ANDREW MARTIN. Independent Contributing Analyst. Based in Toronto, Andrew has worked for more than 25 years in the media sector. He managed the B2C and B2B online operations for CanWest Global, the largest newspaper publisher in Canada. Before that he ran the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency for seven years. His early career was with LexisNexis, where he was director of textbook publishing for the UK division, before moving to Canada in 1987 to head up their operations in Toronto. He was closely involved in developing CanWest’s web strategies and the expansion of their online aggregation businesses. Andrew’s current consulting work divides between business and strategic planning, licensing and copyright, and he also specializes in industry and interest group position papers, revenue surveys, and high-level funding and grant applications. His clients include NRC-CISTI, Athabasca University, the Canadian Newspaper Association, Kobo Books, Library & Archives Canada, the Canadian Publishers Association, Access Copyright, and a large number of Canadian, US and UK media companies. He has a law degree from the University of Cambridge, and qualified as an UK attorney.

BARRY BRAUNSTEIN. Independent Contributing Analyst. Mr. Braunstein is an experienced high tech executive with sales and marketing expertise in a variety of markets and industries. Over his 35 year career, Barry has worked for companies such as Intel, Tektronix, Digital Equipment Corporation, Mentor Graphics, Wind River, as well as several startup companies, where he raised venture capital and was part of the executive teams.

Barry has successfully sold mission critical, technical solutions to a variety of markets, including Telecom, Aerospace and Defense, Industrial, and Automotive, and has keen insight into current and future trends in those markets. Recently, his focus has been in the operating systems, tools, and services in the embedded systems design market, with customers such as Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, GE, Hughes Network Systems, and Verizon to name a few. He has knowledge and experience in both proprietary (i.e., VxWorks, etc) and open source (i.e., LINUX, Android) system platforms and markets. In the Android market in particular, he has expertise in both handset and non-handset applications and markets, and is familiar with the challenges and opportunities afforded by the Android platform, and how it compares to other platforms in the marketplace. Mr. Braunstein also has experience/expertise in the Semiconductor, Test and Instrumentation, and Electronic Design Automation Markets.

Barry has provided consulting services to a number of clients including Alcatel/Lucent, Bain & Co., Credit Suisse, Fidelity Investments, JP Morgan, Putnam, UBS, Wells Fargo among others. Barry has a BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

CHRISTOPHER HIGGINBOTHAM. Independent Contributing Analyst. Chris is a global business and technology leader with a strong background in product management, business development and technology consulting in the digital media, Internet and telecommunications industries. Chris is the former Director of Global Product Management and Distribution at AOL, where he led AOL’s global co-brand (graylabel) distribution business, which grew AOL’s product footprint from five to 38 countries, launched in 21 languages, and continues to reach more than 45 million unique users. While at AOL, Chris also led the content and product strategy for AOL’s mobile portals, and he led product strategy and development of AOL’s Voice Services products. Prior to AOL, Chris developed an online telecom trading platform that allowed Tier I/II carriers to trade excess capacity, and he spent seven years in technology
consulting.

Chris holds four patents (two pending) for mobile communications applications and online telemarketer screening and privacy management. Chris received his BA Industrial/Organizational Psychology from George Mason University, and attended Georgetown University’s Executive MBA program.

Prior to TBR, Suresh was Program Manager at Hewlett-Packard/Compaq, responsible for driving the business planning and market/competitive intelligence program for the telecom line of business. His responsibilities included managing senior management’s requirement for intelligence in support of the strategic and business planning processes. Specific duties ranged from delivering external market trend analysis, market forecasts for the current products and new initiatives, competitive analysis, market risk factor analysis, portfolio mix benchmarking and market share. He also helped drive the planning process for the business unit, managing the planning and consolidation process for key activities including product, financial, support services, regional and strategic reviews.

Prior to HP, Suresh was an industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, covering enterprise communications equipment and service provider markets. His technology focus included PBX, IP Centrex, automatic call distributors, speech recognition software, Interactive Voice Response systems and VPNs.

