Kaseya

Genesys

Dr. Peter Graf is the Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at Genesys. In his role, he is responsible for developing, communicating, sustaining and executing the Genesys strategy. He oversees strategy management, business development, business transformation and operations, information technology, sustainability, and executive and employee communications. Prior to joining Genesys in 2017, Peter held a variety of executive leadership positions in strategy, development, and marketing throughout his more than 25 years in the global enterprise software industry, most notably as an Executive Vice President at multinational software corporation SAP. Peter earned a doctorate in artificial intelligence from Saarland University and a master’s degree in computer science and economics from Technical University of Kaiserslautern in Germany.

Webex by Cisco

Aruna Ravichandran, SVP and Chief Marketing & Customer Officer for Webex by Cisco, is a visionary leader with over two decades of dynamic experience weaving technology and marketing into a powerful tapestry to drive revenue, elevate brand value, and foster human connections. With a people-first ethos, she guides the business toward innovation and brand evolution while shaping culture through inclusive initiatives and empathetic leadership. Aruna was recently recognized as one of the Elite 18 Customer-Led CMOs by Influitive and named UC Today’s Collaboration Leader of the Year. Before joining Cisco, Aruna led DevOps Marketing at CA Technologies (now Broadcom), spearheaded marketing and strategy at Juniper Networks, and held leadership roles in Engineering, Product Development, and Marketing during her 17-year tenure at Hewlett Packard. Aruna holds an MBA and an MS in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University and a BS in Computer Science from Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT). She graduated from the esteemed CMO Leadership program at Kellogg Business School in 2019. Aruna also serves on the board at Cal Polytechnic San Luis Obispo, Fast Company, Forbes Technology Council, and Vox Media.

Avaya

Alan Masarek is President and Chief Executive Officer. He brings over 30 years of software and cloud-based business experience. Alan is an industry innovator with deep expertise in enterprise communications, information technology and business services. He most recently served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Vonage Holdings Corp. In this role, which he held from November 2014 to June 2020, Alan led the company through an era of transformation from a VoIP-based residential phone provider into a global enterprise cloud communications company. Over the course of his tenure, Vonage completed eight acquisitions and its market capitalization increased severalfold. As importantly, Mr. Masarek led a revitalization of Vonage’s culture, creating a talent-driven organization with a culture of agility, technology innovation and customer centricity.Prior to Vonage, Alan served as Director, Chrome & Apps at Google, Inc. from June 2012 until October 2014, following Google’s acquisition of his prior company, Quickoffice, Inc. Alan was Co-founder and CEO of Quickoffice from June 2007 to June 2012. Under his leadership, Quickoffice became one of the world’s most widely used mobile productivity software solutions, engaging more than 26 million registered users at the time of Google’s purchase. Alan earned his M.B.A., with Distinction, from Harvard Business School and his B.B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Georgia.

AVANT Communications

Drew Lydecker is the President and Co-founder of AVANT Communications. Drew comes from a family of entrepreneurs who have continually pushed the envelope in disrupting the status quo by focusing on high value and high touch solutions. Drew built AVANT to fill a void in the market created by the accelerating pace of change in IT. Prior to this, Drew worked as a Voice & Data specialist at CDW where he played a key part in helping CDW become one of the largest telecommunications agents in the world.

