Session Speakers: WISPAPALOOZA 2022

Profile Picture	Full Name	Company	Job Title	Speaking At	Attendee Bio
	Paul Kmit	Clearfield, Inc.	Technology Platform Manager	Plug and Play Cookie Cutter Concepts Simplify FTTH Deployments	(not set)
	Andrew Pigney	American Tower	Technology Principal	RF Design and Planning	Andrew Pigney currently works for American Tower Corporation as Technology Principal, providing technical and engineering support for many internal groups globally. He has over 40 years work experience ranging from military electronic warfare systems to wireless telecom service and infrastructure providers. He is well versed in many technology disciplines including RF engineering planning, design, and deployment of outdoor and indoor wireless infrastructure ranging from broadband to microwave to 5G. He lives in New England, is father to seven children, four grandchildren, and enjoys playing guitar in several bands
(not set)	Marc Hemann	Cambium Networks	Training Manager	Universal Access Architecture with Adaptive Cloud Networking	(not set)
	Scott Woods	Ready.net	Vice President for Community Engagement and Strategic Partnerships	Drafting Grant Proposals to Apply for These Federal Funds	Scott D. Woods is the former inaugural Director of the Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives in NTIA’s Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth (OIGC). While at NTIA, he served as the principal liaison between the OIGC program office and key strategic partners and external stakeholder groups, including representatives from state and local governments, telecommunications companies, for-profit and nonprofit corporations, and colleges/universities. Scott is a broadband funding, implementation and stakeholder engagement expert and served as a key member of the OIGC leadership team responsible for the implementation and launch of the Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives and the historic $65 billion broadband funding program authorized by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA). Scott’s expertise and devotion to increasing broadband access and digital inclusion has helped transform the lives of many communities throughout the U.S. through programs such as the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), BroadbandUSA Technical Assistance Program, BroadbandUSA Community Education Workshops; HBCU College Partnership Program; the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program; and his influence among national, state and corporate decision makers, and his on-the-groundwork building community-based broadband coalitions. Scott has long advocated for better broadband maps, data collection and utilization and in his various roles at NTIA, has used broadband data, mapping, and visualizations to make better broadband funding and programmatic decisions. As the Vice President for Community Engagement and Strategic Partnerships for Ready.net, Scott will facilitate and develop key public-private partnerships formed via the Broadband.Money platform; develop a platform for local communities to express their needs for broadband access and digital equity investments; and develop industry partnerships and foster alliances with key stakeholders to advance and support community-based broadband education and advocacy initiatives. Scott received his Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Morehouse College; Master of Arts in Public Policy from American University; and Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law.
	Douglas Patterson	Crown Castle	Vice President, Implementation & Operations	Fiber Technologies - 10Gbps Design Overview Which Way to Build - Up or Down? Troubleshooting Fiber	Douglas Patterson - Crown Castle Vice President – West Region 24 years of Telecom Engineering, Construction & Operations. Crown Castle – 5 Years Previously with US West/Qwest/CenturyLink - Western U.S. - 18 Years
	Frank DeJoy	Render Networks	Vice President Network Deployment	Fiber Deployment Options	Frank DeJoy is VP of Network Deployment for Render Networks, where he is leading the growth of Render Networks' North American business with a geospatial construction management SaaS platform. The Render solution enables network operators and builders to deploy broadband, fiber, and wireless networks faster while reducing risk and cost through digital transformation and automation. Render is the only construction management firm that has been recognized as a "FTTH Top 100 Company" by Broadband Communities for four consecutive years. Frank's thirty-year track record in telecommunications includes global business, network, and product development during executive roles at AT&T, Teleport Communications Group, General Dynamics, Dycom, Quanta Services, and Spectrum Effect (AI wireless startup). During his tenure at AT&T, Frank led the growth of the first wireless data network unit from its inception to support over $1B in ARR. Frank is a Senior Member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), and BCSI. Frank also earned an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with Highest Honors from Rutgers University.
	Eric Slee	Wireless Internet Service Providers Association	Vice President of Government Affairs	The Importance Of Grassroots Advocacy To Growing Your Business	Eric Slee currently serves as Vice President of Government Affairs for WISPA. In this capacity, he helps guide the advocacy efforts of the association’s 1000 members before Capitol Hill, as well WISPA’s growing state and local, and grassroots portfolio. Before arriving at WISPA, Slee was Legislative Director for Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), former Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. In that role, Eric managed Senator Roberts’ legislative staff and worked to implement the Senator’s legislative agenda. He also served as primary advisor to the Senator on policy matters related to telecom, energy, trade, and the environment. Prior to that, Slee was Senior Account Executive for the DCI Group in Washington, DC, developing and maintaining long-term relationships with think tanks, political activists, issue experts, and advocacy organizations on public policy issues related to the telecommunications industry. Other positions Eric has held include Communications Training Director for the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia; and Legislative Correspondent for former Representative Mark Green (R-WI-8) in Washington, DC. Slee earned his BA degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
	Louis Peraertz	Wireless Internet Service Providers Association	Vice President of Policy	Spectrum Update	Louis Peraertz is WISPA’s Vice President of Policy. In this role, Louis works to advance WISPA’s successful track record before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and other federal agencies. Prior to WISPA, Louis worked in several capacities at the FCC. Notably, for more than seven years, Louis served as legal advisor to former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in the areas of wireless, satellite, public safety, and international policies. In this position, Louis worked to achieve many of the Commissioner’s top policy priorities to bridge the digital divide, such as: increased spectrum for unlicensed services in the TV White Spaces, CBRS, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, and spectrum bands above 24 GHz; dynamic spectrum access management policies in the TV White Spaces, 3.5 GHz, and 37 GHz bands; design of geographic area licenses and competitive bidding policies to enhance the ability of small wireless companies to acquire spectrum at auctions; reform of universal service policies for commercial wireless services. Before the FCC, Louis worked as a federal appellate court litigator for the U.S. Department of Justice, and served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps. He has a BA from Princeton University and a JD from Harvard Law School.
	John Hoadley	Mavenir	Vice President of Sales Engineering and Product Architecture – North America	CBRS and Other Private Network Strategies	John Hoadley has been in the wireless industry for over 25 years and has worked in technology, product management and sales executive roles at Nortel Networks, Taqua, Casa Systems and Mavenir. As Nortel’s Wireless CTO, John managed the advanced wireless research team that drove early LTE innovations. John also founded the small cell backhaul startup Relay IQ that was acquired by Taqua. Subsequently, he ran wireless and wireline product management at Taqua. John graduated from the University of British Columbia with a bachelors degree in electrical engineering and received an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. John is the North American Vice President of Sales Engineering and Product Architecture at Mavenir.
	Skip Hirvela	Calix	Vice President Regional Sales Partners	Revenue Now, Fiber Later	(not set)
(not set)	Patrick Buthmann	BLiNQ Networks	Vice President Sales, Marketing & Business Development	The Benefits of pLTE CBRS and Other Private Network Strategies	(not set)
	Tom Mitchell	netElastic	Vice President, Strategy & Business Development	Technical Considerations in Multi Access Networks	Tom Mitchell is Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at netElastic Systems, Inc. a leading supplier of virtual networking technologies for Service Providers. He has over 30 years of networking industry experience driving strategic customer, partner and investor relationships. Tom co-founded and served as the Chief Executive of RadioLAN, and has held senior Sales, Marketing, and Business Development roles at companies such as Alloy Computer Products, Apple, Brocade, and Proxim. Tom can be reached at tmitchell@netelastic.com
	John Scrivner	Live Oak Bank	VP - Broadband	WISP Financing	John Scrivner currently serves as VP of Broadband for Live Oak Bank where he has been for the last three plus years. He previously worked for a decade in the CATV industry and then built and sold his WISP, Mt.Vernon.Net, Inc. John also served on the founding board of WISPA where he held the offices of President, Treasurer and several committee chair positions.
(not set)	William King Jr	Media King Communications	VP Business Development	Marketing to the Government	(not set)
	JAMES TAYLOR	BLUEBIRD NETWORK	VP - Carrier and Strategic Sales	Fiber Deployment Options Fiber to Fiber - Connecting FTTH Islands	James is an industry veteran with experience in fiber optic networks and wireless operations, and strives to connect communications companies to enable the expansion of their operations.
