Excellence Awards

Camille Mendler is Chief Analyst, Enterprise Services. With more than 25 years’ multi-disciplinary experience in the digital economy, she has a global remit to anticipate key shifts in B2B demand patterns with a current focus on how 5G is disrupting enterprise ecosystems.

Her consultancy projects solve go-to-market challenges: identifying buyer segments, creating effective value propositions, and determining sales channel mix. Areas of expertise include managed and professional services, cloud and SaaS, and private networks.

During her tenure at Omdia, Camille has launched SoHo and SME and Enterprise Verticals intelligence services. She serves as a judge for the GSMA’s GLOMO Awards and TM Forum’s Excellence Awards.

Camille has advised organizations including the International Telecommunications Union, Open Society Foundations and World Bank. She has also worked as a telecom contract negotiator, expert witness in dark fiber matters and technology journalist.

Camille won a research fellowship in Russian Area Studies from Georgetown University and holds a bachelor’s in journalism and Russian from Northwestern University.

Maria is a results-focused communications industry leader, strategist, and innovator. Maria began her career as a telecom system engineer, continuing for 12 years in various technology related assignments followed by leadership roles in business strategy, industry standards and alliances. Acknowledged as expert in wireline and wireless technology, architecture, design and implementation, standards and industry engagement, IP-based real time communications, and Network Virtualization.  Accomplished innovator supported by a proven track record for driving innovation through intellectual property development – awarded over 70 patents in the field of telecommunication platform design and service development.

Maria was born in Poland and is a graduate of the University of Business in Katowice, Poland and of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where she obtained Master of Economics and Master of Computer Science degrees. In 2010, she obtained an Executive MBA degree from the Kennesaw State University.

Dan serves CIOs and digital strategy leaders by guiding them through the challenges of digital transformation. Dan helps define strategies that deliver business benefits from new digital business models and drive sustainable innovation. Dan’s particular focus is on the emergence of digital platforms and the related business models as well as the underlying business innovation strategies. Dan is also an expert in the key technologies underpinning digital platforms, such as the internet of things (IoT), mobile technologies, and social collaboration technologies. Dan evaluates and guides CIOs and their teams to manage the diverse demands around digital transformation and provides guidance on how to unlock the CIO’s role as a business enabler.

Previous Work Experience
Dan has been in the ICT sector for more than a decade and a half. During this period, he held positions in investment banking, industry research, and vendor strategy and operations. Prior to joining Forrester, Dan worked at Deutsche Telekom’s enterprise division, T-Systems, as a strategic marketing consultant. The role involved strategy planning and communication initiatives. Before Deutsche Telekom, Dan worked as an EMEA consulting director for telecommunications and networking at the research firm IDC and as a research director at Ovum. Dan also worked for more than half a decade in the investment banking industry as an equity analyst for Nomura International in London and for Credit Lyonnais Securities in Paris. His focus was on Pan-European telecoms, both integrated and pure mobile operators. During that period, Dan participated in several equity capital markets and private equity deals.

EducationDan holds an M.Sc. in economics and B.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), both of which are part of the University of London.

Shoma Chakravarty is Vice President of Enterprise Architecture at Verizon. At Verizon, she is responsible for the software architecture of systems across the Business and Operational Support systems spanning multiple business units. Chakravarty is a veteran executive with a reputation for excellence in planning and execution of complex business-critical solutions, thought-leadership, and commitment to results. She cherishes the journey of building strong teams, establishing repeatable blueprints for success, and pushing the envelope of innovation. Prior to Verizon, she has held numerous leadership positions including the role of WW Technology Leader for Telecom, Amazon Web Services, CTO of the company now rebranded as TOMIA, Chief Architect at IBM’s Telecom Center of Excellence. 

James leads Heavy Reading’s Intelligent Networks & Automation research service, which covers the software and IT systems that enable CSPs to plan, design, build, and operate their networks for maximum operational efficiency, reliability, and agility. This includes orchestration and closed-loop assurance systems that come under the umbrella term of OSS, as well as monetization platforms that fall within the scope of BSS. It also includes the application of horizontal technologies, such as analytics, AI, and blockchain, that cut across both high level IT systems and lower level networking domains with a common goal of increased automation. James holds a BSc and MEng in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manchester, England.

Martin Creaner is seen as one of the leading strategic thinkers in the global communications industry with a successful career as an executive with Motorola and British Telecom, as well as over a decade as President & CEO of the TM Forum (www.tmforum.org), the global industry association for the Telecoms Management.

Martin is also a recognized thought-leader on Digital Transformation and the trends of the emerging digital economy. His most recent book “Transforming the Telco” explains the opportunities and challenges that digital transformation presents and outlines how the Telco might navigate this difficult process.

Previous books include “Delivering the Digital Economy”, which outlines the dynamics of the digital economy, and “Frameworx Distilled” & “NGOSS Distilled”, which provide a detailed guidebook to the standards that underpin the Telecom software industry.

