Joe’s mission is to accelerate the business agendas of Hewlett Packard Enterprise clients and serve as a change agent at the behest of both HPE and client senior executives. His insights into “business physics”  the intersection of technology and business  have led to demonstrable business results, creating value by unlocking existing assets. Joe is an occasional guest lecturer at both the Boston University School of Management and Columbia EMBA programs. He has been featured in The Economist for this thought leadership in “creating alignment of interest” and in a new travel industry research study commissioned by Amadeus entitled “From Chaos to Collaboration.”  Joe’s ideas on new growth strategies in a down economy are also featured in James Dickie’s “Changing How the Game is Played.”

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 a research Vice President for Gartner's Office of the CIO, Heather Colella works hard to make the difficult easy when helping CIOs improve their contribution to business results. She is passionate about strategy, governance, effective communications and Gartner clients' personal success. Ms. Colella's motto is: "Your Success Is My Joy" because when she works with clients on a daily basis, she feels energized by the results the clients achieve using Gartner research. Ms. Colella's experience has been invested as a management consultant, developing information technology strategies, architectures and plans for major corporations. She has been a CEO of her own management consulting firm, was a Managing Director with KPMG/BearingPoint, a Senior Manager with KPMG/Nolan, Norton & Co., and a Consultant with both Gemini Consulting and IBM.

Katie Curtin-Mestre is VP of Product and Content Marketing at SimpliVity.  Prior to joining SimpliVity, she has held leadership roles in marketing at Dyn, Acme Packet, HP, and EMC.  She has extensive experience across all facets of B2B tech marketing, with product expertise in the areas of virtualization, Internet performance, security, and storage.  Katie Curtin-Mestre holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Georgetown University and a MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Outside of work, she is a dog lover, recreational runner, and avid viewer of Silicon Valley.

Ernesto Díaz is the Vice President of Research and Advanced Analytics at The Auto Club Group (ACG).  In his current role he oversees strategic insight discovery for the second largest AAA club in the United States.  His experience spans more than 15 years working in strategic analysis of consumer behavior and attitudinal data for two of the most recognized and respected membership brands in the US - i.e., AAA and Sam’s Club.  During his tenure, Mr. Díaz has led both organizations through a transformation of their research and analytical practices resulting in competitive strength and substantial value creation.  Besides his ongoing work leading and implementing Information Management strategy at ACG, he spends much of his time developing a new generation of data scientists for the Auto Club Group.

Shane Harper joined ShoreTel in 2008 and is the company’s National Director of Verticals covering government, healthcare and finance.  With 20 years of experience in the telecom industry and 16 of those dedicated to building, growing and managing highly successful government and vertical market programs. At ShoreTel, Harper embodies the entrepreneurial spirit and roll-up-your-sleeves attitude of the industry.  Prior to joining ShoreTel, Harper served in a variety of key positions at Polycom, Sprint Nextel and GTE Wireless. A lifelong California native,  Harper attended California State University Bakersfield and currently lives in Rocklin, Calif., with his family.  In his free time you’ll find Harper running, climbing or boarding on his beloved Lake Tahoe.

 

Adam Hils is a Research Director with Gartner Research. He covers network security, including intrusion prevention systems (IPS), enterprise firewalls and UTMs. In addition, Mr. Hils provides advice to budget-constrained midsize enterprises about prioritizing security investments.

Rich is an experienced Director and IT Manager focusing on Hybrid Cloud and Virtualization Technologies. Rich has been a Microsoft Engineer for over 16 years as well as being a VMware VCP and Citrix CCA spending much of his career in the Partner Channel. He has sat on IT Steering Committees and Advisory Meetings acting as a subject matter expert and has published countless articles and blogs.

Mr. Johnson has been at the forefront of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s  drive to re-invent itself in the small and midsized business arena. Tod has been with HP/HPE for 9 years with roles focused on technical sales support, competitive programs, and now in small and midsized business growth. With a strong technical acumen under his belt and a deep understanding of how HPE stacks up against the competition; Tod is a sought after speaker, and a champion of HPE partners and customers. Come here why HPE should be the vendor of choice for your IT needs.

Jeanette Lee has over 20 years of experience in high-performance networking. She has been deeply involved in product sales, marketing and network architect positions with companies at the forefront of their fields such as Ruckus Wireless, Aruba Networks, and FORE Systems. Jeanette has written or co-authored dozens of technology papers on topics ranging from security to educational tutorials and best practices.

To Josh Linkner, creativity and innovation are the lifeblood of all human progress. He’s spent his career harnessing the power of creative disruption. As the founder and CEO of four tech companies, Josh built his businesses from a blank page into a combined value of over $200 million. As a hyper-growth CEO of over 20 years, he’s used innovative approaches to topple competitors, fight through adversity, and achieve at the highest levels. He is the founding partner of Detroit Venture Partners, investing in tech startups as a platform to help rebuild his beloved hometown of Detroit, Michigan.

