Rob Taylor

Head of Forum Nokia

Rob Taylor, a veteran in the mobile communications industry with more than 10 years experience, is the Global Head of Forum Nokia. Taylor is responsible for maturing relationships with the mobile application development community around the world and was previously the Director of Forum Nokia Americas responsible for North and Latin America. As part of his role, Taylor is responsible for identifying innovative mobile applications and services that aid in differentiating Nokia’s integrated device and service proposition.

Tero Ojanpera

Executive Vice President, Services, Nokia

Tero Ojanpera is the head of Nokia's entertainment business. As Executive Vice President, Services, Tero is at the forefront of Nokia's push into delivering compelling, interactive entertainment that gives consumers the opportunity to connect with each other to discover and share a wide range of media.

Lee Williams

Executive Director, Symbian Foundation

Lee Williams is the Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, a non-profit organisation that is building an open source software platform based on Symbian OS, today’s most widely used open operating system for mobile phones.

Before taking up his new role at the foundation officially on 1st January 2009, Lee lead the S60 Software organisation in Nokia’s Devices business and was responsible for managing and delivering key Nokia software assets for the companies’ products. This included the S60 software platform, related applications and product software for Nokia's S60 based devices and internet based services.

Prior to joining S60, he was the former head of Engineering and Product Development for Be, Inc. Products included the BeOS Operating System, BeIA an Internet Appliances platform and related applications and services. Be was acquired by Palm Computing and he joined as the head of Product Development and Delivery at Palm. Palm OS 4, 5 and smartphone based variants were delivered during his tenure at the company. He also led the Engineering Product Development Group at PalmSource, the software platform company responsible for licensing the Palm OS platform to global consumer electronics and smartphone licensees. After leaving Palm, and before joining Nokia, Lee was the General Manager of the Mobility Software Division for Symbol Technologies, before it was acquired by Motorola. Lee is married with two children and is based in London, UK.

John Faith

Vice President & General Manager of Mobile Operations, MySpace

John is the General Manager and Vice President of MySpace Mobile, and is responsible for all aspects pertaining to the growth and success of the business unit. Prior to his current role, John contributed to multiple initiatives for the company as Vice President of Engineering including the expansion of MySpace into 29 local versions, the development of MySpace’s mobile product line, the maturation of its post sales production processes, and the delivery of a custom content management system. He was recently named one of the 25 most powerful people in wireless by FierceWireless.

Prior to MySpace, John was a software engineer and technical manager at Experian Consumer Direct and GoldPocket Interactive where he developed credit monitoring and interactive television software respectively.

Mikko Terho

Vice President and Nokia Fellow

Mikko Terho works in the Devices R&D Technology, Strategy and Architecture unit. His current interests are open source development around Qt, machine learning and semantic data manipulation. He also manages a team that develops prototypes for pervasive communication devices with novel Internet services. As a Nokia Fellow, he advices other Nokia R&D Groups in the area of system design, software architecture and component selection. Mikko joined Nokia in 1983 and has since served in various research and development and managerial positions within the company. He is also a founding Director of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum Ltd and founding Director of Symbian Ltd.

Pekka Pohjakallio

President, Service Experience, Services, Nokia

Pekka Pohjakallio has 16 years’ experience in mobile communications and mobile services, and currently serves as Vice President, Service Experience, Services for Nokia. Pekka is responsible for managing the overall services portfolio management, consumer data, Ovi marketing, environmental services and Forum Nokia, the Nokia developer community.

Pekka joined Nokia in 1991. During his tenure with Nokia, Pekka was instrumental in developing the mobile value-added services business throughout the 90’s, heading the SMS, MMS, and WAP businesses in Nokia Networks. In Multimedia, Pekka has been creating Nokia’s music strategy in both the devices and services area, as well as building the N7x series category of the Nokia Nseries multimedia computers.

Luca Passani

CEO and Founder WURFL-Pro S.r.L

Luca Passani is an Italian software engineer with many years experience in Web and Mobile Internet development. Prior to creating his own company, WURFL-Pro, Luca spent seven years with Openwave Systems, taking part in projects for Telecoms in the U.S. and Europe. Luca is known to the community of developers for creating popular software tools such as WURFL and WALL. Luca is a recognised expert in the field of Mobile Web Development, and he has authored articles and co-authored books about the subject. In 2007, Luca published the “GAP” Global Authoring Practices guidelines for the Mobile Web.

Petro Soininen

Chief Engineer – Web Technologies, Nokia

For more than seven years, Petro Soininen has been directly involved in training, consultancy, and R&D tasks within the Symbian development ecosystem. As a result, today Petro spends the majority of his time at work bridging the initiatives and interests of web developers, Forum Nokia personnel, and relevant Nokia R&D teams.

