Keynotes and Speakers

Tom Gruber is an innovator in technologies that augment human intelligence, individually and collectively. Applying ideas from Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, and Design, his work has explored how connecting people and machines can foster collaboration, learning, knowledge sharing, and getting things done.

Tom was co-founder and head of design for the company that created Siri, the intelligent personal assistant. At Apple for eight years, Tom led the Advanced Development Group, which created new capabilities for Siri and future products.

Throughout his career, Tom has explored the intersection of AI and the UI between humans and computers. His AI research helped lay the groundwork for semantic information sharing and the Semantic Web.

He has created several products and companies that support human collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Today Tom is an impact advisor and public speaker. He promotes Humanistic AI, was a founding board member of Partnership on AI, and advises companies using AI to positively impact humanity.

Tom is passionate about saving our global ocean and our collective intelligence.

In his keynote address Humanistic AI: Designing Technology to Amplify Human Potential, Tom will share how artificial Intelligence doesn't have to compete with humans—it can collaborate with us. AI can augment human perception, creativity, and cognition to help us live better lives. To this end, Gruber will explore guiding principles for ethical AI design and showcase real-world applications that demonstrate how technology can empower—not replace—human intelligence.

Chip Suttles has been with the Seahawks as Vice President of Technology for more than a decade. He is the voice in guiding the values and mission related to the technology needs of the Seahawks and First & Goal Inc.

As an IT professional for 32+ years, Suttles is responsible for aligning cutting-edge technology with the overall business strategy of the organization—by modernizing technology, his team aims to enhance the performance of the organization, improve the customer/fan experience, and drive increased revenue. His areas of focus include maintaining and optimizing the IT infrastructure, investing in the modernization and innovation of Lumen Field's stadium technology, supporting player performance analytics, and enhancing the organizations' mobile phone applications. He also oversees the IT Cyber Security tools and systems that help protect the organization's network(s).

Suttles was the recipient of a 2020 Seattle CIO of the Year ORBIE Award and currently serves on Seattle's InspireCIO Advisory Board.

Alison Levine is a history-making polar explorer, mountaineer, and leadership expert who has built a career breaking boundaries and inspiring others to exceed their limits. She served as team captain of the first American Women's Everest Expedition, completed the Adventure Grand Slam (climbing the highest peak on each continent and skiing to both poles), and became the first American to traverse 600 miles across west Antarctica to the South Pole via the Messner route. She later completed first ascents in Antarctica and Nepal—all despite three heart surgeries and Raynaud's disease.

Levine also built a successful corporate career, working in sales, marketing, and business development for companies including Allergan, Carl Zeiss Medical, Iridex, and Goldman Sachs, and served as Deputy Finance Director in Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign.

A former West Point adjunct professor, she now serves on the board and faculty of the Thayer Leader Development Group. She is the founder of the Climb High Foundation, supporting women in Uganda through climbing tourism, and executive producer of Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest. Levine is a New York Times bestselling author and sought-after keynote speaker on leadership in extreme environments.

Siân Morgan joined Dell’Oro Group in 2022 and leads research on the Enterprise LAN market, including Wireless LAN, Campus Ethernet switching, and emerging architectures such as Campus NaaS and cloudmanaged LAN. Her work focuses on enterprise adoption of public and private cloud platforms and AIdriven network operations. In early 2023, she accurately predicted the 2024 WLAN market downturn, including the rate of contraction. Ms. Morgan brings more than 25 years of senior leadership experience across telecommunications and networking technologies, including 5G, LTE, WiFi, and network virtualization. Prior to Dell’Oro, she led technology strategy and integration at Videotron, where she helped launch VoLTE and 5G services. She is a frequent industry speaker, published author, and award judge. Ms. Morgan holds multiple engineering, business, and accounting credentials, including an MBA, CPA designation, and degrees in Electrical Engineering from McGill University.

Nabil firmly believes technology and business have a responsibility to improve the human condition. As a futurist, business leader and humanist, he has a passion for the democratization of technology and is determined to contribute to a world where tech has a positive social impact.

As Chief Technology & Product Officer and General Manager of Subscriptions at Extreme Networks, Nabil's vision is to make tech work for people in the age of the Infinite Enterprise. He believes in a future built on the art of possibility, centered around the brilliance of his teams and the promise of tech innovation.

Nabil's career has taken him around the world, including entrepreneurial growth opportunities and leadership roles at some of the most recognized names in tech, including Cisco and Dell, among others. He holds a degree in Engineering, studied extensively in the arts, and earned an Executive MBA from London School of Economics, NYU Stern, and HEC Paris.

Norman serves as Chief Commercial Officer leading the company's sales, services, and supply chain organizations with a focus on driving revenue growth. In addition, Norman is the Executive Sponsor for the Sports and Entertainment industry and the company's National Football League (NFL) partnership.

