About.
Broadband Forum.

John Blackford is an Engineering Fellow at Vantiva within the CTO Group of the Home Networks Business Unit. His current focus is the development of products for the management and control of the connected home. His career includes 20+ years of data and telecommunications experience in engineering, software architecture, and product management.

John currently serves as the Broadband User Services Work Area Co-Director of the Broadband Forum and is a member of the Broadband Forum board of directors. John previously worked for Efficient Networks, Siemens, 2Wire, Pace, ARRIS and CommScope where he has consistently expanded his knowledge of remotely managing devices in the connected home. He has received the Broadband Forum’s Distinguished Fellow, Circle of Excellence, and Outstanding Contributor awards. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Midwestern State University.

Term ends 2027

Manuel Paul, senior standardization expert at Deutsche Telekom, serves as a member of the Broadband Forum Board since 2013.

Deeply engaged in strategy, innovation and engineering projects (inc. leading roles) within the DT group, Manuel coordinates Software-Defined Networking standards & collaborative community activities. He serves in leadership positions at the Broadband Forum and the Open Networking Foundation and is co-initiator and leader of the 5g Convergence project stream within the BBF Wireless-Wireline-Convergence Work Area. He has been involved in the SDN movement since the early days and has driven and contributed to various related standardization and community activities. In the past, he was also active in other standards developing organizations incl. the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Prior to his current position at DT, Manuel was a research professional and technology consultant for T-Systems, where he was active in a broad range of projects concerning packet transport technologies and transmission systems engineering, next generation network design and corporate R&D.

Term ends 2027

Mike brings 30 years of residential CPE experience, with recent focus on Wi-Fi, SON and developing a service based home architecture.  Last year Mike developed the world’s first 10 Gig Modular Router that was the foundation for Verizon’s next generation in-home architecture which happened to be closely aligned with PRPL’s direction.  His passion to enhance customer experience while increasing revenue and driving down OPEX. Mike has a broad hardware and software background stemming from his initial career as an electrical and computer engineer in the aerospace sector. Mike is currently the Vice President for the MoCA Alliance and sits on the Board of Directors for the Broadband Forum.

Term ends 2027

Frank Van der Putten was born in Aalst, Belgium in 1963. He obtained an Electronic Engineering Degree in Communication Techniques from the Ghent University in 1986 and a Business Management Degree from the Leuven University in 1991. In 1986, he joined the Ghent University Communications and Information Transmission Laboratories to work on image processing.

In 1988, he joined the Alcatel-Lucent Research Center to continue working on image processing and evolved into home networking and DSL access technologies. From 1994, he was involved in the DAVIC standardization activities, where he chaired the physical layer working group until end 1996. Since then, he has been involved in DSL standardization within the ANSI, ETSI, ITU-T SG15 and the Broadband Forum. He is currently serving as Rapporteur of ITU-T SG15 Q4 (dealing with broadband access on metallic conductors, covering DSL and G.fast), as member of the Broadband Forum Board of Directors, and as Director of Standards for the Nokia Fixed Networks Business Group.

Term ends 2026

Martin Casey is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) at Calix, with over 25 years of experience in the data and telecommunications industry. Currently, he is focused on enhancing the subscriber experience in the home, particularly in the areas of Wi-Fi quality and performance, as well as the management of these systems. Prior to his role at Calix, Martin held positions at Occam Networks, Ericsson, A.C.C., and Nortel, where he contributed to various projects and innovations in the field.

Martin currently serves as a Co-Project Stream Leader in the Broadband User Service Work Area and as editor of TR-398 at the Broadband Forum.  He has received the Broadband Forums Circle of Excellence and Outstanding Contributor awards. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Mathematics from Carleton University.

Term ends 2026

Francisco is responsible for Standardization, Roadmap Evolution and as an advisor on the overall Product and Market Strategy across Radisys, focusing on end-end systems integration and innovation to fulfil market needs. Fran is an active member of the Broadband Forum and the Board of Directors and has a leadership role in promoting the synergies between standards and opensource bodies, having also served as a Board of Directors for the ONF.

Fran has previously led the research activity responsible for the creation of long-term programmable network capabilities in BT Technology, including the definition, development and standardization of open, L2 wholesale models suitable for the UK market. As a designer, he has had experience of product and service development, creating the security design for BT’s 4G Femto cell and the UK’s first mobile to fixed line to / from mobile text and text-speech messaging service, BT Text, launched in 2004 and still operational today.

Term ends 2027

David Cluytens is a broadband expert with over 20 years of experience in the industry, and who has held various team leading and architect positions within the Orange Group.

Currently serving as the E2E HGW architect, where he plays an active role in gathering and analyzing customer requirements, translating them into actionable technical tasks.

