About the Forum: BIOS

Chairman and President
Mr. Andrew G. Malis

Andrew G. Malis holds the position of Director, Packet Network Architecture at Verizon Communications. He has been active in wide-area data networking and telecommunications for over 30 years, beginning with the ARPANET, the foundation of today's Internet. He has also held senior engineering positions at Bolt, Beranek, and Newman; Ascom Nexion; Cascade Communications; Ascend Communications; Lucent Technologies; Vivace Networks; and Tellabs. His current responsibilities include Verizon's packet network architecture and evolution, standards participation, and vendor consultation.

He is also President and Chairman of the Board of the MFA Forum, served as the MPLS Forum's founding Technical Committee Chair, has chaired a number of working groups in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the ATM Forum, and is a veteran participant and award recipient in other standards bodies and industry consortia. He has written, edited, and otherwise contributed to many standards documents in these organizations, including 27 IETF RFCs. He has also chaired and spoken at numerous industry conferences and events. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Brown University, and his Master of Science degree, also in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, at Harvard University.

Vice Chairman
Mr. David Sinicrope

David A. Sinicrope is currently a Senior Product Manager at Redback Networks working in Raleigh, North Carolina.  His current focus is standardization and strategic product management in the areas of IP, MPLS, PWE3 and Carrier Ethernet and their use in current and evolving networks.  His career includes 20 years of data and telecommunications experience in standardization, product management, architecture and system design, product marketing, sales engineering and software engineering.

In addition to being Vice Chairman of the IP/MPLS Forum Board, he is also Chair of the Deployment Working Group, a post held since 2002.  Mr. Sinicrope was presented with an MFA Forum Special Recognition Award in 2005 for his contributions to MPLS, ATM and Frame Relay technology.  He was an editor and key contributor to the Frame Relay Forum and was presented with a Special Recognition Award in 1998 for his contributions in the advancement of the Frame Relay technology. 

Prior to Redback Networks, Mr. Sinicrope was with Ericsson IP Infrastructure Inc. (formerly Torrent Networks) as a System Manager. His responsibilities included systems design and architecture, for Ericsson's routing products as well as application solution design.  Before joining Ericsson, he was with Virata Inc. as the Product Manager - Protocol Software.  Mr. Sinicrope was also a Principal Engineer at Lucent Technologies/Ascend/Cascade Communications where his focus was on ATM and Frame Relay core switching architecture and development.  From 1988, he was with IBM Networking Systems where he was responsible for ATM, Frame Relay and ISDN architecture and development for IBM's SNA and routing products.

Mr. Sinicrope holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University.

Secretary
Mr. Ed Sierecki

Ed Sierecki is a Lead Member of Technical Staff with AT&T Laboratories responsible for Layer 2 network design.  Ed has over 35 years of Telecommunications Industry experience including development with the “old” AT&T Bell Laboratories, enterprise network management with Eastern Airlines and Bank of America, and service provider network architecture with the “new” AT&T and its predecessor companies SBC and Pacific Telesis.

Ed holds a Master of Science degree in Systems Analysis and Design from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Michigan State University.

Vice President - International Development
Mr. Nikhil B. Shah

Mr. Nikhil B. Shah is responsible for developing wireless and convergence solutions, portfolio strategies, and supporting partnership initiatives at Juniper Networks. He serves on the MFA Forum Board of Directors, where he is also a VP of International Development. Mr. Shah has over thirteen years of telecom industry experience, including product management, technical sales/marketing, alliance management, standards, professional services, and software engineering. His current focus includes positioning Juniper and partners’ portfolios in QoS aware multi-service packet transport, mobile RAN backhaul, backbone, and IMS-FMC networks.

Mr. Shah’s prior experience includes eight years at Alcatel-Lucent, where he was closely engaged with developing partnerships and integrated solutions with Juniper, Riverstone, and other data vendors. Prior to Lucent, he worked with Zeitnet (acquired by Cabletron) in ATM switching and network management, Tata Consultancy Services, and ISRO, India.  He has frequently spoken at various industry conferences/events and has contributed to various standards development projects.  Mr. Shah received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Science from Gujarat/Mumbai universities in India and he holds a diploma in Business Management from Mumbai. He has also completed the Greater Boston Executive Program through the MIT Sloan School of management in Cambridge, MA.

