An award-winning thought leader in the security, Internet of Things, mobile and software sectors, Homaira founded AKnowledge Partners in 2012 with the goal of providing C-level executives, companies and private equity firms with unique and proprietary investment theses, and building and implementing adaptive growth or investment strategies.Drawing on an international track-record that includes nine years working in Paris, London, Beijing and Cape-Town for global organizations, Homaira brings extensive leadership experience, entrepreneurial drive, operational skills and deep domain knowledge to create customized solutions for the unique needs of each client.Homaira serves on the Boards of Directors of three publicly-traded companies: Landstar System, Inc. (NASDAQ: LSTR), Gemalto N.V. (GTO: EN Paris), Covisint Corporation (NASDAQ: COVS) and is Chairman of the Board of Dauria Aerospace (privately held).Additionally, Homaira serves as the Chair of Johns Hopkins University Physics and Astronomy Advisory Council and on the Advisory Board of Mobiquity Inc., one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile sector and a leader in mobile interactive design and implementation.Homaira has held senior executive roles in Fortune 500 companies including: Microsoft, Thales, SA, and TruePosition, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation and served as the President and CEO of SkyBitz, Inc., a leading provider of remote asset tracking and security solutions. Under her leadership, SkyBitz had record performance and was successfully sold to Telular Corporation (NASDAQ: WRLS) in 2012.Homaira holds a Ph.D. with honors in particle physics from Tufts University and an MBA with distinction from Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business. She is the author of numerous scientific and industry articles, two patent-pending inventions, and a frequent speaker at industry conferences

Michael is an international speaker/trainer and has been evangelizing innovative technologies for nearly two decades. Michael’s current passion is empowering developers to create voice-interactive ‘smart home’ experiences with Alexa. Michael has authored technical books for WROX and has published online courses with Microsoft, LearnKey, and Pluralsight. Prior to Amazon, Michael worked at Microsoft as a Senior Developer Evangelist sharing cutting-edge web technologies to mobile app communities. Get Michael’s latest insights by following him on twitter via @palermo4.

Chris Penrose is Senior Vice President of AT&T’s IoT Organization. He has responsibility for leading AT&T’s Internet of Things initiatives, which span several industries including automotive, agriculture, manufacturing, fleet management, asset tracking, healthcare, energy and consumer electronics.Mr. Penrose’s team operates on a global scale and drives the strategy and execution for connectivity, platforms, and end-to-end IoT solutions. From connected cars to connected cities, he has led AT&T to become recognized as one of the leading IoT organizations in the world.With nearly 25 years of experience at AT&T and its predecessor companies, Mr. Penrose has expertise in strategic planning, new product development, sales, marketing, distribution planning, and customer service.He has a BS in Marketing and a Masters in Business Administration from Indiana University. He is a member of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Wireless Division Board, the Kelley School of Business Advisory Board, and serves as the chair of the Connected Living Board for GSMA. He is also a founder and executive advisory board member of the Together for Safer Roads coalition. He lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife Anne and their two children.

Kevin’s top focus within Azul Systems is Java Embedded and IoT. Before joining Azul, Kevin has worked at companies such as Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Citrix, and Accenture, building products and solutions.

Mike Walkley is a Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at Canaccord Genuity specializing in Internet of Things/Connectivity Technologies. According to TipRanks, he was ranked #2 out of 3617 analysts for performance of his stock recommendations in 2014 and #13 in 2015. Mike has over 15 years of experience as a research analyst, and previously worked at Piper Jaffray, where he was the senior wireless technologies analyst. Mike has also worked in equity research at RBC Capital Markets and Raymond James Financial. Mike was 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.

Didier is an Ubuntu Core Developer and a long time contributor to the Ubuntu project. A full stack developer from mobile and desktop to backend, he approaches the Internet of Things (IoT) and Linux in the embedded world with an end-to-end view and fresh ideas about the space. As the Ubuntu Core developer advocate, he has given regular technical talks at FOSDEM, the Ubuntu Developer Summit, Desktop Summit, Ubuntu Open Week, Solution Linux, JDLL, and other industry events. Didier is also the lead contributor behind Ubuntu Make, a project that has helped set up over 35 development environments on Ubuntu.

