centers of Finland. Close to her heart is the usability of the systems and that the technology helps its user, not vice versa. Salla sees herself to be a helper of the helpers. Her main goal in her work is for the ERC operators as well as field operators to benefit the most from the system they use.

Luz Fernández del Rosal is responsible for the coordination of the international activities and partnerships at the German Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio, in short BDBOS. Prior to this position in the division of Public Safety Digital Radio Strategy, she contributed to the development of TETRA and 3GPP standards in BDBOS’ international standardisation team, which she joined in 2017.

With her expertise in driving the development of common global technology standards and solutions for mission critical environments, she is also vice-chair of the Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG) of the TCCA.

After graduating from the University of Seville as a telecommunication engineer in 2007, she worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications (Heinrich Hertz Institute) in the Photonic Networks and Systems department. There she contributed and managed research projects funded by the European Commission, as well as development projects commissioned by the industry with the focus on high-speed real-time signal processing for optical communication systems.

Tapio Savunen works as Director, Strategic Marketing at Airbus Defence and Space in the Secure Land Communications business. He has been working within the ICT industry for more than 30 years. Before Tapio joined Airbus Defence and Space, he worked for many years for Nokia Corporation where he held several senior positions within programme and business management.

Tapio graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology with a master's degree in engineering and holds several international patents in the field of mobile communications. He is also involved in several research projects addressing the development of critical communications.

He has had key roles within the TETRA, DMR and Applications business lines within Sepura, where he is responsible for product strategy, roadmaps and strategic partnerships.

Phil has previously held senior product positions within different industry sectors, with experience covering diverse areas including government and public safety.

Hauke Holm, VP Solutions at DAMM Cellular Systems has more than 20 years of experience in the PMR industry.

With a degree in electrical engineering, Hauke has built a strong career developing products for the PMR industry. Having both been privately employed and owned his own company, Hauke has built up extensive experience in a variety of areas such as R&D, product management, strategy development and product line responsibility. Hauke’s solid technical background in PMR and his clear understanding of market needs means that he is well positioned to lead his team as well as educate and guide partners when it comes to the future of radio communication.

He is using his vast knowledge about both hardware and software development to manage the continued development of cutting-edge products at DAMM, with a current focus on developing state-of-the-art IWF and ISI solutions to ensure a smooth integration between PMR technologies and LTE.

Mr Viktor Kohári joined Pro-M as service development director in year 2020. In this role, he is responsible for both managing the PPDR broadband activities as well as the IT development projects of Pro-M.

Eng. Saad Ibrahim ALAska has more than 8 years of experience in the spectrum management field, and currently working as a director of field operations center in Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) in Saudi Arabia, he leads and participates in several projects related to radio spectrum management.

He has a major contribution in the mobile bands reframing project which led the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be one of the top countries for internet speed.

He also plays a vital role in preparing spectrum outlook in the kingdom, which will unlock the future of radio spectrum use and pave the way for innovation in spectrum use.

Eline Palm Paxal is Head of the Department of Emergency Communications at the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB). 

In this role, she is responsible for Norway's critical communication network, Nødnett, and other critical communications services. She has worked with Nødnett since 2013, in a variety of roles: commercial management, operations, security, technical development, radio terminals and procurements. Her experience also covers management roles and consultancy in the public health sector, mostly in hospitals.

She holds a Master’s in Economics and Business Administration from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).

A Head of Sector working in the field of Telecommunications in the public safety. Skilled in Routing, VoIP, TETRA Digital Radio, Firewalls, Fiber optics, Microwave and Access Control systems. A strong ICT professional with an engineer’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje. Graduated in 1995, has been working at MoI for 26 years and leading the Sector for Telecommunications within the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of North Macedonia for 15 years.