Petro knows Nokia’s targeted offering for web developers inside and out. In addition to working directly with developers to help them make the most of their applications, he regularly solicits feedback from the developer community to enhance future offerings tailored to their needs.

Eric John

Head of Product Marketing, Media, Nokia

Eric John serves as Head of Product Marketing for Nokia’s Media Services and is responsible for consumer and developer awareness and activation for Ovi Store and Ovi Share as well as the migration of existing services Mosh, WidSets and Download! to Ovi Store. Prior to joining Nokia’s Media group, Eric served as Head of Global Marketing for Forum Nokia, the industry's largest mobile developer community driving the creation and execution of all worldwide market-to and market-with activities related to Nokia’s developer communities. Before joining Nokia, Eric held leadership and product roles at Yahoo! and DoubleClick Inc.

Miha Lesjak

CEO, Inova IT

Miha Lesjak is the Chief Executive Officer of Inova IT, an agile company that innovates in the area of applications and services for mobile and next-generation telecommunications networks. As such, Miha focuses on business development, product strategy and bringing technology ideas to life. He still likes to to tackle code and be a software craftsman, when he's allowed to do so!

Waldemar Sakalus

Vice President, Device Experiences, Nokia

Waldemar Sakalus has been with Nokia since the mid 90s, and currently serves as Vice President, Device Experiences. In this role he is responsible for ensuring the deployment and experience of Ovi and partner services on Nokia devices.

Since joining Nokia, Waldemar has held a number of progressively senior positions in the company. Waldemar holds an MBA from Insead in France, and an MSc. and Engineering degree from Warsaw University of Technology in Poland.

Andrew Shorten

Platform Evangelist, Adobe

Andrew is a Platform Evangelist for Adobe and is passionate about improving the quality, richness and value of computer-based experiences. Andrew developed web, kiosk and mobile user interfaces for government and enterprise customers whilst working at Fujitsu. Since that time, he has worked for Macromedia, Microsoft, and Adobe, where he has engaged with designers, developers, web agencies and organisations to help them deliver rich, engaging, and successful web and desktop experiences.

David Brittain

Vice President, Technology, glu Mobile

David Brittain is the Vice President, Technology at glu mobile where he leads the research and tools teams. Prior to glu he was part of the management team at Superscape, a leading publisher of 3D games for mobile phones. David has worked at the forefront of 3D mobile game development since 2001, initially being part of the team that developed Superscape's 3D engine technology for mobile. David has a PhD in Engineering Mathematics from the University of Bristol, and a degree in Electronics from the University of Southampton.

Ilicco Elia

Consumer Mobile Products Manager, Thomson Reuters

Ilicco Elia is responsible for the production of Reuters portfolio of interactive TV and mobile services. Key areas include development of the Reuters Mobile Journalist Toolkit, Social Media experiments, partnerships with Nokia, Vodafone & Google among others; mobile advertising & marketing, and the management of all consumer mobile services.

An expert in Internet and mobile strategy & production, advertising solutions, and information usability, Ilicco has had several roles in his 19 years at Reuters, including Experience Manager for Next-Generation products, Head of Online Customer Experience for Reuters.com and Reuters Corporate Brand Manager.

Steve Glagow

Vice President and Head of Orange Partner, Orange

Steve Glagow is responsible for Orange Partner, the worldwide partner and developer programme from Orange. This programme provides application and content developers with tools required to build solutions that satisfy the requirements of Orange’s 130 million-plus customer base around the world.

Benoit Schillings

Chief Technologist, Nokia

Benoit Schillings joined Qt Software (originally Trolltech) in October 2005, and serves as Chief Technologist. He is responsible for leveraging Qt Software's existing technologies and services and bringing new technologies quickly to market. As CTO at Openwave Systems, he was named Distinguished Engineer in 2003 for his influential work in the conception of "top to bottom" integrated software for mass-market phones.

Tom Libretto

Vice President, Services Marketing, Nokia

Tom Libretto is a seasoned, customer-facing executive, with extensive experience in the telecommunications and information technology industries. Tom is responsible for managing the successful roll out and consumer adoption of Nokia’s Ovi internet services globally.

Prior to leading global marketing activities for Nokia’s services business, Tom ran Forum Nokia, the industry’s largest mobile developer programme, as well as the new Mobile Solutions unit within Nokia Enterprise Solutions. Previously, Tom held various marketing and product management positions within IBM Software Group, and Lotus Development Corporation, acquired by IBM in 1995.

Purnima Kochikar

Director, Market Readiness, Nokia

Purnima Kochikar is responsible for evaluating and driving growth opportunities in services, such as e-mail, IM, microblogging, and social messaging. Prior to Nokia, Purnima led Product Marketing for Watercove Networks, a venture-funded startup acquired by Alcatel; and he held various technical and engineering management positions at Verizon.

