TitleEtc:VP of Global Enterprise Vertical Strategy & Marketing, Equinix, USA
Bio:Tony Bishop is VP of Global Enterprise Vertical Strategy & Marketing at Equinix leading the development of strategies for enterprises to understand and gain competitive advantage from the major trends transforming IT infrastructure strategy. Prior to Equinix, Mr. Bishop held a Chief Strategy Officer position at 451 Research and served at Morgan Stanley as Managing Director, Global Head of Enterprise Data Center Operations & Strategy. He is author of the publication Next Generation Datacenters - Driving Extreme Efficiency & Effective Cost Savings [ISBN publication date: 13 July 2009] and recipient of Network World's "Enterprise All-Star Award."
TitleEtc:President & CEO, Datagryd Data Centers, LLC, USA
Bio:Tom Brown is DataGryd’s President and CEO, responsible for planning and implementing the company’s strategy, and managing the overall revenue growth of the company. Mr. Brown joined DataGryd in 2018 and brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in start-up, turnaround and high-growth operations. He has a proven track record of success in strategic and tactical market development, creation of brand awareness and customer relationship management. Prior to joining DataGryd, Mr. Brown led the content, cable, and data center verticals within Windstream’s Wholesale Business Unit. From 1999 to 2009, he was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at FiberNet Telecom Group, Inc., where he was an integral part in the sale of the company to the Zayo Group. Mr. Brown earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
TitleEtc:Director, Disruptive Analysis, United Kingdom
Bio:Dean Bubley (@disruptivedean) is Founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm. An analyst & futurist with over 25 years’ experience, he specialises in wireless, telecoms, and advanced technologies.
He is known as a contrarian, often with challenging opinions that go against industry consensus. His present focus is on 4G/5G/WiFi networks, the “future of voice and video”, contextual communications, blockchain, AI, and IoT. He advises on telco service creation & monetisation, ecosystems, broad futurism, and telecoms regulation/spectrum policy. His clients include many of the world’s leading telecom operators, vendors, regulators, and industry associations.
Mr. Bubley was formerly an equity analyst, covering communications stocks with investment bank Granville Baird. Prior to that, he spent eight years at UK research firm Datamonitor, where he was a director of the technology practice and managed the Internet & networking programme, with roles of Chief Analyst & Director of Consulting.
He holds a BA in Physics from Keble College, Oxford University.
TitleEtc:CEO - International, Telstra, Hong Kong SAR China
Bio:Oliver Camplin-Warner is CEO – International at Telstra, where he is responsible for the company’s wholesale and enterprise sales and service internationally. Based in Hong Kong, Oliver has nearly two decades of experience in telecommunications and technology in Australia and the United Kingdom. Oliver joined Telstra in 2012 as a Director in Telstra Operations, where he was responsible for Telstra’s Platinum business which provides in-home and remote technical support for consumers across Australia. Oliver also led Telstra’s Major Accounts customer management team, which was responsible for providing connectivity and technology solutions to enterprise, government, and non-profit customers. Oliver has two young children, and together with his wife Alisa are co-founders of the charity Finnan’s Gift. This charity was set up in memory of their late son Finnan and serves to raise awareness and much needed funds for congenital heart disease.
TitleEtc:VP for Strategic Research, Salesforce, USA
Bio:Peter Coffee, VP for Strategic Research at Salesforce has been with the company for 13 years. He works with the company's customers and partners on CIO strategies and emerging technology opportunities. He previously spent 18 years writing for publications including eWEEK, Computer Language, and AI Expert; before that, he worked for 10 years as an AI application analyst and desktop computing manager at The Aerospace Corporation and in project management for Exxon. He has lectured on innovation strategies and AI techniques at Stanford, CalTech, UCLA, Harvard Business School, and the Sloan School of Management at MIT; he advises on curriculum in analytics and "big data" initiatives for three other U.S. universities.
