Peter Gross serves as VP, Mission Critical Systems at Bloom Energy with over 25 years of experience in engineering and design of power systems as applied to data centers and industrial facilities.

He co-founded the Critical Power Coalition (CPC). He Founded EYP Mission Critical and served as its Leader. He served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Inc. He served as Vice President and Managing Partner of HP Global Technology Consulting at Hewlett Packard. He served as the Chief Engineer at Teledyne Technologies Inc. He served in devising and safeguarding facilities of clients such as Stock Exchange, IRS, Merrill Lynch and Bell Atlantic. He serves as a Member of Advisory Board for RampRate, Inc. He has been a Director of Active Power Inc. since February 13, 2015. He serves as a Director of Asetek A/S, EYP Mission Critical Facilities Inc. and International Battery Inc. He served as a Director of Secured Digital Storage Corp., from December 10, 2007 to August 5, 2008. He is an Engineering Design and Implementation Professional, and was the recipient of 2010 Data Center Dynamics “Outstanding Contribution to the Industry” award. Mr. Gross holds an MSEE from Polytechnic Institute in Bucharest, Romania and an MBA from Cal State.

Steven Tan has proven replicated success over 15+ years in achieving outstanding results, ambitious growth, market share and pipeline goals across prestigious fortune 500 and global mid-sized organizations (IBM, HP, Informix, Aspect Software). He is highly energetic and passionate professional with deep expertise in achieving consistent measurable results, building and mentoring team players, partnering with leadership on organizational transformation to influence and achieve company's goals.

Recently, Steven was Seagate's Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan, responsible for all aspects of field marketing, marketing operations and public relations in the region. Steven oversaw strategic marketing activities to develop and maintain customer and partner programs in the region. He was responsible for building new and accelerating new logo revenue contribution to sales every quarter via demand generation, business development managers and inside sales. He led and managed regional marketing strategy, driving market awareness of the brand, and growing the company’s revenue and market share through demand generation programs. Additionally, his portfolio also included forging and maintaining media and analyst relations, including social media marketing.

As an Executive Advisory Board member of the CMO Council, Steven provides advisory from branding (online, social media and traditional) to demand generation to fellow CMOs and enterprises across Asia Pacific and United States. As the Regional Transformation Representative of the BPI Network, Steven acts as a regional advisor and representative for ongoing Thought Leadership campaigns and events. He draws on his 20+ years of experience in overseeing marketing and communications across-the-board, from channels marketing management to product marketing and media relations. Prior to joining Seagate, Steven has held senior marketing positions at IBM Software Group, Lucent Technologies, HP Software, Informix Software and the most recent 4 years at Aspect Software.

Christopher Leo has over 20 years of experience in technology, matrix management, and implementing business process changes within Financial Services and Banking Industries.

Christopher Leo is an accomplished leader with global technology experience in Financial Services and Banking Industries. In his current and previous roles, he has proven his leadership methodologies in technology and delivering complex products involving start-ups and high growth organizations. He is a results-oriented decision leader with proven success in strategic positioning and re-engineering key processes that contribute to significant revenue growth and increased client retention.

Chris is a visionary executive, with over 20 years of experience in technology, matrix management and implementing business process changes. He is a change leader and team architect who consistently creates innovative processes that drive high-performance operating results in customer-driven and P&L oriented organizations. His experience focuses on developing and managing business units, products, extensive experience in staff development, resource optimization, shared service management, Information Technology governance, process improvement and revenue responsibility.

His specialties include: CIO, Information Technology, Global Operations Management, PMO, software, vice president, banking, six sigma, business turnaround, Account Management, P&L Management, and Quality Assurance.

In his role as executive vice president and chief technology officer, Rubinow is responsible for continuously strengthening Catalina’s global enterprise architecture through technology development, implementation and operation.Steve Rubinow brings 25+ years of technology leadership to his role as EVP and Chief Technology Officer. He is responsible for leading Catalina’s global technology function, driving improvements to Catalina’s global enterprise architecture through technology development, implementation, and operation to deliver personalized digital media. Widely recognized as an innovative and transformational technology leader, Rubinow served as CIO for Thomson Reuters' Marketplaces Division prior to joining Catalina. He previously served as Chief Information Officer for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Euronext for over a decade.

