Marcus Andronici, Product Marketing Manager, Intrado
Marcus brings near a decade’s worth of experience to his current position of leading Intrado’s VoIP 9-1-1 Solutions efforts. In this role, he directs a cross-disciplinary team to ensure Intrado’s VoIP 9-1-1 solutions 1) consistently meet the high standards required for 9-1-1 applications, 2) are cost effective and 3), are pragmatically deployable for both VoIP providers and Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). His diverse technology background includes experience in product development, operations, market research, marketing, business development and customer relations. Marcus’ multi-disciplinary experience gives him the full subject matter experience needed to thoroughly understand and communicate issues surrounding VoIP E9-1-1 delivery to audiences with varied levels of technical expertise.
Jon Arnold, Principal, J Arnold & Associates
Jon Arnold is Principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent telecom consultancy with a focus on IP communications. Previously, he was the VoIP Program Leader at Frost & Sullivan, where he was responsible for managing their subscription service for Global VoIP Equipment Markets. Jon is a frequent speaker at VoIP and telecom conferences, and has been a regular at VON since 2001. He leads the IPCC's Working Group on industry research, and is a contributing editor to the IP Telephony Dictionary. Jon is frequently quoted in the business and trade press, and television, including BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, NYT, WSJ, Financial Times, and CNET News.
Gordon Arthur, VP, Business Development, Pactolus Communications Software
Gordon Arthur, Vice President of Business Development and co-founder of Pactolus, has worked providing enhanced services to the telecommunications industry for the past nine years, most recently as Director of Sales for the Open Development Corporation (ODC). Prior to ODC, Mr. Arthur was Telephony Sales Manager for the Voice Processing Corporation-VPC (now Phillips Speech Recognition) in Cambridge, MA and a Senior Sales Engineer for Call Technologies of Reston, VA. Mr. Arthur holds a BA and an MBA from Bentley College.
Jonathan Askin, General Counsel, pulver.com
Jonathan Askin is General Counsel/Wartime Consiglieri to pulver.com, which controls approximately 20 operating companies touching various aspects of IP-based communications. Before joining pulver.com, Jonathan was President and General Counsel to ALTS, the leading national trade association representing facilities-based CLECs. Jonathan was a senior attorney in the FCC’s Common Carrier Bureau before joining ALTS. Prior to the FCC, he was a New Jersey Deputy Public Advocate, where he represented the public on telecommunications and cable issues. Jonathan also practiced law with the New York offices of Davis, Polk. Jonathan is an honors graduate of both Harvard College and Rutgers Law School, and clerked for the late Chief Justice Robert Wilentz of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Robin Axon, Vice President, Venture West
Robin Axon joined Ventures West in 2001 and focuses on IT and telecommunications investments.
Prior to joining Ventures West, Robin was at MD Robotics (formerly Spar Aerospace) and the Canadian Space Agency where he helped to prepare the Canadarm2 for installation onto the International Space Station.
Robin currently serves as a director of Instrumar Limited and an Observer of Fortiva Inc. He is also the founder of the CVCA´s Young Venture Capitalists (YVC) Committee.
Robin holds a B.A.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto and a MBA from Queen´s University.
Paul Barker, Editor, CNS Magazine
Paul Barker is the editor of Cabling Networking Systems (CNS), a magazine for cabling, networking and telecom professionals. Since its founding in 1998, CNS (formerly Cabling Systems) has gained a reputation as a leading information source for individuals who purchase, design, specify, install, maintain, test and advise on structured cabling, premise wiring and networking applications. Articles in the award-winning publication are both
current and practical and written in a way that helps these professionals do their jobs more effectively. Mr. Barker has been covering IT since 1988.
Yuval Barzakay, President & CEO, Comwave Telecom
President & CEO of Comwave Telecom a long distance provider with operation
in Canada and the US. He brings visionary leadership to Comwave rolling
out residential VoIP to Canadians in June 2004 with the introduction of
Comwave iPhone. He has over 15 years in Telecom , marketing and product
development through lengthy opportunities with leading providers like Bell
Mobility and Rogers Wireless. Yuval was also responsible for the launch of
Yapalot Communications in 1999 and its deployments in ten countries. He
eventually took the company public. Yuval is personally involved with VoIP
911 solutions and is an active member of the the CRTC's CISC group on
911. Comwave like 911 solutions are now mandated by the CRTC.
Kate Batty, Sr. Director, SMB Marketing, Bell Canada
Catharine (Kate) Batty is a member of Bell’s SMB Marketing team responsible for leading SMB on the journey to IP. She has helped Bell transition from a telephony company to a well established data networking company. Over the past 22 years, Kate has contributed to all segments of the business market including Large Enterprise, Wholesale and SMB. In her current role as Sr. Director - Connectivity, Kate is responsible for designing and leading the transformation to IP services for Bell’s SMB team, both in the voice (VOIP) and data (IP VPNs) worlds.
Kate holds a B.A. (Economics) from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from York University.
Doug Bellinger, CTO, EVP Product Development, Atreus Systems
Doug Bellinger drives Atreus’ technology vision and leads the product direction for Atreus’ industry-leading Service Fulfillment OSS Solution for IP services. One of the networking industry's foremost software architects, Mr. Bellinger currently holds five patents in telecommunications technologies. He is an accomplished motivator of technical and professional staff, with over 15 years of experience in telecommunications networking, service and network management, and all aspects of software product development and life cycle management. Prior to co-founding Atreus, Mr. Bellinger was a founding member of CrossKeys Systems Corporation, a leading network and service management company that achieved IPO in 1997.
Kfir Benjamin, Director, Sales N.A., Surf Communication Solutions
Kfir Benjamin joined Surf Communication Solutions in August 2004. As Director of North American Sales, Kfir is responsible for all Surf's business development activities in the Americas, including identifying trends and new markets in the telecom sector.
In the decade prior to joining Surf Communication Solutions, Kfir was involved in a variety of technological/operational communications projects for both civilian and military establishments. His experience in both sales and service functions in global corporations such as Microwave Networks, Inc. and HeliOss Communications has provided Kfir with hands-on knowledge of the trials and tribulations of telecom developers and OEM manufacturers.
Daniel Berninger, VP and Senior Analyst, Tier1 Research
Daniel Berninger joined Tier1 Research in August 2004 as Senior Analyst covering telecom. Daniel has over a decade of experience that includes helping to launch three prominent VoIP startups - ITXC, Vonage, and Free World Dialup. His expertise on the intersection of telecom and the Internet has been sought by Congress, FCC, Federal Reserve, and state PSCs. Daniel led early VoIP deployments at Verizon, HP, and NASA for VocalTec Communications. He won the 1999 VON Pioneer Award for co-founding the VON Coalition and worked on the original assessment of VoIP at Bell Laboratories. He completed doctoral studies in preparation for a Ph.D. in System Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
Hugh Black, Vice President, TRILLIUM Corp. Communications
Hugh Black has 15 years of business-to-business and business-to-consumer communications experience serving companies in the high technology and telecommunications industries. Since 2003, Hugh has led numerous groundbreaking projects aimed at educating the market about the power of IP communications. Hugh works with a wide range of corporations in the areas of brand building, corporate positioning, issues management, market build activities and executive outreach and visibility programs.
Hugh also has led communications teams in some of Canada's top communications firms on national and international projects.
Alexander Brock, VP, Business Development, Rogers Communications
Alexander Brock has been with the Rogers Group of Companies for 10 years. His key areas of expertise are in the areas of technology strategy, new business development and M&A activities. Initially with Rogers Cable, he was a key member of the team that developed Rogers Wave™ (now called Rogers Hi-Speed™), the first commercial high-speed data service launched in North America. Since late 2001 he has been in his current role where he has focused on developing and executing on Rogers’ plans for Voice-over-IP over Cable, hybrid GSM-over-IP and fixed wireless (WiMax) projects as well as general business development activities across the Rogers Group of Companies.
Charles Brown, Executive Vice President, WaveRider Communications
Charles Brown joined WaveRider Communications Inc. in February of 1998 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in March 2005.