(not set)	Adair Winter	AW Broadband	VP / Co-Owner		(not set)
(not set)	Todd Webb	Komodo Systems	VP Development	Next Generation Network Monitoring Beyond SNMP	Todd’s education and training is in research software engineering, where researching the requirements is a significant part of each project. Todd has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Master’s degrees in Mathematics and Software Engineering.
	Robert Klein	Pomegran Inc.	VP, Fibre Business Strategy	All Things Private Equity	Rob Klein is Vice President, Fibre Business Strategy at PomeGran Inc. (www.pomegran.io) whose mission is to become the dominant fibre-centric broadband service provider serving under-served residential, enterprise and government customers in rural and under-served communities across Eastern Canada and the Northeast United States. PomeGran wants to ensure that No One is Left Behind, a mantra that reflects our core values of social responsibility. Rob’s team is responsible for acquisition and commercializing of fibre assets and heads up the Company’s M&A team. Prior to joining PomeGran, Rob held various senior executive positions in Canadian/U.S. private and public telecommunications and technology companies and led the acquisition of 30+ companies. Rob was part of the executive team that helped Globalive launch Wind Mobile (Freedom Mobile) in 2008, and helped co-found the Application Service Provider (precursor to SaaS and Cloud computing) industry in the late 1990’s. In addition, Rob has authored two case studies for the Blockchain Research Institute.
	Ilissa Miller	DE-CIX	VP Market Development	Best Practices for Marketing	Ilissa Miller is the CEO and founder of iMiller Public Relations, the President of NEDAS, a co-founder of the Independent Data Center Alliance and serves as the VP of Market Development for DE-CIX, the world's largest carrier and data center neutral interconnection ecosystem. With more than 25 years in the digital infrastructure space, Ilissa is a data center, IXP, interconnection and network expert.
(not set)	Kevin Czaicki	Millennium	VP of Broadband Solutions		(not set)
	Absolom Quinlivan	Fonex	VP of Business Development	Fiber Technologies - 10Gbps Design Overview	(not set)
	Steven Glapa	Tarana Wireless	VP of Marketing	Building Customer Confidence To Switch to FWA	Steven is VP of Marketing at Tarana Wireless. He has more than 20 years of experience in telecommunications innovation, with prior stints at Ruckus (where he led business and channel development that drove 10x revenue gains over 4 years and a $1b IPO), Zhone, ArrayComm, Lucent, and other startups in wireless, machine learning, and robotics. He holds an MBA from Columbia University, a BA in Physics from Carleton College, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science from George Washington University.
	Alex Freylekhman Freylekhman	Telrad Networks	VP of Sales	The Benefits of pLTE	Alex Freylekhman is an industry veteran who’s mission statement of making world faster one network at the time, has become a life mission. Having an advanced degree in computer science, and nearly 20 year experience with wireless broadband he brings a wealth of knowledge and practical skill into any broadband conversation or project.
(not set)	Matt Hamlin	EdgeTeam Technology	VP of Sales	Which Way to Build - Up or Down?	(not set)
	Michael Kletchko	Adtran	VP, RSP West Sales	Plug and Play Cookie Cutter Concepts Simplify FTTH Deployments	(not set)
(not set)	Somi Alapati	Mavenir	VP Strategy, Business Development, Head of ORAN Solutions NA	The Benefits of pLTE WiFi 6e for Fixed Wireless Access Deep Dive Revenue Now, Fiber Later	SOMI ALAPATI is a VP of Strategy, Business Development, Head of ORAN Solutions, North America, at Mavenir based in Richardson, Texas. He is responsible for strategy, ORAN solutions for MNOs, Rural Carriers, and Cable Carriers in the USA. Prior roles have spanned radio access, voice core, and packet core network products. With over 27 years of experience in wireless & communications systems, Somi held a variety of technology and leadership roles including product architecture, product management, engineering, research & development, and technology trials. Somi holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from University of North Texas, Denton. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science & Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India. Somi lives in the Dallas area with his wife and two children.