TitleEtc:CEO & President, eStruxture Data Centers, USA
Bio:Todd Coleman is the President and CEO of eStruxture. Todd brings more than 25 years’ experience in the IT, data center and telecommunications industries. Most recently, Todd was the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Cologix. Todd has also held several senior positions at Level 3 Communications, a global telecommunications company, including Senior Vice President of Data Centers, Senior Vice President of Media Operations and President of Level 3 Communications Europe. Todd holds a juris doctorate and a bachelor's degree in computer information systems.
TitleEtc:President & CEO, SES, Luxembourg
Bio:Mr. Steve Collar was appointed CEO of SES in April 2018. He had been the CEO of SES Networks since May 2017. Prior to SES Networks, Mr. Collar was CEO of O3b Networks and guided the company through the successful build and launch of its constellation of state-of-the-art satellites. In 2015, O3b Networks became the fastest growing satellite operator in history. In 2016, O3b was fully acquired by SES and now forms an integral part of SES Networks.
Mr. Collar is a satellite industry veteran, having previously worked in a variety of commercial, business development and technical roles at SES WORLD SKIES, New Skies Satellites, Astrium and Matra Marconi Space (now Airbus).
Mr. Collar is a British national.
TitleEtc:CEO & Founder, Diffraction Analysis, Hong Kong SAR China
Bio:CEO and founder of Diffraction Analysis, Benoît Felten is a recognized expert on issues related to next-generation access. Felten’s expertise stems from an understanding of the business model issues of fixed network rejuvenation and from there expands into all aspects impacting the business model: technology choices, service opportunities, go-to-market strategies, regulation, etc. He also analyzes public policies aiming at promoting the deployment of fiber rich networks.
Before starting Diffraction Analysis, Felten was a Director of Access Network Research at Yankee Group where he led the company’s research efforts in the NGA field. Prior to that, Felten was a telecoms consultant for eight years, and even further back worked at deploying and selling fiber access to businesses in Belgacom's French subsidiary.
Felten lives between Hong Kong and Paris. He complements his day job by blogging about the economic and social impacts of next-generation access on www.diffractionanalysis.com and tweets under the handle of @fiberguy.
TitleEtc:Chief Economist, Phoenix Center For Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, USA
Bio:Dr. George S. Ford is the Chief Economist of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies (www.phoenix-center.org), a non-profit research center specializing in the law and economics of the digital age. Dr. Ford has published extensively in the economics of government regulation, technology, intellectual property, and economic development, landing him in the top 1% of authors on the Social Science Research. Dr. Ford has testified before the U.S. Congress, the copyright tribunals, and numerous state regulatory agencies. Dr. Ford has studied the economics of telecommunications markets for a quarter century, including serving as an economist at the Federal Communications Commission and with service providers. Dr. Ford’s analysis of the investment effects of Net Neutrality served as the primary analytical support in the Restoring Internet Freedom Order regarding the adverse consequences of classifying broadband as a Title II telecommunications service.
TitleEtc:Chief Executive Officer, Colt Technology Services, United Kingdom
Bio:Keri Gilder is Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Colt Technology Services.
Joining the business in November 2018, Keri forms part of the Executive Leadership Team reporting directly to Carl Grivner, Colt’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Keri is instrumental in driving Colt’s commercial strategy, leading global teams across sales, presales and marketing, as well as working closely with the wider organisation to ensure Colt delivers on its vision of being the most customer oriented business in the industry.
Before joining Colt, Keri was Ciena’s Vice President and General Manager EMEA, responsible for guiding Ciena’s EMEA customers and partners as they adapted to accommodate high-capacity applications and services, such as cloud-based services.
Having built a reputation as a leader and respected consultant throughout her career as an engineer and network architect, Keri is actively encouraging mentoring and coaching - passing on her expertise in both personal and professional capacities.
Keri lives in London with her husband and two children, and is based at Colt’s offices in London.
