Speakers

Cally Beaton is a media executive, entrepreneur, and performer. At the start of her career, she headed an independent television production company that was bought by ITV. She joined the board of the UK’s main commercial broadcaster as both the youngest, and the only woman member.

She left ITV to start a creative consultancy and production company as well as joining US studio giant ViacomCBS as Senior Vice President of International Sales. At ViacomCBS, Cally oversaw a £500 million budget for channels including Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount; if you want someone to blame for bringing South Park and Spongebob Squarepants to the world, you need look no further.

Bringing humour and energy to her business insight, Cally considers the nature of the workplace and leadership culture and how to engender personal and organisational change, inspire teams and develop a positive, agile, and inclusive environment.

Dan Cobley is a tech entrepreneur, investor and managing partner at UK venture capital / builder firm Blenheim Chalcot. Prior to that he spent almost a decade at Google, serving as Managing Director, UK & Ireland (the company’s biggest and most advanced market outside the US). As MD at Google, Dan was responsible for over $5billion of revenue, and for helping companies large and small harness the power of digital to generate insights, increase sales and transform culture.

Dan addresses the disruptive power of technology more broadly, AI, innovation, and Google's unique approach to business and culture. He also examines how innovation works, the importance of learning from failure, and how to spot the next target for digital disruption.

Serial entrepreneur, retail and leisure business guru, and turnaround expert PY Gerbeau has led organisations around the world. Famously the ‘saviour’ of the Millennium Dome, he’s turned around nine businesses, established a £600million property portfolio as X-Leisure CEO, and served as a business school professor. After injury curtailed a promising professional sporting career, PY went into business, joining Euro Disney and rising to Vice President of the theme park. His success there led him to be appointed Chief Exec of the struggling and much- maligned Millennium Dome. After public indifference, media ridicule, and a inauspicious opening night, PY reviewed the attractions, services and staffing turning the Government-built landmark into a success pulling in over six million visitors.

After the Dome’s 12 month run, PY joined the X-Leisure group as CEO, establishing the new chain of indoor ski and entertainment venues around the country. Over a decade he built a successful portfolio of leisure destinations before negotiating their sale to the property giant Land Securities. He's since gone on to combine non-exec and Chair roles with an academic life, as well as serving as CEO of the new project, a joint venture between Paramound, ITV and the BBC, to build a new leisure resort in the south east of England to rival the parks and resorts from the likes of Disney and Universal.

In presentations PY explains how the economic and business climate requires each and every tier of management to be agile, accountable and better at balancing risk. Decisions must be firm and consistent – not based on a popularity contest. And at a time when even established brands and reputations can be destroyed in hours, managers must ensure that the organisation’s values are understood, embraced and upheld by everyone. Above all, they should lead by example. PY has been voted Personality of the Year by his leisure industry peers, holds an MBA from one of France’s leading business schools and frequently appears in the media commenting on business and life as a voluntary French exile in London. He has also served as Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship and Corporate Rescue at London Business School and Imperial College.

Away from the boardroom PY is an accomplished golfer (winning the Alfred Dunhill Cup whilst running the Millennium Dome) and was Captain of the French Olympic Ice Hockey team (although he was suspended from the French Olympic Association after supporting London’s 2012 bid).

Mandy Hickson was one of the first female pilots to serve in a front line Tornado GR4 squadron, playing an active role in the conflict in Iraq.

From motivation to decision-making, Mandy gives a vivid insight into the leadership, teamwork and communication required to define and then realise specific goals in high-pressure situations. She also highlights the value of honest and open debriefing after any project or phase; something the Royal Air Force always do, but which businesses often overlook.

Scotty Mills is the highest-ranking black officer in the history of the Royal Marines and led Britain’s Commandos around the world. He shares his lessons of leadership and resilience working as a performance coach in the world of elite sport and business. Scotty has an international reputation for his ability to use his experience to inspire others and help them overcome their limitations. He continues to work with the nation's top sports teams and Olympic teams to develop innovative leadership, team cohesion and peak performance. His compelling journey highlights the power of human inspiration and his lessons on how to achieve impossible results and how to make a winning team are transferable to any organisation

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 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 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.

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.

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 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 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'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.

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 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.