RadComms 2022: Speakers

Andrew Thomas

Andrew Thomas is Swoop Aero’s Chief Architect with many years’ experience in strategic software development of critical systems, both in-house at PwC, and consulting directly to government.

Andrew leads the design, development and ongoing management of the proprietary cloud-based software suite.

Prior to Swoop Aero, Andrew designed and managed the development team building Victoria’s Emergency Public Warnings and Evacuation systems, as well as leading the data team in the Fire Services division, developing C2 functionality at the state level.

Anna Brakey

Anna Brakey was appointed a Commissioner of the ACCC in December 2020. She is also an Associate Member of the ACMA and the New Zealand Commerce Commission.

Anna has extensive experience in regulatory economics and public policy, with over 25 years of experience working with regulators, government and within the private sector. She has had broad exposure to a wide range of infrastructure industries, including energy, water and transport. Additionally, she has worked on economic reform to social policy.

Prior to starting at ACCC, Anna worked as an economist at Frontier Economics and held a number of roles at the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), including being a deputy Tribunal Member, the Executive Director of Strategy and Economic Analysis and the Chief Operating Officer. Anna’s expertise includes the Parliamentary Committee process, the New South Wales Department of Transport, the Australian Productivity Commission, the Bureau of Industry Economics and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Additionally, Anna has worked for the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) on reforms to economic regulation and with the New South Wales Treasury on the sale of assets.

Anna chairs the ACCC’s Infrastructure Committee, Communications Committee, Electricity Markets Inquiry Board and East Coast Gas Market Board, and is a member of the ACCC’s Competition Exemptions Committee and Agriculture Board.

Anna holds a Bachelor of Economics from Australian National University and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment from Securities Institute of Australia. She is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dr Claire Naughtin

Dr Claire Naughtin is a Senior Research Consultant at CSIRO’s Data61. She is passionate about bridging the gap between research and application and uses data to tell stories about the future that can support leaders in making better long-term decisions.

In her role at Data61, she leads future-focused, strategic foresight projects for government and industry, covering topics such as the future of employment, healthcare, transport, the public sector workforce, trade, emerging industries, youth wellbeing and intellectual property.

Most recently, Claire co-led the delivery of CSIRO’s once-in-a-decade Our Future World report, which she will be presenting on as part of the conference. Claire also delivers strategic foresight training to help organisations build resilience to uncertain futures and publishes strategic foresight approaches in scientific journals.

Daniel Featherstone

Daniel Featherstone is a Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University, leading the 4-year ‘Mapping the Digital Gap’ research project on digital inclusion in remote First Nations communities.

Daniel was previously General Manager of national peak body First Nations Media Australia, formerly Indigenous Remote Communications Association, from 2012–20, and a key player in Broadband for the Bush Alliance.

From 2001–2010, he managed remote media organisation Ngaanyatjarra Media, coordinating media, telecommunications and digital inclusion programs for 15 communities across WA’s Ngaanyatjarra Lands.

In 2015, Daniel completed a Research PhD on evaluation and policy development of remote indigenous media and communications.

David Haley

David Haley is responsible for the strategic direction of Myriota technology, growing Myriota’s world-class patent portfolio, and translating deep tech into product. He is a passionate entrepreneur who has contributed to international wireless standards for maritime and intelligent transport systems.

David holds a PhD in telecommunications from the University of South Australia and Bachelor degrees in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science from Adelaide University.

Gavin Bowman

Gavin Bowman has worked in and around the broadcast sector for the best part of 25 years. Starting out in broadcast regulation, Gavin branched out to work on the digital TV switchover before the digital TV restack project led him to the ABC.

Now he is focused on ensuring the ABC gets value out of its current broadcast network while also ensuring ABC radio and TV services remain fit for purpose as new technologies vie for audience attention.

James Alderdice

As Vice President, and the lead for Lynk’s business in Asia-Pacific, James Alderdice has established commercial partnerships with mobile operators and built Lynk’s government relations across the region, providing the foundation to connect the billions of people still unconnected.

Specialising in providing remote connectivity for unserved locations, James has held sales and marketing positions at Inmarsat, EMC (now part of Anuvu) and SpeedCast, as well as other industry pioneers. With nearly 20 years working in satellite communications, his career has been highlighted by providing international IP backbone connections over satellite to countries such as Sierra Leone, South Africa, Kenya, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Timor-Leste as well as helping mobile network operators with their network reach and network optimisation.

James Evans

James Evans is Head of Networks (Acting) at Ericsson Australia and New Zealand. James has worked with Ericsson since 1995 and has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America.