Charles brings to this position more than 20 years experience in the telecommunications and cable industries. Prior to joining WaveRider, Mr. Brown was the Chief Information Officer of Clearnet Communications, a wireless communications service provider, where he was responsible for all aspects of the company's information systems. Prior to joining Clearnet, Mr. Brown held a variety of executive level marketing, sales and business development positions with Trillium Communications, BCE Mobile and Bell Mobility.
Charles obtained a BA from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.
Eric Burger, CTO, Brooktrout Technology
Eric Burger is vice president, chief technology officer for Next-Gen Communications for Brooktrout Technology where he is responsible for setting the technology direction for Brooktrout's current and future next generation products. Mr. Burger represents Brooktrout by participating on several industry standards forums including the IETF, IEEE and SIP Forum. Prior to joining Brooktrout, Mr. Burger co-founded SnowShore Networks where he served as Chief Technology Officer responsible for building real-time, Internet-centric, large scale, packet media processing servers. Mr. Burger has held several strategic positions in the communications industry, including chief scientist at ADC/Centigram Communications Corporation, where he led the development of Centigram's IP-centric architecture; and vice president of engineering for The Telephone Connection, Inc. (TTCI).
Dave Burstein, Editor, DSL Prime
Dave Burstein is Editor of DSL Prime, the industry newsletter for DSL. He is also author of the book "DSL, a Wiley Tech Brief" published by John Wiley and Sons; and Chair of Fast Net Futures, now in its third year. Mr. Burstein consults on DSL strategies, technology, and telecom policy.
Glen Campbell, First VP Telecommunications & Media, Merrill Lynch
Glen Campbell is the global telecom lead for Merrill Lynch, as well as the lead Canadian communication analyst based in Toronto.
Ken Carriere, VP, Product Development, Yak Communications
Mr. Carriere is responsible for product development across all product portfolios within yak Communications. In addition, Mr. Carriere leads the Broadband division, which launched yak WorldCity VoIP to the Canadian, US and overseas residential markets on September 8th. Prior to joining yak Communications, Mr. Carriere had 14 years of telecommunications industry experience at Bell Canada, Sprint Canada, and AT&T Canada in the areas of marketing, sales, finance, and regulatory with a special emphasis in product development.
Tom Carter, SVP, Worldwide Sales, BridgePort Networks
Tom Carter is responsible for worldwide sales operations for BridgePort Networks. He brings more than 20 years of business development, sales and entrepreneurial expertise to BridgePort Networks. Previously, Mr. Carter created a private Venture Partnership, Carter Capital & Communications, that provides early stage funding for the Wireless and Internet infrastructure sector. He has held key management positions with Adaptive Broadband and @Mobile where he was a founder and Vice President of Worldwide Sales until it was sold to Openwave Systems. Mr. Carter began his career with Tandem Computers (now Compaq). He holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Alberta, Canada.
Chris Celiberti, Director Advanced Services, NeuStar
Chris Celiberti works in the strategic technologies group at NeuStar, Inc. and is a telecommunications VoIP veteran focused on the OSS\BSS space. Mr. Celiberti has worked in positions including System Engineering, Product and Program Management and Business Development for several fortune 500 companies. Additionally, he has been an active participant in several global standards groups as well as an industry speaker.
Tom Chang, Director, Sales Engineering, CosmoCom
Tom Chang is a Senior Director of Sales Engineering with CosmoCom, and is one of CosmoCom’s first employees. In his eight-year tenure with CosmoCom, Mr. Chang has been involved in many areas including: development, engineering, product management and is now assisting the sales organization. He has basically “grown up” with the VoIP industry and next generation call center technology, and has a lot of hands-on experience working with these and complimentary technologies. Prior to joining CosmoCom, Tom was a lead developer with Computer Associates. Tom holds a Computer Science and Applied Mathematics degree from Stony Brook University.
Roch Charbonneau, Partner, Superna Business Consulting
Roch Charbonneau is responsible for new Practice and Business Development focused on providing strategic network investment consulting to Executives of both Enterprises and Service Providers. Roch spent 22 years in a variety of leadership positions with Nortel in the areas of R&D, manufacturing, technology management, and market development. In his last assignment at Nortel, as VP Business and Network Planning, he managed a global team of network architects and solution planners working directly with Service Providers and Enterprises to define the technical and business rationale for adopting new technologies. In addition, Roch currently holds several advisor roles with early stage start-up companies developing software and hardware products for the converging IP telephony and information technologies solutions.
Uday Choudhury, AVP, Product Management, BayPackets
Uday Choudhury serves as the AVP of Product Management for BayPackets, Inc, a leading supplier of a carrier-grade Service Delivery Platform and applications for delivering enhanced consumer and business communications services over broadband, IP and converged networks. Choudhury has over 16 years of industry experience in the telecom networking field and has management leadership experience in both large telecom equipment manufacturing companies and Silicon Valley start-ups. Currently, at BayPackets, Choudhury focuses on next-generation messaging and business collaborative applications. Choudhury holds a master in Computer Science from the University of SW Louisiana, and a bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Sambalpur University in India.
Carl Condon, Vice President for Technology Development, Bell Canada
Carl Condon is responsible for Bell Canada's "wireline" technology portfolio on a national basis. He leads Bell's VoIP, MPLS, access and video initiatives in this role. He has 15 years experience in networking; he has been involved in every major aspect of BCE's growth in data networks. In this role, he introduced TCP/IP, routers and switching to Bell Canada and delivered Bell's first managed network services.
David Cork, CEO, Natural Convergence
David Cork has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to co-founding Natural Convergence, he served in a variety of leadership and executive roles with Bell Northern Research, Mitel Corporation, ObjecTime and Nortel. David has proven his ability to execute business plans. While with Nortel, he held the position of Chief Operating Officer for eXtremeVoice, Nortel's national ASP offering in the area of Internet Call Waiting. Previously, he laid the foundation for sales growth at ObjecTime and built Mitel's Computer-Telephony Integration unit into a multi-million dollar business.
Anne Coulombe, Director Secure Convergence, Enterasys Networks
Anne Coulombe is responsible for the direction and activities of Enterasys Networks' secure convergence program. Prior to joining Enterasys, Ms. Coulombe jointly held roles of VP Marketing with Mitel Knowledge and Head of SIP-Based Solutions at Mitel Networks. She has also held technology and business positions with F500 companies including Microsoft and Electronic Arts. Ms. Coulombe is a frequent public speaker in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific at events such as VON, Comdex and VoiceCon. Recent topics include VoIP, VoWiFi, SIP, convergence and securing convergence. She holds the Project Management Institute's Project Management Professional (PMP) designation, an MBA in Technology Engineering Management, and degrees in Industrial Relations and Computer Science.
David Cuddy, CTO, Natural Convergence
David Cuddy brings over 20 years of telecom experience to Natural Convergence, with a proven track record in new product design, advanced technology, and new business development. As CTO, he is responsible for technology strategy, and all aspects of product design, development and delivery. Before joining Natural Convergence, Mr. Cuddy co-founded NetworkEdge Solutions, a wireless applications start-up in Ottawa. During an extensive career at Nortel Networks and Bell-Northern Research, he led the creation of market-leading wireless, desktop, and Internet products, and received the President's Award for Innovation in recognition of significant contributions to Nortel's IPR portfolio and culture.
Jeff Dionne, CEO, Arcturus Networks
Jeff Dionne is CEO and Chief Architect of Arcturus Networks, a provider of embedded technologies for consumer VoIP. With over 15 years of experience in electrical engineering, hardware design, and software, he is responsible for the Residential Gateway and VoIP programs at Arcturus. Prior to Arcturus, Mr. Dionne co-founded Rt-Control and later merged with the then largest embedded Linux company; Lineo Inc. He held various positions at Lineo including CTO. Mr. Dionne is internationally recognized as the founder of uClinux, which is largely considered to be the most broadly deployed version of embedded Linux. He was also the first person to demonstrate embedded Linux OS functionality on a handled PDA.
John Egli, Carrier VoIP Marketing, Nortel
John is responsible for Nortel Networks’ carrier Softswitch and VoIP technical marketing activities globally. He has over 15 years experience in data and voice communications and has worked extensively in Europe and North America. John has been quoted extensively and has published multiple articles on a variety of topic relating to carrier provided Voice over IP services and networking. John has a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada.
