John Capobianco

Product Marketing Evangelist -Selector AI

John Capobianco is a seasoned IT professional who joined Selector in August 2024, bringing his expertise as a former Technical Leader in AI at Cisco, a Senior Network Architect for the Parliament of Canada (The House of Commons), and a Senior Network Engineer with Empire Life. John is also an author, having self-published “Automate Your Network” in 2019 and more recently released a Cisco Press book on pyATS. With a deep enthusiasm for AI and its transformative potential, John is passionate about leveraging automation and artificial intelligence to advance network operations and drive innovation.

Jeremy Rossbach

Chief Technical Evangelist - NetOps - Broadcom

As the Chief Technical Evangelist for Network Observability by Broadcom, Jeremy is passionate about meeting with customers to identify their IT operational challenges and produce solutions that fit their business and network transformation goals. Prior to joining Broadcom, he spent over 15+ years working in IT, across both public and private sectors, managing data centers for startups, healthcare, financial and federal system integrators. His previous roles as a data center administrator, engineer, architect and manager provided him invaluable insights into the challenges and goals of IT consumers.

Aidan Walden

Global Director of Public Cloud Architecture and Engineering - Fortinet

Aidan Walden has served as the Global Director of Public Cloud Architecture and Engineering at Fortinet for the past three years. Prior to Fortinet, he served in various engineering and leadership roles at a tier 1 mobility and global ISP. Throughout his 18-year career, he has navigated the evolving security landscape across mobility, IoT, and service provider infrastructure.

Allwyn Sequeira

Founder and CEO - Highway 9 Networks

Allwyn Sequeira is CEO at Highway 9 Networks. A serial entrepreneur, he was previously SVP/GM at VMware across multiple business lines and new ventures. Allwyn’s first venture was as CTO / VP creating and delivering the industry’s first software-defined networking (SDN) solution, VMware NSX vSphere, which grew to over $2B in revenue. He was then asked to run vCloud Air, VMware’s own cloud service, leading all development, product management, IaaS platform and service delivery, cloud operations and customer success. In his final role, Allwyn led the development and operation of HCX, the industry’s first hybrid cloud migration and inter-networking service between VMware, enterprises and public clouds like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM. This effort led to the creation of Telco Cloud Automation and Infrastructure, which was the world’s first platform integrating 5G containerized network functions, and was chosen by DISH as its 5G platform. Earlier in his career, Allwyn was co-founder and EVP of Products and Operations at First Virtual Corporation (FVC) through its IPO and growth.

André M. König

CEO - Global Quantum Intelligence

André is the publisher of the leading Quantum Tech newsletter, author in a bestselling book on digital transformation, host of Weekly Quantum World Detangled, and frequent speaker on Quantum Tech. He has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, live TV and stages from Las Vegas to Seoul with up to 40,000 in the audience. Since 2018 he is the CEO of Interference Advisors, the leading BI provider in Quantum Tech. The Chairman of OneQuantum, the leading Quantum Tech community globally with 35K+ members. And Managing Partner of Entanglement Capital, an investment fund in Quantum Tech. With 25 years of business experience, André has been a strategy and technology consultant to many Fortune 500 CEOs in both Europe and the USA. As well as to owners and operators of mid-sized services and manufacturing firms, often leading co-investments, consolidations and turnarounds. Prior to his current role, he co-founded 3 startups – spanning Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, NeuroHealth and SaaS – and mentored hundreds of others through General Assembly, the German Accelerator New York and other entrepreneurship programs. André studied Quantum Computing at MIT (certificates) and holds a MBA in Economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as well as a Masters in Business from ICN School of Management. He speaks English, German, French and poor Italian, has competed in national sailing championships and pursues special combat & martial arts training.

Ari Stowe

COO - Resolve Systems

Ari Stowe is the Chief Operating Officer at Resolve.io, a leader in intelligent IT automation and agentic operations. With a deep background in product strategy, automation, and systems thinking, he began his career as a software developer and later became an ITIL expert and consultant, giving him a deep understanding of both the technical and operational sides of enterprise IT. Ari has spent over a decade helping IT and network operations teams transform from reactive, ticket-based workflows to proactive, AI-driven systems. His work focuses on applying automation, orchestration, and intelligent agents to improve efficiency, resilience, and business alignment across critical infrastructure. Ari is a recognized voice in the evolution of AI-powered operations and frequently speaks on the future of IT automation.

Aryo Kresnadi

Technical Director, Global Network Architecture - FedEx

As Technical Director, Aryo Kresnadi is responsible for setting network architecture strategies, futures and solutions for FedEx Global Enterprise Network supporting all FedEx information movement to ensure on-time delivery for all FedEx packages. Current responsibility includes research and development of architecture, design and implementation of the next-generation network for FedEx data center, multi-cloud, and edge network for the FedEx field locations to support next-generation sensors, robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. Aryo holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from Ohio State University and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) from University of Pittsburgh. Aryo is currently based in Collierville, TN, the home of FedEx World Technology Center.

Brad Haas

Vice President of Professional Services - Network to Code

Over the past two decades, Brad has delivered leading-edge technology solutions, cultivating a career rooted in innovation and growth. His journey is marked by a blend of deep technical expertise and the leadership of high-performing teams navigating complex, high-profile customer engagements. At Network to Code, as a leader of professional services, Brad leverages this legacy of excellence, fostering an environment where pioneering ideas transform into reality.

Brian Gilbert

Chief Technical Advisor and Vice President - World Wide Technology

Brian is responsible for the Services, Advisory, and Field Technical Functions in World Wide Technology’s Eastern Operations. Most recently Brian was responsible for transforming and leading global technical operations, engineering, and architecture for a large UK Based Global Pharmaceutical as part of their Digital Transformation across Operating Model, Agile Transformation, Infrastructure modernization, Cyber Uplift, Hosting and Cloud Transformation, End User Experience, Service Management, and FinOPs Agile Funding Executive team. As a Client he also led JPMorganChase’s Global Network Engineering and Operations teams, where his teams successfully deployed an industry leading private fiber WAN and drove a major global refresh and insourcing effort. At Cisco Systems, Brian led the global sales and field engineering teams serving their largest clients and launched the Server Entry into those clients, also acting in the role of Corporate Engineering Liaison for all Data Center Products.Brian’s diverse experience and exposure as an executive in large tech companies, founder and leader of startup Tech and MedTech Device companies, advisor to multiple VC Tech companies, and as a non-profit Board member, has provided a unique view of the entire tech landscape including the funding, business, and operational vectors. A father of 2, avid musician, former marathon runner turned cyclist, reader, and boating enthusiast, Brian and his wife Mary, reside in the Cleveland Ohio Metro Area.

