Day 2: Speakers

Allan Friedman

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Allan Friedman

Prior to joining the Federal government, Friedman was a noted cybersecurity and technology policy researcher. Wearing the hats of both a technologist and a policy scholar, his work spans computer science, public policy and the social sciences, and has addressed a wide range of policy issues, from privacy to telecommunications. Friedman has over a decade of experience in cybersecurity research, with a particular focus on economic, market, and trade issues. He is the coauthor of Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2014).

His work has taken him between the technical and policy research world.  From 2014-215, he was a Research Scientist at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at George Washington University based in the Cyber Security Policy Research Institute. Before that, Friedman was a Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the research director for the Center for Technology Innovation. Prior to moving to Washington, he was Postdoctoral Fellow in the Harvard University Computer Science department, where he worked on cyber security policy, privacy-enhancing technologies and the economics of information security. Friedman was also a Fellow at the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where he worked on the Minerva Project for Cyber International Relations. He has also received fellowships from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and the Harvard Program on Networked Governance. He has a degree in Computer Science from Swarthmore College, and a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University.

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Director of Cybersecurity Initiatives
National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the US Department of Commerce.

Bob Martin

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Bob Martin

Bob Martin, a Senior Principal Engineer at the MITRE Corporation, has dedicated his career to solving some of the world’s most difficult problems in systems and software engineering. His work focuses on the interplay of risk management, cyber security, and quality assessment and assurance. Bob leads supply chain security efforts within MITRE and with industry and is the elected chair of the Industrial Internet Consortium Steering Committee. Bob created the community standard for software security weaknesses used globally as well as over 40 global standards addressing the interplay of enterprise risk management, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure protection.

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Senior Principal Engineer
MITRE Corporation

Dirk Weiler

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Dirk Weiler

Dirk Weiler is Chair of the ETSI Board, ETSI representative to the European Commission's ICT Standardization Multi-Stakeholder Platform, Vice Chair of the German BITKOM Working Group Standardization, member of the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Joint Presidents' Group and member of the German DIN Presidential Committee FOKUS.ICT.

He is Head of Standards Policy in Nokia, responsible for standardization policy and membership portfolio. He is a frequent speaker, panellist or moderator in conferences and events on technology, standardization and IPR topics.

Dirk has chaired ETSI’s IPR Special Committee from 2008 – 2018 and ETSI’s General Assembly from 2010-2014.

Until 2006 he has held various management positions in development, research, intellectual property, standardization and marketing in Siemens. Since 1988 he has been working actively in standardization on technical as well as board level in various organizations.

He graduated in 1985 as Diplom-Physiker from the University of Cologne and the Institute of Nuclear research in Jülich, Germany.

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Chairman ETSI Board
Head of Standards Policy Nokia

Doreen Bogdan-Martin

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Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Doreen Bogdan-Martin was elected Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau on the 1st of November 2018. She t​ook office on the 1st of January 2019 and is the first woman in ITU history to hold one of the organization’s top elected management positions.

​Ms Bogdan-Martin is a strategic leader with more than 30 years’ high-level experience in international and inter-governmental relations and a long history of success advising governments around the world on policy and regulatory issues.
From 2008-2018, she led ITU’s Strategic Planning & Membership Department. She was instrumental in establishing the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, on which she has served as Executive Director for more than a decade, and was an architect of the annual Global Symposium for Regulators, the pre-eminent global event for digital policymakers, as well as director of ITU’s first global youth summit, #BYND. She pioneered and oversees ITU’s ongoing contribution to the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age, and is leading ITU’s collaboration with UNICEF on the Giga project to connect all the world’s schools.

Ms Bogdan-Martin is a frequent speaker at top-level international policy events and is spearheading ITU’s new Youth Strategy to more actively engage with the young people who are driving the next wave of digital transformation.
Since taking the helm as Director of BDT, she has led the implementation of a Results-Based Management system, improved internal accountability frameworks, and initiated a comprehensive review of reporting mechanisms across BDT’s global network of field and area offices, with a view to creating a more dynamic, responsive and fit-for-purpose organization.

