About
MSIM Advisory Board
Jeffrey Bearce
Jeff Bearce is currently a senior information systems architect with the commercial aviation services division of the Boeing Company. His present focus is on data governance and cloud computing. Bearce has been with Boeing for 24 years working in a variety of IT roles including programming, application architecture and systems architecture across the various Boeing business units. His time at Boeing was briefly interrupted in 2000 working for a year at a dot-com startup company in Seattle where he led the business systems group providing the business IT infrastructure to its SaaS offering and also providing mobile device capability.
Bearce holds a BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington, a BS in Computer Science from Seattle Pacific University and a MS in Information Systems from the University of Washington.
Andreas F. Braendle
Andreas Braendle has been leading organizations and business transformations as Consultant, Director and CIO, predominantly in the financial services industry. In the past 20 years he has been employed by Credit Suisse Group, Moss Adams LLP, VMC and Russell Investment Group.
Braendle's focus has been on spearheading organizational transformations and building business and technology environments, especially during M&As, spin-offs and turnarounds. He has helped companies like VMC and Winterthur Insurance Group (a division of Credit Suisse Group) develop their service and product strategies. As Managing Director at VMC he was also responsible for global business development and the delivery of outsourcing services. Braendle had a longer career with Credit Suisse Group: as an Internal Management Consultant focusing on organizational design and process engineering and as Head Strategy & Systems and later Regional CIO with their North America insurance unit.
He started his latest role at Russell Investments in mid 2009. In this capacity he helps Russell's Operations technology environment meet and exceed technology standards and expectations in the global investment management industry.
He is a Trustee with the Society for Information Management in addition to his role as Advisory Board Member at the University of Washington Information School. He holds a Master of Science in Psychology and an executive MBA both from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He lives with his wife and daughter on a horse ranch an hour’s drive east of Seattle, WA.
Chris Cavnor
Christopher Cavnor joined TIBCO in November 2011 and serves as an architect within the Architectural Services Group (ASG). In this role he provides enterprise-level architectural design and development services for SOA landscapes. Specializing in Complex Event Programming (CEP) systems, Cavnor deals with the processing of real-time information in distributed environments.
Prior to joining TIBCO, Cavnor was an information systems architect for the Institute for Systems Biology where his work focused on the modeling of information resources and the incorporation of Semantic Web and traditional modeling and search technologies to enhance the integration and findability of biological data and information.
Cavnor received his Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) from the University of Washington Information School in 2005. He has more than 15 years of experience in the software development and information management fields.
Frank E. Coker, MBA, CMC
www.ismigroup.com
President and CEO
CoreConnex, Inc.
Providing software solutions to outsourced IT service providers www.coreconnex.com
Frank Coker is a professional management consultant, specializing in business strategy and information technology and is a founder and CEO of a new start-up called CoreConnex. He has been a management consultant for over 25 years. He generally works with CEOs and executive teams in developing business plans and strategic initiatives. He has co-founded six start-up companies and has served as president and CEO, chairman of the board, COO, CFO, and CIO in numerous companies. He has directed numerous business turn-arounds, participated in mergers and acquisitions, supported new business development and has assisted venture capital organizations in assessing investment opportunities. In 1994, he founded Health Systems Technologies (HST), and raised $22 million in venture capital; the assets of that company are now part of WebMD. His prior work experience includes five years with Price Waterhouse as a Senior Manager in consulting, and five years with IBM in sales and marketing, and more than 20 years as president of his current consulting firm, ISMI.
Coker holds a master's degree in Business Administration and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. He is a board member and past president of the Institute for Management Consultants, Pacific Northwest Chapter, and board member and past president of the Society for Information Management, Seattle Chapter. He teaches at the University of Washington Information School in the Master of Science in Information Management program.
More information can be found at:
www.ismigroup.com
www.coreconnex.com
www.linkedin.com/in/frankcoker
Ken Deering
Ken Deering is a seasoned technology executive. He is a partner at Ramp Technology Group, which specializes in the design and development of high-volume consumer applications, internal business applications, ad management, content management and business intelligence.
Prior to Ramp he was co-founder and VP Storefront for HomeGrocer.com, where he was responsible for the online consumer experience. He has over 25 years experience in high technology companies and has held senior management positions including VP Business Development, VP Operations and General Manager for online services, software and hardware companies.
Deering is a graduate of the Executive Marketing Program of the University of British Columbia.