He has worked with the introduction and evolution of mobile networks with major operators in the Asia-Pacific and the USA and contributed significantly towards regulators and government departments in technology leadership roles, research and development, and operations.

James has expertise in mobile networks, including 3GPP radio technology and standards and is currently working with the introduction of 5G radio systems. This includes spectrum and regulatory requirements, equipment hardware and software requirements, and 5G use case development.

James graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with Bachelor of Electronics and Communications (Honours) and received a PhD at the University of Melbourne.

Jane van Beelen

As Chief Legal & Regulatory Officer, Jane van Beelen is the General Counsel of NBN Co, and leads the company’s legal and regulatory functions. She is responsible for the provision of legal and regulatory expertise to the board and executives, leading engagement with regulatory stakeholders and facilitating legal and regulatory compliance.

A telco industry veteran, Jane joined NBN Co following a 25-year career across the legal and corporate affairs functions at Telstra. There she led the company’s regulatory strategy and engagement for 10 years, and played a leading role in numerous reforms and regulatory outcomes across the telecommunications industry in Australia.

Most recently, Jane led the compliance and regulatory affairs function, with responsibility for the company’s compliance framework and compliance programs, including ethical behaviour, regulatory and privacy.

Jane was also inaugural chair of the GSMA Asia-Pacific Policy Group and a global Policy Group member, served on the Boards of TIO Ltd and AMTA, including 2 years as AMTA chair, and continues to serve as a Director of Communications Alliance.

Jennifer McCarthy

Jennifer McCarthy is a telecommunications regulatory attorney with 30 years of experience in the wireless sector, having held a variety of government affairs, business development and operations positions for several of the industry’s leading technology innovators.

In her role at Federated Wireless, Jennifer is responsible for the company’s regulatory and government affairs agenda.  

Prior to joining Federated Wireless, Jennifer was with MVP Capital, working with wireless spectrum licence holders, TV and radio station owners and other online content service providers on a variety of mergers and acquisitions projects.

Jennifer was previously the Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Operations for NextWave Wireless Inc. and part of the executive management team of MediaFLO USA Inc., a subsidiary of QUALCOMM Incorporated. She was also the head of QUALCOMM’s international government affairs team.

Jennifer has a BA in political science from Yale University and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center. She is a member of both the California and Washington, DC Bars and currently serves on the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC), which advises the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Linda Caruso

Linda Caruso is General Manager of the ACMA’s Communications Infrastructure Division.

Linda leads the agency’s spectrum management activities, including planning, allocating and licensing access to Australia’s radiofrequency spectrum to optimise its value to the Australian community, while managing the risk of interference and other harms.

She has worked in a variety of roles since joining the ACMA. Linda has led the agency’s spectrum reforms through the design of new spectrum licensing arrangements, the annual spectrum work plan and spectrum pricing activities. Linda previously managed the ACMA’s research program, its international engagement strategy, and economics and pricing analysis.

Before joining the ACMA, Linda worked in the Commonwealth and Victorian governments, and at Telstra, in public policy design and implementation and regulatory advice roles, interacting with a range of infrastructure industries and community and industry stakeholders.

Lisa Scalpone

Lisa Scalpone is Head of Country Development for Project Kuiper at Amazon, and is responsible for Project Kuiper’s global planning and country operations.

Prior to Amazon, Lisa was Vice President and General Manager at Viasat, a California-based satellite telecommunications company.

Lisa helped pioneer the residential satellite internet business as one of the first employees of start-up WildBlue Communications, and worked to expand the business in the US and globally – including launching services with the Brazilian government to thousands of schools in rural Brazil. 

In 2014, she was appointed by Governor Hickenlooper to serve on Colorado’s Broadband Deployment Board and currently serves on the board of the Colorado Poverty Law Project.

Louise Bradford

Louise Bradford has over 20 years’ experience in the communications industry. She is currently Chief Operating Officer at Connected Farms, with the goal of enabling digital agriculture across Australia, New Zealand and the UK markets.

In her previous role with Connected Farms, she was Head of Regulatory, Industry and Government Affairs. Before joining in early 2021, Louise spent nearly 20 years as an experienced public sector manager, leading projects for the ACMA in strategy, policy development, corporate governance, data analytics and visualisation, regulatory development and design, spectrum management and regulatory reform.

Louise is excited by the opportunities digital connectivity and 5G technologies can deliver to underserviced markets, particularly in the agriculture sector.

Louise Hyland

Louise Hyland is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association Limited (AMTA).

