2025 Speakers

Aashu Virmani is a Sales/Marketing and Product Strategy Executive with over 25 years of experience in the Telecom/Wireless industry at Fortune 500 companies and high-tech startups. In a career marked with increasing responsibility and authority, Mr. Virmani managed global product lines, built sales teams and pipelines, developed strategic OEM partnerships, and executed multiple M&A transactions – all in order to accelerate a company’s speed to market.

In his current role at Cambridge Consultants (CC) as SVP of Business Development, he is responsible for finding areas of #deeptech innovation in connectivity and allow CC’s customers to leverage such innovation to create a sustainable moat.

Mr. Virmani has a Ph.D. in database mining from Rutgers, and a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from IIT, Roorkee. He has multiple patents in the area of wireline/wireless networks and has authored numerous papers and articles for peer-reviewed journals and trade publications. He lives in Boston, MA.

Alind Saxena serves as the President and Executive Director at L&T Technology Services (LTTS), overseeing the Mobility and Tech segments, as well as the markets in EMEA and ROW, including Japan, Australia and India. He focuses on building strong client relationships, enhancing our deal pipeline and winning transformative projects with clients worldwide. He dedicates equal time to nurturing innovative solutions and building a strong, technology-driven presence in the verticals and markets he represents.

Alind joined LTTS as Chief Business Officer in 2010 and over the years has been instrumental in establishing the company as a leading global engineering and technology services provider for Fortune 500 clients. By leveraging diverse global teams, he has successfully led LTTS’ expansion into key geographical markets and drives the large-deals engine at LTTS.

Alind has held several leadership positions in multinational organizations. A technologist with very strong business acumen, Alind has worked out of Asia, Europe, and North America. With 30 years of leadership experience, Alind has been associated with the manufacturing industry in domains such as automotive, aerospace, oil and gas, industrial products, telecom and medical devices.

Alind is a core member of the Leadership Council at LTTS. He is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK), and certified in leadership from INSEAD and Harvard Business School. He also completed the Senior Executive Program (SEP) from London Business School. He is an active member of STEM and presides over several educational councils in his local district.

He is currently based in Chicago, USA.

Dr Amir Banifatemi leads the Cognizant’s global efforts to embed safety, transparency, and accountability into AI systems and services. He oversees the design and implementation of Cognizant’s Responsible AI framework, ensuring alignment with international standards such as ISO/IEC 42001, NIST AI RMF, and other emerging governance models across sectors and jurisdictions. Amir contributes to key initiatives at the OECD, GPAI, IEEE, and the ITU, where he focuses on operationalizing responsible AI and advancing cross-sector standards for AI safety and accountability. He co-leads working groups on AI Futures, AI-Enabled Investments, and Trustworthy AI Ecosystems.

Previously, Amir served as Chief Innovation and Growth Officer at XPRIZE, where he launched and directed global competitions addressing grand challenges in AI, climate, and health. He co-founded the AI for Good movement and helped establish the AI for Good Global Summit in partnership with the ITU, aligning AI innovation with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Asha is a global business leader, creative strategist, and patent holder. Her career is characterized by developing disruptive and mainstream solutions that solve consumer and enterprise pain points. Asha is is currently Vice President, Global Technology Standards at Cisco. She is focused on core and emerging technology areas, including AI, network, data, security and quantum.

Asha has been at the forefront of Wireless and Cellular, Network, Edge and Cloud, AI, IoT, Compute and software transformation for 25+ years including as Corporate VP at Intel. With a profound understanding of the complex interplay across business domains, functional disciplines, ecosystem stakeholders and governmental policy, she is known for end-to-end innovation and monetization of new markets.

In her role as Intel’s 5G Executive Sponsor, Asha played a pivotal role in establishing the company as a key leader in the wireless industry. She led Intel’s market leadership by directing incubation efforts, product development, industry forums, standards creation, ecosystem enablement, and policy governance.

She is a highly networked industry thought leader and global spokesperson providing insights to government agencies, the media, analysts, academia, and investors. Asha has testified before US Congress multiple times and worked on policy areas internationally. She is a keynote speaker across technology, business, and regulatory topics.

Asha currently serves on Smith Micro’s Board as an independent Board Director and is a member of the WomenTech Network Advisory Board. She has a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Clemson University, South Carolina, and completed the Intel Executive Accelerator Program from Stanford University. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and enjoys the great outdoors.

Biju Nair is president of Assurant’s Global Connected Living business unit, which delivers comprehensive services, support and protection for the connected consumer. He is responsible for the financial performance and growth of the business across the markets we serve, as well as development of our people, products and capabilities.