Vice President - Marketing
Mr. Sultan Dawood

Sultan Dawood is a Sr. Marketing Manager at Cisco Systems focused on IP/MPLS and Packet Transport technologies and solutions. Sultan has accumulated over 15 years experience in the telecom and data networking industry and has held various senior level positions in product management, product marketing, engineering and business development. Prior to Cisco Systems, Sultan held various senior positions at Hammerhead Systems, Motorola, 3COM, ADC Telecommunications and Litton Systems. Sultan has worked very closely with service providers and enterprise customers helping them build their network infrastructures while introducing new technologies to them. Sultan has worked with various Layer 2/3 technologies like ATM, Frame Relay, Ethernet and IP/MPLS. Sultan earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Marketing Committee Chair
Mr. David Parks

Dave Parks is a Product Marketing Director for Ciena’s Packet Products Portfolio. This includes marketing their carrier Ethernet switching and packet optical networking solutions. Dave is also the Marketing Committee Chairman for the IP/MPLS Forum.

Prior to Ciena, Dave was a senior analyst with the Yankee Group, a leading telecommunications industry research and consulting firm. At the Yankee Group his responsibilities included the execution of research, consulting, and strategic planning for emerging network services and market trends including IP/MPLS VPNs and Carrier Ethernet.

Before joining the Yankee Group, Dave was with optical networking start up Seneca Networks as the senior product manager for their flagship metro core product line where he defined feature requirements for SONET/SDH, Gigabit Ethernet, and DWDM. Prior to Seneca, Dave held product management positions with Lucent Technologies/Ascend/Cascade Communications where he supported industry-leading multiservice access, edge, and core data networking products.

Dave earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern University.

Certification Working Group Chair
Mr. Drew Rexrode

Drew Rexrode is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Verizon Communications, Systems Integration and Testing Laboratory, responsible for the testing and integration of L2 and L3 elements. Drew has over eight years of Telecommunications experience, with seven of those years being in the testing laboratories of Verizon Operations, and eventually the Verizon Technology Organization.

Drew holds his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from West Virginia University, and is finishing his Master of Science in Computer Science Degree at Loyola College in Maryland.

Certification Working Group Vice Chair
Ms. Isabelle Morency

Isabelle has over 10 years of experience in the information technology and telecommunications industries. She currently holds the position of General Manager with Iometrix, where she is responsible for the technical development and operations of the lab. She develops test suites and oversees their implementation for a variety of technical disciplines including certification, conformance, performance and security test programs

As a leading contributor to Carrier Ethernet standards, Isabelle has developed the detailed test suites used for the Metro Ethernet Forum MEF 9, MEF 14 and MEF 18 certification programs. She is currently the editor of MEF 19 Abstract Test Suite for User Network Interface (UNI) Type 1 and Abstract Test Suite for UNI Type 2 including Link OAM, Service OAM and E-LMI.

Prior to joining Iometrix, she has held engineering, marketing and strategic planning positions with international service provider Teleglobe. Her professional success is based upon the knowledge acquired from her bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering and advanced degree in Business Administration earned from University Laval in Canada.

Applications Working Group Chair
Mr. Matthew Bocci

Matthew Bocci is Director of Technology and Standards with Alcatel-Lucent's IP Division. He is a regular contributor to the IETF and MFA Forum, particularly in the areas of pseudo-wires, OAM and traffic management. He is chair of the MFA Forum Interworking working group, and was chair of the AIC working group of the ATM Forum. He is also co-author of a number of IETF drafts on MPLS-based converged networks. Previously, Matthew provided advanced technical consulting to Alcatel R&D and customers in traffic management, signaling and network performance. He is author of a number of technical publications in network modeling, resource management, and in ATM-MPLS interworking, as well as Alcatel application notes in QoS and traffic management. Matthew joined Alcatel through the acquisition of Newbridge Networks. He holds a PhD in ATM network modeling from Queen Mary & Westfield College, London, and is a member of Alcatel Technical Academy and the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

Applications Working Group Vice Chair
Mr. Ariel Shuper

Ariel Shuper is a Senior Director of Product Management and Strategic Marketing at Celtro Ltd. In his role, Ariel manages the Product Management team of Celtro’s innovative mobile backhaul access switching solutions and prepare the strategic marketing plans for future developments. Ariel has more than 10 years experience in the Telecom markets. Prior to his position at Celtro, Ariel was Associate Vice President (AVP) at ECI Telecom in the Broadband Access Division, where he was responsible for its IP-based products (IP DSLAM), DSL technologies and the technical education of the Pre-Sales teams. He also held the position of Product Marketing Manager at RAD Data Communications and various R&D positions in different high tech companies in Israel.

Ariel holds a B.Sc in Computer Science, LLB cum-laude in Law and an MBA degree from Bar Ilan University in Israel.