Board of Governors

Sam Colley

Digital Connectivity Portfolio Strategist
Giesecke+Devrient
IMC Chairman

An expert in the telecoms sector, Sam Colley has focused on business development within the mobile data connectivity market, specializing in the M2M and business travel sectors for over 12 years. A strategic thinker, his ability to identify and target growth markets have contributed directly to the continued geographic and financial expansion of his organization. His outlook extends beyond immediate goals, anticipating industry trends and emerging technologies to position his team for sustained success. His forward-thinking approach to business development has propelled him to his current position in the Product Strategy department of Giesecke+Devrient, where he continues to shape the future direction of the organization.

Sridhar Ramachandran

Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Somos
IMC Vice Chairman

Sridhar (Sri) Ramachandran is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Somos, a leading trusted data management company. In his role, he oversees the company’s technology strategy and long-term vision.

Sri is an accomplished executive with a broad spectrum of experience in public and private companies in the telecommunications and cloud services industries. He has deep domain expertise in Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, VoIP, and cloud, as well as extensive experience leading cross-functional agile teams.

Over the last 20 years, Sri has brought his technical vision and leadership to several leading tech firms. Most recently, he served as the Vice President and Americas Head of IoT & Mobility Solutions at G+D Mobile Security Inc. Prior to that role, he held CTO positions at Numerex (now Sierra Wireless), Utilidata, Inteconnections division of Telcordia Technologies and NexTone (now Ribbon).

Sri has a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Ivo Rook

COO
1NCE

Ivo Rook is a recognized IoT pioneer with a long experience in the cellular telecommunications market. He was previously CEO IoT at Vodafone and Senior Vice President at T-Mobile US/Sprint and working as liaison officer to SoftBank Group. As a proven expert on the IoT market, he is an independent advisor to I Squared Capital, a U.S. private equity firm, and board member of Global Telecom, California-based manufacturer of IoT modules and devices. He is also member of the advisory board of Digitize Things Inc, an IoT software development company also based in California, USA. Rook studied Master of Science in Information Technology at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Ruben Cuadras, PhD

Managing Director, USA
2J Antennas

Ruben Cuadras, PhD, is the Managing Director at 2J Antennas USA, Corp., He took on this crucial role seven years ago, founding the company’s operations in America by opening a new office, broadening its reach, and marking a significant expansion. He is a distinguished leader in the field of antenna engineering and innovation. Prior to his current position, Ruben worked as an Engineering Manager at Taoglas, where he played a key role in advancing the company’s engineering projects and patents.

Ruben’s academic credentials are impressive, with both Master’s and Doctoral Degrees in Electrical Engineering from CICESE, with a Major in High Frequency and focusing on innovative research in Wearable Antennas. Complementing his technical expertise, he pursued a Postgraduate Specialization in International Business from UCSD. His academic excellence was evident early in his career, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree with Honors in Electrical Engineering from ITSON with a Major in Telecommunications.

He has secured over 20 patents, with more pending, and has been the driving force behind numerous successful antenna designs. His expertise has significantly benefited many Fortune 500 companies, guiding them in designing and integrating customized antenna solutions. With over 17 years of experience, Ruben has managed over 3,000 projects, predominantly in the North American market. He has dedicated his work exclusively to mastering antenna solutions for the M2M and IoT sectors. His expertise is not limited to technical domains; Ruben has a versatile skill set that includes Operations, Production, Sales, and Finance, demonstrating his comprehensive leadership capabilities in the industry.

Syed Zaeem Hosain

Founder, Chief Evangelist
Aeris Communications

“Z” is responsible for the architecture and future direction of Aeris’ networks and technology strategy. He joined Aeris in 1996 as Vice President, Engineering and is a member of the founding executive team of Aeris. Mr. Hosain has more than 38 years of experience in the semiconductor, computer, and telecommunications industries, including product development, architecture design, and technical management. Prior to joining Aeris, he held senior engineering and management positions at Analog Devices, Cypress Semiconductor, CAD National, and ESS Technology. Mr. Hosain is Chairman of the International Forum on ANSI‐41 Standards Technology (IFAST) and Chairman Emeritus of the IoT M2M Council (IMC). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

Brian Critchfield

VP of Global Marketing
Airgain

Airgain VP of Marketing Brian Critchfield earned his reputation as a global speaker, author, professor, and consultant on the topics of word-of-mouth marketing, marketing strategy, and digital marketing. Over the last 25 years, Brian has launched well over 100 products and developed go-to-market strategies for companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 firms. He is currently responsible for leading his Airgain team in all facets of public relations, marketing, and brand strategy. Brian holds a BBA degree in Marketing from Boise State University and a Global MBA through the prestigious Thunderbird School of Global Management. Brian is married with 5 children, who may one day drive him to drink.

