Judges

Andrew Ferguson Editor at thinkbroadband.com (Chairman)

Andrew is editor of thinkbroadband.com, the largest independent guide to Broadband in the UK. Providing news on progress of broadband updates across the UK and advice to consumers on solving a wide range of broadband problems and attempting to unravel the complexities of broadband for the mainstream press and consumers alike. Andrew also brings a raft of experience on the relative performance of UK broadband providers via his work on the popular thinkbroadband speed test.

Prof. Michael Rotert Honorary President, eco, Association of the German Internet Industry

In 1991 Prof. Rotert was a founding member of the Internet Society. In 1993 Prof. Rotert founded one of the first ISPs in Germany (Xlink). In 2000 he was appointed Senior Vice President for research and development at KPNQwest. Afterwards he was Managing Director of several Service Providers. Prof. Rotert has been President and Vice President of EuroISPA. He is now President of eco, the Association of the German Internet Industry.

James Blessing Head of IT Development, Freedom Fibre

Former ISPA Chair, James Blessing is currently Head of IT Development at Freedom Fibre. He has over twenty years of experience in internet technologies. Previously he was Deputy Director at Jisc, CTO at Relish, Strategic Relations Manager, EMEA at Limelight Networks, COO at Entanet, technical support manager and technical development manager at Zen Internet; senior project manager at Eunite; senior producer at Kiss102 and Kiss105; and a technical director at Net Nannies.

Alex Cruz Farmer Director of Product, Cisco ThousandEyes

Alex set up his Brighton based company NetSumo in 2005 and in less than four years the company has become one of the leading and most respected Networking Consultancy firms in the service provider industry. He then went on to become Technical Director of C4L, VP of NSFOCUS, Product Manager at Cludflare, before becoming Director of Product at Cisco ThousandEyes. Alex has been involved with many organisations and is also a member of the LINX Programme Committee.

Helen Anderson Legal Counsel, Accenture

Helen Anderson is a technology, media and telecoms lawyer, with a broad experience advising clients on a variety of commercial technology, data privacy, media, advertising, intellectual property and Gen AI issues. Having spent several years in private practice at Dentons, she is now works at Accenture as the EMEA Legal Lead for Accenture Song.

Jolanta Stanke Research Director, Point Topic

Jolanta Stanke has 14 years experience in telecoms, broadband and technology research. She joined Point Topic as Senior Editor in 2009 and became Research Director in 2015. Jolanta’s main areas of work are research and analysis of broadband market trends, including availability, take-up and pricing both in the UK and globally, as well as recruiting and training an international research network of highly skilled broadband analysts.

Previously, Jolanta worked and led on a number of research projects focusing on entrepreneurship, start ups, high tech sector and public policy while working at Kaunas University of Technology, UCL, Cambridge and Oxford Universities. A Cambridge graduate in Economics and a Fulbright scholar, she has an MBA and PhD in Management Studies

Brian Fitzsimons Technology Consultant

Brian has worked with some of Europe's largest ISP's to bring innovative products to market like Mobile Broadband, Fixed Broadband, WiFi, VoIP and IPTV. He specializes in product design with an emphasis on developing award winning product and user experiences. In the past decade he has positively influenced policy advancement at industry level, run industry groups, technology conferences and also advised on the design of a number of well known consumer devices. Brands Brian has worked with span from BT, Telefonica, TalkTalk, O2, UPC and Dell. He occasionally appears in publications online or in the broadsheets.

Meredith Sharples Regional CEO, Digicel

Rob Chambers Managing Director at Total Telecom

Rob is managing director and publisher of industry media owner, Total Telecom. As well as providing insight into telecom industry in the UK and across the world, Total Telecom organise a range of industry events including the award winning Connected Britain – the leading annual gathering of those shaping Britain’s digital future. Rob brings a broad range of experience derived from more than twenty years of working in the ICT sector.

James Robinson Senior Analyst at Assembly Research

James has over a decade of experience in the telecoms industry during which time he has worked as an analyst, consultant, and policy advisor. He has broad knowledge and experience across spectrum, digital policy, M&A, and operator strategy.
Prior to joining Assembly, James was a lead analyst at the GSMA and before that a competition policy manager at Ofcom where he was project manager for the team advising the CMA and EC on the BT/EE and O2/Three merger reviews. He also led a market review of the 070 number range, and took the lead on various workstreams within the regulator’s Openreach quality of service project. James has a BSc in Economics and a LLM in International Competition Law and Policy from the University of East Anglia.

An industry pioneer, with over two decades leading the change within the broadband industry, Dana was awarded a CBE for her services to the digital economy in Honours list in 2018.

As one of only a handful of female trailblazers for the telecom industry, she made it her mission gest challenge of poor network speeds in 2004 with the launch of Be Unlimited and again in 2011 when she co-founded Hyperoptic, residential gigabit broadband network (offering unprecedented 1Gbit/s symmetrical speeds at a time when the average download speed was just 6.8Mbit/s).

Fast forward to today, she remains at the helm of Hyperoptic which passes over 1.73 million premises across the UK, serving more than 340,000 customers. Tobak's leadership has seen the company scale while maintaining impeccable standards of service, ensuring that the customer has remained at the heart of everything they do. This customer-first mindset has resulted in Hyperoptic receivingWhich? Great Value endorsementin 2024 rating on Trustpilot. This achievement, particularly in a market saturated with competitors, and passion for innovation, strengthened by the
experience of her team who, much like Dana, are committed to creating a great place to work for their teams.

Dana's impact extends beyond broadband. She is deeply invested in nurturing the future generation of tech leaders. Through active participation in community outreach programs and engagements with local schools and panels, Dana shares her insights and experiences, igniting the flames of innovation in young minds.