Executive Team

Phil McKinney is the president and CEO at CableLabs, a non-profit research & development lab funded by the global cable industry. With a strong focus on innovation, McKinney is responsible for leading the development of technologies and specifications for the secure delivery of high speed data, video, voice and next generation services. He oversees testing, certification facilities and guides the technical leadership for the industry, charting the course for future technology and innovation.

Prior to CableLabs, McKinney held technology and innovation leadership positions in major companies including serving as the vice president and CTO for Hewlett-Packard’s Personal Systems Group, where he was responsible for long-range strategic planning, research and development for the company’s PC product lines. In addition, he was the founder and leader of HP’s Innovation Program Office (IPO). The IPO was chartered to identify, incubate and launch adjacent and fundamentally new technologies, products and services that would become the future growth engines for HP. The success of the IPO is now shared in widely used case studies at Stanford University and Harvard Business School. McKinney also served as senior vice president and CIO at Teligent, and as a director at CSC.

Author, speaker and innovation guru, McKinney shares his rule-breaking approach to innovation and creativity in his book “Beyond the Obvious.” He has been credited with forming and leading multiple teams that Fast Company and BusinessWeek have listed as being one of the “50 Most Innovative.” His recognition includes Vanity Fair naming him the “The Innovation Guru,” MSNBC and Fox Business calling him “The Gadget Guy” and the San Jose Mercury News dubbing him the “chief seer.” In July 2015, his podcast, Killer Innovations™, became a nationally syndicated radio show that is carried by more than 30 radio stations across the U.S. In 2017, The Cable Center named McKinney an Innovation Laureate, in recognition of his role as a trailblazer and key influencer who is mentoring, teaching and motivating the next generation of cable industry leaders.

McKinney serves on the advisory board for Hacking Autism and he is chairman of the board for Pioneer Education Africa. In his spare time, he oversees his family VC fund, the Techtrend Group, that invests in for-profit start-ups to create economic growth as an alternative to traditional charity models.

Chris Lammers is the senior vice president and chief operating officer responsible for directing finance, IT, facilities and membership development at CableLabs. He is particularly focused on relationships with mid-sized and smaller MSOs, as well as developing relationships with international cable operators and building international alliances.

Chris currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the Emma Bowen Foundation and is actively involved in committees and/or support for several national and international industry trade associations. In addition, he is president of the board of directors of the St. Vrain Valley Habitat for Humanity in Longmont, Colorado.

Prior to joining CableLabs in 1997, Chris was president and CEO of Western Communications, a mid-sized multiple system operator with cable systems located in the Western United States. Before that, Chris was a partner with the San Francisco law firm of Cooper, White & Cooper.

Chris received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction in psychology from Stanford University.

Ralph Brown is responsible for leading CableLabs’ Research and Development staff in delivering innovative solutions to the cable industry.  In this role he leads development in several areas of technical excellence: Hybrid Fiber-Coax, Passive Optical Network, and Wireless Technologies, Software, Security, and Technology Policy.   He also is responsible for identifying and leading in areas of convergence across CableLabs programs.  He is also on the Board of Directors of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF).

Prior to CableLabs, Mr. Brown worked for Excite@Home as Chief Architect, Set-top Systems where he worked on broadband applications for set-top terminals and entertainment devices.  Before joining Excite@Home, he worked for Time Warner Cable as Chief Software Architect in their Advanced Engineering Department where he worked on the Orlando Full Service Network and was a key contributor the Time Warner Cable Pegasus Program.  While at Time Warner Cable and Excite@Home, Mr. Brown was also an active participant in the CableLabs OpenCable™ project.

Mr. Brown earned a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  His Master’s thesis was in the field of Speech Recognition.  He received his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from North Carolina State University.

Dr. Belal Hamzeh is responsible for leading CableLabs’ long-term technology vision and driving new technology innovations critical to the cable industry’s evolution across Wired (HFC and Optical), Wireless, Network Convergence and Security Technologies.

Most recently, Belal led CableLabs’ wireless R&D activities across fixed, mobile and emerging wireless technologies in addition to leading the technology development for the DOCSIS 3.1 and Full Duplex DOCSIS® technologies. Prior to joining CableLabs, he led R&D efforts for 3G/4G technologies including technology and product development, certification and network deployments.

Belal holds a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University along with multiple issued and pending patents.

Ike Elliott is President of Kyrio and Chief Strategy Officer at CableLabs. At Kyrio, a subsidiary of CableLabs, Ike leads a growing provider of services for the connectivity industry, including device testing, security and big data services. At CableLabs, he is responsible for developing the strategy for CableLabs and its subsidiaries, and for building the strategic direction with the CableLabs team, the vendor community and startup partners to deliver game-changing innovations for the industry. In addition, Ike and his team assess markets, competition, costs, and technology trends on behalf of CableLabs’ members.

Prior to joining CableLabs, Ike held senior executive operating and strategy roles at Level 3 Communications and Unity Business Networks. He was also the president and founder of Practiq Strategy Consultants. In 1999, Ike co-founded the International Softswitch Consortium and served as its president and chairman for three years.

