Presenter

Dan Pitt is a computer scientist who has worked mainly in telecommunications and computer networking and to a great recent extent in Software-Defined Networking (SDN). As executive director he led the Open Networking Foundation for its first six years and has served in executive roles at the MEF Forum, Nortel Networks, Bay Networks, and several startups, a number of which he currently advises as president of his consultancy Palo Alto Innovation Advisors (including some showcasing at SC21). He also spent five years as dean of engineering at Santa Clara University. For nearly 20 years he has been a member of the Society of Women Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers (as a white male). For more than ten years he has been an active volunteer for the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and currently chairs the selection committee for the Technical Leadership Abie Award, presented every year at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, which Dan has long enjoyed attending. Dan holds a B.S. degree from Duke and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois and is a Fellow of the IEEE.