Alistair Fulton

COO & VP Ecosystem
Blues

Alistair Fulton is a senior executive leader and internationally recognized keynote speaker with extensive experience in building and scaling high growth businesses in the Internet of Things.

Alistair has over 25 years of experience spanning the development of vertical IoT solutions, platforms, tools and ecosystems, giving him a unique perspective on what customers need and how to deliver it to them.

A passionate believer in the critical role that the IoT and LoRaWAN have to play in addressing climate change and improving the lives of people everywhere, Alistair helps companies implement agile development strategies that will change the world.

Harald Remmert

CTO, Cellular Solutions
Digi International

Harald Remmert is an accomplished technology leader in the IoT ecosystem with over 20 years of experience in product strategy, design, development, testing and engineering leadership with a proven track-record of introducing successful products to the market. Harald has deep technical knowledge in mixed hardware and software product development. In his current role at Digi he’s on the lookout for new technologies and tools such as 5G, Edge Compute, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence to innovate and solve business problems more efficiently.

Rick Somerton

President and CEO
eSAT Global

Rick Somerton is an entrepreneur, with a wealth of business experience, having served in CEO roles in a number of technology businesses. He is primarily responsible for the development of customers, partners and ecosystem and in particular is driving eSAT’s partnership efforts with MSS GEO’s. Rick brings direct IoT industry experience to eSat. He was the Asia-Pacific licensee for Ingenu’s RPMA LPWAN technology and was responsible for the establishment of the first RPMA network in China. During this period, he developed strong industry relationships across Asia and Europe. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Rick had a successful career in investment banking, including serving as the Head of the Power Energy and Utility business at Salomon Brothers, Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Masters of Commerce degree in International Business Studies from University of New South Wales.

Larry Socher

SVP Strategy & Alliances
Eseye

Larry spent the last 26 years at Accenture where he was most recently responsible for all Cloud & Infrastructure solutions and partnerships globally. During his tenure, Larry ran the Enterprise Network Practice, was CTO of the Service Provider Network Practice which he then proceeded to run operationally. Larry leveraged a unique blend of deep cloud, network/5G, device, IoT/Edge and operations/AIOps skills and experience to help large enterprise, government agency and communications service provider clients transform their businesses, navigating an increasingly complex ecosystem to help them take advantage of the convergence and disruption in the market. Larry graduated from Dartmouth College with BA Major in Economics and English. Larry also holds three patents.

Dan Schieler

SVP of Overseas Sales Department
Fibocom

Dan Schieler is the SVP of Fibocom Oversea Sales Department and Chief Executive Officer at Rolling Wireless.

Prior to joining Fibocom, Mr Schieler was Senior Vice President & General Manager of Automotive at Sierra Wireless, where he directed sales of $185M and managed a global team of R&D, Product Management and Sales/Technical support. Mr Schieler spent more than 15 years at Sierra Wireless as head of different business units.

Mr Schieler joined Sierra Wireless as Vice President of North American Sales in 2003, when AirPrime, Inc. was acquired by Sierra Wireless. At AirPrime, he was Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, responsible for driving AirPrime’s sales strategy, and managing a highly experienced international sales team.

Prior to joining AirPrime, Dan Schieler worked for Xircom’s OEM division where he managed accounts with top-tier OEM computing manufacturers.

Ben Travers

Product Director
Ground Control

Ben is tasked with ensuring that Ground Control has all of the hardware, airtime and services needed to offer our customers the best possible solution for their IoT and M2M connectivity needs. Ben is a highly experienced product manager, with a background in technology services and app development.

