Conference Overview

Bob Wilson has 40 years experience in the telecommunications industry. He has supervised the installation and operation of billing/accounting systems, 700 Mhz wireless system/cellular towers, cable television system, CLEC telephone system and fiber optic ring. He is currently deploying an IPTV solution and is overseeing the Alcatel-Lucent integration of Microsoft® Mediaroom™ middleware across four regional service providers.

Bob has served in leadership roles with the Texas Statewide Telephone Cooperative Association, the Texas Lone Star Network and the Alamosa PCS Board. His community involvement includes roles with the Volunteer Fire Department, Hospital EMS, 4-H Leadership Council and Stanton ISD Education Advisory Council.

Tony Stout joined PRTC in 2010 and serves as the company’s chief technology officer. In his role as CTO, Tony is responsible for overseeing strategic direction for designing and building PRTC’s next generation network infrastructure. Additionally, he manages the company’s daily engineering and operational duties. Tony has managed several key initiatives at PRTC including the company’s Microsoft Mediaroom deployment, upgrading PRTC’s network infrastructure and standardizing operational procedures.

Tony has more than 18 years of technology and business experience in various Telecom and Information Technology roles. Prior to joining PRTC, Tony served as Network Engineering manager for Hargray Communications, responsible for network design and technology planning for Hargray’s carrier network infrastructure.

Mr. Dannehl has over thirty years experience in telecommunications and currently works for Alcatel-Lucent with responsibility for business development in the Multi-Media Integration division. Prior to ALU, he worked for Motorola from 2004 to 2010 in several roles deploying IPTV solutions and account management. Mr. Dannehl has worked in various technical and management positions involving all aspects of HFC, xDSL, GPON, IPTV middleware, and multi-screen video for various companies including Convergent Technology Consultants, Ocius Communications, Next Level Communications, and U S WEST.

Mr. Dannehl holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1988 and an MBA from Crummer Graduate School at Rollins College in Orlando in 2005.

Marty Roberts’ diverse leadership background includes fourteen years of product management and marketing. His experience developing strategy, building relationships with development organizations, and creating new products and services helped increase the customer base and profitability for organizations such as GiftCertificates.com and RealNetworks. At thePlatform, Marty leads sales and account management, business development, marketing, and product management. His contributions to the company’s success include repositioning the company and products, increasing the brand awareness through advertising, PR and the web site, building an ecosystem with eighty partners and driving the product strategy for initiatives such as TV Everywhere.

David Thompson is Director of Product Marketing for ZyXEL Communications, Inc. Thompson is responsible for building partner relationships in the telecommunications industry and helping promote product lines and features that benefit both ZyXEL and its customers.
Prior to his current position, Thompson served as Director of Strategic Account Development and formerly as Senior Product Manager for ADSL CPE at ZyXEL. Before joining ZyXEL in 2004, he held management positions at various companies in the telecommunications industry such as Southern Company Services, BellSouth.net and Earthlink Inc.
Thompson is well versed in the areas of xDSL and fiber connectivity products, technology and trends. He adds a wealth of knowledge and experience to ZyXEL’s team.

With over 15 years experience in broadband access technologies, Juan Vela is a recognized telecommunications industry professional. A regularly featured author in trade publications and industry blogs, Juan is responsible for solutions marketing at Calix where he works to identify emerging market trends. Prior to joining Calix, he split his time between wireline service providers and broadband equipment suppliers, holding a variety of engineering, product management and marketing positions. Juan holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the FAMU/FSU College of Engineering.

Tom Zanoli is the Internet and Security Product Manager for GVTC Communications. Zanoli is responsible for managing the P & L for existing products along with new product development for broadband and security. A corporate strategy for GVTC is to “own the home or business” and Zanoli has been working on managed products centered around the connected home and business. Before joining GVTC in 2007, he held management positions at Alltel and Windstream communications in Customer Service, Marketing, IT and Business Development.

Keith Russell is responsible for global marketing activities for Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireline Access Division. In that role, he has focused his efforts on both copper and fiber based access solutions.

Previous to his current role, Keith spent five years at Alcatel-Lucent as a business manager focused on the North American Independent Telco Market.

He has over 17 years of experience in fixed access and the Telecommunications industry holding positions in Business management, marketing and applications engineering.

Prior to joining Alcatel-Lucent in 1999, he managed Application Engineering and technical marketing functions for Independent carriers at Advanced Fibre Communications.

