Agenda

Head of Wire and Cable,  CRU
Michael is Head of CRU’s Wire and Cable team, and works across the full portfolio of products analysing key trends and developments in both the metallic wire and cable, and optical fibre industries. Michael joined CRU Analysis in 2015 gaining experience across several commodities including; nickel, chrome, molybdenum and stainless steel. Before Joining CRU, Michael gained experience as an exploration geologist focusing on precious and base metal mineralisation in North Africa. He completed his undergraduate studies at Cardiff University where he attained a First Class degree with Honours in Geology. He also holds an MSc in Mining Geology (Distinction) from Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter.

Executive Vice President and Chief R&D Officer,  Prysmian Group

Srinivas ‘Srini’ Siripurapu is Executive Vice President and Chief R&D Officer of Prysmian Group. He is responsible for the company’s worldwide R&D strategy, R&D talent development and Innovation pipeline. His professional career spanned with Reliance Industries, General Electric and Sabic all major global industrial conglomerates. He has a proven track record of building high performance teams and successful customer driven innovations in Energy, Electrical Infrastructure, Communications, Automotive, Aerospace, Healthcare and Consumer Electronics market segments. He is a certified Design for Six Sigma Black Belt and is an inventor on over 50 patent applications. He is passionate about mentoring young engineers and scientists on sustainability and innovation. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Head of Wire and Cable,  CRU
Michael is Head of CRU’s Wire and Cable team, and works across the full portfolio of products analysing key trends and developments in both the metallic wire and cable, and optical fibre industries. Michael joined CRU Analysis in 2015 gaining experience across several commodities including; nickel, chrome, molybdenum and stainless steel. Before Joining CRU, Michael gained experience as an exploration geologist focusing on precious and base metal mineralisation in North Africa. He completed his undergraduate studies at Cardiff University where he attained a First Class degree with Honours in Geology. He also holds an MSc in Mining Geology (Distinction) from Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter.

Executive Vice President and Chief R&D Officer,  Prysmian Group

Srinivas ‘Srini’ Siripurapu is Executive Vice President and Chief R&D Officer of Prysmian Group. He is responsible for the company’s worldwide R&D strategy, R&D talent development and Innovation pipeline. His professional career spanned with Reliance Industries, General Electric and Sabic all major global industrial conglomerates. He has a proven track record of building high performance teams and successful customer driven innovations in Energy, Electrical Infrastructure, Communications, Automotive, Aerospace, Healthcare and Consumer Electronics market segments. He is a certified Design for Six Sigma Black Belt and is an inventor on over 50 patent applications. He is passionate about mentoring young engineers and scientists on sustainability and innovation. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Senior Vice President Energy,  Prysmian

Francesco Fanciulli has been Senior Vice President of the Energy segment since February 2018. He holds a degree in Law from the Cattolica University of Milan. In 1988, he joined Procter and Gamble, where he held various leadership roles within sales and marketing, culminating in his appointment as Head of Mass Retail for Italy. He moved to Pirelli in 1998 as Marketing Director for its Tyres division and subsequently held various sales-management positions in this division, eventually becoming Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing. He has been with Prysmian since 2008, contributing his vast experience in sales and marketing and occupying various positions of regional responsibility, such as CEO India, CEO Turkey and CEO Danube Area. Since 2015 - when the Central Eastern Europe region was created - he has been CEO CEE Region, responsible for integration of Germany and the Danube Area and development of the region’s industrial footprint.

CEO,  Tratos

Dr Maurizio Bragagni is CEO of Tratos Ltd, the manufacturing division of global cable maker Tratos Group. Tratos received the 2019 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation, is an international cable producer with factories in the UK and Italy, offices in five continents and customers worldwide, servicing the power, transport, shipping, communications and oil and gas industries. With turnover in excess of €350 million, it is one of the world’s largest independent cable manufacturers and is involved in many high-profile and technologically- advanced projects across the globe.

A British Citizen, Maurizio is based in the UK and has played a key role in building the family business into a multinational success story, including leading the globalisation of the company’s manufacturing capabilities. Maurizio, has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bolton, a degree in Law from the University of Pisa and an MBA in Business Administration from London’s Cass Business School.

In addition to his successful business career, Maurizio is an active supporter of the Conservative Party and serves as Founder and Chairman of the British Italian Conservatives, an association affiliated to the party. Maurizio is the Honorary Consul of the Republic of San Marino in the UK & Northern Ireland. This significant role in representing the state has official relations at the diplomatic level with Britain, across political and economic relations and social and cultural affairs internationally.

