MEF Support Team Area

Kevin Vachon – Chief Operating Officer

Responsibilities

Kevin leads the MEF recruiting, retention, and member liaison functions including emerging marketing development activities. He coordinates staff and contracted resources required to enable the volunteer activities of the committees and to provide the necessary administrative and IT infrastructures required for the MEF to operate and scale.

Biography

As MEF COO since 2006, Kevin leads a team that builds, supports and scales the MEF’s ever-increasing mix of global programs activities. He is actively engaged with MEF’s global member and partner community and has a broad perspective on the important role that MEF plays in the industry and how to deliver results.

MEF is a global industry association of network, cloud, and technology providers who together drive network transformation to power the digital economy. MEF develops service standards, LSO frameworks and APIs, and certification programs for services, technologies, APIs, and professionals. As a major milestone in this journey, Kevin led MEF’s efforts to conceive and bring to market, MEF 3.0, the global services framework. He was instrumental in engaging global service providers for the development of MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata APIs for inter-carrier automation.

Prior to joining MEF, Kevin held the position of CEO of DIATEM Networks Inc., a Carrier Ethernet software company from 2003 to 2005 and was President and CEO of NUVO Network Management, a network management outsourcing firm, from 1996 to 2002. Previously, he held other senior management positions with NUVO and spent 10 years in a wide variety of capacities with Gandalf Technologies, a network equipment manufacturer.

Pascal Menezes – Chief Technology Officer

Responsibilities

In his role as CTO, Pascal leads MEF’s technical strategy and aligns key work programs internally and in conjunction with open-source and SDO partners. Pascal engages with MEF’s global membership base to ensure that the organization’s strategy and work plans are market-driven, with agility and time to market being prime objectives.

Biography

High-energy technology leader Pascal Menezes has broad expertise, business acumen, and ability to translate technical strategies into results. He has demonstrated success in technology strategy, planning, and execution in internetworking, next-generation information systems, communication architectures and cloud technologies. A MEF co-founder and CTO, Pascal directs the organization’s technology strategy.

Daniel Bar-Lev – Chief Product Officer

Responsibilities

As Chief Product Officer Daniel is responsible for the development and implementation of a range of strategic MEF programs that are central to MEF's transformation to an agile-process-oriented standards development organization. Programs in his purview include SASE, SD-WAN, the MEF 3.0 PoC Program, Provider Commerce and Business Automation, and the LSO API Release Framework. Daniel also manages business development for MEF in the Europe and Africa regions.

Biography

Daniel has been involved in the networking industry for 25 years holding a variety of positions in RAD Data Communications as well as co-founding Resolute Networks where he held executive positions. Representing Resolute in MEF, Daniel served for 3 years as MEF Global Marketing Co-Chair and was elected three times to the MEF Board of Directors. Since 2010, Daniel has been a senior member of the MEF staff creating and leading many of the current central programs in the MEF.

Lori Vachon – Director of Global Events

Responsibilities

As Director Global Events, Lori oversees MEF's global events program including project managing all aspects of quarterly member meetings, virtual workshops, industry events, and project management of GNE. In addition, she is responsible for sponsor sales. Over the years, Lori has been instrumental managing relationships with industry organizers to allow members the opportunity to participate in events all around the globe. 

Biography

Lori has been involved in the events industry for 25 years in various industries including technology, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals.  During her tenure with MEF since 2007, she has traveled all around the globe expanding her role into member retention, and recruitment in Europe, Asia, Central & Latin America, and North America. Her success building relationships by working closely with members in various countries has been key to keeping them engaged in MEF.

Stan Hubbard – Principal Analyst

Responsibilities

Stan oversees strategic research in support of existing, planned and potential MEF work areas and programs supporting MEF goals and objectives. He authors and coordinates FAQs, blogs, and presentations for internal and external audiences, engages in industry briefings, and contributes to a broad range of strategic initiatives, including SD-WAN, SASE, CE, LSO, certification, etc. He is responsible for development of in-house reports and collaborative reports with the analyst community.

Biography

Stan has more than 24 years of experience in strategic marketing, industry analysis, event programming, and communications. In 2013, he joined MEF, where he has directed program development for global networking events, managed press and analyst relations, and contributed to strategic initiatives to accelerate MEF 3.0 adoption. Prior to MEF, Stan was a Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading, where he focused on Carrier Ethernet and SDN. He chaired 20 major Light Reading CE events worldwide. Prior to that, Stan was the director of market intelligence at Ciena.

Melissa Power  – Senior Director of Communications

Responsibilities

As Senior Director of Communications, Melissa oversees MEF's media relations strategy and execution globally. She works with MEF and industry executives and experts to craft and promote stories that bring the MEF brand to life. In collaboration with MEF leadership, staff and members, Melissa develops the communications strategy and content to drive strong brand awareness and thought leadership across MEF’s key external audiences horizontally, vertically, and geographically.

Biography

Melissa is a savvy PR and integrated communications professional with expertise in developing and implementing strategic, brand-building communications campaigns for technology, healthcare, energy, and telecommunications companies, and global industry associations and standards development organizations. Previously Melissa worked at a full-service marketing and communications agency.

Alysia Bennett – Manager, Finance & Operations

Responsibilities

Alysia manages all of the finance and administrative needs of MEF along with supporting its new member recruitment and retention efforts. 

Biography

Alysia joined MEF in 2010 and brings experience from multiple industries. Prior to MEF, she was the Administrator for another non-profit, served in the United States Army as an Arab linguist and was an editorial assistant and freelance writer for the Washington Post.

Tom Dickson – Technical Support Manager

Responsibilities

Tom provides support on all our mission-critical platforms including this Wiki, the MEF public site, SalesForce, Microsoft 365, and member and internal support. Support inquiries can be directed to him. He also helps coordinate the MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept program.

Biography

Tom joined MEF in 2014 to assist with the technical support, both internally and for the members. Previously he has handled corporate IT and facilities management for Finarta and CTS, including data center server configuration, along with managing the US technical support division of Tandberg Data.

Steph Simon – Executive Assistant

Responsibilities

Steph is the Executive Assistant and supports Kevin on activities with MEF. She will also work closely with MEF Staff on any activities that needs attention.

Biography

A new member to MEF, Steph joined in January 2023. She was with Ericsson for over two years as an administrative support and a support as well with a biotech company for over 15 years. She brings great experience in supporting a team.

Jackie Wade – Administrative Assistant

Responsibilities

Jackie is the Administrative Assistant at MEF and handles billing, Committee call scheduling, and various other administrative tasks.

Biography

Jackie lives in sunny California.