Kashif is currently Director of Next Generation Platform at Telenor Research. He holds a Ph.D in Telematics from Norwegian university of science and technology (NTNU) . He has an extensive experience in the design, deployment and testing of private 5G networks with enterprises, performance evaluation of mobile networks including mmWave networks, analyzing cellular traffic and network slicing. He is a recipient of the "Youth Award in Science in Technology" by the government of Pakistan and "Excellence Award" in engineering by National Engineering and Scientific Commission. Among others, he has led the World's most multi-vendor 5G Standalone trial which won the Glomo Award 2021 in "Best Network Software Breakthrough" category.

In 2002, I Joined Abu Dhabi Police and started working as a Network technician, at the same time, my passion for educational qualifications was under my target. Thus, I worked hard in parallel and earned my HD (Higher Diploma) degree at CNET ( computer Network Engineering Tech ) from the HCT ( Higher College of Technology ) AlAin city , as well as my Bachelor degree in computer Networking.  In 2009, I moved to New York State and applied for SU (Syracuse University) where I completed my Master Degree in Telecommunication Network Management. In 2018 I earned my higher degree in PHD Project Management from the British University in Dubai.

I attended more than 100+ events, workshops and conferences internally and externally as a speakers or part of the panel discussion and most of them were about Network & Cyber Security and telecommunication as well as Digital Transformation with Future Accelerators. However, my responsibility at Abu Dhabi police GHQ  as telecom division manager makes me always busy, I do have other role as a telecom committee manager for most of the events around Abu Dhabi city such as , Grand Prix Formula One event.

Co-Founder of “Digital Barza“ which has more than 100+ members to accelerate the process of sharing and exchanging the knowledge. And A winner of IACP ( International Association of chef of Police ) for 40 under 40 award 2021.

Angelo Benvenuto holds a degree in electronics from University of Genoa, Italy where he graduated cum laude in 1985. He started his career in Marconi Italiana and worked with several companies earning an extensive and composite experience in Information and Communication Technology in a number of industry sectors ranging from transportation to services automation and manufacturing.

In 2003 he joined SELEX Communications, now become Leonardo, holding various positions in technical sales and marketing in both military and professional sector. Currently he is responsible of solutions and product marketing for Cyber Security Division and is involved in project opportunities generation in sectors of professional communications security and command and control.

Günter is heading the departments for Corporate Research and New Business Development at Frequentis AG. Prior to this position he has been heading Product Units within Frequentis with the Fokus Safety and Automation in Aviation. Prior to Frequentis he was University Assistant working in the field of Industry automation and susitainable logistics. 

Günter’s mission in the company is to find and develop new ventures & technologies to foster the growth within the current business segments of Frequentis AG. Core areas are the application of LTE & 5G technologies in Mission Critical Communication and safe integration of drones into daily life.

Chris Cant, Hytera Europe’s Head of Product Management  has over 30 years’ experience in the Radio Communications Industry, with roles ranging from Communications Engineering, Technical Training, Sales Engineering and Technical Product Management.

Chris specialises in communications systems and solutions and has worked with teams of many emergency services groups over the years both in the UK and globally.

Mr José Isidro Torreblanca, MSc Telecommunication Engineer at Polytechnic University of Valladolid (UPV). He has completed postgraduate courses at the University of Alcalá de Henares, the Carlos III University of Madrid, as well as the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP) and the Spanish Intelligence National Centre (CNI).

A Major in the Spanish Law & Enforcement Agency “Guardia Civil”; he is currently the Operation Chief of the Spanish Nationwide PPDR Network in the Spanish Ministry of Interior. He has also held the position as: Electronic Forensic Analyst in Guardia Civil and Lecturer in the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid and CEU San Pablo University.

His current and former Institutional Representation have been:

-  National Contact Point in the Radio Communication Expert Group (RCEG) of the Law and Enforcement Working Party (LEWP), since 2011.

-  Member of the Horizontal Working Group to coordinate the action of the Spanish State in the European Space Satellite Navigation Programs, since 2013.