Ms Bogdan-Martin holds a Master’s degree in International Communications Policy from American University in Washington, DC, post-graduate certification in Strategies for Leadership from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, and is certified in Accountability and Ethics by the United Nations Leaders Programme.

She is an affiliate of the Harvard University Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society and is a Generation Unlimited Champion and a Champion of the EDISON Alliance led by the World Economic Forum. She serves on a number of advisory bodies, including the Geneva-Tsinghua Initiative, the SDG Lab Advisory Board, the UN Technology Innovation Labs, and the Alumni Expert Council of the Internet Governance Lab of ​American University in Washington D.C. She is also a qualified amateur radio operator.

Ms Bogdan-Martin is married with four children.

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Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the International Telecommunication Union
ITU

Henry Cuschiere

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Henry Cuschieri

Henry Cuschieri has worked in standards development, both national and international for more than 25 years. Currently he is the Head of Membership and External Relations at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He is responsible for maintaining close, efficient and productive relationships between ISO and the National Standards Bodies of 167 countries that make up ISO’s global member community, and between ISO and its more than 100 international, regional and technical partner organizations. Henry joined ISO in 2011.

Prior to taking on his current role in 2018 he served as Head of Standards Development for a range of sectors including Security, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and Intelligent Transport. Originally from the UK, prior to moving to Switzerland Mr. Cuschieri spent more than 15 years in the Washington, D.C. area holding various positions in US national trade associations, including the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) supporting the development of national and international standards in the ICT and telecommunications sectors.

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Head of Membership and External Relations
International Organization for Standardization

Mary Saunders

Mary Saunders

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Mary Saunders

Mary Saunders joined the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy in March 2017. She leads ANSI’s efforts to advocate greater use of voluntary consensus standards and conformance programs by government agencies and broader participation by agency personnel in standards development. She also works with ANSI members to create standardization-related outreach programs to legislators and to increase understanding of the private-sector standards community among agencies involved in trade and technology issues. Mary is a key player at ANSI in fostering understanding among opinion leaders of the major role standards and conformance play in the international and domestic marketplace.

Ms. Saunders has extensive federal government executive-level experience and served in a variety of positions within the Department of Commerce prior to joining the ANSI staff, most recently as the Associate Director for Management Resources at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). As Director of NIST’s Standards Coordination Office, she represented NIST and its significant interests in the standards and conformity assessment community, advising the NIST Director and other officials throughout the Administration on policy and strategy as they relate to the federal government’s role in standardization. She also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing and Services in the International Trade Administration, managing more than 200 industry specialists, economists and international trade experts. In that capacity, she helped strengthen the competitive position of U.S. industries globally by coordinating Commerce Department strategies, policies and programs with U.S. industries in mind.

In 2020 Ms. Saunders served as a volunteer on President-elect Biden’s 20-person agency review team for the Department of Commerce, helping the administration understand agency operations so it would be prepared to hit the ground running on day one.

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Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy American National Standards Institute

Mike Regan

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Mike Regan

Mike Regan leads the activities of the Telecommunication Industry Association’s (TIA) QuEST Forum with a focus on business performance improvement standards and associated activities.

Prior to joining TIA, Mike completed a successful 30+ year career as a senior engineering leader.

He has led large development organizations delivering complex communications and networking products deployed in the business-critical production networks of premier public service providers, global cloud platforms, large enterprises and customer engagement centers. He has had a diversity of experiences from being a founding team and early-stage member of multiple VC-backed start-up companies up to billion-dollar enterprises.

His responsibilities have included all aspects of product development: strategy and roadmap, technology assessment, architecture, development, maintenance, quality assurance, test automation, DevSecOps, systems integration, compliance, security, project management, product management, tooling, operations, technical publications, and vendor / partner management.

Mike leverages his personal experiences in progressing the initiatives of the TIA QuEST Forum by working with industry participants, network operators and government agencies in the development and adoption of new standards for the Information and Communications Technology industry with a focus on product quality, software development, cyber-security and supply chain security.

