SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Conference Chair:
Randy, Wimmer, IT Portfolio Manager, Walgreens Boots Alliance

Accomplished, results driven leader with over 25 years of IT and business experience. Developer of strategies as well as tactical solutions enabling IT Portfolio Management and PMO capabilities within various companies such as Allstate Insurance, MillerCoors and currently Walgreens. Successfully and consistently demonstrates an ability to deliver seamless, cost effective solutions leveraging critical thinking and established frameworks (e.g. PMBOK, CMM, ITIL, etc.). Enjoys working in a team setting that utilizes common goal/objectives definition, collaboration, joint problem solving, and knowledge sharing. Develops fellow professionals (internally/externally) by providing coaching, mentoring, and serving as a volunteer conference chairman for CAMP IT Conferences. He is an avid craft beer fan and is planning to take the Certified Cicerone exam.

Peter Chen, Director, Enterprise Architecture, Stericycle

Experienced Director Enterprise Architecture and SAP expert with a demonstrated history of working in the multiple industries and global organizations. Skilled in Overall IT Strategy and roadmap planning, TOGAF EA practice and DevOps process building, overall IT and SAP architecture and landscape planning, building and cloud migration. S/4HANA planning and implementation, BI and Analytics, HANA and BW/4HANA, SAP domain expertise and support from solution manager to ABAP development, and cross module functional expertise. 

Gordon Cooper, Customer Success Manager, MEGA International

Gordon is a thought leader in the field of enterprise architecture as a transformative discipline. He has provided vision and leadership in the evolution of EA from a “nice-to-have” cost center into a key enabler of business transformation. Gordon has worked as senior leadership and consulted in companies ranging from Fortune 10 companies to start-ups, and in numerous industries such as insurance, financial, oil & gas, technology, healthcare, government, and education. Gordon holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Law from West Texas A&M University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He also attended the United States Military Academy and graduated in the top 10% of his class from Culver Military Academy.

Qamber Mehdi, Director of DevOps & Cybersecurity, DAIS Technology

Qamber Mehdi is a Director of DevOps & Cybersecurity at DAIS Technology, a Chicago-based FinTech startup. He has led multiple cloud migration and application modernization initiatives at various technology companies. His expertise includes Cloud Native application development, pipeline-based CI/CD processes, Infrastructure as Code, and building Platforms as a Service (PaaS) to spur innovation and accelerate software delivery. His passion is exploring hybrid cloud strategies to transform legacy IT into modern Digital Natives.

Seth Morrell, Vice President – Innovation and Strategy, SynchroNet; former VP Enterprise Architecture & Design, HUB International

Top performing, creative, outgoing, and people-focused IT executive with proven track record in driving significant and forward-thinking technology and organizational change at scale; highly experienced global lead IT, Business Process, Outsourcing, and Operations fields; deep skills in IT architecture and infrastructure, organizations, and processes; extensive vendor management and relationship skills; proven experience in developing tactical and strategic solutions to challenges and opportunities; multiple-industry experience

Specialties: Cloud migration and transformation, Enterprise Architecture, Mergers and Acquisitions, End User Computing, Email and Collaboration, Identity and Access Management, Data Center and Network optimization, IT Service Management, IT Procurement, IT/Infrastructure Assessments and Design, Business Process Assessment and Design, IT and organizational strategy 

Brad Peterson, VP Marketing, Workspot

I am a seasoned and performance-driven Marketing Executive with a career marked by accomplishments and experience transforming startup and high-growth companies and a 20+ year career in building and leading teams that drive high-growth business opportunities, shorter sales cycles, and faster revenue growth.

As a marketing leader and accomplished business executive, my expertise spans marketing, sales, business development, and product management for SaaS, enterprise software, hardware, networking, and data center technologies.

My background includes marketing leadership success and a diverse career path leading marketing and sales teams in early stage Silicon Valley startups to multimillion and billion-dollar acquisitions and IPOs.

I have contributed industry thought leadership that has solidified company and brand reputation, managed multimillion-dollar product marketing campaigns and worldwide events, and have been a regular keynote speaker in events in the US, EMEA, and Pacific markets.

My Areas of Expertise Include:

• Product & Brand Strategy
• Digital & Channel Marketing
• New & Traditional Media
• Social Networking
• Sales Enablement
• Campaign Development
• Marketing Automation
• Strategic Partnerships
• Marketing Operations
• Market Analysis

Patrick Ryan, Executive Vice President, Emerging Technologies at SPR Consulting

Pat Ryan likes to work on problems that matter. He applies software tools and techniques to the problems we have around us, with the goal of making the world a better place because of it. At SPR, Pat works closely with clients to understand their needs and craft solutions to help make them more successful. He also work directly with various engineering talents to pull together highly functioning teams. Pat is a player-manager. That means, he stays current with as many technologies as possible so he can understand and empathize when a team is struggling, and help them at a very concrete level. Pat continually builds his knowledge by reading technical books, attending classes, and coding something every day. Pat’s career has seen it all – from managing teams, to building a company from the ground up, to dreaming up software and devices that have gone on to solve client problems.

Akbar Sheik, Director, Application Modernization, Hitachi Vantara

Highly accomplished Information Technology professional that has been keeping up with latest technology trends for 25 years.

Extensive technical and leadership experience in delivering strategic and innovative solutions for complex business initiatives at a rapid pace

Vast experience in creating IT architecture and solutions to meet organizational strategies

Hands on experience in wide spectrum of technologies ranging from IBM Mainframes, JAVA/JEE, ERP applications, to public/private/hybrid cloud, Blockchain and cryptocurrency

Created cloud migration and application modernization strategy and executed the strategy for government, non-profit, and commercial customers

Developed cloud native and cloud agnostic applications that support structured and unstructured data

Defined roadmap, developed, delivered, customized for implementation, and provided production support for IT products

Developed software applications that not only handle audio, video, and image data but also leverages block chain technologies and cryptocurrency

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, CTO, 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.

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!”

Michael Tremante, Solutions Engineer, Cloudflare

Michael is a technology enthusiast specializing in internet security and performance. He currently leads the Americas Solutions Engineering group at Cloudflare while helping to build a better internet. He has several years of experience providing technical consultancy to customers of all sizes, from small businesses to Fortune 1000. Michael is also Co-founder at Dodify, a multidisciplinary web agency and Technical Director at Spesati.com, an online e-commerce grocery platform.

Anoop Verma, Leader, Custom Software & Emerging Technologies / IT Applications, Joint Commission

• Mr. Anoop Verma leads Custom Software Development and Emerging Technologies Innovation at The Joint Commission. Prior to this, he led strategy, planning, architecture and delivery function in companies ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. With successful leadership of 250+ global team members and over 100M dollar budgets, he has advised on as well as led major organizational transformations.
• An inspirational leader, Mr. Verma graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (earlier called University of Roorkee), India before getting Master’s degree from Wayne State University, Detroit and M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
• Mr. Verma is an early adopter of Enterprise Architecture and Software Engineering disciplines. He has spoken at university and conference sharing his insights on the strategic integration of strategy, planning and execution functions to achieve higher business value in a sustainable manner.

Kevin Young, Associate Cloud Consultant, SPR Consulting

Kevin Young likes to automate everything he can. If there’s a redundant task in his daily routine, it’s going to get automated. This frees Kevin up to worry about other things, which usually involves how to automate the next tedious task. Kevin’s favorite problems to work on are data problems, and he gains a sense of satisfaction from being able to draw insights from data. At SPR, Kevin builds and manages cloud solutions for clients. He enjoys staying up to date with cutting edge machine learning and data science techniques.