Abdulrahman Alsultan
Manager, Research & Studies Dept, Riyadh Development Authority

Abdulrahman Alsultan has a bachelor degree in Architecture and planning, he is the Director of Research and Studies Department in Riyadh Development Authority (RDA) in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, also he is the Executive director of Riyadh Urban Observatories. He is a member of ADA executive management board.

Leonidas Anthopoulos
Special Advisor of the Mayor of Trikala, Greece

Dr. Leonidas Anthopoulos is a Professor in e-business at the University of Thessaly, Greece. He also serves as a Special Advisor
of the Mayor of Trikala, Greece and he has an extensive research and management experience of complex ICT projects such as the
smart city projects. During his current mission and at his previous job positions (as an Expert Counselor at the Greek Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, as an ICT project manager at the Information Society S.A. (Greece)) he planned and supervised several critical projects.

He is a member of numerous committees, worth mentioning the ITU United for Smart and Sustainable Cities Group (co-rapporteur of Q5 of the SG20), he is the head of the Smart and Sustainable cities’ working group for the Greek Standards, the Associate Editor of the IET
Smart Cities journal etc. He is the author and editor of several book collections, which can be located in Cities, Technological Forecasting and Social Change and Government Information Quarterly (ElSevier), ACM Computing Surveys, monograph for Springer etc. His research
interests concern, among others, smart city, e-Government, Enterprise Architecture, Strategic Management, etc.

Soumaya Ben Dhaou
Research Coordinator, UNU-EGOV

Dr. Soumaya Ben Dhaou is currently research coordinator at UNU-EGOV, the United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-driven Electronic Government, a think-tank devoted to multidisciplinary research on how digital transformation may contribute to empowered democratic citizenship, trustworthy public infrastructures, more inclusive societies and, in broad terms, to sustainable development. She coordinates the research project on “Digital transformation strategy" as well as the research line on the “Emerging technologies for digital transformation in the public sector." Her research includes potential benefits and challenges of new technologies such as Blockchain, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Data analytics,  and their impact on transforming urban centers and settlements into smart cities and communities, and more broadly public service. She is also leading the "Blockchain4Cities" research project in “United for Smart Sustainable Cities" (U4SSC) joint Global initiative managed by ITU and UNECE. The scope of her research projects encompasses countries, regions, urban and rural areas as well as municipalities, inter-organizational and single organizations.  

Alexandre Bosshard
Member of the Board of Directors, Co-ordinator and Project Leader, City of Pully

Alexandre Bosshard is a member of the head of the Department for Industrial services and Technical Office of the City of Pully. Coordinator of this department and passionate about the projects that make the link between human and technical aspects, he holds a master degree in engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), a postgraduate in applied psychology SNLP and a certificate in public administration management from the University of Lausanne. Alexandre has also worked for several private companies and organizations for which he has carried out numerous projects in Switzerland and abroad in the field of large infrastructures, environment and geomatic. With more than 20 years of practice in complex and cross-functional projects, he has piloted several smart city projects in the fields of big data, mobility, e-government and open source. He leads the implementation in the City of Pully of the U4SSC KPI’s, according to the method developped by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Federico Buyolo
Director, High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda, Spain

Federico Buyolo Garcia is Director of the Office of the High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda in Spain. He holds a bachelor’s degree in pedagogy and a master’s degree in Educational Innovation and Research at the UNED and University Expert Indicators and Educational Statistics by the Organization of Ibero-American States.

He previously worked as the Councillor of the Elche City Council where he was responsible for improving the transport and mobility of the city. He was also the General Director on Cooperation and Solidarity at the Valencian generalitat between 2015 to 2018.

Jean-Manuel Canet
Vice-chairman, ITU-T Study Group 5, ITU

Jean-Manuel is Senior Manager in Orange Group, Environmental Direction. He leads projects in the field of climate change and circular economy. He has developed an expertise in the assessment of the environmental impact of the ICT sector.

