MWC19 Los Angeles – GSMA RCS Business Messaging Awareness Lab #27

Henry joined the GSMA in December 2013, and is responsible for the delivery of the Future Networks programme. A key programme of the GSMA’s strategic focus, to deliver industry scale for IP Communications and 5G, whilst considering Network Economic challenges for the Mobile industry as it transitions to a 5G Era.

Previously he worked for the SingTel Group and has over 20 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector, both in Networks and IT portfolios and has been involved in the deployment of mobile networks in over 10 operations across 10 different countries. Henry designed and built Optus’ 3G + LTE mobile network, all IP network and managed the product development transformation.  He was the creator and board member of the network sharing Joint Venture between SingTel Optus and Vodafone Networks Pty Ltd (Australia).

Henry has been a board member and Chair of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) and previously held an Executive Management Committee position in the GSMA.

As the CEO of IMImobile North America, Bruce brings with him over 35 years of telecommunications experience and a proven track record working with operators and scaling businesses. He is an industry leader in the evolution of messaging, with strong involvement in the deployment of RCS and other technologies across the global operator base.

As a passionate technology executive with demonstrated accomplishments in the Communications industry, Bruce is skilled in bringing the latest technology to market in a cost-effective and profitable manner by utilizing his exceptional technical background and providing a balanced approach across all aspects of the business.

His experience began with AT&T/Bell Labs and has included other positions in voice and global messaging, including Glenayre Technologies and  Mblox/CLX. Bruce graduated from Kansas State University with a double major in Math and Computer Science. He has been granted 36 U.S. Patents for his innovative concepts and is a sought after speaker at industry conferences and seminars.

John Duffy is a technology entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of 3Cinteractive (3C), which was acquired by IMImobile in 2019. In his new role, Global Head of Future Business Messaging, John advocates for RCS Business Messaging and other emerging channels, educating operators and enterprises on how to leverage, monetize and maximize this disruptive technology.

John also works as an operating partner at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors and serves as a board member of The Dan Marino Foundation. John lives in Delray Beach and has two adult daughters. He is an avid reader, loves hot rods and motorcycles, and plays the guitar in a local band

Catherine has been RCS Ecosystem manager at GSMA for 2 years and is responsible for analysing Global Messaging trends and reporting on RCS industry momentum.

Catherine also convenes GSMA RCS events Globally and evangelises and presents on Messaging at Industry forums.

Catherine holds a Law degree from the University of Dundee and is a Prince 2 qualified Project Manager with 6 years’ experience in the Telecoms industry across various roles within GSMA.

Nick founded Mobilesquared in 2008 to deliver specialist research and consultancy across all areas of the mobile and telecommunications industries, and has authored strategic industry reports on topics including; OTT, RCS, A2P SMS messaging, unified communications, mpayments, mobile advertising, premium rate services, apps and content, and technology. Nick’s work is extensively covered in the mobile, business, and marketing press, and he has been interviewed on mobile and tech topics by media including the BBC, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, and CNN. He speaks at conferences around the world, and is a judge for the Global Mobile Awards, the MEFFYS and the EMMAs. Prior to founding Mobilesquared, Nick was principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media (now Ovum), after having spent ten years as a tech journalist working on leading global B2B titles.

Alykhan Govani is the Co-Founder and CEO of Airfind. Airfind works with Mobile operators and Device OEM’s to drive revenue and operational excellence through Value Added Products. Airfind works with partners in over 35 countries and touches over 100M subscribers. Prior to Airfind, Aly was as the North American CEO of MX Telecom, a leading global messaging aggregator which was acquired by OpenMarket in 2010. Aly has been an active participant in Mobile Messaging industry since 2004, leading a number of industry initiatives including Co-Chairing the Consumer Best Practices Committee. Aly holds a master’s degree from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California, Berkley.