AMTA is the peak industry organisation and voice representing Australia’s mobile telecommunications sector and operates programs covering all aspects of the mobile ecosystem such as telecommunications policy, mobile network infrastructure, radiofrequency spectrum, health & safety, product stewardship/e-waste and recycling, national security, content regulation and consumer awareness and education.

Captain MJ Strachan RAN

Captain Strachan transferred to the Royal Australian Navy from the Royal Navy in 1997. His weapons electrical artificers training specialising in radar, communications and weapons data systems underpins his technical knowledge. Graduating from the Australian Defence Force Academy in 2001, he trained as a Maritime Warfare Officer and completed Principal Warfare training in 2006. He specialised in communications and information warfare.

Captain Strachan is the Director General Joint Communication Operational Support and works directly to the Head of ICT Operations, Major General Murray Thompson, AM, CSC. This is one of 4 within Chief Information Officer Group.

His mission is to provide the Australian Defence Force with the necessary spectrum to achieve government tasking in partnership with other government agencies and industry partners.

Mark Krischer

Mark Krischer has over 25 years of experience across wireless and security technologies, and is currently focused on the intersection of Wi-Fi and private 5G. He is also actively working with regulators around the region on the need to open the 6GHz band for unlicensed use.

He joined Cisco in 2001, as part of the Radiata acquisition, where he was Director of Software Engineering. As part of Cisco’s Wireless Networking Business Unit, Mark led software engineering in Sydney, and was responsible for the design and development for such technologies as EAP FAST (IETF RFC 4851) and Management Frame Protection (802.11w).

Prior to his involvement in wireless, he focused on intrusion detection and the application of public key infrastructure (PKI) to secure networking protocols and services at BBN Technologies.

Through his engineering work, Mark holds 18 patents in wireless and security.

Matthew Tetlow

After finishing a Bachelor of Engineering at The University of Adelaide, Matthew Tetlow performed his PhD research at the Space Systems Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. Working as part of an ESA-funded program, Matthew performed trajectory and system design studies, and developed an advanced guidance algorithm for application on future launch systems. Matthew then worked for the Australian Scramjet program, on mission and control system development.

After a role as Senior Engineer at Tigerfish Aviation, Matthew worked on several defence and non-defence projects, including systems engineering for capability development, stand-off and close air support weapon modelling, submarine design optimisation, CFD analyses of aircraft stores, and nano satellite technologies. 

In 2012, Matthew founded Inovor Technologies to work more closely with Defence and to develop satellite technologies, with a particular focus on small satellite platforms, space situational awareness and Earth observation.

The Hon Michelle Rowland MP

The Hon Michelle Rowland MP was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010 as the Member for Greenway in North West Sydney.

Prior to entering parliament, she was a senior lawyer specialising in competition and regulation in the telecommunications, media and technology sectors.

In 2013 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism, and Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications.

In October 2015, Michelle was elevated to the shadow cabinet and appointed the Shadow Minister for Small Business and Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

Michelle was re-elected at the July 2016 election and appointed Shadow Minister for Communications. She continued to serve in the portfolio following the May 2019 election.

In 2022, Michelle was sworn in as Minister for Communications under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Michelle has served as a Councillor and Deputy Mayor of Blacktown City Council, Chair of Screen NSW, Director of the Western Sydney Area Health Service and Director of the Western Sydney Parklands Trust. She currently serves as President of the NSW Labor Party.

Michelle is married to Michael and they have 2 young daughters, Octavia and Aurelia. Michelle is passionate about affording everyone, regardless of their background, equality of opportunity.

Mitchell Gooden

Mitchell Gooden has held many senior leadership positions in large enterprises and in telecommunications. He has extensive experience in the development and implementation of strategic programs which support digitisation by leveraging latest generation technologies.

As a senior leader in Aqura, Mitchell plays a pivotal role in assisting to navigate the needs of enterprises and government to effectively embrace and leverage technology for today, and tomorrow.

Nerida O'Loughlin

Nerida O'Loughlin was appointed Chair and Agency Head of the ACMA in 2017. Prior to the ACMA, Nerida was Deputy Secretary in the Department of Communications and the Arts, providing policy advice across telecommunications, broadcasting, online content and the arts. Nerida has also been responsible for major projects in the communications portfolio, including leading the Digital Television Switchover Program. She served as interim CEO of the Digital Transformation Agency from 2016 to 2017.

Over her career, Nerida has also held senior positions in the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments, predominantly across the technology and cultural sectors.

In 2019, Nerida was appointed as an Associate Member of the ACCC. She was awarded a Public Service Medal in the Queen’s Birthday honours later that year for outstanding public service.

