UPCOMING EVENTS

Faraz Aladin, Head of Technical Product Marketing, Illumio

Faraz Aladin heads up product and technical marketing at Illumio. With over 25 years of industry experience, he has spent a major portion of his professional career at Cisco across various business units and roles. At Illumio, Faraz is responsible for Product Marketing missions as well as technical evangelism. Having worked with customers across various segments and industry verticals, he is very well versed with how customers successfully leverage technology to drive business outcomes. His subject matter expertise spans across Networking & Cloud Infrastructure, Data Center Architectures, Security and Collaboration technologies. He is a CCIE and holds an engineering degree from Bombay University.

Tom Brooks, Enterprise Systems Architect, Molex

Tom is the Cloud Champion for Molex. While architecting their Digital Transformation he is evangelizing for modern design principles, cloud native thinking, and “Everything As Code.” Over 25+ years in industries ranging from Healthcare, to Financial Services, to Manufacturing he has performed most of the roles in IT, from answering the Help Desk phone to designing and orchestrating ERP migrations. Accelerating Cloud adoption has been his most influential contribution so far, and one that is driving change in almost every aspect of the business.

Brian Cade, Sr. Solutions Architect, Digital Realty

Brian spent the majority of his career working at Tier 1 Service Providers where he designed, developed and implemented complex Wide Area Networks using DWDM, Ethernet, IP and SD-WAN for Fortune 500 and Multinational Enterprise Companies based in Texas and Oklahoma. Brian is a subject matter expert for Hybrid IT, Software Defined Networking, Wireless WAN and Unified Communications. He holds various industry certifications for networking, security and cloud.

Brian recently joined Digital Realty where he assists Enterprises develop their interconnection strategy to better serve their internal and external customers. He works with customers to simplify their hybrid multi-cloud deployments to efficiently leverage their data center investment and access next generation services being offered by the cloud.

Sergey Chernov, Senior Director Enterprise Architecture, Ensono

Sergey Chernov, Senior Director Enterprise Architecture at Ensono – a global IT Outsourcing and Managed Services provider – where he is currently leading integration and consolidation programs to combine and optimize processes, technology, and operational structures of legacy Acxiom IT, Wipro Data Center Services, and Attenda into new Ensono. Previously, Sergey led Global IT Delivery for Hollister, a medical device manufacturer in 23 countries. Before Hollister, Sergey worked at NiSource a F500 gas and electric utility where he drove establishment of EA practice. Sergey started his career at Emerson Electric where he led implementation of e-commerce systems and infrastructure support for global manufacturing sites.

Michael L. Conneen, Architecture Consultant, NiSource, Inc.

Since January of 1995, Mr. Conneen has focused his energies participating as a Principle in the formation, growth, and prosperity of the INFORMATION INTEGRATORS INC., a consulting services vendor. His most recent project assignments have been as

• Utility Industry Specialist, using OOA/OOD and MicrosoftTM .NET technologies melded with Enterprise Architect and various UML diagramming techniques,
• an Enterprise Application Integration specialist, using OOA/OOD and JavaTM technologies, Mr. Conneen started as a programmer in 1981, coding financial systems in BASIC on the TRS-80 platform. This activity discovered his programming talents and certainly helped in attaining the 1983/1984 Stanley Schmidt Scholarship Award from DePaul University. While attaining a B.S. in Computer Science from DePaul, Mr. Conneen won an internship position with (then) U.S. Steel Chicago Corporate offices.
  

Over the years he has developed his skills as a mainframe programmer coding in COBOL, a systems programmer writing Assembly and CLISTS/REXX utilities, a reengineering specialist using PC technologies to off-load mainframe development, a CASE consultant developing requirements statements, design statements and generating code, a UNIX/Oracle C/C++ consultant, an OOA/OOD specialist, a JavaTM application engineer, and a Web integration specialist. He truly has participated in every facet of the application development life cycle, and has consistently demonstrated his abilities to analyze, design, and implement appropriate business solutions.

Praj Deshpande, Director Enterprise Architecture NiSource, Inc.

