DIS '08:

The Vanguard Of Local Information Services

Join Al Fross, President of The PELORUS Group, and Saroja Girishankar, Vice President Of Information Services, to hear and interact with these and other industry leaders:

Moderators:

Alan Fross, President, The PELORUS Group

Alan Fross has over 30 years of experience in the information management marketplace.

As President of The PELORUS Group, Mr. Fross heads one of the fastest growing communications research and management consulting firms in the United States.  The firm provides market research studies and custom consulting projects to the industry’s leading information services providers worldwide.

Mr. Fross is regarded as one of the leading analysts in the industry.  His expertise in the various financial and information services markets is widely recognized.  His market assessments and opinions are often quoted in trade and business publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CIO, and Communications Solutions.  In addition, Mr. Fross has published numerous articles in leading industry journals such as Communications News, Business Communications Review, and Intele-CardNews, and has spoken at national telecommunications conferences.

Prior to founding The PELORUS Group, Inc., Mr. Fross was Vice President of The Eastern Management Group, where he was responsible for coordinating the telecommunications research and consulting engagements for the company.  In addition, Mr. Fross has held several marketing positions with New Jersey Bell.

Mr. Fross received his bachelors degree in marketing from the University of Dayton and an MBA with a concentration in finance from Rutgers University.

Saroja Girishankar is The PELORUS Group's Vice President of Information Services.  With over 20 years in the communications industry, Ms. Girishankar comes with extensive research and analysis experience from her work with several industry publications and as an independent analyst.  Her technical expertise covers directory assistance, wireless services, IP networking, telecommunications systems, operations, and applications.

Prior to joining The PELORUS Group, Ms. Girishankar was with the publications InternetWeek, as Executive Industry Editor, and Communications Week, and contributed to the industry magazine InformationWeek.  Ms. Girishankar has written numerous reports and white papers on a wide range of telecommunications and data communications topics, including directory assistance, wireless information services, voice messaging, broadband services, global deregulation, and network infrastructure.

Ms. Girishankar has a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education from the University of Delhi, India and received her Masters in Education at Rowan University.

Charlie is CEO & president of kgb_USA.  kgb has been in the knowledge business for 16 years.  We are dedicated to providing answers with pinpoint accuracy.  Our users can call us, text us or search our internet sites to get the most precise answer to almost any question.  kgb_USA is the largest independent provider of enhanced directory assistance, operator services and customer care to carriers and corporations.

Charlie joined kgb in 2000 and was an instrumental part of its rapid growth and global expansion.  In late 2004, he joined OSC (Operator Service Company) and quickly acquired Excell Agent Services.  The combined firm, renamed Excell Services rapidly became the number two independent provider in the US.  kgb acquired Excell Services in 2006 and named Charlie as its ceo and president of North America. 

Before joining kgb, Charlie held executive positions at AT&T and Teleport Communications Group (TCG).  Prior responsibilities included Strategy, Marketing & Sales, Operations, Product Management and Business Development.  Charlie is known for his strategic insight and his track record of growth.  He received a B.S. in Business Management from Messiah College and completed an Executive Education Program at the University of Michigan.

Mikael Benckert has over 15 years of experience in the media and telecoms industry.

As CEO of 118100 ahhaaa AB, Mr Benckert heads one of the fastest growing Directory assistance companies in the Nordic market. Since Mr Benckert joined 4 years ago, the company has tripled its turn over and moved from negative profit to a margin in the high teens. The firm has during these 4 years both launched a yellow- pages web service together with the 2 leading media companies in Sweden and also launched a new service called “Answer to everything”.

Mr Benckert is regarded as a hands on leader with a solid reputation in both the media and telecoms industry. His down to earth leadership style is very much appreciated both among his staff, salespeople and customers.

Prior to joining 118100 ahhaaa AB, Mr Benckert was Senior Sales Director for MCI Northern Europe, where he was awarded several best achievement awards. In addition Mr Benckert was Managing Director for both a Swedish media agency and an Internet start up. 

Mr. Benckert has a bachelors degree in Leadership at the University of Lund.