André Confiado
Associate Programme Officer, UN Environment

André is an Associate Programme Officer for the Cities Unit of the Economy Division of the UN Environment Programme. He supports the Unit’s work on operationalizing urban metabolism and circular economy at the city-level, through the Global Initiative for Resource Efficient Cities. He also supports the coordination of partnerships and joint resource mobilization on sustainable urbanization for UN Environment.

He has previously worked in operational logistics and project management in the fields of post-disaster recovery, human rights, open data for development.

Michael Donaldson
Commissioner of Digital Innovation, Electronic Administration and Good Governance, City of Barcelona

Michael Donaldson is commissioner of Digital Innovation, Electronic Administration and Good Governance at the Barcelona City Council.

Born on July 1, 1975, Michael Donaldson, has a degree in Law from the University of Barcelona and a master’s in public management from ESADE-UAB-UPF. From 2015 to August 2019, he was director of Strategic Planning and Central Services of the Gavà City Council, where among others, he was responsible for the departments of Open Government, Computer Science, Contracting Office, Electronic Administration and Office of Customer Service. citizenship, as well as in charge of leading the project of Modernization Systems of the Gavà City Council.

Previously, throughout his professional career, Donaldson has served as director of the Presidency and Institutional Action of the City of Rubí (2008-2015); Manager of the Fundación Privada Cataluña S.XXI (2002-2008) and Coordinator of Agenda 21 of the Barcelona City Council (2001-2002).

Stefan Ebner
CEO, Braintribe

Always an entrepreneur & musician Stefan founded his first company as a university student. He is the founder of Braintribe. Breaintribe is helping visionary enterprises & entrepreneurs to transform their businesses and ideas by providing a unique technology and playbook to drive simplicity & speed. Braintribe's major innovation is tribefire. The platform for platforms. Based on cortex - the patented technology. reinventing the way new digital platforms are being built.

His lifetime motto is "the courage of being different", Stefan also strives to create an cultural and social impact strives to create a cultural and social impact through many other initiatives, like tribe.space (co-creation space) and tribe.kids (entrepreneurial school for kids). 

Ernesto Faubel
Project Coordinator, MatchUp and Growgreen project, València

Ernesto Faubel Cubells works as a Senior Computer Technician at the Valencia City Council. He is also the Chief Analyst of different ICT Projects and the Head of the Computerized Cartography Section in the Planning Service of the Urban Planning Area. In addition, he is the Project Coordinator of the European Project “MAtchUP” (consists of 28 partners from 8 countries), which is a Smart Cities project that focuses on energy, mobility and ICT.

Ernesto Faubel Cubells is also an associate professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia since 1996, teaching various subjects related to CAD, GIS and BIM. He has collaborated with ANECA as part of panels of experts to evaluate the Computer Science degrees in various universities in Spain. He is also a collaborating professor at the European University of Valencia. He has taught courses in different programs such as the course for Directors of the Diputación de Valencia. In 2016, he was awarded an Erasmus + scholarship for participating in a mini-teaching experience at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada).

Ernesto Faubel Cubells holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in CAD / CAM / CIM. He has also obtained the Diploma of Local Public Management from the INAP and the Diploma of University Expert in Online Training by the UPV.

Ramón Ferri
Smart City Officer, Valencia

Ramón Ferri is the Head of the Smart City Office of Valencia since February 2018, who is responsible for coordinating the digital transformation in the city. He holds a degree in Computer Science and a master’s degree in project management from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). He also studied the advanced course of "Local Public Management" at the INAP.

He was an ICT project engineer at the ETRA R&D company, being project coordinator in the framework programs III, IV and V of the European Union. Since 2001 he combined his work as an analyst for ICT projects in the Provincial Council of Valencia with that of a senior technician of the Vice-Rectorate for R & D & I of the UPV. From 2005 to September 2007, he was the head of the ICT projects section of the Diputación de Valencia. From September 2007 to February 2018 he was head of the ICT service of the Valencia City Council. Ramón Ferri won the prize for professional career in National Congress of Innovation and Public Sector in 2015. In 2016 he also won the Best Local Administration Manager Award granted by Enertic.

