Conference Agenda

Roy Chua is Founder and Principal at AvidThink, an independent research and advisory service formed in 2018 out of SDxCentral's research group. Prior to co-founding SDxCentral and running its research and product teams, Roy was a management consultant working with both Fortune 500 and startup technology companies on go-to-market and product consulting.  As an early proponent of the software-defined infrastructure movement, Roy is a frequent speaker at technology events in the telco and cloud space and a regular contributor to leading online publications. A graduate of UC Berkeley's electrical engineering and computer science program and MIT's Sloan School of Business, Roy has 20+ years of experience in telco and enterprise cloud computing, networking and security, including founding several Silicon Valley startups.

Carsten Rossenhövel is Managing Director and Co-Founder of EANTC AG (European Advanced Networking Test Center). Based in Berlin, Germany, EANTC is a test lab specializing in telecommunication technologies and offers vendor-neutral network testing services for manufacturers, service providers, and enterprises.   In this role, Carsten has over 20 years of experience in telecommunication networks testing and is responsible for EANTC's business development. His technical areas of expertise include validation of 5G, Open RAN, and transport technologies.

Roy Chua is Founder and Principal at AvidThink, an independent research and advisory service formed in 2018 out of SDxCentral's research group. Prior to co-founding SDxCentral and running its research and product teams, Roy was a management consultant working with both Fortune 500 and startup technology companies on go-to-market and product consulting.  As an early proponent of the software-defined infrastructure movement, Roy is a frequent speaker at technology events in the telco and cloud space and a regular contributor to leading online publications. A graduate of UC Berkeley's electrical engineering and computer science program and MIT's Sloan School of Business, Roy has 20+ years of experience in telco and enterprise cloud computing, networking and security, including founding several Silicon Valley startups.

As Senior Director, Solutions Marketing, Patrick is responsible for creating and evangelizing key messages about Fortinet’s cyber security solutions.   Prior to joining Fortinet, over the course of the past 30 years, he has worked for a number of small to medium size organizations as well as larger companies such as Wellfleet Communications, Bay Networks, Nortel Networks, Hughes Network Systems, and Comtech Mobile Data Communications in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, holding a range of senior-level international sales and marketing roles.  Patrick received his technical training while serving in the US Navy. Patrick is based at Fortinet’s EMEA facilities in Sophia Antipolis, France.

Ralph is developing Edge Cloud solution architectures at Ciena to address emerging use cases and technologies spanning networked, distributed metro Edge Clouds to premise-based far Edge Clouds. Ralph's expertise spans the assessment, definition, design, integration, operations, marketing, and sales of multi-vendor solutions and managed services using Edge Cloud, SD-WAN, SASE, Zero Trust, Cybersecurity, Private 5G, and Work-from-Home technologies that facilitate the enterprise digital transformation. Ralph is a founding member of MEF Forum where he developed the industry’s first SD-WAN standard and is leading a new standard developing a comprehensive Zero Trust Framework to continuously protect users, devices and applications from threats both known and unknown.   In 2014, Ralph was awarded the Distinguished Fellow title at MEF Forum for his outstanding, long time leadership and contributions to shape the telecom industry. In 2016, he was awarded the MEF Excellence Award for Best Consulting Practice. In 2018, Ralph was named one of the top 25 movers & shakers in the telecom industry by Fierce Telecom Magazine and in 2020, he was awarded the MEF Outstanding Contributor award for SD-WAN leadership and the driving force behind SD-WAN standardization. Ralph also co-authored 4 books and regularly lectures on leading-edge technology topics at industry events.

Chris Taylor is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for Edge at VMware. The solutions he directs remove the friction of deploying and managing edge infrastructure, services, and applications so customer can focus on their business outcomes.   Prior to VMware, he spent 15 years in the security industry working with endpoint, email, web, and CASB products. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo and an MBA from Santa Clara University.   Before joining product marketing, he held roles at manufacturing and technology companies in product design, systems engineering, and product management.

In her current role, Anne-Gaëlle is responsible for supporting EMEA MSSP to create innovative managed services based on Fortinet security networking solutions, such as secure SDWAN, ZTNA or SASE.  Prior to this, Anne- Gaëlle worked as head of overlay services portfolio in a large global service provider.

