Innovation Forum
Powered by WBA CTO Group
Powered by WBA CTO Group
Next Event: January 14th 2025
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WBA’s vision is to drive the seamless and interoperable services experience via Wi-Fi within the global wireless ecosystem.
The Innovation Forum is a unique gathering of industry technology leaders with the ambition of shaping the future of the Wi-Fi industry and to accelerate the development of the industry roadmap which will accelerate adoption of world leading Wi-Fi services across carriers, enterprise and consumers. Click below for more information or get in touch using the form below.
The Innovation Forum is built upon 4 main pillars:
Strategic and Impactful
Gathering of industry leaders to set the future direction and wireless industry roadmap for the next decade
Diverse
Unique gathering of players across the ecosystem, operators, infrastructure, chipset and device vendors, industry verticals
Execution Capacity
Best-in-class program management supported by a team with association business track-record
Global and Focused
WBA members and industry verticals representation considered strategic – invitation-only
2023 WBA Public Webinars
Asia Pacific Committee & Technical Roadmap Update |
16th February (Thursday) | 6th July (Thursday) | 2nd November (Thursday) |
Innovation Forum By WBA CTO Group |
12th April (Wednesday) | 13th September (Wednesday) | 15th November (Wednesday) |
Connected Communities Forum |
16th March (Thursday) | 1st June (Thursday) | 7th September (Thursday) |
Innovation Forum Agenda:
January 14th 2025
8:00 PT
Welcome & Agenda
Tiago Rodrigues – President & CEO, WBA
8:05 PT
WBA Industry Report – Key Industry Updates & Findings for 2025
Tiago Rodrigues – President & CEO, WBA
8:15 PT
Round Table 1 – 6G Vision and Industry Impacts
Dr. Derek Peterson – CTO, Boingo Wireless
8:35 PT
Round Table 2 – Road to Wi-Fi 8
Matt MacPherson – Wireless CTO, Cisco | Dr. Necati Canpolat – Sr. Staff, Wireless Systems Architect
8:55 PT
Overview WBA Programs for 2025 & Call for Participation
Bruno Tomas – CTO, WBA
9:00 PT
Close
Innovation Forum Leadership & Members
Dr. Necati Canpolat
Co-Chair of the Innovation Forum by CTOG
Senior Staff Architect, Intel
Andre Francisco
Andre is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at Uplink. He is responsible for the company’s technical vision and strategy, leading his team in building Uplink’s blockchain platform, Portal for infrastructure management, the Uplink APP, and other technical products. Under his leadership, Uplink is pioneering a decentralized ecosystem that empowers the creation of a self-sustained and infinitely scalable internet.
With 20 years of experience in Computer Science, Andre has an extensive background in research and development. He has worked as a Researcher at INESC TEC CRACS, Porto Interactive Center, and the Portuguese Institute of Telecommunications. In addition, he founded and served as President of NuCC (Nucleus for Computer Science) and is an AngelPad alumnus.
Andre’s expertise and innovative approach are instrumental in driving Uplink’s mission to connect everyone in developing tools and solutions for a more advanced internet infrastructure.
Luther Smith
Luther Smith is the Director, Wireless Access Technologies and Distinguished Technologist at CableLabs. While Luther’s current focus is within the Wireless technology, Luther has experience in many Wired, and Video technologies. Over Luther’s 20 years at CableLabs, his roles have extended from testing and specification development to leading the Wireless Access Team. Luther currently serves as Lead or Co-Lead in various working groups in the WBA and WInnForum and also participates in working groups in IEEE, WInnForum, WBA and WFA. Luther holds a Master of Information Systems and MBA in Technical Management from the University of Phoenix. Luther is ISC2 CISSP certified and a member of the SCTE and IEEE.
Dr. Necati Canpolat
Dr. Canpolat has been with Intel Corporation since 1997. He is a senior staff member of Intel’s Communication Group and he has been focusing on mobile communications research and development, product definition, path finding, industry engagement, standards development, forging partnership and ecosystem formation. Prior to joining Intel, he has worked at Qualcomm Inc.
