LF Networking Governing Board

Vice President of Technology Strategy and Network Cloud, Verizon

Anil Guntupalli

VP of Cloud for Telecom and Distributed Cloud Edge, Google

Ankur Jain

AVP, Network Cloud and SDN Platform Integration, AT&T

Catherine Lefevre

Located in Belgium, she is responsible for the software delivery of the Rules-Based Process Automation Platform, the Service Provisioning Platform (Voice, Network/Service Elements, etc.), TDM Network, System Impact Analyzer (RAN OpEx Savings) and AT&T SDN Platform (Application Controller, Policy Framework, Control Loop Automation Platform, Service Design & Creation, Master Service Orchestrator, Portal, Multi-Site State Coordinator Service, Virtual Infrastructure Deployment). She is also focusing on transforming BSS/OSS systems to Microservice Architecture and achieving data powered control loop automation. She leads AT&T Network Common Platform & Services Target State Architecture and drives ONAP/O-RAN (vRAN) SMO strategic alignment.

Catherine received a master’s degree in computer science as well as a qualified teaching degree in computer science in 1996 from the University Of Namur (FUNDP).

She joined AT&T in 2013. During her time with AT&T, she focused on software development best practices and early prototypes and proof of concepts of AT&T’s SDN technology, accelerating AT&T’s ability to move from concept to scaled production development, integrating the DevOps Culture for increased collaboration between the development and operations teams. In 2017, she co-led with AT&T Labs the open sourcing of the ECOMP Platform. She received several awards for her technical depth that provided a unique and significant contribution to AT&T (AT&T Science and Technology Medal; Technology Development President Award in 2016 and 2017).

Catherine is part of AT&T’s EMEA Women’s Network, mentoring young women about careers in STEM.

She is an avid horse rider and photography enthusiast.

Chief Architect, Strategy & Programs, Ericsson

Christian Olrog

Open Source Director of Cloudify Network, Huawei

Chuanyu Chen

Chuanyu Chen serves as the Open Source Director of Cloudify Network of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, responsible for the Huawei open source solutions for network automation. Chuanyu Chen graduated from University of Science and Technology Beijing 2006. He joined Huawei in 2008, and served as Development Engineer, Project Leader of Data Communication area, Solution Architect and has rich experience in ICT network infrastructure. From 2016 until now, he has joined open source business, deeply participating in open source projects such as OPEN-O, ONAP, Anuket, CAMARA etc.

Distinguished Engineer in the Chief Technology and Architecture Office, Cisco

Frank Brockners

Frank is Distinguished Engineer in Cisco’s Chief Technology and Architecture Office, driving software and architecture development for software defined devices and associated telemetry processing solutions – with a strong focus on open source. He is involved in several projects that reside under the roof of Linux Foundation networking, including ONAP, OPNFV, OpenDaylight, FD.io, and PNDA. He is also very active in the IETF – integrating standards development and open source code development as part of the in-situ OAM effort. Frank holds a diploma degree in Electrical Engineering (Aachen University) and a PhD/Dr degree in Information Science (University of Cologne).

AVP - Unit Technology Officer
Infosys

Gnanapriya Chidam-baranathan

Gnanapriya (Priya) Chidambaranathan is Associate Vice President, Unit Technology Officer, Global Head of Technology & Architecture Practice – Communications, Media & Entertainment, Energy, Utilities & Services Business Unit (ECS).

Priya has 29+ years of experience in Telecom & IT. She contributes to unit strategy, drives technology adoption for business solutions across varied programs globally.

She has been driving Digital Transformation, Enterprise Architecture, IT roadmap, Micro Services, Cloud migration, Open Source Adoption, 5G / Edge, 5G Use Cases & Industry solutions, emerging technologies themes like Blockchain solutions, Software Marketplaces, Data Modernization, Legacy & Technology Modernization, Innovation, guiding varied transformation & modernization programs for ECS global clients and part of org level core team.

She recently received ‘Women Icons Asia Technology Award 2022’ by Women Icons Network, Singapore, ‘Top 10 Women Tech Leaders India Award 2022’ by REVA University, RACE & Terra Logic. Previously received ‘Outstanding Achievement’ Award under Disruptor category of “Global Women in Telco & Tech” Awards for 2020 by Capacity Media

Under her guidance & drive, Infosys has won 14 Outstanding Catalyst Team Awards in TM Forum, she  received Individual Recognition Award @ Industry TM Forum, serving as TMF Collaboration Sub-committee member. She had contributed to TMForum OpenAPIs, ODA, Software Marketplace, Edge, 5G, technology reports, reference architectures. She is a speaker in multiple Industry and Technology Forums. She received ‘Best Technical Presentation’ award in SPE. She is a Senior IEEE member, IEEE ComSoc member, Execom member of Bangalore Chapter, IEEE WIE member, Fellow IETE. She has co-authored book on Digital Signal Processing I, II editions published by McGraw Hill, International edition and translated to Mandarin.