Lee Gruenfeld is a Managing Partner of the Cholawsky & Gruenfeld SaaS/IoT consulting firm, and is a Principal with the TechPar Group in New York, a boutique consulting firm consisting exclusively of former C-level executives and Big Four partners. He was Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Support.com, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the SaaS division he created for a technology company in Las Vegas, national head of professional services for computing pioneer Tymshare, and a Partner in the management consulting practice of Deloitte in New York and Los Angeles. Lee is also the award-winning author of fourteen critically-acclaimed, best-selling works of fiction and non-fiction, and is the technology columnist for Newsmax.com.

Jeff Patton is the GM Connected Home Prod Mgmt & Innovation for GE Lighting based at Nela Park in Cleveland, OH. His responsibilities include leading the vision and strategy for the new connected home business and setting the course for the next 100 years of innovation. Jeff previously was the GM Fastworks Innovation and was an evangelist for design thinking and new business model developed as inspired by Lean Startup principles. In his first role at GE, Jeff led the development and execution of the North America Consumer Marketing strategy. Jeff brings extensive experience in marketing and line management for consumer channels with CPG, online services, and small domestic appliances at General Mills, AOL, Dyson, and Groupe SEB, as well as experience in commercial channels with scientific instruments, holding strategic leadership and engineering positions at HP/Agilent.Jeff has a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is an active trail runner, sailor and snowboarder, and an avid supporter of the arts.

Punit Kulkarni is the Head of Marketing for the Software Enabled Business Unit for HARMAN and is responsible for defining propositions, market development and implement go-to-market strategies for HARMAN. He has been a catalyst in repositioning HARMAN from just a consumer/auto brand to being recognized as IoT Services leader. Through large scale implementation of alliance programs, Punit has driven strategic market entries for HARMAN into Industrial, Oil & Gas, and Discrete Manufacturing with internet of things (IoT), intelligent cloud and machine learning.

Donna Yasay joined the board of HomeGrid Forum and was elected president in March 2015. She is Business Development Director at Marvell Semiconductor.Donna has over 20 years’ experience in the telecoms industry working in engineering, sales and business development roles in both operator and vendor organizations, including AT&T, D-Link and Ikanos. She began her career as a systems engineer at AT&T and Internet Connect before going into technical sales at D-Link and gradually moving into business development roles at Netopia, Tzero Technologies and Asoka USA Corporation and now her current position at Marvell. Her previous roles in engineering, sales, network services and business development, means Donna brings a knowledgeable, broad vision to her role as leader for HomeGrid Forum. Her past experience in home networking in both LAN and WAN domains, fuels her desire to provide the consumer community with the right technology to enable a better quality of experience in their homes.

Matt is the M2M and IoT Product Management Director for iconectiv with more than 17 years of experience in technology, business, and marketing for enterprise and consumer products. His business domain expertise includes M2M and IoT, Location-based services, network security, wireless telecommunications, and enterprise telecommunications management. Matt’s engineering background provides him a unique vantage point to bridge sales and technology processes.

Greg Roberts serves as the vice president of marketing for Icontrol Networks. Roberts started with Icontrol in 2006 and leads all corporate marketing and marketing communications initiatives for the company. Roberts’ career features a celebrated track record of leadership and success in strategic branding and management for a range of tech companies. He has been instrumental in the successful launch of numerous consumer and B2B marketing campaigns. During his time at Icontrol, he has driven notable business results focused on customer acquisition and retention, leading to increased market share and international expansion. Previously, Roberts was vice president of marketing at Helio, a MVNO startup, where he led all marketing initiatives and brand management, and helped expand and broaden the company’s customer portfolio. He also played a critical role in the launch of Helio and Helio Powered By SK Telecom, which received critical acclaim from the industry. Prior to Helio, Roberts was the vice president of marketing for Disney Mobile, an MVNO project by The Walt Disney Company. He also served as the director of national marketing at SBC Wireless. There, he developed and led award-winning marketing initiatives to help launch Cingular Wireless (now AT&T). Roberts was recognized by Wireless World Magazine and Brandweek for the campaign’s pioneering approaches to youth marketing, which have since been adapted as best practices by the mobile industry. Roberts began his career with top brand marketing and design companies including The Richards Group, Tracy Locke, DDB Needham and GSD&M. He received a Master of Arts in communications from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from University of North Texas.

