Speakers

Josh Valman

Founder & CEO - RPD International

Ellis Watson

Rasmus Ankersen

Paul Stobart

CEO - Zen

Gavin Jones

Head of Channel - BT Wholesale

Daryl Pile

Managing Director - Channel / Gamma

Simon Holden

Group Chief Operating Officer - CityFibre

Andrew Wilson

Sales Director, Business Wholesale - CityFibre

Rob Shuter

CEO - Enterprise , BT

Neil Wilson

Product Strategy Director - TalkTalk Wholesale Services

Tom O'Hagan

CEO - Virtual 1

Adam Cathcart

Managing Director - Onecom Partners

Martin Flick

Chief Executive Officer - Onecom Group

Dale Parkinson

Fixed Wholesale Sales Director - Virgin Media O2 Business

Diego Tedesco

Director of Wholesale Fixed - Virgin Media O2 Business

David Barber

Strategy Director - Zen

Helen Myers

Group Operations Director - Onecom

Tristia Harrison

CEO - TalkTalk Group

Josh Valman

Josh Valman is the founder and CEO of RPD International which enables companies to quickly develop new products, whose work has stretched from enabling telecoms businesses to prepare for the connected world to allowing consumer electronics companies to test products in new global markets

In his session Josh will cover everything from problem-solving to market disruption, supply chain to R&D, he also looks beyond manufacturing to services. Josh broadly looks at communication and interaction, how to cultivate and stabilise supplier relationships and how to make services more creative, flexible and responsive to open up the potential for growth. He discusses the future of consumer behaviour, examining how to predict change and keep pace with the ever-changing demands of each generation. Furthermore, Josh also speaks about his unique entrepreneurial journey and the lessons in determination, commerce and success.

Ellis Watson

In a varied executive career Ellis Watson has turned-around, rebranded, overhauled, reinvigorated and expanded businesses from entertainment to transport.

Starting out in newspapers Ellis's first break came as Marketing Director at The Sun. He then became CEO of Celador International, taking Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to over 100 countries. He was lured back to Fleet Street as MD of Mirror Group Newspapers, giving him his first leadership role in a PLC. As global CEO of Simon Cowell's Syco Corporation, Ellis took an array of record labels and programme formats, including the X Factor and Got Talent formats, to international success.

With fascinating views on leading through disruption, improving processes, and dealing with the complexities of governance and talent management, Ellis is known as one of the most inspiring, intelligent and entertaining keynote speakers in the country.

Rasmus Ankersen


Rasmus Ankersen is a writer, acclaimed leadership and performance expert. A former footballer and manager, he has worked and trained with some of the world's best athletes to understand and contribute to how they work. Rasmus has written a number of books examining what attributes world class performers share.


In his session, Rasmus will share examples of leadership, team and high performance from a different perspective, finding patterns, examining the big data, and realising that the extraordinary is often surprisingly normal and imitable. He delivers real, tangible lessons to audiences with verve, enthusiasm and wit that cover everything from incentives to big data to recruitment.

Paul Stobart


Paul Stobart joined Zen Internet as Chairman in November 2017 to steer the company through its next period of growth and development. In October 2018 he became CEO to drive day to day business activity and has since been instrumental in shaping a business strategy that aims to more than double revenue over the next five years. His objective is to position Zen as a challenger brand across all segments including residential, channel and mid-market enterprise.


Prior to Zen, Stobart spent 15 years on the executive team that grew software giant Sage from a £100 million disruptor to a £1.3 billion business on the FTSE 100. Previous executive positions include leadership roles in healthcare and finance.

Daryl Pile


Daryl joined Gamma in 2003 and has a proven track record in overseeing revenue and margin growth in the telecoms industry. With over 17 years of experience, he has taken a number of business development roles including Head of Channel and Sales Director at companies such as Telia, Uniworld and Gamma. Prior to his current position, Daryl was Head of Sales for the PBX / UC channel overseeing the development of around half our channel partners. Daryl is a graduate of the University of Surrey with a degree in Economics.


