European Postal Services

Massimo Sarmi

Chief Executive Officer, Poste Italiane

Biography

Massimo Sarmi was born in Malcesine (Verona) on 4 August 1948. He has been CEO of Poste Italiane Group since May 2002, and Chairman of MedioCredito Centrale SpA since  August 2011.

After graduating with honors in electronic engineering from La Sapienza University in Rome, he specialised in electronic engineering for telecommunications at the Galileo Ferraris Institute in Turin.

Massimo Sarmi began his career as an engineer in the Italian Air Force and then moved on to Telecom Italia Group (known at the time as Sip), where he was involved in the development of telecommunications and mobile phone services.

In 1995, he became the first General Manager of TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), the new company resulting from the mobile division’s split with Telecom. In this role, he contributed to the growth of the mobile telecommunications market in Italy by introducing Pay As You Go SIM cards. In 1998, he appointed General Manager of the parent company Telecom Italia.

In 2000, he was appointed CEO and General Manager of Siemens Italia, a position which he left shortly thereafter, in 2002, to become CEO of Poste Italiane.

With his leadership in Poste Italiane, he started a strategy based on technological innovation, increasing the range of services, and entering new business sectors. Since his arrival, results have been very impressive not only from a financial standpoint, with turnover back in the black and currently still growing, but also in terms of the Group’s national and international reputation.

In November 2009, the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano conferred on  him the title of “Cavaliere del Lavoro” (a knighthood for his service to Italian industry).

Since June 2010, he has been Chairman of the Global Cyber Security Center (GCSEC), a non-profit foundation specialising in research, training, and cooperative efforts in IT security.

He also covers, since May 2011, the role of deputy-chairman of the Industrial Union of Naples, in charge of services for small and medium businesses.

Dag Mejdell

Chief Executive Officer, Posten Norge

Biography

Dag Mejdell was appointed President & CEO of Norway Post in 2006. Prior to joining the company he held a number of positions including CFO, group director and CEO of Dyno Nobel ASA from 2000-2005. 

Mr. Mejdell holds an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.

His board appointments include: Chairman of the International Post Corporation, Chairman of the Employers’ Association Spekter, Vice Chairman of SAS AB, Vice Chairman EDB ErgoGroup ASA, Vice Chairman of the corporate assembly Orkla ASA and Board Member of IK Investment Partners Industrial Advisory Board.

Jürg Bucher

Chief Executive Officer, Swiss Post

Biography

Jürg Bucher, Chief Executive Officer of Swiss Post, graduated from the University of Berne with a degree in business administration and economics and subsequently completed further education courses in management, controlling, corporate finance, and other disciplines, at SKU (Switzerland), INSEAD (France), Controller Academy Gauting (Germany), and at the Swiss National Bank’s Study Center (Switzerland).

After having worked a number of years in commerce and administration, Jürg Bucher joined the Swiss PTT in 1976. He served the PTT as Deputy Finance Manager (1985 – 1993), Head of Controlling (1989 – 1993) and Head of Corporate Development (1994 – 1996).

In 1996, Jürg Bucher transferred to PostFinance as its Deputy Head and was in charge of Marketing until 2001. In particular, he was responsible for transforming PostFinance from a facilitator of payment transactions to a provider of retail financial services. He was appointed Head of PostFinance in 2003, a position he held until the end of 2011. Jürg Bucher has been a member of Swiss Post’s Executive Management since 2003, and assumed his role as CEO of Swiss Post in December 2009.

Rafał Brzoska

Chief Executive Officer, InPost

Biography

Rafał Brzoska is the founder and a co-owner of the Integer.pl Group companies, which he has been developing from the very beginning of their activity. He has built a nationwide unaddressed and addressed mail distribution network and Integer.pl has achieved the leading position on the Polish distribution market with approximately 30% of the market share. InPost, which has been active on the market since 2006, competes effectively with the monopoly operator Polish Post with about 10% of the market share. InPost was awarded the World Mail Award for Growth in 2010. 

Rafał Brzoska is an experienced manager specialising in emerging markets with high growth potential.

