Jim Brisimitzis

Founder, 5G OI Lab

Jim has over 19 years of enterprise, channel, and startup experience through companies such as Bell Canada, Nortel Networks, PeopleSoft, Oracle and over 13 years with Microsoft. Jim is the Founder of the 5G Open Innovation Lab in Seattle. The Lab is a community partnership of private and public sponsors focused on discovering, accelerating, and promoting future connectivity, edge computing and artificial intelligence inspired technologies. Prior to launching the Lab Jim was a Managing Partner for Quake Capital, leading their early efforts to establish a presence in the ecosystem. Jim was also the General Manager of the Microsoft for Startups program in the United States and Canada. His team was responsible for startup engagements partnering with leading North American startup accelerators/incubators. Together with these partners Jim’s team engaged over 2,800 startups actively running on Azure through programs such as the Customer Access Program (CAP), technical enablement, and events to help startups accelerate their business. Prior to launching the Microsoft for Startups program. Jim led operations for Microsoft Ventures globally in addition to creating and launching their “HiPo” program; an exclusive engagement for Startups with significant market potential.

Jim has led many internal innovation efforts from SMB mini-servers to hyper-scale computing HW/SW stacks. As an “intrapreneur” Jim appeals to opportunities that help large organization rapidly innovate new and emerging opportunities from concept to customer adoption. He developed the early prototypes for Microsoft Cloud Platform Solution (aka Azure Stack) and holds a patent for a predictive algorithm. He holds a degree in Business Management from Trent University of Peterborough Ontario, Canada. Jim and his family reside in Seattle WA.

Gil Shneorson

Senior Vice President, Edge Portfolio and Solutions, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell EMC

Gil is a business and technology executive with over 30 years leadership experience in international business management, engineering, marketing, operations, GTM planning and execution, direct and through partnerships and General Management.

In his current Dell EMC role Gil is leading Dell Technologies’ Edge strategy and execution, working with customers, partners and the Dell product groups to ensure Dell delivers the best solutions for customers when it comes to their Edge computing challenges.

Prior to that Gil lead the VMware focused hyper-converged systems business for Dell EMC and VMware – VxRail from inception to market leadership.

His responsibilities included product development, marketing, and sales for the VxRail product and VxRack SDDC systems - currently the fastest growing HCI business in the industry with #1 market share and leadership position on Gartner’s HCI Magic Quadrant. He was also responsible for the definition and execution of the business and GTM framework, working across Dell EMC and VMware and their partners to bring hyper-converged infrastructure systems to customers.

Prior to that Gil was responsible for EMC’s VSPEX reference architecture program, creating over $4B of value to EMC and its channel partners.

Before joining EMC, Gil held various professional services positions at DEC/Compaq and software development positions in the federal space.

Gil holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Bar-Ilan in Israel and a high-tech MBA from Northeastern University in Massachusetts.

Dell EMC, a part of Dell Technologies, enables organizations to modernize, automate and transform their data center using industry-leading converged infrastructure, servers, storage and data protection technologies. This provides a trusted foundation for businesses to transform IT, through the creation of a hybrid cloud, and transform their business through the creation of cloud-native applications and big data solutions. The company services customers of all sizes across 180 countries – ranging from 99 percent of the Fortune 500 to individual consumers – with the industry’s most comprehensive and innovative portfolio from the edge to the core to the cloud.

Gabriele Di Piazza

Sr. Director, Product Management, Telecom & Edge, Google Cloud

At Google, Gabriele is tasked to drive strategy and adoption for a portfolio of Telecommunications products, focused at planning, transforming, modernizing, assuring and securing Telco Networks and deploying and monetizing 5G Edge services & applications across multiple vertical industries. Gabriele brings more than 20 years of enterprise and communication service provider (CSP) technology expertise in product management, marketing and business development to Google Cloud.

Most recently, Gabriele was Vice President for Telco/NFV Products & Solutions at VMware enabling Telecommunication operators to transition to next generation converged cloud products.

Prior to VMware, Gabriele was Senior Vice President Products & Marketing for Guavus, a company that provides big data analytics applications to the CSP industry for improved customer experience and service assurance. Di Piazza has also been General Manager of Hewlett-Packard Marketing Optimization where he was responsible for HP's Autonomy Digital Experience Management products, Gabriele led worldwide marketing for the Operator Channels group at Microsoft, where he was also responsible for Microsoft's Media & Entertainment business and led global business development for media solutions in wireless carriers.

Before Microsoft, Gabriele spent 11 years at HP in different roles in the Communications & Media industries, related to marketing & solutions management in OSS/BSS/Contact Center/Rich Media/IPTV.

Jeni Panhorst

VP and GM of Network and Edge Platforms Division, Intel Corporation

Jeni Panhorst is a vice president in the Data Platforms Group and general manager of the Network & Edge Platforms Division at Intel Corporation. She leads the business responsible for delivering silicon, software, and platforms for network and edge computing infrastructure, driving transformation across wireline, wireless, cloud and enterprise networks.

Upon graduating college, Panhorst joined Intel in 1999 as part of the Rotation Engineers Program. Since then, she has held a variety of technical and leadership positions. As platform applications engineer, she drove the creation of the first low-power Intel® Xeon® processors and served as technical account owner for one of Intel’s largest customers. She was a platform application engineering manager in the Embedded Intel Architecture Division where she was responsible for leading a worldwide customer enabling organization. In her role as platform solutions architect, she helped establish the foundation for Intel’s network media processing business. Panhorst also served as the product line director for the Communications Infrastructure Division responsible for defining and marketing Intel products for network infrastructure equipment. More recently, Panhorst was responsible for business, technology, and product strategy for the Network Platforms Group.

Panhorst graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and a minor in artificial intelligence from Case Western Reserve University. A strong advocate for causes in education and women in technology, she serves in leadership roles for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, Arizona Academic Decathlon Association, National Charity League, and numerous Intel diversity and inclusion initiatives and Arizona community organizations.

Susan James

Senior Director of Telecommunications Strategy, Red Hat

Susan James is senior director of telecommunications strategy at Red Hat. She is a senior leader in the telecommunications industry and is currently driving technology introductions to mass market deployment. A strategic systems thinker, she has extensive experience with Cloud and has worked on a range of network functions and virtualization platforms in recent years. Her product management expertise is derived from a career-long focus on developing products to address technology transitions and the establishment of new business areas. She is also passionate about getting more women involved in technology and getting their voices heard.

She holds an MBA and Bachelor of Business from Deakin University, Australia.

Ray Le Maistre

Editorial Director, TelecomTV