Listed below are our 2023 Speakers. We will be updating this page throughout the summer.

speakers
Dr. Aashu Virmani

VP and Global Head C4E

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Dr. Aashu Virmani

VP and Global Head C4E

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 Cyient, he is the Vice President and global head of their Communications for Enterprises (C4E) business – a practice aimed at designing, deploying, and managing purpose-built private wireless networks across Cyient’s portfolio of ten industry verticals such as Aerospace, Rail, Mining, Energy, Manufacturing, and Utilities.

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.

speakers
Anand Chandrasekher

CEO and Co-Founder

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Anand Chandrasekher

CEO and Co-Founder

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Andy Hickl is the inaugural Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the Allen Institute, where he enables teams to make exciting, data-driven breakthroughs in the biosciences.

Most recently, he was a Managing Director at Accenture, where he served as the Global Chief Innovation Officer and the Chief Data Scientist for North America. He has also held leadership roles in AI at Microsoft, Intel, Vulcan Inc, and Language Computer Corporation. A serial entrepreneur, he has founded three successful AI startups: Swingly, Extractiv, and A.R.O. Inc.

Andy has also led research in natural language processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computer vision in collaboration with IARPA, DARPA, and the U.S. Department of Defense. His work can be found in the proceedings of AAAI, ACL, SIGIR, and NeurIPS.

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Andy Markus

SVP & Chief Data Officer

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Andy Markus

SVP & Chief Data Officer

As senior vice president and Chief Data Officer, AT&T Services, Inc., Andy Markus leads the strategic vision for data platforms and analytics to position AT&T for growth and serving customers in new ways.

The Chief Data Office (CDO) is building enterprise-wide target architecture and solutions for all AT&T businesses. CDO will transform and modernize AT&T data platforms, data supply chain and the data science ecosystem. These initiatives, along with a cutting-edge AI and automation framework, will significantly enhance revenue and reduce costs. CDO has a special responsibility to champion data governance to create a unified enterprise view of AT&T data assets using a federated approach to data.

Markus is an accomplished data analytics professional with over 28 years of experience in providing creative and privacy-compliant solutions to real-world data issues. His expertise involves creating and cultivating large consumer data platforms; direct-to-consumer marketing and advertising targeting; predictive analytics; building, motivating and managing staff; and developing strategic plans to accomplish key organizational goals.
Previously, Markus was SVP, Data Management and Consumer Analytics at WarnerMedia. He led the Enterprise Data Solution efforts collecting and maintaining consumer data across all of parts of legacy Turner, HBO and WarnerBros. He oversaw data architecture, development, audience activation, consumer identity management, data governance/privacy and business operations activities.
Prior to that, Markus was vice president, Database Marketing Services at Time Inc.. Prior to Time Inc., Markus was assistant vice president with Management Decision Systems and was involved in the creation of the financial industry’s first mass marketed credit bureau-based risk models.
Markus has in-depth experience of managing complex internal data operations as well as operating vendor integrated data solutions. He has a deep understanding of the complexity and requirements of consumer identity, analytics and audience targeting across offline, digital, social and linear broadcast channels.
Markus graduated from The University of Alabama with Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Statistics with a minor in Computer Science.

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Ashu Suvarna

Head - Sustainability

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Ashu Suvarna

Head - Sustainability

Ashu leads New Business Incubation and Innovation function for Hitachi America Ltd. He is an accomplished business leader with 23+ years global experience in operations management, technology & service delivery, consulting and business development disciplines with expertise in engaging stakeholders and devising winning business strategies. Acknowledged for entrepreneurial spirit, well-defined understanding of the business-technology interface and capacity to identify and align enterprise’s emerging needs with solutions and diverse experience that includes start-ups in an entrepreneurial setting and in a Fortune 500 Company setting, he has consistently built and managed culturally diverse, cross functional teams.

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Austin joined Voyager in 2018 after working on enterprise technology investments at M12, Microsoft’s venture fund. At Voyager, Austin plays a key role in identifying new investments and supporting the growth of Voyager’s portfolio across the Pacific Northwest. Austin is a board member for Voyager Fund V portfolio company, Candidate.

Prior to Voyager, Austin was in M12’s Seattle office focused on early-stage investments across artificial intelligence, application software, and security. He started his career as a consultant for Fortune 500 financial services and healthcare clients before working at an early-stage analytic software startup that has raised over $200M to improve the cost and quality of the US healthcare system.

