Speaker Bio’s
Dean R. Brenner
Dean Brenner is Senior Vice President, Spectrum Strategy & Technology Policy for Qualcomm Incorporated. As part of this role, he directs Qualcomm’s global spectrum strategy and other global technology policy initiatives, represents the company before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other agencies of the United States and Canadian governments responsible for spectrum and telecommunications policy, and oversees Qualcomm’s spectrum regulatory work elsewhere. He regularly interacts with spectrum regulators around the world, leaders in the wireless industry developing and deploying new technologies, and analysts and reporters covering the wireless industry.
Since joining Qualcomm in 2003, he has driven the company’s successful efforts to win regulatory approval for many new wireless technologies. He also has unique expertise in spectrum auctions, having led Qualcomm’s bidding team in auctions in India (the 2.3 GHz band), the United States (the Lower 700 MHz band), and the United Kingdom (the L Band).
Mr. Brenner received his A.B. magna cum laude with distinction in public policy studies from Duke University in 1982, his J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University in 1985, and is admitted to the Bars of the DC, Maryland, & the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the DC, Third, & Eleventh Circuits, & the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Mr. Brenner is a member of the United States Federal Advisory Board for Space- Based Positioning, Navigation, & Timing, which advises the United States Executive Branch agencies on policy matters impacting the Global Positioning System. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of 5G Americas and the Duke University Library Advisory Board.
Paul Cowling
Paul Cowling is Senior Vice-President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs at Shaw Communications.
Prior to joining Shaw in 2011, Paul practiced law at Torys LLP, advising clients on communications regulation, M&A and financings. Paul has also worked as legal counsel at the CRTC and at the Japanese law firm, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, in Tokyo.
Paul obtained his B.A. from McGill University and his Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto Law School. He also completed a Masters in Law at Columbia University as a Fulbright Scholar, specializing and publishing in the area of communications policy.
Charles Eagan
Charles Eagan has been Chief Technology Officer for BlackBerry since June 2018. In this role, he oversees the standardization and integration of all company products and is responsible for the advancement of new technologies and partnerships, with an emphasis on defining BlackBerry’s Enterprise of Things platform as well as driving innovation within emerging markets.
Charles was previously the Global Head of Electronics at Dyson Ltd (U.K.), focused on IoT device deployment. Prior to that he served as BlackBerry’s Global Head of Device Software, and spearheaded development of the BlackBerry 10 operating system and the transition to secure Android.
Charles was also formerly Vice President of Engineering for QNX Software, where he concentrated on the automotive and embedded markets. He also worked at Cisco and directed development of the seminal CRS-1 carrier routing system.
In 2008, Charles co-founded Crank Software, a company dedicated to the development of embedded tools and technologies that enabled rapid building of highly functional graphical interfaces. Earlier in his career, he built connected devices for Honda in the areas of process control, factory automation and robotics.
Charles is a noted speaker, thought leader and IoT expert who has been at the forefront of new frontiers in digital connectivity for over three decades. He graduated with honors from the University of Waterloo (Canada) with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and electrical engineering minor.
Deborah Evans
Deborah Evans is the Chief Privacy Officer at Rogers Communications, Canada’s leading provider of diversified communications services. She joined Rogers in 2007, and has been responsible for privacy within the company since 2014.
As Chief Privacy Officer, she is responsible for privacy across all lines of business at Rogers and advises on how innovation can co-exist with regulatory and legislative requirements. She also manages the company’s relationship with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the CRTC Enforcement Branch.
Deborah holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Politics from Brock University and a Masters of Public Affairs, with a specialization in European Integration, from Carleton University. She is the Chair of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) Privacy and Security Committee, a member of Canadian Marketing Association’s Privacy Committee, former Chair of the CWTA’s Recycling Committee, and former member of the CWTA Accessibility Committee.
Patricia Kosseim
Patricia Kosseim is Counsel in Osler’s Privacy and Data Management Group and co-leads Osler’s AccessPrivacy platform, an integrated suite of innovative information solutions, consulting services and thought leadership. She is also a national leading expert in privacy and access law, having served over a decade as Senior General Counsel and Director General at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), where she provided strategic legal and policy advice on complex and emerging privacy issues, advised Parliament on privacy implications of legislative bills, led research initiatives on new information technologies and advanced privacy law in major litigation cases before the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada.
Patricia previously worked at Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, where she developed and led national strategies for addressing legal, ethical and social aspects of health and genomic technologies. She began her career in Montreal practicing in the areas of health law, civil litigation, human rights, privacy and labor & employment with another leading national law firm.
