Kevin Larsen

Kevin M. Larson is Vice President and Chief Information Officer for AAR CORP., a leading provider of products and services to the commercial aerospace and defense industries. AAR was founded in 1951 and today has revenues over $2 billion with 6,000 employees and operations in 90 locations. The company’s products and services include supply chain services; aircraft MRO; design and manufacturing services; and airlift support for government customers.

As CIO, Mr. Larson provides leadership for AAR’s Information Technology and e-Business operations. Under his direction, IT capabilities have become a competitive differentiator for the Company as his team provides technology and business inputs that serve as an integral part of AAR’s MRO and supply chain operations. Mr. Larson’s customer focus approach led to an application service provider model that includes application hosting, network infrastructure, and a suite of integrated technology offerings. Mr. Larson has a successful track record of providing a strategic vision, technical definition and business development support to promote AAR’s enhanced systems capabilities.
Mr. Larson has 30 years of Information Technology experience, which includes serving as Assistant Vice President & Information Technology Audit Manager for BMO Harris Bank. In 2004, he served as a Board Member for the MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation. Also, he has served for five years on the Leadership Council for DePaul University’s Computing and Digital Media School.

Suren Gupta

Mr. Suren K. Gupta has been an Executive Vice President of Technology & Operations for Allstate Insurance Company at The Allstate Corporation since April 11, 2011. Mr. Gupta is responsible for enterprise wide technology strategy, network infrastructure, enterprise applications, and technology-related governance, security and compliance activities. Most recently, Mr. Gupta was Wells Fargo executive vice president and group chief information officer for consumer lending. Previously, he held a similar role for Wells Fargo’s home and consumer finance group. Under his leadership, Wells Fargo re-engineered its real estate lending with new delivery capabilities that enabled the field sales force to serve customers more effectively with just-in-time information. Earlier in his career, Mr. Gupta was a founding member of the corporate executive team at Airclic Inc., a startup wireless Internet venture, and senior vice president, information technology and operations for GMAC Residential, a division of General Motors. Mr. Gupta also has held senior operations, sales, marketing and strategic development roles at INTELSAT, a telecommunications company, and at Thomson Corp., an information company. Mr. Gupta is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He also received a master’s degree in computer engineering from West Virginia University and an MBA from George Mason University.

Dave Bent

Mr. S. David Bent, Dave has been Senior Vice President of e Business Services and Chief Information Officer of United Stationers Inc. since May 2003. Mr. Bent serves as President United Stationers Technology Services. He joined United Stationers in May 2003 and led a team of 220 IT associates. He served as the Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Acterna Corporation from August 2000 to May 2003 and also served as General Manager of its Software Division since October 2002. He spent 18 years with Ford Motor Company. Prior to joining Acterna in August 2000, Mr. Bent served as the Chief Information Officer of Visteon Automotive Systems from 1999 to 2000 and from 1998 to 1999, he served as its Director, Enterprise Processes and Systems. His Ford career began in the UK, where served in various positions in the Product Development Information Technology Group for four years. In 1986, he moved to Ford in Germany, where he lived for 11 years prior to moving to its global headquarters in the USA in 1997. He led a global team of Designers and IT associates in the development of an all new automotive styling system in partnership with Japanese and American software firms. Since 1994, he served as a Member of the “Ford 2000” Transition Team of Ford. He served as Head of Information Technology of Product Development Operations of Ford in Europe from 1995 to 1997. He serves as a Member of the Advisory Board of IOCOM Integrated Communications. He serves as a Advisory Board Member at InformationWeek. He was named “InformationWeek CIO of the Year, 1999″. He graduated from Bristol University, where he gained a BSc Degree in Civil Engineering in 1982. Mr. Bent is a fluent German speaker.

Dante DeWitt

Tim Brickley

Doug Kasamis

Director Kasamis is currently the Chief Information Officer for the State of Illinois’ largest agency, the Department Human Services ($12 billion budget; 13,000 employees). In this role Director Kasamis serves over 2 million citizens through over 200 different health and human services programs including Medicaid, SNAP, Drug & Alcohol Abuse, Mental Illness and Development Disabilities. He also serves as the co-Technology Lead in the State’s implementation of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act.

Prior to his role at DHS, Mr. Kasamis served as the State’s Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Kasamis was responsible for the State’s IT Strategy and Architecture, IT Infrastructure and Enterprise Applications. He was also responsible for the State’s Illinois Century Network which is a statewide telecommunications backbone that provides high speed transport for data, video, and audio communication to over 1,000 K-12 schools, libraries, colleges, universities, public libraries, units of government, healthcare institutions, and other non-profit entities.

Prior to serving the State, Mr. Kasamis was a Partner at Accenture where he led a number of different offerings including the Global Lead of the IT Transformation Practice and the United States Lead of the IT Infrastructure Practice. During his career with Accenture, Mr. Kasamis worked with a variety of different clients including the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, IBM, AXA, Caterpillar, Liberty Mutual and Corning.

Mr. Kasamis received his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Purdue University. He lives with his wife, Claire, and three children in Mundelein, IL.

John Germain

As CISO and Director of Infrastructure Services, John Germain provides strategic vision and leadership for Xylem Inc, a newly formed company resulting from a spinoff from ITT Corporation. Focusing on information risk management, regulatory compliance and infrastructure & security operations, John is a proven leader responsible for designing the overall infrastructure architecture as well as building and maintaining Information Security capabilities for Xylem’s global multi-industry footprint. Prior to his current position, John was the Director of IT Security at ITT with previous IT infrastructure leadership roles in the areas of networking and access control.

Steven Young

Steven Young is our vice president, security and risk management and Chief Information Security Officer, leading a team that protects Kellogg Company’s systems and proprietary information against rising external security threats. Steven joined Kellogg in 2007 as director, IT solutions, and was promoted to senior director, infrastructure solutions in 2009. Throughout his tenure, he has been instrumental in creating the Kellogg Infrastructure Solutions team which is accountable for delivering our foundational infrastructure technologies. He also played a key role in establishing a robust IT infrastructure, including the global data center in Oak Brook, IL, and a disaster recovery solutions center in Philadelphia. Prior to joining Kellogg, Mr. Young held leadership positions at corporations spanning from Lucent Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Anderson Consulting, and Anheuser-Busch. In these roles he led corporate IT engineering organizations and oversaw worldwide IT departments in the design and operations of large scale IT solutions.
During his time with Anheuser-Busch and Lockheed Martin, Mr. Young led the network and BASIS teams for the companies’ global deployments of SAP and the supporting computing infrastructure components. Mr. Young was also the UNIX and Data Center lead for Pacific Bell and senior network engineer for Principal Financial Group. After college, Steven designed point of sale systems for Pizza Hut and PLC, and benefits system for Ford Motor Co. Mr. Young also spent a number of years in the lottery industry designing and deploying the ticket tracking systems for the Ohio, Louisiana, and Minnesota Lottery. Steven earned his Bachelors of Science in Management of Information Systems from the University of Nebraska.