Austin holds a B.S. in Physics with concentrations in Applied Mathematics and Chemistry from Bates College and an MBA from the University of Washington. In his spare time, you can find him with his dog in the Cascade Mountains skiing, climbing, and mountain biking.

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Azita Arvani

CEO - Americas

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Azita Arvani

CEO - Americas

Azita Arvani is the CEO North America of Rakuten Symphony. Arvani works with telco
operators, governments and enterprises with the vision to connect everyone and
everything to fulfill their potential for a sustainable future.

Deploying the latest digital technologies including 5G, AI, IoT, cloud, and AR/VR, Arvani
has created new businesses, developed products, and built partnerships for both
established Fortune 500 companies as well as rapid-growth startups. Prior to
Rakuten, Arvani served as Head of Innovation Partnering & Venture Management at
Nokia. Arvani has also held senior leadership and advisory roles at Docomo, Xerox,
and Upek (now part of Apple), among others. She serves on the Board of Directors for
the Open RAN Policy Coalition on behalf of Rakuten Mobile.

Arvani holds a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University (Sloan
Fellow), a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Southern
California and a Bachelor of Science in Math/Computer Science (Magna Cum Laude)
from University of California, Los Angeles. She is recognized as an avid evangelist of
true digital transformation for telcos as well as other industries.

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Brandon Johnson

SVP - AI & Automation

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Brandon Johnson

SVP - AI & Automation

Brandon Johnson is the Senior Vice President of Engineering and Automation at Assurant, a leading global business services company that supports, protects and connects major consumer purchases. Brandon oversees all engineering and automation initiatives related to the mobile device lifecycle across 20 locations worldwide. His primary responsibility is to lead a team that implements innovative software and robotics technologies to enhance efficiency, safety, quality, and device value.

Under Brandon’s leadership, Assurant has developed transformational solutions, including patented AI/ML-driven platforms for device cosmetic grading, automated device diagnostics, and robotic repair technology. These advancements have significantly improved processes within Assurant as well as driven best practices of reuse in the mobile device industry.

Before joining Assurant, Brandon served as the Vice President of Device Operations at Hyla Mobile. In this role, he was responsible for managing reverse logistics operations for leading mobile device retailers, carriers, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). In December 2020, Assurant acquired Hyla Mobile, when Brandon took on a new role driving device lifecycle innovation globally.

Brandon holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and resides in Nashville, TN.

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Caroline Chan

VP & GM - 5G Infrastructure

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Caroline Chan

VP & GM - 5G Infrastructure

Caroline Chan is General Manager of 5G Infrastructure Division within Intel’s Network Platform Group. Caroline has overall responsibility for Intel’s global network infrastructure strategy and solution development related to 5th-generation wireless technology. Chan and her team identify and develop use cases that incorporate the Internet of Things, innovation in wireless technologies and deployment models.   

Chan was previously VP and GM of Intel 5G Infrastructure Division and had overall responsibility for Intel’s global network infrastructure strategy and solution development related to 5th-generation wireless technology. Chan and her team identified and developed use cases that incorporate the Internet of Things, innovation in wireless technologies and deployment models, such as mobile edge computing and alternative spectrums that will enable new service providers and enterprise networks.

Since joining Intel in 2009, Chan has worked closely with telecommunications vendors, operators and application developers to advance strategy and marketing in virtual RAN, mini Cloud-RAN and mobile edge computing technologies. Before leading the 5G infrastructure division, she spent six years as director of wireless technology and strategy. In that position, Chan oversaw server CPU extension into Intel’s wireless infrastructure business, a role that encompassed investment strategy, CPU adoption and modification, marketing, and business development.

Before joining Intel, Chan had a 15-year career at Nortel Networks Corp., culminating in her role as director of 4G wireless product management.

She serves as an independent director on EnerSys Inc. (NYSE: ENS) board. In addition, Chan serves on the board of the Telecom Infrastructure Project (TIP) and CBRS Alliance. She is also an advisory board member for Advisory Council for Rural Edge Solutions (ACRES) and 5G Open Innovation (5GOI) Lab. Her contributions in the area of virtualized wireless radio access networks earned Chan an Intel Achievement Award in 2016. Chan was elected to be among the top 25 movers and shakers in the telecom industry 2018 by Fierce Telecom and among the top 5G 100 most influential individuals charting the course for the next generation of global communications in 2020 by Light Reading.

Chan holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, respectively.

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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.

