Ray Barghi, PhD

Ray Barghi has over 19 years of experience in technology, product, and strategic business development in the wireless telecom industry. He is a visionary, innovator, and problem solver, and is known in the wireless community as a "make it happen" person and "customer champion".

He is currently the founder and chairman of SPUG, where he provides leadership, direction, and consulting for a growing global organization of 38+ global operator members in subscriber data management, application integration, interoperability, legacy platform migrations, and TTM.

Ray joined Nextel in 2003 as Director of Technology Development and held a variety of senior management positions with Nextel and Sprint Nextel, where he was responsible for development, integration, and launch of major programs including core network elements, 4G, and leading applications and devices. He enhanced customer experience by delivering parity and seamless migrations across different networks and devices, and lowered cost by initiating reusable capabilities.

.

Prior to Nextel, Ray was with Ericsson where he held a number of key positions since 1994 and most recently served as the Director of Technology Development and Product Management. He was instrumental in winning big contracts and securing key customers, and championed end-to-end solutions and partnerships involving handsets, access and core networks, as well as mobile enablers, and applications & services.

Ray holds a B.S., M.S., and PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of Oklahoma where he also served as a member of faculty.