The Future of Data-Driven Transformation in Telecoms

Senior Vice President and Head of Enterprise and AI Research
CCS Insight

Nick has over 18 years’ experience in enterprise technology and telecom advisory services, most recently as managing director of the Global Enterprise Mobility Alliance. Nick leads CCS Insight's Enterprise and Artificial Intelligence Research Practices focusing on cloud and edge computing, machine learning, software development and digital workplace strategies. Frequently quoted by the BBC, CNBC and Reuters, he is a regular speaker at leading industry events and has been named among the top global technology analysts of the year by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR) in both 2019 and 2020. He has also been listed among the top social media influencers in artificial intelligence.

Senior Manager, Innovative Product Development & Incubation
Lumen

Charles Stallings is a leader of our Innovative Product Development team with a focus on innovation, design thinking, managed solutions, core & hybrid networking, analytics, and IoT trends that align with key strategic business goals. Charles has worked in the technology industry for over 25 years. Throughout his career he has held many managerial and engineering positions; such as COO, IT Vice President, Engineering Program Director, and Technical Advisor to CIO of the US Missile Defense Agency.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the US Air Force Academy, Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from Colorado State University and a Master of Science degree in Mathematics from Valdosta State College. During his time with CenturyLink, Charles has been a principal architect of the Data Access on Demand (DAoD) a high performance geographically diverse data access service; as well as, a Location-based Analytics (LBA) solution deployed for hospitality, retail, healthcare, education, sports, media and entertainment venues.

Chief Executive Officer
Edge Gravity

Kyle Okamoto is the Chief Executive Officer of Edge Gravity, a global Edge Cloud Platform that supports the use cases of tomorrow through innovative edge computing solutions working closely with the network service provider and application owner ecosystem.

Kyle was previously the Chief Network Officer of Verizon Media and a founding member of Verizon Digital Media Services, overseeing a data center footprint in over 60 countries, a global content delivery network and a hybrid-cloud supporting video workflows, advertising and consumer applications. Kyle has worked in various executive capacities for over 19 years in Product, Marketing, Business Development, Operations and Engineering.

Kyle has also founded and exited several start-ups in the social enterprise and digital media space. Kyle is on several boards for technology companies and non-profit boards on both coasts; he is also an angel investor and advisor in the venture capital and private equity spaces.

Kyle has a BE from Stevens Institute of Technology and an MBA from New York University and is currently based in New York with his wife and daughter.

Global Telecom, Media, and Technology Strategist
Splunk, Inc

Matt Olson is Global Strategist for Telecom, Media and Technology at Splunk. Matt’s passion is the application of data analytics to drive value in the Communications and Media domains. Matt has more than two decades of experience leveraging data analytics, in various capacities, developing and supporting a wide variety of network-delivered services. Matt holds an MS in computer science from George Mason University and a BS from UC Berkeley.