Lightyear names winners of 2026 Luminaries of Telecom Awards

Four categories recognize telecom transformation

The 2026 program recognized people, teams and organizations across four categories: Platform Excellence, AI Trailblazer, Dream Team and Transformation of the Year.

Platform Excellence honors individuals who use the Lightyear platform through rapid implementation, innovative applications and measurable business impact. The winners are Nicole Pagliaro-Mojica, Yader Rodriguez and Tina Covert of Motorola Solutions, along with Duane Zechmann of Rise Internet.

The AI Trailblazer category recognizes leaders using agentic AI in network operations to streamline processes, improve efficiency and deliver business outcomes. This year's winners are Aftab Ali and Kazuma Nagatori of The Trade Desk, and Taylor Jones of Elauwit Connection.

Winners include teams from FactSet, Honeywell and Solstice

FactSet's Umer Malik won in the Dream Team category. The award recognizes IT teams that use collaboration, technology and strategic processes to work more effectively and deliver stronger outcomes across their organizations.

Transformation of the Year honors organizations that have used Lightyear to change their network infrastructure while establishing approaches to telecom procurement and vendor management. The winners are Todd Stewart of Honeywell Aerospace, and Bryan Adcock and Steve Delatte of Solstice Advanced Materials.

Lightyear said the awards celebrate people and organizations that are pushing telecom forward, including through AI-driven operations and changes to network procurement, telecom management and collaboration.

Lightyear links AI progress to human leadership

“Telecom is at an inflection point. AI is changing what's possible in network operations, but successful transformation still comes down to the people willing to challenge the status quo and rethink how things have always been done,” Dennis Thankachan, Lightyear's CEO and co-founder, said in the announcement.

Thankachan said the winners are putting technology to work to drive change across their organizations. Lightyear also thanked the finalists, judging panel and event hosts for their contributions to the program.

The awards highlight the users and teams Lightyear says are applying its platform to practical enterprise telecom work. The company says more than 450 enterprises use its connected platform to procure, manage and pay for telecom services. Its products cover Procurement, Network Inventory Management and Expense Management, combining software, AI agents, proprietary data from 1,200+ carriers and telecom experts.