Summit 18 Speakers

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Summit Speakers

Julie-Alexander.jpgJulie Alexander
Director, Urban Development, Siemens
London: A Smarter Place to Live, Work and Visit (June 5)

Julie is a Director for Urban Development and leads on the Smart Cities sector. With her global remit working with cities around the world, she is responsible for engaging with cities to showcase the role of infrastructure and integrated technological solutions in urban development. Her recent book Smart Cities: Cities in the Digital Age, illustrates the importance of digitalization in the field of critical infrastructure. Her latest research on The Business Case for Smart Cities: Infrastructure Investment has drawn global attention with its unique methodology for business case development for cities. Particular areas of specialism include the financing and funding of urban infrastructure through the use of innovating mechanisms and value capture. On this topic, Julie recently co-authored the report – ‘Investor Ready Cities’ in conjunction with PwC and BLP Law. Julie also specializes in urban master planning and digital enablement. Julie is a member of the Smart London Board, Institute for Future Cities Board and Urban Living Partnership Advisory Board. She also supports Innovate UK in the review process for the Future Cities Catapult.

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Marianne Archibald
Chief Executive, Whanganui Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Economic Developers Roundtable (June 6)

As Chief Executive of the Whanganui Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Marianne is passionate about helping regional businesses thrive. The Whanganui Chamber of Commerce and Industry is part of a global network of Chambers of Commerce.

As CEO of Archibald & Co. and as an innovation leader, she consults in a strategic planning and project management capacity to the public and private sectors.  Specialising in delivering solutions that often impact entire communities, Archibald & Co. takes a triple helix approach, connecting business, education and government. It employs the principles of co-design and collaboration in our work and we are passionate about social enterprise. 

As the leader responsible for Whanganui’s early fibre network roll out and the inclusion of Whanganui in the world’s Top 7 Intelligent Communities, Marianne is future-focused and consider this the right time to develop an overarching plan for how we want our communities to look in the future. 

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RobertBell.jpgRobert Bell
Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
Welcome to the Summit, Urban Master Class: Making Cities Better, Not Just Smarter

Robert Bell is co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum, where he heads its research, analysis and content development activities. He directs the multi-stage analysis of communities for the annual Intelligent Community Awards program and authors the in-depth profiles of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities that are core to ICF's mission. Robert developed and leads the Intelligent Community Master Class and Community Accelerator programs, as well as ICF's advisory services for communities, and is a frequent speaker at municipal and telecom events. More

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simon-wade.jpgTony Bicknell
CEO, SmartWorld Connect
Tech Brief (June 6)

Having worked at director level in digital transformation and analytics in the Electronics industry and the Media industry with the Hollywood Studios, Tony brings a wealth of experience in using digital platforms to improve connectivity in the B2C and B2B space.

Tony’s key skill set is the understanding, communication and implementation of how software tools and applications, which allow the integration of external and internally generated data, can be combined to improve connectivity and create new productivity and marketing applications.

‘Many City Councils and BID areas find starting on the road to becoming a Smart City and maintaining the momentum is very difficult. We make this easier by bringing all your internal stakeholders and their communication requirements into your very own app store, then use this as a base to develop new Smart City Apps to encourage connections between your stakeholders.’ Tony Bicknell CEO

SmartWorld Connect have recently won the 2018 Start-Up of the Year awarded by Innovate UK at the Smart IoT show in London.

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Theo-Blackwell.jpgTheo Blackwell
Chief Digital Officer, London
London: A Smarter Place to Live, Work and Visit (June 5)

As London’s first Chief Digital Officer, Theo will play a leading role in realising the Mayor’s ambition to make London the world’s smartest city, ensuring that the capital’s status as a global tech hub helps transform the way public services are designed and delivered, making them more accessible, efficient and responsive to the needs of Londoners.

Theo joins with extensive public and private sector experience. As Cabinet member for Finance, Technology & Growth at Camden council, Theo established Camden as London’s leading digital borough through its use of public data – and this year they received national recognition as Digital Leaders ‘Council of the year’.

He’s worked at GovTech accelerator Public Group, advising start-ups on the growing market in local public services, and was previously Head of Policy & Public Affairs for the video games industry’s trade body, Ukie.

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TimBowles.jpgMayor Tim Bowles
Mayor, West of England
Mayors and the Quiet Revolution (June 4)

Tim was elected as the first Mayor for the West of England on May 4, 2017. During his career, he has combined international business roles with public service in the West of England.

Born in East Africa, and raised in Somerset, before settling in Winterbourne, he has international experience working in business development, exports, sales and marketing. Having worked with small and medium-sized enterprises and global players, he is committed to supporting businesses of all sizes to achieve their full potential. His business background means he is passionate about the need to promote the West of England and its unique offering, including its global connections and a highly-skilled workforce, nationally and internationally.

Before his election as Mayor, Tim was part of South Gloucestershire Council’s leadership team, working across the organisation with particular focus on policy and resources. He was also a parish councillor, and chairman of Winterbourne Parish Council for many years. He served 12 years as a governor of one of the largest secondary schools in the region, which led to his passionate belief that children should be encouraged to reach their full potential from a young age. He also sees lifelong skills development for all as essential to driving economic growth in the region.

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Anders Broberg
Senior Advisor Smart Cities, Stokab
Opportunity and Employment in a Big Data World (June 4)

Anders Broberg serves as a senior advisor on smart cities for Stokab, the municipal open-access broadband fibre network of the City of Stockholm. As a member of Stockholm’s City Council and executive committee, Anders led the effort to create Stokab in 1994 and served as its founding Chairman from 1999 to 2002. In addition to his experience with Stokab, Anders has served as the press officer for Almega, the Employers’ Organisation for the Swedish Service Sector, press officer for the Swedish Parliament and as a member of its Digital TV committee.

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Mayor Andy Burnham
Mayor, Greater Manchester
Mayors and the Quiet Revolution (June 4)

Andy Burnham was elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester in May 2017. Accountable to and representing the people of all 10 boroughs in Greater Manchester, Andy steers the work of Greater Manchester’s Combined Authority, leading on issues such as the economy, transport, police and fire services, to ensure Greater Manchester is one of the best places in the world.  

Responsible for transforming public services and shaping the future of our region, the Mayor represents Greater Manchester people, making the case for our region at the heart of government and on the world stage.

Andy is the chair and eleventh member of Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The leaders of the 10 councils form the Mayor’s Cabinet. He is also supported by a Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, and a Deputy Mayor for Economic Growth and Business.

Prior to this, Andy was MP for Leigh from 2001. In government, Andy has held Ministerial positions at the Home Office, Department of Health and the Treasury. In 2008 he became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, before returning to Health as Secretary of State in 2009. In opposition, Andy has served as Shadow Education Secretary, Shadow Health Secretary and Shadow Home Secretary.

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Volker Buscher
Director, Global Head, Digital Products, Arup
Next Generation of the Smart City (June 4)

Volker Buscher is Arup’s Global and UKIMEA Head of Digital Products, a member of Arup’s Group Board Digital Executive, where he is responsible for developing and launching new business models based on disruptive technologies. A Project Director for public and private sector clients in the UK, Europe, Middle East, US and SE Asia.