John Eitel, President & CEO, CallthePlanet
John Eitel is a popular writer/speaker and corporate consultant internationally. He assumed the leadership of CallThePlanet in 2003, bringing with him 32 years of business and investment experience. Recognized for his skill in international corporate and estate planning, Mr. Eitel brings the vision of efficient tax planning and global organization for the Company. Call The Planet (CTP) was founded in 2002, for the purpose of providing affordable, quality communications so that anyone could simply pick up a phone and speak to anyone, anywhere. Since then, CTP remains dedicated to building and maintaining a wholly-owned Global Private Network for voice communications.
David Endler, Director, Security Research / Chairman, TippingPoint & VoIPSA
David Endler is the founder and Chairman of the Voice over IP Security Alliance (VOIPSA) and the director of Security Research for TippingPoint, a division of 3Com. As Chairman of VOIPSA, he is responsible for leading and managing the business of VOIPSA to provide clear direction and focus, ensuring that VOIPSA committees and projects are structured and run according to a culture which upholds the highest standards of integrity and adherence to VOIPSA's open and vendor-neutral vision. At TippingPoint, Mr. Endler is responsible for vulnerability and threat research. Previously, he led the research arm of iDEFENSE, a global security intelligence firm; and has performed security research for Xerox Corporation, National Security Agency.
Mark Evans, Senior Technology Reporter, National Post
Mark Evans is a senior technology reporter with the National Post, covering the Internet, telecom and venture capital sectors. Before joining the Post in 2001, he co-founded Blanketware Corp., which develops natural language navigation software for corporate portals. Mark has also worked for the Globe & Mail, Bloomberg News and the South China Morning Post. His blog on technology and telecom can be found at http://evans.blogware.com.
Tom Evslin, Founder, ITXC, Evslin Consulting
Tom Evslin was co-founder (with wife Mary), Chairman, and CEO of ITXC Corporation, the world's leading provider of wholesale VoIP. The company grew from startup in 1997 to one of the world's largest carriers of any kind by 2004 when it was acquired. Previously, Mr. Evslin was responsible for the conception, launch, and operation of AT&T's first ISP, AT&T WorldNet. And while at Microsoft, he was responsible for the server products now in Microsoft BackOffice including Microsoft Exchange. Key assets of the Evslins' software company, Solution, Inc., were sold to Microsoft. Mr. Evslin now splits his time between Evslin Consulting and charitable boards. He is writing a murder mystery set in the Internet bubble.
Jeff Fan, Director, Equity Research Analyst, Telecom, UBS
Jeff Fan is a telecom research analyst for UBS. He joined in 1999 and has
been responsible for the research of telecommunications services and other
technology companies in North America. Jeff has focused his research on
the financial implications of VOIP on the Canadian residential
market. Jeff is frequently quoted in the financial press including the
Globe & Mail, the National Post, Reuters and Bloomberg. Jeff is CFA and a
CA. UBS Investment Bank is a leading global securities and investment
banking firm, providing a full spectrum of products to institutional and
corporate clients, intermediaries, governments and hedge funds worldwide.
Headquartered in London, UBS Investment Bank employs over 15,000 people in
31 countries globally.
Tracy Fleming, National IP Telephony Practice Leader, Avaya Canada
Tracy Fleming is national IP telephony practice leader, Avaya Canada, focusing on driving thought leadership around Avaya IP Telephony solutions and helping customers create a long-term strategy for their IP deployments. In addition, Tracy is the executive briefer in Canada, charged with articulating the Avaya value proposition to customers and Business Partners. Previously, Tracy held a position as a senior technical consultant, Avaya Canada. Prior to Avaya, Tracy was Director of IT for a subsidiary of Bell Canada with projects in large scale WAN/LAN design, MS Exchange, SAP, and Y2K. Tracy's educational background is in Business Administration with a major in marketing.
Carl Ford, Vice President, Community & Content, pulver.com
At pulver.com, Carl Ford is a Community Developer, looking to enable business development and customer contact between companies. He also develops the content for pulver.com conferences and is a highly interactive program moderator. As a pulverite he serves as an advisor to several companies in various degrees. Mr. Ford's professional career includes 20 years at telecommunications companies such as Telcordia Technologies and Verizon. He has worked in positions including Costs, Operations, Marketing, Regulatory, and Product Management. His accomplishments include architecting and product-managing a carrier-grade billing mediation device for softswitches that was compatible for ILEC billing systems; and moderating the development of the pulver.com CDR for Internet Telephony, enabling VOIP gateways to be used with carrier billing systems.
Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO, TELUS Corp.
In his role as CTO at TELUS, Ibrahim Gedeon is responsible for technology strategy, network vendor management, network support systems, and the development of services in concert with marketing and sales teams. Previously, Mr. Gedeon operated an independent executive consultancy and served as a consultant to Incode Telecom and to TELUS, where he was a key contributor to the company's Network Evolution Strategy. Prior to that he was SVP of Wireless Engineering at Nortel, where he led a 1000+ member global engineering team. Mr. Gedeon has held numerous leadership roles in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and has received several professional awards, including IEEE Canada's Outstanding Canadian Engineer Award.
Marc Gingras, VP, Product Line Mgmt. & Marketing, Nimcat Networks
Marc Gingras was previously a venture capitalist with Innovatech Montreal where he oversaw investments in numerous telecommunication and software companies. Prior, he founded GYTEK Inc., a software company in Waterloo, Canada, which he eventually sold to Entrade Inc., a NYSE company. He continues to be actively involved in the community as a board member and advisor for local technology companies and NGOs. Marc holds an INSEAD MBA, a Masters degree in Management Sciences from the University of Waterloo, and a Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ottawa.
Jim Glover, Investment Director, BDC Venture Capital
Jim Glover is an Investment Director at BDC Venture Capital focusing solely on telecommunications investments. Prior to BDC, Jim had over 18 years experience with a major telecommunication equipment vendor, having held senior positions in product management, engineering, finance and marketing. Jim is a director at Navtel Communications, Sirific Wireless and New Step Networks. He also sits on the advisory board for the University of Toronto, Master of Engineering in Telecommunications Program. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from McMaster University.
Ofer Gneezy, President & CEO, iBasis
As co-founder, president, and CEO of global VoIP company iBasis, Mr. Gneezy is one of the true visionaries of the IP telephony industry and a recipient of Pulver.com's Industry Pioneer Award. Prior to founding iBasis, Mr. Gneezy pioneered the field of industrial automation. He was president of Acuity Imaging, Inc., a multinational leader in industrial automation technology and president and CEO of Automatix, which he merged with Itran, Inc., to form Acuity. Mr. Gneezy is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Business Administration and has an M.S. in engineering from M.I.T.
Hugh Goldstein, Regional Sales Director, Arbinet-thexchange
Hugh Goldstein serves as a carrier executive with Arbinet-thexchange, the world's largest electronic marketplace for communications trading. Arbinet enables over 350 telecommunications companies to trade more than a billion minutes monthly via its electronic trading platform. Mr. Goldstein previously served as senior director of marketing at VocalTec Communications, director of marketing for Surf&Call Network Services, and marketing manager for Belgacom North America.
Jim Greenway, VP, Marketing, Kagoor Networks
Jim Greenway, vice president of marketing for Kagoor Networks, is a marketing and communications veteran with 25 years of industry experience. As the vice president of marketing, Greenway leads Kagoor's corporate communications and worldwide marketing efforts. Prior to joining Kagoor, Greenway was the vice president of marketing at Williams Communications, where he was responsible for corporate branding, public relations, advertising, product marketing and marketing communications. Greenway has previously held senior marketing positions with Nortel, Sprint, Motorola and startup InfoGear (acquired by Cisco). Greenway holds a B.A. with honors, in psychology from the University of Michigan.
Ronald Gruia, Sr. Strategic Analyst, Emerging Communications Solutions, Frost & Sullivan
Ronald Gruia is the Program Leader, Enterprise Solutions and Senior Telecom Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, where he covers topics such as VoIP, triple play services, IMS, and carrier messaging platforms. He is a frequent speaker at conferences such as VON, IPComm, 3GSM, Supercomm, Intel Communications Summit, and IP World Canada.
