SReXperts Speakers

Stig Viste

Network Architect

BaneNOR

Stig secured an entry level IP/MPLS specialist job at Bane NOR in 2017, after finishing a master’s degree in Nano- and photonic electronics at NTNU. This was a time where Bane NOR had just started transitioning from leased lines towards full ownership of all components. Through this migration, Stig was involved in a wide range of topics, from incorporating SDH through IP/MPLS, to migrating RSCP to Segment routing, and constructing a completely separate green field network. Today Stig takes an active role in all design choices in his role as senior network architect. 

Gediminas Ceponis

IP Network Engineer

Bite

15+ years of experience in telecommunications networks, holding diverse roles from network operations to network planning and architecture. I have a deep understanding of various network components, from mobile backhaul to the core. Currently, at Bite Group, I lead the IP backbone architecture and network security, ensuring a robust and secure network infrastructure. 

Simon Challinor

Principal Network Architect

BT

Simon started working for BT as a graduate in 1993,  landing in the team that was just starting to develop BT’s first Internet service.  It’s normally good advice to a graduate to seek new roles every few years, but Simon realised that his first posting was a lucky one and he choose to stay where he was and be part of the ever-expanding world of IP in the heart of the UK’s largest telecommunications company.  Over the past 30 years he has taken part in each of the key developments that transformed BT from a traditional telco to the largest ISP in the UK, with all services now based on a converged IP/MPLS core network.    Today as principal architect he oversees the end-to-end design and evolution of BT’s UK IP/MPLS core network. 

Fatima AlDaghar

Director of Transport Network Planning Division

du

Fatima AlDaghar, Director of du’s Transport Network Planning division. In that role, Fatima has end of end responsibility for the planning and design of du’s transport network including IP, Optics and Microwave along with advanced automation program via domain controller. Her role includes innovative solutions definition, new technologies development and future investments decisions. In her previous roles, Fatima has played an instrumental roles in fixed access transformation, Data-centers, OSS and First Call center Digitization projects in du Fatima holds comprehensive expertise in the telecommunications sector, having acquired a MBA and an engineering diploma over her extensive career spanning over a decade and a half. 

Patrick Ellison

Technology Manager

Elisa

Bram Peeters

Chief Networks Operations Officer

GEANT

Bram Peeters is Chief Networks Operations Officer at GÉANT, where he is responsible for the development, deployment and operations of the European-wide terabit network for research and education.

Winston Carrera

Director Network Architecture & Engineering

Maersk

Bart Peirens

Business Development Manager

Proximus

Bart has more than 20 years of experience in telecommunications, and networking, he has worked in various roles from architect to Network Architect Strategy, partnerships and innovation.

Thomas Busschot

Marketing Manager B2C CRM

Proximus

Thomas is an experienced Marketing Manager at Proximus, who is passionate about leveraging data insights to increase marketing performance.

Nurakin Alkan

IP Backbone & Backhaul Associate Director

Turkcell

As an Associate Director of IP Backbone & Backhaul Network at Turkcell since February 2023, I have been at the forefront of managing and leading a robust team. My role encompasses ensuring the seamless reliability and continuity of Turkcell’s expansive IP/MPLS Backbone Network, which is pivotal in supporting a diverse range of services for over 35 million customers. My expertise extends to managing transit internet connections with global ISPs and CDN networks, as well as establishing peerings with top OTT providers like Facebook and Google. 

Alejandro Aguado Martin

Global Product Manager

Nokia

Alejandro is a Global Product Manager for Nokia’s NSP, specializing in network automation and programmability. With around ten years of experience in research and engineering for IP and optical networking, Alejandro has a strong focus on management architectures, open APIs and standardization. He holds bachelor's degrees in Software Engineering and Mathematics, as well as a PhD in Computer Science, with a specialization in quantum security integration into telecommunications networks.

Mustapha Aissaoui

Product Line Manager, Service Router Product Group, IP/Optical Networks

Nokia

Mustapha Aissaoui is a Product Manager in the Service Router Product Group of the IP/Optical Networks at Nokia. He holds an Electrical Engineering Diploma from Polytechnic School of Algiers and a MASc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ottawa. Mustapha Aissaoui has been in the Product Management role since 2004 and is responsible for the MPLS and Segment Routing features in the SR-OS based routers. He is also the lead PLM for the SR-OS based PCEP and other SDN features of the NSP. Mustapha Aissaoui is an active participant of the IETF MPLS, PCE, and SPRING working groups. He is a co-author and a major contributor to many drafts in these working groups.