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Cristin Flynn

Former General Counsel - Cybersecurity

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Cristin Flynn

Former General Counsel - Cybersecurity

Prior to starting Advanced Cyber Strategies, Cristin Flynn Goodwin was the Assistant General Counsel for Customer Security and Trust at Microsoft where she ran the Digital Security Unit, which oversees Microsoft’s efforts to use legal, technical, and operational means to disrupt nation state attacks, as well as global cybersecurity law and compliance; election law and legal support for Microsoft’s Defending Democracy initiatives; Microsoft’s legal work for the Government Security Program for information sharing and assurance with governments around the world and advanced cybersecurity counsel on nation state and advanced actor activity. While she now specializes in adversary and nation state incidents, Cristin spent many years as Microsoft’s lead counsel for the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). She also provides counsel to the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) on advanced security and operational issues.

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Dr. Daniel Donoho

Neurosurgeon

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Dr. Daniel Donoho

Neurosurgeon

Daniel A. Donoho, M.D., received an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College (economics) and medical degree from SUNY- Stony Brook, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Dr. Donoho’s research included clinical and translational research in neuroendocrinology, including studies investigating growth hormone replacement and oxytocin function.

Dr. Donoho completed his internship and neurological surgery residency at the University of Southern California where he learned from the mentorship of renowned surgeons including Steven L. Giannotta, M.D., J. Gordon McComb M.D. and Martin Weiss, M.D. He has published over 50 manuscripts and book chapters and given many presentations and invited lectures on innovations in adult and pediatric brain and spinal disorders. During his residency, he completed a prestigious fellowship in endoscopic, minimally disruptive surgery for tumors and other conditions of the skull base under the tutelage of Edward R. Laws, Jr. MD at Harvard Medical School. Following completion of his post-graduate training, he completed a top-tier subspecialty fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at Texas Children’s Hospital and he was a clinical instructor in the Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Donoho is excited to join Children’s National Hospital and George Washington University as an assistant professor of pediatric neurosurgery. His clinical interests include brain tumors, pituitary tumors and craniopharyngiomas, rathke’s cleft cysts, spinal tumors, hydrocephalus, myelomeningocele, spina bifida, Chiari malformation, spinal malformations and trauma, spinal dysraphism and craniocervical spinal disorders. He is available for pediatric and prenatal consultations in person and via telehealth.

Dr. Donoho’s research appointments are in the faculty of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Children’s National Center for Neuroscience Research and the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. His research group studies surgical education and technological innovations that improve surgical safety. He founded one of the first neurosurgical computer vision research groups with mentors and collaborators at the University of Southern California and Caltech where he maintains an active collaboration. He is currently engaged in studies of surgeon performance using computer vision and machine learning.

Dr. Donoho is eligible for certification by the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) and the American Board of Pediatric Neurosurgery (ABPNS).

speakers
Dr. Durga Malladi

SVP & GM - Technology Planning

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Dr. Durga Malladi

SVP & GM - Technology Planning

Durga Malladi is Senior Vice President and General Manager, Technology Planning & Edge Solutions, at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Durga joined Qualcomm in 1998 as a Senior Engineer. Over the past 25 years, he has worked on 3G, 4G and 5G technologies in various R&D and Business roles.

From 2006-18, he led Cellular Research at Qualcomm including 4G LTE/LTE-Advanced and 5G enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and Massive IoT, spanning sub6 and mmW bands. His responsibilities spanned system design, standardization, prototype testbeds, pre-commercial vendor inter-operability tests and trials.

From 2018-23, as Senior VP & General Manager, he drove the 5G Modem-RF technology roadmap across Qualcomm, spanning Mobile Handset, Compute, Infrastructure, XR, Wireless Fiber, IoT and Automotive segments. In addition, he led the 5G Wireless Fiber and Infrastructure Modem-RF Businesses.

Beginning in 2023, he has been responsible for Technology Product Management and Roadmap Planning across all businesses at Qualcomm. This spans Artificial Intelligence (AI), Connectivity (5G, Wi-Fi/BT, Positioning), Multimedia (Audio, Computer Vision, Video), Processors (CPU, GPU, NSP), Developer Tools, Device Cloud and Data Analytics Platforms. In addition, he is responsible for the Infrastructure Modem-RF (DU, RU, Small Cells) and Service Management & Orchestration Businesses.

