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Keynote Speaker Dan Hesse
Dan Hesse
 Dan Hesse, 54, was named president and chief executive officer of Sprint Nextel on Dec. 18, 2007.
Prior to his appointment as Sprint president and CEO, Hesse was Chairman, president, and CEO of Embarq Corporation, the separate company formed from Sprint's former Local Telecommunications Division in 2006. Embarq generates more than $6 billion in revenues annually, providing voice, data, wireless and entertainment services in eighteen states.
Hesse spent 23 years at AT&T. From 1997 – 2000, he served as the president and CEO of AT&T Wireless Services, at the time the United States' largest wireless operator with more than 12 million customers, 20,000 employees, and $10 billion in revenues.
Previously, Hesse launched AT&T's global online initiatives, which included the AT&T Worldnet family of internet services, as the leader of the Online Services Group. From 1991-1995, he served as the president and CEO of AT&T Network Systems International, a joint-venture telecommunications technology company with revenues of $2 billion and a work force of 7,000 employees. He also held prior AT&T management assignments in Network Operations, Network Engineering, International Services, Human Resources, Strategic Planning, Product Management and Sales.
From 2000 – 2004, he served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Terabeam Corp., a wireless telecommunications service provider and technology company.
Hesse received a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master's degree in business administration, with distinction, from Cornell University, and a bachelor's degree, with honors, from the University of Notre Dame. He was awarded the Brooks Thesis Prize for writing the outstanding master's thesis from all master's programs at MIT's Sloan School of Management.
Hesse serves on the National Board of Governors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He also has been named Wireless Industry "Person of the Year" by RCR magazine and "Executive of the Year" by Wireless Business and Technology magazine. He is also a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
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Keynote Speaker Lowell McAdam
Lowell McAdam
 Lowell C. McAdam is president and CEO of Verizon Wireless, the premier wireless provider with the nation's most reliable wireless voice and data network. Prior to this position, McAdam was the executive vice president and chief operating officer for Verizon Wireless.
Previously, McAdam was president and CEO of PrimeCo Personal Communications, a joint venture owned by Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch. He also served as PrimeCo's chief operating officer, responsible for overseeing the build, deployment and successful launch of the company's customer service operations and all-digital network.
McAdam has served as vice president-international operations for AirTouch Communications and was lead technical partner for cellular ventures in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Korea and Japan. McAdam joined AirTouch as executive director of international applications and operations in 1993. From 1983 to 1993, he held various executive positions with Pacific Bell, including area vice president of Bay Area marketing and general manager of South Bay customer services.
In addition to serving as one of nine members on the Verizon Wireless Board of Representatives, McAdam is chairman of the Board of Directors of the CTIA, the wireless industry trade association.
He earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Cornell University and a master's degree in business administration from the University of San Diego. He also spent six years in the U.S. Navy's Engineer Corps and is a licensed professional engineer.
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Keynote Speaker Robert Bach
Robert Bach
 As president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, Robbie Bach drives the company’s Connected Entertainment vision, offering consumers new and compelling, branded entertainment experiences across music, gaming, video and mobile communications. As such, Bach’s responsibilities include guiding software, services and hardware innovation throughout Microsoft's entertainment and mobility platforms, and bringing those solutions to market with retailers and partners. Consequently, he manages Microsoft's worldwide retail relationships as well as media and entertainment partner relationships.
The Entertainment & Devices Division is a global division comprising five main businesses: Interactive Entertainment Business, home to the Xbox® and Games for Windows® gaming platforms; Mobile Communications Business, which develops and markets Windows Mobile software, services and applications; Music Business, developers of the Zune® portable entertainment devices and services; Video Business, which includes Microsoft® TV and eHome groups; and the Specialized Devices and Applications Business, which includes PC Hardware, Microsoft® Surface, Mac Office, Microsoft® Auto, and Windows Embedded software.
Since joining Microsoft in 1988, Bach has worked on a variety of Microsoft products in a career marked by increasingly senior management positions. His experience includes working in Europe as the Manager of Business Operations from 1990-1992. He also led the marketing effort for Microsoft Office from 1992-1997. Before the formation of the E&D Division in 2005, Bach managed the global launches of Xbox and Xbox 360 in his dual role as Chief Xbox Officer and head of the Home and Entertainment group – a global division then responsible for Xbox®, Windows® games, the Microsoft® TV platform, and consumer hardware and software products.
Before joining Microsoft, Bach worked as a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Stanford University. Bach sits on the Board of Governors for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, where he leads the BGCA Marketing Committee, and currently serves as chairman of the Entertainment Software Association. He is married with three children.
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Keynote Host Steve Largent
Steve Largent
 Steve Largent became President and CEO of CTIA-The Wireless Association® in November, 2003.
Prior to joining CTIA, Mr. Largent was a Member of the United States Congress, representing Oklahoma’s First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1994 to 2001. Mr. Largent was the Vice-Chairman of the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee and also served on the Telecommunications Subcommittee, the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and the Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee. His seven-year voting record reflects consistent support for lower taxes, less regulation, and strong free markets.