Steve Aubrey

Global Product Line Manager

Nokia

Stephen has worked in the telecommunications industry for over 29 years within the area of Network & Service Management and Mobile Data Analytics. Currently global Product Manager for the Network Services Platform (NSP) focused on configuration management across network and services. Stephen holds a honors bachelors degree in computer engineering from Cardiff University.

Andres Belloni

Senior Director PLM Network Automation

Nokia

Andres Belloni leads IP Management and Platform Product Management for Nokia NSP. In this role Andres is responsible for defining and managing the lifecycle of the NSP software foundation and applications that allow service providers to automate the operation of their IP & Optical networks. Mr. Belloni has an extensive career in telecommunications specializing in network and service management for TDM, ATM, IP and Optical networks. He has been responsible for product design, product strategy and product line management of Element, Network and Service Management Systems in Newbridge Networks, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia. Mr. Belloni holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University Of Buenos Aires, Argentina and an Executive MBA from Queens University in Canada.

Kayssar Ben Hammadi

IP&SDN Consulting Engineer for North Africa

Nokia

Started carrear 16 years ago with Siemens then NSN then Nokia , focused  mainly on dealing and deploying end to end IP solutions on different domains and with different vendors , certified CCIE (#48406), JNCIE-M (#471), NRSII (#1765) and  NNIS(#54).

Bashar Bou-Diab

IP Consulting  Engineering Manager

Nokia

Bashar leads the IP-Networks Consulting Engineering team in the Middle-East. He has more than 20 years of experience in ICT within research, product development, and technical consulting roles.  Bashar has authored numerous papers and more than fifteen innovative patents in the field of telecommunications.  Bashar holds Master’s degree in Telecommunication Innovation Management from Canada.

Peter Busschbach

Senior Director, NSP Product Management

Nokia

Peter Busschbach is Senior Director in Nokia’s IP/Optical Networks BU, where he is leads Product Management of Nokia’s Carrier SDN Controller, NSP.  Before assuming this role, Peter held several senior positions in the corporate CTO office and in product units where he was responsible for strategy, standardization and solution development in a wide range of technologies, including IP/MPLS, LTE, Ethernet, Optical Networking, Policy Management and Network Management. His standardization work included active participation in IETF, MPLS Forum, ITU-T and TM Forum.  Mr Busschbach began his career in telecommunications as a software developer in AT&T. He holds a Master of Science degree in Mathematics of the Eindhoven Technical University, the Netherlands.

Steven Butler

Product Line Manager

Nokia

Steven Butler is a Product Line Manager at Nokia, specializing in network automation for data centers.  Steven began his networking career by tracing Ethernet runs on his university campus. Since then, his career has encompassed various technologies, including satellite networks, network management, and SD-WAN. He is based in Belgium and holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Jeroen Claessens

Director of Product Management

Nokia

Jeroen is the Director of Product Management for the Nuage SD-WAN solution. He has over 10 years of experience in the industry covering SD-WAN, DC SDN, backhaul and IP/MPLS routing. He got excited by carrier grade networking as a New Product Introduction engineer and later as a Consulting Engineer for Nokia’s IP division in EMEA. Jeroen has been in SD-WAN product management since 2015, based at the NI headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Jeroen holds a MSc in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Ghent, Belgium.

Nahuel Coco

Consulting Engineer

Nokia

Nahuel Coco is a Senior IP Consulting Engineer at Nokia, specializing in Enterprise with a focus on mission-critical networks. He is certified as a Nokia Service Routing Architect and a Nokia DC Fabric Professional. With extensive experience in communications networks for the electrical segment, Nahuel has taught workshops throughout LAT on topics such as IEC 61850 and Differential Protections over Segment Routing, in addition to the design and implementation of these services over Nokia IP/MPLS networks.

James Cumming

Senior Product Line Manager, SROS and SR Linux Platform, Programmability and Virtualization

Nokia

James Cumming is the Product Line Manager for the Nokia SR OS and SR Linux router software with a specific focus on Network Programmability (NETCONF/YANG/gRPC/MD-CLI/Python) and Virtualization within Nokia’s Network Infrastructure Division.  He has an extensive background in the Internet Service Provider industry over the last 25+ years.  He has worked as a lead Network Architect in several global service providers leading the efforts in network architecture, deployment, integration as well as product and service development across all technologies.  He has a particular passion for the virtualization and programmability areas as his background combines networking, systems, programming and operations which all collide in this exciting period for the industry.