Aliaksandr Kuushynau

Head of Wialon
Gurtam

Aliaksandr Kuushynau is the Head of Wialon at Gurtam, an international developer of Wialon, the world’s largest platform for GPS tracking and IoT. Being a flexible and multifunctional system, Wialon helps deliver any telematics project of any scale and for any industry.

Aliaksandr joined Gurtam in 2009 as the Chief Marketing Officer. In his current role, Aliaksandr directs the entire Wialon division. He is responsible for building product development and commercial strategy, strategic and tactical planning, as well as coordination of all departments within the Wialon division and communication with key customers.

Over his career at Gurtam, Aliaksandr has built and managed a global high-performance team of software development, marketing, sales, and business development professionals. As an accomplished executive with 18 years of overall experience in management, Aliaksandr has ensured leadership for Wialon, Gurtam’s flagship product, and pioneered the largest global community of telematics and IoT professionals.

Ajay Joseph

Chief Technology Officer
iBasis

As Chief Technology Officer, Ajay Joseph is responsible for the technical strategy and engineering of the iBasis global network and underlying systems. His leadership over more than a decade has been instrumental in iBasis’ growth from a start-up to one of the largest international carriers in the world. Ajay is also responsible for driving innovation within iBasis and is a member of parent-company KPN’s innovation council. In this capacity, Ajay and his team focus on leveraging the company’s unsurpassed expertise in IP technologies and real-time communications to develop new solutions and services for fixed and mobile operators, and other service providers.

Prior to joining iBasis, Ajay was manager and architect of the IP Telecom division at GTE Internetworking responsible for new VoIP-based services. He also held senior level engineering and design positions at DeskNet Systems and NYNEX Science & Technology.

Ajay is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School. He holds Professional Engineering and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.

Jaap Groot

CEO
Ignion

Jaap Groot is an experienced international executive with strong entrepreneurial skills who has created momentum, revenue growth and leadership in the IoT & M2M marketplace through outstanding commercial and business development skills and through creating relationships with industry leaders that are centered on solving strategic business issues.

Jaap holds a Master Degree (Ir) from the Technical University in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and he has founded, built and sold businesses during his career. Over the past 25 years Jaap worked for Roadshow (now Descartes), Qualcomm, MiX Telematics, Sigfox and Semtech, and has been driving Industry Alliances as Vice President Europe at the LoRa Alliance and Co-Chair of the IOT Workgroup at the Wireless Broadband Alliance. He currently is the CEO of Ignion in Barcelona.

Fred Yentz

Founder and CEO
IoT Launch LLC

An experienced technology executive with proven success and strong global business development experience within the Internet of Things and Industrie 4.0 market sectors. Fred has successfully launched world class Industrial IoT software and cloud based IoT service platforms targeting customers from small innovator companies up to and including fortune 500 corporate customers. Fred brings both deep industry knowledge as well as a vast network of ecosystem partners and industry relationships which can be leveraged to solve the many challenges faced by companies on their digital journey.

Fred is the founder and CEO of IoT Launch LLC. Prior to IoT-Launch, Fred has served as President of Telit IoT Platforms, CEO of ILS Technology, VP and General Manager RadiSys Corp – Industrial and Telecom divisions as well several leadership positions with IBM’s Manufacturing System Products Division, IBM PC Company and IBM System Products Division.

Ellen Boehm

SVP of Global IoT Strategy & Operations
Keyfactor

Ellen leads the go to market strategy for Keyfactor’s IoT business focusing around digital identity security solutions for the IoT device manufacturer market. Ellen is passionate about IoT and helping customers establish strong security implementations for the lifecycle of their overall IoT systems.

Ellen has 17+ years experience leading new product development with a focus on IoT and connected products in Lighting controls, Smart Cities, Connected buildings and Smart Home technology. Ellen has held leadership roles in Product & Engineering at General Electric and Sky Technologies over her career.

