The April meeting of Women in Telecoms and Technology (WiTT) featured a panel discussion of key trends in mobile communications. Our panelists brought us news and views from this year’s Mobile World Congress, which took place in Barcelona from 2-5 March.
The meeting was be held on Tuesday, 28 April, from 6:00-8:15pm at the GSMA’s new offices.
WiTT’s Founder, Stephanie Liston, led our panel:
- Anne Bouverot, Director General and Member of the Board of the GSMA;
- Dr. Mike Short, Vice President – Public Affairs, Telefonica O2 Europe;
- Sue Monahan, Chief Executive Officer, Small Cell Forum; and
- Rimma Perelmuter, CEO, Mobile Ecosystem Forum.
- (Please see below for full speaker bios.)
Speaker bios
Panel Chair
Stephanie Liston
Independent Member, BT Equality of Access Board
Stephanie Liston is an acknowledged international expert and strategic advisor with 25 years of experience in the communications sector. In addition to her position on the BT Equality of Access Board, she is Business Development Director of Fentiman Consultants Limited, Associate Director of Innovation Advisors, Chair of the International Chapter Committee of the Federal Communications Bar Association. A qualified lawyer in the US and UK, Stephanie served as an Advisory Board Member of Orga Systems GmbH from 2010 – 2014, a Non-Executive Director of the Office of Communications (Ofcom) and a member of its Audit Committee from 2005 to 2008, a Director of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) from 2000 to 2005 and co-chair of the Communications Committee of the International Bar Association from 2004-2006.
Stephanie co-founded Women in Telecoms and Technology with a few other like-minded women who were lonely (founded in 2000 – with current membership of over 1000) and has been a senior partner in a number of leading law firms.
Stephanie has advised on strategic regulatory issues, contractual negotiations and commercial transactions for numerous companies in the European and international communications sector since 1990 when she was a senior lawyer for MCI Communications Corporation. Highlights include advising MCI on its joint venture with BT, Energis on its Metro Holdings joint venture with France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, One.Tel in the 3G Auctions, the UK Telecoms Adjudicator appointed by Ofcom and Cable & Wireless on Ofcom’s 2004/2005 strategic review of the telecoms market.
Anne Bouverot
Director General and Member of the Board, GSMA
Anne Bouverot is Director General of the GSMA and a Member of its Board.
Anne brings to the GSMA a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success in the highly dynamic mobile industry. With a deep understanding of the opportunities and the challenges facing mobile operators today, she leads the GSMA as the essential industry partner for its operator members around the world, enabling their continued success through driving innovation, providing thought leadership and advocating for the industry.
Before joining the GSMA, Anne was Executive Vice President for Mobile Services for France Telecom Orange, where she defined the strategic transformation programmes for a business serving more than 120 million customers and revenues of more than 14 billion euros at the time.
Prior to France Telecom Orange, Anne led a 600-person business unit of Equant and was responsible for developing IT services for Equant’s multinational business customers. She began her career in telecommunications as project manager for Telmex in Mexico in 1991.
Anne holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics and computer science from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and an M.S. degree from Telecom Paris. Anne was appointed as a member of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development in 2013. She also serves as a non-executive director of Capgemini, a leading global provider of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, and as a non-executive director of Edenred, the world leader of prepaid corporate services.
Sue Monahan
CEO, Small Cell Forum
Sue Monahan was named CEO of the Small Cell Forum in February 2014. She is responsible for executive level carrier engagement, membership engagement and partnership development as well as providing leadership to the Forum’s technical groups.
In addition to her role with the Forum, Sue has managed the GSMA’s technical working groups in North America for over a decade.
Sue brings a wealth of experience to the Forum. She has worked in the industry for 25 years for companies such as Bellcore, AT&T and Verizon. While she mainly worked in Engineering, she also held leadership roles in Product Management, Business Development and Sales. Sue holds a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Computer Science from the University of Delaware.
Rimma Perelmuter
CEO, MEF Global Forum
Rimma Perelmuter is CEO & Global Board Director at the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), the global trade body that works with its members to accelerate the growth of a sustainable mobile ecosystem that drives inclusion for all and delivers trusted services to enrich the lives of consumers.
Since its launch in 2001, Rimma has been a driving force at MEF, establishing it as the premier community for the broadening mobile ecosystem. She has grown its global footprint with Chapters established in EMEA, Asia, North and Latin America. Rimma has both a strategic and commercial role to grow the organisation and focuses upon MEF’s remit to accelerate the mobile opportunity for its members.
She is passionate about the unique opportunities enabled by the mobile platform in particular to deliver innovative consumer services & locally relevant solutions which empower citizens and support economic development.
Named as top 30 women in mobile content in 2014, Rimma is also on the Global Advisory Board for Women in Wireless (WiW) which connects, develops & promotes women leaders in mobile and digital media co-founded its UK Chapter.
Prior to MEF, Rimma worked for an internet start-up and several global trade associations based in Washington DC. A bi-lingual English-Russian speaker, she holds a Masters degree from the London School of Economics and a Bachelors degree from Cornell University
Dr Mike Short CBE FREng FIET
Vice President – Public Affairs, Telefonica Europe
Mike’s career spans 39 years in Electronics and Telecommunications, with the last 26 years in Mobile Communications. After working for Philips, Landis and Gyr, and BT, he was appointed in 1989 as Director of Cellnet (now part of Telefonica and branded O2 UK ) dealing with major infrastructure investments and commercial agreements. In 1992 the focus moved to launching Cellnet’s GSM service and establishing Roaming Agreements. He also handled international business development and helped to win overseas mobile licenses and undertook some of the first mobile training in India.
Today’s focus is more on Mobile Innovation including Smart Metering, Health and Transport Telematics, Mobile Learning, and Advanced Mobile technology (including 5G).
Mike is a former Chairman and Board Member of the GSM Association and started the GSM Awards in 1996.
Mike has been appointed Visiting Professor at Surrey, Lancaster, and Leeds Universities and to the Boards of Coventry University and Ravensbourne, Greenwich. He was awarded honorary Doctorates in 2008/2013 and a CBE in 2012 for services to the Mobile Communications industry. He is a Fellow of IET/BCS/RGS/ Royal Academy and a Member of the Royal Television Society.