NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Lightyear, the Telecom Operating System, honored the people, teams, and processes driving telecom innovation at its third annual Luminaries of Telecom Awards ceremony on September 23, 2025.
This year’s judging panel featured former award recipients:
Recognizing the telecom innovators leveraging Lightyear to drive the industry forward.
- Catherine Lee, Senior Manager of Technical Operations at F5 (formerly Staff Infrastructure Engineer at Okta)
- Michael Patukonis, Sr. Director of Infrastructure at Teladoc Health
- Sergio Tagliapietra, VP of IT at Dolce & Gabbana
The ceremony recognized excellence across four categories: Platform Excellence, Insight Engine, Transformation of the Year, and Dream Team.
See below for each award’s description and recipient(s):
Award Recipients
Platform Excellence
Presented to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional use of Lightyear’s platform through rapid implementation, creative application, or driving measurable business results. This award celebrates those who prove that transformation can be both strategic and swift.
Winners:
- Leading American Manufacturer: Joseph DiVito, Manager, Networking and Data Communications Technologies; Petros Abajyan, Senior Network Engineer
- National Carwash Solutions (NCS): Nick Costigan, IT Infrastructure Manager
Insight Engine
Presented to individuals who have submitted product ideas, feature requests, or platform feedback that had a measurable impact on Lightyear’s product roadmap or customer experience. Their contributions improved outcomes not just for their own business, but for the broader Lightyear community.
Winners:
- NICE inContact: Joe DeWeese, Lead Infrastructure Systems Engineer, Network Circuit Design; Loran Fuchs, Manager, Network Engineering
- TEGNA: Cindy Tkach, Senior Analyst of IT
Transformation of the Year
Recognizing IT teams that have used Lightyear to transform their network infrastructure and developed best-in-class processes around procurement and vendor management.
Winners:
- Corpay: Vicki Horton, Manager, Information Technology Telephony Financials; Michael Tuggle, VP of Global Network Services
- Google: John Welch, Manager, Engineering, Google Global Network Enterprise Connectivity Planning; Natalia Nikolaeva, Program Manager, Enterprise Network Planning
Dream Team
Recognizing IT teams that have mastered the art of seamless collaboration through the strategic utilization of software tools.
Winners:
- Healthcare Realty Trust: James Shiflett, Director of IT; Joshua Bowers, Network Architect
- Motorola Solutions: Tina Covert, Network & Telecom Operations Business Analyst
“These winners represent the very best in corporate IT stewardship – individuals who work hard, embrace innovation, and drive tangible outcomes for their companies,” said Dennis Thankachan, CEO and Co-Founder of Lightyear. “The opportunity to serve individuals like these motivates us to keep making Lightyear better.”
Congratulations to all winners and finalists who participated in this year’s Luminaries Awards. Lightyear extends sincere appreciation to the judging panel and hosts for their expertise and dedication in making these awards a success. See you next year!
About Lightyear
Lightyear (https://lightyear.ai) is the only digital workflow and system of record platform that unlocks efficiency across the full lifecycle for enterprise telecom services, revolutionizing the telecom experience to drive material time and cost savings. Lightyear’s Procurement platform automates RFP creation, quoting, install management, and more for internet, WAN, voice, and colocation services, reducing time spent on procurement materially while network intelligence and pricing data ensures enterprises select the optimal solution at the lowest cost. Lightyear’s Network Inventory Manager creates a digital system of record for enterprise networks, tracking 30+ data points per service (static IPs, contract details, account IDs) and automating lifecycle management workflows such as MACD ticketing and renewal re-shopping. Lightyear’s Bill Consolidation software offers enterprises one consolidated bill for all telecom services, eliminating the headache of tracking invoices and handling audits while avoiding service disruptions.
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