David is an active contributor of the Broadband User Services (BUS) Work Area, for which he received the Circle of Excellence award in 2023. David is also an active member of the prpl-foundation where he holds the position of co-chair of the prpl high-level API working.

Term ends 2027

Bernd Hesse is an established expert in the international telecommunications market with over 30 years of experience in the optical carrier Ethernet and access markets.

He is EVP at Lambda Networks responsible for Global Business Development and Marketing. He also serves as an Industry Advisor to DZS while representing the company in the Broadband Forum (BBF). He was Vice President Global Business Development with DZS, focused on international business development/partnerships.

Before joining DZS, Bernd was Sen. Director of Standards Marketing at Calix, representing the company at the Broadband Forum. He worked with the Calix international team to increase the visibility of Calix in the European Market space.

Bernd serves on the BBF Board of Directors, which appointed him Chief Marketing Officer and Marketing Chair. In addition to instituting the Marketing Councils, he successfully established and chairs the BASe (Broadband Acceleration Seminar events) Program. He recently formed the EAB (Executive Advisory Board) with today’s Industry thought leaders, which he co-chairs.

He has founded and chaired several organizations, including NGPON2 Forum, WDM PON Forum, Cloud Access Forum (CAF), Virtual Access Forum (VAF), and G.FAST Forum, which he subsequently merged with BBF to form their Marketing Councils.

Before, he held multiple senior-level product marketing and management positions within the industry, most recently serving as head of engagement practices for access and transport within the office of the CTO at Ericsson. Before Ericsson, he led all international activities for Novera Optics and spearheaded the introduction of EPON and transceiver chips for Centillium Communications.

Term ends 2026

Chen Li is currently a Lead Member of Technical Staff with Standards and Industry Alliances organization at AT&T Labs. He leads a wide range of standards and strategy activities for AT&T home networking and contributes to SDOs like BBF, IETF, WFA, Prpl Foundation, CTA and other industry forums. AT BBF, he serves as USP/TR-369 PS co-leader.

Chen has more than 24 years of data network and telecoms industry experience, from both service provider and equipment vendor perspectives. During his tenure of 17 years at AT&T he has covered various technology areas including BNG architecture design and certification, RG certification, LTE/5G core, test automation, data traffic analytics and machine learning/AI. Prior to AT&T, he worked at Cisco Systems for 7 years as software developer and system engineer. Aside from industry roles, Chen had also been a part-time practitioner faculty at University of Phoenix Online for 15 years, teaching undergraduate as well as graduate level courses on networking technology as well as software programming.

Chen received his BSEE, BA Economics and MS Engineering Economics from Tsinghua University, Beijing; MS in Computer Engineering from University of Southern California, Los Angeles where he also attained PhD candidacy in Operations Research.

Term ends 2026

Evan Sun is currently a Director of Wuhan Division, Optical Product Line Research Department. His technical background includes fiber network solution, network architecture, FTTR/Wi-Fi/Cable technology, and network/device security. He has worked in the cable industry for eight years, participated in DOCSIS 3.1 and Full Duplex DOCSIS standards development, and was familiar with the cable industry. Since 2019, he has shifted his work direction to the fiber access field and is responsible for standards work.

After Evan Sun joined the Broadband Forum, he served several roles in the Broadband Forum including TC Vice-chair, Co-director of PHYtx work area, PS leaders.

Evan Sun received his master degree in 2006 and studied optimization theory. He then worked at the university for two years before receiving his Ph.D. in 2011 in cryptography and information security. Then he joined Huawei.

Term ends 2026

Mauro Tilocca graduated cum laude in electronic engineering at the Politecnico of Turin in 1994. He joined CSELT, former Telecom Italia’s R&D center, the same year dealing with transport network aspects. He has been also an ETSI technical editor. As of July 2024, he is with Fibercop, the main Access Wholesaler in Italy.

Since 1998 Mauro began working in the access network department with a main focus on xDSL. He has been involved in the specification and implementation of Telecom Italia’s DSL validation framework, lab facilities and in the scouting and qualification of DSL technologies and commercial products. He collaborated with chipset vendors within framework projects and was in charge of Telecom Italia’s Independent Test Lab third-party service. He’s been responsible for the interoperability and assessment of DSL products, for the engineering of evolutionary infrastructural components for FTTx deployment. He participates in the definition of standardization strategies.

He managed projects for the specification and engineering of solutions and the definition of the Test Lists for the access network deployment for Ultra-Broadband services as well as the study and scouting of SDN and NFV solutions for the Access Network.

Term ends 2026

With over 30 years industry experience Craig plays a valuable role in driving and executing the Broadband Forum’s strategy. He leads the growth and development of the Broadband Forum, ensuring it is capable of delivering on its long-term vision by evangelizing the work of the Broadband Forum to the industry and increasing the footprint and relevancy of the Forum’s work globally. Reporting to the Broadband Forum Chairperson and Board of Directors he ensures the Forum’s fiscal, operations, fundraising, and marketing strategies are effectively implemented across all segments of the organization.