Compliology

Jesse Tuttle, also known as Hackah Jak, is a worlds former most wanted hacker that has breached countless Fortune Companies, Foreign and Domestic Government and Military systems. Jesses past as a hacker has been analyzed in university case studies, textbooks, and research projects. His exploits have been reported in newspapers from New York to LA, across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He began his adventure to the dark side in 1994 by hacking his high school network. While searching online via dial-up BBS (bulletin board system) and newsgroups for hacking/phreaking tools, he discovered the world of pirated software (warez). Seeing an opportunity to provide warez to other students in his school, he took to IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and AOL (America Online) where he joined as a distributor and then became a software cracker. By 1996, he had carved out a niche for himself, specializing in reverse engineering Microsoft products like Windows Operating Systems, Outlook, Exchange, and IIS Web Server. His expertise in cracking registrations and uncovering zero-day exploits earned him respect and invitations from several hacker communities. Jesse shared his zero-day discoveries and began applying them by hacking websites and other internet-connected systems. His reputation as an expert in Windows exploitation led p4ntera to invite him to join Hackweiser in 2000. With Hackweiser, Jesse provided zero-day exploits for trading within the community and participated in defacing web servers, aimed at social recognition, and boosting Hackweisers underground status. The post-9/11 era in 2001 marked a significant turn for Jesse. While leading a hacking movement to gather information related to al-Qaedas cyber army, he supplied this intelligence to the U.S. Government and Military. This collaboration resulted in Jesse being contracted to pen-test and secure government and military systems. Arrested in 2003, while working with the FBI to take down a human trafficking network in his hometown, he got caught in a jurisdictional dispute between local and federal law enforcement. This conflict led to a prolonged pre-trial house arrest of 4 years, 4 months, and 28 days, heavily impacting his personal life. To move on and prioritize his family, including his wife and young daughter, Jesse accepted a plea deal in December 2007, ending this difficult period. In 2010, Jesse resumed his professional pursuits, delving into freelancing and consulting. He expanded his skillset to include web application development and geolocation-based gaming activities by 2013. His expertise spans a broad range of areas, including but not limited to cybersecurity, hacking, web/software engineering, and data compliance. He has been trained as a Certified Ethical Hacker, Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator, and Licensed Penetration Tester. Today, Jesse offers his broad experience and skills as a consultant and freelancer to a worldwide clientele, ranging from startups to Fortune-level enterprises.

Compliology

Reesë Tuttles journey in tech began under the guidance of a former world-famous Black Hat hacker - her father. Accepted to College at 13, she began her pursuit of a formal education in tech. She earned an Associate Degree at 16 then a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at 17. Additionally, she completed four more associate degrees and became a Certified Encryption Specialist, all before graduating from high school with a STEM Honors Diploma. Work experience was built interning at two Fortune 100 companies, The Kroger Company in IT Product Development and General Electric in Secure Cloud Dev-ops. She co-opted several semesters at a financial firm focusing on cyber security, encryption, and compliance. Additionally, she worked on a Freelancer.com Preferred team which was the focus of a Freelancer Blog Success Story. Compliology.com (for resellers) and ManagedComply.com (for the retail market) are startups specializing in Data Compliance and Cyber Security, providing an innovative solution based on her experiences along with collaborations from law firms, lenders, insurance providers, top tech experts, and seasoned bug-bounty - former black hat hackers. These platforms are designed to provide a framework that addresses the complex data compliance challenges presented by FTC Safeguards (GLBA), CMMC, IRS 4557, NIST, and other International, National, and State level data regulations and frameworks. Accolades include multiple Hackathon victories including Major League Hacking, several speaking engagements at conferences. She received US Presidential “President’s Volunteer Service Award” for developing web platforms for nonprofits. Contributions to the Ohio Department of Education in establishing pathways to professional certifications for students. Leadership roles in TechOlympics (the nations largest youth-run tech conference) and INTERalliance (a 501c3 nonprofit connecting companies with talented tech youths). In her free time, she enjoys being a violinist and an athlete. She has earned her black belt in Mixed Martial Arts, and recognition from US Lacrosse as All-Academic and First Team All-State Girls Lacrosse Goalie. As a passion project, she fully rewired a 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle. Currently, at 18, shes a 5th year Software Development student at the University of Cincinnati. Her senior project involves inventing a multifunctional 5G and LAN-connected IoT network device targeting MSPs. Connect with Reesë on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/reesebess/

