Arash Ashouriha - Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board and SVP Group Technology at Deutsche Telekom - and Anita Döhler- CEO at NGMN Alliance - will jointly review last years’ achievements and provide an update on strategy and topics for 2024. 

Accompanied by further NGMN Alliance Board Members they will delve deeper into NGMN’s significant publications: “6G Position Statement: An Operator View” and “Cloud Native Manifesto: An Operator View’”  and will announce the IC&E 24 - NGMN's global biennial Industry Conference & Exhibition.

The presentations will be followed by an open Q&A session.


Anita Döhler has extensive international experience in various business areas including senior management positions with mobile network operators, vendors and consulting firms. From 2016 until 2020, she held senior management positions at Accenture Industry X.0. Prior to joining Accenture, she worked at Vodafone Group for 16 years, before at E-Plus and Philips, among others. Anita holds a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Telecommunication Engineering as well as an Executive MBA degree. Furthermore, she is a Systemic Business Coach. Anita is passionate about driving technology innovation for the benefit of human and societies and supporting the world’s leading operators, vendors and research institutes as CEO of the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance.


Anita Döhler 2023

Anita Döhler

In his role at Deutsche Telekom Arash Ashouriha is in charge of the strategic development and architectural evolution of the technology domains including OSS alongside technology Innovation management, patent management and standardisation. In addition, he oversees strategic technology innovation projects. Prior to joining Deutsche Telekom, Arash was with Vodafone Group for 15 years, where he held multiple Senior Management international roles both in Technology and IT, most recently Chief Network Officer for Germany & Central Europe (2011-2016) and Head of Global Applications (2009-2011).

Arash Ashouriha 2023

Arash Ashouriha

SVP Group Technology Innovation Deutsche Telekom AG, Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board

Jérôme Birot is the Vice President of Telephony Services and Wireless Core DevOps within the Chief Technology Office at TELUS. His main responsibilities range from strategy evolution, deployment and implementation all the way to service assurance across his portfolio for consumers, businesses and IOT. This includes the transformation of the network to Cloud native and the push for automation. Before TELUS, Jérôme also worked for various network vendors and other service providers in Canada and the UK.

He is a graduate in Engineering from ESME Sudria in Paris (France), he holds a Master of Engineering with specialization in Telecommunications and joined TELUS in 2008.

Jerome Birot

Jérôme Birot

VP of Telephony Services and Wireless Core DevOps, TELUS

Carlos has joined Deutsche Telekom Group Technology in 2018 with more than 20 years TelCo experience, covering the areas of Radio, Access, Transport, Core and Analytics, having close to 10 patents granted in those fields of expertise. His current position is Vice President Lead Partner Manager within the Technology Vendor Portfolio Management organization where he oversees vendor strategy in key technology topics such as Access Disaggregation, ORAN, 5G Core, cloudification and FTTH, to ensure DT’s innovation and network leadership. Prior to join DT, Carlos was with the Vodafone Group for 18 years, where he held multiple local and global positions, in network operations, engineering and strategic planning, as well as benchmarking activities, driving Technology suppliers to excel.

Carlos Fernandes

VP Lead Partner Manager, Deutsche Telekom AG


Yuhong Huang has been working for China Mobile since 1996. She has been responsible for the technology strategy, specifications and trials for key projects like GSM900/1800 dual band network, GPRS, CMNeT, IP dedicated network, 3G, 4G TD-LTE/FDD LTE and 5G. She is also responsible for the standardization and industry cooperation in CMRI. Currently, she is Board member of NGMN.

General Manager China Mobile Research Institute, China Mobile

Yuhong Huang 

Luke Ibbetson has been with Vodafone since 1996 and currently leads the Vodafone Group Research and Development organisation, responsible for all aspects of future research including trials of emerging / disruptive technologies, new industry partnerships and the creation of future revenue engines through advanced technology. Luke is an active participant in Industry Initiatives including 5GAA (Board member), Chairman of the NGMN 5G Board Committee, Advisory Board for UK TechWorks, and Board member for several venture backed new technology companies in which Vodafone has invested. Luke is a proud pioneer of Narrow Band IoT technology and currently shaping Vodafone’s thinking on 6G. Luke is a passionate supporter of innovative thinking, helping to create new opportunities for technology to change lives and society for the better.

Luke Ibbetson 2023

Luke Ibbetson 

As of September 1st 2021, Laurent Leboucher leads Orange Innovation Networks organization supporting Orange business units.

He joined Orange in 1992 and held various technical, management and executive positions in several areas (operations, R&D, IT, start-up creation) in France and the United States, with a particular focus on software systems and IT transformations. More recently, within Orange Innovation IT and Services, he led the development of new customer relationship solutions, defined and supported a new IT strategy built on cloud practices and oversaw the IT and Services architecture.

Laurent is “Distinguished Fellow” of the TM Forum. He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique, from Telecom Paris and has a PhD in computer science.

Laurent Leboucher leads the Orange Innovation Networks organization and oversees the evolution of Orange networks. Prior to this, he held various technical, management and executive positions in different domains (operations, R&D, IT, start-up creation) in France and the United States, with a particular taste for software distributed systems, artificial intelligence, IT and networks. He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, Telecom Paris and has a PhD in Computer Science. 

Laurent Leboucher 2023

Laurent Leboucher

Group CTO and SVP Orange Innovation Networks, Orange

Dr. Takki Yu is a Vice President of Infra Tech Office at SK Telecom, while leading the R&D on E2E mobile communication infra technologies including Radio Access, Core, Transport, Device, Location, and Network AI. His primary interests are focused on advanced mobile communications including 5G and Beyond 5G(6G) systems, network virtualization & cloud, location, quantum security, and network AI. In particular, he has been leading the 5G technology development with a successful world’s first 5G commercialization in Korea, along with Beyond 5G and 6G technology evolution. And, he has served as a board director of NGMN Alliance and TSC member of O-RAN Alliance since 2019.
Prior to joining SK Telecom, Dr. Yu had extensive experience as a senior engineer in Samsung Electronics and a research scholar in Stanford University, working on development of LTE/IMT-Advanced systems.
He holds a Ph.D. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Yonsei University in Korea, and he is the author or a coauthor of more than 100 patent filings and more than 20 research papers.

Takki Yu

Vice President, Ph.D., Head of Infra Tech Office, SK Telecom

Elisa is the Manager Communications and Operations at NGMN. She is an experienced communications, marketing and event professional with a focus on collaborative strategy, hands-on implementation and effective execution. She has long experience as team lead in various industry sectors in Germany and the EMEA region. She is fluent in English, German and Polish.

Manager Communications and Operations at NGMN

250 Elisa DwyerElisa Dwyer

Elisa Dwyer

Narothum is responsible for the evaluation, architecture and integration of new and existing technologies, products, and services. Narothum has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering from Osmania University (MVSR) in India. He also completed an executive management program from the University of Chicago. He holds several patents.

Narothum Saxena

Sessions where Narothum Saxena takes part

NGMN Press & Industry Briefing 2024