TitleEtc:Deputy Secretary-General, ITU, Switzerland
Bio:Malcolm Johnson was re-elected ITU Deputy Secretary-General on 1 November 2018 for a second four-year term starting on 1 January 2019. During his first term as Deputy Secretary-General, he implemented many efficiency measures releasing more resources to key ITU activities. He led the ITU’s new headquarters building project from initiation to selection of architect and concept design. He has modernized ITU’s physical security, improved internal coordination and streamlined and digitized many internal processes. From 2007 to 2014 he served as Director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau where he spearheaded activities in cybersecurity, climate change and accessibility, considerably increasing the involvement of developing countries and academia in ITU’s standards activities. Between 2003 and 2006, Mr. Johnson was International Coordinator at the United Kingdom’s Office of Communications (Ofcom), where he had lead responsibility for the United Kingdom in ITU and in CEPT. From 1992 to 2003, he was Director of the United Kingdom’s Radiocommunications Agency and between 1988 and 1992, he worked in the European Commission’s Telecommunication Regulations Division, where he represented the Commission in the Council of the European Union, EU Parliament, CEPT and ITU.
TitleEtc:Co-Founder & CEO, Chayora Holdings Limited, Hong Kong SAR China
Bio:Oliver Jones is Co-founder and Chief Executive of Chayora, an international infrastructure investor, developer, and operator of major data centre campuses in China. Chayora is developing hyperscale data centre sites in key cities across China - in Tianjin (to serve Beijing) and Shanghai. Each campus will involve over USD 1 billion investment when complete and have c.300MW power and deliver 20,000 to 30,000 racks.
Oliver originally qualified as a chartered surveyor after graduating from Kingston University in 1983 and prior to completing his MBA at London Business School in the late 1980s.
As an active investor and entrepreneur, his previous business ventures were each grown rapidly and also sold to acquisitive competitors: Symonds sold to Vivendi in 1993; Citex sold to Carillion in 2002 at the same time as Citex Asia was acquired by EC Harris; and NB Entrust sold to NB Real Estate and then Capita in 2009.
TitleEtc:CEO & Founder, DigitalFilm Tree, USA
Bio:Ramy Katrib is an award-winning filmmaker and CEO / Founder of DigitalFilm Tree (DFT) https://www.digitalfilmtree.com, an 18 year old post-production and software development company. Ramy started his career in media & technology over 25 years ago, as filmmaker, negative cutter, and telecine colorist. In all the organizations and projects he has propelled, Ramy champions a multidisciplinary work culture, led by world-class creatives and technologists, working hand in hand to solve huge problems. Historically, DFT played a key role in transitioning the media and entertainment industry to digital post and file-based workflows, on projects like Cold Mountain and Scrubs. Today DFT is the leading provider of IP based production, post, story visualization services, and software solutions. DFT clients include ABC, A&E, CBS, Disney, Fox, HBO, Netflix, Turner, Warner Bros, and first-time storytellers alike.
TitleEtc:CIO & Head TMT Asia and EMENA, International Finance Corporation (IFC) - World Bank Group, Singapore
Bio:Carlos Katsuya is IFC’s Chief Investment Officer and Head of Telecom, Media, and Technology for Asia, Europe, Middle East, and North of Africa, based in Singapore. Carlos has more than 25 years of experience in project and corporate finance and capital markets in emerging markets, including 20 years in the TMT sector.
Since joining IFC in 2003, Carlos has worked extensively in Infrastructure and TMT projects, including both debt financing and equity investment. Prior to his current position, he was the Portfolio Manager for IFC’s Infrastructure Department in Latin America, where he oversaw a portfolio of US$1.5 billion in debt, equity, quasi-equity, and guarantees.
Before joining IFC, Carlos was a Senior Vice-President at ABN AMRO Bank, where he led the Telecom, Media, and Technology group in Brazil. Carlos holds an MBA from INSEAD (France) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration from Fundacao Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
TitleEtc:President, Sales and Business Development – Americas, PCCW Global, USA
Bio:Holding 25 years’ experience in international telecommunications, Herndon, VA-based Ronnie Klingner has been with PCCW Global for the last 17 years. Ronnie held various senior roles within PCCW Global leading their Global Voice team as well as forming PCCW Global’s Digital Solutions and Platform team managing Media, Cyber Security, Mobility, Unified Communications and Console Connect Product development, operations, engineering and sales as well as software development.
