Samia M. Bahsoun has over 26 years of global telecommunications experience working with and consulting to numerous Fortune 500 corporations, medium and small businesses and telecommunications startup ventures. Her experience includes work with Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, IDT, Tyco Telecom, Xtera Communications and Global Access Limited (Japan). Her roles and responsibilities have ranged from R&D as a Bell Laboratories engineer and serving as ITU-T delegate for Lucent in DWDM, to Executive functions with P&L accountability. Ms. Bahsoun’s experience spans several telecommunications business areas: wire-line and wireless; terrestrial ultra long haul, long haul and metro, subsea, GSM and microwave. Ms. Bahsoun has a multicultural background. She speaks Arabic, English, Farsi, French, Spanish and Wolof. She holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from The University of Oklahoma and completed PhD level course work in Opto-Electronics at the Polytechnic University of New York. Currently Ms. Bahsoun serves as an executive liaison to the Americas for the SAMENA Telecommunications Council and is spearheading the SAMENA Subsea Working Group.