Connecting and Inspiring Leaders in Optical Communications –
Executive Forum 2012
Speaker Profiles
Paul Baniewicz, Vice President, Optics – North America Region, Alcatel-Lucent
Paul Baniewicz currently manages the optical competency center for Alcatel-Lucent North America. With this role, he is responsible for business development and network solution activities for Alcatel-Lucent's Optics Division. During the first half of his 25 year career with Alcatel, Baniewicz focused on research and development holding various engineering and senior management positions in the development of Alcatel's access products and market leading digital cross-connect programs. More recently, Baniewicz was responsible for Alcatel's North American network and product strategy organization where he defined product direction and investments for the optical product portfolio. He holds patents in distributed mesh-based restoration algorithms. Baniewicz has a BS in electrical engineering / computer science from Marquette University.
Joseph Berthold, Vice President, Network Architecture, Office of the CTO, Ciena
Joseph Berthold is Vice President, Network Architecture at Ciena, where he has worked since 1997. There he contributes to the understanding of future network architecture directions, the definition of CIENA's networking products, and is responsible for coordination of CIENA's work in industry standards. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. He is a member of the Board of Directors of ATIS (Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions). He has been a long term contributor to OFC/NFOEC and currently supports its long range planning activity. Prior to Ciena Berthold held various research and development positions at Bell Labs and Bellcore from 1977-1997. He received a PhD in Physics from Brown University in 1976, and did postdoctoral research at Cornell University from 1975-1977.
Daniel Blumenthal, Director, Terabit Optical Ethernet Center (TOEC) and Professor, ECE, University of California at Santa Barbara
Daniel J. Blumenthal is Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Blumenthal is Director of the Terabit Optical Ethernet Center (TOEC). He serves on the Board of Directors for National LambdaRail and the Internet2 Architecture Advisory Council. He is a co-founder of Calient Networks and Packet Photonics, Inc. Blumenthal's research interests are in optical communications, photonic packet switching and all-optical networks, all-optical wavelength conversion and regeneration, ultra-fast communications, InP Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICS) and nanophotonic device technologies. He has authored or co-authored more than 350 papers, holds 7 patents and is co-author of Tunable Laser Diodes and Related Optical Sources (IEEE–Wiley, 2005). Blumenthal is a Fellow of the IEEE and Fellow of the OSA. He is recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House, a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, and a Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program Award.
Harry Bosco, Chairman and CEO, Opnext
Harry Bosco has a rich background in fiber optic technology and corporate leadership. Before joining Opnext in September of 2000, he was group president of optical networking at Lucent Technologies and also served there as chief technical officer for consumer products, vice president of the wired technology and initial production center, president of the network systems broadband networking unit, chief operating officer for the optical networking group, and chief technical officer for the service provider networks. During his distinguished thirty-five year tenure, Bosco led the development of Lucent's core data networking architecture, helped to put together the company's broadband networking strategy, and deployed Lucent's optical networking product portfolio.
Xiangdong Cao, CEO and Co-Founder, Hongtuo New Technologies
Xiangdong Cao is the CEO and co-founder of Hongtuo New Technologies, where he leads the strategy and technology development. Prior to this role, he served as Chief System Architect at T-Networks from 2001-2002, responsible for system applications of 40G InP modulators. Cao was the co-founder and Chief Scientist of Qtera, and was responsible for design and development of ultra-long haul DWDM system. Prior to co-founding Qtera, he was DMTS at Siemens and responsible for PMD compensation for DWDM systems. Cao obtained his Ph.D from the University of Rochester, continued his postdoc at the University of Michigan working on 100G all-optic switching.
Erik Ekudden, Vice President & Head of Group Technology Strategies, Ericsson Inc.
Erik Ekudden is Vice President, and Head of Technology Strategies, for the Ericsson group. Since 2005, he has been responsible for Ericsson's technology strategies and industry activities. He is based in San Jose, USA. Prior to assuming his current position, Mr. Ekudden held various positions within research and development in Ericsson, including research area director and vice president of standardization. He joined Ericsson in 1993, working on GSM and 3G. Ekudden holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.
Matthias Tom Frei, Founder and CEO, Micram Microelectronic GmbH
Matthias Tom Frei founded Micram in 1991 while completing his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. He has more than 20 years of entrepreneurial and senior management experience and has founded several companies in both Germany and New Zealand, engaged in a variety of technology sectors including software, microelectronics design, cloud computing and software distribution. Under Frei's leadership, these companies have achieved multi-million Euro annual revenue success. His key roles have included CEO, CFO, CTO, VP of Marketing, VP of Sales, and Director. With his visionary approach, Frei has recently turned Micram, already a successful high-speed SiGe design services company, into the now well-known creator of record-breaking VEGA ultrafast signal converters, the world's fastest ADCs and DACs.