Brian Nelson

Managing Consultant - Network to Code

With 25 years in engineering leadership and a track record as a CTO, I specialize in turning complex tech challenges into lucrative business solutions. At Network To Code, I lead a group of world-class engineers and innovators building the network automation platforms helping to keep the immense networks within global financial institutions performant and secure. The stringent regulatory demands in the banking sector provide abundant opportunities to transform high-stakes challenges into success stories and safeguard critical investments for clients.

Celia Merzbacher

Executive Director - Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C)

Dr. Celia Merzbacher is Executive Director of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), a global consortium managed by SRI International that aims to enable and grow the quantum industry. Dr. Merzbacher has more than two decades of experience as a leader of large multidisciplinary partnerships and programs at the intersection of government and industry. She is a member of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Transatlantic Quantum Community. She serves on the board of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Quantum Foundry and on advisory boards for several quantum research institutes worldwide. She previously was Assistant Director of Technology R&D at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dr. Merzbacher is a Fellow of the AAAS.

Chalan Aras

SVP and GM, Acceleration - Riverbed

Chalan Aras is Riverbed’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Acceleration business, overseeing the entire Acceleration portfolio, including engineering and product management. Aras brings over three decades of experience in B2B technology, including leading product organizations and divisions at renowned companies such as Deloitte, Citrix Systems, Cisco, and Polycom. Aras most recently served as Chief Product Officer and Managing Director for Deloitte’s Cyber Security Services. Prior to Deloitte, he spent nine years at Citrix in VP and GM roles leading products that included Cloud Network and Security Services, SD-WAN and WAN Optimization. Aras holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Middle East Technical University, a master’s degree in computer engineering from North Carolina State University; an Executive MBA in Strategy and Marketing from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School; and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Charlene O’Hanlon

Editor - Biz-Tech-Insights, VP and Managing Editor - Activate Marketing Services

Charlene O’Hanlon is an award-winning journalist and content professional serving the technology sector for more than 20 years as director, executive editor and managing editor for numerous technology-focused sites. As VP and Managing Editor at Activate Marketing Services, she leads a team of writers and editors who create client-focused content for marketing programs in the B2B tech sector. In her former position as Chief Operating Officer at Techstrong Group, Charlene led the direction and management of Techstrong Learning and Techstrong Live! webinars and events divisions. Charlene also served as co-host and anchor of the Techstrong TV streaming broadcast. Charlene is co-author of “The Lifecycle of Fashion Technology” and is a frequent speaker at industry events and conferences. In her spare time, she is an avid drummer and is working toward achieving a Level 4 Diploma in Wines from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET).

Chris Roberts

Technical Solutions Architect - World Wide Technology

Chris has been in our industry since before its inception (the lack of hair helping to identify this). His most recent projects have been focused within the aerospace, deception, deepfake, identity, cryptography, AI/AdversarialAI, and services sectors. Over the years, he’s founded or worked with numerous organizations specializing in human research, data intelligence, transportation, cryptography, and deception technologies. These days he’s working on spreading risk, maturity, collaboration, and communication messaging across the industry. (Likely while coding his augmented EEG driven digital clone that’s monitoring his Internet usage, and tea and biscuit consumption!) When not working he can be found in Eureka, Missouri charging round the countryside on a mountain bike, or hunkered down with the kids experimenting on ways to take over the planet. From an observability perspective he’s large, hairy, often wears a kilt, and can be found on stage with a cuppa tea in hand trying to explain to audiences why they must ask more questions before clicking life’s big red button.

Chris Moretti

Vice President - Global Technology & Cloud Transformation - Evernorth, Health Services

Christopher Moretti has been an executive leader with Evernorth Health Services (formerly Cigna) since October, 2015 and is currently responsible for all infrastructure engineering Leading the Global Engineering & Infrastructure Services. In this role, Chris provides executive leadership over the teams that deliver Cigna’s voice & data networks, security engineering, contact center, database, compute, storage, information management, mainframe, cloud & devops. Previous to Cigna, Chris spent 14 years at General Electric and its subsidiaries in various executive leadership roles supporting its insurance, consumer and commercial banking businesses. While at GE, Chris attended and graduated many of their prestigious management training classes including AIMC and EIMP. Most recently, Christopher was Managing Director of Global Networks for J.P. Morgan Chase & Company based in midtown Manhattan. Chris started his career in IT performing many different hands on technical roles in client/server, network and security for various sized firms in the greater New York market including a period where he consulted for Greenwich Technology Partners. Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Connecticut and currently resides in Shelton, CT with his wife and 3 sons.

Denis Mandich

Co-Founder & CTO - Qrypt

Qrypt CTO and co-founder, Denis Mandich, focuses on quantum security, R&D, post quantum encryption (PQC) algorithms and standards bodies. He holds several patents in cryptography, cyber technologies and information processing. Denis a founding member of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), a founding member of the NSF-funded Mid-Atlantic Quantum Alliance (MQA), founding member of the Center for Quantum Technologies (CQT), advisor to the Quantum Startup Foundry and Board member of quantum chip manufacturer Quside. Prior to joining Qrypt, Denis served 20 years in the US Intel Community working on national security projects, cyber infrastructure, and advanced technology development. He has degrees in Physics from Rutgers University and speaks native level Croatian and Russian.

Dennis Thankachan

CEO & Co-Founder - Lightyear

Dennis Thankachan is the founder and CEO of Lightyear, a software platform that automates the full lifecycle for enterprise telecom services and is trusted by 300+ enterprises. He regularly writes on various IT infrastructure and telecom topics here. Dennis is based in NYC.

Disleve Kanku

AI & Data Engineer - Dana Farber Cancer Institute

Disleve is the founder of Vibie.AI, an AI-powered music curation platform that personalizes listening experiences by dynamically adapting to user preferences, moods, and environments. By integrating machine learning, LLM-powered copilots, and real-time analytics, Vibie.AI enhances how users discover and engage with music at scale. With a background in AI-driven data engineering, Disleve specializes in scalable network optimization, predictive automation, and intelligent data workflows. At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, he leverages Snowflake Cortex AI for data processing and implement predictive error correction in large-scale ETL pipelines. As a speaker, Disleve will share insights on how AI copilots optimize real-time decision-making, enhance system efficiency, and automate complex workflows, drawing from his work at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and beyond.

