Meet The Speakers: MWC18 Messaging as a Platform Seminar

David O’Byrne is responsible for on-going development of Rich Communications Services specifications and adoption of RCS by Operators, Vendors and Operating System providers. He is also responsible for development of Messaging as a Platform features an,d continuous improvement in VoLTE, ViLTE and VoWiFi specification and deployment. He is a regular speaker at industry events on the subject of the evolution of IP Communications. Prior to joining GSMA, David has held a variety of technology and strategy roles at iHeed, Microsoft, Vodafone and Eircom. David holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from University College Dublin, Ireland and MBA Degree from Open University, UK.

Petja Heimbach has been responsible for NG Communications within Deutsche Telekom’s Global Headquarter Services since August 2009. In this role he is committed to driving innovation and proposition design for fix and mobile communication services, and delivering these products to the 15 national companies of DT. Since joining DT in 2000, he held several leading positions at DT and T-Mobile Deutschland in the area of Marketing and Product Management.Before joining Deutsche Telekom, Petja accompanied the advent of the Internet as strategy consultant to local Telco carriers and led a start-up creating multimedia product and company presentations.

As part of Vodafone’s Global Technology team, Oscar Gallego

is responsible for the Group’s consumer products in the areas of communications and security. In 2012, Oscar led the team pioneering the first commercial deployment of RCS, scaling it as a hub to serve 15 Vodafone operations across three continents and, more recently, evolving it to offer Messaging as a Platform commercially. In parallel, he worked closely with GSMA partners to define and realise RCS ecosystem foundations enabling interoperable commercial deployments worldwide.Oscar’s current focus is on realising a monetisation ecosystem around the RCS service, evolving operator communications towards a simple, ubiquitous experience and providing a safer Internet journey for Vodafone customers.

Amir Sarhangi leads product strategy and roll-out for Google’s RCS solution including the Android Messages app, Jibe Cloud and Jibe Hub. Before Google, Amir was the founder and CEO of Jibe Mobile. Jibe, which was acquired by Google in 2015, was a pioneer in providing cloud-based virtual IMS, IP Messaging, video chat, and developer API gateways to mobile network operators.

As a member of Samsung’s Product Innovation Team, Sean Yoo is responsible for program managing team’s business initiatives with carriers. She manages the overall program of RCS which includes end-to-end solution planning and delivery. Prior to the current role, Sean led carrier engagement in Technology Strategy Team, interfacing with carriers worldwide on new technologies evolution such as IMS Services (VoLTE/ViLTE/VoWiFi/RCS), Gigabit LTE (CA/MIMO), IoT, eSIM, etc.

Bio coming soon.

With 10 years of experience in digital strategy, Laura Balinskas has been an influential part of the team driving Subway’s digital marketing efforts.

In her role, Laura is responsible for developing and executing the strategy for Subway Digital products (Mobile App, Online Ordering and Loyalty) as well as developing and executing the cross-channel marketing strategies, designed to drive acquisition and retention. Additionally, Laura is responsible for innovating Subway’s CRM initiatives, including driving consumer engagement, transaction frequency and ticket size.

Laura joined Subway in 2016, bringing previous digital experience from AMG, a shopper-marketing agency, where she drove digital innovation for brands such as Heineken, Jose Cuervo, Smirnoff and more.

In addiition the oversees the development, setup and deployment of all interactive response platforms. He is responsible for creating and maintaining the ongoing strategy for ITV’s Interactive business which has helped the business evolve into an important part of the revenue contribution for ITV PLC.

He has gained experience over a wide range of digital content and platform projects across the business including the ITV Red Button platform( 2004-2011),  ITV Player (TV Product 2012), the launch of Youview (2010-12), numerous Programme Support Apps, the commission and deployment of ITV’s mass vote platform and the more recent Competitions site on ITV.com. Prior to ITV Peter held positions at Sony Pictures, Playjam ( Static 2358) Ltd, The Learning Company and Mindscape, progressing his career as a Game Designer and Interactve Producer.