Martin currently advises the boards of companies in the communications and high tech industries, ranging from a number of the up and coming digital economy companies to market leading Telcos and their suppliers.

Martin has been named among the 25 most influential people in telecom software by Billing World and has twice been named as one of the Global telecoms Business top 100.

Martin holds an Master of Business Administration from Cranfield University, Cranfield School of Management; a Master of Science in Telecommunications from the University of East Anglia; and Bachelor’s degrees in Engineering and Physics from Dublin City University and the University College Dublin, respectively.

Michelle has worked in L&D for over 12 years and in her current role at Vodafone, works with a team to build capability programs for Vodafone’s global technology audience covering Digital transformation big bets such as APIs, Cloud, Agile, Design, Data Analytics and AI. These re-skilling learning paths start from entry level through to expert, with projects, mentoring and digital badging used to support learners looking to either make a career change, through to building deep expertise.  Michelle also has HR transformation and system experience across Skills/Future of Work, Mentoring, Analytics, Agile Talent management, communications and process improvement within Telco, IT Software, Resources and Pharma industries.

Luminary and Practitioner with over 30 years of experience in the Mobile Industry. A member of the Group Senior Management Committee of Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka’s premier telecommunications company. Spearheaded the companywide digital transformation programme from June 2017 to October 2019. Chairperson of the Customer Experience Expert Working Group of Axiata Group Berhard Malaysia. Chairperson of the Digital Customer Experience Group Leadership Committee of Dialog Axiata. Primary responsibility of the GCCO is to lead the digital customer experience and service delivery functions across Dialog Axiata and its subsidiaries and to implement and establish the company’s Vision of Customer Experience Leadership. Mentor for Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), Hatch Works, SLASSCOM, SLISM & WCDSL. Alumna of the Cranfield University UK, INSEAD University Singapore and IMD Business School, Switzerland. Inaugural Customer Advisory Board of CX Network, UK. (2012-2013) First Sri Lankan to be CCXP certified by the Customer Experience Professionals Association, USA. Was on the judging panel for CX Asia Excellence Awards 2019, TM Forum Excellence Awards in Nice 2018 & 2019 and CXPA CX Impact awards 2018, The Computer Society of Sri Lanka Awards 2018 & 2019 and Dialog Awards.

Nancee Ruzicka is the founder of ICT Intuition LLC and helps network operators, software vendors and system integrators define and execute strategies to develop products and services that enable digital transformation. Ms. Ruzicka started as an engineer at Lockheed Martin and became an accomplished analyst and consultant with Yankee Group and Stratecast after five years with US WEST Advanced Technologies.

ICT Intuition provides trusted research and consulting to operators, ISVs and enterprises worldwide. We are uniquely qualified to understand and apply digital ICT solutions to achieve business outcomes. Specifically;

Agile Operations Planning and Optimization – Rapid definition of the operational processes and system requirements unique to business services operations.

Applied Operations workshops – Working with operators to define operational upgrades, systems rationalization strategies and the application of analytics to monetize business services.

Primary Market Research – Industry research focused on business services requirements, digital transformation and market progression.

Ms. Ruzicka was awarded dual graduate degrees in Computer Systems Management and Business Management and an undergraduate degree in Engineering. She is a featured speaker at industry events and frequent contributor to numerous business and industry publications.

Trained as a computer science graduate, Vincent Seet has joined Singtel Group since then and have been in the telecommunication industry for 20 years. He has assumed various roles in Singtel in both Network and IT domains. Vincent has also gained regional exposure through consultative engagements with Singtel’s group of associate companies.

Vincent is currently leading the Enterprise Architecture arm of Globe Telecom, Inc and is based in the Philippines. Ensuring the enterprise maximizes the use of existing application capabilities, monitoring of emerging technology and timely adopting these are his daily mantra. Vincent is also leading an infrastructure transformation initiative that seeks to build a unified cloud infrastructure that would serve both internal & external customers.

Jay is an entrepreneur who founded multiple companies around the world, ranging from a startup incubator, software development (CMS), VoIP, Mobile Telecoms to Artificial Intelligence.

He is also a partner at &How Intelligence; a consulting group focused on providing services from ideation through to implementation where he leads the Artificial Intelligence practice.

Jay’s first foray into telecommunications was in 2001 when he launched his VoIP network out of the United States and Canada.  He then developed and launched several products ranging from SMS Callback Gateways, Conference Gateways, and Web callback features.  In 2006 he started moving towards GSM communications. He began a roaming mobile service out of the UK, which was later acquired.

Over the years, he has successfully raised millions of dollars to fund and launch businesses in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Before joining &How Intelligence, he had completed an IPO for an Artificial Intelligence business that built cognitive models to enable deeply personalized experiences for users.

A strategist with a record of innovation, Jay’s accomplishments have earned him widespread recognition in the technology, telecommunications, and AI industries across Europe, North America, and Asia.