Speech-World Conference, Keynotes

Vickie McGovern
Director, Product & Technology Marketing, IP Communications
Cisco Systems, Inc.

Vickie McGovern is the director of marketing for IP Communications at Cisco Systems. She is a sought after industry speaker and author. Ms. McGovern's current responsibilities include product marketing, positioning, collateral development, and market development for the applications portfolios within the Voice Technology Group at Cisco.

Prior to joining Cisco Systems, Inc., Ms. McGovern led the voice and applications marketing efforts at Nortel Networks. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the industry and has held numerous leadership roles throughout her career including sales engineering, product management, professional services, and business support. Ms. McGovern attended George Mason University in Northern Virginia.

Mike manages Aculab’s product portfolio, from the positioning of new products, taking customer feedback, through to overseeing the lifecycle process. He manages the link between customers and Aculab’s engineering teams, directs Aculab’s product roadmap, and supports the company’s global sales force.

Mike has 25 years of telecommunications experience and joined Aculab in 1998. Previously Mike worked for 3Com Europe, Mitel and Plessey-GPT in a number of design and commercial positions. He has had several roles in telecommunications industrial consortia responsible for ensuring equipment interoperability. With a keen interest in technology, Mike was an early ‘ convergence activist’ promoting the point that IP transport and TDM infrastructure will provide great opportunity to blend the best engineering practices into user friendly solutions.

Mr. Ford began his career with Inter-Tel in 1983, while still in his senior year at Arizona State University. After graduating in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Systems Engineering, Mr. Ford worked as a software engineer and was on the development team of the GX-120, ESP, and ESPDX. From 1989 through 1996, he led the software development of Inter-Tel's flagship Axxess and Eclipse product lines, and beginning in 1996, Mr. Ford led Inter-Tel's entry into convergent technology with patented VoIP technology.

Mr. Ford’s work progressed through engineering management and, in 1997 he was named Chief Technology Officer. In 1998, he was additionally named president of Inter-Tel Integrated Systems, Inter-Tel’s development, production and wholesale distribution arm. In addition to his engineering degree, Mr. Ford holds an SEP certificate from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Throughout his career, Peter Monaco has been a technology innovator and a company leader. He is a founder of Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN), the company that established itself as a speech expert for companies and telecommunications carriers worldwide. During his nine years with Nuance, Mr. Monaco held numerous leadership roles that ultimately led to Vice President of Application Engineering. He started as Principle Product Engineer at the company’s launch, which involved hiring the first engineering team and leading the development and release of the company’s flagship product. He continued to manage the design and development of five new releases of the company’s core speech recognition system. He went on to become Nuance’s Chief Software Architect and then become vice president of application engineering and developed a suite of packaged solutions. Prior to launching Nuance, Mr. Monaco was a research engineer with SRI International, the company most recognized for inventing the modem, the computer mouse and helping to launch the Internet. He holds three patents associated with voice processing and speech recognition. Mr. Monaco has a BA from Dartmouth College and a Masters degree from Cambridge University.

Bruce Eidsvik
Vice President
Worldwide Sales

Bruce Eidsvik, Vice President of International & Telco Sales, has been instrumental in the creation and growth of VoiceGenie Technologies since its creation in 2000. Bruce is a pioneer in the VoiceXML marketspace, having worked with AT&T since 1996 in the development of the original VoiceXML phoneweb product. Bruce was also instrumental in securing VoiceGenie’s early lead in the marketplace and devising the focused product strategy that has led to early profitability for the company. Prior to VoiceGenie, Bruce worked for several years as VP of Sales and Marketing for Array and as Director of Engineering and Director of Business Development for Sparton of Canada. He received his BSc. with Honours in Engineering Physics in 1985.

Thursday, May 25 - 10:40am

Peter S. Mahoney

Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, SpeechWorks Division

ScanSoft, Inc.

Peter is responsible for worldwide marketing strategy, customer programs, external communications and industry marketing. Prior to joining ScanSoft, Peter was vice president of marketing and product management at Performaworks, a leading supplier of goal-driven performance management software. Peter has held executive positions in marketing, product management, sales and business development with leaders in CRM, telecommunications, and enterprise software including IBM, PictureTel, Engage and ATG. Peter holds degrees in Physics and Computer Science from Boston College.