Executives at the Edge

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Executives at the Edge episodes

October 01Cybersecurity Claims: Putting Trust to the Test
SecureIQLab VP of Engineering, Ahmed Garhy, explains how independent, evidence-based testing can bring greater confidence and consistency to cybersecurity.
As SASE solutions become more complex and AI accelerates how infrastructure is deployed and managed, how must validation evolve to keep pace?
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, host Pascal Menezes explores these topics and more with Ahmed Garhy of SecureIQLab:
Why is independent validation critical to building confidence in cybersecurity technologies and services?
How do transparent methodologies and industry-defined criteria create consistent cybersecurity testing?
What does Mplify SASE Certification validate across SD-WAN, SSE, and Zero Trust?
How can certification address complex, multi-vendor service provider environments?
What will AI mean for the speed and scale of cybersecurity validation?
Learn More
Learn how Mplify SASE Certification for service providers and technology providers validates SD-WAN, SSE, and Zero Trust technologies and services.
Explore how SecureIQLab independently tests cybersecurity technologies using transparent, evidence-based methodologies to validate performance and security claims.
See the SASE Certification scope, testing categories, and certification paths for technology providers and service providers.
Explore Mplify certifications for services, technologies, LSO APIs, and professionals.
About Our Guest
Ahmed Garhy, VP of Engineering, SecureIQLab
Ahmed Garhy leads engineering at SecureIQLab, where he oversees the development of the company’s AI security validation platform. He brings 20 years of security experience in engineering leadership, building security testing and compliance validation systems, and advancing AI security. Ahmed has published papers, contributes to open source security projects, and shares technical knowledge through writing and presentations.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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The post Cybersecurity Claims: Putting Trust to the Test appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
22 min
September 03Internet Exchanges: Scaling Interconnection Through Automation
Live from the GNE MainStage, Rakesh Bachoe, Head of Design & Development, AMS-IX, Chris Dietzel, Head of Products & Innovation, DE-CIX, and Richard Petrie, CTO, LINX share how years of collaboration on automated interconnection are helping shape a more standardized approach for the industry. By bringing proven IX capabilities into the Mplify LSO API ecosystem, they see an opportunity to simplify how interconnection is consumed, expand adoption, and support emerging connectivity demands across the digital ecosystem. Hear what it takes to turn proven innovation into an industry-wide model.
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, executives from AMS-IX, DE-CIX, and LINX explore these topics and more:
Why are internet exchanges evolving beyond traditional peering?
How can the IX-API and Mplify LSO APIs come together without duplicating existing work?
What can standardized APIs do to simplify the consumption of interconnection services?
How could automated interconnection expand from service providers to enterprise users?
What role can internet exchanges play in connecting distributed data, compute, and AI infrastructure?
How can industry collaboration accelerate adoption across the broader interconnection ecosystem?
Learn More
Read latest press release, Mplify and Leading Internet Exchanges Collaborate on LSO APIs to Accelerate Interconnection Automation
About Our Guests
AMS-IX operates one of the world’s leading internet exchanges, providing neutral interconnection infrastructure that enables networks, cloud providers, and other digital ecosystem participants to exchange traffic efficiently and reliably.
DE-CIX operates internet exchanges around the world, providing high-performance interconnection services across major metropolitan markets and expanding its capabilities to support cloud, enterprise, and AI connectivity.
LINX is a member-owned Internet Exchange Point operator providing neutral, high-capacity interconnection services across multiple data centers and networks in key global markets.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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The post Internet Exchanges: Scaling Interconnection Through Automation appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
17 min
August 06Carrier Ethernet: Built for the AI Era
RAD’s Chief Technology Officer, Ron Insler, explains why Carrier Ethernet is evolving to meet the demands of AI. As AI workloads become more distributed and performance sensitive, deterministic connectivity is becoming essential for AI-ready infrastructure.
How will networking evolve to support the next generation of AI?
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, host Pascal Menezes explores these topics and more with Ron Insler of RAD:
How are AI workloads changing enterprise network requirements?
Why is Carrier Ethernet well suited for distributed AI and edge inference?
How are automation and programmable networks changing AI connectivity?
How does edge computing create new opportunities for service providers?
What standards are needed to validate AI-ready network performance?
Learn More
Learn about Mplify’s Carrier Ethernet for Business certification.
Read the blog Carrier Ethernet Certification Evolves for an AI-Ready Era.
Explore Mplify’s research reports.
About Our Guest
Ron Insler, CTO, RAD
Ron Insler is Chief Technology Officer at RAD and the Head of its Innovation Labs. In this capacity, he is responsible for researching and evaluating new innovative technologies, developing prototype solutions and performing proof-of-concept testing with design partners, with a particular focus on AI for networking, networking for AI, vCPE, SD-WAN and cloud access solutions.

