David Altstaetter is Vice President of Product Line Management; his primary focus is delivering solutions for cost effective optical switching. In this role, David is responsible for creating and managing solutions for intra-data center and inter-data center physical layer switching fabrics. He is active in developing and promoting solutions and standards for converged physical and packet layer networks. Prior to joining CALIENT, David has spent almost 20 years in the telecom industry working for both network equipment providers and Tier 1 service providers. Most recently, he was Sr. Director of Applications & Solutions at ADVA Optical Networking. David has authored and co-authored dozens of technical papers and has given numerous national and international presentations in the area of optical switching. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Texas Tech University.

Robert “Bob” Azzi has over 35 years of experience leading network organizations for local, global and wireless networks.  Bob is currently an Executive Managing Partner at Argyle Griffin Group leading the Mobile and Telecommunications practice.  In this roles he is an advisor and consultant to innovative technology companies in the mobile and telecommunications industry.

Previously, Bob was the Chief Network Officer of Sprint.  In this role, he was accountable for network planning, development, engineering, deployment, access management and service assurance for the wireless and global IP network. During his tenure he led the Network Advantage outsourcing contract, Network Vision wireless network upgrade and the iDEN decommissioning programs.

Bob also has extensive network experience leading organizations in the Sprint Local Company Division and Long Distance Division.

Jack Barrett is the Senior Director for SP Field Marketing at Juniper Networks, where he and his team are responsible for executing executive level engagement and thought leadership programs. Additionally, he has held GTM Strategy and Planning, Campaign and Demand Generation Development, and Marketing Operations roles at Juniper.

Jack has more than 25 years of experience in Telecommunications. He began his career at AT&T; Bell Labs as a Member of the Technical Staff (MTS). He has held senior-level product management, marketing and managing director positions at AT&T;, Lucent Technologies, and Realtech Consulting prior to joining Juniper Networks.

Jack holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University, an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and an MBA from Monmouth University. Additionally, he is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants and is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).

Bill Beesley brings over 20 years of telecommunications industry experience to his current role as a principal solutions architect for packet optical networking at Fujitsu Network Communications. He is responsible for providing business development and product strategy for Fujitsu packet optical networking solutions, focusing on architecting solutions that support the Cable Telecommunications Industry.

Prior to joining Fujitsu in 2011, Bill worked at Cox Communications for 14 years, where he held a variety of executive engineering and leadership roles at both the corporate and system level.

Bill holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Management from Bellevue University in Nebraska, and a Master of Applied Science in Telecommunications Management from the University of Denver.

Majid Bemanian is Director of Marketing for Imagination, responsible for driving the company’s strategic security initiatives and leading its market strategy for the networking and storage segments. He also co-chairs the prpl Foundation’s security working group, focused on developing open standards and APIs around next-generation embedded security solutions. Prior to joining Imagination in 2013, Mr. Bemanian was Director of Marketing for the Processor Business Unit at AppliedMicro. He has more than 30 years of high-tech industry experience with hands-on engineering, marketing and business management skills. Bemanian has held key management positions with Amdahl Communications, Ascom-Timeplex, Encore Video, Raytheon Semi, LSI Logic, AppliedMicro and many early-stage startups. He holds several patents and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Dr. Eric J. Black began his working career as an interior/exterior electrician in the United States Air Force. Following his honorable discharge, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Washington where he received his Bachelor of Science in 2003. He went on to get Masters and Doctoral degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University where he developed near field optical components for use in data storage.

After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Black joined Boeing’s Research and Technology division as part of the next gen phased array group. Dr. Black was co-author and key performer on two competitive bid programs funded by the DARPA Microsystems Technology Office. The first was the Micro Plasma Device program where he developed RF Plasma devices able to operate in austere environmental conditions. In the second program, Arrays at Commercial Timescales, he developed frequency selective DC control line structures that appear transparent in the microwave regime.

In 2014, he joined the Metamaterials Commercialization Center at Intellectual Ventures where his team developed techniques for the design and manufacture of Metamaterial Antennas suitable for modern wideband communications. These novel antennas offer phased-array-like beam steering and beam reconfiguration without the need for expensive and power hungry distributed phase shifters, active amplifiers or multiple RF chains.

In 2016, Dr. Black co-founded Pivotal Communications where he currently serves as Chief Technical Officer. Pivotal is bringing their Metamaterial Electronically Tuned Antennas to market as a cost effective alternative to phased arrays or massive MIMO systems in current 4G and future 5G deployments.

Chris Boyer is Assistant Vice President of Global Public Policy at AT&T Services, Inc., where he is responsible for developing and coordinating the company's strategic policy positions related to cybersecurity.   Boyer represents AT&T on cybersecurity policy matters on the Federal and State level, including before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Department of Commerce, Department of State, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the White House.

This includes serving as AT&T's Point of Contact to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Council (NSTAC), a Federal advisory committee tasked with providing advice to the President on matters of National Security and Emergency Preparedness related to communications services, and was appointed in 2012 to the NIST Internet Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB), a Federal advisory committee responsible for identifying emerging managerial, technical, administrative, and physical safeguard issues related to information security and privacy for Federal agencies under the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA). 

Boyer is also the former vice-chair and a current member of the executive committee of the Communications Sector Coordinating Council (CSCC). Since 2009, Boyer has served on the board of directors of the National Cyber Security Alliance, a public private partnership dedicated to promoting cybersecurity awareness and education for home users, small and medium size businesses, and primary and secondary education.  In addition, he is the co-chair for the public policy committee at the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group and serves on multiple FCC Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) working groups involving cybersecurity including as co-chair of CSRIC V Working Group #5 focused on strategic information sharing in the communications industry. 

Boyer joined AT&T in 1993 and has held positions in various organizations including in the company's corporate public policy, network planning and engineering, product marketing and network services departments, including extensive experience working on a variety of technical matters including broadband access, VoIP and Internet Protocol (IP)-based television. Prior to his current position, he was AT&T's policy lead in California serving the high-tech community in Silicon Valley. Boyer received a B.S. in business administration from the University of Kansas and holds an M.B.A. from the University of Houston.

Tom Brown is a Managing Director and Global Leader of Berkeley Research Group’s Cyber Security and Investigations practice. Mr. Brown specializes in helping clients manage cyber risk, respond to and investigate cyber incidents, remediate vulnerabilities, and address, from a technical perspective, post-incident regulatory inquiries and litigation.

From 2002 to 2014, Mr. Brown served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he supervised the Complex Frauds and Cyber Crime Unit.

As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Brown led a broad range of complex, cross-border cyber investigations, including some of the most technologically challenging cases ever pursued by the U.S. government. They include Silk Road, a $1.2 billion underground drug website; the prolific “hacktivist” groups Anonymous and LulzSec; the hack of NASDAQ; Liberty Reserve, an online digital currency used to launder more than $6 billion in criminal proceeds; the hack of Citibank; Rove Digital, a massive botnet that infected more than 4 million computers; and Samarth Agrawal, who was convicted after trial of stealing high-frequency trading code from Société Générale.

In addition to conducting 10 jury trials and arguing a number of appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Mr. Brown also won favorable judicial opinions with national impact on cyber-related issues, including an electronic surveillance matter and a case of first impression concerning the compelled production of data stored overseas by Internet service providers.

Mr. Brown is a recipient of the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Cyber Investigation and was named “Prosecutor of the Year” by the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation in 2011.

Mr. Brown is a graduate of Carlton College and received his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. He is a member of the New York Bar.

Steven comes to Solutionary with over 25 years of leadership experience in law enforcement with a versatile skill-set in information technology, computer forensics investigations, Presidential protection, drug enforcement and explosive ordinance.  Prior to joining Solutionary, Steven served a 21 year term for the United States Secret Service where he held roles of increasing responsibility.  He most recently held the position of Supervisor of the Dallas Field Office North Texas Electronic Crimes Task Force.  In this role, Steven was responsible for overseeing all United States Secret Service cyber and criminal investigations throughout Northern Texas.  Prior, Steven held the position of Program Manager of the United States Secret Service's Electronic Crimes Special Agent Program where he was responsible for overseeing approximately 650 agents world-wide, specializing in the investigation of complex network intrusions and computer forensic investigation.

Steven earned his Master's Degree in Forensic Science Computer Fraud Investigation from George Washington University.  He was also awarded his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Dallas. Steven's achievements include serving as Presidential Protection Detail to Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush.  Additionally, Steven played an instrumental role in creating the National Computer Forensic Institute in Hoover, Alabama as well as the United States Secret Service's only Cell Phone Forensic Facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

As Solutionary's Vice President, Cyber Forensics and Investigation, Steven's responsibilities will include developing and expanding Solutionary partnerships with government, and law enforcement, as well as other cyber security and threat intelligence communities.  Steven will also provide insight and analysis to Solutionary clients and the public about critical security trends and defense techniques.

Mike Capuano currently serves on Infinera’s leadership team as VP of Marketing has over 20 years of experience in service provider and enterprise routing and transport networking. Mike is a key leader for Infinera’s SDN and software programmability initiatives and speaks and writes frequently on the topic. Prior to Infinera Mike held executive positions at Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and Motorola. Mike holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Colgate University.

Greg Carley is a design leader with two decades of combined entrepreneurial, agency, corporate in-house, and technology start-up experience. His diverse background has allowed him to specialize in an ‘art + technology’ approach to divergent thinking and unconventional problem solving, required to make successful products in an ever changing digital landscape.

Trained in an unique combination of Journalism (Mass Communication) and Graphic Design (Visual Communication), Greg’s holistic and pragmatic approach to the creative process consistently delivers solutions that are on-target, compelling and thoughtfully executed. Passionate about design & technology, tirelessly enthusiastic, and recognized for effectively motivating and driving cross-disciplinary teams to produce provocative solutions for Fortune 500 clients… and delivering new products to the market we love.

