Speakers
Marie Hattar, Vice President, Network Systems and Security Solutions, Cisco
Marie Hattar brings more than 18 years of industry experience to her role as vice president of Network Systems and Security Solutions at Cisco. Currently, Hattar is responsible for setting and developing a strategic vision that integrates key places in the network: branch, wide area network, campus and security. Under her guidance, her organization creates and markets innovative routing, switching and security solutions focused on enterprise and mid-market organizations.
Throughout her career, Hattar has held leadership roles in product marketing, product management, software engineering, competitive intelligence, and finance. She has been instrumental in building security and network architectures for leading Fortune 500 companies.
Hattar holds a master's degree in business administration in marketing from York University and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto.
Mick Scully, VP Product Management, Access Router Technology Group, Cisco
Mick Scully, vice president of product management for the Access Routing Technology Group, leads the marketing and strategy efforts for Cisco's integrated security and voice access routing products and solutions.
Scully is a well-known veteran in the networking industry with more than 25 years of expertise ranging from products, technology, M&A, marketing and strategies. Prior to joining Cisco, he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Venrock, focusing on Security investments and strategies for the firm and has held senior positions at Proteon Networks, Ungermann Bass Networks, Bay Networks, and Wellfleet Communications and was Founder, President and CEO of Appian Communications.
Scully has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Cum Laude, and a Masters of Science in Computer Engineering, both from Boston University.
Shailesh Shukla, VP Product Management, Edge Routing Business Unit, Cisco
Shailesh Shukla is the vice president of product management for the Edge Routing Business Unit at Cisco. Prior to joining Cisco, Shukla was an executive at Juniper Networks where, he worked across the product, field and marketing teams to drive the market strategy in all four service provider segments: wireline, wireless, cable and content.
Throughout his career, Shukla had had a wealth management experience leading product marketing, corporate marketing, business development and corporate strategy for companies such as Redback Networks, Mercer Management Consulting and Sprint.
Shukla holds an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also has a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor's degree with Honors in Electrical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India
Joao D. Bezerra Leite, Director, IT Operations and Infrastructure, Itau Bank
Joao Bezerra Leite is the Managing Director in charge of IT Operations and Infrastructure at Itau Bank. He is very well positioned with IT in the banking industry and very skilled in IT / Telecom. Bezerra Leite joined the bank in 1983 and is responsible for 95 percent of the Cisco Solution business. He is also Chairman for new technology and new business solution Board of Directors. Bezerra Leite has a degree in engineering from Maua University, Brazil, and an MBA from the United States.
Ushir Bhatt, Chief Executive Officer, Future Group
Ushir Bhatt is the CEO of Future Knowledge Services (FKS), which is part of the Future Group, India's largest consumption based company. FKS delivers technology solutions and business services and has partnerships with Cisco, Sun, SAP and Wipro. Prior to working for FKS, Bhatt consulted for Cisco on developing their entry strategy for retail in India. His 25 years of experience cover a variety of senior management roles in India, UK and Europe including COO for a fashion shoot company and major assignments at Allied Domecq, British Telecom and Taylor Woodrow.
Dave Cahill, Chief Information Officer, Van Meter Industrial, Inc.
As CIO, Cahill provides leadership for Van Meter's IT initiatives. Van Meter Industrial, Inc. is a 100% employee owned Electrical Wholesale distributor that serves the Iowa market.
Since joining Van Meter in 1989, Cahill has held various management positions, including director of IT, and sales responsibilities. Cahill serves on the Board of Directors of Werner Electric Supply Minnesota and the American Cancer Society New Directions committee.
Matthew Frederickson, Director, Information Technology, Council Rock School District
Frederickson brings more than 20 years of IT experience to the Council Rock School District, where he serves as director of Information Technology. Frederickson's main focus is to implement modern technology and business practices for the district, which serves 12,500 students in Newtown, PA. Some of these initiatives included replacing aging ATM infrastructure with gigabit over fiber between 18 buildings and replacing legacy phone switches with VoIP --- resulting in a savings of more than $75,000 the first year. Frederickson served as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve.
