About the Program Committee
The Program Committee for SubOptic 2010 is tasked with formulating the overall conference program, including the oral paper presentations, poster presentations, master-class tutorials, keynote speakers, and round-table sessions.
The Program Committee comprises a Chairman and seven Vice-Chairs, each primarily responsible for one of the seven broad topic areas of the conference. The secretary of the SubOptic Executive Committee, John Horne, also sits on the Program Committee, and brings his wide experience from the past conferences.
The members of the Program Committee represent a wide cross-section of industry organisations - including purchasers, suppliers, and consultants. They are a dedicated and experience team, and together have around 200 man-years and woman-years of experience in the industry. The Program Committee is committed to providing a program for 2010 which meets or exceeds the high a level of commercial & technical excellence of previous SubOptic conventions - and which is also of relevance and interest to all existing and new members of our diverse industry.
The members of the Program Committee are:
Colin Anderson (NEC Corporation)
(Chairman)
John Horne
(Secretary of the SubOptic Executive Committee)
Elaine Stafford (David Ross Group)
(Vice Chair: Global Markets &
Geographical Markets)
Guy Arnos (WFN Strategies)
(Vice Chair: Special Markets)
Dan Hughes (Apollo Cable System)
(Vice Chair: Regulatory, Finance, Environmental, & Legal)
Leigh Frame (ASN / Alcatel-Lucent)
(Vice Chair: Project Development & Implementation)
Graham Evans (EGS Survey Group)
(Vice Chair: Marine Services & Marine Operations)
Marsha Spalding (Tyco Telecommunications)
(Vice Chair: System Design & Applications)
Masuo Suyama (Fujitsu Limited)
(Vice Chair: Equipment & Component Technologies)
One new aspect of the Program Committee for SubOptic 2010 is the formation of a "Strategic Advisers" group chosen for their special experience, interest and skills in conference organisation or participation, consisting of:
Owen Best
(Reliance Globalcom)
John Hibbard (Hibbard Consulting; Pacific Telecommunications Council)
Jayne Stowell
(Google Inc)
Robin Russell
(Australia Japan Cable)
David Robles
(Tyco Telecommunications)
(PC Chair for SubOptic 2007)
José Chesnoy
(ASN / Alcatel Lucent)
(PC Chair for SubOptic 2004)
Further biographical details about the members of the Program Committee and the Strategic Advisers group can be found below.
The PC is supported by up to 50-70 reviewers who have the task of reviewing abstracts submitted by authors in a professional and unbiased manner, and recommending whether they be accepted or rejected. This selection process again ensures no favouritism to individual companies or elements of the community.
Biographies
Colin Anderson
Senior Consultant, Submarine Networks Division
NEC Corporation, Tokyo Japan
Colin Anderson has been involved in the international telecommunications networks industry for over 20 years, and has held a range of marketing and engineering roles in the areas of terrestrial optical networks and digital radio networks, before entering the submarine networks industry, where he has played a significant role in the design, bidding, award, and implementation of many international submarine cable projects - among them SEA-ME-WE 3, Southern Cross, Japan-US, FNAL, SEA-ME-WE 4, FLAG FEA, AJC, AAG, & Unity.
Prior to consulting for NEC Submarine Networks Division, Colin held positions with Fujitsu Limited in Tokyo and in New Zealand, and earlier he worked for Philips Electronics in both engineering and marketing roles.
Colin received his BSc and MBA degrees from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He is a senior member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Communications Society (SM IEEE), and also a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES).
He is a New Zealander, and lived in Tokyo for 13 years before moving to Sydney Australia in 2005. His hobbies include a life-long passion for classical music, the restoration of grand pianos, home & car hi-fi audio systems, electronics, and home renovation.
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John Horne
Secretary to the SubOptic Executive Committee
John Horne has been involved with telecommunications networks for nearly 40 years, most of the time in the international field.
