Sam Greenholtz
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Mark Lutkowitz
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Sam Greenholtz is a retired manager from Verizon and has worked in the telecommunications industry for 35 years. He is widely known and highly respected throughout the space for being a straight shooter as well as for being solidly grounded in the historical realities of the telecom business. During his career, many people have heavily depended on Sam for his truthful, forthright, and no-nonsense judgments, helping to lead to significant advancements in sales by scores of suppliers. Before co-founding Telecom Pragmatics, he was a Senior Analyst at Communications Industry Researchers, Inc. (CIR), where he was able to utilize his unique insights into the networking plans and businesses of the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) and other service providers. While at CIR, Sam co-authored reports on the metro and long-haul spaces as well as engaged in many consulting assignments.
Sam’s intimacy with the evolutionary and legacy-driven nature of the telecom space comes from over 28 years of experience at what is the present-day Verizon with his last position as Senior Engineer. At the RBOC, Sam led several networking and vendor technical-evaluation efforts and played a very active role in the installations of new solutions, services and architectures including Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) platforms, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), as well as digital and optical cross-connects.
Sam brings to Telecom Pragmatics his wide breadth of experience and his well-earned sense of perspective in serving the needs of its customers. A big strength is his ability to delve beneath the surface of matters and acquire extensive intelligence from carriers and other buyers of telecom hardware. Most of all, Sam’s solid reputation for integrity in his work is his biggest asset.
Sam serves as an expert and is a top 5% leader for the Gerson Lehrman Group's Technology, Media & Telecom Group. Learn more at his GLG profile page.
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Mark Lutkowitz has over 25 years of experience in the telecom market. A recognized expert in the field of wireline and wireless networking technologies, Mark has a reputation for his frank and hard-hitting, "pragmatic" approach when dealing with both service providers and vendors. Prior to co-founding Telecom Pragmatics, he spent over two years at CIR as Vice President of Optical Networking Research. During his time at CIR, he co-authored numerous reports and consulted to companies covering the entire spectrum of telecom.
Mark’s knowledge of the equipment market spans the whole space from the component level up to the full-system level. His extensive background has helped him to provide very sound and objective analyses. He has successfully worked with lots of major firms in determining the direction they should be taking.
Previously, Mark was the founder and owner of Trans-Formation, Inc., an independent research and consulting firm specializing in transmission equipment markets, which was acquired by CIR. For 14 years, Trans-Formation provided services including supplier analyses as well as assessments of price, competing technologies, entry barriers, market growth factors, and product enhancements. Mark’s service-provider-based research methods were started at Trans-Formation and form the basis upon which Telecom Pragmatics operates. His long-standing relationships in the industry and his fair and impartial views are part of the reason he is able to penetrate the space and to make the most realistic assessments on the telecommunications business. Before starting Trans-Formation, Mark began Northern Business Information’s transmission equipment market research business and left as a senior analyst in 1986.
Mark is the head writer at Telecom Pragmatics and he directs the financial operations of the company.
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| Sam and Mark have also served on various industry panels and discussion groups, and the publications/web sites they have been quoted include Light Reading, thestreet.com, Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Investment News, Lightwave, Telephony, and numerous other trade and investment journals.
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David Gross
David Gross is the chief analyst and founder of Freesky Research. His interest in data transmission protocols began in 1995 when, as a graduate student at George Washington University studying accounting, he pleaded with (and finally convinced) the department head to let him waive his Estate Tax course requirement, and replaced it with Data Communications Engineering. Since then, network technologies have been his focus — the marketing, the engineering, and the financing.
Prior to founding Freesky Research, David worked at MCI, Cable & Wireless, and was an industry analyst at Communications Industry Researchers.
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John Griffin
John Griffin has 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry.
