Speakers
As of 9/01/09
Romina Adduci
Romina Adduci is IDC’s telecommunications research and sonsulting director for Latin America. She has a broad experience in the telecommunications market in the region as both an analyst and service provider employee. Prior to joining IDC Adduci led the Latin American research and consulting practice for Frost & Sullivan. In this capacity, she was responsible for all technology areas of telecommunications and information technology. In the 1990s, Adduci was responsible for regulatory compliance and monitoring of the creation of LMDS Telecomunicaciones Interactivas SA. Prior to entering the telecom space, she worked in product development for Citibank Argentina. Adduci holds a bachelor’s degree in political science Buenos Aires University, Argentina, and a master’s degree in public management Saint Andrews University, Argentina.
Rory Altman
Rory Altman founded AV&Co. with Ed Vilandrie in 2002, after serving as principal and management team member at CSMG. He is an expert in competitive dynamics, marketing effectiveness, converged communications products, new market entry, channel strategy and mergers and acquisitions. A frequent speaker and moderator at management, investor and industry conferences, Altman also serves as a resource for national business and trade press. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from McGill University and a master’s degree in business from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Prior to joining CSMG, Altman was a traffic engineer and transportation planner at Barton-Aschman Associates Inc. in Chicago.
Andy Asava
Andy Asava joined Sipera Systems in 2007 and currently serves as the vice president of worldwide sales where he brings over 19 years of telecom industry experience and holds multiple patents. Over the past six years, he has worked as a trusted technology and business advisor to more than 100 global carriers. Prior to Sipera, Asava was the vice president of CDMA business strategy at Nortel where he spent almost 15 years. While there, he held a variety of positions in product life cycle management, marketing, business strategy and R&D, and as CTO. Asava has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Dallas, a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and recently was the adjunct MBA professor at the University of Dallas.
RJ Auburn
RJ Auburn drives Voxeo's technology leadership in the internet and voice solution industries and leads the research, evaluation, and design of Voxeo's carrier class voice centers. Auburn serves as editor and chair W3C Call Control XML (CCXML) standard and working group and oversees Voxeo's leadership contribution to VoiceXML, ENUM/DNS, and other industry standards. He is also an acknowledged expert in the fields of voice recognition, call center integration and call control and conferencing. Auburn started working with telephony at the age of 15 by developing and deploying solutions for large enterprises such as IBM, NYNEX (Now Verizon), Household Bank (now HSBC) and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. He frequently speaks at technology conferences throughout the United States on topics such as communication, mashups, speech and IVR.
Kirt Bailey
Kirt Bailey, president and CEO of Celio Corp., has more than 18 years of leadership experience in management and business development in the technology sector. Prior to joining Celio, he served as the director of strategic investments for Intel Capital where he led radio semiconductor investment in mobility markets worldwide. Prior to Intel Capital, Bailey was general manager of Intel's $100 million Network Components Division responsible for development, manufacture and distribution of Ethernet semiconductor components. Bailey has served as an advisor and board member of numerous high-growth technology firms. He holds a master's degree in business administration from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University and a bachelor's degree in computer science from Brigham Young University.
Claudio Baumann
Claudio Baumann is the marketing director, enterprise segment, for Telefonica in Latin America. The majority of his career has been in telecommunications and IT companies, working in operations, sales, marketing, business development and M&A and as an entrepreneur. In addition to his current position, Baumann has served as network sales director for IBM, including network, outsourcing and e-business services; vice president of marketing, sales and business development for AT&T Latin America; co-founder and director of Exceda in Brazil, focused in marketing for innovative services; and IT Services and outsourcing director for Telefonica. He has an engineering degree and a master’s degree in business administration from the Universidade de São Paulo.
Stefan Bewley
Stefan Bewley is a principal with AV& Co., primarily advising clients in business strategy, financial planning, investment due diligence, operations optimization and technology decisions. He assists a wide range of clients with both long-term and immediate profit maximization. His significant M&A experience includes both conducting due diligence for investors as well as developing integration plans and financial milestones for operators. Bewley serves as an ongoing media source for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, RCR Wireless, Telephony Online and Mass High Tech, on topics ranging from wireless services for automotives to wireless channels. Prior to joining AV& Co. in 2004, Bewley worked with The Brattle Group, an economic consulting firm. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in engineering from M.I.T.
Jay Blazensky
As vice president of business development at RingCentral, Jay Blazensky has played a key role in establishing a series of creative partnerships and business models designed to drive broad adoption of hosted voice services, even in a struggling economy. Throughout his career, he has had a passion for identifying meaningful yet challenging business opportunities best served through strategic partnerships that provide unique technical and business advantages. Prior to RingCentral, Blazensky was the strategic sales director at Sylantro Systems. He has 25 years of engineering, marketing and business related experience in the communications industry.
Matt Bramson
Matt Bramson is the chief sales officer of INPHONEX, the pioneer of private-label Internet telephony. In that role he is responsible for leading the company’s sales, marketing, and business development. He has more than 15 years of experience in telecommunications in sales, sales management, strategy, and corporate development. Prior to joining INPHONEX, he led business development for XO Communications and reported directly to legendary financier Carl Icahn. Throughout his career he has consistently led organizations to significant revenue growth selling solutions to businesses very large and very small in challenging circumstances. Bramson holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Carleton College.
Kevin Breault
Kevin Breault, vice president of sales and business development for Dash Carrier Services, oversees all sales, marketing and business development programs. Having come to Dash with more than 15 years of telecommunications experience, Breault’s past positions include running business development and operations for wholesale VoIP providers such as SinglePipe Communications and Kancharla Corporation.
Fred Briggs
Fred Briggs is the executive vice president of customer service and program management for Verizon Business. He is responsible for global customer service; managed solutions operations for network, IT and security; integrated solutions program management and Federal Network Systems. His team works in partnership with the network organization to establish Verizon Business priorities to deliver new customer capabilities and continuous improvement for the overall customer experience. Briggs previously served as executive vice president of network operations and technology with responsibility for the complete engineering, operation and customer service of the business unit's global voice, data and IP networks. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University.
Rich Buchanan
Rich Buchanan, chief marketing officer for ooma, brings more than 25 years of consumer and OEM executive level marketing and sales experience to the company’s management team. Prior to joining ooma, Rich was part of the executive management team at Sling Media, responsible for building the Slingbox brand and the Slingbox customer experience, packaging, channel marketing and efforts to build awareness in support of a global retail sales channel. With previous experience at SuperMac Technologies, Radius, Creative Labs, Rendition and Raycer Graphics, he has extensive retail consumer electronics and OEM experience. Buchanan serves as a board member for the Consumer Electronics Association and is an advisor for several early stage start-ups in Silicon Valley. He has given technical and marketing presentations at COMDEX, CES, CeBit, MacWorld and several international standards committee meetings.
William Bumbernick
William Bumbernick, CEO of Alteva, has more than 12 years of senior management and entrepreneurial experience in telecommunications, IT and managed services. Since 1994, he has been involved at executive levels of leadership and boards of directors within the technology and telecommunication sectors. Since 2003, Bumbernick has been focused on emerging VoIP technologies with the success and tremendous growth of Alteva. He has been recognized by Smart Business Magazine as an expert in the emerging technology of VoIP and is also a recognized presenter at leading trade shows.