Kevin Novak

Kevin Novak is chief information security officer, and IT risk manager at Northern Trust. He is a member of the Northern Trust Corporate Operational Risk Group. He is responsible for the security of company and client information and for the management of information technology risks across Northern Trust’s global business. He joined Northern Trust in August 2011. Prior to assuming the role of chief information security officer, He worked for five years at Discover Financial managing their information security, records management, and enterprise risk management programs. Prior to joining Discover, he spent eight years as chief operating officer and director of consulting services for Neohapsis, a Chicago based information security consultancy, and five years in senior technology roles at Ciber Network Services, a global IT consulting services provider. Prior to joining Ciber Network Services, Novak was a financial auditor and tax accountant for Best Travel & Tours, Inc. and Ameritech Credit Corporation.

Conrad Menezes

Conrad Menezes is Vice President, Network & Information Security with the Information & Technology Group at Sears Holdings where he is responsible for Strategic Planning, Engineering, and Operations. Previously, Conrad consulted and held a number of IT leadership positions over the years. In his last position at American Express he was Vice President, Technologies Integrator with the Technology Strategy & Operations Group, responsible for leading the global network strategy, architecture, standards and engineering for voice, data, and security.
Conrad brings more than 20 years of proven experience in reducing and eliminating complexities of traditional/converged networks while significantly reducing operating expenses through re-engineering, innovation and redesign commensurate with high levels of efficiency, scalability, availability, performance, and IS/regulatory compliance. Conrad is the author and co-author of engineering & research publications relating to chip design, and serves on the Technology Advisory Board for a number of technology firms.
Conrad holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College, India, and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Toledo, Ohio.

Jim Hansen

Jim has over twenty-two years’ experience in sales, operations and executive management in the information security industry, including co-founding and serving as COO of Mandiant. He has also held numerous executive and management positions in both sales and consulting organizations, and regularly speaks and publishes articles on information security topics.

Todd Leonard

Hemant Wadhwa

Kathy Linares

Rich Hoffman

Mike Benson

Mike Benson is executive vice president and Chief Information Officer for DIRECTV, Inc. He is responsible for creating and maintaining information technology solutions for DIRECTV’s business operations nationwide and oversees repotying, analysis and infrastructure requirements, customer billing and payment systems, and customer care systems and financial, marketing, sales, and decision support.
Before joining DIRECTV, Benson held multiple executive level positions at AT&T Wireless and McCaw Cellular Communications. Before his career in wireless communications, Benson served as manager of development for Advance Technology Laboratories and senior systems analyst in the frozen food packing and distribution industry with J.R. Simplot, Inc.

Scott McCoy

Scott McCoy is the VP of Enterprise Security Services at Thomson Reuters. He has 28 years of security experience starting in the U.S. Army as an explosive ordnance disposal technician. He’s spent the last 14 years as the CSO for Xcel Energy and Alliant Techsystems responsible for IT Security, Corporate Security, Industrial Security, Busiess Contunity and Disaster Recovery. In his current role he reports to the CISO and works soley on Information Security.
He has a BA in Russian Area Studies and a Masters degree in Management. He’s taught college course in security and management at both the bachelors and masters level, conducted presentations and published chapters and articles on a variety of security topics.

Gary Eppinger

Managed Global IT Security, Control and Quality Office. Responsibilities included implementing and supporting security systems for internet, intranet, email, servers and desktop environments. Led, managed and implemented enterprise information security program including high-level strategies, policies, standards and procedures. Manage IT systems, processes and end-to-end business relationship management for the following areas: Legal, Retail, Market Development and Pharmacy.

Christopher Buse

Christopher Buse is the Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Minnesota. In this capacity, Christopher is responsible for designing and implementing the enterprise security architecture for state government. Before accepting this position, Christopher served as the Manager of Information Technology Audits for the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor. During his 19 years as an auditor, Christopher planned and oversaw information technology audit work done on large government computer systems. Christopher also provided state of the art technology tools and training for financial audit professionals who worked for the office.

Christopher Buse graduated from St. Cloud State University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting. Since graduation, he has supplemented his accounting degree with numerous computer science and management information systems courses. Christopher is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Christopher is active in many professional organizations and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Christopher has held many leadership positions in ISACA during his career, including President.

Ron Kuriscak

Barry Libenson

Barry Libenson, Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer joined Land O’Lakes in January 2010. Barry leads a responsive, service-oriented organization that enables business performance by providing integrated value through applications as well as operating the IT infrastructure as a cost-effective, high-performance utility. He is a member of the company’s Senior Strategy Team and sets all IT direction for the enterprise.

Prior to joining Land O’Lakes, he most recently served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Ingersoll Rand. In that role, Barry led the IT staff through strategy development, significant improvements in company-wide efficiency and effectiveness, the IT integration of a major acquisition, and the successful implementation of a common ERP footprint across the enterprise.

Barry holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from Colgate University and a Master Degree in Business from the Fuqua School at Duke University.

Carolyn Parnell

An experienced technology leader, Carolyn Parnell was appointed by Governor Mark Dayton to serve as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the State of Minnesota. Among her leadership roles as State CIO, she is the commissioner of MN.IT Services, the state agency that provides effective information technology to Minnesota’s government.
Prior to joining the Governor’s Cabinet, Parnell was the Chief Operating Officer for Information Technology Services for the Minnesota System of Colleges and Universities (MnSCU), the fifth-largest system of two- and four-year colleges and universities in the nation.

Parnell brings a wealth of IT management experience to the State, having also held leadership positions at Minnesota Public Radio/America Public Media, Fidelity National Information Systems and the University of Minnesota. She earned a B.A. in Sociology and Liberal Arts for the Human Services at the University of Minnesota-Morris and an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Najam Saeed

I hold strong academic credentials (3 master degrees) that are backed by over 20 years of professional experience in leadership positions in IT arena in higher education. My wide range of high level responsibilities has allowed me to develop as a leader with great appreciation of people, systems, and processes. With the help and support of my staff, I have worked with the College community to automate processes to facilitate teaching learning at the College.

Since 1999, I have been serving as Chief Information Officer at Saint Paul College. My responsibilities include the strategic and fiscal management of the College’s centralized IT department, which encompasses academic and administrative computing, data center operations, Help Desk support, Audio-Visual, Telecommunication, Web Services, Duplicating Services, Open Lab Management, Learning Management System (D2L) and eLearning, and the College Library.

