Laura Johns
Founder and CEO
The Business Growers
Laura Johns is the founder and CEO of The Business Growers, a leading marketing firm specializing in helping Managed Services Providers (MSPs), IT companies, and telecommunication providers grow revenue. The company was named one of Inc.'s Fastest Growing Companies in the Southeast earlier this year. With a team of seasoned experts and decades of industry-specific experience, The Business Growers delivers a full suite of done-for-you marketing services tailored to the unique needs of these industries. For 20 years, Laura has managed marketing efforts for companies ranging from tech startups to global, multi-billion dollar businesses. She spent nearly half her career serving as a corporate marketing executive in the telecommunications industry before starting The Business Growers. Laura won the 2024 Gold Stevie® Award for Best Female Entrepreneur (Small Business) and the 2025 Silver Stevie® Award for Achievement in Developing and Promoting Women, one of her life's greatest passions. In her home state of Mississippi, she has been honored as “Top 50 under 40” and “Top 50 Leading Women in Business.” Laura graduated cum laude from Mississippi College and earned a Master of Arts from the University of Alabama.
Patricia Martin
CEO
Dobson Fiber
Patricia Martin serves as CEO of Dobson Fiber where she leads the company’s continued expansion of its regional fiber network and overall operational performance across Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas. She brings more than 25 years of experience leading large-scale telecommunications operations, with a focus on network expansion, integration, and customer delivery. Prior to joining Dobson Fiber, Patricia served as CEO of Point Broadband and spent more than 18 years at Cox Communications. She served as Senior Vice President of the Integration Management Office, where she led pre- and post-investment business acquisition activities, including the integration of new acquisitions that aligned with Cox’s growth trajectory.
Joy Milkowski
Partner
Access Marketing Company
Joy Milkowski is a marketing strategist and revenue growth advisor who helps executives, marketers and sales teams turn bold ideas into measurable wins. As Partner at Access Marketing Company, she develops go-to-market strategies that boost visibility, engage customers, and drive growth. She’s known for generating smart ideas and turning them into clear, actionable marketing and sales tactics that deliver results. Joy is the creator of the GIVE Method, a value-first framework that moves teams beyond traditional marketing and sales playbooks into strategies that win attention, trust, and market share. Known for her authentic, no-nonsense style, she works with leaders who want to challenge the status quo, create customer-centric messaging, and turn strategy into action. In her sessions, Joy blends high-impact marketing principles with innovative uses of data and AI to give professionals an edge, particularly in complex sales cycles with crowded, competitive markets. Attendees leave with ready-to-use frameworks, tools, and tactics that help them stand out, drive more pipeline, and dominate as “the human in the loop.”
Ilissa Miller
Founder and CEO
iMiller Public Relations
Ilissa Miller is Founder and CEO of iMiller Public Relations, host of NEDAS Live!, and Editor-in-Chief of Data Center POST. With nearly 30 years of digital infrastructure experience, she advises companies on strategy, messaging, market growth, and community-risk communications through iMPR’s Groundswell™ program. Ilissa is a former two-term elected Trustee in Westchester County, N.Y., and chairs OIX’s Digital Infrastructure Framework Committee.
Chip Pickering
CEO
INCOMPAS
Chip Pickering has been CEO of INCOMPAS since January 2014. During that time, INCOMPAS has achieved significant growth with leading internet, backbone, business broadband, wireless, and international companies. Under his leadership, INCOMPAS has led numerous public policy campaigns promoting competition through an open internet and in the business broadband market. Pickering was a six-term Congressman representing Mississippi’s Third District. During his time in the House, he served on the Energy & Commerce Committee, where he was vice chairman from 2002 to 2006 and a member of the Telecommunications Subcommittee. He also was co-chairman and founder of the Congressional Wireless Caucus and an assistant minority whip of the House. Previously, Chip worked for Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and served as a staff member on the Senate Commerce Committee, where he helped shape the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Because of his role in drafting the 1996 Act, he became well known as a Congressional leader on telecommunications issues. While in Congress, Chip served as chair of the subcommittee overseeing the transition to the commercial internet, the establishment of domain names, registries, and internet governance. He also successfully led a bipartisan legislative effort to codify net neutrality principles through the House in 2006. Prior to joining INCOMPAS, Chip was a partner with Capitol Resources LLC, a public affairs and government relations firm, where he represented an array of telecom clients, including wireless, cable and competitive broadband providers, as well as non-profits and companies specializing in education, energy, technology and defense.
Kristen Sanderson
Senior Vice President
Duos Technologies Inc.
Kristen Sanderson is a senior technology and infrastructure executive with more than 20 years of experience navigating the full data center ecosystem, from hyperscale AI environments to edge and modular deployments in supply-constrained markets. As Senior Vice President at Duos Technologies, Inc., she leads strategic growth initiatives across North America, advising customers on resilient procurement strategies, data center deployments, and execution models that mitigate manufacturing delays, labor shortages, and supply chain volatility. Throughout her career, Kristen has built deep working relationships with leading AI hyperscaler and data center vendors across power, cooling, fiber, switchgear, networking, and enclosure platforms. Her vendor-agnostic approach enables organizations to preserve basis-of-design integrity while activating pre-approved alternates based on lead time, availability, or cost—without compromising reliability, performance, or standardization. This expertise is particularly critical as AI infrastructure demand competes for constrained manufacturing capacity with hyperscalers. Prior to joining Duos Technologies, Kristen spent more than a decade at Accu-Tech Corporation as Director of Data Center Solutions, where she led enterprise and multi-tenant deployments spanning white space infrastructure, high-density power and cooling systems, custom enclosures, fiber and network architecture, DAS, security, and integrated services. She regularly partnered with hyperscaler-grade manufacturers while tailoring solutions for smaller operators who cannot absorb 50–70 week component lead times. Kristen is widely recognized for her expertise in supply chain resilience for AI and edge data centers, including dual sourcing frameworks, creative procurement alternatives, and materials management strategies that reduce onsite labor requirements. Her experience with kitting, labeling, phased delivery, and construction-aligned logistics has helped eliminate 20%-40% of onsite labor hours on complex deployments. She is a strong advocate for modular data center strategies that future-proof AI infrastructure—enabling phased capital deployment, shorter lead times, reduced power and water dependencies, and faster execution compared to large hyperscale builds. Kristen is especially focused on empowering mid-market operators, regional clouds, enterprises, and public sector organizations that are often crowded out of the supply chain by hyperscalers. A multiple-time recipient of Accu-Tech’s President’s Club and the Staples Sales Excellence Award, Kristen is known for translating complex ecosystem dynamics into practical decision frameworks for IT leaders, engineers, and procurement teams. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Colorado Boulder.