Keith holds a BS in Marketing from Sonoma State University

Since joining ASSIA in 2010, Jerome Joanny has overseen the product management and development of all product lines, defining new product roadmap strategies and spearheading product marketing requirements. A seasoned veteran of the telecommunication industry, Mr. Joanny held several key product management and product integration roles at ShoreTel prior to joining ASSIA, and has extensive international experience in broadband access, unified communications, VoIP, and WiFi. Previous positions include key roles at Nortel in Europe and Asia, Matra Communication and the French Air Force. Mr. Joanny has a degree in electrical engineering from l’Ecole Nationale Superieure Electronique et Radioelectricite , Bordeaux, France, and an advanced degree in Metrology from Bordeaux University.

David Auer is a 20-year veteran of the telecom industry. As Actelis’ Director of Channels for North America, Mr. Auer focuses on helping Actelis’ channel partners accelerate wide-scale broadband adoption for telcos, enterprises and municipalities. Prior to joining Actelis, he served at NEC America and Cisco Systems. Mr. Auer has a master’s degree in telecommunications from the University College at the University of Denver.

Currently Director of Smart TV Innovation at LG Electronics, Kurt is responsible for driving Home Entertainment innovation as it relates to Pay TV, device inter-connectivity, and next-generation input technologies. Kurt has spent 10+ years building cloud-connected solutions for Service Providers, CE companies, and Content Owners, delivering value-added services to over 50M users worldwide. He has held business development, product marketing, and product management roles at Digeo, 2Wire, and Amdocs, working with customers such as AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Best Buy, and Paramount Pictures, to name a few. Kurt studied Computer Science at the Royal Military College of Canada and Human Computer Interaction at the University of British Columbia.

As a Senior Director for the Converged Experiences division of Motorola Mobility, Nate leads the product marketing teams focused on expanding the proliferation of Motorola’s software assets across all consumer converged experiences. Nate joined Motorola Mobility in December 2010 following the acquisition of 4Home Media by Motorola, Inc. While at 4Home (a Verizon Communications backed start-up), Nate was Chief Marketing Officer where he facilitated the planning and development of 4Home’s go-to-market strategy and managed product marketing, business development and corporate strategy.Nate joined 4Home from the Digital Home Group of Intel Corporation, where he provided strategic finance and business development direction for their multi-billion dollar Consumer PC business. Earlier, Nate served as an Associate at The Walt Disney Company. Nate began his career like industry elite Barry Diller, David Geffen, Ben Silverman and Jeffrey Katzenberg – in the famed talent agency William Morris mailroom. Nate holds a Masters degree in Marketing from The Anderson School at UCLA and a Bachelors degree in Communications from UCONN.

Behind every evolution in technology there is a person whose job it is to plan and launch new products into the marketplace. For the Mediaroom TV business at Microsoft, that person is Ben Huang. For nearly 10 years, Ben has partnered with operators to deliver Mediaroom-powered TV services to consumer around the world. As an innovator in product management, product marketing and partner marketing, he is helping transform the entertainment experience in the living room and beyond. Before joining Microsoft, Ben was Director of Business for PacketVideo, a leader in the mobile video space. During his tenure, he promoted mobile video services across Asia, Europe and the Americas, pushing adoption of a major new format for millions. Before bringing his talents to the field of technology, Ben worked in finance and strategic consulting, including venture capital covering media, telecommunications and technology.

Andrey Kisel is Chief technologist in the Alcatel-Lucent Velocix Architecture Team. Dr Kisel is currently involved in the research of end to end architectures and video enhancements for Content Delivery Networks. He also works on high quality video delivery over managed and unmanaged (Open Internet) networks, as well as unified architectures that converge IPTV, Internet video and communication services. Dr Kisel is a Board member of the OIPF and has previously been Rapporteur of a number of ETSI IPTV specifications. Previously within Alcatel-Lucent, Dr Kisel was Chief Technologist of the Multimedia Integration Practice, Lead Technologist of the Wireline CTO group and Principal Architect for the Alcatel (thirdspace) video delivery solution OVS. Andrey Kisel was previously awarded a research scholarship from the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. in telecommunications from the Ukrainian State Academy of Telecommunications, Odessa, Ukraine. Dr Kisel has been granted 5 patents to date.

