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email: info@realwireless.biz
People
We would like to introduce you to some key individuals in our executive team and in our network of associates.
| Executive Team (click for details) | ||
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| Prof. Simon Saunders | Mark Keenan | |
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| Saul Friedner | Dr. Kostas Konstantinou | |
Executive Team
Professor Simon Saunders
Director - Technology
PhD CEng FIET
Simon is an independent specialist in the technology of wireless communications, with a technical and commercial background derived from senior appointments in both industry (including Philips and Motorola) and academia (University of Surrey).
He is an author of over 140 articles, books and book chapters. He has acted as a consultant to companies including BAA, BBC, O2, Ofcom, BT, ntl, Mitsubishi and British Land and was CTO of Red-M and CEO of Cellular Design Services Ltd. Simon speaks and chairs a wide range of international conferences and training courses and has invented several novel wireless technologies. Particular expertise includes in-building wireless systems, radiowave propagation prediction, smart antenna design and mobile system analysis. He currently serves on technical advisory boards of several companies and the industrial advisory board at University College London. He is a Visiting Professor to the University of Surrey and is founding chairman of The Femto Forum. He was recently appointed as a member of the Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board.
Mark Keenan
Director - Commercial
CEng MIStructE
Mark is a Chartered Structural Engineer and has worked in the wireless telecommunications industry since 1992. Mark is skilled at managing complex projects, with experience in specification, design, installation and management of major wireless systems in environments as diverse as Heathrow Airport, Wembley Stadium, Ascot Racecourse and numerous corporate offices throughout the UK and The Netherlands. The wireless systems deployed are a combination of Wi-Fi, Private Mobile Radio, Tetra and Cellular with infrastructures specified and designed to offer maximum flexibility to customers and environments. Mark was Project Director for a major strategic consulting exercise for BAA, creating and delivering their complete wireless strategy. He was also responsible for the UK's first landlord-owned multi-operator in-building wireless infrastructure in the Bullring Shopping Centre.
Saul Friedner
BEng (Hons.) CEng MIET
Saul has 10 years' experience in spectrum management having spent most of his time working for Ofcom, the UK communications regulator. Saul’s experience spans across many facets of radio spectrum management including broadcast technical planning, mobile radio planning and licensing, and radio equipment standardisation.
Saul has worked for numerous clients including Ofcom, the British Red Cross and Communities and Local Government. He has extensive knowledge of key technologies such as LTE, WiMAX, TETRA, FM and DAB broadcast systems and other mobile radio systems. His work has included the development of a national frequency plan, TETRA radio coverage verification, spectrum policy and strategy development and a valuation for piece of highly sought-after radio spectrum.
Saul spent two years working for a global engineering consultancy company and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise of project management and implementation of both large and small scale technical projects.
Dr. Kostas Konstantinou
PhD CEng
Associates
Our team includes associates, who are leading experts in a wide range of particular fields, including the following:
Professor Les Barclay
Radiowave propagation and spectrum regulation expert
OBE, FREng
Professor Les Barclay is a distinguished and widely-recognised professional in fields of radiowave propagation and spectrum regulation. He was formerly Deputy Director for Research and Radio Technology for the UK Radiocommunications Agency (now Ofcom), managing the Agency's research programme, in particular the National Radio Propagation Programme. He chaired the first Radiocommunication Assembly of the International Telecommunication Union in 1993. He was chairman of CCIR Study Group 6 (ionospheric propagation) from 1978 to 1993, and chairman of ITU-R Study Group 3 (all radiowave propagation) from 1993 to 1997. He is now vice chairman of the ITU-R Co-ordinating Committee for Vocabulary. He has participated as a UK delegate in various World Radiocommunication Conferences.
In 2000 he participated as an expert member in the government-appointed Independent Expert Group on the Safety of Mobile Phones (the Stewart committee), and is now vice chairman of the programme management committee for research projects in this area. He is a visiting professor at the universities of Surrey and Lancaster, is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. He is chairman of the organising committee for the series of IEE residential courses on radiowave propagation.
Professor Barclay has been awarded the OBE, the Polar Medal and the silver medal of the ITU.
Ian Vance
Strategic technical and business advice
MBE MSc FREng FIET
Ian Vance works with Real Wireless to deliver technology strategy, management and due diligence services.
Ian is a senior and well-respected technology management professional in the telecommunications industry, with a background as Vice President and Chief Engineer of Nortel plc, responsible for all Nortel products in European markets. He has 38 years experience of the mobile radio, photonics, and semiconductors industry. He is
probably best known for his innovative design of the world's first 'professional' radio on a silicon chip, and its use in radiopaging. He also patented Time Division Duplex (TDD) now a technique used throughout the world.Ian was formerly President of the Federation of the Electronics Industry (FEI) and is now the project monitor for the "HipNet" project, a large consortium under Ericsson’s leadership building an NGN All-IP Test-Bed of a complete telecoms network. He also acts as Chief Technical Advisor and Non Executive Director to On-Communications Ltd. He has extensive experience of due diligence work for some 12 leading VC groups.
