Andreas F. Braendle
Head Data & Operations Technology
Russell Investments
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
Architectural Services Group
TIBCO Software, Inc.
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
President and Management Consultant
Information Systems Management, Inc.
Focused on business transformation and building economic value
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
Kevin Cushman
Enterprise Information Architect
The Boeing Corporation
As an Enterprise Information Architect in the Information Architecture group within Boeing Information Technology's (Boeing IT) Information Management (IM) organization, Kevin Cushman works with members of IT and the business in the areas of information architecture, information management, data warehousing, business intelligence, governance, data quality, information asset management, master data management, content management, and process development.
Prior to his current role, Cushman held several different positions within the engineering and information systems/technology fields. Cushman started in Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 1991 as a Manufacturing Engineer supporting the 747 and 767 programs. From 1993 to 1996, he was a senior Tool Design Engineer supporting the mechanical handling equipment for the 747 and 767 programs. In 1996, Cushman transitioned to the information systems field becoming Data Management Specialist on Boeing Commercial Airplane's (BCA) Define and Control Airplane Configuration / Manufacturing Resource Management (DCAC/MRM) program. He was a member of the Data Conversion organization and represented his organization on the program's Integrated Design Team (IDT) as well as leading the efforts to define and prepare the engineering related data for conversion into the to-be DCAC systems. Following DCAC/MRM, Cushman transitioned into the BCA's Information Systems Transformation (IST) program where the role of the Information Architect was established. He participated in domain validations representing information architecture and was part of the team that established the BCA Computing Governance process.
In 2008, Cushman was a member of the first graduating class of BCA's Leadership Development Excellence (LDE) program. Cushman serves as a Boeing focal to the University of Washington's Information School as part of Boeing's Enterprise University Relations program, a position he has held since 2006. Cushman served in the Minnesota Army National Guard and Washington Army National Guard as an infantry soldier from 1986 to 1992 and achieved the rank of Sergeant E-5 (a Non-Commissioned Officer).
Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of North Dakota (1991), a master's degree in Business Administration from Seattle University (1994) and a Masters of Science degree in Information Management from the University of Washington (2005).
Ken Deering
Partner
Ramp Technology Group
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.
Lee Dirks
Director of Education & Scholarly Communications
Microsoft Corporation
Lee Dirks is the Director of Education & Scholarly Communications in Microsoft's External Research division, where he manages a variety of research programs related to open access to research data, interoperability of archives and repositories, preservation of digital information as well as the application of new technologies to facilitate teaching and learning in higher education. A 19-year veteran across multiple information management fields, Dirks holds an M.L.S. degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill as well as a post-master's degree in Preservation Administration from Columbia University.
In addition to past positions at Columbia and with OCLC (Preservation Resources), he has held a variety of roles at Microsoft since joining the company in 1996—namely as the corporate archivist, then corporate librarian, and as a senior manager in the corporate market research organization. In addition to participation on several National Science Foundation task forces, Dirks also teaches (as adjunct faculty/guest lecturer) at the iSchool at the University of Washington, and serves on the advisory board for the University of Washington Libraries and the Digital Futures Alliance.
Michael Fors
Director of Strategy, Mobile Division
Microsoft Corporation
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.
Vanessa Fox
Entrepreneur-in-Residence
Ignition Partners
Vanessa Fox, called a "cyberspace visionary" by Seattle Business Monthly, is an expert in understanding customer acquisition from organic search. She shares her perspective on how this impacts marketing and user experience at ninebyblue.com and provides authoritative search-friendly design patterns for developers at janeandrobot.com. She is an entrepreneur-in-residence with Ignition Partners, Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, and host of the weekly podcast Office Hours.
Fox previously created Google’s Webmaster Central, which provides both tools and community to help Web site owners improve their sites to gain more customers from search and was instrumental in the sitemaps.org alliance of Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Live Search. In 2009 she was named one of Seattle’s 2008 top 25 innovators and entrepreneurs. Her book Marketing in the Age of Google was published in May 2010 by Wiley.
