Introduction :

Anwar Siddiqui is currently a Technical Director of the Avaya Chief Technology Office (CTO) in Lincroft, New Jersey.

Detailed Information :

Anwar is responsible for identifying emerging technologies that are strategic to the implementation of Avaya's converged communication vision.

Anwar's areas of interest include call processing in IP networks, communication support for distributed systems, and communication protocols for the Internet, such as SIP/H.323, Enterprise Applications in Wi-Fi Networks, IP/IEEE/3G network agnostic applications, Presence Aware networks, Network Monitoring & Fault Tolerance, QOS, Network Security and Privacy, and OA&M.

Anwar joined Lucent Technologies - Bell Laboratories in 1998 and conducted research on the first generation of Voice over IP call processing systems. In 2000, he joined Avaya Labs Converged Systems Division where he was awarded Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff for his contribution in development of Avaya's Enterprise Class VoIP Systems and various other Real-Time Communication Systems widely used by Fortune 500 companies worldwide.

Anwar Siddiqui holds a Masters degree from Columbia University in the City of New York in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. He holds numerous patents in the field of computer communication, network security and privacy, QoS etc. He is an active contributor to Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and author of various IETF standard specifications. He is also a frequently invited speaker in a variety of venues across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, including prominent technology events and conferences.

Introduction :

Bernard Hammer is responsible at Siemens for technical and strategic standardization issues in the field of IP-based communications for enterprise networks.

Detailed Information :

His main task is the management of standardization efforts at Ecma, ETSI and IETF on call control/ signaling for multimodal communications, enterprise mobility and interworking issues. He is the chairman of the Technical Committee TC32 of Ecma International which specifies international standards for evolving enterprise networks and wireless PANs. Besides he represents Siemens in the Ecma General Assembly.

Prior to Siemens B. Hammer was Assistant Professor and Director of the Image Processing Group at the Institute of Communication Devices and Data Processing, Aachen, Germany. In 1983 he joined the Corporate Technology research center of Siemens, where he was responsible for various image communication projects with ISO/IEC and ITU-T (MPEG, H.320/ H.323). During this time he was the chairman of multimedia division of the German National Body DIN. In 1994 he changed to the semiconductor division of Siemens working on concept engineering of MPEG ICs. Since 1998 he is with the Siemens communication division.

B. Hammer holds a Dr.-Ing and Dipl.-Ing degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Aachen,. He has a number of patents in the field of image coding/ processing and is author of various publications on multimedia communications.

Introduction :

Chris Gatch is the CTO and a founder of Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY), a successful managed services provider started in 1999 and now publicly traded on the NASDAQ.

Detailed Information :

Chris is responsible for Cbeyond's Engineering department as well as on-going network technology research and development. Chris has a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Clemson University and a master's degree in the management of technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has served on the board of the Cisco BTS 10200 Users Group and the Service Provider Board of the International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC). Chris has been professionally committed to VoIP technology since 1998.

Chris helped lead the formation of the SIP Forum’s Service Provider to IP PBX Interoperability Task Group for which he submitted the proposal to create. This task group produced the SIPconnect SIP Forum recommendation of which Chris was an editor along with Chris Sibley.

Introduction :

Most recently, Dr. Eric Burger was Chief Technology Officer at NeuStar, where he was responsible for setting NeuStar's forward-looking technology and service strategy, and devising the architecture to help strengthen the company's position by developing new services and solutions. He also oversaw the early stages of new technology development, and worked closely with NeuStar's Operations team to drive the successful launch and commercialization of future IP services.

Prior to NeuStar, Eric was Deputy Chief Technology Officer and General Manager of the Communications Division at BEA Systems, primarily focusing on real-time multimedia communications and the telecommunications industry vertical.

Detailed Information :

Eric has made numerous contributions on protocols to the IETF (SIP, SIPPING, SIMPLE, LEMONADE, SPEECHSC, VPIM) and markup to the W3C (VoiceXML, CCXML, and MSCML). He is the inventor of the Applications and Services Infrastructure concept, bringing the web development paradigm to telephony applications. Service providers, application developers, and equipment manufacturers have since adopted SIP+XML as one of the motivations to moving to a SIP-based real-time communications infrastructure.

Eric sits on the advisory boards of Sigma Systems, Dexrex, PC-NG, Kanga Networks, Mobera Systems, and AGNITY. He is currently Vice Chair of the IEEE-USA Committee on Communications Policy as well as Vice Chair of the IEEE New Hampshire Section. He is also Chair of the mobile e-mail, speech services control, and media control work groups in the IETF. Prior to BEA Systems, Eric was a Founder and CTO at SnowShore Networks; CTO at Brooktrout Technology; and CTO of Cantata Technology. He has held various positions with ADC/Centigram, The Telephone Connection, MCI, Cable & Wireless, Texas Instruments, and Valid Logic Systems.