Nair’s entrepreneurial and innovation leadership spans more than 25 years in the wireless industry. Previously, Nair served as the EVP and president of Assurant’s Global Trade-in and Upgrade business. He joined Assurant in 2020 as part of Assurant’s acquisition of HYLA Mobile where he served as president and CEO. HYLA Mobile focused on developing technologies to re-purpose pre-owned mobile devices, creating economic opportunities for wireless companies, providing a better experience for device owners its clients and promoting environmentally sustainable practices. Under his leadership, HYLA was named a most valuable startup in the nation by PitchBook and won the SME Award at The Circulars, the world’s premier Circular Economy award program hosted by the World Economic Forum.

Ernst & Young named Nair as a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019 and 2020. He also is the recipient of the prestigious Chairman’s Award for Communications Quality and Reliability from IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, for his work in providing basic technology services for those who are less fortunate so they can improve their everyday lives.

Nair serves on the board of College of Computing at Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) and as a commissioner on the Global Information Infrastructure Commission. He owns several patents in the field of wireless technology and is a frequent speaker at major wireless conferences, such as Mobile World Congress and Mobile Future Forward.

Nair has a B.S and M.S in Electronics and Computer Engineering from Warsaw University of Technology and a M.S. in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Brian Shepherd is the President and Chief Executive Officer at CSG and a member of the Board, having been appointed in January 2021. Prior to his role as Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Shepherd served as Executive Vice President and Group President (2017-2021), where he focused on accelerating the growth and strategic development of the company, and Executive Vice President and President of Global Broadband, Cable and Satellite at CSG (2016-2017). Mr. Shepherd received an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated from Wabash College with a BA in Economics.

Chetan Sharma is the CEO of Chetan Sharma Consulting and is one of the leading strategists in the mobile industry. Executives from wireless companies around the world seek his accurate predictions, independent insights, and actionable recommendations. He has served as an advisor to senior executive management of several Fortune 100 companies in the wireless space and is probably the only industry strategist who has advised each of the top 10 global mobile data operators. Chetan serves on the advisory boards of Ericsson, Telefonica, Kymeta, NextNav, Zeotap, Opanga Networks, A5GNetworks, Lotusflare, and a number of other startups.

Chetan is the author or co-author of over 15 best-selling books on wireless including Mobile Advertising: Supercharge your brand in the exploding wireless market and Wireless Broadband: Conflict and Convergence. He is also the editor of the Mobile Future Forward Book Series. His books have been adopted in several corporate training programs and university courses at NYU, Stanford, and Tokyo University. His research work is widely quoted in the industry. Chetan is interviewed frequently by leading international media publications such as Time magazine, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Japan Media Review, Mobile Communications International, and TechCrunch, and has appeared on NPR, WBBN, and CNBC as a wireless data technology expert. He is also the chief curator of the mobile thought leadership executive forums – Mobile Future Forward and Mobile Breakfast Series.

Chetan is an advisor to CEOs and CTOs of some of the leading wireless technology companies on product strategy and Intellectual Property (IP) development and serves on the advisory boards of several companies. He is also a sought-after IP strategist and expert witness in the wireless industry and has worked on and testified in some of the most landmark cases in the industry such as Qualcomm vs. Broadcom, Samsung vs. Ericsson, Sprint vs. Verizon, Openwave vs. 724 Solutions, and Upaid vs. Satyam. Chetan is a senior member of IEEE, IEEE Communications Society, and IEEE Computers Society. He has Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University and Bachelor of Science degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

David Goldman is the Vice President of Satellite Policy for SpaceX. David joined SpaceX in 2018 to build an international team based in Washington, DC to oversee spectrum and broadband policy across the globe. He now runs a growing team of more than twenty people based in six countries who drive key policy initiatives and are responsible for authorizing multiple satellite broadband constellations consisting of more than ten thousand satellites. His team has also achieved new rules for direct satellite-to-phone service and improved processes for approval of rocket launches and landings.

Prior to joining SpaceX, David was the Chief Counsel for the Communication and Technology Subcommittee. In that role, David built a team that led negotiations for multiple laws, including those that made more spectrum available for mobile broadband, reauthorized the FCC, improved network resilience during emergencies, and improved E911. He previously served as the Senior Legal Advisor for FCC then-Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. He was the Commissioner’s chief advisor on wireless, international, and public safety issues, along with responsibility for other issues of policy, strategy, public relations, and office operations. While with Commissioner Rosenworcel, David was responsible for a number of critical issues, including making new spectrum available for broadband and updating rules for 911.

David joined Commissioner Rosenworcel’s office from the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where he served on detail as Counsel to the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. While serving with the Commerce Committee, David helped lead negotiations on a law that created FirstNet, a nationwide network for first responders, and a first-of-its-kind spectrum incentive auction that enabled new mobile broadband services and raised billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury.

