Filippo Viganò

Head of the Digital Growth and CorpDev team, managing Etisalat by e&’s Portfolio Management Committee, overseeing the growth of the company's portfolio of adjacent digital initiatives, working closely with the leadership team to identify and execute improvement opportunities and advising Top Management on key matters related to inorganic expansion and investment appraisal

Driving the Corporate Strategy formulation for the Etisalat Group and UAE operation (16 international operations, USD 14 billion revenue in 2020). This involves complex stakeholder management at multiple levels within the organization, to offer the CEO and Board recommended options for top-line and bottom-line growth. The Strategy formulation process is based on distilling complex analyses into clear insights, balancing multiple strategic inputs such as internal data and capabilities, market and technology trends, the availability of inorganic routes to growth based on M&A and Partnerships/JVs and regulatory feasibility. As a Strategist, the job also involves Business Planning and Valuation activities, the creation of Operational Plans with their associated KPIs and leading large cross-functional projects involving multiple, often conflicting, areas within the organization. Additionally, I have been a key member in the appraisal of multiple M&A opportunities for Etisalat, with a few successfully completed in the last few years. During my tenure in Etisalat the company has successfully transitioned from a traditional telecom operator to a Digital Telco, with a significant share of revenues from innovative services.

Analysys Mason offers consulting services worldwide to clients in the telecommunications, media and technology (TMT) sectors. As a trusted adviser on telecoms, technology and media, we work with our clients, including operators, regulators and end users, to: - design winning strategies that deliver measurable results - make informed decisions based on market intelligence and analytical rigour - develop innovative propositions to gain competitive advantage - implement operational solutions to improve business efficiency With around 250 staff in 13 offices, we are respected worldwide for our exceptional quality of work, independence and flexibility in responding to client needs. For 25 years, we have been helping clients in more than 100 countries to maximise their opportunities. Recent assigments include: - Managed the commercial and technical advisory of the sale and leaseback of a towers portfolio in the Middle East valued at more than 1 billion Euros, on behalf of an integrated Middle Eastern operator - Managed a spectrum valuation of 3G spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band and LTE spectrum in the 1.8GHz band for a South Asian mobile operator in view of a bid preparation. The client was able to develop and successfully apply a bidding strategy to acquire the spectrum they were interested in at a price significantly lower than fair value - Managed the revamp of the price book for the tower assets of an Asian telecoms infrastructure fund, using a mixture of bottom-up modelling, benchmarking of price and non-price terms, and an analysis of the attractiveness of the constituent parts of the tower portfolio - Managed a feasibility study, providing strategic guidelines and quantifying the commercial and technical viability of a set of market-entry scenarios in the mobile market of a Middle Eastern country

- Managed a business planning exercise for a Middle Eastern mobile operator which was considering the acquisition of a Middle Eastern WiMAX operator. We developed alternative valuation scenarios to complement analysis from a previous project - Managed a commercial and technical due diligence of a Middle Eastern WiMAX operator. A detailed multi-scenario business planning exercise followed the due diligence phase, which has been used for valuation purposes by our client - Lead commercial modeller during the commercial and technical due diligence of assets valued at several billion Euros in North Africa, conducted on behalf of an integrated operator in the Middle East that wished to expand its portfolio of international operations - Lead commercial modeller on a commercial and technical due diligence of an Asian mobile operator, on behalf of another operator in the same country. We assessed a detailed, multi-scenario business plan, including market, revenue and cost projections, as well as conducting detailed analysis of the synergies that could be achieved from a merger - Lead commercial modeller on a commercial and technical due diligence of an integrated African operator, on behalf of a private investment firm - Lead modeller on a project to evaluate the total cost of ownership for various active network sharing procurement options, for an Asian mobile operator. The project advised our client on which procurement option would minimise its costs, while maintaining the required network quality and flexibility

- Project manager supporting a North African integrated operator in expanding Customer Data Analytics capabilities: created a Customer Lifetime Management Plan, including the design, execution and results evaluation of pilot BTL campaigns. - Lead modeller in supporting a North African integrated operator in setting up customer data analytics capabilities, in order to move away from a 'perception-based' view of the market towards customer-driven commercial decisions: capabilities assessment and gap analysis phase around processes, systems and methodology; a multi-dimensional analysis of the customer base, which allowed our client to uncover customer patterns and exploit them to increase revenue/reduce costs; the design and implementation of a semi-automated SAS dashboard with Excel and Powerpoint interfaces. This contained more than 1000 key performance indicators (KPIs) and was capable of automatically creating visual dashboard documents ready for use by management - Lead modeller for an independent market review of the Saudi telecoms market for an integrated MEA operator with a significant international portfolio of operations. The market review was used by the client to assess the value of its investment and to inform further investment decisions - Engaged by an equity investor to undertake a due diligence of a tower company with operations in Western Africa: assessed the company’s current operations as well as plans to enter two new markets through the purchase of an MNO’s tower portfolios. - Lead modeller engaged by two leading GCC MNOs to assess their radio network portfolio, using advanced algorithms to estimate the savings potential from both the consolidation of the existing assets and joint roll-out of new network build on each operator's assets. - Team member advising on the planning of an active RAN sharing agreement between two mobile operators in Western Asia: identified and prioritised sites for consolidation based on advanced geo-analysis.

As an Associate Consultant in Analysys Mason I took part in the following projects: - Provided research support to the team working on a tower sharing project in the Middle East, including consolidation and joint evolution estimation. This involved estimating spare capacity in the combined tower portfolio; forecasting demand from the involved parties; and assessing remaining spare and consolidation potential. - Member of team advising a Western European regulator on the relative benefits of two different approaches to network sharing plan. - Modelling support for project advising Ofcom on an updated model for mobile termination regulation. - Modelling support for a team developing a paper for an Indian telecoms industry association in response to government proposals on the value and pricing of 1800MHz spectrum. - Team member for project defining a growth strategy for a telecoms group with operations in the MENA region. We undertook modelling, SWOT analysis and scenario planning to support the strategy development - Research and modelling for a project providing expert advice in a range of areas to a mobile operator in the Middle East. - Member of team advising a Middle Eastern mobile operator in the areas of costing strategy, accounting separation and bottom-up cost modelling. - Supported the Analysys Mason partner who acted as expert witness in a litigation case between a mobile operator in the MENA region and the fixed incumbent. We estimated financial damages relating to the pricing of leased line and international transit services, and also gathered information regarding the quality of service offered by the incumbent.

In the Siebel CRM system evolution project I took part in the following activities: - analysis, study and revision of current processes and writing of functional and technical analysis documents - analysis, design and development of the integration between Siebel CRM and Enel's F.O.U.R portal - analysis, design and development of the integration between Siebel CRM and an external Document Management System - analysis, design and development of a Custom Security Adapter for Siebel CRM written in C and ODBC - writing of the User Acceptance Test documentation.