John Horn has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and wireless industries. Mr. Horn is recognized as an M2M/IoT pioneer and leader. Previously serving as President of RacoWireless, a leading provider of M2M connectivity solutions, John led the company to record growth and achievement of multiple awards for accomplishments, including ‘Most Innovative Company’ and ‘Entrepreneurial Company of the Year’. Prior to that position, John was a leader at T-Mobile for more than nine years. At T-Mobile, John developed and managed indirect distribution for the California Launch – the largest launch in wireless history. During his last six years at T-Mobile, he focused specifically on developing T-Mobile’s M2M program and go-to market strategy. He also helped T-Mobile earn recognition as the market leader for M2M services. Mr. Horn holds a B.A. in Political Science from UC-Davis.

Ken Briodagh is a writer and editor with more than a decade of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars. In previous lives, he’s been a short order cook, telemarketer, medical supply technician and mover of the bodies at a funeral home. Most of his exploits are either exaggerated or blatantly false and no one can prove otherwise. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, children and dogs. The dogs usually miss him when he’s away.

An independent advisor and technology evangelist, James Brehm is a regular speaker at industry conferences and one of the leading voices on the state of the IoT and M2M market today. Mr. Brehm is a regular contributor to CNBC and is frequently quoted by media outlets such as Business Week, RCR Wireless, ComputerWorld, PC Magazine, and the San Jose Mercury News. Over the past decade, Mr. Brehm has spoken to various groups on topics including wireless services, mobile marketing and advertising, mobile content, VoIP, activation and provisioning, service creation, mobile apps, premium messaging, wireless security, fixed-mobile convergence, mobile broadband (LTE and WiMAX), the telecom regulatory environment and vertical market deployment of web-enabled services. From 2011 to 2014, Brehm served as practice leader, strategist and senior consultant for Compass Intelligence. Prior to joining Compass Intelligence, Mr. Brehm served in multiple roles for nine (9) years at Growth Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. Prior to joining Frost & Sullivan, Mr. Brehm worked in marketing, sales management, and business development roles for Rackspace Managed Hosting and Interland (now Web.com), two of the largest pure play web hosting companies in the U.S. His responsibilities included research on the competitive landscape of the market, developing new product offerings, assessing emerging markets, improving the over all value chain for Global 1000 clients, due diligence, and acquisition analysis. Mr. Brehm entered the high tech arena in the mid 1990’s working in sales management within the telecom arena for MCI and later working for Gateway, Inc in multiple roles including product marketing, product management, training, and sales management.

Rob Purser leads the creation of software that connects MATLAB and Simulink with the real world, enabling engineers and scientists to prototype and build analytics systems in both IoT and traditional settings. He is a senior member of the IEEE, has four patents, and has held positions at Owl Control Systems, PictureTel (now Polycom), and Microsoft. Mr. Purser holds a BSCS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Gary Davis is Chief Consumer Security Evangelist. Through a consumer lens, he partners with internal teams to drive strategic alignment of products with the needs of the security space. Gary also provides security education to businesses and consumers by distilling complex security topics into actionable advice. He is a sought-after speaker on trends in digital security including the evolving threat landscape, privacy and securing the Internet of Things. He has presented at high profile conferences and events including CES, Mobile World Congress, and CTIA Super Mobility. Gary has appeared on multiple business, security and consumer lifestyle broadcast outlets, including CBS News, CNBC, FOX News, Bloomberg, WSJ MoneyBeat and quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Money Magazine, CNN, Forbes, TIME Magazine and more. During his 11+ years at Intel Security, he has held leadership roles in the consumer and enterprise divisions where he has helped shape various product portfolios and strategic direction along with advocating for cybersecurity education. Prior to joining McAfee, he held senior management positions for more than 20 years in technology companies. Gary served on the board of directors of the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA).