He joined British Telecom in 1964 and first became involved in submarine networks in 1969, initially in a project implementation role on systems such as CANTAT2 and TELPAL and then in planning.
In the early 1980's he was responsible as Technology Manager for BT's initial optical fibre systems, UK-Belgium 5 and TAT-8.
During the latter part of his career in BT, John was responsible for the implementation of BT's International Transmission Centres and worked on the planning, procurement and implementation of several multi-national global projects.
John's involvement with SubOptic started with the first conference in 1986, where he presented a paper on the branching potential for optical fibre systems. He was a Vice-Chairman of the Papers Committee for SubOptic 2001 and has been Secretary to the SubOptic EC since then.
John is a Fellow of the UK's Institution of Engineering Technology and holds a Diploma in Management Studies from Middlesex University.
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Elaine Stafford
Vice President
The David Ross Group
Elaine Stafford has over 30 years experience in the telecommunications industry, with 25 years in undersea cable. Since 2002, Ms Stafford has been a member of The David Ross Group, supporting undersea cable owners across the globe with their project development, business plan development, network procurement, project implementation, and marketing efforts.
Prior to 2002, Ms Stafford was on the TyCom executive team, where she held a variety of key positions, including: leading the management team constructing TyCom's Global Network (TGN); Business Development; Product Management and Engineering. In earlier senior management positions within Tyco and AT&T Submarine Systems, Ms Stafford was directly involved in supporting the sale, development, system design, integration and deployment of many of the world's transoceanic networks deployed from the mid-1980's through the 1990's.
During the 1980's, Ms Stafford led various R&D organizations in AT&T Bell Laboratories, where she was responsible for terminal equipment development and system design/test of undersea network solutions. She has attended each of the six past SubOptic conventions, co-authored papers presented at many of these conferences, and has also served previously on the program committee.
Elaine has a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Union College in NY, and a MSEE from Stanford University. In her spare time, Elaine tries to find time to relax with her husband and three daughters, and enjoy music and the outdoors.
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Guy Arnos
Director of Projects
WFN Strategies
Sterling, Virginia, USA
Guy Arnos has over 25 years experience in submarine and terrestrial networks and has been responsible for the planning, engineering and implementation of transoceanic, transcontinental and metropolitan telecom systems.
Guy joined MCI in 1983 and participated in the deployment of the first major long haul single mode fiber optic national network as Manager of Project Engineering.
Leaving MCI in 1986, Guy was one of the founders of Lightwave Spectrum, Inc. and entered the submarine cable industry as consultant to the US purchasers of PTAT-1, the first private fiber optic submarine cable system.
Guy joined WFN Strategies in 2001 as Director of Projects. With WFN Strategies he has supported efforts in a number of submarine and terrestrial telecom projects, including the engineering and implementation of inter-platform submarine cable systems in the Gulf of Mexico and Angola; engineering and procurement of broadband wireless and trunked radio systems for the oil & gas industry in Alaska, Wyoming and Colorado; the design of terrestrial networks in Antarctica, and implementation supervision of the ADONES project in Angola.
Guy was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in June 1978 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Guy lives in the Washington, DC metropolitan area with his wife and two daughters and enjoys boating and auto restoration.
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Daniel Hughes
Sales and Marketing Director
Apollo Submarine Cable System Ltd
Daniel Hughes is the Sales and Marketing Director for the Apollo Submarine Cable System Ltd, the owner and operator of a transatlantic submarine cable system providing capacity between the USA, UK and France by way of two fully diverse cables.
Daniel joined Apollo in January 2008. Prior to this he worked in the International Network Engineering Group at Verizon Business, where he was involved in the development of their global network through both private acquisitions of international capacity and through the planning development and management of consortium submarine cable systems. Daniel was with Verizon Business for seven years.
Daniel has participated in many recent submarine cable initiatives and gained a significant experience in the international telecommunications industry from the commercial and carrier perspective.