Steve has authored several books on CIO/CTO leadership, and has been the recipient of numerous accolades. He was named one of the top 30 socially-savvy US CIOs in 2013 by Aternity for his use of social media, inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame in 2012, was named one of Computerworld magazine’s Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2012, was recognized as one of the top 10 CIOs on Wall Street in 2010 by Securities Technology Monitor magazine, and named one of the top CIOs on Wall Street in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 by Wall Street & Technology magazine. For many years, Rubinow served as an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University, where he earned an M.S. in Computer Science. His academic accomplishments also include four degrees from the University of Illinois, including a Ph.D. in Chemistry; an MBA in Marketing & Finance; an M.S. in Chemistry, and; a B.S. in Biological Sciences and Chemistry.

Lee joined the Collabworks leadership team in April 2011, overseeing CollabWorks Information Technology strategy, as well as having overall responsibility for the day to day IT operations and customer support for Collabworks.

Prior to joining CollabWorks, Lee held the position of Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Photon Dynamics, Inc., where he had responsibility for the corporate business systems and network infrastructure worldwide. Previously, as CIO of Spectrian, he led the organization toward a virtual company vision that allowed employees to perform their job functions from anywhere in the world.

Lee has also held senior level information technology positions at FCS/New Millennium Technologies, Inc. a Y2K software conversion services company and Nextron Communications, Inc., a web site creation and hosting company. Earlier in his career, Lee worked for Deere & Company holding several positions within its Information Technology organization at both unit and corporate levels.

Lee received an MBA from the University of Iowa and holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Upper Iowa University.

Dr. Natalie’s research is among the top in the world, respected for over 20 years because of her ability to tackle difficult subjects like connecting social media and traditional function department’s initiatives to the bottom-line and creating the world’s first social media return-on-investment calculator. She’s combined her experiences into practical experience to guide CxO’s, PR, Marketing, Customer Service and IT leaders, as integrated teams, to make sound business decisions by providing executable strategies that improve the bottom-line.

Dr. Natalie has developed frameworks, assessments, maturity models and ROI models for the past 15 years, including social media ROI calculators, social media brand index scoring systems, HR and Human Capital ROI models, Customer Service, Brand Equity/Reputation ROI models, PR/Word of Mouth and Marketing Conversion Rate Models as well as Social Media Production Innovation Calculators. By comparing a brand or company's "current state" to best practices, she has created tools that provide short and long-term roadmaps via recommendation engines that help standardize planning for social media and digital communications programs.

Dr. Natalie’s experience in social media ranges from being a Forrester Analyst, the Chief Strategist for an Agency and a consultant at PWC and BenchmarkPortal. Her focus is to help clients understand how to use social media to drive revenue and profits. She wrote the world’s first social media ROI model. Dr. Natalie is Adjunct Professor at USC and former President of SocialMediaClubLA. With a world-wide practice role spanning client work, practice development and thought leadership. she's lead the development of consulting practices in management consulting as well as organizational change management at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Benchmarkportal and Hitachi Consulting. Dr. Natalie’s focus is to consult with clients on their strategy for social media, marketing, PR, customer service and integrating them using organizational change management, new technology deployment and social media analytics, measurement and ROI. Dr. Natalie is credited with writing the world’s first social media ROI model for PR, Marketing, Product Innovation and Customer Service.

Dr. Natalie is often quoted in NYTimes, USAToday, Bloomberg-BusinessWeek, CRM Magazine and Peppers and Rogers 1-to-1 Magazine and is also a featured commentator on TV and radio. As an accomplished public speaker, Dr. Natalie is an invited and keynote speaker at conferences like... Social Media Advertising Consortium (SMAC), WOMMA, Web 2.0, Radian6 Conference, Enterprise 2.0, Gartner CRM Summit, Forrester IT, Business Technology and Consumer Forums, Hispanicize, CRM Evolution, SugarCon, C3, UCLA Anderson Business School MBA Program, USC, Pepperdine Business Forum, Vendor Users Conferences, ICMI, GSA and SOCAP.

To follow Dr. Natalie, check out her musing on Twitter.com/drnatalie; her website where she blogs about all thing social and digital, www.drnatalienews.com and can be reached at doctornatalie@gmail.com

Scott Offermann offers technical guidance, strategic insight, and support for client teams with data centers, call centers, high-tech facilities, and manufacturing facilities. He joined C&W in 2006 as the Critical Operations Manager Americas for a major software client with service in 36 countries.  He oversaw a delivery team of over 450 employees and dedicated service providers. Mr. Offermann has key critical operations experience, including managing nearly 500,000 sf of data center space, distribution, manufacturing, lab environments, emergency power plants, primary substations, building infrastructure, and business critical operations (such as call center and customer facing areas). He created and oversaw development of Critical Operations Policy and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and Methods of Procedures (MOP) for coordinating global maintenance actives minimizing the risk of interruptions due to maintenance. Mr. Offermann focused on delivery, ensuring consistency and optimal uptime within operations.