Ronald also writes articles for various publications, appears on Report on Business Television (Canada), and is often quoted in publications including Business Week, Forbes, Chicago Tribune, National Post, Globe&Mail and Washington Post. He is an MIT graduate in Electrical Engineering, and has accumulated years of experience in the telecom industry (held several roles at Nortel Networks' Enterprise Division, where he earned a U.S. patent).
Ben Guderian, Director of Market Strategy, SpectraLink
Ben Guderian is responsible for marketing and product management for SpectraLink's market-leading workplace wireless telephone solutions. He has been instrumental in developing vertical markets and driving product development to meet the voice communication requirements of mobile workers. He is currently directing the marketing efforts to establish partnerships for SpectraLink's voice-over-wireless LAN technology and to bring products into international markets. Mr. Guderian's experience includes over 17 years in telecommunications and networking. Prior to joining SpectraLink in 1992, he held engineering and marketing positions with several telecommunication and data communication equipment manufacturers.
Bernard Gutnick, VP, Product Marketing, Sylantro Systems
Bernard brings to Sylantro more than 15 years of experience in the communications industry, and is responsible for product management and marketing. Prior to joining Sylantro, he was responsible for product management at GoBeam, a leading VoIP-based hosted service provider in California recently acquired by Covad Communications. He has held senior management positions at Aspect Communications, Nortel and Octel Communications, and account sales positions at the Manitoba Telephone System. Bernard holds an MBA degree from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, and undergraduate degree in business from the University of Manitoba.
Jon "maddog" Hall, Executive Director, Linux International
Jon "maddog" Hall is the Executive Director of Linux International (www.li.org), a non-profit association of computer vendors who wish to support and promote the Linux Operating System. During his career which spans over thirty years, Mr. Hall has been a programmer, systems designer, systems administrator, product manager, technical marketing manager, college educator and author. He has worked for such companies as Western Electric Corporation, Aetna Life and Casualty, Bell Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corporation, VA Linux Systems, and is currently funded by SGI. Mr. Hall serves on the boards of several companies, and several non-profit organizations, including the USENIX Association.
Christopher Herot, CTO, Convoq
Christopher Herot co-founded Convoq to create a new form of real-time communication that combined presence and instant messaging with video and web conferencing. Mr. Herot has over twenty years of engineering and management experience in multimedia communications. Prior to Convoq, he was CEO and Founder of MessageMachines, maker of an instant-messaging switching platform and was Director of Advanced Technology at Lotus Development where he was responsible for Lotus's real-time collaboration and video products. Prior to Lotus Mr. Herot held executive engineering positions at Bitstream, Javelin Software, and Computer Corporation of America. Mr. Herot has MS and BS degrees from MIT and was on the faculty of the group that became the MIT Media Laboratory.
Tim Hewson, Nortel
Tim Hewson joined Nortel nine years ago after working in the UK on a number of European Union funded telecommunications research projects. Now based in Toronto, his first role was with the development team working on Unified Messaging products, he then moved to the Product Management team responsible for Contact Center. For the last five years Tim has worked as a Senior Product Manager on Nortel's Symposium Contact Center Portfolio and has been living through the industry move towards IP technology. He has been responsible for evolving Nortel's contact center portfolio to adapt to this new market need, and is now looking at how Nortel will embrace SIP capabilities within the Contact Center.
Dan Hoffman, President and CEO, M5 Networks
Dan is redefining the phone system market by replacing traditional phone systems and phone company arrangements with an outsourced solution businesses trust. Before joining M5 in 2001, Dan co-founded Global Internet Group, serving as President before selling the company to Asia Online, a Hong Kong-based ISP holding company. As Executive Vice President of Operations, Dan grew Asia Online to a major pan-Asian Internet services firm with 1000 employees. Previously, Dan advised management teams at several service providers, including Interport Communications, and ran operations at Education Loan Services, Inc. Dan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a Masters of International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
Scott Hoffpauir, CTO, BroadSoft
As Chief Technology Officer, Scott is responsible for guiding the technical vision and direction for BroadSoft as well as promoting continuous product innovation. Prior to co-founding BroadSoft and serving as Vice President, Engineering since 1998, Scott was Director of GSM Development at Celcore (DSC/Alcatel USA). In this role, Scott was responsible for all product development on the GSM switching product, including system architecture, product requirements, software development, hardware development, system test/integration and product/customer support. Before Celcore, Scott was senior architect for Nortel's GSM and Inter-Exchange Carrier switching systems. He is widely published, holds 13 approved patents and 11 pending patents in the GSM and switching areas.
Thomas Howe, CTO, Versatel Networks
Thomas Howe brings over 15 years of telecommunications engineering experience to Versatel. Prior to joining the company as CTO, he was CEO and Founder of Tangerine Inc., a leading maker of call agents for small IP telephony service providers. Mr. Howe also founded Howe Digital, a VoIP engineering design consulting organization responsible for designing over 50 VoIP products. At PictureTel/Polycom, Mr. Howe designed the audio and video software of the first PC-based video conferencing system, the first H.323 implementation and the program that became Microsoft NetMeeting. He served as PictureTel’s engineering manager responsible for all software development for the next generation H.323/H.320/H.324 SwiftSite product line. He also served as the director of engineering for NetPhone’s first generation IPBX product line and as Aware Inc.’s software architect for the first commercially available ADSL chipset.
Lawson Hunter, Executive Vice President, Bell Canada
Lawson A.W. Hunter is Executive Vice President of BCE Inc. and of Bell Canada. In this role, he oversees regulatory and competitive affairs as well as a broader agenda of public policy issues, with a particular focus on Bell Canada's operations. Previously a Partner with Stikeman Elliott, Mr. Lawson is one of Canada's leading competition and trade lawyers. He has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors. In the public sector, Mr. Lawson served as Director of Investigation and Research under the Competition Act and as Deputy Minister of Industry responsible for the Bureau of Competition Policy. He is viewed as the primary author to the Canada's Competition Act, which became law in 1986.
Kan Inaba, Director, VoIP, Voice & Messaging, Bell Canada
Kan joined Bell Canada in 2004 as overall product development prime for building Bell Digital Voice, Bell's first residential Voice-over-IP service. He has leadership responsibility for product development, strategy & planning and business development & planning. Kan also has product ownership for the wireline services portfolio. He is a veteran of the engineering and telecom industry with over 15 years experience in Director and Group Product Manager positions with Roadpost, Sprint Canada and ACC TelEnterprises. He holds an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and a BASc in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Michael Jablon, Senior Director, Marketing, Time Warner Cable
Mike Jablon is responsible for the Digital Phone product offering from Time Warner Cable. Digital Phone is a comprehensive residential telephone service offered to Time Warner Cable subscribers over cable infrastructure. Previously, Mike led go to market initiatives for software, hardware and service providers including IBM, Vonage, Sylantro, VocalTec and CTSTel resulting in numerous VoIP products and services in the market today and is a former Board member of the VON Coalition. He holds a BS in Computer Science from SUNY Buffalo and completed the Executive Marketing Management Program at Columbia University.
Jack Jachner, Senior Director, Alcatel
Jack Jachner is currently Senior Director leading an Internal Venture focused on development of an innovative Presence-based product. Jack has led an innovation team on next-gen communication applications, has served as CTO for N.A. for enterprise Communication Servers, and has been responsible for engineering groups supporting the OmniPCX enterprise IP telephony product in N.A. Jack has a Doctor of Science in Digital Signal Processing and a Master of Science in Data Networking both from MIT, and a Bachelor of EE from McGill University. With over 20 years in Telecommunications R&D, he has implemented VoIP in Xylan data switches, implemented wireless basestations for Tellabs, researched signal identification and detection for DoD at AAEC, and researched vocoders for Bell Northern Research.
Don Jackson, VP, Advanced Telephony, Tellme Networks
Don Jackson is Vice President of Advanced Telephony at Tellme Networks, where he works on enhancing the functionality and features of Tellme's connections to phone and data networks. His responsibilities include the SIP version of the Tellme platform, and the development of communication applications for carriers and service providers.
