Speaker Biographies
Brownlee Thomas, Ph.D.
Principal Analyst
Forrester Research
Research Focus
Brownlee serves Sourcing & Vendor Management professionals. She is based in Montreal and is an expert in enterprise telecommunications and network services. She works regularly with Global 1000, public sector, and large multinational organizations on reviewing telecom and network services sourcing strategies, preparing RFPs, service provider evaluation and selection, contract negotiations, and vendor management through each stage of the acquisition life cycle.
With more than 20 years in the global telecom industry, she is a leading industry expert on international telecom and networking services. Her core research coverage area includes global telecom market trends and dynamics and best practice telecom services sourcing and vendor management. She also covers Canadian enterprise landline and mobile telecommunications services.
Previous Work Experience
Brownlee joined Forrester in 2003, though the acquisition of Giga Information Group, where she was research director for its global telecom practice. Prior to joining Giga in 1998, she worked for several years with Teleglobe (a North American global telecom carrier that is now part of Tata Communications of India) in various roles including senior policy analyst and associate director, with management responsibility for a central corporate group of market analysts and researchers who provided analysis and guidance to Teleglobe's global strategic planning team in the office of the chairman and CEO. Brownlee also ran a private consultancy for 10 years — first in Geneva and later in Ottawa and Montreal, which focused on telecom market policies and regulation. Her firm's clients included the the Canadian telecom regulator (CRTC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank, and various intergovernmental task forces and study groups reporting on telecom privatization, foreign ownership, and competition.
Fluently bilingual in English and French, Brownlee is frequently invited to speak at industry and vendor events as a keynote and expert speaker on global telecom. She also reguarly presents at Forrester's annual IT Forum and Services Sourcing Forum events. She is often interviewed and quoted in major technology trade journals and business media, including the International Herald Tribune, The Financial Times, The New York Times, andUSA Today.
Education
Brownlee has an interdisciplinary Ph.D. and a master's degree from McGill University. Her post-graduate research was on disaster and civil emergency preparedness telecoms, telecoms and sustainable economic development, and telecoms policy and regulation.