4G World

Bob Azzi is Senior Vice President of Sprint’s Network.  Bob leads a team of nineteen hundred employees composed of executives, managers, and engineers nationwide and internationally who provide network development and deployment, access management and service assurance for Sprint consumer and business customers. He directs the ownership and operations of the CDMA, iDEN and global IP networks operated by Sprint.  Azzi is the Sprint executive officer in charge of the organization that ensures the success of the partnership between the Ericsson Corporation and Sprint Nextel Corporation.
During Mr. Azzi’s 20 plus years of tenure at Sprint, he has held senior leadership positions in network engineering, software development, network planning, network operations and customer service in Minneapolis, Virginia and Kansas City.  His industry expertise was honed from work in local, long-distance, international and wireless telecommunications networks.  Prior to joining Sprint he held various management positions in operations, engineering, and access verification with AT&T Long Lines in Chicago and New Jersey during an eight-year career with AT&T.
Azzi holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and an MBA from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri.   He and his family reside in Olathe, Kansas.

Joint Keynote:  Embracing for the Mobile Storm
Date: Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time: 11:30 AM

Keynote: Differentiating the 4G Experience
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  9:10 AM

Session: Rebanding 2 GHza for Mobile Broadband
Date:  Monday, Oct. 24
Time:  1:50 PM

Ed Chao joined MetroPCS as senior vice president, engineering and network operations, in September 2008. Prior to joining the company, Chao served as vice president, product management, at Alcatel-Lucent in the CDMA Networks Business Division.  He held a variety of other positions at Alcatel-Lucent, including Business Development and Strategic Planning, as well as conducting research on wireless applications in Bell Labs.  Prior to Alcatel-Lucent, Chao worked with Nortel/BNR where he was primarily involved in defining front-end requirements and standards in support of the company’s entry into CDMA.  He holds a MBA from Columbia University, a MS in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University.

Session:  4G Deployments – North America
Date: Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time: 3:40 PM

Session:  Voice Over LTE
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  4:30 PM

Humphrey D. Chen is Executive Director of New Technologies Development for Verizon Wireless and is focused on accelerating the commercialization of innovative Venture-backed technologies amidst the increasingly competitive market dynamics within the wireless world. Prior to joining Verizon Wireless, Humphrey was responsible for driving the Google and Microsoft strategy for Avaya in the area of Enterprise Unified Communication.

Session: ‘In-Hand’ Innovators
Date: Thursday, Oct. 27
Time: 1:30 PM

James Egan is a Customer Service Director with AT&T Mobility, Small Business Customer Care, responsible for developing self service initiatives. James has more than 22 years experience in the wireless industry, with a background in multiple areas of customer service including ordering/provisioning, churn management, and customer marketing.

Egan previously worked in the Cable industry in marketing and customer service management roles.

He holds a Master of Science (Telecom) degree from Syracuse University, and a Bachelor’s degree in  English Literature (Honors) from Nottingham University, England.

Joint Keynote:  Driving Profitability With a Consistent Cross-Channel Customer Experience
Date:  Monday, Oct. 24
Time:  10:45 AM

Since 2006, T.J. Fox has served as president–Illinois/Wisconsin Region for Verizon Wireless, the premier wireless provider with the nation’s fastest, most reliable 4G network. Fox is responsible for sales, service and overall company operations within the region, which encompasses northern and central Illinois, Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, northern Indiana and the Quad Cities area in Iowa.

Fox has been with Verizon Wireless since 1992, demonstrating a history of record-breaking results and rapid advancement. During this time, Fox has been named to Verizon Wireless’ prestigious President’s Cabinet five times. As president of the Illinois/Wisconsin Region, he has guided Verizon Wireless to a leadership position in a very highly competitive environment.

Over the past few years, Fox has been an integral leader in the adoption and rollout of Verizon’s 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. Knowing that this advance in technology would truly change the game in a wireless world, Fox has helped consumers understand the implications 4G LTE will have on the way they not only conduct business, but manage their daily lives. 4G LTE and Verizon Wireless are both about empowerment, and Fox has been very active speaking to customers, business and community groups and industry stakeholders on just how revolutionary 4G LTE is. He is adept at educating in theory as well as detailing implications in application – whether it’s device-oriented or covering the rapidly advancing topic of machine-to-machine.