Christian Legare holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. In his 22 years in the telecom industry, he was involved as an executive in large scale organizations as well as start-ups, mainly in Engineering and R&D. Christian was in charge of an IP (Internet Protocol) certification program at the International Institute of Telecom (IIT) in Montreal, Canada from 2000 to 2002. Mr. Legare is presently Executive Vice-President and CTO with Micrium, home of uC/OS, the real-time kernel. He is currently in charge of the end-to-end Internet of Things strategy.

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.

History of building profitable businesses and successful teams, with 15 years executive leadership experience. Leadership and team building skills developed while serving 20 years in US Navy, executive operations and business development roles at Celestica and Logic PD. Scott is responsible for overall leadership of the company focusing on profitable growth. Scott has an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University.

Alex Filippov founded Long Distance Post, LLC in 1994 as a reseller of long distance phone services. In 1997, the company began on-line sales of prepaid phone card services. In 2003 Alex Filippov started Belmont Telecom, Inc., providing international and domestic origination and termination services. In 2007, Mr. Filippov launched international mobile roaming service under the brand name of OneSimCard , offering international travelers low cost reliable Voice, Text and Data services in over 200 countries. In 2013, OneSimCard expanded into M2M and IoT offering secure low cost data service in the USA , Canada, Mexico and over 150 other countries. All available services and rates can be found on www.OneSimCard.com Prior to 1990, Mr. Filippov worked as an electronics design engineer in Russia. He later worked for Medical and Scientific Enterprises Inc. and Signal Communications Corp in Woburn, Massachusetts.

Craig Spiezle is a recognized authority on trust and the convergence of privacy, security and interactive marketing promoting responsible privacy practices, balanced public policy, end-to-end security and data stewardship. Spiezle champions best practices to help protect consumer trust and promote the importance of innovation meaningful self-regulation. Prior to OTA, Spiezle spent over a decade at Microsoft driving development of brand protection, anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-malware and privacy enabling technologies. Spiezle championed digital inclusiveness and the impact of internet literacy and access and the importance of ad-supported services. Spiezle is on the board of the Identity Theft Council and past member of the FCC CSRIC and a member of InfraGard, the IAPP and APWG.

Joaquin Prado is the Director of Technical Programs at Open Mobile Alliance. Prior to joining OMA, Joaquin worked for Vodafone UK where he planned, defined, developed and implemented new products and services. In OMA, Joaquin is responsible for formalizing a series of program improvements across the organization. These programs range from lowering the cost of running the OMA Work Program to bringing in new tools and technologies, e.g. GitHub, XML Validation tools, etc. Joaquin is also responsible for the preparation and execution of OMA TestFests.

Arthur Hicken is Chief Evangelist at Parasoft where he has been involved in automating various software development and testing practices for nearly 25 years.He has worked on projects including cybersecurity, database development, the software development lifecycle, web publishing and monitoring, and integration with legacy systems and maintains the IoT Hall-of-Shame http://bit.ly/iotshame and SQLi Hall-of-Shame http://bit.ly/sqlishame

Martin Flusberg has spent most of his career developing innovative technologies that address climate change; the first half in transportation and the second half in energy. Most recently, he was co-founder and President of Nexus Energy Software, a pioneer in delivering on-line energy and carbon analysis to consumers and businesses. Nexus — sold to ESCO Technologies (NYSE:ESE) in 2005 and now part of Aclara Technologies — evolved into a global provider of software solutions to the utility industry focusing on smart grid, smart meter, energy efficiency and demand-response. Martin was CEO of software companies Multisystems, Inc. and REALink SystemsCorp. and ran an energy software unit of TASC that later became Lodestar Corp., since acquired by Oracle. He has also served on the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. Martin has an MSCE from MIT and a BEE from City University of New York.