Harrison S. “Harry” Campbell is the president of Consumer Markets for Embarq Corporation. This NYSE-listed company has approximately 18,000 employees and operates in 18 states offering voice, data, high speed internet, wireless and entertainment services to over 5 million customers.

In his position, Campbell leads marketing, sales, and service of Embarq’s portfolio of communications and entertainment offerings to residential customers.  Offerings include: local and long distance service for the home phone, voice mail with call screening, high speed internet and PC support, satellite video, and wireless.  Embarq offers common sense innovations that include integration of home phone and wireless services and also a home phone that provides access to the internet.

Previously, Campbell was president of Sprint’s Emerging Business Solutions Division.  In that role, he was responsible for servicing business customers in the mid-market, small-market, SOHO and local government arenas.  Other senior management experience includes serving as president and CEO of uclick, a major digital syndication company that packaged and distributed branded comics and word games on the web, representing over 110 features such as Garfield, Dear Abby, FoxTrot and Doonesbury; and co-owner of two sports marketing agencies that achieved capitalized billings of $20M.  His early business experience was forged at Procter & Gamble as a brand manager.  

Campbell holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian History and Economics from Vanderbilt University
and a master’s degree of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from Indiana University’s Kelley Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Hagopian is responsible for driving V-ENABLE's sales, marketing, and customer support services; including product management and business development.

Craig has more than 20 years of high-tech sales and marketing leadership in the hardware and service sectors across the personal computer, wireless, and broadband Internet industries.  Prior to V-ENABLE, Mr. Hagopian was the Chief Marketing Officer of Axesstel, Inc., a worldwide manufacturer of wireless local loop terminals and modems.  Before Axesstel, Mr. Hagopian held management positions at Air2Lan, a U.S. regional provider of broadband Internet services, and from 1994-2001 he was the GM/VP and Sr. Director of the Consumer Products Channel for SkyTel Communications, a wireless data messaging service provider.  Craig began his career at EPSON America in the market development group where he was responsible for bringing new computing and imaging products to market. 

Craig received his BS in Finance from the University of Southern California and his MBA from Duke University.

Igor serves as CEO of a institutionally funded startup focused on mobile speech recognition. Most recently they were finalists in at TechCrunch’s 2007 event and were awarded North Carolina’s Early Stage Company of the Year.

As former Program Director of IBM’s multimodal and voice portal initiatives, he led a worldwide team focused on developing advanced speech technologies for IBM’s On Demand vision. They opposed Google’s Dr. Kai Fu Lee’s proprietary SALT approach (while he was at Microsoft) and worked hand-in-hand with Dr. TV Raman (now at Google Research) on XHTML+VoiceXML. Their responsibilities included extending speech to perform enterprise transactions, as well as enabling multimodality, a capability that allows users to intuitively access information through a variety of channels. Key customers included General Motors’ OnStar, Honda’s navigational systems, and Tellme Networks, with Japan’s ACCESS Systems, Motorola Research, and Norway’s Opera Software serving as their primary partners.

Additionally, he served as a business mentor for IBM’s Extreme Blue internship program and represented the Company on the board of directors for the VoiceXML Forum, an industry group driving an open standards-based vision of speech computing. He was that organization’s second Chairman.

Previously, Igor held positions with IBM’s Pervasive Computing, PartnerWorld, Global Industries, and Microelectronics divisions. With well over a dozen patents pending, he was named an industry luminary by the editors of Speech Technology magazine. He holds an undergraduate degree in computer engineering from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina.

SpeakSoft™ is introducing a new business model for telephone services: Voice Shopping™.  As Chairman of SpeakSoft, Reese brings 25 years of telecommunications innovation, business growth and strategy experience to this company’s expert team, a year in technology development.  SpeakSoft’s novel patents pending commerce approach to 411 potentially improves DA call revenue opportunities 10 fold.

Experienced in building national scale carrier grade Broadband Services Infrastructures for both CABLE operators (as founding Chairman of Convergence.com, which is now a division of ARRIS) and building Broadband Services Infrastructures for multinational TELCOs (as founding Chairman and CEO of Netopia which is now a division of Motorola in 2007), Jones understands the needs of carriers.