Nicolas Marcoux has 15+ years of experience in networking and cybersecurity. Today at Palo Alto Networks, he is a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) Architect aiming at developing managed services with key partners.   He is today focusing on Cloud-Delivered Security Platforms (Prisma SASE, Prisma Cloud and Cortex XDR).

Stefano is responsible for Cisco’s SD-WAN and SASE business in EMEA. During his IT career of over 20 years, he has held multiple positions in engineering, product management, business development and international sales leadership.

Jaye Tillson is a Field CTO at HPE, boasting over 25 years of invaluable expertise in successfully implementing strategic global technology programs. With a strong focus on digital transformation, Jaye has been instrumental in guiding numerous organizations through their zero-trust journey, enabling them to thrive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.   Jaye's passion lies in collaborating with enterprises, assisting them in their strategic pursuit of zero trust. He takes pride in leveraging his real-world experience to address critical issues and challenges faced by these businesses.   Beyond his professional pursuits, Jaye co-founded the SSE Forum and co-hosts its popular podcast called 'The Edge.' This platform allows him to engage with a broader audience, fostering meaningful discussions on industry trends and innovations.   In his leisure time, Jaye indulges in his passions for motor racing, savouring delectable cuisine, and exploring the wonders of the world through his travels.

Colin Bannon is CTO for Business and is responsible for defining our technology vision for our customers – aligned with our strategy. Part of his responsibility is to predict technology trends and future customer technology roadmaps. He acts as a trusted advisor for many CIO’s.   He’s a veteran in the industry with expertise in designing, deploying, and running some of the world’s largest next generation networks. He has a holistic philosophy to network design, working back from Hi rémibusiness outcomes, user experience and applications dev strategy to inform the intuitive network, architecture, systems, and service wrap design.   As well as sitting on several technology advisory boards, he lectures at Warwick University on Disruptive Innovation. He was also named as one of the 50 CTOs to watch by Global Telecoms magazine.

Marcel Stadler is Product Manager SDWAN at Open Systems. Since joining Open Systems in 2012, Marcel held various positions in Customer Success, where he was responsible for the global network and security services of enterprise customers.  In 2022, Marcel has transitioned to the Product Department and is in charge for the SD-WAN portfolio of Open Systems.

Ferréol is Cisco's Global Sales Leader for their Unified SASE Solution. Prior to this role, he held multiple sales and leadership positions in France and the US for Cisco and other industry leaders, with one mission - to always Simplify IT.

As Senior Director, Solutions Marketing, Patrick is responsible for creating and evangelizing key messages about Fortinet’s cyber security solutions.   Prior to joining Fortinet, over the course of the past 30 years, he has worked for a number of small to medium size organizations as well as larger companies such as Wellfleet Communications, Bay Networks, Nortel Networks, Hughes Network Systems, and Comtech Mobile Data Communications in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, holding a range of senior-level international sales and marketing roles.  Patrick received his technical training while serving in the US Navy. Patrick is based at Fortinet’s EMEA facilities in Sophia Antipolis, France.

Jaye Tillson is a Field CTO at HPE, boasting over 25 years of invaluable expertise in successfully implementing strategic global technology programs. With a strong focus on digital transformation, Jaye has been instrumental in guiding numerous organizations through their zero-trust journey, enabling them to thrive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.   Jaye's passion lies in collaborating with enterprises, assisting them in their strategic pursuit of zero trust. He takes pride in leveraging his real-world experience to address critical issues and challenges faced by these businesses.   Beyond his professional pursuits, Jaye co-founded the SSE Forum and co-hosts its popular podcast called 'The Edge.' This platform allows him to engage with a broader audience, fostering meaningful discussions on industry trends and innovations.   In his leisure time, Jaye indulges in his passions for motor racing, savouring delectable cuisine, and exploring the wonders of the world through his travels.

Nilesh leads SASE Sales Acceleration for EMEA, focused on supporting organisations on their SASE journey to securely connect users from anywhere to applications everywhere, whilst ensuring the best user experience.  Nilesh brings more than 15 years of experience across multiple architectures including Cloud Security and Enterprise Networking.