Speakers
For speaker submissions, please contact Derek Top: (415) 904-7666, or dtop@opusresearch.net.
David Attwater, Senior Scientist, EIG
David Attwater has over 14 years experience researching and designing spoken user interfaces. He joined EIG in 2003 with responsibilities for user interface usability, design, research and development. Attwater also manages the EIG UK Office. Before joining EIG he was head of the spoken dialog research team at the British Telecom Research Labs. Amongst his specific areas of expertise are applications using statistical language models, very large directory applications, and wizard of oz usability testing on live traffic. Attwater's current research interests include turn-taking and mixed-mode dialogue. He has several international patents pending and numerous publications. He holds two engineering degrees from the University of York, UK.
Ian Bonewitz - Product Manager, I DRIVE SAFELY
As Product and Regulatory Business Development Manager for I DRIVE SAFELY, Ian Bonewitz brings new driver training solutions to market, conceptualizes product lines and enhancements, manages full lifecycles of products from initial concept to launch, and maintains regulatory compliance across all state, county, and court jurisdictions. Before his stint in online driver training services, Bonewitz was Sales and Marketing Manager for a nationwide online insurance and financial services training company. His extensive online training experience has necessitated the broad use of voice biometrics, specifically in the coordination of implementation and updates between I DRIVE SAFELY and biometric vendors for new and existing products in various states.
Chuck Buffum - VP, Caller Authentication Solutions, Nuance
Chuck Buffum, VP of Caller Authentication Solutions for Nuance, is a visionary and pioneer in the call center, speech technology and secure authentication domains. Over the past 30 years he has guided more than a dozen companies to bring these technologies and solutions to market addressing the needs of over 50 clients. Prior to Nuance, Buffum ran Buffum Group, a caller authentication consulting firm, and was the founding CEO of Vocent, a voice authentication solutions company, sold to PassMark Security in 2005. Prior to Vocent he lead Nuance's partner development and field technical organizations, managed Tandem's solution programs, and created IBM's call center solutions program, bringing CallPath and an IVR to market in the 1980s.
Javier Cano Brabezo - Business Consultant, AGNITIO
Javier Cano Brabezo is a Business Consultant at Agnitio. He has successfully brought to production many solutions for customers based on Agnitio's state-of-the-art voice biometrics products. His wide experience in the Banking and Telco industries has been key for end-customers in understanding the strong added value of speaker verification to their business.Javier holds an MSc in Telecom engineering and has over 5 years experience within consultancy services for large corporations. He previously worked for Accenture and Amadeus in Europe and the USA
Bertrand Damiba - President and Co-Founder, SecuriMobile
Bertrand Damiba has many years of experience in the field of speech recognition technologies. He most recently held the position of Director of Product Management at Asyncast, a Silicon Valley venture focused on creating voice applications to retrieve highly dynamic information over the phone. He was the leader of the speech-engineering group at BeVocal, a provider of powerful voice and data applications. From BeVocal's inception, Bertrand's technical leadership role continued beyond its acquisition by Nuance Communications. Damiba also designed and implemented the first commercial deployment of U.S. nationwide street name grammars in 2000. Before that he helped develop the original International Components for Unicode at IBM and contributed to the translation project "Diplomat" at Carnegie Mellon University's speech recognition lab.
Brian Eastley - Director, Business Development for Hosted Solutions, Convergys
As Director of Business Development for Hosted Solutions at Convergys, Brian Eastley is also the Global Business Lead for Voice Authentication Solutions. He has previously worked as Director of Market Strategy at Convergys, and held ASR and voice authentication product management and solutions consulting roles at SpeechWorks (now Nuance), and subsequently Vocent and TuVox. Eastley has 18 years of experience in technology evaluation, solutions consulting, product marketing management, and sales of enterprise software solutions, with the past 10 years focused on customer service solutions that incorporate speech recognition and voice authentication.
