Barbara A. Cherry is Professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University. Her teaching and research interests integrate experience in industry, academia, and government in applying multidisciplinary analysis of telecommunications public policy issues. Her publications include numerous academic journal articles; and the books, The Crisis of Telecommunications Carrier Liability (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999), and Making Universal Service Policy: Enhancing the Process Through Multidisciplinary Evaluation (coedited with S. Wildman and A. Hammond) (Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates, 1999).

Prof. Cherry’s telecommunications policy experience includes: Senior Counsel in the Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis, FCC; Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law, Michigan State University; Director of Public Policy Studies, Ameritech; and Regional Attorney for State Government Affairs, AT&T.

Prof. Cherry received a B.S. in Economics from the University of Michigan, an M.A. in Economics and Law from Harvard University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Northwestern University.

Dr. Sobee Shinohara serves concurrently as Director of Telecommunications Regulatory Affairs at both KDDI Corporation (a position he has held since 2007) and KDDI Research Institute, Inc. (a position he has held since 2008). He began his professional career in 1990 in the Wireless Mobile Division and Satellite Broadcasting Division of the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) in Japan. He was promoted to Section Chief, Data Communications Division, Telecommunications Business Bureau in the (former) MPT in 1994 and two years later was hired by a predecessor company of KDDI as Manager, Government and Industrial Affairs Department. Mr. Shinohara holds several degrees including a Bachelor and Master of Engineering degree from Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan 1992 and 1994), an LL.B degree from Hosei University (Tokyo 2009) and a Ph.D. in Applied Informatics from the Graduate School of Applied Informatics at the University of Hyogo, (Kobe, Japan 2013). In April 2013, he enrolled at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo, to pursue a new graduate degree.

Xu Yan has recently been promoted to Associate Professor of the Department of Information and Systems Management of the HKUST Business School, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He received his PhD from the business school of the University of Strathclyde of the UK in 1997. He had working experience in the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) of China, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, British Telecom’s Laboratories and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). His research and teaching interests include corporate management, competitive strategy and regulatory policy of telecommunications. He has also provided extensive research and consulting for the former MPT of China, British Telecom, China Mobile, China Telecom, Nortel, OFTA, Audit Commission of Hong Kong Government, the Internet and Telecom Association of Hong Kong (ITAHK) and the ITU. He has published extensively in renowned international journals such as Telecommunications Policy. His recent book (with Douglas Pitt), Chinese Telecommunications Policy, published by Artech House, is regarded as the benchmark in the analysis of Chinese telecommunications policy. He is currently on the board of directors of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS).