Opening & Closing Sessions

Mojca Volk (female) Ph.D., is a Strategic Partnerships Manager at the Laboratory for Telecommunications (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering). She received her Ph.D. degree from University of Ljubljana in 2010 and is habilitated as assistant professor at University of Ljubljana – Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Her main areas of work are related to specialised 5G vertical sectors, including infrastructures and services for public protection and disaster relief and digital health solutions in clinical and consumer environments. Dr. Volk has considerable managerial and research experience in large international projects, including EU project management and international partnership cooperation in FP7 and H2020 programmes. She has been a steering board member in EU projects FI-STAR (FP7) and UNCAP (H2020) on the topic of digital health, and PPDR EU projects GEN6 (CIP), ARCADIA (H2020) and NEXES (H2020). She co-authored several books and more than 50 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. Since 2014 she is actively involved also in the start-up arena with a current focus on advanced 5G quality and performance measurements and benchmarking.

Mihael Mohorcic received B.Sc. (1994), M.Sc. (1998) and Dr.Sc. (2002) degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and M.Phil. (1998) degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Bradford, UK. Currently he is a scientific councillor and head of the Department of Communication Systems at the Jozef Stefan Institute, and an associate professor in telecommunications at the Jozef Stefan International Postgraduate School. His main research areas include resource management and protocol design and optimization in terrestrial, stratospheric and satellite wireless networks. His current research topics are cognitive radio networks, cross-layer protocol design and optimisation, wireless sensor networks, M2M/IoT, dynamic composition of communication services and wireless experimental testbeds. He co-authored three books published by John Wiley & Sons, 9 book chapters and more than 180 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. He actively participated in more than 20 Framework Programme projects since FP4, several COST Actions and national basic and applied projects, also having the role of project, work package and task leader, and being member of the Management, Steering and Scientific boards. He is currently contributing to H2020 projects eWINE, Fed4FIRE+, DEFENDER, NRG-5 and SAAM. He is a senior member of IEEE.

Mr Boris Koprivnikar is the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia. In 1991, he received an Honours degree from the Faculty for Organizational Sciences at the University of Maribor where he specialised in Business Informatics Systems. In his previous position, as the Chairman of the Board of Social Institutions Association of Slovenia, he managed a public institution with a complex organizational scheme of 99 providers with over 10,000 employees providing services to more than 21,000 users within the public sector. In his work, he manages activities which are, to a great extent, an integral part of the Centre of the Government and focus on digital transformation of public administration as well as the economy and society as a whole. As Chief Digital Officer, he is actively promoting an ambitious initiative of Slovenia to become “a green reference country in digital Europe”. He aspires to bring together interests of the State, economy, and citizens for setting up a digital eco-system. He advocates the use of big data as one of the key resources for efficient management of public systems and development of new economic and business models. As a member of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development he advocates for the vital role of broadband networks to accelerate progress of our society. Mr Boris Koprivnikar cooperates closely with the European Commission, the OECD and ITU and frequently gives lectures at national and international events, particularly in modernisation of public administration.

Pearse O’Donohue is Director for the Future Networks Directorate of DG CONNECT at the European Commission, dealing with policy development and research supporting the Digital Single Market as regards 5G networks, IoT, cloud and data flows and conceptualising new and innovative approaches towards service platforms and next generation Internet. Before becoming Director, Pearse was Head of the Cloud and Software Unit in DG CONNECT, dealing with the strategic development and implementation of policy on cloud computing and software. Until October 2014, Pearse was Deputy Head of Cabinet of Vice-President Neelie Kroes, previous European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda. He was responsible for advising the Vice-President on the development and implementation of policy on electronic communications, networks and services, as well as broadband, spectrum and other related policies such as Internet governance. Before that, Pearse was Head of the Radio Spectrum Policy Unit in the European Commission, DG CONNECT. Prior to joining the European Commission, Pearse held posts in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU in Brussels, and as Assistant Director of the Brussels office of the Irish Business & Employers’ Confederation.

Presentation available!