TitleEtc:Chief Executive Officer, FiberLight, LLC, USA
Bio:Don MacNeil was appointed as FiberLight’s Chief Executive Officer after a successful turn as the company’s Chief Operations Officer. He brought with him a rich operations and technology background, including a series of progressive leadership roles with both EdgeConneX and XO and a successful career as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy. These experiences – coupled with his networking and product knowledge – inform his goals of growing FiberLight’s revenues, enhancing the customer experience, and expanding our network reach and product portfolio. Don believes the secret to FiberLight’s continued success is focusing on the right markets and prospects, accelerating solution delivery, and exceeding the promises we’ve made to our customers.
TitleEtc:Head of Industrialized Construction Strategy & Evangelism, Autodesk, USA
TitleEtc:Chief Executive Officer, DataBank, USA
Bio:Raul Martynek joined DataBank in June 2017 as the Chief Executive Officer. In this role, he provides overall strategic direction of the company and its operations. Raul is a 25 year veteran in the telecom and Internet Infrastructure sector. He most recently served as a Senior Advisor for Digital Bridge Holdings LLC. Prior to Digital Bridge, he served as Chief Executive Officer for New Jersey-based data center and managed services operator Net Access, LLC. Prior to Net Access, he was the CEO of Voxel dot Net, Inc., a global managed hosting and cloud company. Mr. Martynek also served as the Chief Restructuring Officer of Smart Telecom, a Dublin, Ireland-based fiber carrier. Before that he evaluated investment opportunities in the telecommunications and Internet sector as a Senior Advisor at Plainfield Asset Management, a USD 4B hedge fund. Prior to Plainfield, Mr. Martynek spent 13 years with telecom and Internet provider InfoHighway Communications Corp; first as a Chief Operating Officer of Eureka Networks and then as President and Chief Executive Officer of InfoHighway. Mr. Martynek earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Binghamton University and received a Master's Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
TitleEtc:CEO & President, Equinix, USA
Bio:Charles J. Meyers currently serves as CEO & President at Equinix. Mr. Meyers joined Equinix in 2010 as President, Equinix Americas, leading the company’s largest P&L through a time of significant growth and strong operating performance. Mr. Meyers then served as the COO at Equinix, where he led the Global Sales, Marketing, Operations and Customer Success teams. For the past year, he was President, Strategy, Services and Innovation (SSI) where he worked to optimize the company’s position as a cloud enabler, identify key growth areas, and evolve Equinix’s services portfolio.
Mr. Meyers has built a distinguished 25-year career in the high-tech industry having also served in key leadership and P&L roles at Verisign, Level 3 Communications, and on the pre-IPO executive team at Internet Security Systems.
TitleEtc:CEO of Global Business, Bharti Airtel Limited, India
Bio:Pankaj joined as CEO of Global Business at Bharti Airtel in August 2018 after serving as CFO of Bharti Infratel for seven years where he grew the company’s market capitalization from 366bn to 603bn in five years and got the stock listed in 2012. Bharti Infratel won the Golden Peacock Award, 2017 for Risk Management and was awarded Firm of the Year in the Infrastructure Category at the CNBC Risk Management Awards, 2015. Pankaj has also served as CEO Global Voice Business at Airtel and was credited for enhancing business profitability.
Pankaj has 25 years of rich experience in the domain of general & financial management across industries and was awarded the CFO100 at the CFO 100 Awards, 2018 and the Best CFO 2017 in the Telecom & IT category by the Institute of Chartered Accountants and ranked 3rd Asia’s best CFO in the Telecom Sector by Institutional Investor in 2015.