Dr. Canpolat has over 20 years of experience in the communication industry. He has held a number of officer and leadership positions in various organizations including WFA, IEEE 802.11 and WBA, and he also participates in several GSMA groups.
He has been engaged with the WBA since 2009. He is currently focused on Wi-Fi 6, 5G and Wi-Fi, and developing new solutions for service providers to leverage their Wi-Fi investments. He has been involved in all aspects of Carrier Wi-Fi Vantage, Hotspot 2.0, Multiband Operations, and Optimized Connectivity Experience since their inceptions.
Dr. Canpolat holds a Ph.D. from Oregon State University and Master’s degree from Colorado State University.
Matt MacPherson
Matt MacPherson is Cisco’s Wireless CTO. Matt’s group has world-wide responsibility for Cisco’s Wireless thought leadership through analyzing technology and industry trends and providing direction to product and engineering teams.
The Wireless CTO team manages the innovation pipeline from idea to proof-of-concept and eventually, to execution decisions. The team has strong insights into market evolution and disruptions in the start-up ecosystem. They ensure Cisco has the leading wireless portfolio through build, buy and partner strategies. Domains include driving strategy for both Service Provider and Enterprise markets for a broad range of wireless solutions across licensed, unlicensed and shared spectrum.
The Wireless CTO team engages at the executive level with customers and key technical influencers to partner and drive Cisco’s innovation activity. Matt’s team also works directly with Cisco’s world-class development engineering group for prototyping new technologies.
Through board of directors and workgroups, the team takes a strong leadership role in defining industry standards. Matt sits on the Board of Directors for the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and his team participates in standards groups for Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA), GSMA, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and IEEE.
Matt joined Cisco in 1995 and has driven multiple service provider collaborations and strategic alliances. Prior to Cisco, he spent 11 years developing communication and control systems at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory – the high-energy physics particle research facility. Matt holds a Master’s Degree from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Engineering and Systems.
Derek Peterson
Derek Peterson, Ph. D., is chief technology officer at Boingo Wireless. He is responsible for the company’s technical vision and strategy. Under his leadership, Boingo is pioneering the adoption and deployment of the latest IT and wireless network technologies including 5G, Passpoint, network virtualization and convergence. He is directly responsible for building and operating Boingo’s core technologies and systems, including web applications, client software, networks, authentication, billing, advertising, IPTV, business intelligence and IT infrastructure.
Dr. Peterson has deep telecommunications experience as a consultant, engineer, product manager and executive. Prior to joining Boingo in 2011, he served in strategic product roles at Oracle driving global launch campaigns for LTE adoption and billing software solutions.
He is a Wireless Broadband Alliance, MulteFire Alliance and New IP Agency board member, and a founding member of the Wireless Infrastructure Association’s Innovation & Technology Council. Dr. Peterson was named “CTO of the Year” in 2017 by the Los Angeles Business Journal and a 2015 “Wireless Industry Executive to Watch” byFierceWireless.
Dr. Peterson holds a BS in computer science from the University of Maryland, an MA in education and technology from the American Intercontinental University, and a Doctorate of Computer Science with a focus on enterprise information systems from Colorado Technical University. He is an adjunct professor for Colorado Technical University and an editor for the “International Journal of Strategic Information Technology and Applications.”
Blaz Vavpetic
As Chief Technology Officer, Blaz is responsible for Single Digit’s wireless connectivity strategy and solution architecture for connected properties, people and devices. Formerly the CTO at iPass, he brings more than 20 years of experience consulting with customers on their use cases and delivering solutions to meet their needs. Blaz holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Dayton and resides in the Greater Boston area.
Chris Spencer
With over 20 years working on cutting-edge technology in both the public and private sectors, Chris Spencer leads GlobalReach’s software team of expert technologists in 3 countries to build and maintain innovative technical solutions for the Carrier and Enterprise markets.