Mr Isidro has received 5 personal awards and recognitions, throughout his professional career.

Abdullah has more than 6 years of experience in the telecom and radio spectrum management fields. Currently, he is an acting director of spectrum planning and national cooperation at the Communications and Information Commission (CITC) of Saudi Arabia. He is responsible for managing the National Frequency Plan (NFP) in Saudi Arabia, and supervising the execution of Saudi Arabia National Spectrum Strategy (NSS-2025) and the spectrum planning activities. Moreover, he is administrating the national spectrum coordination activities to ensure that spectrum is well utilized on a national level and to enable the use of spectrum across all sectors in the kingdom.

Dr Jörg Wetterau (born 1966) studied chemistry at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen and worked as a specialist journalist until he received his doctorate in 1998 (scholarship holder for scientific journalism, German Chemical Industry Association VCI). He then moved to Krefeld, Germany, as a press officer for the industrial gases manufacturer Messer Griesheim. From 2004 to 2018 he was responsible for technology and innovation communication at the Heraeus technology group in Hanau, Germany. Since December 2018 he has been working with his "Laboratory for Communication" (Labor für Kommunikation) as a freelance communicator for innovation, technology and science, as a moderator and specialist journalist & specialist author and editor (focus: storytelling, innovation communication, technology communication, science communication, communication consulting, 360-degree communication). He supports and advises technology companies, medium-sized companies, start-ups, business and industrial associations and municipalities in press and public relations.

In this function, he also supports the business development of the Main-Kinzig district as a freelancer in the communication (social media) of various specialist topics, such as the citizens' network LoRaWan ("Low Range Wide Area Network"). At the "Critical Communications World" he informs in the "Panel Discussion: How can public safety benefit from internet of life saving things?" about the development of a LoRaWAN infrastructure in the Main-Kinzig district in Hesse/Germany.

As Vice President of Marketing, Gillian Smith is responsible for planning, developing, and implementing NextNav’s marketing and communications efforts.

She is an award-winning marketing executive with over 25 years of experience with companies and organisations including Coca-Cola, Burger King, and Teach For America, and has been a pioneer in the digital media space.  Her marketing campaigns have won awards including Cannes Golden Lions, Effies, Association of National Advertisers Best Multicultural Advertising,  Best Viral Advertising (Wall Street Journal), and even Best Campaign of the Century according to The New York Times.

Gillian is passionate about launching new products and leveraging the power of innovative technologies to enhance people’s lives and improve experiences.

Phil Crnko is a 25 year veteran executive and engineer in the telecom and mission-critical communications industry in Canada, and is President of Black Castle Networks - a Canadian telecom design consultancy focused on building cutting-edge public safety, utility, and 911 critical communications systems.  Phil additionally serves as the Chair of the PIA's Finance & Governance Committee, is a member of the PIA Executive Committee, and is also an original co-founder of the PSBN Innovation Alliance.  

A Registered Professional Engineer in Ontario and also a member of the IEEE organisation, Phil has worked extensively in the mission critical telecom space with public safety agencies, utilities, and municipal, provincial and federal government clients across Canada and internationally. Phil's engineering and design practice is geared to building the state-of-the-art in cyber secure, reliable and survivable voice and data communications systems that connect 911 responders and help save lives during the minutes and seconds that count in 911 emergencies. 

Prior to his current roles, Phil worked in Canada and internationally as an executive in telecom strategy and sales roles, and in RF design, hardware, software and systems engineering positions in mission-critical communications firms - including at Motorola Solutions, Hydro One Networks, Redline Communications, Ontario Power Generation, and the St Lawrence Seaway Authority. Phil's award-winning telecom technology experience ranges across Land Mobile Radio (LMR) to terrestrial wireless broadband and satcom systems, through to 4G/5G/6G technologies, Next Gen 911 and beyond. Phil holds a Bachelors of Engineering in Computer Engineering and a Masters of Applied Sciences in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Kylie De Courteney is Managing Director of the NSW Telco Authority (NSWTA), a role she has held since June 2019.