Mr. Offermann has over 25 years of facilities management and critical operations experience. Prior to joining C&W, he held positions with international distribution, high tech, recreation, manufacturing and retail organizations, call center environments, and national health care organizations. As a published author, his works include the book, Creating a Strategic Energy Reduction Plan (Fairmont Press), and several articles.

Mr. Worn has been involved with industry-leading enterprises and clients around the world for over 25 years as an Industrial FMS and ICT Network and Facilities Engineer; with over eight years in Asia, across the Americas and again back on a pan-European level.

Mr. Worn was the Head of Technology Services for Dimension Data UK, where he was also their acting Practice Manager for Data Centres and Intelligent Buildings. Stephen has held senior management roles in Nortel Networks as their EMEA Senior Director of Datacentres, at Japan's Nippon Suisan International, China's National Center for Industry and Technology, as well as with the Center for Special Economic Zones.

Mr. Worn has supported DatacenterDynamics since its first conference as Chief Technical Advisor and Guest Conference Chairman. He is currently CEO of North America, Managing Director of AsiaPacific, as well as Global CTO for Data Center Dynamics. Mr. Worn holds two Masters Degrees. 

Kevin Leahy is Group General Manager, Data Centre Solutions for Dimension Data Holdings. The $6 billion company is a specialist IT services and solution provider that helps clients plan, build, support & manage their IT infrastructures.

Dimension Data Date Centre Business Unit brings together for clients all the critical components needed for a next generation data centre; industry recognized cloud leadership, industry recognized network leadership, expertise inside the data centre spanning virtualization, storage, backup and disaster recovery and facilities along with unique consulting capabilities to plan, build and enable clients on an optimal data centre journey for their business.

Prior to taking on this role, Kevin joined Dimension Data in October 2011 as Chief Architect Virtualization and Cloud for the data centre solutions (DCS) across Dimension Data group. Where he was responsible for defining the tools and architecture Dimension Data implements to solve client business challenges using virtualization and cloud. He was also responsible for the data centre solution roadmaps in these areas spanning server, storage and desktop virtualization as well as private cloud and professional services to help clients exploit public and hybrid cloud solutions. He worked with Dimension Data global accounts to define strategic approaches to address their unique IT requirements.

An industry veteran based in New York, Kevin joined Dimension Data after a 32 year career with IBM where career highlights included leading development of the IBM high end networking and fibre optic advanced technology, the mainframe channel and I/O subsystem and power systems development for the corporation. He launched the IBM WebSphere platform and introduced storage virtualization into the market. From there he led the IBM virtualization strategy followed by the IT Optimization strategy. His last role at IBM was leading the cloud sales strategy for services.

He is a graduate of The Cooper Union in NYC with a degree in Electrical Engineering and lives with his wife in Saugerties, NY.

Dustin Haisler is the Chief Innovation Officer for e.Republic. As the finance director and later CIO for Manor, TX, a small city outside Austin, Haisler quickly built a track record and reputation as an early innovator in civic tech. A member of Code for America’s original steering committee, Haisler pioneered government use of commercial technologies not before used in the public sector – including Quick-Response (QR) barcodes, crowdsourcing and gamification. In 2010 Haisler launched Manor Labs, a website that let residents submit their own ideas and vote other peoples’ ideas up or down. The most popular suggestions went to city officials for review and possible implementation. Haisler looked to the private sector to help broaden the adoption of these and other civic innovations, joining California-based Spigit as director of government innovation. While at Spigit, a company that makes crowd-sourcing and innovation management software, Hailser helped design and deploy innovation programs for New York City; Bogota, Columbia; and even part of the space program (through NASA’s Langley Research Center).

Notably, Haisler helped design and launch one of the first government open innovation programs in the United States in 2010, which received global recognition as a new model of citizen engagement and innovation. Among other first-in-nation innovations, Haisler architected a Crowdsourcing Master Land Use Plan (Harford County, MD) and patented a crowd-based business process (Crowd-as-a-Service). Named a Government Technology Top 25 Doer, Dreamer and Driver in 2009, his work has been featured in Wired, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Inc. and the Today Show on NBC. An in-demand speaker, he has given two TEDx speeches – one on Disrupting Government (TEDxAustin) and the other on Disrupting Education (TEDxLivermore).

