ORLANDO – The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) celebrated exemplary contributions to the Society and the industry on Wednesday at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2012 in Orlando.
Joseph Guariglia of Comcast Cable Communications was hailed as the 2012 SCTE Member of the Year during Expo’s Annual Awards Luncheon this afternoon. Guariglia, who is vice president of technical operations for the Greater Boston Region with Comcast, distinguished himself during the past year with his tireless efforts as chairman of the SCTE New England Chapter’s Vendor Day Committee, helping to attract an impressive 90 vendors and more than 300 attendees. This year’s honoree is constantly positioning technical training as a way to better understand the industry and products and technologies related to the industry.
Prior to honoring Guariglia, SCTE inducted two Society stalwarts into the esteemed SCTE Hall of Fame: John Chapman, fellow and CTO with Cisco Systems, and Dennis Sartori, national CATV accounts manager with the MaxCell division of TVC.
For SCTE alone, Chapman has written more than a dozen technical papers over the past 15-plus years, and his perennial participation in SCTE Cable Tec Expo and other Society events attracts positive attention and attendance. Chapman has been a tremendous force in industry standards development as a co-author of DOCSIS 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0, as well as PacketCable. He is regarded as the father of “wideband,” which eventually became the channel bonding technology behind DOCSIS 3.0.
As for Sartori, over the past 40 years, he has rolled out new technology with a contract service company or as a technical manager for a cable operator. He has made a successful career of testing and troubleshooting cable equipment in the field, matching technical problems with technical solutions. With his penchant for technical training and applied science, Sartori started the SCTE Great Lakes Chapter in Michigan. He has supported other SCTE chapters over the decades. He has attended 65 SCTE Chapter Vendor Day events in the past two-plus years and is a steady presence at the annual SCTE Chapter Leadership Conference (CLC).
During Expo’s Opening General Session this morning, SCTE Board of Directors Chairman Mike LaJoie, executive vice president and CTO of Time Warner Cable, presented his SCTE Chairman’s Award for 2012 to Bob Foote, vice president, sales, major markets, TriNet Communications. LaJoie selected Foote for demonstrating significant support of the Society’s mission. LaJoie credited Foote, his predecessor as chairman, for his vision, insights, and courage in helping to keep SCTE relevant and more valuable than ever to its members and the industry workforce at-large.
At this afternoon’s awards luncheon, Dean Stoneback of Motorola Mobility received the SCTE Excellence in Standards Award for 2012. At Motorola Mobility, Stoneback is senior manager of systems engineering in the network infrastructure solutions group. He was the secretary and a contributor to the SCTE Measurement Recommended Practices for Cable Systems, Fourth Edition this year. He had served as the editor of the third edition back in 2002. Stoneback also has distinguished himself as chairman of Working Group 5 of SCTE’s Interface Practices Subcommittee (IPS), responsible for the development of the RFoG standard and the SFP-RF and XFP-RF optical module interface standards.
After Stoneback was honored, the newest SCTE Senior Members were recognized. SCTE bestows senior status upon SCTE members for their technical competence, participation, experience, and professionalism. The newest honorees both work for Times Fiber Amphenol. They are Christopher Cooper, who is strategic account manager, and Gregory Worthman, who is regional account manager.
Jennifer Yohe Wagner also was honored at this afternoon’s luncheon. The vice president, strategic business procurement for Comcast Cable received the Women in Technology Award for 2012. She has been instrumental in transforming the Comcast procurement and purchasing organization from a tactical function into a strategic organization. The award is presented by SCTE, Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), and Communications Technology magazine and sponsored by Bright House Networks.
Lastly, Expo again has been the occasion to recognize the newest SCTE Safety Awards recipients. This year’s honorees were determined by their outstanding 2011 performance.