• Managed large Architecture, Applications & Infrastructure organizations
• Facilitated outsourcing of applications, infrastructure and network services in Information Technology
• Created technology strategy to enable 360 degree view of customer and increase customer satisfaction
• Built three new data centers with redundant power supplies, environmental, data communications
  and security devices with each center having the capability to host 300 plus applications
• Implemented ITIL framework to improve operational processes like change, incident and problem management
• Led implementation of large transformational initiatives for billing platforms to improve cash flow, reduce manual processes, increase flexibility of billing plans and reduce total cost of ownership
• Implemented agile project management methodology to improve product quality and customer satisfaction for projects that require significant user interactions 

Eddie Esquivel, Senior Solutions Engineer, Tigera

Eddie Esquivel is a Senior Solutions Engineer at Tigera and has been working in technology for the last 20 years – first as a developer more recently as a Solutions Engineer. Over the last few years he’s been focused on the Kubernetes space with experience at CoreOS and now Tigera. In his spare time he enjoys exploring New York City with his wife. 

Dale Hsu, Vice President, Enterprise Architecture, Tech Data

Dale Hsu is the VP of Enterprise Architecture with Tech Data, obtained MBA from NYIT Ellis College and TOGAF 9.1 certified. Dale has 28+ years experience in IT; prior to Tech Data, he held various leadership position with companies like Walgreens, Beam Suntory, W. W. Grainger and Orbitz Worldwide. Dale is also a weekend tennis player, played in both USTA and CITA leagues representing Northbrook Racquet Club. 

Luis Infanti, Sr. Director, Enterprise Architecture and Technology Strategy, Hitachi

• Technology executive helping forward-looking organizations drive business
  and technology transformation programs to success.
• Previously CTO, Distinguished Engineer, Chief Technologist, Enterprise Architect, and Software Engineering head, working and leading technology transformations in the US, Canada, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Argentina.
• A strong advocate of integrated and holistic business and technology viewpoints across the enterprise, from vision to scenario planning and execution.
• I thrive in a culture of high energy, strategic thinking, high collaboration, drive to change, and unwavering focus on what matters most.
• Specialized in fast paced and complex technology transformations and turnarounds, and finding the best talent worldwide: those that mobilize and energize change, get things done, and drive high standards in everything they do.

Core Values: Bias for action, seeing the big picture, engineering excellence, solution-driven mindset, systems thinking, relentless innovation, long-lasting partnership, and actions that speak louder than words.

Academic background: Electronics Engineering with specialization in micro-architecture (microprocessor design).

Tom McKowen, Executive Consultant, US Signal

Tom is an executive-level consultant who helps devise client IT strategies that support transformational change inside organizations. He works alongside CIO’s, CTO’s, CISO’s and their teams, by establishing and maintaining a company’s vision and strategy to ensure information assets and technologies are adequately protected and disaster recovery and business continuity plans are in place to reduce an organization’s operational risks.

Tom has a solid IT background with a primary focus on, Healthcare, Commercial Enterprise and Financial verticals. In the ever-changing IT world, he monitors and evaluates existing and new technologies and processes, keeping clients up-to-date with technology advancements that facilitate maximum value towards transformational change for their business.

Tom has a 25 year background as a technology practitioner and has led change in banking, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing industries. Prior to joining US Signal, Tom’s latest position was VP of Information Technology and Enterprise Architect for a large publicly traded financial institution.

Praveen Moturu, Chief Enterprise Architect, Mars, Inc.

Innovative, accomplished business and technology leader, visionary with strategic leadership experience in transformation, technology and operations, promoting significant business and revenue growth within global and Fortune 500 multinational corporations

Exceptional performance in global enterprises, start-up organizations, turnaround situations, cost-cutting mandates, IT systems/technology rationalization, and growth-oriented endeavors. Able to create enterprise strategies that cascade throughout an organization.

Elite understanding of technology and IT environment, with expertise in strategy, planning and service delivery. Proven ability to leverage technical background to create new business opportunities.