Lincoln Lavoie has participated in many of the Broadband Forum’s initiatives since 2003, such as projects on testing and interoperability of various broadband technologies, including DSL, Gfast, TR-069, GPON, G.hn, and NFV/SDN. He helped organize industry events, including the first public demonstration of VDSL2 Vectoring and the DSL, TR-069, Gfast, and GPON plugfests. Lincoln participated in the Board’s Testing and Certification Oversight Committee, providing input on the BBF.247, BBF.069, and G.fast certification programs.

Email Lincoln Lavoie: [email protected]

Frank Van der Putten was born in Aalst, Belgium in 1963. He obtained an Electronic Engineering Degree in Communication Techniques from the Ghent University in 1986 and a Business Management Degree from the Leuven University in 1991. In 1986, he joined the Ghent University Communications and Information Transmission Laboratories to work on image processing.

In 1988, he joined the Alcatel-Lucent Research Center to continue working on image processing and evolved into home networking and DSL access technologies. From 1994, he was involved in the DAVIC standardization activities, where he chaired the physical layer working group until end 1996. Since then, he has been involved in DSL standardization within the ANSI, ETSI, ITU-T SG15 and the Broadband Forum. He is currently serving as Rapporteur of ITU-T SG15 Q4 (dealing with broadband access on metallic conductors, covering DSL and G.fast), as member of the Broadband Forum Board of Directors, and as Director of Standards for the Nokia Fixed Networks Business Group.

Evan Sun is currently a Director of Wuhan Division, Optical Product Line Research Department. His technical background includes fiber network solution, network architecture, FTTR/Wi-Fi/Cable technology, and network/device security. He has worked in the cable industry for eight years, participated in DOCSIS 3.1 and Full Duplex DOCSIS standards development, and was familiar with the cable industry. Since 2019, he has shifted his work direction to the fiber access field and is responsible for standards work.

After Evan Sun joined the Broadband Forum, he served several roles in the Broadband Forum including TC Vice-chair, Co-director of PHYtx work area, PS leaders.

Evan Sun received his master degree in 2006 and studied optimization theory. He then worked at the university for two years before receiving his Ph.D. in 2011 in cryptography and information security. Then he joined Huawei.

Languages Spoken: English, French, Dutch

Languages Spoken: French, English

Languages Spoken: English, Polish

He is EVP at Lambda Networks responsible for Global Business Development and Marketing. He also serves as an Industry Advisor to DZS while representing the company in the Broadband Forum (BBF). He was Vice President Global Business Development with DZS, focused on international business development/partnerships.

Before joining DZS, Bernd was Sen. Director of Standards Marketing at Calix, representing the company at the Broadband Forum. He worked with the Calix international team to increase the visibility of Calix in the European Market space.

Bernd serves on the BBF Board of Directors, which appointed him Chief Marketing Officer and Marketing Chair. In addition to instituting the Marketing Councils, he successfully established and chairs the BASe (Broadband Acceleration Seminar events) Program. He recently formed the EAB (Executive Advisory Board) with today’s Industry thought leaders, which he co-chairs.

He has founded and chaired several organizations, including NGPON2 Forum, WDM PON Forum, Cloud Access Forum (CAF), Virtual Access Forum (VAF), and G.FAST Forum, which he subsequently merged with BBF to form their Marketing Councils.

Before, he held multiple senior-level product marketing and management positions within the industry, most recently serving as head of engagement practices for access and transport within the office of the CTO at Ericsson. Before Ericsson, he led all international activities for Novera Optics and spearheaded the introduction of EPON and transceiver chips for Centillium Communications.

Languages Spoken: English, German

Languages Spoken:

Email Lincoln Lavoie: [email protected]

Languages Spoken: English

Languages Spoken: Dutch, English, French

Manuel Paul, senior standardization expert at Deutsche Telekom, serves as a member of the Broadband Forum Board since 2013.

Deeply engaged in strategy, innovation and engineering projects (inc. leading roles) within the DT group, Manuel coordinates Software-Defined Networking standards & collaborative community activities. He serves in leadership positions at the Broadband Forum and the Open Networking Foundation and is co-initiator and leader of the 5g Convergence project stream within the BBF Wireless-Wireline-Convergence Work Area. He has been involved in the SDN movement since the early days and has driven and contributed to various related standardization and community activities. In the past, he was also active in other standards developing organizations incl. the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Prior to his current position at DT, Manuel was a research professional and technology consultant for T-Systems, where he was active in a broad range of projects concerning packet transport technologies and transmission systems engineering, next generation network design and corporate R&D.

Languages Spoken: English, German

Languages Spoken: English, Mandarin