TitleEtc:Professor, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, Japan
Bio:Jun Murai received his Ph.D. in Computer Science, Keio University in 1987, majored in Computer Science, Computer Network, and Computer Communication. He developed the Japan University UNIX Network (JUNET) in 1984, established WIDE Project in 1988, aiming to research and develop computer networks. He is a member of the Strategic Headquarters for the Promotion of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society (IT Strategic Headquarters), a member of the Cyber Security Policy Council, National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC), Cabinet Secretariat, chairs and serves on many other governmental committees, and is active in numerous international scientific associations. He is known as the "Internet samurai", and has also been called "the father of the Internet in Japan.” He was a Member of Internet Architecture Board (IAB) from 1993-1995, Board of Trustee of Internet Society (ISOC) from 1997-2000, and Board of Director of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 1998-2000. He was inducted into the 2013 Internet Hall of Fame (Pioneer) / 2011 IEEE Internet Award / 2005 Jonathan B. Postel Service Award / 2019 the Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French Government.
TitleEtc:Head of Global Connectivity Policy and Planning, Facebook, USA
Bio:Dr. Robert Pepper helps lead Facebook’s connectivity and technology policy activities focusing on new technology development, deployment, and adoption. Pepper previously was Cisco’s Vice President for Global Technology Policy for more than a decade working with governments globally helping them develop digital strategies including ICT and development, broadband plans, wireless and spectrum policy, the Internet of Things, security, privacy, and Internet governance.
Pepper was Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development at the FCC for 16 years beginning in 1989 where he led teams designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions, developing policies promoting the development of the Internet, implementing telecommunications legislation, and planning for the transition to digital television.
His academic appointments included faculty positions at the Universities of Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and as a research affiliate at Harvard University.
He currently is a Board Trustee of the Internet Society.
Pepper received his B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
TitleEtc:Chief Financial Officer, Digital Realty, USA
Bio:Andy Power is the Chief Financial Officer of Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) and is responsible for the company’s financial functions, including financial reporting, planning, and analysis, capital markets, tax, global portfolio management, international operations and information technology.
Before joining Digital Realty, Andy served as Managing Director of the Real Estate, Gaming and Lodging Investment Bank for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was responsible for relationships with over 40 public and private companies, including Digital Realty.
Prior to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Andy was employed by Citigroup, where he held similar positions. During his career, he has managed the execution of public and private capital raises in excess of $30 billion, including the largest REIT IPO to date, and more than $19 billion of merger and acquisitions transactions.
Andy was part of the lead underwriting team that advised Digital Realty on its initial public offering in 2004 and served as a lead manager on nearly every subsequent public capital raise. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Analytical Finance from Wake Forest University.
TitleEtc:Founder & CEO, Cogent Communications, USA
Bio:Dave Schaeffer founded Cogent Communications in August 1999 and is the Chief Executive Officer. Under Mr. Schaeffer's leadership, Cogent has become one of the world's largest Internet Providers. Mr. Schaeffer has led the efforts of 13 successful acquisitions, propelling Cogent's originally U.S.-based network into Canada, Europe and Mexico. Mr. Schaeffer has successfully founded and operated six other businesses prior to Cogent. These businesses span a wide array of industries from communications to commercial real estate. Mr. Schaeffer holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of Maryland, where he was also a Ph.D. candidate in Economics. His diverse background and entrepreneurial successes have enabled him to build management teams that constructed and operated the only facilities-based, non-oversubscribed multinational network of its kind.
TitleEtc:Senior United States Senator From Hawaii, United States Senate, USA
Bio:Brian Schatz is the senior United States Senator from Hawaii and a member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. He serves as the lead Democrat on the Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet Subcommittee, which oversees matters relating to the telecommunications industry.
TitleEtc:EVP & Chief Strategy Officer, CyrusOne, USA
Bio:Jonathan is CyrusOne’s EVP and Chief Strategy Officer and is responsible for helping the company achieve its objective of accelerating growth. He helps refine the company’s digital infrastructure strategy, overseeing new investments, mergers and acquisitions, as well as joint venture arrangements.
Prior to CyrusOne, Jonathan was a senior analyst following the Communications Infrastructure & Telecom Services sectors at Guggenheim Partners, Evercore ISI, Jefferies, and Cowen & Co. – where he focused on data center services, tower operators, and fiber companies. With over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications space, he has served in various roles in investment banking, operations, and research, earning several awards and recognitions from Institutional Investor, Thomson Reuters (formerly FT Starmine), and Forbes.