Simon Holden


Simon has 30-plus years experience working with Telecom, Media and Technology companies. Before joining CityFibre Simon was a partner at Goldman Sachs where he spent 18 years in London and New York. There he held senior roles in the Investment Banking division including Global Chief Operating Officer and Vice-Chairman of EMEA, as well as a number of leadership roles in the TMT banking team including Global Head of Telecoms. Prior to joining Goldman, Simon worked for Baring Brothers in London and Hong Kong. He is a fellow of the institute of chartered accountants, qualifying with Coopers and Lybrand and is a graduate of Imperial College, London.


Andrew Wilson


Andrew Wilson took up this key post with CityFibre in September 2019. He is responsible for directing and managing the company's day to day business wholesale division and shaping its channel partner go to market strategy.


With more than two decades of experience working in partner-facing roles and senior management positions, Andrew is a well-known and highly-respected figure in the IT and comms channel. He has strong and proven leadership skills and insight into key markets and technologies, which he is using to positive effect at CityFibre in spearheading the continued development of the company's partner relationships and business division.


Rob Shuter


Rob joined BT's Executive Committee as CEO of BT's Enterprise division on 1st February 2021. In his previous role, which he has held since March 2017, Rob was Group President and CEO of the MTN Group, headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has led the transformation of MTN group into a leading multi-national telecommunications company with over 250 million customers across 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East.


Prior to joining MTN, Rob was with Vodafone Group from 2009 to February 2017. He held various roles with Vodafone including Group CFO of Vodacom Group in South Africa, CEO Vodafone Netherlands and was appointed to the Vodafone Executive Committee from October 2015 as Chief Executive Officer of the Europe Cluster, responsible for Vodafone's operations in nine European markets.


Earlier in his career, Rob held various roles in the financial sector including Managing Director – Nedbank Retail, 2004-2009; and Head of Investment Banking – Standard Bank, 1997-1999. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (South Africa).


Rob has dual citizenship holding both British and South African passports. He is married to Michaela and they have three children. His interests include hiking, running, music and kayaking.


Neil Wilson


Neil spearheads the Product Strategy for TalkTalk Business Wholesale Services. He has a keen eye for technology and works closely with partners to understand the needs of customers. Neil and his team are responsible for the delivery and performance of Virtual1's portfolio, its future direction, as well as the articulation of that strategy out to the wider market.


With 15 years experience in products and marketing functions, Neil has a track record of delivering innovative, highly effective and award-winning products to market.


Tom O'Hagan


Tom is the Founder and CEO of Virtual1 which he led to become one of the largest wholesale providers in the UK in the B2B market. By combining capabilities in automation, APIs and portal experiences, Virtual1 was able to deliver award winning innovation and significant year-on-year organic growth.


Tom has more than 20 years experience in the telecoms industry having worked for leading global telecommunication providers both in the UK and the USA before founding Virtual1.


This drive, determination and ambition for the channel saw Tom recognised as the Entrepreneur of the year at the Comms National Awards.



Adam Cathcart


Adam has over 15 years experience in the industry and has held a number of senior and board roles in a sales and general management capacity, with the Dixon Stores Group, Outsourcery and Zest 4. He also founded a reseller business that was born in the cloud with a focus on Unified Communications and mobility, which he ran for three years before transitioning into 9 Group in 2016.


Adam has spent a large portion of his career working within the channel and takes great pride in supporting partners to develop and grow their business. Most recently, Adam supported the acquisition of 9 Group by Onecom and subsequent integration and rebranding of 9 Partners into Onecom Partners.


Adam has a sporting background having represented Great Britain at the World Junior Championships in Ice Hockey. He has maintained an interest in sport and is a keen follower of Motor Racing and Manchester United whilst often visiting the US and Canada to watch Ice Hockey.



Martin Flick


Martin has an extensive track record in the telecommunications industry, and a reputation as an inspirational leader of business transformation and organisational change and is highly experienced in M&A.


Aged 32, Martin founded his first channel business, Axxent Voice & Data, growing the business to £6 million revenue within four years before selling in 2004. He held various senior leadership roles across the next decade working in buy-and-build environments, and in 2012 invested personally in mobile telephony business Olive Communications.