Fox is a Crains Chicago “40 under 40” award winner and currently serves on the national board of Prevent Child Abuse America as well as the board of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. A native of Annapolis, Md., Fox earned his bachelor’s degree at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.

Keynote: 4G – Shifting into High Gear
Date:  Thursday, Oct. 27
Time:  9:45 AM

Christopher Gesell serves as the chief innovation & strategy officer for Terremark, a Verizon Company. In this role, Gesell is responsible for setting the company’s strategic direction, overseeing the marketing efforts that create the branding and messaging initiatives tied to the strategy, and leading the research and development efforts that ensures the execution of the company’s long-term vision.

Previously, Gesell was the chief cloud strategist for the Verizon’s global business unit responsible for setting the vision and overall direction for Verizon’s enterprise cloud services strategy. He played a vital role in Verizon’s acquisition of the Terremark subsidiary as well as the company’s evolution to an “everything-as-a-service” delivery model for information technology services for global enterprises, mid-sized businesses and governments around the globe.

With nearly 20 years of industry experience, Gesell previously served as the director of business product strategy for Verizon Business, responsible for developing the unit’s product strategy and product development roadmap for its portfolio of advanced information technology solutions, including cloud computing, hosting, colocation, and application management services.

Before that, Gesell was general manager of hosting services for MCI, acquired by Verizon in 2006, including product marketing and partner development. Prior to joining MCI, Gesell was regional vice president of sales for Digex, Inc., a leader in managed hosting, which was later acquired by MCI.

Gesell holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Loyola College.

Session: M2M and Cloud Converge to Create the Internet of Things
Date:  Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time:  4:40 PM

Ira Gorelick is Senior Manager, Business Development, Consumer Electronics at Verizon Wireless.  A 33-year industry veteran, he is currently responsible for helping Tablet providers integrate Verizon Wireless connectivity, both 3G and 4G, into their devices so they can run on the Verizon Wireless, the largest, most advanced, and most reliable network. 

An industry expert in wireless data, Telematics, Machine-to-Machine development, intelligent network planning, product management, and training, Gorelick has spent most of his career at Verizon and GTE. 

He holds an MA degree in Communications Management from the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism, and a BA degree in Communications Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Supersession:  Next-Gen 4G Devices Roundtable
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  5:30 PM

Nancy Green is a health care managing principal with Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions, the health care practice group within Verizon Business.  In this capacity, she focuses on the development of solutions and initiatives to address virtual care to include; telehealth, home health and converged mobility.

A 17-year health care industry veteran, Green has extensive experience in the design, development, launch and sale of advanced mobility and communications solutions and applications for the health care sector, helping thousands of health care organizations improve health care operations, reduce costs, and drive operational efficiency through the use of technology and clinical informational flow. 

Prior to joining Verizon Business in 2009, Green spent 12 years at USA Mobility where she served as the vice president of its health care systems solutions division.  Before that, Green was the director of health care sales at ProNet Medical.  She began her career at AT&T Wireless as a manager of national accounts.

Green is active is several professional organizations, including the American Telemedicine Association, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the Association of Women in Technology and Executives in Healthcare.

Green attended the California State University at Fullerton.

Session:  mHealth Applications and Solutions
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  3:30 PM

Trey Hanbury is director of spectrum proceedings for Sprint Nextel Corporation.  At Sprint Nextel, Mr. Hanbury serves as the primary regulatory counsel for Sprint Nextel’s spectrum rulemaking proceedings and transactions at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Mr. Hanbury developed the company’s regulatory responses to a number of FCC proceedings, including the 700 MHz D Block, AWS-3, AWS-2, and the Broadband Radio Service issues.  Mr. Hanbury graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Hardy Cross Dillard Fellow.  Mr. Hanbury is married and has a daughter, Amelia, and a son, Nathaniel.

