General Grant, Executive Consultant, US Signal
General Grant, an Executive Consultant for US Signal, specializes in multi speed IT models brought about by disruptive change. General’s work centers primarily on strategies that enable cloud ramp and cloud adoption.
As a leading practitioner for IT operating model transformation, he is responsible for consulting to US Signal’s large and strategic account relationships, bringing experience to bear on client transformation programs in areas such as roadmap development, initiative sequencing, capabilities alignment, value stream mapping, compliance and risk, people and culture and multi-source models.
General has been an entrepreneur, technology practitioner and consultant for more than 25 years and has led technology and change programs in banking, insurance, healthcare, sports, casino, and manufacturing industries in North America and Europe.
Dan Johnson, BCDR Manager, Ensono
Dan Johnson currently holds the position of Manager of Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery services at Ensono responsible for the corporate BC/DR as well as client DR testing and plan coordination. Dan is an accomplished Business Continuity Professional with 20 years of experience. Dan has provided leadership in managing many disaster recovery events including power outages, floods and fires and most notably the 2004 LaSalle Bank fire, the largest skyscraper fire in Chicago’s history. Dan has deep experience in Business Continuity Plan development and extensive testing including Datacenter exercises and business continuity testing. He holds a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) certification and served for seven years as a board member on the Business Resumption Planners Association (BRPA), two years as President.
Aaron King, RSM, US Signal
As Director of Data Center Strategies at US Signal, Aaron King helps clients design and implement business continuity strategies built on best practices. After 20 years of experience in business continuity and disaster recovery engineering and operations, Aaron now works in the business development side not only implementing business continuity strategies but also helping clients with IT Transformation and Cloud Migration.
Josh Krzych, Director of Technical Services, CROPP Cooperative
Josh Krzych is the director of technical services for Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative and is responsible for the datacenters, network, security, storage, servers, virtualization, unified communications, and platform delivery.
Organic Valley is an independent cooperative of organic farmer-owners. The co-op provides a sustainable and fair pay price to the 2,000+ organic family farms that make up the membership and some of the highest quality organic products to consumers.
Before starting at Organic Valley, Josh worked for years as a consultant for CR Solutions a Cisco and Microsoft partner, specializing in network design and security. In 2010, Josh was recruited by Organic Valley as a network administrator. He soon moved into a network solutions architect role and eventually became director of technical services.
On May 14, 2013, Organic Valley experienced a devastating fire that destroyed most of the headquarters as well as one of the datacenters. Josh and his team successfully recovered the Organic Valley infrastructure from this disaster and restored business functionality within 24 hours. The days following the fire were the most challenging, yet rewarding, days Josh and his team have ever experienced.
Josh is passionate about his role at Organic Valley. It is stimulating, fulfilling work and on the cutting edge of technology. At the end of the day, Josh is proud of the contributions that he and his team make toward empowering the Organic Valley employees’ ability to connect, collaborate, and protect Organic Valley’s mission.
When not at work Josh enjoys kayaking, exploring the Boundary Waters wilderness area of northern Minnesota, running in Ragnar events, maintaining saltwater reef tanks, and playing board games with his kids.Full biography coming soon!
Edward Marchewka, Director of Information & Technology Services, Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network
Edward Marchewka is the Director of Information Technology for Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network. In his role, Edward is responsible for maintaining and securing the infrastructure for 24/7/365 operations, supporting the IT customer environment, and delivering and supporting the enterprise applications that run Gift of Hope. His teams work with Gift of Hope’s internal and external customers to deliver high quality information and technology services. Edward is also the Founder and Creator of CHICAGO Metrics™, a platform to a program to help manage your company’s key IT and Information Security risks enabling you to have a better conversation with business leadership in terms that they understand.
Before joining Gift of Hope Edward was the Enterprise Information Security and Server Operations Manager (CISO) for Chicago Public Schools, the third largest school district in the country. Additionally, his IT background includes experiences from running his own business to field service to Fortune 250 experience with Thermo Fisher Scientific. Edward holds active certifications from: (ISC)2, ITIL, PCI, Microsoft, CompTIA, and a designation from the NSA, along with legacy certifications from: Cisco and HP. He is a member of (ISC)2, AITP, and a Board Member with the Chicago InfraGard. Edward is involved with: ChicagoFIRST, Chicago Electronic Crimes Task Force, and is on the governing body for Evanta’s CISO Executive Summit.
Edward has completed, from Northern Illinois University, an MBA and an MS in Mathematics and, from Thomas Edison State College, a BS in Nuclear Engineering Technologies and a BA in Liberal Studies. He also holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Jeff Roseman, Director IT Infrastructure & Security, Wilton Brands
Jeff is an experienced IT executive with over two decades of experience in both technology management and consulting roles. With experience in global business, marketing, sales, business process re-engineering, and as an IT director, CIO and consultant, he has worked both sides of the technology world. Mr. Roseman possesses an extensive background working with regional, national, and international businesses in a variety of industries including professional services, healthcare, distribution, manufacturing, legal, real estate, construction, and non-profit. He has a broad knowledge of IT strategy, networking, telecommunications, training & development, systems integration, mergers and acquisitions, facility relocation, and business continuity planning.
Mr. Roseman continues to be successful moving IT teams from a crises management mentality to predictive, proactive, disciplined organization. He has previously lectured on social media & networking, IT leadership, customer relationship management, endpoint security, and disaster recovery planning. Mr. Roseman has a bachelor’s degree and an MBA in Information Systems and Marketing from the University of Iowa. He mentors undergraduate/MBA students in the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business and serves on College’s SoMAC board. He lives in Wheaton with his wife and two teenage daughters.
Dean Sharp, Global Network Architect, Manpower; CTO of Lakeside Information Systems
I’m the CTO of Lakeside Information Systems – a company that specializes in D.R. and BCP solutions as well as data center migrations and global network architecture.
At present I’m the Global Network Architect for Manpowergroup.
Recently I was the Enterprise Architect and Disaster Recovery Architect for Manpower North America – a role I still play with some frequency.
I have worked in over 48 countries around the world, have two beautiful Pharaoh Hounds named Ptah and Fubis and currently reside in Racine, WI.
Annur Sumar, Chief Technical Officer, MaeTech, Microsoft MVP, Former Vice President of IT D&P
Annur Sumar is a Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter MVP and technology consultant in the areas of Infrastructure Design, Enterprise Content Management, CRM, Microsoft Azure, System Center and Cloud Technologies. Annur is an industry recognized leader and independent speaker around strategic service automation, technology driven process improvements, IT service alignment, engineering best practices and operations management. All of which are targeted in his presentations to helping businesses with complex IT environments lower Total Cost of Ownership and raising Return On Investments.
Prior to joining a Microsoft Partner Consulting firm, Annur served as a Vice President of Technology for Duff & Phelps. One of the world’s leading independent financial advisory firms serving client needs in the areas of valuation, investment banking, transaction advice, and dispute consulting. During his tenure at Duff & Phelps, Annur worked closely with Microsoft product teams and case study managers in providing invaluable feedback around how businesses such as his were able to benefit from cloud technologies that were molded into business solutions. As a Microsoft MVP and industry expert, Annur brings 10 years of experience to work actively with other MVPs and Microsoft Partners to provide industry insight and strategic direction.