Andy has worked as an analyst, advisor and consultant to the mobile industry for over 15 years. With local experience in Latin America and North America, Andy has worked extensively with service providers, device manufacturers, technology vendors, and financial institutions in both mature and growth markets. Currently, Andy is a Principal Analyst at Machina Research focused on the rapidly evolving M2M ecosystems in the Americas with particular focus on mobile health solutions and the M2M devices space.

Prior to joining Machina Research, Andy was a Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media with focus on mobile devices, application platforms and M2M solutions. During his tenure at the Yankee Group, Andy was Director of mobile devices research, Director of the North American consumer practice and Program Manager for the Latin American mobile services group. During his 7-year stint in Brazil, Andy also worked as a senior consultant at Telefinance, a financial services group, focused on mergers & acquisitions activity, strategic consulting, infrastructure & device financing deals and due diligence projects in the telecommunications industry. Prior to that, Castonguay headed Pyramid Research’s Brazil telecoms practice. Before his work in telecoms, Andy worked as researcher at the Health Care Advisory Board in the US focused on the US healthcare industry systems. A frequent speaker and panel moderator at industry conferences and events, Andy is fluent in English and Portuguese.

Jack’s passion has always been about mobile technology. As co-inventor of the idea for Loud-Hailer, he is involved in all aspects of the company, supervising designers and developers, working closely with every member of the team and benefiting from his experience of working with networks, systems and data on Wall Street. Jack started his professional career as a corporate lawyer at Willkie Farr then Sullivan & Cromwell before moving to the business side where he worked as a Senior Credit Officer at Moody’s Investors Service. At Moody's he led the effort to redesign the firm's primary workflow software, providing feedback on the designs, drafting and submitting budget proposals, working with database analysts and educating the IT staff on the business. Jack also has experience building new platforms and managing businesses when he worked as a Chief Operating Officer in the asset management industry. For the past few years Jack has provided management consulting services where he earned a reputation for being an expert of the financial markets. He has appeared on the CBS Evening News and been quoted or cited in a number of newspapers and trade journals, including Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek.com, Bloomberg News, and Market Watch News Hub. Jack received his BA from

Columbia College in NYC and his legal degree with honors from Fordham Law School.

Nneka Chiazor is Vice President Public Policy & Government Affairs at Verizon Communications.  She is the corporation’s leading advocate before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other government agencies on cybersecurity and public safety policy.  She is also Chair of the Department of Homeland Security’s Communications Sector Coordinating Council (CSCC) – a public-private partnership tasked with driving the security and resiliency of the communications sector.

Nneka has close to 20 years of telecommunications experience, and a broad policy and technical background in wireless, wireline and other technology areas.  She represented the company on the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), and was on the Board of Trustees of the Next Generation 911 Institute, a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate members of the United States Congress on policy issues pertaining to 9-1-1 and related emergency communication services.

She has been active in numerous civic and business organizations.  This includes, the Federal Communications Bar Association, where she co-chaired the Bar’s committee on Homeland Security and Emergency Communications; and the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP) – a U.S. State Department initiative that seeks to dismantle the obstacles to business opportunities and economic participation that African women face.

She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, and earned a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications Management from the University of Maryland.  Nneka is a graduate of the Executive MBA program at Harvard Business School. 

David L. Cohen is Senior Executive Vice President of Comcast Corporation and is the Company's Chief Diversity Officer. David has a broad portfolio of responsibilities, including corporate communications, government and regulatory affairs, public affairs, legal affairs, corporate administration, and community investment.  He also serves as senior counselor to the CEO. Before joining Comcast, David served as a partner in and Chairman of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, one of the 100 largest law firms in the country.

A native of New York, David graduated from Swarthmore College in 1977 with a B.A. and with a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School (summa cum laude) in 1981. From January 1992 to April 1997, David served as Chief of Staff to the Honorable Edward G. Rendell, the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. As detailed in the book A Prayer for the City, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Buzz Bissinger, David played a critical coordinating role in significant budgetary and financial issues, in economic development activities, in collective bargaining negotiations, and in a wide variety of other policy and operational issues relating to the city.

David serves as Chairman of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and its Executive Committee. David also serves as a member of the Trustee Board and the Executive Committee of Penn Medicine. In addition, David serves on both the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Chamber's CEO Council for Growth. David serves as a national trustee of City Year and is Chair of its Governance Committee and a member of the Executive Committee. He also serves on the national board of the National Urban League and is Chair of its Audit Committee and is Chair of the Corporate Advisory Board of the National Council of La Raza.

David has received numerous awards for his civic and charitable activities, including the Americanism Award of the Anti-Defamation League (1993), the American Red Cross Citizen of the Year Award (1999), the National Cable Television Association Vanguard Award for Leadership and Impact in the Cable Industry (2005), the President’s Volunteer Service Award (2007), the MS Society Hope Award (2007), the Drexel University Business Leader of the Year Award (2008), the National Urban League of Philadelphia Business Leader of the Year Award (2008), The William Way Community Center Amicus in Res Award (2009), the William Penn Award from the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce (2012), the Spirit of Asian American Award (2012) and the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award (2012). David also was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Drexel University in 1997 and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Rider University in 2010. 

David lives in Philadelphia with his wife and their two sons.

Brett Cortese is the President and CEO of Universal Mind. He is responsible for the company’s strategic business priorities and technical investments to ensure Universal Mind meets the needs of its clients in the competitive digital landscape. Brett oversees all the core areas of the company including technology development, user experience, and solutions delivery. As the solutions strategy expert at Universal Mind, he provides strategic insights for customers across all vertical markets as they undertake new mobile initiatives.

Brett co-founded Universal Mind in 2003 as a systems integrator for large companies. As enterprises began exploring ways to offer mobile and digital experiences at the onset of the mobile revolution, Brett saw a new opportunity for the company. He hired the industry’s most creative talent to form a new breed of agency, offering the stellar design services of a leading interactive agency combined with the deep technical expertise the firm has provided since inception. It is Brett’s vision to help clients extend their brands through consistent digital experiences that span multiple touch points by leveraging their existing technical investments on the back end.

Previously, Brett was a senior level consultant at Macromedia where he helped Fortune 500 companies overcome legacy system and implementation issues to realize the benefits of new innovative technologies. His success in this role laid the groundwork for creating Universal Mind.

Under Brett’s leadership, Universal Mind realized extraordinary growth and twice earned the distinction of being included in Inc. Magazine’s 500 Fastest Growing Companies.

Matt Davy is Co-Founder and Principal Solutions Architect for Tallac Networks. He has 20 years of experience in the networking industry as a lead network architect and engineer for some of the largest and most advanced carrier and enterprise networks.

Matt is widely regarded as a thought leader in the area of Software Defined Networking and worked closely with many startups and industry leaders during the early days of SDN from 2009 to 2013. He founded a center for network research at Indiana University, started the industry's first SDN testing lab and led two of the earliest deployments of SDN in production networks.

Henry Derovanessian is Senior Vice President of Consumer Premise Engineering (CPE) for the AT&T Entertainment Group. Henry oversees the team responsible for design and development of home platforms including set-top box, broadband gateway, wired and wireless network devices, accessories and out-door Antenna units. The CPE organization accountability extends from the conceptual design of a new product through the field support of all consumer products with focus on quality and reliability.

Prior to joining AT&T, Henry held executive positions at Conexant Systems as Vice President of Strategic Marketing and at Sony Electronics as Vice President of Engineering. Henry is based at AT&T’s El Segundo, Calif. headquarters.

John Donovan, Chief Strategy Officer & Group President—AT&T Technology and Operations (ATO), is responsible for AT&T’s global network and its best-in-class mobile broadband network along with creating a modern, software-defined, and cloud-based technology ecosystem to support them. In addition to leading the Technology and Operations organization, John oversees Corporate Strategy.

John is driving AT&T’s global leadership position in the technological transition to separate hardware and software and virtualizing network elements to the cloud. His responsibilities also include oversight of the company’s global information, software development, network technology, and Big Data strategy; AT&T Intellectual Property, Labs and Foundry innovation; IT and digital planning, engineering, implementation and operations; network planning, construction and operations including security; field operations, installation and maintenance; global supply chain; and corporate fleet operations.

John previously served as Chief Technology Officer for AT&T, overseeing the company's global technology direction and innovation road map, including product development, network and engineering operations, AT&T Labs and the security and intellectual property organizations.

Under John's leadership, AT&T has turbo-charged its innovation programs and now is recognized as an industry leader in working with application developers and others to make AT&T's network open to collaboration and innovation.

John previously was Executive Vice President of product, sales, marketing and operations at VeriSign Inc., a technology company that provides Internet infrastructure services. At VeriSign, John was responsible for leading its global sales organization, driving the expansion of broad solutions offerings, and integrating a global professional services capability.

Before that, he was Chairman and CEO of inCode Telecom Group Inc., where he helped shape strategic direction and positioning for wireless network operators around the globe. Previously, John was a partner with Deloitte Consulting, where he was the Americas Industry Practice Director for Telecom.

John serves on the Board of Directors for Palo Alto Networks. He has authored two books, The Value Enterprise, published in January 1998, and Value Creating Growth, published in 1999. John received a B.S.Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and earned his M.B.A. in finance from the University of Minnesota.

Larry Downes is a best-selling author on developing business strategies in an age of accelerating technological disruption.

He is the co-author, with Paul F. Nunes, of Big Bang Disruption:  Strategy in the Age of Devastating Innovation (Portfolio 2014), now a bestseller.  Based on extensive research, the book describes a new kind of disruptive innovation and teaches executives across industries how to adjust their strategies to survive it.

His previous book, The Laws of Disruption:  Harnessing the New Forces that Govern Business and Life in the Digital Age explored the accident-prone intersection of law and innovation. 

Downes is the author of the New York Times and Business Week bestseller, Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance, which was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the five most important books ever published on business and technology.

He writes regularly for Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post and CNET, and is frequently quoted in media stories in both mainstream and trade outlets.

He is currently Project Director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy and a Research Fellow with the Accenture Institute for High Performance.

He has previously held faculty appointments at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Northwestern University School of Law, and the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he was Associate Dean of the School of Information.

