Wael S. Zakaria is the Director Radio Access Network of du, bringing a talent for mobile networks design and operations that drives profitability and assures the quality of service. He works diligently to identify methods to improve mobile network performance. Wael has a proven background managing and supervising mobile radio networks planning, optimization and operations including strategic decisions. In 1991, Wael started his carrier as teaching and research assistant while preparing for his masters degree where he published many papers in different Electrical Engineering in International refereed Journals such as IEEE. In 1997 he joined Telecom sector and since then he is focused in mobile networks with international exposure from Taiwan to US. Wael graduated with honors from Jordan University of Science and Technology of Jordan at Irbid with a Master Degree of Electrical Engineering in 1994 and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering in 1991.

Bjørn Amundsen is the Vice President and Director Head of Mobile Network Coverage and is responsible for the mobile coverage of Telenor in Norway and has had this position since 1994. Prior to working for Telenor, Bjørn was Sales Director in WM-data for several years. He has also been employed in a bank and in the travel industry. Bjørn is always "on the road"; he tests and visits all of Norway and many parts of the other Scandinavian countries.

Mehdi Kanouni is the Head of Business Development for Professional Services – MEA at Motorola in the UAE. He joined Motorola in 1999 as an RF Design and Optimisation Senior Engineer working for a major North African Operator Account. After which he was responsible for the Professional Services Line of Business (which includes Network Design, Planning and Optimisation services) across French speaking Africa region. Mehdi was also Operations Director in Algeria where he set up the office, recruited and trained the engineering staff. Prior to joining Motorola, Mehdi worked for Alcatel, as a certified IT Professional responsible of the Unix Operating Systems, Databases and Network Administration. Mehdi has been involved in Mobile Telecommunications for over 10 years. He completed a Masters degree in Communications and Electronics in 1998 and has been involved in many aspects of Telecommunications including Optimization, Operational, Project Management and Business Development disciplines.

Yasser Shaker is the Network Engineering & Deployment Director of Mobinil (the leading operator in Egypt and a joint venture between OTH and FT with over 23 million Subscribers). He manages all the network engineering activities and outsourcing, and is responsible for a yearly budget of over 500 million USD. Yasser has deep knowledge of telecommunication, outsourcing, supplier management and budget control of projects. He was engaged in the management of various tenders and supplier selections with experience in evaluation of market and technology trends. Yasser has over 12 years of professional experience in the telecommunication business, over 10 years of GSM experience with strong experience in startup operations; growth and Network modernisation and strategies. Yasser holds an MBA with honors from the Groupe Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Rennes (ESC Rennes), France, and a Bachelor of Science in communication, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University. He is IMD alumni and also a graduate of the Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule (DEO) in Cairo.

Hasnatreza Alam is the Optimisation Manager at banglalink, Bangladesh. Hasnatreza Alam began his career as a CDMA Executive Engineering with Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd. (City cell), one of the earliest telco operators in South-East Asia. He then moved into GSM, a promising domain of mobile industry taking up the leadership for a team dedicated for GERAN design, planning and optimization. Since then he has been specialized in CS & PS network roll-out and services delivery within the set targets of QoS. In this period has had also extensive experience on using different tools on BSS and A interface to further analyze the message details resulting in improved customer perception. He is qualified with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology.

Rauno Huoviala is the Manager, Network Development at Omnitele Ltd, Finland. Rauno Huoviala, MSc Tech., is a senior consultant with 8 years experience in a mobile operator before joining Omnitele in 2008. His expertise is 3G/HSPA and LTE radio network performance, as well as mobile technology strategy analyses. In Omnitele Rauno has been working on HSPA, LTE, and mobile broadband technology strategy projects in Europe and Middle-East. He is also the manager of Network Development team in Omnitele.

