MWC Las Vegas – Open RAN Summit

Haseeb Akhtar is currently responsible for the radio network architecture evolution at Ericsson for their North American market. His experience spans across various roles in Telecommunications with a concentration on wireless and packet based networks. Haseeb represents Ericsson at the O-RAN Alliance’s WG1 (Working Group 1) covering the ‘Use Cases and Overall Architecture’. He is also the editor of ‘O-RAN Architecture Description’ specification.

Haseeb holds over 35 US, European and Australian patents covering various aspects of communications technology.

Haseeb has a Master of Science in Telecommunications from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas at Arlington.

Greg Manganello’s broad strategic vision has enabled Fujitsu to evolve its Network Services business into a high-growth, profitable powerhouse. His transformation-oriented, inspirational leadership style is the result of over 25 years of profit and revenue creation in technology companies. His tough-minded, innovative approach is focused on creating an organizational architecture in which top-flight talent can think big and exceed expectations.

Greg began his career at Bell Laboratories as a solutions architect and advanced rapidly through various management roles. During the 1990s, Greg held positions as director of strategy, marketing, business planning, business development, and executive sales. More recently at Alcatel-Lucent, (formerly AT&T Network Services, Lucent Technologies and Bell Laboratories) Greg was VP of business development in Brazil, then North America VoIP leader, and industry and public sector VP.

Greg holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. He also attended Penn State and Thunderbird University, earning executive education in financial analysis for strategic management and financial issues in global competition, as well as a mini Master of Business Administration (MBA). Greg has completed the Fujitsu Global Knowledge Institute, a six-month senior leadership development program. Greg is Chairman of the Board for TrueNet Communications – a Fujitsu company, and serves on the advisory board of the Center for Services Leadership at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

Cristina Rodriguez is vice president in the Network & Edge Group, general manager of the group’s Wireless Access Network Division (WAND), and general manager of the Austin Design Center at Intel Corporation. She leads Intel’s efforts to provide innovative wireless access solutions in both traditional and cloud native networks, enabling the RAN of the future by bringing together 5G, the build out of the Edge and Artificial Intelligence. Rodriguez has full PnL ownership, responsible for strategy and business plans, technical product marketing, roadmaps, product definition, forecasting, customer relationships, investment decisions and GTM. 
 
Rodriguez joined Intel in 2014 with the acquisition of LSI Corp.’s Axxia Networking Business from Avago Technologies Ltd., where she led and carried out software strategy. In her first Intel role as senior director of software for WAND, Rodriguez managed the division’s worldwide software engineering and product development efforts. She also led the successful integration of the Axxia team into Intel and aligned the team’s focus with Intel’s networking business. Since joining Intel in 2014, her team has been recognized multiple times with Intel’s highest honor, the Intel Achievement Award, for their contribution to the company’s 5G leadership efforts. 
 
Before her tenure at LSI and Avago, Rodriguez spent seven years holding leadership roles in software development at Agere Systems Inc. and its parent company, Lucent Technologies Inc. Earlier in her career, she worked at Zilog Inc. and at two startup ventures. 
 
Rodriguez earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría in Havana, Cuba; her master’s degree in computer science from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Madrid, Spain; and completed the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University. Rodriguez is also a member of the Intel Latinx Leadership Council. 

Sadayuki Abeta is global head of open RAN solutions and OREC evangelist in NTT DOCOMO for creating open RAN ecosystem globally, and shaping them to meet customer and service provider needs. 

Since joining NTT DOCOMO, INC in 1997, He has been working for research, standardization and development of the UMTS/W-CDMA, HPSA, LTE, LTE-Advanced and 5G. From 2005 to 2009, he was a vice chairman of 3GPP TSG-RAN WG1 and rapporteur of LTE and LTE-Advanced in 3GPP TSG RAN WG1. From 2018-2022, he was a General Manager of the Radio Access Network Development Department, which is responsible for development of LTE, 5G, X-haul and satellite communications. 