Ray Emplit serves as Datacom Standards Representative for Harger Lightning and Grounding.  Ray was a co-founder of Interlink Technologies, a manufacturer of connecting hardware.  Following acquisition of Interlink by Wiremold, Ray served as Vice President and later as President of the division until Wiremold was itself acquired by Legrand and the Interlink division closed.  Ray next served as Engineering Manager with OBO Bettermann before accepting his current position with Harger in 2013.

Ray has been an active member of TIA TR-42 since 1995 and attends meetings of TR-42.1 (former chair), TR-42.3 (former chair), TR-42.5 (former vice chair), TR-42.9, TR-42.10 (former secretary) and TR-42.16.  He has served as Chair of TR-42 since 2014. Ray has served as the editor for numerous TIA standards including TIA-568-0-D, TIA-568.1-D, TIA-569-D, TIA-607-C, TIA-4966, and TSB-162-A; and is an active member of the US TAG to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 25/WG 3. In addition to his work with TIA, Ray is a BICSI member, serving on the BICSI Standards Committee (current vice chair) and TI&M Committee (former secretary); and is a member of IEEE and NFPA.

Ray received his bachelor and masters degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his involvement in telecommunications cabling Ray had 20 years experience in industrial instrumentation.

Manny Fernandez One of Inc. Magazines 33 Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2016 Manny Fernandez is the co-founder / CEO of DreamFunded.com. In 2013, Fernandez founded SF Angels Group and has been an angel investor with TiE Angels since 2012. Manny was just listed in this years Inc. magazine’s list of 33 entrepreneurs & thought leaders to watch. He was named 2014 SF Angel Investor of the Year and received the Equity Crowdfunding Leadership Award. Fernandez recently became the #14 Angel Investor to Follow on Twitter. He is a frequent judge, speaker, and panelist for Bay Area corporations, startup demo days, and universities. He has been a featured guest speaker for events at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Harvard University, University of San Francisco (USF), PayPal, Yahoo!, Plug and Play, USAWeek in Europe, Intel Global Challenge, Startup Grind, AngelHack Global Demo, Startup Weekend, SXSW, CNBC Squawk Box and many more. Manny Fernandez is the co-author of How to make money investing in pre-IPO Stocks.

Ken joined Nokia (via Alcatel-Lucent) in August 2013 as a Global Solution Architect with the CloudBand Business Unit.  He works on all stages of activity (requirements to deployment) of commercial NFV deployments, consulting on hardware, infrastructure software, and virtual network function architecture.  Previously, Ken was a Principal Network Architect at British Telecom for where he was responsible for End-to-End Network Architecture for BT’s Global Network and was involved in early work at BT that lead to the formation of ETSI-NFV.  Before BT, Ken was Level3’s Chief Architect for Voice and also led the Softswitch Development Team.  Before Level3, Ken worked at MCI Telecommunications where his jobs ranged from software developer to Director of Next Generation Architecture.

Ken holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

As Managing Partner of Trailblazer Capital, Joel Fontenot leverages unique insights gained from his experience in banking, investing and operating early-stage companies to make and manage venture investments. 

Previously, Mr. Fontenot worked for Cisco Systems, Inc.  He joined Cisco through the acquisition of Metreos Corporation where Joel served as Founder and CEO.

Mr. Fontenot holds a B.A. Economics from The University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University.

Bob Gessel has 30+ years of experience in the Telecom, Communications and Software industries. He has been with Ericsson for 20 years and currently is the Head of Technology and Strategy Development for Ericsson North America. He is responsible for driving vision, innovation, strategic planning, and technology evolution for new areas of Ericsson’s portfolio in the North American market.  He currently is focused in the areas of Cloud, NFV/SDN, M2M, Internet of Things (IoT) and Ericsson’s solutions for Telecoms and newer targeted industries of Utilities and Transportation.

Gessel’s previous roles at Ericsson include Principal Consultant, Senior Director of Business Development/Sales, Senior Solution Architect and 11 years in software R&D with responsibilities in   Business Innovation, Operational Management, Principal Engineer and Inventor.

As an entrepreneur in 2003, Gessel founded SceneScape, Inc. to deliver WiFi based localized interactive and multimedia services for users of Wi-Fi hot spots.  In 2001 he founded MobileStream Wireless, Inc. targeting the mobile entertainment market for delivery of multimedia content and interactive services for large sports and entertainment venues.

Gessel has also worked as a senior business and technology consultant in areas of IMS, Multimedia Applications, Mobile Networks, RFID, and Strategic Marketing.  He also has a combined 7 years in software R&D with Siemens and Northern Telecom.

Gessel holds a B.S.E.E from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

John represents service providers, technology vendors and investors in the telecommunications, media and technology sectors.  Before joining Pillsbury John served in a variety of senior executive business development and legal positions at NBC, Lockheed Martin, Pegasus Communications and New World Communications Group, and he founded a digital advertising startup. John holds four patents for satellite, wireless and digital video distribution technologies.

Satellite, wireless and broadcast clients turn to John for help in spectrum policy matters in the U.S. and abroad, and in complex spectrum licensing proceedings and spectrum auctions. 

John writes and speaks often on spectrum, technology and television distribution issues, and is frequently quoted in communications and technology industry trade press.  He has appeared on all major business television networks (including CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business) and is frequently quoted in major newspapers on communications policy matters.  

James E. Harris, Jr. is the co-founder of cybersecurity startup company Eunomic, Inc., and a former Senior Management Official from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Division. Jim began his career in the 1990s designing motherboards and graphics cards for PC systems for IBM, and was one of the authors of the DVI interface standard. After IBM, he worked as a Senior Field Applications Engineer for Silicon Image, helping to create systems based on ultra-high-speed serial links, such as DVI and HDMI, as well as Fibre Channel and Serial ATA.

Steve Hassell is president of Emerson Network Power’s Data Center Solutions business in North America, where he is responsible for combining the Liebert North America and Avocent organizations into a single organization focused on delivering integrated solutions across facilities and IT in the data center.\

Previously Steve was the president of the Avocent^® business of Emerson Network Power after Emerson acquired Avocent Corporation in January 2010.  He successfully integrated Avocent into Emerson Network Power, commercialized the Trellis^TM platform for real-time, dynamic optimization of the data center infrastructure and positioned Emerson Network Power as the No.1 Data Center Infrastructure Management global solution provider.

Steve joined Emerson in February 2004 as vice president and chief information officer.  He was responsible for all information technology hardware, software, services and telecommunications across Emerson.  Steve came to Emerson from Invensys, where he served as chief information officer.

Prior to Invensys, Steve was at Northrop Grumman-Newport News where he rose through several positions in strategic planning and operations, ultimately becoming both vice president and chief information officer, and president and CEO of Naptheon, a wholly owned information technology subsidiary of Newport News.  Additionally, Steve spent seven years as a surface line officer in the United States Navy.

Steve holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the United States Naval Academy and a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Philip Herman currently serves as the Vice President – Green Tower Solutions for PESCO.  In this role, Phil is responsible for managing the Green Tower solutions business including all financial, technical, and business requirements to develop and deploy comprehensive energy solutions for on-grid, weak-grid, and off-grid communication sites.

Phil has over 25 years of experience in the engineering, construction and energy fields as a design engineer, project developer, entrepreneur, and senior manager, and is considered by his peers to be an energy expert.  He has a long track record of developing and implementing a broad range of successful alternative energy projects, and has held senior positions in both large national utility-independent and large regional utility-owned energy service companies.  Phil has spent the last 5 years focusing on energy systems across the ICT sector and brings a unique perspective to Panasonic with respect to energy and the environment.

Phil earned his BS Mechanical Engineering in 1982 from Washington University, St. Louis, MO, is a Licensed Professional Engineer and LEED AP.  He Currently resides in Florida.

Amanda Hodges serves as Global OEM Solutions and Internet of Things Marketing Executive Director for Dell.   She is responsible for development and execution of end-to-end integrated marketing campaigns.  She is a leader in driving marketing transformation across Dell, shifting from traditional to digital and new media B2B marketing.

Prior to this role, Ms. Hodges was Chief of Staff for Dell’s Chief Marketing Officer and was responsible for enabling the CMO and her team to achieve business performance, brand, marketing transformation and people goals. 

Previously, Ms. Hodges resided in Australia where she served as Director for Australia & New Zealand Marketing.  Then she served as Worldwide Healthcare and Life Sciences Marketing Director and held several strategy and business analytics roles across Dell’s Relationship Business and for the CEO office.

Ms. Hodges joined Dell in 2005 from McKinsey & Company, where she served as an Engagement Manager focused on Healthcare and Life Sciences and Technology business segments.  She also spent five years at GE Plastics, where she served in multiple roles in Operations and Technical Sales.  While at GE, she led both Six Sigma and Lean operations teams.

Ms. Hodges holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech.  She serves on the Board of Austin CityUp, a consortium dedicated to improving Austin City Life through use of technology and supporting smart city initiatives.  She also serves on the board of SAFE, a non-profit supporting Austin Children’s Shelter and SafePlace.  She resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband and three children.

Larry is a CTO in Intel’s Communication Service Provider vertical focusing on accelerating the NFV transformation in the global network. His work at Intel covers all aspects of this virtualization from innovation to scale deployment from the enterprise premise equipment into the core.

Larry holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, and specialized on information and communication theory beyond the Masters level. He holds two U.S patents relating to fundamental changes in the communication processes transitioning to the all IP network. He has held various senior level positions in the Network Equipment Provider community in design, operations, test, support and influencer roles. He has been a key technical and management contributor to the IP transformation of the communications community for over 18 years. Larry has designed, developed and supported critical systems for the CSP network that have gone into over 300 networks world-wide. Larry also has direct experience with a U.S based Tier 1 carrier where he was both a Principal Member of Technical Staff and Area Manager of Advanced Technical Support for their business and mobile VoIP network that carried over 100B VoIP calls per year. In this role he was part of a team introducing large scale EPC and IMS solutions and beginning the transformation to the virtualized network envisioned for 2020. As a Senior Member of the IEEE he is a member of the board of the local Communication Society. A consummate builder; in his spare time he volunteers building homes both locally and internationally with Habitat for Humanity and has been known to produce quality furniture from time to time.