Rice joined Extreme in 2015 and, during his tenure, he has architected successful go-to-market sales motions including building the company's stadium and venue business, orchestrating large opportunities with Verizon and Kroger, and managing the company through a complex macro supply chain environment.

Prior to Extreme, Norman worked in private equity as an operating partner with Marlin Equity, as managing director for New Castle Capital group, and had management roles in technology firms CA (NASDAQ: CA), Concord Communications (Acquired by CA), Aprisma Management Technologies (Acquired by Concord), HoustonStreet Exchange and MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR). Previously, Norman was a Director on the Boards of DSP Group (NASDAQ: DSPG) and NitroSecurity (Acquired by McAfee) as well as on the Advisory Board of vKernel (Acquired by Quest Software).

Norman holds a master's degree in management and an MS in Engineering, both from Dartmouth College, where he was a Scoville Fellow and Woodhouse Scholar award winner, as well as a BS from the University of Michigan.

Anisha Vaswani spearheads the development and implementation of Extreme’s overall IT strategy, ensuring that technology investments support the company’s business objectives and growth. Vaswani drives internal innovation and customer success for the company by acting as “Extreme’s Customer ONE,” testing and validating Extreme’s products and solutions before rolling them out to customers. Vaswani engages with customers to complete successful technology migrations and deliver significant value add, prioritizing long-term customer relationships, loyalty, and retention. Before joining Extreme, she served in several CIO roles at prominent companies such as IDG, Box, Toast, Inc., and Shockwave Medical. At Shockwave Medical, she helped the company scale operations and grow annual revenue to $1B. As CIO of Toast, she guided the company through the IPO process and played a role in growing the company from $1B in revenue to over $3B in annual revenue. She holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems from San Jose State University.

Ray Mota brings a talent for complex technical and critical thinking and provides strategic direction, sharp analysis, and expert advice on networking issues, specializing in design, implementation, and troubleshooting. Prior to founding ACG Research Dr. Mota worked for Aberdeen Group, ManageAll, Micros-To-Mainframes, Advanced Technology Group, Eastman Kodak and the IRS. As a CTO, he designed, implemented and supported complex trading floor systems and large WAN Frame Relay and ATM networks. He also provided training on Sniffer, HP Advisor protocol analysis tools, and MPLS architectures. Ray has also developed cloud applications and has a software patent attributed to him.

Ray is recognized as an expert in topics relating to networks, managed services, operational efficiency, and business modeling. He has been the keynote speaker for global telecom events. His insightful commentaries and analyses have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Telecom Magazine, MSNBC, CNN Money, Forbes, Fortune, Businessweek, NY Times, SF Chronicle, and other industry publications.

In his breakout session, The Hidden Cost of Infrastructure, Ray will highlight that as enterprise networks scale, operational efficiency—not raw performance—has become the primary constraint for IT teams. Configuration drift, manual provisioning, compliance checks, and upgrade cycles consume increasing time and budget, particularly in hybrid and multi domain environments. Join Ray in a data-driven discussion on how modern network architectures and automation frameworks change the operational cost equation. This session breaks down recent ACG findings showing how unified management, fabric based design, and AI assisted workflows impact core operational tasks such as network planning, provisioning, security compliance, upgrades, and license management.

Roger Lapuh is responsible for driving advancements in Fabric Switching and leading developments related to next-generation networking technologies at Extreme.

Throughout his career, he has made substantial contributions to Ethernet Fabric Switching technology, with a particular focus on the IEEE 802.1aq standard. He is a co-author of several IETF drafts and holds patents in the field, demonstrating his commitment to innovation and technical leadership. Notably, in 2001, he introduced the widely adopted Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation technology and secured a patent for this groundbreaking advancement.

Lapuh's career in product management began in Silicon Valley at Nortel in 1999. Before this, he held various positions within the EMEA region, where he gained valuable experience in the networking industry. His background also includes leadership roles in marketing, product management, and network engineering in Switzerland, further broadening his expertise across multiple aspects of the technology sector.

Lapuh earned a master's degree in electronic engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

Ed Koehler has been in the communications and networking industry for 20+ years. Ten of those years he spent as a Senior Technology Architect for R&D within the CTO division of Nortel. His area specialties are, IPv6, Multicast, Digital Identity and Network Security as well as Voice and Video communications and Data Sciences. He has several patents in these areas.

Ed joined with Extreme (via Avaya) in August of 2010 as a Senior Data Solutions Architect specializing in Virtualized Data Centers and associated technologies including compute and storage. Currently, he is serving as a Distinguished Principal Engineer within the Office of the CTO. He is an IEEE member and was instrumental in the development of some of the core technology used in IEEE 802.1aq "Shortest Path Bridging", which is the foundational technology of Extreme Networks Enterprise Fabric.

Most recently Ed has been focused on research and development of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning environments with a focus on best practices for security in both design and implementation as well as its impact on the Internet of Things. He also serves as a security advisor to the internal IT organization and is an active participant in the internal security team at Extreme.