His responsibilities include:

  • Identifying technology trends that have a disruptive impact on the built environment, our core markets and Arup’s business model
  • Developing digital products and services that create value for our clients, Arup and our ecosystem of partners
  • Engaging with key partners in the built environment to share through open innovation capabilities that improve our industry and make a contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Volker has experience as a non-Executive Director through his work on advisory boards including the Smart London Board advising the Mayor of London, the Smart Cities Forum advising UK Ministers for Cities and Technology, together with advisory roles for ISO, BSI, Digital Economy Catapult and the Canary Wharf Cognicity program.

He has worked extensively with academia. He is the co-chair for the Arup Foundation sponsored “Digital for Change (DC2)” programme at Cambridge University CSIC, acted as industrial supervisor for several doctorates with Bristol University, University College London, Imperial College London and worked as industry reviewer for research programs in Singapore.

Volker is the course Director of Arup University masters level course in Data Analytics and Smart Cities.

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AndrewCarter.jpgAndrew Carter
Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Cities
Humanizing Data (June 4)

Andrew became Chief Executive of the Centre in April 2017. He is also Deputy Director of the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth. Before that he was the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Policy and Research with overall responsibility for the Centre’s research and policy programme. Andrew has over 20 years of experience working on urban economic policy issues for public and private development agencies, consultants and research institutes.  He has also spent time in the US as part of the Churchill Foundation’s Fellowship Programme reviewing urban economic development policy and practice in American cities including New York, Washington DC, Boston and Chicago. He is a regular media contributor and chairs and speaks at conferences across the UK and Europe on a wide range of urban and economic issues.

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Moez Chaabouni
Enterprise Data Account Executive, Informatica
CIO Roundtable (Moderator) (June 4)

As a member of the sales team, Moez Chaabouni leverages many years of experience in the CIO role to be a trusted adviser and advocate for customers and help their combined business and IT teams move quickly to empower transformational data automation initiatives leveraging the right components of the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform for Data Integration, Cloud Data Management, Big Data Management, Data Quality, Data Security and Master Data Management. Informatica provides leading data management software and services to help organizations worldwide gain control over one of their most important assets: Data!  Prior to Informatica, Moez served as deputy CIO for the City of Columbus, CIO of Hondross College and founder and CEO of My CIO, a consultancy.

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Huey-Por-Chang.jpgDr. Huey-Por Chang
Deputy Mayor, Chiayi City
Top7 Conversation #1 (June 4)

Huey-Por Chang is currently the deputy mayor of Chiayi City, Taiwan. He is passionate on the public service as well as to work for his home town. However, he has taught senior high school and college for 12 years before he worked at two universities. He was a professor of the Department of Mass Communication and the president of the Open University of Kaohsiung between 2012 and 2016. From 2005 to 2012, he also served as the president of the National Changhua University of Education (NCUE). He was a professor of the Department of Physics at NCUE. Totally, his educational career lasted 45 years. His research interests include inquiry teaching, teachers’ professional development and teaching evaluation in science education. Recently, he wrote more than 60 opinion articles published in newspaper concerning challenging problems in education, environmental and societal issues, the improvement of life quality and democratization of Taiwan.

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Michael-C-Y-Chang.jpgDr. Michael C.Y. Chang
Deputy Mayor, Tainan City
Top7 Conversation #5 (June 5)

Dr. Michael Chang served in multiple leadership positions with the city of Tainan, the provincial government and national government of Taiwan. In Tainan City, he serves as Deputy Mayor and was previously Director-General of the Transportation Bureau. He has also served as Director for the Southwest Coast of the National Scenic Area Administration of the Tourism Bureau, as well as Director of the New York Office of the Bureau, for the national Ministry of Transportation and Communications. Prior to that, he served as Director of the Tourism Bureau and Chief Secretary of the Transportation Department of the Taiwan Provincial Government.

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Michelle-Crandall.jpgMichelle Crandall
Assistant City Manager, Dublin, Ohio, USA
Leaders Roundtable (June 4), Bridging the Broadband Gap: Coverage, Cost, Performance (June 6)

A graduate of Ohio State University, Michelle Crandall was director of administrative services for the City of Dublin for four years before being named Assistant City Manager. In addition to her dutes for Dublin, she is a member of the leadership team of the ICF Global Institute in Dublin, and Midwest vice president of the nonprofit ICMA.

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Greg_Dandewich.jpgGreg Dandewich
Senior Vice President, Economic Development Winnipeg
Top7 Conversation #7 (June 6)

Greg excels at relationship building, facilitating strategic partnerships, coordinating industry and sector initiatives, and forging substantive collaborations between the public and private sectors. Greg has been tasked with the development of strategic partnerships and alliances between communities and business sectors and is responsible for guiding the development of economic development strategies reflective of Winnipeg’s broad and diversified economy and manages north/south trade activities related to the Mid-Continent Trade Corridor. Greg holds director positions on a variety of bi-national and tri-national business development boards including the Canadian/American Border Trade Alliance (CAN/AM BTA) and NASCO (North American Strategy for Competitiveness). Greg has a Master’s Degree in City Planning from the University of Manitoba and has his Economic Development certification through the University of Waterloo. Listen to Greg on The Intelligent Community podcast.

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JoyeetaDas.jpgJoyeeta Das
Founder and CEO, Gyana
Opportunity and Employment in a Big Data World (June 4)

Joyeeta started her career training as an engineer in India, before taking a job working at Cisco. Not long after, she founded Anahata Life and furthered her study with an MBA at the University of Oxford.

It was here where the idea of Gyana was initially conceived. Joyeeta was selected for two Innovate UK entrepreneur missions to the US and has now successfully brought Gyana to market. At one point they were even working without pay following a potential investor dropping out, and there were certainly many late nights. However like all strong entrepreneurs, Joyeeta stuck by her plans and continued her search for new investment. By January 2015 she had secured funding, and an additional £1.5 million was added in November 2015. By January the following year the team had swelled to 15 people, and in July 2016 her product was launched.

Gyana aims to bring AI and big data to consumers in an affordable way, and this is through its unique information search tool. The software looks to integrate data from numerous channels, such as social media, traffic updates and weather, to bring together a perspective about any selected area. This will include the trends of the area, the general attitudes and even emotional ‘vibe’. The concept of this tool is such that the more data input, the greater our understanding of the world around us. The aim is to help the likes of businesses, government and consumers to gain a genuine insight into specific areas and demographics. Click here to see an interview with Joyeeta from Innovate UK.

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kari-aina-eik.jpgKari Aina Eik
Secretary General, Organization for International Economic Relations
Resilience in a World of Threats (June 5)

Kari Aina Eik is the Secretary General of the OiER – Organization for International Economic Relations, based in Vienna, Austria. The focus of OiER is to support both governments and businesses to strengthen cooperation and develop international networks, enhance and identify investment opportunities, and develop, implement and finance global projects in cooperation with UN agencies and other international organizations.

Ms. Eik is coordinating the USC (United Smart Cities) Program and the newly established SDG Cities Leadership Platform. She is currently the Co-Chair of REM, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Real Estate Advisory Board, and leader of U4SSC United for Smart Sustainable Cities, finance guideline deliverables.