Joe Burton
Joe Burton is chief technology officer in Cisco's Voice Technology Group. His team is responsible for technical strategy and advanced research for Unified Communications at Cisco. During his career at Cisco, Joe has led the development of many of Cisco's Unified Communications products, including MeetingPlace voice, video, and data conferencing products, IPVC video conferencing, IP Communicator, Unified Advantage, Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, productivity application integrations, and Cisco Unity Connection integrated voice messaging products. Additionally, Joe led the Cisco-wide Voice Systems Architecture group that coordinates standards development and architecture for all voice products at Cisco. Previously, he was the chief architect for Cisco's messaging products, including the Unity unified messaging system. Before joining Cisco, Joe was the chief architect for Active Voice Corporation, a leading provider of voice messaging systems. Joe holds a Computer Science degree from Ohio State University and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Leadership Program.
Brian Cappellani
Brian Cappellani is the CTO and vice president of engineering at Sigma Systems. As CTO, he is responsible for the architectural and technological vision and deliverables for Sigma’s award-winning service management platform and solutions suites. He is a 12-year telecommunications industry veteran with extensive experience designing and building large-scale operations and billing support systems. Prior to joining Sigma, Cappellani worked for Accenture in numerous roles of increasing responsibility, including senior level architecture, engineering and development management positions, held both internally and with Accenture's telecommunications practice, focusing on the wireless and satellite industries. He is also an advisory director to the TM Forum’s board of directors. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Tom Carter
Tom Carter, president of North and South America operations for U.K.-based mobile VoIP provider Truphone, has a career spanning more than 20 years, during which he has founded and funded start-ups and has led sales, marketing and business-development teams in Asia, Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. Before joining Truphone, Carter co-founded BridgePort Networks, personally funding the initial development team and actively participating in the operation of the company. He was also co-founder of @Mobile, a venture-backed application services provider for wireless carriers and Internet content providers. During the mid-1990s, while at Tandem Computers, Carter was instrumental in pioneering the first off-switch “home location register” application for mobile-subscriber authorization — now deployed in 20 countries across 73 carriers. He holds a U.S. patent as co-author of the design for a mobile-over-Internet network.
Rick Chin
As a manager in the Solutions Marketing Group for Interactive Intelligence, Rick Chin is responsible for the product direction and marketing strategy of the suite of products offered by the company. Solutions Marketing is also the outward facing delivery team for Webinar, seminar, analyst and media presentations, as well as prospect and end-customer demonstrations. Chin’s experience includes more than 10 years of designing and managing nationwide voice and data networks and data centers in the financial services sector and 10 years in technology consulting services.
Caitlin Clark-Zigmond
Caitlin Clark-Zigmond brings more than 13 years of telecommunication and product development experience to her role as senior director of product management at NGT. She has been a driving force in NGT's wholesale and private label hosted VoIP services targeted at service providers (CLECs, MSOs, VARs, ISPs, ASPs, new providers) across the country. Prior to joining NGT, Clark-Zigmond was a member of Global Crossing’s collaboration product management team where she led video product line revenue growth 40 percent while re-positioning the enterprise video products and driving new strategies for the future. Clark-Zigmond holds a bachelor’s degree in international business and finance from American University, and currently serves as executive board chairman for the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition.
Alon Cohen
Alon Cohen, executive vice president and CTO of Phone.com, is an entrepreneur, inventor and widely recognized as one of the creators of the voice over IP industry. He joined Phone.com after founding and managing a series of successful business ventures, including BitWine and RemoteAbility. Cohen was the co-founder of VocalTec Communications, the first company to provide Internet voice technology worldwide, which in 1996 was one of the earliest successful Internet IPOs. As an innovator Cohen holds four U.S. patents on different communications technologies, including the audio transceiver, which is the basis for VoIP technology. Cohen received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration Tel Aviv University.
Rick Coma
Rick Coma, senior vice president at 360networks, is responsible for all of the company’s marketing, business development, product development and strategic planning. He was previously vice president of business development and drove all business development activities, including M&A. Coma has more than 15 years of telecom experience. Before joining 360networks, he was with Nextlink Communications, Advanced Radio Telecom and U.S. Intelco. Coma has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Central Washington University and a master’s degree in business administration from St. Martin's College.
David Cullerot
David Cullerot, product manager of Acme Packet, brings more than 20 years of experience to the company in product definition and architecture, building strategic business partnerships, managing strategic programs, product management yielding substantial increase in revenue and market share, as well as product marketing and support. His previous experience includes Cabletron, Lucent, Pannaway and other start-ups managing, as well as developing Ethernet/ATM/IP systems and solutions for the broadband networking industry. Other expertise includes energetic product and technology evangelism, team leadership with a commitment to excellence.
Jim Dalton
Jim Dalton is the founder and CEO of TransNexus, Inc., a software development firm that provides commercial and open source VoIP Operations and billing support system (OSS/BSS) solutions. He began his career as a petroleum engineer working in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Yemen from 1981 to 1986. After graduate studies in finance, he became a Chartered Financial Analyst. In 1988, Dalton began his telecom career with BellSouth. This experience led to his early recognition in the promise of voice over IP and the founding of TransNexus in 1997. Dalton holds five patents for VoIP clearing and settlement technology. He received a mechanical engineering degree from Duke University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Steve Davis
Steve Davis, director of product marketing for Cypress Communications, is an experienced communications executive known for his keen market insight and ability to produce notable results that make a real contribution to an organization’s bottom line. Davis joined Cypress in 2005 and is responsible for product marketing and pricing across all sales channels. He frequently speaks on the IT and telecom circuits, educating IT decision makers on emerging trends in unified communications, the advantages and disadvantages of hosted versus premise-based solutions and the importance of business continuity planning in enterprise communications. Prior to Cypress, Davis held senior marketing positions at Z-Tel (now Trinsic Communications) and MCI.
Christopher Dean
Christopher Dean, Skype’s Chief Strategy Officer, has 20 years of experience in business and corporate development, strategy consulting and advising startups. He specializes in deals to grow revenue, create new distribution channels and develop and launch new products. Dean has led several business development and strategy teams that have defined and prioritized strategic partner targets and identified, negotiated and closed partnerships. He was most recently the co-founder of Texada Capital and responsible for new business development. Earlier, he spent four years as the senior vice president of marketing and business development at Face Time communications, a leading vendor of security, management and control solutions for enterprise-oriented instant messaging. Dean also was an executive in business development at Epoch Partners, SmartAge.com, Worlds, Inc. and a consultant at Regis McKenna, Inc. He has consulted with Apple, Adobe Systems, IBM, Oracle and Placeware, prior to its sale to Microsoft. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Vassar College and a master’s degree in business administration from Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Henry Dewing
Henry Dewing is a principal analyst at Forrester Research, serving vendor strategy professionals and covering many aspects of unified communications and collaboration. His research agenda includes the role of managed services in the introduction and delivery of innovative capabilities, focusing on the vendor telecom landscape and next-generation business models. He analyzes market trends in IP telephony, voice/data convergence and fixed mobile convergence, while reporting on overall industry strategies and the ever-closing gap between IT and telecom. Prior to joining Forrester, Dewing held senior management roles at Nokia, Intel and Compaq and was a managing consultant for A.T. Kearney. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics engineering and mathematics from Washington and Lee University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Virginia.
