Agenda

Péter Vári PhD. attended Széchenyi István Technical College, from 1987 to 1990, majoring as wireless networking technology engineer. He then graduated from the Budapest University of Technology in 1994 as Electrical Engineer in telecommunications. In 2001 he earned the postgraduate certificate at the Budapest University of Economic Studies as an Engineer-economist. In 2003 he completed the postgraduate course at Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE), Budapest as an Engineer-lawyer. He received his Ph.D. in 2017 at Corvinus University of Budapest on the topic of Digital Television and Switchover.

Péter worked as an engineer from 1992 to 1993 for Matáv Rt., the largest telecommunications operator in Hungary. From 1993 to 2004 he worked for Antenna Hungária Rt., the Hungarian Broadcasting and Radio Telecommunications Limited Company, where he started as Head of Unit and worked his way up to become Director of Operational Matters. In 2004-2006 he was Head of Department in the Ministry of Informatics and Communications of Hungary, and in 2006-2008 he was Senior Counsellor of the Government at the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office. In 2009, as a project manager, he began to coordinate the digital switchover at Antenna Hungária Rt., and in 2011 he started working in the National Media and Infocommunications Authority of Hungary (NMHH). Currently, as a Deputy Director General of NMHH, he is responsible for the fields of frequency and identifier management, measurement affairs and technology analysis. He is a senior lecturer of the Department of Telecommunications at Széchenyi István University of Győr and gives courses in the field of radio systems and satellite telecommunications

Aminata Amadou Garba is a Senior (Technology) Coordinator at the Telecommunications Network & Spectrum Management Division of the ITU Development Bureau. Her background is in communications technologies, policies and infrastructure. She held several positions in telecommunications including Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Africa and Director General of the Multi-Sector Regulatory Authority of Niger. She received the masters and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from McGill University, Canada.

Antonio García Zaballos is Lead Specialist on telecommunications in Institutions for Development and he is also the leader of the broadband initiative. Additionally, Antonio is member of the steering committee at the IEEE on connectivity and the Internet for All Initiative at the World Economic Forum. He has an extensive experience in the telecom sector where has been working in different positions of responsibility. At Deloitte Spain led the practice of regulation and strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean, and previously he was the Chief Economist of the Cabinet for Economic Studies of Regulation in Telefónica of Spain, before joining Telefonica, Antonio was Deputy Director of Economic Analysis and Markets at the Spanish Telecom Regulator (CMT). During his career, Antonio was providing advisory services to Regulators, Telecom Operators and Governments in countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, Ecuador, Argentina, Dominican Rep., Paraguay, Polonia, Czech Rep. among others.

Antonio also serves as a member and expert in a number of Committees, including the World Economic Forum’s Future of the Internet Initiative, the Broadband Commission. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University Carlos III of Madrid and is an associated professor of applied finance to Telecommunications at the Instituto de Empresa Business School and economic regulation at American University and Johns Hopkins University. He is author of several publications on economic and regulatory aspects for the sector of telecommunications.

Tania Begazo is Senior Economist at the Digital Development practice.   Tania oversees major economic policy and research initiatives related to digital infrastructure and policy to inform thought leadership, corporate strategy and operational engagements with clients, with emphasis on Africa. She supports dissemination of knowledge on digital development and contributes to the formulation and implementation of country operations targeted at reforms in the digital sector, building on collaboration within the World Bank Group and external partners.

Formerly Tania was the Global Lead for the World Bank’s Markets and Competition Policy Team overseeing the competition policy portfolio covering more than 50 countries and key areas for thought leadership and external partnerships. She has led technical assistance and contributed to lending operations on antitrust and pro-competition sector regulation at the country and regional level.  Previously, Tania worked for the International Telecommunications Union, APOYO Consultoria, and the Peruvian telecommunications regulator (OSIPTEL). She advised on the design and implementation of economic regulation in networks industries, economic analysis of antitrust cases, and regulatory aspects for public-private partnerships. Tania is an economist and holds a Master Degree in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard University

Imme Philbeck is an ICT/Telecommunications-, regulatory- and competition expert with 20 years of international experience, working for and with operators, regulators, international institutions, ministries, and governments in different countries. Imme’s expertise is centered on the evolving digital ecosystem, the digital value chain and related commercial and governance challenges. Imme has worked extensively on Internet/ broadband for All / connecting the unconnected, national broadband strategies and market reviews, mobile empowerment, regulatory issues in relation to international mobile roaming, Internet ecosystem, value chain and content distribution, NGN network convergence, and retail tariff and wholesale access regulation and costing across different regions. Working on different sides of the market has enabled Imme to gain deep insights and learn about the needs and requirements of different ICT stakeholders and beyond and achieve better outcomes in multi-stakeholder negotiations.

Andile Ngcaba is the founder and Executive Chairman of Convergence Partners Investments.  He established Convergence Partners in 2006 as an impact investment holding and private equity firm focusing on technology around the African continent.  Andile is also highly passionate about philanthropy, where he works on several projects through his family foundation, the SolCon Foundation.

Andile Ngcaba holds a Masters of Commerce majoring Information Systems from the University of Witwatersrand; he also has an honorary Doctorate in Commerce from the University of Fort Hare.  Andile also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Nelson Mandela University in the faculty of Computer Science.  As a technologist, Andile has been driving Pan African initiatives designed to build a digital Africa throughout his career. He has been involved in Africa's digitisation by building submarine cable systems, satellites, wireless, and cloud. Andile's interests include satellite and orbital location procedures, spectrum analysis, spectrum regulation, and global spectrum standards and trends.

Andile has also actively been involved in public policy development at the National, Continental and Global levels through various bodies, including the ITU, ICANN and the African Union. In the early 1990s, when Info-Dev of the World Bank was established, Andile served as one of the advisors.  In 2019 Andile served as a working group expert on connecting schools for the Broadband Commission for sustainable development assembled by the ITU, UNICEF and UNESCO. This project was launched as the "GIGA" project during the United Nations General Assembly in 2019.  In his home country of South Africa,  Andile was also recently appointed to the South African Presidential Fourth Industrial Revolution Commission. This commission advises the South African government on how it can leverage technology to develop the economy.

An entrepreneur with 24 years of professional experience, I am the founder of GreenWish Group. Until 2009, I served as Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where together with my team, we built the French and Swiss activities up to a multi-billion dollar asset level and I developed a vast experience in business strategy and development, project structuring and management, team building and management as well as capital raising across different asset classes like infrastructure, private equity, cleantech, venture capital, and real estate, hedge funds, equity and fixed income.

In 2010, I founded GreenWish, an international financial advisory and investment group specializing in energy transition and renewable energy infrastructure. My ambition for GreenWish was to bring the investor community to financing energy transition. GreenWish brings climate smart solutions to people: investors, project sponsors, governments, tech entrepreneurs and communities. GreenWish differentiates itself by its disruptive approach which lead to several pioneering transactions in the energy transition space from bringing the first pension and sovereign funds investment in offshore wind assets, developing and financing the first industrial solar IPP in sub-saharian Africa and launching the first Telecom Energy Services Company portfolio in Africa dedicated to energy transition.