Carlos Galiana
Counsellor of Innovation and Knowledge Management, València

Carlos Galiana is the Counsellor of Innovation and Knowledge Management in Valencia. He is a specialist in theater production and management. He has participated in numerous theatrical productions and television series and has been extensively involved in organizing and promoting events linked to performing arts. He began in political career by joining Valencia Nationalist Bloc and the Commitment Coalition in 2012 and became part of the Compromís Regional Executive for Valencia. He is also a member of the Governing Board of the Fallera Central Board where he had enhanced the transparency of the budgets of the festival sector of Valencia. He holds a bachelor's degree in Dramatic Art. ​

Antonio García
Mobility and Smart Cities expert, University of València​

Mr. Antonio Garcia Celda is a MSc Computer Engineer and BSc in Telematics by the University of Valencia in the years 2010 and 2012, respectively, and he is a member of the research group LISITT (Integrated laboratory of Intelligent Systems and Traffic Information Technologies) of the University of Valencia since 2008. He is an experienced manager (national an international projects), Innovation, R&D, Technology Transfer, EU Programmes in ICT, especially in Mobility, Smart Cities and Sustainability.

​

Okan Geray                   
Strategic Planning Advisor, Smart Dubai Office, UAE 

Dr. Okan Geray has more than 20 years of experience in management consulting in various industries. He has consulted for a number of organizations in Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, South Africa, Turkey and Dubai. He has worked in A.T. Kearney global management consulting firm for 6 yea​​rs and was a member of global T​elecommunications a​nd High Technology core team before he joined Dubai Government in 2002. He has worked as the strategic planning advisor in Dubai eGovernment, Dubai Smart Government, and more recently in Smart Dubai Office after its establishment. His responsibilities include Strategic Planning, Strategic Performance Management and Policy Making.

He was the Co-Chair of Enhancing Innovation and Participation Working Group in United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) joint global initiative by ITU and UNECE. This working group addressed Smart Governance, Smart Economy and Smart People aspects in smart cities. He is currently leading two deliverables globally in U4SSC; namely “Guidelines on Strategies for Circular Cities” and “City Science Application Framework”. He is the Co-Chair of “Data Economy Impact, Commercialization and Monetization” Working Group in ITU Focus Group on Data Processing and Management. He is also the Co-Rapporteur of ITU Study Group 20 Question 7 on “Evaluation and assessment of Smart Sustainable Cities and Communities”​.

He holds double major B. S. degrees in Industrial and Computer Engineering from Bosphorus University in Istanbul Turkey, an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Systems and Control Engineering from University of Massachusetts in US. He has published journal and conference papers and has been an adjunct lecturer in management for 15 years.​​

Sandra Gómez 
Deputy Mayor, València, Spain

Sandra Gómez López is the Vice Mayor of Valencia since 2019. She is also the Councillor of the City of Valencia since 2015 and the general secretary of the Socialist Party of the Valencian Country (PSPV-PSOE in the city of Valencia). Sandra Gómez López was the Deputy Mayor of the Valencia City Council from August 5, 2016 until July 21, 2019. Sandra Gómez is also a lawyer who is affiliated to Young Socialists since the age of 18. She graduated in Law and ADE from the University of Valencia, holds a master’s degree in business law from the Center for Garrigues Studies and Harvard University, and is currently finishing another master’s degree in human rights, Democracy and International Justice of the University of Valencia. 

Bart Gorynski
Managing Partner, BeeSmartCity

Bart Gorynski is co-founder of the global smart city solutions network and community platform with nearly 13,000 members from 170 countries, featuring 640+ smart city solutions implemented in over 1,000 municipalities across the globe (www.beesmart.city). As a Smart City visionary, he defined "Smart City" as an ecosystem of smart city solutions during his research activities at Harvard University. He teaches as a guest lecturer on Smart Cities at the EBZ Business School in Bochum, the IREBS An-Institut at the University of Regensburg and at the “Institut für Begabtenförderung” of Hanns-Seidel-Foundation. In addition, Bart has been appointed an expert in the Smart City Initiative Stadt.Land.Digital of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy and led the Smart City discussion island of the "Conference of Networks" organized by the Ministry of Home, Municipalities, Construction and Equal Opportunities of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Bart is the author of the Guide for Practitioners: Smart City/Smart Region under the patronage of the German Federal Government Commissioner for Digitisation (Handlungsleitfadens für Praktiker*innen: Smart City / Smart Region (ISBN: 978-3-9820550-0-8)), which bears the seal of approval of the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) and guest author of the book Smart Cities, Smart Future: Show-casing Tomorrow (ISBN: 9781119516187).