He is a recipient of Qualcomm’s IP Excellence Award, Qualcomm Distinguished Contributor Award for Project Leadership and Qualcomm Upendra Patel Achievement Awards for Outstanding Contributions to HSPA and LTE. In addition, he is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Durga holds a B.Tech (’93) from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and an M.S (’95) and Ph.D. (’98) from UCLA. His Ph.D. dissertation is on Sequential Detection and Adaptive Estimation Techniques, and his research interests include Signal Processing, Communication Theory, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing. He is a senior member of IEEE and holds 578 U.S. patents

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Ed Chan

SVP & CTO

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Ed Chan

SVP & CTO

Ed Chan is the Senior Vice President and CTO at Verizon. Ed is responsible for the strategic technology roadmaps for the Verizon Network and IT infrastructure. Ed and his team drive for maximum efficiency and business impact with the deployment of $10B+ annual infrastructure capital. He is also responsible for managing strategic technology supplier relationships and advocate Verizon agendas with external ecosystem partners including the FCC and national/international standards bodies. Currently Ed and his team are busy driving the ecosystem to deliver the next generation technology such as Software Defined Network, Next Generation Fiber to the Home access and 5G.Externally, Ed had served on the FCC Technology Advisory Council. He is currently on the Board of Trustees at the New York Hall of Science Museum and the Cisco Global Customer Advisory Board.

His previous experiences include: Vice President – Core Network Infrastructure Planning, responsible for the strategic technology evolutions of the core network infrastructure including the Optical Long Haul network, Public Internet/Private IP Packet Core, Voice and Video distribution networks. He was also responsible for the capital and operating budget administration for the wireline network. Vice President – National Network Operations for Verizon Wireless, responsible for the operation of centralized national network infrastructure including the backbone IP network and commercial data systems. He also had responsibility for centralized Network Operations Center and the technical Network Repair Bureau, which supports consumer and enterprise customers.

Ed started his career in the Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems wireless lab in 1992. Since then, he has held positions of increasing responsibility including Technology Development, Regional Network Engineering, IT Operations, and Network Planning prior to the Verizon merger.Ed earned a Master’s Degree in Management of Technology from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University. Ed was recognized by the Diversity MBA organization as a Top 100 Under 50 Executive & Emerging Leaders in 2014. Ed was also recognized by the Asian American Business Development Center as one of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business in 2013.

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Dr. Elena Fersman

Head of AI Accelerator

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Dr. Elena Fersman

Head of AI Accelerator

Elena Fersman is a Vice President and Head of Global AI Accelerator at Ericsson. She is responsible for a distributed team based in USA, Sweden, India and Canada. Elena is a docent and an adjunct professor in Cyber-Physical Systems specialized in Automation at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from Uppsala University, an MBA from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University and did a postdoc at the University Paris-Saclay. At Ericsson, she had various positions ranging from product management to research leadership. Elena served on the Board of Directors of RISE Research Institutes of Sweden 2019-2022 and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Elena has co-authored over 50 patent families.

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Frank Meehan

Chief Product Officer

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Frank Meehan

Chief Product Officer

Before OpenESG, Frank Meehan was General Manager of ESG and Climate at FiscalNote.com, a US company listed on the NYSE with over 3,000 enterprise and government customers globally. He is on the investment committee for SparkLabs Cultiv8 and Cultiv8 Funds Management, a venture capital fund investing in Agri-Food Technology.

Frank is a co-founder and Partner at the SparkLabs Group, Asia’s leading early-stage accelerator, headquartered in Seoul. He is a core contributor at BraveNewDAO, building the decentralized finance protocol for investing in Climate and Sustainable Real World Assets.

Previously Frank was the Co-founder of Equilibrium.ai, a leading ESG and Climate AI software company, which was acquired by FiscalNote in 2021. He was also with Horizons Ventures where he represented Horizons on the boards of Spotify, Siri, Affectiva, Summly and Ginger.ai.

Frank received a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Sydney and a Master of Science from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

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Glenn Lurie

General Partner

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Glenn Lurie

General Partner

Glenn brings more than 30 years’ experience scaling and leading multi-billion-dollar businesses to the Stormbreaker portfolio. With extensive experience leading public companies, Glenn is skilled at growing innovative businesses within larger organizations and catapulting businesses and teams to their next phases of growth.

Most recently the President, CEO, and member of the Board of Directors of Synchronoss Technologies. Prior to Synchronoss, Glenn served as President and CEO of AT&T’s Mobility and Consumer Operations where he successfully grew AT&T into the nation’s leading wireless and consumer business.

Former President, CEO, and Board Member of Synchronoss Technologies;
Former President and CEO of AT&T’s Mobility and Consumer Operations;
Board Member of Avis Budget Group, Pivotal Commware, Teal Communications, and Blue Link Wireless;
Veteran Startup Advisor

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Ina Fried

Chief Technology Correspondent

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Ina Fried

Chief Technology Correspondent

Ina is the chief technology correspondent at Axios. She authors the daily Axios AI+ newsletter and brings years of Silicon Valley experience to offer a smart take on tech.