Michael Fors
Michael Fors is Director of Strategy in Microsoft's Mobile Division, where he works with vice presidents to set business and engineering strategy. He also manages a P&L worth over $100m. Fors has been leader of a business performance team at Microsoft that, at the request of vice presidents, assessed and improved the performance of their divisions, worked with senior product leadership teams to create viable business plans, and partnered with technologists to create business plans for innovative new technologies deemed to have potential by Bill Gates via his ThinkWeek Program. Fors has been at Microsoft for five years.
Prior to Microsoft, Fors was at Intel Corporation for 12 years, where he was leader of Intel University. There, his 200 person organization developed programs that created benchmarked best practice programs in the areas of strategy & performance improvement, leadership/management development, and employee performance. He worked with Intel's executive staff and Andy Grove (CEO) to design and develop Intel's culture and values programs, including programs required of every employee.
Fors has had a Fellowship at the United Nations for 10 years. He consulted at the United Nation's New York Headquarters with ambassadors from countries around the world on leadership, strategy, Internet governance, cyberterrorism, and security. For five years he has helped to rebuild Afghanistan, by driving a leadership and strategic planning program for new Afghan government, business and nonprofit leaders.
Fors is a Certified Management Consultant. He is a lecturer at the University of Washington. He is also a Baldrige Business Performance Examiner, where he judges high performing organizations. The prestigious Baldrige Award is awarded by the President of the United States to selected organizations.
Fors has extensively worked in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Fors has a Ph.D. from Arizona State University, a master's from George Washington University, and a bachelor's from the University of Washington. He is the recipient of 19 scholarships and 4 fellowships.
Ernie Hood
Ernie Hood, now a Senior Research Director at the Advisory Board Company, is the former Vice President and CIO of Group Health Cooperative, one of the nation's largest consumer-governed healthcare systems. He has worked in information services for 30 years and the healthcare industry for 19 years. In his role as CIO, he successfully implemented leading-edge technology solutions that increased the quality of care, improved patient outcomes, and lowered costs. His focus has been to seamlessly integrate information technology with the work and goals of the organization. Group Health is well known for one shining example of this approach, its leading-edge patient portal, MyGroupHealth, which was one of the first to enable patients to email their doctor and get their lab results online. Patients also use this website to order their prescriptions, make appointments, and even view their medical records. Connecting these features to the normal practice of medicine helped Group Health to earn a JD Powers Award in 2008 and 2010 and to become one of the most highly rated health plans in the country.
As a consumer owned and governed organization, Group Health has eagerly embraced the Lean movement in healthcare. Hood, seeing this as a perfect fit with his strategy to seamlessly integrate technology in the processes of the organization, was among the first to apply these techniques to information services.
In 2010, Hood decided to focus on a new mission to encourage the effective use and integration of information technology throughout the healthcare industry. To that end he has taken on new roles in the Washington State healthcare community to enable the adaption of electronic medical records and the exchange of health information so that medical records can be available wherever the patient seeks care. He plans to apply the same concept of seamless technology and process integration in his new roles with WIREC, the lead organization for enabling the adoption of electronic medical records in Washington and Idaho and with OneHealthPort, the organization designated by the State to enable health information exchange.
Education has been a passion for Hood who has been a lecturer in the Health Information Management Program at Bellevue College since 2009 and has supported education and knowledge sharing through the Washington chapter of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Hood has served on the Board of HIMSS Washington since 2005 and was elected president in 2010.
He is a graduate of the University of California and holds an M.B.A from the University of Houston.
Jason Phelps
Jason Phelps is currently a Senior Supply Chain Program Manager for Microsoft IEB Division. He has responsibility for the consigned part space for Xbox. Jason was formally the North American Production Control Manager for Fluke Corporation responsible for the materials organization, acquisition integration and the production control business analyst group. He has 15 years of supply chain and materials management experience, while working in various industries from electronics to heavy truck and retail. Phelps specializes in lean, supply chain management, information management in operations and is a (CDDP) Certified Demand Driven Planner. He also serves as an advisory board member for Western Washington University's Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management program and Central Washington University's Supply Chain Management Institute. Phelps holds a MBA in Technology Innovation Management from Pacific Lutheran University and a Master of Science in Information Management from the University of Washington.
