VoiceXML Forum

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:

Valentine C. Matula, VoiceXML Forum Chairman, Ph.D., 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.

Dr. Rob Kassel, VoiceXML Forum Vice Chair, Holly Connects 

Rob is vice president, marketing and products, at Holly Connects. Rob has been involved in the speech technology industry for more than twenty-five years. He has extensive knowledge of speech recognition, text-to-speech, speaker verification, and dialog management. He has held technical and marketing positions at numerous speech and telecommunications companies, including the pioneering Voice Processing Corporation, Wildfire Communications, and Nuance. He holds a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bruce Pollock, VoiceXML Treasurer, West Interactive Corporation

Bruce is vice president, products and services, at West Interactive Corporation. He oversees the company’s strategic vision and implementation activities across a range of automated customer contact products and services.

Bruce has 21 years of business management experience, including 11 years in the automated customer contact field. He has written numerous articles for industry publications, including Speech Technology Magazine, Energy Customer Management, and Contact Professional Magazine. Additionally, Bruce has been cited twice in the national publication, The Economist. He has also served as a panelist and moderator at speech and other technology industry forums.

Bruce currently serves as Treasurer of the VoiceXML Forum. He also serves on the Board of Directors of The American Voice Input-Output Society (AVIOS). He is also co-chair of the Family Advisory Committee at Alegent Lakeside Hospital in Omaha.

Bruce earned an MBA from the Ivey School at the University of Western Ontario.

Robert Marchand, 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, Loquendo

Paolo is director, international standards, at Loquendo 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 Loquendo’s 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.

Kevin Chatow, Nuance

Kevin is director, product management, at Nuance where he is responsible for Nuance’s core speech portfolio including speech recognition, text-to-speech, speaker verification and VoiceXML platform products. He brings more than 14 years of experience in the communication and contact center industry including 11 years in the speech technology field.  Kevin holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and an Economics degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ken Rehor, Cisco Systems

Ken works in Cisco Systems’ Voice Technology Group on the application of new speech technologies for customer care. Prior to joining Cisco, Ken held various consulting and R&D roles at industry leaders including AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs, Nuance, and Vocalocity.  Speech Technology Magazine named him one of the industry’s 20 most influential people for his pioneering work as principal founder of the VoiceXML Forum and one of the original authors of the VoiceXML 1.0 specification. Ken is co-chair of the VoiceXML Forum’s Conformance and Speaker Biometrics Committees. He is co-editor of industry standards such as VoiceXML 2.0, 2.1, Call Control XML 1.0, and the forthcoming VoiceXML 3.0. Ken holds seven patents in the area of web-based telecommunications. Ken holds a BSEE and MS EE/CS from the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Ellis K. "Skip" Cave, Convergys Inc.

Ellis is Chief Scientist at Convergys Inc., where he directs technical and product strategy. Prior to Convergys, Ellis held technical leadership positions at Intervoice, Teknekron Infoswitch, Davox, Telephone Broadcasting Systems, and Recognition Equipment. 

Ellis is a pioneer and innovator, and has received over 35 patents in the fields of telecommunication and signal processing spaning a 40-year career. Ellis developed and patented the first predictive dialing system, developed a digital ACD system, and designed components of the first hand-held OCR device.

Mr. Cave is an executive member of the University of Texas Industrial Advisory Board, guiding the university’s technical cirriculum. Ellis directs the Center for Conversational Technologies at UTD, performing research on speech and dialog technologies. He participates in international standards bodies such as the W3C and IETF, driving standards for the interactive voice industry such as VoiceXML. SCXML, SALT, and MRCP.

Ellis holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kansas, and a Masters in Computer Science from SMU.