Bocar BA has over 30 years of experience, delivering impact in the Telecom/ICT sector. BA’s professional engagement is well-recognized in industry-wide advocacy activities, especially toward promoting investment sustainability in the private sector of the Middle East. His innate people-centric approach has mobilized multiple consensus-building platforms, cross-regional stakeholders, and issue-specific advocacy on important sector-development challenges. He is known internationally in leading platforms and global telecommunications development institutions, including the ITU, UN Broadband Commission, the World Bank (WB), and World Economic Forum (WEF), among others, as an objective-minded representative of telecom operators and an advocate of effective policy-making and future-friendly regulation. BA is a principal advisor to various business, investment, and regulatory entities and assists governments in addressing matters relating to digital infrastructure investment, innovation catalysts, sustainable digital economy, and citizen-centric public-sector delivery through the use of ICTs.

Programme Officer, The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, ITU Telecommunication Development, New York Experienced Policy Analyst and Project Manager with 10+ year record in managing complex international projects in the information and communication technologies (ICTs) sector within private companies and international organizations with a focus on innovative public-private partnership building. Demonstrated history of working with organizations at the juncture of technology, business, science and social purpose/non-profit. Strong academic background in the legal and economic aspects of telecommunications regulation and policy, backed by research experience on the impact of ICTs in socio-economic development.

Małgorzata Ignatowicz is a consultant at Social and Economic Cooperation Unit, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Office of Electronic Communications. She is also a Private Sector Liaison Officer to the World Bank Group.
Małgorzata Ignatowicz graduated in Law at the University of Warsaw, the American law at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law, University of Florida and postgraduate studies on public procurement at the Warsaw School of Economics. Additionally, she is certified in the UN procurement, UNDP/CIPS. She is a member of the OECD public procurement working group and the OECD Network of Economic Regulators. Małgorzata Ignatowicz has a proven track record in supporting businesses’ internationalisation, including project and procurement within international organizations.

Paweł Wideł is employed at the Groupe PSA / Opel in Warsaw as Director for Government Relations and Public Affairs in Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Since 1991, he has been employed at General Motors. He held various positions in Poland, Czech Republic and Russia, among others, fleet & governmental sales director in Poland, Opel Astra Brand manager in the Central and Eastern Europe Cluster in Czech Republic and the director of sales and marketing of Cadillac, HUMMER and Saab brands in the Russian Federation and CIS countries. President of the Association of Automotive Employers and Industrial Goods at the Confederation of Lewiatan and Vice-President of the Confederation of Lewiatan. Awarded with the Medal of Merit for National Defence.

Aleksander Poniewierski is the Global IoT Leader at EY, being responsible for leading the Advisory Practice focused on the development of Strategy, Design, Implementation, Process Optimization, Business Model Innovation, Security and Protection for global Clients in both Consumer and Industrial IoT. He is a globally recognized expert in the field of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection.

Previously, Aleksander led the IoT/OT Advisory Practice for the EMEIA region. Throughout his career, he built the IT Advisory practice in Poland and CSE, where he led numerous IT and OT projects for some of the largest companies in the region. Before joining EY, Aleksander was responsible for managing IT Security at telecommunication companies.

Aleksander graduated from Upper Silesian University in 1997 with a Master’s degree in Information Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Poznan University of Economics. Additionally, he has participated in many Executive Programs provided by Harvard Business School, Carnegie Mellon University and LMD University. 

He is an Advisory Council Member of the Center for Global Business at the University of Texas in Dallas (UDT). Aleksander is the author of many publications as well as a recognized keynote speaker at numerous conferences related to Cyber Security and IoT/OT. Furthermore, he seats in the steering commitee of TMForum, IoE and Digital Economy.

Author of „SPEED no limits in the digital era”

Krzysztof Chełpiński, member of board, Polish Chamber of Commerce for Electronics and Telecommunications (KIGEiT)

Krzysztof Chełpiński has over 30 years’ experience in management related to information and communication technologies (16 years on managing positions in IBM). A few years ago decided to become an entrepreneur. Expert in the area of process management and the use of cloud solutions as a tool for increasing efficiency of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Member of The Polish Chamber of Commerce for Electronics and Telecommunications (KIGEiT). Graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology

Małgorzata Bieniaszewska is the owner of 100% of the shares in MB-Pneumatyka Sp. z o. o. English philologist and psychologist by education, entrepreneur by choice. Graduated also from EMBA studies, Aalto University. During studies, Małgorzata was also developing the company MB Pneumatyka in Sulechów. She transformed a family manufacturing company into a vigorous research and manufacturing business operating in the automotive segment. Today, connectors manufactured in Lubuskie voivodeship are used in the majority of globally used pneumatic braking systems and car suspension systems in vehicles of more than 3.5 tone. Forerunner of the cooperation between business and science in the region. Believes that Poland can create innovative solutions in the global automotive industry instead of copying foreign patents. Chairperson of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Group in President’s Entrepreneurship Council.

