LONDON -- The Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA2) has appointed Rod Smith as its Chief Operating Officer. Rod will also serve as Chief Operating Officer for NGNuk. He joined the leadership of the two organisations on 4th September 2007.

Over the next few months Rod will be immersing himself in all the OTA2 & NGNuk project areas, in particular, engaging with its numerous stakeholders and deputising for Peter Black, Executive Chairman of OTA2 and NGNuk. Peter will continue to chair the executive meetings for the foreseeable future, however he plans to have a significantly reduced involvement over time.

Rod's most recent post was as Managing Director of telecoms solutions provider, Marconi plc from 1990 to 2006. He brings with him a wealth of experience having worked with many of the telecommunications operators in the UK. In addition to being responsible for the direct business partnerships with Marconi's UK customers, Rod oversaw several major product development programmes and managed field operations in the UK. Rod was a member of the Marconi executive board and served on several operational boards within the group.

Following the sale of Marconi, Rod took a career break of 12 months to pursue some private interests including sailing a yacht across the Atlantic and competing in a number of offshore races.

Peter Black said "We are delighted to have someone with Rod's industry experience joining us. This will be invaluable as we move forward with delivering the extended remit of the OTA2 and the completion of the work programme of NGNuk, both of which will contribute to sustainable competition and consumer benefits in the long term".

Rod Smith commented "I am very pleased to be joining both the OTA2 and NGNuk at an exciting time in their evolution. There is opportunity to build on the significant progress that OTA has achieved on LLU by applying lessons learned and best practice to other technologies, and to help facilitate the deployment of Next Generation Networks that are so critical to enhancing Customer experience".

Ofcom