WES Keynote Speakers

LOVE working together.

Each year during the WES General Sessions, some of the most prominent leaders in mobility take the stage to explore the collaboration between BlackBerry®, our best partners, loyal users and most passionate enthusiasts.

Mike Lazaridis

President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of RIM

Mike Lazaridis

Mr. Lazaridis is known in the global wireless community as a visionary, innovator, and engineer of extraordinary talent. He traces his passion for his work to his hometown of Windsor, Ontario where his love of science and fascination with electronics were nurtured in supportive family and school environments.

As President and Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIM), a company Mr. Lazaridis founded while a student at the University of Waterloo, he is responsible for product strategy, research and development, product development, and manufacturing. Mr. Lazaridis is also a leader in his community and a passionate advocate for education and scientific research. Mr. Lazaridis supports his community and country through generous philanthropic gifts made possible by his success in business.

Read Mike Lazaridis' complete bio.

Jeff McDowell

Senior Vice President, Business Marketing & Alliances, RIM

Jeff McDowell

As Senior Vice President, Business Marketing and Alliances, at RIM, Jeff McDowell is responsible for the global growth of both Enterprise business activity and the Alliance relationships that build value on top of the BlackBerry Platform. In his role, Jeff sets segment and vertical marketing strategies globally, as well as strengthens the relationships between RIM and its multitude of partners around sales, marketing and channel expansion programs.

Read Jeff McDowell's complete bio.

Robin Purohit

Vice President, General Manager, Software Products, Hewlett-Packard Company

Robin Purohit

Robin Purohit is vice president and general manager of the Software Products business unit in HP Software & Solutions. He joined HP as part of the Mercury acquisition as Mercury's vice president of application management products. He has more than 15 years of product marketing experience. Prior to Mercury, Mr. Purohit was vice president of product management and strategy for Veritas Software. Previously he held marketing and technical positions at 3COM, HP, Northern Telecom, and several startups.

Read Robin Purohit's complete bio.

James Cook

President, Business Solutions and Services, CSC

James Cook

Mr. Cook is President of CSC's Business Solutions and Services sector, with responsibility for the company's five commercial industry verticals and worldwide consulting business. Mr. Cook has served CSC clients for more than a dozen years as a Partner of CSC Index, President of the Pinnacle Alliance, and as President of the Financial Services Sector.

Read James Cook's complete bio.

Ted Farrell

Chief Architect for Tools and Middleware, Oracle

Ted Farrell

Ted Farrell is chief architect for Tools and Middleware at Oracle. Mr. Farrell is responsible for the technical and strategic direction of Oracle's frameworks and development tools products, including Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF), Oracle Metadata Services (MDS) and Oracle WebCenter Framework. He is also responsible for the architecture of Oracle Fusion Applications, the next generation of packaged applications built on the Oracle Fusion Middleware platform.

Read Ted Farrell's complete bio.

Alan Panezic

Vice President, Platform Product Management, RIM

Host of the 2010 Wireless Leadership Awards

Alan Panezic

Alan joined RIM as a BlackBerry Solutions Architect in May of 2000. In the intervening time he has held several of positions in various of parts of RIM’s business. Alan is currently responsible for leading RIM’s Platform Product Management portfolio covering solutions, services, software and support for the Consumer, Enterprise, SMB & Developer markets.

Read Alan Panezic's complete bio.

Alistair Rennie

General Manager, Lotus Software and WebSphere Portal IBM Software Group

Alistair Rennie

Alistair Rennie is General Manager, Lotus Software and WebSphere Portal, IBM Software Group. Mr. Rennie was appointed to this position in January, 2010. As general manager, Mr. Rennie has oversight for an extensive portfolio of collaboration tools designed to empower people to be more effective, responsive and innovative within the context of the work they do. This portfolio includes Lotus Software, software that enables businesses to communicate, collaborate and increase productivity, and WebSphere Portal, software that enables organizations to design their Web experience with personalized applications. He is a member of the IBM Integration and Values team, a select group of executives who provide leadership across IBM on various business and strategic issues. Mr. Rennie is also IBM Senior State Executive for Massachusetts, providing leadership for IBM in the community statewide.

