Commtech East 2020

Jeffrey Bowers , MSA, the Safety Company

Anne Osbourn Marketing Manager, MSA, The Safety Company

Dr. Ali Mohamed Ahmed Sr. Director of Network Technology, Trispec Communications

Dr. Ali Mohamed Ahmed is an executive with more than 20 years of technology and engineering leadership experience with major, publicly listed, telecommunications companies worldwide including in North America with Rogers Communications and in Europe with UPC in Poland, iesy/UnityMedia in Germany, MoscowCableCom in Russia and News Corp Europe in the UK. He also has provided technology expertise and advice to Private Equity & Venture Capital companies including Apax Partners, Goldman Sachs, and Columbus Nova. His areas of expertise include: - Services Platforms (VoIP, VOD, SVoD, Digital TV, HSD, IPTV, nPVR), - Network Service Platforms (DNS, DHCP, CAS, etc.), - Transport Networks (IP Core, Metro Ethernet, CDN), - Data Centers (Public/Private/Hybrid cloud, CaaS, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), - Access Networks (HFC, FFTx, Wireless (3G, LTE, 5G)), - Home Networks (WIFI, MoCA), - CPE HW&SW architectures (DVB-STB, IP-STB, Middleware, RDK, HLS, DASH, MPEG4, HEVC, CA/DRM, TR-69, iOS, Android), - Applications (Native, Hybrid, HTML-5/CSS3/JS, RESTful APIs) Dr. Ahmed has published many technical articles and papers in various European and International journals covering topics in the area of telecommunications networks and systems. Ali has a Ph.D. in Telecommunications and a Master of Science degree in engineering, both from the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology - Warsaw University of Technology, Poland. He is a member of IEEE - Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineers, IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, SCTE - Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, IEEE Young Professionals and IEEE Rebooting Computing Community.

Arun K. Jain Director, Product Marketing, Test and Inspection Division, AFL

Arun Jain is a career product and marketing executive with experience at multinational companies as well as startups. His background includes telecom, networking, mobile, and software businesses. Currently, he heads the product and marketing teams at AFL’s Test & Inspection group.

Before joining AFL, Arun was the Founder & President of BayTech Services that provides technology services for SMBs and startups. Prior to BayTech, he was the VP of Product and Marketing at Voltaire that developed High-Performance Grid Interconnect solutions. Arun has also held executive positions at Bay Networks (acquired by Nortel), Ameritech (now ATT), DSC Communications (now Alcatel) and Fujitsu.

Arun holds a BSEE from University of Delhi and an MBA from University of Illinois.

Barry Walton Solution Architect, Corning

Barry Walton is a Solutions Architect for Corning Optical Communications working with customers to deploy FTTH networks utilizing his extensive experience gained from 41 years in Telecom. He joined Corning after 37 years at a large tier 1 telecom company in Canada where he championed the deployment of FTTH, providing the strategy and planning for over 1 million homes passed. Barry’s expertise lies in business case creation, operations planning, large-scale network planning, reducing costs, increasing build pace and deployment strategy for successful access network builds. A former board member of the North American Fiber to the Home Council, Barry has delivered numerous FTTH presentations at many national and regional conferences. He is highly respected by his peers for his expertise gained through real-world FTTH network deployments. Barry is a very passionate FTTH evangelist. Barry resides in New Brunswick Canada.

Brad Barber Director of Sales, Field Safe Solutions

Brad has over 10 years of sales experience, most recently working with various telecommunications companies in North America where he managed key executive relationships. Brad is working towards his MBA at the Edinburgh Business School.

Chris Bastian SVP and CTIO, SCTE-ISBE

Chris Bastian joined SCTE/ISBE in 2015 following three decades of leadership in advanced cable and network security technologies. Chris is responsible for all areas of technology and engineering to ensure that SCTE and ISBE maintain a leadership role in standardizing and operationalizing advanced technology, including the SCTE Standards Program and the SCTE Engineering Committee – as well as groundbreaking efforts such as SCTE’s Energy 2020 program.Prior to joining SCTE/ISBE, Chris spent 12 years with Comcast, where he served as senior director of converged regional area network engineering for the Comcast Network Engineering Group, executive director of network architecture for the Comcast Technology and Product Group and ultimately as executive director of Comcast’s Xfinity WiFi network. Previously, he had held network operations and engineering positions with RCN and Comcast Cellular Communications, and had spent 10 years in engineering and leadership capacities with the National Security Agency.

Chris holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University and an M.S. in Technical Management from Johns Hopkins University.

Carlo Santa Maria Product Development Manager, Fonex

Dag Hauge Technical Manager and Senior Solutions Consultant

Dag has 30 years of experience in the telecom industry working with product management, network engineering and market development. For the last 20 years, he has been working as technology leader and solutions specialist within telecom test & measurement.

Dan Levac US National Sales Manager, Communications Markets, Preformed Line Products (Canada) Limited (PLP)

Dan Levac began his career in Telecommunications with Bell Canada in 1980 and in 1990 joined Preformed Line Products as a Field Service Representative, training, trouble shooting, and learning how to provide the best customer service in the industry. He became a Field Sales Representative in 1991 providing sales and support for the five-state region of IN, IL, MI, OH, & WI. I became the Western Regional Manager in 1998 and National Sales Manager, Communications Markets in 2017. He currently shares 3 patents for OSP products for PLP.

David Boisseleau Product Marketing Manager, Fonex

David Boisseleau is the Product Marketing Manager at FONEX data systems and over the past 10 years, he has held several key positions at FONEX.  Currently, he is responsible for multiple product portfolios focusing on metro and access network.

David as a strong knowledge base and experience in Optical and Carrier Ethernet networks with focus on access, metro network which helps to direct the FONEX sales force to determine the best approach to a customer’s purpose-built solution. David holds a Master of Electrical Engineering from Ecole des Arts et Metiers, Lyon, France and and a Master of Business Administration from the HEC Montréal.

Dwayne Tremblay Charles Jones Industrial

François Marcotte Subject Matter Expert, EXFO

François Marcotte is a senior engineer currently working for EXFO in Montreal, Canada. Francois has been testing networks since 1990. He has developed solid expertise in Optical transport, Ethernet and IP. Francois is working with clients to improve testing methods and processes. He is a regular speaker in various seminars in North America.

Gary Bolton CEO and President, Fiber Broadband Association

Gary Ge President and Founder, Technity Solutions

Gary worked for international telco vendor like Ericsson, ALU and ECI for more than 10 years, and acted as regional sales director from Tier 1 OEM/ODM, T&W for 10 years to increase the NA and SA sales from 0 to 100M USD. Gary founded Technity Solution Inc. 2 years ago.

Gwenn Amice Subject Matter Expert, EXFO

Gwenn Amice focuses on next-generation optical networks in charge of technical seminars, training, support and technical advice to EXFO’s customers. Mr. Amice holds a university degree in electrical engineering and industrial computing. He is a member of the Broadband Forum Americas Technology Committee

Halley Roth Admin Assistant, Fiber Broadband Association

Assistant to Gary Bolton

Jason Lowe VP, Professional Services, Clearcable Networks

Jason Lowe is Clearcable’s VP, Professional Services. In this role he provides architectural direction, design, and training for DTV/IPTV, GPON, HFC and DOCSIS deployments for Tier 1 and Tier 2 MSOs in the US and Canada.Over the past 25 years in the cable industry, Jason has participated directly in the evolution of traditional cable networks from simple one-way television to two-way and advanced communications networks including the launch of FTTH, DOCSIS and Packetcable services. Jason is a graduate of Niagara College’s Electronics Engineering Technology program.

Jeff Harmon Solutions Engineer, Viavi Solutions

Jeff Spackman Senior Director of Sales - Cable & Telecom Sector, Little Giant Ladder Systems

Jeff Spackman has over thirty-five years of experience in behavior-based safety management. Before coming to Little Giant ladders, Jeff was the West Division Senior Director of Environmental, Health, and Safety at Comcast Cable where he was responsible for all aspects of safety and environmental for over 27,000 employees and 11,000 vehicles. Before coming to Comcast, Jeff was the Corporate Director of Safety at Bright House Networks, the sixth largest cable provider in the United States based out of Orlando, Florida. Before Bright House, Jeff was the West Division Director of Safety at Coca-Cola Enterprises and the Region Safety Manager for PJ Foodservice, the manufacturing and distribution arm of Papa John’s Pizza.

Jeff served as the President of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Central Florida Chapter for three years and won the American Society of Safety Engineers Safety Professional of the Year Award for both the Central Florida Chapter as well as ASSE’s Region IV. Additionally, Jeff served as the co-chair of the National Cable Telecommunication Association’s (NCTA) North American Safety Compliance Workgroup for four years.

Julio Sanchez Field Sales Technical Support, Effigis

Julio is a Field Technical Support Specialist at Effigis for the CPAT FLEX Platform. He joined Effigis in 2001. He has been instrumental in the configuration and installation of CPAT FLEX products with MSOs, as well as in training their staff. He is also responsible for the Latin American market and works with Effigis’ sales partners to develop it. Julio has completed several NCTI certifications, namely DOCSIS 3.1 and the three levels of technician programs.

Justin Nagle Regional Product Line Manager, Viavi Solutions

Justin has been involved in the test and measurement industry for 11 years. Justin’s primary focus over the last 9 years at Viavi has been on broadband service activation, in-home testing, and helping service providers improve technician efficiency and achieve OPEX savings.

Kevin Borders Director of Marketing

Kevin Borders is the Director of Product Marketing at Alpha Technologies Ltd. He has over 30 years of experience in the Telecommunications and Power sectors, having worked extensively in Marketing & Sales, Engineering and Product Management roles at PECO II, RELTEC and Marconi Communications, Inc. Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri and an MBA in Corporate Finance from the University of Dallas.

Kevin Wynne Manager, Americas, Comsof Americas

Kevin currently leads Comsof's commercial business in the North American market, with over ten years of experience in strategic technical roles.Kevin has a degree in Electrical Engineering, an MBA, and a Professional Engineering Designation in the Province of Ontario. He is an active member of the broadband industry, which includes sitting on the Fiber Broadband Association's Technology Committee.

Kyle Mayhew Senior Director for Global Strategy, Marketing, and Business Development, Cyient

Kyle Mayhew is the Senior Director for Global Strategy, Marketing, and Business Development within Cyient’s Geospatial business unit. He leads a global team focused on applying geospatial technologies to solve business problems across multiple industries. Kyle joined Cyient in 2010 and has held numerous business development, marketing, and sales roles. Prior to joining Cyient, he spent nine years at IBM as a Client Manager selling hardware, software, and services to the financial services and manufacturing sectors. Kyle Mayhew is the Senior Director for Global Strategy, Marketing, and Business Development within Cyient’s Geospatial business unit. He leads a global team focused on applying geospatial technologies to solve business problems across multiple industries. Kyle joined Cyient in 2010 and has held numerous business development, marketing, and sales roles. Prior to joining Cyient, he spent nine years at IBM as a Client Manager selling hardware, software, and services to the financial services and manufacturing sectors.

Laura Bradley General Manager, YorkNet

Laura is the General Manager of YorkNet since operations commenced January 1, 2018. YorkNet is a company owned by The Regional Municipality of York which operates and maintains a dark fibre network which offers connectivity to Municipal facilities. Additionally, YorkNet collaborates with private sector companies to expand network reach and connectivity so they can offer services to residents and businesses. YorkNet is currently expanding its footprint from 200 km to over 750 km throughout York Region.

Laura has more 30 years of experience in the telecom industry in Canada working for carriers, manufacturers, ISPs and as a consultant. She brings a wealth of knowledge in business management, network deployment, strategic planning and collaboration to her position. For more than 15 years, Laura focussed on programs and projects which helped deliver broadband networks to rural areas, ensuring that users outside of urban communities were preparing for the digital century.

Laura has worked with all three levels of government on various programs and initiatives to further the deployment of broadband networks and initiatives. She believes fibre is the key infrastructure for the future of Smart Community and a necessary foundation for businesses. Laura has developed numerous strategies for Municipalities and was a key contributor to the Eastern Ontario Regional Network development including the delivery of a project valued at over $250M to enhance broadband across 50,000 square kilometers.

Laura is dedicated to advancing broadband networks into communities to ensure there is adequate and cost effective access to meet current and future demands.

Laura holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen’s University at Kingston and is a Professional Engineer.

Michael Burkhalter Sr. Director Emerging Technologies, EnerSys Energy Systems

Michael Burkhalter is the Senior Director for Emerging Technologies for EnerSys Energy Systems Americas. He is leveraging his strong expertise in telecommunications, wireless, and power to lead the EnerSys’ leadership in power and backhaul for 5G and small cell networks. His team provides consultation key MSO, Wireline, and Wireless partners by developing solutions that facilitate faster project completion, increased partner revenue and long-term strategic advantages.

Murali Krishna Vindula Lead Solution Consultant, Cyient

Murali has more than 21 years of experience in the Telecom sector, highly experienced in product & solutions design, delivery and development. He has hands-on experience on the E2E product platforms for both the BSSS/OSS space from customer experience, inventory, order management, IP enablement, service assurance & fulfillment and NGN network domains. Murali has extensive experience in building new competency and managing pre-sales, large projects, and teams.

Neil Tang President, Antronix

Neil Tang is Antronix’s president. In his prior role as principal engineer, Neil managed the development of Antronix’s line of advanced residential amplifiers, which currently represents more than 50 percent of the industry market share. As chief executive officer, he is the driving force behind the company’s “customer first” strategy, resulting in Antronix developing a variety of products – such as passives and amplifiers to facilitate MoCA and high-frequency transmission products about 1 GHz - based entirely on customer feedback.

Neil holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and has worked in telecommunications for more than 20 years. As a member of SCTE-ISBE’s Standards Committee, he helps to develop engineering standards and future architecture for the future of the cable and television industry.

Specialties:

• Electrical engineering

• RF/microwave engineering design

• Telecommunications product development and design

• Manufacturing

Patrick Noel System Engineer, Viavi Solutions

Patrick has been involved in the telecom industry for 26 years, starting his career at Videotron in network engineering. For the past 19 years, Patrick’s key focus has been supporting service providers with technologies for test & measurement of their networks.

Pierre Trudeau President & CTO, Positron Access Solutions

Pierre is a seasoned Networking and Technology Executive and Board Member with over 35 years of experience. Prior to joining Positron in 2013, Pierre founded Colubris Networks, a leader in advanced Wi-Fi solutions for Wireless ISP, Carriers and Enterprises in March 2000. Colubris was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2008.

He is an expert on data communications and holds multiple networking related patents.

Pierre also holds an M.Sc and B.Sc degree in Computer science from Sherbrooke University in Quebec (Canada).

Peter Desmarais Solutions Engineer, Viavi Solutions

Peter currently holds the position of Solutions Engineer for Viavi’s fiber optic and metro ethernet products. Peter has been involved in the telecommunications industry for over 20 years, of which 15 years have been focused on test & measurement. His current responsibilities include supporting the marketplace with technologies for metro Ethernet networking and fiber optics field test and systems.

Prasad Bhandaru Program Manager, Cyient

Prasad Bhandaru is the Wireless Program manager at Cyient. He lives in Reston, Virginia, and has around 15 years of experience in the field of RF Engineering, Sales and Operations with major wireless carriers across the US. Prasad\'s team is responsible for 4G/5G communications projects and Customer relationships in this space. In-sync with sales and delivery, they are responsible for solutions

Remi Gould Data Analyst, Missing Link Technologies

Richard Boyne Canadian Sales Manager, America Ilsintech

Rob Crowe Field Applications Engineer, Antronix

Rob Crowe is Field Applications Engineer at Antronix, the market-leading manufacturer and supplier of broadband equipment to the cable industry. He is the company’s liaison with customer companies, providing technological analysis, supervision of field trials, and product support. He also conducts technician training across the country for MSOs. Crowe has more than 30 years of experience in the Cable Telecommunications industry, primarily in the Greater New York area.

Rob is a member of the SCTE.

A.A.S – Electrical Engineering Tech College of Staten Island

B.S. – Electrical Engineering Tech City University New York

Ron Huinink Technical Manager Broadband, Telonix Communications

Ron’s career in the CATV industry began 25 years ago in construction, for a local cable company. He joined Cogeco Cable in 1998 as a Service Technician, gaining exposure to the MSO’s interdependence of maintenance, construction, headend/data departments, and planning. Ron has been a member of SCTE for 15 years and in 2013 he was elected to the Ontario Board. He served as President for two years. Recently Ron joined Telonix Communications as Technical Manager Broadband. His main role is supporting the company’s RF products.

Sam Rodriguez Sr. Product Manager, Industrial Solutions, Chatsworth Products

Sam has over 26 years of experience in communications. He’s been a BICSI member for 14 years and became a RCDD in 2005. In his current role as an employee owner of Chatsworth Products (CPI), he is focused on developing CPI’s RMR® Industrial Enclosures and Thermal Solutions to support the increasing requirements for edge, IoT and IIoT applications.

Steve Harris Executive Director, Technical Sales and L&D, SCTE-ISBE, Society of Cable Telecommunications Engi

Steve is a respected international subject matter expert and thought leader in telecommunications, high tech and information technology systems engineering with a proven track record of success; Success that has facilitated increased revenue for cable service providers, solved business challenges and enhanced the subscriber experience. At SCTE·ISBE he is responsible for the tremendous growth of training content, boot camps and certification programs for over 100,000 telecommunication professionals in the areas of Fiber Deep, DAA, FTTx, DOCSIS, Wi-Fi, routing, switching, virtualization, IPv6, Ethernet, Business Services, MPEG, Linux, Headend, installation and outside plant/HFC. His signature skill is a dynamic, personable and enthusiastic approach to the delivery of highly complex technical content from the boots to suits for fast-paced companies.

Ted Cameron Director of Sales, Cable and Telecom, U.S. and Canada Division, Little Giant Ladder Systems

Ted Cameron has worked at Little Giant Ladders Systems for 11 years in various sales leadership roles within different divisions. For many years he worked with the Direct Sales Team going to trade shows all over the United States showcasing multiple types of Ladders to different industries. Most recently Ted is the Director of Sales over the Cable and Telecom U.S. and Canada Division where he is responsible for such accounts as Charter, Cox Communications, Rogers, and Shaw.

Ted is also directly involved with the engineering department in the development of such ladders as the new Hyperlite Extension Ladder with limited arrest as well as the development of cable and telecommunications specific ladders, making them more versatile and safe for the technicians.

Before Little Giant Ladders, Ted worked in the window treatment field with his own business for several years specializing in large multi-family unit projects. The business is still in his family.

Ted also worked with an electrical contractor and an HVAC contractor plus early in his career, he worked as a professional ski patroller for many winters.

He loves what does now working with the great people in the cable and telecom industry, helping them work much safer so they return home to their families ever night.

Tushar Mathar Staff Systems Engineer, Chief Technology Office - Network Solutions, CommScope

Tushar Mathur is a Staff Systems Engineer in the Chief Technology Office – Network Solutions at CommScope, where he has been working for the past 4 years on defining the architecture of the ARRIS centralized and distributed CCAP/CMTS systems. His current areas of interest are QoS and Distributed Access Architecture. He has issued and pending patents and has authored several papers on emerging broadband technologies. Prior to working at CommScope, Tushar has worked as a Software Engineer at Motorola Solutions Inc. on Wi-Fi APs and Controllers. Tushar holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Miami University, OH, USA.

Vasile Jerca Principal HFC & Optical Access Designer, ROGERS Communications

Vasile has a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering. Vasile pioneered CATV in Romania. In 1995 he came to Canada and was first employed with Sentrex Communications until 1996 when he joined Rogers.

Wilco Van Ginkel Data and Analytics Lead, Missing Link Technologies

William Graham, M.S., Ed, CFOS/I Speaker image

William Graham, M.S., Ed, CFOS/I Director of the Fiber Optic Association

William is a Master Electrician and a Director and Master Instructor with the Fiber Optic Association, teaching Fiber Optic training courses and other Industrial Skills courses, across North America, Europe and the Caribbean. His clients include Community Colleges, Trade Unions, Canadian Military, Utilities plus the general public. He has certified over 7,000 technicians.