Patricia has published and spoken extensively on matters of privacy law, health law and ethics. She has taught part-time at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law and has held many professional appointments and board memberships, including: Governor on the Board of Governors of The Ottawa Hospital; Chair of The Board of Directors of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute; Vice-Chair of the Research Integrity Committee of les Fonds de recherche du Quebec; and member of the National DNA Databank Advisory Committee.
Larry Murat
Larry Murat is currently VP Networks Product development Solutions and
engagements. In this role Larry brings his extensive product development
experience to helping North American Wireless operators find product
solutions to the current business challenges. Larry has 32 years’ experience
in telecom including 23 years in Wireless research, product development and
deployment spanning Circuit and Packet Core, and Access portfolios for CDMA,
UMTS/WCDMA/HSPA, WiMax, LTE and 5G.
Larry holds a B.Eng in Electrical Engineering from Carleton University in
Ottawa and is a licensed professional engineer.
Brian O’Shaughnessy
Brian O’Shaughnessy has been leading the development and deployment of advanced wireless and video networks for more than 30 years, having started with the inception of cellular service in the mid 1980s.
Brian is currently the SVP Wireless and 5G Technology at Shaw Communications and Freedom Mobile, responsible for all Freedom wireless network and IT activities, as well as guiding Shaw’s end to end 5G technology strategy. Previously, as the Chief Technology Officer of startup wireless company Public Mobile in 2009, Brian established the network organization from scratch, successfully bringing the organization from the initial funding stage through the launch of wireless service in Montreal and Toronto in 2010 and its subsequent acquisition in 2014.
Brian was the first RF Engineer at Bell Cellular in 1985 and held numerous senior management positions with Bell, including Vice-President, Wireless Technology Development. Then, as the Vice-President, Video and Access Network Technology Development, he drove the development of FibeTV (IPTV) as well as DSL, fiber to the home and home networking technologies.
Brian has actively driven next generation standards in various organizations, including serving as President of the CDMA Development Group from 1998 to 2002, an organization promoting the development of CDMA based wireless standards around the world.
In 2017, Brian was appointed as a Fellow of the Wireless World Research Forum which recognizes contributions to the mission of the WWRF “to advance mobile and wireless research and innovation and promote the mobile and wireless community worldwide”.
Brian holds a BSc in electrical engineering from Queen’s University, has been a licensed Professional Engineer since 1985 and has been an active Volunteer for 20 years with Scouts Canada helping youth discover their own direction and start down a path to reach their full potential.
Michael Piaskoski
Michael Piaskoski, a lawyer and an engineer, holds the title of Director – Municipal & Industry Relations at Rogers Communications. In his role, Michael is responsible for managing the commercial relationships between Rogers and the municipalities, governmental authorities, hydro companies and telecom carriers where Rogers requires access to build its network, whether wireline or wireless. He has successfully negotiated numerous access agreements with municipalities and infrastructure owners across Canada, allowing Rogers to deploy and upgrade its national plant.
Michael joined Rogers in 2007. Prior to that, he spent 12 years in private legal practice at two of Canada’s largest law firms. His practice focused on the telecommunications industry, during which he served a broad range of clients, including the telephone companies, their competitors, wireless and satellite companies, cable companies and broadcasters. His legal expertise includes competition law, telecommunications and broadcasting regulatory law and commercial law.
Patrick Rhude
Patrick Rhude is Head of Product Management in Nokia’s Security product unit responsible for Nokia’s next generation of security management products. Prior to being acquired by Nokia Patrick was Chief Technology Officer and VP of product management at Nakina Systems, responsible for guiding all aspects of product evolution. Patrick is an industry veteran overseeing new product introductions and growth. Patrick has held senior product management positions, with Syndesis (acquired by Subex), Atreus Systems, CrossKeys, and Newbridge Networks (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent. Patrick possesses a degree in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University and an MBA from the University of Ottawa.
Bruce Rodin
Bruce Rodin is the Vice President Wireless Networks at Bell Canada.
In this role he is responsible for technology strategy, technology development, network planning, engineering, site construction, network operations and terminal product qualification and life cycle management. The Bell Wireless Laboratories are managed by Mr. Rodin’s teams. Mr. Rodin is on the Board of Directors of the Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN).
Mr. Rodin joined Bell Mobility in 1988 and has held numerous positions with-in the Strategy, Development and Engineering teams.
Mr Rodin received a Bachelors of Applied Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University at Kingston in 1980, is a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario and IEEE.