I am a member of President’s Cabinet that is the executive management group of the College. I am also a member of the College’s Management team that consists of all the mid to high level managers. I chair Technology Committee and ad-hoc Technology Fee Committee. I have served on the Infrastructure and Security committees at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System level. I represent the College at all the local, regional, and national events related to technology.

While I serve and support the entire institution on all technology related matters, I directly and indirectly supervise a staff of 22 people and manage a budget of $4 million dollars. I have made many IT related presentation at regional and national meetings and conferences.

Julius Chepey

Provides decisive leadership to resolve diverse business problems and drive new levels of corporate performance.

Builds and empowers high-achieving, loyal teams that deliver sustained results. Brings strong global business experience.

A results-driven, Executive MBA educated leader with a 20+ year record of documented achievements in business and technology across a broad range of industries.

Proven track record of success in:
- Business Strategy & Technology Innovation
- Global Project Lifecycle Management
- Process Engineering & Change Management
- Staff Recruiting, Retention & Leadership
- IT Infrastructure & Systems Implementation
- Budgeting / P&L Control / Cost Reductions

Specialties:- Strategic Business Leadership and IT Governance
- Turnaround Leadership / Process Reengineering
- Systems Implementation (Large systems, Oracle ERP)
- Business Improvement and Cost Reduction

Julie Flaschenreim

Julie Flaschenriem became Chief Information Officer of Park Nicollet Health Services, in May 2009. Park Nicollet is an integrated health care system in Minnesota that includes 26 clinics, one hospital and 55 medical and surgical specialties. Julie has a wide array of business and technology experience. She spent ten years in management consulting at Ernst & Young, LLP, and also helped launch a start-up consulting firm focused on implementation of Oracle applications. At Park Nicollet, Julie has been instrumental in a number of critical initiatives, including centralizing registration, the use of Kaizen tools in process improvement, improving the patient experience with business office services, and the implementation of enterprise-wide electronic health record software.

Samer Adi

With 20 years of managerial and technical skills in the IT, Security and Compliance industry, I am a seasoned professional with a demonstrated track record. Have excellent communication and team spirit, focused, and organized, superior presentation and influencing skills, high degree of adaptability and interfacing capacity that can deliver results the organization asks for. My skills including planning, implementing network security and internal procedures with the end goal of meeting all corporate and customer’s objectives and ensuring that all industry regulatory requirements are met and surpassed.

Simon Baker

Bobby Singh

Mr. Bobby Singh has 19 plus years’ experience in information security with extensive experience in risk management, business operations, public relations, consulting and auditing. As the Security Program Executive at TD Bank, Mr. Singh’s role involves ensuring that security is built-in both at the organization-level and within the Infrastructure. He provides leadership in the development and promotion of security standards and risk management practices. Mr. Singh has broad expertise in developing and implementing security programs for public and private sector organizations. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and round tables. Prior to joining TD Bank, Mr. Singh has held positions at Rogers Communications, eHealth Ontario, Bank of America and Deloitte were he focused on delivering security services to clients and developing their security practice. Mr. Singh received his MBA from University of Pittsburgh and holds CISSP, CISM, CISA and CPA designations.

Greg Thompson

Stephen Dyke

Catherine Booth

Catherine Booth is the Chief Information Officer of Plexxus, a shared service organization providing business support solutions to Ontario’s health care sector. She led a major SAP-enabled business transformation at Plexxus and 10 of its member hospitals, achieving savings and enhanced capabilities through a common IT platform. She also established the ongoing shared IT support team.

Previously, Catherine was the Senior Vice President of Information Technology for Loblaw Companies Limited, and Vice President of Information Technology for the Retail division of Canadian Tire Corporation. Catherine spent several years as a Partner in Ernst & Young Management Consultants where she managed large-scale, complex, technology-based projects for a diverse range of clients.

Catherine serves on the Board of Governors of the University of Waterloo. She also spent several years as an Advisor to the Board of The Timberland Group, and was on the Board of Trustees of the United Way of Greater Toronto. She was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2003, and one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 in 2009.

Sanjiv Purba

Sanjiv is a Senior IT Executive with over 25 years of progressive IT and business experience successfully managing projects and environments of all sizes, complexities, and architectures. Sanjiv has worked for the “Big 5” consultancies, boutique consulting firms, and for Fortune 100 organizations around the world. He has served on several Boards and is currently a member of the Board of Directors at Psigate.

Sanjiv led the successful implementation of the first core banking SAP application in North America at Home Trust. Sanjiv has focused on System Integration projects, ERP solutions (SAP ECC, Banking Services, CRM, BW), Data Warehouse solutions, Business Intelligence, and the infrastructure and processes to support these.

A recognized authority in the end-to-end project management and product management lifecycles, Sanjiv has successfully implemented projects that cross functional departments and have complex layers of technical, data, and application architectures. His project sizes have ranged from teams of a half dozen to 150+ resources.

His clients and employers have included HomeTrust, the Royal Bank, CIBC Mellon, CIBC, TD Waterhouse, CIT Bank, Bank of Montreal, Mastercard, Goldman Sachs, The Dominion, Sun Life, Prudential Assurance, Allstate, and the Co-Operators. Clients in other industries include The Forzani Group, Labatt, Hudson’s Bay, Perrier, Future Shop, Canadian Tire, BMW, Nintendo, Hospital for Sick Kids, Bell Canada, Rogers, OLG, OMERS and IBM.

Sanjiv was a key author of the Deloitte Consulting project management and development methodology. He has written over 18 books and hundreds of articles for such publications as The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. He is also editor for the ‘Data Management’ handbook published by Auerbach/CRC Press. Sanjiv is a frequent lecturer at universities and colleges.

Sanjiv holds an Honors Degree in Computer Science from the University of Toronto.

Lan Nguyen

Lan Nguyen joined the City of Toronto in November 2007. As the director of Business Enablement and Client Services in the Information and Technology Division, she has the mandate to develop partnerships and IT innovations across city’s 44 business divisions and with other government jurisdictions, industry, academia to help enable Toronto’s eCity agenda.
Prior to her appointment with the City, Lan was the principal of ICITE Inc, an established Canadian consultancy firm specializes in international development.
Lan held various executive and management positions with the Ontario government for 25 years where she led many province-wide strategic consolidations and service renewal initiatives.

