Vennard Wright (PMP, ITIL Practitioner) is currently the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC).   As CIO, he provides the requisite leadership to transform the management of information technology (IT) capabilities and services to support WSSC’s mission of providing world class service to more than 1.8 million residents.  In this role he is responsible for leading a client-focused and process-based organization that is fiscally responsible, consisting of WSSC staff, consultants, and implementation support organizations.

Prior to joining WSSC, his professional IT experience included serving as CIO for Prince George’s County Government (MD), Director of Technology for Hillary Clinton during her successful US Senate re-election campaign and subsequent 2008 Presidential Campaign.  He was also Chief Technology Officer and Technical Organization Delivery Manager for Electronic Data Systems (EDS), which was subsequently acquired by Hewlett Packard (HP).

Mr. Rhame is a Research Director at Gartner in the Midsize Enterprise  (MSE) analyst team, specializing in backup and recovery. He works  closely with the storage team to advise IT leaders on backup  technologies including endpoint backup, deduplication backup target  appliances, cloud backup and data center backup products. He has a  cross-discipline focus on security and risk, advising clients on  strategies to deal with the threat of ransomware and destructive  malware.  Originally from the U.S., he has lived in Germany for 17 years, and  worked in presales at both EMEA and regional level for IT vendors  covering all market segments and verticals.

Mike Cisek is a Research Director focusing on Infrastructure and Operations in Midmarket. Mr. Cisek works with clients on IT budgeting, cost optimization, infrastructure design and operations management solutions tailored to unique needs of the Midmarket. He spent more than 23 years as a technologist with extensive knowledge of servers, storage, networking and virtualization.

Prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Cisek held the title of Director of Emerging Infrastructure & Operations Support for a $300 million transportation company. Under his leadership, his team was honored by CIO Magazine and Midsize Enterprise Summit, and was listed twice on the Information Week 500.

Mr. Cisek directed a team of 17 I&O professionals who provided project and support services for a 24-site enterprise. His areas of responsibility included networks, systems, storage, virtualization, enterprise architecture, service desk, client support, mobility, reporting, and telecommunications.

As VP IS/CIO, Tammy leads the Information Services department at Continental Mills, a privately held Food Manufacturer in the Seattle area which produces several well-known products including Krusteaz Baking mixes, Ghirardelli Brownies, Wild Roots Trail mix, Alpine Cider and Kretschmer Wheat germ.  During the 22 years Tammy has been with Continental Mills, she has been responsible for the successful implementation of many major systems, including the company’s first ERP Application and several large scale manufacturing automation systems.  Also during her time with Continental Mills, she has participated in growing the company from a regional manufacturer servicing the Pacific Northwest, to a national company with an international presence and multiple manufacturing sites across the US.  In this role, Tammy is committed to building high performing teams who are both technically excellent and business savvy, seeing that as the key to her department’s success.  In 2014 Tammy was named one of the “Top 20 Most Innovative Midmarket CIO’s” for her work on implementing Business Intelligence for the organization.

Before joining Continental Mills, Tammy started her career working at The Boeing Company, starting in the Industrial Engineering Department as a Master Scheduler and later working as a Systems Analyst. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Washington and a Master’s Business Administration with concentrations in Operations Management and Information Systems, also at the UW.

Doug Pointious currently serves as a BI Analytics Executive with Amerisure Insurance.  He is an innovative technology executive, who has gained extensive expertise in strategic planning and complex solution delivery for an array of very successful business and information technology ventures.  Pontious’ broad experience includes accomplishments ranging from designing, developing, and implementing high-performance technical architectures to leading a large Business Process Outsourcing organization.

As a seasoned global leader, Doug Pontious has accumulated significant operational, marketing, and customer service related business expertise in delivery of sophisticated enterprise application suites and advanced Business Intelligence frameworks.  He has also established a strong business acumen from a diverse base of industries including insurance, financial services, and healthcare.  All gained while serving in vital executive positions with a passion for designing transformational business solutions and developing highly professional teams.