Vic Hyder is a founding member and Chief Strategy Officer of Silent Circle, delivering privacy to businesses and governments in over 130 countries via software, services, and devices. Leveraging his experience as a retired U.S. Navy SEAL Commander with 20 years leading, planning and conducting special operations around the world, Hyder is also the owner and CEO of the Blue Coral Advisory Group, a highly specialized security services provider and risk mitigation consultancy headquartered in Miami, Florida.

In March 2016, Yvette Kanouff was named the Senior Vice President/General Manager of the Service Provider Business. Kanouff leads the development strategy for Cisco’s Service Provider segment, including core routing, switching and optical networking, network and service virtualization, service provider access networks for mobility, cable, wireless, cloud, and video software and solutions. She leads a global team of engineers, architects, product line managers, technical marketing engineers, and business development managers delivering innovation for the service provider customer segment.

Previously, Kanouff was the Senior Vice President/General Manager of Cloud Solutions, where she led teams focused on cloud virtualization, cloud infrastructure services, and service provider video. She joined Cisco in 2014 as the Senior Vice President/General Manager of Cisco’s Service Provider Video Software and Solutions Group.

Kanouff brings more than 20 years of service provider, media, and software experience to Cisco. Prior to joining Cisco, she was Executive Vice President, Corporate Engineering and Technology at Cablevision, where she was responsible for the company’s strategic technology and critical engineering objectives, as well as identifying emerging technology opportunities. Previously she served as President of SeaChange, where she spearheaded its transition from a hardware company to a software company. Kanouff helped move the industry toward webcentric, open standards–based solutions and architectures. In the role of Chief Strategy Officer for SeaChange, she secured the company’s position as a leader in video on demand (VOD) and established the company’s software division. She also was Time Warner Cable’s Director of Interactive Technologies. Kanouff has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics. She began her career in digital signal processing technologies.

Kanouff received the National Cable and Television Association’s 2014 Vanguard Award for Leadership in Science and Technology and was named an industry Pioneer at the 2016 Internet and Television Expo. She won an Emmy for her work on video on demand with SeaChange and holds several patents on VOD-related digital technologies. Broadcasting & Cable has named her one of the 11 most influential women in the television industry. CableFAX included her numerous times on its Top 100 Women list, named her the industry’s “Top Techie” for 2011, and included her in its CableFAX “Digital Hot List” for each year from 2012 through 2015. Other accolades include the 2001 Multichannel News Wonder Woman award and the Woman in Technology award from the SCTE and Women in Cable and Telecommunications (WICT).

Outside of her responsibilities at Cisco, Kanouff is an executive member of WICT, a senior member of the SCTE, and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), including participation on various IEEE award and medal selection committees. She is active in speaking, moderating, and industry technology efforts.

Sylvia Karmanoff is founder and president of KEMSI, a professional services firm specializing in Product and Program Management. KEMSI helps clients throughout their business cycle, from developing successful product and technology strategies through engineering and development of products and services. Since 2005, KEMSI has served a global client base in the medical device, connected vehicle, machine-to-machine communications (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) industries.

As an inventor and problem solver, Karmanoff helps organizations understand and apply new technologies to expand product offerings and to improve business operations.  She developed and uses a unique product development methodology in her practice, named Accelerated Development Methods™, to move products from concepts into production in less time than when using traditional methods. Examples of new technology introductions include: Work Cell Visualization for automotive manufacturing, remote diagnostics and prognostics (patent awarded), technology transformations for cellular industry products and services, conversion of stationary devices to wearable size, and conversion from product line to platform.

Karmanoff is an invited speaker at industry meetings and conferences. She has held executive positions at Aeris Communications, General Motors Corporation, and Rockwell International. Her higher education degrees include an M.S. in Computer Science and an M.B.A. Throughout her career, Karmanoff has served as a Board Member and Director for a number of professional associations and community organizations.

Herb Kelsey has over 20 years of experience deploying technology for commercial and government customers. He has provided engineering support for graphical simulation, radar, sonar and imagery analysis, as well as architecture definitions for large scale commercial and government enterprises.  Since 2002 Herb has focused his efforts on the needs of the DOD and Intelligence Community, working on a variety of technical efforts to include a DOD agency’s infrastructure transformation, the NextView commercial imagery program, The TTIC, now NCTC operational watch and serving as the Chief Architect for a DOD agency’s Lead System Integrator program. The focus: protecting the United States against nation state level cyber threats and terrorist activity. Additionally, Herb authored a cyber security concept of operation for the intelligence community and developed a secure cloud computing environment for the DoD. He has advised the Executive and Legislative branches of government, IBM’s corporate Smarter Planet initiative and commercial companies on cyber security. Herb holds a government security clearance.

Mobeen Khan joined AT&T with more than 15 years of progressive experience in technology marketing, business development, operations and strategy. 

In his current role, Mr. Khan is developing and executing on the Industrial IoT business plan and formulating product strategy in Mobility Business Solutions at AT&T.  His responsibilities include positioning AT&T as a leader in providing enterprise IoT solutions, delivering on the business plan and product portfolio roadmaps, as well as to build the technology and operational infrastructure to grow the IoT business.

Previously, Mr. Khan was the marketing head for all of AT&T enterprise mobility solutions leading marketing communications, channel development and product branding.

Prior to that, Mr. Khan worked as a strategy consultant focusing on telecommunication and e-commerce industries and at CRM and mobile start-up software companies leading marketing and business development.  Mr. Khan began his career with RAM Mobile Data, which later became part of Cingular Wireless (now AT&T), holding several positions in strategy, technology and product management groups.

Mobeen holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.  He also earned his B.S. in Computer Engineering and M.S. in Communications Engineering from Rutgers University.

Mobeen lives in Dallas and works out of AT&T’s downtown offices and the Plano IoT Foundry

James Kimery, director of marketing for RF Communications and Software Defined Radio (SDR) initiatives at National Instruments, is responsible for the company’s communication system design and SDR strategies. He also manages NI’s advanced research RF/Communications Lead User program. Prior to joining NI, Kimery was the director of marketing for Silicon Laboratories’ wireless division, which later became a subsidiary of ST-Ericsson. He has authored more than 26 technical papers and articles covering a variety of wireless and test-and-measurement topics.

Matt manages business operations and marketing communications for the Emerging Technology Office at Zebra Technologies.

Matt has a diverse background leading global marketing teams and advertising agencies, and has led market research and competitive intelligence for a number of tech and CPG companies.  Matt’s launched a myriad of advanced technology devices and managed global multi-million dollar technology product lines.

Matt experience expands across various marketing disciplines and functions – spanning product management, competitive intelligence, business development, market research, business operations, innovation and invention, GTM strategy, PLM, VOC, P&L – and holds a Six Sigma Green Belt.

Prior to joining Zebra, Matt held several managerial roles at Motorola Solutions, Cablevision and Altria.

Matt holds a BA from NYU, and an MBA from Fordham.

Ram (Ramki) Krishnan is an industry expert in the area of Networking. He combines deep technology understanding with strategic thinking to bring customer-winning products and solutions to reality. His expertise includes a wide range of technologies and market trends, including: Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Public and Private Cloud services, Network Virtualization, Overlay and Underlay Networking, OpenFlow, Data Center, Mobile Networking and MPLS etc. He has previous startup experience. He is a recognized innovator with over 19 US patents and 8 IEEE conference papers. He is a thought leadership speaker in key conferences such as OpenStack, OpenDaylight, OPNFV and ONS etc. He holds a leadership role in the NFV Research Group at IRTF. He is also an active participant in several research and standards organizations such as IRTF, IETF and ETSI NFV etc.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of ZenFi, Ray applies proven industry management expertise to deliver cutting-edge communication network solutions to the market.  Ray oversees all aspects of business operations, effectively leading a team of experts to solve industry challenges created by the proliferation of mobile data.  In addition to Ray’s role at ZenFi, he is also a Founding Partner of Metro Network Services, LLC, a company focused on network planning, engineering, deployment and maintenance.

Ray is an Information Technology industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience managing teams to design, build and operate complex, high-capacity networks for large enterprises, financial firms and telecommunications service providers.  Prior to ZenFi and Metro|NS, Ray served as President and CEO of Lexent Metro Connect, LLC from 2007 to its successful sale in December 2010 to Lightower Fiber Networks.  Ray was also the Co-Founder of Realtech Systems Corp., an enterprise network integration and professional services firm, where he served as President and CEO.  Ray received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Albany in 1985.

Daniel Leih is a Product Marketing Manager for the Embedded Computing business of Artesyn Embedded Technologies. In his current role he is responsible for helping the company develop acceleration technologies which support the convergence of telecom and networking infrastructure while still meeting the unique performance needs of specific net-com applications.

Daniel has 20 years of experience in technology marketing preceded by eight years of product engineering and operations experience. His experience spans from semiconductors to boards to systems in wireless, automotive, industrial and telecom markets. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering technology and a Masters of Business Administration.

Artesyn Embedded Technologies is a global leader in the design and manufacture of highly reliable power conversion and embedded computing solutions for a wide range of industries including communications, computing, medical, military, aerospace and industrial automation. For more than 40 years, customers have trusted Artesyn to help them accelerate time-to- market and reduce risk with cost-effective advanced network computing and power conversion solutions. Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, Artesyn has over 20,000 employees worldwide across ten engineering centers of excellence, four world-class manufacturing facilities, and global sales and support offices.

Loreana Marciante is the Project Manager for Smart City Challenge Initiative, a cooperative effort between Vulcan's Climate & Energy philanthropic initiatives and the USDOT.  Over the last 15 years she has worked on multiple urban transportation infrastructure projects such as the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica and the Sound Transit Light Rail System in Seattle, WA, as well as several commercial real estate development projects in the Seattle region. Loreana holds a Licenciatura in Industrial Engineering from the University of Costa Rica, a M.A. in Environmental Studies from Brown University with emphasis in urban sustainability and transit oriented development, and several professional certificates from the University of Washington.