Gary Robinson
Gary Robinson began his career as a member of the committee staff of the Washington State House of Representatives and then the Senate. He next joined the administrative staff of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission before serving as Assistant Director and Deputy Director of the Washington State Office of Financial Management. Before assuming his current position, Robinson was the Chief Information Officer and Director of the Washington State Department of Information Services and the Chief Financial Officer for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
He has also been a member of the Executive Committees of the National Association of Chief Information Officers and the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council.
Robinson received his bachelor's degree from Pitzer College, Claremont, California and his master's degree from The Evergreen State College. He has also completed the Program for State and Local Executives at the Kennedy School of Government.
Ann Samuelson
Ann Samuelson joined The Everett Clinic in January 2012 as the Sr. Project and Strategic Planning Manager. The Everett Clinic is the largest Independent Physician Practice in Pacific Northwest with over 450 Providers. The clinic made a bold commitment to the community to reduce the cost of care by 25 percent. Samuelson works with the executive team to develop strategy maps and balanced scorecards that make this key strategic focus tangible and visible.
Samuelson has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare field. Prior to joining The Everett Clinic, Samuelson worked for Seattle Children's Hospital for eight years in the IT and strategy planning departments as well as for Virginia Mason and IDX healthcare software. She also has consulted nationally with large integrated delivery networks.
She earned her Master of Science in Information Management from the University of Washington in 2006 and believes that managing information, not data, is critical to the ability respond to the dynamic healthcare environment.
Agueda Sanchez
Agueda Sanchez is an information professional with over 20 years experience developing strategies, products, systems and information solutions for Fortune 500 companies. She is a member of the American Society for Information Science and Technology and the Information Architecture Institute.
As a consultant, Sanchez focuses on B2B eCommerce, developing solutions for transforming business and technical requirements into the user experience framework, communicating the website's interactivity, functionality and workflow; defining the user-system dialog utilizing user-centered design, providing appropriate user-feedback mechanisms, and maximizing customer satisfaction; and occasionally creating personas and use cases, prototypes, conceptual models and taxonomies.
Sanchez is the president and co-founder of RealArt, Inc., an art rental and sales business that promotes emerging artists and targets the real estate and home staging industries.
Previously Sanchez worked as a lead enterprise architect for Starbucks Coffee Company and was responsible for the company's information strategy and compliance. She delivered the enterprise content strategy for all of its web properties, a data stewardship program for master data management, and an eDiscovery strategy plan. She also developed information architecture best practices for the company.
Prior to Starbucks, Sanchez held a number of roles at Microsoft, where she worked for 14 years. She contributed to the company's continued viability by leading development of 10 major software products, grew Tablet PC handwriting recognition business by 30 percent and saved $1.2 million by negotiating more advantageous vendor contracts.
Sanchez has published two articles and participated in a national study on the social, economic, personal and professional value of free access to computers at public libraries. She received her Master of Science in Information Management from the University of Washington Information School.
Bill Schrier
Bill Schrier recently retired from service as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the City of Seattle and director of the City's Department of Information Technology (DoIT). As CTO, Schrier was responsible for setting standards and policies governing the use of information technology in City government. As Director of DoIT, Schrier's responsibilities included the city's data center, computing services, information security, website, municipal television station, community technology, electronic mail system, public safety radio system, telephone network and data communications network. Schrier has been working in information technology with the City of Seattle since 1982.
The City of Seattle's website, www.seattle.gov, television station and technology projects have won a number of local and national awards, including "Best of the Web City Portal" in 2001 and 2006 and NATOA's "Excellence in Government Programming" in 2007 and 2008 for the Seattle Channel.
Schrier chairs the Regional Communications Board, which governs the operation of the 800 megahertz public safety radio network for King County. He is secretary of the Metropolitan Information Exchange (MIX), a national association of City and County CIOs.
He writes a blog about the intersection of information technology and government, how they sometimes collide but often influence and change each other. It can be found at schrier.wordpress.com.
Schrier is a retired officer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He is a graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and holds a master's in Public Administration from the University of Washington. His past community involvement includes membership on the Catholic Archdiocesan School Board where he served as president, and the Washington City-County Management Association.
iFacts
In 100 years, the iSchool has grown from 10 students to 150 in the 1980s and 90s to almost 800 today with plans to grow to over 1,000 – continuing to meet the needs of the ever-expanding information field.
Mike Eisenberg
Professor and Dean Emeritus
iOn the Future