Reese holds several voice/data telecommunications patents including the 1985 inventing and commercialization of twisted pair networking (PhoneNET™ the predecessor to IEEE xBaseT), and in 1986 he led commercializing the first computer sound products and sound CODECs for both the Apple Macintosh and for Windows, including commercializing the first real time computer screen conferencing application (Timbuktu™ now part of Microsoft Windows Live Office).  An independent venture capitalist and LP in Accel, August, and TeleSoft, Reese serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards.  In 1982 he earned a BA in biophysics from UC Berkeley and in 1999 was appointed a Lester Fellow of Innovation and Entrepreneurship by the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley. 

Scott Jones has more than two decades of experience and achievement as a visionary in pioneering technologies. He is a veteran entrepreneur, inventor, strategist and venture capitalist. His well-seasoned perspective and pioneering instincts have allowed him to successfully found and build four technology starts-up that are changing the way we work and live. First, he developed the massively scalable voice mail system that is used by billions today. Then he carefully constructed the company now known as Gracenote, which supplies Internet-based music services to Apple, Yahoo, and Sony. He is also founder of Precise Path Robotics, which is currently developing an autonomous lawn mower, and is co-founder and current CEO of ChaCha, a game changing mobile answers service that fuses technology and human brainpower.  ChaCha allows people with any mobile phone device with SMS and voice capability to phone or text any question and receive an accurate answer as a text message in just a few minutes.

Scott graduated with honors in 1984 from Indiana University at Bloomington with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and spent two years as a research scientist at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory before founding his first technology company in 1986.  Scott has shared his insights about emerging technologies and other topics by keynoting at numerous industry events, such as Web Ventures (Dow Jones) Conferences, The 2008 Pelorus Group 411 Conference and TechSummit (2000 – 2007).  He has also been a lecturer and adjunct faculty member/speaker at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), National Academy of Sciences, Purdue University, and Indiana University.  He is a go-to authority of many leading business and technology publications and has been quoted or featured in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, CNN, Fortune Small Business, The San Jose Mercury News, and USA Today. 

As President - Verizon LiveSource and Public Communications, Katherine Linder is responsible for Verizon’s national Operator Services, Directory Assistance and Public Communications businesses as well as transaction services and out-of-franchise consumer segments. Kitty’s responsibilities include business development, strategic planning, marketing and product line management, and operations for a family of products including transaction services, directory and operator assistance, enhanced information services, database/listing services,  and public phone calling for retail and wholesale markets. With a body of 7,000 employees, the business unit is the #1 wireless 411 provider in the U.S. as well as the #1 Public service provider.

In the Telecommunications industry for over 30 years, Kitty has held various operations and headquarters assignments with Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, AT&T and New York Telephone prior to her current Verizon responsibilities.

At Verizon, Kitty is a champion for women’s development and women’s issues. As a member at large of the Board of Directors and executive sponsor of WAVE , the Women’s Association of Verizon Employees, she has been active in mentoring and coaching women, both within Verizon and in the broader community. She has participated in mentoring forums with diverse groups such as the Harvard Business School’s Women Enriching Business Forum, to Women Unlimited and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

In the community, Kitty is President of the Board of Trustees of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of NYC.  She is active with the Brooklyn Academy of Music as a member of the Board of Trustees as well as the Prospect Park Alliance.

Kitty has been recognized with several community awards including the Women’s Venture Fund - Highest Leaf Award, the USO’s Woman of the Year honor, and the Profiles in Diversity Journal’s – Women Worth Watching.

Upon his arrival at CBS Radio in February 2003, Richard rapidly began rethinking radio in new and innovative ways.  By always approaching clients with idea based solutions, he enabled integrated deals to come to life with energy and excitement.  From integrating AOL for Broadband and Monster.com into the “DNA” of all of CBS radio stations to creating digital “car dating” with Chrysler Dodge Jeep’s “Discover Your Ride” breakthrough platform, Richard always looks to push the boundaries and enable potential.  Almost 6 years later, the Altitude Group continues to experience meteoric growth by combining on-air assets with CBS Radio’s portfolio of new digital assets.  Now, as the world’s largest streaming radio company (with geo-targeting abilities in every zip code), the group leads the way both in the digital and on air landscape by connecting brands to consumers through an engaging range of various touch points.  What’s more, CBS Radio is now at the forefront of developing and launching tools for the ultimate in personal expression with “play.it.”