As Chief Innovation Officer, Haisler has a strategic role to help shape the company’s products, services, and future direction. Primarily, he leads e.Republic Labs, a market connector created as an ecosystem to educate, accelerate and ultimately scale technology innovation within the public sector.

Umesh Patel is the General Manager, Eaton Power Quality Division – Canada and responsible for driving revenue in power quality products and service. Prior to joining Eaton, Patel was with Honeywell for 15 years in various positions of increasing responsibility in general management, sales, and business development. He has lived in five countries and earned global citizenship through his direct business involvement in over 20 countries spanning all continents. Patel holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Ed is founder and Chairman of the Technology Executives Networking Group, LLC (www.theteng.org ), a national virtual online community of 6,500+ Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Vice Presidents, Directors of Technology, Product Development executives and entrepreneurial CEOs; from organizations in all industries, ranging from startups to the global Fortune 100, as well as non-profits and government agencies. TENG was launched in late 2001 to enable exchange of career leads for senior executive IT leadership positions.  It has grown into a national forum where members share unbiased vendor references, introductions to key contacts in target organizations, insights into business and technology strategies, access to new career opportunities, and a wealth of experience, advice, and support.  All members are screened and nominated for membership, which is free of charge. 

Ed has spent 39 years helping others to improve career fulfillment.  In 2007, he broadened his retained search practice to include executive mentoring, coaching and resume redevelopment for senior technology executives, which is now his exclusive line of business. He has mentored clients throughout the U.S., and globally from Istanbul to China. In 2012, he was named top IT executive resume developer in the US, in a survey conducted by Martha Heller Associates.  He operates his own firm, Edward J. Pospesil & Co., LLC.

Ed joined the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering in September 2011 as an adjunct professor in the Department of Technology Management and Innovation and helps teach the Career Management Program. In this capacity, he trains and mentors students in the Executive Management of Technology master’s program, concerning resume development, career networking and interviewing. He enables students to understand and articulate objectively, their unique accomplishments and business value.

He is a member of the Fairfield Westchester Chapter of the Society for Information Management and served on its executive board for five years. He is a member of the Advisory Committee for the College of Westchester; and he has mentored students at Trinity College, Hartford, CT, concerning career development.  He holds a BA, English from Trinity College, Hartford; an MA, International Relations from the University of Arkansas European Military Program; and an MA Ed/ Adult Education and Training, from the University of Phoenix.  His previous careers include radio announcing and news reporting; and more than five years as a U.S. Air Force Officer.

David Muller is the Vice President of Engineering at Experian Consumer Direct, leading the technical team that oversees the delivery of web and mobile applications for the consumer marketplace. He is passionate about data and KPIs, recognizing that the quality, content and relationship of data truly drive value for an organization.

Muller has more than 20 years of global experience in leading corporations in the successful delivery of cost-effective, high-performance solutions. He has solid experience in developing and implementing business strategies with relevant policy, building business support and allowing organizations to respond quickly as conditions change. His multi-industry knowledge and out-of-the-box thinking help organizations deliver lasting value to their customers.

An accomplished speaker, Muller has regularly presented at executive and technology conferences in North America, Hong Kong and Australia. Previously, Muller has worked at CoreLogic, Ingram Micro, IBM and Software AG. Muller completed the management development program in business administration and management from the University of South Africa.

Eric Wells is the Senior Vice President of Technology Compliance at Fidelity Investments, the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans and a leading online brokerage firm.

With over 20 years of experience in global IT strategy & service delivery, Eric also serves as an advisor for Centercore data center solutions. In addition to launching several innovation efforts at Fidelity, Eric helped launch the OpenCompute Foundation Certification & Interoperability project.  He is also on the Board of Advisors for SMU's Data Center Systems Engineering graduate program. Eric received his Bachelor of Science degree in Management & Information Systems from Babson College in 1991.

Bodley is a high tech industry and strategic sales leader with 25+ years of sales, consulting and business management experience with many of the world's most exciting companies, from high-growth start-ups to global industry leaders like IBM and SAP. Through his experience, he has demonstrated his ability to build, inspire and lead high performance teams to achieve dramatic results. He is an accomplished public speaker with exceptional interpersonal and communication skills.

Currently Bodley serves as Vice President and Partner at IBM. His role is as the leader of the Electronics and High Tech Industry Sector in North America at IBM Global Business Services. In this role, he works with electronics and high tech industry leaders to leverage digital technologies to improve enterprise performance in game-changing new ways. He is responsible for strategy, sales, P&L, delivery, and overall client success.

