Barry West,
Sprint Nextel

Barry West is President, Xohm Business Unit for Sprint Nextel. He previously served as Sprint Nextel's chief technology officer and president of 4G mobile broadband, as well as executive vice president and chief technology officer for Nextel Communications Inc.

Mr. West joined Nextel in 1996 and is the chief architect in creating the iDEN wireless technology platform with partner Motorola. Prior to joining Nextel, Mr. West led many successful engineering and marketing initiatives during more than 35 years for British Telecom including overseeing the rollout of a GSM digital cellular network that covered more than 90 percent of the United Kingdom population in only nine months. Mr. West also served as director of value-added services and corporate marketing at Cellnet, the pioneer of cellular communications in the United Kingdom

For more information, please visit: www.sprint.com

Christof Hellmis,
Nokia, Inc.

Christof Hellmis is a veteran in the high tech industry with more than 13 years experience in Research & Development, Consulting, Management and investing in media- and software-related technology areas. He currently serves as Director, Navigation & Routing Solutions, Context Based Services in Nokia´s CAE Business Group. Christof Hellmis is responsible for product management & release of Nokias context based service platform which includes Mapping, Navigation and positioning service experiences for Mobile Devices. This includes software and services such as Nokia Maps.

Hellmis joined Nokia in 2006 and is located in Berlin. Prior to joining Nokia, Hellmis took the position of Chief Operating Officer at gate5 AG where he helped to grew gate5 to Euro 18 Mio in sales and built a strategic partnership with Nokia´s Multimedia devision. He also served as Manager, Case leader and Consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in various European countries. Hellmis has spoken at conferences on navigation and location related topics. Hellmis holds a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from RWTH Aachen (Germany) and a Master of Business and Administration (MBA) from INSEAD in Fontainebleau (France).

For more information, please visit: www.nokia.com

Vincent Tao, PhD, PEng
Microsoft, Inc.

Dr. Vincent Tao is Director with Microsoft Local, Mobile Search and Virtual Earth business unit, responsible for the technology strategy and the international business and product development.

Vincent Joined Microsoft in December 2005 through the Microsoft acquisition of GeoTango where he is Founder/CEO. GeoTango pioneered GlobeView, one of the first commercial systems for on-line 3D earth visualization. GeoTango is also developer of a unique software tool, SilverEye, for single-image based 3D modeling. Prior to his entrepreneur venture, Vincent held eminent Canada Research Chair Professor position in Geospatial Information and Communication (GeoICT) at York University, Toronto. Vincent was recognized internationally by his innovations in 3D on-line mapping services, real-time location based services, sensor networks and automated street and aerial image intelligence. He has transferred a dozen of his technology inventions to the private firms and government agencies before he started his own company. Vincent has authored over 200 technical papers, a number of book chapters and technical patents. He is frequent speakers in international conferences and media forums. Vincent holds adjunct professor positions at four universities. He is the executive board member of Internal Society of Digital Earth, U.N. geospatial technology advisor, past President and Chairs of several professional organizations. He is honored with numerous awards and distinctions. Vincent is known for his technology leadership and entrepreneurship in the geospatial sector.

For more information, please visit: www.microsoft.com

Joe Astroth,
Autodesk Location Services, Autodesk Inc.

Joe Astroth has been part of the executive management team of Autodesk, reporting to the CEO, for over 13 years. His first assignment was to establish the company as one of the market leaders in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) industry. He successfully accomplished this mission by establishing a robust portfolio of desktop, server and Web-based GIS/mapping and civil engineering products. These products were rapidly brought to market through both acquisitions and internal product development. Currently, Autodesk is second worldwide in market share for GIS & Civil Engineering, accounting for nearly 15% of the company's revenue. Over six years ago, Joe envisioned another growth opportunity for Autodesk in the emerging market of wireless location-based services (LBS). He leveraged his more than 20 years of experience in GIS and computer mapping, as well as his proven entrepreneurial skills to become the leader of the Autodesk Location Services division.

Since founding the division in January 2001, Joe has been instrumental in shaping the business and technology strategies, as well as building a dynamic executive team of wireless and GIS veterans. Under Joe's leadership, Autodesk Location Services has become the leading provider of comprehensive LBS solutions to wireless operators in North America and Europe, including Verizon Wireless, Alltel, Sprint Nextel, Disney Mobile, Vodafone Spain, and Telecom Italia.

Prior to joining Autodesk, Joe held positions as vice president of product management and engineering for the GIS & CAD division of the Convergent Group and senior principal consultant at McDonnell-Douglas System Integration Company and EDS, Inc. Earlier in his career Joe was a part-time technology consultant and full-time professor at the University of Missouri, where he co-founded a GIS research center for government and commercial projects. Joe completed his doctoral work at the University of Chicago where he was awarded the Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship and the Mellon Foundation Dissertation Award.

For more information, please visit: www.autodesk.com

Kanwar Chadha,
SiRF Technology, Inc.