Dr. Richard Searle

Chief AI Officer - Fortanix, Inc.

With an extensive background in complex systems engineering and the application of machine learning for data discovery, Dr Richard Searle is the Chief AI Officer at Fortanix, Inc. – a pioneer of Confidential Computing technology for data and AI security. Richard has previously served as both General Members’ Representative to the Governing Board, and Chair of the End-User Advisory Council, of the Confidential Computing Consortium of the Linux Foundation and regularly contributes thought leadership articles and talks on quantum computing, quantum information security, AI security, and the applications of Confidential Computing. Richard holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Henley Business School at the University of Reading and he is currently conducting research on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems within the context of defense and national security. Richard is the Principal Investigator for Fortanix within the U.S. NIST AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC) and the UK Integrated Quantum Network (IQN) Hub.

Eric Hanselman

Chief Analyst - 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence

Eric Hanselman is the chief analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. He coordinates industry analysis across the broad portfolio of technology, media and telecommunications research disciplines, with an extensive, hands-on understanding of a range of subject areas, including information security, networks and semiconductors and their intersection in areas such as AI, 5G and edge computing. Eric helps S&P Global’s clients navigate these turbulent waters and capitalize on potential outcomes. He is a member of the IEEE, a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a VMware Certified Professional. He is also a frequent speaker at leading industry conferences and hosts the Next in Tech technology podcast.

Eric Powers

Director, Citi Tech Fellow, Head of High Perf Arch Infra, STAC Fellow - Citi

Eric is a seasoned systems architect and Technology Fellow at Citi with over 28 years of experience, specializing in eTrading infrastructure. His passion for pushing technological boundaries fuels his work, where he continuously explores innovative ways to revolutionize eTrading systems. As Director of High Performance Architectures Infrastructure (HPAi), he is instrumental in driving technological advancements at Citi. Beginning his career as a C developer for the Department of Defense, Eric progressed to aerospace R&D roles, earning top honors in Electrical Engineering. His career spans pivotal roles in networking startups and FinTech, most notably at Morgan Stanley, where he led global network instrumentation and TimeSync, and advised on strategic technology investments. Eric was honored with the title of STAC Fellow for his industry-leading contributions to Time Synchronization. At Deutsche Bank, as a Distinguished Engineer, he architected comprehensive best in class eTrading infrastructure solutions driving down latency and improving PnL, and at a proprietary trading firm, he further honed his skills in driving technological innovation. Eric serves on advisory boards for leading companies such as HPE, Dell, Lenovo, Equinix, AMD, Intel, Keysight, and Exegy, where he provides thought leadership, helps drive innovation and ensures alignment with Citi’s strategic objectives. He has worked extensively with companies to develop next-generation products and frequently participates in technical speaking panels at industry conferences. He is also on the A-Team Group Trading Technology Advisory Board. Renowned for his vision and expertise in low-latency technology, Eric remains committed to transforming Citi’s eTrading infrastructure into a powerful competitive advantage.

Eugene Oile

Network Engineer - NetBrain

Eugene Oile is a network engineer at NetBrain with a strong foundation in electrical and computer engineering. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering with a focus on digital systems, signal processing, and communication networks. His background includes advanced training in analog/digital communications, microelectronics, and wave propagation. At NetBrain, Eugene leverages this expertise to support network automation and performance solutions. Passionate about bridging complex systems and real-world applications, he brings both depth and clarity to every challenge he tackles.

Forrest Bennett

Information Security Advisor - FedEx

Cyber Security Advisor with FedEx Services, Inc. My current focus is on securing SDN and hybrid-cloud workloads as FedEx moves towards digital transformation and away from traditional L3 networks and data centers. In my role as Cyber Security Advisor I am called on to consult on many IT projects across the various operating companies that comprise FedEx. I am the team leader for the Network Security team that is responsible for implementing micro-segmentation, security analytics, identity services, and Wifi intrusion prevention among other security platforms and initiatives. I currently hold active ISC2 CISSP and GIAC GSEC certifications and have been a guest speaker on network and cloud security at various conferences including Proofpoint Connect, VMworld, and Future:NET. My background is 30+ years of experience as a Network Security Engineer / Network Manager / Network Engineer working in the IS/IT division of various companies which span half a dozen industries and government agencies.

Frank Passman

Cloud Security TM - Tenable

Frank has spent the last 9 years with Tenable serving as a trusted advisor to organizations focusing on Proactive Security by helping to harden customer environments and making them more resilient to attack. In his current role, he is focused on identity centric cloud security to provide context and reduce exposures across the modern day attack surface.

Harish Kashyap

Founder & CEO - Pandita AI , AI Instructor - Caltech CTME

Harish Kashyap is an entrepreneur and a seasoned expert in machine learning, robotics, big data, generative AI, and signal processing. He has over a decade of experience as a researcher across various industries, including Amazon Robotics, KLA Tencor, and BBN Technologies. Harish’s career highlights include leading the development of AI-driven algorithms that interact with robotic systems, which resulted in multiple patents. He has founded two companies, Mysuru Consulting Group (MCG) and Pandita AI, in the areas of applied artificial intelligence, where he has led teams in solving several problems for customers involving big data and AI. Harish has excelled in his professional career and made significant contributions to AI learning. As an instructor, he authored the State University of New York’s AI curriculum and taught AI at Stanford University. His role as a Subject Matter Expert for MIT’s Horizon initiative, where he contributes to AI vision statements and articles, further demonstrates his commitment to educating others about advanced technologies. Harish holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, India.

Helen Gu

Founder, CEO, & Chief Scientist - InsightFinder

Helen Gu is a leading expert in the field of distributed systems and predictive analytics. She is also Professor at North Carolina State University and leads a research group supported by over $4.2 million research grants from NSF, NSA, ARO, Google, IBM and Credit Suisse. She published more than 80 research papers and has filed 11 patents (10 of them have been issued). Helen was on sabbatical at Google as a Visiting Scientist in 2015. She also worked at IBM T. J. Watson research center as a Research Staff Member in 2004-2007 working on the IBM stream processing system. Helen Gu received her PhD in CS from UIUC in 2004 and BS in CS from Peking University in 1999. Her work has been widely reported by presses including NSF research highlights, Communications of ACM, and The Register, and won several best paper awards from prestigious International conferences including 10-year best paper award from prestigious ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing on her innovative work on predictive auto-scaling in cloud.

