Board of Directors
The VoiceXML Forum’s Board of Directors is comprised of one voting representative from each Sponsor member. The Board of Directors set the strategy for the VoiceXML Forum. Learn more about the VoiceXML Forum’s leadership below:
Dan Burnett, Ph.D., VoiceXML Forum Chairman, Voxeo
Daniel Burnett, Ph.D., is one of the leading experts in speech and telephony standards, beginning with the W3C in 1999. As an author or editor of VoiceXML 2.0, 2.1, and 3.0, SRGS 1.0, SSML 1.0 and 1.1, SISR 1.0, PLS 1.0, and MRCPv2, Dr. Burnett has been a significant driver in the development of the definitive speech-related standards of the past decade. He is currently the chair of the W3C Voice Browser Working Group, co-editor of the new W3C WebRTC specification, and co-chair and -editor of the recently completed W3C HTML Speech Incubator Group. He has twice received the prestigious "Speech Luminary" award from Speech Tech Magazine for his contributions to speech-related standards. Dr. Burnett holds a Doctorate in Computer Science from the Oregon Graduate Institute and has held positions at SBC, Nuance, and Vocalocity. He is currently the Director of Standards and Speech Technologies at Voxeo.
Valentine C. Matula, Ph.D., VoiceXML Forum Vice Chair, Avaya Labs Research
Dr. Val Matula and his team conduct research in natural language and speech processing technology, acoustics, mobile applications, streaming video and self-service systems at Avaya. He has 20+ years of experience in the architecture, design and development of automated systems while at Avaya Labs and its predecessor, Bell Labs. His MS.Engr. is from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI USA, and his Ph.D. is from Case in Cleveland, OH USA.
Robert Marchand, VoiceXML Forum Treasurer, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories
Rob is senior director, product management at Genesys where he is responsible for the Genesys Voice Platform, the industry’s leading standards-based IVR. Rob brings more than 23 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and currently serves as chairman of the VoiceXML Forum. Rob has contributed to the advancement of VoiceXML in the areas of standards, conformance, and education. Rob was formerly with VoiceGenie technologies, a pioneer in the VoiceXML platform space.
Paolo Baggia, Nuance
Paolo is director, international standards, at Nuance and is actively involved in the VoiceXML Forum as a director, and in the World Wide Web Consortium. Formerly, he led VoiceXML browser development for the VoxNauta platform. In 1999, he took part in a large-scale speech application: the automation of TreniItalia’s railway call centers. In 1989, he joined CSELT, Telecom Italia’s R&D lab, and was involved in several research activities, including natural language, speech parsing, spoken dialog design, and language modeling. He holds a degree in computer science from the Universita’ di Torino.