As education, Suresh has an MBA in Technology Management at University of Texas

KIMBERLY LEAH. Principal Research Associate (United States / Canada). Kimberly has 20 years of telecom experience with Verizon and Verizon Wireless. She has extensive experience in business strategy, design, implementation and project management of telecommunication systems across a range of voice and data technologies. Kimberly’s experience has evolved from working primarily with radio communications, for both mobile and fixed applications to business strategy experience on the impact of Web 2.0 on the business models of operators and vendors. She has an M.Eng. and an MBA.

KOEICHI MIYAZAWA. Principal Research Associate (Japan). Koeichi has over 20 years of telecom experience in the Japanese market culminating in his position as Senior Engineer at DoCoMo. He received the B.S., M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Waseda University in 1982 and 1984. and joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) in 1986. During the course of his career, he has been engaged in research of on-board baseband switch for an SS-TDMA system and development of switch hardware and software for personal digital cellular (PDC) systems. He was also extensively involved in project management of DoCoMo’s third generation mobile communications network.

KHOSROW MOSSANNEN. Independent Contributing Analyst. Khosrow has over 10 years of telecom experience and in-depth knowledge and engineering expertise in the telecommunications, semiconductor and consumer electronics industries. Khosrow has worked as a senior applications engineer at PMC-SIERRA, Inc., and he is capable of leading product and technology task forces as demonstrated by his experiences in conducting detailed reviews, providing technical guidance and constructive feedback, facilitating resources, and resolving disputes.

Dr. LUCA SORBELLO. Independent Contributing Analyst. Luca Sorbello is Chief Information Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Safeplus. He is also the General Manager for Dyesol Italia. He is a business, organization and technology consultant and teaches management at the Department of Engineering at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Previously, he was a Technical Manager at Dyepower; and a Senior Project Manager at Iron Mountain, a multinational specialized in document and records management.

Dr. Sorbello was Chief Information Officer at Dimaco Systems specializing in hi-tech innovative products based on new technologies such as m2m communication, utilities, energy savings and management, and knowledge management. He specializes in java issues and internet programming, e-learning, benchmarking, internet computing, project management, change management, budget management for government and technology companies. He has authored books and papers on scientometrics, RIA, IT impact in business, organization theory, and e-learning.

MATTHEW P. McCORMICK. Independent Contributing Analyst. The founder of Technology Decisions, Inc., Matthew P. McCormick, has practiced telecommunications, wireless, and network engineering for nearly twenty-two years. Matt holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia, a Master of Business Administration degree from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications from DePaul’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications & Information Systems.

His fields of research include complex network stability, reliability and new networking protocols for dynamic wireless mesh networks. Mr. McCormick is a former Assistant Professor of Telecommunications & Information Technology at DeVry University. He is certified by the WiMax Forum as both an RF Network Design Engineer and a Core Network Engineer. He also teaches those certification courses. Matt is a former instructor for the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (US Department of State), and has presented on 3G wireless standards to faculty at the Moscow Technical University and Goscomsvyaz, the “Russian FCC”. He has consulted to Telecom Italia and US Cellular on best-practice billing systems and strategies.

Matt has served as an expert witness on domestic and international patent infringement cases regarding voice-over-internet-protocol and IVR/CTI. His clients have included the US Army, the United States Military Academy at West Point, Kraft, Verizon, MCI, the NSA, the Cities of Tampa & St Petersburg, Atlanta’s Jackson-Hartsfield International Airport, Orlando International Airport, New Doha International Airport, Abu Dhabi International Airport, Target Corporation and Kroger Foods.

Previously, Menekse has worked as Director Business Development, Mobile at PayPal where she led PayPal’s mobile checkout pilot in all aspects from planning to execution to metrics analysis for m-commerce. She also led cross-functional teams of product and engineering, customer care, finance, marketing, PR, and analytics. While at PayPal, Menekse secured PayPal mobile merchants for PayPal Mobile Checkout launch directly and through processing partners and developed initial concepts around PayPal proximity payments (NFC) for the North American market. She also led initiatives to synchronize mobile payments throughout eBay, PayPal, Skype, and StubHub.