Daryl Inniss Vice President and Practice Leader, Components Telecom, Ovum
Daryl Inniss leads Ovum's Components research, focusing optical components and physical media-dependent integrated circuits used in telecoms and datacoms networks. This research provides a comprehensive view of the products, their suppliers, and the associated technologies used. It identifies and tracks emerging opportunities, analyzes technology trends, and monitors the financial health of suppliers. The Components practice's 2011 research expands coverage into wireless and the integrated circuits needed for 4G infrastructure and devices. Prior to joining Ovum, Inniss was a technical manager at JDS Uniphase, and prior to that a technical manager at Lucent Technologies, Bell Laboratories. He has published more than 25 technical papers, presented invited papers at ECOC, OFC, FOE, and Gordon Research Conferences, and has been awarded 15 patents. Daryl was awarded a PhD in Chemistry from UCLA and an AB from Princeton University
Bikash Koley, Technical Lead & Manager, Network Architecture, Google Inc.
Bikash Koley currently leads the Network Architecture team at Google, where he is focused on network infrastructure scaling, optimization and reliability. In his current role, Koley is also responsible for creating the network technology road-map for Google. Prior to Google, Koley was the CTO of Qstreams Networks, a company he co-founded. He also spent several years at Ciena Corporation in various technical roles developing DWDM and Ethernet technologies. Koley is a frequent speaker in conferences and industry forums and is an active participant in various networking standard bodies. He received 8 patents related to various optical and networking technologies. Koley received a BTech from IIT, India; and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park, all in Electrical Engineering.
Donn Lee, Senior Network Engineer, Facebook
Donn Lee is a senior network engineer at Facebook. His duties include designing networks, evaluating products, optimizing performance, and performing escalation troubleshooting. Previous to Facebook, Lee worked in Google's Network Architecture group for four years and during tremendous growth of Google's backbone, optical, and datacenter networks. While working as a consulting systems engineer at Cisco Systems (CCIE #3262) he worked on large global networks and wrote his book, Enhanced IP Services for Cisco Networks, which is published by Cisco Press. Lee holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from UCLA.
Mauro Macchi, Director Business Development - Convergent Optical and Routing Business Unit Cisco Systems
Mauro Macchi is Product Marketing Director at Cisco Systems Inc. His 20 years career in telecom industry includes Engineering and Product Management roles in Pirelli, Cisco and Juniper Networks.
Macchi expertise is Layer 1-3 network convergence with deep knowledge of WDM, IP/MPLS and OTN technologies. Previously in Cisco he was managing the DWDM system architecture team.
He has re-joined Cisco in May 2011 to lead packet optical solutions business development for EMEA market.
Mohamed Madkour, Head of Wireless Product Line Marketing, Huawei Technologies USA
Mohamed Madkour is the head of Wireless Product Line Marketing organization at Huawei Technologies USA. His team responsibility is architecting and promoting wireless product solutions for current and future technologies focusing on 4G and mobile broadband applications. Madkour is a thought leader in the wireless communications space with more than 15 years of experience. Prior to joining Huawei, Madkour held a number of positions in the telecommunications industry as well as academia including Ericsson; Artel; SMU; and Alexandria University. Madkour earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University. He holds two patents in spread spectrum technology. He is the author or co-author of several papers in IEEE journals and international conferences.
change out the cisco speaker in the last panel.
Jerry S. Rawls, Executive Chairman, Finisar
Jerry Rawls was elected Chairman of the Board in 2006. He has also served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors for Finisar Corporation from 1989 to 2008. From 1968 to 1989, he was employed by Raychem Corporation, a materials science and engineering company. At Raychem he held various management positions including Manager of Product Marketing, National Sales Manager, General Manager of the Aerospace Products Division, and General Manager of the Interconnection Systems Division. Rawls holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University and an M.S. in Industrial Administration from the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue University. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma engineering honorary societies.
Dan Sadot, Founder and CTO, MultiPhy
Dan Sadot received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. (Summa Cum Laude) from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, all in electrical and computer engineering, in 1988, 1990, and 1994, respectively. During 1994-1995, he was a Post- Doctorate Associate in the Optical Communication Research Laboratory at the Department of Electrical Engineering of Stanford University. His Ph.D. studies were supported by the Clore scholarship, and his post-doctorate was supported by both the Fulbright and the Rothchild scholarships. In 1995, Sadot joined the ECE department at Ben Gurion University where he started a new research program in optical fiber communications. In 2001 he was appointed as Associate Professor, and since 2009 he is a full professor. Sadot's current activities include digital signal processing in optical communications, coherent detection, optical OFDM, and dynamic WDM networks. Currently, Sadot is the Chairman of the ECE Department of the Ben Gurion University. He has published more than 150 papers in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Sadot was the founder and CTO of three startup companies: TeraCross (in 1999), Xlight Photonics (in 2000), and MultiPhy (since 2007).
Prakash Sangam, Senior Manager – Technical Marketing, Qualcomm Inc.