Prior to serving on Capitol Hill, David served in a number of positions at the FCC, including in the office of Chairman Genachowski and as a Policy Advisor to the Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. He joined the agency as an Honors Attorney, serving as Attorney Advisor in the Spectrum Competition and Policy Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Before this, he served as Staff Law Clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and as an associate at the law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed in New York.

David received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida.

Dina Bass is a technology reporter covering artificial intelligence Infrastructure for Bloomberg News in Seattle. Previously, Bass covered Microsoft for 25 years and served as Bloomberg’s Seattle Bureau chief, as well as writing about AI software, cloud computing and Seattle startups. Her reporting on the ethical and climate questions raised by AI has been recognized by the Online News Association, the Sigma Awards, the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, and was a 2024 finalist for a Gerald Loeb Award.

Gil Rosen is Chief Marketing Officer at Amdocs, responsible for managing its global brand, product marketing and customer marketing. In this role, he leads development of Amdocs’ vision, delivery of strategic research insights to customers, as well as the company’s overall go-to-market activities. Gil heads a team of global marketing professionals and is a member of the company’s executive management team.

Prior to assuming the CMO role, Gil was Division President of amdocs:next, responsible for cultivating and incubating future growth engines and disruptive technologies, including IoT and the AI-powered home broadband experience.

Before joining Amdocs in 2018, Gil served as the Chief Marketing & Innovation officer at Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecommunications provider. He significantly accelerated Bezeq’s drive towards digitization and market leadership in the broadband domain, turning around a declining business in a very competitive market, and leading with prizewinning product launches and advertising campaigns. In 2016 when IoT was still in its early phases, Gil led Bezeq’s “Smart Strategy”, including Smart City, Smart Business and Smart Home offerings, and captured market leadership in this domain. Before Bezeq, Gil was Vice President, New Media at Deutsche Telekom, responsible for the development of the cloud set-top-box concept, the Tolino Tab – an award-winning competitor to Amazon Kindle. In his last role at Deutsche Telekom, Gil spun off its first fully digitized cloudbased communication provider, IMMMR and served as the company’s founder and general manager.

In a previous tenure at Amdocs, Gil was VP Innovation & Digital Services and the founder and head of the AT&T Innovation Center (Foundry) in Israel. In this role, Gil was responsible for the setup of a new innovation center and the creation of a hybrid R&D and partnership model that led to the launch of successful innovation projects for AT&T.

Gil holds a BA in business administration from Reichman University, Israel.

Heather Redman is Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Flying Fish Partners, a venture firm investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning companies.

She serves on the boards of PPL Corporation (NYSE), Coldstream Holdings Inc., the Washington State Investment Board, the Institute of Systems of Biology, and the Advisors of the University of Washington College of Engineering, among other community boards.

Recent awards include the 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 Power 100 and 2019 Director of the Year by the Puget Sound Business Journal. She holds a JD (with distinction) from Stanford and her BA from Reed (phi beta kappa).

Jeff Ahmet is a seasoned technology leader with over 20 years of experience driving innovation at the intersection of telecommunications and global connectivity. He currently serves as the Director of Partnerships and Integration for SpaceX’s Direct-to-Cell program, where he oversees strategic collaborations with mobile network operators and technology partners to bring seamless satellite-enabled connectivity directly to smartphone users worldwide.

Prior to joining SpaceX, Jeff held critical engineering and leadership roles at Google, T-Mobile, and Ericsson, spearheading initiatives in wireless network architecture, emerging connectivity solutions, and global communications strategy. Throughout his career, he has consistently focused on transforming advanced technologies into tangible applications that reshape how networks and industries evolve.

Jeff Giard is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of leadership in the wireless industry, specializing in strategic partnerships, emerging technologies, and business development. As Vice President at T-Mobile, Jeff drives high-impact initiatives that shape the future of connectivity—including the groundbreaking collaboration with SpaceX to deliver satellite direct-to-cell service. He also leads innovation strategies around AI, search, and next-generation network capabilities.

Throughout his career at T-Mobile, Jeff has held multiple senior leadership roles, spearheading new ventures in media, fiber partnerships, advertising, and mobile identity. His efforts have consistently fueled revenue growth, forged ecosystem-wide collaborations, and positioned T-Mobile at the forefront of industry evolution. Prior to T-Mobile, he held executive positions at Clearwire and Alltel, where he led product development, mobile advertising, and data strategies during critical periods of growth and transformation.
A visionary connector and operator, Jeff combines strategic insight with a deep understanding of technology trends to deliver lasting business impact.