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Jeff Bradley

Startup Advisor and former SVP

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Jeff Bradley

Startup Advisor and former SVP

Jeff Bradley is most recently an advisor and board member to technology startups.

Through his career, Bradley was at the forefront of critical disruptive technology launches including the introduction of AT&T’s first smartphones. Joining AT&T in 2002, he represented the company in that dynamic ecosystem for the next 15 years, leading marketing efforts to launch AT&T’s 3G and 4G networks. He helped create the industry’s leading third-party developer program, with responsibility for the AT&T Developer Summit at CES. He also led AT&T’s network product team as they introduced notable services including AT&T NumberSync, Stream Saver, Call Protect, and RCS-based messaging.

Bradley has helped companies navigate multiple computing evolutions including mainframe, client/server, desktop internet and mobile internet. He began his career at IBM, initially in enterprise sales and then moving to the Global Services division, where he built and managed consulting practices designed to help companies leverage emerging technologies. He later joined Systemhouse, the former information technology consulting division of MCI, and also was with Lante Corp., an internet consultancy focused on e-markets.
Bradley holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University, where he was also a two-time Pac 10 champion wrestler.

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Jeff Simon

SVP & Chief Security Officer

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Jeff Simon

SVP & Chief Security Officer

Jeff Simon, Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer at T-Mobile US, Inc. drives the strategic cybersecurity direction for the company and leads the Cybersecurity organization. He oversees T-Mobile’s protection of customer data and the full lifecycle of security functions, from policy and architecture to monitoring and response, to enterprise patching and firewalls.

Prior to T-Mobile, Jeff defended global financial services and operated critical infrastructure on an immense scale as the Chief Security Officer at FIS, the world’s largest provider of technology services to the financial industry. At FIS, Jeff and his team were responsible for securing over 20,000 financial institutions, $14 trillion in annual money movement, and the systems that store more than half the world’s wealth. Jeff attributes his decade of successful security leadership at FIS to the constant disruption of the company’s own security controls, systems, and assumptions to stay ahead of adversaries.

Jeff holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Applied Economics from Marquette University College of Business Administration. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), and holds a Certification in Risk Management Assurance (CRMA).

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jeff resides in Bellevue, Washington with his wife and two daughters. He is an avid snowboarder and ice hockey player and enjoys traveling the world to meet new people and sample diverse cuisines.

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Jesse is a partner in our Seattle office and serves electric-power utilities, technology providers, and investors on topics including energy-system optimization, integration of distributed energy resources, and emerging business models for renewable energy systems. He also manages the global market intelligence team in McKinsey’s Power Solutions group and leads the development and deployment of our advanced-analytics platform for global electric power.

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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.

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Jonathan Heiliger

General Partner

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Jonathan Heiliger

General Partner

Jonathan has a unique and unparalleled track record as an early-stage technology investor, entrepreneur and rebellious executive. In 2015, he started boutique venture firm VVUS, previously led Facebook’s infrastructure as the user population grew to over 900 million users, was COO of Opsware, and founded his first successful company before age 20. Simultaneously, Jonathan advised high growth companies such as Cloudera, Dropbox & Square. He’s an early backer of like-minded entrepreneurs in DesktopMetal, Higharc, LaunchDarkly, PerimeterX (now HUMAN Security), OpsLevel and Very Good Security, and serves as chairman of Webmonsters.

Jonathan is currently interested in meeting and investing in founders who focus on new systems for scaling infrastructure & DevOps teams, SaaS that creates time for knowledge workers in HR and sales, and b2b real estate tech. His founders are determined, go against-the-train, and passionate about solving hard problems with technology. Outside of tech, Jonathan serves on the board of the Exploratorium Museum of Science, art, and Human Perception.

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Jonny LeRoy is the Chief Technology Officer of W.W. Grainger, Inc. He is responsible for the technology systems, security and operations that underpin Grainger’s business model

Jonny joined Grainger in 2020 after a 15-year career at ThoughtWorks, where as Head of Technology for North America, he led their technology organization, growing new offerings and capabilities, while also helping to progress their talent, culture and delivery expertise. In prior roles at ThoughtWorks, Jonny served as Market Tech Principal for the West Coast and Lead Developer in the U.S. and UK. Earlier in his career, Jonny was a founder and CTO of a successful UK start-up.