Peter Bolger

Peter Bolger has been the CEO and Chairman of Pivotel Group and its subsidiary companies since inception in 2003. Peter has led the company’s organic growth from 8,000 mobile satellite services in 2003 to more than 120,000 in 2022. He has led its international expansion into Indonesia, New Zealand, the USA and Europe, and expansion into new markets including public and private terrestrial 4G networks.

Peter has been active in the telecommunications industry for over 38 years.  Prior to commencing at Pivotel Group, he held senior executive roles in Ericsson Ltd, UK (1997–98)  and Vodafone Australia Pty Ltd (1998–2001). At Vodafone, Peter was a Board Director with responsibility for their product development initiatives, including the construction and launch of the Globalstar mobile satellite business in 2000, Vodafone’s wireless internet business and pre-paid mobile services.

Peter has a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from James Cook University.

Peter Girvan

Peter Girvan is responsible for building Viasat’s presence and business regionally across the space and commercial markets, as well as working with partners in preparation for the launch of the ViaSat-3 satellite platform in the region.

Peter has 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, with senior management and engineering roles at NBN Co, Nortel Networks, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.

During his tenure at NBN Co, Peter led the integration and validation efforts for all new network and IT operational support system (OSS) capabilities before deployment to the national broadband network and was a member of the CTO and Engineering Senior Leadership teams. At Nortel Networks, Peter was directing the team that successfully rolled out the Telstra CDMA network and served as a member of the Asia-Pacific Operations Senior Management Team managing the Asia-Pacific Technical Support team.

Peter has degrees in Engineering and Business from Monash University and an MBA from La Trobe University. He has lived and worked in Australia, USA, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Peter Kerr

Peter Kerr has been with the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre since November 2019. His role ensures SmartSat CRC research is aligned to Defence technology priorities and supports industry development across the space value chain.

Prior to this, he spent over 30 years working within the Defence Science and Technology Group where he specialised in the fields of radio frequency (RF) sensors and RF communications, predominantly satellite communications. He was the Principal S&T Advisor to Defence for Military Satellite Communications from 2000 until 2010, which covered the introduction to service of the Optus C1 satellite, the development and implementation of the Wideband Global SATCOM MoU between Australia and the USA.

He has held corporate positions in international engagement, covering the UK, Europe and NATO, and as a Scientific Advisor to the Joint Capabilities Group and to the Chief of Joint Operations.

He played a key role in the establishment of the current Defence innovation system from 2016, both within Industry Policy Division and DST Group, and has a long-standing interest in productive research collaboration and effective research translation.

Rhys Lade

Rhys Lade has over 20 years’ experience developing and leading engineering teams within the Department of Defence and the Bureau of Meteorology. 

He has built numerous engineering capabilities across the public service, ranging from military equipment procurement, test and evaluation, through to ISO certified engineering teams procuring and supporting equipment that underpins Bureau customer outcomes. 

Throughout his career, Rhys has utilised internationally recognised standards in support of engineering capability development. This has resulted in efficient systems and processes that support subject matter experts and engineers in their core role of technology innovation and customer support.

Rhys is currently finalising ISO 9001 certification for the Bureau Engineering team and supporting a once in a generation hardware uplift, including new radars, weather stations, wind profilers and ionosondes to name just a few.

Robert Joyce

Robert Joyce is the Nokia CTO for the Oceania region and is responsible for promoting Nokia’s technology and thought leadership in the region.

He has over 25 years of industry experience in mobile telecommunications, having worked on pioneering 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G projects throughout his career.

Notable projects that Robert has been involved with include designing the mobile network for the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar and launching the world’s first commercial 5G network in 2018.

He has published numerous academic papers on mobile communications and holds a PhD in ‘Self Organising Mobile Networks’.

Rodney Croft

Rodney Croft is Professor of Health Psychology at University of Wollongong, as well as Chair of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), and Director of the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research (ACEBR).

His work focuses on radiofrequency EME and the extent to which it can impact on health and safety, with particular foci ranging from human physiological and pathological processes, to psychological function more broadly.

He chaired the ICNIRP radiofrequency guidelines that were published in 2020, and is currently chairing the ICNIRP low frequency guidelines development.

Roy Wittert

Roy Wittert has 30+ years’ experience in the IT and communications industry, including in distribution, channel development and sales management, carrier sales, managed services and video conferencing.

He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and a Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Roy also completed a Certificate in Marketing and Industrial Marketing and an Executive Development Program from the same university.

