Agenda

As President and CEO of the Canadian Telecommunications Association Robert  provides overall leadership and direction to an organization that is the authority on wireless issues, developments, and trends in Canada. Robert has served in this role since 2017, helping the Canada Telecoms team represent and promote companies and service providers that collectively contributed more than $70 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product in 2020 alone. Prior to joining the association, Robert had a successful career as a political leader. He was twice elected Premier of Prince Edward Island from 2007 to 2015, succeGhizssfully stewarding the province’s economy through the 2008 global financial collapse and contributing to its record-setting economic growth following the recession. While Premier, Robert also led successful trade missions in Europe, Asia, South America and the United States. In addition to his role today with the association, Robert is the Chair of Mobile Giving Foundation Canada, and the Chair of the Medavie Health Foundation. He also serves as an Advisor on numerous Boards including the Prince’s Trust Advisory Council, the True Patriot Love Foundation, and as PEI Representative of the CN Community Board.

As Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at the GSMA, Lara Dewar drives the Association’s global marketing and communications strategy to support and enable business success for the GSMA and its members. Additionally, Lara leads GSMA Membership and is responsible for enhancing member engagement, growth, and satisfaction, ensuring that the GSMA continues to deliver value to its global community. 

In his capacity as Head of Research and Consulting at GSMA Intelligence, Tim Hatt has responsibility for consulting work across a range of topics and clients in the TMT sectors along with published research reports. In an ever-changing industry, this means that change is the only constant. Aside from writing and editing, he is a regular presenter at conferences, public speaking engagements and in the media. 

Eric Smith is Senior Vice-President at the Canadian Telecommunications Association, where he leads the organization’s regulatory, policy, and public affairs work. He brings deep experience at the intersection of law, technology, and public policy, having previously held senior roles at BlackBerry (Divisional General Counsel & Head of Government Relations – Canada), Corel Corporation (as Vice-President and General Counsel), and Fraser Milner Casgrain (now Dentons), where he co-  chaired the Technology Transactions Practice Group and was recognized by The Best Lawyers in Canada for his work in the field of information technology law.

Lee began his career in the telecommunications industry in 1983. Prior to entering the telecommunications business, he honed his management skills within the Bragg Group of Companies, as maintenance manager of the world’s largest wild blueberry processing facility and plant manager at one of six food-processing facilities. 

From there, Lee brought his operational experience and empowering leadership style to Eastlink where he successfully managed the transition of 12 independent cable operations to one centralized management and operational structure. Supported by a strong executive team and a staff of more than 1,500 across Canada, Lee has nurtured Eastlink’s growth from a small, regional cable company to the largest, family-owned telecommunications company in the country. 

Lee, and the entire Bragg family, play a significant role in supporting charitable and non-profit organizations and activities, enriching the communities where they operate and helping to make a positive difference in the quality of life where their employees and customers live, work, and play. 

He sits on the Board of Directors for Nova Scotia Power and is an Advisory Board Member for the Faculty of Management for Dalhousie University. 

Lee is a sports enthusiast and proud alumnus of Mount Allison University and the University of New Brunswick. Father of three boys and four grandchildren, he lives in Fall River, Nova Scotia, with his wife Amy.

About Eastlink: Recognized for its industry leadership and innovation as one of Canada's Best Managed Companies, Eastlink delivers world class internet, mobile, video entertainment, telephone, and enterprise services to residential, business and public sector customers across its footprint, including operations in Bermuda. 

As President and CEO of the Canadian Telecommunications Association Robert  provides overall leadership and direction to an organization that is the authority on wireless issues, developments, and trends in Canada. Robert has served in this role since 2017, helping the Canada Telecoms team represent and promote companies and service providers that collectively contributed more than $70 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product in 2020 alone. Prior to joining the association, Robert had a successful career as a political leader. He was twice elected Premier of Prince Edward Island from 2007 to 2015, succeGhizssfully stewarding the province’s economy through the 2008 global financial collapse and contributing to its record-setting economic growth following the recession. While Premier, Robert also led successful trade missions in Europe, Asia, South America and the United States. In addition to his role today with the association, Robert is the Chair of Mobile Giving Foundation Canada, and the Chair of the Medavie Health Foundation. He also serves as an Advisor on numerous Boards including the Prince’s Trust Advisory Council, the True Patriot Love Foundation, and as PEI Representative of the CN Community Board.

Andrew is the CEO and founder of FarrPoint, a leading connectivity and smart technology consultancy firm, with international offices in Toronto, London and Edinburgh (UK). His teams advise on anything from data centres to economic investment cases for new telecoms infrastructure.

In his career, Andrew has worked on many large fixed and wireless connectivity projects, including the UK’s flagship project Gigabit, Scotland’s 4G Infill and the recent CRTC’s cellular data standardization project.

Andrew and FarrPoint currently work with many provincial governments in Canada, including British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador, advising them on improving cellular coverage.

Ms. Lemay has more than 30 years of experience in the industry and is a recognized expert in telecommunications and broadcasting. Her expertise covers development of business plans, valuation, due diligence, spectrum matters and market research. Ms. Lemay has supported clients in the US, Europe, North Africa, Latin America and Canada.

Ms. Lemay is the lead consultant for Private Auctions conducted by LYA for clients disposing of spectrum licenses and other assets.

Ms. Lemay is actively involved in consultations for the development of public policy. She has acted as an Expert Witness in regulatory proceedings and litigations. Recent expert evidence mandates were focused on broadband subsidies in rural and remote areas, wireless siting, mid-band 5G spectrum, national roaming, television and over-the-top services, benchmarking investment in broadband, and the regulatory framework for MVNOs.