Eric has published 11 RFCs, 12 patents, journal papers, and a book on SIP signaling entitled Ubiquitous Reach and Remote Control of Devices: Introducing KPML. He is a Senior Member of the ACM and IEEE, a Patron of the AAAS, and a Benefactor of the Internet Society. Eric holds SBEE, MBA, and Ph.D. Computer Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Catholic University of Leuven, and Illinois Institute of Technology. He was a Lecturer at George Washington University and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at George Mason University.

Introduction :

Henning Schulzrinne is an Assoc. Prof. in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University.

Detailed Information :

Henning Schulzrinne is an Assoc. Prof. in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in the City of New York. His research interests encompass Internet telephony, Internet multimedia, quality-of-service, mobility and security. He is a co-author of the SIP, RTSP, and RTP specifications.

Introduction :

Ranjith Mukundan is currently the Head of Technology, IP Multimedia Technology Labs at Wipro Technologies' IP-Multimedia Carrier & Enterprise Networks (ICEN) Business Unit.

Detailed Information :

He has over a decade of experience in core Telecom Switching R&D, spanning across Solutions design and architecture, standardization, network architecture, technology consultancy, technology trends & market analysis and Consultancy to Telecom Equipment Vendors, Professional Services Group of Equipment Vendors, Service Providers and Investment (VC) community. He is also the author of IETF drafts & RFCs in areas spanning across SIP, SIGTRAN, MEGACO and MIBs apart from being currently involved in Parlay and IMS Standardization activities. He is also the author of papers on Packet Network Solutions, NGN Trends, Kerberos, IEEE/ICIN paper on Service Delivery Platform Evolution and VoIP SPAM prevention. He is a regular Speaker at various International Forums on Real-time Multimedia IP Communications & Applications related Areas.

Introduction :

Robert Sparks is a Principal Engineer at Tekelec.

Detailed Information :

Before joining Tekelec, he was the VP of Research and Development at Estacado Systems, CTO at Xten Networks (now CounterPath) and has held management and research positions at Dynamicsoft, Lucent, MCI, and Texas A&M University. For over 8 years, Robert has focused on designing and developing SIP-based IP communications systems.

Robert is a co-author of the core SIP specification, RFC3261, and several of its updates and extensions. He chairs the IETF's SIMPLE and GEOPRIV working groups. Robert has focused on improving the level of interoperability of SIP implementations by coordinating the SIPIt and SIMPLEt interoperability events. Robert is also an active contributor to the reSIProcate project.

Robert has a BSc in Computer Science and a MSc in Mathematics from Texas A & M University.

Introduction :

Seamus is the vice president of marketing and product management at Acme Packet.

Detailed Information :

His focus is on pragmatic deployment challenges around end-to-end session based communications including business models for SIP services spanning single provider and multiple provider networks.

Seamus brings more than 20 years experience in executive management, marketing, business development, and product management to his role at Acme Packet. Formerly, Seamus was the vice president of marketing for internetworking leader Wellfleet and, after its merger with Synoptics, at Bay Networks (now Nortel) for nearly seven years. During his tenure, revenue grew from $10 million to $2 billion and Wellfleet was recognized as America's Fastest Growing Company by Inc. magazine.

Seamus also served as vice president of marketing for Pingtel, widely recognized as the leader in SIP phones, and vice president of marketing for Bright Tiger (now Macromedia), an award-winning pioneer in guaranteeing Web site up-time and fast response.

Seamus is the co-author of several internetworking guidebooks and also held management positions at Data General and MASSCOMP. He holds an AB degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Babson College.

Introduction :

As President of Ingate Systems Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Ingate Systems A.B., Steven Johnson is responsible for building market recognition and developing multiple sales channels for Ingate products within the United States.

Detailed Information :

Johnson most recently served as CEO of Abrena, Inc., a business development consulting firm that assists European and North American firms to expand in the United States. Prior to that, Johnson was President and CEO of Transcept, Inc., a telecommunications infrastructure company that develops products to economically enhance wireless network coverage and capacity. Johnson also served as Division General Manager for Lockheed Martin, and held a number of senior management positions at Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Corporation and Sanders Associates, Inc. Johnson was also Treasurer at Telco Systems, Inc., a supplier of Information and Communication Technology equipment for the Regional Bell Operating Companies. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and a Master’s in Business Administration from Boston University.