In 2018 the company owned by Małgorzata Bieniaszewska was awarded the Economic Price by the President of Republic of Poland, category Family Business. It was also nominated for the award “Trailer Innovation 2019” during the IAA Commercial Vehicles fairs in Hannover, category Components. The owner of MB Pneumatyka was recognized in the 10^th edition of the competition Businesswoman of the Year, held by Success Written by the Lipstick Foundation. Besides, she received an award at Forbes Family Business Congress – Family Accelerator for Business Development 2019.

Dr. Idongesit WILLIAMS is a Post Doc Researcher and lecturer with the Center for Communication, Media and Information Technologies (CMI), Aalborg University Copenhagen. In the past 8 years, his has been teaching and researching into the Digitization of public services and SMEs. Currently, he is working on the digitization of SMEs and cross-border e-service delivery in the Digital Innovation Network (DIGINNO), an EU Interreg funded project. Previously he has worked on EU projects related to the digitization of SME ideation Process and Digitization of education delivery processes. He holds a Bachelor in Physics, a Master degree in Information and Communications Technologies and a Ph.D (specializing in Internet Policy and Regulation).”

Andrzej Soldaty has associated most of his professional career with the area of ​​industrial automation. He gained his  first practical experience in automation and robotization working at R&D Center for chemical industry in the late 1980 s. The next 25 years he worked for the Festo concern, a supplier of solutions and components for industrial automation. During this period, he participated in the development of a number of applications and implementation of automation projects in various industry sectors. He participated in building and developing Festo in Poland, he also conducted international projects in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2010-2015 he was the President of the  Board of Festo Poland.

In 2016, he created the “Initiative for Polish Industry 4.0” – a social movement that brings together representatives of industry, business and science.

In 2017-2019  he led the government project  at Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology  preparing measures supporting  transformation of   the Polish industry to  Industry 4.0 level.

In March 2019 he was nominated by Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology as the President of the Board of Future Industry Platform which is the state treasury foundation established to support companies in their digital transformation.

Andrzej Soldaty has a technical education in the field of mechanics and automation, but also completed doctoral studies in economics at the Institute of Economics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Dominique Lazanski is a London-based digital policy and strategy consultant and is the Director of her own company, Last Press Label. She is currently a consultant with the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and mobile related companies. She was formerly the Director for Public Policy and Institutional Relations for the GSM Association and worked on cyber security policy and Internet governance includes coordination with the UN, OECD, WTO and others. She was on the executive multistakeholder committee for NetMundial in April 2014 and held a three year appointment to the multistakeholder advisory group of the Internet Governance Forum until 2018. At the end of 2019her article, “Governance in international technical standards- making: a tripartite model” was published in the Chatham House Cyber Journal.
Dominique was a member of the UK’s Open Data User Group in the Cabinet Office from 2012 to 2014 and the Tax Transparency Board in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in 2013. She participates on the Multistakeholder Advisory Group on Internet Governance in the UK. She worked on the first Cyberspace Conference with the UK’s Foreign Office and the ICC in London to secure business participation in the conference. In 2015 she was a UN Expert on Access and Connectivity.

Dominique began her career with positions at Yahoo, eBay, and Apple, where she helped launch the first iTunes stores in the US. In 2005 she moved to London to complete a master’s degree in information systems management at the London School of Economics. She has worked in policy ever since, three years of which were spent at the TaxPayers’ Alliance working on digital policy.

Dominique holds a bachelor of arts from Cornell University, a second master’s degree from the University of Bath and is currently working on her PhD. She is an amateur biathlete and enjoys Japanese embroidery, travel, hiking and Nordic skiing.

dep. head of unit for International Digital Policy at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs in Berlin since August 2016.
Gunther Grathwohl is responsible for international Digital Dialogues and the Internet Governace Forum that has taken place in Nov 2019 in Berlin. Furthermore he is currently dealing with setting up several bilateral digital dialogues between the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of the German government and partner ministries in selected countries around the globe. Before that, Gunther Grathwohl was acting for the G20 digital ministerial process under the German Presidency and for the first meeting held by G20-ministers responsible for the digital economy on 6 and 7 April 2017 in Düsseldorf.
Between 2012 and 2016, he worked at the Permanent Representation of Germany to the EU in Brussels as deputy head of the economic department. Within this period he was responsible for all legislative files negotiated in the Council Working Party on telecommunication and information society as for example European rules on net neutrality, abolishment of EU-wide roaming tariffs or the network and information security Directive. Between 2006 and 2012 he was working for the German ministry of economics and technology, in the Division of European ICT-Policy, dealing i.a. with broadband policy, the review of the legal framework for electronic communication or the Digital Agenda for Europe. Gunther Grathwohl holds a PhD in International Economics and studied Economics in Trier, Seville and Bamberg. During his PhD studies (2000-2006) he worked as an assistant professor at Bamberg University in International Economics and Macroeconomics.