Navindran Naidoo is the General Manager at MTN Networks, South Africa. Navindran Naidoo has a BSC and MSC in Electronic Engineering and a MBA Degree from University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He joined the MTN Network Group SA in 1997 in the Planning and Optimisation department where he project managed major rollout projects. In 2002, Navi was seconded to Ericsson in Mexico to assist with their network roll out. Navi was then transferred as a Senior Manager to the MTN Group Network Technology Department in 2005. In 2009, he was appointed as the MTN Group CTO responsible for the network technology strategy, budgeting and operational issues for all of MTN Group’s 21 networks.

Majid Mokhtarnia is the BSS Planning and Optimisation General Manager at Mobile Communication Company of Iran (MCCI), Iran. Majid Mokhtarnia has been working with MCCI since 2000. He started as BSS Planning and Optimization Engineer, then Site Supervision and Acceptance Team Leader, Performance Office Manager and he is currently BSS Planning & Optimisation General Manager. He holds a BS in Electronic Engineering from Mashhad University (1997) and an MS in Telecommunication Engineering from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran (2000).

Khaldun Alayyan is the 3G Optimization Section Head at Nawras in Oman. Khaldun Alayyan has more than 8 years experience in telecommunications network such as GSM, EDGE, WCDMA R99 & HSPA. Khaldun holds a Bachelor degree in Electronics engineering from Princess Sumaya University (Amman –Jordan). He worked at Orange Jordan as GSM Optimization Engineer, Ericsson as GSM, WCDMA optimization Team Leader and currently Nawras as WCDMA optimization section head.

Basel Al Faqeh is the Director, Network Design & Optimization Zain – Saudi Arabia, KSA. Basel Al Faqeh has over 17 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, 14 years with Vendors (Siemens & Nokia) and 3 years with Zain KSA. He is currently working as Head of Network Design, Optimization & performance organization in Zain KSA. He has launched the commercial service in August 2008 with an aggressive outsource model; he has in his department 45 outsource engineers and experts and 16 Zain staff. He did the planning, design and optimization for over 2500 Network Elements (BTS, Node B, BSC, RNC, MGW, MSS/VLR, HLR, STP, GGSN and SGSN) and with more than 6 million subscribers. Basel’s main responsibilities are: planning and managing network CAPEX budget for all relevant network infrastructure including core, radio, transmission and IP backbone; finalising and approving nominal coverage plan for radio network including special projects like Hajj and Ramadan; finalising connectivity transmission plans for mobile broadband and IP backbone; planning of international gateway core switching and all other core switching (HLR, MSS/VLR, MGW) and packet core (GGSN and SGSN) capacity and interfaces. Recently Basel worked as Regional Manager for Zain KSA western region with main project of Phase A till the commercial launch of Zain KSA network with 1400 radio sites. His role is to establish the network division on west region of KSA including all necessary administrative work and network team establishing to launching the commercial service for zain KSA; implement and roll-out 450 radio sites in Jeddah, Makkah and Taif cities including all highways around it; lead all roll-out activities like sites acquisition, civil works, electromechanically, telecom installation, integration and optimisation activities; and build and manage Hajj network establishing and run first Hajj session.

Viresh Dassanayake is the General Manager Network Operations at Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd, Sri Lanka. As the General Manager – Engineering Operations, Viresh Dassanayake is responsible for ensuring smooth operation of both the 3.5G and 2.5G Island wide network of Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd., Sri Lanka’s national mobile service provider. With over nine years of experience in Telecommunications engineering sector both in leading State Enterprise and Multinational Organizations, Viresh assumed the role of Engineer - Planning of Mobitel in 2003 during the aggressively role out of the brand new GSM network, when the company was acquired by Sri Lanka Telecom, the incumbent telecommunications operator in Sri Lanka. Having successfully implemented the company’s fully-fledged 2.5G GSM network in January 2004, Viresh went on to Value added service and Pre-paid operation in 2006. With Viresh’s able leadership in operation, company could gain technology leadership resulting tremendous growth in market share over last few years. In addition to the role General Manager – Operations, Viresh heads the company’s special cross functional team formed for the growth of nation-wide pre-paid penetration, in line with Mobitel’s vision; “to lead Sri Lanka towards an infocom and knowledge rich society”.