Jonathan has followed the telecommunications industry since 1997 and, prior to his work in research, ran business development for Winstar, a New York based telecom company, and started his career as an investment banker at Salomon Smith Barney. He received his JD and MBA from New York University and his BA from the University of Michigan.
TitleEtc:Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, NEXTDC Limited, Australia
Bio:Craig Scroggie is the Chief Executive Officer of NEXTDC, responsible for driving the business to become one of the world’s fastest growing technology companies. Craig is well respected for his superior leadership experience within the IT and telecommunications industries globally.
Under Craig’s leadership, NEXTDC has grown from a start-up tech company operating only a single data centre to being recognised as one of the leading Data Centre-as-a-Service providers and fastest growing technology company in Australia. With a nationwide footprint of eight data centres plus an additional three facilities currently in progress, Craig’s strategic direction for NEXTDC has led the company to achieve a number of globally recognised awards in the technology, business, and engineering industries. This includes being the first data centre provider in Australia to achieve Tier IV Certification of Design Documents and Constructed Facility from the Uptime Institute and Tier IV Gold for excellence in data centre Operations and Sustainability.
TitleEtc:VP & Principal Analyst - C-Suite, Forrester Research, USA
Bio:James helps C-suite executives position themselves as innovation leaders and helps to drive their company’s digital business initiatives and transformation leveraging cloud platforms and emerging technologies. James returned to Forrester in 2018 after serving as the global head of market development at Equinix, the global leader in cloud-neutral connectivity and hosting. Prior to that, he served as the GM and chief strategist for Microsoft Azure, helping guide Microsoft's Cloud & Enterprise division to drive innovations that empower enterprise digital business initiatives, including blockchain as well as API and platform enablement. In his previous role at Forrester, he led the cloud computing playbook and pioneered Forrester's research on infrastructure-as-a-service. James works out of Silicon Valley and has led marketing for two startups and strategy for Sun Microsystems as well.
TitleEtc:Founder, Chairman & CEO, ManSat LLC, USA
Bio:Chris Stott is Founder, Chairman and CEO of ManSat, the world’s largest commercial provider of satellite spectrum.
Chris serves on several industry for profit and not for profit boards, and as the Chair Emeritus of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI), the largest professional association in the global space and satellite industry.
TitleEtc:Chief Executive Officer, Strand Consult, Denmark
Bio:John Strand is a true telecom industry veteran, having advised the C-suite of major telecom players around the world for more than 24 years. He is one of the best-known consultants in the business. Giving his honest opinion on current issues in the mobile industry has become John's trademark even when it means being controversial or treading on a toe or two.
Together with his team of analysts, John has a unique ability to predict the future of the telecom industry and the other industries that this exciting business is converging with. Many people are naturally skeptical about fortune tellers, John’s attitude is that people should not judge him on what he is predicting about the future, but rather on what he previously predicted would happen today.
TitleEtc:Director-General for Cybersecurity, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), Japan
Bio:Mr. Yoshiaki Takeuchi joined the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), Japan in 1985. He has been in charge of ICT policy for more than thirty years, consistently. After serving as Deputy Director-General for IT Strategy, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Mr. Takeuchi was appointed as Director-General of Radio Department, Telecommunications Bureau, MIC. He has been in his current position as Director-General for Cybersecurity since July 2018.
TitleEtc:VP, Network & Systems, Netflix, USA
Bio:Dave Temkin is the Vice President of Global Networks for Netflix, where he and his team built the Open Connect Network infrastructure to serve streaming video to nearly 150 million customers. Prior to Netflix, he worked on building the Yahoo! and Right Media delivery networks. Located in New York City, he is active in several non-profit and charity groups including NANOG, Community IX, and Children of Bellevue.
TitleEtc:Chief Executive Officer, CMC Networks, Belgium
Bio:Marisa comes to CMC from AT&T, where she had a successful career for the last 21 years, serving in a variety of roles including sales, supplier management and strategic planning. Marisa is an accomplished and energetic leader with a track record of improving service quality, increasing sales and managing costs and carrier relationships in the wholesale industry.