Helene Joncas, VP, Marketing & Business Development, SIPquest
Hélène is intimately aware of the needs of equipment manufacturers, service providers and enterprise, with respect to IP telephony technology and applications. She has more than 15 years’ experience in software and telecommunications and her specific areas of expertise include strategic planning, alliance building and the identification of new business opportunities. Before joining SIPquest team, Hélène co-founded imGenie, a wireless Internet software vendor, and prior to this, she was with the Nortel Networks wireless Internet team, Cap Gemini, Mitel and Enfotec Technical services. Hélène has co-authored several papers on successful strategic alliances and she holds a BA (Honours) in Psychology and an MBA, both from the University of Ottawa.
Rick Jones, Operations Issues Director, NENA
Rick Jones is Operations Issues Director for the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). As part of his staff responsibilities, he actively participates in various telecommunications industry standards development organizations and other related groups. He also assists regarding identifying issues and providing staff support for the NENA Operations leadership (various operational committee chairs). He has spent 25 years in public safety/emergency communications, including 12 years as a 9-1-1 call center supervisor/manager in northern Illinois. He has been actively involved, representing 9-1-1 and public safety, in development work for several telecom technical issues, such as number portability/pooling, since 1996.
Sandi Jones, Director, Strategic Marketing & Technologies, Allstream
Sandi Jones is Director, Strategic Marketing & Technologies at Allstream, a division of MTS and one of Canada's leading communication solutions providers. Sandi has extensive experience developing and operating technology-based services. She currently works on Allstream's long-term services strategy and leads the development of Allstream's network-resident XML services and other initiatives that bring application intelligence into the network to enhance voice, data, and collaboration solutions.
Eugene Kam, Vice President, Product Integration, Rogers Cable Communications
As Vice President of Product Integration for Rogers Cable Communications, Eugene Kam is responsible for telephony product development and product management. In this role, he is responsible for the product definition, product roadmap, pricing, packaging and marketing plan. Mr. Kam has worked in the telecommunications industry for over 15 years and has broad experience in marketing, product development and product management. Prior to taking on his current role, Mr. Kam was responsible for Cable Retention and management of the company’s website www.rogers.com . Mr. Kam received his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Bachelor of Science in Engineering at Queen’s University.
Peggy Kilburn, Director of Conference Programs, pulver.com
Peggy Kilburn is Director of Conference Programs at pulver.com, producers of the VON (Voice on the Net) Conferences. A veteran speaker recruiter and program developer, Ms. Kilburn had founded her own conference management company in 1982, and directed such major conferences as COMDEX, AppleFest, CeBIT America, Clio Creative Conference, ComNet, Enterprise Networks, Harvard Computer Graphics Week, and Softcon. She was the original creator of the Macworld Expo Conference, which she grew in size and profitability for 14 years. Previously, Ms. Kilburn helped establish a management consulting firm which developed executive education programs. Prior to that, she was Assistant Director of Continuing Education at Boston University; and at Arthur D. Little, Inc., she headed the firm’s conference, seminar, and executive briefing activities.
Steven Koles, GM, Netscape & Enhanced Services, AOL Canada
As General Manager, Netscape and Enhanced Services for AOL Canada, Steve Koles is responsible for the ongoing strategy and operations of AOL and Netscape services that leverage the Internet. He oversees the continued development of a variety of Netscape and AOL-branded products including AOL TotalTalk using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). With a broad range of experience in the technology and telecom industries, Mr. Koles brings more than 10 years of strategic marketing and business development expertise. Prior to joining AOL Canada, he was Senior Vice President, Marketing & Sales at Group Telecom, responsible for comprehensive marketing and sales support strategies to position the company as a next-generation telecommunications provider. Previously, Mr. Koles held several senior management positions at TELUS Corporation.
Jack Kozik, CTO & Director of Architecture, Mobile Applications Grp., Lucent Technologies
Jack Kozik's role in Lucent is defining architectures for new applications for mobile and convergenced service providers, with focus on SIP-based realtime communications applications and applications that link telecom services with media and content services. Jack has 3 patents in the areas of Internet Telephony and Mobile Network Fraud detection. He holds a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.
Jean Lavoie, Director, Technology, Mediatrix Telecom
Mr Lavoie is Director, Technology at Mediatrix Telecom, Inc and is responsible for defining next-gen VoIP product specifications and interoperability with equipment manufacturers. Mr. Lavoie has over 15 years of experience in the field of telecommunications. Mr Lavoie has an extensive experience in the automation of assembly processes and test platforms for electronic components. Mr. Lavoie graduated in Electrical Engineering and holds a Master of Applied Sciences from Université de Sherbrooke. He is a also a member of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec.
Matt Lazaro, Sr. Product Manager, Avaya
As Senior Product Manager, Converged Communications, Matt Lazaro brings over 15 years of communications industry experience to Avaya, where he is focused on developing SIP-based applications and services for the Enterprise market. Prior to joining Avaya, he served as Director of Marketing and Product Management at dynamicsoft, Inc., delivering push-to-talk and broadband voice applications to service providers, and held product management and product development positions within Lucent Technologies. He holds an MS and BS in Electrical Engineering.
Chris Lotspeich, Director of Marketing, LumenVox
Chris Lotspeich has been Director of Marketing for LumenVox for over 3 years. In this role, he oversees all marketing and communications of LumenVox. Through his efforts, LumenVox has quickly become a known and respected entity in the speech recognition industry. He has spoken at numerous conferences, including TVUI 2004 and SpeechTEK 2004.
Ed Luff, Director , Product Marketing, Newport Networks
Ed Luff is Director of Product Marketing at Newport Networks, with responsibility for the MediaProxy 1460 session controller product. Ed has over 12 years of telecom experience. Prior to joining Newport Networks, Ed was a product manager at Alcatel, responsible for developing network management strategy for the NGN business unit. Prior to working for Alcatel, at Newbridge Networks, Ed held management and development positions in engineering for ATM and Network Management products. Ed holds a Bachelor of Science with honors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Ali Marashi, CTO, Internap Network Services
Ali Marashi joined Internap in March of 2000 and serves as Internap's Chief Technology Officer. Previously, Marashi also held the role of Vice President of Engineering responsible for all technology, product, and network development, planning and architecture. Before that his role included responsibility for Internap's Network Operations Center and its Colocation and Field Operations. Before joining Internap, Marashi was a Lead Network Engineer at the University of Washington, responsible for senior-level design, development, and technical leadership and support for all networking initiatives and operations. Prior to that, he was co-founder and VP of Engineering for interGlobe Networks, a TCP/IP consulting firm. Marashi holds a BS degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Washington.
Mike Martins, Associate Director, Wireless Technology, Bell Canada
Mike leads a team responsible for the development and ongoing evolution of Bell's wireless network with specific focus on the core infrastructure for voice and data. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and has 11 years experience in wireless communications. Before joining Bell, Mike was part of Nortel Networks’ CALA division providing wireless solutions in South America. Throughout his career, Mike has held several positions in development and engineering teams and was active in the introduction of several new network technologies in Bell’s network including the now widely used CDMA 1xRTT.
David Mc Carthy, Managing Director, BCE Capital
David McCarthy joined BCE Capital in 1995. He is currently Managing Director, based in the Ottawa office. David has played a key role in the financing and growth of dozens of companies in Ottawa, Silicon Valley, and elsewhere. He has an extensive background in technology and business management. Prior to BCE Capital, he spent 15 years at Nortel in a variety of management roles in strategic planning, business development, product development and operations. BCE Capital is the venture capital investment arm of BCE Inc., a world-leading communications company. BCE Capital invests in early-stage telecommunications technology companies in Canada and the US, through its offices in Toronto and Ottawa.
Cliff Mc Collum, VP Technology and Development, Voice Mobility
Cliff McCollum is responsible for the technology and product-development portfolios at Voice Mobility. In addition, as System Architect, he guides the design of Voice Mobility's carrier-grade messaging solution. Cliff has over 14 years experience in professional software development and more than six years of direct involvement in the telecommunications industry. Prior to Voice Mobility, he launched and ran his own successful software business, and worked as a researcher and software developer for the University of Victoria. In 1992, he helped develop the first instant-messaging and multimedia-based email system ever deployed into a Canadian public school. Cliff holds a Masters degree in computer science from the University of Victoria.