Ganesh heads Radisys’ integrated solutions across wireless, wireline and media processing domains. Named in 2020 as the recipient of the Small Cell Forum Chair’s Award, he leads 4G and 5G wireless product development, drives collaboration with industry partners and performs key leadership roles in 5G standardization and Open RAN ecosystem partnerships at Radisys. He also represents Radisys in industry forums such as the O-RAN Alliance, Small Cell Forum and TIP. Prior to joining Radisys, Ganesh held management and engineering roles at Continuous Computing and Infosys. Ganesh holds an M.E, Control Systems, from the PSG College of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Government College of Engineering, Tirunelveli. 

Sushil Rawat is Vice President for Radio Access Network Planning and Engineering Platform at Rakuten Mobile. He joined Rakuten Mobile in 2018 to drive Open RAN innovation for Japan’s newest mobile operator and oversee product engineering and solution development with Rakuten Mobile’s diverse ecosystem of global telco partners.

In Rakuten Symphony, Sushil is responsible for development of SymWare product platform and enable ORAN hardware eco-system for global ORAN network deployment opportunities.

Before joining Rakuten Mobile in Japan, Rawat shaped his telecoms engineering career over more than 15 years with industry leading companies, including Vodafone, Airspan, ZTE Telecom India and Huawei.

Azita Arvani is General Manager at Rakuten Symphony, responsible for the Americas business, and Head of Global Government Affairs and Industry Relations. Arvani works with telco operators, governments and enterprises with the vision to connect everyone and everything to fulfill their potential for a sustainable future.

Deploying the latest digital technologies including 5G, AI, IoT, cloud, and AR/VR, Arvani has created new businesses, developed products, and built partnerships for both established Fortune 500 companies as well as rapid-growth startups. Prior to Rakuten, Arvani served as Head of Innovation Partnering & Venture Management at Nokia. Arvani has also held senior leadership and advisory roles at Docomo, Xerox, and Upek (now part of Apple), among others. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Open RAN Policy Coalition on behalf of Rakuten Mobile.

Arvani holds a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University (Sloan Fellow), a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science in Math/Computer Science (Magna Cum Laude) from University of California, Los Angeles. She is recognized as an avid evangelist of true digital transformation for telcos as well as other industries.

Guy Turgeon is a Chief Architect at Red Hat where he is focused on helping CSP’s migrate to a cloud native 5G architecture. His career spans 25+ years in the networking, telecommunications and software industry. Initially starting his career in embedded development at Mitel Networks and more recently in solution architecture roles at Wind River. He is an active contributor in the O-RAN Alliance and is passionate about making open disaggregated 5G RAN a reality. 

Rob Wilmoth is a Chief Architect on the Red Hat Americas Service Provider team. He works closely with customers and partners assisting with challenges ranging from regulatory compliance and general IT, to changing their perspectives and approaches towards business problems in the network and content delivery spaces. He has excelled in solution architecture roles supporting a range of industry participants including AT&T, WarnerMedia, Charter Communications, Comcast, TIAA Bank and the utility industry.

Luke Ibbetson has been with Vodafone since 1996 and currently leads the Vodafone Group Research and Development organisation, responsible for all aspects of future research including trials of emerging / disruptive technologies, new industry partnerships and the creation of future revenue engines through advanced technology. Luke is an active participant in Industry Initiatives including 5GAA (Board member), Chairman of the NGMN 5G Board Committee, Advisory Board for UK TechWorks, and Board member for several venture backed new technology companies in which Vodafone has invested. Luke is a proud pioneer of Narrow Band IoT technology and currently shaping Vodafone’s thinking on 6G. Luke is a passionate supporter of innovative thinking, helping to create new opportunities for technology to change lives and society for the better. 

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.

Emanuel is a Senior Analyst in the research and consulting team, focusing on network technologies and strategic developments across the cellular infrastructure value chain. His research includes broad spectrum of topics, including development strategies of future RAN technologies, Energy Management, FWA and Open RAN.