Stuart Hendrie

Stuart joined DATA Group in 1997 in the national digital print division leading the standardization of technology and processes associated with their “distribute then print” strategy. Since 1997 Stuart has held positions with increasing responsibility within the company and was appointed Chief Information Officer in 2011. Stuart’s strategic insight, business-centric view and innovative application of technology have been instrumental in driving numerous process improvements and the development of new products and services at DATA Group. Leading a staff of 70, he is responsible for IT-related strategy and operations encompassing all divisions of DATA Group. Prior to DATA Group, Stuart operated his own multimedia design company for a number of years, serving clients such as Nortel, AMJ Campbell and EMI Records. Stuart holds an MBA from Athabasca University.

Joe Bennett

Mark Gelhardt

Over 35 years of experience in providing Executive Level management in the IT area as a CIO, CSO, & CISO. During my 22 years in the military I had the honor of being the CIO/CISO of the White House managing all the classified automation and telecommunications for the President Clinton, the VP, the White House staff, and the U.S. Secret Service. Since retiring from the Army and joining the civilian sector I have had the pleasure working as the CIO/CSO for World Airways – the largest US wide body long-hall charter airline. I have also have had the pleasure working as the Deputy CIO (Global Operations)/CISO for InterCall – the world’s largest conferencing company. My current position is as the Senior Information Security Officer (CISO) for TravelClick – a Software as a Service (SaaS) company in the hospitality industry working with over 30,000 hotels worldwide.

John Bruggemann

Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) driving initiatives for providing security solutions including strategy development, solution identification, service delivery, cost management, communication, and resource allocation.

Synovus

Paul is the Manager of Information Security at Synovus Financial. He has responsibility for information security engineering, architecture, threat management, vulnerability management and identity management systems.
He has over 15 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry. Over the past 15 years, Paul has accumulated a broad range of business, technology and support experience in the Financial Services Industry. His experience includes information security, cloud computing, SOA, enterprise architecture and virtualization.

Dan Webber

Dan Webber – Chief Information Officer – prIME Holding BV

Dan has served as Chief Information Officer for 17 years, 11 of those years have been spent in healthcare and biotech. The other 6 were spent in manufacturing, technology and hospitality companies. Dan has led the integration of technology and related business and operational processes for 36 acquisitions, divestitures, and mergers and evaluated another 68.

His 24 years of organizational, operational, financial, and technology leadership has helped companies transform their business processes and reporting, better leverage technology, and grow their revenue base while improving and/or decreasing their cost structure.

Dan designed, implemented, and envisioned the network and system process workflow for the first FDA Approved DNA based sequencing system as Chief Information Officer of Bayer Visible Genetics. His pharmacogenomic systems supported drug discovery and research activities in the areas of HIV, HCV, HBV, and multiple areas of cancer.

Dan has designed and program managed the implementation of system infrastructures for over 500 locations worldwide including mobile technology, fleet management, and web based linen management that can be found in over 200 hospitals across the US.

Currently, Dan’s work is for priME Holding BV, a holding company, which is mainly comprised of prIME Oncology, and TRM Oncology. Virtual oncologists and nursing meetings, mobile applications, private social platforms, and video delivery of the latest in oncology education are just a part of his day-to-day activities. He is currently launching an expert/second opinion system for patients with cancer in Europe.

Dan is an active blogger, thought leader, speaker and is active in several community groups. Dan is Co-Founder and President of Digitainment Georgia, Vice President and Co-Founder of the Social Executive Council (SEC), Co-Founder of Atlanta Society Business Intelligence (ASBI), and Treasurer and Board Member of ToolBank USA.

Dan is also a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant.

For more information on Dan, you can check out his LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com/in/danwebber, follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SocialDanWebber or contact him directly at dan.webber@oncoservices.com.

Steven Burrell

Steven C. Burrell holds a bachelors of Science in Computer Science, a Masters of Education in Technology Administration and an Education Specialist Degree and has 29 years of higher education technology administration experience. He has held positions at Colorado State University, Hutchinson Community College (Kansas), Plymouth State University (New Hampshire), Saint Leo University (Florida) and is currently the Vice President for Technology and CIO at Georgia Southern University. Mr. Burrell has lead a wide variety of successful strategic technology projects and services at all of these institutions. In addition he has created IT leadership development and mentoring programs to foster the next generation of CIOs and education leaders.

Mr. Burrell has also served as a Director of Rotary International, served on numerous boards and is a member of Pi Lambda Theta.

Mike Campbell

Enterprise IT Leader with a 17 year track record of integrating technology and business processes to deliver projects that result in a positive impact to the bottom line. A technology leader who can eliminate roadblocks and define immediate steps that provide a common objective and actionable goals. Contributes a unique skill set of solving problems, driving initiatives and managing change by merging process, technology and people. Builds high performing teams that work together to take on and complete the toughest challenges.

I take great pleasure in building high performing organizations that grow via directed leadership towards mature levels of efficiency. It’s fun to watch teams develop into high functioning organizations.

Specialties: Managing complex technical implementations with multiple threads that require heavy attention to detail. Among other activities, I’m working on BYOT at Wendy’s. Developing the strategy and driving towards the benefits is proving to be entertaining.

Vish Narendra

Vish Narendra is currently the CIO for Services Operations at GE.  Before the, he was the CIO for Parts and Repair Services for GE.  He received his MBA in Information Management from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1994.  He has been with GE for the past 5 years.

Barbara Kunkel

Dr. Barbara Kunkel
CIO, Troutman Sanders LLP
Barb is Chief Information Officer at Troutman Sanders LLP with over twenty-five years of IT leadership, including more than a decade in premier law firms. She is a recipient of the 2010 Georgia CIO of the Year – Enterprise category award. She is also a recipient of the 2005 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Award and 2001 Information Technology Women of the Year Award presented by the Women’s Council of the Greater Rochester Metro Chamber-of-Commerce. Prior to Troutman Sanders, Barb worked for Nixon Peabody for twelve years as CIO and for the Eastman Kodak Company for twelve years in various positions including programmer, senior systems analyst, and software development manager. She also spent one year at the Rochester Telephone Company as an applications development supervisor for one of their subsidiary start up companies.

Barb’s talent for building successful teams in the business arena is extended to the soccer field. She has coached girls soccer at all levels for over twenty years. She is also devoted to developing young people who have a passion for technology and business management. In addition to serving as a mentor to the twenty-something generation, Barb is involved with organizations such as Women in Technology, Year Up, and Techbridge.

Continuous education is a very high priority for Barb. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree at Bowling Green State University (in Bowling Green, Ohio), earned her M.B.A. degree at the University of Rochester’s Simon School, and her Doctorate in Business Administration (D.B.A.) at the University of Phoenix.