He was the Investment and Agreement Co-Chair for both the SEA ME WE 4 and TPE cable systems, and became the Interim Management Committee Chair for the EIG system prior to joining Apollo. He was also the Verizon Business Management Committee Representative on numerous cable systems worldwide.
He holds a BSc in Applied and Environmental Geology and an MSc in Applied Geophysics and Petroleum Geology from The University of Birmingham.
In his spare time Daniel enjoys cricket and international travel.
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Leigh Frame
VP Projects & Customer Support
Submarine Networks
Alcatel-Lucent
Leigh Frame was born and raised in London and then moved north to take an economics degree at Leeds University.
He joined Alcatel-Lucent in 1990 in the submarine networks division, having previously worked in the defence and computer industries.
After several contract and operational roles within the marine function, he subsequently took full responsibility for managing Alcatel-Lucent's marine activities.
In 1998 Leigh moved to Paris, France and was initially responsible for marketing and business development.
For a number of years now, Leigh has looked after contract management for system and upgrade implementations, and customer support through the system lifetime.
Although he has enjoyed the submarine system industry for many years, he is rumoured to most enjoy a large garage and time to work on, work under, drive, or ride italian cars and bikes.
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Graham Evans
Business Development Director & Board Director
EGS Survey
With more than 30 years experience as a marine geologist and applied geophysicist, Graham has the dual role of Business Development Director for the EGS Survey Group of companies worldwide (EGS), and as a Board Director and co-founder of EGS Survey in Perth, Australia.
Graham began specialising in submarine cable route planning and survey in 1990 after being encouraged by former SubOptic President Alan Robinson, then with BT Marine, to adapt engineering geoscience procedures that Graham had developed for dredging investigations, to the requirements of the submarine telecommunications industry, in particular in the field of burial assessment.
Since that time, he has become an enthusiastic and dedicated participant in the submarine telecommunications community, becoming known throughout the industry for his knowledge in the application of cross-discipline geoscience techniques and procedures, and as a regular speaker on his specialist topics at international conferences worldwide.
Graham joined EGS in 1978 leaving in 1990 on what he describes as his 6 year sabbatical to join as one of the first three employees of the embryonic Fugro Survey, where he played a key part in developing that company's submarine cable business. In 1996, he rejoined EGS where he set about to build EGS into a world leader dedicated to the provision of cable route planning and survey services.
Graham is a regular attendee of SubOptic Conferences attending all but the first 1986 conference in Versailles, and is currently a member of the SubOptic Executive Committee, as well as being a Vice Chair on the Program Committee.
Graham holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geology from the University of Manchester, and Bachelor of Arts Degree in Earth and Environmental Sciences from the Open University.
Graham is married, and wife Linda has on occasion been heard to ruefully refer to his other marriage to EGS. Outside of the work environment, Graham is a keen but very bad golfer being consistently beaten by his wife, he is an aviation bore having been a private pilot for many years; he is a very keen power walker and recently was asked by someone less than half his age to reduce his pace; and he is a music enthusiast, having a somewhat eclectic taste but which is firmly founded in the classics.
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Marsha Spalding
Director, Cable, Joints and Special Projects
Tyco Telecommunications Laboratories
Tyco Telecommunications, Eatontown, NJ USA
Marsha has over 25 years of submarine telecommunications industry experience in R&D, engineering, sales, and project management. After joining Bell Laboratories in the early 1980's, she was instrumental in the design, development, and manufacturing introduction of AT&T's first fiber optic submarine cable, utilized in the historic TAT-8 trans-Atlantic system. Her engineering team was also responsible for the design and development of AT&T's first repeaterless cable.
In the early 1990's she joined AT&T's Sales and Marketing division, initiating the Application Engineering organization responsible for designing system-specific undersea architectures to meet customers' project requirements.
In the late 1990's she moved to Paris, France where she served as the technical sales director for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. Upon returning to the US, she was a key customer account manager, and then project manager, responsible for implementing numerous transoceanic systems.