Session:  Broadcast Incentive Auctions and a National Public Safety Network
Date: Monday, Oct 24.
Time:  1:00 PM

Suzy Hays has more than 19 years in the telecommunications industry.  She is currently the Senior Vice President of Marketing for C Spire Wireless and has been with the company since 1992.  In this role, she is responsible for C Spire’s overall strategic direction of the brand, marketing, product development, advertising, and public relations strategies.  She is focused on development of the company’s customer community, web, social media, apps and convergence strategies.  She has extensive experience in product development, brand evolution and the development of brand, sales and customer retention strategies.

Hays earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Mississippi College and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Mississippi.

Keynote:  Avoiding the Cost of Lost
Date:  Monday, Oct. 24
Time:  9:45 AM

Sunil Jogi is a Techical Lead in NXP’s NFC Software team. His responsibilities include development of NFC software for multiple OS platforms, working with operating system partners as well as customers developing NFC software for various platforms.

Sunil has over 10 years experience in semiconductor industry and has been involved in product development, research, architecture, standardization, certification and interoperability for short range wireless technologies. Previously he has worked on Ultra Wideband and represented NXP Semiconductors in the WiMedia Alliance. Prior to this, he worked with Samsung Electronics on standardization aspects for IEEE 802.x and Multi-band OFDM Alliance (MBOA).

Sunil has co-authored a book “Ultra Wideband Demystified”, written specifications and also authored/coauthored several patents in areas of short range wireless.

Session:  Unified NFC Software Architecture
Date:   Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  4:00 PM

Thomas C. Keys became MetroPCS Communications’ Chief Operating Officer as of June 27, 2007. Previously, Keys served as senior vice president, market operations, West region from January 2007 through June 2007 and vice president and general manager, Dallas market from April 2005 through January 2007. Prior to joining MetroPCS, Keys served as the chief operating officer of VCP International Inc., a Dallas-based wholesale distributor of wireless products, from July 2002 to April 2005. Prior to joining VCP International Inc., Keys served as senior vice president, business sales, for Weblink Wireless Inc. (formerly PageMart, Inc.) from March 1999 to June 2002. He also served in other senior management positions with Weblink Wireless Inc. from January 1993 to March 1999.

Keynote: Building on the Foundation of 4G For All
Date: Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time:  9:20 AM

Joshua Knight, AT&T Services, Inc., currently serves as a technology leader in the AT&T Chief Security Office (CSO) where he is responsible for driving AT&T Mobile Security Services efforts. 

Mr. Knight’s background includes Engineering, Architecture, Security, and Product Development. During his 15 years experience within the communications industry, he has served in several senior technologist roles within medium to large sized communications companies, including Sprint Nextel and Cingular Wireless. 

Mr. Knight’s academic background includes undergraduate work in Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics and an MBA in Business Technology.

Session:  Security and Policy in the Cloud-Based Customer Experience
Date:  Monday, Oct. 24
Time:  11:30 AM

Michael Lai, Chief Executive Officer of Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (“P1”), the only WiMAX Forum Board Member from South East Asia WiMAX Operators.

He passionately believes in enriching lives through the power of high-quality, high-performance broadband connectivity. Putting this passion into action has resulted in Michael being one of the most sought after leaders in the country to propel the nation forward with broadband for all.

With over 20 years of experience in the Information, Communications and Technologies (ICT) industry, Michael leads one of the world’s leading WiMAX telecommunications companies – P1, with the challenge to develop the startup right from ground zero.
Today with Michael at the helm, P1 is at the global forefront of commercial WiMAX deployment. P1 W1MAX is Malaysia’s leading WiMAX telco and is currently the world’s largest deployment of 802.16e 2.3GHz WiMAX network, outside Korea. P1 is also the first Intel-invested WiMAX telco in Southeast Asia.

Michael’s leadership has transformed P1 from a relatively unknown to a global leader in WiMAX technology in a little over eight months. As it stands, P1 currently posses the largest subscriber base and the largest WiMAX network in Malaysia.

