Meet the WLA Leadership Team

Experience and Authority

The Wireless LAN Association is led by a team of highly experienced professionals

Many of our team are well-known names in the industry and are seen as authority figures in their areas of expertise. To hold a technical position in our leadership team, a designation such as CWNP's CWNE (certified wireless network expert) is required. Combining the experience and talents of these individuals, you can rest assured that this team knows what they are talking about!

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Peter MacKenzie

President
CWNE#33
Peter is an internationally recognised expert in Wi-Fi and co-author of the CWAP study guide published by Wiley.

Peter is currently the Head of Technical Operations for UK company MarQuest, where he is the principle instructor for both the CWNP and Savvius Academy courses. Peter also heads up the wireless installation team at MarQuest working with many different wireless vendors and holding many of their certifications, along with the vendor natural CWNE and CWNT certifications.

He is also an Extreme and Ruckus Certified Technical Instructor and has taught courses in various countries around the globe.

When not instructing courses, Peter provides consultancy services specializing in wireless networking and network analysis, to many industries including local government, education, and retail.

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Alan Blake

Vice President
CWNE#129
Alan is a Wi-Fi enthusiast complimented with over 20 years network Routing & Switching and Wireless experience.

Alan currently works as an independent consultant based out of the UK, designing and building enterprise Wi-Fi and data networks across Europe.

He is an active member within the Wi-Fi community as a passionate tweeter, blogger and guest speaker at conferences around the world.

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Sam Clements

Secretary-Elect
CWNE#101
Sam is a highly-certified Mobility Engineer with a passion for all things wireless.

Sam has validated his knowledge through some of the most stringent vendor specific (CCIE-Wireless) and vendor neutral (CWNE) certification programs and is always looking to keep up to date on the latest technology trends and best practices.

He is CWNE #101 and has spent numerous years working in the wireless industry doing design, implementation, and troubleshooting enterprise Wireless LAN supporting mission critical wireless applications such as Voice and Healthcare products.

Sam is regularly exposed to the latest wireless technologies and contributes to the wireless communities in a variety of fashions including the Tech Field Day events.

He shares his knowledge with the community through his blog SC-WiFi http://www.sc-wifi.com/, or you can view his No Strings Attached Show at http://www.nsashow.com/ in which he regularly co-hosts podcasts with Blake Krone.

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Keith

Keith Parsons

Treasurer
CWNE#3
Keith holds 69 technical certifications (9 in Wireless) and has earned an MBA from the Marriott School of Management.

Keith Parsons is Managing Director of the Wireless LAN Professionals, Inc. A gifted presenter, Keith is known for his wit and broad technical experience.

Keith is a sought-after presenter for a variety of technical conferences on the subject of Wireless LAN. He travels throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia in behalf of a wide variety of IT vendors, explaining their products to networking professionals.

Keith has been on the CWNP and CWNE Advisory Boards – and is CWNE #3. He is currently on the Wireless LAN Association Executive Committee.

For the past 19 years Keith has focused on Wireless LANs, both in providing high-quality customized training as well as WLAN design and consulting services with a variety of global corporations.

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Manon Lessard

Manon Lessard

Membership Committee Chair
CWNE #275
Manon, known as "Mae", is an experienced network administrator and wireless specialist for Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada.

With 17 years experience in networking, 15 of which have been mostly spent exploring her passion for all things wireless, Mae is an active member of the Wireless community.

Her track record includes participation in projects such as full campus Wireless design, deployment and site survey, Data Center deployments, ToIP, network edge and core design and Authentication service design, deployment and troubleshooting.

Mae is involved in various organisations such as the Wireless LAN Association and the Slack Wi-Fi-Pro communities. She holds several industry certifications in Routing & Switching, and is CWNE #275.

You can reach her on Twitter (@Mae149) or through her blog at missmaeswifi.com

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Rie Vainstein

Chief Executive Officer
Rie serves as CEO for the WLAN Association where she shares her passions for technology and learning.

With over two decades of business leadership experience, Rie is focused on streamlining the Wireless LAN Association's overall performance, supporting the Executive Committee’s guidance and organizational strategy, promoting operational effectiveness, and elevating its membership through implementation of innovative programs.

She has enjoyed a career in multiple industries which include law enforcement, healthcare, property management, biotechnology, venture capital, and a number of entrepreneurial ventures. She currently works for NC-Expert which is an IT certification training, courseware development, and consulting company which is focused on wireless and cyber security. It is the wealth of experience gained from working in various "real world" leadership roles and, on a voluntary basis, for non-profit organizations that she brings to the WLA.

She is passionate about the success of the Wireless LAN Association and looks forward to helping support its expected growth in the coming years.

When Rie is not serving the WLA, or working for NC-Expert, she loves spending time hiking in her local state parks, and being surrounded by her family and friends.

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Tauni Odia

Joint Ventures and Alliances
Tauni is a Wi-Fi Enthusiast, Podcaster, and Co-Founder of The Wi-Fi Awards.

In her "real life", she serves as Ekahau's Director of Product Marketing.

Tauni's boundless energy, positivity, and enthusiasm are integral to helping the Wireless LAN Association create relationships with industry organizations. The goal being to utilize these relationships for the purposes of raising the public's perception of wireless engineer professionalism through industry-wide validation of WLA's Standards Framework, and of using WLA's combined knowledge base to help to create continuous improvements in the practical applications of wireless technology.

Tauni holds CWNA and CWSP, along with Ekahau (ECSE) certifications in Design and Troubleshooting.

She is currently pursing her CWNE.

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