Beatriz (Betty) Manetta founded Argent Associates as a technology solutions company in 1998.  Argent Associates, Inc. is an award-winning systems integrator that provides innovative technology, products, services, and supply chain solutions to enterprise and government customers. In addition, she owns and operates, Asociar, founded in 2012, and is providing an eco-system that includes multi-vendor pre-conditioned integration to meet the demands for 2020 and beyond.  Through Betty’s leadership Argent began its Internet of Things journey in 2007 by offering RSMS service.  In 2009 Argent was one of the first companies to develop and use cloud-based logistics applications. In 2010 Argent Virtualized its infrastructure using open source virtualization software and integrating it with its cloud applications.  In 2015 she initiated and NFV lab to develop COTS technologies for carrier customers. 

Prior to Argent, Betty worked for 20 years in the Telecommunications Industry both nationally and internationally handling sales in the Middle East, Africa and CALA region.   Betty serves on the Board of Directors for the following institutions:  TIA, QuEST Forum, US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), D/FW Minority Development Council (D/FW MSDC), Women’s Business Council Southwest, Seton Hall University Board of Regents, the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (GDHCC), and in an advisory capacity role at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Supply Chain Management Masters Program. 

Betty has a Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University and a Masters degree in International Studies from Seton Hall University.  

Leader in the world of high impact, transformational technologies and Industry expert in Agile and DevOps, Pierre Mathys, Director, Telco ICT Global Sales Solutions is responsible for guiding RedHat’s Open Source Telco solutions and strategy.

Pierre Manages with a contagious passion and collaborative style that draws others into the vision and mission and has 20+ years of IT experience in sectors ranging from Telecommunications, Financials and Bid Data. A noted thought leader in Agile and Cloud transformation to OpenStack, Pierre came to RedHat from the acquisition of eNovance, an innovator in OpenStack & DevOps transformation.

As Sr. Director of Sales Solutions North America at eNovance, Pierre is known as a trusted advisor and thought leader with a direct, honest style, provided insight to Telco, Oil & Gas and Financials with a focus on integrating Openstack and cloud transformation. Prior to eNovance, Pierre spent 9+ years fostering new cloud solutions for the OEM Telco market including Ericsson, Nortel, ALU, Nokia, and Amdocs.

Pierre started his career in Montreal launching the first commercial hosting service in Canada for Teleglobe (previously owned by Bell Canada International). Since then, his IT roles have taken him across the globe, including leadership positions with Computer Associates and Radianz (a Reuters Company) where he started the first High-Frequency Trading Hosting platform on Wall Street.

Dan is an original founder of Centerline Solutions, having helped oversee the merger creating the company in 2011. A strategic thinker and thought leader, Dan has more than two decades of leadership experience in wireless communications. At Centerline, Dan oversees all business development, corporate strategy and marketing functions. Leveraging his strong grasp of the wireless network business and the technology that underpins these networks, Dan provides expertise and guidance in identifying acquisition and partnership opportunities.

Prior to Centerline, Dan was founder and co-owner of ATECS, a Colorado-based provider of wireless engineering and business consulting services to the telecommunications and data networking industries. Dan was with ATECS from its launch in 2000 until 2011, when ATECS evolved into what is now Centerline Solutions. Dan’s project work at ATECS was extensive – among other things, he oversaw the growth planning analysis for a major GSM operator’s seven-state territory. He also wrote financial models, business plans, and technology strategies for several startup wireless operators and developed unique strategies for operating and maintaining large nationwide wireless networks.

Before starting his own business, Dan was director of the wireless broadband division at Qwest Wireless and US West Wireless, helping to determine how wireless communications could be used for data transmission and wireless connectivity. As part of that, Dan managed the strategic and product development effort to use wireless broadband data communications to extend the US West/Qwest DSL network to suburban and residential areas.

In the early days of the wireless industry, Dan was with Sprint Spectrum (Sprint PCS) where he oversaw deployment of the company’s wireless network in Colorado. There he spearheaded the wireless engineering strategies behind the creation of Sprint PCS and its nationwide wireless deployment.

Dan holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, with an emphasis in RF fields and waves, from the University of Colorado-Boulder. A Colorado native, Dan enjoys hunting, fishing and snowboarding. Married with two children, he’s an active volunteer in youth-related programs, including Colorado Youth at Risk.

Linsey Miller is vice president of marketing for embedded computing solutions at Artesyn Embedded Technologies, leading a team that includes global product marketing, technical marketing and marketing communications. Linsey drives solutions and partnerships that enable Artesyn’s customers to succeed as their business models change by improving the

performance, efficiency and capability of their critical computing infrastructure. She has previously held senior sales and marketing positions with Emerson Network Power, Interphase and Verizon.

Building on the acquired heritage of industry leaders such as Motorola Computer Group and Force Computers, Artesyn Embedded Technologies is a recognized leading provider of advanced embedded computing solutions for communications, broadcast, networking, security, military, automation and industrial OEMs and service providers.

Artesyn Embedded Technologies is a global leader in the design and manufacture of highly reliable power conversion and embedded computing solutions for a wide range of industries including communications, computing, medical, military, aerospace and industrial automation. For more than 40 years, customers have trusted Artesyn to help them accelerate time-to- market and reduce risk with cost-effective advanced network computing and power conversion solutions. Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, Artesyn has over 20,000 employees worldwide across ten engineering centers of excellence, four world-class manufacturing facilities, and global sales and support offices.

Craig Moffett has been elected to Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-American Research Team in the U.S. Telecom and/or Cable & Satellite sectors on fifteen separate occasions, including nine separate appearance as the #1 analyst in America in either U.S. Telecom and/or Cable & Satellite. He has also been rated the #1 analyst in the U.S. Telecommunications sector by Bloomberg Markets, and he has consistently ranked #1 in Research Quality in Greenwich Research’s annual survey in both Telecommunications and U.S. Cable and Satellite sectors.

Prior to founding MoffettNathanson, Mr. Moffett spent more than ten years at Sanford Bernstein & Co., LLC as a senior research analyst. In 2011 he became the first analyst in the firm’s history to be ranked #1 in two sectors simultaneously by Institutional Investor.

He was previously the President and founder of the e-commerce business at Sotheby’s Holdings, the venerable auction house. In 1999, he led Sothebys.com to what was then the highest first year sales of any consumer website ever launched.

Mr. Moffett spent more than eleven years at The Boston Consulting Group, where he was a Partner and Vice President specializing in telecommunications. He was the leader of BCG’s global Telecommunications practice from 1996 to 1999. While at BCG, he led client initiatives in the U.S. local, long distance, and wireless sectors, in both consumer and commercial services, and advised companies outside the U.S. in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. His relationship with a U.S. RBOC spanned more than a decade, and he was the author of more than 20 articles about the telecommunications industry during the 1990s. He published analyses and forecasts of the overcapacity and pending collapse of the U.S. long distance business as early as 1998. Mr. Moffett graduated from Harvard Business School with Honors in 1989. He received a BA from Brown University phi beta kappa in 1984.

Kevin works for ADTRAN and is responsible for Cloud & Service Marketing and has spent his career gaining experience in advanced communications technology, fiber optic systems, and business product marketing. He joined ADTRAN after working in the Science & Technology department for several years at BellSouth. Kevin also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the FTTH Council Americas and is the immediate past Chairman.  He was first elected to the Board in 2010 and is past Chair of the Government Affairs committee and Marketing committee for the FTTH Council.

Kevin holds an Electrical Engineering degree from Auburn University and an MBA from the University of Alabama.

Tim Naramore has served as Masergy's Chief Technology Officer since March 2008. Mr. Naramore is responsible for the Information Technology, Network Engineering and Software Engineering groups at Masergy.

Prior to joining Masergy, Mr. Naramore served as Chief Information Officer and Group Vice President of IT at McLeodUSA. He previously held Chief Information Officer positions at Broadwing Communications and Allegiance Telecom, Inc., was Director of Product Development at Netcom/ICG, and held a variety of technical positions at Frito-Lay, Inc., Boeing Computer Services and Texas Instruments. Mr. Naramore holds a bachelor's of science in information systems from Pittsburg State University.

Dr. O’Brien is currently a member of the Mobility CTO team at Cisco Systems. He is active in a variety of standards bodies and fora throughout the world including 3GPP, 5GAmericas, ATIS, ETSI, GSMA, NGMN, oneM2M, and TIA. He is a regular participant in GSC (Global Standards Collaboration). Dr. O’Brien received the “CDMA Development Group (CDG) 2009 3G CDMA Industry Achievement Award for Industry Leadership”. He has recently been active in global 5G and IoT activities.

Dr. O’Brien was the Senior Director of the Wireless Standards and Intellectual Property Department at Alcatel-Lucent. His Department was responsible for the development of global standards, industry relations, global spectrum policy, and the development of wireless secure communications and fraud analysis algorithms.  Dr. O’Brien’s Department was awarded the “2004 3G (third-generation) CDMA Industry Achievement Award for Network Technology Innovation”.

Dr. O’Brien worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories, Undersea Systems Development Laboratory. While at Bell Laboratories he was responsible for a variety of design and performance studies of Undersea Surveillance Systems utilizing fiber optic hardware.

Dr. O’Brien has served on the OMA Board of Directors, where he also the Finance Vice-Chair and was a member of the IEEE-SA Board of Governors.  He was appointed to the IEEE Wireless Communications Engineering Technologies (WCET) Advisory Board and has also served on the IPSphere Board for Lucent Technologies. Currently he is the Steering Committee Chair of oneM2M.

Dr. O’Brien received both his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Physics from Boston University and his B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Ulises is responsible for the development of 5G 3GPP Core Network technology and 3GPP System Architecture Evolution Standards at InterDigital. Prior to joining InterDigital, Ulises spend 15 year at Ericsson in Mexico, Canada, Sweden and Ireland developing Cellular Systems and supporting Ericsson products in International markets.