Session:  4G Network Migration: How to Facilitate the Transition from WiMAX to LTE for 4G Device Makers
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  2:30 PM

Swati Majumder is Staff VP at CTO’s office with metroPCS in Richardson, Texas. She is currently leading the microwave backhaul planning and nationwide deployment project. In this position, Swati has been working on spectrum acquisition for wireless backhaul, equipment vendor selection, planning and nationwide deployment. Prior to joining the CTO’s office, Swati worked as Director of RF Engineering, metroPCS NY market and was responsible for design and performance of the CDMA and LTE networks.

Swati has 20 years of industry experience, out of which 15 years are with CDMA and 4G LTE wireless provider. Her strength is in building team and wireless network from the ground up and leading an organization from start up to sustained operations. She has successfully launched two networks for New York in the span of 2 years, CDMA 1X network in 2009 and LTE in 2010.

Swati has Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from University of Houston and is Founder and President of “Aryas Kids”, non-profit foundation to fight childhood cancer.

Session:  Rising Above the Noise – Backhaul Technology for a Cluttered Spectrum
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  3:30 PM

Philip C Merrill was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona.  He graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance in 1972. Mr. Merrill is a member of the Cable Television Pioneers Club.  Mr. Merrill cofounded, with several others, the first Wireless Cable Television industry association in 1979. He served for 20 years on the board of the association, now WCAI, including 3 years as its chairman in the early days. In 1983, he was one of the larger successful applicants for BRS licenses. His current project is BeamSpeed, LLC; a high speed wireless Internet Access Company in Yuma, Arizona. BeamSpeed has BRS and EBS channel rights for all of Yuma and Imperial counties and has agreements with Multivision and the Arvizu family for shared use of frequencies on both sides of the border with Mexico. Mr. Merrill has extensive experience in all aspects of the wired and wireless communications business. This includes lobbying state legislatures, the U.S. Congress and the FCC; channel acquisition, site development, FCC applications and filings, and business development and operation.

Session:  Rural and Fixed Wireless Spectrum Options
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  3:50 PM

Jeff is the current Vice President for Mobile Transactions at NXP.

Mr. Miles has over 18 years of international and US experience as a key executive with VeriFone, ARCO and TNT Express Worldwide. He has spent over 10 years in the payments industry and played a key role in bringing contactless payments to the Quick serve industry through a partnership with VeriFone and MasterCard that led to the largest retail roll-out of contactless readers to date. Mr. Miles also has extensive international experience successfully rolling out global systems to over 72 countries. Mr. Miles has held key management positions in numerous start-up and Fortune 500 companies.

He graduated from Pepperdine University with a B.A. in Political Science.

Session:  Unified NFC Software Architecture
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  3:00 PM

Roundtable:  Where Do We Go From Here?
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  3:45 PM

As President of CFN Services Wireless Division, Randy Muench directs Randy oversees functional responsibilities include product development, marketing, sales, distribution, customer care, and technical support. He most recently served as President of Cleartel Communications, a Florida based telecommunications CLEC, which was sold to Birch Communications. Previous to that Randy spent 8 years at Xspedius Communications (formerly espire Communications) serving as the Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing with responsibility for all sales, revenue, marketing and customer service of the 400+ person revenue team.  His experience also includes 8 years serving as a director of Marketing and Finance for the MCI $500 Million State Government segment.

Randy received his MBA in Corporate Finance from DePaul University and his BA in Marketing/Business from University of Illinois.

Keynote: 4G Backhaul From Here
Date:  Monday, Oct. 24
Time:  10:45 AM

Session: Executive Roundtable
Date:  Monday, Oct. 24
Time:  4:00 PM

Tanya has been with Bell Mobility for seven years. In her current role, she is responsible for designing, implementing and supporting the deployment of various network management performance solutions for the Bell Mobility core network. She received her Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal (University of Montreal).