Prior to joining Telecom Pragmatics, John was the Chief Marketing Officer at Zoomy Communications, a FTTH provider of “open access” networks in master planned communities. Previously, he was Executive VP of Marketing at Optical Solutions, a provider of FTTH access equipment. John was at Optical Solutions from 2004 to 2006, when Calix Networks acquired the company. Before his stint at Optical Solutions, John was the CEO of LightPointe, a venture backed optical wireless start-up. LightPointe marketed their connectivity solutions to the enterprise, cellular and wireline service providers.
Earlier in his career, John was the GM/President of the Broadband Wireless Group at ADC Telecommunications. This division focused on MMDS and broadcast transmission products.
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Eric Lampland
Eric has been a leading force in the development of communication networks for over 30 years. Eric has a Bachelor of Computer Science from the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota. Eric has been an independent consultant since 1997 and a network architect for over 30 years, specializing today in the development of municipal fiber networks. He was part of the design team at the University of Minnesota during the early construction of the Internet. Since then he has created companies and advised large and small firms on communications architecture and future trends.
Eric has been an active member of several international standards forums, who are key to the operation and function of today’s networks including the IETF, IEEE and ATM (now MFA) Forum serving those organizations in roles from member to technical vice-chair. He has made major contributions to convergence architectures and protocols. He is a member of the Blandin Foundation’s Strategy Board on Broadband. Today he is a recognized speaker and authority on architectures being built to address new emergent post convergent applications.
Eric's entry into Fiber-to-the-Home networks began in 2004 when he contracted as Director of Architecture and Network Engineering for Door County’s initial FTTH efforts. Exposure to the consequences on citizens and business of living in under-served markets, caused by restricted investment of legacy carriers, spurred a new focus for Lookout Point, where he is president. Today his efforts are directed at enabling public efforts, addressing the growing gaps emerging between the United States and the developed world and between large cities and smaller markets in communication services.
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John Spencer
John Spencer is a regular contributor to Telecom Pragmatics, and was Principal and Founder of InTeleSight, LLC, a consulting firm offering clients intelligent insight into telecom networks with technology strategies and positioning. He has 35 years in the telecommunications industry with extensive leadership experience. John's current position is Business and Technology Specialist for Optelian Access Networks. He has also been appointed Co-Editor of the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Optical Communications Issue of Applications and Practice magazine.
John spent 29 years at BellSouth in engineering and planning functions with 13 of those years in BellSouth Science & Technology where he was a Member of Technical Staff (MTS). While in BellSouth S&T, he held a lead role in the introduction of SONET technology into the BellSouth network by leading the development of the RBOC’s technical requirements and SONET engineering guidelines. He was the team leader in the introduction of DWDM technology into the BellSouth network in 1998. In this effort he developed the DWDM engineering guidelines, technical requirements and led the product selection and approval process. He served as Chairman of ANSI accredited sub-committee T1X1, Digital Hierarchy and Synchronization, which developed the standards for SONET and made U.S. contributions to ITU-T optical networking standards. John is also past Co-chairman (1991 and 1998) of the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC) and helped develop it into one of the premier technical conferences in the fiber optics industry.
John spent four years as Regional Director – Product Marketing Engineering for Mahi Networks in Petaluma, California. In that capacity he managed all bids and proposals (RFI and RFP responses) to customers, developed customer business case studies, white papers and marketing collateral. In addition, he has had numerous speaking engagements at NFOEC, IEC and SuperComm.
John holds a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering (BEE) degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Alabama. He is also a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and has served as Chairman of the IEEE Alabama Section.
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Rick McCormack, Director
As a result of over 20 years of effective sales and marketing experience in a variety of technology based markets, Rick understands the importance of listening and acting on his clients' wants and needs. Honesty, integrity and professionalism have been the keys to his success.
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Marla Shepherd
Marla Shepherd provides product support for Telecom Pragmatics, and is founder of ImageWorks – a support services company. She has helped companies achieve success in the telecommunications industry for over a decade, providing assistance in market research, publications, website design/management, order fulfillment, and customer relations. Marla has over 20 years of experience in office management and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Office Administration/Office Management from Missouri State University.
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