Future Trends for the Mobile Industry
Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Time: 14:30 – 17:00 (GMT+8)
Location: Level 27, Tower B, Vertical Business Suites, Avenue 3, Bangsar South, 59200 Kuala Lumpur
We are living in an era of connectivity that is fluid and flexible. 5G will account for 1.2 billion connections by 2025, the equivalent of one-third of the world’s population, and it is powering a digital economy where every industry is now taking a technology-first approach. But its critical success requires global partnership and fair governance to deliver a sustainable and mutually beneficial value chain. Open Gateway presents a new offering, focused on building an open and unified ecosystem that can unlock the full potential of 5G and enable developers to create a future not yet written. It is an industry ambition built on a deep ecosystem and framework that is complex in nature but simple to use for channel partners and developers. It’s time to lead a new era of open connectivity, for the benefit of everyone.
Drawing upon its expertise and influence, GSMA serves as a vital bridge connecting China with the international mobile and tech ecosystem. Join us at the MWC Shanghai Roadshow, where you'll gain first-hand insights from industry experts on how you can unlock further value of Open Gateway which will create positive outcome to stimulate growth and progress for your business across the industry.
| Kuala Lumpur Roadshow - Future Trends for the Mobile Industry | |
|---|---|
| 14:30 – 14:40 | GSMA APAC Keynote – Global Insights from GSMA Kevin Henry, Head of Strategic Engagement APAC, GSMA |
| 14:40 – 14:50 | Govt/ MDEC Keynote – Malaysia a Digital Nation: Key Success Factors Ts. Mahadhir bin. Aziz, CEO, MDEC |
| 14:50 – 15:10 | Joint Presentation: (a) Open Gateway – The Art of What’s Possible Alexandra Szomora, Senior Project Manager OG, GSMA (b) Use Case – Commercialization of the OG API’s Udaka Kappagoda, Principal Architect, Axiata Digital Labs (Pvt) Ltd |
| 15:10 – 15:50 |
Panel – The Digital Vision for Telco’s Over the past decade, mobile connectivity has delivered huge economic and social impact across the world, fuelling global players such as Meta, TikTok, Uber and the likes. Digital disruption continues to pick up pace, and mobile operators have been unable to achieve financial rewards that match their influence. Mobile operators are at a new juncture of their evolution, moving from connectivity to selling comprehensive solutions fit for digital use. This requires a new outlook - to delayer business models, to work with partners and free up resource to advance future growth in AI, robotics and cloud based 5G services using Open API. A new industry vision is one of digital optimism, are you ready? Moderator: Nikolai Dobberstein, Partner & Country Head Malaysia at Kearney Panellists: 1) T Kugan, Chief Innovation Officer, CelcomDigi 2) Prateek Pashine, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Maxis 3) Neil Tomkinson, Chief Information Officer, UMobile 4) Jasmine Lee Sze Inn, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Consumer, TM 5) Wing K. Lee, CEO, YTL Communications |
| 15:50 – 16:00 | GSMA Convening the Industry – Where the ecosystem meets Christy Choong, Regional Sales Director, GSMA |
| 16:00 – 17:00 | Networking Drinks |
Udaka Kappagoda, Principal Architect, Axiata Digital Labs (Pvt) Ltd
Udaka Kappagoda is a versatile digital technology and business professional with two decades of experience spanning the full spectrum of the Telco business, including network management, supply chain management, product management, software development, cloud computing, enterprise architecture, and digital transformation. Having served in key roles at Dialog Axiata and Bharti Airtel before transitioning full-time to Telco software platform development at Axiata Digital Labs, he plays a significant role in helping Telcos to accelerate evolution and transformation towards a Telco platform play.
T Kugan, Chief Innovation Officer, CelcomDigi
Kugan has an extensive 20 years’ experience in the Telecommunication industry. He was the Chief Emerging Business Officer at Celcom. Prior to Celcom, Kugan was the Chief Marketing Officer in Smartfren Indonesia responsible for the overall commercial business. Kugan started his career with Ericsson Sweden and has worked in various international market during his tenure with Ericsson Sweden before returning home to Malaysia and joining DiGi and Maxis shortly thereafter.
Kugan holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from University Teknologi Malaysia and has completed executive management programs at Columbia Business School and at Stanford in the US.
Alexandra Szomora, Senior Project Manager OG, GSMA
Having worked for Samsung, Nokia, AVG, Avast and McAfee, Alex has a diverse background in tech, telco, cyber security and blockchain tehnologies. At GSMA she has lead projects including Mobile Connect, IoT and the GSMA 5G Transformation hub, one of the largest curated 5G B2B case study repository. She has been recently supporting the APAC countries to adopt the OpenGateway initiative and launch commercially available CAMARA compatible API based solutions.
Kevin Henry, Head of Strategic Engagement APAC, GSMA
Kevin is currently the Head of Strategic Engagement in APAC for GSMA. He has over 23 years of experience in the telecommunications sector working with various mobile operators regionally in APAC, like Maxis, Celcom, Indosat Ooredoo (Indonesia), Robi (Bangladesh) as well as smaller startups like UMobile, P1 and Seatel (Cambodia). Kevin has held various senior positions with the last being the Chief Operations Officer of Tune Talk. He has both commercial and technical experience in the various roles he has held during his tenure.
Dr. Nikolai Dobberstein, Global CMT Lead, Kearney
Nikolai Dobberstein is the Global Leader of Kearney’s Communications, Media & Technology Practice and the Managing Partner of the Malaysian Practice. He has been involved in multiple business and digital transformation programs of technology companies and telecom operators in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa. Nikolai was the lead partner for Kearney’s collaboration with the WEF on the Future of Production in ASEAN and a member of the Indian Government’s Innovation Taskforce in 2016/17.