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.

Thomas Miler joined Anthem in May 2014 to lead the company’s information technology organization. He is responsible for all enterprise‐wide information technology initiatives with the focus on delivering secure, and cost effective solutions that enhance Anthem’s business capabilities. In 2015, Miller took on additional responsibility for Anthem’s “Innovation” function and the Anthem Innovation Studio to drive consumer transformation.

Prior to joining Anthem, Miller served as the senior vice president and CIO of Coca‐Cola Refreshments, the Coca‐Cola Co.’s largest bottler. His primary responsibility was the integration of multiple businesses onto a single IT platform to drive operating efficiencies and improve customer service. Miller also served as vice president and general manager of Bottling Investments, leading a global initiative to standardize processes, data and applications that drove productivity and best practice deployment across bottling companies worldwide. Miller was CIO of Coca‐Cola Europe, Eurasia and Middle East, and CIO of Coca‐
Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. during a six‐year assignment in Europe.

Miller earned bachelor’s degrees in business management and computer information management from Northwood University in Midland, Michigan, and an executive MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.  He was a charter board member of SAP’s Global Consumer Products Industry Advisory Council, and is chairman of the Alliance for Freedom, Restoration and Justice, a non‐profit organization devoted to combating human trafficking. Miller was honored as a Top Ten Visionary Leader by Consumer Goods Technology magazine.

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.

Jim Noble is Principal of The Advisory Council, an organization of over 350 experts providing technical & career advice to senior IT executives. Previously, Noble was Global Head of IT strategy for BP, Managing Director of IT for Merrill Lynch & Co, Group Vice President and CIO of Altria Group Inc, Senior Vice President and CIO at AOL Time Warner. Prior to that, Noble had been with General Motors Corp, where he was based in Detroit as Chief Technology Strategy Officer, moving to that assignment from the role of CIO of General Motors International, where he was responsible for all IT activities outside of North America. Earlier in his career, Noble led the worldwide IT consulting practice at Cap Gemini, and prior to that he worked for GE on the design of aircraft systems. In 2012, Noble was awarded CIO Magazine’s annual award for innovation in IT. He also was president of the Society for Information Management, the leading professional association for IT executives.

Jose Ruggero is Managing Vice President for the ERP Strategy and Value Realization research, whose purpose is to address the key initiative of transforming ERP to postmodern ERP. This global team researches the strategies and value considerations needed to ensure ERP and other enterprise application suites support an enterprise's strategic business objectives. Additionally, this team produces insights into future trends and applications of postmodern ERP to meet enterprises' growing needs for innovation and agility to support digital business.

Prior to this role, Mr. Ruggero was the head of Gartner's Executive Programs business, first in the Asia/Pacific region, and then in the Americas and Japan. Additionally, he worked directly with CIOs, their teams and other senior executives throughout the world with particular emphasis on coaching for communication, strategy and innovation.

Mr. Ruggero came to Gartner from GE Capital IT Solutions, a service with an emphasis on hardware, software, training, networking, system management, application development, facilities management and outsourcing solutions. Prior to that, he was the general manager of Australia's premier national payroll and HR bureau. He began his career in the insurance industry in what was then known as automatic data processing (ADP)

Brian P. Watson is an author, speaker and contributor to a wide array of business/technology outlets focused on IT leadership and the CIO role. He currently serves as Co-Head, CIO Networks at Metis Strategy, a business and technology strategy consulting firm.

Watson is the author of Confessions of a Successful CIO: How the Best CIOs Tackle Their Toughest Business Challenges (Wiley, March 2014), and writes profiles of elite IT leaders for CIO.com.

Previously, he served as Editor in Chief of CIO Insight. Brian has also contributed analysis and reporting to various IT leadership publications, and has delivered keynotes and moderated panels at various CIO-themed conferences.

Outside of his writing, speaking and IT leadership analysis activities, Brian has also served as Director of Business Outreach for Workforce Opportunity Services, a 501c3 nonprofit that trains talented military veterans and young adults for careers in the private sector. More recently, he was Executive Director at iRise, where he oversaw thought leadership events and programs for IT executives.

Brian earned a Bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University and a Master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He lives in Fairfield County, CT, with his wife and son.

Ed Weinstein specializes in IT vendor management with a strong concentration on infrastructure, including supplier relationship and performance management; contract management; negotiation and RF(x) processes; and vendor governance. In addition to his experience in IT sourcing and vendor management, Mr. Weinstein has also worked as an infrastructure engineer and architect focused on data center management and client/server technologies. Prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Weinstein was responsible for managing key IT vendor relationships for domestic and global Fortune 50 companies.