Read Alistair Rennie's complete bio.

Laurent Philonenko

Vice President and General Manager, Unified Communications Business Unit, Cisco

Laurent Philonenko

Laurent Philonenko is vice president and general manager of the Cisco Unified Communications business unit, which provides messaging, conferencing and desktop and phone client solutions including video and mobility.

Read Laurent Philonenko's complete bio.

Panel Discussion – Next Generation Users

BlackBerry Pearl 3G


The next generation are passionate, tech-savvy mobile users who will demand smartphone solutions that provide always-on, real-time connectivity in both their work and personal lives.

Join us as we close out the WES 2010 keynote sessions with a special panel discussion, featuring some of the most dynamic and knowledgeable experts in new media today...as we look toward tomorrow.

Moderator:

Paul Kalbfleisch

Vice President, Brand Creativity, RIM

Paul Kalbfleisch

Paul Kalbfleisch is Vice President of Brand Creativity at Research In Motion. Over the past 8 years Paul has been one of the key drivers of the BlackBerry brand and has developed numerous programs to successfully inject the brand into our culture. From inspiring "Love What You Do" TV spots to uniquely blended off and online programs with the Black Eyed Peas and U2, Paul has passionately applied his insights and creativity to make BlackBerry one of the top brands in the world.

In his current role, he focuses on ensuring the brand message is seamlessly weaved through all delivery mediums.

Read Paul Kalbfleisch's complete bio.

Special guest speakers include:

will.i.am

Futurist

will.i.am

will.i.am is best known to many as the front man and producer of the multi-platinum award-winning group THE BLACK EYED PEAS. He has established himself as one of the top music producers in the industry, collaborating on tracks with U2, Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Kelis, Nas, the Game, Sergio Mendes, Carlos Santana, the Pussycat Dolls, Busta Rhymes, and fellow Black Eyed Pea, Fergie. His songs have for years inspired millions, and the power of his words was never more prevalent than in the past few years as will's song "Yes We Can" mobilized and entire generation to action during the 2008 presidential Campaign.

Read will.i.am's complete bio.

Ben Silverman

Founder & CEO, Electus

Ben Silverman

Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning producer Ben Silverman announced a partnership with IAC, led by media mogul Barry Diller, in July 2009 to launch a new company, Electus, which will capitalize on the ever-evolving world of multimedia production and distribution. With Silverman as founder and CEO, Electus will unite producers, creators, advertisers and distributors under one roof and produce all forms of content for distribution across a variety of platforms around the world.

Silverman is executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning NBC comedy "The Office" and the Golden Globe-winning comedy "Ugly Betty," is co-creator and executive producer of hit reality show "The Biggest Loser" for NBC as well as an executive producer and co-creator of the critically acclaimed "The Tudors" for Showtime.

Read Ben Silverman's complete bio.

Steven Berlin Johnson

Author, The Invention of Air. Creator, outside.in.

Steven Johnson

Steven Johnson is the best-selling author of six books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience. His writings have influenced everything from the way political campaigns use the Internet, to cutting-edge ideas in urban planning, to the battle against 21st-century terrorism.

Steven's most recent book The Invention of Air tells the story of Joseph Priestly, the Founding Fathers, and how innovative ideas emerge and spread in society and drive historical change. Like his award-winning previous book, The Ghost Map, The Invention of Air uses a surprising historical and biographical narrative to discuss ideas that have profoundly shaped our modern world.

Steven has also co-created three influential web sites: the pioneering online magazine FEED, the Webby-Award-winning community site, Plastic.com, and most recently the hyperlocal media site outside.in.

Read Steven Berlin Johnson's complete bio.

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