From 1999 till 2001 he was the sales director and at the same time a manager and co-owner of SENIORNET S.C., a company providing internet services. In 1999 he founded Integer.pl – currently the largest private postal services group in Poland. The Group successfully debuted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on 30 October 2007 and achieves over 400% ROI. After achieving successes in the unaddressed and addressed mail business he is now entering the e-commerce market with easyPack 24/7, f-commerce with InFlavo and m-commerce with InMobile.

Rafał Brzoska is a graduate of the Management and Marketing Faculty at Cracow University of Economics. He is interested in literature on financial markets and stock exchange analysis. He travels, and his hobbies are scuba diving and extreme sports. He is married and has one daughter. 

Roberto Giacchi

Chief Executive Officer, PosteMobile

Biography

Roberto Giacchi was appointed CEO of PosteMobile in 2007.  Prior to this role, he was a Partner at Bain & Company from 1999 to 2007 and International Business Manager at Telecom Italia from 1998 to 1999.

Mr Giacchi holds a degree from the Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza and postgraduate qualifications in Finance (Harvard University) and General Management (London Business School).

Janras Kotsi

Group Executive, Mail Business, South African Post

Biography

Janras Serame Kotsi was appointed Executive: Mail Business at the South African Post Office in January 2006. He holds various qualifications from different institutions of learning, and successfully completed various Executive Management courses as well as other qualifications in Post Office Administration and Management Development Programmes.

He joined the Post Office family in 1980 as a teller and has since been growing through the ranks.  He joined Mail Operations and Delivery in 1992 when he was appointed as an Operating Inspector and got promoted to Senior Manager: Delivery Management in 1998, then General Manager: Delivery Management in June 2001. 

Janras is also an Exco member of the SA Post Office Group.

Janras is married with two children.

Jürgen Motz

Social Media Manager, Deutsche Post DHL

Biography

Jürgen studied Media Computer Science and Business Administration in London. After working for Siemens in Santa Clara, California, Jürgen joined Deutsche Post as an IT and later as a Strategy Consultant. In 2007 he invented the mobile franking solution “Handyporto”, which was honored by several awards. Since 2009 Jürgen has been setting up new business models within digital environments for the innovation division of Deutsche Post and managed several  product launches. His latest project was the implementation of the web-to-print Facebook application “Social Memories”.

Walter Oblin

Senior VP, Strategy & Corporate Development, Austrian Post

Biography

After earning degrees in Business Engineering at Graz University of Technology, Austria and in Industrial Administration (MSIA) at Purdue University, USA, Walter Oblin began his professional career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company in 1994. In 2000 he was elected Partner and assumed management responsibilities in McKinsey’s Austrian Office as well as in the firm’s global Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics Sector. In 2008 Walter Oblin joined the executive board of SorTech AG, a German renewable energy technology company. In late 2009, he assumed the position of Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Austrian Post. In 2011 Austrian Post’s Supervisory Board designated him to become Group CFO effective July 1 2012.

Mark Higson

Managing Director, Operations & Modernisation, Royal Mail

Biography

Mark was formerly Divisional CEO and Group Operations Director for BPB plc, the world leader in plasterboard and plaster buildings materials with annual sales of £2.5 billion.  His role included Board level responsibility for businesses in Europe, North America and Africa and for Group operational performance and strategy implementation.

Mark is an engineering graduate of Imperial College London and he also holds a Masters Degree in Business from study at the London Business School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. Prior to joining BPB in 1996, he held a number of senior positions at Courtaulds plc, including CEO at its UK Coatings division. His career has also included consultancy, as well as posts at H J Heinz Ltd and British Aerospace plc.

Bernard Haurie

Head of Innovation Department, La Poste

Biography

Upon graduating from HEC, Paris, and McGill University (MBA), Montreal, Bernard Haurie worked for three years for the Royal Bank of Canada.

After graduating from the National School of Post and Telecom (ENSPTT), Bernard Haurie joined the Postal Service in 1981 as a marketing analyst and the Government in 1985 as industry regional representative in the south of France to stimulate the development of small business.

He then served as financial analyst for the postal sector at the World Bank in Washington DC until 1990, when he returned to France to manage several postal district or regional management positions in Provence and also in the centre of France.

