Ali Afreshteh

Ali is the Vice President of Emerging Technologies Research within the Technology Development organization at Sprint Nextel.  He has been involved with research and evaluation of emerging technologies since he joined the company in 1999.  Currently his group is evaluating emerging broadband technologies including TD-CDMA and WiMAX, and a range of additional wireless and wireline technologies.  Evaluation efforts include field trials and lab tests, development of modeling and network simulation tools, and evaluation of new core network technologies, devices, services and applications.

Prior to this he was Executive Director of Engineering at PrimeCo (now part of Verizon) where he was responsible for development and deployment of the CDMA network.  Ali was also Director of PCS at Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) where he was responsible for wireless system design and technology assessment. He spent ten years at Bell Communications Research (Telcordia) where he contributed to the development of Personal communications systems.  He spent five years in RCA and 5 years as a professor of Electrical Engineering at Wilkes University.

Ali received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.  He has published many technical papers and held several chair positions in the IEEE.

Ronny Haraldsvik

Ronny Haraldsvik, Vice President, Marketing for Qualcomm will be examining the evolution of mobile broadband.

Ronny Haraldsvik leads QUALCOMM's global mobile broadband marketing initiatives. To this task, Haraldsvik brings 16 years of strategic marketing experience across a broad range of technical topics, from mobile broadband to wireline networking and IP services, to PC chips, wafer fabrication equipment, software, consumer devices and Wi-Fi access networks.

Prior to QUALCOMM's acquisition of Flarion Technologies in early 2006, Haraldsvik was Flarion's vice president of marketing where he led all marketing efforts in support of industry awareness for Flarion and the introduction of its FLASH-OFDM® technology.

Before his five years at Flarion, Haraldsvik worked for Nortel Networks. He initially served as the director of Americas Regional Marketing for Enterprise solutions, and ultimately as vice president of marketing and field communications for Nortel's Shasta IP Services business unit. In this role, he was responsible for worldwide positioning of the Shasta 5000 Broadband Service Node. Prior to Nortel, Haraldsvik worked for Bay Networks as director of North American marketing, where he helped create and build the North American Marketing Organization with Bay Networks.

Haraldsvik began his career working for leading technology firms in California's Silicon Valley, specializing in advertising and public relations strategy support for Fortune 500 companies.

Haraldsvik holds a bachelor of arts degree in business administration from the University of San Francisco and served in the Norwegian Army as sergeant and platoon drill instructor.

John Leonard

John Leonard, Vice President, Business Strategy and Offer Management for LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES will explore the evolutionary path for 3G networks and services to identify emerging threats and opportunities

John Leonard is Vice President of Business Strategy and Offer Management for Lucent Technologies' Network Solutions Group. In this capacity, John is responsible for leading the definition of the NSG Business Strategy and multi-year Business Plan, creation and management of Lucent Mobility Offers, Strategic Partnerships, Field Marketing and Market Communications.

Prior to this assignment, John held a number of key product management, strategy and financial management positions with Lucent, most recently as Director of UMTS Portfolio Management for Lucent Technologies' Network Solutions Group. In this role, John was responsible for defining the end-to-end UMTS Release strategy and roadmap across the UMTS UTRAN and Core portfolio of products. In addition to defining and managing the multi-year UMTS release program, John was responsible for all aspects concerning the development and management of the UMTS business plan, including, pricing strategy, make/buy decisions, and defining the yearly R&D targets and allocations across the UMTS portfolio.

John started his career in Corporate Finance at ING Bearings in Caracas Venezuela. In 1994 John co-founded Corporate Finance Associates, a finance advisory firm serving small and medium size businesses in Venezuela.

John has an MBA from the Haas School of Business, at the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela.

John, who was born in Venezuela, currently resides in New Jersey, United States with his wife Cynthia and daughter Isabel.

 

Dr. Seong-Mok Oh

Dr. Seong-Mok Oh has over 10 years industry experience in mobile communications that covers wide range of roles from network plan to corporate strategy. As a vice president of KTF, Dr. Oh is in charge of network strategy including W-CDMA network investment, Mobile-TV and FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence) services.

He started in KT as a wireless expert and moved to KTF when the CDMA service had launched in 1997 and managed the radio network planning of KTF CDMA system, later, he positioned as a director in CDMA network engineering department.

Prior to joining the network strategy business office, he worked as a head of new business office that looking for a mobile operator's new revenue opportunity.

Dr. Oh holds a Ph.D., a M.S. and a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Yonsei University, Korea.