James Beeson

Acting Chief Information Security Officer - Pfizer

James Beeson is the former Chief Information Security Office at Cigna (retired). He was responsible for all aspects of cyber security and digital information protection for Cigna globally. James also had a robust 20-year career working for General Electric in various security and technology leadership positions. He has an MBA in Finance from Southern Methodist University – Cox School of Business and a BBA in Business from Amberton University.

James Feger

SVP Product Segments - Lumen

James Feger is an accomplished leader recognized for expediting business growth and enhancing customer experience through technology transformation and technical team optimization. With a keen focus on business innovation and competitive advantage, James adeptly drives strategic initiatives and secures these achievements by emphasizing security, operational excellence, and comprehensive business continuity plans. His success is driven and proven by his strategic and tactical acumen, talent for building and inspiring high-performance teams, and capacity to shift  company culture and generate alignment. James currently serves as the SVP pf Product Segments at Lumen Technologies. Prior to this, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Speed cast. At F5, James held significant roles including Senior Vice President and General Manager - Service Providers, and Vice President and General Manager - Service Providers. James's career at CenturyLink was marked by several key positions such as Vice President - Network Virtualization, Vice President Technology Operations, Vice President Infrastructure Support, Interim Chief Technology Officer, Vice President - Network Strategy & Development, and Director - IP & Ethernet Technologies. He also contributed to Arbor Networks, the security division of NETSCOUT, as a Customer Advisory Board Member. Earlier in his career, James was the Director - IP Engineering at CenturyTel and worked as a Network Analyst at AT&T. He started his career as a Member Technical Staff at Core Express. James’s extensive experience across various senior roles highlights his dedication to fostering technological advancement and operational excellence in the organizations he serves.

Jason Campagna

Senior Director, AI Practice Strategy - World Wide Technology

Jason Campagna is an entrepreneurial technologist with invested experience and success with transformation across cloud, devops, and automation. He is currently directing World Wide Technology, Inc’s solution strategy efforts for multicloud and data center. Since 2001, Jason has been involved in the foundation and evolution of datacenter architectural practices focused on cloud service strategy and automated delivery. Jason has a proven track record for tackling the persistent and fundamental challenge of managing change around cloud and automation technologies on both technological and corporate levels. Jason’s teams are focused on diversity of perspective and thinking to allow for greater innovation, which also allows adapting quickly to a fast paced marketplace.

Jason Lewkowicz

Managing Director, Technology Consulting - EY

Mr. Lewkowicz is part of EY’s Technology Consulting Service Line focused on the Retail vertical. With more than 25 years of experience managing, leading and transforming complex global programs, he works to partner with EY’s clients by advising, accelerating and running their programs. Prior to his role at EY, Lewkowicz served as Executive Vice President and Chief Services Officer for Optiv. He was accountable for a global organization of more than 1,600 employees serving a wide variety of client challenges. He also was responsible for Optiv’s India business, Partners & Alliances, and was the Client Advisory Board chair. Prior to Optiv, Lewkowicz was the chief information security officer (CISO) for Cognizant Technology Services supporting their global business, including more than 50 acquisitions. Lewkowicz joined in 2020 as the pandemic was ramping up and was instrumental in navigating the firm through its Maze breach which included a full rebuild and recovery of the enterprise IT systems. Prior to his role at Cognizant, Lewkowicz was a deputy CISO at Accenture where he managed a global team of more than 100 people operating across seven countries. His primary responsibilities included cyber response, forensic investigations including e-discovery, data loss prevention (DLP), threat hunting, red team exercises, cyber threat intelligence and cyber metrics and automation. Lewkowicz developed Accenture’s cyber response program and all functions within it over a 17-year period. During his tenure, he was also instrumental in the creation of Accenture’s overall information security program. Lewkowicz holds certifications from ISACA, ISC2 and Open Text/Guidance Software. He has presented at industry-recognized conferences and local law enforcement information sessions over the past 10 years. He has served on advisory boards for Symantec, McAfee, Seculert, Digital Shadows, FireEye/Mandiant, ArmorBlox and Immersive Labs. He received his undergraduate degree from DePaul University in Chicago.

Joe DePalo

Chief Platform Officer - Netskope

Joe DePalo leads the platform engineering organization at Netskope and is responsible for the design, build, and operations of the current and future generations of the Netskope infrastructure and platform. Prior to joining Netskope, Joe was the global head of internet services for Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he was responsible for the AWS Global Network and the Amazon carrier strategy. Prior to AWS, he was SVP of operations and engineering at Limelight Networks. There, he and his team built the second-largest content delivery network in the world.

Joe Skorupa

CXO Advisor - Netskope, Former Distinguished Gartner Analyst - Gartner

Joe Skorupa is a former Gartner Research VP/Distinguished Analyst. He continues to advise senior leaders at technology and service providers on strategic matters such as product plans, go-to-market/positioning, partnerships and M&A. His area of focus is disruptive market forces, whether technology, business model or broader geopolitical, economic or social factors. Joe, along with Neil MacDonald, lead Gartner’s research on the transformation of the Network Security and SD-WAN markets into a new, combined $28B market – the Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE. Joe has more than 40 years of experience in enterprise, service provider and storage networking. He has experience working in global enterprises and in early-stage startups, holding a variety of engineering, marketing and analyst roles at companies such as FORE Systems, Motorola, Indiana University, RHK and Gartner. He is a Life Member of IEEE Member and was a member of 802.3 Ethernet committee for more than eight years and chaired the 802.3 Network Management Task Force for four years.

John Chambers

Chairman Emeritus - Cisco, Founder & CEO - JC2 Ventures

John Chambers is the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures. In his role, Chambers focuses on helping disruptive startups from around the world build and scale, while also promoting the broader development of startup nations and a startup world. He invests in companies across categories and geographies that are leading market transitions, such as AMD Pensando, ASAPP, Aspire Food Group, Balbix, BigSpring, Bloom Energy, Dedrone, Denim, Lilac, Nile, OpenGov, Parkour SC, Pindrop, Privoro, Quantum Metric, Rubrik, Safe Security, SparkCognition, Sprinklr, Uniphore, and Virsec. He serves on the Board of Directors for Bloom Energy, OpenGov, Pindrop, Quantum Metric, Sprinklr, and Uniphore. In addition to investing in and mentoring startups, Chambers is focused on promoting entrepreneurship, gender equality, and accelerating overall new business creation around the world, as he believes that startups will be the core driver of economic growth and job creation in the Digital Age. He was appointed Global Ambassador of the French Tech by President Emmanuel Macron of France. Chambers is also the Chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). He will work closely with business and government leaders in France, India and the U.S. to create meaningful opportunities that have the power to change the lives of citizens. Prior to founding JC2 Ventures in January 2018, Chambers served as CEO, Chairman and Executive Chairman at Cisco Systems. During his 25+ years at Cisco, he helped grow the company from $70 million when he joined in 1991, to $1.2 billion when he became CEO in 1995, to $47 billion when he stepped down as CEO in 2015. As Executive Chairman, a position Chambers held until December 2017, he led the Board of Directors and provided counsel to the CEO and leadership team on strategy, digital transformation and strategic partnerships. John also spearheaded the creation and development of Cisco’s country digitization program, where he partnered with government leaders across the world to harness the power of technology to create economic opportunities.