Mark recently joined the GSMA to lead the RCS programme having previously worked with a number of different operators and service providers in markets across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Doug Makishima, CSMO of Summit Tech, is a seasoned C-level executive with deep experience in wireless communications, mobile devices, IoT, and AI.  He was most recently the COO of Meeami Technologies, a leading provider of IP communications and Voice IoT / AI technologies.  Before Meeami, Doug was COO/CSMO at D2 Technologies, a leading software company enabling mobile VoIP & IMS IP communications capabilities for top-tier OEMs, IC vendors and operators.  He has held senior management positions at leading companies such as Nortel, AMD, Adaptec, GSMA and several startups. During his engineering career, he developed patented storage IC technology and has actively participated on several IEEE, ANSI and GSMA committees focused on wireless, communications and storage standards. He holds a BSEE from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

As part of Vodafone’s Global Technology team, Oscar Gallego is responsible for the Group’s consumer products in the areas of communications and security. He joined Vodafone in 2009 has fulfilled senior management roles in both technology strategy and service deployment. Prior to that, Oscar worked for network providers such as Ericsson, NEC and Nortel across engineering and R&D roles.

In 2012, Oscar led the team pioneering the first commercial deployment of RCS, scaling it as a hub to serve 15 Vodafone operations across 3 continents and, more recently, evolving it to offer Messaging-as-a-Platform (RCS A2P) commercially in the first half of 2018. In parallel, he works closely with GSMA partners to define and realise RCS ecosystem foundations enabling interoperable commercial deployments worldwide.

Oscar’s current focus is on realising a monetisation ecosystem around the RCS service. Beyond RCS, his responsibilities include evolving telco communications towards a customer-friendly multi-device experience as well as providing a safer Internet journey for Vodafone customers.

John Lauer is an entrepreneur and telecommunications industry veteran, and the CEO and co-founder of Zipwhip, the leading provider of texting for business. Zipwhip empowers companies to communicate with their customers in the most effective way possible – texting – right from their computer or mobile device using intuitive cloud-based software and an API solution. Lauer initially made his mark during the dot-com boom when he created Rootlevel, which built web applications for some of the biggest companies in the United States at the time. He then transitioned into the telecom industry and created Simplewire – one of the world’s first providers of SMS text messaging and mobile payment services. Simplewire notably gave Twitter its very first short code in 2009, which allowed tweets to be sent via text message and set the stage for what Twitter is today. Simplewire was acquired by Qpass, which later became OpenMarket. Just a few years after Lauer sold it, OpenMarket achieved $260 million in revenue. Today, as Zipwhip’s CEO, Lauer forms the company’s key strategies and initiatives and oversees executive operations.

Alison is an industry thought leader who has worked throughout her career to drive innovation in emerging industries by fostering individual business success in a free market environment. With close to a 20-years experience in telecommunications and wireless, she brings a deep understanding of a range of viewpoints and has been a key player in developing many of the Best Practices that govern the Messaging and Mobile Payments industry today. Prior to joining Zipwhip Alison was at T-Mobile for 10 years; most recently in Corporate Strategy where she oversaw the strategic partnership with Google. Prior to that Alison was in Product Management where she ran the 3rd Party Platforms business, which included 3rd Party Messaging, Mobile Payments, Location Based Services and Search. Alison recently took a year off from her career to spend time focusing on her family, and we are very excited that she decided to return to the wireless industry driving Zipwhip’s Industry Development initiatives.

As Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Product Officer, Mary Clark leads Synchronoss’ global product management, marketing and communications. Synchronoss (NASDAQ: SNCR) transforms the way companies create new revenue, reduce costs and delight their subscribers with cloud, messaging and digital transformation products supporting hundreds of millions of subscribers across the globe. Synchronoss’ secure, scalable and groundbreaking new technologies, trusted partnerships and talented people change the way TMT customers grow their business. Previously at Syniverse she was Chief Marketing Officer and also served as Senior Vice President, Next-Generation Roaming Services and Standards, and Senior Vice President, Roaming.

Bartley E. Jenniches is Google’s Director of Business Communications Partnerships, where he is responsible for the strategy and market development of Google’s Communications business solutions for brands. Most recently, Bart led Google’s VR/AR/Lens advertising efforts, helping launch solutions (YouTube, Display, Search) that bridge the gap between the physical and digital world. Prior to that, Bart spent seven years launching sales and product strategy for YouTube in Australia/New Zealand. Bart started his Google career in the original Newport Beach, California, office in 2003 after working for a variety of media technology start-ups. He brings an extensive track record of effecting transformational change in response to evolving consumer behavior, as well as development of market-first creative and commercial partnerships.