Oren Binder brings over ten years of IP video technology experience to his role as Manager of marketing for Cisco’s Videoscape. In this role, Mr. Binder is works closely with the company’s principal wireline and cable service providers on IP initiatives. Prior to joining Cisco, he was a product manager for Microsoft Mediaroom. Earlier in his career, Mr. Binder led an IPTV deployment project at service provider Bezeq.

Steve Sklar has worked in the video and communications industry since 1988, and currently oversees CenturyLink’s Video Strategy & Development team. Sklar leads the group responsible for product development, content partner management, engineering and architecture and deployment of video services.

Previously Sklar managed Qwest's partnerships with DIRECTV and Verizon Wireless, and also oversaw Qwest's broadband content and multi-channel video initiatives.

Sklar was previously director of product strategy for high-speed Internet and digital voice products at Cablevision Systems Corporation, the nation's fifth-largest cable multiple-system operator. He has also served as senior vice president of business development at Insight Communications where he was instrumental in the launch of high-speed Internet and video-on-demand services. Additionally, he has held various roles at Starz Entertainment and Home Box Office, Inc. including vice president of business development and director of international operations.

Sklar holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Sklar lives in the metropolitan Denver area with his wife Betsy and their three children.

Mike Carney is Dascom Systems Group’s National IPTV Sales Director. Dascom is the leading IPTV systems integrator for rural telcos with over 135 customers. Mike is an expert in IPTV solutions. Mike was most recently the National Sales Director at NRTC. Prior to that, Carney assisted early adopter telephone companies in their IPTV deployments at Minerva and Skystream. He has also held several management positions at Ericsson and RCA. He holds a degree from Indiana State University.

Kevin joined Amino in October 2008 and has worked to promote the development of OTT solutions across Amino's business with particular responsibility for the Amino Freedom product range. In 2011 he joined the Amino executive team as Chief Technologist and has more than 15 years’ experience in media and technology. His early career was with Acorn Computers working on IPTV platforms design, before moving to NTL where he managed their multi-platform interactive games channel. He then worked in the US on WAP and J2ME games for mobile phones before joining Sony where he was engaged in both business development and mobile application development services. He then moved to SysMedia, spending his time developing interactive channels with global broadcasters, MSOs and governments. He was then appointed to the executive team of Fluorescent Media, an independent television production company, where as Head of Technology he was responsible for the PHOENIX Technology Platform which powered many multiple massively interactive TV shows.

Joseph Weber is Vice President of Technology Strategy at TiVo, Inc. coordinating the strategic development of technologies to meet TiVo’s corporate goals. His focus is on creating cutting edge solutions for Cable, Satellite and Telco service providers.Before joining TiVo, Dr Weber was Director, Strategic Technology at Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs) where he analyzed technology trends strategic to the cable industry. He also was a member of the OpenCable team, developing specifications for OCAP, CableCARD and other elements of the OpenCable suite of specifications. He has taught several classes on image processing, machine vision and compression. He is the author of “IPTV Crash Course” from McGraw-Hill, a primer on the technology and business models behind Internet Protocol television services.Dr. Weber received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley, a Masters in Physics also from Berkeley, an MBA from the University of Colorado, and a B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame.

Scott Roe is the Video Solutions Manager of Nex-Tech, Inc., headquartered in Hays, Kansas. Nex-Tech is a subsidiary of Rural Telephone Service Company, Inc., an independent telephone company headquartered in Lenora, Kansas. Scott has more than 15 years of experience in the technology and telecommunications industry. In his position at Nex-Tech, Scott oversees the Video Solutions business unit. He is a native of Kansas and a graduate of Fort Hays State University.

John Grady is the Sales Director responsible for Application Software and Services for the Americas at Pace PLC. His portfolio includes Pace’s industry leading TR069-based Component Management System (CMS) for device management, the Services Management layer (SMS) and the Professional Services organization for Customer and Support and Software deployments. Prior to Pace, Mr. Grady led the SMB Marketing and Sales Development team at Netgear where he was responsible for product and channel marketing as well as business development. Mr. Grady also held several leadership positions at Covad Communications in Product Management, Strategic Planning and Customer Operations. Earlier in his careers, John was a part of the Communications and Entertainment consulting practice at Arthur Andersen and an officer at the private banking firm Brown Brothers Harriman & Company. Mr. Grady earned a BA in Economics from Boston College, and an MBA in Finance from the Indiana Graduate School of Business.