Stefaan De Cnodder

Regional Product Line Manager

Nokia

Stefaan has over 25 years of experience in the telecom industry and is currently a Regional Product Line Manager for Europe and MEA focusing on IP Routing hardware within Nokia’s Network Infrastructure Business Group. He holds a Master degree in computer science from the University of Louvain (KUL) university. Stefaan is based in Antwerp, Belgium.

Bruno De Troch

Head of PLM IP Routing and Automation EMEA

Nokia

Bruno has over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry and joined the Alcatel-Lucent (now Nokia) Product Line Management team in EMEA in April 2014. His focus is on Service Provider core, edge and aggregation networks and solutions. Prior to his current role he was a Technical Lead at Juniper Networks for 14 years, providing guidance to carriers and large enterprises on how to deploy and optimize their IP/MPLS and Carrier Ethernet networks. He holds an MSc in Telecommunications from the Military Academy in Brussels and made it to Captain in charge of the Belgian Armed Forces country-wide data network before leaving and joining BT Belgium as a Design Engineer. He is based in Antwerp, Belgium.

Alp Dibirdi

Director, Product Management – IP Routing

Nokia

Alp leads software product management on 7250 Interconnect Router and 7705 Service Aggregation Router product families. Alp has over 21 years of experience in telecom industry and joined Alcatel in 1998. His previous roles include NW Architect and Product Line Product Manager on ATM Products. In addition currently focuses on 5G transport NWs and traffic management. He is recognized as Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) in 2010 for his sustained outstanding technical contribution to Alcatel-Lucent by Bell Labs. He is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Roman Dodin

Product Line Manager

Nokia

Roman is a Product Line Manager at Nokia, where he steers the development of various programmable interfaces featured on Nokia's data center switching gear. Before joining the product management team, Roman has been helping major service providers to embrace model-driven network automation in his consultant engineering role. During his seven years tenure at Nokia, he spanned multiple technology domains, gaining experience in networking, virtualization, network testing, and network automation.  Roman heavily gravitates towards software engineering and open source communities. He is a maintainer of a few popular open source projects as well as an avid contributor to various community-renowned ones.

Pierre El-Haddad

Senior Product Line Manager

Nokia

Pierre El-Haddad is a senior product line manager for IP routing hardware. He currently manages several product portfolios aimed at mobile anyhaul, datacenters, wholesale transport, TEPS, and more. Pierre has 23 years of experience in product development, network architecture and product management for IP/Ethernet and legacy technologies. He holds a bachelors degree in electrical engineering and a masters in business administration. He is based in Ottawa, Canada.

Guiu Fabregasa

Product Manager & Consulting Engineer, Deepfield, EMEA

Nokia

Guiu Fabregas is a Product Manager and Consulting Engineer at Nokia, with responsibility for the Nokia Deepfield solution in the EMEA region. Since joining Alcatel-Lucent in 2004, Guiu has held a variety of roles in the IP Division (now Nokia ION) including Network Engineer, IPTV Solution Architect, New Product Introduction Engineer and Consulting Engineer for the IP/MPLS and Nuage Networks portfolios and solutions. He has worked in several regions over the years starting in EMEA, CALA, NAR and now back to EMEA with experience in post- and pre-sales fields. Guiu holds an MSc in Information and Communication Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden as well as an MSc in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain.

Daniel Fernandez Garcia

Deepfield Security Operations Engineer

Nokia

Security Operations Engineer in Nokia Deepfield for the EMEA region with over 20 years of experience in Telecommunications networks.

Jose Gallardo

IP MPLS SME, NI Learning Services

Nokia

Jose Gallardo is a courseware developer with the Network Infrastructure Learning Services team. He has been with Nokia since 2010 and works in the Service Routing Certification (SRC) program. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C

Gilles Geerts

Networking Engineer

Nokia

Gilles Geerts is Consulting Engineer in the Network Solutions and Consulting team at Nokia, EMEA region. In this role, he provides design guidelines based upon best practices and customer requirements with a special focus on Carrier Wi-Fi, IP/MPLS architectures and next-gen Business Services. For this, he interworks with Nokia technical sales as well as technical experts in leading EMEA service providers.  Currently based in Antwerp, Belgium, Gilles has more than 17 years of experience working on Enterprise and Provider IP/MPLS networks throughout the world. He has been part of the Alcatel-Lucent¹s IP Division for the last 13 years in a consulting and new product introduction role. Prior to that, he held positions as QA/integration engineer for an Alcatel IP Core router project.  He holds Alcatel-Lucent SRA (#28) certificate and has a master degree in electro-mechanics.