Mark Mc Ilvane, President & CEO, Personeta
Mark McIlvane is a "startup specialist" who firmly believes that startup companies are a science, and that they will succeed if managed properly. He joins Personeta from IP Unity, where he was Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Prior to IP Unity, Mr. McIlvane held several positions at Clarent Corporation, most recently as Executive Vice President, Business Operations. Before Clarent, he was Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Comverse Technology, a leading provider of network-based multimedia enhanced communications services. He has also held senior level positions at Bell & Howell Company and ACI Telecom/US West. Mr. McIlvane holds a BS in Business and Economics from Mac Murray College, Jacksonville, Illinois.
Ron Mc Kenzie, Executive Vice President, AllStream
Prior to his current position as Allstream’s Executive Vice President, Business Development & Marketing, Ron McKenzie was Senior Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development. Earlier, Mr. McKenzie was Managing Director with Whitecap Venture Partners. From 1996 to 2000, he held senior marketing and general management positions in FORE Systems Inc. with global offices in the U.S. As the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Volume Products Business Unit, he led the company's expansion into the medium and small business network solutions marketplace. He had previously been responsible for their global marketing strategy. With the exception of one year as the Eastern Canadian Manager for Silicon Graphics, Mr. McKenzie held, over a period of 12 years, several leadership roles for Hewlett-Packard in Sales, Marketing and general manager positions in Canada and the United States. Mr. McKenzie is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto.
Ian Mc Laren, CEO, Ubiquity Software
Ian McLaren brings more than 25 years of telecom experience to Ubiquity. He is a CEO with a proven track record of leading computer and networking companies to success. Mr. McLaren most recently served as President and CEO of CrossKeys Systems Corporation. Prior to that, he served as President of international operations at MCI Systemhouse and as vice president of marketing at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Mr. McLaren is a member of the Board of March Networks and is on the Advisory Board of Canada's Queens University Arts and Science Faculty.
Greg Meckbach, Editor, Communications & Networking Magazine
Greg Meckbach has been editor of Communications & Networking, Canada’s magazine for voice and data networking, since December, 2001. He joined Plesman Communications Inc. (now the Transcontinental Media ITBusiness Group) in 1997 as a staff writer for Computing Canada. He has written about information technology, networking and telecommunications, covering topics such as IP telephony, wireless data services, Wi-Fi, storage, telecom competition, security, electronic commerce and infrastructure. He has moderated panel discussions at various technology conferences, including Comdex Canada and IPWorld Canada. He is president of the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Association of Journalists and has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism from Ryerson Polytechnic University.
Stu Milberg, Vice President, Business Development, LibréTel
Stu Milberg is Vice President of Business Development at LibréTel, focusing on strategic relationships, partnerships, and sales opportunities for LibréTel’s suite of communications services and software products. Mr. Milberg has spent the past 15 years deploying and marketing IP-based disruptive technology designed to displace traditional markets and enhance end-user experience. Prior to LibréTel, Mr. Milberg held similar positions at Vonage, pulver.com, e-Speed, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Spreadsheet Solution Corporation.
Skuli Mogensen, CEO & Founder, OZ Communications
Skuli Mogensen has over 15 years of experience in the technology and telecom industry. As a founding member of OZ, Mr. Mogensen is responsible for the company's strategy and works closely with OZ´s strategic partners and customers around the world. Mr. Mogensen is an active speaker on both sides of the Atlantic and he has been recognized as one of Europe´s top Entrepreneurs based on his work at OZ and through his involvement in the start-up of several companies in the telecom field, including Og Vodafone in Iceland and Arctic Ventures.
Alain Mouttham, CEO & Co-Founder, SIPquest
Alain Mouttham is a veteran CEO with experience spanning multi-domain software solutions for the Carrier and Enterprise markets. He was Co-founder and CEO of imGenie, a wireless Internet application vendor, which developed a dynamic personalization platform using intelligent agent technology. At Nortel Networks, he was responsible for the network and service management solutions market strategy for wireless Internet, IP Telephony and Optical networks. As Founder and CEO of NetManSys, a Silicon Valley start-up, Mr. Mouttham provided network management software solutions for Carriers. At Hewlett-Packard, he headed the R&D team of one of its most successful products, HP Openview. Mr. Mouttham has a Masters in Computer Science from Stanford University and MBA executive development from INSEAD.
Konstantin Nikashov, CEO, MERA Systems
Mr. Nikashov's managerial experience includes 15 years of creative leadership in technology-based businesses. Konstantin joined MERA Group in 1995 as VP Business development and built a 400-people strong off-shore programming lab, a pioneering private business in the post-Soviet Russia, which engaged in software development for Nortel, Cisco Systems and others. A few years later he co-founded MERA Systems, a leading VoIP solutions vendor with over 300 deployments worldwide. Konstantin holds an MSEE and a Ph.D. in Telecommunications. He is a regular speaker at VON shows and many other international events.
Chris Pallen, Carrier Multimedia Services Marketing, Nortel
With nearly 20 years experience in voice and data communications across both Europe and North America, Chris is currently responsible for marketing Nortel's Carrier VoIP and Multimedia Services as they relate to the Enterprise Market. Throughout his career, Chris has focused on a variety of product areas, including PBX development, Carrier switch planning, Optical Planning and Enterprise Planning. He has gained a plethora of knowledge while assisting both Service Providers and Enterprises in determining their business requirements and helping them understand the business implications of VoIP and Multimedia solutions. Chris holds a Master of Applied Science degree from Queen's University in Kingston Canada.
Dimitri Panasevich, Director, IPCB.net
Prior to co-founding IPCB.net in 2000, Dimitri Panasevich worked in Investment Banking (Merrill Lynch), Management Consulting (McKinsey) and Venture Capital (Signia Ventures). Mr. Panasevich has an MBA from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania.
Joe Parent, VP, Marketing & Business Development, Vonage
Joe Parent is a veteran telecom marketer who has heldha progressively senior marketing roles at Unitel, Sprint Canada and Primus Telecommunications prior to joining Vonage Canada. As Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, Joe's mandate is to drive consumer awareness and adoption of Vonage Canada's Internet telephone service offering, build the Vonage Canada brand and secure the company's leadership position as the Internet phone service provider of choice for Canadian consumers and small businesses. Joe is also responsible for product development, channel development, advertising, public relations, direct marketing, interactive marketing and customer communications. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Windsor and an MBA from McMaster University in Hamilton.
Scott Petrack, Divisional Chief Executive Officer, eDial, a division of Alcatel
Scott is Divisional CEO of eDial, a division of Alcatel, providing conferencing, collaboration and group communication products. Scott co-founded eDial and created the overall architecture and technical vision. He transitioned from Chief Technical Officer to Divisional CEO when eDial was acquired by Alcatel in September, 2004. Scott is a well known industry leader having pioneered Internet Telephony technology development as founding co-chair of the VoIP Forum, founding working group chair of the ETSI TIPHON project, co-author of RFCs 2833 (DTMF) and 2848 (PINT), and founding co-chair of the ENUM working group within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). He served on the board of directors of the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC).
Jeff Pulver, Founder, pulver.com
Jeff Pulver is the Founder of pulver.com, and one of the true pioneers of the Internet telephony/VoIP industry. Leveraging well over a decade of hands-on experience in Internet/IP communications and innovation, Mr. Pulver is a globally renowned thought leader, author, and entrepreneur. He is the publisher of The Pulver Report and VON magazine, and creator of the industry standard Voice on the Net (VON) conferences, where all sectors of the IP communications come together to discuss, debate, and advance the industry. Additionally, Mr. Pulver is the founder of Free World Dialup (FWD), the VON coalition, LibreTel, WHP Wireless, pulverInnovations, Digisip, and is the co-founder of VoIP provider, Vonage.