His previous experience includes over a decade of work at SAP, where he ultimately served as the Vice President of Strategic Customer Accounts. In this role, he led SAP's Strategic Customer Program in the West Region of North America, which included responsibility for SAP's most strategic customer relationships and the success of all lines of business, including software revenue growth, consulting and premium support services. 

Bodley graduated with his Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Port Elizabeth. 

Cary Sylvester makes geek look chique and in the process has turned Keller Williams Realty into a technology company masquerading as a realty company.

Throughout Anthony's long career as an IT leader, he has proven excellence in delivering elegant, effective, and integrated solutions in a variety of industries, including: Healthcare, Finance, Transportation, Retail, Entertainment, and Manufacturing.

Anthony Teri is an IT leader at the CIO level with over 18 years of experience.  Currently, he is positioned as the Director of Information Technology at an innovative, fast paced Nationwide healthcare organization. An energetic innovator and visionary, he holds a Master's in Psychology and an MBA in I.T.

Tony brings a people first productivity emphasis to his leadership mode, with a personality that bridges the gap between the C-suite and line staff. He has proven excellence in delivering elegant, effective, and integrated solutions. He has worked in a variety of industries, including: Healthcare, Finance, Transportation, Retail, Entertainment, and Manufacturing.

Jitendra Singh carries 24 years of experience in Management & Governance of Information Systems and Technology. Currently, he acts as the CIO and Head of Business Excellence for Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals, where he heads up the Business Excellence and IT Division.

Jitendra Singh is the CIO and Head of Business Excellence for Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals, one of the most respected fertilizer companies in India, and a leader in innovation and strategic business moves.

Singh heads up the Business Excellence and IT Division with responsibilities including the provision of Strategic and operational roadmaps to the departments reporting to him (Verticals reporting to me are Business Excellence, IT Infrastructure, SAP, Applications and ISMS). Along with the accountability of managing the IT division, he is also responsible for the process analysis and fine-tuning in line with the Six Sigma methodology (as the Head of Business Excellence). 


Currently, he is leading the Organizational Transformation Project called “Parivartan 2.0” as Project Head. The project addresses three important aspects of BPR, i.e. People, Process and Technology. He is also leading critical Ecommerce initiatives for Nagarjuna and associated companies (both Plant Nutrition as well others business).

Singh carries 24 years of experience in Management & Governance of Information Systems and Technology including IT Strategy, Roadmap, Team Building, Budgeting and Compliance (Regulatory, Software & Hardware), Analytics in Manufacturing Industry covering Automotive, Retail, Power, Chemical, & Pharmaceutical. He is a techno-functional leader with experience in conceptualizing and delivering solutions across divisions on web, ecommerce and other platforms.

Zahl is a co-founder and CEO of Romonet and passionate about the data center and ICT industry. Starting his career as a chartered electrical engineer, he then moved into IT systems engineering, network engineering and later software development. Zahl is a chartered Engineer, chartered IT professional and Fellow of the BCS. Zahl has 20 years experience in companies such as Digital Island, Real Networks, Cable & Wireless as well many engineering firms writing control and automation software for production line automation and robotics.

As the founding Chairman of the BCS Data Centre Specialist Group, former Chairman of the judging panel for DataCenterDynamics Annual Awards, consultant to the EU Code of Conduct for data centers, and regular keynote speaker at industry events around the world, Zahl enjoys widespread international recognition within the data center community.

Zahl is a non-executive director at BCS Learning & Development Ltd and a member of the DPAC Oversight Committee overseeing the work on ESA's GAIA programme on behalf of the UK Space Agency.

Gabe Cole, Founder of RTE Group, is an accomplished Technology Executive with over 20 years’ experience across data center, network, and cloud.

Gabe Cole, Founder of RTE Group, is an accomplished Technology Executive with over 20 years’ experience across data center, network, and cloud. Gabe assists service providers and enterprises with converged network and data center design, procurement, and migration including colocation and the XaaS stack of services.  He has personally worked on over 150 engagements in North America and EMEA.  He is an expert at balancing reliability and performance requirements against technology and business limitations to consistently increase performance at progressively lower price points.  In addition, he is frequently called on by investors for assistance with data centers, telco hotels, data center technologies, and services companies.  Gabe has also founded and/or participated in a number of venture-backed emergent technology companies including Telwares, Virtustream, Verne Global, Enclave, and Ixpanse.  He was one of three founders of CO Space, Inc., a leading provider of colocation and data center facilities and related operations services to the telecommunications, data, and Internet markets.  CO Space was acquired by Internap Network Services Corporation in 2000.  Gabe is an engineer at heart and an expert in IT architecture, with a current professional focus on the development of highly efficient data centers at "edge" locations where the convergence of local (mobile and terrestrial) networks, backbone networks, and content/application providers is enabling next generation services.  Gabe holds SB and SM degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Yolisa has over a decade of IT experience in the Financial Services industry with a focus in IT Project Management, Business Processes and Application Development. She has gained vast experience through working with large corporates such as Bytes Technology Group, Standard Bank, First National Bank and presently, Sanlam. In her current role, she ‘owns’ relationships between IT and several business units and also acts as an IT advisor to those business units.