Serkan Gencel

IP Consulting Engineer

Nokia

IP Consulting Engineer with 17+ years at Alcatel-Lucent/Nokia. I leverage my expertise in both IP and DWDM technologies to support pre-sales activities and develop customized solutions for clients across Turkey and Azerbaijan. My passion lies in helping customers achieve their network goals through innovative and effective technology implementations.

Burkhard Germer

IP Consulting Engineer

Nokia

Burkhard is IP consulting engineer for the Nokia IP Router portfolio, covering Central and Eastern Europe. He has over 20 years of experience in the communications and networking industry, working in various positions in pre-sales, technical-sales and Product Marketing at Cabletron, Infonet and Nortel before joining Alcatel-Lucent in 2008 which became Nokia in 2016.  In his role he is supporting the regional sales teams in all aspects of the IPD product range.  Burkhard is also heavily involved in SDN/NFV topics in the region.  Burkhard holds a MSc. from the advanced technical college of Fulda.

Wim Hendericks

Head of Technology & Architecture

Nokia

Wim Henderickx is Head of Technology & Architecture in the Network Infrastructure Group, based in Belgium. Wim provides senior level consulting on advanced IP solutions such as Cloud Networking (SDN/NFV), Triple Play, network routing, mobile and the enterprise to service providers throughout EMEA. He is also actively engaged in assessing and defining future technologies that will help shape communications networks and services of tomorrow. He has over 20 years’ experience in the communications and networking industry, and is a regular speaker at technical conferences all over the world. He is active in IETF, BBF and Openstack.  Wim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Data Communications and a Masters degree in Economy and is a Bellabs Fellow.

Thomas Henderiks

IP Consulting System Engineer

Nokia

Thomas is one of the consulting engineers for Nokia's IP portfolio covering EMEA, specializing in network automation. He interacts with customers and colleagues alike to come up with solutions to streamline processes. Thomas has an overall fondness for automating tasks backed up by a master's degree in Computer Science specialized in computer networking.

Rudy Hoebeke

Nokia

Rudy Hoebeke is Vice President of Product Management for Nokia’s IP Service Routing  portfolio. He has over 15 years of experience in the communications and networking industry, in the areas of engineering, network design, technology & product strategy and product management. Formerly, Rudy was Vice President of Product Management for IP Service Routing and Mobile Packet Core in Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Division. He holds a MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Brussels (VUB) and a Masters in Business Administration from the Vlerick Leuven-Gent Business School.

Jeff Jakab

Vice President, Hardware Product Management – Service Routers

Nokia

A 25 year employee of Nokia, Jeff is the Vice President of Hardware Product Management in the IP business unit. Jeff has extensive experience across a number of roles within Nokia ranging from engineering, support, marketing and PLM. Jeff has a focus on strategic responsibilities in the product portfolio as well as ownership of hardware technical marketing. He holds a B.Sc in electrical engineering from the University of Calgary, Canada and an MBA from the University of Ottawa, Canada. He presently works in the heart of Silicon Valley out of the Nokia office in Sunnyvale, California.

Chris Jones

Vertical Leader Energy

Nokia

Chris Jones Vertical Leader Energy Nokia Chris leads the Energy segment for Europe at Nokia supporting utilities to develop secure next generation communication solutions to address the challenges of meeting the carbon neutral aims being set within Europe though digitalization and automation. Having previously led the development of private wireless solutions to the off-shore wind industry, he is passionate about the renewable energy sector and the future advancements in storage and carbon capture. With a background in cyber-security and operational support systems in sales and delivery he is able to help customers address the challenges of deploying and running mission critical networks.

Korhan Kayhan

Consulting Engineer

Nokia

Korhan Kayhan is an IP Consulting Engineer specializing in Datacenter Networks with a decade of experience at Nokia.

Johann Kellerman

IP Product Line Manager, EMEA

Nokia

Johann is a Product Line Manager in the Europe and MEA team, with a focus on routing protocols and SDN across the Nokia IP/MPLS portfolio, Nokia SROS, and on the Network Services Platform (NSP).  Johann joined Alcatel-Lucent as Consulting Engineer in 2014 after several years in South Africa’s incumbent service provider and at a startup fibre infrastructure company, where they enabled international service providers to own national fibre and deploy their own equipment in record breaking time. Johann holds a Doctorate in Engineering from the University of Johannesburg, where his research focussed on optical sensing at the Centre of Optical Communications & Sensors.