He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, PA and a Masters in Business Administration from LaSalle University in Philadelphia.
Grigorios Gkotsis, Project Manager, Consultant, Information Society S.A., of Ministry of Interior
Gkotsis is currently the head of network design and architecture of the Greek National network of the Public Administration. He is responsible for connecting 4.000 sites of the Greek Public Sector with global service provision such as VoIP telephony, videoconference, e-learning, Internet, email and hosting services. Other projects have included the design and implementation of 165 free access hotspots all over Greece in railway stations, airports, and museums, and the design and implementation of 160 wireless LANs in Public Sector Offices in order to extend their services provision to citizens.
Gkotsis has a Masters of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications Systems Engineering from the University of Essex, United Kingdom, and is currently pursuing an MBA.
Eric Hicks, Director, Information Technology, Burnham Institute for Medical Research
Eric Hicks began working for the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in November, 2007. He has overall responsibility for all aspects of IT at the Institute and is about to complete an important facility expansion into the Central Florida area. Hicks' IT organization encompasses sites in La Jolla, CA, Orlando FL, as well as Santa Barbara, CA.
Prior to the Institute, Hicks held positions of increasing responsibility at a variety of organizations, including Akamai Technologies, Biogen-IDEC and DivX over the past 20 years. He has significant background in large scale systems deployment and maintenance worldwide, as well as Biotechnology related IT support in validated manufacturing environments and in research environments.
Marco Michelotti, Manager, Information and Communication, Leaseplan
Marco Michelotti is the Voice and Telecommunication manager at Leaseplan Italia Spa, a market leader in Italian long term car rental. Marco has over 10 years of IT experience between Leaseplan and several other companies. He started as Network Specialist at TC-Sistema in 1998, working on a complex project in advanced routing and switching. In 2004 he moved to ANCITEL SPA, a company in the Italian public sector, as Network and Security Administrator.
Darren O'Connor, Chief Information Officer, The Reject Shop
Darren O'Conner joined The Reject Shop as Chief Information Officer in July 2001. He has had a diverse career for over 20 years in information technology, including roles in IT development, analysis, testing, support and management in Australia and the United Kingdom. O'Conner is a member of IEEE and has specialized in managing information systems in branch model organizations such as retailers, rural suppliers and gaming companies.
Riccardo Salierno, Chief Information Officer, Liquigas S.p.A.
Richard Salierno is the Chief Information Officer for Liquigas S.p.A., a company headquartered in Milan, Italy, that specializes in the production and distribution of liquified gas. Salierno has worked in the industry for 25 years, including experience at other manufacturing companies such as Astra Zeneca, a pharmaceutical preparations company, AgustaWestland, a helicopter manufacturer, and Manuli, a packaging firm.
Daryl Schweiger, Manager, Information Systems, Cardiovascular Group
Daryl Schweiger began working with The Cardiovascular Group, P.C. in 2002 and has held the position of information systems manager for The Cardiovascular Group, P.C. for the past three years. In his role, Schweiger helps keep the company at the forefront of technology adoption, usage and system maximization. Schweiger has previously worked for integration companies in the Washington, DC metro area, which gave him a wide range of experiences. He is particularly knowledgeable about Microsoft Windows infrastructure systems and Storage Area Networks (SAN).
Prior to being an IT professional, Schweiger was with the United States Marine Corps for 10 years.
Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Senior Vice President & Founding Partner, Nemertes Research
Andreas M. Antonopoulos (CISSP, MSc CS) develops and manages research projects, conducts strategic seminars and advises key clients. For sixteen years, Antonopoulos has advised many businesses on how to harness new processes to leverage rapid developments in telecommunications. He is a noted expert in computer security and has led large teams on multi-million-dollar projects for Fortune 100 companies, designing large and complex secure networks. With more than three hundred speaking engagements under his belt he is considered a world-class and charismatic public speaker and teacher.