Detroit-area native, Bart graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Psychology, and attended Boston University’s Graduate School of Communications, earning a Master of Science in Public Relations, with a focus on international media.

Bart and his family have a taste for far-flung destinations, with journeys to Faroe Islands, Tonga, the Galapagos, and Easter Island. More regularly, Bart can often be found in the wilds of his nature preserve in the heart of Tasmanian bushland.

Pedro Andrade is Head of New Product Development at WIT Software. He has been managing several projects for mobile operators in the chatbots business, being responsible to deliver new solutions to this market, in areas like customer service, enterprise productivity and conversational commerce.

Carlos Aragon is Sr. Director of Business Mobility Solutions Marketing at Mavenir. He has extensive experience with real-time communications, mobile and fixed-line Unified Communication (UC) services, UC as a Service and WebRTC as well as in-depth knowledge of related user experience fields such as video production and animation.

Carlos has two decades of experience in telecommunications, starting his career in a technical support engineering role for Ericsson; supporting 2G/3G switching, intelligent networks and GPRS. In 2000 he joined Nortel, where he held pre-sales and global product marketing responsibilities for Wireless Packet Core and, later, Multimedia Applications. In 2010 Carlos transferred to GENBAND as part of their Nortel acquisition (and then Ribbon Communications as part of their merger with Sonus Networks), where he had marketing responsibilities for Cloud and Platform-as-a-Service offers. In 2018 Carlos joined the Mavenir team to help mobile network operators provide innovative solutions for the enterprise of the future.

Carlos Aragon holds a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Kirsten is the SVP of People at Zipwhip, where she supports the larger corporate strategic direction by advancing the talent and recruitment strategy. She has nearly 20 years of experience supporting high growth companies in the building and scaling of teams, people operations and programs. With a diverse background as both a founder and HR professional, she is passionate about building inclusive and diverse cultures, where employees can do their best work.

Faye Ricci is senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Zipwhip, overseeing all of the company’s legal activities, including the legal aspects of strategic transactions, business development and enterprise sales. Ricci brings more than two decades of transactional, operational and risk experience at major national law firms, as in-house counsel and in-business roles. Most recently she was Vice President, Legal at Limeade. In addition to her legal acumen, Ricci has significant management experience as a vice president at both Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase Bank. She earned her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Bachelor of Science from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

As the Chief Revenue Officer at 3C, Jeremy Martin uses his deep business and consumer knowledge to shape market-defining solutions for some of America’s largest and most admired brands.

Jeremy is responsible for creating profitable client relationships grounded in value-based work that helps clients and 3C continually outpace the market. Using a combination of creativity and business acumen, he is engaged with brands as a trusted partner who innovates, designs and delivers disruptive mobile marketing programs that drive business results. As a leader at 3C, Jeremy has shaped some of the mobile industries most profitable and innovative mobile marketing programs.

Prior to joining 3C, Jeremy spent six years with Verizon Business as a leader in their enterprise practice. As a branch manager, Jeremy led a cross-functional team that consistently delivered more than $40 million in annual revenue. In this role, he was responsible for leading teams that designed and delivered telecommunications, software and infrastructure solutions to global businesses.

Kerstin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Out There Media, one of the leading mobile technology and data companies, and as such is responsible for the company’s global growth, working closely with Fortune 500 brands as well as with tier 1 mobile operators.

Kerstin is a notable industry speaker having spoken at the United Nations Media Summit, the World Economic Forum and a number of tech and marketing events, such as Mobile World Congress.

Kerstin holds an MBA from ESADE and an M.A. Business Administration and Economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Kerstin is a Harvard Business School Alumni (OPM), an Endeavor High Impact Entrepreneur, and has been on the Jury at Cannes Lions. Kerstin has also been named among the “Top 50 Female Executives in Mobile”, the “10 Women Who Rock the Marketing Industry Today”, and the global “Lovely Mobile Leaders” for the past three years. She is half Danish and half Greek and speaks six languages.