8x8, Inc.

Vik Verma is Chief Executive Officer at 8x8, Inc., the world’s first communications cloud provider, empowering over 1 million business users to communicate and collaborate across dispersed locations to deliver exceptional customer experiences. 8x8 is a pioneer in unified communications and customer engagement solutions with over 150 patents, driving global innovation in how companies communicate with their employees and customers.Verma is an engineer at heart who began his career at Savi Technology, Inc. (Savi), a leader in RFID and cloud-based technologies as a design engineer and went on to become the Chief Operating Officer and eventually the Chief Executive Officer of Savi in 1997. He holds eight patents and was named one of 40 “Technology Pioneers” by the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland in 2003 for a successful track record in building profitable businesses around emerging technologies.Verma joined 8x8 as a board member in 2012 and was appointed Chief Executive officer within a year to lead the company’s global expansion. He is the driving force behind 8x8’s market leadership in a 50 billion dollar unified and contact center communications market and its continued push for innovation in areas like Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and data analytics. Under Verma’s leadership, 8x8 has evolved into a global player in unified cloud communications from its inception as a Silicon Valley startup.With more than 25 years of industry and management experience, Verma has successfully transformed several technology businesses through organic growth, international expansion and strategic mergers and acquisitions. Prior to 8x8, he was President of Strategic Venture Development at Lockheed Martin where he led early-stage technologies to new global commercial markets through collaborative incubators, intellectual property portfolio licensing and strategic partnerships with multi-national companies. Prior to this, Verma was the President of the IS&GS Savi Group, a Lockheed Martin technology and information services division providing real-time supply chain management and security solutions for government and commercial markets worldwide. His journey with Lockheed Martin began when he was Chairman of the Board and CEO of Savi, that was acquired by Lockheed Martin in 2006.Verma holds a B.S.E.E. degree from the Florida Institute of Technology, an M.S.E. degree from the University of Michigan in electrical engineering, and the post-graduate degree of Engineer in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Subsequently, in keeping with Silicon Valley tradition, Verma left his PhD program at Stanford to join the startup world. He is also an alumni of the Executive Management programs for CEOs at Harvard Business School, Stanford University, and the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.Verma’s Florida Tech honors include being a recipient of the Faculty Honors Award (Co-Valedictorian) Class of 1987, the 1987 Tau Beta Pi Williams Fellowship, the 1999 Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award, and being selected as a commencement speaker in 2002. He served on the Florida Tech Board of Trustees from 2002 to 2007 and rejoined the board in 2015.

Armis

Nadir Izrael is co-founder and CTO of Armis, the agentless IoT security platform that lets enterprises see and control any device or network. Izrael co-founded the company in 2015 with Yevgeny Dibrov, with whom he studied at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. He spent six years in the Israeli army, specifically in Cyber Intelligence, where he designed and programmed software projects and systems, and attained the rank of captain. Following his military service, Izrael graduated Summa Cum Laude from Technion. During this time and in the following years, Izrael worked at Google as a software engineer, where he was on the team that built the autocomplete function in Google search. Izrael studied computer science and physics and enjoys combining the disciplines in coding projects, such as creating simulations of particle systems and cosmological models. He is also experienced in applied machine learning algorithms and statistical models.

Canaccord Genuity

Mike Walkley is a Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at Canaccord specializing in communications technology. Mike has over 18 years of experience as a research analyst, and previously worked at Piper Jaffray, where he was the senior wireless technologies analyst for the past 6 years. Mike has also worked in equity research at RBC Capital Markets and Raymond James Financial. Mike was ranked number 2 sell-side analyst in 2014 in part due to his recommendations of IoT public companies. He was also ranked No. 3 stock picker for communications equipment for 2004 by Starmine and No. 5 stock picker for telecommunications equipment for 2004 by the Wall Street Journal. He holds a bachelors degree in commerce from the University of Virginia and a masters degree in business administration with a concentration in finance and economics from the University of Chicago

Cisco

Joseph is Global Vice President, Customer Experience, Incubation Services and Technology. His team continuously works to identify new opportunities to help customers around the world adapt to a rapidly changing digital world. This includes the incubation and delivery of IoT and data services, emerging blockchain technologies, and smart city solutions. Joseph has deep knowledge of both start-up and enterprise businesses, and is a technology disruption thought leader for emerging technologies and business culture. Prior to joining Cisco, he was President at Uptake Technologies, CEO at C3 Communications, and Vice President/General Manager of AT&T’s Data Communications group. He holds an economics degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