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fred-eisenberger.jpgMayor Fred Eisenberger
City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Leaders Roundtable (June 4), Top7 Conversation #3 (June 5)

Fred Eisenberger was born in Amsterdam and immigrated to Canada with his family when he was eight years old. His experience, vision and leadership led him to a successful return to office as Hamilton’s Mayor in October 2014. His passion for the city and plans for growth and prosperity support the desire to take Hamilton to new levels, firmly placing it as one of the 10 largest and most important municipalities in the country. Fred has previously served as a member of city council, Chair of the Hamilton Port Authority and as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Urban Institute.

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zeynep-engin.jpgDr. Zeynep Engin
Senior Research Associate, Urban Dynamics Laboratory, University College London; Founder, International Data for Policy conference
What Does Humanizing Data Require of Us? (June 6)

Dr. Zeynep Engin is a Senior Research Associate at the Urban Dynamics Laboratory of UCL and the Founder of the international Data for Policy initiative. Zeynep’s research interests span a range of topics at the interface of data science and public policy. She is primarily interested in digital infrastructure and methodology development to collect and analyse data from heterogeneous sources in order to provide better evidence base to policy makers and planners. Her joint work with Professor Philip Treleaven focuses on ‘Algorithmic Government’ to automate public services and support civil servants in using artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies. The annual Data for Policy conference series that she has been leading since 2015 has proven to be a key international forum around the theory and applications of data science for government and policy research.

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Barry_Forde.jpgBarry Forde
CEO and Founding Member, Broadband 4 the Rural North
Rural Master Class: The New Connected Countryside (June 5)

B4RN is a community owned "community benefit society" working to rollout FTTH to deeply rural properties in the parishes to the east of Lancaster. These are located in the upland areas of the Forest of Bowland AONB. This is a beautiful area but very sparsely populated with appalling broadband, many not spots and the rest are almost all grot spots. We are currently looking to raise £1.86M by issuing shares within the community to fund running 1Gbs FTTH to 1300 properties in 2012 and expanding to 5000 properties by 2014 subject to additional fundraising. In addition to his duties as CEO of B4RN, Mr. Forde is a Professorial Fellow of Lancaster University, NGA Advisory Group member and technical advisor to the Lancashire Digital Project.

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Dr. Roberto Gallardo
Assistant Director, Purdue Center for Regional Development
Bridging the Broadband Gap: Coverage, Cost, Performance (June 6)

Roberto Gallardo is Assistant Director of the Purdue Center for Regional Development and a Purdue Extension Community & Regional Economics Specialist. He holds an electronics engineering undergraduate degree, a master's in economic development, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration. Gallardo has worked with rural communities over the past decade conducting local & regional community economic development, including use of technology for development.

He has authored more than 70 articles including peer-reviewed and news-related regarding rural trends, socioeconomic analysis, industrial clusters, the digital divide, and leveraging broadband applications for community economic development. He is also the author of the book “Responsive Countryside: The Digital Age & Rural Communities”, which highlights a 21st century community development model that helps rural communities transition to, plan for, and prosper in the digital age. Dr. Gallardo is a TEDx speaker and his work has been featured in a WIRED magazine article, a MIC.com documentary, and a RFDTV documentary. He lives in West Lafayette with his wife and two daughters. Listen to Dr. Gallardo on The Intelligent Community podcast.

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Soumya_Ghosh.jpgSoumya Ghosh
Director, Digital Enablement, Open City and Technology Branch, City of Edmonton
Who Cares About Open Data? (June 5)

Soumya Ghosh is the Director, Digital Enablement with the City of Edmonton's Open City and Technology Branch. Soumya leads the business technology innovation portfolio with initiatives such as Smart City and Open City.

He is responsible for managing the award-winning open data program and developing the smart city strategy and proposal for the Infrastructure Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge. His latest project involves improving the health of Edmontonians through the use of data and smart technology.

Prior to joining the City, Soumya worked as an IT consultant with Fortune 500 companies such as Oracle Corporation, McKesson Corporation, and Deutsche Bank. He completed his MBA from the University of Alberta, has an Engineering Degree, and is PMP certified.

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Rob van Gijzel
Chairman, ICF Board of Directors
Welcome to the Summit (June 4)

Rob van Gijzel served as the mayor of Eindhoven, Netherlands from 2008 to 2016, during which time the region was named an ICF Intelligent Community of the Year. He served in the Dutch Parliament from 1989 until 2001, when he founded a political advisory agency called Politea with his wife Irene van Rijsewijk. He also served as Deputy Chairman of the National Swimming Institute Eindhoven. Rob is a recognized thought leader in the Netherlands and beyond. He was appointed Chairman of the Collaboration Table, a national government body that seeks to improve access to and affordability of housing in the Netherlands. He is also the Chairman of the ICF Board of Directors.

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Carolyn-Hassan.jpgCarolyn Hassan
Director, Knowle West Media Centre
Urban Master Class: Making Cities Better, Not Just Smarter (June 5)

Carolyn is founder and Director of the award-winning Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC), located in South Bristol. KWMC is an arts and media centre built of straw bales that delivers socially-engaged media arts projects, contributing to a wider understanding of the role of the arts in communities and cities.

Carolyn established KWMC’s European projects (3e Houses, Internet Enabled Services for Cities, and the ERDF-funded Green Digital Business Programme “Do What You Love”) and manages Bristol’s Living Lab as part of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL).

Collaboration, co-design, unusual partnerships, and a focus on achieving tangible local benefits through sharing knowledge internationally are key to the success of the organisation. KWMC works closely with Bristol City Council and a network of organisations including Universities on many digital inclusion, social innovation and media arts projects based in communities.

Carolyn’s education includes postgraduate degrees in Social Work from University of Leicester, and Photographic Studies from University of Westminster. In 2009 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West of England (UWE) for her contribution to education and social inclusion.

Carolyn currently sits on the board of Plymouth-based Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) and is a fellow of the RSA. She was a board member of Bristol2015, a company set up to manage and deliver Bristol’s European Green Capital Award, and was a member of the South West Regional Arts Council until 2013.

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StephenHilton.jpgStephen Hilton
Director, Bristol Futures Global
Who Cares About Open Data? (June 5)

Stephen Hilton is an internationally recognised smart cities expert. At Bristol City Council he created and led Bristol Futures, a high profile, award-winning team that achieved great success. The highlights include, winning the title of European Green Capital 2015; becoming the first UK Rockefeller Global 100 Resilient city; securing official designations as a UK Super Connected City and Future City Demonstrator; developing Engine Shed and Invest in Bristol & Bath, Bristol is Open and the Bristol-Brussels office; co-creating Playable City and securing funding for many successful projects on driverless cars, smart meters, smart grids, open data and large scale technology demonstrators. In his early career, Stephen worked on technology and democracy and digital inclusion, establishing the Connecting Bristol  partnership, the National Digital Challenge network and winning an award as Government Innovator of the Year for his work with the Oxford Internet Institute and Napier University.  Stephen is a Fellow at the University of Bristol's Cabot Institute.   He is also a non-exec Director of the Bristol Pound  - the leading local currency.

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Eugene-Hsiao.jpgEugene Hsiao
Assistant Vice President, Far Eastern Resource Development Co. Ltd.
Top7 Conversation #5 (June 5)

Eugene Hsiao assists the president of Far Eastern Resource Development Company in its work developing and leasing commercial buildings and resorts, including communications and medical care zones and industrial parks. It is part of the Far Eastern Group, whose services and products span 10 major industries. Prior to his current position, he worked in executive positions managing enterprise and carrier services for Far EasTone Telecom, and in product management for New Century Info Comm Co. Ltd. He holds a masters in electrical engineering from the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University in the United States.