Jim has over 20 years of enterprise, channel, and startup experience through companies such as Bell Canada, Nortel Networks, PeopleSoft, Oracle and over 13 years at Microsoft. Jim is the Founder of the 5G Open Innovation Lab in Seattle. The Lab is a community of innovators, platforms, and industry focused on discovering, accelerating, and promoting future 5G inspired used cases and innovation. Prior to launching the Lab Jim was a Managing Partner for Quake Capital leading their early efforts to establish a presence in the ecosystem. Jim was also the General Manager of the Microsoft for Startups program in the United States and Canada. His team was responsible for startup engagements partnering with leading North American startup accelerators/incubators.

Together with these partners Jim’s team engaged over 2,800 startups actively running on Azure through programs such as the Customer Access Program (CAP), technical enablement, and events to help startups accelerate their business. Prior to launching the Microsoft for Startups program. Jim led operations for Microsoft Ventures globally in addition to creating and launching their “HiPo” program; an exclusive engagement for Startups with significant market potential.

John Guiney has more than 40 years of experience in operations leadership in the space sector, including direct participation in mission readiness for more than 50 satellite launches. John is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Rivada Space Networks, leading the operations, networking, security, and other technology teams for the design and development of Rivada’s Outernet constellation. He was previously with LEO satellite operator Eutelsat/OneWeb, where he led LEO connectivity operations, responsible for 630 satellites, more than 600 ground antennas, and a global wide area network. He also played a key role in satellite operations center design, integration of network operations, and telecommunications systems testing and evaluation. Earlier in his career, John worked on satellite program development, mission readiness and operations for Orbital ATK, Spectrum Astro, Motorola (Iridium), Lockheed, General Electric and the U.S. Air Force.

John Meehan, MD, is an attending surgeon in the Division of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Seattle Children’s Hospital and an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

He also attends at Seattle Children’s Bellevue Clinic and Surgery Center, and is co-director of the Seattle Children’s Robotic Surgery Center. His clinical and research focus is on minimally invasive robotic surgery and new technologies. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field and has been one of the leaders in advancing the use robotic surgery. Dr. Meehan received his medical degree from the University of Iowa, College of Medicine. He completed his residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Ken Denman is a venture partner at Sway Ventures and a voting member of the Investment Committee. He also leads Sway Studios, a new platform that will have the firm building and launching venture-scale businesses. Ken brings nearly two decades of CEO experience to Sway Ventures’ consumer and enterprise investments, garnered through successful transformations at several companies.

Ken is a former Silicon Valley technology CEO and now stays equally busy as a public and private board member and venture capitalist. Previously he was co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Emotient, Inc., a developer of software technology to analyze facial expressions, until the company was acquired by Apple in January 2016. He was the Chief Executive Officer of Openwave Systems, Inc., subsequent to his role as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of iPass, Inc., for which he led a successful IPO. Ken was also a Senior Vice President for MediaOne. As an expat, he was Chief Operating Officer of MediaOne International based in London.

Kent Gilson is a breakthrough technologist and five-time founder whose innovations have shaped the fields of reconfigurable computing, edge AI, and precision robotics. Known for coining the term “reconfigurable computing” in the 1980s, Gilson pioneered systems where hardware dynamically adapts to software demands—a concept that predated RISC-V and anticipated today’s edge inferencing architectures.

His career spans decades of firsts: the world’s first polymorphic nano-processor, VIVA—the original object-oriented language for FPGA-based supercomputers—and Dexter, the award-winning 3D-printed robotic arm that proved affordable additive manufacturing could rival traditional automation. That arm, built entirely from carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic, delivered sub-50 micron precision and was ultimately acquired by Ocado to help reshape warehouse automation.

As CTO of REVOBOTS, Gilson now leads a new wave of robotic transformation—building task-capable humanoid robots that combine local AI inference, modular microfactories, and human-in-the-loop control. His work lies at the intersection of hardware acceleration, autonomy, and scalable manufacturing, redefining how intelligent machines are built and deployed.

Manish Mangal is the Head of the Americas Communications Business at Tech Mahindra, leading one of the company’s most strategic and high-growth markets. He is a distinguished figure in the telecommunications industry, widely recognized for his visionary leadership and a 27-year career marked by transformative contributions and industry-first innovations across renowned organizations such as Reliance Jio, T-Mobile US (formerly Sprint), and Nokia.

With a career rooted in both strategic insight and operational execution, Manish brings a unique blend of deep technological expertise and business leadership. His broad experience spans across strategy, technology, operations, and organizational leadership—establishing him as a trusted advisor and catalyst for change within the global telecom ecosystem.

Since joining Tech Mahindra, Manish has played a critical role in driving growth and innovation. He previously led the Network Services Business Unit with full P&L responsibility, overseeing globally distributed teams across sales, portfolio and solution development, delivery, alliances, and operations. His leadership has been instrumental in advancing next-generation network technologies, including 5G, AI-powered automation, and cloud-native architectures.

