2019 Speakers

As the President of AT&T Labs and the CTO, Andre Fuetsch is responsible for delivering the architecture and design of AT&T’s future network. Fuetsch is an AT&T veteran; he joined the company in 1995. Fuetsch holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley. He also completed core coursework for the Computer Science Master’s program at Stanford University.

Chetan Sharma is CEO and founder 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 executives of several Fortune 100 companies in the wireless space and is probably the only industry strategist who has advised each of the top 6 global mobile data operators. Chetan is the author or co-author or editor of 12 best-selling books on mobile and over 200 articles related to mobile. He has been serving on the advisory boards of Telefonica, Ericsson, Kymeta and other stealth startups.

Chris Penrose is president of AT&T’s internet of things (IoT) organization. Chris is responsible for leading AT&T’s global internet of things initiatives across industry verticals. This includes auto, agriculture, manufacturing, fleet management, asset tracking, healthcare, drones, energy, smart cities, retail and consumer electronics.

From connected cars to connected cities, Chris has led AT&T to become recognized as one of the leading IoT companies in the world. Chris has also been recognized for championing innovation. He spearheaded the creation of the AT&T Drive Studio for connected vehicles, the AT&T Healthcare Foundry and the AT&T IoT Foundry, all which focus on making it easy for developers and businesses to create and implement IoT solutions.

With 27 years of experience at AT&T and its predecessor companies, Chris has leadership expertise in strategic planning, business development, sales, marketing, distribution planning and customer service.He holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University. Chris and his wife Anne live in Atlanta and have two children in college.

As Senior Vice President and General Manager of Oracle Communications, Doug Suriano is responsible for managing strategic planning, product development, sales, service, and support for Oracle Communications products. He joined Oracle in 2013 as Vice President of Products for Oracle Communications following the Tekelec acquisition where he served as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering. Prior to Tekelec, Suriano was the Vice President of Engineering at dynamicsoft, Inc. and Chief Information Officer for QAD, Inc. Before QAD, he managed the information technology division for the United States Marine Corps.

Durga Malladi is Senior Vice President and General Manager, 4G/5G in Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Durga joined Qualcomm in 1998 as a Senior Engineer. Over the past 20 years, he has worked on 3G and 4G technologies, and was the Project Engineer of 4G LTE-Advanced in Qualcomm Research from 2008-15, responsible for features such as mobile broadband, Carrier Aggregation, HetNets, Relays, Dual Connectivity, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), Internet of Things (eMTC, NB-IoT) and Cellular V2X.

From 2015-18, he oversaw the 5G and Wi-Fi Wireless R&D projects, spanning Sub6 and Millimeter Wave bands, with applications in enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Integrated Access and Backhaul systems, Unlicensed / Shared Spectrum Access, Massive IoT (mIoT), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), Industrial IoT, 5G based Vehicular Communications (C-V2X) and evolution of Wi-Fi beyond 802.11ax. The responsibilities spanned system design, standardization, prototype testbeds, pre-commercial vendor inter-operability tests and trials.

As SVP & GM 4G/5G, he is responsible for cellular modem and location businesses, baseband and transceiver modem technology roadmap, features, software products, and infrastructure and operator commercial engagements. He drives the overall 5G roadmap and solutions across business units, spanning Mobile, Industrial, Enterprise and Automotive segments. He is the recipient of Qualcomm’s IP Excellence Award, Qualcomm Distinguished Contributor Award for Project Leadership and Upendra Patel Achievement Awards for Outstanding Contributions to HSPA and LTE.

Durga holds a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and an M.S and Ph.D. from UCLA. His research interests include Signal Processing, Communication Theory and Artificial Intelligence. He is a member of IEEE and holds 440 U.S. patents.

Hank is President of Connected Solutions at Aptiv, a leading technology company in the automotive space. Mr. Skorny has extensive experience in the mobile software and services industry as well as in PC software for 30 years. Prior to joining Aptiv, Mr. Skorny served as SVP – IoT at Neustar and the VP of Software & Services Group and GM of the Intel Services Division at Intel Corporation. Prior to that he was Chief Strategy Officer and SVP of RealNetworks, Inc., and President CEO of mobile messaging startup, Thumbspeed,Inc. Earlier in his career, Mr. Skorny was executive at AOL, Adobe Systems, Microsoft and Apple Computer.

Ina Fried is a Chief Technology Correspondent, where she covers a wide range of technology issues. Before helping launch Recode, Ina covered mobile at All Things Digital where she also co-produced the D: Dive Into Mobile conference. She spent a decade at CNET where she covered, among other things, Microsoft and Apple. Prior to joining CNET in May 2000, she covered chips for Bridge News and was a writer at the Orange County Business Journal and Orange County Register. She graduated from Miami University in Ohio.

Marwan Fawaz is an executive advisor at Google. Prior to that he was chief executive officer of Nest, an Alphabet company. Prior to Nest, Marwan was executive vice president of Motorola Mobility where he served as the CEO of Motorola Home, overseeing vision, strategy and operations. During his time there, he repositioned the business to streamline products and services and in 2013, he led the transaction process to divest of the business unit to Arris for $2.35 billion.

Before joining Motorola, Marwan was executive vice president – strategy and chief technology officer of Charter Communications. Earlier in his career, he served as senior vice president and CTO of Adelphia Communications, where he was responsible for the company’s overall technology development and deployment.

Marwan currently serves on several public and private company boards/advisory boards. Full board roles include Synacor (SYNC), CSG International (CSGS), and SCTE Foundation. Advisory boards include ADT, Liberty Global International (LGI), CenturyLink (CTL), Guavus, and Benu Networks.

He holds a BS degree in electrical engineering and MS degree in telecommunications, specializing in satellite communications.

Mohamed Kande serves as the Advisory Leader. Previously he was PwC’s US and Global Advisory Leader for the technology, media, telecoms, and hospitality industry sectors. His expertise spans the areas of operational strategy, technology development, mergers and acquisitions, and operations management.Before joining PwC in August 2011, Mohamed was the managing partner of PRTM Management Consultants’ Europe, Middle East and South Asia business. Prior to joining PRTM, Mohamed worked for Motorola in Chicago, and for DTI Telecom in Canada deploying and launching telecommunications networks in the USA, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa.He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, an MS in electrical engineering from the University of Montreal, and a BS in electrical engineering from Ecole Supérieure d’IngénieursenGénieElectrique in France.

test

Neville R. Ray is the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of T-Mobile USA. Mr. Ray joined T-Mobile USA (then VoiceStream) in April 2000 and since December 2010 has served as its Chief Technology Officer, responsible for the national management and development of the T-Mobile USA wireless network and the company’s information technology services and operations. Prior to joining T-Mobile USA, Mr. Ray served as Network Vice President for Pacific Bell Mobile Services. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance. Mr. Ray is an honors graduate of City, University of London and a member of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Nick Desai is an accomplished and visionary entrepreneur who has started and led four venture funded start-ups over the last 18 years. Nick is the Co-Founder and CEO of Heal, an on-demand doctor house call app available in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco / Silicon Valley, and San Diego.

For Nick, Heal is more than a company – it’s a mission to fix the broken $3trillion healthcare system. Nick’s previous start-ups have been innovative leaders in technology-enabled fitness and weight loss, social media and mobile applications, and the web’s first self-updating address book.

Nick earned his BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Irvine, where he is in the Engineering Hall of Fame, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. Nick is on the board of the UC Irvine Alumni Association and the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Heart Association.