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Tom_Hurst.jpgTom Hurst OBE
Head of Automotive, Business Support & Investment, Sunderland City Council
Economic Developers Roundtable (June 4)

Tom worked for a number of years in the private sector in the financial world within construction, food and metal industries.

Tom has also carried out considerable consultancy work in South Africa and has worked in the local Government sector for approximately 25 years. He has headed up projects which have brought in over one billion pounds of private sector investment and led to the creation of over 20,000 jobs.

Thomas headed up the award winning Doxford International Business Park, which alone was responsible for over six hundred million pounds of investment, and the creation of 8,000 new jobs.

He jointly heads up Sunderland’s international links with China and the United States.

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Ryley Iverson 
CEO, Townfolio
Who Cares About Open Data? (June 5)

Ryley is the co-founder and CEO of Townfolio. Prior to Townfolio, Ryley spent five years working in start-ups, and not-for-profit microfinance. From assisting hundreds of startups to growing up in rural Canada and work in countries such as Nigeria, Ryley has gained an international perspective towards economic development and is now dedicated to helping governments improve their economic development efforts and attract investment on the competitive global stage. Ryley is passionate about community development, helping entrepreneurs and building entrepreneurial eco-systems.

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Margot-James.jpgMargot James MP
Minster of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Keynote: Britain’s Digital Society (June 5)

Margot James was appointed Minister of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in January 2018. Margot was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from July 2016 to January 2018. She was elected Conservative MP for Stourbridge in May 2010.

Margot served as Assistant Government Whip from May 2015 until July 2016. She was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Green during his period as Minister for Trade and Investment. She served as a local councillor in Kensington and Chelsea from 2006 to 2008.

Margot was educated at Millfield School and studied Economics and Government at the London School of Economics. She worked in sales and marketing for her father’s business, MJI based in Birmingham. In 1986 she co-founded Shire Health Group, a public relations and medical education business. It was sold in 2004.

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JohnJung.jpgJohn G. Jung
Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
Welcome to the Summit, Top7 Reception, Intelligent Community Awards Dinner

ICF co-founder John G. Jung originated the Intelligent Community concept and continues to serve as the Forum's leading visionary. Formerly President and CEO of the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance and Calgary Economic Development Authority, he is a registered professional urban planner, urban designer and economic developer. He leads regular international business missions to US, European, Asian, Indian and Australian cities, and originated the ICF Immersion Lab program. John is a regular speaker at universities and conferences and serves as an advisor to regional and national leaders on Intelligent Community development. More

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chris-kallio.jpgChris Kallio
Economic Development Officer, Town of Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
Economic Developers Roundtable (June 4)

Chris Kallio leads Newmarket’s efforts to drive future economic growth through three strategic themes: Innovation, Collaboration and Urbanization. Newmarket is strategically located within the Greater Toronto Area. It is the administrative headquarters for York Region (population 1.2 million), Canada’s fastest growing large municipality and second largest business hub in the province of Ontario. Newmarket also consistently ranks as one of Canada’s best communities in which to live based on a number of quality of life indicators. Newmarket’s highly diversified economy includes the health, business services and advanced manufacturing sectors.

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rose-klukas.jpgRose Klukas
Economic Development Officer, City of Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada
Economic Developers Roundtable (June 4)

Named one of the top five quality of life destinations in North America by Foreign Direct Investment Magazine, Campbell River offers a balanced lifestyle surrounded by nature. Campbell River is located at the 50th parallel on the east coast of northern Vancouver Island. It is the third largest city on the island, with a population of 32,000, and the urban service centre and hub community for approximately 60,000 people living and working in our region. Rose has been with the City of Campbell River for over 2 years, previously working at the City of Kitamik as Economic Development Director for nearly 5 years.

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nikolaos-kontinakis.jpgNikolaos Kontinakis 
Senior Projects Coordinator, EUROCITIES
Who Cares About Open Data? (June 5)

Nikolaos Kontinakis works as a project coordinator for the knowledge society and smart cities projects of EUROCITIES, Brussels. He coordinates the Green Digital Charter initiative (http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/) and EUROCITIES work for the development of a performance measurement framework for smart cities under the CITYkeys project (http://www.citykeys-project.eu/), the promotion of green ICT via the ICTfootprint.eu project (http://ictfootprint.eu/), the Smart Cities Information System (https://smartcities-infosystem.eu/), and the EU-China innovation platform on sustainable urbanisation (URBAN-EU-CHINA and TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA projects). He also represents EUROCITIES in the SF-SSCC of CEN/CENELEC.

For the last 16 years, he has worked as a project coordinator and researcher in the areas of ICT, energy policy and the smart and sustainable development of local authorities.

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andy-kuo.jpgAndy Kuo
Vice President, Product & Solution Management, FarEastone Enterprise BU
Urban Master Class: Making Cities Better (June 5)

Andy Kuo leads product and solution management for the enterprise business unit of FarEastone (FET), a leading telecommunication and digital application service provider in Taiwan. Established in 1997, FET employs more than 5,000 people and is known for its innovation and adoption of cutting-edge technologies for consumers and enterprises.

Prior to his current position, Andy served as vice president of sales for FET Enterprise, a board member of THI Consultants and co-leader of Tainan’s 4G Smart City project. He holds a Ph.D. from the School of Management of National Taiwan University of Science & Technology.

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Wen-Shan-Lin.jpgWen-Shan Lin
Assistant Professor, National Chiayi University; Consultant, Chiayi City Government
Top7 Conversation #1 (June 4)

Wen-Shan (Wendy) Lin is currently one of the Chiayi city advisory group member and an assistant professor in Management of Information Systems Department at National Chiayi University, Taiwan R.O.C.. She had appointed as the director of Intelligence Technologies and Planning Department at Chiayi city government Taiwan, R.O.C. in 2017. She leads the role for planning the strategies of smart city, information systems and research & development.

She obtained her PhD from the Computation Department at UMIST (UMIST was merged as The University of Manchester U.K.) in 2004. Her research interests include topics of electronic commerce, human-computer interaction, E-learning, and Internet marketing. She has published several journal articles and actively joins international research activities. These journals include International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (which is rated as #3 based on UK ABS 2015 report) and Computers & Education (which is rated as 1st-tier Journal in the subject of education based on Thomson Reuters). From the past few years, she has led four national-funded research projects from National Science Council in Taiwan, three funded research projects from a research – development organization and a private industrial development company. From the year of 2015, she also joins a three-years national funded research project. She acts as a project co-leader. This project should be completed by 2018.

For her career plan, she plans to work on supporting the project of smart city for Chiayi city. She also plans to be actively involved in research cooperation worldwide.

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Raj Mack
Head, Digital Birmingham
What Does Humanizing Data Require of Us? (June 6)

Digital Birmingham is a city-wide partnership which aims to accelerate digital investment and opportunities for both businesses and citizens. As Head, Raj Mack is responsible for the delivery of a portfolio of projects ranging from digital infrastructure, such as ultrafast broadband, next generation wireless, public service networks to innovative services and applications to support both public services, businesses as well as increasing digital inclusion for citizens.