Nick Astley-Cooper
Broadcast Radio Engineering Consultant
BEng CEng MIEE
Nick has deep and unique experience in all aspects of real-world broadcast radio planning, gained from his previous experience in Broadcast Radio Technical Licensing at Ofcom, and previously as Deputy Director of Engineering at the Radio Authority. His responsibilities have involved frequency planning, assessment of franchise applications, commissioning of new transmission systems and monitoring of on-air performance. He has designed and developed database software to assess and track measurement data to ensure compliance with licence conditions. He has also acted as the UK focal point for the UK radio industry (transmitter and receiver side) and for licensees when optimising service linkage (DAB to DAB and DAB to FM).
With a background as squadron leader in the RAF and MOD, Nick has proven project- and personnel-management skills and a great appreciation of the practical issues involved in radio engineering in the field.
Dr. Alejandro Aragón-Zavala
Consulting and Research - Americas
PhD, MSc
Dr. Aragón-Zavala obtained an MSc with distinction in Satellite Communication Engineering from the University of Surrey, in the UK, in 1998 and a PhD in Antennas and Propagation from the same university in February 2003, developing a novel in-building wireless design and optimisation methodology. He worked from 2000 to 2003 in Cellular Design Services and Red-M as a senior radio consultant and in-building design tools development engineer.
Dr Aragón-Zavala is the author of more than 25 international journal and conference papers, and co-author of the 2nd edition of the book "Antennas and Propagation for Wireless communication systems" with Prof. Simon Saunders. He is also the author of the book "High-altitude platform systems for wireless communications", which will be published in late 2008 by Wiley.
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Intelligent Antennas for Wireless Communications
PhD, BEng, MIET
Dr. Brown is Real Wireless' expert in engineering design, testing and research on intelligent antenna systems.
As well as his work with Real Wireless, Tim is a lecturer in mobile communications at
Tim has authored several journal papers and his book, “A practical guide to the MIMO radio channel”, is to be published shortly by Wiley.
 | Malcolm Hamer Propagation Modelling Expert BSc MIET |
Malcolm Hamer joined Real Wireless in 2009 following 20 years' distinguished career with British Telecom. At BT he acted as a subject matter expert on propagation prediction techniques and antennas with applicability to terrestrial and satellite fixed links, and to mobile systems for 3G and WiMAX.
He is a leading specialist in the understanding and development of new propagation algorithms for incorporation into several of the Radio Recommendations maintained by Study Group 3 of the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva. He has represented British Telecom and the United Kingdom at the meetings of this group for many years.
He created a number of new algorithms to correct shortcomings in several of the ITU Recommendations. Having demonstrated a new propagation model for over sea earth station coordination which was incorporated into Appendix 7 of the Radio Regulations, he was then awarded a contract by the UK Radiocommunications Agency (now Ofcom) to work on two further aspects of Recommendations causing problems both of which required a rapid solution. He completely reworked the propagation curve families in a new recommendation, P.1546, into functional forms which enabled the Regional Radio Conference to endorse it as the method for re-planning digital VHF and UHF Services in Europe. In addition, he developed a new algorithm to remove some serious anomalies present in ITU-R P.452, clearing the way for it to become the foundation for the new P.1812 Recommendation.
 | Mike Goddard, OBE International Spectrum Policy Advisor OBE, BSc, CEng, FIET |
Mike Goddard has 40 years’ experience in spectrum planning nationally and internationally in the UK administration. He was a member of the Radiocommunications Agency’s senior management team and was acting Chief Executive of the Agency when its functions were transferred to Ofcom. He was a member of the Board, and for a short period Chairman, of RSI International, a joint venture consulting business in the field of spectrum management. He has played a leading role in the development of spectrum reviews, national spectrum strategies, and more recently the development and implementation of ground-breaking spectrum reform in the public sector. Mike was Director, Spectrum and International Policy, in the United Kingdom’s communications regulator, Ofcom. His responsibilities included the development of the UK’s overall spectrum allocation policy, with particular emphasis on the interface with government departments, and developing and representing the
He was the first chairman of the European Radiocommunications Committee of CEPT, during which time he was responsible for setting up the European Radiocommunications Office in
He has advised the Indian Government on spectrum management strategy (as part of an RSI International contract), participated in many bilateral meetings with other regulators from throughout the World discussing approaches to spectrum regulation, and given keynote addresses to spectrum management conferences in Europe and the USA.
