The Internet Value Chain: latest numbers, current dynamics, and future trends

Josianne Cutajar is the youngest Member to ever represent the Maltese Islands in the European Parliament and the first ever-representative coming from the island of Gozo, where she served for 7 years as a local councillor in her village of Nadur. She is also part of the Conference on the Future of Europe, forming part of the Digital Transformation Working Group. She strongly advocates for widespread and inclusive digitalisation of the European Union, promoting SMEs and supporting policies tackling the challenges of diverse European regions. She was part of the European Parliament’s negotiating team for the European Strategy for SMEs and worked on several TRAN Opinions in the digital field. MEP Cutajar is also currently working on the policy programme to put forward and implement the European Digital Decade.

Annemarie Sipkes has held the position of Director of the Telecommunications, Transport and Postal Services Department at the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) since April 2018. She has significant public sector experience, including six years (2012-2018) as the Director of Knowledge and Strategy at the Ministry of Education, Culture & Science in the Netherlands.

During her career, Ms Sipkes has also worked at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, the Central Bank of the Netherlands and for KPMG, the accounting and professional services company.

Ms Sipkes holds an MSc in Economics and an MA in Arts, Sciences and Technology.

Pearse O’Donohue is Director for the Future Networks Directorate of DG CONNECT, European Commission, dealing with policy development and research as regards 5G networks, IoT, cloud and data flows, service platforms and next generation Internet.

Daniel leads the GSMA’s global engagement on mobile-sector regulatory affairs. Under his direction, the GSMA is contributing new ideas and analysis to the global policy dialogue at a time when emerging digital technologies and widespread broadband connectivity are reshaping society and the economy.

Daniel also leads the GSMA activities in Europe, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). He is responsible for all Advocacy Initiatives (Public Policy, Spectrum, Mobile for Development, External Affairs), Strategic Engagement and Industry Programmes (Future Networks, Identity, Internet of Things) of the GSMA in the wider European region.

Daniel has a unique record of strategic input into Europe’s telecommunications policy agenda, having previously served as head of Hungary’s National Regulatory Authority, chair of the European Regulators Group (ERG, now BEREC) and chair of the European Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG). More recently, Daniel was Director General of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ association (ETNO).

He holds a MSc in Economics from the Budapest University of Economics and a Postgraduate Diploma from a leading French institutional programme led by Ecole de Mines, Ecole des Ponts and Sciences-Po.

He was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of the Republic of Hungary in 2009 for his work in EU electronic communication regulation and the Order of Merit (Knight’s Cross) of the Republic of Hungary in 2005 for his work promoting the development of the information and communications technology sector.

Ben Wreschner is the Chief Economist and Head of Public Affairs, Vodafone Group. He has been in the digital sector for 20 years and has worked extensively in the Brussels environment, representing Vodafone in key engagements with various institutions (European Commission, European Parliament, European Council, BEREC) and industry bodies. Ben holds a BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics

Juan Montero Rodil is Chief Public Policy, Competition and Regulatory Officer at Telefónica S.A. In this role, he designs and coordinates the strategy of the company in Spain, Brussels and Telefonica´s footprint on issues related to digital markets public policy, competition law and regulation.

Juan holds a degree in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Management Development Programme (PDD) from IESE Business School. After five years practicing law in a firm based in Madrid, he joined the Legal Services team of Telefónica Móviles in 1996, a decisive moment when the process of liberalization of telecommunications in Spain began. From 2006 to 2016, he headed the Telecommunications Legal Department in Telefónica España; and in 2016 he joined the Corporate Legal Services of the Group, at Telefónica S.A., as Director of the Competition Law, Privacy and Legal Regulatory Units. In 2021 was appointed to his current position as Chief Public Policy, Competition and Regulatory Officer at Telefónica S.A.

Tomas Jakimavicius is a European Government Affairs Director at Microsoft. His main activities focus on Critical Infrastructure, Connectivity and Cloud policy. Tomas has a wide range of senior level experience in both private and public sectors, specialized in digital and tech policy. Prior to Microsoft, Tomas worked on the European Government and Regulatory Affairs at the GSMA. Earlier in his career, he served as a diplomat representing Lithuania at the EU Council on Telecoms & Digital Affairs. He steered the planning and preparation of the first Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council in the field of digital policy, where he also chaired relevant EU Council Working Groups. He holds a master’s degree in Leadership with International Relations concentration, a master’s degree in Enterprise Information Systems, and has further specialized in diplomacy studies focused on legal and institutional system of the EU and international negotiations.

Sandeep is a Senior Director in the SAP Telecommunications Business Unit, focusing on Customer Experience and Business Support Systems. He has previously worked in Schlumberger, Ericsson and IBM before joining SAP. He is an industry expert in the areas of Sales, Marketing, Product Management & Strategy. He has been active in the industry forums, having lead the customer experience group of TM Forum in past, and has been writing in industry journals and publications. Sandeep is based out of Frankfurt, Germany.

Jakob Bluestone runs the European Telecoms Equity Research Team at Credit Suisse, one of the world’s leading financial institutions. The Credit Suisse telco research team has regularly been ranked among the top research teams by institutional investors. Jakob has been a European telecoms sellside analyst since 2001 and is responsible for covering the major European telco operators and towers. Before joining the Credit Suisse telco team in 2011 he worked on the top-3 rated Bank of America Merrill Lynch telco team from 2007 to 2011. Before that, he worked on the top-3 European telecoms team at HSBC from 2001 to 2007. Jakob is a Danish/US/UK citizen.

Axel Freyberg is a Senior Partner at Kearney and is part of the Communications, Media & Technology practice, which he has been leading on European and Global level the last years. He has more than 25 years of consulting experience serving several of the largest mobile, fixed-line and cable operators as well as leading consumer electronics companies, equipment suppliers, and IT service companies in Europe and around the world. He is deeply passionate about the industry, advises his clients around strategy, technology, sustainability, and transformation, and actively engages in the public discussion about the evolution of the industry. He authored a broad range of white papers and articles about the telecoms and technology industry and was involved in various research committees in the German ICT community. He has earned a Master in Computer Science from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and an MBA in finance from the University of Pittsburgh. Today, he lives with his wife and son in Hamburg.

Mani has a diverse track record that blends in-depth experiences in each of technology innovation, product strategy and policy making, working at technology firms, tech start-ups, regulatory authority, and global industry body.  At GSMA, he leads the global policy research and in-market delivery activities across a portfolio of digital infrastructure policy and regulatory topics. In his early career, he developed statistical algorithms and software systems for innovative tech products, including the first 2G-3G handsets and multi-antenna processing systems. In recent years, he has collaborated on policy research on digital economy, online platforms, 5G infrastructure, competition frameworks, regulatory assessments, and licence models and influenced many policy outcomes in markets across the world.  Mani is a Master’s Scholar of the University of Cambridge with a First Class Honours degree and a PhD in Information Sciences.

Laszlo Toth is the Head of Public Policy of GSMA Europe.  Laszlo leads the public policy team in Brussels, overseeing all the advocacy activities of GSMA Europe and representing European mobile operators on a broad range of policy and regulatory matters. He works closely with members to facilitate coordinated advocacy efforts at the EU level in order to create a policy environment that maximizes the mobile industry’s ability to invest in infrastructure and drive economic growth and social development.

Laszlo started his professional career working at telecoms operators. Prior to joining GSMA in 2011, he spent nine years at the Hungarian public administration, including spells at the Ministry responsible for ICT and at the national telecoms regulator. Laszlo has an MSc. in economics and holds a degree in computer sciences.