Founder, Board of Directors member, and VP of Marketing, Kanwar Chadha is responsible for establishing the company’s vision, corporate strategies, and strategic alliances. He has over 20 years of experience in various marketing and management positions. Prior to founding SiRF, he served as General Manager of the multimedia group and Director of Strategic Marketing at S3 Inc. where he led the development of innovative audio and video processing technologies. Before joining S3, Kanwar was the Chairman and co-founder of AQuesT, Inc., a developer of multimedia and 3D graphics acceleration products. From 1983 to 1989, he was at Intel in various product marketing positions, including Product Line Manager for the i860 RISC processor and floating point coprocessors 8087/287/387. Kanwar holds a BSEE from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi; an MS in CIS from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

For more information, please visit: www.sirf.com

Per Enge,
Atheros, Stanford University

Per Enge is the Kleiner-Perkins, Mayfield, Sequoia Capital Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University and serves on the Technical Advisory Board of Atheros Inc. At Stanford, he is the Director of the GPS Research Laboratory, which pioneers satellite-based navigation systems for aviation and maritime use. Two of these systems are in widespread use today. Medium frequency beacons are used worldwide to broadcast differential GPS corrections to some 1.5 million, mostly marine, users. The first satellite based augmentation system came on line for aviation in the United States in July of 2003, and similar systems are being developed in Europe, Japan and India. Per Enge has received the Kepler, Thurlow and Burka Awards for his work. He is also a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the ION and the IEEE.

For more information, please visit: www.atheros.com

Randy Frantz,
ESRI

As Director of Telecommunications and LBS at ESRI, Randy is responsible for global marketing of GIS solutions to this market.  He has 25 years experience working within the industry including senior vice president of product marketing for Axient Communications and vice president for Cox Communications’ new product operations in the Arizona market where he launched their telephone, digital television and DOCSIS cable modem services.  As director of network design for Bell Atlantic International he was responsible for business development in central Asia, Europe and Russia. He served in the public sector through the fellowship program at Brookings Institution and on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Asia Pacific Subcommittee.
 
Randy received a Master of Business Administration degree from Widener University and is a distinguished graduate from the US Air Force Academy where he received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

For more information, please visit: www.esri.com

Steve Glagow,
Orange

Steve Glagow is responsible for three areas within Orange: Commercial Operations, Project Management and Implementation, and Orange Partner, which is the world-wide partner and developer programme from Orange. This programme provides mobile application and content developers with the tools required to build solutions that satisfy the requirements of a 100 million-plus customer base across the globe. Partners are supported with development tools, information, testing and certification, free on-line support, and access to the new Orange Partner global development centres. Approved content and applications can be distributed to the Orange customer base. There are over 55,000 members of the program.

Steve joined Orange in December 2003 from Hewlett-Packard where he was director of software developer programmes. His background is predominantly in the marketing, technical and communications area with senior roles at: Coopers & Lybrand (director of strategic business services), Digital Equipment (director of marketing), Sequent Computer Systems (director of telecommunications), Silicon Graphics (director of marketing for telecommunication and media), and Bluestone, which was later acquired by HP, (VP of international marketing operations). Steve sits on the board of directors of EEMA, a European Commerce and Security Association and also is president of ISUG, the international Sybase User Group.

For more information, please visit: www.orange.com

Niren Hiro,
Admob

As the VP of Business, Niren is responsible for Admob's strategic partnerships worldwide. He has 17 years of international experience at top Internet, Mobile and Media companies including Yahoo!, CBS Sportsline, MTV Networks, Plus Channel, & BPL Mobile (a France Telecom JV). Prior to AdMob, Niren led the investment & operating strategy for the Yahoo! Mobile Asia business unit and the integration of Yahoo! Japan & Vodafone KK (Softbank Mobile). At the age of 21 Niren founded a highly successful processed foods company in Japan, where he was born & raised. Niren is an angel investor in several promising mobile startups on different continents and enjoys being around innovators in the turbulent media & entertainment industries. Niren has a BS in Finance and a MBA, both from Boston University.

For more information, please visit: www.admob.com

Masaaki Maeda,
NTT DoCoMo USA, Inc.

Masaaki Maeda is currently the President & CEO of NTT DOCOMO USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT DOCOMO INC, Japan's leading mobile telecommunications company.

Mr. Maeda began his career in the Japanese telecommunications industry in the Technical Development Department of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation). In March 1994, he moved to NTT DOCOMO, the mobile arm of NTT which was spun off from its parent company in 1992. In 2004, Mr. Maeda launched NTT DOCOMO USA's "namikiteru®" service in North America, a software application which allows users to read and write Japanese and displays simplified and traditional Chinese, Hangul (Korean) and Japanese characters on BlackBerry® handheld devices. This has contributed tremendously to the global mobility of bilingual business people.

Mr. Maeda holds a bachelor and master's degree in electrical engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In addition, he earned an MBA at MIT's Sloan School of Management in June 2002.

For more information, please visit: www.nttdocomo.com

Rich Miner,
Google

Rich has been developing innovative communications and interface-intensive applications for more than 20 years. He is currently group manager of mobile platforms for Google, helping to build the Android platform. Rich has been with Google since the company's acquisition of Android, a mobile software platforms company he co-founded.