Raj is responsible for developing the digital strategy for the Birmingham City Council and its Local Enterprise Partnership. His team is currently leading on the development of the smart city strategy for the city and he is currently supporting the Cabinet Member on the establishment of the Smart City Commission. The Commission is made up of international, national and local experts all working in collaboration to create a smart city vision and a medium and long term strategic direction.

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Jukka-Makela.pngMayor Jukka Mäkelä
Mayor, City of Espoo
Leaders Roundtable, Top7 Conversation #2 (June 4)

Jukka Mäkelä was born in Espoo, Finland in 1960. In 2007 Mäkelä was elected as a Member of Parliament for the National Coalition Party. Mäkelä has been the Mayor of Espoo since the start of 2011. He has been involved in the local politics of Espoo as a City Counsellor since 1997, as Chair of the City Board years 2005–2008, and as Chair of the City Council 2009–2010. He gained a degree of Master of Science in Technology from the Helsinki University of Technology.

markku-markkula.pngMarkku Markkula
First Vice-President of the European Committee of the Regions
Urban Master Class (June 5)

Markku Markkula was elected President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) in February 2015 for a two and a half year term of office. From August 2017 he has served as the First Vice-President of the CoR. He has been the CoR Rapporteur on important opinions in the fields of single market, better governance, innovation, digitalization, research policy, and industrial renaissance.

He is the Chair of the Espoo City Board. In March 2018 he was elected the President of the Helsinki Region (Chair of the Board of the Helsinki Regional Council). He is a former member of the Finnish Parliament (1995-2003). As an MP his international role included the Presidency of EPTA Council, European Parliamentary Technology Assessment Network.

Mr. Markkula works within Aalto University as the Advisor to Aalto Presidents, focusing on European Union strategy affairs.

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DouglasMcCollough.jpgDouglas McCollough
Chief Information Officer, City of Dublin, Ohio, USA
CIO Roundtable (June 4), Bridging the Broadband Gap: Coverage, Cost, Performance (June 6)

Douglas McCollough serves as Dublin’s CIO, where he is responsible for leading the city's IT department that includes network operations, geographic information systems and DubLink, Dublin's 125-mile fiber optic system.

McCollough has previously worked for the Ohio Department of Medicaid/Diversified Systems, Nationwide Insurance and State of Ohio Industrial Commission, boasting 15 years of experience.

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Dana McDaniel
City Manager, City of Dublin, Ohio, USA
Leaders Roundtable (June 4)

City Manager, Dana McDaniel is the chief administrative and law enforcement officer of the City of Dublin, responsible to City Council for the day-to-day operations for the city. Other responsibilities include advising Council regarding the financial status and future needs of the city, reporting to Council on the general operating of city departments, divisions, offices, boards, commissions, bureaus and agencies, as well as exercising leadership in the development of city projects. McDaniel retired from the US National Guard as a Brigadier General in March 2017. He has commanded at the platoon, company, battalion, regiment and brigade levels while serving in staff assignments at the company, battalion, group, brigade and Joint Force Headquarters levels. In 2005-2006, General McDaniel deployed as Design Engineer, 16th Engineer Brigade in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 4th Infantry Division and Multi-National Division-Baghdad.

andrea-mckinney.jpgAndrea McKinney 
Chief Digital Officer, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Top7 Conversation #3, CIO Roundtable (June 5)

Andrea McKinney holds the position of Chief Digital Officer at the City of Hamilton.

In this new position, Andrea is actively working with community partners to deliver innovative services and technology in the city of Hamilton. Andrea is responsible for developing and delivering the City’s Smart City Strategy and Roadmap, Digital Strategy and Open Data program. She is also the City’s lead for CityLAB, an innovation hub that brings together students, academics, and civic leaders to co-create a better Hamilton, in a collaborative partnership with McMaster University, Mohawk College, and Redeemer University.

Prior to this new role, Andrea was the Director of Communications and Corporate Initiatives with a focus on strategic communications, digital communications, performance excellence, and continuous improvement.

Andrea has over 15 years of progressive leadership experience including a focus on change management, technology strategy development, planning and implementation, communications, and performance measurement. Before joining the City of Hamilton, she was the Senior Director, Regional Integration and Provincial Partners at eHealth Ontario. In that role she was the provincial lead for the implementation of the Electronic Health Record across South West Ontario in partnership with the region. She also led a provincial implementation and adoption team, was a lead in the delivery of several key eHealth strategies, oversaw the delivery of a provincial portal, and a secure mail system for clinicians to exchange personal health information securely.

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ThomasMuller.jpegThomas Müller
Project Manager, City of Muelheim, Germany
Who Cares About Open Data? (June 5)

As project manager at Mülheim & Business GmbH, Thomas is in charge of helping startups and established businesses in all strategic questions related to business innovation, recruiting and university relations. Furthermore, the development and implementation of industry sector-specific projects (e.g. STARBUZZ Digital Commerce Accelerator, Games Factory Ruhr, Creative Factory Ruhr, Engage.NRW, Game Development Initiative Ruhr) is one of his responsibilities.

Backed by leading companies from B2B and B2C commerce, logistics and manufacturing, STARBUZZ offers an intensive program to take digital commerce and logistics startups to the next level. Specialist mentors from renowned IT, marketing, business development, law and finance firms round up our extensive network.

With its base in Mülheim an der Ruhr, STARBUZZ is located at the heart of Europe in the Rhine-Ruhr region, Germany’s powerhouse in trade and logistics. There is no other place where digital commerce and logistics startups can find a better ecosystem: proximity to customers and client firms, an excellent infrastructure and the densest university network combined with the largest student talent pool in Germany and Europe are the most prominent factors that help taking your business forward. Since capital is highly mobile, it has added an excellent pool of investors to our program to secure seed and growth funding. 

Thomas is also co-founder of bee smart city, which offers an online solutions database of more than 300 smart city solutions from over 100 cities, as well as insights into strategy and development.

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michael-mulquin.jpegMichael Mulquin
Director, IS Communications
Humanizing Data (June 4)

Michael is a data standards expert who has spent over 20 years at the forefront of a number of initiatives over the past ten years to bring technology to the public sector. He is co-chair of the BSI Smart Cities Advisory Group on standards as well as a report editor for CEN/CENELEC/ETSI on Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities Co-ordination and the ISO/IEC JTC1 study group on smart cities standards. Michael is the Standardization Activities and Gaps lead for the International Telecommunication Union Smart and Sustainable Cities Focus Group and a member of the City Protocol Society Task Force on common approaches to Open Data. He advises a number of expert groups including the ISO TMB Strategic Advisory Group on Smart Cities, the OCG group dealing on geospatial information standards and the UK Building Information Management group on standards for construction data.

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Juha_Ala_Mursula.jpegJuha Ala Mursula
Director of Economic Development, City of Oulu / BusinessOulu
Opportunity and Employment in a Big Data World (June 4)

Juha Ala Mursula is an experienced Economic Development Director with a demonstrated history of managing large organizations engaged in change in the public sector. With skills in product lifecycle management, embedded and open-source software, innovation management and mobile technologies, he oversees economic development in one of Finland’s leading technology centers. A graduate of the University of Oulu, he holds an MBA in international business from the Helsinki School of Economics.