In charge of the Marketing and Sales Mail Division from 1998 to 2002, he contributed to a steady growth of the mail activity by managing a group of 3000 salesmen nationwide.

Today, Bernard Haurie leads the Innovation and e-Services Corporate Department and is also Chairman of the Board of a postal subsidiary, Certinomis (electronic firm supplier), and Chairman of an Innovative entrepreneurs Group (IE Club).

Werner Stengg

Unit Head, E-commerce & Postal Services, European Commission

Biography

Werner Stengg was born 1968 in Friesach, Austria. He studied at Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, gaining a Masters degree 1992 and a PhD 1995.  Following the completion of his PhD he held an Assistant Professor position at the university for four years.

Prior to his current role as Head of the E-commerce and Postal Services Unit in DG Internal Market and Services, he also held roles in the Directorates-General for Budget (Administrator in charge of Evaluation, 2002-2006) and Enterprise (Administrator in charge of negotiating bilateral textile agreements between the EU and third countries, 1998-2001 and Assistant to the Deputy Director General, 2001-2002).

Joost Vantomme

Director, Regulatory Affairs, bpost

Biography

Joost Vantomme is a lawyer with additional specialisation in regulatory law and economics. He currently holds the position of Director Regulatory Affairs at Bpost. He is also chairman of the Working Group of PostEurop dealing with the postal directive and (acting) chairman of the European Affairs Committee of PostEurop. Before his regulatory function, he served Bpost as deputy general counsel and senior lawyer in competition law.

From 1993 to 2001, Joost was legal director of Belgacom, the Belgian incumbent telecommunications company. He has been in charge of legal and regulatory review of various pricing and product related matters in the retail and wholesale units, as well as the setting-up of subsidiaries in the field of internet and mobile communications. Joost’s experience in the area of liberalisation of the electronic communications market is instrumental for his current function.

Joost is also active on a more academic field where he is a welcomed guest to speak for university audiences as well as at conferences on regulation policy. He is also author of a number of papers in the field of European law and regulation.

Alberto Scaduto

Head of Domestic & International ICT Management, Poste Italiane

Biography

Alberto Scaduto has been Head of Technology Government - International and Large Account Initiatives  since 2010, managing projects aimed at offering e-government services for Public Administration, integrated products and services for large accounts, solutions and infrastructures for international postal operators. In order to maximize the business opportunity in these areas, he has promoted partnership agreements with some of the main world wide technological partners.

He manages propositions and business opportunities, in particular for the international market, with a business oriented consulting approach, to enable an ICT driven business.

He has worked at Poste Italiane since January 2000, initially as Head of BancoPosta Payment Systems Solutions, dealing with electronic banking, national and international funds transfer and monetary services (i.e. payments cards, acceptances, money transfer). He also worked on the marketing strategy for all Poste Italiane financial transactional products (checking accounts, revenues, cash-flows and payments) and loan products.

Haico Meijerink

Chief Executive Officer, Sandd

Biography

Haico Meijerink was appointed CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Sandd in September 2011.

From 2005 till 2011, Haico was Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing of Wolters Kluwer Europe.

Prior to joining Wolters Kluwer, Haico held various senior management roles at Cisco Systems and Apple.

Haico graduated in 1990 from the Royal Tax Academy and started his career as a Senior Tax Inspector.

Haico’s role as CEO of Sandd includes putting a focus on customer intimacy, innovation and the optimisation of current business processes.

Jean-Paul Forceville

Director of External Relations, La Poste

Biography

Jean-Paul Forceville, 53, graduated from Paris Business School in 1979 and then from the Ivy League College for Post Office and Telecommunications service in 1986.

He joined the corporate structure of La Poste in 1979 and was in charge of various functions in the field of communications. He also worked for the Financial Division. From 1990 to 1992 he was Adviser for Finance and Planning in the Ministry for Posts, Telecommunications and Space and continued with this office in the Ministry for Public Service, State Reform and Decentralization from 1997 to 1998.

In 1992, he was appointed Director General Director of Sofipost, the holding company of La Poste subsidiaries. In 1995, he joined La Poste Strategic Division as Deputy Director.