Cesare Garlati is an internationally renowned leader in mobile and cloud security. Former Vice President of mobile security at Trend Micro, Cesare currently serves as Chief Security Strategist at ppl Foundation and Co-chair of the Mobile Working Group at Cloud Security Alliance. Prior to Trend Micro, Mr. Garlati held director positions within leading mobility companies such as iPass, Smith Micro Software and WaveMarket. Cesare holds a Berkeley MBA, a BS in Computer Science and numerous professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, and Sun.

Art Swift is currently President of the prpl Foundation, a technology non-profit promoting the development of open source software for embedded computing. He also is CEO of CUPP Computing AS, a privately held supplier of mobile security devices. He has more than 25 years of executive-level experience in the tech industry, including CEO at low power chip-maker Transmeta (NASDAQ, TMTA), CEO of nanotech innovator Unidym, and Vice President of marketing and business development at MIPS, a leading provider of microprocessor IP.

Michael Crawford has over 20 years of investment banking and operating experience. During his investment banking career, Michael has executed mergers and acquisitions and raised equity and debt capital through both private placements and public offerings. Michael’s primary focus is on the telecom, media, and technology (TMT) industries, with a particular specialization in data centers, Internet of Things (IoT) and XaaS cloud-based businesses. Michael’s approach to deal-making combines strong analytical and communication skills with a belief that successful bankers are facilitators who develop creative, pragmatic and balanced solutions that meet the needs of buyer and seller, company and investor.Prior to joining Q Advisors, Michael spent five years with Level 3 Communications, a Fortune 500 telecommunications service provider, where he held leadership positions in Corporate/Business Development, Sales Management, and Marketing. Prior to Level 3, Michael was an investment banker with Prudential Securities in New York, as well as with two leading boutique firms in Denver.Michael has been actively involved with non-profit organizations in Colorado. He previously was on the Board of the Colorado Soccer Association, Parkinson Association of the Rockies and ArtReach. Michael received a B.A. in Economics from Lafayette College and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Philip Attfield brings a strong background in computing, networking, security and systems modeling. He has more than 20 years of industry experience in large enterprises and small entrepreneurial firms.Starting his career at Nortel, Phil was a member of its scientific staff and developed software tools and in-house products for modeling, synthesis and verification of telecom and network equipment hardware.Later, Phil founded Signal 9 Solutions, a firm that pioneered PC/desktop firewalls and created the Conseal brand of security products. Phil served as CEO until the company was acquired by McAfee® during the rapid broadband expansion phase of the Internet. Phil then joined the Phantom Works/R&D division of The Boeing Company where he led the team responsible for the development of a large-scale security policy and management framework.Other Notable RolesHis computer and network engineering experience has qualified Phil for a number of high profile roles in the field of digital forensics. He served as expert witness for the Department of Justice in the prosecution of United States v. Gorshkov, an international cybercrime case that serves as a bellwether case for subsequent prosecution of cybercrimes. Phil is a frequent keynote speaker at international security conferences and facilitated workshops and discussions for the G8 Crime in Cyberspace events in Germany and Japan.

Sebastien Coulon is the Managing Director of SpinalCom, AI Software Vendor for the IoT. Sebastien has 16 years experience in the Software industry in international sales & marketing management at companies like PTC.SpinalCom disrupts smart devices control & management at the edge. Our software micro-platform (Fog node ready) brings intelligence closer to objects and users. It enables companies to create, test and industrialize rapidly IoT solutions, which are secured, scalable, with no Cloud dependance.