Daniel Elvester - Director, Business Development, Experian
As director of business development for Experian's Decision Analytics business unit, Dan Elvester is responsible for development and execution of strategic partnerships, aligning business objectives in fraud detection and prevention, operational efficiency and compliance with new and existing products and markets. Since joining Experian four years ago, Elvester has secured strategic partnerships with a variety of companies including Early Warning Services for DDA data sources, TargusInfo for additional phone verification, and Accertify for call center support. Elvester's previous experience includes three years with LexisNexis where he developed and executed a partner reseller program, and three years with HNC, focused on eCommerce.
Ariel Freidenberg - Executive VP, Global Sales & Business Development, PerSay
Ariel Freidenberg joined PerSay in 2000, shortly after PerSay was founded. He has held various positions within PerSay's sales and business development team and in 2003 was appointed as VP, Global Sales & Business Development. Throughout the many processes Ariel managed worldwide in diverse markets, Freidenberg has acquired extensive and in-depth experience of the voice biometrics market and has successfully led major transactions for PerSay with its key strategic customers and partners. In 2007, he was appointed as Executive VP, Global Sales & Business Development, and, beyond his other responsibilities, has relocated to NY to establish PerSay's offices and operations in the US. Freidenberg holds a B.A. in Law and Economics and an MBA in Business Administration, both from Bar-Ilan University. Prior to joining PerSay, he was an attorney in one of the leading law offices in Israel, following an internship at the Supreme Court of Israel.
Avery Glasser - Independent Consultant
Avery Glasser is an independent consultant providing solution and product design services for vendors and implementers of transformative technologies. He has over 15 years of experience with advanced communications technologies including IVR, CTI, Speech Recognition, and Voice Synthesis. He is a noted product designer and speaker on the use of voice biometrics for identification in law enforcement and intelligence services as well as speaker authentication for commercial applications. Glasser has hands-on experience with a wide variety of voice biometric technologies, including offerings from Nuance, IBM, PerSay, VoiceVault, Loquendo, VoiceTrust, Agnitio and STC. In addition to designing solutions for intelligence and law enforcement, he has architected solutions for banking clients in Europe and North America and is currently attached to a joint NIST/FBI CJIS working group on the use of voice biometrics for investigatory services.
Paul Heirendt - President & CEO, TradeHarbor
Paul Heirendt is a cofounder of TradeHarbor with 30 years of experience in healthcare and technology business management, business development and Internet business definition. He is an experienced executive manager with an established reputation in the acquisition, formation, and introduction of new businesses with Medifor, Inc., Facts and Comparisons, Visual Press, Mosby, and J.B. Lippincott Company. Heirendt also serves on the Advisory Board of eMedicine.com, and G.W. Medical Publishing, and on the Board of Directors of the Midwest Gateway Chapter of HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.)
Daniel Hendling -International Program Manager, Deutsche Telekom AG
Daniel Hendling manages and supports selected "innovation projects" at the Deutsche Telekom group, including the voice biometrics proof of concept at T-Mobile Netherlands. Additionally, he manages the international "Self-Service in your Pocket" program, which aims to implement and extend Voice & Mobile Self-Services as a basis of a "multi-channel self-service environment." Based in Bonn, Germany at the Deutsche Telekom headquarters, Hendling began his career in 1999 at T-Mobile Austria by building and managing the "e-mail and complaints services." He also developed and hosted the Customer Service Knowledge Management System as information manager, and implemented and extended Self-Services (Web & IVR) as self-service manager.
Alexey Khitrov - President, SpeechPro, Inc.
Alexey Khitrov is president of SpeechPro, Inc., U.S.-based subsidiary of Speech Technology Center (STC). Alexey joined STC more than two years ago and his responsibiliies include strategic development and investor relations. Khitrov holds an MBA degree from Schulich School of Business (York University, Toronto, Canada). Prior to joining STC, Khitrov spent over three years at BMO Capital Markets (one of the leading Canadian investment banks) working with a variety of financial products and client groups. Additionally, he has more than five years experience with a number of leading Russian financial institutions prior to his MBA studies.
Fred MacKenzie - Senior Business Solutions Advisor, Bell Canada
Fred MacKenzie has been at Bell Canada for over 38 years is currently working in the Bell Information and Technology organization in Toronto as an Associate Director. He is the Senior Business Solutions Advisor for Customer Service voice interface solutions. He oversees the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) design and directs the planning for how current and new technologies can be leveraged for leading edge customer service solutions such as Conversational Natural Language, Voice Biometrics and multi channel voice interfaces.