Insler is an active member of Mplify and the Broadband Forum (BBF), for which he has been recognized twice as an outstanding contributor. Currently, he is the co-editor of “Class of Service for Subscriber and Operator Ethernet Services” (Mplify W23.3) and is active in the networking for AI certification program.

Insler holds a B.Sc in mathematics and computer science.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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The post Carrier Ethernet: Built for the AI Era appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
32 min
July 23Beyond Connectivity: Building Networks for the AI Era
Live from the GNE MainStage, Mplify CTO Pascal Menezes shares his vision for the next generation of AI infrastructure, and the role networks must play in supporting it. From programmable connectivity and standardized automation to federation and AI-driven service orchestration, he explains why traditional networking models must evolve to meet the demands of the AI economy. Listen in for a strategic perspective on how open standards can help build the networks AI will depend on.
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, Pascal Menezes explores these topics and more:
How will AI change the way networks are designed and operated?
Why are automation and standardized APIs becoming foundational to AI infrastructure?
What role will federation play in connecting providers, clouds, and AI services?
How can service providers create new revenue opportunities in the AI era?
Where does Network as a Service fit into the future of AI-ready digital infrastructure?
Learn More
Watch Pascal’s presentation, The Agentic AI Era: Mplify NaaS as the Infrastructure for AI, from the Mplify Member Meeting – EMEA in Lisbon
Read Pascal Menezes’ recent blogs: The $15.7 Trillion Bottleneck: Why AI’s Future Depends on Rewiring the Internet, and From APIs to Agents: Why the Network is Becoming an Active Participant in the AI Economy
View the available recordings and presentations from Mplify’s Member Summit – EMEA.
About Our Guest
Pascal Menezes, Chief Technology Officer, Mplify
At Mplify, Pascal leads the company’s strategic vision across cutting-edge domains including Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), SD-WAN, service assurance, and API-driven interoperability. His work is central to advancing industry alignment around standards, automation, and certification—powering the next wave of digital transformation for cloud, edge, and carrier-scale networks.

Prior to Mplify, Pascal served as a Principal at Microsoft, where he spent nearly a decade focused on real-time media, intelligent networks, and cloud communications. His career includes leadership roles across five startups, multiple successful exits, and over 30 issued and pending patents.

Pascal is the recipient of more than five global industry awards for innovation, recognizing his groundbreaking contributions to networking, communications, and service orchestration. He has also co-authored major standards at the IETF, Broadband Forum, and Mplify.

A frequent keynote speaker and respected thought leader, Pascal hosts the influential Executives at the Edge podcast where he interviews top minds shaping the future of cloud and network services.

Pascal brings a rare combination of technical depth, entrepreneurial insight, and visionary leadership—making him a powerful voice at the intersection of innovation, execution, and industry transformation.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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The post Beyond Connectivity: Building Networks for the AI Era appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
35 min
July 09Secure Agentic AI: Building Trust for the Quantum Era
Sparkle Chief Information Officer Lorella Scalcione explores why secure agent-to-agent communication will become essential to AI-ready digital infrastructure. From quantum-safe networking to trusted federation and on-demand connectivity, she explains how service providers must evolve to support autonomous AI ecosystems. How will networks establish trust in an agent-driven world?
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, host Pascal Menezes explores these topics and more with Lorella Scalcione of Sparkle:
Why do AI agents require a fundamentally different approach to security than traditional APIs?
How can quantum-safe networking protect agent-to-agent communications?
What role will trust, identity, and federation play as autonomous AI systems interact across organizations?
How does Network-as-a-Service enable on-demand connectivity for AI-driven applications?
How will collaboration across the digital ecosystem accelerate the AI economy?
Learn More
Watch Pascal Menezes’ Lisbon keynote, The Agentic AI Era: Mplify Vision and Strategy, on AI-ready digital infrastructure and the evolution toward agentic networking.
Explore how Network-as-a-Service enables programmable, on-demand connectivity across digital ecosystems.
Learn how Mplify’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration APIs enable automated, multi-provider service orchestration.
About Our Guest
Sparkle Chief Information Officer Lorella Scalcione
Lorella Scalcione is Chief Information Officer at Sparkle and Member of the Board of Directors in several subsidiaries of the Sparkle Group.

