Ayman Amiri of Orange Egypt won the Gamechanger Award and Jorge Méndez Prieto of Spain’s Onivia is our Trailblazer of the Year – congratulations to them and all those shortlisted
Mobile Europe’s CTO of the Year Awards are in their twelfth year, although the categories have evoled during that time. This year we had the most impressive entries, across the board, since I became editor in 2019. The judges would like to congratulate all the entrants and especially those who made it to the shortlist. The Award winners were announced after an online, invitation-only roundtable discussion.
Entrants from the Gamechanger category who were shortlisted were: Ayman Amiri, CTIO, Orange Egypt; Stefano Paggi, CTO, Fibercop; and Jeanie York, CTO, Virgin Media O2 (UK).
This Award went to Ayman Amiri. Oleg Volpin, Division President: Europe, Telefonica Global & Network Solutions WW with Amdocs, with the Awards’ sponsor for 2025, Amdocs, commented, “We would like to congratulate Ayman – you talked a lot about the difficulties, and the size of the country, and the enormous level of investment you have to do in order to cover all the country – and what you can do within all the constraints.
“It’s extremely impressive how you were able to run… to roll out 5G, let’s call it strategically in the right places, and make it greener and more secure. Big, big congrats.”
The shortlist for the Traliblazer Award 2025 was: Rami Farah, CTO, MTN South Africa; Marius Maican, Technology Director, Orange Romania; Eric Maintenay, CTO, Orange Slovakia and Jorge Méndez Prieto, CTO, Onivia (Spain). The winner is Jorge Méndez Prieto.
“Really… we were impressed by the innovation of the business model, rapid growth, and in general wholesale is a new area that will grow in many places, and you’re one of the first and…[your] ability to grow the business and monetise [is] very impressive,” stated Volpin.
They will now join the Mobile Europe hall of fame alongise our illustrious previous winners.
2024
Gamechanger – Jose Pedro Nascimento, CTO Altice Portugal
Trailblazer Colin Bannon, CTO of BT Global
2023
Gamechanger Miguel Santos, CTO, of MÁSMÓVIL
Trailblazer Yusuf Kıraç, CTO of Turk Telekom
2022
Gamechanger Didier Clavero, Group Networks Operations Director at Vodafone Spain
Trailblazer Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer and Network Development Director at Vodafone UK
2021
Gamechanger Enrique Blanco, Group CTIO at Telefónica (the only person to win an Award twice)
Trailblazer Philippe Ensarguet, CTO, Orange Business Services
2020
Gamechanger Catalin Buliga, CTO of Vodafone Romania
Trailblazer Micha Berger, CTO of Telenet Belgium
2019
Elmar Grasser, CTO, Sunrise Communications
Boris Drilo, CTIO, Hrvatski Telekom
2018
Group CTO of the Year – Johan Wilbergh, Group CTO, Vodafone
Regional CTO of the Year – Gediz Sezgin, CTO, Turkcell
2017
Group CTO of the Year – Yogesh Malik, Group CTO, VEON
Regional CTO of the Year –Geert Standaert, CTO, Proximus
2016
Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Group CTO, Deutsche Telekom
2015
Fotis Karonis, CTO, EE
2014
Enrique Blanco, Group CTIO at Telefónica