Josh Kindiger

President & COO - Grokstream

Josh Kindiger has been a successful technology executive for over two decades. As a veteran entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience selling solutions to managed service providers, communication service providers, and large enterprises, Josh has established a reputation for developing fledgling companies in competitive growth markets. He is an ambitious leader with a charismatic, candid approach to solving problems and working with customers. Today, he’s focused on helping companies solve the defining challenge of IT and Network Operations: the noise problem. He accomplishes this as President and Chief Operating Officer of Grokstream, the industry’s most comprehensive AIOps solution. In these roles, he is responsible for Sales and Operations, overseeing the development and rollout of Grok AIOps—including end to end management in all markets. Prior to forming Grokstream, Josh co-founded and served as Vice President of Sales at Resolve Systems, a pioneer in IT Process Automation. He managed corporate strategy, sales operations, and customer success, supervising several strategic divestitures and coordinating multiple investment rounds. In addition to his over 16 years spent at Resolve, Josh has also launched multiple start-ups, administered them through successful acquisitions, and held management roles with several Fortune 500 companies. Josh is married and the father of four (mostly grown!) children. He lives in Prosper, Texas, and is an ardent gardener, movie-watcher and Crossfitter. He earned an MBA from Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, and a Bachelor of Business Administration with a focus on Marketing and Finance from the University of North Texas.

Junhong Liu

Network Automation Architect - Citi

Junhong Liu is the Network Automation Architect at Citi, where he oversees the architecture, technology, and innovation of emerging technologies. His key areas of interest include network automation, network segmentation, policy-as-code, and integrating AI into network systems. Before joining Citi, Junhong held various technology and leadership roles at Ericsson, Nokia, and Cisco, including positions in development, architecture, and open source package owner. Junhong holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University in China.

Kait Miller

Business Development Manager, Workforce AI - World Wide Technology

Kait has accumulated more than 15 years of experience in technology, primarily focusing on delivering concrete business outcomes and assisting clients in achieving their objectives. Her background encompasses operations, project management, solution design, digital transformation, and business development, providing her with a comprehensive skill set. In her current role as a Business Development Manager, Kait specializes in Workforce AI at WWT. She aims to identify growth opportunities and partnerships in this field, leveraging WWT’s capabilities around worker productivity solutions. These tools enhance productivity, efficiency, and innovation by integrating AI into everyday business processes. Kait’s varied professional journey has equipped her with a distinctive perspective, enabling her to craft innovative and effective solutions. She is deeply committed to helping clients leverage workforce AI technology to overcome their current challenges and those that lie ahead. As a Business Development Manager, she builds and nurtures relationships with clients, ensuring a deep understanding of their needs and tailoring technology solutions to meet them.

Kevin Deierling

Senior Vice President, Networking - Nvidia

Kevin is the senior vice president of Networking at NVIDIA, joining from Mellanox Technologies where he was senior vice president of Marketing. He has been a founder or senior executive at five startups that have achieved positive outcomes. Combining both technical and business expertise, Deierling has variously served as the chief officer of technology, architecture, and marketing at these companies, where he led the development of strategy and products across a broad range of disciplines including networking, security, cloud, big data, virtualization, storage, smart energy, and DNA sequencing. Deierling has contributed to multiple technology standards and has over 25 patents in areas including wireless communications, error correction, security, video compression, and DNA sequencing. He is a contributing author of a text on BiCmos design. Kevin holds a BA in Solid State Physics from UC Berkeley.

Khurram Khani

VP of Customer Success - Aviz Networks

Khurram Khani is a technology leader with 20yrs of experience in Data Networking, Cloud and Open Source. His leadership in large-scale data center transformations demonstrates his ability to navigate complex technical environments and drive successful implementations. Currently, he is at the helm of Customer Success at Aviz, where he plays a crucial role in making SONiC/ Open Networking and generative AI technologies accessible to a broad audience.

Kun Zhu

Vice President, Data & AI / Chief Data Scientist - NCR Voyix

Kun Zhu is a data and AI executive driving enterprise transformation through cutting-edge analytics, responsible AI adoption, and scalable data infrastructure. As the founder of NCR Voyix’s Data & AI organization, they lead a 120-person team delivering AI-powered solutions—from agentic automation (generating $XM+ in savings) to enterprise knowledge platforms like ask.ncrvoyix.com. A champion of ethical AI, they established the company’s AI Council and Responsible AI Framework, ensuring innovation aligns with compliance and cross-functional collaboration. With a passion for storytelling, Kun translates complex technical insights into strategic business value, embedding data-driven decision-making across global operations. Their work spans service optimization, payments, retail, and digital banking, scaling data science from scratch into a core competitive advantage.

Mark Harris

Global Head of Marketing - Accton Technology

Infrastructure industry veteran with vast hands-on experience across all aspects of digital infrastructure. Recognized for building and managing high-performing sales, business development, channel and marketing teams, fostering business growth and delivering impactful programs. Relationship builder. Previously held executive-level positions with Digital, Extreme Networks, Citrix, Vertiv, Legrand, Uptime Institute and NetBrain.

Mark Rushing

Managing Director - Head of Security Operations and Threat Management Technology - Citi

As the head of Citi’s Security Operations and Threat Management Technology team, I manage a team of cybersecurity engineers that enable and support Citi’s Cyber Security Operations with innovative technology services, advanced controls, and automated containment and remediation for advanced threats.

Matt Roman

Sr. Director of Product and Solution Marketing, Platform Solutions - Celestica

Matt is the Sr. Director of Product and Solution Marketing in Celestica’s Platform Solutions group, where he leads portfolio strategy and go-to-market. Matt is a 25-year+ veteran in the IT industry with extensive experience in cloud, enterprise, and telecom. Matt previously held senior Product Management and Marketing roles at Edgecore Networks, Extreme Networks, and Enablence Technologies.