Maurizio is also a member of the IEC Market Strategy Board offering his vision for innovation and willingness to contribute to the mission of the MSB and IEC.

He is passionate about technological innovation and has campaigned passionately for higher minimum standards to govern the materials that are used in offices, homes and public buildings. Maurizio launched the Safer Structures Campaign in 2017, in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London, to demand regulatory intervention to improve cable standards and monitor materials used in construction. Establishing the Tratos Academy in 2015, Maurizio also leads the Corporate Social Responsibility programme focused on bringing an ethical, fair and honest approach to the business, from procurement of raw materials through to ensuring welfare across the supply chain.

A devoted patron of the arts and charitable works, Maurizio founded the Esharelife Foundation in 2017 to help some of the most disadvantaged people in the world, using an online platform for artists to generate revenues for charity.

Maurizio is married to his wife Alessandra, they have four young daughters.

Chairman Emeritus,  Marconi Society

 

Professor Sir David Neil Payne CBE FRS FREng is a leading Professor at the University of Southampton and Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre. A world class pioneer of technology, his work has had a great impact on telecommunications and laser technology over the last forty years. The vast transmission capacity of today’s internet results directly from the erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) invented by David and his team in the 1980s. His pioneering work in fibre fabrication in the 70s resulted in almost all of the special fibres in use today including fibre lasers which are currently undergoing rapid growth for application in manufacturing and defence. David has made numerous leading contributions to many diverse fields of photonics and is widely acknowledged as an inventor of key components.

Currently, his main research interest is high-power fibre lasers. With US funding, he led the team that broke the kilowatt barrier for fibre laser output to international acclaim and now holds many other fibre laser performance records. An original member of the Highly Cited Researchers (USA) he is honoured as one of the most referenced, influential researchers in the world. He has published over 650 Conference and Journal papers and is a frequent plenary and invited speaker at major international optics conferences. As an entrepreneur David’s activities have led to a cluster of 11 photonics spin out companies in and around Southampton – helping to boost the local economy. He founded SPI Lasers PLC, which has recently been purchased by the Trumpf Corporation of Germany for $40M.

David chaired the Marconi Society from 2010 through 2016.  He is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He became a Commander of the British Empire in the 2007 New Year’s Honours list. In addition, he has been awarded the top American, European and Japanese prizes in photonics. Recent awards include the Marconi Prize in 2008 and the 2007 IEE Photonics Award the first to be awarded to a person outside the USA. Most recently, in 2010, David received the AILU (Association of Laser Users) Award for his pioneering work with fibre lasers.

Senior Vice President of Wire & Cable R&D and Technology,  Southwire Company

Axel Schlumberger joined Southwire Company in 1997 and currently serves as Senior Vice President of Wire & Cable R&D and Technology.

Prior roles at Southwire include multiple technical and commercial leadership and executive roles in High Voltage Cable Systems, Southwire’s Utility Business and Southwire Canada.

Axel is a leading expert on engineered cables and conductors, Power Delivery and High Voltage Cables & Systems.

He holds a master’s degree in Electric Energy Systems and Power Apparatus from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. A senior member of the IEEE Power & Energy Society, he is also a member of CIGRE and a contributing author of EPRI's Underground Transmission Systems Reference Book.

Axel is a native of Germany and resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

CEO,  Sarkuysan A.S
Sevgür Arslanpay had been graduated from Technical University of Istanbul, as Chemical Engineer in 1983. Following his graduation, Arslanpay started working within the same year at Sarkuysan A.S. which is the largest copper rod&wire producer in Turkey. Since then, he has worked at various positions within the Company and finally was appointed as General Manager as of July 1st, 2015. In addition to his position at Sarkuysan A.S. he is the member of the board at Demisas A.S., Sarmakina A.S., Sark Wire in Usa and Sark - Bulgaria in Bulgaria. He is also active in various business councils and professional organizations; as Vice Chairman of Turkish Exporters Non-Ferrous Association and Turkish-Bulgarian Business Council.

Business Development Manager, APAC,  Cimteq

Yufei Du is Cimteq Ltd’s Business Development Manager, APAC. He is responsible for new market business development, project implementation & management and technical support for Asia Pacific. Cimteq was established in 1998 by Ali Shehab, President, and is the leading developer of software for cable design and manufacturing.

Yufei Du graduated from the University of Sheffield as an Electrical and Electronic Engineer with a Bachelor of Engineering. He has worked in the cable industry for over eight years. He supports cable factories with the implementation of CableBuilder, software for cable design and manufacturing, and CableMES, a manufacturing execution system specifically for the wire and cable industry.

