Governing Board

With over 14 years of executive leadership at Verizon, Diaz has most recently gained the experience in leading network infrastructure planning and standards, and overseeing transformational technology initiatives. I have a strong background in engineering and technical leadership, with a masters degree from Stevens Institute of Technology.

His core competencies include technology and product development, deployment, and process engineering, as well as mobile content, customer relationship management, and go-to-market strategy. I have successfully delivered mobile applications and solutions that enhance customer experience and satisfaction, and support Verizon’s business goals and vision.

Ismael has over 15 years of experience in development and leadership of software defined radio projects for mobile communications systems (GSM, 3GPP UMTS and LTE), using heterogeneous platforms (Texas Instruments DSP, Xilinx FPGA, x86 and ARM). I was the lead developer of ALOE, an open-source framework for distributed and real-time execution of software-defined radio applications and is currently the lead developer of all LTE projects in SRS. Prior to founding SRS, I held research positions in Trinity College, Dublin and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, where I worked on the theoretical aspects of SDR processing, virtualization and resource sharing in Cloud-RAN and Massive Distributed MIMO.

poALA futurist, serial entrepreneur, and technology executive with more than 30 years of experience, he brings a strong engineering foundation and a forward-looking perspective on deep tech. His expertise spans artificial intelligence, cloud-native platforms, multimodal sensor fusion, and advanced wireless architectures. He is currently focused on the convergence of AI and next-generation connectivity, leading work in 6G research, AI-native RAN, and network digital twins powered by NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform. He also serves as a board member for ATIS and the AI-RAN Alliance, and chairs the AI-RAN Alliance Technical Steering Committee.

Over the course of his career, he has held leadership roles across a range of pioneering technology companies, including co-founding Altiostar and serving as VP of Product Management to help advance virtual RAN, founding BlueFusion to drive AI-based sensor fusion, and serving as SVP of AI and Analytics at Mavenir. Earlier, he held strategy and technology leadership roles at Cisco and Starent Networks, and began his career as a systems and standards engineer at Nortel and Motorola. He holds more than 100 patents and remains deeply engaged in frontier technologies including fusion energy, quantum computing, space exploration, and autonomous vehicles.

Mari Silbey is Chief Program Officer for the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) and has two decades of experience in the telecommunications industry. At NSC, she helps set organizational strategy, engages regularly with consortium members, and leads the development of programs – including technology working groups, the creation of new technology ecosystems, and the cross-pollination of NSC initiatives with other industry efforts to advance priorities laid out by NSC’s government partners. In addition to her position at NSC, she currently serves as Program Director for the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program created by the National Science Foundation. Previously, she served as Senior Director of Partnerships and Outreach at the non-profit US Ignite, and prior to 2018, she worked in the telecommunications industry for more than a decade as a journalist, editor, and analyst.

Mauro Goncalves Filho has more than 25 years in corporate innovation, business development, strategy and operations as an executive, advisor and investor in the Telecom, Media and Technology sector. Currently at SoftBank, he leads the Advanced Technologies Research team dedicated to business model innovation where AI meets mobile networks. Prior to joining SoftBank, Mauro was a Senior Director at Google X and served as Chief Strategy Officer for Project Loon, an Alphabet Other Bet. Previously, Mauro held management positions in Telefonica Vivo and Gradus Consultants in Latin America.

A builder, technopreneur, and ecosystem leader at the intersection of business and technology, she has built and scaled innovations that create new markets, center customer needs, and drive sustainable growth. Her career has spanned major industry shifts across software-defined networking, high-performance computing, edge cloud platforms, and AI, with a focus on turning breakthrough technologies into real business and ecosystem impact. Today, she is focused on advancing AI and emerging technologies to shape the next wave of growth and innovation.

She has held senior leadership roles at Intel, HPE, and Juniper Networks, including as CVP & GM in Intel’s Data Center & AI Group and Networking & Edge Group, where she led AI software strategy, open-source and standards-driven innovation, enterprise and hyperscaler partnerships, and initiatives spanning AI accelerators, edge AI, vRAN, O-RAN, DPDK, and IPUs. She also led the Open Edge Platform from concept through proof of concept, and at HPE helped drive landmark supercomputing programs including Frontier, the first exascale system. An engineer at heart, she is also a proud advocate for women in technology and sports, and has been recognized among the “Women Worth Watching in Technology.”

Founder and CEO of Software Radio Systems, provider of open software for mobile wireless networks. PhD in Telecommunications, specialising in Software Radio and Dynamic Spectrum Access.

With over 30 years in Software Engineering and 20 years in open source communities, my passion is bringing developers and companies together to leverage the significant strengths of open collaborative development while avoiding the pitfalls. These communities are often driven by competing forces of technical excellence, customer desire, and individual corporate agendas. When done right they create a rich set of digital assets that can be widely leveraged. When done wrong, it is often a waste of the participant’s time, effort, and resources. Mastering how to best navigate this new form of software development has been an overarching theme of my career.

Accomplished Business and Technical Leader with over 20 years of expertise in the information technology market. Recognized by industry awards from Washington Business Journal, AFCEA, SASE (Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers), and NVTC (Northern Virginia Technology Council). Experienced in various Federal Government sectors, including Intel, DOD, and Federal Civilian Agencies. Proficient in Federal acquisition regulations and Government procurement cycles. Skilled in developing packaging outcome solutions to enhance capability offerings. Highly valued for managing enterprise products and platform-managed services for the Federal Government. Proven track record in consultative and delivery services around technology and digital transformation. Entrepreneurial mindset focused on accelerated growth and financial performance. Expert in strategic planning design and implementation. Excels in delivering large-scale, high-impact programs and projects on time. Strong understanding of pricing models and creating enterprise license agreements to scale products for Federal and Commercial Markets. Demonstrated success in sales life cycles, critical business closings, and go-to-market strategies. Experienced in managing technical and development teams designing solutions, with clearance in the Intel Community and Department of Defense space.

Dr. Tom Rondeau is Principal Director for FutureG in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at the U.S. Department of Defense, where he guides research, funding, and program execution for future-generation wireless technologies that support national security and warfighting capabilities. Previously, he spent more than six years at DARPA as a program manager, leading efforts across advanced wireless networking, software-defined radio, edge and embedded processing, and computing on encrypted data. His work there earned him the Distinguished Public Service Medal.

Before joining DARPA, Dr. Rondeau led the GNU Radio project and advised organizations worldwide on wireless communications and emerging technologies, helping grow a strong global software radio community. He has also held research roles with the University of Pennsylvania and the IDA Center for Communications Research. Dr. Rondeau holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech, where his dissertation received the Council of Graduate Schools’ 2007 Outstanding Dissertation Award in math, science, and engineering.