His team have created wireless solutions in WiMax, WiFi, MESH, GSM, 3G/4G, CDMA, HSDPA and competing technologies.
He is in charge of maintaining one of the UK’s largest WiFi Mesh clouds and in 2012, Chris helped design and build the world’s largest underground WiFi network in the London Underground, operating in excess of 2 million daily sessions.
Bruno Tomas
Bruno C. TOMÁS serves as program director at WBA, where is responsible for managing activities and working groups focused on the business development and implementation of wireless technologies (Next Gen Wi-Fi, IoT, 5G) and services (OpenRoaming, Security, Data, Interoperability). Since joining WBA in 2012, based on an extensive collaboration with its global membership, he was one of the initial few driving seamless roaming NGH deployments leading to world’s first success stories, working closely with partners in the United States, Brazil, China, Spain, UK, Germany, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, India.
He started his career at Portugal Telecom / Altice as a network engineer for headend systems and later as innovation consultant conducting the strategic analysis and new business development for medium/long term technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), along with managing external engagement and standardization activities with ETSI, ITU and EC.
Tomas received the BSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering and the MSc in Telecommunications from the Technical University of Lisbon (IST), Portugal. Before joining the industry he collaborated with the Telecommunications Institute as an investigator in the areas of wireless and UHDVideo.
Ivan Muccini
Ivan Muccini is a dynamic product leader with 15 years of experience managing product and business strategies, overseeing multimillion-dollar enterprise SaaS portfolios. Experienced in bootstrapping and scaling product organizations, leading multi-functional teams to deliver innovative solutions and drive business goals. From leading nationwide wireless network planning for telcos, to developing OSS/BSS platforms for the core infrastructure, Ivan spent 15 years in the wireless industry building solutions that help organizations adopt and scale the latest wireless network solutions.
In his current role as VP Product at Cloud4Wi, Ivan leads the product strategy and operations of a Saas portfolio that helps enterprises adopt innovative location-based technologies on scale, to deliver unprecedented consumer experiences while matching business goals.
Ivan has an M.Sc. in Telecommunication Engineering and a background in product design, technical pre-sales, product marketing and software development.
Jonas Bjorklund
Jonas Björklund has developed broad technical knowledge within IT, networks and telecom through his more than 15 years in the wireless industry. As co-founder of Aptilo and with a background in various roles including product management, Jonas has played an important part in developing the Aptilo solution into what it is today. In his role as Aptilo’s CTO, working from our Dallas office, he continues this mission of developing and articulating Aptilo´s strategic technical direction through close dialogue and relationships with customers, partners and other industry influencers. He is deeply involved in the everyday process of developing and designing the solution, and meeting the complex requirements of new and demanding markets. Jonas has an M.Sc. in System Engineering and background within technical pre-sales, project management and software development. Jonas has extensive international sales experience with EMEA, APAC and the Americas. Prior to Björklund’s role as CTO he served as Director Global Sales Engineering at Aptilo.
Metin Taskin
After working as a research engineer at the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), Taskin continued his career in the United States. First at Hittite Microwave Corporation in Boston MA, designing radar and microwave communications systems and later at Cisco Systems at San José CA.
Working initially on the development of fixed access wireless devices at the Wireless Access BU, Taskin later moved to the Wireless Networking BU of Cisco as a system architect and led a team of 25 engineers that developed BR1410, an IEEE 802.11a compliant Wireless Outdoor Bridge. Taskin received the “Cisco Innovator” award for his success in the design and development of this product.
In 2004, Taskin co-founded AirTies and currently works out of the Paris office as the company’s Chief Technology Officer.
Metin Taskin received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Bosphorus University in Istanbul.
Marcel Chenier
Marcel Chenier is CTO and co-founder of NetExperience where he brings three decades of technology leadership experience in the field of public and enterprise wireline, wireless and cloud networking products. In his role, he is responsible for technology direction and ensuring best-in-class product delivery to Service Provider customers.