Mike Matthews - UK Service Desk Product Manager, Atos Origin
Mike Matthews is the UK Service Desk Product Manager for Atos Origin. He has over 15 years experience of working in the IT industry, in particular the many facets of IT services. These include desktop support, service desk, project and operations management and more recently, portfolio and product management.
Douwe Mik - Founder, IdentForReal
Douwe Mik is an identity management specialist with over 15 years of experience in IT Security. He has worked for companies such as IBM, Cambridge Technology Partners, British Telecom and Agnitio. Mik founded and runs a specialized IT Strategy & Consulting and Application development company IdentForReal, a group focused on helping its clients with defining a clear IDM strategy from definition through implementation. These projects include a wide range of technologies, among which some modalities of biometrics. Over the past years, Douwe has gained a lot of valuable knowledge on user identity management in mobile platforms and applications, including innovation in how voice biometrics is making its way into mobile solutions.
Dan Miller - Senior Analyst, Opus Research
Dan Miller has over 25 years experience in marketing, business development and corporate strategy for telecom service providers, computer manufacturers and application software developers. Dan founded Opus Research in 1985 and helped define the Conversational Access Technologies marketplace by authoring scores of reports, advisories and newsletters addressing business opportunities that reside where automated speech leverages Web services, mobility and enterprise software infrastructure. He also participated in consulting projects in call center-based commerce, voice-based communications and electronic commerce for clients that include top IT, telecommunications and hosted service providers, as well as a number of entrepreneurial firms.
Sasson Mordechay - Senior Vice President, Operations and Communications, Bank Leumi
Sasson Mordechay is the senior vice president and head of operations and communications at Bank Leumi. Bank Leumi has approximately 11,000 employees. Mordechay is responsible for contact center projects and operations, data centers, infrastructure, Lean banking operations center, BCP and Disaster Recovery, communications and internal helpdesk. From 2000-2004, he was head of IT Development Division at Bank Leumi and responsible for all projects, technology and systems development.
Bill Morrow - Chairman & CEO, CSIdentity Corporation
Bill Morrow has over 20 years experience in business foundation and leadership experience. In 2006, he established CSIdentiy Corporation and serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Under Morrow's stewardship, CSIdentity provides cutting edge technology, products and services to Fortune 500 companies, governmental entities, small businesses, and individual consumers. In 2009, CSIdentity received a $35M equity investment to expand the company globally; this investment is the biggest private equity placement in an Austin startup in the software/services company since 2006. Previously, from 1999 to 2005, Morrow founded and served as the Vice Chairman of the Board Director and CEO of Grande Communications.
Nick Ogden - Chairman and Chief Executive, Voice Commerce Group
As founder and CEO of The Voice Commerce Group, Nick Ogden is primarily responsible for the company's overall corporate strategy and business development. He has been at the forefront of financial services technology since 1985. In 1993, he founded Multi Media Investments Limited, a technology research and development company that brought the Internet to the Channel Islands through Interactive Telephony Ltd. This led to the construction of Europe's first online store in October 1994 and the development of one of the first bank-endorsed e-commerce initiatives BarclaySquare in 1995. In 1997 Nick founded WorldPay, which guarantees internet transactions worldwide, and led the company through its growth to over 270 employees with 20,000 merchants in 120 countries and processing transactions in excess of $2bn per annum. WorldPay was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2002. In 2003 Nick, together with several former colleagues from WorldPay, formed the Voice Commerce Group to develop systems which allow individuals to identify themselves using a voice signature.
Surinder Singh - VP Global Sales & Marketing, Leading Software
Surinder Singh is currently responsible for the development and management of strategic partner and client-direct relationships at Leading Software Biometrics Division - a leading provider of voice-biometric based Identity Management solutions. Singh is a highly experienced sales professional with a successful track record of selling enterprise level payment and identity management solutions to major banking institutions globally. His career has spanned over 20 years, working for large corporations including BancTec and Filenet where he has held senior management positions in the sales function.
