Chris Beveridge
Strategist
In his 25-plus years in networking and telecommunications technology, principally with Cisco Systems, Mr. Beveridge has gained extensive experience in technology research and analysis. He progressed through a variety of positions at Cisco, starting as a systems engineering manager, where he was responsible for the US Southwest Area WAN Systems Engineering team and twice exceeded his team’s $200 million quota. As a senior consulting engineer, he managed content development and speakers for Cisco’s network user conferences, which drew more than 30,000 paid attendees worldwide. Later, as senior manager of Thought Leadership Research – Corporate Positioning, he managed research projects with notable academic institutions including MIT, Boston University, NYU, Wharton School of Business, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, developing programs and delivering research analysis papers, presentations, blogs, videos, and executive briefings. In that position he radically transformed Cisco’s internal business processes for conducting research, resulting in a $1.9 million reduction in the annual research expenditure. Before joining Cisco, he was an applications engineer for Verilink, Inc. and served as training engineer, senior applications engineer, and product trainer for StrataCom, Inc. Mr. Beveridge recently became a principal of Spica Enterprises, LLC and senior content manager for NetApp.

John Buser
Patent Attorney
John Buser is a registered patent attorney for Great Lakes Intellectual Property, PLLC., an intellectual property and technology law firm. Mr. Buser counsels clients on all aspects of intellectual property, including protecting and enforcing inventions, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. His background in electrical engineering enables him to focus on electrical and software patent applications. His practice includes US and foreign patent preparation, prosecution, and portfolio management, including drafting original and continuation applications, appeals, responses, and amendments. He also provides patentability, infringement, validity, and freedom-to-practice opinions and develops product design-around solutions to potential infringement issues. Mr. Buser has a BS degree in electrical engineering from the GMI Engineering & Management Institute (now Kettering University) and received his JD degree from Wayne State University. He is a member of the Michigan State Bar, the American and Federal Bar Associations, and the Michigan Intellectual Property Law Association.

Michael Cain
Developer
Mr. Cain began his career with Bell Labs, building constrained optimization models to guide the development and deployment of new switching system technology. One of his models predicted telephone companies’ adverse reactions to a Western Electric failure to revise their pricing structure according to Bell Labs’ recommendations. After the Bell System was broken up in 1984, Mr. Cain moved to Bellcore, where he supervised development of the world’s first network test box that used digital signal processing techniques exclusively to diagnose analog impairments. He also developed the physical layer implementation for the world’s first ISDN test set. From Bellcore he transferred to USWEST Advanced Technologies, where he developed a patented rapid service delivery method that let independently developed call-processing features work together without changing the features themselves. A paper on this “feature manager” appeared in the IEEE Spectrum magazine. Mr. Cain developed and implemented numerous prototype applications for real-time multimedia communication over TCP/IP networks. His accompanying white paper, “The IP Telephone Company,” predicted many of today’s IP-based communication services. He also developed a patented system for studying the effects of real-time network impairments on Internet applications. At MediaOne Labs after the split of USWEST, Mr. Cain was responsible for assembling and maintaining the systems used in an extensive series of road-show technology demonstrations, presented to senior executives and franchising authorities. He continued to do demonstration projects at AT&T Broadband Labs after the acquisition of MediaOne. After taking an early retirement from AT&T, Mr. Cain worked as a member of the Colorado General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee non-partisan staff for three years, providing the Committee with analyses of state IT systems as well as general budget planning. Mr. Cain received a BS degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an MS degree in operations research from the University of Texas-Austin, and an MA degree in public policy from the University of Denver. He holds six patents.

James O’Connor
Engineer
Mr. O’Connor is principal engineer and owner of JPO Wireless Consulting, LLC, providing engineering consulting services in system design, technology selection and applications, regulatory affairs, and spectrum strategies to the broadband wireless industry. His extensive wireless/broadband industry experience includes 3G/4G broadband wireless system design and deployments; technical marketing of 3GPP-based broadband wireless products; device management and service provisioning; VoIP over broadband wireless; FCC regulatory assistance; and many other related skill sets. Recent projects include analyzing disruptive wireless technology for potential patent applications and funding for proof-of-concept trials; preparing public safety bid documents for broadband wireless applications and terminals; and analyzing various nontraditional broadband spectrum licenses for acquisition and subsequent deployment of broadband wireless systems. Before founding his consulting firm, Mr. O’Connor was director of CPE engineering and later director of technology for Open Range Communications in Denver, Colorado, where his responsibilities included managing various technological operations, performance analysis and optimization, support of network operations, and customer care. He also held various engineering, management, and marketing positions with industry leaders, including MediaOne, USWEST New Vector Group, and Republic Telecom. Mr. O’Connor received a BSEE degree from Kansas State University and an MS degree in telecommunications from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is a member of the IEEE and the WCA Engineering Committee.