Vach Kompella

Vice President and General Manager, IP Networks Division

Nokia

Vach is VP and GM of the IP Networks Division (IPN) in the Network Infrastructure Business Group at Nokia. IPN consists of 6 business units: Service Router, Network Automation, Data Center, Nuage Networks, Packet Core and Deepfield. He started with Timetra Networks in 2001, leading the development of MPLS and related technologies, and arrived at Nokia through a series of M&A activity. In 2008, he started the Mobile Gateways program in the IP Division, and was Vice President of Engineering for the Mobile Packet Core. Vach has been a speaker at many conferences, and a regular contributor to standards in the IETF. He was co-chair of the l2vpn Working Group at the IETF for five years. Vach was awarded a Bell Labs Fellowship in 2009 for his contributions to MPLS and VPLS. Prior to Nokia, Vach held positions at IBM, working in network security and IP protocols. Vach holds a PhD in CS from the University of California, San Diego, and obtained his BTech in CS from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Craig Labovitz

Deepfield CTO

Nokia

Craig Labovitz is Nokia CTO for the Deepfield business line.  Previously, Labovitz was Co-Founder and CEO of Deepfield. Labovitz has developed the core technology, key patents, architecture and commercial strategy behind more than $1 billion in sales of large enterprise and telecom security products. His technology is deployed in more than 700 Internet Service Providers, cable operators, content providers, and mission-critical networks around the globe.  Dr. Labovitz is an expert on Internet infrastructure and cloud evolution. In the 1990s, his seminal Internet research developed the foundation for Arbor Networks technology and served as a catalyst for significant changes in commercial Internet routing software implementations throughout the world. His work was recently recognized with the prestigious ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Award in 2008.  In addition to his extensive commercial product and research background, Dr. Labovitz has over a decade of operational network engineering experience, including NSFNet backbone engineering, Sprint's first Internet email infrastructure, design of the Department of Defense research network, and the first commercial aviation Internet service. Dr. Labovitz is an active participant in the global network engineering community, including service on the program committee and as the Chair of North American Network Operators Group (NANOG).  Labovitz is the author of more than a dozen peer-reviewed networking research papers, journal articles and patents. His is a frequent guest on national television and radio news programs and his research is widely cited in national media articles and academic publications. Dr. Labovitz received his PhD and MSE from the University of Michigan.

Peter Landon

Director Product Line Management

Nokia

Peter Landon is a Director of Product Line Management for the Nokia Network Services Platform, with a focus on Enterprise and multi-layer SDN solutions. Peter has over 25 years of experience in Product Management and system design including senior roles at Juniper Networks, Lucent Technologies/Bell Labs, and while at BTI Systems, leading the architecture and design of the BTI/Juniper 7800 Series Intelligent Cloud Connect platform. Peter earned his BSc in Engineering from Queen’s University with post graduate work at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.

Karyn Lennon

NI Learning Services Leader

Nokia

Karyn Lennon leads the Learning Services function for Nokia’s IP/Optical Networks Business Group.  In her role, Karyn is responsible for setting the strategic direction and development of Nokia’s Optical educational services which includes the Nokia Optical Networks Certification Program.  In addition to the Optical program, Karyn directs both Nokia’s flagship IP/MPLS certification program, the Service Routing Certification (SRC) Program which has over 14,000 individuals participating globally and the Nuage Networks Virtuoso Certification Program (NN-VCP). Prior to her role in Learning Services, Karyn held various PLM and Marketing positions at Newbridge Networks and Alcatel-Lucent. Karyn received her Bachelor of Commerce from  McGill University and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Ottawa.

Nardus le Roux

IP Consulting System Engineer

Nokia

At Nokia, Nardus is an IP & SDN Consulting System Engineer focused on the African market, with more than 25 years of experience in the Data communications market. Nardus focus on solving real world problems for fixed and mobile Service Providers as well as Enterprise customers including utility providers by matching network design and strategy of Nokia IP & SDN portfolio to address customer needs.

Victor Lopez

Product Line Manager

Nokia

Victor is a telecommunications industry professional with a profound passion for transforming ideas into tangible products. With a Ph.D. background and over 20 years of experience, I currently hold the role of central Product Manager in the Network Services Platform (NSP).

Benjamin Martens

VP Europe IP Business Center

Nokia

Ben Martens leads the Nokia IP Business in Europe. He has been with the company for over 25 years in different roles in technical sales, business development and sales. He is based in Belgium but through his career has also lived in the United States, Austria, and Italy. He holds a MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Leuven (KUL) and a Masters in Management from the Corporate University of ENI. Ben has been part of the Nokia journey in IP from its start more than 20 years ago, and with his team is passionate to live many more new chapters in it.

