Stephen Collins is Principal Consultant at 1024tm, a boutique consulting firm that serves leading-edge networking, telecom and cloud infrastructure companies across multiple segments of the enterprise IT and service provider markets. His clients range from startups to billion-dollar businesses, with projects typically involving a mix of business and product strategy, go-to-market planning, thought leadership, product marketing, business development and sales enablement.

Stephen has a proven track record of successfully introducing innovative products into highly competitive, rapidly growing markets, and he brings clients four decades of operational experience in a wide range of executive, product management, engineering, consulting, industry analyst and advisory roles, working primarily with communications equipment manufacturers and telecom software vendors.

In recent years, as a result of numerous client engagements, Stephen has developed a specialization in network visibility, Big Data analytics, full-stack observability and the application of AI and machine learning to drive network automation and service orchestration in complex, mission-critical service provider and enterprise IT infrastructure. He has applied this expertise to a diverse range of projects in 5G network analytics (NWDAF), Open RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) xApps and rApps, SD-WAN infrastructure, Internet visibility and cloud-native infrastructure observability.

Stephen was hired out of college by AT&T Bell Labs, where he worked in software development on T-carrier data communications systems. Leaving in search of a startup opportunity, he joined multi-protocol router pioneer Wellfleet Communications as a founding engineer, where he spent a hyperactive decade in the rapid expansion of the global internetworking market. Stephen then went on to co-found Spring Tide Networks, which developed an innovative IP service switch for service provider networks, culminating in an acquisition by Lucent Technologies for $1.5 billion.

As VP of marketing at Sonus Networks and later at Acme Packet, Stephen gained experience in service provider VoIP. At Tatara Systems, he was active in the formative years of the small cells market. At Active Broadband Networks, he was involved in applying software-defined networking to the development of a Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) router based on a white box switching platform.

Stephen has been a frequent blog contributor and speaker at industry conferences, and he has authored numerous articles for industry trade publications. He holds an M.S. in Computer, Information and Control engineering from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

As EY Americas Cloud Cybersecurity Leader, Alex focuses on engineering; architectural controls and processes; and security solutions for public cloud, and container platforms.

She holds a PhD, MSc and BSc in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, has multiple patents and is cited in over 30 scientific publications.

Xiaobo leads a team to deliver leading edge technology solutions in support of Citi IT strategy. She drives critical solutions to secure Citi’s hybrid cloud environments to enable Citi to reduce risks and stay compliant while allowing Citi’s businesses to benefit from the opportunities that cloud services provide. Xiaobo started her career as a Network Engineer at Goldman Sachs in 2009 after she got her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She has been selected for “Rising Star Award” to represent Citi at the Women’s Bond Club in the financial industry in 2017. She is also on Palo Alto Network Vendor’s Cloud Customer Advisory Board.

Over the past 28 years of his security career, Pez has worked for Global Fortune 1000 clients as a senior advisor on security, risk, and governance.

As a passionate, accomplished, and experienced security practitioner, Pez was among the first 100 professionals worldwide to be certified ISO17799/BS7799 ISMS Lead Auditor. He also holds a CISSP and other certifications. Mr. Zivic was a global security strategist for F5, Palo Alto Networks, and Pensando (acquired by AMD). Today, he diligently works on consistent cross-cloud protection as a service strategy with Valtix (acquired by CISCO).