Under his leadership as CEO, Olive grew revenues from £10 million to £30 million within three years. Martin secured a private equity minority investment following which, along with his executive team pivoted Olive from a 100 per cent mobile-focused business into a market-leading business cloud communications provider. In 2021 Martin completed his largest investment deal to date, integrating Olive into LDC-backed telecommunications giant Onecom, becoming Group CEO in the process. In his first full year of tenure revenues exceeded £165 million, with over 600 people on the payroll, 100,000 customers and 400-plus channel partners and resellers working within the Group.


Martin takes a personal interest in several charitable initiatives centred around disadvantaged young people – a subject that remains close to his heart. Building high-performing teams is another personal passion and Martin has been described as taking an ‘inspirational leadership style'. In addition to numerous awards over the years, in 2020 he was recognised as one of the UK's Most Ambitious Business Leaders in the LDC Daily Telegraph Awards.


Dale Parkinson


Dale's responsibilities range from driving indirect sales to supporting the channel community in providing new connectivity services underpinned by a fast, reliable network. Dale has over 20 years leadership experience across direct and indirect channels. He is passionate about delivering the infrastructure and solutions needed to power digital transformation, and finding ways to unlock disruptive thinking within the channel. Outside of work, Dale enjoys running, golf and skiing as often as possible.



Diego Tedesco


Diego Tedesco is the Director of Wholesale Fixed for Virgin Media O2. Diego has been in the telecoms industry since 2012, and in that time has been in senior management roles spanning across Finance, Strategy, Commercial and Marketing. Diego is hugely passionate about establishing the Virgin Media O2 Wholesale Fixed business as a key enabler of digital transformation through the Channel and Carrier markets.


He strongly believes that for UK Enterprises and public sector to truly leverage the digital age, it requires a strong and collaborative eco-system of Channel partnerships. Outside of work, when Diego isn't keeping his three young children entertained, he enjoys developing his culinary skills in the kitchen, and is also a devoted Spurs season ticket holder along with his son.



David Barber

David has over 20 years experience in the telecommunications sector. He joined Zen as Sales Executive in December 2000 and has held various positions throughout the business before becoming Portfolio Director in June 2021 and joining Zen's Executive Committee (ExCo). Most recently David's role has evolved and to Strategy Director taking full responsibility for Strategy, Marketing and Product across Zen's three divisions - Business, Partner and Consumer.


During his time at Zen, David spent seven years managing Zen's Portfolio in Zen Partner and leading the growth of the Wholesale proposition. David then moved into Zen's central Strategy Department where he took responsibility for Product and Portal development across the portfolio of core connectivity and communications products within the Partner and Retail Divisions.


David is known for his strong commercial and product management skills while also maintaining a deep understanding of operational business processes. His in-depth product knowledge is invaluable both business and industry wide. Since progressing through Senior Management, Dave's leadership has led to professional, creative and well-executed product innovations with award winning results for customers.

Helen Myers


With over 20 years experience in telecoms Helen is passionate about delivering brilliant customer experiences and operational excellence. Helen is responsible for how Onecom serves and supports customers across the mobile, connectivity and cloud portfolios and firmly believes that great people are key to Onecom's success.


Tristia Harrison

Tristia has been the CEO of TalkTalk Group since March 2017, having previously served as Managing Director of TalkTalk's consumer business.


Tristia previously held a number of senior management and executive positions in The Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk Group, having first joined CPW in 2000.


She has developed TalkTalk's community engagement programme in the North West since moving the business' HQ to Salford in 2019, including partnerships with local foodbanks and other community projects to help disadvantaged families and children in the area.


Tristia is an Independent Non-Executive Director at Next Plc, the Trustee Chair of homelessness charity, Crisis, and an Honorary Trustee at the national charity Ambitious about Autism.


From May 2011 to June 2020 she served as a Trustee at Comic Relief. Whilst there she chaired their Commercial and Technology board, as well as advising on marketing and communications campaigns.


Tristia is married with two teenage sons.


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