Murali Gandluru

Vice President, Product Management Data Center Networking - Cisco

Murali Gandluru is the Vice President, Product Management Data Center Networking at Cisco. Prior to re-joining Cisco, Murali was the Vice President of Strategy (Product & GTM) for Software Networking Business Unit in the IBM Software group where he was presently responsible for delivering innovative application-centric, hybrid/multi-cloud networking products around automation, orchestration, observability, and connectivity. Murali is a product executive with over 22 years of experience in building multiple billion-dollar product-line businesses in the infrastructure space spanning both public companies and startups, including: Arrcus, DuploCloud, Cisco: Nexus/ACI, ASR, and at Oracle. At Arrcus, he served as VP of Product Management/Marketing, a venture-backed firm that he helped launch out of stealth through Series A/B/C with a disruptive software-powered, open multi-domain networking solutions. He also served as Sr. Director of Product Mgmt. at Cisco Systems following the acquisition of the pioneering Software Defined Networking (SDN) startup Insieme Networks. Murali has a MS in Computer Science from The Ohio State University and a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Varanasi. He is an alumnus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Ignite! startup program. In his spare time, Murali maintains a keen interest in soccer, music and theatre.

Nani McDaniel

Advisor, GES GS&A AI Sales - World Wide Technology

As an AI Advisor at WWT, Nani works closely with clients by presenting the organization’s core AI capabilities and showcasing impactful AI projects and success stories. Nani helps accelerate organizations’ AI journeys by sharing insights from WWT’s own AI initiatives and guiding clients through the process of developing custom AI strategies and roadmaps. By facilitating workshops and ideation sessions, Nani collaborates with customers to align their goals and drive successful outcomes. Nani is passionate about helping organizations unlock their full potential through AI and navigate the evolving technological landscape.

Nathalie Reagins

Director, Technical Sales Engineering - Vertiv

With over 20 years at Vertiv in the data center space, Nathalie Reagins leads the North American technical sales team driving IT infrastructure rack solutions that power enterprise AI, edge computing, and data center innovation. Her global experience and engineering expertise allow her team to translate complex infrastructure challenges when deploying AI workloads into pre-engineered purpose-built rack solutions, making them a trusted voice on the intersection of AI, infrastructure, and customer-driven design.

Nick Lippis

Co-Founder and Co-Chairman - ONUG

Nick Lippis is an authority on corporate computer networking. He has designed some for the largest computer networks in the world. He has advised many Global 2000 firms on network strategy, architecture, equipment, services and implementation including Hughes Aerospace, Barclays Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Eastman Kodak Company, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Liberty Mutual, Schering-Plough, Sprint, WorldCom, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and a wide range of other equipment suppliers and service providers. Mr. Lippis is uniquely positioned to comment, analyze and observe computer networking industry trends and developments.

Peter Campbell

Sr. Director, Cloud Security - The Cigna Group

Peter Campbell is Senior Director of Cloud Security at The Cigna Group—a Fortune 100 global health leader—where he architects and operationalizes security across cloud, network, and IoT environments (AWS, Azure, OCI, hybrid). A recognized ONUG speaker and Fellow (and former chair of its Automated Cloud Governance working group), he spearheads strategic policy-as-code governance frameworks and pioneers AI-driven threat detection and automated response. Peter holds CEH, CISSP, CCSP, GICSP, GCSA, GRID, GCFA, and Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert certifications.

Phil Tee

EVP & Head AI Innovations - Zscaler, Co-Chair - AI Networking Summit

Phil Tee is the EVP & Head of AI Innovations at Zscaler and the former CEO and co-founder of Moogsoft, the pioneer and leading provider of artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps). Phil is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, and expert in IT service assurance — a category he was instrumental in shaping through his invention of Netcool (acquired by IBM) nearly 25 years ago. Within 5 years of graduating from Sussex, he co-founded Omnibus Transport Technologies Limited (OTT) to build and market Netcool/Omnibus. Since then, Phil has led numerous companies to successful exits, including RiverSoft (IPO) and Njini (acquired by Riverbed). More recently at Moogsoft that he co-founded in 2011, he invented the technology that supports over 200 customers worldwide, including SAP, American Airlines, Yahoo!, Verizon, Outsystems, BNYM and HCL Technologies. Moogsoft has 72 patents and more than two dozen peer reviewed publications covering the technology, many of them authored or co-authored by Phil. Phil holds a PhD in Informatics and is also a Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence.

Rajarshi Purkayastha

Vice President - Tata Communications

Rajarshi (Raj) has 21+ years of experience driving Pre-Sales, business development, marketing & delivery leading to revenue and profitability growth for companies that he worked for in Enterprises, international telecoms & OTT sector across both mature and emerging markets. He has led multicultural teams and managed customers across the globe. He has held multiple leadership roles at Tata Communications, across multiple roles and regions enabling growth for the company. These positions ensured leadership of Tata Communications business across three varied business lines, Global Carrier Solutions, Enterprise Solutions and OTTs, achieving revenue and profitability growth annually over my tenure. He was entrusted with launching new service models and developing new markets, while ensuring improved employee engagement scores, well above company benchmarks. His most recent role is to lead Pre-Sales (Sales Engineers) for Amercia’s market for Tata Communications. In this role, he works with large Enterprise customers on their growth strategy by co-creating, collaborating, and delivering on their innovation road map, with Tata Communications as a strategic partner. Prior to this role, he led India Pre Sales and prior to that he was Global Head of Product Marketing where he led a global team to convert technical products into stories and brochures which can connect with customers and employees.

Ray Mota

CEO and Principal Analyst - ACG Research

Ray Mota, Ph.D., responsible for the Carrier Strategy & Infrastructure ServicesandSD-WAN Service, brings a talent for complex technical and critical thinking and provides strategic direction, sharp analysis, and expert advice on networking issues, specializing in design, implementation, and troubleshooting. Prior to founding ACG Research Dr. Mota worked for Aberdeen Group, ManageAll, Micros-To-Mainframes, Advanced Technology Group, Eastman Kodak and the IRS. As a CTO, he designed, implemented and supported complex trading floor systems and large WAN Frame Relay and ATM networks. He also provided training on Sniffer, HP Advisor protocol analysis tools, and MPLS architectures. Ray has also developed cloud applications and has a software patent attributed to him. Ray is recognized as an expert in topics relating to networks, managed services, operational efficiency, and business modeling. He has been the keynote speaker for global telecom events. His insightful commentaries and analyses have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Telecom Magazine, MSNBC, CNN Money, Forbes, Fortune, Businessweek, NY Times, SF Chronicle, and other industry publications. On the personal side, Ray holds 13 amateur baseball World Series titles and has coached at the Arizona Diamondback Training Center and the Phoenix Prospectors a professional baseball team which won the championship on 2012 & 2013. His successful baseball career inspired him to write Maximum Ability, (Lulu.Com, 2005), which focuses on mind power and using the cognitive abilities involved in sports to achieve excellence in not only the athletic arena but also in business fields and in other aspects of a person’s life. Ray donates 100 percent of the proceeds to Motavation Group, which organizes sporting events for sick children, (http://www.lulu.com/content/110670). In October 2000, HispanicBusiness.com selected Ray, with other notables Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs and Alex Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers, as one of the top 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States.