Significant record of inspiring and motivating individuals or teams to consistently achieve results. Approachable, effective communicator who interacts at all levels to foster comfortable work culture.

Decisive, action-oriented, leader who is able to build teams, drive change, improve productivity, and reduce costs. Adept at organizational development, financial planning / analysis, and strategy alignment.

Pradeep Parvathipuram, Chief Enterprise Architect, Country Financial

A visionary IT executive with extensive experience in developing and articulating IT strategy and Enterprise Architecture covering people, process and technology areas. Provided top-level leadership in spearheading the establishment and advancement of global enterprise architecture functions in large global organizations. Professional experience presenting and selling multi-million dollar initiatives to senior management and executive staff. Proven track record of generating new revenue streams through innovation around product development and management. Worked closely with every level of the organization including C-suite executives, senior management, business partners, developers, focus groups, and project managers. Advised wide range of organizations, from SMB’s to Fortune 100 giants. Pradeep also holds an MBA from Emory University, a top 20 business school in US.

Keith Renouard, Chief Enterprise Architect, AVP, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma & Texas

Keith Renouard is a Chief Enterprise Architect who partners with Business Leaders to realize and accelerate Business Value in parallel with Technology improvements. With over 20 years in architecture across consulting and industry, Keith understands focusing on business engagement and outcomes differentiate high-functioning architecture organizations. Recent highlights include leveraging ACA’s disruption to reduce technical debt and driving digital / micro-services / cloud first stance through a claims system modernization. Outside of work Keith spends time with his family, follows & plays soccer, and is a total foodie!

Shaye Robeson, Director of Enterprise Architecture , U.S. Cellular

Shaye Robeson is currently the Director of Enterprise Architecture for U.S. Cellular, the fifth-largest wireless carrier in the United States. Here, he leads teams of Enterprise Architects, Solution Architects, and Infrastructure Architects who are responsible for designing and guiding the company’s strategies for enterprise technology investment and implementation. Prior to his time at U.S. Cellular, Shaye held several technology director roles at a number of mid to large sized companies in the wireless and fintech industries between 2002 and 2014. In 2008, Shaye cofounded and served as CTO of aKos Corp – the technology startup who launched the USA’s first successful cash-based mobile money transfer service.

Pat Ryan, Chief Architect, SPR

I like to work on problems that matter. I enjoy applying software tools/techniques to the problems we have around us with the goal of making the world a better place because of it. Every day, I wake up and try to solve problems that I didn’t even know the world had when I started my day.

At SPR, I work closely with clients to understand their needs and craft solutions to help make them more successful. I also work directly with various engineering talents to pull together highly functioning teams. I consider myself a player-manager. I try to stay current with as many technologies as possible so I can understand and empathize when a team is struggling, and help them at a very concrete level. I’m constantly reading technical books, attending classes, and coding something every day.

My career has taken me to many places. I’ve managed teams, built a company from the ground up, and have dreamed up software and devices that have gone on to solve client problems.”

Michael Sisto, Sr. Infrastructure Architect, U.S. Cellular

Mr. Sisto is a Sr. Infrastructure Architect within the Enterprise Architecture IS practice at U.S. Cellular where he designs compute, storage and networking infrastructures that support 4G LTE, 5G, IoT and Fixed Wireless Broadband services. He has extensive IT Architecture expertise including “Big 5” consulting across the transform, run and grow elements of enterprise cloud environments. Mr. Sisto is a strategic thinker who works with CxO level executives as a trusted technical advisor. He is able to structure and deliver innovative IT projects across the full life cycle of solution delivery from strategy and architecture to complex delivery of integrated software solutions built on new economic business models. Mr. Sisto brings 30+ years of IT, consulting, architecture and operations experience including NCR, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, HP EDS, IBM and Lemko Corporation. His education includes a B.S. from the University of Illinois in Marketing, M.S. from DePaul University in Telecommunications and a M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Mr. Sisto was also a Senior Faculty Member at the Keller Graduate School of Management for 17 years, having taught Wireless Communications, Network Security, Telecom Law and the Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation. 

Annur Sumar, Chief Technology Officer, MaeTech

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.