Parrish Gunnels

Parrish Gunnels has been the CISO at Celanese for 5 years come January.  Before being employed by Celanese, Parrish worked for Citigroup for 4 and a half years as VP of IT Audit and Compliance.   Parrish received his MBA from TCU-M.J. Neeley School of Business.

Mignona Cote

Mignona Cote has over 20 years of experience securing, protecting and improving large-scale and international technology environments within the telecom and financial industries. Extensive information technology audit leadership coupled with risk and control implementation and assessment including the design of risk frameworks and industry wide training.  Previous to Bank of America, Mignona has worked information security for companies like PepsiCo and Nortel Networks.

George Finney

George Finney has been pursuing a career and is particularly interested in legal issues in Information Security, Education, Technology, Intellectual Property, Software, and Startup areas. George has been a longtime user of Linux and an advocate for Open Source.  He was been with Southern Methodist University in some capacity for nearly 10 years.

Joe Ferrara

Joining Wombat in 2011, Joe brings 20 years of experience in technology marketing, operations and management to his role as President & CEO. He is an experienced chief executive whose previous roles include President, CEO and Chairman of Tollgrade Communications, CEO of Marconi Communications North America and General Manager of Ericsson’s Wireless Software & Services and Routing & Switching Divisions. Joe is also currently a Member of the Board for GigaPan Systems and Voci Technologies. Joe holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and a B.S. from Penn State University.

Wendy DeCair

Wendy DeCair is a results-oriented leader with over 20 years of progressive experience in Information Technology and Information Security.  In 1996, she started her career with Dean Foods, moving up the chain to head the IT Risk and Compliance team in 2010. Specialties include, process management, IT controls governance, and cost effective delivery of appropriate security solutions within organizational risk tolerance.

Dennis John

Dennis John has been the current Chief Information Officer of the city of Arlington, Texas for a little over a year.  Before moving to Texas, Dennis was the CIO for Milwaukee county in Wisconsin for 3 years, and before that was the Director of Information Systems for Racine county for 5 years.  He received his MBA from Olivet Nazarene University.

Richard Maranville

Richard Maranville has been the EVP and CIO of the Freeman Company for the 3 years and 9 months.  Within the past 13 and a half years, Richard had held top positions within Fedex Kinko’s/Kinko’s including  Director of Store Systems, VP of Technology, and SVP/CIO.

Vicki Laurie

Over 32 years in complex corporate strategy, incorporating common-sense technology structures to support flexible business objectives
IT outsourcing and healthcare
Experience in leading leveraged global service delivery for large, small and diverse clients
Tactically and strategically strong in CxO relationships, technical delivery, financial and behavioral efficiencies.
Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills
Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing, Financial Services and Federal/Military industries
Key words: Revenue Cycle, DataCenter, Applications, OrganizationChange or Restructuring, Global experience, Provider healthcare, Client executive, P&L, Large organizations, Executive presence management
CORE COMPETENCIES:
Leading and transforming large, complex, global organizations through business challenges:
• Globalization of the workforce
• Creating an open, active, leadership style across all layers of leadership
• Investment and Growth
• Start-ups and shut-down
• Organizational performance “turn-arounds”
• Interim CxO positions
• Moving from a dedicated to a leveraged support
• Mentoring and motivating a diverse leadership
• CEO/CIO Client Account Exec on-site with a client
• Accountable for P&L(s) over $100M
• Translates business issues into strategic solutions
• Creates integrated partnerships
• Exceptional memory for delivery lessons learned
• Motivation and Collaboration with remote resources
• Comfort and ease with executives at various levels, especially clients in tough situations

Darrin Whitney

Darrin Whitney has been the current CIO at GENBAND for a little over a year.  His past experience includes working in 2 different rolls with Dresser Inc. for the past 8 years, including 6 years as the CIO and 2 years as the ERP Programing Director.  Darrin received his BA in Financial Administration from Michigan St. University

Louis Martinez

Louis Martinez is a 17+ year information technology veteran in the healthcare space.

Mr. Martinez became the CIO of PDX Inc. in 2008.  As the CIO he is responsible for technical management of over 20 products and services for retail pharmacy, software delivery, both on and off-shore, infrastructure, information security, network operations, and enterprise teams such as architecture, database administration, and business intelligence.

Prior to his CIO role, Mr. Martinez was the Director of Enterprise Central Services, which consists of all bolt-on software and services provided to over 9,000 retail pharmacies running out of the PDX data centers.  With over 10 years of IT organization and management expertise, Mr. Martinez is the technology decision maker for PDX with a strong focus on longer term ROI.  Under his leadership, PDX reorganized its technology divisions towards an enterprise thinking organization focused on efficiency, cost savings, better integration, and a single unified platform for retail pharmacy.

Previously, Mr. Martinez held lead software developer, business analyst, and IT team leadership positions at PDX and other technology companies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Dr. Alexander Bockelmann

Dr. Alexander Bockelmann is the Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Fireman’s Fund Insurance.  He has held his current position since September of 2011.  Before becoming CIO and Senior VP, Bockelmann held the positions of CTO and V.P, where he had quite a list of accomplishments

* Improved IT service delivery processes and time to market for IT services by 50%.
* Renegotiated key IT outsourcing contracts to reduce annual IT run costs by over 20%
* Established and oversaw extensive vendor operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Eastern Europe.
* Transformed IT operating model to a value delivery model by instituting best practice project and release management as well as actionable quality assurance processes that fuel a continuous improvement cycle and lead to lower costs and improved scope and quality in IT enabled business services.
* Developed and implemented infrastructure, network, remote workers, and mobile device strategies.

Richard Rothschild

Richard Rothschild is the VP of Information Services at Pandora.    His previous employers include TiVo, which he spent 7 years as Sr. Director of IT, Security, and Facilities,  BEA Systems for 1 year as the Global IT Director, and Ariba for 3 1/2 years as the VP of IT.  He earned his M.A. in Experimental Psychology at San Jose State University.

Gina Tomlinson

Gina’s responsibilities as CTO of the City and County of san Francisco are to set technical strategy, standards, policy, innovation, and process for all City-wide government agencies under the CCSF. Additional duties lie within organizational development and effectiveness…restructuring a dated IT organization, into a more effective, cogent agency supporting the staff across the City and County of SF. Recent projects include relocating the City’s primary data center, City-wide conversion from Lotus Notes e-mail to hosted Microsoft Exchange in the cloud…one of the first major local municipalities to do so. Gina also led the City-wide conversion from Novell to Active Directory, server virtualization at the City’s primary data center, extending Wi-Fi services across the City, implementing the City’s Voice over IP initiative…and other innovative business-enabling IT solutions. In light of the success of these groundbreaking public sector ventures, Gina was recently selected as one of ComputerWorld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2012, and the San Francisco Business Times 150 Most Influential Women in Business 2012

Gina previously served as the CIO for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). Her duties as CIO included leading the SFMTA IT organization, aligning key IT strategic initiatives to various Transit Operations business goals. Supporting and enabling the transportation IT infrastructure, and implementing best practice ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) methodologies.

