Telcos are looking at the future and are asking the simple question, "What's the next way to make money?" Here at VON where the term “Purple Minute”, leads the way to the 2.0 discussions for web and telco, we look at how to make money quickly. After all, Google, Skype, YouTube, and MySpace expect the network to be there. Since it is not "their" network, how can the Telcos be part of the new application market? What will make building network applications simple as 1 - 2 - 3? How can they add value because its on the network? What services can be offered to these new leaders?

As Telco Consumer Services Lead for the Industry Management team in the Communications Sector for Microsoft Corporation, Michael Finn is responsible for driving the strategy, roadmap, and business plan for Microsoft’s consumer services in partnership with telecommunications carriers.

Mr. Finn brings with him more than ten years in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining Microsoft, he held a product management role at Sonus Networks, a leader in the VoIP industry, where he worked on solutions development and operations integration.
Previous roles included sales and marketing at Linguateq and operations support at MCI Communications.

Mr. Finn holds an M.B.A. from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. from Virginia Tech.

Ronald Gruia is the Program Leader, Enterprise Solutions and Senior Telecom Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, where he covers topics such as VoIP, triple play services, IMS, and carrier messaging platforms. He is a frequent speaker at conferences such as VON, IPComm, 3GSM, Supercomm, Intel Communications Summit, and IP World Canada.

Ronald also writes articles for various publications, appears on Report on Business Television (Canada), and is often quoted in publications including Business Week, Forbes, Chicago Tribune, National Post, Globe&Mail and Washington Post. He is an MIT graduate in Electrical Engineering, and has accumulated years of experience in the telecom industry (held several roles at Nortel Networks' Enterprise Division, where he earned a U.S. patent).

Martine Lapierre was until 2007 the Chief Technology Officer of the Alcatel Wireless Group , and of the Carriers Networking Group. She was in parallel a member of the Board of Directors of the IMS Consortium and chaired at the European Community a workgroup on Mobile Content for the eMobility in 2003/05. She was previously President of a Switching Business Unit of Alcatel. She joined Alcatel in 1987 where she worked as Marketing Director for the Metropolitan Area and for the Switching, and later as the Director of the Alcatel Corporate Research Center IT Department. In parallel, she was President of the TINA Consortium in New Jersey in 98/99. She started in France Telecom/Orange Group where she worked 10 years in switching, networking, data and services. This included an exchange program at AT&T (Pacific Bell, California).

Martine Lapierre is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris and holds a Master in Public Affairs from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

Chris Mankle is a Chief Technologist in the Communications Media & Entertainment Business Unit’s CTO Office and responsible for collaborative leadership of technical aspects of successful solutions of HP and partner technologies to solve the Communications Media & Entertainment customer’s unique business problems.

Mankle is a proven leader in technological innovation in support of business and market goals across a variety of industries with 20 years of progressive experience in systems architecture, applied technology, application development, information systems, network design, wireless systems design, computing systems, and design engineering. By mastering these tools and concepts, Mankle is able to successfully coordinate business units with technology units and increase alignment of current and future services and infrastructure.

Greg Pelling is a 20-year technology and IT industry veteran, whose career includes Senior Industry Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers,management roles in leading Systems Integration and Consumer Software Development companies, and most recently as part of Cisco Systems Inc's strategic leadership team where he was responsible for managing
executive relationships, delivering $250M/year in new business development and building out the company's Global Development Centers.
As the Chief Executive Officer of CounterPath Solutions, Greg is responsible for leading the Company in corporate strategy, business development, product innovation, market gains and profitability commitments.

Prior to joining CounterPath, Greg was Global Managing Director, Advanced IT Services of Cisco Systems, Inc.; prior to which he was Managing Director, Asia Pacific/Japan, Internet Business Solutions Group
from January 2001 to August 2004. Before joining Cisco, he was a Senior Industry Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers ("PWC") Consulting from 1995 to 2001. Prior to joining PWC, Mr. Pelling held executive positions in several Canadian and MNC companies and co-founded Richmond Technologies.

As the Managing Director Asia Pacific and Japan for Cisco Systems Internet Business Solutions Group, he was a trusted advisor to governments and Fortune 500 executives providing strategic advice on achieving competitive advantage from IT and the Internet to the top corporations and governments in the region. Greg's International experience spans 20 years, most recently having Asia-wide executive responsibilities while based in Singapore between 1997 and 2004. Prior to Cisco, he was Asia's Senior Partner for PWC's Technology Consulting Practice.

Considered a thought leader, Greg is also the author of "Cisco Net Impact: Competitive Advantage from Internet Innovators in Asia Pacific and Japan." Greg is a graduate of UBC and holds an executive MBA in International Management.

As CEO of IP Unity Glenayre, Oscar Rodriguez is leading the company in the charge to transform the way communications services are created and delivered, and to enable carrier and enterprise customers to drive new revenues and greater market share, as they move to embrace the new world of IP-based services. Previously, Oscar held the position of Chief Marketing Officer for Alcatel-Lucent's Enterprise Business Group. Oscar was also President & CEO of Riverstone Networks. At Riverstone, he executed a turn around strategy to become the recognized technology leader in the Carrier Metro Ethernet marketplace.

He holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.