Narendar Sundaram, Senior Director, Chief Architect, Technology, National Restaurant Association

Narendar Sundaram is the Chief Architect and Senior Director of Technology at the National Restaurant Association. He is responsible for providing overall technology direction to the organization and for leading functions that span across Technology Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure, Security, Risk Management and Compliance, Data Platforms, Data Management and Vendor Management.

Narendar enables business partners and customers with technology realizing in great experiences and desired outcomes. He inspires and fosters an environment for team members that is empowering while raising awareness and understanding of how they impact the business.

Narendar comes from a consulting background with extensive expertise in application development having engaged in several different roles for large and small clients. He lives with his wife, Vidhya and two kids, Akshay and Amrita in Naperville.

Dave Swierzynski, Vice President of Business Solutions Architecture, Gallagher Bassett

David Swierzynski is an accomplished Senior IT Executive with 28+ years of Insurance expertise in the areas of Finance, Managed Care, Banking, and E-commerce Portfolios. David is currently the Vice President of Business Solutions Architecture at Gallagher Bassett Services in Rolling Meadows, IL. He has held several key Leadership roles throughout his career and has been responsible and accountable for several Organizations within Gallagher Bassett. Some key positions include the Vice President of Application Development and Maintenance, where Dave guided and lead several Development Teams that primarily focused on Claim payments, Banking, International Banking, Managed Care, E-bill processing, and dotcom development. David also held the position of Vice President of Business Analysis where he guided and lead the Business Analysts to create an environment that standardized Business Requirements documents, created requirements traceability matrixes, and created a Business Analysis Center of Excellence for the Organization. David later took over the Quality Assurance Organization as well as the Vice President of Quality Assurance and Testing. David’s leadership created an environment that cultivated comprehensive testing solutions along with modernized automated testing scripts and the development of regression test case scenario libraries. These key items directly contributed to a reduction in defect density and an increase in defect free software deployment. After establishing the foundation for these Organizations, David became the Vice President of IT Portfolio Management. Under David’s direction and guidance, he established partnerships with the Business Organizations that were previously nonexistent. David assisted individuals and Organizations define and scope their IT Initiatives and Business Priorities by asking insightful questions, scoring intake requests, understanding requirements, and coaching Corporate alignment while building and strengthening Partnerships and Alliances throughout the Organization. David felt that this role awarded his Team and himself to be responsible and accountable for the direction of the Strategic and Tactical Initiatives while ensuring capacity bandwidth and demand constraints were aligned in the most optimal and efficient manner. David’s current role as the Vice President of Business Solutions Architecture has allowed him to have oversight on several key initiatives that allow him to draw from his vast knowledge and expertise and provide proven guidance in the implementation solutions of these Strategic goals. David feels the three pillars of any successful Team can be defined and supported by Attitude, Communication, and Trust. If you demonstrate these traits in a positive way, your Team will take you above and beyond your wildest expectations! David was recently quoted in an article, “It’s not what you ask a person to do for you, it’s how you ask it! I have been so very fortunate and blessed to have had the opportunity to work with such amazingly dedicated professional individuals who I am honored to have as friends!”

Mallikharjuna Valluri, Sr. Architect, US Cellular

Mallikharjuna Valluri, PMP, TOGAF, IEEE Senior Member: Mr. Arjun Valluri currently working as Sr. Architect with US Cellular and various areas of focus in the Enterprise Architecture practice within the Business/Operating Support systems. Key interests and involved in the areas of 5G,LTE, VoLTE, IoT, RCS MaaP, Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Chatbots, Big data and Blockchain technologies. Extensive experience with corporate/business strategies, process improvements, enterprise/solutions/cloud architectures best practices, standards and digital transformation with disruptive innovations in the ever changing technology domain space. He has hands on experience with enterprise wide business/technology/application architecture/solutions design, development, data modelling, implementation, project planning, scope and budget estimations and delivery methodologies. In addition he is a volunteer for PMI Chicagoland section in the capacity of “Director of Technology -Infra” serving the technology aspects of the chapter and members support.