HOTLANTA – Hotbed for Telecom Talent!

Five of Atlanta’s leading telecom and technology executives have been named as winners of the 2011 Atlanta Telecom Professional of the Year (ATPY) awards by the Association of Telecom Professionals.

The 2011 Atlanta Telecom Professional of the Year is Val Rahmani, Chief Executive Officer of Damballa. The former IBM executive is leading the fast-growing web security firm that was spun out of Georgia Tech in 2006.

On winning the overall ATPY Award for 2011, Rahmani said, “I am personally excited to receive this award, and I am truly proud to share this accolade with the amazing Internet security team at Damballa. Every day, this team brings energy and passion to creating unique ways to stop cybercriminals from doing harm. As mobile devices have become pervasive in our lives, it is exciting that Damballa has been able to apply our technology and provide critical cyber threat protection for organizations and consumers. This award underscores our commitment to the Atlanta community and our dedication to bringing growth and jobs to the region. I am pleased that Damballa has been able to contribute to the telecom industry and to the Atlanta business community in such a meaningful way.”

Other winners include Dr. Jay Yadav, Founder and CEO of CardioMEMS (recipient of the 2011 ATPY Industry Innovation Award), Joe Oesterling, Executive Vice President of Network and Technology at Cbeyond (winner of the 2011 ATPY Industry Leadership Award), IntercontinentalExchange Senior VP and CTO Edwin Marcial (the 2011 ATPY Enterprise Innovation Award), and Noni Gonzalez, AVP of Corporate Systems for AT&T (the 2011 ATPY Enterprise Leadership Award).

To learn more about the Association of Telecom Professionals, click here: http://www.atpconnect.org/