Prior to Android, Rich was vice president of advanced services at Orange, where he headed the group's R&D activities in North America. He came to Orange through the acquisition of another company he co-founded, Wildfire, which made a voice-based personal assistant product that was sold to fixed and wireless carriers. Rich held various positions at Wildfire, including CTO and MD for Europe.

Rich received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, where he was co-director of the Interactive Media Group and led research projects with companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Apollo, IBM, and NYNEX.

For more information, please visit: www.openhandsetalliance.com

Magnus Nilsson,
Wayfinder Systems

Mr. Nilsson joined Wayfinder Systems as its Chief Executive Officer in April 2002. During a 15-year period he held different positions within the multinational corporation EF Education Group. His positions included President of EF Education, USA; President of EF Education, Europe; and Executive Vice President of the EF Education Group. In 1997 Mr. Nilsson became Partner and Executive Director of the Swedish VC firm AB Novestra, which was successfully introduced on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 2000. He is also one of the founders and Executive Director of Nordic Wireless AB, a Swedish VC firm founded in 2000 focused on mobile and wireless technologies.

For more information, please visit: www.wayfinder.com

Jerry Panagrossi,
Symbian

As vice president and general manager of the Symbian operations in North America, Jerry Panagrossi is responsible for strategic planning, market development and communications. For more than nine years, Jerry has been a leading contributor to the growth of the Symbian ecosystem, having launched the Symbian partner program in North America and co-created the Symbian venture capital forum in which he advises startup companies on best practices for obtaining funding and engaging with handset manufacturers and operators. Jerry serves as executive director and officer of Symbian, Inc. and represented Symbian on the board of directors of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) from 2004 to 2007.

Jerry joined Symbian in 1999 from Motorola where, as senior research engineer and project manager, he developed and patented natural input technologies and designed user interfaces for advanced concept mobile devices, including two-way pagers, communication PDAs and mobile phones. Specializing in pattern recognition and usability engineering, Jerry also held contracting and software engineering positions at Apple Computer, Eastman Kodak Company, and Ciencia y Tecnología Aplicada (trans. "Applied Science and Technology").

Jerry earned an undergraduate degree in computer science from Southern Connecticut University and completed graduate studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

For more information, please visit: http://www.symbian.com

Ed Schmit,
AT&T

Ed Schmit manages the enterprise developer program in AT&T's Business Markets Group, where his mission is to provide support for the developer community and run devCentral web portal. He has been with AT&T a couple of years. Last year, he co-wrote and edited the Wireless Reference Architecture and several white papers. Prior to joining AT&T, he worked for Intel in a variety of roles.

Schmit earned his B.S. degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a graduate engineering degree from University of Washington, and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

For more information, please visit: www.att.com

Andrew Seybold,
Andrew Seybold, Inc.

Andrew M. Seybold, founder and senior partner of Andrew Seybold, Inc., is one of the most respected and influential champions of mobile wireless innovation. Since 1983, he has served his clients and the industry as an analyst, consultant, commentator and author, as well as an active participant in industry trade organizations. Mr. Seybold has and does serve on a number of advisory boards including Motorola’s prestigious Visionary Research Council. He is widely known throughout the wireless communications industry for his keen perspective as well as his track record for accurately predicting trends in mobile wireless technology and convergence. Mr. Seybold is a frequent speaker at leading industry events such as CES and CTIA Wireless, and at corporate events for Fortune 1000 companies. He has a keen sense of what customers want, need, and are willing to pay for. He was elected a Fellow in the Radio Club of America (2000) for his contributions to the wireless data industry.

For more information, please visit: www.andrewseybold.com

Brad Smith,
Wireless Week

Brad Smith currently serves as a Technology Editor of Wireless Week. A veteran reporter with a technology and business journalism background, has more than 33 years of award-winning experience in daily and weekly reporting. Before joining Wireless Week, he was health care, media and entertainment reporter with The Denver Business Journal. Brad earlier worked as an assistant city editor of The Denver Post. Previously, he served with United Press International for 24 years, including eight years as Colorado state editor and Denver bureau manager.

For more information, please visit: www.wirelessweek.com

Asokan Thiyagarajan,
Motorola Inc

Asokan Thiyagarajan serves as a technology evangelist at the Ecosystem & Market Development team of Motorola.  As an evangelist, he is responsible for recommending strategies to address market and technology trends as well as strategic alliances with key developers. He is a respected speaker at international conferences on technology. He authors technology and visionary articles for leading magazines around the world.

Asokan has over 19 years of international experience in high technology sectors, developing software and communication systems.  Asokan has skills blended in technology, business, engineering and management, and is very effective in Technology Management.

Prior to Motorola, Asokan held a variety of senior development, operations and strategic management positions at companies such as Nokia, Ericsson and Compaq (HP).  He also has entrepreneurial experience, having co-founded a technology company.

Asokan holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, from Madurai University, India.

For more information, please visit: www.motorola.com