Vice President, Telecom Solutions,  Prysmian

Antoni Bosch is currently Vice President Telecom Solutions Business Unit in Prysmian Group since 2013. He also is Board member of the FTTH Council Europe since 2016.
With more than 25 years’ experience in the telecom industry has a proven track record of business achievements and experience mainly in sales, marketing and business management in an international environment. In his current position hold a unique view of the worldwide telecom market, dealing with the major telecom operators worldwide and managing a business over 800mln€, although being mainly Europe centric it is spread within EMEA, Americas and APAC regions. Antoni Bosch holds a MSc degree in Telecommunications Engineering by Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Barcelona) with a MBA from Esade Business School (Barcelona)and an Executive PDG from Iese Business School (Barcelona) and SDA Bocconi (Milan). He joined Prysmian in 1998 and since then he has developed his professional career within the telecom business holding several positions as Business Manager and Sales & Marketing Director.
Before joining Prysmian he worked in the telecom sector as a Consultant and Head of Systems of the Air Traffic Control Center of Barcelona Airport.

Telecom Business Unit Director,  ACOME Group
Stéphane Samson has been in the Telecom industry for over 15 years. Civil Engineer graduated from the ESTP he started as a financial analyst at Arthur Andersen then move to the Telecom industry. He started his career at Prosodie-Cap Gemini to develop customer experience solution before moving to Anovo Group to manage reverse logistic and supply chain solutions to some of the european’s largest telecom operators. He joined Acome Group in 2012 as a Sales Director for the telecom division. He is now the Telecom Business Unit Director with responsabilities on Sales, Technical, Marketing and Production and member of the Group Executive Committee. With more than 500 M€ turnover, Acome is a telecom and automotive cable manufacturer, one of the european leader. More than 50% of the turnover is done outside France.

Wire & Cable Analyst,  CRU

Director of Public Affairs,  Europacable
Volker Wendt is the Director of Public Affairs of Europacable, the association of the leading European wire and cable manufacturers. He is responsible for the association’s lobbying engagements covering energy, telecommunication, environmental and industry policies. Before joining Europacable, Dr. Wendt spent 10 years with Burson-Marsteller, one of Brussel´s leading public affairs consulting firms. As Director and Deputy Chairman of the EMEA Energy Team, he developed and led public affairs campaigns in Brussels and across Europe. On a pro-bono basis, he served as Director to the European Fire Academy, EFA, a network of senior European fire officers. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Passau, Germany. He and his wife have one daughter.

Chief Economist,  CRU
Jumana Saleheen is Chief Economist at CRU, where she is Head of Economics. She has over 20 years of experience in economic analysis, and over 10 years of experience leading diverse teams.Jumana joined CRU in July 2018 from the Bank of England where she worked for over 20 years. In her most recent role at the Bank, she was Head of Division in the Financial Stability Directorate, working to assess financial market risk. Prior to that, Jumana worked in various roles, advising the Banks’ Monetary Policy Committee on their interest rate decisions. She has published her research in a number of books and leading journals, including Economica and the Journal of International Economics. She has also written a number of influential policy papers on labour markets, productivity and finance. Jumana has a PhD in Economics from University College London, and a M.Sc. and B.Sc. from the London School of Economics.

Industrial Analyst,  Credit Suisse
Max Yates works on the Credit Suisse Industrials Equity research team focusing on a range of end markets including cables. He has nine years of experience working as a financial analyst looking at both developed market and emerging market companies. Specifically, on the cables he has written detailed reports on consolidation trends in Cables and the Submarine cable market structure and covers related companies, Prysmian, Nexans and NKT. He graduated with a BA (hons) degree from Trinity College Dublin.

Head of Wire and Cable,  CRU
Michael is Head of CRU’s Wire and Cable team, and works across the full portfolio of products analysing key trends and developments in both the metallic wire and cable, and optical fibre industries. Michael joined CRU Analysis in 2015 gaining experience across several commodities including; nickel, chrome, molybdenum and stainless steel. Before Joining CRU, Michael gained experience as an exploration geologist focusing on precious and base metal mineralisation in North Africa. He completed his undergraduate studies at Cardiff University where he attained a First Class degree with Honours in Geology. He also holds an MSc in Mining Geology (Distinction) from Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter.