Gina has been published in Diversity Careers Magazine, Oracle Profit Magazine, ComputerWorld, Government Technology and CIO magazine.

Sunnil Dadlani

Sunnil Dadlani is a CIO advisor, and IT executive within Sony, and has been with them for 6 years.  His previous employers include Novell, where he was an IT executive for 6 years, and Motorola, as an IT executive for 4 years.  Sunnil’s ’s expertise includes global information technology assessments, strategy, and planning; information security; Mergers & Acquisitions, Due Diligence and Post-merger Integration; IT Governance, IT Policy, Procedures and Controls; Contract Negotiations & Vendor Mgmt.; Strategic Planning, P&L and Budgeting, Operations, Team Building & Performance Optimization, C-Level Client Relationship, Vendor Management, Service & Performance monitoring, Project / Program / Portfolio Management

Jennifer Kenny

Jennifer Kenny has been the current CIO of SRI International for over 1 year, as well as the CEO of BizTh!nk for 4 1/4 years.  Her previous work experience includes Cisco WebEx, where she was Sr. Director of Global Professional Services, for just over 1 1/2 years,  as well as the VP of Process and Design at Wells Fargo Wholesale Banking for a year.  She also spent 8 years as the CEO of Emergent Management Consulting/Emergent Software from 1993 to 2001.

Gary Coverdale

Chief Security Information Officer, Assistant Chief Information Officer

Napa County Information Technology Services

Gary Coverdale is the Assistant Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer for the California County of Napa. He also serves as Chair of the California Counties Information Services Directors Association – Information Security Forum, and is the California State Local Agency (Counties and Cities) representative for the (Federal) Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. Prior to public employment, Mr. Coverdale founded and operated a national software development firm, BISPAC Corporation, working with IBM and its mid-range systems. Mr. Coverdale holds various degrees in business management and law, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP).

Patrick Wilson

Intrigued by the amazing potential of the intersection of technology, patient care, and customer service, Patrick Wilson and his business partner, Scott McEvoy, founded Vital Signs Technology in 2006. The focus of the company is to harness global expertise, 24×7 customer service, and vast knowledge to be the leading technology services organization for the medical and startup verticals.

Wilson has a keen understanding of how both legacy systems and bleeding edge technology work. His father, an educator and blogger, brought home the first personal computer in the county when Wilson was 4 years old. As a 16-year veteran of the computer industry, Wilson has managed information security for Contra Costa County Health Services, which has a 160-bed hospital, three clinics, health plan and other divisions. Wilson also worked for several Silicon Valley start-ups, serving as Global Network Manager, Director of IT, and CTO.

Wilson earned a B.A. in business from Western Baptist College. He holds the following certifications: Microsoft Certified Engineer + Security, CompTIA Security+, CISSP, Microsoft Small Business Specialist, CERT and FEMA. These accomplishments would not have been possible without unwavering support from his parents, family, faith, mentors, and business partner. He lives in northern California with his wonderful and patient wife and two awesome kids. His hobbies include flying, skydiving, and spending time with the families

Matthew Archibald

Matthew Archibald is a 21 year IT professional, a 17-year veteran of the information security and risk management field and is internationally recognized as an expert in the discipline.

Archibald began his career with Sun Microsystems, joining the company shortly after its inception. During the five years he worked there, he wrote and implemented Sun’s global IT standards for operations and information security. After leaving Sun, Archibald worked with leading companies around the world defining their security procedures and protocols. These companies include KLA-Tencor, the world’s leading supplier of process control and yield management solutions; and Palm Computer, the world-wide leader in the PDA market, He became a security consultant and for several years helped build digital defenses for Fortune 100 companies. Springing from that work, he founded Elemental Security with Dan Farmer, a company specializing in host based enterprise policy and risk management technology.

Archibald now works at Applied Materials and serves as the managing director and chief information security officer for global information security and risk management. Applied Materials is the global leader in Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with a broad portfolio of innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. At Applied, Archibald is responsible for protecting the company’s massive portfolio of intellectual property

Martin McKeay

With over a decade of experience in the IT and security field, Martin is a well seasoned professional dedicated to spreading awareness about security and privacy. As a recovering QSA, he’s well aware of the pain many companies feel when dealing with compliance. He is the host and author of a pair of the longest running podcasts and blogs in the security industry, the Network Security Podcast and the Network Security Blog. He’s also just a pretty nice guy in general, with a wicked sense of humor and a finely honed blade of sarcasm.

Bala Subramanian

Bala Subramanian is chief technology officer at S&P Dow Jones Indices, responsible for technology strategy, operations and infrastructure.

Prior to joining in 2006, Bala was director of technology at Citigroup Asset Management, where he was responsible for investment research and portfolio management systems.  Bala began his career in product development for banking & capital markets and served as a senior technology advisor to several regional banks in the U.S.  He has also held various leadership positions at financial services firms such as SocGen and Liberty Brokerage.

Bala holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering with honors from Madras University and an MBA in finance from NYU Stern School of Business.

Jerry Flasz

Global Information Technology Executive with strong transformation leadership experience leading and driving strategic business objectives that improve financial results. Most recently led transformation initiative at Avon. Developed solutions for direct seller of Beauty, Telecommunications, Life Sciences, Medical Equipment, Pharmaceutical, and Consumer Product companies, focus on a sales, marketing, distribution, and manufacturing business settings.

Michael Israel

Michael Israel, Six Flags SVP-CIO, Information Services, brings over 18 years experience in the IT industry, with particular expertise in the planning and design of storage area networks, IT operations, standards and migration planning.

Mr. Israel manages a staff of over 80 full time IS professionals and 60 seasonal employees at 29 theme parks nationwide. He has been responsible for large scale system migrations in which he has designed and implemented system and storage rollouts for clients with system populations from 100-10,000 units. With a prime focus on reducing operating expenses he has focused on delivering solutions geared towards the specific business requirements of each client. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Saint John’s University in New York.

Angelo J. Valletta

Angelo J. Valletta currently serves Sun National Bank as Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer, and Chairman of the Bank’s Management Automation Committee, which consists of the most senior level leaders at the bank. In addition, Angelo has responsibility for two revenue generating lines of business – ATM’s and
Merchant Services. Angelo has over twenty-five years of progressively responsible managerial experience in diverse industries for companies ranging in size from small consulting firms to multi-national Fortune 100 companies. A proven track record of developing and building effective internal and outsourced local and distributed teams, and is a turn-around specialist in operations and customer service.