Sudha is a champion for Girls Who Code and hosts mentor programs for girls at Devcamps and Hackathons. She believes that coding is a fundamental skill similar to reading for the future and inspires kids to learn coding with educational programs in schools and corporate partnerships.She has been a venture mentor at MIT and Director at Bay Area Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ Meetups. Sudha loves bringing entrepreneurs and companies together for knowledge sharing and building out Tech Innovations.Ms. Jamthe has guest blogged at Mashable, GigaOm and Venturebeat as a respected technology futurist. You can always find her latest opinions at coolastory.com, LinkedIn Pulse, Periscope and @sujamthe. She teaches the Social Partner class at UCSC Extension. She is an advisor for Blockchain University and Barcelona Technology School.

Mike Anderson is currently CTO and Chief Scientist for The PTR Group. With over 35 years in the embedded and real-time computing industry, Mike works with a number of RTOS, Linux and Android-based devices in applications ranging from satellites and Robotics to SCADA platforms. However, his focus over the past few years has been the use of Linux and Android in embedded sensor applications and the deployment of the Internet of Things. As an instructor and consultant, Mike is a regular speaker at the Embedded Systems Conference as well as many other Android and Linux-oriented conferences around the world.

Mike Finnerty serves as senior vice president & general manager of The Weather Company’s Data Platform business unit and head of global partnerships and business development. In this role, Mike oversees the design, development, distribution and management of new data driven features/services that drive more usage of The Weather Companys capabilities outside of its owned and operated branded properties such as weather.com, The Weather Channel network and Weather Underground.Prior to his current position, Mike served as vice president of web products for The Weather Company. In this role, Mike acted as general manager of weather.com and The Weather Channel desktop applications, overseeing all product management functions and P&L responsibilities for the world’s largest digital weather experience reaching more than 55 million unique visitors a month.Before joining The Weather Company, Mike spent eight years at Comcast as a key contributor to Comcast’s growth in both digital media and cable network development. Mike assisted in the formation of the Comcast Interactive Media (CIM) division and held various senior roles within CIM, including serving as vice president of product planning and operations, where he oversaw all product strategy, planning, and business operations functions for Comcast’s interactive product portfolio. Mike was also general manager of Comcast.net/Xfinity.com, Comcast’s subscriber portal and led teams focusing on monetization strategy and the development of strategic revenue partnerships with Yahoo! and Google. Prior to CIM, Mike was manager of business development for Comcast Programming Investments. He was directly involved in facilitating Comcast’s investments in Metro-Goldwyn Mayer (MGM); Comcast SportsNets in Chicago, New York and Sacramento; TVOne; PBS Kids Sprout and the acquisition of Tech TV. Before joining Comcast, Mike was a senior associate consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ Transaction Advisory Services group, focusing on merger and acquisition due diligence and financial modeling.Mike is a certified public accountant and graduated from Villanova University with a bachelor’s degree in Accountancy. He lives in Atlanta, GA, with his wife and three children.

Stacy Cannady, CISSP, is technical marketing – Trustworthy Computing?TRIAD (Threat Response, Intelligence, and Development) for Cisco and a member of the Trusted Computing Group’s Embedded Systems Work Group. He also serves as the primary board member representing Cisco.Stacy has worked in the field of trusted computing for a number of years. As a subject matter expert in trusted computing, his responsibilities require an in-depth understanding of the trusted computing market, including advances in hardware and software security as well as vendor and customer market dynamics.Prior to his work with Cisco, Stacy was responsible for marketing leadership for trusted computing at DMI, IBM and at Lenovo. At IBM, he played a principal role in making the TPM standard equipment in ThinkPad and ThinkCenter PCs. This created competitive pressure in the PC market and led to broad market acceptance of the TPM as standard equipment in enterprise-class PCs. Stacy was also responsible for the security product strategy for IBM’s PC Division and for Lenovo for eight years. This strategy required subject matter expertise in firmware security, biometrics, smart cards, identity management, encryption and access control. Additionally, at Lenovo, he was also responsible for incident response and served as Privacy Manager for the Software & Peripherals Business Unit.