Mike is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the
Dr. Stuart Mitchell
Senior Consultant
BSc PhD MIET
Dr. Mitchell combines a deep technical education with extensive practical & managerial experience. He has a successful record of working in the fields of wireless communications and RF engineering and particular expertise in the RF aspects of femtocells. An experienced consultant, capable of analysing and communicating advanced technical issues to a wide audience. Works He worked as 3G radio specialist on secondment for BT at Viag Interkom, Germany where he acted as team leader of the Radio Network Evolution Group comprising six professional engineers. Responsible for the radio planning of GSM, GPRS and UMTS networks. In the Mobility Research Unit in the world-famous BT laboratories, Stuart developed an innovative software-radio testbed that demonstrated novel coding schemes and innovative radio channel measurements. He also took responsibility for testing early 3G Node-B radio equipment. Working together with engineers from
 | Julius Robson Associate MSc, BEng (Hons) |
Julius Robson is a specialist in evaluating and enhancing the performance of mobile broadband networks. He was a Chairman and spokesperson for the LTE/SAE Trial Initiative, a global forum tasked to consolidate results from different vendors’ early LTE trials, and to benchmark them against industry expectations. He has spoken at key conferences on both peak and ‘real world’ performance of this 4th generation Technology. Prior to this role, Julius worked for ten years in Nortel’s Wireless Technology Laboratories, developing a deep understanding of antennas and propagation and 4G technologies including OFDM, MIMO, SON and interference management. He then went on to become Nortel’s standards delegate in 3GPP RAN1( Physical Layer) , RAN4 (RF performance) and the LSTI. Julius is now an associate of Real Wireless, providing LTE/SAE expertise to a wide range of industry clients. He is also currently leading a group within the NGMN Alliance on Backhaul Provisioning in 4G networks, which involves galvanising industry consensus on realistic traffic levels from base stations.
 | Stephen Priestman Wireless Regulation and Policy Associate BSc CEng MIET ARCM |
Stephen Priestman is an experienced professional engineer who has held a number of senior positions in UK government bodies and in European industry, specialising in spectrum management, regulatory and government affairs.
Over the course of his career, Stephen has gained significant experience in the fields of research, broadcast and telecoms engineering, regulation and public policy. He has particular depth of expertise in radio spectrum regulation and policy, as well as broader policy experience in the telecoms area. Until early 2009, he was a senior manager in Vodafone’s Group Public Policy department, with responsibility for coordinating radio spectrum policy across the worldwide Vodafone group of companies and engaging with regulatory and policy making bodies on spectrum issues, particularly in Europe.
Prior to that, he was Director of Telecoms within the UK Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms, and also spent a number of years with Alcatel Telecom, where he was a member of the UK’s Broadband Stakeholder Group. During the late 1990’s he was Director of European Regulatory Affairs for Alcatel’s ‘SkyBridge’ broadband satellite project, where he played a major role in achieving SkyBridge’s regulatory objectives at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
Stephen gained a solid grounding in spectrum regulation thanks to a period of several years within the UK Radiocommunications Agency (now part of Ofcom). He managed the RA unit responsible for space services, encompassing licensing, technical studies and international coordination activities. In this position, he acted as head of UK delegation to numerous European and ITU level meetings on space service matters. He was chairman of the UK committee which prepared UK positions on science service issues for ITU meetings, including World Radiocommunication Conferences, as well as being lead spokesman for the UK on telecommunication satellite service matters.
 | Dr. Peter King RF Systems and Circuit Design Consultant PhD, MSc, BSc |
Peter brings 20 years of RF experience and expertise to Real Wireless. He specialises in end-to-end RF system design, radio propagation, radio transceiver architecture design and RF circuit design of receivers, transmitters, phase locked loops, power amplifiers (including linearisation) and low noise amplifiers for any mobile, satellite, aircraft or wireless system.
He spent 10 years working on mobile phone base stations (notably for TDD & FDD WiMAX networks, GSM, UMTS and CDMA) and handsets (GSM, DCS, PCS and UMTS) for multiple leading vendors (Nortel, Siemens, Samsung, TTP Communications and Lucent), where he gained expertise in radio transceiver architecture design and RF circuit design. He worked for 4 years on various fixed wireless access, cable TV, in-flight entertainment and defence systems, where he carried out end-to-end RF system design, co-location interference studies, radio transceiver architecture design and RF circuit design. Further, he worked for 3 years on mobile-satellite radio propagation research at the University of Surrey, and 3 years on aircraft-satellite and aircraft-land system link design and budgets, and aircraft radio terminals.
 | John Okas Strategic Wireless Business Consultancy |