Most recently, Angelo was named to Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders List for 2010 and was named IT Pro of the week for SearchCIO.com.

Additionally, Angelo received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Temple University and his MBA from Philadelphia University and serves on several civic boards most notably as lead for the FidelityIS-Bankway large company synergy group and sits on Paetec and FirstData advisory boards and various finance committees. Also, Angelo is an elected official representing his district to Gloucester County, NJ, and has served as Chairman for Sun’s United Way campaign

Daniel Barchi

Daniel Barchi is Chief Information Officer of the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale-New Haven Health System. Before joining Yale, he was Senior Vice President and CIO of the $1.4 B Carilion Health System and led the integration of Carilion’s seven hospitals and 140 physician practices though implementation of a $98 M electronic medical record. He was also responsible for technology at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.

Daniel was previously President of the Carilion Biomedical Institute and Director of Technology and Engineering for MCI WorldCom. In both roles was appointed as CEO, COO, and Chief Restructuring Officer of privately held and venture-backed companies in the healthcare and technology industries. Earlier, Daniel was MCI’s Director of Global Project Management responsible for product deployment in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Daniel began his career as a U.S. Naval officer and served at sea in cruisers. During his service, he was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal, the Southeast Asia Service Medal for service in the Red Sea, and the NATO Service Medal for operations in the Balkans.

Daniel holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Annapolis, the U.S. Naval Academy, and a
Master of Engineering Management degree from Old Dominion University. He is active on several corporate and community service boards and he is a marathon runner.

Steve Betts

Steve Betts is Chief Information Officer of Aon Re Global, a business unit of Aon Corporation. Since joining Aon in July 2003, Steve has worked in both the UK and US, developing an IT strategy designed to address Aon Re Global’s critical business imperatives, with a particular focus on client and market facing services. Steve has spearheaded the development of a comprehensive Web Services Messaging capability, based upon ACORD standards, which is one of the cornerstones of this strategy. Additionally, he led the global initiative to establish e-business technology standards and to build Aon’s global e-business platform. Prior to joining Aon, Steve led large-scale financial and operational system implementations. In addition to his extensive work within the financial services industry, he has also worked across the oil and gas, public utilities and health care sectors as a consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Lante Corporation and CSC. Steve is an active volunteer with Umoja Student Development Corporation, a Chicago based non-profit dedicated to improving higher education opportunities for underprivileged youth. He received his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Management Science from University of Manchester in Manchester, England.

Chris Horsman

Vice President & Chief Information Officer responsible for developing and executing IT strategies, solutions and all aspects of IT operations, support and technical services along with thought leadership on technology trends.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the nation’s second largest public transportation system. On an average weekday, 1.6 million riders are on the system and the CTA provides 83 percent of the public transit trips in the six-county Chicago metropolitan area either with direct service or connecting service.

Doug Kasamis

Director Kasamis is currently the Chief Information Officer for the State of Illinois’ largest agency, the Department Human Services ($12 billion budget; 13,000 employees). In this role Director Kasamis serves over 2.2 million citizens in Illinois. His responsibilities include developing and executing the Information Technology Strategy of over 100 different human services programs including Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, WIC, Childcare, Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Rehabilitation Services.

Prior to his role at DHS, Mr. Kasamis served as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Communication and Computer Services for the State of Illinois. In this role he also served as the State’s Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Kasamis was responsible for the State’s IT Strategy and Architecture, IT Infrastructure and Enterprise Applications. He was also responsible for the State’s Illinois Century Network which is a statewide telecommunications backbone that provides high speed transport for data, video, and audio communication to K-12 schools, libraries, colleges, universities, public libraries, museums, units of local government, state agencies, healthcare institutions, and other non-profit entities.

Prior to working for the State, Mr. Kasamis was a Partner at Accenture where he led a number of different offerings including the Global Lead of the IT Transformation Practice and the United States Lead of the IT Infrastructure Practice. During his career with Accenture, Mr. Kasamis worked with a variety of different clients including the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, IBM, AXA, Caterpillar, Liberty Mutual and Corning.

David Matthews

David Matthews is currently a Senior Vice President and CIO for the National Restaurant Association. He is supporting the Association’s strategic initiative to streamline business operations and more effectively manage the technology platform. That process includes the redesign of the coreapplication architecture, transitioning to an ASP model which will support the national association and the fifty state associations. Matthews has almost 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry.

Prior to joining RBC, he was president and chief operating officer of Ultraprise, an e-commerce technology company that developed one of the first internet-enabled secondary market exchanges, targeted at the mortgage banking industry. Matthews also spent 13 years as a senior vice president and CIO at Chase Manhattan Mortgage and its predecessor companies, Chemical Residential Mortgage and Margaretten Mortgage. Matthews received a bachelor’s degree in history from Beloit College and a J.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh Law School. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar and is active within the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Matthews help found the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), the organization that developed data standards now widely adopted by the industry. He served on the MBAA’s Technology Steering Committee and its Residential Technology Committee; Fannie Mae’s CIO Council and was named a Mortgage Banking IT Superstar by Mortgage Banking Magazine in 2002.

He has given numerous speeches and presentations on technology and organizational management at industry conferences.

Alison Kassel

Alison Kassel is the Chief Information Officer for SeatonCorp with over 26 years of experience. She is a versatile business technology leader, with experience in developing strategies, transforming organizations, and delivering solutions enabling organizations to achieve their strategic and operating plan objectives.

Prior to joining SeatonCorp, Alison has held significant IT roles for highly respected organizations such as U.S. Cellular, Motorola, McDonalds, Cap Gemini, and Andersen Consulting. Alison has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Iowa and has completed Executive Education programs at The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. She is Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT), and is a Certified Change Agent.

Steve Verska

CIO, Equifax

Jay Ferro

Jay is currently Chief Information Officer for the American Cancer Society (ACS), a nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the American Cancer Society has more than 900 local offices nationwide and a presence in more than 5,100 communities. Jay is responsible for the people, strategy and operations of the Global Information Technology organization. Prior to joining ACS in 2012, Jay served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for AdCare Health Systems, a rapidly growing and recognized innovator in health care facility management. Jay spent the previous 7 years at AIG (American International Group), most recently as VP and CIO for Chartis Aerospace (formerly AIG Aviation), a leading global aerospace insurer. At Chartis, Jay implemented numerous improvements that have delivered substantial value to
the organization while managing significant organizational change in a turbulent market environment. In addition to his role as AVP of Information Technology with AIG Personal Lines, Jay was selected as CFO for Operations and Systems in 2006
and led multiple global IT Finance and Governance Standards initiatives that resultedin millions of dollars in savings for the organization.