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Dr. Viet Long Nguyen
Director, Binh Duong Smart City Office
The Triple Helix in Binh Duong Smart Region (June 4)

A mathematical Engineer and PhD in Management Sciences, Viet Long Nguyen is currently the (1) Director of International Relations & Strategy for Becamex Corporation, one of the leading Vietnamese developers in industrial parks, infrastructure & urban area, and (2) Director of the Smart City Office of Binh Duong province (Vietnam), which coordinates breakthrough strategic projects for the socio-economic development of the province.

Dr. Nguyen is a former member of the Scientific Board of University Paris - Dauphine, and the Academic Assembly of Paris Sciences & Letters. He has been lecturing and conducting research internationally in the U.S., France, Germany, China, Vietnam, etc., particularly in the field of International Management.

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Glen Norton, CPA, MBA
Director of Economic Development, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Economic Developers Roundtable (June 4)

Glen Norton was appointed to the positon of Director - Economic Development Division at the City Of Hamilton on December 1, 2016. Previously, he was the Manager of the Urban Renewal Section within Economic Development. His Division is accountable for economic growth in the city, the creation of new living wage jobs, and the growth in the non-residential tax base. Glen joined the City as a Senior Business Development Consultant in 2009.

Glen has diverse experience that spans both the public and private sectors and includes time working with the Alberta government, 20 years in commercial banking in South Western Ontario, and entrepreneurial ventures in financial consulting as well as the retail sector, software development and real estate development.

His educational background includes an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at Western University, and he holds the CPA accounting designation. He and his wife Jacqueline live, work and play in downtown Hamilton.

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Dr. Kathy Oldham
Chief Resilience Officer, Greater Manchester
Resilience in a World of Threats (June 5)

Dr. Oldham has varied and extensive experience in the public sector, having managed a wide range of local government services in addition to working in the National Health Service. Leading the development of new approaches, together with strengthening existing ways of addressing disaster risk reduction and resilience, draws on all the skillsets she has developed during her career. She is an advocate for resilience and disaster risk reduction to be recognised as a cross-cutting theme that underpins all areas of public policy to encourage inward investment and growth of the city region, together with enabling communities and businesses to successfully recover from and to thrive after emergencies.

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VainoOlev.jpgVaino Olev
IT Director, City of Tallinn, Estonia
CIO Roundtable (June 4)

Vaino Olev serves as the information technology director for the City of Tallinn, Estonia. In addition to his duties for the city, he is a member of the ICF Board of Directors, IT Board of Estonian Local Cities and Rural Associations, and was the Chair of the EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum Workgroup on Cyber Security. A graduate of the Tallinn University of Technology with a masters in radio systems engineering, he is also a part-time lector of State Information Systems syllabus in the Estonian Business School and Estonian e-Government Academy.

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mervi-pankalainen.jpgMervi Pänkäläinen
Founder and CEO, The Mighty United
Top7 Conversation #2 (June 4)

Mervi Pänkäläinen, M.Sc.(BA), is the Founder and CEO of The Mighty United, a company that builds kids’ belief in their own future. Award-winning Mightifier® is a positive peer communication tool with measurable impact for classrooms. Mervi is a passionate innovator with a background in design thinking and change leadership.

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stuart-patrick.jpgStuart Patrick
Chief Executive, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce
Economic Developers Roundtable (June 4)

Stuart Patrick is Chief Executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, committed to the business success of Chamber members and championing the economic growth of the Glasgow city region.

Stuart joined the Chamber in 2009 having previously spent 17 years at Scottish Enterprise specialising in urban economic development and the transformation of Glasgow where he led Scottish Enterprise Glasgow. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young, has an MBA from Strathclyde University and an accountancy degree from Glasgow University.

He is a member of the Glasgow Economic Leadership board, chair of the Wise Group and sits on the boards of Clyde Gateway, Scottish Opera and Glasgow Science Centre.

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ben-poles.jpgBen Pole 
Chief Operating Officer, Economic Development and Marketing, Ipswich City Council
Top7 Conversation #4 (June 5)

As COO for economic development and marketing, Ben Pole drives the strategic and operational direction of Economic Development, Smart Digital City, Marketing and Communications, Tourism and Events, and Media staff and resources for Queensland’s fastest growing city. He leads integrated programs and performance for one of Australia’s most successful destination marketing organisations to achieve key market advantage and new market success, with a particular focus on developing industry leading digital networks, multi-channel content marketing, and systematic change management. Previously, he served as Director of Strategy, Marketing and Communications at Gold Coast Tourism Corporation.

Ben holds a Master of Business Administration from RMIT University, Master of International Relations from Griffith University and Bachelor of Communications from Griffith University.

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william-priest.jpgWilliam Priest 
CEO, Geospatial Unit, Cabinet Office
Opportunity and Employment in a Big Data World (June 4)

On 1 February 2018, William was appointed a Director in the Cabinet Office and CEO of the newly formed Geospatial Unit. In addition, he is a member of the Geospatial Commission, an independent, cross government agency that will set policy for, and drive the UK geospatial agenda, reporting up into senior government Ministers and the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary.

From April 2017 to January 2018, William was Interim CEO of Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and an acting Director in DCMS. He was accountable to the DCMS Secretary of State for the delivery of manifesto commitments to provide Superfast Broadband to 95% of UK premises by the end of 2017. In addition, the programmes to launch full fibre and 5G were also part of his mandate. He was a member of the DCMS Executive board, chaired by the Permanent Secretary.

William joined the Cabinet Office and the Government Commercial Function (GCF) as a Crown Representative in September 2015. As such, he was a member of the GCF Commercial Relationships Board, and responsible for two of Government’s major IT suppliers, IBM and DXC. The latter is UK Government’s largest IT Services provider.

Prior to taking up his role in the Cabinet Office, William has over 20 years executive experience in the IT and Telecoms sectors and has held senior leadership positions with a number of the leading global ICT Service Providers. Before this William worked for a number of leading management consultancies.

William is a Chartered Civil and Water Engineer and has worked in many overseas countries on development projects for the World Bank and the CDC Group.

William is also a non-executive director of the Royal Armouries International, a DCMS owned organisation, and an independent Board Member on the DCMS Major Programmes Board.

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reza-rajabiun.jpgDr. Reza Rajabiun 
Research Fellow, Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, Ryerson University and Algorithmic Media Observatory, Concordia University; CEO, eFilters Inc.
What Does Humanizing Data Require of Us? (June 6)

Reza Rajabiun (MA, LLM, PhD) is a competition policy and telecom strategy expert, with research interests in assessing the quality of broadband networks, improving rural connectivity and access to Internet infrastructure by different stakeholder groups. Dr. Rajabiun has extensive experience as a consultant for different levels of government and consumer advocacy groups evaluating the economic and financial aspects of broadband infrastructure development, and as an expert before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). He serves as a member of the advisory team of the Regional & Rural Broadband project at the University of Guelph, the Technical Committee of the Intelligent Community Forum Canada, and was an external expert providing input into the development of Ontario’s Long-Term Infrastructure Plan (LTIP, 2017).