She has supported clients in successfully acquiring subsidy funds for broadband deployment in rural areas.

She is co-leader of the development of the LYA Auction Platforms that support Combinatorial Clock Auctions (CCA), Simultaneous Multiple Round Ascending (SMRA) Auctions, Sealed Bid Auctions as well as Clock Auctions.

Prior to co-founding LYA, Ms. Lemay held a number of positions in marketing and product management with Nortel Networks. Ms. Lemay holds an Engineering Physics degree from Laval University and an MBA, Executive Option, from Concordia University in Montreal.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanne-lemay-961680a/ 

Dr. Rawat has been consulting for GSMA since 2014 as Senior Spectrum Advisor.

She spent 28 years within the Canadian Government where she held executive positions in managing radio frequency spectrum. During 2004-11, she was President of Communications Research Centre (CRC) of Canada. Between 2011-14, Dr. Rawat worked as Vice President and Ambassador to ITU for BlackBerry. 

She had many trailblazer ‘firsts’ and has a long list of national and international awards. In 2003, she became the first woman to chair the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) of the ITU and received ITU ‘s gold medal for her chairmanship.

In 2014 she was awarded ‘Officer of the Order of Canada’ for her “contributions to telecommunications engineering and for leadership in establishing the global regulatory framework for radio spectrum management”.

Dr. Rawat holds PhD in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University, Canada and Hon Doctorates in Science and Engineering from University of Ottawa and Queens University, Canada.

She is a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) and of WWRF and member of the External Advisory Board of Spectrum X of NSF, their innovation center for spectrum.

As Director, Human Risk & Fraud Prevention, Connie leads Bell’s human-risk prevention mandate. In this role, she supports the Fraud Detection & Response team and advances initiatives designed to strengthen fraud prevention across the business.

With more than 20 years at Bell, Connie has built broad experience across finance, network, IT, and enterprise transformation. She has held progressively senior roles spanning program management, strategic advisory, and finance leadership, and is known for delivering measurable results through strategic planning, financial governance, large-scale transformation programs, and executive decision support.

A Concordia University economics graduate, Connie is committed to continuous leadership development, bringing a collaborative approach to leading complex, cross-functional initiatives.

Michaela leads the GSMA’s Policy and Regulation team, driving the development of industry-wide positions on critical issues such as connectivity, taxation, competition, security, and privacy, and orchestrating policy advocacy to enhance global connectivity and innovation. The team closely collaborates with all regional teams and commissions research to guide effective policymaking. She directly oversees policy work in North America. 

Juan Ramos is Vice President, Wireline Networks at Vidéotron, the 2nd largest Cable Provider in Canada and new National Operator. In his current role, he is responsible to expand Vidéotron's networks across Canada, powering affiliate brands like Vidéotron, Freedom, Fizz, VMEDIA, and Fibrenoire.

Mr. Ramos has been responsible for major network investments in Canada throughout his 30-year career and has led various engineering, technology and marketing organizations at Bell Canada and Videotron. He is known as an expert and trusted advisor on a vast array of information and communications disciplines including technology and business development, product life cycle management, IP migration, digital transformation, and lean six sigma operations.

Fluent in French, English and Spanish, Mr. Ramos has won the President’s award at both Vidéotron and Bell. In addition, Telephony Magazine granted him the 2007 innovation award for his creativity in product development. He was a member of the Advisory Board at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business (JMSB) from 2006 to 2019 and served as the President of JMSB’s Alumni Association from 2006 to 2008. He currently co-chairs the Canadian Telecommunications Network Resiliency group (CTNR), a consultative expert organization contributing to the Telecommunications Resiliency Agenda of Canada’s Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Industry.

A member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ), Mr. Ramos holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, a Master of Science (M. Sc) degree in Telecommunications from the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Montreal and an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) from Concordia University.

Ross Bateson is a long-term special adviser to the GSMA on government affairs across a number of issues affecting mobile broadband growth. He fulfils this role through his consultancy business RB Communications. Prior to this Ross worked at Access Partnership where he served as a director charged with government affairs and as a financial analyst for the mobile and satellite industries at TelecomFinance.

As CTO of Ericsson Canada, Ahmad Husseini steers Ericsson’s technology vision and innovation agenda across Canada - advancing next-generation network evolution, deepening strategic partnerships, and driving customer-centric transformation initiatives – strengthening technology leadership across the Canadian market.

Over his almost 20 year journey with Ericsson, Ahmad has held several critical leadership positions, including most recently as Account Chief Technology Officer for Rogers Communications, where he led strategic technology engagement for one of Canada’s largest telecom operators. 

Ahmad also served as Head of Network Solutions in South Africa, overseeing large-scale network deployments and modernization programs. His career reflects deep expertise in telecom innovation, solution architecture, and enterprise-scale network transformation across global markets.

Eric Smith is Senior Vice-President at the Canadian Telecommunications Association, where he leads the organization’s regulatory, policy, and public affairs work. He brings deep experience at the intersection of law, technology, and public policy, having previously held senior roles at BlackBerry (Divisional General Counsel & Head of Government Relations – Canada), Corel Corporation (as Vice-President and General Counsel), and Fraser Milner Casgrain (now Dentons), where he co-  chaired the Technology Transactions Practice Group and was recognized by The Best Lawyers in Canada for his work in the field of information technology law.