Alex Doyle
As a founding member of the BroadSoft team, Alex Doyle, senior director of solutions, has been intricately involved in the development of the BroadWorks® application platform. He’s responsible for product and solution management of BroadSoft’s hosted unified communications business and consumer applications. Prior to BroadSoft, Doyle was a wireless solutions architect at Nortel and Celcore. He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in business administration from Johns Hopkins University.
Gordon Eddy
Gordon Eddy is the Director of Product Management and Marketing for the Network Assurance Business Unit at Empirix, Inc. Over the past ten years, Gordon's primary responsibilities have been to bring new, innovative network and service assurance solutions to the VoIP/NGN/IMS marketplace. He joined Hammer Technologies in 1999, one year before that company became part of Empirix, Inc. Prior to his arrival at Hammer, Gordon worked at Teradyne in a variety of roles ranging from test engineer to senior product manager. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Massachusetts-Lowell and MBA from Bentley College in Waltham, Mass.
Joel Fisher
Joel Fisher serves as vice president of marketing for Telcordia’s interconnection solutions group. He has more than 15 years of marketing and business development experience in the telecommunications industry, including wireless, VoIP, unified communications, presence and security. Previously, he was responsible for worldwide partnerships at Ditech Networks. While there, he also founded and served as president of the Voice and Video over IP Quality Alliance, which brought together vendors, carriers and industry experts to help address voice and video quality issues in next-generation networks. Prior to Ditech, served at Jasomi Networks, Indigo Software, Clarent Corporation, Pacific Bell Mobile Services and Pacific Bell Information Services. Fisher holds a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and is a regular speaker at industry conferences and contributor to numerous publications.
Fred Fromm
As president and CEO of nexVortex Inc., Fred Fromm leads the company in its mission to deliver high quality, business-grade IP services to enterprise clients around the world. On the leading edge of the telecommunications industry for more than 30 years, he began his career at Bell Labs, later joining Siemens and then Oplink Communications. He joined nexVortex in January 2006. A pioneer adopter of IP technology, Fromm has spent the last 15 years advocating every aspect of the migration and conversion of communication services. He has served on the board of ATIS, the U.S. standards leader, and on the boards of several telecom technology companies. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in business from Florida Atlantic University.
Mark Gallagher
Mark Gallagher founded Integrity Leasing and Financing, Inc., (Integrity) in 1999. Mark has over 18 years of experience training Channels/Resellers on how to use leasing to assist in presenting the Business Value of Video and Voice equipment and to show an enhanced ROI, with no capital outlay. Integrity has been Polycom’s lease partner since early 2002. In August of 2008 Polycom asked Mark to film a Corporate Lease training video on how to use leasing to assist in presenting the Business Case for Video and Voice. Throughout 2009 Mark has conducted training webinars for Polycom Reps, Resellers and Distributors. In April of 2009 snom named Integrity as their exclusive domestic leasing partner, press releases appeared in TMC.NET, Telephone Issues, Phone+, etc. Integrity is also the recommended lease partner for Aastra and Sutus as well as service providers such as CommPartners
Arthur Giftakis
Arthur Giftakis currently serves as the vice president of engineering and operations at Towerstream. Formerly, he was director of engineering at Sockeye Networks, a BGP optimization company that was acquired by Internap. Prior to joining Sockeye, he was a director at Navisite and Digital Broadband Communications. Giftakis spent 10 years with Bell Atlantic and has spoken in several forums on the future of telecommunications with fixed wireless. He has more than 15 years of experience with advanced solutions in telecommunications, starting his career with New England Telephone.
Christian Gilby
Christian Gilby has more than 15 years of product management and engineering experience in the networking industry, with a strong focus on mobility and VoWLAN. At Agito Networks, he is responsible for product management and product marketing of the industry-leading RoamAnywhere Enterprise FMC products. Prior to Agito, he was an early member of the Meru Networks team driving product development and partnerships in VoWLAN and AccessPoint solutions. Previously, Gilby held several networking and VoIP project lead and software architect roles at Nortel Networks where he was also granted a patent. He has a bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of Victoria.
Hugh Goldstein
Hugh Goldstein is the managing director of Au24, a consultancy focused on international technology marketing, advising IP communications companies and carriers on marketing, product management and business strategy. Prior to Au24, he worked in senior marketing and business development roles with XConnect Global Networks, Arbinet-thexchange, VocalTec Communications, Surf&Call Network Services and Belgacom North America.
Kevin Groth
Kevin Groth brings 16 years of data communications and IP interconnect experience in his role as VP North America. Prior to joining XConnect in January 2009, Groth held senior marketing and business development roles at Level 3 Communications, AFS, Looking Glass Networks, WorldCom and MFS Communications. Groth began his communications career with MFS Datanet, interconnecting the largest IP access and transit providers in the United States to the nation's first-generation public peering points. Since then, he has been closely involved with issues affecting carrier network interconnection and IP peering. Groth has led sales and marketing teams responsible for some of the largest and fastest-growing bandwidth and NGN providers in the world. Earlier, Groth was vice president of sales and marketing for the Atlanta-based consulting engineering firm EDI Ltd. He holds a B.S. in marketing from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill.
Matt Herdlein
Matt Herdlein is executive director, service management portfolio, in the operations solutions business unit of Telcordia. He is responsible for product management of the company’s service management product portfolio. Herdlein has more than 20 years of experience with telecommunications operational support Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New York and a master’s degree in technology management from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Herdlein has an extensive speaking background; he most recently participated TM Forum Device Management Summits and in Management World China.
Ray Hernandez
Ray Hernandez, who has more than over 15 years of investment banking experience, oversees JANCO Partners’ efforts in communications, data networking and information technology. Prior to joining JANCO Partners, he was a managing director at ClearCreek Partners in Denver and Roth Capital Partners in Los Angeles. Before that he founded an IP telephony business focused on the SMB market. He also has served as a vice president in the corporate development group at Covad Communications. Before he began his investment banking career in 1990 with Falkenberg Capital Corporation, Hernandez was a cable television entrepreneur and also served as director of acquisitions for Tele-Communications Inc., He began his career as a tax and corporate attorney in Denver. Hernandez is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Harvard Law School.
Mark Hilton
Mark Hilton is the category manager for HP ProCurve’s Open Architecture product line, part of the ProCurve ONE initiative which brings best in class network applications from market leading partners together with HP-developed platforms to provide complete solutions for a broad range of customer needs. He has also served within HP ProCurve as EMEA regional marketing manager and global product line manager. Before joining ProCurve, Hilton worked for Thomson Inc., which is based in France. Over the course of his career, Hilton has held key engineering, product development and marketing roles with various technology companies and industries. He hold a master’s degree in engineering and business from the University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Mike Hollier
Mike Hollier has been a pioneer in perceptual engineering for more than 16 years. Since October 2002, he has been CTO at Psytechnics, driving business development and overseeing the research and development of a new generation of voice and video products. Between 1987 and 1999 he held a number of positions within BT. His team created the award winning PAMS (Perceptual Analysis Measurement System) speech quality measurement method, which received a British Computer Society Medal and later became part of the new world standard ITU-T P.862 - PESQ. He managed the formation and early growth of Psytechnics, including initial sales of over £1 million and raising further VC finance during the technology sector crash, for which he was awarded the inaugural National Business Award for Corporate Venturing in October 2002.