Leading a $1.5 billion portfolio of NSW Government connectivity projects, Kylie is committed to bridging the digital divide to address connectivity challenges and passionate about the digital transformation of government and customer-centric services.

Prior to joining NSWTA, Kylie served as the Chief Customer Officer and Chief Digital Officer at Service NSW.

Kylie has worked in the public and private sectors driving customer and digital strategy, organisational transformation and complex program delivery.

As an expert in R&D for wired and wireless communication systems, he founded and runs South Korea's Safe-Net Forum in 2014, he has contributed to the completion and enhancement  of planning, technical solution, application services, and interoperability for Korea's PS-LTE, LTE-Railway, and LTE-maritime projects.

He is also leading the standardization activities as chairman of the Working Group in the Public Safety and Communications Sector of the Korean’s TTA. He has been accumulating excellent experience through principal engineer and the head of an overseas project managing group (USA, India, Japan, etc.) in Samsung Electronics' network business for a long time.

Kirsi Pimiä has served as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, which is the ministry for internal security and migration, since February 1 2020. Relating to her position as the Permanent Secretary, she acts as the Chairperson of the National Cooperation Group of the Internal Security and the Advisory Board of Gambling. Further, she acts as a Vice Chairperson of the Advisory Board of National Defense Education.

Kirsi Pimiä is among others a Member of the Committee for EU Affairs, the Security Committee of Finland, the Arctic Advisory Board dealing with Finland’s Strategy for the Arctic Region, the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development, the National Emergency Supply Council, the Coordination Group of National Intelligence and Situational Picture, the Advisory Board of Finland Customs, and the Advisory Body on Civil Service Ethics.

Before joining the Ministry of the Interior, Ms. Pimiä worked as Non-Discrimination Ombud in Finland (2015–2020). Ms. Pimiä’s previous positions include Director in the Ministry of Justice (2013–2014), Head of Unit in the EU Affairs Department at the Prime Minister’s Office (2012–2013), Head of Cabinet of the Minister of Justice (2007–2008), Counsel in the Parliament (2003–2007, 2009–2011, 2015), and Legal Counsel at the Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU (2001–2003).

Kirsi Pimiä holds a degree in Master of Laws.

Jonathan Brine is a 30 year veteran of the Australian Telecommunications Industry based in Sydney, and has worked across all disciplines in the industry from designing, building and operating networks across all technologies across his career.

This has included in the carrier world, commercial infrastructure organisations, consulting and also working for NSW Government. He currently is responsible for Government & Cities Business Development segment in Nokia for Oceania and is also the lead executive for Public Safety Mobile Broadband initiative for Nokia in Australia.

Jonathan also is a board director for the Australasian Critical Communications Forum (ACCF), which advocates on behalf of mission and business critical stakeholders in the Australasian region in respect to the development and establishment of global non-proprietary mission and business critical LMR and LTE Broadband standards to ensure that stakeholder and professional user requirements are adequately addressed.

Outside of work  he is a passionate AFL Western Bulldogs supporter and enjoys boating, fishing and spending quality time with his family.

Mattipekka Kronqvist, CSO of NSION Technologies Group, is the Founder of a Finnish-American software company developing NSC3™, a secured virtual data  network and ultra fast video broadcasting platform. Open architecture mission control system for tactical operations with rich APIs.

The idea for NSC3 unfolded to Mattipekka during his service years as peacekeeper and developed to a product years later. Mission critical operations require a reliable, adaptable and robust communication tool. These requirements have been the guiding principles for developing NSC3 for all the critical communication operators.

Sofia Enlund is responsible for overall strategy for the next generation of mission critical communication network, Rakel Generation 2 including international coordination and standardisation. She has been a part of Rakel and Command systems since 2018 and has a long career in the public sector as a legal counsel, and in business development, policy and planning.