Based in the United States throughout his career, Manish has partnered with telecom operators across the globe, offering him a nuanced, international perspective on the industry’s evolution. He holds an impressive portfolio of 60 U.S. patents, underscoring his strong innovation credentials and deep commitment to shaping the future of telecommunications.

Manish is also a frequent speaker at major industry forums and conferences, where he shares his insights on the future of networks, digital transformation, and emerging technologies. His thought leadership is regularly featured in leading telecom and technology publications, reflecting his influence and relevance across the industry.

At the heart of Manish’s leadership philosophy is a focus on aligning customer needs with business strategy—fostering innovation, delivering measurable value, and enabling sustainable growth.

Manish holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and has completed executive leadership programs at Harvard University and Mahindra Learning University.

As the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Provider Mobility business, Masum leads the strategic initiatives and product development, including designing groundbreaking Mobile IoT and 5G product and solutions for communication service providers, industries, and enterprises. Under his leadership, Cisco’s Provider Mobility solutions and technology have been deployed in the world’s largest communication networks.

During his time at Cisco, Masum shared his product and technology domain expertise, nurturing Cisco’s mission to empower global digital transformation. And with more than 20 years of experience in the networking and telecommunication industries, Masum is also a sought-after speaker for industry events.

Before joining Cisco, Masum worked with industry-leading companies gaining valuable experience in the networking and telecommunication industries and developing a leadership style that delivers results.

Masum has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and pursued his business education in Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program.

Mike Sievert is chief executive officer, president, and board director at T-Mobile US, Inc. He leads a customer-obsessed team of tens of thousands who are disrupting a tired category, putting customers first, and focusing on their mission to become the best in the world at connecting customers to their world.

Mike became CEO in April 2020 after previously serving as president, chief operating officer, and chief marketing officer. During Mike’s tenure, T-Mobile has grown from a distant No. 4 domestic provider to, by some measures, the world’s most successful telecommunications company. Since Mike became CEO, the company has generated market-leading returns while outpacing key competitors in growth of customers, service revenues and cash flows, and expanding beyond wireless to become the nation’s fastest-growing provider of home broadband, as well.

Under Mike’s leadership, T-Mobile continues to offer the low prices and market-leading value that made it famous as the Un-carrier. Simultaneously, T-Mobile is leapfrogging the competition to offer the best 5G network, delivering on its dream to be the first ever to offer the unique combination of the best value and the best network, from the same company. With its advanced capabilities and AI-driven network deployment model, T-Mobile has earned broad recognition from third parties as the nation’s best 5G and overall network.

Today, Mike and team are charting the next era for T-Mobile, transitioning the Un-carrier from Challenger to Champion by creating new and better ways to serve customers as a deeply data-informed, AI-enabled, digital-first company.

In addition to offering tremendous value and perks to customers and businesses, the Un-carrier is increasing access to connectivity for millions of Americans. Groundbreaking programs such as Project 10Million provide free and subsidized service to millions of under-connected schoolchildren, and the Connecting Heroes initiative provides free and prioritized service to first-responder organizations. CNN Business recognized Mike as “CEO of the Year” in 2022, and Yale honored him in 2024 with its “Legend in Leadership Award,” in part due to the impact of these initiatives.

Prior to joining T-Mobile in 2012, Mike held management, product, and marketing leadership positions at Microsoft, AT&T, E*TRADE, IBM, and Procter & Gamble. He currently serves on the Starbucks board of directors. Mike earned a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

He is passionate about maritime activities and aviation, combining the two as a seaplane pilot. Mike also enjoys exploring the Pacific Northwest with his wife of more than 30 years, Suzanne, and their two adult children.

Mischa Dohler is now VP Emerging Technologies at Ericsson Inc. in Silicon Valley, working on cutting-edge topics of 6G, Metaverse, XR, Quantum and Blockchain. He serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the FCC and on the Spectrum Advisory Board of Ofcom.

He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET); and a Distinguished Member of Harvard Square Leaders Excellence. He is a serial entrepreneur with 5 companies; composer & pianist with 5 albums on Spotify/iTunes; and fluent in several languages. He has had ample coverage by national and international press and media, and is featured on Amazon Prime.

He is a frequent keynote, panel and tutorial speaker, and has received numerous awards. He has pioneered several research fields, contributed to numerous wireless broadband, IoT/M2M and cyber security standards, holds a dozen patents, organized and chaired numerous conferences, was the Editor-in-Chief of two journals, has more than 300 highly-cited publications, and authored several books. He is a Top-1% Cited Innovator across all science fields globally.