Prakash Sangam is a senior manager in Qualcomm's Technical Marketing group, responsible for the development and communications of key messages for a variety of wireless technologies supported by Qualcomm. He spearheads the group's social media efforts and regularly contributes technology-focused blogs on Qualcomm's OnQTM Blog. His articles are published in many international magazines. Sangam joined Qualcomm in 1998 and has served in many key roles in engineering and marketing with a focus on developing markets. Prior to joining Qualcomm, he was at Ericsson, where he held a broad spectrum of business and technical roles. Prior to Ericsson, Sangam was at AT&T's Indian JV, helping them deploy some of India's early GSM networks. Sangam holds a bachelor's degree of engineering in electronics and communications from Karnatak University in India and a master's of business administration from San Diego State University.
Paul Savill, Senior Vice President, Global Core Product Management, Level 3 Communications
Paul Savill is the Senior Vice President of Global Core Product Management for Level 3 Communications. In this role he sets the strategy and leads the product management of Level 3's optical networking, private line, Ethernet, IPVPN, dark fiber, subsea and professional services. His responsibilities also incorporate pricing, product development and product financial performance. Savill has more than twenty years of experience in the telecommunications industry and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master's degree in Business Administration.
Raj Shanmugaraj, President and CEO, Acacia Communications, Inc.
Raj Shanmugaraj brings more than 25 years in telecom and communications to Acacia Communications. Prior, he was Corporate Vice President, Alcatel-Lucent, responsible for business development in a variety of market segments in the Americas Region - including Optical Core Convergence and IPTV for Tier 2 markets. Earlier, Shanmugaraj served as Alcatel-Lucent Vice President of Optics, heading up the Business Development and Marketing activities in Americas Region. He was founder and CEO of Astral Point Communications, which was acquired by Alcatel-Lucent in 2002. Additionally, Shanmugaraj has held senior executive level positions at Picturetel and Motorola and holds an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Iowa.
Natarajan 'Subu' Subrahmanyan, Managing Director, The Juda Group
Natarajan 'Subu' Subrahmanyan, CFA is a Managing Director and lead research analyst for communications equipment companies at Sanders Morris Harris Group. Subrahmanyan's research focuses on leading data and optical networking companies. He was featured on the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Street Analyst List in 2007, and was named the best up-and-comer in telecom equipment in the 2001 Institutional Investor polls. Subrahmanyan joined Sanders Morris in January 2003. Prior to joining Sanders Morris, Subrahmanyan was lead research analyst for data and optical networking companies at Goldman Sachs. He has also worked at Sutro & Co., where he covered the optical networking space and at First Union Securities prior to that. Subrahmanyan holds an MBA from the Owen School at Vanderbilt University and a B.S in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Madras University.
Kathy Tse, Director, Photonic Technology Planning, AT&T
Kathy Tse has been working on various photonic projects at AT&T for 25 years. She is currently leading a team that is responsible for the planning of new Metro and Core photonic technologies for the AT&T network. She has worked on a number of key projects including AT&T's CNI Mesh network and the ULH backbone. Tse has been involved in OFC/NFOEC in a number of roles, including leading 2 committees and planning Service Provider Summit. Tse has her BSc in Engineering from Cornell University and her PhD from Brown University.
Paul Voois, Chief Strategy Officer, ClariPhy
Paul Voois co-founded ClariPhy in 2002 and served as it's Chief Executive Officer until 2011. He previously served as CEO of 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT), a provider of voice over IP technology. Before assuming the CEO role at 8x8, he led the development of 8x8's consumer videophone product line. Voois received an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where his research focused on digital communications and signal processing. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University, summa cum laude. Voois is an inventor on 14 issued U.S. patents.
Steve West, CTO, Cyan
Steve West is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Cyan, a provider of packet-optical networking solutions for wholesale, regional and metropolitan networks. West's 30 years of product development experience includes industrial and telecom semiconductors, hardware, software and systems. His technology focus is the challenge created by the convergence of packet and optical networking. Network operators are faced with a dizzying array of new technology options, including ROADM, OTN, Ethernet, PBB, and MPLS-TP variants. The complexity of technology choice is compounded by the innovator's dilemma prioritizing investment in new packet-optical solutions versus sustaining old SONET/SDH and IP/MPLS equipment. West's mission is to develop hardware and software that tame this complexity and simplify the transition. West has B.Sc and M.Sc Electrical Engineering degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Greg Young, CEO and President, Luxtera, Inc.
Greg Young is a twenty year veteran of the semiconductor industry and has spent four years at Luxtera leading the transition of Luxtera from the industry leading pioneer of Silicon Photonics research to shipping Silicon Photonics products in volume. Young is now scaling Luxtera to service the widespread adoption of Silicon Photonics as optical transceivers are being embedded into high volume computing and networking infrastructure systems. Prior to joining Luxtera, he was Vice President and General Manager of the High Speed Ethernet Controller and HD Media PC Video business units at Broadcom. Before Broadcom, Young was at Intel where he held several engineering, marketing and leadership positions.