Before joining Nemertes, Antonopoulos was the Security Practice Director at ThruPoint Inc, where was responsible for a global team of security consultants who deliver solutions to multinational clients. Prior to ThruPoint he was a Security Practice Lead at Greenwich Technology Partners, where he designed the security architecture of a global wire-transfer network interconnecting the world's banks.
Jeremiah Caron, Vice President, Analysis, Current Analysis
Caron brings more than 21 years of experience to Current Analysis as a market watcher and influential voice in the telecommunications and information technology industries. As Vice President, Analysis, Caron is responsible for overall management and content direction for the company's CurrentCompete services, and is part of the corporation's executive management team. Caron is responsible, along with the sector Research Directors and Principal and Senior Analysts within each module, for monitoring and evaluating activities in the telecommunications services, telecommunications infrastructure, business infrastructure software and IT infrastructure markets, including the strategies and product development work of service providers, technology suppliers and solution providers.
Before joining Current Analysis, Caron was Publisher of CMP Media's tele.com, a business magazine for telecom and Internet service provider executives. He previously was Editor-in-Chief of CMP Media's LAN Times magazine, a bi-weekly publication focused on enterprise networking and client-server computing strategies. In that position, he was responsible for overall management of the magazine's content, which included news, feature and product testing departments. Caron has been a featured speaker at major industry events, including Interop and Supercomm, as well as numerous, specialised events and seminars. Caron graduated with a B.A. from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
Nick Lippis, Industry Analyst and Consultant, The Lippis Report, Lippis Enterprises, Inc.
Nick Lippis is a world-renowned authority on corporate computer networking. He has designed some of the largest computer networks in the world and publishes The Lippis Report, an online resource for network and IT business decision makers (http://lippisreport.com). Lippis works with entrepreneurs evaluating new business opportunities in enterprise networking and serves as an independent investor and advisor. 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, Cisco Systems and a wide range of other equipment suppliers and service providers.
Greg Beach, Director, Product Management Wireless Networking Business Unit, Cisco
Greg Beach serves as the director of product management within Cisco's Wireless Networking Business Unit, where he is responsible for the operations and roadmap of their indoor and outdoor access point portfolio.
Prior to Cisco, Beach was a Lieutenant on the USS Alabama in the US Navy's nuclear submarine program. While on board, he was qualified Navy Nuclear Engineer by the Department of Energy and led divisions responsible for sonar, fire control, torpedo, missile, reactor control and electrical systems.
Beach holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Martina Beitat, Senior Product Manager, Edge Routing, Cisco
Beitat joined Cisco in December 2000 as a product manager for the Cisco Access Routers, followed by managing the Integrated Services Routers before joining the Edge Routing Business Unit in 2005 to first manage the Cisco 7200 VXR Series and now the Cisco ASR 1000 Series. In her eight and a half years as a product manager, she was involved in a number of product development projects for the access routers, the Integrated Services Routers as well as the ASR 1000 Series. Martina has also co-led two of Cisco's major market insertions, the Cisco Integrated Services Router as well as the Cisco ASR 1000.
Bob Berlin, Director, Product Management, Access Routing Technology Group, Cisco
Bob Berlin is a director of product management for the Cisco Access Routing Technology group, where he is chartered with setting the product and strategic direction for Cisco's IOS Security and Advanced Services portfolio. Prior to joining Cisco in 1996, he contributed to a number of start-up networking companies including Stratacom and Primary Access.
Berlin holds a Masters in Business Administration from Pepperdine University.
William Choe, Director, Product Management Ethernet Switching Technology Group, Cisco
William Choe is the director of product management for the Ethernet Switching Technology Group at Cisco. In this position, he leads a team in the development of market leading fixed configuration Ethernet switching solutions for the mid-market, enterprise campus and data center. Choe is a 13-year Cisco veteran and has played a number of key roles in hardware development across the company. This includes the development of Cisco's first billion dollar fixed configuration product family, the Catalyst 3500XL platform.
Choe received his Bachelor of Science from Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California and his Masters of Business Administration from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California.
Jonathan Davidson, Director, Product Management Edge Routing Business Unit, Cisco
Jonathan Davidson, CCIE Number 2560, is the director of product marketing for the Edge Routing Business Unit. He has co-authored Voice over IP Fundamentals and Developing Cisco Voice overIP.