Scott Scheuber is a Product Management and Business Development leader with of over 17 years of experience in wireless and location based solutions. He directs Product Management at U.S. Cellular--developing and managing a robust industrial Internet of Things (IoT) and Value Added Services (VAS) portfolio for business and government customers. Scott has previously managed the consumer and home business as well as the developer API program at U.S Cellular. As a Director of Product Management at HERE (formerly NAVTEQ and subsidiary of Nokia), Scott led teams responsible for new product creation and go-to-market for all map and location content products in North America. Prior to Nokia, Scott was the Manager of LBS Strategy and Product Management at Garmin International. He innovated across advanced location technologies and managed worldwide pricing and forecasting for Garmin’s smartphone portfolio while leading Garmin-Asus accessory product management. Before pioneering Garmin’s LBS initiatives, he was the Mobile Product Manager and Engineering Business Development Manager responsible for the launch and lifecycle management of several Windows Phone smartphones and the growth of Garmin’s mobile navigation application business.

Mr. Shekar G. Ayyar has more than 15 years of senior leadership experience in enterprise software, communications and semiconductors. He is currently Corporate Senior Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at VMware, Inc. In this role, Mr. Ayyar is responsible for aligning strategy and long-term planning across VMware businesses as well as managing the companys mergers and acquisitions, and strategic investments. Under his leadership, VMware, Inc. has executed on over 30 acquisition and investment transactions, including Nicira and Airwatch, both of which are key ingredients to VMwares strategy. Mr. Ayyar held senior roles at BindView Development Corp., Instantis Inc. and Lucent, spanning product management, marketing, and business development. He served as Senior Vice President of Product Marketing of Bindview Development Corp., since July 26, 2004. Mr. Ayyar joined Bindview Development Corp., from Instantis, Inc., where he served as a Senior Vice President of Services, Marketing and Business Development and Services since September 2003 until July 2004 and Vice President, Marketing and Business Development from 2000 to September 2003. At Instantis, he played a crucial role in crafting Bindview Development Corp.s strategic direction and managing a team of professionals to deliver products against the vision. Mr. Ayyar led Corporate Strategy and Business Development Functions of Lucent from July 1998 to January 2000. He served as a Consultant of McKinsey & Co., working with telecom and software clients in a wide range of strategic areas from July 1996 to July 1998. Mr. Ayyar earned a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay.

Prabhu Ramchandran, Director, WebNMS has 16 years of industrial experience. Having headed the telecom management software division of Zoho Corporation for more than a decade, he pioneered the IoT wing way back in 2009. An engineering grad from Madras University, Mr. Ramchandran is an ardent technology lover and one of the few early adopters(believers) of IoT, even before the technology started trending.

John is the award-winning founder and CEO of Argus Insights, new type of market intelligence company, founded by tech industry veterans seeking to connect the dots between technology innovation and consumer adoption. Argus Insights sits between traditional research firms and social analytics companies to provide focused and actionable analysis on where consumers are taking the market, who is winning and why. John holds an S.B. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. An expert in consumer response to technology, John is a frequent speaker and is quoted in major publications such as Forbes, WSJ, San Francisco Chronicle and industry trade publications.

Allen Proithis has an extensive background in the IoT and M2M markets, having led the development of several businesses in those spaces within the U.S. over the last five years.Early last year, Proithis led the funding and launch of wot.io, an award-winning Internet of Things startup focused on accelerating value produced by the data generated by the IoT .Prior to that, he was executive vice president of InterDigital Solutions, where he was responsible for monetizing a $700 million, 10-year R&D investment by taking commercially promising technologies to the marketplace. In that role, he led the creation of Convida Wireless, an M2M joint venture with Sony, InterDigital and Stephen Capital, and until recently served as chairman.Earlier in his carrier, Proithis spent seven years at Hewlett-Packard. At HP, he ultimately led strategy & business development for their Handheld Business Unit, where he was responsible for strategic initiatives for mobile devices, software and services, including the launch of HPs first mobile app store.Proithis began his career in the consulting business in the telecom and technology industries and holds a bachelor of arts degree in telecommunications from Penn State University.