Session: Optimizing & Assuring Service Delivery in the 4G Blended Services Era
Date:  Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time:  4:40 PM

John Ogren founded SpeedNet LLC with Robert Liggett, Jr. of Liggett Broadcasting and Big Boy LLC in July of 2001.  Today the company markets its broadband service under the trademark SpeedConnect.   SpeedConnect is Michigan’s largest and fastest growing wireless broadband Internet provider, and recently expanded operations into Iowa.  SpeedConnect has pioneered fixed and mobile broadband service through its BRS and EBS spectrum holdings, and is serving thousands of Michigan and Iowa customers from its operation based in Saginaw, MI.  Prior to SpeedConnect Mr. Ogren served as Divisional Vice President for Harron Communications, a Philadelphia based cable television and satellite service provider, for 15 years.  In the cable television industry he also worked for Continental cablevision, Comcast, Mediacom and Adelphia.  A Michigan State University graduate Mr. Ogren holds an undergraduate degree in telecommunications and an MBA in finance. 

Session:  Rural and Fixed Wireless Spectrum Options
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  3:50 PM

Dr. Hideo Okinaka is Vice President and General Manager of Emerging Technologies and Spectrum Division at KDDI Corporation and responsible for industry and government relations on technology matters including investigation into emerging technologies, standards strategy, bridging the valley between standardisation and implementation, and spectrum affairs.  Prior to assuming the current role in April 2006, he was responsible for the corporate level technology strategy as Vice President and General Manager of Strategic Technology Management Division.  Until March 2004, he had been working on the cellular telephone business since 1991, including business development strategy for the KDDI’s “au” business unit as Vice President, the Japanese TDMA and IMT-2000 system development, and licence bidding in offshore markets.  Prior to this, he spent 14 years for R&D primarily on the satellite communication system engineering with particular emphasis on mobile satellite systems at KDD and Inmarsat.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of WiMAX Forum.  He was the Chair of 3GPP2 Steering Committee in 2003-2004 term and also served as the Chair of 3GPP2 TSG-S, Services and Systems Aspects working group, from its foundation in 1999 till January 2001.  He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Mobile Wireless Internet Forum (MWIF) during the entire period of its life.

Dr. Okinaka received Morita Prize and Achievement Award from the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communications Engineers of Japan for his contribution to the development of digital mobile satellite communication systems.  He was also praised by Recognition Award from the ITU Association of Japan for his contribution to the 3G mobile system standardisation.  He earned a B.S. degree in applied physics, a M.S. degree in physics and a Dr. Engineering degree in communication science from Waseda University.

Keynote: 4G – A Single Technology or Something Else?
Date: Thursday, Oct. 27
Time:  9:10 AM

Chris Neisinger is the Executive Director of Network Planning at Verizon.  In this role, Mr Neisinger and his organization are responsible for planning and design of IMS, VoIP and services delivery architecture for Verizon’s wireline and wireless networks.

Chris has held various Engineering and Operational roles during his 20 years in the wireless industry.  Chris’ previous industry experience includes leadership positions in joint ventures in Hungary and Malaysia.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Washington State University.

Session:  Voice Over LTE
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  4:30 PM

Steve Pazol is president, nPhase, a Verizon Wireless / Qualcomm joint venture, where he directs all aspects of the company’s operations, strategic development and execution. nPhase provides machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless communications and smart services offerings across a wide variety of market segments, including healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, distribution and consumer products. Previously Pazol was vice president and general manager for the Global Smart Services group for Qualcomm Enterprise Services, the group that provided the basis for the newly formed joint venture.

Pazol is a seasoned entrepreneur and CEO with a 20+ year track record of successful startups in high technology and emerging markets, including M2M (machine to machine), enterprise software and wireless technologies. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Pazol was the founder and CEO of the original nPhase which was acquired by Qualcomm in 2006.

A recognized thought leader and industry expert, Pazol has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Chicago Innovation Award, was named one of the original 10 M2M Pioneers by M2M Magazine, and served as moderator of the first M2M web log—M2Mblog. He has written numerous articles in technology journals, is on the Advisory Board of M2M Magazine, was the technical editor of the Unicenter Advisor magazine for more than 7 years as well as guest editor of Internet Security Advisor. He is also the technical editor and co-author of Unicenter TNG for Dummies. A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Pazol has also been a featured speaker and panel member at multiple Wharton School of Business, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and Northwestern Business School entrepreneurial classes.