Graduate of the Faculty of Production Engineering and the College of Social Sciences and Administration at the Warsaw University of Technology, as well as post-graduate studies in macroeconomic analysis at the Warsaw School of Economics.
From 2005 to 2013, employee of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE). Author of an analytical methodology for mobile services and surveys of consumer preferences. He was in charge of regulatory projects for wholesale MTR and SMS MT markets and for the implementation of the roaming Eurotariff in Poland. As Director of the Department of Strategy and Telecommunications Market Analysis he was responsible for ICT analytics and regulatory strategy under the former heads of UKE.
From 2013 to 2016, regulatory expert at UPC Polska, responsible for regulated access to property and telecommunications infrastructure for investment purposes. He was in charge of projects on security and electromagnetic compatibility of the HFC network. Collaborator of the Polish Chamber of Electronic Communication (PIKE).
In March 2016, he took the position of Director of the Analysis Bureau at the Ministry of Digital Affairs. He coordinated the development of a concept of an electronic ID card. He also cooperated with the Council for Digitization and start-ups, with responsibility in the field of innovation.
He was appointed as President of the Office of Electronic Communications by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland on 14 September 2016, with the consent of the Senate given on 22 September 2016.
Collaborator at the Centre for Antitrust and Regulatory Studies (CARS) of the University of Warsaw. Between 2016-2018, member of the Council of the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR). Since 2016, representative of the Polish government on the Board of the International Organization of Space Communications “Intersputnik”. In the years 2016-2018, representative of the Polish government in the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD). Since 2018, member of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, operating within the UN framework. In 2019, Vice-Chair of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), responsible for roaming, regulatory framework and wireless network evolution.
In his private life: an enthusiast of water motorsports, a diver, a Water Volunteer Rescue Service (WOPR) lifeguard.

Prof. Michał Kleiber, Ph.D., Dr. Habil., Eng., is Vice-President of Polish National Commission for UNESCO and Professor at the Department of Information and Computational Science at the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences. He is Vice-President of European Academy of Sciences and Arts, President of The European Community of Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS), Editor-in-Chief of an academic journal Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering (Springer). In the past he was i.a. Minister of Science and Digitalization in the Government of the Republic of Poland, President of Polish Academy of Sciences, and Ambassador for New Narrative for Europe at the European Commission. His areas of expertise include:
– mathematical modelling and large-scale computer simulation of complex problems;
– innovation policy implementation.

Tim Unwin is Emeritus Professor of Geography (since 2011) and Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D (since 2007) at Royal Holloway, University of London. He was Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) from 2011-2015, and was Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission from 2009-2014. He is also Honorary Professor at Lanzhou University in China. In 2018-19 he led the co-ordination of 21 UN agencies on behalf of UNESCO and UNICEF to develop a system-wide strategy on the future of education and learning for the UN’s High Level Committee on Programmes and Chief Executives Board. His influential edited book Information and Communication Technologies for Development, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2009, and his latest book Reclaiming ICT4D was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. Most of his research and writing currently focuses on the inequalities caused by digital technologies and what needs to be done to ensure that the poorest and most marginalised people can benefit from them. He is a Co-Investigator of the UKRI GCRF South-South Migration Hub (2019-23) undertaking research on the use of digital technologies by migrants, Co-Founder of TEQtogether (an initiative to change men’s attitudes and behaviours towards women and technology), an Expert Advisor on the Working Group on School Connectivity of the Broadband Commission, and is also well-known for his research on the history and geography of wine. He was appointed a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St George (CMG) in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours list in 2016 for his services to the Commonwealth.

Tomasz Komorowski is manager for UNESCO programmes in communication and information and social and human sciences at Polish National Commission for UNESCO. He is presidium member of Polish Committee of UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) and member of Polish Committee of UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. He authored papers concerning programmes of the Communication and Information and Social and Human Sciences Sectors of UNESCO, he coordinated UNESCO’s activities-related international and national conferences and seminars in Poland.

Philippe Defraigne is a founding director of Cullen International, a company monitoring regulatory developments in telecommunications, digital economy, media, postal and competition law. He is an economist by training and has spent the last 30 years analysing telecommunications regulation and market developments. He is a regular fixture on the conference circuit, frequently speaking at and chairing events in Europe, Latin America and MENA.

He started his telecommunications career as a researcher at the University of Namur in the 80s. Between 1991 and 1994, Philippe worked for the European Commission where he was mainly involved in the legislative process that lead to the adoption of the ONP Leased Lines Directive. He now travels extensively and advises regulators and operators across 50 countries