Since 2001, Mr Forceville has been Director for External Relations and in addition, Director, European and International Affairs, since October 2004.

Aavo Kärmas

Member of the Management Board, Eesti Post

Biography

Mr Kärmas became Member of the Management Board of Estonian Post Ltd in November 2006. Since 2007, after restructuring the company, his main responsibility as a board member has been Logistics and Information Logistics. Mr Kärmas also holds the position of Head of Board in Estonian Electronic Mail Ltd and E-Invoicing Centre Ltd.

Prior to his role at Estonian Post, he held various positions in Viljandi Aken ja Uks, which is the largest producer of wooden windows and doors in the Baltic States. Starting his career as an Export Manager in 1996, he held various positions in the company and became Manager of Window Division in 2003.

Mr. Kärmas graduated from Tallinn University of Technology with a bachelor degree in public administration in 2000.

Besides his professional career Mr Kärmas has been active in social activities with main interest in nature. He is one of the founding members of the Friends of Soomaa National Park that has played an important role in protection and survival of valuable Estonian nature since 1997. Mr Kärmas is a senior member of AIESEC Estonia since 1998.

Beat Friedli

Head of Global e-Postal Sales, Swiss Post

Biography

During the 20 years since he completed his degree in law and economics at the University of Berne, Switzerland, Beat Friedli has had a distinguished career in different strategic positions at Swiss Post. He has been the Head of Corporate Development and Member of Extended Executive Management of Swiss Post Group, a $9 billion company and second largest employer in Switzerland 2001-2009.

In 2010, Beat Friedli joined SwissSign, the subsidiary of Swiss Post and leading company for extreme security and identity in Switzerland as Head of Global Postal Sales. Responsibilities include the promotion of Postal Partnership by licensing and sharing Swiss made e-Postal Products. SwissSign protects and accelerates business processes with simple solutions for positive identification, digital signature and secure communication.

Beat gained a Masters Degree (MBA) from IMD Lausanne, Switzerland in 2005.

Pavlos Kamilos

Director of Strategy & Development, Hellenic Post

Biography

For the last two years Pavlos Kamilos has been the Director of Strategy & Development at Hellenic Post - ETA S.A. He is also member of the Management Board. He has been working at ELTA since 2005 and his previous role was Commercial Director of Letter Mail.

He has eighteen years of commercial experience, having worked mostly at marketing and sales executive positions for various multinational and Greek companies, such as Adidas, Cushman & Wakefield and FAGE Dairy Industry.

He holds a M.A. from Northeastern University, Boston, USA with a Tuition Assistantship for Academic Excellence and also a B.A. from Panteion University and a B.A. from the American College of Greece - Deree College. Currently he is also pursuing a M.B.A. from the Hellenic Management Association (HMA).

He has been Member of the Hellenic Institute of Marketing (HIM) Executive Committee and he is a member of the Hellenic Management Association (HMA).

Marcin Bosacki

Head of International and Social Media, InPost

Biography

Marcin Bosacki has dedicated the past 6 years of his professional life to the postal industry. He started his career in London with a leading postal advisory company and worked with European and Global Clients. He joined InPost in 2008 where he built the company presence in Social Media and is heavily involved with international affairs and business.  

He is a graduate of Warsaw School of Economics in International Economic Relations, Marketing and Management and Marketing-Logistics Management.

He believes that: “when you are doing what you love to do, you seem to have a continuous flow of excitement, energy and ideas to do what you do even better.”

Almast Diedrich

Manager Public Affairs, International, Post NL

Biography

Born in Jakarta in 1954, Almast Diedrich studied Business Administration at Nyenrode University in The Netherlands.

Almast started his career at VNU, at that time one of the top three publishers in The Netherlands. He worked for seven years in a wide range of subsidiaries of VNU as financial controller, before moving to Microland, when founded a 50% subsidiary of ING Bank, worked as financial controller and participated in the start-up of a franchise organisation selling PC hard- and software, as well as computer courses.