Jerome Meyer

Business Development lead, Deepfield

Nokia

In his current role, Jérôme drives the business development activities for the Nokia Deepfield portfolio in Asia-Pacific — working with communications service providers, cloud builders and large digital enterprises to help them gain insights into their networks and improve their performance and security.  Currently based out of Tokyo, he joined the company’s Mobile Networks organization in 2005 in Malaysia; and he since covered a variety of sales & pre-sales responsibilities in the Asia-Pacific region, with both fixed and mobile communications service providers.  Jérôme graduated with a Master’s degree from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Lyon, France.

Paul Meyers

Senior Product Manager, EMEA

Nokia

Paul Meyers is Senior Product Manager within Nokia's (and previously Alcatel and Alcatel-Lucent's) IP Division since 2005. Before joining this team, he was active within Alcatel for several years (starting from 1994) as Supply Chain project engineer looking into advanced planning systems and reverse logistics and from 2000 on as Marketing Manager and Business Consultant for data products (ATM & IP).  Paul holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Louvain (KUL) and a Masters degree in Economics.

Ahsanuddin Mohammed

Network Infrastructure Transformation Services 

Nokia

Ahsanuddin Mohammed is a strategic and collaborative transformations leader responsble for creating the capability build frameworks to excute large scale complex multi vendor global transformation programs. He has been directly involved in migrations of over 50+ customers using on prem & native cloud-based infrastructures. He promotes Customer first attitude across all organizations, translates the voice of clients to drive technology innovation & cultural transformations in alignment with industry trends and best practices. Ahsanuddin is a trusted technology advisor for global clients to provide innovative solutions and possess a business development and consultative mindset.

Carlos Neves

Europe Enterprise BusDev DC Fabric Lead

Nokia

Carols is in charge of Business Development for Enterprise Europe Datacenter Market since 2020 and with more than 25 years of experience in very positions as BusDev, Pre-Sales Engineer and Customer CTO across multiples countries in Europe, LAT and USA market always our helping our customers from Enterprise, CSP´s and Webscalers to adopt the most modern, resilient and scalable solutions to your business.

Sasa Nijemcevic

Vice President and General Manager, Network Automation

Nokia

Sasa Nijemcevic is Vice President and General Manager of the Network Automation Business Unit at Nokia. He leads the company’s Carrier SDN portfolio and Network and Service Automation efforts for the ION BG.  Sasa’s passion is building great software products. He started early writing computer games as a kid and continued into adulthood building network management and control applications. Whether it’s AI/ML or network automation, Sasa cares about the application of new technologies in solving real problems in the industry.

Alfred Nothaft

Senior Director, SR Product Management 

Nokia

Alfred is the Senior Director of Product Management for the Service Router product group, focusing on IP routing, MPLS and Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPN services.  Alfred has been involved the with 7x50 product lines since 2000, when he originally joined TiMetra Networks.  Prior to that, Alfred was the Director of Network Architecture at BroadbandNow! and before that he held various management and engineering positions at Bay Networks and NASA.

David Novosel

Product Line Manager

Nokia

David Novosel is a Product Line Manager focused on the SR Linux platform. Based out of Ottawa, Canada, he has spent over a decade working at Nokia across a range of Network Infrastructure products and solutions including Service Router, Nuage Networks, and SR Linux. Previous roles in support, technical sales, and solution architecture have enabled David to build a strong skillset across the networking and virtualization fields with experience in Data Center, SD-WAN, and IP/MPLS routing deployments.

Michel Ploeg

Regional IP Product Line Manager, EMEA

Nokia

Michel is a Product Line Manager at Network Infrastructure business group for the EMEA region and is based in the Netherlands. He is leading the Datacenter product management team, in addition his other focus is programmability and virtualization within the 7x50 product line and Nokia SR OS router software. He has over 20 years of experience in the networking industry with roles varying from network engineer to designer/architect. 

Dennis Porteous

Product Line Manager

Nokia

Dennis is a Senior Hardware Product Line Manager for the 7750 SR & Packet Core platforms, with over 24 years of experience in networking and data communications.   Dennis has been involved with the 7x50 product lines since 2003, joined the hardware PLM team in 2008.  Based in Ottawa Canada.

Denis Proulx

IP/Optical/Nuage Professional Services Product Manager

Nokia

Denis Proulx is a Senior Product Manager for professional services with more than 32 years in the telecommunication industry. He has been providing Product Research and Development in the areas of Network Management System for our Global customers. With over 17 Patents filed, now his focus is on simplifying network operations through automation, reducing cost and time to market for the deployments of new greenfield or on existing networks. He is now involved in helping customers transform legacy networks to new technologies (SDN) using Nokia IP/Optical/Nuage products.