Eye-Seal

Enrique Acosta is the Co-Founder of ES Information Systems / Eye-Seal, a collaboration with Coremet Trading. Enrique and the Eye-Seal team successfully developed the Eye-Seal internal container breach solution that have been awarded two US patents. The product and design was self-funded until 2019 when Eye-Seal completed a Series A round of funding with a group of logistics experts and the Texas A&M University Aggie network. In addition to his recent success and traction with Eye-Seal, Enrique leads BMB Metals, a scrap metal broker firm that is self-financed and has a presence in over 10 countries world-wide. Enrique has become an expert in maritime shipping and cargo logistics maximizing opportunities for BMB.Prior to opening BMB, Enrique was part of AMI Trading in Miami, Florida from 1993 to 2003 specializing in business development for Latin America and the Caribbean. AMI provided Enrique with a perfect platform to learn about maritime cargo and move forward to start his own business. Enrique’s scrap metal experience with cargo theft and his ability in connecting key players such as Coremet, Paragon Innovations and others like Telit has allowed him to grow the Eye-Seal initiative and remain a majority Partner at ES Information Systems.Enrique has been a leading force with the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR). He was the Founding Chairman of the (BIR) Latin America Committee in 2012 and remain a Member. The Committee is responsible for all of BIR’s advocacy and presence in Latin America and the CaribbeanEnrique is a Certified Licensed Inspector with the China Certification and Inspection Group and a Tulane graduate with a Major in Political Science and International Relations. He is married to Ingrid and they enjoy coastal living in Central Florida’s east coast.

Futurewei Technologies, Inc.

Wael is a business and technology strategist with over 885 patents to his name in the fields of networking and ICT. He is currently a Vice President at Futurewei Technologies, Inc. leading AI and IoT Standardization and Strategy. Prior to Futurewei, Wael held senior leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies, including Cisco and Broadcom.Wael has BS and MS degrees in EE and BA in Economics from Stanford, and an MBA with honors from Wharton. He is a published author, having authored the book Ethernet in the First Mile: Access for Everyone. In 2011, Wael was recognized by the David Packard Medal of Achievement and Innovator Award for his leadership in Green Technology.Wael has been active in standardization and related activities for two decades. He chairs ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42, the international standardization committee on artificial Intelligence (AI). Wael is also chairing the AI track of the 22nd Global Standards Collaboration meeting (GSC-22).

HiveMQ

Recognized as one of the worlds leading experts in the field of MQTT, he has been helping more than 100 customers going from proof of concept to production in countless IoT deployments. Florian regularly shares learnings he acquired in more than 5 years of working with the de-facto standard protocol for IoT as an author of articles or blog posts, speaker on conferences or by offering workshops.

Ice Miller LLP

Siddharth “Sid” Bose is an attorney in Ice Millers Data Security and Privacy group. Sid counsels clients on various data security and privacy issues dealing with Internet of Things (IoT), vendor management, cybersecurity and regulatory compliance, and data breaches.Sid is a co-chair of the Indianapolis chapter of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and is also a volunteer with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA), working group on IoT Security, Upgradability and Patching. As part of the working group, Sid participates in discussions on the impact of IoT devices and the need for a secure lifecycle approach to IoT devices.

Industry Analyst

MVP Capital

Michael leads IoT sector investment banking coverage at MVP Capital, a middle market investment bank focused on the technology, media & telecommunications sectors. Michael has more than 20 years of Investment Banking experience and has been involved in a wide variety of financing and M&A transactions for software, telecom and new emerging technology companies. Michael has advised numerous companies throughout the IoT ecosystem. Most recent transactions include the sale of M2M Data to Caterpillar, Reltima and GPS North America to Telular, the sale of SkyBitz to Telular Corporation, the sale of Telular to Avista Capital and MiX Telematics on their initial public offering. Michael has a BA from the University of Western Ontario and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

NanoLock Security

Yoni Kahana, VP Customers, NanoLock Security, brings more than 20 years of experience in managing, leading and developing large-scale projects in secure telecommunications and embedded systems, from idea-stage to completion in R&D, product and business environments. Yoni brings extensive cybersecurity experience, with specific expertise in securing embedded and connected devices in connected vehicles and IoT devices. Prior to NanoLock, Yoni was the Product Cybersecurity Group Manager for General Motors (GM), where he managed the Israeli Cybersecurity Group responsible for securing crucial elements in the car. He also was a Security System Team leader and Security System Product Engineer at Qualcomm and served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in an elite unit where he led and developed cybersecurity solutions.