Since 1988 Almast has been working with the Dutch national postal operator. He has moved through a wide variety of subsidiaries and functions within the company. He participated in several teams working on the corporatization and IPO of the company, and was involved with the founding of Postkantoren BV, the post office’s joint venture with ING. Today he is working as Manager Public Affairs International at the head office of PostNL Holding BV in The Hague.

Almast is married with one son. He loves to sing in The Netherlands’s eldest male choir located in Haarlem.

Giovanni Belli

Business Unit Manager, Posten Norden, Post Danmark

Biography

Giovanni Belli is in charge of an e-business unit within Strålfors Information Logistic which is a part of Posten Norden. He is responsible for the development, selling and provision of e-service solutions to business and government customers for the delivery of electronic information transfer to other companies and citizens as an extended service to the postal core product. Mr. Belli has worked for several years in general management with responsibility for strategy and operations and has broad experience of overseeing the development and implementation of e-commerce solutions in companies which has been extremely successful in Denmark.

Peter Bränström

Chief Operating Officer, Sweden Post

Biography

As Chief Operating Officer of Sweden Post, Peter Brännström is head of the mail process in one of Europes’s largest countries, despite its only 9 million citizens. Delivering 20 million mail pieces a day through a network of 12 sorting centres, some 500 local Delivery offices and 20 000 employees, Sweden Post has achieved a world class service, with an overnight delivery rate of 96 %. Since Sweden is totally deregulated this is a necessity in order to make a profit. Since 2009 Sweden Post has been part of Posten Norden, the merged Swedish and the Danish postal services.

Before joining Sweden Post Peter Brännström was the CEO of the media monitoring company Observer and in the early 2000s CEO for Thomson Legal Information in Sweden.  He started his career as a mailman and subsequently held a number of managerial positions in Sweden Post.

Einar Forvoll

Director Lean, Norway Post

Biography

 After gaining an MSc from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 1990, Einar Forvoll began his career with Accenture as a consultant on IT, process improvements and project management issues. In 2006 he joined Norway Post as Director IT and Director Projects. He has held his current position of Director Lean since 2010.

Jørgen Sondrup

Head of International Operations, PostNord

Biography

Since the merger between Post Danmark A/S and the Swedish Posten AB in 2009, Jørgen has been responsible for international operations development at group level. His primary task is to ensure the realisation of synergies in the international parts of the business areas of mail/communication and logistics and to head the “getting-to-one” process in our active participation to develop international postal services.

Prior to his current position, he was deputy general manager and process manager in the “International Post” business unit of Post Danmark from 2000 with responsibility for end-to-end operations in the field of international letters.

Jørgen has been employd by Post Danmark since 1982 and, since 1989, has held several management positions.

Walter Hitziger

Member of the Management Board, Mail & Branch Network, Austrian Post

Biography

Following his studies at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Economics at the Graz University of Technology, chartered engineer Walter Hitziger started his professional career as Head of Warehouse Management for the beer brewery Steirerbrau - Steirische Brauindustrie AG, with the brands Gösser, Reininghaus and Puntigamer in Graz.

In the period 1990 to 1997, Walter Hitziger, born in Graz in 1960 and father of three children, worked as divisional director for consulting at the planning and consulting companies Agiplan Planungsgesellschaft and Econsult Betriebsberatungsgesellschaft in Vienna. 

In 1997, Walter Hitziger assumed responsibility as a Member of the Management Board with executive responsibility for logistics operations at bauxMax AG, the market leader for do-it-yourself home improvement. The successful conception and establishment of a multi-functional logistics centre to supply the company’s sales outlets in Austria as well as in Central and Eastern Europe can be attributed to his leadership. Hitziger was also named the procurement director for bauMax AG in Austria. A milestone in his career was the creation of a central merchandise management and distribution system for Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. 

Since 2004, Walter Hitziger has been a Member of the Management Board of Austrian Post AG, with executive responsibility for production and logistics operations. The restructuring programme he initiated was very successfully completed. Under his auspices, six nationwide, state-of-the-art sorting centres and an optimal network of delivery bases have transformed Austrian Post from a public authority to a market-oriented logistics company featuring high quality services, with more than 95% of letters delivered on the next day.