Charley Thornton is the Principal, Partner and a  senior facilitator at The BRIEF Lab.  He is responsible for designing and leading workshops that help professionals achieve strategic and effective communication. A talented writer and storyteller, Charley excels at  coaching professionals to communicate more successfully. Along with his extensive experience, he brings a honed creative vision to clients and their organizations. Charley has helped develop narratives for numerous clients across different market sectors. His experience includes Narrative Mapping Workshops, scriptwriting, creative planning, business writing, strategic consulting and executive speech writing.
 

Joe Mariano is a Senior Research Analyst at Gartner. He is a member of the Digital Workplace Collaboration team. As a Service Analyst, he fulfills client inquiries focusing on cloud computing tools (Office 365, Google Apps for Work), enterprise file sync and share tools, enterprise content management, records management, document management, and SharePoint. Mr. Mariano has more than 13 years of experience in information governance, ECM and records management. He was previously a system analyst for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutics. Coming from a pharmaceutics background, Mr. Mariano understands the challenges faced by industries that are heavily regulated. He has been a project manager on several validated records management and ECM solution implementations, and he created and has advised on policies regarding information management, protection and security. In addition, Mr. Mariano has created employee engagement training to ensure both solutions and processes are understood.

Aaron Geiger's two main passions in life have always been Technology and Finance. He received a BSBA in Finance and Banking from the University of Missouri-Columbia, giving him a solid business finance background for ROI/TCO/RFP Analysis. Hestarted in Technology as an Infrastructure Engineer, designing and implementing Citrix solutions for a wide range of customers, ranging from small business to Fortune 500 companies.

In 2012, Geiger made the leap to Midsize Enterprise Executive as the CIO of Murphy Company, a leading Mechanical Contractor and Construction company. In 2013, he lead the MurphyTrack software initiative, for which he was awarded a Top 20 Most Innovative CIO award at MES 2014. Geiger joined ARCO National Construction in 2015 in a new CTO role, helping them accelerate their Technology adoption and drive value for their clients. ARCO was honored to be named “Client of the Year” by Alligatortek, ARCO’s development partner and MES vendor.

Most recently, Aaron Geiger joined Alberici Group in 2018 as their CTO. As CTO, he is defining the vision/roadmap for technology at Alberici and driving operational efficiency and customer experience. His team partners with project teams to constantly improve and iterate Alberici's technology stack. His vision statement is “To serve as a trusted advisor and partner in the evolution and improvement of our business.”

Vivek is a Practice Leader at CEB, now Gartner, managing research and advisory services tailored for CIOs and their teams at midsized organizations. Previously, Vivek worked at PeopleSoft Inc. (now Oracle) with the professional services group supporting large scale ERP implementations for education and government clients.

Since taking over full management of the IT Leadership Council in 2013, Vivek led the successful launch of the European membership, grew the global business to $18M and serves over 750 members through case studies and implementation support research.  He’s now working closely with Gartner to integrate CEB content and expand offerings available to midsized enterprises.

He began his CEB career as a Research Associate, where he developed research for heads of PMO and Applications, focusing on project management and talent. In 2009, Vivek transitioned to an executive advisory role within the CEB IT Leadership Council for Midsized Companies.  During this time at CEB, Vivek has led countless advisory conversations, tailored workshops, and leadership briefings for CIOs other senior IT executives. Vivek holds a Master’s degree from The London School of Economics and a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin.

Neil Wynne is a Senior Research Analyst within Gartner Research. His research efforts cover a range of information security areas that include email security, identity and access management (IAM) and electronic signature. Mr. Wynne is part of the Gartner Research team that specifically focuses on the success of midsize enterprise IT leaders.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Wynne was an Executive Client Manager in Gartner Executive Programs. He worked directly with U.S. federal government CIOs and senior IT leaders (primarily within the Department of Defense) to support the success of their most critical initiatives, including IT strategic planning, risk management, IT cost optimization, information security, cloud computing and process improvement.

Mary Wyderski is the Senior Director of Information Technology for DSC Logistics, a $500 million logistics firm based out of Chicago. Mary recently joined DSC after serving as the VP of Technology for PSI for 17 years.  Due to her background in accounting and passion for technology, she recognizes the need to drive efficiency while focusing on how automation can increase the organization's bottom line. Mary's desire to streamline processes led to an early adoption of cloud strategy and resulted in the organization's ability to be more agile. Mary led a $5-million-dollar laboratory management system roll-out, encompassing 80 offices nationwide, which resulted in the company receiving a National Engineering Award for mobile technology. Mary attributes her success to working with a great team of leaders, vendors and technologists. 