Ulises holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and he has extensive experience in the Research and Development of Cellular Systems with direct involvement in the development of the 3GPP 5G Next Generation Network, 3GPP LTE, 3GPP GSM/WCDMA, CDMA2000 and IS-136(TDMA) standards.

Ulises possesses more than 27 year of experience in the Cellular Communications industry, holding responsibilities ranging from System Research, System Requirements definition, System Design, System Testing and Product Management.

Charles (Chuck) Parker is Global Lead of the Healthcare and Life Sciences division of Beyond Limits. Beyond Limits is a portfolio company of ILA Group and is a spin-off entity of the California Institute of Technology (CalTech).  It currently focuses on technologies originally developed for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the U.S. Department of Defense.

With more than 20 years of Healthcare IT experience, he has led several research and for-profit initiatives.  Most recently as a lead for bringing forward application of NASA developed Artificial Intelligence for the application in healthcare and assisting small start-ups to reach funding rounds.  Also prior, he served as the Executive Director of the Continua Health Alliance – a membership-driven company focused on developing an eco-system of interoperable personal health devices – Chuck has been active in leading the industry in the Personal Connected Health area for the past 6 years.

Mr. Parker has collaborated internationally with governments, payers, providers and vendors. Through working with Standards bodies and industry experts, he has worked to instill standards built upon international criteria from IEEE, HL7, Bluetooth, USB, and others. In 2012, Denmark and Singapore began collaborating with Continua to require all personal connected health devices used in their national telemedicine programs were Continua Certified to ensure convenient and secure collection, communication and access to personal health data for its citizens.  

Mr. Parker’s experiences include healthcare technology, policy, regulation, and the strategic design of evaluation and measurement strategies. He has led national programs for practice transformation and has served on national and international committees for assessing adoption requirements. 

Mr. Parker holds a Master of Science degree in Healthcare Informatics from Northeastern University. He earned his BA in Communication Studies and Business Management at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Ketan Patel is the managing director of NexStar Partners, an early-growth VC fund focused on mobile and wireless innovations. NexStar Partners focuses on investments in the IoT/Connected Devices, Next Generation Wireless Networking, Mobile Media, and Mobile/IT Security.

Between 2006 and 2015, Ketan worked at New Venture Partners where he focused on mobile and cloud computing investments across the value chain.

Previously, he worked in a variety of operating roles encompassing startups and large multinational corporations such as Cavium Networks (IT Security), eMpowerTel Networks (VoIP), Tiara Networks (edge-aggregations routers), MIPS Technologies, and SGI.

Ketan holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Current investments include: Cohere Technologies, Vasona Networks

Prior investments include: GainSpan, Neohapsis (acquired by CSCO), Aetherpal, Intelleflex, Shopwell (acquired by Yottamark), SiPort (acquired by INTC)

As President of AT&T Labs and Chief Technology Officer for AT&T, Krish Prabhu oversees the company’s global technology direction which includes network innovation, product development and research, the intellectual property organization and the global supply chain organization.

Krish started his career in 1980 as a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories where he was engaged in research on video coding and image processing. He joined Rockwell International in 1984 and led a team of engineers developing fiber optic telecom products that were deployed by companies such as MCI, Ameritech and Southwestern Bell. Later, at Alcatel, he led a team that was the first to launch DSL products for broadband Internet access; these were widely deployed all over the world.

Krish has extensive background in innovation and widespread industry experience from executive roles at Tekelec, Tellabs, and Alcatel. He also served as a partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, where he assisted in developing information technology and communications start-ups. He has advised industry-leading telecommunications and semiconductor companies and has also served on several public and private company boards.

Krish earned a B.S. in physics from Bangalore University, an M.S. in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, where he is a member of the Board of Visitors at the School of Engineering. Krish has been recognized as a distinguished alumnus at both the Indian Institute of Technology and the University of Pittsburgh.

Ronald E. Quirk, Jr., Head of Marashlian & Donahue PLLC’s  Internet of Things and Connected Devices Practice Group  focuses his practice primarily on federal, state, and international telecommunications regulation and policy, with particular expertise in assisting clients in navigating the complex labyrinths of spectrum allocation, and radiofrequency (“RF”) equipment authorization, marketing, compliance, and enforcement proceedings in the U.S. and around the world.   

Mr. Quirk brings extensive legal experience to his current client representation.   His career spans more than 20 years, including several years at AMLAW 100 firms and the Federal Communications Commission.  Mr. Quirk has successfully represented clients ranging from solo proprietorships to Fortune 500 corporations, in matters before the Federal Communications Commission, Department of Justice, Department of Commerce, Department of Transportation, Food and Drug Administration, state public utility commissions, international regulatory entities, and state and federal courts.       

In addition to spectrum allocation and RF Equipment compliance, Mr. Quirk currently counsels clients on a variety of legal and regulatory matters, including: experimental licensing, privacy, public safety communications, wireless communications, spectrum leasing, VoIP, satellite regulation, Universal Service, intercarrier compensation, license modification, transfer and assignment, number portability, CALEA, U.S. Customs, and frequency refarming and rebanding.    

 Mr. Quirk has written extensively on matters pertaining to the Internet of Things, including standards, spectrum allocation, privacy, and RF equipment compliance.   He recently authored a comprehensive Global Guide to RF Equipment Regulation and a companion US Guide to RF Equipment Regulation.   He is a graduate of The Catholic University School of Law, with a Certificate from the Law and Technology Institute.

Mr. Randall has spent over 25 years in the networking industry as an entrepreneur, senior executive and venture capitalist.  He is currently an Executive Partner at private equity firm Siris Capital, prior to that was a founding partner at Vesbridge Partners, and a general partner at St. Paul Venture Capital, where he led the mobile investment practice.  His venture investments have included YMAX (magicJackVocaltec NASDAQ: CALL), Dynamicsoft (sold to Cisco Systems), Bitfone (sold to Hewlett-Packard Company), Snowshore (sold to Broktrout/Cantata), FusionOne (sold to Synchronoss), ProQuent Systems (sold to Bytemobile/Citrix) and Visage Mobile. 

Previously, Mr. Randall was CMO of Lucent Technologies, and had been vice president of Marketing at Ascend Communications, which was acquired by Lucent ($24B in 1999).  Before that, Mr. Randall was vice president of Worldwide Marketing at Stratus Computer and general manager of its SS7 business, which was acquired by Ascend ($833M in 1998).  Mr. Randall was vice president of Strategic Market Development at Madge Networks, as an ex-pat in Paris, following its 1996 acquisition of Teleos Communications ($165M).  Mr. Randall had co-founded Teleos in 1987 and served many roles includingEVP and CTO, vice president of Marketing and Business Development and vice president of WAN Access Technology. 

Mr. Randall began his career at AT&T Bell Labs and holds several U.S. patents.  Mr. Randall earned a BEE with Highest Honors from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley.  Mr. Randall is a director of TNS and Airvana, and member of the Board of Overseers at PBS TV producer/broadcaster WGBH.  He was previously a member of the Board of Directors of Tekelec, Bytemobile, Bitfone, Snowshore, Teltier Technologies, ProQuent, FusionOne, Dynamicsoft, andVisageMobile.

Vibhor Rastogi is a Director at Intel Capital and focuses on enterprise software investments. Vibhor has invested in companies in multiple high-growth sectors including Cloud, Big Data, Mobile, Wearables, IoT, Cybersecurity and Software-as-a-Service. Vibhor’s investments and board representation include Basis (Wearables, acquired by Intel in 8 months for a triple digit IRR), TOA technologies (Vertical SaaS, acquired by Oracle), CafeX (Mobile customer engagement), Venafi (Cybersecurity), RIFT.IO (NFV platform), Striim (Real-time streaming analytics), CareCloud (SaaS), IPCommerce (SaaS), izettle (SaaS). Vibhor is passionate about helping management teams with their growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions plans, financial planning, recruiting of top management and business development activities. Prior to his investing career, Vibhor was a top-ranked management consultant with Deloitte where he led teams on a number of high-profile, award winning engagements at F500 clients in industries including Healthcare, Financial Services, Telecom. Vibhor has an MBA with High Honors from University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur where he won a Dean's award for academic excellence.

Michelle Reese is the Chief Executive Officer of Opus-3 and serves on its Board of Directors. Opus-3 is a breakthrough technologies company leading a fundamental shift in how businesses embrace and employ key technology innovations. In this role, Ms. Reese has overall responsibility for the company’s business operations, ensuring flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace and overseeing expansion across a robust portfolio redefining the digital experience of millions around the world.
Ms. Reese joined Opus-3 from Mitel, where she served as the business development executive for Mitel AMERICAS region through a period of outstanding growth, successfully leading targeted acquisition and continued development of large strategic relationships. Prior to Mitel, Ms. Reese served as Vice President, Business Development for Nexius providing technology strategy, planning, and management consulting to senior executives at leading global communication service providers.

Prior to Nexius, Ms. Reese served as the Chief Executive Officer of Cloudmasons, a Cloud Identity & Access Management enterprise software company acquired in 2012 by SailPoint Technologies, Inc.
Prior to Cloudmasons, Ms. Reese served on the senior leadership team of Adaptive Engineering as Global Vice-President of Sales and Marketing where she was responsible for leading sales, joint ventures, marketing strategy, and product management of the company’s industry recognized, award-winning software product to Fortune 1000 enterprises and global communication service providers. Prior to Adaptive Engineering, she successfully drove revenues in various roles for early-stage enterprise software companies: one IPO, one acquired by Intel, and two acquired by Oracle.
Ms. Reese holds a Bachelor of Arts from Valparaiso University and a Master of Science in Technology Commercialization from McCombs Business School, The University of Texas at Austin.

