Smaller Market Conference 2019

Rob Alderfer is Vice President of Technology Policy at CableLabs, the global innovation and R&D consortium of the cable industry. Rob brings sound science to bear in policy decisions by harnessing CableLabs’ technology expertise. His focus is empowering the industry to address technology policy matters of substantial strategic consequence.

Rob joined CableLabs from the Federal Communications Commission, where he guided United States wireless broadband policy as chief data officer of the agency’s wireless bureau. Previously, he shaped communications policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Rob has been engaged in significant policy decisions for over a decade, helping to shape today’s communications technology landscape. He has deep expertise in wireless spectrum and has facilitated the development of mobile and Wi-Fi technologies and services by bringing new spectrum to market. He is now responsible for CableLabs’ multinational technology policy and standards work, and he regularly provides guidance to board-level audiences across a range of strategic issues. Rob serves as chair of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) program committee, the world’s foremost communications policy research conference. He is also a partner with Social Venture Partners of Boulder County, helping promising non-profits in Colorado deliver stronger results.

James Assey currently holds the position of Executive Vice President of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.  Prior to his position at NCTA, Mr. Assey was a long time staff member on the U.S Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation chaired by U.S Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI).  Most recently, he was Senior Democratic Counsel to the committee, and earlier was Senior Democratic Counsel on Communications and Media Issues.  Mr. Assey also served as Telecommunications Counsel for U.S Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC).    Mr. Assey has also held positions as Communications Associate in the Washington, D.C office of Willkie, Farr and Gallagher, Law Clerk for the Honorable Cameron M. Currie in the U.S District Court for the District of South Carolina, and Legislative Assistant to Senator Hollings.

Mr. Assey is a graduate of Stanford University and earned his JD from Georgetown University Law School.  Mr. Assey is also a current adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University Law School.

In April of 2009, Mr. Assey was chosen to be on the Federal Communications Commission’s Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age chaired by Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps.

For the past 20 years, Victor Esposito has been focused on technology leadership and service delivery, primarily focused in the Telecommunications environment.  Victor started his career as a technician, and for the past ten years has served in various leadership roles.  During this time, Victor has had the opportunity to focus on strategic long-term planning, including financial management, business development, and M&A activity.  Victor also benefits from a love of technology, and a tendency towards customer service, enabling him to remain rooted in daily operations.

Victor’s work history and experiences  afford him great perspective  and have included companies of: vastly different size, service providers, vendors, mergers and acquisitions, privately held companies, publically traded corporations, and municipally owned services.

Victor’s success is driven by his ability to do what he loves: lead teams to develop, deploy, maintain, and operate cutting edge services highly desired by customers.   Having grown up in a small town on the central coast of California, Victor is “at home” in Alaska, where he has resided for the past six years.  Victor has a bachelor’s in business and a master’s in information systems.

Dr. Curtis Knittle is the Vice President of Wired Technologies at CableLabs, the non-profit research & development lab funded by the global cable industry. Curtis and his team are responsible for specifying scalable deployment solutions in both hybrid fiber coax and all-fiber access networks for CableLabs’ member companies. DOCSIS^® technologies, Full Duplex DOCSIS, Distributed CCAP Architectures, and Point-to-Point Coherent Optics are a few current high priority projects under his leadership.

Prior to joining CableLabs, Curtis led an engineering team at Harmonic, Inc to develop the world’s first CMTS-in-a-node and Ethernet-switch-in-a-node, both solutions representing the first instantiation of what today is called deep fiber distributed architecture solutions for the cable industry. Currently, Curtis is the Chair of the IEEE 802.3ca 50G-EPON task force, helping to usher in the first 50 Gb/s PON solution.

Curtis holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico, and Master and Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University.

Chip McDonald is Senior Vice President of Operations for Cable ONE. McDonald is responsible for overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations and longer term strategic operating plans.

McDonald joined Cable ONE in 2008 as an Industrial Engineer and was later promoted to Vice President, Customer Operations. He has more than 15 years of process improvement experience in both manufacturing and customer service, and leads the Operations team with quantitative and strategic approaches to improve quality and reduce costs with the goal of providing world-class customer service to all Cable ONE customers.

Prior to joining Cable ONE, McDonald worked as a Sr. Process Engineer for Three-Five Systems and Brillian Corp.

An Arizona native, McDonald holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University, and a Six Sigma Black Belt from the Institute of Industrial Engineers. He is also a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Noé Morales is the Director for the Lean Enterprise Office at Shaw Communications Inc.  Noé works with a team of dedicated Lean practitioners with a focus on Standards, Training & Engagement, and Strategic Improvements across the enterprise.

Noé has over 15 years of experience in Manufacturing, Logistics, and Lean Implementation through his work with Nysan Shading Systems. Noé holds a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Professional Certification, and a Diploma in Procurement & Supply Chain Management.

Jon Pederson began his career Midco in 1987, was named Vice President of Technology in 2007 and Chief Technology Officer in 2015; overseeing all technology and innovation at Midco.  He designed and implemented MidcoNet Internet services, Midco’s digital phone product, and created Midco’s extensive multi-state fiber network.  Jon and his teams were among the first to test and deploy DOCSIS® 3.1, Gigabit, and remote PHY in North America.  Mr. Pederson has degrees in psychology and computer programming.  He is a member of the Cablelabs® technology committee and serves on the board of directors for the Great Plains Zoo and Delbridge Museum of Natural History.

As the Vice President of Technology Strategy and Networks, Damian Poltz is responsible for the development, alignment and communication of Shaw’s technology strategy, and the design, planning and evolution of Shaw’s wireline networks and infrastructure.

Throughout his 21-year career at Shaw, Damian has served in strategic leadership roles including: Director of Network Technology, Sr. Director Communication Systems, Director IP Application Services, Sr. Manager Video Application Development and Manager of Multimedia Communications.

Damian holds an MBA from Cornell University and Queen’s University, and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Calgary.

18+ years in Access Technology, as well as Optical and Packet Networks.  Currently responsible for CMTS and PON standards and technology development.

Mark Swanson is an IT Manager who works with key business stakeholders and software engineers to deliver high quality software solutions. With over 10 years of software development leadership experience, Mark specializes in delivering software to improve operational efficiencies and help streamline customer support. Mark has recently deployed solutions responsible for DOCSIS based provisioning and diagnostics at TDS telecom.