Before joining Kearney in India in 2011, Nikolai was the Exco member for New Businesses at Maxis, Malaysia. Nikolai had P&L responsibility for all data and digital businesses and helped propel Maxis into one of the global top 15 data operators. Before Maxis, Nikolai was 12 years with McKinsey & Company. He was a Director on the Board of Scicom (MSC) Bhd from 2005 to 2017 and Exco member of the Global Wireless Broadband Alliance.
Nikolai came to Malaysia in late 1996 when he was involved in setting up the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). He has spent the last 30 years working in Asia, mostly in Malaysia and India.
Nikolai has been recognized as one of the top 25 technology consultants of 2024 and received Malaysia’s outstanding entrepreneurs lifetime achievement award.
Nikolai is German and has a PhD in Technology & Innovation Management from the University of Kiel, Germany.
Prateek Pashine, Chief Enterprise Officer, Maxis
Prateek heads up the Maxis Business division with a strong ambition to help transform businesses in Malaysia to be ready for the future, cutting across corporate, government, sxll and medium enterprise (SME) and wholesale customers.
He brings with him close to 30 years of experience in Sales, Marketing, Procurement, Project Financing, Technology Planning, and Business Planning & Strategy.
Prior to Maxis, he spent over 20 years serving at several companies within the Tata Group including Tata Teleservices and Tata Communications, and on diverse businesses such as hospitality, software, real estate and telecom equipment and services. In the last four years, he setup & led Reliance Jio's Enterprise Business which provides ICT services such as connectivity, private networks, mobility, cloud, IOT and security to enterprises.
He has served as the Chairman and Board Member of WBA (Wireless Broadband Alliance) and served on the Board of WiMAX Forum, an industry-led, non-profit organization.
He has an MBA in Corporate Strategy and Marketing with an Engineering degree in Electronics. He was a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and attended the Fulbright-CII Fellowship Program for Leadership in Management at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.
Ts. Mahadhir bin. Aziz, CEO, MDEC
Ts. Mahadhir is a prominent veteran of visionary and strategic national initiatives. He is a strong advocate for digital transformation and social digital inclusion and often shares his insights and thoughts on digital economy at various speaking engagements and events including the Smart City Expo World Congress, UN Habitat World Urban Forum and Mobile World Congress.
He spent the past 20 years developing and leading strategies and initiatives such as the Cyberjaya Global Tech Hub, the National Regulatory Sandbox (which later gave birth to the NTIS of today), and the Malaysia Digital (MD) national initiative that succeeds the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia – giving it a refresh in many critical areas. Ts. Mahadhir also serves as a member of the board of Johor Land Group (JLG) including state digital economy councils.
Ts. Mahadhir is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), a keynote speaker, and someone who enjoys sports.
Jasmine Lee Sze Inn, Chief Commercial Officer, Consumer, TM
Jasmine holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Communication and Social Sciences from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She joined TM on 1 October 2022 as EVP Mobile and is currently the Chief Commercial Officer, Consumer, under the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) segment effective 15 November 2023.
Jasmine has over 25 years of experience in building and expanding different technology-based businesses and has also served in various telecommunications and technology industries. Prior to joining TM, Jasmine served as the Chief Digital Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of U Mobile and led the aggressive growth at U Mobile from 1 million subscribers in 2013 to 7 million subscribers in 2021.
Jasmine’s vast experience in driving business growth through cost-effective innovation includes her service at AirAsia as the Commercial Director, CEO of MNC Wireless Berhad, a mobile services start-up established by Jasmine, as well as the Senior Manager of Corporate Branding & Relationship Marketing at Digi Telecommunications.
Her strengths in driving the mobile business, marketing, innovation, new business development, digital and customer relations marketing are crucial in driving force for Sales, Product and Marketing for TM to meet the Convergence’s market demand while innovating the future.
Neil Tomkinson, Chief Information Officer, UMobile
Neil joined U Mobile as our Chief Information Officer in February 2018. He is a South African IT veteran who has spent over three decades in the telecommunications industry. Prior to U Mobile, Neil was with MTN, the biggest African mobile operator with 230 million subscribers spanning 22 countries. Neil holds various qualifications, including a prestigious Wits University Postgraduate Certificate in CIO Practice.
Having worked his way up from engineer to CIO, Neil possesses both strategic vision for IT to meet business objectives, as well as the technical understanding to implement. One of Neil’s proudest U Mobile moments that demonstrated his mettle was a successful transformation initiative for our CRM and billing systems. This was key to supporting improvements to shape customer experience and business scalability moving forwards. As a leader, Neil believes that every employee has an important role to play to drive company vision. As such, he has an open-door policy and seeks to be consultative, constantly engaging his staff to get them excited to be on the same journey together.
Wing K. Lee, CEO, YTL Communications
As CEO of YTL Communications, Wing and his team built Malaysia’s largest all-4G; all-IP network. In 2021, they achieved another milestone of being the first to launch 5G nationwide.
Prior to YTL, Wing spent over 17 years in the United States in leadership positions to build the first nationwide fiber optics network, the first nationwide wireless data network, and the first commercial 4g network.
Awarded “Asian American Engineer of the Year” in the 2002 US National Engineers Week, Wing also holds 33 US Patents in addition to Singaporean and Korean patents.
He attended the University of Texas at Austin and MIT.