Menekse has also worked at various senior roles with Gateway Inc., Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and as Corporate Strategy Consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

NIZAR ASSANIE. Vice President (Research). An economist by training, Mr. Assanie has over 12 years of experience consulting with private sector companies, governments, and international institutions in a wide range of sectors including international trade and investment and telecommunications business strategy. As VP (Research), Mr. Assanie is responsible for coordinating IEMR’s research portfolio in the area of syndicated wireless research, new media business strategy research, and brand strategy studies. As such, Mr. Assanie comes in touch with almost all aspects of the telecoms and IT value chain. His particular areas of expertise in telecoms include forecasting models for mobile network operators, handset manufacturer supply chains, and content and services forecasting, particularly in areas such as mobile payments and navigation, mapping and location platforms. Nizar has a BA (Econ.) and MA (Econ.)

PETER CURNOW-FORD. Independent Contributing Analyst. Peter works to add shareholder value to technology focused organisations in the Telecoms/Wireless space. He has held senior positions in the Telecoms and IT industry including at LCC International Inc., ntl Group Inc., Nortel Networks, Logica and ICL-Fujitsu. He was formerly Founder & CEO of Viatec Software, a messaging systems integrator and is currently an Executive and Non-Exec Director of several Wireless start-ups. Peter also works with VCs and investors on investment in wireless related opportunities in Europe, North America and Asia on scoping, M&A, investment readiness and uses his extensive network to bring key people together.

Peter has broad experience of the wireless industry and a vast breadth of knowledge and understanding of wireless technology and commercial realities. He managed a Wireless Broadband Infrastructure Study for a large City in addition to advising on the wireless network for a £1.8m project for an Integrated Transport Information network.

While focused on the Cellular/Mobile, Wireless/WiFi/WiMAX and Wireless Sensor markets primarily in the UK, EU and North America he has active involvement with China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong-based technical sources and OEM/ODM manufacturing. He is currently engaged with Intel and other partners on WiMAX opportunities in Africa and the Indian/Bangladesh/Pakistan continents.

He has many years experience building European operations for EU and US organisations in the cellular device, infrastructure and wireless markets. He has managed P&L of US$50m, sales teams across Europe, marketing teams in Europe, Asia and extensive US organisation cultural exposure.

RAMESH BALAKRISHNAN. Independent Contributing Analyst. Ramesh is the Founder and CEO of Next On Mobile. Ramesh has more than 13 years of industry experience in the global communications and software industries. His breath of experience spans the complete spectrum of the telecom ecosystem with in-depth subject matter expertise in Telecom services, OSS, BSS and SDP, CRM and Mobile Communications software.

During his career Ramesh has worked with the leaders in the Communications industry including a subsidiary of Bell Canada, Amdocs, Critical Path, Tanla Mobile and Tech Mahindra. His research interests are focused on the next big mobile growth markets: Mobile OSS/BSS, NFC based contactless payments and commerce, Mobile Video, Mobile Content and Applications among others.

Ramesh holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Anna University, India and an International MBA from the University of Memphis. Ramesh is also a CFA Level 3 Candidate. He is an Associate member of ACT Canada (Canada’s Payment Industry Trade Body) and a member of the Acumen Fund Toronto Micro Finance Forum. In his spare time he is involved in conceptualizing innovative business models in micro finance and working with NGOs in emerging markets.

STUART NEWSTEAD. Independent Contributing Analyst. Stuart is a highly respected telecoms expert, combining a 25-year track record in the fixed and mobile markets and has an unmatched ability to work with clients to develop and implement mobility or commercial strategies, either as users or vendors. Stuart’s particular achievements in the telecoms sector include: negotiating an exclusive deal for the BlackBerry email solution in Europe, then leading the development and successful launch of the service; leading all commercial aspects of interconnection at BT, and negotiating and implementing the current UK interconnect regime.

Stuart's two areas of speciality include mobile communications and ICT convergence and the other in the commercial implications of telecoms regulation. Clients include IT, internet and telco providers such as AOL, Citrix, BT, T-Mobile, Trinamo, Cisco, Sun Microsystems; media companies such as Guardian Media Group; regulatory bodies such as Ofcom, NGNuk and ComReg (Ireland), financial firms such as DFJ Esprit and Elliott Advisors, plus a range of telecoms-related startups.