Alan Marks is a Senior Marketing Manager at Alcatel-Lucent, and has been involved in the communications industry for more than 20 years. AtAlcatelâ€�Lucent, he is responsible for defining and executing the company’s marketing strategy for their portfolio of customer experience management solutions for the connected home. Mr. Marks earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Scott is the Vice President of Product Marketing at Synchronoss. Prior to joining Synchronoss, Scott was the SVP of Marketing at SpeechCycle where he oversaw all marketing functions for the company including product marketing and product management and corporate communications. Scott has more than 20 years of experience in the communications industry and has held senior management positions at Amdocs, Nortel Networks, Clarify and Lucent Technologies. With high-tech marketing experience spanning product marketing, strategic alliances, industry and channel marketing, market management and marketing communications, Scott is a widely recognized and respected marketing professional with expertise in the customer care industry.
Scott has a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising from San Jose State University.

Jeff Finkelstein is the Senior Director of Network Architecture at Cox Communications in Atlanta, Georgia. He has been part of the engineering and architecture group at Cox since 2002, and was part of the team responsible for the deployment of DOCSIS technologies, from DOCSIS 1.1 to DOCSIS 3.0. Jeff has made significant contributions to the access network design and deployments at Cox, and has the new role of being responsible for future technology planning of backbone, metro, access, and home networks.Included in his achievements is being part of the CableLabs team contributing to the DOCSIS 3.0 PHY spec, the CableLabs Pro-active Network Management work, and the Comcast CMAP hardware, software and management specifications. Jeff has been published worldwide on topics including CMAP, IPDR, upstream PHY technologies, IP video deployment over DOCSIS, telepresence, and drivers for future bandwidth consumption. Jeff has over 18 patents issued and/or pending.

Per Johansson is a Network Architect at Net Insight, the leading provider of efficient and scalable transport solutions for media, IP and broadcast networks. Johansson brings more than 23 years of experience in the field of telecommunication to Net Insight, with an extensive knowledge base in IPTV distribution. Johansson has been involved with notable projects at Net Insight including the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Prior to his work at Net Insight, Johansson worked with network engineering for Tele2 Sweden and contributed to the development of the first Global MPLS network during his time at Global One (now Equant) as the head of their global network provisioning center.

As Vice President of Solutions, Joel Melby plays a key role in the continuous development of Edgeware’s technology leading video delivery solutions.

Bringing more than 25 years of development and management experience from a broad range of technology-intensive industries and organizations, he oversees the adaptation of Edgeware's products for the global market.

Melby holds an MBA from Bentley College and an undergraduate Electrical Engineering degree from Cornell University.

Ray Carey is the Chief Executive Officer at NeoNova Network Services.
Carey has been involved for the last 10 years with the leading companies providing technology and solutions to the broadband market. In early 2008, while at Azure, he led the investment in NeoNova and has been on the board and actively involved with the company since that time. While at Azure Capital Partners he was also involved with leading companies in the broadband market including Broadlight, Calix Networks, Cyan Optics, Vapps, Inc. and World Wide Packets.
Carey remains a Venture Partner with Azure Capital Partners where he was an investing partner for the last decade. Prior to Azure, he worked at Credit Suisse First Boston & Robertson Stephens focused on public and private financings and mergers and acquisitions for communications related technology companies. He provided strategic advice to several companies including ADC Telecommunications, Cerent (acquired by Cisco), Cyras Systems (acquired by Ciena), Efficient Networks (acquired by Siemens), Juniper Networks, Next Level Communications, Siara Systems (acquired by Redback Networks), Zhone Technologies and many others.
Carey represented the United States, swimming in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia and received his A.B. and M.A. degrees from Stanford University

Sue DeFlorio, FiberCloud’s COO, spearheads the company’s strategic direction. Her expertise includes Internet networking, data center management and cloud-hosted software solutions. Sue spends her time helping companies achieve success with their communications infrastructure and software solutions. She focuses on delivering high quality solutions that recognize the importance of the individual customer. With an eye toward innovative technologies, Sue provides hands-on leadership that drives excellence, innovation and positive customer experiences.

As Director of Product Management, Fredel Thomas oversees product planning, marketing and P&L for CHR’s Managed & Cloud Services. Ms. Thomas joined Martin Group (later merged with CHR Solutions) in 2000 and served in product development, quality assurance, sales, invoice fulfilliment, and project management roles. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of South Dakota. Ms. Thomas brings over a decade of communications industry knowledge and expertise with special emphasis on building new lines of business and process management.