OATH

Donald Malloy is the Chairman of OATH, The Initiative for Open Authentication. OATH is an industry alliance that has changed the authentication market from proprietary systems to an open source standard based architecture promoting ubiquitous strong authentication used by most companies today for their Multi Factor solutions.Don has more than 25 years’ experience in the Security and Payment industry and is currently a security technology consultant working with companies and assisting with their security and authentication business. He is also the Founder of the Symposium on Securing the IoT which is a series of conferences focused on IoT Security. Don was responsible for developing the online authentication product line while at NagraID Security (Idemia) and prior to that he was Business Development and Marketing Manager for Secure Smart Card ICs for both Philips Semiconductors (NXP) and Infineon Technologies. Don originally comes from Boston where he was educated and has M.S. level degrees in Organic Chemistry and an M.B.A. in Marketing. He resides in southern California and in his spare time he enjoys hiking, kayaking and constantly learning what this beautiful world has to offer.

PoLTE

Ed Chao serves as PoLTE’s CEO and brings over 26 years of executive leadership experience in the global wireless industry to help position PoLTE as the premier geolocation technology provider for IoT and mobile devices.In his former role as a senior technology executive at MetroPCS, Chao established the company as the leader in bringing affordable, unlimited wireless to the U.S. He played a key role in the merger of the company with T-Mobile U.S. As an executive at Lucent Technologies, Chao helped establish the company’s leadership in building the mobile internet by bringing 2G and 3G wireless network solutions to operators globally.Chao also served with the US Digital Service at the White House leading top digital talent from the industry to transform the user experience of citizenship and immigration services.Chao holds a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech, and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Rutgers University. He is a co-inventor of three patents.

Redwood Capital Group

James Turino is a co-founder and Partner of Redwood Capital and a Managing Partner of LD&A Redwood. Over more than 20 years, he has advised numerous companies in the technology and communications industries in mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance transactions. Prior to joining Redwood Capital, Mr. Turino served as Director of the Technology Investment Banking team in New York for SG Cowen, where he managed public and private equity offerings, principal investments, and mergers and acquisitions for emerging growth software companies. Mr. Turino was also Director of the Media and Telecommunications Group for Prudential Securities in New York. Previously, he held the position of Vice President, Corporate Finance for ING Barings, where he started the Telecommunications Group. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College.

Schneider Electric

Cyril is a native of France with a background in engineering and international project management. Cyril joined Schneider Electric in 1994. Since then, he has held a number of roles – both in France and in China – across a broad area of the business, including marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, business development and acquisitions and alliances. A widely respected business leader, Cyril is also the current president of ODVA Inc., the international organization that supports the development of open network technologies based on the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP™).

Synchronoss

As Director of Synchronoss’ Global IoT Product Group, Ed holds overall P&L responsibility for the company’s IoT business line and the design of its IoT service offerings. He has more than 30 years of experience in developing and leading service enterprises within the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), energy, information technology and telecommunications industries. Ed has founded and served as CEO of multiple energy sector IIoT SaaS companies. He was the founder and CEO of E3 Greentech Enterprises Inc. (E3), an Industrial IoT smart grid SaaS company whose operations and intellectual property were purchased in 2013 by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) company. Following the purchase, Ed assumed responsibilities as CEO of Intelligent Energy Solutions LLC. (IES), the (BHE) company newly created from these assets. Prior to this position, Ed was the founder and CEO of Prenova Inc., a national energy IIoT managed services company which he successfully grew to manage the energy needs of more than 126,000 commercial and industrial facilities. Before Prenova, he was the Vice President and General Manager leading the global utility and energy practice for Ross Perot’s company, Perot Systems Corporation. Ed received his Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1972, his Master of Science in Systems Management from the University of Southern California in 1978, and his Master of Business Administration from Emory University’s Executive program in 1986.

