Oliver is a Director (Regulatory and Market Access) with global satellite communications firm Viasat.
Oliver Rott, MPA
I have always been fascinated by decisions in politics. How, when, and why they are made; why evidence is disregarded, discarded or discredited; and, most importantly, who ultimately makes them.
Having worked as a parliamentary attaché in the European Parliament on agricultural policy, I was instructive on the above questions in many ways. But something was missing. The lobbying was all fair and good, but why was some evidence so much more persuasive than others? To learn more about this I enrolled in the MPA. To me, this remains one of the distinctive factors of this degree. Evidence is analysed from a variety of angles: where and how to collect representative data and how to differentiate it? How to analyse it best? What are the implications of a correlation? And causations? Crucially, however, the MPA teaches you awareness of the strength, or weakness, of your argument or that of others.
After graduation I was fortunate enough to be hired to help set up a consulting company at the intersection of public policy and international diplomacy in 2015, particularly focusing on digital and telecommunication policy. With the advent of Brexit I left the UK and ventured into one of the most exciting, yet most underdeveloped areas of policy globally: satellite telecommunications policy.
The international telecommunication framework governing how we enjoy satellite services is established, and revised regularly in conferences not unlike other big UN conferences (e.g. COPs). Many areas adjacent to this field, such as (international) policy surrounding satellites in space, is far less established. With more and more objects being launched into space, and space having become a strategic domain for many, governing fair and equitable access will become crucial to almost every element of our lives going forward.
As Director for Market Access and Regulatory at Viasat I currently look after the European Aviation Network. Herein satellite and terrestrial connectivity sources are combined to provide internet to airplanes over Europe. This enables passengers to enjoy whichever online services they want to consume while in flight.
In my day-to-day work, I deal with regulatory agencies across Europe on a variety of issues at any given time. Evidence - tailored to the needs of these agencies and the demands of the business - is a crucial convincing factor. Knowing of, and being able to properly articulate, the cascading strength of different arguments, is often the most powerful tool in convincing others. Needless to say, as a non-native speaker, spending two years in London also substantially hones the level of spoken English, which is an asset too often overlooked when thinking about brevity and clarity of arguments.
Oliver is happy to connect via LinkedIn.