Ritesh Agrawal

VP, Product Management - Zscaler

Ritesh Agrawal is a tech entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Airgap Networks, a cybersecurity company that specializes in protecting critical infrastructure. He is an expert in the field of network security with a deep understanding of the challenges faced by organizations in protecting their critical assets from cyberattacks. Under Ritesh’s leadership, Airgap Networks has quickly become a leading player in the cybersecurity industry. The company has been recognized for its innovative technology and has received numerous awards and accolades. Airgap Networks was acquired by Zscaler in April 2024 and, Airgap is the foundation for Zscaler’s Zero Trust Branch initiative. Ritesh now leads Zscaler’s Zero Trust Branch strategy and execution. Ritesh is a respected thought leader in the industry and frequently speaks at conferences and events on topics related to networking and cybersecurity.

Roy Chua

Founder and Principal - AvidThink

Roy Chua is founder and principal at AvidThink, an independent research and advisory service formed in 2018 out of SDxCentral’s research arm. Roy was previously co-founder at SDxCentral where he ran both the research and product teams. Roy was formerly a management consultant working with both Fortune 500 and startup technology companies on go-to-market and product consulting. As an early proponent of the software-defined infrastructure movement, Roy is a frequent speaker at events in the telco and cloud space and a regular contributor to leading technology publications. A graduate of UC Berkeley’s electrical engineering and computer science program and MIT’s Sloan School of Business, Roy has 20+ years of experience in telco and enterprise cloud computing, networking and security, including founding several Silicon Valley startups.

Sean Finnerty

Associate Vice President of Cloud and Infrastructure Technology - Merck and Co., Inc.

Sean is the Associate Vice President of Cloud and Infrastructure Technology at Merck and Co., Inc. He has more than 20+ years of experience in the technology industry spanning infrastructure, cyber security, and cloud. Sean is currently responsible for leading Merck’s overall cloud strategy and implementation of foundational technologies and services to enable cloud adoption. Merck is currently undertaking a comprehensive IT Transformation program, leveraging cloud migrations as a catalyst to drive significant operating model and ways of working changes into the organization. Prior to this role, Sean has also worked at REAN Cloud, a Virginia-based technology startup, as their Executive Director where he was responsible for leading the Enterprise Health & Life Sciences business along with driving company-wide Information Security, Compliance, and Quality initiatives. Sean is recognized within the industry for introducing disruptive, cutting-edge cloud thinking into the highly regulated Life Sciences and computing landscape. Sean has previously served as a member of the AWS customer advisory board and was a core member of the AWS GxP working group.

Stefan Bokaie

CTO - Dorado Software

Stefan is a growth-focused and dynamic executive with extensive experience in leading all facets of technical operations. Stefan is currently serving as CTO of Dorado Software, a leading provider of Fabric Orchestration and Management for Enterprise, Cloud and Telco. Stefan’s prior experience includes Vice President of Networking at Dell Technologies where he spearheaded introduction of SONiC in support of disaggregated Open Networking in partnership with Microsoft and Broadcom.

Stephen Collins

ONUG CTO - ONUG

Stephen Collins is Principal Consultant at 1024tm, a boutique consulting firm that serves leading-edge networking, telecom and cloud infrastructure companies across multiple segments of the enterprise IT and service provider markets. His clients range from startups to billion-dollar businesses, with projects typically involving a mix of business and product strategy, go-to-market planning, thought leadership, product marketing, business development and sales enablement. Stephen has a proven track record of successfully introducing innovative products into highly competitive, rapidly growing markets, and he brings clients four decades of operational experience in a wide range of executive, product management, engineering, consulting, industry analyst and advisory roles, working primarily with communications equipment manufacturers and telecom software vendors. In recent years, as a result of numerous client engagements, Stephen has developed a specialization in network visibility, Big Data analytics, full-stack observability and the application of AI and machine learning to drive network automation and service orchestration in complex, mission-critical service provider and enterprise IT infrastructure. He has applied this expertise to a diverse range of projects in 5G network analytics (NWDAF), Open RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) xApps and rApps, SD-WAN infrastructure, Internet visibility and cloud-native infrastructure observability. Stephen was hired out of college by AT&T Bell Labs, where he worked in software development on T-carrier data communications systems. Leaving in search of a startup opportunity, he joined multi-protocol router pioneer Wellfleet Communications as a founding engineer, where he spent a hyperactive decade in the rapid expansion of the global internetworking market. Stephen then went on to co-found Spring Tide Networks, which developed an innovative IP service switch for service provider networks, culminating in an acquisition by Lucent Technologies for $1.5 billion. As VP of marketing at Sonus Networks and later at Acme Packet, Stephen gained experience in service provider VoIP. At Tatara Systems, he was active in the formative years of the small cells market. At Active Broadband Networks, he was involved in applying software-defined networking to the development of a Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) router based on a white box switching platform. Stephen has been a frequent blog contributor and speaker at industry conferences, and he has authored numerous articles for industry trade publications. He holds an M.S. in Computer, Information and Control engineering from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Stu Stout

Director of Systems Engineering - Highway 9 Networks

Stu Stout is a networking and mobility technical professional with 20+ years of experience in systems engineering, network design and implementation. Stu has deep understanding and operational experience with converged wired / wireless networks, private 4G/5G mobile networks, network security, and security for DevSecOps teams.

