2004 IEEE Sarnoff Symposium

on Advances in Wired and Wireless Communications

April 26- 27, 2004
Nassau Inn in Princeton, NJ, USA

Executive Panels

The 2004 Sarnoff Symposium is featuring two executive panels on Tuesday, April 27, from 11:15am to 12:30pm:

Wireless: Trends and Convergence:

Panelists:

Alok Agrawal, Bessemer Venture Partners
Rajiv Laroia, CTO, Flarion Technologies, Inc.
Ron D. Reich, Director, Intel Capital Mobile Communications
Hugh Sheridan, Vice President, Technology & Product Management, Broadbeam Corporation

Military Communications:

Panelists:

LTC Joseph Brendler, Commander, 123d Sig Bn / G6, 3ID(M)
Peter Luthi, BAE Systems
Gary Martin, Acting Director, U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research and Development Command
Brian Sadler, Army Research Laboratory
Larry Williams, ITT

Panelist Biographies:

Alok Agrawal joined BVP in 2002. Prior to joining BVP, Alok was a Group Product Manager at Oracle where he was responsible for determining market needs by working with customers and the sales organization and translating them into product requirements for future strategy and roadmap for the company. He was also responsible for sales-force training, developer education, and marketing collateral development. Earlier in his career at Oracle, Alok worked as a development manager and as an engineer. Alok is involved with a number of BVP portfolio companies including Skype, ReefEdge, Bladelogic, Mangrove and Sandbridge.
Alok holds a Bachelor’s in Technology degree in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, a Master's of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master's of Business Administration from Harvard University where he was elected a Siebel Scholar and a Baker Scholar.

Rajiv Laroia is the founder of Flarion. As the company's CTO, he is responsible for overseeing all R&D activities and setting product and technology direction. He is an expert in OFDMA, CDMA, TDMA and other cellular multiple access technologies and is intimately familiar with current and next generation of wireless standards including IS-95, UMTS, CDMA 2000, IS-136, GSM and EDGE.
Dr. Laroia has a very broad background that spans wireless communication, data transmission, information theory, VLSI design and architecture, analog mixed-signal and RF circuit design, high-speed AD/DA data converters, speech image and video compression. He is well known and respected in the professional and academic community and is regularly invited for seminars at top universities.
Prior to launching Flarion, Dr. Laroia was with Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories since 1992 when he joined the prestigious Mathematical Sciences Research Center. In 1997, he became head of Bell Labs' Digital Communications Research Department in the Wireless Research Center where he and his team started to develop FLASH-OFDM technology based wireless data system. His years at Bell Labs have generated numerous publications and over 35 patents (granted and applied) with total patent licensing revenue in excess of $25 million.
He received his Ph.D. and Master's degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1992 and 1989 and a bachelor's degree in 1985 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi-all in electrical engineering. Parts of his Ph.D. research are taught in advanced communication courses in most prominent universities. His thesis also contributed to V.34, the ITU voice-band modem international standard and led to a patent that has generated over $2 million for the University of Maryland, College Park. He was the recipient of the Best Graduate Student of the Year Award at the University of Maryland in 1992. From 1994 to 1997 he was the associate editor for IEEE transactions on information theory. Dr. Laroia is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Ron D. Reich is Director of Strategic Investments in Intel Capital’s Mobile Communications Sector. In that role he develops investment strategies, and structures and manages investments in support of Intel’s mobile computing activities. Since joining Intel Capital in 1999, he has led domestic and international private equity investments in excess of $50 million in wireless technology and services companies. He speaks regularly at industry events, often addressing Wi-Fi’s role in the global wireless industry.
Prior to joining Intel, Ron was Vice President of Business Development at Brightpoint Incorporated, a $2 billion logistics provider in the global cellular industry. From 1994 to 1997, Ron worked as a Senior Associate in Booz Allen and Hamilton’s Communications, Media, and Technology practice. He received an MBA from the Wharton School, where he was recognized for academic distinction. He holds a BS with high honors from UC Berkeley’s School of Engineering.

Hugh Sheridan is vice president for Technology at Broadbeam Inc. He also leads the Developer and Product Management groups. Most recently, Sheridan served as the Chief Technologist – Mobility Applications and Services for Lucent Technologies. Sheridan holds a bachelors degree in computer science from City College of New York (CCNY) and a masters in computer science from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. He has also completed executive education courses at Harvard Business School and Boston University.