Speakers

Michel Athénour is Chief operating officer at Cityvox, the largest Cityguide in France, with more than 2.6 million unique visitors monthly.

Before founding Cityvox in 1999, Michel Athénour was Manager at OC&C Strategy Consultant. For 5 years, he advised companies in FMCG and Retail, and helped the launch of various internet start-ups. Before working at OC&C, Michel Athénour worked in the automobile industry at Renault Netherlands in Amsterdam. 

Jérôme Grateau, New Initiates Manager, Google EMEA

As New Initiates Manager for Google, Mr Grateau is responsible for the development and the management of the "Authorised Google Adwords Reseller" programme in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Before joining Google, Mr Grateau was Sales Director for AOL France.  Prior to that he was with McKinsey for 6 years.

Mr Grateau holds an MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs and a M.Sc. from E.N.S.T., Paris.

Sidharth Gupta, Chief Operation Officer, Getit Infoservices, India

Sidharth Gupta is a Graduate in Statistics from Delhi University and has completed the ISB Wharton Global Advanced Management Programme from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad & Wharton Business School, USA.

He has over 14 years of professional experience. In this time he has been involved with printing, print management, directories, classifieds, community papers and magazines.

In1996, Sidharth set up ‘FreeAds’ - now India’s leading free classified ads service. As the Chief Operation officer of GETIT Infoservices – India’s leading yellow pages and search solutions provider, Sidharth’s role is to provide strategic direction to the group’s search and classifieds businesses.

GETIT has been publishing directories since 20 years and have now integrated all new media offerings along with print. GETIT’s services are available online (www.getit.in), via mobile (wap.getit.in) and through voice services. GETIT also runs an international trade website ‘tradeget.com’.

Holm Hallbauer's experience in the directory publishing industry goes back to the 1980s. As the founder of Purple Pages, the Canadian Phone Book publisher, he saw the huge potential for a software provider that would meet the specific demands of directory publishers. In 1990, he founded a company called PRE PRINT, and with this company laid the foundation for today's net-linx AG. Nowadays, net-linx is one of the most experienced and successful providers of integrated software solutions for the directory and newspaper publishing industry worldwide.

Olivier Houben, Partner V4G- Value for Growth, Belgium

Olivier Houben is a partner of V4G specialised in strategic marketing assignments. Because of his legal background and experience, he is also responsible for assisting clients with the legal aspects of their strategy.

Prior to joining V4G, Olivier Houben worked as Marketing and Channel Manager for the Belgian Yellow Pages publisher from September 2000 through October 2003. In this capacity, he was responsible for business development, the digital media product portfolio and in assisting in the transformation of the sales force to a multi-product, multi-platform and segmented organisation.

From September 1993 to August 2000, Olivier Houben worked for Arthur Andersen, where he started in the Tax Department and later transferred to the Business Consulting Department where he specialised in strategic marketing assignments.

Karin Loeffen, Founder and CEO, Libersy, Netherlands.

Karin Loeffen is the CEO and founder of Libersy. Previously Karin (35) studied Fiscal Economics at the University of Tilburg. She worked as a European Marketing Manager in the online space and in New Media for Sanoma Publishing, Belkin, Canon and Philips, working on new online concepts. She blogs for www.dutchcowboys.nl .

In 2006 she founded Libersy, an ambitious web 2.0 technology company which is based in Michigan and Amsterdam. Libersy brings e-commerce to service providers, by offering them an easy 15min setup solution (business profile pages, booking application, widgets and APIs).  It includes integrated online marketing to sell empty time slots.  Libersy enables an SMB to optimize his availability via partners like Yellow Pages, Telcos, ISPs and content websites which license the Libersy marketing platform.’

Oliver Neuerbourg, Managing Director,DeTeMedien, Germany. 

Oliver Neuerbourg was appointed Managing Director of DeTeMedien GmbH in February 2004.  In collaboration with more than 100 local publishers the company is responsible for the directory products Das Telefonbuch (www.dastelefonbuch.de), Gelbeseiten (www.gelbeseiten.de) DasÖrtliche (www.dasoertliche.de) and www.suchen.de. Current preoccupations are branding, development of the online and mobile business, distribution and logistics. 

After graduating with a Master's degree in business, Oliver Neuerbourg started his career in the IT and consulting industry in various national and international management positions.  He worked for solution providers like Bull and Teradata and his areas of responsibility included customer relationship, data management and electronic commerce. Prior to joining DeTeMedien, he was responsible for the German business of the global IT manufacturer Storage Tek.

After graduating with an Economics degree from Kyoto University in 1973, Toshikazu Ozasa has been with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, the NTT Public Corporation. In the eighties, at an early stage in his career, he was able to benefit from an exchange programme and serve for a number of years with the French PTT and, in the nineties, spent four years in Geneva as Assistant General Manager of NTT's Overseas Office.

For the past twenty years or more, Mr Ozasa has been an NTT General Manager in a variety of departments and divisions and at various locations in Japan: sales planning (1987 to 1989), telecommunication systems (1989 to 1991), customer satisfaction promotion (1995 to 1997) and then six years as General Manager at two branch offices before assuming his present position as Senior Vice-President at NTT Directory Services.  

As Business Development Director with Blom, Arne Saugstad is responsible among other things for serving the Yellow Pages segment and he looks forward to working with Yellow Pages companies across Europe to launch state of the art services such as oblique imagery and 3D modelling.

Before joining Blom, Arne Saugstad was a Regional Vice-President and member of the Executive Board of UPC, Norway and was responsible for operations and sales at all UPC offices outside Oslo. He has an MBA degree and has completed the International Executive Programme at INSEAD, France.

Vincent Thibaut holds a degree as Master in Applied Economics (orientation Marketing) from the Antwerp University.