He was Professor in Wireless Communications at King’s College London and Director of the Centre for Telecommunications Research from 2013-2021, driving cross-disciplinary research and innovation in technology, sciences and arts. He is the Cofounder and former CTO of the IoT-pioneering company Worldsensing; cofounder and former CTO of the AI-driven satellite company SiriusInsight.AI, and cofounder of the sustainability company Movingbeans. He also worked as a Senior Researcher at Orange/France Telecom from 2005-2008.

Orlagh Neary is the Founder and CEO of Quantum Links and a recognized leader in emerging technology commercialization, specializing in the convergence of quantum computing, AI, and cybersecurity. With over two decades of experience translating breakthrough technologies into market-leading solutions, Orlagh has established herself as a go-to strategist for navigating the complex landscape where quantum, AI, and security intersect.

During her 20+ year career at Microsoft, Orlagh built emerging technology marketing capabilities from the ground up as VP of Quantum and AI Ecosystem Engagement, and architected the company’s first AI marketing communications team. She launched innovative C-suite, developer and scientist engagement programs including Microsoft Quantum Ready, Microsoft AI Business School, Humans of AI, Quantum Innovators, and AI Lab. Her expertise in translating complex quantum and AI concepts into compelling market narratives has consistently built brand perception and driven exponential growth across enterprise and government accounts.

Orlagh serves as a Board Member of Cambrian Futures, Guest Lecturer at UC Berkeley Haas MBA program, and mentor to INSEAD AI Venture Lab participants. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Languages from Dublin City University and has completed executive Quantum and AI education at MIT, INSEAD, and Kellogg. In her spare time, Orlagh is focused on helping women break new ground, on and off the golf course, through a new golf, wellness and leadership community she is building – The ORB Network.

Parth Trivedi is CEO and Co-Founder of Skylo Technologies. Skylo is a software-defined global service operator, connecting cellular devices directly over satellites, ensuring that you never lose coverage. Skylo’s focus is on enabling connected services for people outdoors and connected workflows for machines at work across critical industries such as agriculture, defense, maritime, logistics, mining, and others, in addition to consumer cellular devices. Skylo is backed by Innovation Endeavors, Intel Capital, Samsung Catalyst, BMW i Ventures, NGP, Next47, Softbank Group, DCM, and others.

Trained as an aerospace engineer, Parth has led various missions and aerospace projects at MIT sponsored by the US Department of Defense, Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, Lockheed Martin, and the Federal Aviation Administration. He was nominated to the US delegation task force to the UN technical body on global aviation (ICAO). Parth and his co-founders conceived of Skylo at Stanford University, where he was co-leading research in the Space Systems Development Lab, and later spun the company out as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Innovation Endeavors.

Parth has a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University with highest distinction, SM in Aerospace Engineering from MIT, and MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Patrick Lopez is Global Telecom Field CTO at Pure Storage.

He has over 25 years’ experience building, launching and operating telecoms businesses in startups, mid-sized and tier one multinationals.

Prior to Pure Storage, he was global VP of Product Management for 5G products at NEC, where he managed the product strategy and planning, corporate development, and growth of NEC telecom business, including Open RAN, Packet Core and automation, orchestration.
Prior to NEC, he was global VP of Networks Innovation at Telefonica group where he led the teams that invented Open RAN and deployed the first telco Edge Computing. He also extensively worked with Bell Canada and Deutsche Telekom for their Telco Cloud and Edge computing strategy and implementation.

His latest achievements include:
• Over 30 international awards for new product / technology introduction and execution.
• World’s first Open RAN (virtualized Radio Access Network) commercial deployments in greenfield and brownfield networks.
• World’s first multi access (mobile, fixed, enterprise, residential) edge computing deployment (software defined Central Office re-architected as a data center project with transport aggregation, access virtualization, edge computing).
• Pioneered Lean Telco innovation framework for telecom operators.
• Multi 1oo´s million$ joint venture with Facebook and development banks to connect the unconnected. Includes SDN, NFV, open source virtualized ENodeB, EPC, satellite backhaul, Facebook, TIP, Google Loon…

While at NEC, Patrick sat on the board of directors of NEC Advanced Networks (an NEC company) and while at Telefonica he was on the Boards of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and 5Tonic (an open 5G laboratory).

Rob Kikta is a cofounder of Halo, an aerospace startup developing solar-powered, fixed-wing drones that operate in the stratosphere to deliver high-performance cellular connectivity. At Halo, Rob leads development of the communications system, including the airborne cellular payload, ground infrastructure, and integration with mobile network operators. Prior to Halo, Rob held roles at SpaceX and Microsoft, where he worked across satellite communications, cloud infrastructure, and advanced networking systems.