Jonny holds CPE from Westminster University, and a MA, Literae Humaniores from the University of Oxford. Jonny is a 2022 Daniel Burnham Fellow with Leadership Greater Chicago, is on the governing body of the Evanta Chicago CIO community and is an active member of the Inspire ChicagoCIO Leadership Network. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) College of Computing.

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Justin Reilly is an industry veteran with deep experience in telecom, SaaS and consumer products. He is passionate about building systems that support the next generation of consumers.

As CEO of Wavelo, Justin is focused on helping operators maximize value from their networks and enhance their customer experience. Previously, Justin has held roles as the Chief Product Officer at Tucows and the Head of Product at Verizon. Over the years, he has also founded a number of companies in healthcare, digital products, and telecom.

He is a graduate of Wharton Business School, a Penn Basketball alumnus, and an award-winning Spoken Word artist. He possesses a healthy obsession with solving hard problems and a general disdain for low hanging doorways and small spaces.

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Kevin Cramer

Executive - Azure+

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Kevin Cramer

Executive - Azure+

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Dr. Mani Prakash

VP - Enterprise R&D

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Dr. Mani Prakash

VP - Enterprise R&D

Mani Prakash is the Vice President of Enterprise R&D for Medtronic. His role includes enabling the strategy for Technology Development Centers, leading enterprise-wide efforts like the R&D Council, Medtronic Engineering & Innovation Center (MEIC), and serving as a liaison to the Science & Technology Committee of the Medtronic Board of Directors. He is the co-chair of the Asian Impact at Medtronic diversity network.

Mani started as an engineer at Medtronic 23 years ago and has held Research and Development program and functional leadership positions at operating units and at the portfolio level. With a 30+ year career in medical devices, spanning academia, startups and large companies, Mani has over 100 U.S patents, multiple research publications, new technology introductions and product launches. Mani graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering and from the University of Washington with a Ph.D. in Bioengineering. Mani is based in Boulder (CO, USA).

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Marwan Fawaz

Former Executive Advisor

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Marwan Fawaz

Former Executive Advisor

Mr. Fawaz is a former Executive Advisor to Google and Alphabet Inc. (2019-2022) and the former CEO of Nest Labs Inc (2016-2019). With more than 30 years of experience in the media, cable, telecommunications, and broadband industries, Mr. Fawaz offers a wealth of knowledge and expertise, developed from his time as Executive Vice President and CEO of Google/Motorola Mobility from 2012 to 2013 and Executive Vice President of Strategy and Operations and Chief Technology Officer of Charter Communications from 2006 to 2011. In addition, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Adelphia Communications from 2003 to 2006 and held leadership positions for other cable industry companies such as MediaOne, among others. He was the founder and principal of Sarepta Advisors, a strategic advisory and consulting group supporting the technology, media, and telecommunications industries. He holds an M.S. degree in Electrical and Communication Engineering and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering, both from California State University at Long Beach.

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Dr. Mazin Gilbert

Executive - Telecommunications

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Dr. Mazin Gilbert

Executive - Telecommunications

Mazin Gilbert, Ph.D., MBA, IEEE Fellow

Mazin Gilbert is the Director of Engineering, Telecommunication Analytics, Automation and Orchestration at Google Cloud. He has 30 years of experience in artificial intelligence and machine learning, data analytics and automation for wireless and wireline networks, human-machine communication and operation automation. In his previous role, Mazin served as the Vice President of Network Analytics and Automation at AT&T Labs. He led AT&T’s Research and Advanced Development of its network and access transformation and its 5G network forecast, planning and innovations.

Mazin earned a bachelor’s and a doctoral degree, with first-class honors, in electrical engineering & electronics from the University of Liverpool. He also earned an MBA for Executives (Finance) from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mazin holds over 200 U.S. patents in communication, networking and multimedia processing and has published over 100 research papers in human-machine communication. He is the author of the book titled, “Artificial Neural Networks for Speech Analysis/Synthesis”, 1992, and an editor of a recent book on “Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Networks,” 2018. He became an IEEE Fellow in 2012 and was the recipient of the AT&T Science and Technology Award in 2013.

Mazin served as Chair of AT&T Technical Awards, AT&T Technical Title Plan, Board Member of the Linux Foundation AI, Open Network Foundation, AT&T Ignite, and AT&T T-University. Outside of his technology career, Mazin is an entrepreneur owning five limited liability companies specializing in commercial and residential real estate and the dental industry. Mazin loves to spend time with his daughters and is an avid runner.

