Beyond Connectivity: How Service Providers Can Build, Scale and Monetize AI

As the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's Provider Mobility business, Masum leads the strategic initiatives and product development, including designing groundbreaking Mobile IoT and 5G product and solutions for communication service providers, industries, and enterprises. Under his leadership, Cisco's Provider Mobility solutions and technology have been deployed in the world’s largest communication networks.

During his time at Cisco, Masum shared his product and technology domain expertise, nurturing Cisco's mission to empower global digital transformation. And with more than 20 years of experience in the networking and telecommunication industries, Masum is also a sought-after speaker for industry events.

Before joining Cisco, Masum worked with industry-leading companies gaining valuable experience in the networking and telecommunication industries and developing a leadership style that delivers results.

Masum has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and pursued his business education in Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program.

Shawn Hakl is the Senior Vice President of AT&T Business Product responsible for the portfolio servicing Enterprise, Public Sector, Partner and Small Business Segments, which generates over $30 billion in annual revenue.

A seasoned leader in cloud, AI and communications, Shawn’s unique knowledge of software, security and infrastructure are helping enterprises, government and small businesses harness the power of technology to successfully execute on their digital transformation. In his current role, Shawn is responsible for wireline, 5G/wireless, voice/UC, security/SASE, data center, AIOps and Network as a Service product lines.

Before joining AT&T, Shawn led the Microsoft Azure for Operators strategy, integrating Microsoft AI and Cloud assets with acquisitions like Affirmed Networks and Metaswitch. His efforts established Azure as the preferred platform for 5G networks and AI-driven operations across operators, enterprises, and governments. Initially an incubation project, success with key clients propelled Azure for Operators into Azure’s core product families for edge computing and AI.

Prior to Microsoft, he served as Senior Vice President of Business Product at Verizon, managing a $29 billion portfolio that included 5G, Mobile Edge Compute, SaaS, Security, Internet of Things, Cloud Collaboration and Professional services. His experience at Verizon also spans leadership roles in operations, IT, and sales engineering.
Shawn serves on the board of directors of LevelBlue and Mplfy. He is a Syntropy Executive Advisor and a Versa Technical Advisor. Shawn was named as a Top 25 Telecom Movers and Shakers in 2018 and in 2021 by Fierce Telecom.

Shawn began his career at Accenture and holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Calgary. Shawn is a former national team athlete on the Canadian luge team. He and his wife Leslie reside in Dallas, TX.

As the Global VP of Business Development for Telco at NVIDIA, Chris works across the telco ecosystem to drive the growth of NVIDIA’s hardware and software solutions around the world. Coordinating across NVIDIA and partners, Chris helps to create telco-specific offerings that leverage AI/ML, Generative and Agentic AI, Physical AI, AI RAN – 5G/6G, Edge/Cloud Computing, and Advanced Networking.

Prior to joining NVIDIA, as the COO of FogHorn, Chris led the go-to-market efforts across business development, technical sales, strategic partnerships, 3rd party distribution, marketing, advertising and public relations globally. Including the strategic planning for the firm and working directly with Telcos around the world to integrate FogHorn’s Edge AI/ML and Analytics solutions on top of their 5G networks.

Previously, Chris spent over 30 years at AT&T and its predecessor companies, leading some of its most important growth areas, serving as President of AT&T’s IoT Solutions organization, building AT&T’s IoT business from a startup into one of the most successful IoT operations in the world. He was also the Senior Vice President of AT&T’s Integrated Solutions and Consulting organization – selling and delivering end-to-end solutions to customers and supporting the partner ecosystem across AT&T’s entire product portfolio. During his time at AT&T, he built domain expertise in IoT, Wireless, 5G, Edge Computing, Next Generation Networking, as well as vertical expertise across Connected Cars, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Retail, Public Safety, Fleet, Smart Cities, Robotics and Drones.

Chris serves on several boards, including the Kelley School of Business, Curing Kids Cancer, and IOT World.  Chris was also a Founder and Executive Advisory Board Member of the Together for Safer Roads coalition and was Chairman of the Board for GSMA’s IOT program for over 7 years. 

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University.  His personal passions are family, skiing, dining out, and travel. 

Steve is a British-born communications analyst, and the anchor of FNTV. His career began as a technology journalist with McGraw-Hill in the 1980s, and he later founded Light Reading in 2000, an online media network focusing on telecommunications news, research and security. He sold Light Reading to UBM in 2005 for $33 million, bought it back in 2014 for significantly less, and resold it to Informa PLC two years later for $67 million. Awarded an MBE in 2018, he has authored three technology books and three works of fiction. This year, Steve won the 2026 Jessie H. Neal Award for Best Commentary: Op-Eds — presented by the American business press industry — his seventh Neal Award, but his first in 28 years, which is either a testament to the industry’s declining standards or proof that Steve is now extremely old. Steve splits his time between the U.S. and the U.K. with his three sons.