Dr. Clive Summerfield- CEO, Auraya Systems
Dr. Clive Summerfield has over 25 years' experience in research, and commercial deployment of new technologies in Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. He is an internationally recognized authority on voice technology and biometrics. As CEO of 3SH he has spearheaded to adoption of voice biometrics for secure on-services in government, telecommunications and financial services, including provision of consultancy services relating to Common Criteria certification of biometrics systems. As Founder and Deputy Director of the National Centre for Biometric Studies (NCBS) at University of Canberra, Summerfield has provided vendor independent scientific analysis of the performance and effectiveness of biometric technologies, including undertaking the world's largest and more extensive analysis of voice biometrics for government applications, an analysis that is currently being used as a foundation for U.S. Government's "v-Auth" strategy for secure telephone services.
Derek Top - Director of Research, Opus Research
With more than 10 years of publishing experience, Derek Top has covered executive-level, IT business trends and the impact of transformative technologies. He currently serves as research director for Opus Research and managing editor for VoiceBioCon.com. Prior to joining Opus Research, Top was with CMP Media, both as events editor with InformationWeek magazine and senior associate editor with Optimize, covering the current topics facing CIOs in the areas of business strategy and execution. Previously, he was managing editor with Streaming Media, Inc., which produced a monthly magazine, daily news online, and in-depth research reports.
Julia Webb - EVP, Sales and Marketing, VoiceVault
Julia Webb has a successful track record of over 15 years of marketing and sales management experience within the biometrics' technology industry. At Biometric Security she heads up the company's U.S. operations, focused on the overall growth of the VoiceVault product line within the Americas. Prior to joining Biometric Security, Inc. she held senior positions at leading biometric companies ranging from Visionics (Identix) to Bioscrypt. During her eight year tenure at Bioscrypt she lead the organization's sales growth and positioning in the biometrics marketplace, eventually capturing the majority of the market share for the company's product lines; culminating in the sale of Bioscrypt to L-1 Identity Solutions in 2007.
Kolin Whitley - VP Fraud Solutions, TransUnion
Kolin Whitley brings 19 years of experience in the areas of fraud and identity management and a wealth of knowledge in developing risk management strategies and conducting assessments. Prior to joining TransUnion, Whitley served in a number of senior roles in the UK, Canada and the US, and currently chairs the International Fraud & Identity Management Council for TransUnion Inc.
Brent Williams - CTO, Anakam, Inc.
Brent Williams is a seasoned information security professional with over 20 years of experience as a government and industry practitioner. Williams has served for almost four years as the Chief Technology Officer for Anakam, Inc. Anakam has developed an innovative approach to strong authentication of extremely large scale user-bases for consumer, patient, and citizen-facing applications in e-health, e-government, e-banking, and e-commerce. As CTO, Williams has been instrumental in developing new approaches, workflows, and business justifications for the use of voice biometrics in Anakam's multi-factor authentication platform. He has significant senior-level strategic experience with government information security solutions, including drafting national-level policy related to authentication into secure systems for the White House, developing security policy guidelines with the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, and participating national and international healthcare standards bodies.
Dave Wright - Technical Manager Speech Solutions, Centrelink
Dave Wright is the Technical Manager Speech Solutions for Centrelink, the largest government service delivery agency in Australia. He has worked for Centrelink for over 12 years and in that time has managed the upgrade of their IVR platform to over 1800 speech enabled ports. He has also managed the implementation and integration of one of the worlds largest speaker verification deployments into Centrelinks telephony channel.
Dan York - Director of Conversations, Voxeo
Dan York is Director of Conversations at Voxeo Corporation heading up the company's communication through both traditional and new/social media. Previously, York served in Voxeo's Office of the CTO focused on analyzing/evaluating emerging technology, participating in industry standards bodies and addressing VoIP security issues. Since the mid-1980's he has been working with online communication technologies and helping businesses and organizations understand how to use and participate in those new media. York is a frequent presenter at conferences, has authored multiple books on security, Linux and networking and has written numerous articles in print and online. His most recent book is "The Seven Deadliest Unified Communications Attacks" to be published by Syngress in 2010. His writing can be found at DisruptiveTelephony.com and Voxeo's weblogs at blogs.voxeo.com