Prior to founding nPhase, Pazol spent 15 years providing consulting and systems implementation services in the information technology field as President of Professional Consulting Services, Inc. and co-founder of Mehta & Pazol Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd. in Pune, India. In 2005 and 2006, Steve was also acting CEO of Skychain, a joint venture between nPhase, LLC and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Pazol has been active with a number of civic organizations and is currently on the board of SuperSibs!, a non-profit supporting the siblings of children with pediatric cancer. Pazol has a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Session:  M2M and Cloud Converge to Create the Internet of Things
Date: Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time: 4:40 PM

Kelly Robinson manages M2M (machine-to-machine) strategic partnerships focused on health care, wellness and digital media for Sprint’s Emerging Solutions Group. She has 18 years of experience in marketing management at Sprint, driving new partnerships and strategies in health care, digital media, smart cards and emerging technologies.

Session:  An Industry Level View of the mHealth Sector
Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  2:30 PM

As Clearwire’s senior vice president and chief technology officer, John Saw, Ph.D., is the chief architect of the company’s advanced wireless network infrastructure and technology, designed to deliver true wireless broadband performance in a mobile environment.

Saw brings nearly 20 years of experience developing wireless networks and architectures to Clearwire, including pioneering work in the development and rollout of TDMA, GSM, CDMA and fixed wireless cellular infrastructure and microwave products.

In addition, he was instrumental in developing AT&T Wireless’ digital wireless broadband product, one of the earliest OFDM-based wireless systems deployed that foreshadowed the subsequent development of the WiMAX 802.16 standards.

Prior to assuming his current role, Saw served as Clearwire’s vice president of engineering since joining the company as its second employee. Before Clearwire, Saw held key engineering and technology executive positions with Netro Corp (now SR Telecom), AT&T Wireless (now AT&T Inc.), and Nortel.

Saw also holds five U.S. patents in wireless technologies.

Session:  ‘Rest of World’ LTE Implementation – Lessons from the Field
Date:  Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time:  3:40 PM

Senior Director, Advanced Technology & Planning, U.S. Cellular
Narothum Saxena is a Senior Director of Advanced Technology and Systems Planning at U.S. Cellular®. Current responsibilities include network architecture, evaluation of new technologies, and implementation planning of CDMA and 4G technologies. Prior to joining U.S. Cellular®, held various positions at Cambia Networks, 3COM, Indian Space Research Organization, Omnitel and AMI-Sanag.

Narothum has a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Osmania University, India. He completed an executive management program from University of Chicago and leadership courses from MIT and Center for Creative Leadership. Holds over 10 patents and over 20 are pending.

He lives in North Hoffman Estates, IL with his wife and their two children.

Session:  Security and Policy Mangement in 4G Customer Experience — Creating the Network of the Future
Date:  Monday, Oct. 24
Time:  1:10 PM

Ron has been with Cricket Wireless for almost eleven years. In his current role, he is involved with key decision making on Cricket’s LTE ECP architecture, Ethernet backhaul, infrastructure vendors, Tier 4 troubleshooting, performance management and network topology. Ron’s responsibilities include core, gateway and router platforms as well as policy enforcement, network optimization and security. At Cricket, he built the network team responsible for core routing, aggregation, load-balancing, firewall, video optimization, network address translation and IP assignment.

Ron received his BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona and his MBA from San Diego State University.

Session: Optimizing & Assuring Service Delivery in the 4G Blended Services Era
Date:  Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time:  4:40 PM

Before founding Enforta, Lee served as Chief Commercial Officer & Board Director for TransTeleCom – Russia’s largest fiber backbone operator.  Lee has held many senior telecom roles including Regional General Manager of the Asia, Middle East, and Africa Region for Global One (now France Telecom Orange Business Services).  He led the firm’s establishment of many new businesses in Asia and the Middle East and was Chairman of Global One Russia.  Lee previously served as Sprint Corporation’s Finance Director for Europe and was part of the founding management team of Maynard Electronics (now Symantec).   Lee was graduated from the Fuqua School at Duke University and previously served as VP of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.