Principle Analyst Broadband & FTTx and Director Networks & Smart Territories Business Unit,  IDATE DigiWorld

Roland Montagne joined IDATE in 1998 and he is now Principle Analyst Broadband & FTTx as well as Director Networks & Smart Territories Business Unit. In his position, he is responsible of IDATE Consulting and Research activities covering Broadband / FTTx fields. Mr Montagne played a leading role in previous IDATE International studies. He has carried out several studies dealing with European Broadband roll out as annual Surveys on Broadband Access for the DGInfSo. Since 2004, Roland Montagne is leading FTTx works at IDATE and is also the project leader, on yearly basis, for the FTTH Council Europe European FTTH projects panorama (17th edition in 2019). He also achieved a major study for the French Government on scenarios for deploying Very High Broadband networks in France (cost model and Government options). Roland Montagne also carried out several strategic analyses focused on US and Asian developing FTTH markets. He has been involved on FTTH cost model analysis for the United Kingdom as well as best practice study looking at fibre indoor deployments as well as ducts sharing. Recently, He was also leading a study on the potential of NGPON technologies as well as maturity of active wholesale for developing FTTH markets. Since 2013, on yearly bases, Roland is conducting FTTH projects Panorama for Latin America FTTH Chapter (17 countries covered), FTTH Council APAC (21 countries studied/7th edition), FTTH Council MENA (19 countries covered), and leading an annual worldwide FTTx watch service proposed by IDATE and covering more than 70 countries (11th edition). In 2017, Roland conducted the first FTTH Panorama for Sub Saharan Africa (FTTH Council Africa).

Roland Montagne is a Telecommunications Engineer (ENST Paris, 1994) and received a Master on Electronics (University Paris 6, 1994). He also worked for AT&T Bell laboratories (USA) as Engineer on DWDM Optical Networks and ATM technologies. He started his carrier in the France Telecom R&D labs working on optical communications.

President & CEO,  Fiber Optic Center, Inc.

Publisher and Editor in Chief, Wire and Cable News,  CRU

Natalie Noor-Drugan is a content driven journalist and editor with 15 years' experience in daily, weekly and monthly business-to-business publishing for the petrochemicals, fertilizers, steel and wire & cable industries.

She has a proven track record in product launches, change management, online and print content creation and content improvement projects. She writes and commissions articles which analyse the wire & cable industry.

Executive Director, Head of Sales Rod,  Aurubis

Tanja Winter studied Business in Mannheim, Germany, from 2001 to 2004 while being in a trainee-program at Berkenhoff GmbH, a producer of non-ferrous precision wires. She also spent a semester abroad at the semi-finished metals company Avins USA. Afterwards, she started her career in the Rolled Products division at Gebr. Kemper in Olpe, Germany, where she held the position of Sales Manager for Asia-Pacific/India/Americas from 2011 to 2014. She has been with Aurubis’ Sales Copper Products in Hamburg since 2015, initially serving as Area Sales Manager Germany and CEE; since 2016 as Head of Sales Rod (incl. Foxrod, Nuggets and Wire).

International Market Director,  Sonepar

Market and Technology Development Manager,  Corning

Sergejs Makovejs received Ph.D. in electronic and electrical engineering from UCL, United Kingdom in 2011 and Executive MBA from Warwick Business School, United Kingdom in 2019. He presently works at Corning, and his professional interests include technology related to data center interconnects, long-haul terrestrial, and submarine networks. He has authored and co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers in the field of optical communications. Dr. Makovejs is a regular presenter at international conference and seminars.

Sr. Manager Product Management,  OFS

CEO,  Clobbi Cable & Wire
During 15 years of Dmitriy’s experience in Clobbi he led, actively participated and successfully completed a number of digital transformation and business processes optimization projects in Ukrainian, Russian and international companies. Among the achievements there are projects for process optimization in the largest Russian and Ukrainian cable companies like Uncomtech, Kamsky Cable, Kirscable, Cable Alliance Holding, Nexans-RUS, Interpipe Group, Antonov aircraft and others. Dmitriy’s main competencies are industrial consulting, business process re-engineering and optimization, development, delivery and implementation of advanced production management system (APS\MES), management of equipment repairs (EAM,RCM), manufacturing quality control based on the Industry4.0.SmartFactory ideology.

Head of Wire and Cable,  CRU
Michael is Head of CRU’s Wire and Cable team, and works across the full portfolio of products analysing key trends and developments in both the metallic wire and cable, and optical fibre industries. Michael joined CRU Analysis in 2015 gaining experience across several commodities including; nickel, chrome, molybdenum and stainless steel. Before Joining CRU, Michael gained experience as an exploration geologist focusing on precious and base metal mineralisation in North Africa. He completed his undergraduate studies at Cardiff University where he attained a First Class degree with Honours in Geology. He also holds an MSc in Mining Geology (Distinction) from Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter.