Ron McKenzie was appointed Chief Technology & Information Officer for Rogers Communications in July 2022. In this role, Ron leads an expert team of engineers, developers, and technology professionals responsible for designing, building, and operating the company’s wireline, wireless and media networks, as well as IT and digital strategy and systems.

Ron was formerly the President, Rogers for Business from June 2021 – July 2022, where he was a key partner with Technology, responsible for delivering Wireless, Wireline, IoT, Advanced Services and Data Centre products and solutions to small, medium, large and public sector businesses across Canada.

Prior to taking on this role, Ron led Technical Operations at Rogers for more than two years, where he was responsible for Install, Service & Maintenance, and Technical Support for both Wireless and Wireline. He led the acceleration of our Technical Operations transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic to deliver a three-year plan in a matter of weeks – keeping our customers connected, and our team members safe.

Ron has deep roots and expertise in the technology and telecom industry, spanning more than 30 years, across Canada and the United States, partnering with large scale operators around the globe. Prior to joining Rogers, Ron spent more than 10 years in senior leadership at Shaw Communications in Calgary, including leading operations as the Chief Operating Officer, and as the executive lead of Business.

Ron is a respected leader who has extensive experience across operational and network equipment functions, always with a focus on supporting and enabling customers, and creating new services from a customer-centric view.

Ron graduated with a BASc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and has attended the CTAM Executive Management programs at Harvard. He is currently Secretary of the Board of Directors – on the executive committee – of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE). In his role on the Board of SCTE, Ron is contributing to the future of connectivity through technological leadership and innovation to help build and give back to the industry.

Elad Nafshi serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Network Officer for Comcast Cable. In this role, he leads the unified core and access network teams that drive innovation, reliability, scalability, and development across our network capabilities. Elad drives strategy for the nation’s largest gigabit Internet network and is a global leader in 10G technology, which will allow Comcast to deliver multigigabit upload and download speeds to tens of millions of Americans.

Elad joined Comcast in 2005 and has held several network, product development and management roles at Comcast since that time. He has led a number of high-profile initiatives around Next Generation Access Network, Cloud TV, Cloud DVR Interactive Television, Addressable Advertising, Digital Set-Top-Boxes, On-Screen Guides and other key programs.

Prior to joining Comcast, Elad led the product management and development group of RCN Corporation, a regional high speed internet service, digital cable TV, and home phone service provider, where he enabled the then-startup to capture share and consumer awareness against much larger competitors.

Elad graduated from The Buchmann School of Law at Tel Aviv University in Israel with a focus on corporate and international law. He also holds a master’s in business from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester in New York, where he specialized in electronic commerce and finance.

Craig Moffett has covered the telecommunications industry – first as a management consultant and later as a Wall Street analyst – for more than thirty years.

He has been elected to Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-American Research Team in the U.S. Telecom and/or Cable & Satellite sectors more than twenty separate occasions, including nine separate appearances as the #1 analyst in America in either U.S. Telecom and/or Cable & Satellite.

Prior to founding MoffettNathanson in 2013, Mr. Moffett spent more than ten years at Sanford Bernstein & Co., LLC as a senior research analyst. He was previously the President and founder of the e-commerce business at Sotheby’s Holdings, the venerable auction house, where in 1999 he led Sothebys.com to what was then the highest first year sales of any consumer website ever launched. Mr. Moffett spent more than eleven years at The Boston Consulting Group, where he was a Partner and Vice President specializing in telecommunications. He was the leader of BCG’s global Telecommunications practice from 1996 to 1999. While at BCG, he led client initiatives in the U.S. local, long distance, and wireless sectors, in both consumer and commercial services, and advised companies outside the U.S. in Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

Mr. Moffett graduated from Harvard Business School with Honors in 1989. He received a BA from Brown University, where he was magna cum laude and phi beta kappa, in 1984.

Mr. Walden currently runs technology and engineering for Mediacom including video, internet, mobile and enterprise products. He manages the product development, operational support systems, network operations, video operations, software development and lab teams. Mr. Walden is the 2023 Cablefax top CTO, Multichannel News 40 under Forty for 2010 and the 2016 recipient of the NCTA Vanguard award for Science and Technology. He is a current or former member of advisory boards or technology committees at AMT, Xperi, Cisco, Commscope and Cablelabs with twenty-seven years of experience in cable and thirty-five years of experience in the Internet.

Victor Esposito, Chief Technology Officer, joined Ritter Communications in May of 2023.

Victor leads all technology-related areas and teams, leveraging his vast knowledge of industry processes and deep technology insights to further solidify the Ritter Communications’ position as a leader in telecommunications. He joined the company as Senior Vice President of Engineering and Network Operations, bringing with him more than 24 years of tech industry experience.

Prior to joining the Ritter Communications team, Victor served as the Vice President of Engineering and Architecture for GCI Liberty, Inc, the largest telecommunications provider in the state of Alaska. He brings a wealth of expertise in developing and managing complex engineering projects, as well as optimizing network operations for large-scale, global organizations.

Victor holds a Master of Information Systems degree and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Originally from the Central Coast of California. He and his wife Cheri now live in Jonesboro, AR. Victor enjoys aviation, motorcycles, scuba diving and travel in his free time.

Guy McCormick is Senior Vice President of network engineering for Cox Communications. In this role, he spearheads operational transformation and sets the technology strategy for enterprise network engineering.

His duties include strategic oversight for infrastructure and enabling platforms, including Backbone/Metro Networks, Access, Edge Technologies, and Field Engineering Operations. Throughout his dynamic, 29-year career with Cox, McCormick has assumed various leadership roles, including portfolio and resource management, technology transformation, field operations, HFC, and network engineering. Guy also served as Vice President of technical operations and engineering for Cox Media, overseeing industry-leading advances in digital program insertion and advanced advertising technologies. Guy has been recognized many times for his contributions to the industry, inducted into the Cable T.V. Pioneers Class of 2018, and serves as Chair of the SCTE Board of Directors.

Guy received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and an MBA from East Carolina University. Guy and his family live in Suwanee, Georgia, where they are active community members.

As the Senior Vice President of Wireline Networks, Damian Poltz is responsible for leading Rogers wireline network and services teams, including consumer/business technologies, broadband, video, communication, customer equipment, core network and access technologies. His responsibilities include driving cross-functional collaboration around wireline strategy, and the modernization and growth of Canada’s largest cable footprint.

Throughout his 25-year career at Rogers and Shaw, Damian has served in strategic leadership roles including: SVP Wireline Technology & Strategy, VP Technology Strategy & Networks, Director of Network Technology, Sr. Director Communication Systems, Director IP Application Services, and Sr. Manager Video Application Development. Damian is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the SCTE.

Damian holds an MBA with distinction from Cornell University and Queen’s University, and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Calgary.

Gavin is responsible within Vodafone Group for the fixed broadband access technology strategy, architecture, vendor roadmaps and standards across the various countries where Vodafone has fixed access assets. This encompasses fibre, cable and DSL access technologies together with the associated fixed-mobile convergence and virtualisation aspects.

Gavin was previously Head of Strategy & Planning in Cable & Wireless Worldwide leading a team of architects responsible for the technology architecture and strategy for all network technologies. He was a founding member of Bulldog Communications (later acquired by C&W) where he held a variety of responsibilities from product development through to network operations and CTO. Prior to that, Gavin led the Access Architecture & Design team at BT.

Gavin was a founding Director of the Broadband Forum where he was overall Technical Chairman for twelve years. In addition he has been co-chair of the UK21CN consultation’s Broadband Group, chair of the UK NICC’s DSL Task Group and also vice-chair of the NICC Ethernet Access Task Group. Gavin is Chairman of the Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board (OSAB), serves on the IET Digital Panel, the Broadband Forum’s executive advisory board and is active in several CableLabs initiatives. Gavin is a member of the IEEE, Fellow of the IET and Distinguished Fellow of the Broadband Forum.

Jan Neumann is Vice President of Machine Learning at Comcast where he leads the AI Technologies team that is developing the Video AI, AI for Customer Care and AI platform services for Comcast. He also leads the AI Technology Center of Excellence for Comcast Cable where he is responsible for the AI/ML technology strategy and execution with the goal to make it easy and frictionless for everyone to develop, deploy and operate safe, secure, and scalable AI/ML solutions that create value for the business.

Before joining Comcast in 2009, he worked for Siemens Corporate Research on computer vision related projects such as driver assistance systems and video surveillance. He has published over 20 paper in scientific conferences and journals, and is a frequent speaker on AI and machine learning. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Dan Rice is a leader in the CONNECT team at Comcast, the world’s leading telecommunications, broadband internet and entertainment company. Dan is responsible for all aspects of Access Network Engineering at Comcast. Prior to Comcast Dan was an entrepreneur working with service providers following his role as SVP R&D at CableLabs where he was the member facing executive responsible for the Network Technologies including HFC Broadband, Wireless, Optical, Premise Networks, Network Virtualization and Internet Protocols for residential and commercial services.

Prior to CableLabs Dan was CTO for mycontent.com a video and social media start-up. Mr. Rice joined ARRIS as VP Technology Strategy after the company acquired C-COR where he was VP Product Development following C-COR’s acquisition of his startup company Stargus where he was VP and Chief Architect. Prior to Stargus Dan held management and technical positions at RoadRunner, CableLabs, Sharp, Sentrol, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Asit is a Telecom professional with over 30 years of experience in the areas of Planning, Engineering, Deployment and Operations of Telecom Networks. He is presently working as the Vice President, Network Technology at Rogers Communications and is responsible for Technology development, Design & Engineering and Operations of Wireline Access and Core Networks. He has been in Rogers for the last four years in various roles namely, Head of Network & Service Operations, Head of Network Development and Core Engineering and Head of Wireline Network Engineering. During his tenure at Rogers, Asit has been a part of many Telecom Industry activities including, ISED, CRTC, CTNR (CSTAC), SCTE and Cable Labs. Being the member of the organizing committee of SCTE / Cable Expo, Asit had reviewed and moderated a number of technical papers presented during the Expo.

Before joining Rogers, Asit worked for Hutchison, Indonesia in Jakarta. He was responsible for the entire Network Operations including Technical Operations, Contract Governance, Business Support and Field Services Organization. Currently working closely on the Automation and Intelligence in the Network Operations Centre (NOC) initiatives for improving efficiency of Services. During his assignment in Hutch, Indonesia, Asit wrote and presented a paper on Intelligent Automation in Network Operations at a User meet of many Operators from Europe and Asia. The paper talked about the use of AI and ML in predictive Network operations.

 Asit also worked in various capacities in the then largest operator in India, Bharti Airtel Ltd. He had held various Senior Leadership positions in the Network Services Group, including Head of Unified NOC, National Deployment Head, National Operations Head, Hub – CTO for East Region in India, CTO for Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa circles, and Head of Core Network Planning.

Prior to Airtel, Asit worked in a Technology company – Siemens Ltd. for 15 years where in he was responsible for providing Technical Services to operators. During his tenure in Siemens, he worked extensively on the Siemens Switching system EWSD, in several overseas assignments.

Tuba Aktaran-Kalayci, Ph.D., currently serves as the AVP of Analytics and Intelligence at Cox Communications. She is a data/data science leader and practitioner. In her role within CCI, she leads AI and innovation efforts focused on enhancing Service Health and Customer Interaction Health. Before joining Cox Communications, she held various leadership roles in the industry, where she oversaw key functions in audience, content, behavior, and location analytics domains.

Tuba holds a Ph.D. degree in Operations Research, an M.S. degree in Statistics, from Georgia Institute of Technology; and a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University, Turkey. As a data scientist and an engineer, she is a firm believer in STEM and education. As such, her volunteer work focuses around STEM education for underprivileged children. She resides in Alpharetta, GA with her soulmate and three kids.

Tuba Aktaran-Kalayci, Ph.D., currently serves as the AVP of Analytics and Intelligence at Cox Communications. She is a data/data science leader and practitioner. In her role within CCI, she leads AI and innovation efforts focused on enhancing Service Health and Customer Interaction Health. Before joining Cox Communications, she held various leadership roles in the industry, where she oversaw key functions in audience, content, behavior, and location analytics domains.

Tuba holds a Ph.D. degree in Operations Research, an M.S. degree in Statistics, from Georgia Institute of Technology; and a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University, Turkey. As a data scientist and an engineer, she is a firm believer in STEM and education. As such, her volunteer work focuses around STEM education for underprivileged children. She resides in Alpharetta, GA with her soulmate and three kids.

Ben is the Comcast TPX Network Facilities and Energy Executive Director of Critical Infrastructure. His professional career started in 1995 as a USCG Licensed 3rd AE Steam & Motor Unlimited Horsepower for the US Merchant Marines. He has worked as an expert in the field of Wireless and Wireline network construction, Broadband new build construction and many years working for Network Power equipment manufacturers. In 2013, he joined Comcast as a Director of Engineering. At Comcast, his accomplishments include obtaining a Masters in Emergency Management, fiscal oversight of all Critical Infrastructure investments, 3 MW of Solar installations, 2 time Comcast Circle of Success Award winner and finalist for Innovation in Operational Excellence, multiple HVAC Cooling innovations, has been a CableLabs SCTE Expo speaker and author, Energy 2020 contributor and Working group Chair, SCTE EPA Board member, Comcast TEDx Speaker and Energy/Sustainability influencer/advocate.

Ian Ruppert is Sr. Director the Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering team at Spectrum. Leading a team that designs customer premises equipment such as modems, WiFi routers and self-installation packaging. Through his development process he creates systems and experiences for users that provide an intuitive and high-value experience. User experience, engineering, sustainability, accessibility, and development of the best in class, award winning equipment are some of his core objectives.

Dr. Howald has over 35 years of technology and executive experience in commercial and military communications systems.  He is currently a Comcast Fellow, focused on the evolution of cable systems and services, future network architectures, and emerging broadband technologies. Rob held similar roles technology, management, and strategy roles at ARRIS, Motorola, and General Instrument. Outside of the cable industry, Rob was Vice President of Engineering at Xytrans, specializing in millimeter wave technologies for cellular backhaul communications, and for people screening in commercial asset protection and homeland security applications.

Dr. Howald has taught graduate courses in communications and wireless systems engineering, and has published and presented hundreds of technical papers related to cable technology and communications systems in industry and academic conferences and journals. He has a BSEE and MSEE from Villanova University, a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering from Drexel University, and a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) from DeSales University.

Pablo Castillo has been involved in the industry for over 14 years, most of which have been around new technology selection, testing and introduction to productive operations. Having taken part in Mexican cable industry consolidation, Pablo has firsthand experience in network and operations development.

Currently living in Monterrey, Mexico. Very happily married. Likes to travel, read, and hosting barbecues.

My name is Yong Yu. I am an experienced Operations Leader with an extensive background in operations management, data analysis, cross-functional synergies, financial management and oversight, and communications. With degrees in Communication and Business Management, I also leverage my Six Sigma Green Belt certification and knowledge gained from the Driving Innovations Leadership Academy to identify process improvement opportunities and drive change. Mentorship is also a key focus of mine, both by seeking knowledge or sharing knowledge in an Operations Management Mentoring Program I developed and have led for the past seven years, impacting over 30 participants.

Christopher Aubut, a Principal Engineer II at Charter Communications, specializes in emerging technologies, with 17 years of combined experience in Network Engineering and Software Engineering roles. With double bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics, he is deeply committed to driving technical and business development initiatives, particularly focusing on empowering network operators to expose controls to developers using federated technologies. As an advocate of privacy-enabling technologies, Christopher brings a unique perspective to discussions on cutting-edge technologies and ethical considerations in the digital age. Beyond his professional pursuits, he actively contributes to Open Source Software (OSS) projects and explores federated social media technologies, enriching his understanding of decentralized digital ecosystems.

Srilal Weera, PhD is the founding chair of AI/ML working group of CableLabs-SCTE. The WG is a vibrant community of 100+ professionals, tasked with the dissemination of latest AI/ML best practices. Srilal is a principal engineer at Charter engaged in the architecture and analytics of video, advertising and content protect initiatives. His work includes XAI, Responsible AI and privacy in GenAI. Srilal has previously worked at AT&T Labs, NASA and ORNL. He is a prolific inventor and is also USPTO patent bar certified.   

Mark Teeninga is a 19 year veteran of the Cable Telecommunications industry. Mark has worked across many areas of the business including Call Centre Operations, Field Operations, Network Operations, Carrier Services, and Product Management. Presently working in the Engineering team at Cogeco Connexion, Mark is responsible for the architecture of Residential Internet and Wi-Fi services across the Quebec and Ontario service areas. He is also responsible for evaluation of and configuration design for Customer Premises Equipment deployed across Cogeco’s Network.

Mark is a longtime resident of Hamilton, Ontario who enjoys fine dining, travel, and nature photography.

Mark Adams is a Senior Principal Architect for Access Engineering within the Product and Technology group of Cox Communications. In this role, Mark leads the Architectural efforts around Cox’s DOCSIS 4.0 and FTTH initiatives. In addition, his responsibilities include Small Cell & WiFi engineering and lab qualification testing efforts in support of Cox’s OSP networks.

Mark is a 44-year veteran in the telecommunications industry and prior to joining Cox he held numerous positions at Scientific Atlanta/Cisco Systems including VP of Engineering, VP of Quality, VP of Applications and Sales Engineering and VP of Professional Services (SciCare). He holds several patents, authored numerous industry papers and been a speaker at both NCTA Conventions and SCTE Cable Tec Expos. While in the engineering ranks, he did extensive work in the areas of feedforward and power doubling amplifiers, fiber optic design and was one of the key contributors in architecture concepts which lead to the HFC Network we know today.

Mark is a 39-year SCTE member and currently serves as the Region 9 Representative. Previously he was the President of the Chattahoochee Chapter and at the national level is the Chair for the SCTE Chapter Bylaws Committee and serves on the No Chapter Left Behind, Chapter Support & Membership and Chapter Leadership Conference Committees. He has been a speaker at the SCTE’s Chapter Leadership Conference and Chapter President’s Roundtable. In 2018 he was elevated to the rank of SCTE Senior Member for his contributions to the SCTE and Cable Industry and in 2021 was inducted into the Cable Pioneers as well as named SCTE Member of the Year. At the 2022 SCTE Cable Tech Expo, Mark was inducted into the SCTE Hall of Fame.

Mark majored in Physics at Georgia State University and holds an Executive Master of Business degree from Georgia State University. He is a PMI certified PMP.

In his spare time Mark enjoys playing golf, musical instruments (guitar, drums, and keyboards) and is a huge Civil War buff. His absolute favorite thing however is rooting on the Alabama Crimson Tide!

Charles serves as Vantiva’s Chief Technology Officer, overseeing the company’s technology strategies for the next 3-5 years. Collaborating with leading service providers globally, he plays a pivotal role in delivering cutting-edge wired and wireless access services, home broadband, video, and IoT solutions, essential components of consumers’ daily digital lifestyles.

Over the past 12 years, Charles has concentrated on the consumer home domain, focusing on the technologies and products necessary to complement services provided by global service providers. He has forged close partnerships with prominent silicon companies to foster innovation in product and service delivery, particularly in areas such as Wi-Fi and emerging fields like health and telemedicine. A frequent speaker at industry events, Charles is recognized for his influential contributions in shaping the future of connected consumer home experiences.

Charles held the position of CTO at CommScope Home Networks until January 2024, when it was acquired by Vantiva. He has also held executive and senior management roles at ARRIS Inc, Com21 Inc, and Apple.

Together with the Vantiva team, Charles remains committed to driving industry-leading consumer connectivity and video solutions for service providers and emerging markets.

Jan Ariesen is an accomplished engineer with over thirty-seven years’ experience in the broadband cable industry. Jan currently leads the CTO, Marketing, R&D and QA teams at Technetix. He was appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in 2012 and has since been responsible for the creation of innovative technologies and products that improve customers network performance while driving down the total cost of ownership.

Jan’s focus is on liaising with customers to establish their needs and to be the Technetix technology advocate, developing new technologies and product platforms with them in mind. He is passionate about learning and regularly conducts training for customers and key industry bodies, in addition to conducting regular training sessions for the team at Technetix through the Technetix Academy.

Jan was appointed to the Technetix main board in 2018.

Colin Howlett is the Chief Technology Officer, joining Vecima in 1997. He is responsible for defining the overall technology strategy at Vecima and leads a group of product architects who work directly with customers to define the next generation of Vecima products. Colin has been an active participant in industry standards development at CableLabs and SCTE in the areas of DOCSIS and Distributed Access Architectures. Colin holds multiple patents in cable broadband access, a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree and Bachelor of Computer Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan.

At Charter, Mr. Jindal is responsible for driving next generation wireless research and development to enable a comprehensive offering in support of Charter’s vision to develop a framework that will drive evolution of wireless services, both fixed and mobile. Initiatives include 5G, rural fixed wireless broadband, standards, spectrum strategy, future technology labs and industrial IoT. With over 25 years of experience in the communications industry, Mr. Jindal has held a variety of positions in Product Development, Product Management, Solution Development, Technology and Strategy.

Prior to this Manish Jindal was VP/Head of Technology Strategy for Ericsson North America where he was responsible for technology leadership and future growth plan of Ericsson.

Manish Jindal also worked with Nokia Networks where he was responsible for End to End Solutions Architecture in North America. In this capacity, Manish works with operators in planning their network evolution across the breadth of technologies in support of their business objectives. Manish also server as the CTO for Sprint account as well as United States Sub Region.

Manish was instrumental in significantly expanding the company’s Latin America GSM voice network over IP backbone, as well as market leadership in IMS in North America. In 2007 and 2008, Manish led Product Management for Nokia Networks in North America. From 2003 to 2007, Manish led product management for Nokia Networks across 13 countries in Latin America. Prior to joining Nokia, Manish served in technology leadership roles for IP Gen, Zhone, and Nortel Networks.

With over 25 years of experience in the communications industry, Manish has held a variety of positions in Product Development, Product Management, Solution Development and Technology.

Manish holds a BS in Computer Science from Birla Institute of Technology, MESRA, India, and a Masters in Computer Science and Telecommunications from University of Missouri in the United States.

Asaf Matatyaou is Senior Vice President, Product, Broadband Business at Harmonic. In this role, Asaf is responsible for product management, strategy and solution architectures, including Harmonic’s virtual cable access solution, cOS®. Asaf has over 20 years of experience as an engineer and executive in the cable industry, including roles where he led development of CMTS products and helped drive industry specifications. Asaf earned his BS degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Edward Boyd is the VP of PON R&D for Ciena Corp. In December of 2022, Ciena acquired Tibit Communications where Mr. Boyd was the Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder. Tibit Communications was a Northern California startup company developing Pluggable Network Interface solutions including the world’s first Micro-OLT in an SFP+ form factor. Before Tibit, Mr. Boyd was the CTO and Co-Founder of Teknovus, Inc before it was acquired by Broadcom in March of 2010. Mr. Boyd was Senior Technical Director for Broadcom Corporation working on the Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) products before leaving to become a Co-Founder of Tibit. Mr. Boyd has more than 30 years of experience defining and developing ASICs for data communications, cable access networks, and telecom access networks. Mr. Boyd holds numerous patents in areas of cable modem, PON, and Ethernet networks. Mr. Boyd has been active in CableLabs, ITU-T (BPON/GPON), 25GS MSA, and IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet/EPON/EPoC) standards bodies.

Mike Emmendorfer is VP of Technology at Calix since joining in 2022. He is responsible for defining new Access, Premises, and Cloud platforms and standards. He is a technology evangelist discussing vision and requirements with communication service providers (CSPs). Prior to Calix, he was VP of Systems Engineering & Architecture at CommScope (2019 – 2022) and ARRIS (2006 – 2019). He managed half of the CTO group globally with responsibilities for PON, DOCSIS, and Cloud platforms. In 1999, he joined Charter Communications as a founding member (later engineering executive) of its Internet, Telephone & Business Services. He created the Data Network and Application Engineering and Architecture organizations. He ushered in new technologies to create a modern CSP using PON, DOCSIS, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, IP/MPLS, L2/L3 VPN, Email, VoIP, EMS, NMS, provisioning, and automation. He enabled residential, SMB, large business, MDU, hospitality & mobile Xhaul services until his departure in 2006.

Mike has received industry awards to include his induction into the Cable TV Pioneers, Class of 2023. Since 1966, the Cable TV Pioneers reflects leadership, values and entrepreneurial success that has changed and expanded the industry. The inductees include CEOs, presidents, engineers, trade execs and others, making this among the highest industry honor. In 2008, Multichannel News Magazine, which reaches 18,000+ industry professionals, selected Mike to their “40 under 40” list of key industry leaders. In 2005, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers or SCTE, which has 23,000+ members, awarded Mike the “IP Innovator Award”, their highest honor in the field of data networking. Mike has received industry appointments to serve on the board and/or chair standards organizations to include the Broadband Forum (BBF), CableLabs, Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), and IEEE. These industry awards and appointments acknowledged his pioneering work transforming the communication services industry. He presented to a prime minster, domestic and international government agencies (FCC), financial analysts, press and at conferences. He has 40+ industry publications and 11 patents, some as the basis for industry standards.

Mike’s pioneering work began in 1999 at the beginning of the broadband internet era. He has held engineering executive positions at a tier 1 communication service provider (CSP), several tier 1 communication equipment suppliers, and has chaired standards groups. He has received industry awards and appointments and has 40+ industry publications and 11 patents. He ushered in new technologies to create a modern communication service provider (CSP). In 1999 through 2006, Mike led the first broadband internet service deployments in markets across 40 states, that included tier 1 cities to rural markets, where most markets had only dial-up internet options. In 2002, he led the first in the world deployment of an end-to-end VoIP network for primary line telephone service as well as the first use of MPLS VPN services over broadband. In 2002, he was among the first to deploy PON technology. In 2010, he led the first in the world implementation of a disaggregated OLT that virtualized the OLT management plane and ONU management and control functions, that today these concepts are being standardized and implemented. Mike has published patents and industry papers that later served as the basis for industry standards, these include CableLabs DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON (DPoE) and DOCSIS 3.1 standards, both deployed worldwide.

He holds a B.Sc. in Management Information Systems from Saint Louis University and held Cisco certification.

Scott Weinstein is Vice President, ANS Product Management at CommScope.  He has been with CommScope since 2010, via Aurora Networks, Pace and ARRIS.  Before joining Aurora Networks, Weinstein was a managing director in the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Group at Piper Jaffray & Co, and prior to that, with Thomas Weisel Partners and Wessels, Arnold & Henderson.  During his 15 years in the financial banking and mergers-and-acquisitions sector, Weinstein was involved in close to 100 corporate transactions and financing deals valued in excess of $15 billion.  He has a BS Engineering and a BS Finance from the University of Pennsylvania.

Joe leads the Broadband Market Development for Corning’s Optical Communications team. With 24 years of telecom experience in engineering, product management, and product development; Joe pioneers FTTx architectures, optical solution advancement, and design optimization for today’s evolving networks. His approach to optical network evolution lowers the cost of deployment for fiber-based access networks. His most recent areas of contribution focus on identifying rural broadband connectivity solutions, revolutionizing hardened FTTX terminals, and helping network operators overcome barriers to adoption. Joe obtained his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from NCSU and MBA from UNC Chapel Hill. He served for 6 years as a Board Member for the Fiber Broadband Association and is joining the board of SCTE as a vendor representative starting this year.

Sundeep Singatwaria is a seasoned customer focused technology leader who has led teams in various technology domain evolution covering Wireless, Cybersecurity and Wired infrastructure. Sundeep has been a thought leader in Operator and Privately managed infrastructure spanning Service Provider, Datacenter and Campus Networks. He has held key roles in early-stage startups and big companies such as Meta, Ruckus Wireless, Juniper, Citrix, ConSentry, Nortel and Bay Networks.

Dieter is part of Deloitte’s global 5G leadership team, drives the firms access economics thinking and is a passionate advocate of FWA. Over the past 25 years he has experienced the telco across a wide range of topics. As a strategy consultant Dieter has led major market, technology and cost side transformations for leading fixed, mobile and converged operators as well as equipment suppliers, across Europe, India, the Middle East and the US. In addition, he has held various senior industry roles including Director Group Strategy at a European group operator.

Peter is a Managing Director and Senior Analyst leading Wolfe Research’s Media/Entertainment and Cable/Telecom team. Peter joined Wolfe Research in 2022 from Bernstein, where he was a Managing Director and Senior Equity Research analyst for three years. Clients polled for Institutional Investor’s “All-America Research Team” ranked Peter “Runner-Up” in both Media/Entertainment and Cable/Telecom.

Prior to Bernstein, Peter worked at Passport Capital where he was Director of Research, Sector Portfolio Manager, and Senior Analyst for 10 years. Peter began his career at Allen & Co. LLC where he became a Vice President. In 1998, Peter received his B.A. in History from Williams College. Peter lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan with his wife and three children.

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.

Maria Popo is the president and CEO of SCTE, a CableLabs subsidiary. SCTE is dedicated to enhancing the broadband industry by aligning corporate goals with transformative learning solutions, fostering workforce technology skills and innovation, while leveraging its global network of over 60 chapters for industry engagement and insights.

Popo’s journey from trade school to academia and boardrooms has been shaped by tenacity, adaptability, and lifelong learning. From customer service representative to senior executive of Global Fortune 50 Foxconn, CEO/president of Ubee Interactive Americas, leadership roles at 3Com(HP)/Ambit Microsystems/3M, and now as a technology education innovator, Maria has shown a profound ability to drive transformative growth.

Maria blends executive acumen with advanced business expertise. Her knowledge spans AI, data analytics, and VR, while her specialization in learning technology and design sets her apart. This unique tech savvy, coupled with timely award-winning research on sociotechnical workplace skills conducted at Stanford University in 2022/2023, places Maria at the forefront of strategic insights for businesses navigating the complexities of the AI era. Popo’s business acumen is demonstrated through numerous achievements, including financial oversight in preparation for a potential IPO, delivering a $150 million top-line gain at Ubee Interactive and transforming 3Com’s exit strategy into a $1B startup. Her talent for crafting data-driven product roadmaps and forging high-volume contracts has consistently delivered strong financial outcomes. Maria’s strategic vision and ability to identify new markets, foster high-performing teams, and forge international partnerships shine through in her collaborations with global industry leaders.

Popo currently serves as an Independent Board Director at Four18 Intelligence, a cyber threat hunting PaaS for analyst training. Prior to this, she was an Executive Board Director at Ubee Interactive Inc., a global provider of carrier class networking products, and was also president and chair of the Rocky Mountain Region’s Women in Cable & Telecom (WICT), a non-profit organization empowering women leaders in cable and media. Popo is a Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute (DCI) fellow, and Master of Science graduate in Learning Design and Technology. Maria has received recognition such as: 20 Female Founders to Watch, CableFax Most Powerful Women in Cable, Multichannel News Women in Technology, and 8th Fastest Growing Woman-Led Company. Popo has also mentored entrepreneurs in programs like Techstars, The Commons – Denver, Thailand’s AIS, and Stanford’s LeanLaunchpad.

Jeff Leget is President and CEO at Kyrio, and Senior Vice President of Infrastructure at CableLabs, a non-profit research & development and innovation lab funded by the global cable industry. Since joining CableLabs in 2015, Jeff’s responsibilities have expanded to include IT, lab and office facilities, public key infrastructure (PKI) operations and mid-tier operator relationships. At Kyrio, a subsidiary of CableLabs, Jeff leads a growing provider of services for the connectivity industry, including broadband device testing, security analysis and software services.

Jeff is responsible for the CableLabs-managed ecosystem that issues millions of new PKI certificates each year, ensuring the secure transmission of data for all cable modems throughout the world. Most recently, he has also been managing relationships with CableLabs’ North American mid-tier operators – a diverse group of public and privately owned network operators that provide services that are often in geographically challenging locations with unique needs.

Prior to joining CableLabs, Jeff held executive operating and strategy roles at (i)Structure, a subsidiary of Level 3 Communications, and Keynetics, a mid-sized internet retailer and fraud management company. He broadened his role at Keynetics and became the head of risk management and international expansion. Jeff began his career as a consultant with Accenture before moving to Corporate Express (Staples) during an era of rapid expansion.

Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University, and a Master of Business Administration from Colorado State University. He lives with his wife and children in Broomfield, Colorado.

Mark Bridges is the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at CableLabs, a non-profit research & development and innovation lab funded by the global cable industry. He leads CableLabs’ long-term vision by driving the development of technologies critical to the industry’s evolution including wired, wireless, network convergence and security. His areas of expertise include research and development of software-defined networks, network as a service/platform and cloud native architectures.

Mark previously served as the Vice President of the Future Infrastructure Group as part of the Office of the CTO at CableLabs, where he spearheaded strategic planning for the future of access network technologies and software platforms. With nearly 30 years of experience in communications and software development, Mark is a seasoned industry professional with a deep understanding of the communications and technology industries. His tenure at CableLabs began in 2010, and over the years, he has made significant contributions to the company’s technological advancements and strategic direction.

Prior to joining CableLabs, Mark was Director and Chief Architect at Avaya where he was instrumental in defining the technology strategy and architecture for Avaya Global Services’ next-generation service delivery platforms. Before joining Avaya, Mark was the founder and CEO of VCS, Inc., a systems integrator, and platform development company focused on creating business operations and service delivery support systems for various industries, with a particular emphasis on OSS/BSS platforms for the telecommunications industry. He led VCS to a successful merger in 2001.

Mark studied Information Systems at the University of Georgia where he met and married his wife of over 30 years. During his leisure time in the fall season, Mark can be spotted on Saturdays at his favorite breweries in his hometown, Longmont, Colorado – always cheering for his Dawgs!

Bernardo Huberman is a Fellow and Vice President of Next-Gen Systems at CableLabs, where he leads research focused on AI and Quantum Networking. Prior to joining CableLabs, Bernardo was a Senior Fellow and Senior Vice President at Hewlett Packard Laboratories, where he lead research focused on distributed systems and the attention economy. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s and Japan’s Society for the Advancement of Science, and has been a visiting professor at the European School of Business (INSEAD), the University of Paris, The Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and Stanford University. His h-index is 103, and is the author of 73 US Patents.

Steve is a distinguished international subject matter expert, esteemed author, and visionary thought leader in the realm of telecommunications. He currently holds the esteemed position of VP of Global Commercial Relationships at SCTE, a subsidiary of CableLabs®. Steve brings over three decades of profound expertise in technology, telecommunications, and adult learning to his role, where he is entrusted with spearheading, expediting, and evaluating industry partnerships with operators, organizations, and the vendor community.

As a seasoned practitioner, Steve excels in architecting, developing, and delivering expert-level telecommunications educational programs meticulously crafted to showcase tangible ROI. He also serves as the Fiber Source for Broadband Library magazine, a respected instructor for Cisco, CompTIA, and CWNP. Notably, he serves as an esteemed ambassador to ANGA COM GmbH, Light Reading and the Military of NATE committee, embodying a commitment to fostering growth and excellence within the industry.

Chris Stengrim is the Vice President of technology strategy at CableLabs. In this role he leads a team of innovators and business strategists who create strategic assessments of emerging technologies; generate impactful ideas and manage a robust innovation pipeline; conduct business case analyses supporting innovation projects; and support service providers with economic analysis of wireless, optical and HFC technologies. Chris is intensely curious about emerging network technologies and identifying use cases to enhance the profitability of service providers.

Prior to joining CableLabs, Chris spent a decade at Time Warner Cable in technology strategy, corporate strategy, and product management with a primary focus on long-term technology planning related to broadband technology and networks. Chris also spent seven years as director of product development and new ventures at PanAmSat, pioneering the development of Internet services over satellite for global ISP’s. Chris served five years as a satellite operations officer in the U.S. Air Force, finishing with the rank of Captain and earning two Air Force commendation medals.

Chris has a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and economics from the University of Notre Dame; a Master of Science degree in management from Troy University; and a Master of Business Administration degree in marketing from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Chris lives with his wife and two children in Connecticut and enjoys travel, running, swimming, skiing, and platform tennis.

Debbie Fitzgerald is a Distinguished Technologist and Director in the Advanced Technology Group at CableLabs, leading the award-winning energy efficiency voluntary agreements for small network equipment and set-top boxes in the United States and Canada. Debbie holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. She has been recognized as one of the Cablefax Most Powerful Women, as an Energy and Environmental Leader 100 Honoree, and the WICT Rocky Mountain Woman in Technology.

Steve Goeringer is a principal security architect at CableLabs, responsible for developing innovative security solutions for emerging technologies. Additionally, he is the security working group chairperson for the Center for Medical Interoperability. He has recently been developing a trust framework and associated specifications for secure medical device interoperability, researching security of network functions virtualization (NFV) and software defined networks (SDN) for carrier networks, and creating new security approaches for cable architecture. Steve has also investigated innovations in integrating cryptography in cameras, developed blockchain solutions for both cable industry and healthcare use cases, and contributed new approaches to securing home networks.

Prior to working at CableLabs, Steve worked as a consultant for Polar Star Consulting, LLC, providing technology leadership to government agencies. In this role, he researched quantifiable benefits of WAN acceleration solutions in mission critical environments, investigated security vulnerabilities of high speed ethernet networks, and designed and engineered nationwide optical networks. Before that, he fulfilled several engineering and management roles at Qwest, including technical director of access and transport strategy.

Steve is a contributing author to “Guide to Security in SDN and NFV” from Springer Publishing and has participated and presented on blockchain, dark web, and medical security topics at IEEE, SCTE, and ETSI events. He spent 12 years at the National Security Agency where he was a Master Intelligence Analyst. He started his career in the U.S. Army as a communications station technical controller. Steve has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer and information science from the University of Maryland University College.