Mike holds a B.S.E.E. from Northeastern University, Boston.

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VP Business Performance
TIA

Ram Sankaran Ramanathan

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Sankaran "Ram" Ramanathan

Sankaran "Ram" Ramanathan is Executive Director of Network Systems at Verizon. He is responsible for providing end-to-end solutions for the Global Network Field Operations to launch new products and maintain service reliability. He leads data driven transformation in the areas of 5G/FiOS consumer/enterprise experience, field dispatch OPEX savings and business continuity during disaster/large events.

Ram has over 20+ years of industry experience leading network planning, engineering, IT, device launch/operations and supply chain management for Verizon. He serves on the Board of TIA/QuEST Forum for TL9000 initiatives.

Ram is a passionate active community service member, mentoring students through the Verizon Foundation and the Verizon Leadership Development Program. He sits on the Advisory Board of NAF NYC.
He is responsible for providing end-to-end solutions for the Global Network Field Operations to launch new products and maintain service reliability. He leads data driven transformation in the areas of 5G/FiOS consumer/enterprise experience, field dispatch OPEX savings and business continuity during disaster/large events.

Ram has over 20+ years of industry experience leading network planning, engineering, IT, device launch/operations and supply chain management for Verizon. He serves on the Board of TIA/QuEST Forum for TL9000 initiatives.

Ram is a passionate active community service member, mentoring students through the Verizon Foundation and the Verizon Leadership Development Program. He sits on the Advisory Board of NAF NYC.

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Executive Director of Network Support Systems
Verizon Wireless - USA

Sanjay Macwan

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Sanjay Macwan

Sanjay Macwan joined Vonage in 2018 as SVP, Enterprise Engineering and Networks, leading Vonage's enterprise platform and engineering teams to drive innovation and new development in the Company's solutions for Enterprise customers. In 2019, in addition to his ongoing responsibilities, Sanjay was appointed Chief Information Security Officer. In this role, he is responsible for securing global service infrastructure and managing the Company’s information security and risk management programs, as well as its portfolio of compliance certifications.

With more than 20 years of experience in technology leadership, strategy and execution, Sanjay has built and led highly successful technology innovation programs that have delivered transformation, operational efficiency and a sustained culture of innovation across multiple industries.

Prior to Vonage, Sanjay was the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at NBCUniversal focused on driving innovation across all lines of business. He helped the company deliver next-generation content experiences leveraging emerging technologies including virtual reality, augmented reality, ultra-high definition, IoT and machine learning across various platforms.

Earlier in his career, Sanjay also led AT&T’s Technology Council in the Chief Technology Office where he was responsible for accelerating technology innovation for the company and its ecosystem. During many years at AT&T Labs, he also led large scale R&D in multimedia, mobility, information security and cloud.

Sanjay is the founder of The Holmdel Idea Summit (THIS) – a STEAM program connecting talented high-school and college students with accomplished innovators and local business leaders. Vonage is a proud sponsor of this community initiative, which was held for the first time in 2017.

As an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Sanjay teaches an Emerging Technology Ventures class. He is an inventor or a co-inventor on 41 U.S. patents in areas of mobility, multimedia, content, security, and cloud.

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Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer
Vonage

Vignesh Ramamurthy

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Vignesh Ramamurthy

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Chief Architect
Infosys

Vivek Gaur

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Vivek Gaur

Vivek Gaur was appointed to the position of Vice President, Engineering for Colt in January 2020.

Based in Gurgaon, India, he is responsible for driving the organisation’s network strategy and engineering. His team architect, test, develop and evolve the entire Colt IQ Network for the business.

Vivek has over 20 years’ experience in the industry, with extensive experience in strategic and operations leadership and global responsibilities. He has had full exposure of end-to-end telecommunications, carrier class networks and cloud business.

Prior to taking up his current role, Vivek held roles in Solutions Design and Network Engineering at Colt, before being appointed Director of Packet Network Engineering in January 2018.

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Vice President - Engineering
Colt