Mr. Roderick Randall (Executive Partner) has spent over 25 years in the technology and computer networking industry as an entrepreneur, senior executive and venture capitalist. He was a founding partner at Vesbridge Partners and a General Partner at St. Paul Venture Capital, where he led the mobile investment practice. Previously, Mr. Randall was CMO of Lucent Technologies, and was Vice President of Marketing at Ascend. Prior to that, Mr. Randall was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Stratus Computer and General Manager of its SS7 business and was Vice President of Strategic Market Development at Madge Networks, following its 1996 acquisition of Teleos Communications. Mr. Randall had co-founded Teleos in 1987 and served many roles including CTO, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development and Vice President of WAN Access Technology. He began his career at AT&T Bell Labs and holds several U.S. patents. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of Mavenir, Stratus Technologies Fisker Inc.(NYSE: FSR and is Chairman of MagLev Aero.). Mr. Randall is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technologies and is member of the board of Overseers of PBS TV producer and broadcaster WGBH. Mr. Randall was previously a member of the Board of Directors of TNS, Tekelec, Airvana, Bytemobile, Bitfone, PGi, Polycom, Snowshore, Teltier Technologies, ProQuent, FusionOne, Dynamicsoft and VisageMobile.

Shanker Trivedi has 30+ years of experience in senior executive roles in the U.S., the U.K. and India. Shanker is currently Senior Vice President of Enterprise Business, for NVIDIA Worldwide Field Operations. He has led worldwide sales and business development for NVIDIA’s Datacenter and Professional Visualization products since 2009. His responsibility includes TESLA HPC and Hyperscale Datacenter servers, DGX AI Supercomputers, QUADRO graphics workstations, and CUDA, OpenACC, Deep Learning, and GRID virtualization software solutions. His objective is to exponentially grow NVIDIA’s enterprise revenues by focusing business development on lighthouse customers, expanding geographic sales coverage of large enterprises, strengthening partnerships with start-ups and application providers, and leveraging go-to-market partnerships with OEMs, CSPs, solution resellers and integrators in manufacturing, oil & gas, financial services, digital media, healthcare, government, and education verticals. Under his leadership, NVIDIA’s Enterprise revenue has grown to over $1.6 billion in FY17.

Prior to NVIDIA, Shanker was a member of the executive leadership team at Callidus Cloud (Nasdaq: CALD), between 2005‐08. During this period company revenues doubled to over $100m. As Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Marketing Officer, he contributed significantly to the turnaround by transforming the customer value proposition and repositioning the company as the leader in the SPM software category, introducing new ondemand SaaS products and services, building strategic partnerships with major players such as SAP, Accenture and Salesforce.com, and leading the M&A strategy and process.

Shanker was a Non‐Executive Director on the Boards of SoftSol India Ltd (Mumbai: SFSOL) and Clearspeed Technology plc (London AIM: CSD). He is a Charter Member and former Board Director of TiE Silicon Valley, the leading non‐profit organization for entrepreneurs.

Shanker has served on Government advisory boards and committees, including the U.K. Government’s Information Age Partnership.

Shanker holds an M.B.A. (Gold Medal 1st rank) from IIM Calcutta and a M.S. in Mathematics and Computing from IIT Delhi.

Sowmyanarayan Sampath (Sampath) is executive vice president and chief executive officer for Verizon Consumer Group, serving the largest consumer customer base in the United States with over 101.6B in total revenue (2023). Sampath is a globally recognized leader in the telecom industry with experience spanning consumer, enterprise, security and critical infrastructure. His distinct tenure at Verizon includes transformative work on Verizon’s consumer operating model and empowering its customer-facing organization.

Sampath previously served as CEO of Verizon Business, serving 99% of Fortune 500 companies, leading the digitization of businesses, governments and communities around the world as customers reimagine their employee, supply chain and end-to-end-customer experiences. With $31B+ in annual revenue, Verizon Business is the leader in new 5G-based technology-led innovation.

Prior to Verizon Business, Sampath served as President of Global Enterprise at Verizon, where he led a global team focused on delivering solutions to enable enterprise customers to securely connect to the global economy and intelligently manage business operations. Earlier in his Verizon tenure, he served as Chief Product Officer, responsible for the consumer and business product portfolio and implementing major strategic initiatives. These included two of the company’s largest programs, Network Transformation and One Fiber, which served as the foundation for Verizon’s progress in wireless network densification and 5G. Before Verizon, Sampath spent almost a decade at the Boston Consulting Group, where he was a Partner and Global Sector Leader for the Telecom practice area focused on driving large scale, enterprise-wide transformations. His experience includes other executive roles including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Transformation Officer.