Bojan Križ is Director General of the Information Society Directorate at the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia. He studied at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and received his Master of Science in Telecommunications. Between 2001 and 2017 he was working in Iskratel, leading European provider of communications solutions. He worked on the development of Siemens EWSD systems and the integration and automation testing processes to fasten “time2market”. In 2007, he continued his career within product management and heading complex ICT projects for internationally renowned companies and Telco operators, focusing on turnkey solutions. He was entrusted with several leading positions in the management of products and production. He continued his career as the coordinator for the standard bodies 3GPP and ETSI. As Deputy Director for Multimedia core networks, he focused his career in the field of multimedia solution strategy for Telco operators and medium-sized enterprises. At the end of May 2017, he joined the team at the Ministry of Public Administration, in the position of act. Director General for the Information Society in Slovenia. On 18 October 2017, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia appointed him as Director-General of the Information Society Directorate in the Ministry of Public Administration for 5 years.

Presentation available!

MsC (1990), PhD (1995), Prof.(2001). Since October 1990 he is with the Communications Department of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), currently Full Professor on Signal Theory and Communications. Prof. Cardona is Director of the Research Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications (iTEAM), with 165 researchers including assistant professors & research fellows. Additionally, he is the Director of the Mobile Communications Master Degree (since 2006).  Prof. Cardona has led National and European research projects, Networks of Excellence and other research forums in FP6, FP7 and H2020, always in Mobile Communications aspects. At European scale, he has been Chairman of the EU Action COST IC1004 (2011-2015), Vice-Chairman of the Actions COST273 (2003-2006) and COST IC15104 IRACON (2016- ), Chairman of the National Network of Excellence ARCO5G (2015-2016), and member of the Steering Board of METIS (7FP; 2011-2015), METIS2 (H2020 5GPPP; 2015-2017), WIBEC (H2020 ITN; 2016-2019) and PI of WAVECOMBE (H2020 ITN; 2017-2021).  He has organised and participated to the Committees of international conferences, being General Chair of IEEE ISWCS 2006, IEEE PIMRC 2016, and EuCNC 2019, and TPC Chair of IEEE VTC 2015, among others. His current research topics are Radio wave propagation, Planning and Optimisation of Mobile Access Networks, Digital Multimedia Broadcasting, Dynamic Spectrum Management and Wireless Body Environment Communications.

Presentation available!

Jean-Pierre Bienaimé has been Secretary General of the 5G Infrastructure Association (5G-IA), representing the digital & telecommunications industry (operators, manufacturers, research and academic institutes, verticals, SMEs) in the Public-Private Partnership (5G PPP) with the European Commission, since 2016. He is also Chairman of the 5G PPP Steering Board. Joining France Telecom (FT) in 1979, Bienaimé has had responsibilities including Director Planning Department at FT, Advisor to the General Director of Moroccan Telecommunications in Rabat, Director of Marketing and Product Development for International Business Networks & Services at FT, Chief Executive Officer of Nexus International, and Vice-President International Mobile Support for Orange Group. From 2009 until 2016, Jean-Pierre has been Senior Vice-President Wholesale Strategy, Communications and Community at Orange. Jean-Pierre has been Chairman of mobile industry association The UMTS Forum from 2003 until 2016, with a mission to promote a common vision of the development of 3G UMTS and 4G LTE and evolutions, and to ensure their worldwide commercial success.Jean-Pierre is the chairman of IREST (Economic and Social Research Institute on Telecommunications), a think tank of influence based in Paris. Jean-Pierre is graduated from ESSEC Business School, from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Postes & Télécommunications – Paris, and from INSEAD.

Presentation available!

Peter is managing the Commission’s policy on 5G communication systems and the related research and innovation programme. Before his appointment as Head of Unit he was managing the office of the Director General of DG CONNECT, Roberto Viola, coordinating the Commission’s digital policy initiatives. The portfolio included Digital Single Market, Broadband Policy, Telecoms, Media and Online Policy, the Copyright Reform as well as the EU ICT Research and Innovation Programme. Between 2010 and 2014 he was Head of Sector “Spectrum Policy”, was penholder of main elements of the Commission proposal on the Telecom Single Market and the Roaming regulation, and was responsible for the implementation of the EU telecom rules in Germany and Austria. Between 2005 and 2010 he coordinated the EU R&D programme leading to the 4G mobile communications standards. Before joining the European Commission in 2004 he has occupied several engineering and management positions in industry, academia and start-ups. He holds engineering and doctoral degrees from RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Presentation available!