Davidson has been with Cisco for more than 10 years in post sales support, marketing and engineering divisions.
Jennifer Geisler, Senior Manager, Network Systems, Cisco
Geisler is responsible for the Campus solution and modular switching products consisting of the Catalyst 4500 and 6500 series. In addition, Geisler hosts "Fact or Fiction", a show where she brings in industry experts, Cisco executives and customers to provide straight answers to tough questions.
Prior to this role, Geisler was Senior Manager of Enterprise and Mid-Market Solutions technical marketing organization, responsible for the development and delivery of Cisco Validated Designs inclusive of third party applications to support Cisco's customer's business strategies. A high tech veteran, with over 20 years of experience in both applications and networking, Geisler brings an analytical approach to delivering networking solutions that solve real business issues.
Tore Gillbrand, Director, Product Management Access Routing Technology Group, Cisco
Tore Gillbrand is the director of marketing for Cisco's Access Routing Technology Group, where he is responsible for technology strategy and marketing of the IOS Software for Cisco's Portfolio of Integrated Services Routers.
A 12-year veteran of Cisco, Gillbrand has also managed the outbound access routing product team for Europe, Middle East and Africa, developing relationships with customers, resellers and serive-providers. Gillbrand, holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Ramesh Kaza, Director, Advanced Services, Cisco
With more than 10 years of experience at Cisco, Ramesh Kaza is the director of advanced services for the Unified Communications Practice team.
Under his leadership, this team works with Cisco's customers in developing strategy, architecture, design and implementation of large-scale Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions. Before joining Cisco, Kaza spent six years as a Member of Technical Staff at Software Technology Parks of India, Bangalore where he led the Internet Services and Software Development groups.
Kaza has a bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communications. He holds a Cisco Certified Internet Expert (CCIE) # 6207, Cisco's highest professional certification.
Sarat Khilnani, Director, Product Marketing Access Routing Technology Group, Cisco
Sarat Khilnani is the director of product marketing in the Access Routing Technology Group, and leads a team that drives strategy for Unified Communications capabilities in the Integrated Services Router product family.
His team has direct responsibility for Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony, Cisco Communications Manager Express and Cisco Unity Express. In addition, Khilnani's team recently brought to market several new products including the Unified Call Connector product suite and the Unified Messaging Gateway for scalable voicemail networking.
Khilnani has a BSEE from the University of Michigan — Ann Arbor, and an MBA from Santa Clara University.
Fred Kost, Director, Security Solutions Marketing, Cisco
Fred Kost is the director of security solutions marketing at Cisco and responsible for marketing the Cisco Self-Defending Network security portfolio. Prior to Cisco, Kost has been involved in network security and held executive marketing roles with Symantec, nCircle, Recourse and Blue Lane, and has twenty years of combined marketing and product development experience.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.
Sherri Liebo, Vice President, Customer Segments Marketing, Cisco
As leader for the Cisco Services Segment Marketing teams, Sherri Liebo oversees the Cisco Services growth and go-to-market strategy for the small, medium and enterprise business markets. Her team works in concert with various corporate marketing groups and cross-functional business councils to execute the segment marketing component of Cisco's business strategies.
Liebo brings to Cisco 17 years of experience that encompasses strategic planning, alliance development, worldwide service development and launch, channel management and regional go-to-market execution.
She graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. She also holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
Kumar Srikantan, Vice President, Product Management Cisco Catalyst 6500 and 4500 Switches, Cisco
Kumar Srikantan is vice president of product management for the Cisco Catalyst 6500, Catalyst 4500 Series of Ethernet Switching Platforms. In this role, Srikantan is responsible for setting the strategic vision, long term product strategy and day-to-day operations for Cisco's premier Catalyst switching product lines.
His work experience is wide reaching that spans both the computing and communications industries — including parallel computing architectures, high performance computing, routing and Ethernet Switching systems.
Srikantan holds a master's in Computer Science from Rice University and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India.