Additionally, Richard took his integrated marketing experience from CBS Radio, along with his agency days, and helped use it to create CBS RIOT; the local division seamlessly combining radio, internet, out of home and local TV in the top DMAs in ways never before imagined.  This group core’s core mission is to develop content opportunities that come to life in the local market across CBS media throughout the day; from the moment consumers wake up to when they shut off the light to sleep. 

Prior to joining CBS Radio, Richard served as SVP of Alliance Marketing and Business Development at Live Nation (formerly Clear Channel Entertainment).  He also worked closely with SFX founder, Robert F.X. Sillerman to roll up his more than 50-plus companies into a cohesive live entertainment company powerhouse, that was ultimately sold to Clear Channel.

Before going into media and entertainment, Richard served as SVP at Calvin Klein’s in-house agency CRK.  Prior to that, he worked in various account and senior management roles at Ogilvy on American Express, Seagram’s, International Paper and Pepperidge Farm and at DDB launching Amtrak’s Acela, driving tourists to Bermuda and enhancing chocolate consumption for Hershey’s. 

After graduating from the University of Colorado in the mid 80’s, Richard’s first job was at Grey on various General Foods and P&G brands.

Richard lives w/ his wife Susan, a lawyer, and his two kids Zack and Katie, in Brooklyn Heights.  On the weekends, you can find him chilling out in Woodstock, NY skiing in winter and riding his motorcycle or mountain bike around the countryside in warmer months

Armando’s career began in the 1970s in broadcast sales, which lead to account management and media buying for a general market boutique award-winning advertising agency. During his tenure Armando planned and bought all 214 Nielsen rated spot markets and cable for his clients through the country’s largest media service, Western Media (Initiative Media/IPG). He was Initiative’s youngest senior vice president and managing director.

At Franklin Covey (a global leadership training company) Armando was vice president/director general, based in Monterrey, Mexico, Puerto Rico and throughout Latin America having trained over 15,000 executives from multi-national companies in leadership, productivity and team building and opening retail locations throughout Mexico.

He’s enjoyed assignments at some of the most robust and active multicultural accounts in the industry as client and agency partner. As a senior vice president/general manager, Armando was responsible for Western Union’s Mexico Money Transfer division, a $2 billion business unit with over seven million annual transactions and 35,000-agent network in the U.S. and Mexico. Armando honed his skills while serving as consultant as well as EVP for Hispanic Initiatives at multicultural giant GlobalHue supervising all Hispanic programs.

As an innovator, Armando was co-founder of Alturas Communications, where the start up enterprise strengthened Kmart’s ethnic stores through branded publications. His brand management experience isn’t limited to just supervising a client’s brand; Armando is co-creator/co-owner of his own brand: an urban apparel line called Gear 7, which was distributed throughout the entire Kmart chain.

At SuperValu, Armando was responsible for all multicultural communication at the corporate level and divisional banners. As a partner at the retail communication’s shop—XL Edge Armando enjoys the freedom to help clients accelerate their multicultural franchises. He’s also a collaborator with Progressive Grocer magazine to further the awareness of the multi-billion dollar opportunity that the ethnic market represents in America.

Much of Armando’s inspiration has come from his own life experiences and a desire to share a belief of inclusiveness and mutual respect. Innovator, marketer, brand manager or general manager, Armando likes being known as friend and teacher.

As Executive Director – Verizon LiveSource Marketing, Tom Moran is responsible for Verizon’s national Operator Services, Directory Assistance and Publishing List product portfolio.  Tom’s responsibilities include business development, strategic planning, marketing, product development/management and contract negotiations for the Retail, Wireless, Competitive & Incumbent Local Exchange, Interexchange Carrier, and Independent Publisher markets. 

A graduate of the City College of New York School of Engineering, Tom has been in the Telecommunications industry for 27 years.  He has held various Network Engineering, Technology, and Marketing positions with Bell Atlantic, NYNEX and New York Telephone prior to his current Verizon responsibilities.

