About Us
"Oku is the simple truth that is hidden behind the external and often complex."
- Kiyoshi Matsumoto
David Witkowski
Founder & CEO
Founder & CEO
David's career began in the US Coast Guard where he led deployment and maintenance programs for mission-critical telecom, continuity of government, and data networking systems. After earning his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from University of California @ Davis, he held managerial and leadership roles for high technology companies ranging from Fortune 500 multi-nationals to early-stage startups.
David serves as Executive Director of the Civic Technology Program at Joint Venture Silicon Valley, Senior Advisor for Broadband at Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, and is a Fellow of the Radio Club of America and a Senior Member of the IEEE. He previously served as as Co-Chair of the GCTC Wireless SuperCluster at NIST, on the Board of Expert Advisors for the California Emerging Technology Fund.
David's IEEE activities include:
Co-Chair of the Deployment Working Group at IEEE Future Networks (FNTC)
Life Member of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S)
Member of the IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES)
Member of the IEEE Committee on Man and Radiation (COMAR)
A noted industry author, his publication list includes:
Co-author of Telecommunications and Information Communication Technology (U.S. Geological Survey - 2021, The HayWired Scenario - Chapter S, https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20175013V3)
Co-author of 5G vs. Wi-Fi: Challenges for Economic, Spectrum, and Security Policy (Journal of Information Policy - 2021, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jinfopoli.11.2021.issue-2021)
Author of Economic Impacts to Residential Real Estate from Small Wireless Facilities (Joint Venture Silicon Valley - 2021, https://bit.ly/SCREstudy)
Author of Bridging the Gap : 21st Century Wireless Telecommunications Handbook (Joint Venture Silicon Valley - 1st Ed: 2016, 2nd Ed: 2019, http://bit.ly/jvsv-telecom-hbook-v2)
Co-editor of Public Wi-Fi Blueprint (GCTC/NIST - 2017, http://bit.ly/gctcwifiblueprint)
Co-editor of Municipal Internet of Things Blueprint (GCTC/NIST - 2019, http://bit.ly/gctciotblueprint)
Author of Evaluation of RF Network Testing (Anritsu, Bird Technologies, CommScope, & Motorola - 2013)
Co-author of Carrier & Public Wi-Fi (Mobile Experts LLC - 2015)
Co-author of Advanced Broadband Networks (California Emerging Technology Fund - 2019)
David has written feature articles and op-eds for CIO Review, EETimes, IEEE Microwaves Magazine, Make:Magazine, Mercury News, MissionCritical Communications, QST, RCR Wireless, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Insider, and Urgent Communications. He has presented and moderated panels at APCO (National and Regional), CTIA, DAS & Small Cells Congress, IEEE (International Microwave Symposium, and 5G World Forum), IoT World, IWCE, League of California Cities (Annual Conference, City Managers Conference, and Public Works Officers Institute), GSMA Mobile World Congress - Americas, RCA Technical Symposium, State Of The Valley, TPRC, and Wireless West.
Kimberly Shakeri
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Kimberly began her career at Bank of America, rising quickly to become a Senior Vice President at the executive staff level where she had nationwide responsibility for compensation programs, and later led the Ideation Group where she developed and tested innovative in-branch marketing, engagement, and customer loyalty programs.
Kimberly obtained her B.Sc. in Finance from Santa Clara University, and is certified in Design for Six Sigma methodologies. She does extensive charity work for local communities including serving as Head Coach for Girls On The Run Silicon Valley, as a Parent Producer for the Willow Glen High School Theatre, and as a Pet Therapist for Furry Friends.
Dr. Dennis J. Derickson, P.E.
Director of Engineering
Director of Engineering
Dennis Derickson received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from South Dakota State University, the University of Wisconsin- Madison, and the University of California – Santa Barbara, respectively. His farming background and amateur radio hobby both influenced heavily his career in engineering. He earned his State Farmer degree (Minnesota) with the FFA organization. In the world of radio communications, he holds an Extra-class amateur license (AC0P) and a First-Class Radiotelephone commercial license. He began his career at the research and development laboratories of Hewlett Packard in Santa Rosa, CA where he led development efforts for spectrum analyzer and vector network analyzer test and measurement instrumentation. His Ph.D. work involved the design, fabrication, and test of single-chip pulsed semiconductor lasers for data communication applications.
After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Derickson managed multiple project teams at Hewlett Packard for high-speed communication test systems. He worked as Director of Product Marketing at a start-up company called Cierra Photonics. After 21 years in industry, he joined the Electrical Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo. He served as Department Chair of Electrical Engineering from 2010 to 2020. His research activities have focused on applications of semiconductor lasers, wireless communication systems, and RF/microwave and millimeter-wave electronics.
Dr. Derickson is the editor of two books; Fiber Optics Test and Measurement (1997) and Digital Communication Test and Measurement (2008). With many collaborators, he has created over eighty publications and seven patents. He is a founding member of the company Insight Photonics Solutions that is commercializing research initiated at Cal Poly SLO (http://www.sweptlaser.com/). His outreach activities have focused on creating and running summer science camps for secondary school students at Cal Poly and through the California 4H Youth Development Program. His current activities include Industry/Alumni research partnerships, entrepreneurship, enabling a project-rich hands-on environment for diverse students, and supporting a strong graduate research program. Dr. Derickson is a registered Professional Engineer (EE: #23555) with the State of California and enjoys helping others with his expertise.
Emilio Franchy, P.E. Consulting Engineer
Emilio Franchy received his BS in civil engineering from California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo, where he initially worked in the civil engineering field. Emilio decided to make a career change to cellular and wireless communications, and started his new career with Hewlett Packard as an Application Engineer supporting their mobile conformance test, base station test, and coverage confirmation drive test product lines. As an AE, he was responsible for product demonstrations, customer presentations, and customer training on use of HP products for applications to wireless communications facilities test and measurement.
After the test and measurement division of Hewlett Packard spun off to become Agilent Technologies, became a Business Development Manager for the Americas region, initially focused on product lines for coverage confirmation drive test, later extending into base station test and mobile test products. As a BDM, his responsibilities included market assessment, business strategy, customer presentations, and delivering technical seminars.
After a successful career at HP/Agilent, Emilio joined Anritsu's Microwave Measurement Division, were he became a Product Manager for cellular base station test products covering spectrum analysis, cable & antenna analysis, 2G/3G/4G/5G modulation and signal analysis, and signal generation. Emilio later assumed responsibility for Anritsu's Passive Intermodulation (PIM) products, coverage drive test, RF-over-Fiber, and public safety product lines.
Emilio is a fluent in both Spanish and English, and is a registered Professional Engineer (CIV: #45698) with the State of California. In his spare time he enjoys music and sports.