Thomas Howe
Thomas Howe is the CEO of Jaduka. Recognized as an expert in the integration of real-time communications and business processes as well as one of the most influential voices in VoIP, Thomas Howe leads the Jaduka team. Howe has over 20 years experience in the design and development of next-generation communications solutions, and has held senior management and technical positions at several public and private companies, including Comverse, PictureTel, Aware, Versatel and Tangerine. Through his own consulting business, he has focused on a Web-as-platform approach to enhancing business processes. A sought-after speaker, Thomas has keynoted several conferences. He publishes one of the telecom industry's most popular blogs.
Pete Ianace
Pete Ianace, a well-known industry expert in video over the Internet, is a sought-after speaker and has had numerous articles published on the subject. His leadership as a CEO for companies in IP video communications, Web 2.0, telecommunications, aerospace and defense contracting allowed him the opportunity to build and spin out three technology companies in the last 15 years.
Ianace is currently the president of ComCam International, a wireless video surveillance company with a focus on keeping America safe by bringing command and control capabilities to handhelds.
Chris Kapuscinski
Chris Kapuscinski has more than 12 years of experience in the communications industry. For the past three years, he has supported customer and market activities in new revenue and new business models, service innovation and end user experience. Prior to Alcatel-Lucent, Kapuscinski was global automation manager for Laird Technologies. He holds a master's degree in engineering and a master's degree in business administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Stefan Karapetkov
Stefan Karapetkov is emerging technologies director at Polycom, Inc. where he focuses on visual communications market and technology analysis. Prior to Polycom, he spent more than 10 years with Siemens in product management, new technology development and enterprise product definition. He has been involved in voice over IP since 1997. Karapetkov has a master’s degree in business administration from Santa Clara University and an master’s degree in engineering from the University of Chemnitz (Germany). He is fluent in English, German, Russian and Bulgarian.
Fred C. Kemmerer
Fred C. Kemmerer is an experienced telecommunications executive with a broad background in a variety of communications technologies. As executive vice president and CTO of GENBAND, he is responsible for setting the company’s strategic technical direction. Prior to GENBAND, Kemmerer held a broad range of positions at Lucent and then Alcatel-Lucent. Most recently, he was technical compliance officer, responsible for providing technical guidance and consulting to multiple U.S. government agencies on matters related to current and next-generation communications network architecture and security. Before that, as vice president of strategy and business development, he led the strategic and portfolio planning processes for the company. Kemmerer holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University.
Bob Kersey
As vice president of strategic marketing and business development at GENBAND, Bob Kersey is responsible for establishing new market channels as well as adding and expanding GENBAND ecosystem partnerships. Kersey has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining GENBAND, he was vice president of marketing, product management and business development for CopperCom, driving the company's marketing and business strategies. Kersey also served as Alcatel's vice president for the next-generation voice product line and held several key management positions at Alcatel/DSC. He earned a master's degree in computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas and holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana Tech University.
Michael Khalilian
Michael Khalilian is chairman and president of the NGN Forum and IMS Forum and serves as CTO, CIO, and board member to a number of telecom, cable, wireless and start-ups. He is chief technologist for NTT business groups and senior director for Tim Warner business groups. Khalilian has supported the telecommunications, multimedia and converged IP communications industry for more than 20 years with executive leadership, speaking engagements, bylined articles and published books, and has received numerous awards. He has also served as president of the Softswitch Consortium, International Packet Communications Consortium and IP Carrier Multimedia Coalitions.
Nasir Khan
Nasir Khan brings more than 14 years of wide-ranging industry experience to his role as vice president of engineering for AGNITY, where he leads product development, professional services and R&D efforts. Before joining AGNITY, he was with BEA Systems, where he led the development of the BEA Weblogic SIP Server and the standardization effort for SIP servlet 1.1 technology. Khan has won several awards for his work, most notably the Most Outstanding Spec Lead Award for 2007 and Star Spec Lead Award for 2007. He has performed engineering management for SIP servlets- based application server NSP and several next-generation applications and developed scientific and financial applications for Indian Oil Corp. Khan has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from IIT-Roorkee and master’s degree in management and systems from IIT-Delhi.
Vivek Khuller
Vivek Khuller is the CEO and founder of DiVitas Networks. Prior to founding DiVitas, he was a venture partner at Clearstone Venture Partners, where he incubated DiVitas. Khuller also was entrepreneur-in-residence at Matrix Partners and, before that, worked at Sycamore Networks in business development and at Verizon Communications in various roles, including manager of the Internet Center of Excellence as well as in network systems engineering. While at Verizon, he received the Spirit of Excellence Chairman’s award, the company’s highest honor, in recognition of his technical leadership. Khuller earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, India.
Scott Kinka
Scott Kinka, Sr. Vice President, Network Services, Evolve IP, most recently served as the Vice President of Network Services for Broadview Networks and ATX Communications where he was responsible for driving ATX's most advanced and innovative offerings, from VoIP to MPLS-based private networks and managed network security services. In addition to his product development skills, Scott has been responsible for developing strategies to bridge the gap between traditional telecommunications sales and next generation products with ATX's sales force.
Mr. Kinka graduated Magna Cum Laude from La Salle University with a BA in Communications, and studied Telecommunications at the Graduate Level at Temple University.
Grant Kirkwood
As CTO of Mzima, Grant Kirkwood oversees all aspects of the company's technology vision and execution. His belief in the strength of a unified team working toward common objectives is reflected in Mzima's core belief that its best asset is its people. Kirkwood’s management style encourages individual strengths and creativity driving towards the successful execution of corporate business objectives. He has 10 years of senior management experience in Internet infrastructure companies for mission-critical online applications. Prior to founding Mzima, Kirkwood was CTO at Netixs and was also responsible for the operation and management of Vision Imaging's Web application hosting business. A member of the World Affairs Council and the British American Business Council, he is also a patron of Global Impact.
Unmesh Kulkarni
Unmesh Kulkarni leads the software delivery organization at Covad Communications Group. As the director of software architecture and delivery, he is responsible for execution of Covad's IT strategy for broadband, VoIP and network services business lines. Kulkarni is a hands-on technology leader with expertise in distributed software development and IP communications. He is passionate about delivering high-quality, rapid OSS solutions to business problems in a cost-effective manner. His innovative approach of running "Distributed Scrums" has brought substantial productivity benefits to Covad's Telecom OSS/BSS. Kulkarni holds a post-graduate degree in computer science from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
Jiri Kuthan
Jiri Kuthan is the Assistant Vice President (AVP) of Engineering with Tekelec, where he is responsible for the company's SIP technology. Jiri joined the company via Tekelec's acquisition of iptelorg, a company that Jiri co-founded and was the Chief Technology Officer of. At iptelorg Jiri led a team that developed the SIP Express Router - known as SER - a widely deployed SIP routing engine in the world. The SIP Express Router has become the foundation of Tekelec's TekCore SSR technology. Prior to founding iptelorg, Jiri worked at Fraunhofer and MCI Worldcom. Jiri has been actively participating in IETF standardization, serves on the technical panels of several SIP-related conferences and is a frequent industry speaker.