Marsha is currently an R&D Director responsible for cable and associated hardware designs for both traditional submarine telecommunications systems as well as special projects, including oil and gas opportunities.
Marsha received her BS Mechanical Engineering from California State University Fresno and her MS Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. She was active in Tyco Telecommunications' planning efforts for SubOptic 2007 in Baltimore.
Her hobbies are focused on her enduring love of the outdoors, and include hiking, skiing, jogging, and gardening.
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Masuo Suyama
Group Vice President, Submarine Networks
Photonics Systems Group
FUJITSU LIMITED, Tokyo Japan
Masuo Suyama has been involved in research and development of optical transmission systems for over 20 years. He joined Fujitsu Laboratories in 1983 and worked on coherent transmission systems and EDFA based optical amplification technology. He then moved to a submarine network division in 1994, where he has been responsible for development of optical amplifier submarine systems including line design, submarine repeater design, and terminal equipment design.
Mr Suyama received his master's degree in applied physic from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. He is a member of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) in Japan.
He has also served as a General Co-Chair of the 7th topical meeting on Optical Amplifiers and their Application (OAA) in 1996.
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Owen Best
President Asia
Reliance Globalcom
Before joining Reliance Globalcom (formerly FLAG Telecom) in June 1998, Owen Best was Vice President of Telstra Japan (1995~1998) and Regional Director of Telstra Korea (1994~1996).
He has more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry; the last 16 years based in Asia in executive positions with Reliance Globalcom, FLAG Telecom, Telstra, OTC, and Telecom Australia International.
Owen has a Bachelor of Engineering Degree (Electronics/Communications), and an MBA from the University of Queensland in Brisbane Australia.
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John Hibbard
CEO Hibbard Consulting
John Hibbard has 40 years experience in telecoms, with 30 years in international telecoms, principally involved with the commercial arrangements amongst carriers. He now consults with a focus on assisting with business development in the Asia Pacific region.
John is the former Managing Director, Global Wholesale for Telstra, where he managed a unit having relations with 250 carriers around the world. He was the creator and inaugural Chairman of the Australia Japan Cable, a US$ 500 million undersea cable project.
He has experience in most facets of international communications including general management, strategic direction, business development, commercial and technical operations, and has been involved in the ongoing involvement of the submarine cable industry for more than 25 years.
John has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Sydney University, Australia, and a Master of Electronic Engineering, from Netherlands University, Netherlands.
He is a member of the Board of Governors of Pacific Telecommunications Council.
Hibbard Consulting Pty Ltd, CEO
Hibbard Consulting has successfully consulted in most facets of international telecommunications, including the recovery and re-lay of PacRim West to create APNG2. Advising on several other cable projects
Telstra: Managing Director, Global Wholesale
At Telstra, John was responsible for delivery of revenue and profit from commercial arrangements with carrier customers, suppliers and competitors. He built relations with many of industry's current key players, and was active involvement in the development of the Tasman 2, PacRim East, PacRim West, JASURAUS and SEA-ME-WE3 cables.
Chairman of Australia Japan Cable
John conceived, sponsored, over-sighted the implementation, and brought to service on- time the $US500M submarine cable from Australia to Japan. For 3 years he was the inaugural Chairman of a board comprising carriers from 5 jurisdictions.
OTC: Director Planning
John was responsible for the planning of OTC's technical and network engineering which including the ANZCAN and Australia-Indonesia- Singapore Cable
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Jayne Stowell
Jayne Stowell is currently a Strategic Negotiator with Google's infrastructure group. She has been a well recognised figure in the submarine cable industry for some time and represents Google's emerging and existing interests in submarine cables around the world including serving as the first chairman of Unity, a new trans-Pacific cable.
Previously Jayne provided independent advisory, non-executive director and expert witness services, including 4 years as the independent non-executive director on Apollo's board of directors.
