5G AMERICAS PRESENTS
ANALYST FORUM 2023
OCTOBER 11 – 12, 2023 | Richardson, TX
5G Americas 2023 Analyst Forum Speakers
Bill Kaufmann
Director of Product Management
Network Assurance and Analytics
Bill Kaufmann is Director of Product Management for Network Assurance and Analytics at Ciena. In this role, Bill manages the Blue Planet assurance portfolio, including the Route Optimization and Analysis (ROA) and Unified Assurance and Analytics (UAA) products.
Bill began his telecom career at AT&T in Technical Sales and Marketing. He has held leadership roles in product management at Tellabs, Coriant and Blue Planet in the areas of IP/MPLS Routing, SDN Orchestration and Network Analytics.
Rafael Francis
Senior Director of Solution Architecture
Rafael Francis has over 20 years of experience in networking and telecommunications and is currently the Senior Director of Solution Architecture at Ciena. In this role, he leads his team in defining next-generation solutions and strategy.
Prior to joining Ciena, Rafael was the VP of Product Management for Cyan Inc., where he was responsible for Cyan’s Z-Series packet-optical portfolio and Blue Planet SDN software, including its initial launch. He also held product management leadership positions at ECI Telecom, Laurel Networks and FORE Systems. His knowledge and contributions in next-generation networking and its business applications have been demonstrated through various conference speaking engagements and articles.