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Dr. Mischa Dohler

VP - Emerging Technologies

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Dr. Mischa Dohler

VP - Emerging Technologies

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.

speakers
Patrick Massey

Director

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Patrick Massey

Director

Mr. Massey has served as the Regional Director of the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Region 10 office in Seattle since 2016. Prior to joining CISA, Mr. Massey served for twenty years with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 10 office including eight years as the Director, National Preparedness Division. He also served as the Regional Integration Branch Chief, Technological Hazards Branch Chief, and as a Hazard Mitigation Specialist. Prior to joining FEMA, Mr. Massey served as the Assistant State Hazard Mitigation Officer with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and served as a Planner for a Regional Planning Commission in Illinois. He also trained as a Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Officer in the U.S. Army serving in a tank battalion in Germany and the First Gulf War.

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Dr. Paul Kedrosky

General Partner

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Dr. Paul Kedrosky

General Partner

Dr. Kedrosky is an investor in private and public companies, as well as a writer and researcher. Originally trained as an engineer, he went on to do a Ph.D. at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, where he researched aspects of the economics of technology—specifically, the role of path dependency and network effects in risk & complexity.

Early in his career, he was a quota-holding salesperson for a large public company. After that, he was a highly-ranked equity analyst for a major brokerage firm, where he covered major technology equities, and was widely regarded for his early insights into major trends and dynamics.

Dr. Kedrosky has started various companies, as well as having held academic positions in the U.S. and Canada. In addition to his public markets experience, he has more than a decade of experience in venture capital with various firms.

Dr. Kedrosky has been a regular contributor at CNBC, as well as at Bloomberg. He has written columns for the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications around the world. He has been quoted in major media outlets more than a hundred times on topics in technology, finance, and capital markets, as well as having various widely-cited papers.

Dr. Kedrosky regularly speaks at private and public events across the U.S. and around the world, usually on topics related to risk finance, economics, the future of work, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Kedrosky is currently also a research fellow at MIT’s Institute for the Digital Economy, where he is studying artificial intelligence, economic disruption, and the future of work.

In his spare time, Dr. Kedrosky competes actively at trail running, as well as being a backcountry skier and climber. He lives in California.

Dr. Kedrosky can be contacted via this site, and you can find him on Twitter as @pkedrosky.

speakers
Rod Randall

Executive Partner

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Rod Randall

Executive Partner

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.

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Dr. Ron Marquardt

VP - Advanced Technologies and Innovation

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Dr. Ron Marquardt

VP - Advanced Technologies and Innovation

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Shanker Trivedi

SVP - Enterprise Business

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Shanker Trivedi

SVP - Enterprise Business

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.

speakers
Shaun McCarthy

President, North America

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Shaun McCarthy

President, North America

Shaun McCarthy is President of North America Sales. He is responsible for leading all aspects of sales across the US and Canada, accelerating revenue growth, and helping customers to adopt transformative networking technologies that enable the next phase of digitization.

Shaun’s mission is to help Nokia’s customers build innovative new revenue generating services, grow existing revenue streams, and reduce their costs. Shaun’s sales team will lead customers through major architectural evolutions, including the transition to 5G, broadband modernization, and the deployment of private wireless solutions across industries.
Shaun brings more than 20 years of experience leading sales teams and driving go-to-market strategies in the telecom, hyperscale, and technology industries. He joined Nokia from Cisco where he was vice president of worldwide sales for the Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group. At Cisco, Shaun was instrumental in building a world-class sales team, leading multiple strategic M&A activities, and incubating new solutions with lighthouse customers. He has also served in several leadership roles at a number of Silicon Valley companies, including Palo Alto Networks, Brocade, and Vyatta.

Shaun holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Rhode Island and a master’s degree from Northeastern University. He resides in New Hampshire with his wife and two children. In his free time, Shaun enjoys participating in outdoor activities including skiing, rock climbing and mountain biking.

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Shimie Hortig

Group President, Americas

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Shimie Hortig

Group President, Americas

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Terry Williams

SVP & CIO

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Terry Williams

SVP & CIO

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Dr. Tueng Shen

Associate Dean, School of Medicine & College of Engineering

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Dr. Tueng Shen

Associate Dean, School of Medicine & College of Engineering

Tueng Shen, M.D., Ph.D., is a cataract and cornea surgeon at the Eye Institute at Harborview Medical Center. She is also a UW professor of Ophthalmology and adjunct professor of both Global Health and Bioengineering.