Suresh Katukam

Co-founder & Chief Product Officer - Nile

Suresh Katukam is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Nile, where he is leading the transformation of enterprise networking through AI-powered, autonomous services. With a career spanning over 25 years, Suresh has worked across engineering, product management, business development, and M&A—always focused on bringing simplicity, intelligence, and automation to complex systems. Prior to Nile, Suresh held leadership and technical roles at companies including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Aruba Networks (an HPE company), Dell Technologies, and Cisco. His experience spans both large-scale enterprise platforms and fast-paced innovation environments. Suresh holds more than 40 patents and has published research papers in Artificial Intelligence. He earned his Master’s degree in Computer Science from Arizona State University, where he specialized in AI, and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. At ONUG 2025, Suresh will share his perspective on what it takes to deliver true autonomous networks—highlighting the need for a new foundation built on deep instrumentation, pervasive telemetry, and a shift from managing products to consuming outcomes.

Tim Schreyack

Director of Strategic Transformation - Network to Code

Tim’s career began as a network engineer for a regional ISP, where he developed a strong foundation in networking. His journey then led him to work on large-scale cloud provider networks, where he discovered the potential of Network Automation. Leveraging his extensive experience, Tim now advises clients on how automation can significantly enhance both the business and technical dimensions of their networks, driving efficiency and innovation.

Todd Hathaway

Global Head of AI Security & Cyber Innovation - World Wide Technology

Todd is the Global Head of AI and Cyber Security for WWT’s Global Cyber practice. In this role, Todd leverages his 25+ years of industry expertise to drive innovative security solutions. His diverse experience spans cybersecurity, networking, and software/hardware industries, with past roles at F5, HPE, Brocade, Juniper, KeyBank, and BankOne (now JPMC). As a seasoned security professional, Todd earned the CISSP certification (#39288) back in 2002. He joined WWT in 2020, working with global financial organizations on App/API Security and emerging security topics. In 2023, he was selected to join the AI Security practice, focusing on the intersection of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Todd excels at deciphering complex technical solutions and delivering business-focused outcomes securely. He is passionate about emerging technology trends and their applications to cybersecurity. Todd is a proud graduate of Texas A&M University where was a member of the Corps of Cadets. He is also a veteran of the Army National Guard. When not traveling to help customers design innovative security solutions, he calls home near Columbus, OH in rural Centerburg with his wife and three daughters. He is an avid SEC sports fan, enjoys traveling, playing poker, bourbon collecting and rural life.

Trey Moczygemba

Sr. Cloud Product Manager - cPacket

Trey Moczygemba, Senior Product Manager at cPacket, is a seasoned Product Management professional with over a decade of experience in the software development space. Trey is responsible for AI, Cloud, and software solutions at cPacket. cPacket provides hybrid network observability solutions for enterprise and Fortune 500 companies, with a focus on packet broker, packet capture, and network analytics solutions. In his role, Trey provides ownership, leadership and defines the strategy for cPacket’s hybrid cloud network solutions. Prior to cPacket, Trey has been involved in developing software solutions in various fields, including telecom, fintech, cybersecurity, and enterprise network solutions, among other industries. Trey excels in leading domestic and international development teams while partnering with executive leadership teams to achieve innovative, forward- thinking outcomes in the IT initiatives in which he is involved. As a speaker, Trey will share insights on how cPacket can provide the most relevant and impactful network insights leveraging packet-based telemetry, which is the highest fidelity format of network telemetry. Trey earned a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Texas Tech University and currently resides in San Antonio, Texas.

Vishal Shukla

CEO - Aviz

Vishal has 20+ years of experience in the IT Networking Industry. Prior to founding Aviz, Vishal held various leadership roles at Nvidia/Mellanox, IBM, BNT, Cisco, and Nortel Networks. He holds 30+ patents in the field of Software-defined Networking (SDN), IoT, Cloud Orchestration & Automation, and Performance Monitoring areas. He has authored and published several books on SDN, OpenFlow, and OpenStack technologies. Vishal holds an MBA from Duke University and a Bachelor’s in Engineering from India.

Jason Teske

AI/ML Researcher - George Washington University

Certified Enterprise Cloud Architect focused on AI/ML global regulatory compliance and risk management in the aerospace, commercial, defense, medical, photonic, and software industries. Over twenty years of agile architecture development and evolution of systems that create competitive advantage and disrupt markets.

Kevin Flook

Technical Partner Manager - Nile

Kevin Flook is a highly experienced Technical Partner Manager at Nile, bringing four decades of deep expertise in the IT networking industry. In his nearly four years with Nile, Kevin has been instrumental in driving partner growth through strategic recruitment and seamless onboarding onto the Nile solution. His extensive background includes 19 years at Cisco and prior roles at Fortinet, among others. Beyond his professional endeavors in advocating for Nile’s vision, Kevin enjoys spending time with his wife, their six children, and five grandchildren.

Jeremy Donahue

Enterprise Security Engineer - Tenable

Jeremy Donohue has nearly 10 years of cyber risk reduction expertise, both on the customer side and as a vendor. He currently holds an Enterprise Security Engineer position at Tenable where he helps some of North America’s largest organizations reduce cyber risk across various attack surfaces. Before joining Tenable 3 years ago, he ran several large-scale vulnerability management programs across various sectors including higher education and healthcare. He has a bachelor’s degree in Cyber Defense from Northern Michigan University.

Tony Farinacci

Managing Director, CTO, CISO, Distinguished Architect - JPMorgan Chase (retired), CTO - Codesealer

Tony Farinacci recently retired from JPMorgan Chase after 22 years of service in executive leadership roles including CTO – Global Network Services, End-User Services, CISO – Global Technology Infrastructure, and Distinguished Architect – Cybersecurity Architecture. His first 13 years were providing global oversight of JPMorgan Chase’s Voice & Data Network, and Perimeter Security with the last 9 years in Cybersecurity focused on Infrastructure and Cloud Security, Threat Modeling, Risk Assessment, Policy as Code, and Zero Trust. Previous to JPMorgan Chase, Tony spent 9 years at KeyCorp in various executive leadership roles including oversight of Voice & Data Networks, Enterprise Architecture, Distributed Computing, and the Enterprise Command Center. Tony started his career at General Electric where he spent 7 years in various technical leadership roles including Senior Architect & Systems Programmer (Mainframe, UNIX, VAX, LAN), Telecommunications and Networking. Tony earned his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree at Cleveland State University. He currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida with his wife.

Neil Anderson

VP, Cloud, Infrastructure, and AI Solutions - World Wide Technology

Neil Anderson has over 30 years of experience in software development and IT solutions. At WWT Neil is an VP in our Global Solutions and Architecture team, with responsibility for over $15B in WWT’s solutions portfolio across AI, Cloud, Networking, Security, Data Center, and Automation. Neil advises many large organizations on their global architecture and IT strategy across Global Enterprise, Global Service Provider, and Public Sector.