Prior to NetExperience, Marcel took the role of CTO and VP of Engineering for KodaCloud building a Cloud Network control solution for MSP WLAN networks. Marcel led product architecture for the WLAN portfolio and Small Cell Plug&Play Solutions at Ericsson. Marcel was Vice -President of engineering at BelAir Networks, a WLAN carrier-class small-cell equipment provider which was acquired by Ericsson. Marcel was head of engineering at Zhone Technologies Canada from early company stage to IPO responsible for voice and video packet products. As VP of R&D for Premisys, a smart DLC equipment provider, Marcel was part of the leadership team that led the acquisition by Zhone. Marcel started his career with Nortel Networks working on silicon, hardware and software products and as an R&D Executive for the Signaling System Product Line. Marcel is a co-inventor on several patents in wireless networking architecture and was a member of the Intel Technical Advisory board from 2011 to 2014.
Ken Kerpez
Dr. Kerpez received his Ph. D in EE communications from Cornell University in 1989. He worked at Bellcore and Telcordia, for 20 years, at ASSIA Inc. for 11 years, and now he is delighted to be at DZS. Dr. Kerpez became an IEEE Fellow in 2004 for his contributions to broadband technology and standards. He has published a hundred papers and one thousand standards contributions. Dr. Kerpez has many years of experience working on communications systems and networks of all sorts, including broadband, fiber access, home networks, wireless systems, broadband service assurance, IP QoS, triple-play services, virtualization, Wi-Fi and 5G.
Karri Huhtanen
Karri Huhtanen has worked on Wi-Fi technology and networks since 1997, originally in Nokia, when the first versions of Wi-Fi and SIM authentication were developed. After Nokia, he worked for Finnish service provider Saunalahti in the R&D department of their wireless Internet service provider business as well as in the wireless spin-off company.
Starting in 2002, Karri Huhtanen worked in the Future Internet research group at the Tampere University of Technology researching network security and connectivity. He also participated in the development of eduroam both in Finland and abroad since the first trials in 2003.
While working in the university he founded Internet engineering company Arch Red together with two other researchers. Arch Red focused on Wi-Fi network authentication and roaming solutions and architecture. With Karri Huhtanen as Managing Director, Arch Red acquired an Australian company Open System Consultants in 2013, gaining its RADIUS server product Radiator and established reseller and customer network.
Since the acquisition Arch Red, nowadays known as Radiator Software, has continued developing and expanding its product portfolio with operator and service provider oriented solutions never forgetting Wi-Fi authentication and roaming solutions.
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Brendan O'Reilly
With almost two decades of telecommunications expertise, Brendan O’Reilly brings a proven track record of delivering complex technology strategies and programmes to his role with BAI Communications (BAI).
Based out of London, Brendan’s role is focused on accelerating BAI’s expansion of its neutral host solutions and magnifying its strengths as a telecommunications infrastructure service provider. This remit forms a core part of BAI’s growth strategy, which aims to cement the business as a global leader in the delivery of shared 5G network infrastructure.
Brendan joined BAI from Telefónica where he was the Chief Technology Officer for O2’s UK operation for six years, boasting achievements such as leading the development of O2’s network share partnership with Vodafone, O2’s fastest 4G deployment in the UK and the recent launch of its 5G network.
Specifically, Brendan had accountability for O2’s strategy, design, planning, test, delivery and operation of the entire mobile and fixed network, messaging, and Wi-Fi, supported by his team of more than 700 professional engineers.
Delivering the best customer experience is at the heart of how Brendan works, knowing that his people are key to achieving this. Brendan is a strong advocate for his people and actively supports their development and self-learning.