Senior Vice President, Global Tech Platforms and Country Head, Walmart Global Tech

Hari Vasudev

As Senior Vice President of Global Tech Platforms and Country Head, Walmart Global Tech, Hari oversees the building and deployment of scalable, leverageable capabilities and systems across the enterprise and externally. With a strong focus on scaling organizational efficiency by enhancing technology, Hari is spearheading teams of highly talented associates across the globe.

Under Hari’s leadership, associates are innovating to create a seamless, omnichannel shopping experience for Walmart’s customers. His hands-on approach and vision for the ‘Future of Retail’ has been instrumental in nurturing a high-performance team. He is also an advocate of a very diverse and inclusive workplace and has undertaken many initiatives to ensure our associates feel empowered to bring their whole, true selves to work every day. Along with Cheryl Ainoa, Hari is the executive co-sponsor for the Walmart Women in Technology charter.

Hari’s previous experience with Yahoo! and Flipkart is testimony to his ability to lead large technology organizations. He shaped the strategy for a supply chain ecosystem at scale during his tenure with Flipkart and built the technology stack for Ekart. At Yahoo! he played a key role in the substantial growth of the center whilst working on a range of end-to-end consumer and platform products.

He has received three patents for – ‘Method & Apparatus for configuring a camera through external means’, ‘Intelligent camera flash system’ and ‘System method and apparatus for portable digital identity’.

Hari holds an M.S. (Computer Science) from Iowa State University and has an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

CTO, Telus

Ibrahim Gideon

As Chief Technology Officer for TELUS, a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, he is responsible for all technology development and strategy, security, service and network architecture, service delivery and operational support systems, as well as service and network convergence, and network infrastructure strategies and evolution. Under his leadership the TELUS wireless broadband network has become one of the best in the world.

Ibrahim serves on the board of the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions and the Institute for Communication Technology Management. In addition to his industry leadership roles, he has been awarded with IEEE Communications Society’s prestigious Distinguished Industry Leader Award and elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) for his significant contributions to the field of engineering. Ibrahim has also been named one of the 100 most powerful and influential people in the telecoms industry in Global Telecoms Business magazine’s GTB Power 100.

Ibrahim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the American University of Beirut, a Master’s in Electronics Engineering from Carleton University and an Honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of British Columbia and is passionate about supporting engaged, high-performing teams.

Chief Engineer of Emerging Technology, ZTE

Jie Hu

Jie Hu is Chief Engineer of Emerging Technology in Standard Strategy Team. He is responsible for planning and managing on open source contributions of ZTE System Product.

Treasurer and Head of Software Industry Initiatives, Nokia

Jonne Soininen

Jonne Soininen is Head of Software Industry Initiatives at Nokia in Helsinki. Prior to Nokia, he worked in different positions with Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Renesas Mobile, and Broadcom and has an extensive history in telecommunications ranging over 15 years.

Jonne has a Master of Science in computer science from the University of Helsinki. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the Aalto University in Finland.

Within the technical community, Jonne has been active in organizations such as 3rd Generation partnership project (3GPP), the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). In the IETF, Jonne has served as the Co-chair of IPv6 Operations (v6ops) and the Network-based Localized Mobility Management (netlmm) Working Groups, and as a member and the chair of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC). He has also served as the Vice-chair for the ISOC Advisory Council. Locally in Finland, Jonne has been active in the Finnish Internet Forum (FIF) – the Internet Governance Forum in Finland and as a member of the board of the local ISOC chapter.

Jonne has served on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board as the Technical Liaison Group (TLG) liaison in 2010 and since 2013 he is serving as the IETF liaison to the same board.

Chair and General Manager of AI and Intelligent Operation R&D Center, China Mobile

Junlan Feng

Dr. Junlan Feng, Chief Scientist at China Mobile, General Manager of AI and Intelligent Operation R&D Center. Dr. Feng has led R&D of China Mobile on artificial intelligence and big data since September 2013. She had been the architect of IBM Big Data from January 2013.1 to August 2013 and a principal researcher at AT&T Labs Research from August 2001 to January 2013. Dr. Feng received her Ph.D. on Speech Recognition in 2001 from Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is an IEEE senior member, an IEEE speech and language committee member and IEEE industry committee member. She is a reviewer for major data mining, speech, and natural language international conferences and journals. She has chaired and organized multiple conferences in these fields. Dr. Feng has over 50 professional publications and has been granted 33 U.S and international patents.