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kees-rovers.jpgKees Rovers 
Senior Fellow, ICF; Founder and CEO, Close The Gap
Bridging the Broadband Gap: Coverage, Cost, Performance (June 6)

Kees Rovers is the founder and CEO of Close the Gap VB in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His focus is on issues concerning broadband connectivity in European Rural regions and on introducing European cities and regions to the Intelligent Community movement.

Kees Rovers spent the first 20 years of his professional life in senior management positions with the Dutch cooperative bank, Rabobank. In 1985, he left the bank to found Telematica International, which operates call centers and provides enterprise telephony services to major Dutch banks, the Dutch travel industry and retail sectors. The company also introduced the French Minitel system into the Netherlands.

In the early 2000s, he partnered with the director of the local housing corporation in his home village of Neunen in the Eindhoven region to change the way in which citizens own and access communications services. Kees realised that, in particular, elderly and disabled people could use advanced digital services (through a high-speed fiber network) to enable them to have more control of their lives, maintain their independence in their own homes and enhance their quality of life. In 2002, he set up a ‘user feedback committee’ to explore the needs and benefits for the different organizations and interest groups in the town, from churches to schools and other stakeholders. In 2004, this work led to the founding of Ons Net (“Our Net” in English), a cooperative that within five months succeeded in connecting 8,000 households (a 97% take-up rate) to a community-owned fiber network.

He founded Close the Gap to bring the technology and community development roadmap pioneered in Neunen to villages, cities and regions throughout Europe. Close the Gap advises on and assists communities in the Netherlands and internationally on the creation of their own fiber cooperative and connected community. More information can be found at www.closethegap.nl.

Kees is a frequent speaker around the world on the Close the Gap cooperative model and was recently awarded a knighthood by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix for, in particular, his founding of Ons Net Neunen.

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mikael-sandberg.jpgMikael Sandberg 
Chairman, VNext AB
Bridging the Broadband Gap: Coverage, Cost, Performance (June 6)

Mikael is a Swedish citizen living in the UK since 1995. He is married and has four children. He is a serial entrepreneur mainly in the telecom and broadband industry.

In 2014 Mikael co-founded and became Chairman of VNext AB, an international open access fibre network operator.

In 2005 Mikael co-founded and later became Chairman of the Quadracom Group - a telecom group consisting of a Quadracom Networks, designing, building and owning fibre networks; Zitius, the leading open access operator in Sweden; and Riksnet a fibre-only Internet service provider. The operating companies were sold to Telia Sonera in 2014.

Mikael helped to found Argos Investment Managers in Geneva, Switzerland in 2005. As significant shareholder, board director and COO, he helped build the organisation and its assets, making a successful exit in December 2007. Between 1999 and 2004 Mikael was Investment Manger and later Partner at Regency Capital Ltd in the City of London where he advised city institutions, mainly Nomura International, on investments related to public and private equity.

In 2001, as part of the Regency team, he bought and as Managing Director built up Bostream AB to a leading broadband Internet Service Provider in Sweden. Bostream was sold to Bredbandsbolaget (now part of Telenor Sweden) in 2004 achieving over 50 times return on invested capital. Prior to joining Regency Capital, Mikael worked for Analysys Ltd, the telecom strategy consultancy, and in the TIME team of Arthur D. Little as management consultant and for the Office of Science at the Embassy of Sweden as Assistant Science Attaché.

Mikael holds a number of board positions, including Msona Ltd (UK), Riksnet AB (Sweden), Csit AB (Sweden), BBTnet AB (Sweden), Argos Investment Managers S.A. (Switzerland) and Argos Investment Advisors S.A. (Luxembourg).

Mikael holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden and an MBA from School of Management, University of Bath, UK.

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NigelShadbolt.jpgProfessor Sir Nigel Shadbolt FRS FREng 
Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, Professor of Computer Science, Oxford University and Visiting Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Southampton University, Chairman and Co-founder of the Open Data Institute
Keynote: Open Data meets Artificial Intelligence: a new kind of city infrastructure (June 4)

Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt is Chairman and Co-Founder of the Open Data Institute. He is also Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Head of the Web and Internet Science Group, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton. With over 400 publications he has researched on topics ranging from cognitive psychology to computational neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence to the Semantic Web. He was one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science and is a Director of the Web Science Trust which seeks to advance our understanding of the Web and promote the Web’s positive impact on society.

In 2009 the Prime Minister appointed him and Sir Tim Berners-Lee as Information Advisors to transform access to Public Sector Information. This work led to the highly acclaimed data.gov.uk site that now provides a portal to over 9000 datasets.

In May 2010 he was asked by the UK Coalition Government to join the Public Sector Transparency Board – this oversees Open Data releases across the public sector. In April 2011 he became Chair of the UK Government’s midata programme - whose goal is to empower consumers by releasing their data back to them. In the November 2011 Autumn statement he was awarded £10M funding via the Technology Strategy Board to set up the Open Data Institute with Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

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Rickesh_Shah.jpgRikesh Shah
Head of Commercial Innovation, Transport for London
London: A Smarter Place to Live, Work and Visit (June 5)

Rikesh Shah is the Head of Commercial Innovation at Transport for London, the authority responsible for delivering the London Mayor’s transport strategy. He has been at TfL for over 17 years, previously in the areas of commercial development, communications and digital.

He is responsible for creating value in the future mobility space from market innovators including start-ups, small and medium sized enterprises, academics, transport operators, regional agencies, R&D organisations and corporates through setting up a series of incubations to co-create new innovative products focusing on key TfL challenges. This involves on-going engagement with this community, utilising the right procurement processes, developing the right culture and providing the right level of access to data and policy makers.

Previous to this role, Rikesh led TfL’s open data programme, digital commercial activity, stakeholder engagement and communications supporting TfL’s digital transformation strategy. By building digital and data partnerships with start- ups, as well as leading technology platforms including Twitter, Amazon and Google, Rikesh has been at the forefront of TfL’s Open Data provision to over 14,000 developers producing over 700 customer facing travel apps used by 42% of Londoners. This has placed customer digital at the core of TfL’s business.

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Miranda-Sharp.jpgMiranda Sharp
Director of Innovation, Ordnance Survey
London: A Smarter Place to Live, Work and Visit (June 5)

Miranda Sharp is Director of Innovation at Ordnance Survey where 3 years ago she created a Smart Cities practice to collaborate with people from a spectrum across academia, large and small business, public and private sector to using place-based insights to seize the golden opportunities emerging from a ‘Smarter’ world. She is a member of the Mayor’s Smart London Board, the National Infrastructure Commission’s Future Technology panel, Future Leader for ICE Project 13 and a board advisor to the award-winning See Sense. She’s excited about creating a world-beating digital economy in the UK based on high performing digital infrastructure and innovative business models.

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Guus Sluijter
Strategic Advisor and Manager, Smart Society Program, Eindhoven, Netherlands
What Does Humanizing Data Require of Us? (June 6)

Guus Sluijter is an experienced civil servant. He has been working for Dutch municipalities for more than 30 years in different functions (as policymaker, head of department, director and political and strategic advisor) and on several area’s (law, environment, law enforcement, public safety, economy and strategy). He likes to work on innovations, in cooperation with other authorities, e.g. other municipalities, provinces, ministries, and partners in the triple helix: entrepreneurs and scientists. He was the joint initiator of initiatives as the Dutch Institute for Technology, Safety & Security and the Brainport Centre for Technology and Law.

