Speakers

Arun Sarin - Chief Executive, Vodafone Group

Arun Sarin joined Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco in 1984 and has served in many executive positions in his 20 year career in telecommunications. He was a director of AirTouch from July 1995 and was President and Chief Operating Officer from February 1997 to June 1999. He was Chief Executive Officer for the Vodafone United States and Asia Pacific region until 15 April 2000, when he became a non-executive director. He has served as a director of The Gap, Inc., The Charles Schwab Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc. and in June 2005 was appointed as a non-executive director to the Court of the Bank of England.

Steve Pusey - Global Chief Technology Officer

Steve Pusey, joined Vodafone Group Plc on 1st September 2006 as Global Chief Technology Officer. Steve is responsible for all aspects of Vodafone's networks, IT capability and supply chain management.

Prior to joining Vodafone, Steve was one of the most senior executives at Nortel and held the position of Executive Vice President, and President, Nortel EMEA. He joined Nortel 1982 and gained a wealth of international experience across both the wireline and wireless industries and in enterprise applications and solutions. During his time as President of Europe from 2001 to 2005, he managed far-reaching change programmes that led the region back to significant growth.

Steve Pusey gained telecoms and microelectronics qualifications prior to spending several years with British Telecom and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.

Albert Hitchcock - Global Chief Information Officer

Albert was appointed into the role of Global Chief Information Officer in August 2007.

In this role Albert is responsible for the Global Information Services Organisation within Vodafone and its Operating Companies. Albert is accountable for the IT Strategy and the Operations of all IT functions across the group.

Prior to joining Vodafone, Albert was Global CIO with Nortel a Canadian multinational Telecommunications Solutions Provider and lived in the US and Canada. Albert was with Nortel for 14 years and worked in a variety of roles. He was Global CIO for 4 years.

Before joining Nortel, Albert was with Racal Radio Group LTD and British Aerospace Dynamics PLC.

He is a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, Incorporated Engineer and in September 2006 was named to the Information Week list of most innovative users of IT.

Albert holds electronic engineering and systems engineering degrees from South Devon College of Arts and Technology and a dipMBA from the Centre of Management Studies at Exeter University.

Andy MacLeod - Director Group Networks

Andy is responsible for the architecture, design, vendor management and equipment selection for Vodafone’s network infrastructure and support systems worldwide. He joined the company in August 2007 from Eircom the PTT in the Republic of Ireland, where he held the position of Chief Operating Officer responsible for all aspects of wholesale markets, technology, operations and supply chain management for the company. He assumed this position in August 2005 following the purchase of the company by Babcock & Brown Capital.

Before this Andy was Chief Executive of the European, Middle East & Africa activities of MCI the US based provider of fixed telecommunications services to businesses. Andy left MCI when it was acquired by Verizon in February 2006 after seeing it through three years of recovery from the Worldcom bancruptcy.

Prior to MCI he was Chief Operating Officer of Cable & Wireless Global, leading all the network and IT technology and operational activities. He joined C&W in 1998 as CTO and Strategy Director of C&W Communications the UK arm of C&W Group.

Andy’s earlier career was with Nortel in a variety of General Management Sales, Marketing and Corporate Strategy roles across the world. Before that he was with Pirelli Cables in research and product development.

Andy holds a degree in Materials Science from Keble College, Oxford and an MBA from Warwick Business School. He is married with two children and lives in Winchester, UK.

Detlef Schultz - Director of Global Supply Chain Management
CEO - Vodafone Procurement Company S.a.r.l. Luxembourg

Detlef joined Vodafone in March 2003 to lead the Global Supply Chain team. His responsibilities include strategic and operational leadership of Vodafone’s Supply Chain Management across the globe in the areas of Network Infrastructure, IT and Services. Detlef also leads the Luxembourg-based Vodafone Procurement Company, which provides a single point of purchase for the Group.

Prior to Vodafone, Detlef spent more than 6 years in Santa Clara, California with the world’s largest semi conductor equipment manufacturer, Applied Materials where he held various Supply Chain, Planning and Operations Management responsibilities.

Before moving to the US Detlef was a Member of the Board of Management for Babcock-BSH AG in Germany where he led the area of Supply Chain Management and financial controlling.

Prior to that, Detlef worked for Siemens for ten years, more latterly as Purchasing Director based in Bocholt and Kamp-Lintfort, Germany.

He started his Supply Chain career with Siemens in 1985 in the area of Materials Management Over the course of his career with the company he lived in Korea and Singapore.

Detlef was born and raised in Germany and graduated from the University of Cologne with a master’s degree in business.

Prof. Michael Walker FREng - Vodafone Group R&D Director

Michael Walker has responsibility for research and development conducted by Vodafone world wide. Since 1996 Michael has been a professor in the University of London, holding the part-time Vodafone Chair in Telecommunications at Royal Holloway. He is also a visiting Professor in the University of Surrey. Michael is vice-chairman and member of the Executive Committee of the Mobile VCE, a member of the London Council for the Advancement Science and Industry Panel, and a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Science and Engineering at the University of Surrey. Michael is a member of the UK Governments Science Forum, and until recently he was a member of the DTI’s Technology Strategy Board.

Before joining Vodafone, Michael was Head of Mathematics at Racal Research, where his responsibilities included the design of error correcting coding schemes and cryptographic algorithms for a variety of communications systems. Prior to this he was an academic at the University of Tuebingen in Germany.