Who are the Voyces? Seven working professionals who openly wonder who’s in charge of providing honest insight and commentary on the communication industry.
Alec Saunders
Passionately engaged with how technology can positively affect quality of life, Alec wants to see five-year plans on the market in one. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever. To positively affect his own life he frequently turns to his favorite vegetable, the jalapeno pepper. “I grow them in my own garden, allow them to ripen to sweet red firecrackers and then smoke them over mesquite to make chipotle,” he says. “Then I add them to chile con carne. Why? Because sweet and heat belong together. ”
James Siminoff
James has always fostered an entrepreneurial spirit. While at Babson College he started a consumer electronics business called Gadgetronics. In 1998 he founded Your First Step International, Inc., a company that assisted entrepreneurs in bringing ideas from concept to fruition. In 2000, the company transitioned its main focus to building a global wholesale Voice over IP network. In 2002 James merged YFS into Nobel Ltd. which has became the largest online calling card company in the US. While at Nobel, James started NobelBiz, a VOIP company focussed on the call center business, which he still is a principal in today. In 2005 James was inspired by the archaic nature of voicemail to found the world’s first voicemail-to-text company, PhoneTag.
James has received numerous awards for his accomplishments in entrepreneurship including the 2007 Entrepreneur Award from Crain’s Business New York.
In September of 2009 PhoneTag completed a transaction worth $17 million with Ditech Networks (nasdaq: DITC). James currently holds the position of Chief Strategy Officer and is head of Ditech’s Labs program.
James holds a Bachelor of Science in entrepreneurship from Babson College. He lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife Erin, son Oliver and dog Short Rib.
Larry Lisser
Larry Lisser brings nearly twenty years of senior sales, marketing and business development leadership experience to his consulting roles with voice and visual communications providers.
Fonolo, Ifbyphone and Mobivox are among the many entrepreneurial companies Larry has engaged with in recent years. Larry is a native of Montreal, Canada, but has been based in the San Francisco, Bay Area for almost 15 years. And recently, Larry co-founded StartupCamp Telephony, an event focused on exposing innovation happening in early stage communications companies.
Andy Abramson
Andy Abramson is the founder of Comunicano, Inc., a 30 person asymmetrical communications consultancy, geared to providing clients with Senior Advising, Marketing Communications, Corporate Communications and Marketer-In-Residence services to start-ups, companies in transition and established brands with regard to influencer relations, marketing, advertising, public relations, social media, promotion, events and reputation management in the technology, consumer products and business to business markets.
A veteran of the media, marketing and public relations industries, Andy has 35 years of experience in all facets of marketing and corporate communications. He started his career in the marketing department of a professional sports team at age 14 before earning his degree in Journalism from Temple University.
In the period of 2005-present seventeen Comunicano startup clients have been acquired ranging from Cisco, IBM, Google, eBay, Nokia, and other similar companies being on the acquiring side. Most recently in November 2008 Citrix Online acquired HiDefConferencing while Logitech acquired client SightSpeed. This was followed by the acquisition of Mobivox by Sabse in 2009 and then ShoZu by CriticalPath in January 2010.
Prior to starting Comunicano in 1993 Abramson guided The Upper Deck Company’s Public Relations and Sports Marketing; served in Account Management with Foote, Cone & Belding’s IMPACT group developing Integrated Marketing programs. His agency role followed a 14-year career in sports marketing with the Philadelphia Wings, Denver Nuggets and the Philadelphia Flyers including as President of the team’s youth hockey operation, Hockey Central/Office of Amateur Hockey Affairs from 1976-1988.
Andy is also Ken Rutkowski’s eleven-year running co-host on KenRadio’s World Technology Roundup and an active blogger with both VoIPWatch and Working Anywhere, two blogs that focus on emerging communications and the virtual workplace. Just recently, Andy has resumed writing his wine blog, WineScene.
During his career Andy has worked with numerous clients and corporations in traditional package goods product and manufacturing companies, promoted sports and entertainment events and place based properties, worked for professional sports teams and within amateur sports organizations as well as leading entertainment figures. He was also involved in the launch of a record label.
Thomas Howe
Thomas has over 20 years experience in the design and development of next generation communications equipment. In March of 2007, Thomas won the first O’Reilly Emerging Telephony Mashup Contest with his “After Hours Doctor’s Office”. In Janurary, 2008, Thomas was listed among the most influential voices in VoIP. In March of 2008, Thomas won the VON Magazine Innovator’s Award. In September of 2008, Thomas won the first Broadsoft Mashup Contest with his “Diaster Dispatcher”. Thomas has held senior management and various technical positions at Comverse, PictureTel, Aware, Versatel and Jaduka.
Thomas is an active software developer, concentrating on Voice Mashups and their supporting technologies such as Ruby, Rails, Adhearsion and Web as Platform architectures. Thomas is also a regular contributor to several online publications, such as Fierce VoIP and ProgrammableWeb.
Thomas received his bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering at University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and attended graduate school at Northeastern University where he studied Digital Communications and Signal Processing. He currently serves on several technical advisory boards and boards of directors. Thomas currently resides in West Barnstable, Cape Cod, Massachusetts with his wife and four children.
Luca Filigheddu
Luca Filigheddu is an executive with 10 years of management experience in VoIP, Social Media and Product Marketing as well as a well recognized expert in the VoIP market.
He’s currently CEO at Abbeynet, an italian company which develops technologies and services in the field of IP Communications since 1999. Abbeynet is the company behind services like Chocophone, Abbeyphone, Sitòfono, Hictu!, Tweefight and Tweefind.
Passionate user of any kind of technology and internet service, he loves gadgets and electronic devices and is eager to try out any new cool device /service that hits the market. Luca can be considered an early adopter in any field of technology. In particular, he loves Apple, Nokia phones and his Sony PSP He definitely loves his Blackberry Bold, too.
Luca current interests are web-based VoIP services, Web 2.0/VoIP integration and product marketing, with a particular attention to the world of Twitter and microblogging. In the never-enough spare time, Luca loves martial arts and listening to good music (when his two little sons permit).
Jim Courtney
Jim Courtney provides his viewpoint on the Voice 2.0 World from the perspective of thirty years’ experience as a sales, marketing and business development executive with high technology enterprises.
Jim’s current interests are in the area of intelligent, interactive real time communications, embedding chat, presence, voice and web conferencing into Web 2.0/Voice 2.0 applications and services. His introduction to VoIP was through business development activities associated with early stage VoIP and web conferencing software available in 1996. As mobile devices have evolved into smartphones (and as a RIM shareholder since 1998) his interests now incorporate the evolution of mobile smartphones.
Jim holds four degrees from the University of Toronto in engineering, physics and business administration.
