Paolo Bertoldi is a Senior Expert and Project Leader at the European Commission's DG Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Energy and Transport, Renewable and Energy Efficiency, working in Unit F7 for research on Energy Efficiency (EE) in equipment, buildings, urban settlement and policy analysis. He previously was an Action Leader for the energy efficiency policy and technologies research activities in the same unit and a scientific research officer.

Paolo: 

• Led a team and oversee research projects focused on EE in equipment, buildings, urban settlements, and policy analysis.
• Conducted in-depth analysis of EE policies and technologies and their impact on security of supply and climate change targets.
• Provided scientific contributions to several European Directives, including Energy Service, Energy Efficiency, Eco-design, and Energy Performance of Buildings Directives.
• Developed methodologies for the Covenant of Mayors Initiative, expanding its scope to EU East partnership, Central Asia, and Northern Africa countries.
• Led research on EE in ICT, particularly in Data Centers, and managed EC's GreenLight, GreenBuilding, and Motor Challenge.
• Produced regular surveys on the energy service market and companies (ESCOs) in the European region.
• Conducted research on market-based policy instruments like 'white' and 'green' certificates, feed-in tariffs, carbon pricing, and their interaction with the EU ETS and other mitigation policies.
• Performed technology assessments for end-use equipment, systems, and appliances.
• Managed a team of 18 energy analyst professionals, overseeing staff, budget management, and planning.

Gavin Young is responsible within Vodafone Group for the fixed broadband access technology strategy, architecture, vendor roadmaps and standards across the 17 countries where Vodafone currently has fixed access assets. This encompasses fibre, cable and DSL access technologies together with the associated fixed-mobile convergence and virtualisation aspects.

Gavin was previously Head of Strategy & Planning in Cable & Wireless Worldwide leading a team of architects responsible for the technology architecture and strategy for all network technologies. He was a founding member of Bulldog Communications (later acquired by C&W) where he held a variety of responsibilities from product development through to network operations and CTO. Prior to that, Gavin led the Access Architecture & Design team at BT.
Gavin was a founding Director of the Broadband Forum where he was overall Technical Chairman for twelve years. In addition he has been co-chair of the UK21CN consultation’s Broadband Group, chair of the UK NICC’s DSL Task Group and also vice-chair of the NICC Ethernet Access Task Group. Gavin is Chairman of the Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board (OSAB), serves on the IET Communications Policy Panel, the Broadband Forum’s executive advisory board and is active in several CableLabs initiatives. Gavin is a member of the IEEE, Fellow of the IET and Distinguished Fellow of the Broadband Forum.

Rita Tasnadi has joined joined Telekom Deutschland in 2014 and was responsible for spearheading Project management and execution department within the Technology department.

In her most recent position as Vice President for Telco Sustainability and Energy Efficiency at DT, she is accountable of the technology innovation activities and is actively contributing to shaping the fixed and mobile networks across the DT footprint to become more energy efficient and sustainable. She develops, elaborates, and provides technologically and economically feasible transition pathways for operational entities in segments/ local markets.

In her current role, Rita is also co-chairing the O-RAN ALLIANCE “Sustainability” Focus group representing Deutsche Telekom Group.

Before joining Deutsche Telekom, she held various positions in the subsidiaries of Vodafone in Hungary, Netherlands and Germany.

Rita has a strong track record in the telecommunication domain with deep understanding of innovation strategies and knowledge especially about challenges in the fields of network related energy efficiency and sustainability. She also has superior understanding of emerging network architectures and operating models in Telco and IT industry in general and with special emphasis on energy production, usage and efficiency. She has a remarkable ability to identify upcoming trends in the market and is thus dedicated to fostering innovation projects, creating impact by nurturing a culture of creativity and entrepreneurship.

Jon is a Vodafone Distinguished Technical Expert, currently working on fixed broadband access technology strategy, best practice, and innovation with remit across all of Vodafone's countries of operation.   He is also co-work area director of the Broadband Forum ATA work area and is lead for the forum’s access architecture project stream.   Jon has over 20 years’ experience of the architecture, design, implementation and performance management of large scale and international communications networks. 

Christian Gacon started in 1994 at France Telecom. He successively worked in Fixed Network Operations, Wholesale and Product Development. In 2012 he became Chief Technical Officer, at Birdz (then m2ocity) a start-up deploying and operating Smart Metering Networks. He returned to Orange in 2014 to champion Oranges’ technical strategy for wireline networks (fixed access, IP and optical transport) and joined Orange France in 2020 as VP to lead Broadband Fixed Networks Design and Operations.