Kelli Law
Kelli Law, founder, executive vice president of operations and CTO of CallTower, has been with the company since its inception. He is responsible for CallTower's knowledge resources, innovative technologies and operational implementation and support. In this capacity he has been instrumental in the development of advanced application solutions for CallTower's customers. Law is also responsible for managing the Service Provider Product Development and Solutions Engineering teams. He has extensive experience in designing converged communications networks. Prior to CallTower, Law spent five years in the computer telephony industry, where he worked in sales, product management and sales engineering. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brigham Young University.
David LeClaire
David LeClaire, regional vice president of sales for Taqua, has served the telecom industry for 20 years with management roles in technical training, engineering and sales. LeClaire's wireless sales career began with Northern Telecom (Nortel) and later expanded to wireline, signaling, and VoIP applications sales with Taqua and Tekelec. Following Tekelec, LeClaire joined Mavenir, a next-generation convergence company and later co-founded Velleros, building CMAS products and applications. LeClaire's career is diverse; he is an expert in convergence and the wireless (r)evolution.
Chris Lengyel
As director of product management for iBasis, Chris Lengyel is responsible for refining the company’s products and developing new offerings to address customer needs and market opportunities in international voice services. He brings more than a decade of telecommunications industry marketing expertise to iBasis. Prior to joining the company he lead market development and product marketing efforts as market development manager for Cantata Technology Inc. and served as CTO for Auris Technology, a premier hosted service provider for the prepaid industry. During his tenure at Auris, Lengyel led the development and operational efforts for a Web-based hosted service platform based upon the Excel Switching platform. He has also served as vice president of switch operations at Radiant Telecom and was a key architect of the Ntera VoIP network. Lengyel holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Connecticut School of Engineering.
Dan Lowe
Dan Lowe, Senior Vice President, Business Development & Strategic Sales at NGT, brings 18+ years of sales and business leadership to NGT in his role of strategic business development working with key NGT customers and partners. Prior to NGT, Mr. Lowe was Regional Vice President of Sales at Tellabs. Additionally, Mr. Lowe served in various leadership roles in product line management, marketing and sales with Tellabs. Prior to Tellabs he worked in various sales capacities for Scientific-Atlanta. Mr. Lowe has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Valparaiso University and a MBA from the University of Chicago.
Bob Logan
Bob Logan is director at Dialogic Media Labs, a division of Dialogic Corporation that develops advanced video algorithms for the next generation of IP video platforms and applications. Dialogic develops open systems-based telephony voice, video and signaling products targeted for both the enterprise and service provider market segments. Logan joined Dialogic in 2008 from OpenMediaLabs, a New Jersey-based start-up that was developing intelligent video technologies. He has more than two decades of experience in the telecommunications and multimedia software field, including a variety of technical and business positions within Bell Laboratories, AT&T and Lucent Technologies.
Robert Machin
Robert Machin has been part of the telecoms industry for 20 years, working with independent software vendors, systems integrators and communication service providers (CSPs) in a variety of technical and business-focused roles. He is a regular contributor to business conferences and industry journals, most commonly on subjects related to the impact and management of next generation technologies.
Robert spent four years as Head of Billing Solutions in Logica’s International Telecoms Division before heading up product marketing first at mediation vendor Openet Telecom in Ireland, then at service fulfilment specialist Axiom Systems in the UK. In April 2008, Axiom Systems were taken over by Finnish OSS specialists Comptel Corporation and Robert now plays a key part in defining Comptel’s market strategy.
Guillermo Marmora
Guillermo Marmora is vice president, product marketing, Voice & Collaboration Services at Global Crossing Latin America & Caribbean. Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he is responsible for product conception, design and performance management for the company’s Voice and Collaboration portfolio in the CALA region. During his 15 years with Global Crossing, Marmora has worked in areas of responsibility ranging from engineering and operational duties to product development and telecom technology evaluation, with an emphasis in voice services. Prior to joining Global Crossing, he held positions at Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Telefónica de Argentina and IBM and worked as a freelance consultant. Marmora received his degree in electrical engineering from Universidad Nacional de La Plata and has continued his education through post-graduate courses.
Robert Marschall
Robert Marschall is managing director of product development and life cycle Management at Broadview Networks, a New York-based CLEC. He has more than 20 years of experience in the telecom industry, the last 14 of which have been focused on IP. Marschall has been with Broadview Networks since 2000 in various product management and product marketing roles developing voice over IP and SIP Trunking services, features and technologies to meet the needs of the small and medium-sized business segment in the US. Prior to Broadview Networks, Marschall was with AT&T as product manager for international IP transit, EMEA division, and before that served as product manager for AT&T’s Worldnet managed Internet services.
Vanesa Matamoros
Vanesa Matamoros has more than 15 years of professional experience in the telecommunications industry. She joined Arbinet in early 2009 as the Vice President Sales and Trading – Latin America. Prior to Arbinet, Vanesa spent over three years as President of Vamtelco Inc., an independent consulting company, working with retail and wholesale telecom carriers across Latin America, and seven years with iBasis creating and managing the business development for successful market entry strategies into Latin America, as well as utilizing her engineering background to oversee the deployment of VoIP equipment in many countries. Vanesa holds a BS in Computer Science from Universidad Central de Venezuela, and a Masters Degree in Management from Harvard University in Cambridge MA.
Bruce Mehlman
Bruce Mehlman is currently co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) and previously served as assistant secretary of commerce for technology policy. A recognized leader in the technology industry, he helps high tech players navigate the public policy environment and understand and anticipate trends likely to impact the global marketplace. As executive director of the Computer Systems Policy Project, the leading CEO-led information technology association, Mehlman teams with the CEOs of Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Motorola, NCR and Unisys to identify and promote public policies that encourage innovation leadership and tech-led economic growth. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his juris doctorate degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the Virginia Law Review.
Arnaud Messager
Arnaud Messager is director of business development, network solutions for the Americas, Orange Business Services. He is responsible for the Orange network portfolio in the Americas marketplace. Messager has worked closely with large enterprise and service providers over the years in defining the next-generation enterprise network and the importance of security and application delivery within this network. He brings to his position more than 12 years of diverse experience in IP, security product management and development, business support and financial analysis.
Sanjay Mewada
Sanjay Mewada is vice president of strategy at NetCracker, where he oversees the strategic direction of the company and managing its partnership program. Prior to joining NetCracker, Mewada was at Yankee Group, where he was vice president of the telecom software strategies (TSS) decision service. There he managed research and programs to improve communications service providers' business results. Specifically, he helped clients make decisions regarding the use of business and operations support systems (BOSS) software and services. Before joining Yankee Group, he worked at MCI, Intelsat, and the World Bank in product management and technology evaluation functions. Mewada holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s degree in business administration from Bombay University, as well as a master’s degree in international business from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Thomas Monopoli
Thomas Monopoli is director of systems engineering at MetaSwitch where he manages the presales engineering team covering the North American and CALA markets. Previously, he was CTO at Solunet, a Sun Capital Partners company which acquired Dynavar as well as iPath Technologies. His role included managing the engineering assets of the three organizations, including presales, post sales, training, professional services and the TAC. Prior to the acquisition, he was vice president of engineering services at Dynavar. In addition, he has served in various engineering capacities at Corvis Corp., Lucent Technologies and Ascend Communications. Monopoli holds an associate’s degree in manufacturing processes technology from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.