Jorege Rabadan

Senior Product Line Manager

Nokia

Jorge Rabadan is a product line manager responsible for the development of EVPN and Data Center Gateway technologies in Nokia’s SROS. Jorge has more than 20 years in the telecom industry (working for different networking vendors), being part of Nokia’s IP Division for more than 12 years and is an active member in the IETF community, contributing and authoring more than 30 drafts and RFCs. When he is not working he enjoys traveling, reading a good book or working out.

Wouter Reynders

IP Consulting Engineer

Nokia

Wouter Reynders is IP consulting engineer for the Nokia IP Router portfolio, covering EMEA. In this role, Wouter interacts with customers and jointly creates IP solutions and architectures. He interworks with technical sales and provides design guidelines for optimal usage of the IP service architectures and associated platforms in customer networks.  Recently his focus is on modern WAN SDN technologies such as Network Telemetry, BGP-LS, PCEP, Segment Routing and others. Wouter has over 10 years of IP/MPLS networking experience, in the past also in the role of New Product Introduction (NPI) Engineer.  He holds Alcatel-Lucent SRA (#9) certificate and has a master in Engineering in computer science.

Dave Sargent

IP Pre-Sales Engineer Vertical Market

Nokia

Dave Sargent is a regional Business Development Manager at Nokia, responsible for Global Enterprise and Public Sector.  In this role he provides technical support and product / technology knowledge to the internal sales as well as working closely with customers to define solutions and to understand their specific requirements to meet their current and future needs.  Dave has over 15 years of product and technology experience covering the former TDM and  ATM portfolios from Newbridge networks as well as detailed knowledge on the 7705 SAR.  Dave also provides technical support for the synchronization solution across the IP portfolio.

Dom Schaeffer

Director IP Consulting Engineering EMEA

Nokia

Dominique has over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry and joined the IP Consulting Engineering team in 2008. He’s responsible for the introduction, design and engineering of advanced IP solutions for major EMEA operators and enterprise on the full Nokia IP portfolio. Recently he took the role of Director of the Consulting Engineering team. Before joining the team, he had different roles including support, professional services and CTO office. Dominique holds a Master in Computer Science and a Master of Business Administration from La Sorbonne in Paris.

Marc Schoolaert

Senior Consulting Engineer, Deepfield Business Line, EMEA

Nokia

Marc has over 25 years of experience within the networking and communications industry, in engineering, auditing, supporting and selling IP/data networks and DPI/Application Assurance solutions for Network Operators and businesses around the world. He joined Nokia in 2008 working in different roles as Consulting engineer and Regional PLM for the 7750 Service Routers and Application Assurance Solution and as IT- Architect involved with planning and designing the integration of the Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia WAN after the merger of both companies before joining the Deepfield Business Line as SE/Consulting engineer 3 years ago, to help customers across Europe to get the maximum value out of the Deepfield Solution.

Leslie Shannon

Head of Trend and Innovation Scouting

Nokia

Leslie Shannon is the Head of Trend and Innovation Scouting for Nokia.  A Silicon Valley-based futurist, she focuses on identifying connectivity-related tech disruptions and opportunities, including developments in robotics, drones, visual analytics, cloud gaming, generative AI, and especially augmented and virtual reality.   Leslie is the author of the book Interconnected Realities, a look at the current and future development of XR and spatial computing, and, with Catherine D. Henry, Virtual Natives, an examination of how Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s use of digital technologies is revolutionizing how humans relate to both computers and each other.

Alexandre Silvestre

Enterprise DC Bus Dev Europe

Nokia

Alexandre Silvestre has 30 years of networking industry, 25 of these in several roles at Nokia, working in the IP/MPLS space since SROS was still at R4.0, and now proudly working in the growth of SRLinux. He’s based in Lisbon, currently working as Data Center Fabric Business Development for the Enterprise market in Europe.

Adam Simpson

Senior Product Line Manager

Nokia

Adam is a senior product line manager with Nokia. He is responsible for the IP routing & service features in the SR OS operating system software. He is the lead PLM for BGP routing and the route policy infrastructure. He owns the strategy for these areas and works closely with software and test engineers on architecture and design. He has been in this PLM role since 2009. Before that he held PLM and network engineering roles at Nortel. Adam is based in Ottawa, Canada but the scope of his work with engineering teams and customers is global. He has been a routine speaker at SReXperts events since 2010.