Mr. Largent has also managed his own advertising & marketing consulting firm, where he worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies around the country. In addition, he served as Mid-West Chapter Executive Director of the Wheelchair Foundation.
Mr. Largent was a record setting wide receiver with the Seattle Seahawks for 14 years, setting six career records and participating in seven Pro Bowls. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995 and the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in 2006.
Mr. Largent received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Tulsa.
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Keynote Speaker Sir Richard Branson
Sir Richard Branson
 Sir Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group. Virgin is one of the world's most recognized and respected brands and has expanded into air and ground travel, telecommunications, financial services, health, space travel and clean energy through more than 200 companies worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people in 29 countries. Companies in North America include Virgin Mobile US, Virgin Mobile Canada, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Money, Virgin Charter, Virgin Comics, and Virgin America, the new domestic airline. Virgin USA continues to expand in North America and offer consumers value for money, good quality, innovation, exceptional customer service, fun, and a sense of competitive challenge. In 1999, Richard was awarded a knighthood by the Queen for "services to entrepreneurship."
In an effort to develop new approaches to social and environmental issues through business and social sector partnerships, Richard founded Virgin Unite, the not-for-profit foundation of the Virgin Group. In September 2006, Richard committed that future proceeds to the Virgin Group's transportation interests will be invested into renewable energy initiatives, representing an estimated investment of $3 billion over the next ten years. Richard also announced a $25 million prize for a viable technology that will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases. Recently, he joined Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu to form The Elders, a group of independent leaders that will seek sustainable solutions to global humanitarian issues. In December 2007, Richard was recognized by UNCA as Citizen of the Year.
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Keynote Speaker Marco Boerries
Marco Boerries
 Marco Boerries has global responsibility for all aspects of Yahoo!'s Connected Life Division which focuses on connecting people to their passions, their communities and the world's knowledge – anywhere, anytime, on any device. The group encompasses the company's mobile, digital home, PC client and broadband teams around the world, including Yahoo!'s revolutionary Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0 and Yahoo! oneSearch products for mobile. Marco is an established industry leader with a compelling vision for enabling digital mobility across mobile, the digital home, PC desktop and broadband industries.
Marco joined Yahoo! in 2005 with the acquisition of VerdiSoft. He founded that company in August 2001 to pursue his vision of enabling Digital Mobility across the mobile, broadband, and home networking markets. Prior to founding VerdiSoft, Marco worked at Sun Microsystems as the Vice President and General Manager of Webtop and Application Software. In this role, Marco drove the development of the Solaris Common Desktop Environment, Netscape for Solaris, and OpenOffice.org. As the de facto open source ambassador for Sun, Marco was instrumental in introducing the GNOME project – a free and facile desktop environment for the end-user, and a powerful application framework for the developer.
Marco is also the creator of the popular StarOffice Suite. He founded Star Division at age 16, dropping out of high school to pursue his vision of creating an alternative to Microsoft software. Marco sold StarOffice to Sun Microsystems in August 1999.
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Keynote Speaker Arun Sarin
Arun Sarin
 Arun Sarin, aged 53, graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology with a BS in Engineering in 1975. In 1978 he gained a MS in Engineering and a MBA from the University of California, at Berkeley.
He started his career as a management consultant before moving, in 1984, to Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco. Commencing in corporate development, he was instrumental in the company acquiring the first cellular licences in the US as well as winning the first cellular licence in Germany and a PCN licence in the UK. He was subsequently appointed CFO and Chief Strategy Officer at Pacific Bell, before moving on to become Vice President and General Manager, San Francisco Bay Area Telephone Company, a Pacific Bell division with 12,000 employees.
Following the demerger from Pacific Telesis of the mobile and paging businesses to form AirTouch Communications, Arun was appointed Senior Vice President Corporate Strategy and Development where he developed and implemented a growth strategy encompassing partnerships and acquisitions, which included the merger with the US West wireless business. On becoming President and CEO, AirTouch International, Arun was responsible for the acquisition of wireless licences in several overseas territories and establishing the management teams of these new ventures.
He then became President and CEO of AirTouch Communications where he was responsible for managing the cellular and paging operations in 14 countries and was a key negotiator in the successful acquisition of AirTouch by Vodafone Group Plc. Within the combined business, Vodafone AirTouch Plc, he was CEO US/Asia Pacific region, managing the Group’s operations in the US, Asia and Australasia. In addition, he headed the Global Technology division, responsible for the introduction of wireless internet services.
In 2000, with the successful merger of Vodafone AirTouch’s US businesses with those of Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Wireless, Arun, whilst maintaining a non-executive directorship of Vodafone AirTouch Plc, became CEO of Infospace.
In 2001 he joined Accel-KKR Telecom, a telecom investment and management business, where he evaluated numerous opportunities in the telecommunications industry around the world and oversaw the acquisition of Bell Canada’s Yellow Pages business.