In Sparkle since 2017, she significantly contributed to the company’s Transformation from a traditional Carrier to a Digital Telco adopting the Data Driven Company paradigm and starting the adoption of AI-based tools to support business and operations.

In the last 20 years she has held executive roles in the Media and Communications sectors working either as IT Director or Chief IT Architectures managing and driving IT transformation programs spanning all application domains. Within the Telecom Italia Group she participated in several M&A projects as IT referral (Noverca purchase in 2016, LA7 sale in 2013, LA7 CartaPiù sale in 2008, Seat Pagine Gialle sale 2003) and she was part of the foundation of two startups (LA7 CartaPiù in 2006 e Tin.it in 1996).

Lorella is a Telecommunication Engineer graduated at Sapienza University of Rome.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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The post Secure Agentic AI: Building Trust for the Quantum Era appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
27 min
June 25AI Infrastructure: Building the Digital Supply Chain
Verizon Business Chief Product Officer Scott Lawrence explains how AI is creating new opportunities for service providers and why automation, standards, and interoperability will shape the next generation of digital infrastructure. As AI workloads become increasingly distributed, what will it take to build the on-demand supply chain needed to support the AI economy?
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, host Pascal Menezes explores these topics and more with Scott Lawrence of Verizon Business:
How are AI workloads creating new opportunities for service providers?
What drove Verizon to centralize its API strategy across the business?
How will distributed inference and agentic AI change network requirements?
Where do standards and interoperability fit into the industry’s automation journey? Can an on-demand digital supply chain enable autonomous transactions across ecosystems?
Learn More
Learn how Mplify Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs enable automated, standards-based service orchestration across digital ecosystems.
Listen to Scott Lawrence’s recent presentation at Mplify’s Lisbon Member Summit: Winning the AI Arms Race: The Strategic Power Shift to the Edge
Explore Mplify’s strategic vision for the agentic AI era inside Mplify CTO Pascal Menezes’s recent keynote.
Engage with the community defining secure, automated, secure, AI-ready services worldwide by joining Mplify.
About Our Guest
Scott M. Lawrence, Chief Product Officer, Verizon Business
Scott Lawrence is the Chief Product Officer for Verizon Business, driving innovation and growth for a $30 billion business unit. He spearheads a holistic product strategy across network services, cybersecurity, platforms, Connected Experiences and IoT solutions for customers across the world, including global enterprises, the public sector and small businesses.

Scott has held a series of executive leadership roles across Verizon. Most recently he was Senior Vice President for Verizon Business’ Global Solutions leading over 1,000 Sales and Technology professionals for a $15B business area, and previously served as Group Vice President and General Manager for Verizon Business’ International segment across EMEA.