Hans Thienpondt

Technology and Architecture Consulting Engineer

Nokia

Hans is a Technology and Architecture Consulting Engineer at Nokia based in Antwerp, Belgium. He is focusing on the automation aspects of networking and assessing future technologies. Hans has close to 20 years of experience in the industry and prior to Nokia, worked in several network or systems engineering positions at companies operating at Web- or Service Provider scale. 

Roland Thienpont

Director IP Product Marketing EMEA Regional Business Center

Nokia

Roland has over 25 years of experience within the networking and data communications industry, in the areas of engineering, technology and product strategy and product management.<br />From early 2000 until 2016 he had the role of IP product manager for Nokia’s IP/MPLS Service Router and Ethernet Services Switch products for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Recently he took the role of Director Product Marketing for IP.<br />Roland holds a MSc. in Electronic Engineering with a specialization in Telecommunications from the University of Antwerp and an Alcatel International Master in Management.

Nicolas Tikhomiroff

Europe IP Division Business Development, Enterprises

Nokia

Nicolas Tikhomiroff is part of the Transport, Energy and Public Sector business development team for Nokia’s IP Division in Europe. In this position he is helping customers to evolve their critical telecom infrastructure to IP based multiservice, reliable, flexible and future proof networks relying on IP/MPLS and LTE packet core technologies. He has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications networking industry, holding network engineering, product management and presales positions at Global One, Nortel Networks, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia.

Kevin Todts

NPI & Network Design Engineer

Nokia

Kevin Todts has been a dedicated member of the Nokia team for five years, working as part of the cNPI team based in Antwerp. Specializing in data center networking, Kevin is heavily involved in engaging with customers, conducting demos, and managing Proofs of Concept (PoCs).

Rohit Tumkur Pranesha

Product Manager, NSP Platform

Nokia

Rohit Tumkur Pranesha is a technology enthusiast with 10 years+ of experience working on Network Assurance, IP/MPLS/EPC & Cloud Technologies in various capacities. Rohit is currently exploring the possibility of applying machine learning to Network Assurance & Management. He holds a MS in Software Systems.

Colenso Van Wyk

Head of Africa IP Routing Consulting Engineering

Nokia

Colenso van Wyk is leading the highly specialised Nokia Africa IP Routing Consulting Engineering team. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Pretoria and has been working in Telecommunications Industry as eenior engineer, professional engineer, independant Consultant and vendor specialist for thirty two years, leading the introduction of new telecommunications technologies into many of the largest service providers in MEA. Witnessing the birth of the now famous Nokia Service Router Operating System in 2003 until today where he now also actively contributes in the introduction of the latest Nokia SR Linux network operating system. Colenso is a seasoned flyfisherman and enjoys targeting his favourite species in the most remote off-grid destinations. He keeps fit through the participation in crossfit training and also participates in long distance trail running events while also as growing as an amateur chromatic harmonica musician regularly playing in complex music ensembles.

Dominique Verhulst

Director IP Business, Vertical Markets

Nokia

Dominique Verhulst currently heads up the business development activities for Nokia’s IP Division in EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa), specifically addressing Transportation, Energy & Public Sector markets.  In this position he is helping companies to evolve their critical telecoms infrastructure to modern and future proof infrastructures enabling improved operational efficiency and cost reductions.  He has over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications networking industry, holding senior sales and marketing positions at Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, Newbridge Networks, Ungermann-Bass and Motorola.

Bruce Wallis

Senior Director Product Line Manager

Nokia

Bruce Wallis leads SR Linux and Fabric Services System product management within Network Infrastructure division. Originally from New Zealand, now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he cut his networking teeth on supporting Internet Service Providers in New Zealand and in the wider APAC region. Before taking the leap into product management, his role within the NI Consulting and Solutions Engineering team supporting PoC and demos on yet-unreleased NI products allowed him to build an extensive skill set in virtualization, all things Linux, and general system and solution design. Starting in the industry in 2008 at the age of 17, he now has 14 years’ experience across a wide array of roles.

Sven Wisotzky

Senior Network Management and Automation Consultant

Nokia

Sven Wisotzky is a senior network management and automation consultant working for more than 20 years in the communications and networking industry. He joined Alcatel’s IP Division in 2004, working in the areas of product support, training, integration, technical sales, network and solution design and consultancy. Since 2017 he is part of the NSP platform product management team, driving model-driven, multi-vendor nodal mediation using NETCONF/YANG and gRPC, automation frameworks and telemetry. He is based in the metropolitan area of Frankfurt/Main, Germany.