Ari Rabban, VP, Corporate Development & Marketing, VocalTec Communications
Ari Rabban oversees strategic planning, market analysis, and business development for VocalTec. Previously Mr. Rabban served as president of Surf&Call Solutions, a voice-enhanced e-commerce solutions startup group within the company. He joined Vocaltec from Lucent Technologies where he served as manager of strategic planning and business development at the Communication Software Business Unit in Holmdel, New Jersey. Frequently cited as an industry expert, Mr. Rabban has been quoted in trade publications Telephony, Internet Telephony, and New Telephony. A member of the Advisory Board for the Association of Interactive Marketing (AIM), as well as a member of the Israel Bar, Mr. Rabban worked as a practicing attorney at law offices in Tel Aviv, concentrating on securities regulations, and mergers and acquisitions, prior to his work at Lucent.
Bill Rainey, President, Vonage Canada
As President of Vonage Canada, Bill Rainey is responsible for leading the company's operations, planning, development, expansion and profitability in Canada. Mr. Rainey has twenty years of executive and business leadership experience in high tech, finance and telecommunications, most recently as Senior Vice President Commercial Services at GT Group Telecom, a national Toronto-based telecommunications company that supplies data, Internet, voice and fixed wireless services to Canadian businesses and government. Mr. Rainey has also held senior level positions at Royal Trust, Xerox, and TELUS, where he was part of the start-up team for TELUS Advanced Communications. Mr. Rainey holds a B.S.C. from the University of Alberta, a graduate certificate of management from the University of Calgary, and has completed the executive and finance programs at Queens University.
Vera Reifenstein, Director - IP Connectivity, SMB, Bell Canada
Vera Reifenstein has worked in the telecommunications industry for the past 8 years leading product development teams in Voice, IP data products and Business IP Telephony. She is currently leading Bell’s journey to IP by building and growing IP VPN and Voice over IP solutions for SMB. This direction supports Bell’s SBM vision of becoming the customer’s IP and IT partner.
Prior to Bell, Vera worked as senior business consultants for Ottawa’s Entrepreneurship Centre, a non-profit organization helping entrepreneurs establish their small businesses. Through her leadership in the centre she supported thousands new businesses in Ottawa through training, education, consulting and support programs. Vera has a BComm and MBA from the University of Ottawa.
Jonathan Richards, Associate, SeaBoard Group
Jonathan contributes to the Seaboard Group VOIP and Open Source Linux services and IT practice. Jonathan has been a key participant in the development of the UMA SIP VoIP products for ATCLinux.com as well as Cellular/VoIP IP-Mediation suites of Mobility/Cellular targeted OSS systems.
Over the past 14 years, Jonathan has held senior positions in Canadian and U.S. telecommunications, Internet and high technology companies as well as in the investment-banking sector. Jonathan has a proven history of developing an entrepreneurial vision of marketable products and services based on internet IP networking technologies including voice-over-IP and mobile convergence.
Jonathan has a proven record of defining and implementing telecommunications products and services and forging alliances.
Charles Rutledge, VP of Marketing, Quintum Technologies
Chuck joined Quintum five years ago and has led all marketing and business development activities from its first product launch to the present. The company is now one of the leading providers of VoIP equipment worldwide and has become the 3rd fastest growing company on the Deloitte and Touche New Jersey Technology Fast 50. Prior to Quintum, he was Vice President of Wholesale Marketing at Vialog, where he established programs for distributing conferencing and collaboration services through agent channels, and as a wholesale offering. As Director of Marketing at Madge Networks, he established a new business unit to market video networking and ISDN equipment to carriers. As Business Development Director at AT&T, he worked with telephone, cable and power companies to establish relationships for the deployment and marketing of a variety of communications services. While at AT&T Chuck worked on the Time Warner Entertainment Joint Venture team and managed the AT&T/Viacom Interactive Television trial. He started his career in Bell Laboratories as a researcher and holds multiple patents. Chuck is a board member for the Technology Management Education Association. He has a BS in Electronic Engineering, a MBA.
Alec Saunders, CEO, Iotum
Alec Saunders is a visionary technology evangelist with 15 years of leadership in technology marketing and product management. During nine years at Microsoft Corporation Alec launched Internet Explorer, and the Microsoft Plus! Windows companion. As Microsoft’s Director of Marketing for Home Networks, Alec also launched Universal Plug and Play and recruited more than 300 vendors to the UPnP industry working group. Before Iotum, Alec was Marketing VP for Versatel Networks, the developer of intelligent, easy-to-operate media gateways, and voice applications. Alec was also Marketing VP at QNX Software Systems where he spearheaded the creation and launch of the critically acclaimed QNX Momentics development suite. Alec is a graduate of the University of Waterloo Mathematics Faculty.
Ross Sedgewick, Director, Product Marketing, Siemens Communications
Ross Sedgewick serves as Director, Product Marketing for the Siemens Global eCRM Business Unit, bringing over 16 years of management experience in the CRM, Enterprise Software, Consulting and Marketing sectors. Since joining Siemens in early 2002, Ross has led the global product marketing team for the HiPath ProCenter portfolio of contact center solutions, and has spoken at industry conferences and events throughout North America. Prior to working at Siemens, he acquired broad industry experience with companies such as IBM Corporation and Delano Technologies, and has also operated his own independent consulting business. Ross holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto, and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business.
Larry Shaw, Director General, Telecommunications Policy, Industry Canada
LARRY SHAW is the Director General of the Telecommunications Policy Branch of Industry Canada. Mr. Shaw has a broad and varied background in policy development, including responsibility for developing and supporting passage of the Telecommunications Act, as well as the associated Regulations respecting the ownership and control of Canadian common carriers, the privatization of Teleglobe and Telesat, and was extensively involved in the licensing of cellular, PCS and LMCS operators. In addition, he was Canada’s chief negotiator during the WTO negotiations on trade in basic telecommunications services. Mr. Shaw was most recently responsible for trade policy at Industry Canada. He holds a B.Sc. and a MBA.
Arun Sobti, CEO and Chairman, IP Unity
Dr. Arun Sobti is Chairman and CEO of IP Unity, whose HMS6000 is a carrier grade, highly scalable media/applications server deployed in leading wireline, wireless and cable carriers around the world. Arun leads the company's vision and success in enhanced services, and established the company's defining 'many services, one platform' approach. A well-respected veteran among ILECs, cable operators and wireless service providers, he has 30 years of leadership with IP Unity, ADC's Broadband Access and Transport Group, Motorola's global businesses and third generation wireless. He is on the boards of Onotologent Networks, Airespace and ManyStreams Networks.
Rick Spence, Marketing Consultant and Business Writer, Entrepreneur Consulting and Communications
Rick Spence is a Toronto-based business writer and marketing consultant, and a sought-after speaker on topics such as entrepreneurship, management and business communication. He is the former editor and publisher of PROFIT, The Magazine for Canadian Entrepreneurs. Rick is also author of Secrets of Success from Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies, published by John Wiley & Sons.
Mark Spencer, President, Digium/Asterisk
Mark Spencer is President and founder of Digium, formerly Linux Support Services, Inc., a Huntsville, AL based company focused on the development and support of low-cost, innovative telecommunications hardware and open source software. Mark, originally from Auburn, AL, graduated in 1999 from Auburn University with a BS in Computer Engineering and founded his company in 2000. Mr. Spencer is the original author of GAIM, the widely popular, multi-protocol instant messanging program for Linux, BSD, and Windows. Mark is also responsible for Asterisk, the Open Source PBX for Linux, BSD, and MacOS.
Susan Stearman, Senior Solutions Marketing Manager, IPlay3, NetCentrex
As Senior Solutions Marketing Manager, Susan Stearman oversees the definition of the integration of the VoIP and IP-Video components of the IPlay3 platform and all marketing activities for the IPlay3™ solution. She was formerly product management and product marketing manager for Envivio, the leading provider of MPEG-4/H.264 solutions in the market. Prior to that, Ms. Stearman was marketing director for Ligos Technology, supplier of the first real-time, software MPEG-2 encoder delivered on standard Intel based platforms. She began working with IP video technology as a logical outgrowth of her activities with VRML, the industry standard specification for delivering 3D graphics over IP networks. Ms. Stearman has over 20 years experience with IP video and 3D graphics technologies, and holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland.