Diane Myers
Diane Myers, directing analyst, service provider VoIP and IMS, joined Infonetics Research in December 2008. Widely regarded as one of the VoIP industry’s top analysts, she brings to Infonetics 14 years of telecom industry analyst and marketing experience, including more than three years as strategic marketing director for VoIP application software vendor BroadSoft. Myers’ focus is to deepen Infonetics’ VoIP and IMS equipment and services coverage and to expand into new areas such as hosted unified communications (UC), SIP Trunking and rich communications suite (RCS). She is a meticulous researcher with expertise in identifying new markets, product positioning, messaging, strategic planning, competitive analysis, and service provider go-to-market strategy. Myers received her bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a master’s degree from Thunderbird, School of Global Management.
Eduardo Duran Nardecchia
Eduardo Duran Nardecchia is responsible for the technological evolution at Entel S.A which involves technology strategic planning and the innovation process. He was previously responsible for the strategic technology position for future and innovative services and before that was the chief project engineer. Nardecchia graduated from Santiago University with a degree in electronic and telecom engineering and obtained a master’s degree in business administration from Adolfo Ibañez University in Chile.
Todd Narwid
As vice president of new media for NDS, Todd Narwid is responsible for developing new media opportunities that leverage the extensive NDS solutions portfolio and systems integration expertise. Prior to NDS, he led Narrowstep, which enabled new media content owners to move, manage and monetize video content online. Before that. Narwid directed the RCN business solutions division.
Michael Oeth
Michael Oeth, CEO of Junction Networks, is a technology industry veteran. He has held multiple senior level positions in the industry in software, telecommunications, managed services and the Internet. Prior to Junction Networks, he was with AboveNet, Inc, formerly Metromedia Fiber Network Inc. a facilities-based provider of end-to-end optical solutions. Before that, he was CTO of LivePerson Inc., the award-winning industry leader in live chat customer service over the Web, where he directed all technology efforts. Instrumental in integrating the operations and software platforms of a multi-million dollar competitor acquisition, his efforts resulted in a major reduction in operating expenses. As senior vice president at RCN, Oeth was instrumental in the launch of RCN.com and the company’s DSL product in partnership with Covad.
Ken Osowski
Ken Osowski is currently managing director of the NGN Consulting Group where his consulting practice includes providing marketing, product management and new business and product planning services for both NGN product vendors and service providers. He has spent 17 years in the telecom industry in senior marketing and product management positions with companies in the Boston area including Boston Technology, IPeria and most recently Pactolus. A frequent VoIP industry spokesperson and editorial board advisor and writer, Osowski has teamed with executives across the industry to educate the market on SIP-based communication service delivery. He holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Franklin & Marshall College and a master's degree in computer science from Columbia University.
Alan Percy
Alan Percy is director of market development at AudioCodes, a leading provider of voice over IP telephony products and enabling technology. In this role, he is responsible for identifying market trends and building relationships to foster new business opportunities. Percy joined AudioCodes in 2001, bringing with him more than two decades of experience in the telecommunications, networking and wireless equipment industries. He is a frequent industry speaker and contributes to a number of industry journals and blogs.
Ignacio Perrone
Ignacio Perrone joined Frost & Sullivan in 2007 as industry manager with the Latin American Information & Communication Technologies Practice – Telecom Services Group. His activities include researching and monitoring different Latin American markets, developing publications and participating in strategic consulting projects. Perrone has more than 10 years of experience in telecommunications and IT markets in Latin America. Before joining Frost & Sullivan, he worked at consulting and market research firms such as Análisis e Inteligencia de Mercado, The Yankee Group and Pyramid Research. Perrone has authored numerous reports, participated in consulting projects and conducted market surveys, both qualitative and quantitative. He has received acclaim for his research work and been quoted and mentioned in prestigious newspapers and business magazines in the region.
Greg Plum
Greg Plum is the director of channel development for the Conference Group. Since he joined the company in 2000, his primary responsibility has been to establish and develop the company's wholesale program, which includes agent and private-label reseller programs. Under Plum’s direction, the Conference Group’s channel program has been recognized as an industry leader, having been named a top conferencing provider by Telecom Association members in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, as well as a PHONE+ Top 50 Channel Program recipient in 2007. In addition, Plum was named as a finalist for the 2009 Channel Executive of the Year Award.
Ari Rabban
Ari Rabban, an IP communications industry veteran, is the CEO and co-founder of Phone.com, a new phone company offering a suite of innovative Internet-based communication services for small businesses, home and mobile professionals. With expertise in the start-up environment, Rabban joined Phone.com from Pulver Ventures, an incubator for new IT companies, where he served as managing director and vice president. He previously served as vice president of corporate development and marketing for VocalTec Communications and was with Lucent Technologies. Rabban received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tel Aviv University and a master’s degree in business administration from Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to coming to the U.S., he practiced corporate law in Tel Aviv.
Jeffrey Rodman
Jeffrey Rodman, CTO of Polycom’s voice communications division, has been at the forefront of audio and video communications for most of his career. He co-founded Polycom in 1990 and has been instrumental in the realization of the company’s iconic products for voice, video, network communications and other media. In 1984, Rodman was recruited to build a hardware engineering organization and implement a revolutionary architecture for the new start-up PictureTel (then PicTel) and continued as director of hardware development through PictureTel’s formative years. Prior to that, he was with Harris Video Systems and Hughes Aircraft Company. He also co-founded Specialty Video Systems to market digital video effects to the entertainment industry. Rodman holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from CSUN.
Carlos Rodriguez
Carlos Rodriguez is Cisco's business developer manager for data center architectures in Latin America. His primary focus is in the development of the regional market in solutions that include consolidation, virtualization and automation of data centers. Rodriguez has more than 11 years of experience working in networking industries. His previous roles include system engineer, system engineer manager and business development manager for advanced technologies such as security and unified communications. Rodriguez holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering Universidad Simon Bolivar and a master's degree in business administration from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Fernando Rodriguez
Fernando Rodriguez, CTO and business development director for eLandia, is in charge of setting of the mid- and long-term direction for the company’s products and services. In addition, he is directly responsible for the internal IT organization that supports eLandia operations; his main focus is to leverage the internal usage of advanced technologies to improve the company’s business responsiveness and competitive edge. Prior to joining eLandia in 2003, he was with CYGNUS Integradores de Sistemas and CTT Corp. A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Rodriguez earned an undergraduate degree in systems engineering and a master’s degree in finance and organizational development. He holds several advanced certifications by key technology manufacturers and is fluent in English and Spanish.