Evelyn Remaley is the Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy Development and Analysis, National Telecommunications and Information Administration within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Since landing at NTIA last September, Remaley is helping to lead NTIA’s efforts to promote openness and innovation on the Internet as deputy associate administrator for the Office of Policy Analysis and Development. OPAD deals with a wide range of issues from promoting consumer choice through cell phone unlocking to protecting online privacy. In addition to helping to manage the office’s activities and staff, Remaley has been tasked with leading NTIA’s cybersecurity efforts, which will likely include reaching out to stakeholders on the best way to help them address cybersecurity challenges.

Prior to working with NTIA, Remaley spent nine years at Booz Allen Hamilton as a consultant working with federal agencies such as the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security on cybersecurity issues. She also worked at MCI Worldcom where she focused on Internet security and privacy issues. 

Between college and law school, she was a researcher with the Pittsburgh public library system, where she  worked on the organization’s efforts to challenge the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that aimed to limit access to pornographic material on the Internet.  It was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1997.

Remaley earned a J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law and a bachelor’s in history from the Carnegie Mellon University.  

Howard invented and developed LifeWIRE’s patented population management    communication platform that humanizes digital communication through personalized, responsive interactions between parties such as health care providers and patients.

A Schulich MBA with over two decades of experience as a film & television producer, Howard had a unique perspective from which to approach the issue of adherence and patient engagement from which LifeWIRE evolved.

Over the past 10 years, Howard has parlayed that experience as an health thought leader having been named one of the top 100 Innovators of the Next Century (Rockefeller Foundation) and one of the Top 30 mHealth Innovators by the mHealth Alliance (United Nations Foundation). Howard has authored a number of articles, written policy guidance for the sector on behalf of the Province of Ontario, regularly represents the Government of Canada on the subject in international symposiums, is an industry reviewer for the U.S. department of Health and Human Services, has addressed the Congressional subcommittee’s on the subject and is a member of the working task force for mHIMSS as well as one of their conference speakers.

Howard speaks regularly at graduate schools at leading Universities and conferences discussing innovation,  Health IT, analytics, as well as his work with active duty military, veterans, and mental health issues such as Post Traumatic Stress, Substance Use and High Rick suicide.

Brad comes to Universal Mind with more than 15 years experience in web and mobile development, and R&D in mobile and embedded spaces.
Brad’s experience in working with organizations like Adobe, Sony Music, Houghton Mifflin and Meijer has provided him a unique lens on user experience and the complexities with connecting users with the business.  Ranging from large scale visualization architecture, experience strategy and business innovation, Brad has a unique ability to connect the dots between organizational strategy and experiences that enable users to effectively encounter a business.

Sundeep is a highly accomplished Data junkie, innovator and entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience in using Data as the currency to perform advanced analytics. Known for his what-if mindset, he co-founded DataRPM with the goal of providing a platform that delivers hyper-fast data products to organizations challenged by the volume, velocity and variety of their big data and machine learning. Throughout his career, Sundeep has learned to operationalize data into day-to-day business workflow, which has led to multi-billion dollars in savings. Prior to DataRPM, Sundeep founded Razorsight, a leading provider of cloud-based analytics solutions for communications service providers. Under his leadership, Razorsight experienced eleven consecutive years of growth and raised more than $30 million in venture capital and was acquired by Synchronos.  Prior to Razorsight, Sundeep served in management roles at industry leaders including Cable &Wireless and Arthur Andersen.

Ms. Sastry heads the Product and Strategy efforts at Midokura. She has over 17 years of experience in the networking industry, and has worked in the areas of software development, customer advocacy and technical marketing. She started her career as a software developer at Cisco, focusing on embedded systems, VPN technologies, and Network Management. She also worked in Cisco’s Customer Advocacy group in Europe, before transitioning to a technical marketing role. Prior to joining Midokura, Shashi worked at Aruba Networks, Vyatta/Brocade and Nuage Networks. Her main areas of focus are Cloud technologies, network monitoring, Data Center architectures, Network Function Virtualization, and Software Defined Networking.

Christian Saylor bridges the gap between functionality and aesthetics, delivering beautiful and effective digital experiences to clients. With 15 years experience in the interactive design community, he sees the user experience as the touchstone of interaction—the connection point through which a message is heard, a purchase is made, or a thought inspired. His goal is to engage users on a personal level independent of medium, using design to meet them where they are and in ways they’re comfortable with, whether that’s via a mobile or embedded device, a car, a website, or even a well-designed t-shirt.

In order to lead a balanced life, in his spare time, Christian likes to disconnect with things digital and crack open a good book, spend time with his family, and give back to the design community by teaching at Kendall College of Art and Design.

Adam Sedgewick is the senior information technology policy advisor at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In this position, he serves as a member of the Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force, coordinates information technology projects with NIST's critical partners in the federal arena and advises leadership on cybersecurity issues. He was one of the key members of the NIST team involved with the creation of the Cybersecurity Framework as detailed in President Obama's 2013 Executive Order on “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” and continues to spearhead efforts on behalf of the framework’s development and long-term goals. Prior to joining NIST, Sedgewick worked as a senior advisor to the Federal Chief Information Officer Council, coordinating cross-agency initiatives and assisting in the implementation of the Office of Management and Budget policy and directives. Previously, he handled cybersecurity and federal information technology policy for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. In 2008 and 2013, Sedgewick received the Fed 100 award for his contributions to the federal information technology community.

Masood Shariff works as an Engineer Senior Principal in the Systems Engineering R&D group of CommScope. He represents CommScope in IEEE 802.3 standards,  ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 25/WG 3 committee, TIA TR42 Engineering Committee developing premises cabling standards, including the TIA-568 series, TIA-569, TIA-570, TIA-758, TIA-606,  TIA-607, TIA-862, TIA-942, TIA-1005, TIA-4966 and related standards working groups. Masood served as chair of TIA TR42.7 for many years and was responsible for copper cabling systems specifications including category 5e, category 6, category 6A, and TSB-162 on WLAN cabling. Masood chaired the TIA-5017 physical network security project and the TIA TSB-5018 DAS cabling project.

Masood has a Bachelor of Technology degree from IIT India and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Delaware.

David is a Co-Founder of Astrapi Corporation, a telecommunications company with offices in Dallas, TX and Washington, D.C.  David has over thirty years of experience validating technologies and introducing new products addressing a wide range of markets. Among them are companies such as Global Uni-Docs, Forbis Energy, and Sanijet. David had successful exits with Capital Group and Nail Express. He has formulated strategy, executed business plans, prepared financial statements, raised capital, validated markets, developed early customers, and sold product. These products ranged from the introduction of one of the first desktop memory devices, as a General Partner of a $30 million office tower, the creation of a retail concept, commercialization of a both novel authentication method and a green “cool roof” system. David led the Astrapi I-Corp team and has reviewed over one hundred National Science Foundation SBIR proposals. He has served as a McCombs School of Business Moot Corp judge, World’s Best Technology Showcase mentor, and sometime Angel investor. He has been an invited guest speaker to conferences such as the INFOSEC Research Council, the Air Force Cyberspace Symposium and the Modification and Replacement Parts Association conference. And David currently serves on the advisory board for the International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis at U.T. Dallas. He is a former Committee Chairman for Boy Scout Troop 35 and Division Chair for the Park Cities YMCA Youth Sponsorship Campaign. He won the prestigious Xerox President’s Club award four times. David is married with three children and resides in Dallas. David has a BBA in finance and MS in technology commercialization from the University of Texas at Austin where he was awarded the George Kozmetsky Award for Academic Excellence through the IC² Institute.

Manish is a well-respected industry leader with over 20 years of experience and specializes in Wireless Networks. He currently leads the SDN and NFV business initiatives at Tech Mahindra. For three consecutive years, he served on the Executive Board of Small Cell Forum. Manish is a Thought Leader with an excellent mix of technology depth and business acumen.

Before joining Tech Mahindra, Manish served as Radisys’ CTO where he spearheaded the company’s strategic initiatives in SDN, NFV and VoLTE (Voice-over-LTE). Prior to Radisys, Manish was the VP of Product Management at Continuous Computing, where he led the startup’s spectacular growth in Small Cells and DPI. During the course of his career Manish held various Management and Architect positions at Intel, Trillium Digital Systems and C-DOT.

Manish holds an MS degree from I.I.Sc. Bangalore.

Jonathan Spalter has a long track record building innovative technology, mobile, Internet, and research companies in the U.S, Asia/Pacific, and Europe.  He founded the independent investment research company, Public Insight, and was CEO of Snocap, the digital music technology company founded by the creators of Napster. He has held senior management roles at the Paris headquarters of Vivendi Universal, the global media and telecommunications group, where he was group senior vice president in charge of the company’s public policy and external affairs teams, served as executive vice president of business development and strategy for Vivendi Universal Net, and CEO of company affiliate Atmedica Worldwide.

During the Clinton Administration, Spalter was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the position of associate director at the US Information Agency, where he was also appointed chief information officer. He also served in the White House as director of public affairs for the National Security Council, and chief international affairs spokesperson and speech writer for Vice President Al Gore.  He also co-founded and chaired the non-profit animation studio Climate Cartoons, which produced media content about global warming. One of its productions recently won the Emmy Award for National Public Service Announcements/Broadband.  Early in his career, Spalter held various productions and editorial roles in broadcast and cable – among them, foreign affairs reporter for PBS’ MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.  He graduated from Harvard College and Cambridge University.

Dr. Rangam Subramanian is a technology strategy, spectrum policy, business development and general management professional, with over 25 years of experience in Telecommunications and Information Technology. He is currently serving the Strategic Planning Division, Office of Spectrum Management, National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) within the United States Department of Commerce, as a Lead Technology and Spectrum Policy strategist. Dr. Subramanian is focused on wireless spectrum strategy and the related rulemaking to enable collaborative next generation technology innovation, development and implementation that is critical to national economic development and security.  He is also co-leading the current Model City effort. Prior to joining the NTIA, Dr. Subramanian served the Idaho National Laboratory, as a Chief of wireless Technology and Business strategy. In his previous work with the industry, he has made significant contributions to business development, mergers & acquisitions, operations management leading large teams, telecom network services and global customer management.  In 2012, Dr. Subramanian delivered his testimony to the United States Congress on, "Avoiding the Spectrum Crunch: Growing the Wireless Economy through Innovation". He is a serving co-chair for the White House, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)/ National Information Technology R&D (NITRD) initiated Wireless Spectrum Sharing R&D (WSRD), Inter-Agency Working Group (IWG).  Dr. Subramanian holds a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL and a PhD in Computer Science & Systems Engineering from the Oakland University, Rochester, MI.