Syniverse

Les Goldman has held positions ranging from customer service, to product management, to marketing and sales. Over his 25-year-plus career, he has developed and marketed both tangible software products as well as intangible service and professional solutions. A free-thinking technology innovator, he enjoys turning problem-solving into targeted solutions to meet customer needs.As Senior Product Manager at Syniverse, Les is focused on driving innovation for customers around the world while helping to simplify business and technical complexities. Among his accomplishments, he has developed first-of-a-kind solutions for roaming, real-time intelligence, LTE and Wi-Fi. His current focus is Syniverse’s Secure Global Access, a worldwide private IP network permitting secure connectivity between IoT devices and enterprise cloud-based applications and services.Previously, Les served as a Global Product Manager with Verizon, where he leveraged his customer, market and MBA experience to successfully launch award-winning global communications solutions. His contribution was recognized when he received a patent for his work with integrated telephony services years before the advent of the term “unified communications.”Les also applies his skills outside of Syniverse. He was appointed by former Florida Governor Rick Scott to serve on the board of directors for the Able Trust organization, whose mission is to work with state agencies and private resources to help Floridians with disabilities secure meaningful employment. Les also founded the North Tampa Athletic Association Buddy Ball program, which enables children with disabilities to play baseball with their peers, and he also is a Buddy Ball coach.

Visa Inc.

AJ is an analytics professional with over 14 years of experience in building and executing analytics strategy and programs across multiple industries. He has advised clients in the Telecom, Industrials, Financial Services and High Tech space with designing and building analytics programs supporting marketing, process improvement and business growth. AJ has worked at companies like LafargeHolcim, Accenture, Capital One where he used analytics to drive strategies from operations optimization to driving business transformation. Currently, Sr. Director at Visa in their Consulting & Analytics organization, AJ is helping drive results for Visas clients focusing on a data-driven approach.

Wibu-Systems USA

Marcellus Buchheit is co-founder and Chairman of the Board of WIBU-SYSTEMS AG in Karlsruhe, Germany. He currently serves as the President and CEO of Wibu-Systems USA Inc., located in Edmonds, WA where he resides.Marcellus earned his Master of Science degree in computing science at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany in 1989. In the same year, he co-founded Wibu-Systems together with Oliver Winzenried. As the original architect and first software developer of the company’s successful WibuKey, CodeMeter, and SmartShelter product lines, he is well known in his field for his expertise in designing innovative techniques to protect software against reverse-engineering, tampering, and debugging. The products he designed have never been cracked by hackers in multiple public global contests.Marcellus is an active member of the international Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), where he is co-chair of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) Trustworthiness Task Group and involved with security, trustworthiness and monetization initiatives. He is one of the editors and authors of the Industrial Internet Security Framework document.He is a frequently invited speaker at industry events, and has accepted many industry awards on behalf of Wibu-Systems, including the CODiE awards in 2017, 2014, and 2009 in recognition by the SIIA of CodeMeter as the Best Content Rights and Entitlement Solution.

Capstone Partners

Allen Proithis is the CEO of Capstone Partners, a strategic advisory firm for clients inthe mobile, IoT, software and technology industries. Capstone provides strategicadvisory, ecosystem development and market insights to help clients accelerate time tomarket and revenue growth. Prior to Capstone, Allen was the President of Sigfox, NorthAmerica, where he created a high-performance team of 100 people that built an Internetof Things business with top enterprise companies and verticals while providing wirelesscoverage for over 70M people in the US. As part of these activities, Allen representedSigfox with media outlets (CNBC, Fortune, Forbes, WSJ) and industry analysts(Machina Research, LHS, Gartner, Ovum, ABI Research) on IoT topics.Prior to Sigfox, he created a $155M IoT joint venture (Convida Wireless) with Sony,InterDigital and Stephens Capital and served as Chairman. In 2014, Allen raised $15Mto launch an Internet of Things spinout focused on accelerating value produced by thedata generated by IoT. At InterDigital, Allen oversaw all market development activities,including the commercialization of IoT, Wi-Fi, shared spectrum and video contentmanagement solutions.Previously, Allen was the Head of Mobile Strategy & Business Development for HP’sglobal Smartphone & Tablet division. In this role, he drove all strategic initiatives fordevices, software and services, including the launch of HP’s first mobile app store.