Romil Bahl

President and CEO
KORE

Romil Bahl serves as CEO of KORE. He brings almost 30 years of consulting, information technology, professional services, and IoT experience in high-growth and turnaround environments. Throughout his career, Romil has been instrumental in enabling breakthrough growth in information and professional services organizations. He has risen to complex challenges where he has crafted growth strategies, tapped new emerging markets and energized global teams. His leadership approach reflects deep expertise in developing strong client relationships and creating teams that are driven to innovate and excel.
Prior to KORE, Romil served as President and CEO of Lochbridge, a leading technology solutions provider in the IoT, Connected Car and digital enablement space. Before that, he was EVP and GM of Global Industries for CSC, leading the industry go-to-market dimension across the entire approximately $9 billion commercial business unit, creating global growth strategies and expanding CSC’s global footprint into offerings such as cloud, cybersecurity and big data. Earlier, Romil was CEO of a data analytics-focused public company and had leadership roles at A.T. Kearney, Infosys and Deloitte Consulting.
Romil earned an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Directorate of Marine Engineering & Technology in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Carmen Redondo

Director of Global Marketing for Antennas
KYOCERA AVX

Carmen Redondo is currently Director of Global Marketing for Antennas at KYOCERA AVX. She has 15+ years of experience in antennas, having held different roles from engineering, project management to general management. Thanks to her technical background, Carmen actively supports customers in their design development of wireless devices to enhance connectivity in different applications like automotive, Wi-Fi or IoT. As Director of Global Marketing, she is responsible for the implementation and management of strategic projects and programs worldwide as well as the roadmap of new products and tools to fulfill customer needs ahead.

Brandon Cannaday

Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer
Losant

Brandon is co-founder and CPO of Losant. He is responsible for driving the product vision, marketing plan, and product support. He spends a good chunk of his time understanding the customer-driven requirements of the product. He gains insights through direct interaction with customers, engagement on the forums, and working with the Losant Solutions team.

Brandon has worked for more than ten years in enterprise software, which includes experience in the government sector. He began his career at Griffin Analytical, where he worked with C++ to build software for chemical detection. He then went on to Interactive Intelligence, where he focused on enterprise software with .Net as the primary technology. In 2012, Brandon co-founded Modulus with Charlie Key. At Modulus, Brandon was the CTO in charge of all technology architecture and product engineering.

Gregg Zastrow

Senior Marketing Communications Manager
Multi-Tech Systems, Inc.

Gregg Zastrow brings more than 25 years of Product, Sales, Marketing and Channel Management experience to his role managing MultiTech’s marketing communications with an emphasis on digital channels. He is often asked to educate customers and partners about the most cost-effective and quickest way to enable IoT communications. Gregg started his career in self-service ATM solutions at NCR. He earned his MBA from the U of MN, BBA from U of WI and completed Leadership in Product Management from the U of St. Thomas.

Omar Qaise

Founder & CEO
OQ Technology

Mr Omar Qaise is the founder and CEO of OQ TECHNOLOGY, a NewSpace customer focused startup which is building a global 5G LEO satellite constellation dedicated for “Internet-of-Things” communication that can provide connectivity anywhere, especially in remote and rural areas.

Mr Qaise brings tremendous experience and heritage to his venture as he worked many years in different organizations and enterprises in the satellite and telecommunication industry (European Space Agency (ESA), German Aerospace Centre (DLR), O3b, OHB SYSTEMS, EUMETSAT) by working on missions ranging from Low-Earth Orbit observation and telecommunication satellites and GEO giant satellites to far deep space missions such as the spacecrafts Herschel and Planck. Most recently was with SES Satellites, the world’s largest GEO broadcast satellite operator, where he had responsibility for Satcom sales and business development in regions such as the Middle East and Africa especially in M2M and Oil and Gas. He became fascinated with the possibilities of the IoT technology as a low cost product filling a market gap. Mr Qaise brings extensive customer connections and knowledge of competing Satcom systems and 5G, as well as being the chief architecture of the concept.

Niall Strachan

Head of Product Strategy
Pelion

Niall is a driven and passionate technology innovator with a career that has been focused on customer centric impact. With an established career built entirely in telecommunications and IoT he has created products, teams, culture and value for both the organizations he has worked for and their respective customers.

With a background in computer science, Niall is driven by industry innovation and strives to build products that have both a strong product market fit today but also drive innovation to shape that market in future.

