Mikko Uusitalo

Head of Research Department, Nokia Bell Labs & Lead for Hexa-X

Dr. Mikko Uusitalo is the Head of the Research Department for Wireless Advanced Technologies at Nokia Bell Labs Finland. Mikko is leading the European 6G Flagship Hexa-X. He obtained a M.Sc. (Eng.) and Dr.Tech. in 1993 and 1997 and a B.Sc. (Economics) in 2003, all from predecessors of Aalto University. Mikko has been at Nokia since 2000 with various roles, including Principal Researcher and Head of International Cooperation at Nokia Research. Mikko is a founding member of the CELTIC EUREKA and WWRF, the latter one he chaired for 2004-2006.

Iain J. Gillott

Founder & President, iGR Research

Before founding iGR, Mr. Gillott was a Group Vice President in IDC's Telecommunications practice, managing IDC's worldwide research on wireless and mobile communications and Internet access, telecom brands, residential and small business telecommunications and telecom billing services. Prior to joining IDC, Mr. Gillott was in various technical roles and a proposal manager at EDS (now HP), responsible for preparing new business proposals to wireless and mobile operators. Mr. Gillott is a minor investor (less than one percent) in Airwavz Solutions.

Mr. Gillott is a frequent speaker on industry issues and trends and has addressed audiences around the world over the past quarter of a century. In the past few years, he has spoken at many of the leading industry trade shows, including WIA 'The Wireless Infrastructure Show', the DAS Forum, Edge Congress, CES, 5G World, 5G North America, Small Cells Global Congress, and DAS Congress. In the past, he has also been a guest lecturer on the wireless industry at the University of Texas and at Thunderbird. In addition, he is frequently quoted in various publications, including FierceWireless, AGL, Connected Real Estate Magazine, SDx Central, RCR Wireless, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek International, and Business Week and has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and TechTV.

Qian (Clara) Li

Senior Principal Engineer, Intel Next Generation & Standards & Technology Steering Committee Chair for the IOWN Global Forum

Dr. Qian (Clara) Li is a Senior Principal Engineer with the next generation and standards division of Intel and & the technology steering committee chair for the IOWN Global Forum. Since joining Intel in 2012, Clara has been working on LTE and 5G communications system design and standardization in the area of air interface, radio access network, core network, and edge computing. Clara is currently leading 6G technology development in Intel and serves as the Technology Steering Committee Chair in IOWN GF. Clara received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2011. Clara has published more than 40 papers in IEEE journals and conferences, 4 book chapters and has been issued with more than 15 US patents.

Benoit Pelletier

Director of Next-Gen Ecosystems & Alliances for VMware, & Co-Chair of the Next G Alliance Steering Group

Benoit Pelletier is currently Director, Next Gen Ecosystems & Alliances in the Advanced Technologies SEBU at VMware with a Global mandate. He is also Co-Chair of the 5GNext Steering Group, co-founder of the Open Grid Alliance as well as the $400M ENCQOR 5G Public Private Partnership initiative with international collaboration between Canada, USA, Europe and UK, executive member of the board for Innovation ENCQOR, a NPO created to deliver this PPP across Quebec-Ontario corridor.

Serving as co-chair of the Next G Alliance Steering Group, on the board of 5G Americas, 6G World Advisory Council, general co-chair of IEEE 5G World Forum and Industry Fora conference.

Creative thinker and passionate about collaborative innovation, disruptive technologies, and execution! Proven leader with an intrapreneur mindset who creates rich and unique ecosystems that connect multinational corporations, SMBs, governments and academia.

“Innovate or Evaporate” has been his mantra over the last 30 years in different industry markets: Telecom at VMware, Ciena and Nortel, Transport at Bombardier, and Military-Aerospace at Oerlikon Aerospace.

Benoit held several leadership positions in design, system integration, program management and business development. Broad knowledge in Product Development and expertise in New Product Introduction of cutting-edge technologies along with government relationships. Benoit holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Sherbrooke.

Ray Le Maistre

Editorial Director, TelecomTV