Anders Svensson, Principal Solution Manager for Ericsson North America, works in Ericsson’s practice for Mobile Broadband. Based in Plano, Texas, he is responsible for driving 5G and Network Evolution in North America.

Dr. Rikin Thakker is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland (UMD) in the United States. He is also the president and co-founder of RF Academics - an initiative started by a group of elite professors to cater to industry's need of quality education and consulting services at corporate speed. He has over 15 years of experience in the field of cellular and wireless communications. He has helped design, deploy and maintain cell sites with 3G and 4G technologies for major cellular operators in the United States.

Dr. Thakker earned his Ph.D. in Mobile Systems Engineering from the George Washington University (GWU) and his M.S. in Telecommunications from University of Maryland. His Ph.D. research was focused on validating the "spectrum scarcity" notion by modeling the wireless ecosystem using System Dynamics techniques. His research interests include efficient spectrum management techniques, interference analysis and optimal allocation of spectrum, design of cell sites by employing co-siting techniques, in-building wireless capacity and coverage optimization, and system dynamics.

Dr. Thakker has designed several graduate level courses related to Cellular Network Infrastructure, Wi-Fi Technologies and DAS/Small Cells for the Master’s in Telecommunication program at UMD. He received Instructor of the Year award for the program in 2014. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at GWU’s Ph.D. program for the Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (EMSE) department.

Dr. Thakker chairs the Education and Training Working Group at the Innovation and Technology Council of PCIA (Wireless Infrastructure Association). He also serves on the Editorial Review Board for the International Journal of System Dynamics Application (IJSDA).

Bryan Tramont offers strategic counsel to Fortune 100 companies and trade associations, as well as small and mid-sized telecommunications and media companies, on all aspects of communications law and regulation. Given the breadth of his work in the industry, he is regularly called on to advise companies as they develop and evaluate new business opportunities in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors. Prior to joining Wilkinson Barker Knauer, Mr. Tramont served as Chief of Staff of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under Chairman Michael Powell. As FCC Chief of Staff, Mr. Tramont managed all aspects of the agency’s operations and directed the FCC staff in implementing all components of the agency’s broad policy portfolio including media, broadband, mobility and traditional telephone services. Before being elevated to the Chief of Staff post, Mr. Tramont was Chairman Powell’s Senior Legal Advisor, advising him generally on strategic policy matters and specifically on wireless, international, technology, satellite, and consumer issues. Mr. Tramont also served as Senior Legal Advisor to Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy and, before that, to Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. Before joining the FCC in 1999, Mr. Tramont practiced communications law at Wiley Rein and Fielding in Washington, DC. He also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Duane Benton on the Supreme Court for his home state of Missouri.

The Secretary of Commerce recently re-appointed Mr. Tramont to the Spectrum Management Advisory Committee to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on which he serves as Co-Chairman. Mr. Tramont also is active in the Federal Communications Bar Association, where he serves as President Elect on the Executive Committee and was awarded the organization’s Distinguished Service Award. Mr. Tramont serves on the Governing Committee of the ABA Forum on Communications Law. He also serves as a member of the Federalist Society’s Telecommunications Practice Group Executive Committee. Mr. Tramont is currently an adjunct law professor at The Catholic University of America as part of the Communications Law Institute, is a senior adjunct fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and served as the Syracuse University Law School’s Practitioner in Residence.

Sameer Vuyyuru brings twenty years’ experience in cutting edge communications and related services across carrier and enterprise verticals to his role as group vice president and general manager of Comtech Telecommunication Corp.’s Networking Platforms and Virtualized Applications division.  The company’s Platforms and Applications team is dedicated to enabling location-based services for the Internet of Things (IoT) platforms and precise location for high-growth markets, including financial services, connected car, mobile commerce and MDM applications. With the move to SDN and NFV, the team also leads cloud-based deployments of multiple traditional networking and telecommunications services.

Mr. Vuyyuru has a history of driving solutions from concept to successful launch on a worldwide basis. He developed and led global multi-technology, multi-functional teams that garnered numerous successful customer design wins and product releases, including dominant positions in network timing, the creation of a worldwide terrestrial beacon system and IoT location and management platforms. He maintained full P&L responsibility for $100M+ revenue businesses with consistent best-in-class operating margins and gross margins.

Prior to Comtech Telecommunication Corp., Mr. Vuyyuru was senior vice president and general manager of Semtech Corporation’s Advanced Communications Product Group. He also served as vice president of marketing for Semtech and assumed the role of CEO of acquired-company Sierra Monolithics. Before joining Semtech, he was the product line director for Intersil Corporation’s High Speed Communications division. Mr. Vuyyuru’s other relevant experiences include product line manager and design engineer for Texas Instruments.

Mr. Vuyyuru is a contributing member of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Working Group 4B on Alternate Timing Technologies. He also serves as an advisor to multiple early stage network function virtualization (NFV) and security companies.

Dave Walters is Sr. Director of Product Marketing and has worked at BroadSoft for over 10 years.  Dave’s 20 years in the industry includes experience in management consulting, wireless service product management, and marketing session control infrastructure.  Dave holds an MBA from the University of Michigan along with a BA and BS from the University of Maryland.

Joseph Weiss is an industry expert on electronic security of control systems, with more than 40 years of experience. Mr. Weiss serves as a member of numerous organizations related to control system security. He has provided oral and written testimony to three House subcommittees, one Senate Committee, and a formal statement for the record to another House Committee. He is an invited speaker at many industry and vendor user group security conferences, has chaired numerous panel sessions on control system security, and is often quoted throughout the industry. He has published over 80 papers on instrumentation, controls, and diagnostics and authored Protecting Industrial Control Systems from Electronic Threats. In February 2016, Mr. Weiss gave the keynote to the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine on control system cyber security.

Mr. Weiss has conducted SCADA, substation, plant control system, and water systems vulnerability and risk assessments and conducted short courses on control system security. He has amassed a database of more than 800 actual control system cyber incidents. He also established the annual Industrial Control System (ICS) Cyber Security Conference.

Mr. Weiss has received numerous industry awards, including the EPRI Presidents Award (2002) is an ISA Fellow, Managing Director of ISA Fossil Plant Standards, ISA Nuclear Plant Standards, ISA Industrial Automation and Control System Security (ISA99), a Ponemon Institute Fellow, and an IEEE Senior Member. He has been identified as a Smart Grid Pioneer by Smart Grid Today.

He is a US Expert to TC65 WG10, Security for industrial process measurement and control and IEC TC45A Nuclear Plant Cyber Security. He has two patents on instrumentation and control systems, is a registered professional engineer in the State of California, a Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) and Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC).

Greg Whelan is a thought leader in the future of the service provider ecosystem. He focuses on broadband access including Virtual Access Networks and the role of the SP in IoT. Mr. Whelan has been a pioneer in broadband for over 20 years and was a primary influencer in early DSL and cable modem standards and he was an original founder and vice president of the Broadband Forum. Currently, he’s an active member in the ONOS Community and the SCTE Energy 2020 Initiative He has worked in technical marketing roles for large technology firms including Cisco Systems (San Jose, CA) where he lead award winning global marketing campaigns in the service provider markets and Analog Devices (Norwood, MA) where he created and lead their entrance into the broadband telecommunication market. He’s also spearheaded marketing for a number of early stage venture-backed start-ups in the Boston area, three of which were acquired by larger tech companies.

Greg has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a MBA in Innovation, with honors from Northeastern University. He has also studied Digital Video Networking at the MIT MediaLab.

Henry ML Wong is a senior staff technologist at Intel Corporation, enabling and evangelizing energy efficient power/thermal technologies and techniques. Mr. Wong is a 30+ year Intel veteran, with over 20 years of industry experience in digital and mixed signal processor and systems development including the first mobile Intel® Pentium® Processor (P54LM/P55C),  advanced mobile package technologies, and system clocking networks for the Intel® Itanium® and Intel® Xeon® processor platforms. For the past 10+ years, Mr. Wong has been leading Intel’s support of data centre industry resource-efficiency initiatives, technologies, and policies with organizations such as the US EPA, US DOE, ISO/IEC, Lawrence Berkley National Labs, and The Green Grid. Mr. Wong is a 1984 graduate of Yale University with a degree in semiconductor physics.

Tim Yeaton rejoined Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) in January of 2014 and is currently Senior Vice President, Infrastructure Business Group. Red Hat is the leading provider of open source software solutions in the industry. Tim is currently responsible for Red Hat’s infrastructure and cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) businesses, including Linux and container Platforms, Virtualization, OpenStack, Cloud Management, and Cloud Suites product lines. In fiscal 2015, the Infrastructure Business Group generated more than $1.3B in annual revenues.

Tim currently serves on the Board of Directors of publicly traded Monotype (Nasdaq: TYPE), headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts. He is also a Trustee and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. Previously, Tim served on the Board of Directors at Actuate Corporation (Nasdaq: BIRT), until its acquisition by Open Text (Nasdaq: OTEX) in January 2015. Tim was previously on the Board of the N.H. High Technology Council – where he is currently a Trustee, and the Boards of Avaki Corporation, The Open Group, and the Open Software Foundation. Tim is also past President of the Roger Williams University Alumni Association.

Tim is co-owner of Stonebridge Country Club in Goffstown, N.H., a Top 10 N.H. Golf Course in both 2014 and 2015 according to annual surveys by WMUR television. Stonebridge played host to both the 2014 New Hampshire Stat-Am Championship, and the 2014 LPGA Symetra Tour New England Charity Classic professional event.

Tim holds an M.B.A. from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and a B.S., summa cum laude, from Roger Williams University.