Lew Roth
Lew Roth, vice president of business development for Partners 1993, is inspired by how things work, and the art of the possible. Over nearly three decades, he has helped build new and unique businesses around emerging technologies in mobile instant messaging (WebMessenger), Internet television (Veoh Networks), desktop search (X1 Technologies) data mining (BeFree / TriVida) and commercial expert systems (Inference Corporation). In his current position, Roth leads all business development and professional services operations in Los Angeles and offshore in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is responsible for specialized project teams on client projects in mobile applications, digital media, wireless internet communications, virtual worlds and voice over IP and evaluating venture engineering investment opportunities for the company. He earned a doctorate in engineering science from Columbia University.
Tom Russo
Tom Russo is director of product management for the 9900 Wireless Network Guardian (WNG) from Alcatel-Lucent Ventures, a new business innovation engine within Bell Labs. Russo manages product marketing and new business development activities for the WNG, which helps wireless data service providers more efficiently and profitably manage their wireless network resources, while providing an improved wireless broadband customer experience. He also focuses on partner relations, marketing communications, analytics and customer care. Before assuming his current position, Russo led the multimedia practice for Bell Labs. He also held roles with Corning Incorporated and CommScope, managing the development of a wide number of products and marketing initiatives. Russo holds a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering from Rutgers University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.
Mark Salvin
Mark Salvin is the COO of UK-based Fused Group and has overall responsibility for sales and marketing. He has more than 10 years of management experience in telecommunications with THUS, NTL and Martin Dawes. He has extensive experience working within the channel community and was instrumental in the introduction of partnership and channel sales at NTL.
Alec Saunders
Alec Saunders is the CEO of Iotum. Passionately engaged with how technology can positively affect quality of life, he wants to see five-year plans on the market in one. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, Saunders spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in e-mail marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct e-mail list ever.
Joda Schaumberg
Joda Schaumberg is senior director of IP services at Global Crossing, responsible for the global VPN, mobility, application performance monitoring and frame relay/ATM service offerings. He was previously the senior director, responsible for the global unified collaboration product and, before that, a principal solutions architect in the company’s advanced solutions group. Schaumberg joined Global Crossing in 2000 as a sales engineer, working with large MNCs, media and entertainment and government verticals, as well as carrier and wholesale customers. He came to Global Crossing from MCI WorldCom, where he served as an enterprise network consultant, responsible for developing and managing global VPN and Internet solutions for MNCs. He previously held various technical and marketing positions at Astrocom Corp.
Rick Schmaltz
Rick Schmaltz is vice president of business development for CA, responsible for developing and implementing the go-to-market strategy for the global communications service provider market. He has more than 25 years of experience in technology, telecommunications and software. Prior to joining CA, Schmaltz held senior management responsibilities in sales, marketing, business development and operations for HP, CrossKeys (now Oracle) and WatchMark (now IBM).
Irv Shapiro
Irv Shapiro, CEO/CTO of Ifbyphone has spent over 30 years driving technology innovation with a focus on data communications and networking. Irv began his career writing custom VAX/VMS device drivers for Digital Equipment Corporation, then founded Metamor Technologies, a two-time INC 500 award recipient, followed by Edventions, an elementary school infrastructure company. Following the sale of Edventions he founded Ifbyphone and developed its proprietary VoiceXML generation technology. Irv is a member of the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, has a BS/CS from Washington University in St. Louis and is a regular speaker and writer on the application of technology.
Michael Shea
Michael Shea leads the Cognos global solution strategy for IBM’s communications sector, which includes the telco, energy and utilities, and media industries. As a liaison between IBM’s client's CXO teams and information management brands, he is responsible for crafting performance management solutions that impact client's profit and loss. Shea also leads the commercialization of next-generation, advanced social and predictive analytics intellectual property. He coordinates IBM's research laboratory efforts in Israel, India, China and New York.
Prior to rejoining IBM in 2008, Shea led the emerging technology business at Avaya. He led early adoption of intellectual property related to SIP-based communications, including communications enabled business processes (CEBP) and unified communications.
Tim Sisneros
Tim Sisneros, Industry Expert, has more than 21 years of experience in the telecommunications and Internet industry where he has focused on emerging IP technologies in both direct and indirect channels. Prior to joining Adaption, he served as Polycom’s VoIP service provider development manager for the central U.S., managed development of Level 3’s worldwide portal to order hosted VoIP services in the U.S. and European markets and was key in developing the Qwest Business Partner Program from start-up through launch to the successful program it is today. He served as an implementation manager as well as in various technician roles within MCI Telecommunications, including work at their largest switching facility in the country. Tim is also a member of the VON advisory board.
Peter Sisson
Peter Sisson is a successful serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and Internet industries. He is founder and CEO of Toktumi, which provides a new type of phone service for virtual offices and home-based businesses. Before starting Toktumi, he was co-founder and CEO of Teleo, a VoIP application software company that was acquired by Microsoft in 2005. He was also founder of mixonic.com and wineshopper.com. Sisson was named one of the top 10 people to watch by CNET and has won a DEMO God award. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a master’s degree in business administration from Tuck School at Dartmouth and a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University.
Walter Snell
Walter Snell infuses Pac-West with his exciting technical vision, forged from over twenty years of telecommunications leadership and innovation. A recognized industry leader in advanced telecommunications infrastructure and CaaS (Communications-as-a-Service), Snell brought one of the first on-demand communications platforms to market as the CEO and co-founder of Panterra Networks (formerly Pandora Networks). Previously, Snell served in a variety of senior executive roles, including Chairman of WebTelecom; Vice President of Sales for WebSideStory (NASDAQ: WSSI); President and Founder of Mockingbird Networks; Exec VP Sales and Marketing at Themis Computer (Tekelec Group); EVP / Deputy President of Tadpole Technology; VP Sales at Pacific Microcomputer; and VP Sales at Zero Corporation (Electronic Corporation).
Scott Sobers
Scott Sobers is the global program director for service provider solutions within the Tivoli business unit, IBM Corporation. He is responsible for managing Tivoli’s solution and marketing strategy for the communication service provider industry on a worldwide basis. Sobers joined IBM in February 2006 via the acquisition of Micromuse Inc. He previously held positions at AOL Time Warner and PeopleSoft. With more than 15 years of technology and marketing experience, Sobers has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences worldwide such as TM Forum, 3G World Congress, CTIA, VoIP World and Internet Telephony. He has also contributed articles to InfoWorld, WirelessWeek, Pipeline, Telephony Online and VON magazine. He is also actively engaged with the TeleManagement Forum and has been a voting representative. Sobers earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in business administration from Georgetown University.
Richard Stiennon
Richard Stiennon is an industry analyst who writes for several publications, blogs profusely at threatchaos.com and is the most followed Security Twit on Twitter. He has been an ethical hacker for PricewaterhouseCoopers, analyst for Gartner and CMO for Fortinet Inc. He is founder of IT-Harvest, an independent research firm that covers the 1,200 security vendors and is the author of "Surviving Cyber War," soon to be a Syngress title.
