Michael Cooper

Northwestern University

University of Missouri-Columbia

Director of Analyst Relations and Competitive Intelligence at Ribbon Communications

Oak Park, Illinois, United States

On October 30, 2017 GENBAND and Sonus Networks announced the close of their merger and the rebrand of their company to Ribbon Communications.  Built on world class technology and intellectual property, Ribbon delivers intelligent, secure, embedded real-time communications for today’s world. The company transforms fixed, mobile and enterprise networks from legacy environments to secure IP and cloud-based architectures, enabling highly productive communications for consumers and businesses. With locations in 28 countries around the globe, Ribbon’s innovative, market-leading portfolio empowers service providers and enterprises with rapid service creation in a fully virtualized environment. The company’s Kandy Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) delivers a comprehensive set of advanced embedded communications capabilities that enables this transformation.
To learn more visit <a href="http://RibbonCommunications.com">RibbonCommunications.com</a>

Ribbon Communications

Director of Analyst Relations and Competitive Intelligence

Plan and execute the analyst programs that support GENBAND's multi-faceted operations while working with product and marketing teams to develop analyst-specific positioning and messaging. Development of trend analysis, competitive briefings, competing technologies, and industry overviews. Oversee and manage all ongoing contracts with industry analyst firms. Drive outreach initiatives with analysts and build rapport with the industry analyst community.

Work with and support Public Relations team to communicate relevant news, information and company developments in relation to the analyst community.

GENBAND, a 2015 CNBC Disruptor 50, is a global leader in real-time communications software solutions for service providers, enterprises, independent software vendors, systems integrators and developers in over 80 countries. Kandy, its award-winning, disruptive real-time communications software development platform, enables companies to easily embed a full suite of voice, video, chat, screen-sharing and collaboration capabilities into their existing business, web and mobile applications.  The company’s Network Modernization, Unified Communications, Mobility and Embedded Communications solutions enable its customers to quickly capitalize on growing market segments and introduce differentiating products, applications and services. GENBAND’s market-leading solutions, are deployable in the network, on premise or through the cloud.

GENBAND is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

To further engage (<a href="http://www.genband.com">www.genband.com</a>):
Driving Innovation Blog - <a href="http://www.genband.com/driving-innovation">www.genband.com/driving-innovation</a>
Kandy - <a href="http://www.kandychannel.com">www.kandychannel.com</a>
YouTube - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/genbandclips">www.youtube.com/genbandclips</a>

Twitter
- GENBAND - Corporate
- Kandy.io - Kandy
- walshgenband President, CEO and Chairman - David Walsh
- bflybuzz SVP, Marketing Communications - Bita Milanian
- mhcooperconsult Sr. Manager Analayst Relations – Michael Cooper

GENBAND

Director, Analyst Relations and Competitive Intelligence

Launched photography business specializing in babies, children, families, weddings and events..

My love for capturing life’s expected and unexpected moments began shortly after the purchase of my first SLR 35mm camera as a freshman in high school. I’ve been chronicling life’s most fleeting encounters ever since.

My style has been described as informal or photojournalistic. I think of my style as captivating—capturing those hidden gems, those unforgettable moments, when you are least expecting them…and want them to last a lifetime.

A sample of my portfolios, personal photos and projects can be found here:
<a href="http://www.mhcooperphotography.smugmug.com">www.mhcooperphotography.smugmug.com</a>

Follow me on Twitter:
- mhcooperconsult
- mhcooperphoto

MHCooper Photography

Photographer

MHCOOPER CONSULTING (Independent Consultant: Telecommunications, VoIP, Emerging Technologies), Washington, D.C., 2011-2012: Consulted with legal teams on telecommunications solutions, developing briefs and declarations in bid post-mortems, and provided guidance for venture capitalist on application viability.

MHCooper Consulting

ENTREPRENEURIAL PURSUITS: Consulting

Analyst Relations for two lines of business (Broadband Access [TAM $6.1 billon] and IMS/NGN Telephony Solutions [TAM $1.5 billon]):  Developed rapport with analysts, resulting in incremental improvement in ratings and perceptions.  Delivered 50 briefings per year during quarterly reporting and at major trade shows.  Led workshops at corporate analyst events.  Championed and built consensus around framework for analysts to measure all vendors.  Created internal and external quarterly publications and analysis on portfolio shipments.