The organisational restructuring of Austrian Post in September 2011 implied an extension of Walter Hitziger’s responsibilities. As of September 2011 he is responsible for the new division Mail and Branch Network.

Additionally, Walter Hitziger was President of the National Austrian Logistics Association from 2004 – 2008 and is still member of the advisory board.

Thom Luijben

Manager Lean Six Sigma, PostNL

Biography

Thom Luijben (born 1960) has been working for 20 years at PostNL. Currently he is the deployment manager and Master Black Belt for Lean Six Sigma in the operational organisation of PostNL. His main responsibilities are the selection of new Green and Black Belts, project selection and the review of projects. There have been more than 100 LSS-projects executed in recent years. The main focus nowadays is on performance behaviour. Thom has formerly held the positions of Manager Sustainability, Manager Marketing and Consultant Strategy at PostNL.

Nick Wells

Chief Executive Officer, TNT Post UK

Biography

Nick Wells, 52, is CEO of TNT Post UK Ltd.

Having graduated from the University of Warwick, Nick began his career in Marketing and Sales. In 1984 he joined CD, at that time part of a publicly listed advertising group. He led a management buy-out in 1990 and in 1991 launched Lifecycle Marketing,

Both CD and Lifecycle Marketing were sold to TNT Group in May 2001 and, as Managing Director and a major shareholder, Nick stayed with TNT to continue to run the businesses in addition to taking up the challenge of running TNT Post as the new UK mail entrant in 2004.

Nick also sits on Post NL’s Executive Board.

Wells is now leading TNT's charge to become the main challenger to Royal Mail in the UK postal market. Following a successful launch in 2004 TNT Post is processing over 3.5 billion items on an annual basis through its access service.

Nick has enjoyed and relished the challenge of moving from entrepreneur owner to corporate manager principally he says because the current postal environment of change in the UK is very dynamic.

Nick is a leading commentator and speaker on liberalised postal markets and has 25 years experience in the DM industry. He is married with three children (aged between 17-22) and counts golf, skiing and wine amongst his interests.

Andy Barber

General Manager imail, UK Mail

Biography

Andy Barber is the General Manager for imail, UK Mail’s innovative hybrid mail solution. He took responsibility for imail at its inception in 2009 and has built the service to become one of the UK’s leading service providers and the fastest growing area of the UK Mail business, handling tens of millions of mail items a year.

Andy has been with the UK Mail Group since 1996, spending a number of years in sales and marketing functions across the parcels and mail areas of the business. His current role draws on his extensive sales & marketing background and his love of technology in order to create successful hybrid-type products which are blurring industry boundaries.

Andy is married with two young girls and holds an MBA with the Open University.

James Greenbury

Chief Executive Officer, Parcel2Go

Biography

James has been Chairman or CEO of several mail/express businesses including DX, Secure Mail Services, Mailroom Management Services and Security Despatch. 

He is currently CEO of fast-growing Parcel2Go.com, the UK's leading C2C delivery web site. Parcel2Go, which was recently recognised as one of the 100 fastest growing technology businesses in the UK, having grown rapidly to £20m+ revenue, targets consumers and micro-businesses with a typical courier spend of £50 per month – a market that is difficult to reach and service for traditional courier players.

Earlier in his career, and after gaining an MBA from Stanford Business School, James was a partner at Bain & Company strategy consultants in London.

Thomas Baldry

Senior Vice President, Global Mail Operations & International Re, Deutsche Post DHL

Biography

Thomas Baldry has been Senior Vice President of DHL Global Mail Operations and a Member of the Management Board of DHL Global Mail since 2007.  He has held a number of managerial positions at Deutsche Post since 1995, including Direct Marketing Manager, Director of New Business Divisions within the Corporate Division Mail and Director of Mail Import & International Relations.

Thomas Baldry has also been a Member of the Management Board of PostEurop since 2003.

Brendan O'Neill

Chief Executive Officer, DPD Ireland

Biography

Brendan O’ Neill, 59, graduated in Engineering from the National University of Ireland. He also holds an MBA from the University of Limerick. Brendan commenced his career in Engineering Design and Project Management, moving on to General Management in Engineering. He joined DPD Ireland as Chief Executive Officer in 1998.