Dr. Shen is passionate about restoring vision to patients and improving their quality of life. She strongly believes that patients deserve a physician who listens, keeps them well-informed and is a partner in accomplishing the best treatment plan customized to their needs. Her clinical work also drives her cutting-edge research.

Dr. Shen is expert in cataract, refractive, stem cell and corneal surgeries, and medical management of all areas of corneal disease.

Dr. Shen’s research group focuses on developing innovative solutions to treating global blindness by leveraging technological advancements. Examples of specific projects include developing the next generation of artificial cornea using advanced polymer research.

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Udiyan Padmanabhan

CEO and Co-Founder

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Udiyan Padmanabhan

CEO and Co-Founder

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Ulf Ewaldsson

President - Technology

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Ulf Ewaldsson

President - Technology

Ulf Ewaldsson is T-Mobile’s president of technology and is responsible for the management and development of T-Mobile’s wireless network, the company’s information technology services, and technology operations.

Previously, Ulf served as executive vice president & chief network officer at T-Mobile during which he managed a nationwide team that builds, operates and maintains T-Mobile’s network, with the goal of providing an outstanding customer experience.

Ulf joined T-Mobile in 2019 to lead and transform T-Mobile’s 5G network deployment. He previously had several leadership positions at Ericsson, including chief technology officer, chief strategy officer, head of radio business and head of business area digital services.

In the wireless industry, Ulf is known for his passion and track record for driving innovation, operations and execution. He has been instrumental in helping to create some of the most innovative mobile communication products, such as multi-standard RBS, antenna-integrated radio units, femto base stations and NBIoT.

Ulf has garnered global recognition for launching concepts like Service Provider SDN and “50 bn Connected Devices by 2020.” He has also been credited as a founder of 5G mobile technology. In 2014, Global Telecoms Business magazine named Ulf among the top 50 most powerful people in the global telecom business.

Ulf earned a Master of Science and a Master of Business Management from Linköping Technical University. He also attended executive training at Columbia University in New York. And he has served on several boards of directors, including ASSA-ABLOY AB, Telecom Management Forum and Corporate Fiber AB. He is currently chairman of the board of the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and is a member of the board of trustees of the National Nordic Museum in Seattle.

Ulf and his family relocated from Sweden to T-Mobile’s hometown headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. Outside the office, the Pacific Northwest offers the perfect backdrop for some of Ulf’s personal passions — playing tennis, hiking and oil painting.

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Vishal Shah

GM - XR & Metaverse

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Vishal Shah

GM - XR & Metaverse

Vishal Shah is currently the General Manager of XR (AR/VR) and Metaverse at Lenovo. In his role, Vishal has global responsibility of all aspects of Product Management, Sales, Marketing and Operations for the XR/Metaverse group. He is responsible for managing the portfolio of ThinkReality XR solutions, an industry leading end-to-end solution that powers the Enterprise Metaverse. This includes the award-winning ThinkReality A3 smart glasses, Mirage VR S3 for enterprise VR solutions, and that the ThinkReality Platform, which is among the first truly device- and cloud-agnostic XR platforms to enable commercial customers to build, deploy, and manage applications and content on a global scale, with global support. Vishal has demonstrated a deep passion for AR/VR technology with significant go-to-market expertise across the industry. Most recently, Vishal was Vice President of Sales at Tech Mahindra, one of the largest global system integrators in telecom, networking, and IT services. At Tech Mahindra, Vishal led the AR/VR, IoT, and 5G practice sales to record levels. Under his leadership, Tech Mahindra won and deployed leading AR/XR solutions for Industry 4.0. Healthcare and Education verticals globally. Prior to that Vishal held key executive roles in product management, sales and business development at Qualcomm, Motorola and Atheer. Vishal has also provided consulting services to C-level executives at F1000 corporations, venture capital firms, and startups globally. Vishal has an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and a Master’s in Computer Science from Pennsylvania State University.

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William Bartholomew

Principal Security Strategist

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William Bartholomew

Principal Security Strategist

William Bartholomew (he/him) is a Principal Security Strategist in the Customer Security & Trust team at Microsoft. His public policy advocacy benefits from over a decade of experience in designing, implementing, and operating software supply chains used by tens of thousands of developers. Prior to focusing on public policy, he held engineering and product management roles within Microsoft and GitHub that focused on delivering reliable and secure engineering systems for developers internally as well as for our customers. He brings his relentless focus on reducing friction to standards development, open source, and public- and private-sector working groups globally. When not working, he can be found tinkering with hardware and software, making espresso, and spending time with his family in the United States’ Pacific Northwest.

Blog

Connecting the Dots

September 01, 2023