In her position at Sanlam as a visionary, energetic and goal-oriented IT Executive, her title demands experience in planning, developing, and implementing cutting-edge Information Technology solutions to address business opportunities and needs. Yolisa is required to develop strategic plans for various implementations and operations of client services, product support and quality assurance. She has the proven ability to liaise with business and technical stakeholders at all levels of the organization. One of her key strengths is excelling in high-pressured environments, and being able to chart a course with quality delivery as the key driver.

Yolisa is passionate about innovation in IT and firmly believes that it must produce tangible benefit to the business.  She has many areas of expertise due to her diverse work experience and some of these areas include Strategy Management, Business Process Improvement, Vendor Management, Change Management, Leadership and Project Management. 

With a 33 year tenure in the pharmaceutical, food service, and specialty retail industries, Vijay’s experience has been with Pfizer, ARAMARK, Sodexo, and GNC. He started with Sodexo USA 28 years ago and has served in various roles such a VP, Information Systems and Technology for Sodexo USA’s Education Markets and then as the Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer for the Education Markets of Sodexo USA. In that role, he also chaired the Sodexo USA Culinary Council. In 2009 he was appointed to the role of CIO for Sodexo UK & Ireland and the Board for Sodexo UK Limited. He currently serves as the CIO-Remote Sires, Asia and Australia or Sodexo Global Information Systems & Technology, based in Singapore.

Vijay served as the Executive Advisor and founding chairperson of Sodexo’s Pan Asian Network Group. In addition, he served on the Ally Advisory Board of Sodexo’s GLBT Employee Business Resource Group and as a member of the Board of Directors and then the Advisory Board of Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund. He was also instrumental in starting Women Work- Sodexo UK & Ireland’s Women’s Network Group as an Executive Advisor.

Vijay is sought as a speaker at Fortune 500 company events; industry and non-profit conferences and at university campuses; in the areas of entrepreneurship, aligning IT with business strategy, student insights, customer segmentation, mentoring, diversity and inclusion. In the past, Vijay also owned and operated several GNC (General Nutrition Centre) franchises in the Chicago-land area- an endeavor that he was involved in for over 15 years. During that time, he was elected by the franchise community to serve a two year term on GNC’s National Franchisee Advisory Board in 2005.

Vijay has a B.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences from India, M.S. in Human Nutrition & Food Services Management from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an M.B.A. from the Keller Graduate School of Management of Chicago. 

Dr. Jonathan Koomey is completing his third year as a Research Fellow in the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University. He is recognized as a researcher, author, lecturer, and entrepreneur whose work spans climate solutions, critical thinking skills, and the energy and environmental effects of information technology.

Dr. Koomey's specialties include the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, technology forecasting, historical costs of nuclear power, renewable power technologies and costs, energy efficiency technologies and costs, and energy policy. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Contemporary Economic Policy and a Research Affiliate of the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Koomey holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.A. in History and Science from Harvard University. He is the author or coauthor of nine books and more than two hundred articles and reports on energy efficiency and supply-side power technologies, energy economics, energy policy, environmental externalities, and global climate change.

Nkosana Mbokane is an inspirational and accomplished business executive with over twenty years of experience in Information Technology, business management, corporate strategy development, risk management, and corporate governance. Before joining TechnoChange, Nkosana previously worked in various executive positions for global as well as local South African companies including: Chevron Oil, British American Tobacco, Accenture South Africa, State Information Technology Agency, and Perishable Products Export Control Board.

As an entrepreneur, he has assisted in South Africa’s TSIBA College business plan and strategy for their TSIBA Entrepreneurship Centre back in 2006. Nkosana also advised global companies on turnaround strategies, divestiture, mergers and acquisitions process, and IT and corporate governance improvement. He continues to play a major role on several boards in private and state-owned companies.

Nkosana holds an MBA degree with a distinction in corporate strategy, and is a certified Prince II and PMBOK foundation practitioner. He has published papers in the International Journal for Business and Commerce on the South African National Development Plan and worked with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), where he presented with the CPUT team in Namibia on the implementation and impact of the National Development Plan in improving education in South African.

