Tony Shakib leads Microsoft’s IoT Business Acceleration (IBA) team inside Azure engineering organization and drives the Azure IoT Eco-system and strategic business engagements for top 100 IoT Enterprise Accounts, Partners, Developers and ISV/Startups. Tony is accountable for IoT customer value realization, business development, rapid solution deployment, joint customer GTM programs and accelerating time and process to large-scale commercial deployments. The IBA team focuses on top industries such as IIoT/Manufacturing, Mobility/Connected Vehicle, Smart Spaces/Utilities, Retail, Healthcare and Agriculture. Microsoft IoT team develops unique IoT/AI/ML technologies and digital solutions for all industries. Microsoft is also the leader in the hybrid intelligent cloud and edge architectures and provides a comprehensive Platform-as-a-service and Software-as-a-service (IoT Central) capabilities for rapidly developing and deploying massively scalable IoT applications. Tony has more than 27 years of business leadership and management experience in the communications space. As Vice President of IoT Vertical Business Solutions for Cisco, Tony led Cisco’s Internet of Things business development, Industrial solutions creation, Vertical thought leadership and customer relevancy across Process Manufacturing (Oil & Gas and Mining), Discrete manufacturing, Transportation, Utilities, Smart City, M2M, Retail and Defense verticals.