Mónica Guzmán
Mónica Guzmán is a Seattle journalist and content strategist with a thing for newsrooms, startups and figuring out how we can connect and communicate better. After two years of daily beat reporting for the Houston Chronicle and the Midland Daily News, she dove into digital in July 2007 as the first online-only reporter at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where she developed the awarding-winning Big Blog with an eye toward social media and community collaboration. When the P-I shut down its print edition in 2009, she added website production, multimedia management and expanded content strategy to her daily duties as the largest metro daily to go online-only made a groundbreaking transition.
In June 2010, she jumped to startups, helping the team at Intersect launch, develop and market an innovative storytelling platform that lets people connect through experiences they share at enduring intersections of place and time. All the while, she's shared what she's excited about as a speaker on digital media issues in both tech and journalism.
Guzmán has been named one of the Top 100 women in Seattle tech by Techflash and one of the 35 social media influencers by the Poynter Institute. She holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.
Ernie Hood
Senior Research Director
Advisory Board Company
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.
Chris Miller
Chief Information Officer
Avanade
As CIO, Miller guides the development of technical infrastructure and applications architecture for Avanade. He also works closely with Microsoft to ensure Avanade's position as an aggressive early adopter of Microsoft enterprise technologies.
Miller joined Avanade after 16 years at Accenture, where he served as a senior director for Accenture's Collaboration 2.0 program. In this role, Miller oversaw a multi-year, award-winning initiative to enable 180,000 global employees with next generation collaboration capabilities.
Miller's prior experience spans a wide range of technology and consulting functions, focused on leveraging Microsoft technology on a true enterprise scale for Accenture and its clients. Miller has held various positions in the IT organization with responsibility for providing the IT products, services and support for many of Accenture's internal business practices, including HR, marketing, facilities, and legal. Miller also spent 10 years with Accenture's consulting practice directing large solution-oriented projects at global retail and pharmaceutical clients.
Miller has a bachelor's of science degree in finance, with minors in mathematics and history, from Indiana University.
Gary Robinson
Director
Pierce County Budget and Finance Department
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.
Agueda Sanchez
Information Architect Consultant
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
Chief Technology Officer and Director
City of Seattle Department of Information Technology
Bill Schrier is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the City of Seattle and director of the City's Department of Information Technology (DoIT). Seattle has a population of about 560,000 residents and a City government of about 11,000 employees. DoIT has 215 full-time employees and approximately 600 City government employees work in information technology units.
As CTO, Schrier is responsible for setting standards and policies governing the use of information technology in City government. As Director of DoIT, Schrier's responsibilities include the city's data center, computing services, information security, Web site, 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.
Kabir Shahani
CEO
Appature
Kabir Shahani co-founded Appature in January 2007 with a vision of delivering bleeding edge software that provides tremendous business value while still being easy and fun to use. Their flagship product is an enterprise marketing suite that provides companies the tools to focus on their target customers, make more informed business decisions, and drive overall revenue while saving money on marketing campaign execution. Appature works with top brands in the healthcare vertical, and achieved profitability its first year. In recognition of the company’s success, Shahani was named one of BusinessWeek’s "Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs of 2009."
Prior to launching Appature, Shahani was the Director of Business Development at Blue Dot — where he helped raise a significant amount of angel funding, developed strategic partnerships, and managed public relations. Prior to Blue Dot, he served as project manager for Avanade, a global consulting firm and joint venture of Microsoft and Accenture, where he lead teams and executed software projects for Fortune 500 companies. Shahani has also been closely involved in sales efforts at Avanade and Zones, Inc.
Shahani holds a B.S. in Informatics from the University of Washington and a certificate in Usability and User Interface Design from the University of Washington.
David Wu
Chief Information Officer
Point B
David Wu has spent his career in the management consulting industry, helping organizations use information technology to solve business problems. Wu joined Point B as a senior associate in 1997, bringing an extensive technology background and strong project leadership experience to his clients. He became CIO of Point B in 2008. Prior to joining Point B, he spent several years as a technical architect in the technology group at Andersen Consulting.
Wu currently serves on the CIO Council for NPower Northwest and is actively involved with his church and growing family. He received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington in 1990.
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