Matt Stein, Vice President, New Technology and Services, Primus Telecommunications
Matt Stein joined Primus in early 2003 with the mandate to define and build new and innovative products for both the Commercial and Residential markets. At Primus, he is responsible for product development as well as technology and services strategy. Matt served as both Chief Architect and overall prime for the TalkBroadband residential VoIP product launch. He brings a wealth of experience in information technology and management experience in the areas of Internet infrastructure, security, networking, and enterprise applications. Prior to his role with Primus, Mr. Stein was Chief Technology Officer at Sprint Canada's Application Service Provider Division, where he spearheaded the organization's delivery of technology.
Duane Sword, Vice President, Marketing, Empirix
Duane Sword is responsible for the Strategic Marketing, Product Policy and Outbound Marketing for the suite of Hammer test solutions spanning TDM and VoIP for Empirix. Duane has worked extensively in the telecommunications industry, specifically with manufacturers and service providers of broadband switches and routers in Europe, North America and Japan and has a wide background in international product marketing and business development. He started his career with Agilent/HP in January 1996 and his previous positions include roles as Worldwide Business Development Manager, Europe Business Development Manager and Product Marketing Engineer for the Advanced Networks Division, with emphasis on the R&D protocol test industry for IP/Routing, MPLS, ATM and 3G infrastructure.
Patrick Tan, AVP, Applications, Ubiquity Software
As Assistant Vice President, Applications, Patrick Tan brings more than 17 years of telecommunication industry experience to Ubiquity. Prior to joining Ubiquity, he has held various positions from product management, marketing, business development to engineering. He also participated actively at different industry forum, such as the Frame Relay Forum where he served as the Asia Marketing and Development and Education Committee chair until 1999. He has a Master of Business Administration degree from University of Ottawa, and a B.S. Math degree from University of Waterloo.
Rajeev Tankha, VoIP Product Manager, MetaSolv
Rajeev Tankha is the Market Director, VoIP at MetaSolv Software Inc. In this role Rajeev leads MetaSolv's VoIP product strategy and development of VoIP provisioning solutions and manages the product marketing functions for service activation.
Martin Taylor, VP,Technology Strategy, MetaSwitch
Martin Taylor has spent over 20 years in the telecom and network equipment industries, with diverse experience in product marketing, engineering, technology planning, and business development. As CTO at CopperCom, he was an early pioneer in Voice Over Broadband, and his technical leadership, vision, and evangelization were key factors in CopperCom’s outstanding success in this emerging market. Mr. Taylor also led the ATM Forum effort to develop a standard for Voice Over Broadband interoperability that has been widely adopted in the industry, and shaped the technology roadmap for CopperCom’s Class 4/5 softswitch following its acquisition of DTI Networks. Prior, he was VP Network Architecture at Madge Networks, responsible for the company’s highly successful entry into the Token Ring switching market. In 2004 Mr. Martin joined MetaSwitch, a leading independent vendor of Class 5 VoIP solutions.
Howard Thaw, COO, Iotum
Dr. Howard H. Thaw is a widely respected and noted Business Information Technology Authority, investment banker, business evolutionist, and serial entrepreneur. Over the past 25 years, he has built, financed, mentored and rescued numerous companies including TCT-Centre for Computer Security; ThunderBYTE, DataSafe and M-Venture Inc. His multi-disciplinary technology and knowledge-based industry expertise in developing anti-virus, encryption, backup and other enterprise software have been applied to building successful companies and meeting the major challenges for businesses in keeping up with rapid changes in technology. Howard is currently COO of Iotum Corporation, a promising startup company that is building innovative new applications that leverage the opportunities created by VoIP.
Rajesh Tyagi, SVP, Product Mgmt. & Customer Engineering, sentitO Networks
Rajesh Tyagi serves as the Senior Vice President of Product Management and Customer Engineering for sentitO Networks, a leading supplier of carrier-class VoIP switching and service delivery solutions. Tyagi has over 20 years of in-depth experience in the wireline, wireless, data, and optical networking fields and has senior leadership experience in both global multi-billion dollar corporations and pre-revenue start-ups. At Nortel Networks, Tyagi led the industry-first “Storage over Agile Optical Network” application and filed several patents. Tyagi holds a master of applied science from the University of Toronto, an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, and a bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Pantnagar University in India.
Ray Vilis, VP, Product Line Management, Versatel Networks
Mr. Vilis brings over 25 years of telecommunications industry experience in Product Management, Product Development, and System Engineering to Versatel. Mr. Vilis developed his expertise at Bell Northern Research and Nortel, where he established a proven track record in the delivery of large, profitable, multi-year product development projects including traditional PSTN voice and turnkey IP solutions (Magellan Passport), Automated Speech Recognition technology and data network solutions. Managing teams from 20 to 250 individuals, spread over three continents provided Mr. Vilis the opportunity to gain a global perspective and to manage complex projects, which included several joint venture activities between Nortel Networks and key technology organizations.
Craig Wallace, President & CEO, AOL Canada
As President and Chief Executive Officer of AOL Canada Inc., Craig Wallace is responsible for overall strategic direction and management of the company throughout Canada. He previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer of publicly-traded PCDOCS/Fulcrum Inc., a worldwide leader in Internet-based knowledge management, document management and information retrieval. Earlier in his career, Mr. Wallace was President and CEO of iSTAR Internet Inc., a major publicly-traded Internet solutions company, which was acquired by PSINet Inc. in 1997. Prior, during his seven-year tenure at Microsoft Canada, Mr. Wallace was a member of the company's executive management team. AOL Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of America Online Inc., which is the world's leading interactive services company with more than 28 million members worldwide.
John Wang, Product Manager, MCI Canada
John is a member of the Product Management team in MCI Canada, focusing on emerging IP technologies. He has more than a decade of work experience in IT and telecommunication companies. John also teaches networking and data communication in Seneca College in Toronto.
Thad Ward, Marketing Manager, Acterna
Thad Ward, Acterna Product Manager, has responsibility for product development and marketing of field test tools used by telecommunication service provider technicians. Current product responsibilities include converged services testing, voice, video, and data on Acterna's HST-3000
Handheld Services Tester. The HST-3000 is a multi-technology platform for testing LAN/WAN services from physical layer to application layer and has been standardized in most major telecommunication service providers around the world.
Prior to joining Acterna, Mr. Ward served as a U. S. Naval Submarine Officer and has a Bachelor of science degree in Physics and a Master of Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Jamie Warter, Vice President, Marketing, West Ridge Networks
Jamie Warter leads all the product management, marketing, and business development activities at West Ridge Networks. He brings to the company 20 years of experience in the development and marketing of network and telecommunications systems. Prior to joining West Ridge, he was a founder and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Brix Networks. Earlier in his career, Jamie has held senior marketing positions at Nortel Networks, Bay Networks, 3Com, Penril Datability Networks, Chipcom, and Digital Equipment Corporation. Jamie has a BS and MEng in Electrical Engineering from Cornell and an MBA from Boston University.
Tim Welch, VP, Sales, Centrepoint Technologies
Tim Welch heads Centrepoint’s Sales division and is responsible for driving the company’s sales and channel initiatives. Tim has spent more than 17 years selling and marketing telecommunications equipment, ISP services and software. An early technology adopter, Tim has held key positions with a number of renowned companies in the Internet and Telecommunications verticals, including Bell Canada, iSTAR Internet, PSINet, CrossKeys Systems and his own company, Dyband. Tim’s dedication to delivering results, coupled with strong technical knowledge and understanding of IP, make him a tremendous asset to Centrepoint.
Niklas Zennström, CEO and Co-Founder, Skype
Prior to Skype, Niklas Zennström co-founded and was the first CEO of KaZaA – the most downloaded software in the history of the Internet. Following KaZaA, Niklas founded and served as CEO of Joltid, which creates the worlds largest secure peer-to-peer content distribution network. Prior to being an entrepreneur, Niklas spent 8 years with Tele2 in various business development positions, among others as CEO of Everyday.com and also worked two years for ATT-Unisource. Niklas has a dual degree in Business Administration and Engineering Physics from Uppsala University.