Rudy Moens

Director, Physical Network, BPost

Biography

Rudy Moens started his career at the HBK-Spaarbank (Savings Bank) in 1979 where he held various positions within distribution and marketing communication.  In 1995, he was appointed Executive Director and Member of the Board of Directors and the Management Committee.

From 2001 to 2003, he worked as Executive Director at the Mercator Bank.  Within the Mercator Group (banking, insurance), he was responsible for Channel Management.

Rudy joined De Post/ La Poste in April 2003 as Regional Manager Retail.  In June 2004 he was appointed Director, Physical Network, based at the Brussels Headquarters.  In this role he is responsible for the daily management of the network.  The primary responsibilities are clustered around the growth of revenues, continued productivity improvements and maintaining the social dynamics.

Additionally, Rudy is a Member of the Board of Directors of Banque de La Poste.

Aleksandra Basic-Strelec

Chief of Sales Operations, CityEX Croatia

Biography

Aleksandra Basic-Strelec is a Board Member of City Ex, the first Croatian private courier company, with responsibility for the Sales, Marketing, PR and Customer Care Departments. She has considerable international experience, having previously worked as a journalist and in external relations for the Croatian Government, including a three-year position as an Attaché of the Embassy of Croatia in Hungary.

Eva Malene Hartmann

Head of Private Customers, Post Danmark

Biography

Eva Malene Hartmann has worked for Post Danmark since 1994. During the course of her career she has among other things held the positions of Branch Manager, Distribution Manager and Senior Project Manager. She was appointed Head of Private Customers on 1st September 2011.

Prior to her appointment as Head of Private Customers she held the position of Manager of Processes and Sales and Deputy Manager of the Private Customers department.

On behalf of Post Danmark, Eva Malene Hartmann received the Innovation of the Year Award for Mobile Postage at POST-EXPO in Stuttgart in September 2011.

Tiina Viitanen

Development Manager, Environmental Issues, Itella

Biography

Tiina Viitanen has been working at Itella Corporation since 2007.  Her main responsibilities as Development Manager are environmental issues such as ISO14001 certifications and responsible products. She ensures that continuous improvement and actions are carried out in her organisation. The main goal of her job is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and ensure that environmental awareness is part of daily management.

Susan Macke

Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Neopost

Biography

Susan Macke is Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer for Neopost, the European leader and number two worldwide supplier of mailing solutions. France-based Neopost has a direct presence in 18 countries; its products and services are sold in more than 90 countries. Ms. Macke is responsible for researching the Neopost customer experience worldwide, assessing customer behaviours and formulating strategies, product portfolios and marketing communications which will translate customers’ needs and interests into revenue.

Ms. Macke is an innovative and respected marketing executive with particular expertise in establishing direct relationships between brands and customers, creating marketing solutions based on those relationships and, ultimately, increasing brand awareness, market share and earnings. She began her career at IBM and Motorola defining and developing operating systems, embedded software and user-interface software. Ms. Macke entered the product marketing arena at Motorola because she needed to understand exactly what customers wanted and valued so she could develop the right software and the right customer experiences. She moved to Nokia Sales and Marketing EMEA and, eventually, to Nokia headquarters in Helsinki for a global view of its portfolio before moving to Hewlett Packard’s handheld devices business unit in California. Ms. Macke was also Chief Marketing Officer at International Game Technology in Las Vegas, the world's largest gaming machine manufacturer, before joining Neopost in 2011.

Walter Gritzner

Business Unit Manager, KEBA

Biography

Walter holds a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering, concentrating in automation and control engineering. After graduation he started working as an engineer focusing on semiconductor production.

Prior to being appointed to his current role at KEBA, Walter worked as senior project manager and key account manager in various fields including banking automation, lottery systems and logistics solutions. His interests include travelling, hiking, collecting mechanical watches and playing ice hockey.

