Mikko Summala, 44, has lived all his life at the leading edge of technology. Being Finnish, he has experienced, influenced and delivered upon the promises of new technology making life better. Mikko has studied electronics engineering and international marketing at the Universities Of Oulu and Turku in Finland, and strategic leadership at Henley Business School in UK. He has been a lecturer at various Universities and Institutions both in Scandinavia and The Baltic States, and is frequently speaking at international conferences across Europe.

He has been at the forefront of IT and telecommunications development launching new technologies and products since 1982. These include commercial email systems and data networking in the 1980’s, building reseller channels in Finland and former Soviet Union, and designing and managing metropolitan area networks early 1990’s.

Prior to spending a year sailing and forming Industry Introductions in 2001, Mikko spent 7 years with 3Com being in charge of 3Com’s Residential Connectivity Business group in EMEA. He managed a team of 50 sales people and 50 technicians spread over 46 different offices in the region. During this time he helped service providers launch DSL and Data-over-Cable –services in countries as diverse as UK, Finland, Portugal and Lebanon. Mikko's 3Com product portfolio also included Home Networking products, web cameras, Internet appliances and Kerbango, the Internet Radio.

Mikko has been promoting the Digital Home lifestyle for years and after consulting several major companies he was elemental in forming the Digital Home Alliance, a global industry initiative for unifying the connected/smart home technology and related services.

Michael Bussell, 41, has spent the last 17 years working in supplying IT and Telecommunications products.

He joined Zenith Data Systems in 1986 as a test engineer. After taking an interest in how the company’s logistics worked he switched careers and began working his way into the Purchasing/Operations department until he became a manager in the OEM division (1992) supplying BT with its software and peripheral products. Before he left to join U.S.Robotics in 1996, this part of the business had grown from nothing to $26m a year.

As Forecasting and Planning manager for EMEA at USR, Michael was responsible for supporting sales of U.S.Robotics Analogue and ISDN modem business unit through the internet boom in the mid to late 90’s. After USRobotics merger with 3Com he became Product Marketing manager with responsibility for the business units marketing budget and product strategy in EMEA.

When 3Com announced its new Residential group, Michael saw an opportunity to become involved with a whole new and exciting product set. This set the tone for his interest in the Digital Home lifestyle. As European Operations Manager he started to Introduce Internet Appliances, Broadband Access and Home networking products to Europe and the Middle East. The goal to start providing products and services to enhance the home and extended home emerged.

Ian Barber, 38, has always been connected with technology from an early age. As a self-taught electronics engineer he repaired items for friends at school and built an experimental computer in 1980. With an early career as a telecoms development engineer in a start-up company, Ian developed, built and launched a variety of data networking and management products in Europe before moving to the United States in 1989 in connection with a replacement product he had designed for IBM.

He was at the heart of the convergence of voice and data services in the early 1990’s, assisting service providers across the Americas and Asia with their move to Next Generation Networks. With a growing belief in the need for hi-tech business to leap the growing gap between new technologies and positive lifestyle impact, he shifted his focus to evangelizing customer-focussed corporate culture and marketing beyond the technology. In 1999, Ian was a member of the founding management team of thirdspace, the architecture and middle-ware company which offers the ability to deliver unique phone, broadcast TV and internet services over a single telephone wire.

Returning to his native Europe in 1996, Ian's diverse background and extensive international experience have been instrumental in other recent roles including Global VP of Solutions for Newbridge Networks, and Director of Marketing and Strategy for Alcatel. He has received a First with honours from the Open University, UK in engineering and economics and has studied strategy at Manchester Business School. Supported by a deep international experience in a range of businesses from start-up to global blue chip companies he is committed to being instrumental in delivering the digital future and real lifestyle benefits to the mass market.

Whether in business, building houses, cars or serving with US Fire & Rescue to the rank of Incident Officer, Ian has a proven track-record of looking for a challenge and delivering answers.