Tom and his wife Elinor live in Pearl River New York with their three sons Scott, Christophe,r & Gregory living near by.

Nick is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of CellWand, in addition to overseeing product development and spearheading all strategic alliances and wireless carrier relationships. Nick has tremendous experience in consumer-centric technology applications and development, and an impressive track record in sales and marketing.

Over the past three years, Nick has been a featured expert speaker at several international conferences, including at CTIA, CWTA, the Pelorus’ Mobile Local Search Conference,The Pierz Group’s DA Conference, Nuance’s V-World Conference, The Kelsey Group’s Directory Driven Commerce Conference and Canada’s Wireless Industry Congress. These appearances have been to discuss the next generation of wireless applications and CellWand’s focus on building services around consumer need and demand, rather than technology. Nick was a 2003 winner of coveted Forty under 40 Award by the Ottawa Business Journal and in 2005 and 2006 served as a judge for the same award. Nick is also a member of the Mobile Content Committee of the Canadian Wireless & Telecommunications Association (CWTA). In 1993, Nick graduated Cum Laude from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Commerce, Honours Degree in Marketing.

CellWand is North America’s leading provider of mobile search applications through abbreviated dialing codes. Utilizing location based technology, voice recognition and intelligent databases, these lifestyle applications give mobile phone users an easier way of connecting to businesses and information, while providing wireless carriers with increased Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

CellWand’s first application, #TAXI® (Pound Taxi) is available on virtually every mobile phone in Canada with Bell Mobility, Fido, Rogers, TELUS, Virgin Mobile, Aliant, MTS and SaskTel, and now in the U.S. with AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Alltel and Boost Mobile. CellWand is a privately held company founded in January 2000 with its headquarters in Toronto, Canada and was recently recognized by IDC as one of the 10 Canadian Wireless Companies to Watch in 2008. #TAXI is a proud corporate sponsor of MADD and MADD Canada as part of promoting an easy way to plan ahead and get home safely after drinking. For more information visit CellWand’s website at www.cellwand.com. 

Jim Sonnick’s introduction into the Directory & Operator Services market came when he joined Computer Consoles, Inc in 1984.  As an employee of both CCI and Nortel Networks Jim was responsible for the success of call center installations in North American and Europe. During these installations, his assignments included Project Management, New Product Introduction, and Program Management involving state-of-the-art client/server and database technology.  Jim was directly involved in the initial implementations of Directory Assistance Call Completion, automated Directory Assistance Store & Forward with listing automation, and deployments of Directory Assistance with connectivity to the digital switch.

Jim co-founded Soleo Communications in March 2002.  Since then he has held various senior executive positions in Operations, Sales, and Product Management that have helped Soleo grow revenue, employees, and customer base.  Jim is currently applying his diverse experience in leading Soleo’s efforts to assist Carriers and Directory Publishers in monetizing calls that have previously been seen only as a cost of doing business in the Operator Services environment.

Warren Wright, EVP of Business Development for Gold Mobile, has been a technology services veteran for more than 20 years.  Previous to joining Gold Mobile, Warren served as the COO for Resource Search Company (RSC), a privately held New York based boutique technology firm that provides technology consulting services to the financial services industry with clients that include UBS, Bank of NY, Fidelity, State Street Bank, First Data amongst others.

Warren also served as CEO at Direct Insite, a global provider of online transactional services, with clients that include IBM, EDS, United Technologies and ACS. Warren served as COO in charge of Operations and Finance at Mallnet Corporation, a media services company that delivers new media and customer loyalty strategies to shopping Malls. Prior to that, Warren served as Senior VP for King Products, a leading provider of electronic kiosks and software including the first interactive multi-language payphone, the first airline customer self service kiosk and the first use of touch-screen devices in public areas

  Updated September 11, 2008  

If Directory Information Services (DIS^SM) are important to your organization... if you’re looking for straight answers, then reserve your seat today.  Join The PELORUS Group and an audience of delegates from around the world for “DIS '08: The Vanguard Of Local Information Services^sm” event.  The cost is $1,595 per registration.   Additional discounts of $100 per person are available for team registrations of two or more individuals.  Most major credit cards are accepted.

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