Arnold E. Ness
P.Eng., M.B.A., CTO – America’s Next Generation Network Team

Arnold Ness works to expand IBM’s rapidly growing global ecosystem of partners (Network Equipment Partners [NEPs] and Independent Software Vendors [ISVs] too create and implement solutions with Service Providers across the America’s.

Arnie helps to create and communicate our Next Generation Network portfolio of solutions that leverage IBM’s Commercial of the Shelf [COTS] technology to implement innovative solutions driving new revenue streams or reducing the cost of providing existing services. His focus has been in the areas of creating new value added broadband services with an emphasis on communications, collaboration and wireless technologies.

He has over 23 years of experience in the computing and telecommunications industries in various technical and sales positions; a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta and a Masters in Digital Technology from Royal Roads University.

Prasad Kallur
Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Interphase Corporation

Prasad Kallur is the Vice President of Strategic Marketing for Interphase Corporation. Kallur is responsible for the company's global marketing organization which includes strategic marketing, product management and marketing, and marketing communications. Kallur is an experienced marketing and engineering leader who brings to Interphase more than 20 years of experience predominately focused in the software and telecommunications industries.

Prior to joining Interphase, Kallur was Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Continuous Computing Corporation, where he was responsible for building the marketing function into a disciplined planning and communications organization, and for establishing Continuous Computing's brand and image as a key supplier of building blocks for telecommunications infrastructure markets. Prior to his tenure with Continuous Computing, Kallur was Chief Strategy Officer for Intel Corporation's Trillium Digital Systems division, which entailed defining an innovative software/silicon strategy to deliver higher value-add building block solutions. As Chief Strategy Officer, he developed the cross-divisional strategy to enable penetration of components into high growth Multi-Service Switch (MSS), Media Gateway (MG), P-PBX and Broadband Access Platform products. Kallur held other key contributing roles during his tenure with Intel Corporation including Director of Product Management/Strategic Planning, Director of Engineering, and Engineering Manager starting his career at Intel as a Senior Software Engineer.

Kallur received a B.S. degree in Computer Science and Technology from Bangalore University's B.M.S. College of Engineering located in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India. He also completed Intel's Management Leadership Training Program. He's been quoted in numerous industry publications, and has been a frequent speaker at telecommunications and wireless conferences in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Vikram Mehta
President and CEO, Blade Network Technologies, Inc.

Vikram Mehta brings 18 years of global experience in the technology industry. He co-founded Nortel�s Blade Server Switch Business Unit (BSSBU) in 2002 and led the business unit from its inception through June 2005. In this role, Vikram was responsible for product management, research and development, sales, marketing, business development, and OEM support. He also spearheaded Nortel�s efforts to secure multi-year contracts to provide Ethernet, IP, and Application Switches to the world�s largest suppliers of blade server systems�IBM and HP. Under his leadership, BSSBU became one of Nortel�s fastest growing businesses.

In July 2005, Vikram joined Garnett & Helfrich Capital as CEO-in-Residence.

Vikram came to Nortel through its acquisition of Alteon Web Systems, the world�s leading provider of Web and application switches, in October 2000. At Alteon, he led the company�s strategic alliances and laid the foundation for what would later become BSSBU.

Prior to Alteon, he served as Vice President of Marketing at Ensim, a leading supplier of service enablement and automation software for hosted IP and application services.

Before Ensim, Vikram spent 12 years at HP in various leadership and executive positions across the company�s diverse operations in India, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, and the U.S. His last position at HP was General Manager, Enterprise Servers for the North America region. Vikram is an electrical engineer from the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, India.