Before Verizon, Purnima founded and managed a computer services business in India, and grew the business from five to 500 students/developers, tripling revenues each year for three years. Purnima earned a MBA with honors from Harvard Business School, and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland.

Mika Rytkönen

Director, Program Management, Qt Software, Nokia

Mika Rytkönen is Director, Program Management at Qt Software, Nokia. Mika has 17 years working experience in Nokia, including various positions related to software development and mobile phone technology development. Prior to his current role, Mika was Program Manager, S60 Open C. He holds dual degrees: an MBA and MSc (SW).

Tom Henriksson

Head of Nokia Interactive, Nokia

Tom Henriksson heads the Nokia Interactive Advertising business at Nokia. Nokia Interactive Advertising is building a global open marketplace for mobile advertising with the Nokia Media Network, a network of premium publishers, brands and mobile operators that reaches more than 100 million consumers worldwide.

Prior to his current position, Tom built Nokia Ad Service at the Nokia Emerging Business Unit, and acquired Enpocket Inc. to form Nokia Interactive Advertising. He has also held roles in Strategy and New Business Development at Nokia Ventures Organization, managing the identification and start up of new business globally. Tom has a long history in setting-up and developing start-up technology businesses.

Thiago Macieira

Senior Product Manager, Qt Software, Nokia

Thiago Macieira, Senior Product Manager for Nokia, Qt Software, originally joined Trolltech in 2006. (Trolltech was acquired by Nokia in 2008.) Since joining the company, Thiago has worked as a developer and release manager for Qt. Based in Oslo, Norway, he has an MBA and a double degree in Engineering. These days, Thiago spends the majority of his time thinking about the future of Qt, and giving presentations to anyone and everyone that will listen!

Mark Ollila

Nokia Games Publishing, Nokia

At Nokia, Mark is helping drive the next generation gaming strategy. He sits on the Global Management Team for Games, and is leading Nokia Games Publishing efforts. During 2008, Nokia Games Publishing released 10 titles, including Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep (Meffys 2008 Winner).

Previously he was also responsible for technology strategy and business development, industry relations and industry marketing, partnerships, and Nokia internal collaboration and technology roadmapping. He has a PhD in Computer Vision and an MBA from London Business School. He is also a board member of the EMEA chapter of the Mobile Entertainment Forum.

Teemu Sorvisto

Senior Marketing Manager, Maemo Software, Nokia

Teemu Sorvisto is Senior Marketing Manager in Maemo SW, Nokia. He has been working with software and mobile devices for nearly 10 years, focusing on various marketing and business development activities. Teemu also has experience working in Developer Support organizations.

Ed Simnett

Strategy and Business Development, Nokia

Ed Simnett brings 15 years of technology and telecom business development, strategy and product management experience to Nokia. He is responsible for M&A, partnering, and investments within the Services group, with a particular focus on Social Networking, Media and Music. Prior to joining Nokia, Ed spent seven years at Microsoft, and before that was part of the senior management teams at start-ups in the communications and VoIP spaces.

Mark Wilcox

Marketing Engineer, Symbian Foundation

Mark Wilcox is a Forum Nokia Champion, Symbian Press author, and now a member of the developer support team at the Symbian Foundation. Prior to joining the Symbian Foundation, Mark spent six years in mobile device creation, and a further two years as a third party developer.

Bo Ilsoe

Partner, Nokia Growth Partner

Bo Ilso brings more than 20 years experience to Nokia Growth Partners from venture capital, investment management, fundraising, organizational and strategic development as well as sales and marketing. Having lived and worked in the UK, Italy, France, Switzerland, Finland, Spain and Singapore, he always comes with a global view to business. His career started in the technology field with telecom infrastructure vendors, among them Nokia, where he spent 12 years.

Michael Halbherr

Vice President, Nokia Location based Services, Nokia

Michael Halbherr is Vice President, Social Location in the Services business unit in Nokia. In this role, Michael is responsible for heading the Social Location business including maps and other location based services.

Before joining Nokia in 2006, Michael worked for the Boston Consulting Group and at europatweb, the Internet investment vehicle of Groupe Arnault, overseeing all technology investments, including gate5. After that Michael headed gate5 AG, the former leading supplier of mapping, routing and navigation software and services, for five years. Since the acquisition of gate5 through Nokia, Michael has been heading the location based experiences in Nokia.

Michael holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich.

Danielle Levitas

Group Vice President, Consumer, Broadband and Digital Marketplace, IDC

Danielle Levitas is the Group Vice President of IDC's Consumer, Broadband & Digital Marketplace team. She is responsible for driving research initiatives across the consumer market, covering video, gaming, music, connected home, bundled services, broadband, and new media developments.