Examples of Sturart's assignments include:

- Advising Spectrum Management Authority of Jamaica on pricing tools, including spectrum auctions
- Advising [with Oxera] bidder for UK spectrum licence (L-Band) on business valuation, licence process and possible secondary trading
- developing mobility market entry strategy and implementation plan for fixed European telecoms operator
- advising bidder in UK spectrum auction
- advising the BBC on strategy for delivering mobile content during 2012 London Olympics
- advising a European ISP on development and marketing of mobile services
- advising European telecoms incumbent on major review of regulated prices
- advising Irish regulator on market and operational implications of structural separation by incumbent
- advising UK regulator on review of local loop monopolist’s charges
- providing regulatory briefings and commercial guidance to relaunched UK telco
- advising new entrant to UK calls market on how to deal with incumbent’s product and regulatory strategies
- advising major UK ISP on local loop unbundling strategy, given possible changes to wholesale broadband products
- advising IT vendor on commercial and strategic opportunities from proposed regulation of next generation telecoms networks
- advising UK NGN consultation body on charging structures for wholesale products in next-generation networks
- advising City and Wall Street analysts on major topics of the day in European fixed and mobile telecoms markets

Stuart's previous positions included VP, New Business Products & Business Partners at O2 (previously BT Cellnet); General Manager, Wireless Data Services at BT Cellnet; and Head of Business Strategy at BT Cellnet. Stuart has also been BT's Head of UK Commercial Operations, Carrier Services. Stuart has an MBA from Henley Management College, an M.Phil in Statistics from Yale University, and a BA (Hons) in Mathematics from Cambridge University.

TARIK FAWZI. Independent Contributing Analyst. Tarik Fawzi has been working in the telecommunications market since 1997, amongst others as Senior Strategy & Business Development Manager at T-Mobile. Tarik has been working for parties in the entire mobile value chain on strategy, business development and commercial projects. His clients include operators as KPN, Vodafone, E-Plus, Telefonica/O2 and Orange; infrastructure suppliers as Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and NEC Philips; media agencies as Universal Media, Ogilvy, Starcom, Aegis, GroupM; application companies as Adfortel, Buongiorno, Com-Com, Icemobile and publishers as Sanoma. He is the Founder of one of the largest European telecom network for professionals. He has expertise in CAPEX developments, mobile broadband, smart phones, 3G, LTE, MVNO’s, European operator strategies, fixed mobile convergence, cable, multi play developments, wireless data services and mobile advertising.

Tarik holds University degrees from Indiana University, Erasmus University and Leiden University (both Netherlands) and followed post-doctorate programs at Nyenrode University and Technical University Delft (Netherlands) and a telecommunications strategy & marketing program at INSEAD (France).

Dr. TUSHAR K. HAZRA. Independent Contributing Analyst. Dr. Tushar K. Hazra is Founder and Chief Technology Officer of EpitomiOne. He guides EpitomiOne in establishing its position as a pioneer for delivering integrated solutions and strategic management consulting service solutions to all its customers. With over nineteen (19) years of practical experience and expertise in the IT industry, he has performed in many leadership, management, and technical roles as a professional consultant, educator, mentor, trainer, technical leader, CTO and entrepreneur.

Dr. Hazra has served as Chief Technology Strategist at General Electric (1992 – 1994), Vice President at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1998-2000), Chief Technology Officer of a leading IT system integration service provider (Lockheed Martin, 2003-2005), and Managing Director of a global IT outsourcing and consulting conglomerate (Perot Systems Corporation, 2005-2006). He is a recognized speaker at many IT, business, and management conferences worldwide. As an industry expert especially in the areas of EA, SOA, and vendor-neutral management sourcing advisory services, much of Dr. Hazra’s experience has been in the arena of web-enabling emerging technologies.

Dr. Hazra holds a Ph.D. in Distributed and Parallel Computing Applications from the University of Bradford, U.K. and a Master of Science (M.S.) in Computer and Control Systems Engineering, University of Bradford, U.K.

WENCY YEE. Research Associate (Southeast Asia). Wency has 10 years of telecom experience and was Senior Manager (Strategic Planning) at Telekom Malaysia Bhd. Wency has undertaken several projects in the Southeast Asia region covering mobile business strategies and mobile business valuations of operators and start-ups.

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