TitleEtc:Former VP/CTO, Cisco Systems, USA
Bio:Former VP/CTO at Cisco Systems and served on the board of directors of the Cloud Native Computing, OpenStack, and Cloud Foundry Foundations. He has more than 30 years of experience in the high-tech industry, ranging from distributed systems and artificial intelligence to software development and parallel system architecture. Prior to Cisco, Lew was VP/CTO Cloud Computing at Sun Microsystems where he led the development of the Sun Cloud platform. He was also a member of the JavaSoft executive team, launched java.sun.com, and helped to bring Java into the developer ecosystem. At Salesforce.com, Lew led the development of Salesforce.com’s AppExchange. In the 1980’s Lew was a research director at Thinking Machines, where he developed algorithms for AI and machine vision for the massively parallel Connection Machine. Lew moved into technology following a career in Neurobiology at Cornell University Medical school and has a Ph.D. in computer science.
TitleEtc:Chief Executive Officer, DC BLOX, USA
Bio:Jeff Uphues is responsible for DC BLOX’s business strategy, mission, and goals guiding the company’s vision of designing, building, and operating a network of innovative data centers that bring best-in-class business services to the Edge.
A tireless tech-savvy executive, strategist, and cloud services entrepreneur, Jeff has held C-suite leadership positions in organizations ranging in size from Fortune 50 companies to start-ups including Liquid Web, Cbeyond, and Bandwidth.com. He is an active board member for several privately held technology software companies and is co-chair of the New Venture Competition for the Harvard Business School Club of Atlanta.
TitleEtc:Global Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment Industry Leader, IBM Institute for Business Value, Netherlands
Bio:Rob van den Dam is the Global Industry Leader, Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment (TME) for the IBM Institute for Business Value (the business think tank of IBM). In his role, he is responsible for developing strategic TME thought leadership. He has over 25 years of experience in the industry and is a member of the IBM Global Business Services (GBS) senior leadership team.
Rob received the highest (Platinum) Acclaim Award for achieved global recognition as a Telecommunications thought leader within and outside IBM. He is a recognized presenter – often being invited as keynote speaker – at most major industry conferences, such as TMForum, ITU, GSMA, and CommunicAsia. In the last 15 years, Rob has authored more than 100 reports, articles, and blogs. He has published articles in, among others, Annual Review of Communications, Jnl. of Telecommunications Management, European Communications, Forbes, Total Telecom Magazine, Telecom Asia, Mobile Europe, and Wireless Asia.
TitleEtc:President, GLIA Foundation, USA
Bio:Richard S. Whitt is a technology attorney, and corporate and public policy strategist, based in San Francisco, California.
In May 2018, after eleven-plus years with Google, Richard founded NetsEdge LLC, a tech strategy firm providing expert counsel to edge companies and other entities on emerging accountability challenges from online technologies. Richard will focus in particular on designing and implementing innovative governance regimes for new net platforms, such as virtual software agents, connected devices, autonomous systems, cloud networks, and blockchain and other decentralized infrastructure.
Most recently, Richard served for nearly four years as Corporate Counsel for Strategic Initiatives in Google’s Mountain View headquarters. During his extensive tenure with the company, Richard helped shape and execute on Google’s corporate and public policy strategies in numerous areas, including network neutrality, global broadband deployment, spectrum policy, intellectual property, data protection, Internet governance, and IoT ecosystem management.
Richard currently serves as a fellow in residence with the Mozilla Foundation, and a senior fellow (non-resident) with the Georgetown Institute for Technology Law and Policy.
TitleEtc:Founder & CEO, Mu Space Corp, Thailand
Bio:James Yenbamroong is the founder and CEO of mu Space Corp, a company that develops advanced satellite and space travel services. The company designs and builds terrestrial digital infrastructure, and plans to launch its own satellite in 2020.
James has work background in satellite design, wireless technology, aerospace systems, and energy exploration. He had worked at Northrop Grumman Corporation in the US, where he led a project on unmanned vehicle systems.
James holds a bachelor degree in aerospace engineering and a master degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California.