A one-day event for the next generation of global submarine cable industry talent

Isabelle is President and Founder of HOT TELECOM, one of the most innovative and creative telecom research and consulting companies in the industry. HOT TELECOM has been supporting operators and vendors on a global basis for over 19 years, more particularly on the subjects of International and wholesale.

More recently, Isabelle has been working with many of the world’s telecom service providers to help them define their transformation strategy and has written multiple articles and speaks at conferences on this topic. She is also passionate about encouraging the involvement of women in technology and science and conducts multiple panels and interviews with leading women globally. She is a member of the Youth and Women Entrepreneurship ESBN task force, which is a working group created by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific (ESCAP) to promote the active engagement of the business sector in addressing the issues of sustainable and social inclusiveness in business. She is also the founder of the Inclusion hub, which aims to encourage the participation of young people in the telecom industry. Isabelle holds a Bachelor degree in Engineering, an MBA in Finance and has over 29 years experience working globally.

Ugne is a Network Investments Manager at Meta driving a range of terrestrial and subsea network developments in EMEA, currently leading IEX submarine system delivery between Mumbai, India and Savona, Italy, and overseeing MAREA Transatlantic cable in-life operations. She is leading Meta’s long-term Middle East Infrastructure strategy, and her day-to-day focuses commercial, partner and project management for shore end and subsea. Prior to Meta and subsea industry Ugnė worked in wholesale telecoms with focus on the Middle East, Central Asia, and Central Eastern Europe.

Leigh is Chief Operating Officer for Xtera, one of the world’s leading suppliers of subsea cable systems. In addition to his executive role, he is directly responsible for sales and marketing, R&D and engineering. Xtera offers one of the most advanced high fibre-count undersea repeaters which includes command and control supervisory, and the Engineering function works hard to maintain this lead.

Prior to joining Xtera in 2018, Leigh was COO of ASN, rounding off a 30-year career in France and the UK with that company. In parallel, he was a board member of the Apollo Submarine Cable System, which operates two trans-Atlantic cables. Leigh has considerable experience working alongside SPVs and other cable system developers and has also held roles in turnkey project management, and prior to that, as head of the marine department. He has a degree in Economics from Leeds University and has previously worked in the defence and computer industries.

Nicole Starosielski, Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is author or co-editor of over thirty articles and five books on media, infrastructure, and environments, including The Undersea Network (2015).

She is currently a Principal Investigator on the SubOptic Foundation’s Sustainable Subsea Networks research project.

Sheela is responsible for managing all of Ciena’s legal matters and for providing strategic business support in EMEA, APAC, and CALA as International General Counsel. She is also involved in Ciena’s corporate development initiatives, contributing to the Company’s business strategy through M&A and other strategic transactions globally. In addition, Sheela manages global employment, investigations, and litigation.

Prior to joining Ciena, she was Vice President and General Counsel of two technology start-up companies, HomeCom Communications in Atlanta, GA and Closedloop Solutions in Redwood City, CA and a Vice President, Associate General Counsel of a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company, Cendant Corporation. Sheela is still a member of the adjunct faculty of Johns Hopkins University and taught a class in Computer Law and Ethics from 2007-2016. She is a member of the Maryland and Georgia State Bars and received a Juris Doctor degree from Wake Forest University and Bachelor of Science degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

John Tibbles is a consultant specialising in submarine cable matters and related telecoms matters. He headed the cable and global network development teams at Cable and Wireless from 1993-98 and Worldcom/Verizon from 1998 -2003 managing some of the largest global networks. He was a board member and chairman of Southern Cross, AJC and Gemini and as MC member and Chair on contemporary consortium system development .

From 2004-2010 he headed Business Development Europe for Hong Kong based Telstra: PCCW JV ‘Reach’ and until 2012 for Telstra International. Since retiring he has advised on numerous subsea cable projects and advised major law firms on the implications of structural changes to the subsea industry as well as being an expert witness and dispute moderator on cable and international telecom issues. He has regularly contributed articles to trade media and spoken /moderated at major industry events. He is an advisor to the SubOptic Foundation.

Elaine Reed leads the Submarine Engineering team at Vodafone Group ensuring technical and operational best practice in the deployment, operations and decommissioning of submarine cable systems for which Vodafone have responsibility.

Elaine joined Vodafone in April 2021, having spent the previous 30 years in BT, where she was Head of Subsea Centre of Excellence. She has extensive experience in the industry at both commercial and technical level, having chaired consortium Procurement Groups and Technical Working Groups, primarily in the Atlantic and European regions, and delivering systems of varying levels of complexity. She enjoys leading teams of engineering professionals and is a champion for encouraging new talent into the industry. Elaine spent 8 years of her career in various data centre roles that included deployment of new data centre technologies and energy efficiency projects. Elaine holds a BEng in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Queens University Belfast, is a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Engineering & Technology and a STEM Ambassador.

Dr Mike Clare is a principal researcher in Ocean Biogeosciences at the National Oceanography Centre, where his research focuses on climate change in the ocean, marine hazards and environmental interactions with seafloor infrastructure such as subsea cables.

He has been the Marine Environmental Advisor to the International Cable Protection Committee since 2019 and is a strong advocate for industrial-academic collaboration across the broad area of ocean research.

With an interest in geology and Earth’s natural processes I attended Keele University to study for a BSc in Geoscience, with geology, geophysics, geochemistry, GIS, and hydrography. Finding a greater interest in geophysics I then stayed at Keele to complete my MSc in Geoscience Research, specialising in geophysics and its applications. Throughout my life I’ve had a passion for the marine world, growing up around all types of boats, both sailing and powered, eventually working on tugs & workboats on the River Thames at 18 years old. I acquired my vessel master’s ticket and was employed as a skipper on these vessels during the holidays in my university years, and for a spell afterwards.

My career then moved ashore, and in 2019 I started at Alcatel Submarine Networks Ltd (ASN) in Greenwich, working as a Cable Route Engineer in the ASN Marine Operations Department. This role oversees all the planning, hydrographic surveying and cable engineering of our fibre optic cable supply contracts, leading to the cable manufacturing at ASN’s factory in Calais, and ultimately the cable installation by ASN’s fleet of cable ships. My passion, interest and background in earth sciences and the marine industry have helped maximise my capability and enjoyment in my role. I’ve already worked on numerous projects and travelled all over the world.