Jay continues to be a thought leader in the Information Technology arena and is a frequent guest speaker and panelist, both in Atlanta and Nationwide. In recognition of his accomplishments, Jay was selected as Georgia CIO of the Year in 2011, and is
currently serving as Vice Chair for the Georgia CIO Leadership Association.

His commitment and dedication to community involvement is evidenced by the time and energy he contributes. In 2007, he founded the non-profit group, Priscilla’s Promise, in honor of his late wife, which raises funds for cervical cancer education
and research, and currently serves as its Executive Director. In 2011 he was elected to the Board of Directors for TechBridge, an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization which helps other nonprofits use technology to improve their capability to serve the community.

Jay earned both his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and his Masters of Business Administration from The University of Georgia. Jay continues to be involved with his alma mater, both as a mentor for young alumni and as a member of the Alumni Board of Directors for the Terry College of Business. Jay lives in the Metro Atlanta Area with his 3 amazing sons: Trey, Connor and Alex.

Community Involvement

• Vice Chair, Georgia CIO Leadership Association
• Board of Directors, UGA Terry College of Business Alumni Board
• Board of Directors, TechBridge
• Founder and Managing Director, Priscilla’s Promise
• Cabinet Member, United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, Technology Unit
• Premier Member, Technology Association of Georgia

Sheryl Fikse

Sheryl Fikse is Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Information Technology Services for Southwire Company. She is responsible for all Southwire information and communications systems. ITS delivers business value to Southwire customers and protects the foundation upon which they conduct business.

Prior to joining Southwire in 2010, Fikse worked with MYTecSoft as general manager for North America and Europe. She has served as senior vice president of the industrial finance business unit of AT&T Capital Corporation and has a wide range of consulting experience with companies around the world, including Southwire and other top wire and cable manufacturers.

A graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Fikse has completed executive development programs at Columbia University’s Graduate Business School and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Samir Saini

Samir Saini started his career with General Electric as part of their esteemed Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP). Upon graduation, Samir joined the GE Audit Staff, a highly regarded internal auditing group & leadership development organization with GE. Following this role, Samir moved to Atlanta, GA for the next five years with GE’s Energy division assuming numerous IT leadership roles including CIO for GE Energy Rentals, and Director, ERP for GE Energy Services. Samir left GE in 2006 and accepted a position as Vice President, Corporate Systems for MGM MIRAGE based in Las Vegas, NV. Over the next few years, Samir was responsible for the successful implementation large back-office process standardization and system implementations supporting finance, procurement, HR, legal, and other support functions.

Richard H. Peltz

Rick Peltz, based in the firm’s Encino corporate office, is a senior vice president and serves as the firm’s chief information officer. In this capacity he oversees the design, development, procurement, implementation and support of information technology. Mr. Peltz has more than 20 years of experience in this area and has received industry recognitions including: CIO 100 Award in 2011 and 2005; Information Week’s Top 500 from 2010 through 2006 and Most Innovative Technology Award, Realcomm in 2004. Computerworld also named him among the nation’s premier 100 IT leaders in 2002.

Prior to joining Marcus & Millichap in 1998, Mr. Peltz worked at Bank of America as an international project management manager responsible for planning and implementing worldwide technology solutions for the firm’s largest division, wholesale banking. Mr. Peltz is an alumni of Marquette University.

Sean Perry

Sean Perry leads the Global Information Technology organization as Chief Information Officer for Robert Half International. Founded in 1948, Robert Half International (NYSE symbol: RHI) is the world’s first and largest specialized staffing firm. RHI has staffing and consulting operations in more than 400 locations worldwide. Sean is focused on delivering an IT organization that is closely aligned with the company’s core business units and continuing to evolve the service delivery and IT governance functions for the firm.

Walter Curd

Walter Curd is currently Vice President and CIO for Maxim Integrated Products, the leading Analog Semiconductor Company with $2.5B in Annual Revenue. In that position he has led a modernization effort of infrastructure and applications that is producting substantial business benefits. Maxim was recently recognized as having one of the most innovative IT organizations in the Information Week 500. Prior to Maxim he built a world class IT Organization at Marvell Semiconductor to support their growth from $300M to over $3.0B during his tenure. He has also led the IT organizations for Fujitsu, Electroglas, and CyberIQ Systems.

Bernard Soriano

Bernard C. Soriano, Ph.D., is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the California Department of Motor Vehicles.  The DMV has roughly 9,000 employees. Of those, half are located at the 169 different field office divisions. The IT budget is approximately $100 million annually, and there are 600 IT employees. Dr. Soriano reports directly to the director of the DMV.  He is responsible for department technology, policies, technical vision and strategy, and goals for technology.  Dr. Soriano also served as the CIO for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the California Secretary of State. In addition, he was the technology task force leader for Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Performance Review.

Dr. Soriano’s previously held engineering and management positions at Hughes Space and Communications, Inc. in Los Angeles, where he designed satellite control systems. He was also the Assistant Technical Director of the U.S. Golf Association Research and Test Center in New Jersey. He was also a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve and was a finalist in the NASA astronaut program.

Mark Egan

Mark Egan is VMware’s chief information officer and vice president of Information Technology. He leads a global team responsible for developing VMware’s enterprise architecture, internal business systems, IT standards and policies, and information security program.

Prior to joining StrataFusion, Mark was a CIO at Symantec Corporation for 6 years during the company’s rapid growth from a consumer software publisher with $600 million revenue to the market leader of security with $5 billion revenue. During his tenure with Symantec, he led the information technology integration through 28 acquisitions, including a $13 billion acquisition of Veritas Software that helped Symantec become the world’s 4th largest software company.

Mark is a board member of the CIO Scholarship Foundation, and serves on the advisory boards for TriCipher, Inc, and Center for Electronic Business at San Francisco State University. He is a member of the American Management Association’s Information
Systems and Technology Council. Mark founded the CIO Development Program that mentors aspiring CIO’s in the Bay Area.

Mark is an author of Executive Guide to Information Security: Threats, Challenges, and Solutions and was a contributing author of CIO Wisdom and CIO Perspectives. He is also a frequent speaker on best practices for information technology and security.

Mark holds a master’s degree in finance and international business from the University of San Diego and a bachelor’s degree in computer sciences from the University of Clarion. Mark currently teaches a graduate class, “Building Business Value through Technology Innovation”, at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.