Robert Hermans
Director, Department of Development of Urban & Regional Data Centres, CBS Statistics, Netherlands            

Robert Hermans(1963) is Director of the CBS – Statistics Netherlands Department of Development of Urban & Regional Data Centres. He has a 29 year working experience in policy-, research- and management positions in cities, provinces, private companies and research institutes in The Netherlands and abroad with a working experience in over 50 countries worldwide.

In his current position he is responsible for organizing the support to cities, rural municipalities and regional governments in becoming ‘’smart cities’’, ‘’smart villages’’ or, in a wider sense, becoming more data-driven and evidence based. This support is organized from the availability at CBS of an abundance of national data (survey data, administrative data and big data) and CBS data experts in datascience, data-analytics, big data, methodology, data-integration and data visualisation. To materialize this support the concept of the Urban and Regional Data Centres has been developed and since the summer of 2016 been implemented in 14 cities/municipalities and regional governments all over The Netherlands.

Robert Hermans graduated from University of Amsterdam in Urban & Rural Geography and Communication Sciences. He has been working at Statistics Netherlands since 2013.

Santtu Hulkkonen
CEO, Solved – The Cleantech Company                      

Santtu is CEO & Co-founder of Solved - The Cleantech Company Ltd. Solved is a Marketplace and collaboration platform for sustainability-related knowledge work with over 5000 world class experts www.solved.fi. Former Executive Director of Cleantech Finland www.cleantechfinland.fi, a network of top 150 Finnish cleantech companies and experts and dedicated to linking Finnish cleantech expertise with global demand. Earlier responsible for Helsinki Capital Region Smart&Clean Project at Sitra. Goal of the project is to make Helsinki region as a global smart and clean reference area. Prior to Solved, Sitra and Cleantech Finland, consultant in Finpro Austria and Head of Trade Center in Romania for cleantech companies to develop and expand business in new markets. Earlier served the UN as an Environmental Consultant for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in Thailand and in the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) in Hungary. Santtu is an experienced moderator, mentor and presenter both in private business and in high-level multinational settings. He is also a seasoned public speaker with experience in speaking at tens of high-level sustainability conferences. M.Sc in Environmental Technology , University of Greenwich, UK. Advisory and board member positions in Finnish Cleantech companies.

Kire Ilioski
Director, Office of the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)                     

Mr. Kire Ilioski is the Director in the Office of the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) from 1 July 2019.

Bilel Jamoussi
Chief, Study Groups Department, ITU

A distinguished engineer, leader, and diplomat; multilingual standardization expert and holder of 22 patents, Tunisian born Dr. Bilel Jamoussi has been Chief of the Study Groups Department of ITU Standardization Bureau (TSB) in Geneva Switzerland since 2010. He has led the coordination of the bureau’s standards moving activities into a new era characterized by digital transformation that needs an increased collaboration with vertical sectors such as healthcare, transportation, utility, and banking. His innovative approach has served as a catalyst to launch new standards initiatives related to emerging technologies such as IoT, Blockchain, AI and Quantum, attracting a new wave of memberships from non-traditional players. He has also been credited with bringing the telco and financial sectors together to develop digital payments guidelines and standards with the aim of advancing financial inclusion globally.

Bilel is recognized as a key figure in the ICT industry. Key achievements under his tenure have been important new standards while effectively managing staff by recruiting new talent, improving gender balance, delivering new work methods, and staying within budget. Prior to 2010, he worked in the private sector for 15 years and held senior executive positions such as Director of Standards for Nortel. In this role he participated in over 90 standards making bodies worldwide. In the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), he authored a number of Internet standards. As an IEEE Senior Member, he was elected to the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Board of Governors and the IEEE-SA Corporate Advisory Group. 