Niel Nickolaisen is the chief technology officer at OC Tanner – the leading provider of innovative cloud-based software, awards, education, and recognition solutions. He has held various IT and operations leadership roles and has a track record and reputation for improving alignment, decision-making and IT's deliver and credibility. Niel has spent his career finding rapid, pragmatic ways to improve processes, teams, and results. He is passionate about transforming IT and leadership and speaks about, writes about and trains others how to do this. Niel is the author of "The Agile Culture" (Addison Wesley, 2014) and "Stand Back and Deliver" (Addison Wesley, 2009). He holds an MS in Engineering from MIT and an MBA and BS in Physics from Utah State University.

Joseph (Joe) Bassani retired from the United States Army as a colonel after nearly 28 years of service. He is an expert in strategy development, leader development/coaching, strategic communication and organizational change management.

In the years following the attacks of 9/11, he led the Department of Defense effort to develop a family of interagency/intergovernmental homeland defense plans. His efforts led to the formation of the CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, an all-hazards response plan for the Washington DC Metropolitan area, a national pandemic preparation and response plan, as well as a number of sensitive, classified plans and programs. Bassani is a seasoned combat leader, having commanded at every level in the Army, from a platoon to brigade.

In his post-Army career, Bassani worked in the banking industry as Senior Vice President for Operation and Chief Information Officer for a commercial bank in the Philadelphia area. He has consulted for several Fortune 500 companies in technology (software and hardware manufacturing sectors), upstream, unconventional oil and gas exploration, global electronics distribution and healthcare.

Bassani holds a Master of Science degree from the National Defense University (Strategy), a Master of Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma (Communication) and a Bachelor of Arts degree (English) from Western New England University. He is a graduate of the Defense Information School and the National Defense University’s Joint Advanced Warfighting School. He also completed the Darden/SNL Executive Program in Bank Financial Leadership at The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Amy Blankson is the only person to be named a Point of Light by two presidents--President Bush and President Clinton.  She received a presidential appointment to serve a five-year term on the board of the Corporation for National Service, and was one of the youngest delegates to the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future.  Blankson received her Bachelor of Arts from Harvard and MBA from Yale School of Management. In 2007, Blankson co-founded GoodThink to bring the science of happiness to life for organizations and individuals. Blankson brings both passion and practicality to GoodThink. She is currently doing research in partnership with Google to determine how to make positive psychology strategies stick and create sustainable positive change. She serves as a Visioneer for the Xprize Foundation for Personal Health. She was also a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course. Blankson is the author of two books: “Ripple’s Effect and The Future of Happiness” and “Well-being in the Digital Era.”

Chris Laping has been engaging audiences with disruptive ideas on innovation and roller coaster storytelling. Now, he is hitting the stage as author of his debut book, People Before Things, to take audiences on a journey that focuses on how great organizations take care of people and inspire a culture of change.  Prior to founding People Before Things, LLC, Chris served as SVP, Business Transformation and CIO at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. In these roles, he was a highly contributing member of a management team that completed a successful turnaround, taking the company from an $8 stock price to $89 in just a few years. Chris has 25 years of technology and change leadership experience across multiple brands and industries and has been widely recognized for his innovative thought leadership. He was named a Top 5 Social Business Leader by The Economist, Social Business Technology Leader by InformationWeek and Premier 100 IT Leader by Computerworld. The work of the teams he led has been spotlighted in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company and CIO Magazine, among others.

Lisa MacKenzie is a seasoned executive with expertise in marketing, sales, product management and operations. Lisa was instrumental in The Channel Company's evolution from providing traditional media to offering a full portfolio of solutions and services. She brings her proven expertise to The Channel Company's extensive events portfolio - helping ensure that our events meet the evolving needs of our customers. Thanks to Lisa's leadership, The Channel Company attracts record audiences and receives high customer satisfaction scores. Lisa also repositioned our consulting, research and education offerings, resulting in increased profitability and new product launches.