Niall’s experience within various organization sizes ranges from startup, SME and large enterprise fosters a wide skillset focused on leadership. This enables guidance, advisory and management of all areas of the business that impact the customer journey, ranging from the product creation and innovation processes through to the impacts of a smooth operational processes.

Throughout his career, he has focused on building autonomous teams with a growth mindset that enable the execution of a strategy through the organizations belief and understanding of the where, what, why and when.

Shailesh Patel

SVP Product Management
Printed Energy

Product and Program Management Executive recognized for delivering innovative products that solve customer problems. Worked across multiple industries including automotive, consumer products, medical devices, e-commerce, and utilities. Recognized leader in product strategy development and execution. Extensive engineering expertise in design, development and launch of electro-mechanical devices by managing global teams across US, Europe, and Asia including being instrumental in ground up development of 2 Asia R&D technology centers.

Steve Linke

Head of NA Business Development & Strategy
Quectel Wireless Solutions Co., Ltd.

As Head of NA Business Development & Strategy, Steve is responsible for aligning Quectel’s wireless technology and solutions portfolio with the strategic initiatives of wireless operators in North America to drive innovation within the device ecosystem. Prior to joining Quectel, Steve lead Inseego’s carrier initiatives securing mobile and FWA product awards with operators globally and took on the role of VP of Global Business Development to drive Inseego’s 5G expansion by securing the first 5G product awards and developed new markets through strategic partnerships and alliances with wireless operators, infrastructure partners and the enterprise/private network ecosystem.

Steve has worked for leading technology companies such as Verizon and Qualcomm and has 20+ years of business development, technical sales, marketing, and product development experience working with major technology, telecommunications and enterprise companies including semiconductor, ODM, OEM, MNO, channel, and software/cloud.

Steve graduated with a Business degree from San Diego State University.

Kim Bybjerg

VP, Head of Continental Europe
Tata Communications

Kim Bybjerg is Vice President IoT & Mobility at Tata Communications, a leading global digital infrastructure provider that powers today’s fast-growing digital economy. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises and communications service providers.

With extensive experience in the IoT field, Kim has been involved in countless IoT projects across Europe and outside, being responsible for the go-to-market strategy, the commercial and product strategy, as well as the execution of these strategies.

Prior to Tata Communications, Kim has been CEO of Teleena and Director Business Development in Europe, Middle-East and Africa for Jasper (now Cisco-Jasper), a large provider of IoT SaaS services for Telecom operators. Before that, he has been Managing Director at JHB Group, which envolved out of two technology companies: mobile payment enabler, Liquix, and smart-metering company, Xemex. As Director M2M Northern Europe at Vodafone, Kim has been developing the M2M activities for one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. Before Vodafone, he already setup the M2M business for KPN, where and for which he also established a partnership with Jasper.

Prior to becoming an expert within the IoT space, Kim held various Management positions at Orange, Siemens, IBM and AT&T.

John Keever

CTO
Telit IoT Platforms

Mr. Keever is the CTO of Telit’s IoT Platforms division (formerly ILS Technology), which he founded in October 2000. He has more than 24 years of experience in automation software engineering and design. Mr. Keever came to Telit from IBM Corporation, where he served as IBM global services principle responsible for e-Production solutions architectures and deployment. Mr. Keever has over 18 years of plant floor automation experience with IBM, and is the former world-wide development and support manager for Automation Connection, Distributed Applications Environment, PlantWorks and Data Collection hardware and software products. He served as lead marketing and solutions architecture at IBM, where he was responsible for General Motors, BMW, Chrysler, Tokyo Electron, Glaxo-Wellcome, and numerous other global manufacturing companies. Mr. Keever has both hardware patents and software copyrights.

Erik Kling

Vice President, New Business Development
Vodafone

Erik Kling has over 20 years’ experience in the communication technology field, his experience covering hardware, software, services and solution elements of the industry. Having held senior sales and product management roles across the globe, Erik joined Vodafone in 2010. As Vice President IoT New Business Development, Erik’s responsibilities include building and developing the M2M domestic new business team including the Latin America region, driving M2M solutions into Vodafone Global Enterprise accounts along with additional customers and markets and defining, developing and nurturing the M2M ecosystem within the marketplace.