Karthik Sundaresan, Distinguished Technologist and Director of HFC solutions at CableLabs, is responsible for the development and architecture of cable access network technologies. He is the technical lead and long-time contributor to the family of DOCSIS technologies (D4.0, D3.1, D3.0, RPHY, eDOCSIS, L2VPN, PCMM). He has pioneered work on Profile Management helping operators optimize their networks. He is focused on MAC and IP layer protocols, with recent research in areas around Latency Measurement, Low Latency DOCSIS, PON technologies, implications of virtualization, wireless convergence, and machine learning on data from cable networks.

Previously, he developed SoC & ASIC designs for MPEG encoders, analog video decoders and cable modems at Conexant Systems, and developed embedded software for telecom networking equipment at Carrier Access. Karthik holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (University of Colorado, Boulder), a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and is a past Chair of the IEEE Communications Society, Denver Chapter.

Luther Smith is the Director, Wireless Access Technologies and Distinguished Technologist at CableLabs. While Luther’s current focus is within the Wireless technology, Luther has experience in many Wired, and Video technologies. Over Luther’s 20 years at CableLabs, his roles have extended from testing and specification development to leading the Wireless Access Team. Luther currently serves as Lead or Co-Lead in varies working groups in the WBA and WInnForum and well participates in working groups in IEEE, WInnForum, WBA and WFA. Luther holds a Master of Information Systems and MBA in Technical Management from the University of Phoenix.  Luther is ISC2 CISSP certified and a member of the SCTE and IEEE.

Dr. Sayandev Mukherjee is a member of the Next-Generation Systems Group, where he works on innovative applications of AI/ML for both wired and wireless communications. Prior to joining CableLabs, he conducted research on wireless communications and ML. A senior member of the IEEE, Dr. Mukherjee has been awarded more than 20 patents and has authored two research monographs published by Cambridge University Press, in addition to more than 80 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. He received his Ph.D. in artificial neural networks (the precursors of today’s deep learning models) from Cornell University in 1997.

Jacob Malone is a Principal Strategist and Director of the User Behavior & Economics team at CableLabs. With over 10 years of experience studying the consumer demand of broadband, he specializes in empirical research of subscriber behavior, demand forecasting, the value of broadband, network evolution, and industry business strategies related to technology, product, and marketing. Jacob received his PhD in Economics from the University of Georgia with an emphasis in applied microeconomics and industrial organization. He has been published in academic journals such as Telecommunications Policy.

Matt Schmitt is a Principal Architect at CableLabs.  Matt has worked in the cable industry on DOCSIS® and other technologies for over 25 years with CableLabs and several manufacturers.  On the DOCSIS technology side he led the development of the DOCSIS 3.1 specifications at CableLabs, and has also led or played a significant role in the development of the DSG, Modular CMTS, DOCSIS 3.0, CCAP, and C-DOCSIS specifications.  After leading the Lab Services team at CableLabs for several years, Matt returned to the R&D side of CableLabs and has since become deeply involved in projects related to coherent optics, first leading the CableLabs Point-to-Point Coherent Optics effort, and now leading the Coherent PON (CPON) project. Additionally, Matt has continued to support a variety of efforts at CableLabs ranging from low latency to fixed-mobile convergence, while maintaining responsibility for the various CableLabs Certification programs (including the DOCSIS 4.0 Certification Program).

Kevin Noll is a Principal Architect at CableLabs where he engages with members, industry experts and vendors to develop architectures and strategies to guide the cable industry as it continues to expand FTTP deployments across the globe. He is also the co-founder and president of Loudoun Broadband Alliance, a non-profit organization promoting expansion of access to broadband to underserved communities.

Mr. Noll earned his BSEE from the University of Central Florida and MSEE from Villanova University. He has spent nearly 30 years in the telecommunications industry designing, deploying and managing networks of all sizes and holds patents in the areas of multimedia distribution, fiber optic networks, and network protocols. He is active in standards development efforts in the IEEE, CableLabs, ITU-T and the Broadband Forum.

He has four unique patents.

Todd Bryan has 25+ years experience as a strategy consultant and executive, focusing on Software and SaaS, Digital Media, Networking Hardware, Consumer Electronics and Durables, and Telecommunications. As a Principal Strategist on the CableLabs Technology Strategy team, Todd develops techno-economic insights for CableLabs members, focused on wired network technologies.

Previously, Todd was Managing Partner of Velotech Strategy, a boutique consultancy based in Hong Kong, and has held global leadership positions on corporate strategy teams at Philips, Adobe Systems, and Cisco Systems. Todd has also worked as a Project Leader with Boston Consulting Group in San Francisco and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as an Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley in Singapore, and as a telecommunications strategy consultant in Beijing, China.

Todd holds a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a MS from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a National Science Foundation scholar, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Hans Geerdes, PhD, is a Principal Strategist in CableLabs’ Technology Strategy team focusing on Techno-Economic analyses, Mobile Convergence, Software/NFV, and Cloud and Edge Computing. Hans joined Cable Labs from Nokia, where he held several strategy leadership positions in Mobile Broadband, Corporate Strategy, and Nokia’s Software and Cloud Services divisions. Prior to Nokia, Hans was a Project Leader for the strategy consultancy Booz & Company, working in Telecoms and Enterprise IT. Hans holds a PhD in Mathematics from Berlin University of Technology and published extensively on wireless network planning and optimization in his academic career. In his free time, Hans enjoys sparring in the boxing ring, riding his road bike, and experiencing classical and contemporary music.

Katie Chavez is a Strategist in the User Behavior & Economics team under the Strategy Team at CableLabs. She has been at CableLabs for almost 4 years studying the consumer demand of broadband through empirical research of consumer behavior, demand forecasting, and the value of broadband speeds. Katie received her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.