IBM

Large Language Models and other Generative AI technologies. Prior to her current role at IBM Research, Kate was a leader at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a joint research partnership between MIT and IBM Research; Kate ran the Lab’s corporate membership program, supporting industry members as they co-invested in the Lab’s AI research technologies. Kate earned her MBA at MIT Sloan and previously worked at Deloitte Consulting as a Senior Consultant within the Strategy and Operations practice. Kate also holds a B.S. in Statistics from Cornell University

Telarus

Dan Foster is the chief revenue officer for Telarus. Dan, an inspirational and visionary leader, has provided market expertise to strategize and define opportunities that maximize revenue and shareholder return for multiple organizations. In his previous role at Ericsson, he pioneered the entry into the North America partner channel. In his more than 25 years of senior leadership experience in technology and data communications, Dan held the title of CRO at StratusWorX, Fusion Connect, Primus.ca, and two other companies. Under Dan’s stewardship as President and COO of MegaPath, the organization experienced exponential growth from $5 million to over $600 million via organic development and acquisitions. He has garnered industry recognition and awards throughout his career including being a five-time winner of Channel Chief by CRN. Dan received dual engineering and liberal arts degrees from Tufts University and graduated from Harvard Business Schools Executive PMD program.

Thrive

Epic IO

Yellow AI

Raghu Ravinutala is the CEO and Co-Founder of Yellow.ai, a global leader in generative AI-powered customer service automation. Since its inception, Raghu and his team have successfully expanded Yellow.ai’s presence across North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, with 1000+ customers in 85+ countries. The entrepreneurial bug had been conceded deep inside him for long before he co-founded Yellow.ai in 2016, with a vision to deliver conversational experiences that help enterprises achieve higher customer satisfaction and employee engagement. Previously, Raghu worked for 16 years with leading tech companies such as Texas Instruments, and Broadcom across leadership roles in Engineering, Product Management and Business Development both in the Bay Area and India. He was also an elected member of the NASSCOM Executive Council 2021-23 and a member of the Forbes Tech Council. Raghu has been recognized as the one of the top 50 SaaS CEOs 2023 by The Software Report and CX Leader of the Year at the CX Awards 2022. Raghu is an alumni of NIT Warangal, India where he completed his B-Tech in the year 2000. He enjoys a game of squash every now and then and believes in practicing an active lifestyle.

Sanas

Anant Singh, VP of Global Sales at Sanas.AI is a seasoned sales executive and AI evangelistwith over 15 years of experience in driving revenue growth and building high-performing dreamteams. At Sanas.AI, Anant is responsible for game-changing sales strategies to drive marketpenetration and skyrocket revenue streams. With a proven track record of crushing sales targetsand fostering strong client relationships, Anant brings a dynamic leadership style coupled with adeep understanding of market dynamics and customer needs. Prior to joining Sanas.AI, Anantheld senior sales roles at Observe.AI and Akamai Technologies where he consistently deliveredexceptional results and played a key role in driving business expansion.

IgniteTech

Eric Vaughan, CEO of IgniteTech and GFI Software, is a visionary leader at the forefront of the AI revolution. With over 30 years of experience in the technology industry, Vaughan has founded and led three software companies, demonstrating a deep understanding of the transformative power of technology. In recent years, Vaughan has become a vocal advocate for AI-first thinking, recognizing the urgency of this paradigm shift for businesses. He believes that AI is not just an exciting development but a necessity for companies to remain relevant in the rapidly evolving technological landscape. His passion for AI is not driven by mere excitement but by a deep-seated belief that if businesses do not adapt, they risk being left behind. Vaughans commitment to AI transformation is evident in his bold initiative of AI Mondays, where the entire company dedicates one day solely to Gen AI—no calls, no visits, just pure innovation. This initiative is a testament to his belief in the transformative power of AI and his commitment to driving its adoption within his companies. Vaughans journey is a testament to the urgency of adopting AI-first thinking and the transformative power of AI in business. His leadership and vision have positioned IgniteTech and GFI Software at the vanguard of the AI revolution, demonstrating the potential of AI to transform businesses and industries.