At Cambium Networks, Roy is responsible for the evangelism of fixed wireless and Wi-Fi in Australia, NZ and Pacific Islands. Applications for fixed wireless include providing infrastructure for wireless ISPs (WiSPs) to provide broadband services to underserved areas, high-capacity leased line replacement, smart city Wi-Fi and CCTV backhaul and connectivity solutions for industrial IoT, including CCTV, narrow band IoT and ITS. Wi-Fi solutions include public Wi-Fi, smart city Wi-Fi, education, hospitality, healthcare and SMB.

Sarah Loughran

Sarah Loughran is currently Director of Radiation Research and Advice, and Principal Researcher and EME Program Director, at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. She is a current member of the World Health Organisation’s Radio Frequency Environmental Health Criterion Committee and is an elected member of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection's Scientific Expert Group. 

A/Professor Loughran holds degrees in physiology and psychology, and completed her PhD at Swinburne University in Melbourne. She subsequently spent several years at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, specialising in bioelectromagnetics research, before returning to Australia to the University of Wollongong, where she was Director of the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research.

Her research and expertise focus on a wide range of bioelectromagnetic health issues, including the effects on sleep, human brain function, and the mechanisms associated with these effects, as well as risk perception and risk communication more generally.

Stephen Farrugia

Stephen Farrugia took on the role of Chief Technology Officer at BAI Communications Australia (formerly Broadcast Australia) in July 2016. 

Stephen has been working in the broadcast and related communications industry for 30 years. Since the early 1990s he has been involved with assessing digital transmission standards, conducting system trials and participating in industry standardisation groups. Throughout the 2000s he led the Broadcast Australia engineering team in the provision of hundreds of broadcast transmission services and related communications systems.

From 2011 to 2014, the 700 MHz clearance program – locally known as the Spectrum Restack project – was orchestrated and partially implemented by Stephen’s teams. 

Since July 2016, his focus has been on new technologies within both the broadcast and telecommunications domains. He holds an engineering degree and an MBA from the University of Canberra.

Steve Haines

Steve Haines has 30 years’ professional experience in the telecommunications and radiocommunications industry, having held senior technical positions in mobile network service assurance, network deployment and network performance management.

In his current role as a Compliance Analyst at the ACMA, Steve has been responsible for escalated compliance actions addressing a broad range of non-compliance issues.

Steve recently project-managed the implementation of the ACMA’s 5G EME field measurement program and was the lead in conducting the EME measurements in the field.

Syed Ismail Shah

Syed Ismail Shah (preferred name Ismail) joined Meta in June 2022 as the Head of Access and Connectivity Policy for APAC, where he is looking after policies related to spectrum, subsea cables and accessibility. Before joining Meta, he was the ITU Area Representative for Southeast Asia and Head of ITU office for Southeast Asia and Timor-Leste.

Prior to joining ITU, he served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority from September 2013 to November 2017 and has led some of the most high-profile undertakings in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. He also served as the Vice-President of the General Assembly of the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) from 2014 to 2018. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Vincent Rooke

Vincent Rooke is the Director of the SouthPAN program. He has worked at Geoscience Australia for 17 years across Earth Observations and Positioning Australia business areas, delivering and operating mission critical activities.

He has a background in engineering, focusing on computer and systems engineering, extensive knowledge and experience leading complex software and infrastructure projects across Geoscience Australia and working with national and international stakeholders focused on whole of Australian Government collaborations. 

Vincent has also worked closely with international space agencies and geoscience agencies globally.

His experience includes managing satellite ground stations for the Australian Government focusing on Landsat earth observation satellites; leading a team on GNSS (global navigation satellite systems) scientists and engineers to deliver the open source Ginan analysis software for enabling 5 cm precise positioning for Australians; and now leading a team across Australia and New Zealand to deliver SouthPAN services.

Yusuke Kiga

Yusuke Kiga is Global 5G Chief Commercial Officer at NEC Corporation. He is responsible for global go-to-market strategy and sales of NEC’s Open Network portfolio covering mobile network infrastructure, software and services. He develops strategic partnerships with mobile operators to help them drive successful transformations.

Yusuke has held various leadership positions within NEC’s telecom business during his 20-year career. He led product development of NEC Open Network and served as the Product Management leader of NEC’s Packet core. He also spearheaded the world’s first commercial deployment of a fully cloud native Open RAN network in Japan. He managed delivery of numerous mobile network virtualisation and BSS/OSS transformation projects in the 4G/5G era, and international deployment of packet CORE and RAN products.

Yusuke is currently based out of Tokyo, Japan, and has worked in the US and across Europe and the Asia Pacific region.