He holds a BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, USA. Bilel has lived in Tunisia, Canada, USA, and Switzerland, giving him a unique global viewpoint. He is fluent in Arabic, French, and English and speaks some Spanish and German.

Juan Jung
Director of Public Policy, Inter-American Association of Telecommunications Companies (ASIET) 

Juan Jung is PhD in Economics from the University of Barcelona. His current job position is Director of Public Policy in ASIET, the Latin American Telecommunications Operators Association. He is also the Director of the Center of Telecommunications Study of Latin America, ASIET´s think-tank. He has also been involved in consultancy and academic projects with diverse institutions over the last years. Currently, he is Associate Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Chaesub Lee
Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU             

Chaesub Lee was elected Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2014 in Busan, Republic of Korea, and re-elected to this post for a second four-year term at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Dr Lee has contributed ICT standardization for over 30 years, specializing in areas such as integrated services digital networks (ISDN), global information infrastructure (GII), Internet protocol, next-generation networks (NGN), Internet protocol television (IPTV) and cloud computing.

He started his professional life in 1986 as a researcher at Korea Telecom. After 17 years he took up a role at the country's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), where he stayed for the next eight years. Most recently he worked at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and as a senior advisor to Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP).Within ITU Dr Lee served as Chairman of the ITU Focus Group on Next-Generation Networks (NGN) to address the growing need for international standards for NGN, including service requirements, functional architecture, mobility, security and Quality of Service (QoS). He was also Vice-Chairman of the ITU Focus Group on IPTV which worked to coordinate and promote the development of IPTV standards. He acted as Vice-Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 13 (Future networks and cloud) from 2001 until 2008, becoming Chairman of that group in 2009. ITU-T Study Group 13 develops standards for NGN, future networks, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile telecommunications, to ensure their smooth international deployment.

Dr Lee holds a PhD in Multimedia Engineering. He is married with two children.
 

Tomás Llorente
Collado Villalba City, Spain           

Architect and technology advisor for Local Administration in the Region of Madrid (Spain). More than 14 years of experience as department head. He holds the representation of this Municipality with Public Administration "Covenant of Mayors", "Spanish Network of Smart Cities", "Housing Rehabilitation Planning", etc. And also, a U4SSC co-leader.

Professor in Entrepreneurship, Humanism and Technology, and Social Innovation at the School of Industrial Organization (EOI).
Member of the Technical Committee of Standardization for Smart Cities in AENOR, working as metrics coordinator.
Speaker at the Smart City World Congress, Europe & LATAM; Seminario das freguesías, Lisbon; Official College of Technical Engineers of Telecommunications, Madrid, GreenCities, Málaga, etc.

Co founder of the Smart Cities Working Group at the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM). Entrepreneur at "Pulsecurity" autonomous system of tele-assistance for the elderly (prize "Elevator Pitch Contest, Singularity University, and Pasión> ie, IE Business School and Accenture).

Motsomi Maletjane
Team Leader, LDC Unit, National Adaptation Plans and Policy Adaptation Programme, UNFCCC           

Motsomi works in the adaptation programme of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat. He leads the work of the UNFCCC secretariat on support to the least developed countries (LDC). Motsomi also works on national adaptation plans (NAPs) which serve as the main instrument for guiding adaptation under the UNFCCC.

Originally from Lesotho, Motsomi has over 19 years’ experience in climate change adaptation, spanning national and international policy and implementation. He provides strategic policy advise, technical guidance and support, and fosters partnerships with a wide network of national, regional and international actors on climate change adaptation.

Since 2014 Motsomi has been serving as the UNFCCC secretariat liaison regarding the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) work on Smart Sustainable Cities and consequently the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) Initiative. Motsomi co-led the development of the ITU-T Recommendation L.1503 on the use of information communication technology in climate change adaptation in cities and continues to contribute in the U4SSC deliverables.

Motsomi an MSC in Meteorology from the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and an MBA from the University of South Wales in the UK.

