Shmuel Shaffer

Shmuel Shaffer is currently an advisor at Journey. Shmuel has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Shmuel started their career at Siemens Rolm Communications in 1991 as Director of Enterprise Network System Development. In this role, they were responsible for the development of telephony over LAN products. Shmuel successfully grew the team from 4 to 75 software engineers in the first year. In 1998, they demonstrated Siemens' first H.323-based server and clients with basic Telephony over IP, Mobility, Data Collaboration, Web-based management, and Voice and Web-based ACD functionality at the Las Vegas Interop conference. The product was officially released in December 1998 and served as a platform for numerous subsequent Siemens VoIP offerings. Shaffer worked closely with the worldwide General Manager of IP Telephony to define the roadmap for the product line and establish strategic partnerships. Shmuel also conducted customer briefings.

In 1999, Shaffer left Siemens to join Cisco Systems as Sr. Director, Smart Grid Engineering Technology & Architecture. In this role, they evaluated new companies and technologies and was a key contributor to Cisco's Smart Grid intellectual property (IP) initiative. Shmuel served as a liaison to Stanford University and worked closely with researchers to align their research with industry requirements. Shmuel also analyzed the operations of an unsuccessful business unit and provided the recovery plan.

Shaffer left Cisco Systems in 2011 to start their own consulting business. Shmuel has been an advisor at Journey since 2019

Shmuel Shaffer completed a Stanford Executive Program in Business at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Shmuel also holds a Ph.D. in Adaptive Control from Stanford University, as well as MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Statistics from Stanford University.