Laura F. H. McDonald, Program Co-Chair, a partner at Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP (LB3), counsels large users in the negotiation of network service agreements, including those involving new technologies and managed services. She helps corporate users navigate the complex regulatory structure impacting their transactions and represents their concerns in regulatory proceedings. Ms. McDonald also assists corporate users in resolving disputes with carries and, where necessary, arbitrating and mediating disputes before the FCC and other forums.

David Simpson, Program Co-Chair, of Simpson Partners, specializes in advising companies in the Internet, telecommunications and energy sectors. He provides business, strategic and regulatory advise to national, regional and local telephone, cellular, Internet and independent energy companies.

Andrew Baer negotiates multi-year, multi-million dollar regional and global network management agreements for Merrill Lynch. He has been in the telecommunications field on the purchasers side for almost a decade, including working as a telecom analyst at the law firm of Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby LLP. Mr. Baer is also Merrill Lynch’s representative to the Securities Industry Association for the SIA’s telecom contract negotiations

D. E. (“Deb”) Boehling is a partner in Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby LLP, where her practice focuses on representing large multi-national users of telecommunications services and related technologies in negotiations with service providers. She has negotiated and provided ongoing advice on a variety of managed services and telecommunications outsourcing contracts.

Timothy F. Coen is Of Counsel at the Atlanta law firm of Gerry & Sapronov LLP, and has over 20 years of domestic and international experience in the information technology and telecommunications outsourcing areas. Mr. Coen focuses a significant portion of his practice on negotiating complex information technology and telecommunications outsourcing transactions and other sophisticated systems integration agreements, and has represented vendors as well as users in the past

Ben Fox is a London based consultant with TechCaliber, LLC. With his knowledge of all telecommunications technologies and related commercial aspects, he has assisted major UK and global companies with identifying and securing quick wins, running competitive procurements, negotiating contracts for managed and outsourced services and evaluating large scale deployment of new technologies such as VoIP and MPLS.

Françoise Gilbert is the founder and Managing Director of the IT Law Group. She has over 21 years experience negotiating high tech deals. A recognized expert on information privacy and security, she advises companies high stakes transactions, outsourcing or strategic relationships. She serves on the Boards of several Silicon Valley technology start-ups.

Laurie S. Hane is one of Morrison & Foerster LLP’s managing partners for operations and a member of the Technology Transactions Group. She focuses her practice on intellectual property and technology and actively advises clients on transactional and counseling matters relating to computers, semiconductors, the Internet, e-commerce, telecommunications and other advanced information technology.

Marc Lindsey is a partner at the firm of Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby LLP. He negotiates and documents information technology outsourcing, managed network services, software licensing, application hosting, and applications development, implementation and maintenance agreements on behalf of enterprise customers. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Lindsey was a systems engineer for GE Aerospace where he specialized in software engineering and systems integration.

Patrick Millette is a Sales Representative with IBM Global Services. His responsibilities include servicing large corporate clients in California and Arizona looking to outtask IT functionality services, particularly in the data center, network and distributed desktop environments. He provides the full life cycle of services from design to integration to “day two” or ongoing operational support.

Michael Murphy is a partner in Shaw Pittman’s Technology Group. He specializes in complex technology transactions and business process outsourcing projects for clients in the public and private sectors, including outsourcing, joint ventures, strategic alliances and mission critical system licensing transactions.

Mary O’Connell is Senior Corporate Counsel at PAETEC Communications, Inc. where she handles a wide range of commercial matters including supporting the retail and wholesale sales and marketing organizations, the communications management software division, and the network purchasing department. She formerly practiced law at Morrison & Foerster and Levine, Blaszak where she represented large users of telecom services.

Stephen R. Pratt is the CEO and Managing Director of Infosys Consulting, Inc., where he combines high-end management consulting with high-end technology delivery at an overall lower cost to clients. With over 20 years in business consulting, he specializes in customer service, marketing and sales operations.

Mark Rowland is a Principal Consultant with PA Consulting Group, where he combines deep knowledge of IT and telecommunications technology with experience with strategy development, market planning and operational improvement. He performs market analysis, technical due diligence, procurement of network services and equipment and planning, design and implementation of networks and IT systems.

John Toivonen, an Executive Director with SBC Solutions, leads a national team providing pre-bid program management and deal architecture for complex sales opportunities across all SBC sales channels. This team currently manages a funnel exceeding $6B and is responsible for winning more than $800M in complex sales opportunities.

David Tollen of Simpson Partners represents clients in business law matters, technology transactions and government procurement. His wide variety of clients includes private companies working in software, integrated circuits, telecommunications, energy, the Internet and other areas. He is formerly General Counsel for Centura Software Corp.

James P. Tuthill is Senior Attorney for AT&T Corporation where he provides legal services for AT&T’s Signature Client Group, (SCP) a special sales organization supporting AT&T’s largest global customers. His focus includes negotiating and drafting complex enterprise contracts for domestic and international voice, data, and managed telecommunications services. He is also an adjunct Professor of Law at USF where he teaches Telecommunications Law and Practice.