Corporate and charitable leadership
Sampath is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. He is the executive sponsor of United of Verizon, one of the company’s employee resource groups, designed to bring together employees of all backgrounds to help build a diverse company culture and best serve customers.
Sampath serves as a member of the WSJ CEO Council, Fast Company Impact Council and is a member of the Board of Advisors for Tech United New Jersey. He also serves on the board of directors of Canadian Tire, one of that country’s largest chains of automotive, hardware, sports, leisure, and houseware products.

Personal and educational background
Sampath holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calcutta, St. Xavier’s College, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Boston University and he is a Chartered Accountant.

CTO, Wipro Engineering, Global Head of Automotive Engineering & SDV

Thomas is a senior technology leader with over 30 years of experience in various diverse roles. He is responsible for the development and execution of Wipro’s Automotive Engineering Innovation Services, which includes Software Defined Vehicle, Autonomous Services and 5G. Wipro’s automotive Engineering is a 6,700-engineer strong global practice serving 30+ OEM and Tier1 globally. In 2024, the practice created over $240m in revenue and delivered services in 23 countries.

Joining Wipro in 2019, Thomas led the Wipro Autonomous Wipod program and the 5G development. These evolved in 2021 into Wipro’s Cloud Car program, an NextGen E/E R&D initiative developing advanced silicon, hardware, connectivity and related software solution for vehicle hyperconverged, mixed criticality workloads. Cloud Car was the industry first platform with major OEMs and Tier 1 using Wipro’s embedded cloud native platforms in vehicles with cross domain support (Ambient cabin/cockpit, ADAS, powertrain, chassis) and built in functional safety support on containerized, Open-Source real-time aware runtimes.

Prior to Wipro, starting age 21, he founded masterbit, a IT services company in Frankfurt/Germany, which merged with visionapp, a cloud automation pioneer. In his role as CTO, he led the development of a European market leading ‘Cloud Factory’ platform. In 2011, visionapp was sold for $120m to ASG, Naples, FL. Post visionapp, Thomas became the CTO at T-Systems, the Enterprise unit of Deutsche Telekom. In 2016, he led the digital platform development as VP Digital (Chief Digital Officer) at Weltbilt (NYSE: WBT) and in 2017 he took the role as CTO, Bank of Ireland, leading a $1.4B core banking cloud transformation and digital banking program.

Thomas has extensive Digital Innovation, Transformation, Sales and product development experience across multiple industry verticals. He had led multiple industry-first innovations including spearheading ASP & WLL in Europe, Digital Workplace and Cloud Service platforms.

Since 2019, Thomas is a member of the Wipro Engineering executive leadership team. Wipro (NASDAQ: WIT) is a Top 3 India technology services major with over 240k employees and +$11M annual revenue. Thomas grew Wipro’s connectivity & automotive engineering practices (combined ca. >9k engineers) and spearheads the SDV, Autonomous and Electrification innovation programs between Wipro, its major automotive clients and its partners in industry and academia (e.g. SOAFEE/ARM).
Thomas studied Physics at JLU, Giessen, Germany, and is a graduate from MIT Sloan Business School Leading Strategic Innovation executive program. He is based in Denver, Colorado.

Ulrich (Uli) Homann is a Corporate Vice President and Distinguished Architect in the Cloud + AI business at Microsoft. As part of the senior engineering leadership team, Uli is responsible for customer-led innovation efforts across the Cloud + AI investment portfolio engaging with the most complex and innovative customers and partners across the globe to enhance Microsoft products and services empowering organizations to achieve more. Uli is part of the Microsoft technical leadership team working across the company to drive and direct technical strategy and direction.

Dr. Vinay Nair is the Founder and CEO of TIFIN, a fintech platform using AI and investment intelligence to personalize wealth. TIFIN operates a portfolio of subsidiaries that are elevating the investor experience across wealth and asset management.

Previously, Vinay was the Founder and Chairman of 55ip, acquired by JPMorgan Chase, where he now serves as a special advisor to the CEO of Asset Management. He is also a sponsor and board director of DHB Capital (NASDAQ: DHBCU), a SPAC focused on financial services and technology.

Vinay began his career as the youngest finance professor at The Wharton School and continues to teach in its executive education programs. He has taught at MIT, Columbia, and Wharton, with a focus on venture capital, private equity, and entrepreneurship. He holds a Ph.D. in Financial Economics from NYU Stern, where he received the award for Best Thesis, and a Bachelor of Technology from IIT Madras, where he was awarded the Governor’s Gold Medal for all-round excellence. He is also the author of Investing for Change (Oxford University Press), and a recognized expert in fintech, sustainable investing, and the intersection of technology and finance.

In recognition of his leadership and contributions to innovation, Vinay was named one of the Most Admired CEOs by the Denver Business Journal and awarded the Colorado Governor’s Citizenship Medal for Growth & Innovation in 2024—one of the state’s highest honors.