Based in Europe, Kai´s main focus is investing in disruptive business models, supporting companies to strategize for digital change and turning ideas into businesses with bottom-line results. His hands-on approach is valued by companies facing drastic technological change in their business, and who are looking for investment possibilities and M&A acceleration to support their development. His input is delivered by board functions, investment, consulting, and target identification for M&A processes.

For more than 20 years, Kai has been active in the field of digital transformation, both in large corporations like Sony and Fuji as well as in self-created companies located in Europe, the US and Japan. While running businesses spanning consumer electronics, printing, medical, e-publishing, and life science, Kai has kept the changing market in clear focus and prepared organizations for technological change that helps adapt them towards new business models and revenue streams.

Kai currently works with prescriptive analytics, prosodic voice recognition, e-commerce models, scientific online reading, and retail innovations. He is a strong believer, after having witnessed the surge of the internet for 20 years, that this is only a prelude to the much more drastic changes to come - 3D printing, virtuality, IoT, and M2M connectedness.

Barry Money has led innovation projects globally for over 25 years.

He is the one of the founding architects of the Toyota Kaizen Marathon, a global innovation initiative and a Gold Medal winner of Toyota’s best practice in innovation.

Today, Barry drives retail innovation for the Toyota brand in Australia, combining years of Toyota Production System and lean management experience with the latest entrepreneurial thinking in retail best practice and technology.

He is a firm believer in the power of the customer driven retail connection and in his own words he is “allergic to bad customer service.”

Schooled by some of the greatest contemporary thinkers in The Toyota Way and the Toyota Production System, Barry spent many of his formative years living in Japan formulating his own unique blend of thought leadership on lean management, innovation and customer service excellence.

Realizing that these kaizen and innovation concepts could benefit small to medium enterprises around the nation, Barry established Broken Wing Enterprises, which today serves to assist companies in their quest to implement innovative new ideas and drive improvements throughout their own value chains. Barry is an occasional blogger, avid writer and is often known to deliver passionate keynote speeches at global innovation events.

Barry Money is both an entrepreneur and intrapreneur, championing both small to medium enterprise innovation as well as dynamic corporate transformation.

Barry is a devoted father and husband and in his spare time he can sometimes be found in his library with a great book and a good cup of tea.

Barry Money is available at the following contact details:

(m) 0418-409-233

(e) barryjmoney@gmail.com

Barry Money insists that the Japanese innovation concepts of kaizen and kaikaku represent the twin competitive engines for a cramped automotive market. With Toyota already hailed as a classic model of both disruptive and incremental innovation, Money says the most urgent challenge is to direct disruptive strategies toward creating lifelong customers, and to transforming the used vehicle market.

Scores of dealerships in Australia are already reaping the rewards of offering personalized benefits to repeat customers, driven by integrated big data tools, and a laser-focus on loyalty. While some brands are offering car sales directly online, Toyota is using digital resources to enrich person-to-person relationships throughout the dealer network, including an innovative sales and service collaboration.

Money tells BPI that other connectivity technologies are also being piloted. However – having worked everywhere from the production line to the logistics desk at Toyota – Money believes that trust remains the one truly indispensable asset.

To learn more about how Toyota is embracing “kaikaku” innovation to transform car markets check out this feature commentary.

As the Group Chief Enterprise Architect at Transnet Limited, Kevin Govender's key responsibilities include Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, Research and Innovation.

Kevin Govender is the Group Chief Enterprise Architect at Transnet Limited. His key responsibilities include Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, Research and Innovation. The objective of Strategy and Enterprise Architecture is to translate Transnet’s vision and strategy into effective business capabilities, services and provide strategic direction and leadership to guide strategic initiatives.

Previously, he acted as Transnet's Group Chief Business Architect. His role focused on integrating and aligning Business and IT to achieve business results and objectives. One crucial aspect of that role was leveraging business architecture as a conduit for engaging with business leaders, and understanding the ripple effect of business changes on people, process, information and technology.

He also acted as the Human Capital Management (HCM) Programme Executive at Transnet. In that position, he led and directed the HR Transformation Programme, which was a strategic initiative tasked with consolidating and standardizing the policies, processes, systems, controls and data from seven disparate systems across Transnet and its Operating Divisions into a single solution for the Transnet Group. 

He has also acted as the Transnet Business Intelligence Programme Executive. There, his focus was to lead and direct the Transnet Business Intelligent (TBI) Programme, which was a strategic initiative tasked with facilitating the availability of relevant, accurate, timely, consistent information to support executive decision making by improving the processes & solutions to enable information management.