Tania Marcos
Vice-chairman, ITU-T Study Group 20, ITU

Tania is Head of the Smart Cities Unit at the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE), where serves as Secretary of the Standards Committee CTN 178 “Smart cities", and acts as the national focal point for the development of Standards for Local Governments, which assist their transformation into smart cities/smart tourism destinations. She is the Representative of the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Sector Forum on Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities towards the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) of the European Commission. She is also Vice-chair of WP2 in ITU-T Study Group 20 on Internet of things (IoT) and smart cities and communities (SC&C), on behalf of the Spanish Secretary of State of Information Society and Digital Agenda (SESIAD).

Rubén Cánovas Mas
Global Head of Smart Cities, EVERIS

Rubén is an engineer with years of experience in ICT and the field of innovation, and have spent the last decade working with the public sector in cutting-edge projects with the Government. As part of this he contributed to the creation of Internet of Things and Digital Government departments within everis. For the last years, he have been leading the operations for the Digital Government department focused in public sector customers, and as a result he have broad knowledge of the digital transformation ecosystem (IoT, Blockchain, Data Intelligence and AI). Furthermore, he possess public sector expert knowledge and strong skills in leadership, management of multi-disciplinary teams, strategy, teamwork, consultancy and problem-solving.​

Joel Alexander Mills
CEO, AugmentCity AS

A champion for simulation and complex data visualization with a background as an Industrial Designer, Joel was born and educated in the UK and moved to Ålesund, Norway 12 years ago. He is passionate about using elegant technology and human centred design to reduce cost, find better solutions, increase safety and improve quality of life. After running successful businesses, 6 years ago he was asked to take over as the CEO of Offshore Simulator Centre (OSC). He transformed this business using simulation technology for the offshore oil industry as a key tool for Virtual prototyping. Joel is passionate about proving the value in simulation and driving the exponential growth of simulation with OSC at the forefront. Only 6 Months ago as well as running OSC he started a daughter company “AugmentCity” using the simulation and visualizing technology developed for the offshore industry, and in tight cooperation with the United Nations smart cities program, as a game changing tool for Smart Cities. He is excited to see where this new journey will take us.

Kris is currently heading a national Pilot, University City TRD3.0, developing a new way of integrating universities and cities to promote societal innovation and learning across sectors. He is heavily invested in finding new ways to inform and develop public sector innovation. Kris has a particular interest in play and playfulness, and the role of cities and communities as playgrounds in the mobilization of intellectual, social and financial capital towards the realization of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development. In August 2019 the UNECE afforded Trondheim University City status as a Geneva UN Charter Centre of Excellence on SDG City Transition.​

Thomas Müller
Managing Partner, BeeSmartCity

Thomas is co-founder and managing partner of bee smart city, a unique global smart city solutions network and community with nearly 13,000 members from 170 countries, featuring more than 640 smart city solutions implemented in over 970 municipalities. The mission of bee smart city is to empower intelligent cities by facilitating the global exchange of best practice solutions and lessons learned. bee smart city creates market transparency as a trusted, independent platform and efficiently connects cities and communities among each other, with solution providers and other stakeholders.

Prior to co-founding bee smart city, Thomas has worked for 15 years in state, regional and local economic development organizations in Germany. In 2016 he represented the City of Mülheim an der Ruhr, who was awarded as one of the Top7 Intelligent Communities of the Year by the Intelligent Community Forum in New York. Thomas is guest author of the book "Smart Cities, Smart Future: Showcasing Tomorrow" and speaks at several international smart city events and conferences.

Thomas holds an MA in Economic Geography from Technical University Aachen (RWTH Aachen) and an MBA in International Strategy and Sales Management from University of Applied Sciences in Economics and Management Essen (FOM Essen).               

Ziqin Sang
Vice-chairman, ITU-T Study Group 20 and Leader of U4SSC

Mr. Ziqin SANG joined Wuhan Research Institute of Posts and Telecommunications (WRI) in 1998 after obtaining his Ph.D. in pattern recognition and intelligent system from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. He heads a division of innovative research on smart city in the State Key Laboratory of Optical Communication Technologies and Networks since 2010. He has been active in standardization bodies such as ITU-T SG17, SG13, SG5 and SG20, CCSA TC8 and TC10. He served as a member of expert board of a Chinese 863 program of smart city, and a member of advisory board of EU-China Collaboration on IoT and 5G Research (program EXCITING). He was a vice chairman of ITU-T focus group on smart sustainable cities (FG-SSC) and a vice chairman of focus group on smart water management (FG-SWM). He is now a vice chairman of ITU-T SG20 and a vice chairman of CCSA TC10. He led and contributed to ITU-T Recommendations Y.4900, Y.4901, Y.4902, Y.4903, Y.4200 and Y.4201.            