Warren Tomlin

Global Digital Post Lead, Accenture

Biography

Warren Tomlin is the Accenture Global Managing Director for Digital Government. Focusing on growth and innovation, Tomlin consults regularly with Accenture’s global clients on multi-channel strategy and how to leverage digital as a positive enabler for growth. Prior to joining Accenture, Tomlin led e-business and online at Canada Post and most recently was named one of Marketing Magazine’s ‘100 Thought Leaders.’ Tomlin is based in Canada and holds an MBA from Queen’s University at Kingston.

Sue Barton

Global Postal Industry Lead, Accenture

Biography

Sue Barton is the Accenture Global Postal Industry lead. She has over fifteen years experience in the industry and has worked with many leading international postal organisations to provide support and advice across a broad spectrum of areas, including strategy development; improving quality of service; conducting operational reviews; developing new organisational models; providing independent reviews of strategic business plans; and structuring commercial arrangements and renegotiations.

Juha Tolvanen

Development Manager, Itella (Routesmart)

Biography

Juha Tolvanen holds an MSc degree in Geography and has worked at Itella for over ten years. He started as Development Manager seven years ago, working on extent usage and implementation of GIS-tools to model and optimise delivery and sorting networks, including four years concentrating on data production for route optimisation, route optimisation integration and implementation, as well as  delivery network optimisation and modeling on a strategic level. For the past year he has held the position of Business Development Manager in Itella Delivery Services, where his responsibilities include strategy and development for the business and operations, with most emphasis on delivery development.

Enrico Rosa

Head of Sales International Postal Business, SELEX Elsag

Biography

Enrico Rosa joined Elsag Bailey (the former name of SELEX Elsag) Postal Division as a process engineer in 1995, after graduating in electronic engineering.

In 1998 he joined the Company Marketing and Sales department as Account Manager, focusing initially on the international postal industry, and subsequently achieving significant experience in the Government and Defence sectors.

In 2006, he re-joined the postal business, as sales area manager for EMEA region.

In 2011 he took the responsibility of international sales for the international postal industry worldwide.

Waleed Khan

Managing Director, BÖWE Systec

Biography

Waleed has been involved in mailing industry since 1994. From 2002 he became engaged with the deregulation of postal markets in Europe working for Bell+Howell, Bowe Bell+Howell and latterly Bowe Systec. In 2005 Waleed forged strong relationships with both of the first Condition 9 entrants in the UK’s DSA market. Since then he has worked with private and national posts across the EMEA region, gaining a good understanding of the various market dynamics. In June 2011 he took control of Bowe Systec UK business where Bowe is the leading solutions provider to DSA providers. Waleed is married to Kay and has two very grown up children.

Nigel Doust

Chief Executive Officer, Blackbay

Biography

Nigel has extensive experience of enterprise mobility solutions and strong relationships within the market. Nigel joined Blackbay fresh from his position as Vice President at Sybase where he managed and led the Sybase enterprise mobility business in Europe.  Previously, he was VP Europe for mobile specialist Pointsec where he drove significant market growth.  He also served as Vice President World Wide Mobility for Extended Systems, another mobility specialist software company, where he grew the global business and was instrumental in the sale of Extended Systems to Sybase.

Liam Church

President and Chief Executive Officer, Escher Group

Biography

Liam Church is President and CEO of Escher Group. Mr Church was responsible for the introduction of technology within An Post for financial services. He was CEO of Post Consult International and the CEO of a wealth management company. Drawing from his diverse experience, his key focus is on the process of change within communication services and public value to be generated from products within the postal industry.

Jeff Taylor

Transport and Logistics Director, EMEA, Honeywell

Biography

Jeff is Transport & Logistics Director EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) for Honeywell’s Scanning & Mobility Division. He has over 25 years experience working in and now with the postal & express industry.

Jeff leads a team that is focused on providing mobile computing, barcode scanning & printing solutions to drive efficiency, enhance customer service and deliver new product development opportunities for Posts and Express Operators.

He is responsible for ensuring that Honeywell partners with innovative solution providers focused on the specific business issues and drivers of the postal industry and sits on Honeywell’s product development committee which ensures future products (some of which you can see for the first time at this event) meet the requirements of the express delivery sector.

Jeff chairs a number of think tanks and advisory boards on future technology advances, assessing their suitability for mobility solutions of the future.