Scott Sumner
Scott Sumner, vice president of marketing for Accedian Networks, has held senior marketing, public relations, product management and business development positions in a number of leading telecom-focused companies including Minacom (Tektronix), Aethera Networks and EXFO. He has extensive experience in acquisitions and partnerships and the development of several OEM, sales and marketing alliances with multinational corporations. He has also held a number of project and engineering management roles, authored several patents and published numerous conference papers and technical articles for telecom trade organizations and publications. Sumner has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in engineering from McGill University in Montreal and has completed professional business management training at the John Molson School of Business, the Alliance Institute at Cambridge and the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Martin Suter
Martin Suter brings an impressive track record of wins over a 20-year span to his position as vice president of business development for BelAir Networks. He is a results-driven, intellectually agile, strategic business development and technology licensing executive with extensive experience in developing corporate strategy, building asymmetrical strategic relationships and negotiating complex transactions. Prior to joining BelAir Networks, Suter was the CEO at Cohda Wireless. Before that, he was vice president, business development at MeshNetworks Inc. Suter also has been responsible for building alliances with and for leading technology companies, including Fujitsu, Microsoft, Netscape, SUN Microsystems, and Teradata. Additionally, he has successfully negotiated technology transfer, distribution and/or licensing deals with companies like 3Com, BioChem Pharma, Dow Chemical, Exodus, Fujitsu, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Netscape and SUN.
Bryan Taylor
Bryan Taylor, Anderson Taylor’s CEO, founded the Atlanta-based mobile applications company in 1990. He is an expert in mobile applications and SaaS and has created sophisticated online software for companies such as MicroCorp, Sprint, UCN, Delta, Mitsubishi, AVAYA and NEC. Prior to founding Anderson Taylor, he spent 10 years as a partner for CDI, an advertising and marketing firm. With more than 20 years of executive experience, Taylor is an entrepreneur at heart with a profound understanding of business processes and strategies. He applies this knowledge to continually advance not only the success of his own company, but also his Fortune 500 clients. Taylor is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design. His association involvement includes ICSA, SOCAP, TAG and Wireless Technologies group.
Michael Tessler
Michael Tessler brings more than 20 years of business strategy and technology experience to his role as co-founder of BroadSoft. As CEO and president, he is focused on bringing advanced carrier-grade communications systems to service providers worldwide. Prior to BroadSoft, Tessler was at Alcatel USA as vice president of engineering in the Celcore organization. He was responsible for all product development activities for several product lines. Before that, he held numerous senior management roles at Nortel and founded and led a services development business unit that helped local exchange carriers build and deploy advanced services on their digital networks. Tessler has two patents in the area of local switching, AIN and advanced call management services. He was a recent winner of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year.
Chris Thompson
Chris Thompson is the senior product manager for ADTRAN’s voice over IP product lines which includes NetVanta and Total Access IP Business Gateways and Integrated Access platforms, NetVanta IP PBX and IP Communications Platforms and ADTRAN IP Phones. With more than 15 years of experience in the communications and carrier converged services market Thompson has led ADTRAN to the number one position in key product sectors across multiple technologies. He currently directs business development and market direction, coordinates sales support and engineering design efforts and provides future development direction for ADTRAN’s trunking, hosted and premise VoIP solutions. Among his accomplishments is the concept, development and launch of the market-leading Total Access 900 and 900e Series of IP business gateways.
John Trembley
John Trembley brings more than 14 years of strategy experience to lead Xeround's product management and go-to-market plan. His background extends from telecommunications, networking, and high tech industries to embedded systems. Prior to Xeround, Trembley worked as director of business development and industry strategy at Oracle. He was also marketing director of telecom and networking at TimesTen, which was acquired by Oracle. In addition, he has worked for communications service providers including Electric Lightwave (now Integra Telecom) and GST Telecommunications (now Time Warner Telecom). Trembley is frequently quoted by industry press and has spoken at many industry conferences. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Willamette University.
Rodrigue Ullens
Rodrigue Ullens, CEO and co-founder of Voxbone, is responsible for directing the company’s strategy and setting up partnerships with leading telecommunications carriers around the world. Prior to founding Voxbone, Rodrigue provided advice and training to European carriers such as Belgacom Mobile, KPN, France Telecom and Orange, as well as to several European governments. Rodrigue holds a bachelor’s degree in telecommunication engineering from the University of Louvain.
Randy Waters
Randy Waters, vice president, market development for Comverse Americas, brings 25 years of engineering and leadership experience in the telecom switching industry. Prior to joining Comverse, he founded Carrius Technologies, which developed and delivered a programmable softswitch to the marketplace. Before that, he was chief of applications technology at Taqua Systems and was with Alcatel, where he directed the architecture and development of a number of products. He also directed the development of products at IEX Corporation (acquired by Tekelec] and Bell Laboratories. Waters has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma.
Mike Welch
Mike Welch has developed a global reputation as a subject matter expert on customer interaction
strategy, contact center optimization, financial analysis of technology investments, and workforce
productivity. He is the author of Financial Analysis of Technology Investments, Employee
Productivity and Shareholder Value, Creating Great Customer Experiences, and Developing and
Maintaining a Prospect Database for Growth.
He is a frequent conference speaker and has made presentations in more than 15 countries.
Mike has consulted with executives at some of the world’s top corporations, including Assurant,
Bell Canada, USAA, Cisco Systems, Telecom Italia, TELUS, and United Rental.
Cindy Whelan
Cindy Whelan is principal analyst, business and wholesale services for Current Analysis Inc. She analyzes companies, events, products, technologies and technology initiatives in the telecom network services industry, with particular focus on enterprise IP telephony and carrier wholesale services. Prior to joining Current Analysis in the summer of 2005, Whelan held positions in sales and marketing at a variety of organizations, including Juniper Networks, MRV Communications, SafeNet and Dynatech Corporation. She has participated in industry roundtable forums and has been interviewed and quoted by various media outlets including Telephony, TechTarget, Virginia Business, xchange and other publications.
Dan York
Dan York is director of conversations at Voxeo Corporation heading up the company's communication through both traditional and new/social media. Previously, he served in Voxeo's Office of the CTO focused on analyzing/evaluating emerging technology, participating in industry standards bodies and addressing VoIP security issues. Since the mid-1980s York has been working with online communication technologies and helping businesses and organizations understand how to use and participate in those new media. He frequently presents at conferences, has authored multiple books on Linux and networking and has written numerous articles in print and online.
Andriy Zhylenko
Andriy Zhylenko, CTO of PortaOne Ukraine, brings 12 years of experience in telecommunications and software design to the company. His vast technical know-how and spirit of innovation have helped the company find new markets and increase its customer base Before joining the PortaOne team, Zhylenko was manager for development at Nextra, one of the leading European ISPs. In 2000 he was the world’s seventh-ranked Perl programmer, according to that year’s Brainbench certification results. Zhylenko received a master’s degree in mathematics from National Technical University of Ukraine Kiev Polytechnic Institute.
Stephen J. Zitnik
Stephen J. Zitnik brings diverse technical and financial expertise to his position as vice president of technology and new ventures for Interop Technologies. He is currently responsible for software development and oversees IT and business strategy and direction. Previously, he worked for Wireless One Network, where he was responsible for extending the company’s intellectual property portfolio. From 1997 to 2000, Zitnik established and operated a boutique dollar/yen brokerage house with clients such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, ED&F Mann, and Dean Witter. In addition, he has held positions at DHT, Paine Webber and E.F. Hutton.