Scott brings a diversified technical and commercial background to the Mplify Board. He contributes deep expertise in scaling complex product ecosystems and global operations and in guiding organizations through strategic transformations, ensuring Mplify is positioned to unlock new opportunities for leadership and maximize its market impact.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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The post AI Infrastructure: Building the Digital Supply Chain appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
27 min
May 28Deterministic Networks: Rebuilding the AI Backbone
Graphiant Founder and President Khalid Raza explains why the AI era demands a new approach to connectivity, one built on deterministic infrastructure, observability, sovereignty, and automation rather than overlays. As AI traffic shifts east-west and agents operate everywhere, can existing IP VPN infrastructure evolve into the programmable AI fabric enterprises need?
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, host Pascal Menezes explores these topics and more with Khalid Raza of Graphiant:
How are AI traffic patterns reshaping assumptions around internet and SD-WAN architectures?
Could existing IP VPN infrastructure evolve into a programmable AI fabric?
Why are deterministic networking and observability becoming critical in agentic AI environments?
Why are sovereignty, security, and reduced attack surfaces becoming foundational infrastructure requirements?
What must telecom providers do to remain central in the AI connectivity era?
Learn More
Discover how Mplify’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs and automation frameworks help providers coordinate and program connectivity across multi-provider ecosystems.
Read “The $15.7 Trillion Bottleneck: Why AI’s Future Depends on Rewiring the Internet” to understand how AI-era infrastructure demands more deterministic, programmable, and observable connectivity models in this blog from Pascal Menezes.
Learn how Mplify is advancing programmable, interoperable Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) frameworks designed to support distributed AI infrastructure and the AI-powered digital economy.
About Our Guest
Khalid Raza, Founder & Visionary, Graphiant; Inventor of SD-WAN
Khalid Raza has spent three decades thinking about a problem most people don’t
know exists: how information actually moves across the world, and why the
infrastructure carrying it keeps breaking under the weight of its own complexity.

He arrived at Cisco in 1993, just as the commercial internet was finding its
footing, and spent the next seventeen years inside the machinery of global
connectivity, architecting networks for the carriers and institutions that form the
backbone of modern commerce — including AT&T, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom,
and JP Morgan Chase. When those networks failed, business stopped. Khalid’s
instinct, then as now, was to ask whether the failure was a symptom of something
more structural, and whether a cleaner idea existed somewhere upstream.

That instinct produced SD-WAN. As co-founder and CTO of Viptela, Khalid
applied software-defined principles to wide-area networking at a moment when
most of the industry considered the problem already solved. Viptela’s acquisition
by Cisco for $610 million validated the approach; the $8 billion industry that
followed validated the idea.

His company, Graphiant, is the next chapter in that same path of inquiry. The
question Khalid is pursuing now is whether enterprise networking can be rebuilt
from first principles, to bring about intelligent infrastructure for the next
generation of networks.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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The post Deterministic Networks: Rebuilding the AI Backbone appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
30 min
May 14Edge Decisions: Redefining the Connectivity Layer
Comcast Business CTO, Nitel Connectivity and Platforms, Fleming Shi, explores how AI is changing connectivity requirements across training, inference, edge computing, and cybersecurity. As autonomous systems scale, what infrastructure and operational challenges will providers need to solve next?
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, host Pascal Menezes explores these topics and more with Fleming Shi of Comcast Business:
How are AI training and inference workloads changing connectivity and bandwidth requirements?
Why will agentic AI create new operational and cybersecurity challenges across networks?
What role will edge computing and distributed inference play in supporting physical AI systems?
How can providers use AI-driven observability to improve operational intelligence and customer experience?
Why will workload-aware connectivity become increasingly important as AI adoption scales?
Learn More
Explore how standardized APIs support automated, interoperable connectivity across AI environments.
Learn how edge infrastructure and low-latency connectivity are reshaping AI execution.
Discover why identity, trust, and policy enforcement are critical in autonomous AI systems.
About Our Guest
Fleming Shi, CTO, Nitel Connectivity and Platforms, Comcast Business
Fleming Shi is CTO, Nitel Connectivity & Platforms at Comcast Business, where he leads technology strategy, AI-driven innovation, and the integration of internal and customer-facing systems. Prior to Nitel’s acquisition, he served as Nitel’s CTO.