Session:  Rural and Fixed Wireless Spectrum Options
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  3:50 PM

William (Bill) Stone’s team is responsible for advanced technology planning for Verizon Wireless including new technology assessments, development of network evolution plans, participation in industry standards groups and spectrum planning. Bill’s team is heavily involved in LTE Advanced technology and developing plans to enhance and fully utilize the capabilities of the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.
 
During his 23-year career in the wireless industry, Bill served in a variety of Network leadership positions where his responsibilities included network planning, engineering, system performance and maintenance.

Joint Keynote:  The Heart of 4G
Date:  Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time:  10:30 AM

Iyad Tarazi, Vice President of Network Development & Engineering, is responsible for the development and integration of new products and technologies within Sprint’s wireless and wire line networks and for the engineering of the RF and core networks.  He is also responsible for managing Sprint Nextel’s technology Integration labs. Iyad oversees an operating budget of $500M and a capital budget of approximately $1.5B.  Iyad has been with Sprint Nextel since 1998.

Prior to the Sprint Nextel merger, Iyad provided leadership to Nextel’s Network Engineering department.  His responsibilities included network planning, integration, performance engineering, testing and deployment for Nextel’s core network consisting of forty-seven Metropolitan Switch Offices. Iyad was also responsible for Nextel’s inter-MSO transport network, the data network and service layer network applications. Network Engineering activities include design, planning, engineering, integration and vendor management.
 
Prior to Nextel, Iyad held progressive management and senior management positions with MCI where he was responsible for planning and implementing MCI’s switching, signaling and optical network architecture for both local and long distance networks.

Since assuming, from its inception, the role of Nextel’s Vice President of Network Engineering in 1999, he has been the chief engineer of building and evolving the organization, the core Nextel network, and its support infrastructure.  Iyad has a broad background in financial and capital management and all aspects of engineering, planning, and design for both wire line and wireless networks.  

Iyad received his BSEE from the University of Maryland and holds a Master’s of Science in Engineering Management from Southern Methodist University.

Iyad has become an avid runner and for the past three years he has run and finished the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC in addition to many other races. While he appreciates golf and strives to get better, his golf game is best described as a work in progress.

Session:  Femtocells:  State of Technology and Deployments
Date:  Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time:  2:40 PM

Session:  4G Deployments — North America
Date:  Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time:  3:40 PM

Mr. Thompson co-founded Towerstream in December 1999 with Philip Urso. Mr. Thompson has served as a director since inception and as chief operating officer from inception until November 2005 when Mr. Thompson became president and chief executive officer. In 1995, Mr. Thompson co-founded and was vice president of operations of EdgeNet Inc., a privately held Internet service provider (which was sold to Citadel Broadcasting Corporation in 1997 and became eFortress (“eFortress”)) through 1999. Mr. Thompson holds a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts.

Session:  Mobile Data Offload
Date: Monday, Oct. 24
Time: 1:10 PM

Mike has over 30 years experience in Telecommunications. Mike commenced his career in Telstra Australia, designing and building local telecommunications networks including early work on digital switching, optical fibre and transmission networks. Since then he has made significant contributions to the establishment of Telstra’s mobile voice and data networks during their evolution through Analogue, GSM and CDMA to the completion of Telstra’s world class, nationwide, 850MHz and HSPA-capable Next G™ which has evolved through a series of world first achievements including 3G Direct Tunnel, Blade Server and HSPA+.

As the head of Networks & Access Technologies, Mike’s charter is to lead the planning, design, deployment and performance of Telstra’s access, core and service enabling networks – both wireless and wireline.

Session: ‘Rest of World’ LTE Implementation – Lessons from the Field
Day: Tuesday, Oct. 25
Time: 4:40 PM

Joint Keynote:  4G – HSPA & LTE 
Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 26
Time:  2:30 PM