Branko Bjelajac
Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Landis+Gyr
In the late 1990’s, the telecommunication industry started introducing broadband services. Access networks using high-speed „Last Mile“ technology had to be deployed as a prerequisite. Lessons learned back then can help us with today’s challenges in Smart Grid Communications, the next „Last Mile“ race. Triggered by the convergence of technologies and changing legislation, many innovative business models had been tried out in an environment characterized by fuzzy service definitions, upcoming standards and the need for large investments. The winners of the first „Last Mile“ race were the end-users, DSL technology vendors, incumbent telco’s, and business model innovators like Amazon and ebay. In this keynote we will discuss how we can benefit from their experience.
Biography : Branko Bjelajac, 42, is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Landis+Gyr, Switzerland, the global leader in smart metering, since 2007. He is responsible for technology strategy, global alignment of research and development priorities, processes and resources as well as quality management. Before joining Landis+Gyr, he has held executive positions in Research & Development, Marketing, Business Development and Corporate Strategy at several well-known telecommunications and consumer electronics companies such as Mannesmann (now Vodafone), Grundig, SITA (Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques) and France Telecom/Orange. Mr. Bjelajac holds a diploma degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from Aachen University of Technology, Germany. He gained executive qualifications from INSEAD, (France), IMD (Switzerland) and the Stanford GSB (USA). Mr. Bjelajac is member of the IEEE, the VDE and the Münchner Kreis, and a board member of Electrosuisse CES (Comité Electrotechnique Suisse).