At Barracuda Networks, Fleming spent two decades helping shape the company’s innovation culture as Chief Technology Officer. He played a key role in evolving Barracuda from its appliance-based beginnings into a cloud-enabled, SaaS-driven cybersecurity platform, led engineering for its network and content security solutions, and helped steer the company through major growth milestones, including its IPO.
Across his career, Fleming has been issued or listed on 20+ cybersecurity patents and has also supported emerging startups through board and advisory roles.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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The post Edge Decisions: Redefining the Connectivity Layer appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
25 min
April 30Beyond Best Effort: Networking for AI Operations
Cisco VP of Product Management for SD-WAN and SASE, Hugo Vliegen, explains how AI is changing enterprise network requirements around latency, security, sovereignty, and automation. As AI traffic becomes more distributed and operationally critical, how will providers deliver assured experiences instead of basic connectivity?
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, host Pascal Menezes explores these topics and more with Hugo Vliegen of Cisco:
Why is AI forcing enterprises to rethink “good enough” internet connectivity?
How are latency, sovereignty, and deterministic performance reshaping WAN requirements?
Why must networking and security converge to support AI workloads and agents?
How can service providers evolve from connectivity suppliers to assured experience providers?
What role will SD-WAN and segment routing play in delivering differentiated AI services?
How will AI-native operations and digital twins reshape telecom infrastructure and service delivery?
Learn More
Explore how Mplify is advancing standardized APIs and automation frameworks for AI-era networking and orchestration.
Discover how Mplify initiatives around LSO APIs, security integration, and service assurance are helping providers operationalize AI-ready networks.
Learn how Network-as-a-Service is designed for the AI-powered digital economy.
About Our Guest
Hugo Vliegen, VP Product Management & Technical Marketing, Enterprise Routing & SD-WAN, Cisco
Hugo Vliegen has global responsibility for product management and technical marketing for Enterprise Routing & SDWAN. Hugo has 25+ years of experience in marketing and technology leadership roles.

Over the years, he has worked with numerous enterprise customers, service providers, and channel partners to define business strategies and product/solution requirements for networking and security infrastructure. Hugo also brings experience from working at cloud and IoT startups, including Aryaka, Nebbiolo and Infogear (acquired by Cisco). He is the cofounder of several new product lines in the networking and security space generating $100M+ in yearly revenues. Hugo started his career in Manufacturing IT and Automation.

Hugo earned a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Twente and graduated with Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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The post Beyond Best Effort: Networking for AI Operations appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
25 min
April 16The Network as Nervous System: Connecting the AI Edge
MaiaEdge CEO and Co-founder Abilash Menon challenges a foundational assumption: existing network infrastructure can carry the weight of distributed AI workloads. He explains why agentic AI demands a federated, programmable fabric across carriers, operators, and data centers, not just faster pipes. What does sovereignty look like when agents run the network?
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In this Executives at the Edge episode, host Pascal Menezes explores these topics and more with Abilash Menon of MaiaEdge:
Why does distributed AI inference expose a “first mile” connectivity problem that centralized architectures were never built to solve?
How do training and inference workloads place fundamentally different demands on network fabric and latency?
What does federation actually require from operators, and where do automation and sovereignty fit in?
As agentic AI multiplies inter-service calls across decentralized infrastructure, what breaks first in today’s network model?
Why does the “middle” of the network, between fiber operators, carriers, and data centers, remain a programmability and visibility black box?
How will data sovereignty policies shape the way federated AI networks are built and governed across regions?
Learn More
Learn how Mplify’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration APIs enable automated, multi-domain service orchestration across the ecosystem.
Discover how NaaS supports AI-ready, programmable connectivity for distributed workloads
Explore how Mplify Certification validates performance and consistency across providers.
About Our Guest
Abilash Menon, CEO and Co-founder, MaiaEdge
Abilash brings over 20 years in networking and more than 40 patents, blending deep technical expertise with visionary leadership. He led MPLS architecture teams at Cisco, drove SD-WAN breakthroughs at pioneering startup 128 Technology, and designed large-scale network solutions at Juniper Networks. A graduate of the Kellogg School of Management’s Executive MBA program, he combines business acumen with engineering depth.
Executives at the Edge podcast is brought to you by Mplify, a global alliance of network, cloud, cybersecurity, and enterprise organizations working together to accelerate the AI-powered digital economy through standardization, automation, certification, and collaboration.
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Interested in sharing your industry perspective as a podcast guest? Contact Us!
The post The Network as Nervous System: Connecting the AI Edge appeared first on Mplify Alliance.
26 min

About Executives at the Edge

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Join Mplify Alliance CTO Pascal Menezes as he explores thought-provoking perspectives from the leaders and changemakers propelling AI-powered digital transformation. Each episode delves into…

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Executives at the Edge

Executives at the Edge episodes

About Executives at the Edge