Sr Principal Community Architect, Red Hat

Lisa Caywood

Lisa Caywood is a Senior Principal Community Architect at Red Hat, focusing on projects and communities of interest to the telco and manufacturing industries. In addition to the LFN Governing Board, she serves as the Red Hat representative on the LF Edge Board and as Vice Chair of the eBPF Foundation. She has a long history with Linux Foundation networking and telco communities, starting with OpenDaylight while with a founding member company, and later serving as Marketing Director for LF Networking and LF Edge while at the Linux Foundation itself.

CTO, Tech Mahindra

Manish Mangal

As the Chief Technology Officer, Manish is driving Tech Mahindra’s network services strategy, solutions portfolio and strategic alliances & partnerships. In his role, he has a unique opportunity to work with CXOs customers and play a key role in shaping the “Networks of the Future” that will be Software-defined, Cloud & AI/ML-enabled, and Highly Automated. He is passionate about 5G and the pervasive impacts it will have on society.

Manish has been associated with the Telecommunications industry for 23 years and worked with global Tier-I operators and OEMs such as Reliance Jio, Sprint, and Alcatel-Lucent (now Nokia). During most of his career, he championed corporate-wide large-scale complex technology initiatives from ideation to deployment. Prior to joining Tech Mahindra, Manish worked with Reliance Jio as a Senior Vice President of Network Development & Engineering and the President of Reliance Jio USA, where he played a key role in designing and deployment of world’s largest mobile network.

He is also an inventor of 60 patents and hold MS in Electrical Engineering degree.

LAF TAC Chair, Nokia

Olaf Renner

Olaf Renner works at Nokia as part of their Open Source Program Office (OSPO). He has been in the telecommunications industry for 16 years in various roles in research, standardization and 6 years in open source.

His involvement in open source started in OPNFV and OpenStack focusing on virtual networking and later SDN with Opendaylight to its current evolution in LFN. Besides LFN, Olaf follows container networking related projects in CNCF and supply chain security in OpenSSF.

Silver Member Rep and Co-Founder, Kubermatic

Sebastian Scheele

Sebastian Scheele is co-founder of Kubermatic, a start-up with 60 employees that is the #7 committer to Kubernetes and that is focused on developing open core software solutions for automating Kubernetes operations at scale. Sebastian, a developer himself, has his finger on the pulse of where the Kubernetes landscape is going and is contributing many of his team’s resources to upstream K8s development. As one of the early pioneers in the cloud native ecosystem since 2016, he has helped dozens of telecoms and hundreds of enterprises embrace Kubernetes to solve cutting edge challenges in both cloud and edge computing.

Head of OSS Architecture & Innovation, Deutsche Telekom

Sebastian Zechlin

Sebastian Zechlin is Head of OSS Architecture & Innovation at Deutsche Telekom. He is based in Bonn, Germany.

After graduating in Computer Science from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Sebastian has worked in the telecommunications industry for 15 years. At Deutsche Telekom, Sebastian has held several designer and architect roles in technical implementation projects ranging from access to voice via IMS. Most recently, he was senior architect for Operations Support Systems within the Technology Innovation department. Since 2018 Sebastian leads the OSS Architecture & Innovation department with a focus on Orchestration and SDN / NFV management. Sebastian has been actively involved in international standardization activities at ETSI, 3GPP and IETF.

China Telecom

Sun Qiong

Sun Qiong has been engaged in IP network technology research, IP network planning and network-related product development of China Telecom for 10 years. She is the author of several IPv6 transition-related RFCs and leads new operation system architecture design for CTNet2025 at China Telecom.

Committer Representative to the Governing Board
Anuket Community

Walter Kozlowski

Walter Kozlowski is the Principal Cloud Architect at Telstra working on their transformation to a containerized, programmable, software-controlled, telco cloud environment. Besides several IT and telco related roles at Telstra, He has also worked for IBM and HP Global Practice. He has a long, active experience in various industry organizations including TMF, ToG, LFN, and GSMA.

Walter’s involvement with LFN began in 2019 as a member of GSMA’s Cloud iNfrastructure Telco Taskforce (CNTT), which eventually merged with LFN’s OPNFV Project to form Anuket. He has served in the combined roles of CNTT/Anuket GitHub committer of many PRs, reviews, and approvals, with the lead roles as Anuket’s Project representative to the LFN TAC and on Anuket’s TSC. Currently he is focused on the Anuket Cloud Infrastructure Reference Model stream of activities.

Walter has a Ph.D. in Mathematics & Information Science and was a Fulbright Scholar at California Institute of Technology. Since 2009, he is certified as The Open Group Distinguished IT Architect and a member of the ToG Certification Board.