Guus Sluijter holds a master degree in law. He was educated and trained in management and leadership in the public sector. Currently he works as a strategic advisor for the city of Eindhoven, he is manager of the Eindhoven smart society program and he is director of a public-private cooperation in developing a businesspark in Eindhoven. In 2017 and 2018, Guus is assisting the vice-mayor of Eindhoven as chair of the Knowledge Society Forum of Eurocities.

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Peter_Soulsby.jpgMayor Peter Soulsby
Mayor, City of Leicester
Mayors and the Quiet Revolution (June 4)

Born in Bishop Auckland, Peter Soulsby studied at City of Leicester College of Education and the University of Leicester, and has been a resident of the city for more than forty years. He was elected to City Council in 1973 and, eight years later, became its Leader, a position he held almost continuously for 17 years. During that time, he oversaw the Council’s transition from district council to a unitary authority taking on responsibility for all local government services. He also spearheaded Leicester’s City Challenge, which brought over £400m of jobs and regeneration to Leicester – including the land for the King Power Stadium and the development of the National Space Centre.

In 1999, he was knighted by the Queen for services to the City of Leicester. In 2005, he contested and won the parliamentary seat of Leicester South and remained a Member of Parliament for that constituency until April 2011, when he resigned in order to stand for election as Leicester’s first directly elected Mayor. He won the election on May 5 with 55% of the votes cast and was subsequently re-elected to a second term.

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Rohit Talwar
CEO, Fast Future
Opportunity and Employment in a Big Data World (June 4)

The FutureScapes project is the brainchild of Rohit Talwar – a global futurist and founder of Fast Future Research. Rohit works with global business to help them understand and create the future, and is an award winning speaker noted for his provocative content. He advises global firms, industries and governments on how to survive, thrive, spot and manage emerging risks and develop innovative growth strategies in the decade ahead. His interests include the evolving role of technology in business and society, emerging markets, the future of education, sustainability and embedding foresight in organisations. Rohit helps clients understand how mega trends, emerging ideas, new business models, and disruptive developments in science and technology could impact individuals, society, business, industries and government. He currently leads studies on transformative drivers of change for the next decade, science and technology developments over the next forty years, impacts of emerging technologies on the legal sector, human enhancement and the Shadow Economy.

dana-tobak.jpgDana Tobak
Founder and Managing Director, Hyperoptic
Bridging the Broadband Gap: Coverage, Cost, Performance (June 6)

Dana Tobak is a renowned broadband entrepreneur. In 2011 she co-founded Hyperoptic to bring the next generation of broadband infrastructure, full fibre, to the UK's urban centres. Whilst the industry has focused on the interim step of upgrading the ailing copper network, Dana has led the charge to think bigger and better. Under Dana’s leadership Hyperoptic has secured over £150 million in funding and is on track to pass five million homes by with its symmetrical gigabit broadband services by 2025.

In 2005 she also co-founded Be Unlimited, which spearheaded the move to ADSL 2+. It acted as a market catalyst for an industry-wide uplift in broadband speeds and was quickly acquired by O2. Dana was awarded a CBE in the 2018 Honours List in recognition for her services to the digital economy.

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elaine-trimble.jpgElaine Trimble
Director, Urban Development Team, Siemens
Resilience in a World of Threats (June 5)

An economist and planner by background, Elaine is a Director within the Siemens Urban Development team based at The Crystal. Elaine is engaging with cities around the globe with the aim to provide technology and policy concepts that can enable each city to meet their own development targets or carbon reductions. Elaine has worked with developers, cities, and governments to create strategies for land development, improving economic performance and in some cases to help create green cities from scratch. She brings experience in understanding the economic impacts of design and planning, and she focuses her work on delivering the concepts that are both environmentally positive and economically efficient.

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ron-van-horne.jpgRon Van Horne
Chief Administrative Officer, County of Lambton
Leaders Roundtable (June 4)

As Chief Administrative Officer for The Corporation of the County of Lambton, Ron is responsible for social services, housing, long-term care homes, public health, emergency medical services, court services, finance, two museums, one art gallery, twenty-six branch libraries, legal services, information technology, and human resources and other county services. He was previously City solicitor for Sarni, and the County Solicitor/Clerk before becoming CAO. As the senior employee for the County of Lambton, Ron oversees a corporate budget of nearly 200 million dollars and 1,200 employees.

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simon-wade.jpgSimon Wade
Sales Manager, Emtelle
Rural Master Class (June 5)

Simon is a veteran of the cable industry, having spent the last 27 years in senior positions within international businesses. Simon has a wealth of experience in the utilities industry, and has negotiated agreements around the world, with his forte in Telecommunications. Simon joined the Emtelle team in 2011 focussing on developing FTTX markets in UK & Ireland. He has an ethos of integrity, ingenuity and teamworking in all his activities. Simon holds a Bachelors degree in Mathematics, and is married with 2 children. He lives in Cardiff, South Wales.

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derek-wyatt.jpgDerek Wyatt
Founder, Amber Digital Consultancy Ltd
Mayors and the Quiet Revolution (June 4)

Derek Wyatt was first elected to the House of Commons for the new constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey in north Kent in May 1997. He had previously been a Labour borough councillor for Archway in the borough of Haringey in north London. During his years in Parliament, he was PPS to Rt Hon Margaret Hodge, Arts Minister, and Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Sports Minister from 2007-09 at DCMS. He also served as PPS to Lord Malloch Brown at the Foreign Office until he stood down in July 2009. From 2005-2010, he led the UUK-India Education and Research Initiative in India. After being re-elected in 2001 and 2005, Derek stood down in May 2010.

Before being elected as an MP, he was Director of The Computer Channel (aka dot.tv) at BSkyB and travelled extensively throughout America from mid 1995 to research the internet and to assess its impact.

On arriving at Westminster, he formed the All Party Internet Group and served as its chairman until 2007, when at his suggestion, three IT groups were merged into All Party Communications group, which he serves as co-chairman. He is also chairman of the London 2012, the British Council and the Rugby Union groups.

In 2004, Derek was voted one of the top 100 internet visionaries of the past decade and his website subsequently won three national awards. In January 2010 he became the first politician to have an "app" on the iPhone.

See a 90-second “Complete Picture” of Derek’s career at https://vimeo.com/223960456.

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LouZacharilla.jpgLouis Zacharilla
Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum
Welcome to the Summit, Top7 Reception, Intelligent Community Awards Dinner

Louis Zacharilla helped found the Intelligent Community movement. He is the developer of the Top Seven and Intelligent Community of the Year Awards programs. He helps the New York-based think tank communicate the importance of developing viable and innovative communities and cities audiences worldwide and oversees the new Institutes of the Intelligent Community Forum around the world. He is a frequent keynote speaker and a moderator at conferences and events. He appears regularly in the media to discuss the impact of broadband and access technologies on the rebirth of the world’s communities. More

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Liz-Zeidler.jpgLiz Zeidler
CEO, Happy City
Humanizing Data (June 4)

Liz Zeidler, Chief Executive of the Happy City Initiative, is an international facilitator with 20 years experience in designing and delivering transformative learning experiences. She is passionate about social and environmental justice and supporting the change in mindsets that can really bring both about.


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