Maria Eugenia Sanchez
Manager, Urban Innovation, City of Sevilla

María Eugenia Sánchez is the Telecommunication Engineer of the Urban Planning Department of Seville City since 2000.

She is responsible for telecommunication networks development plans, studying and authorising all their infrastructures.

She works actively in the elaboration, presentation and development of technological innovation projects that are being carried out by the

City Council or that are co-funded by the EU. She is also adviser to other municipal departments on projects related to ITC and are being carried out for the Smart City Seville.

She represents Seville City Council in congresses and specialized forums in the field of her competence. She is also Coordinator in the Spanish Network of Smart Cities RECI in the working groups of Environment and Infrastructure and Energy.

Vicente Sebastián
Technology and Projects Director, ETRA, Spain

Vicente Sebastián Alapont is the Director of Technology and Projects at Electronic Traffic S.A. (ETRA). He has a degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Valencia and a Certificate in Project Management from the Project Management Institute. Vicente Sebastián Alapont has over thirty years of professional experiences in the field of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their applications in smart mobility and energy efficiency. He has experiences in managing ICT solutions in all stages. He began his career in software developments and later participated in the management of R & D & I projects in the EU Framework Programs and continuing the engineering of the mentioned sectors.

He is a member of the Technical Committee for Standardization UNE / CTN 178 Smart Cities, a member of the Technical Committee for Standardization UNE / CTN 159 Telematics applied to road transport and circulation and a member of the Tunnels Committee of the Technical Association of the Road-PIARC. He has contributed to the R&D projects of the EU Framework Programs and has participated as a speaker in various professional events and forums related to sustainable mobility and intelligent transport systems at the national and international level.

Warren Smith
Global Digital Marketplace Programme Director, Government Digital Service, UK                            

Warren has been responsible for ensuring that the UK government’s Digital Marketplace directly supports ICT reforms. Through his work at GDS, Warren has been instrumental in introducing user-centred, design-led, data-driven and open approaches to public procurement and contracting - the foundation of the step-change in procurement envisioned in the Government Transformation Strategy, and a priority for 2020.

This has led to a more diverse range of ICT suppliers having access to the government’s business - there are over 5,700 suppliers available through the Digital Marketplace, and over 90% of these are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Since January 2018, Warren has led the Global Digital Marketplace Programme, which aims to help governments in the emerging economies - Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and South Africa - make their procurement more transparent in order to reduce corruption, and to boost their digital, data and technology domestic sectors. This is a 4-year programme in line with the UK Anti-Corruption Strategy 2017 to 2022.

Warren has over 25 years experience in procurement and supply chain management, across the private and public sectors. During the last 10 years, Warren has led highly transformative projects to introduce new ways of thinking and working in procurement and contracting.

Francisco Javier García Vieira
Director of Digital Public Services, RED.es

Francisco Javier García Vieira is a Telecommunications Engineer at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He has also completed the Executive Development Programme at the IESE Business School, University of Navarre.

His experience in the private sector includes working in Research and Development at Telefónica and Telefónica Mobile as well as the technology start-up Banda Ancha S.A.

He has been focusing on working in the public sector since 2003, as part of the public corporate entity Red.es where he has held various management roles related to public policies to promote the Information and Knowledge Society.

Ángeles Villaescusa
General Manager, ESRI, Spain

Ángeles Villaescusa has a degree in Geological Sciences, an Executive MBA since 1998 and a PDG since 2008. She began her career at ESR Spain in 1991 and, during this time, has passed through various departments, being part of the technical and commercial department as Commercial Director and Deputy Director of the company. Since 2012, she has held the position of General Director of ESRI Spain.