Speakers
Alex Smith
John Bretherick
Michael Ferris
Simon Fletcher
John Bretherick, Mike Ferris, Simon Fletcher, Vicky Messer, Elizabeth Rumsey, Alex Smith
John Bretherick is Director of Business Development at Fujitsu Network Communications, where he focuses on the Fujitsu open networking portfolio, including optical and Open RAN solutions, for Europe. John has over 30 years of experience in telecom, holding roles in engineering, sales, marketing and business development for both global service providers and equipment vendors. He has a long history of developing customized solutions for global IT, system integrators and communication service providers, as well as vertical market experience in pharmaceuticals, utilities, government and health sectors. John is married with two children and lives in Ilkley West Yorkshire, where he enjoys many sports including golf and cycling.
Simon has spent the past 20 years working in the design and development of technical telecoms infrastructure. Beginning his career in technology demonstrators at Racal Radar Defence Systems, he moved to Telecoms Modus in 1999 to play a key role in the development of 3G products, and in 2006 he established a core architecture team that helped develop the first-generation of technology for 4G systems culminating in a Steering Board position in the LTE SAE Trials Initiative (LSTI), a global forum with a mission to assure the early adoption of LTE. His lengthy participation in Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) defining early C-RAN concepts brings great foresight on an important architectural element of emerging 5G architectures.
Simon is a regular speaker at industry events. His long-standing association with the UK innovation eco-system, as a director of mVCE, member the UK5G Advisory Board and the Innovate-UK ICT-KTN, brings a wealth of knowledge on the application of strategic research through open innovation to accelerate product and service delivery. Simon’s technical focus is on future cities, the application 5G and IoT in industry verticals, with an event horizon towards 2030 and sustainability strategy.
Vicky Messer is VP of Product Management at RANsemi with over 30 years of experience in product management, product marketing, research and development in the technology sector, primarily wireless. Vicky currently leads product management, technical marketing and partership activities at RANsemi, and is a work item lead and board member of Small Cell Forum (SCF).
Vicky was awarded the SCF ‘Outstanding Individual Contribution to SCF award’ in 2020, the SCF Industry Award 2023 for Women in Wireless and the Electronics Weekly Women of the Year (Design Focused) award in 2024.
Vicky is a certified IET registration mentor, and currently mentors a local young female engineer. In May 2023 Vicky joined Industrial Advisory Board Bath University Electronics and Electrical Engineering.