She has been deeply involved in the initiation, design, promotion, construction and management of five other major submarine cables - for example Gemini (the trans-Atlantic cable joint venture between C&W and WorldCom), Japan-US, Yellow (the trans-Atlantic cable built by Level 3), Southern Cross, and NACS (a South-East Asia submarine cable built by Level 3).
In the past 8 years she has been successively Senior Vice President International Business Development and Submarine at WorldCom, and Senior Vice President Global Submarine and International Business Development at Level 3. She was also Vice Chairman of Axone, a submarine cable company which planned to build a network connecting Europe, Middle East and India.
Prior to that Jayne was in charge of top management functions in Bell Canada International and Energis. While with BZW investment bank and Coopers & Lybrand Management Consulting Services, Jayne led many strategy and merger/acquisition projects for telecommunications clients throughout the world.
Jayne has a MBA from Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University.
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Robin Russell
CEO, Australia Japan Cable
Robin has thirty-five years experience in the telecommunications industry.
For the last eight years he has been CEO of Australia Japan Cable (AJC), an economical and ultra-reliable submarine fibre optic network enabling links between Asia or North America and Australia.
Robin has attended the last three SubOptic conferences, and has been a member of the SubOptic Executive Committee since 2004.
He holds a Master of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales, and he is sure to bring a guitar along to Yokohama.
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David Robles
Senior Commercial Manger
Tyco Telecommunications
David Robles is a Senior Commercial Manager for Tyco Telecommunications. Based in Madrid since 2005, he provides sales operations support for the EMEA region, including bid preparation and commercial management for contracted projects.
David's involvement with SubOptic began with the 2004 conference, when he served as Vice-Chairman of the Marketplace program topic. Following that, he played a central role in SubOptic 2007 as Chairman of the Program Committee. For that event, hosted by Tyco Telecom in Baltimore, David helped broaden the program to include more business-related content and increased the focus on system applications, such as offshore platform connectivity. He also introduced SubOptic's first keynote speakers from outside the submarine industry.
David has a Masters degree in optics from the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics and a Bachelors degree in physics from Towson University in Maryland, where he graduated summa cum laude. He began his career in submarine systems as a system engineer, and has also worked in project management, technical marketing and capacity procurement.
Since transitioning into a commercial role for Tyco Telecom, David has developed broad expertise across the entire business, and this wide perspective has helped keep the SubOptic program balanced and well-rounded.
David is married and is the proud father of two girls, Nina and Lucie. Thanks to his French wife, he has gained an appreciation for good wines, good food and la joie de vivre. Having learned French, David's latest challenge is learning Spanish and keeping up with a multilingual household.
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José Chesnoy
Product Strategy & Technical Proposals Director
Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks
José Chesnoy is presently in charge of Product Strategy and Technical Proposals in Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks.
After graduating from Ecole Polytechnique in 1977 and a receiving his PhD in 1981, he entered the "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) as a researcher in femtosecond physics.
He joined Alcatel in 1989 as head of the research unit on optical systems and fibres in the Alcatel Corporate Research Center. From 1995, he became head of the System Development in the Submarine Business Division, extended to Terrestrial Network Division in 1999 with the responsibility of system design and technology of Optical Network Division.
Since 2005, José Chesnoy has led the R&D of Photonic Networks Products in Alcatel Optical Network Division, and in his role has been in charge of the development of Metro, Long-Haul and Submarine WDM products - products which have become the market-leaders in these three segments.
During the course of his technical carrier, José Chesnoy has been granted more than 50 international patents in the field of fibre optics. He is an Alcatel-Lucent Corporate fellow.
José is the editor of the book "Undersea fibre communication Systems" published by Academic Press in 2002, and he was the Chairman of the Programme Committee for the SubOptic 2004 conference & convention which was held in Monaco.
Outside his professional life in the submarine business, José like to discover in private water landscapes by scuba diving.
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