His experience is attributed to the various roles he has played in the other organizations prior to joining Transnet, namely Ernst & Young, Discovery, Accenture, Nedcor and Unilever. He has extensive experience in Strategy, Business Intelligence, Business Advisory, Management Consulting, Portfolio and Programme Management, SAP Assurance and Implementation, and implementing Turnaround and Transformational programmes.

Gunnar Auth is Professor of Business Information Systems at the University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule für Telekommunikation) in Leipzig, Germany, with special focus on information and project management.

After receiving his diploma in Business Information Systems at the University of Bamberg and a visit as a Junior Research Engineer at Nokia Research Center in Helsinki (Finland), he received his doctorate in 2003 at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), researching organizational aspects of metadata management for data warehouse systems. During this time he also visited the Smurfit Graduate School of Business at the University College Dublin (Ireland).

Between 2003 and 2008 Gunnar held a number of positions at the car manufacturer Daimler AG (until 2007 DaimlerChrysler AG) in the division of Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles, where he gained experience in process, project and program management as well as leadership in IT, logistics and production. From 2008 to 2012, he served as Director of the University Computing Center at the University of Leipzig and was responsible for the central IT service management for research, teaching and administration. Most recently, he was involved as Permanent Representative of the Chief Information Office of the University of Leipzig in developing, managing and monitoring the overall IT Governance and strategy of the university.

His current research interests include IT Governance and strategic IT management, service-oriented IT management, IT project management, and digital transformation of higher education. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on information systems and management and presented his results at international conferences. Gunnar is director of the Institute of Education and Science Management Leipzig and currently serves as Dean of the MSc and BSc in Business Information Systems.

Paige Francis joined Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT as their first Chief Information Officer in January of 2013. Prior to joining Fairfield, Paige served in her first higher education role as CIO for Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville, AR after exiting the corporate world with experience from Thomson-Reuters and Dave & Buster's in the Dallas, TX area. Her technology experience is cross-industry with a proven track record of leadership and project execution. With specialties including communication, collaboration, technical expertise in layman's terms, and project conception/management/completion, Paige is a 2015 Top 100 Most Social CIOs, a 2014 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Award honoree as well as one of 2013's Top 50 Most Social CIOs in Higher Education. 

Having led a highly successful digital strategy and implementation at Fairfield University, Paige believes that the role of IT must align fully with business---from strategy to marketing to the ability to communicate well with others. With this philosophy, Paige rallies consensus across diverse functional, service and campus wide interests, and fosters teamwork and collaboration in order to maintain and implement new technology. 

Oren is a nationally recognized senior technology leader with strengths in innovation strategies, strategic development, program and product management. His passion is using technology to foster creativity and innovation within higher education and research organizations.

Oren has over twenty years in leadership positions in higher education where he has built a record of success leading organizations in creating, implementing, and managing technology strategies.

Oren believes:

• IT organizations can and should play an integral part in creating meaningful environments for learning, teaching, and research.
• Information technology is best when used by everyone.
• Simplicity and ease of use cannot be overemphasized.
• Collaboration is key - everyone has a voice.

In his current position as Senior Director for Emerging Technologies at the University of Chicago, Oren leads IT innovation strategies, the development and implementation of cloud strategy, and directs a team of designers, developers, and innovators.  He also works with colleagues from multiple institutions in various national efforts.

http://orensreebny.com/

Jonathan Gill has spent the last twenty years working in the IT sector, specialising in complex IT systems for the education, health, engineering, accountancy and retail industries. His experience with web front-end systems dates back to 1999, but his core focus is on developing bespoke information management systems.

His most recent work has been for Watchfinder & Co., a Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track Hot 100 ‘Ones to Watch’ company, building the company’s entire IT infrastructure to support rapid growth and maintain a stock roster of over £18,000,000 of high-value luxury items across multiple locations while catering to over seven million website visitors each month.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter to get his latest and greatest insights! @JonathanGillUK 

Clive is the IT Director at Wyndham VRAP, responsible for all aspects of IT for the multinational hospitality company. Clive has worked at Wyndham since 2006 leading a department of over 20 IT professionals. 

Clive has over 30 years IT experience of which 20+ years have been in management roles. He has worked in a wide variety of industries including: Hospitality, Insurance, Banking and Sports. Clive has worked in multiple countries: UK, Australia, NZ, Italy and Greece and led many successful multinational projects. He is a proven problem solver who likes to empower his team to derive innovative solutions.