Marketing and Communications, Emerging IP Telephony Solutions:  Developed and executed marketing plan, including strategy rollout, events, detailed training, references, and product catalog.  Created awareness, credibility, and mind share with press and industry by writing trade publication articles and press releases to leapfrog competition in emerging telephony solutions.  Developed two-week training program to strategically position portfolio, resulting in year-over-year growth and market-leading position.  Developed Website and Web-based tool kit for sales and product development.  Selected as speaker for industry events and led introduction of new innovations at trade shows.

Team Leader for Marketing Work Group Integration:  Represented company’s emerging telephony strategy during merger and worked across company and organizational boundaries to develop consensus view and initial collateral.  Developed and delivered Day-1 content and training, weaving in last-minute messages delivered hours before training.

IMS/NGN Forum, Board of Directors:  Proposed and developed initial proposal for applications working group.  Represented forum with trade publications during formal launch.

Alcatel-Lucent

VP/Sr. Director Marketing and Business Strategy

Global Marketing Plan for Telephony Transformation - Circuit to Packet:  Direct support for introduction and launch of core elements of IMS and next-generation networks (TAM $1.5 billion), resulting in increased visibility and market leadership for network and telephony transformation projects such as IMS and next-generation networks.  Identified market segments and developed plans for marketing and training of Class-5 Switch Replacement.

Senior Executive and Sales Support and Training:  Provided direct support of global teams developing and delivering up to 20 executive presentations per year to carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, BT (England), Deutsche Telekom (Germany), France Telecom, KPN (Netherlands), SingTel (Singapore), China Telecom, PTTC (Hong Kong), Reliance (India), Telecom Italia (Italy), and Telstra (Australia), resulting in capturing mind share and proof of concept trials with most vendors.  Managed and developed training curriculum and collateral, presented across each of four regions twice per year.

Industry Trade Shows and Seminars and Marketing Communications:  Developed plans, demonstrations, and messaging to showcase products and establish synergy with overall messaging for ten events per year.  Designed and fabricated product displays and demonstrations.  Created turn-key package to be delivered by local teams for smaller shows.  Staffed trade shows and offered customer and analyst one-on-one talks.  Provided interviews and briefings to trade publications.

Bell Labs Lucent Technologies

Director Convergence Strategy and Global Marketing

Focused primarily on long range strategic planning and customers network evolution plans for global external executive engagements and bids and proposals.  Traveled globally to present strategies and support sales.  For Network Evolution:  Led strategy sessions, utilizing Global Business Network’s Scenario Planning process, on migrating existing  networks to next generation.  Supported teams with presentations to establish “mind-share” for executives and analysts.  Supported Bids and Proposals:  Instrumental in creating compelling presentations to explain complex technical solutions in simple easy to understand terms.  Traveled globally presenting network vision talks in support of critical bids and proposals.

Technical Manager of Network and Switching Strategy/ Architecture

Managed groups whose objectives were to identify and define customer requirements and to provide input for business and architecture planning.  Provided Sales support by developing and delivering numerous "technical/marketing" talks on Network and Switching Evolution.  Assigned, from switching, to work across product lines on a corporate wide initiative (Service-Net 2000) to develop a network end-to-end vision.  In this capacity, initiated customer studies to gather network requirements, proposed fiber based architectures for switching, and modeled a common line unit for switching and fixed access.

Technical Manager of Network and Switching Architecture/Requirements

5ESS System Engineering - Managed group whose objectives were to identify and define customer requirements as they apply to ISDN data.  Extensive customer interaction provided details for requirements and roadmaps; Operator Services Position System (OSPS) – Received Patent for basic design of OSPS in 1987.  Managed group that developed administrative features for OSPS.  Championed the introduction of the first mini-computer (3B2) to off-load data entry and provide reports; Managed Automatic Intercept System (AIS) portfolio - included all aspects of product management and R&D (requirements, development, loads, on-site deployment and testing), marketing, and customer support.

Technical Manager Switching Development and System Engineering

Lead designer, coder, and tester responsible for the Database Administration System (DBAS) control program.  Provided the specifications for operation of the DBAS and developed a standard interfaces for the control program.  Provided on-site field support throughout NA.  Designed and ordered development and test labs (PDP11s).  Member of team designing new forms and office data base tools for the 4ESS Switch.