Ike began his career in software development and network architecture, and is an inventor with over two dozen patents and continuations. He serves on the board for UpRamp, a subsidiary of CableLabs that connects startups and emerging tech companies to the most powerful network in the world, the global broadband wireless eco-system. Ike received a Bachelor of Science in computer science from James Madison University, and a Master of Science in computer science from Johns Hopkins University.

Mariam Sorond is senior vice president and chief research and development officer at CableLabs, In this role, she leads research & development (R&D) directing the execution and adoption of new technologies for CableLabs’ members and the industry, partnering closely with CEO, Phil McKinney, on technical thought leadership, vision and strategy for the future of connectivity.

An expert in mobile wireless, fixed, and satellite networks, Mariam previously held the position of chief wireless architect and vice president of technology development for DISH Network and led the team focused on the 5G network. She was also responsible for spectrum technology and strategy, end-to-end technology development, creating the next generation network architecture and standards development. Mariam brings more than 24 years of technical and strategy experience in the telecommunications industry to CableLabs and has also held leadership positions both within start-ups and Fortune 500 enterprises, responsible for developing the technology vision, deploying networks, analyzing trends, guiding business investments and participating in regulatory and standardization processes. Prior to joining DISH, she worked for vendors such as Lucent Technologies (now Nokia), and several operators, including ICO, Nextel, and PrimeCo, where she began her career as an RF Engineer.

Mariam has served as a member of the NTIA’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee since 2014. She has been awarded several patents, with others pending and is a frequent speaker and panelist at industry forums.

Lee Zieroth has responsibility for all legal matters involving CableLabs, including direction of strategy and policy, antitrust compliance, intellectual property rights issues for CableLabs’ specification efforts, protection of intellectual property, and general corporate and contractual matters.

Prior to joining CableLabs, Lee was a Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Comcast Cable where he headed the Strategic Intellectual Property group within the cable company’s legal department. He came to Comcast from AT&T Broadband where he was an Associate General Counsel and Lead Counsel for Technology and prior to that was Senior Counsel for Technology with Tele-Communications, Inc., where he provided legal support for numerous technology, intellectual property and venture capital matters for these cable companies.

Before joining the cable industry, Lee was a partner in the Denver law firm of Cohen, Brame & Smith for more than 12 years with a transactional practice focused on corporate, technology/intellectual property and venture capital law. He also worked as an electrical engineer for various research and development labs at Hewlett-Packard, both in Colorado and Palo Alto, California, and at the Stanford University Office of Technology Licensing. Lee is a graduate of Stanford University (J.D. and M.B.A.) and completed his engineering studies in computer architecture and digital signal processing at Colorado State University (B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E.).

Rachel Beisel is an integral member of the senior management team and is responsible for the creation, development and execution of CableLabs marketing, communications and events strategy. Rachel contributes to the organizational strategic planning process, and directs marketing initiatives that span across digital communications, brand, video production, advertising, global communications and events for CableLabs and its subsidiaries, Kyrio and UpRamp.

A market leader in the high-tech industry, Rachel has worked in a variety of executive leadership positions in marketing, sales and culture development from growing startups to Fortune 500 brands. She is an experienced leader who has served a diverse profile of companies both at agencies and businesses, and she has played a key role in multiple mergers and acquisitions.

Rachel hails from music-city Nashville, Tennessee where she got her start in marketing and public relations in the country music scene. She has been recognized as Denver Business Journal’s CMO of the Year finalist, Colorado BizMagazine’s Top 25 Most Influential Young Professionals in 2014, Boulder Valley’s 40 Under Forty honorees in 2016 and Colorado Technology Association Women in Technology Luminary in 2016.

Entrepreneurial by nature, she founded three companies and is deeply involved in growing the Colorado technical industry. Rachel is an organizer for multiple community groups including Boulder Startup Week, an advisor for Colorado-based venture and corporate-backed technology startups, and cause-based nonprofits. She is a former board member for the Downtown Boulder Partnership and the Bicycle Racing Association of Colorado, and a guest lecturer at Colorado University Boulder and Galvanize, a technology and data science program. Rachel also holds a national championship title guiding blind athletes in cycling. When not working, you’ll find her at a 24-hour mountain bike race or cross-country skiing across Colorado.

Lori Lantz is the Vice President of Human Resources at CableLabs. As a member of the executive team, she drives the alignment of strategic talent management with the overall business strategy and vision of CableLabs. Lori’s focus is on building high trust relationships and developing exceptional leaders who can engage high performing teams across the organization. Inspired by encounters with diverse and interesting people, she is passionate about helping them increase their capacity and confidence in leadership.

Prior to CableLabs, Lori held various positions in Human Resources at National Jewish Health in Denver. Most recently she was the Director of Learning and Development where she developed a leadership academy to provide “Knowledge and Wisdom to Lead” to create a highly engaged workforce. She also provided individual coaching to the leadership team and introduced the use of 360-degree evaluation and development tools to accelerate their growth and effectiveness as leaders.

Lori received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resource Management from Pacific Lutheran University and Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Regis University. She holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification, as well as certifications in a variety of organizational development and personality assessment tools. A native of Colorado, Lori enjoys all things musical including singing, playing the piano and attending concerts and music festivals.