Dominik Schroder
Dominik has more than 20 years of experience in the management of complex IT projects. He is accustomed to diverse management methods – be it agile or more classic – and delivery models – from onsite to nearshore and offshore. As Leader of the seamless customer WiFi for Deutsche Bahn he played a central role in the development of the solution for one of the largest WiFi networks in Europe. His focus is the delivery of the envisioned project goals, be it connectivity, information on passenger flows, data enabling data driven digital services, enabling a WiFi-based business case or similar. Dominik has a diploma in electrical engineering and in economics.
Dr. Mehmet Özdem
Dr. Mehmet Özdem has more than 20 years of experience in Telecommunications industry. He worked in many different groups (investment, planning, operation, quality assurance and architecture teams). He currently works as the Innovation & Product and Service Development Director and Head of R&D Centers in Turk Telekom. Simultaneously, he works as Vice President of ITU (International Telecommunication Union) SG12 and QSDG organizations. He is also a board member of the Wireless Broadband Alliance. He teaches lectures as a part-time lecturer at universities and has international certificates such as CCIE, PMP, and ITIL. He is married and has a child.
Andrew Ferraro
Andy Ferraro is the Senior Director for Digital Guest Experience at Marriott International, focusing on delivering digital product innovations that elevate the on-property guest and associate experience and increase customer loyalty. In recent years he has launched industry-leading mobile app, guestroom entertainment, internet, networking and authentication solutions. His passion for technology is outpaced only by his drive to deliver unprecedented digital experiences backed by superb service delivery.
Azad Singh
Azad is responsible for international roaming over various technologies M2M, 4G, 5G and VAS strategy for Reliance Jio. Azad have 21+ years of telecom experience in India, Canada and USA at various technical and management positions also entrepreneurship.
Azad is representing Jio at GSMA, WBA and other international telecom forums. Azad holds engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunication from National Institute of Technology Jalandhar India and management from McGill Desautels Canada.
Suja John
Suja John heads the AT&T Global Intercarrier Network Services organization responsible Roaming and Access Connectivity Product Development, Network Operations, Wholesale Usage and Settlement across LTE/5G/Wifi/Satellite technologies.
Prior to this Suja led the AT&T FirstNet Technology Organization in AT&T Business and was the CTO of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network. Her team was responsible for the architecture & planning of the dedicated FirstNet network, the design of Mission Critical services for public safety and defining the long-term strategy & evolution of the network.
Before joining AT&T Business, she was a Director in AT&T Labs, where she led the team that defined AT&T’s network solution, culminating in the 6.5B award to AT&T to build and operate the public safety network. She also oversaw the team responsible for technology realization of cross-carrier interoperability and managed the launch of several consumer and enterprise mobility services.
Suja began her telecommunication career with British Telecommunication in Dubai, UAE and has extensive global experience in technology innovation, strategic planning, supply chain, business development, Network Operations and Customer Care. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering and a MBA in Marketing. Suja is the recipient of several excellence awards including the Women of Color STEM Technology Rising Star Award.
Tiago Rodrigues
Tiago Rodrigues is the CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA). Tiago is responsible for leading the overall strategy, together with the WBA Board, and the operational planning for the WBA. As well as overseeing the day to day management, Tiago takes a leadership role in understanding industry challenges and working with membership to agree the key focus areas and programs that need to be developed to ensure the wireless industry optimises market opportunities for Wi-Fi and works to resolve any business issues that impede the success of the industry overall.
Before he joined the WBA, Tiago spent 15 years at the Portugal Telecom Group. In his previous role as Head of Business Innovation, he collaborated with various departments within the company to identify and develop new business opportunities. Prior to this, he managed the Public Wi-Fi sector of Portugal Telecom Group where he was responsible for service management, development, strategy and internationalisation of the Wi-Fi service. He was also involved in strategic marketing, regulatory affairs, pricing, product development and roaming.
Tiago holds an M.Sc. in Economics and Management of Science and Technology, and a degree in Business Administration from the Higher Institute of Economics and Management at The Technical University of Lisbon He also has a BA. Honors Degree in Business Administration from Humberside University, UK.
