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.

Babak Hodjat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babak_Hodjat) serves as the Chief Technology Officer for AI at Cognizant, where he heads the Advanced AI Labs, a group dedicated to delivering cutting-edge AI solutions for businesses.

Previously, Babak co-founded and was the CEO of Sentient, where he was instrumental in developing the core technology for the world’s largest distributed artificial intelligence system. He also established the first AI-driven hedge fund, Sentient Investment Management. As a serial entrepreneur, Babak has initiated several companies in Silicon Valley, taking on roles as the main inventor and technologist.

Before his tenure at Sentient, Babak was the senior director of engineering at Sybase iAnywhere, overseeing mobile solutions engineering. Earlier, he co-founded Dejima Inc., where he served as CTO and board member. He is the primary inventor of Dejima’s patented agent-oriented technology, which is integral to intelligent interfaces used in mobile and enterprise computing, including the technology that powers Apple’s Siri.

Babak has authored numerous papers in areas such as Artificial Life, Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, and Distributed Artificial Intelligence, and he holds 39 issued US patents. His expertise spans various domains of AI, including natural language processing, machine learning, genetic algorithms, and distributed AI, and he has founded several companies in these fields. He earned a PhD in Machine Intelligence from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan. Additionally, Babak is the author of “The Narrator,” an AI-themed science fiction novella, and “The Konar and the Apple,” a collection of short stories inspired by his childhood.

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.

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.

John Guiney has more than 40 years’ experience in mission-operations leadership in the space sector, including direct participation in mission readiness for more than 50 satellite launches. Prior to joining OneWeb, he has worked in mission readiness and operations for Orbital ATK, Iridium, Lockheed, GE and the US Air Force.

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.

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.

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).

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.

As T-Mobile’s chief operating officer (COO), Srini Gopalan plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s next era of growth, driving momentum on T-Mobile’s multi-year plans by employing some of the world’s most advanced technologies to perfect every customer journey and earn their loyalty for life. Working alongside T-Mobile’s senior leaders, he oversees the company’s technology initiatives and go-to-market operations across the Consumer and Business groups, focusing on becoming a data-driven, AI-enabled, digital-first organization that brings exceptional experiences to Un-carrier’s customers and advances the company’s leadership in 5G and next-generation mobile networks.

Srini joined T-Mobile in March 2025, bringing extensive experience in technology, telecommunications and business operations, and a proven track record of operational excellence, digital transformation and customer-centric strategies. He has previously served as a member of T-Mobile’s board of directors and most recently was CEO of Deutsche Telekom’s (DT) Germany business. There, he doubled the company’s growth rate, scaled fiber to connect millions of homes, and achieved record mobile market share. Earlier, as a Deutsche Telekom board member for Europe, he helped turn the business into one of the fastest-growing telecom operations in the region with top customer satisfaction scores.

Prior to DT, Srini had top roles at Bharti Airtel, Capital One, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom, where he spearheaded growth strategies that positioned those businesses as leaders in highly competitive industries, including using data and digital strategies to provide impactful solutions for consumers. Srini studied business administration at St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi and earned his Master of Business Administration at IIM Ahmedabad, India’s leading business school.

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.