In April 2003 he became CEO designate of Vodafone Group Plc and assumed the post of Chief Executive Officer on July 30th 2003.
Prior to becoming Chief Executive Officer, Arun had been a Non-Executive Director of The Gap Inc, The Charles Schwab Corporation and Cisco Systems Inc.
In April 2005, Arun’s appointment to the Court of Directors of the Bank of England was announced, which became effective on 1st June 2005 and is for a fixed three year term.
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Keynote Speaker Patricia Russo
Patricia Russo
 Prior to the merger of Alcatel and Lucent Technologies, Patricia Russo was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucent. As one of the founding executives of the company, she helped launch Lucent in 1996 and spent more than 20 years of her career managing some of Lucent's and AT&T's largest divisions and most critical corporate functions. As Lucent's CEO since January 2002, Patricia Russo led the company through one of the most challenging periods in the telecom industry's history and helped return the company to profitability. Under her leadership, Lucent implemented a new operating model, developed a more customer- and marketing-driven culture, won new business in emerging markets, expanded the role and reach of Bell Labs, and successfully completed its merger with Alcatel to create the world’s first truly global communications solutions provider. In addition to serving on Alcatel-Lucent's board of directors, Patricia Russo sits on the board of the Schering-Plough Corporation, where she chairs the governance committee. Patricia Russo received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University in 1989. She has received an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, as well as an Honorary Doctorate in Entrepreneurial Studies from Columbia College in South Carolina. Before joining AT&T in 1981, Patricia Russo spent eight years in sales and marketing at IBM. Patricia also served as president and chief operating officer at Eastman Kodak Company before returning to Lucent as CEO.
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Keynote Speaker Carl-Henric Svanberg
Carl-Henric Svanberg
 Carl-Henric Svanberg is President and CEO of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson.
Mr. Svanberg joined Ericsson on April 8, 2003. Between 1994 and 2003, he was President and CEO of the Assa Abloy Group.
From 1986 to 1994, Mr. Svanberg worked for the world-leading security company Securitas. In 1990, he was named First Executive Vice President for the Securitas Group, with responsibility for alarm solutions and locks.
From 1977 to 1985, Mr. Svanberg held various foreign assignments within project exports for Asea Brown Boveri (ABB).
Carl-Henric Svanberg was born in Porjus, Sweden, in 1952. He holds a Master of Science degree from the Linköping Institute of Technology, Sweden, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Uppsala University, Sweden.
Mr Svanberg holds honorary doctorates at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden and Linköping University of Technology, Sweden.
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Keynote Speaker Mike Zafirovski
Mike Zafirovski
 Mike Zafirovski is president and chief executive officer of Nortel, a global leader in innovative communications and services that are enabling the transformation of businesses around the world.
Since joining Nortel in November, 2005, Zafirovski has drawn on his depth of global business expertise to drive sustainable business improvements that build on the company's innovative strength in new technologies that are bringing unprecedented levels of personalization, security and mobility to communications.
Zafirovski, 53, is a 30-year business veteran with impressive global experience at two of the world's highest profile corporate innovators - General Electric and Motorola.
Prior to his current role at Nortel, he was president and chief operating officer of Motorola, Inc. from July 2002 to February 2005 where he was a key player leading the company's re-emergence in innovation, market share gains and significant profitability improvements by all six businesses. Zafirovski joined Motorola in June 2000 to lead its mobile devices business, which during his tenure returned to profitability and increased market share through the introduction of exciting new products and the Moto branding campaign.
Before his leadership positions at Motorola, Zafirovski spent 25 years at General Electric (GE), including 13 years as president and chief executive officer of five businesses in the industrial, financial services and insurance businesses. Prior to that, he held a number of increasingly senior positions in finance, auditing, marketing and strategy/business development at various GE businesses.
In 2007, President George W. Bush appointed Zafirovski to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). In its advisory role to the president, the NSTAC provides industry-based analysis and recommendations on a wide range of policy and technical issues related to telecommunications, information systems, information assurance, infrastructure protection, and other national security and emergency preparedness concerns.
As a presidential appointee to NSTAC, Zafirovski serves as a resource for the President and his national security team in efforts to safeguard critical U.S. infrastructure and telecommunications networks. In this capacity, Zafirovski participates in discussions on a broad range of policy and technical issues related to telecommunications, critical infrastructure protection, homeland security, and other security concerns.
Zafirovski holds a B.A. in mathematics from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania where he also captained the intercollegiate soccer and swimming teams. In 2002, Edinboro University awarded Zafirovski with an honorary doctorate degree. A native of Macedonia, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2004.
Zafirovski serves on the board of directors of Boeing. An active member of civic and business communities, Zafirovski serves on several professional, educational and non-profit business organizations, including The Canadian Council of Chief Executives, The Economic Club of Chicago and the Macedonian Arts Council. He and his wife Robin are the national chairs for Duke University's Parents' Committee. They have three sons.
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April 1-3, 2008
Las Vegas, NV, USA
Las Vegas Convention Center
 Media Sponsors
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