Biography

As Chief Automation Officer at LexisNexis, Vinay manages an enterprise-level organization to deliver digital transformation and automation for 14 business units. He set the vision and roadmap for building world class products and services leveraging Artificial Intelligence, Data science and emerging technologies, in partnership with the CEO, COO and CFO. 

As an SVP, Enterprise Head of Automation and Process Excellence COE (RPA, BPM, Cognitive Automation) at Bank of America, he established a global organization to deliver Process Excellence, RPA and Intelligent Automation strategy, innovation, standards and digital transformation programs. He had similar roles and responsibilities at UnitedHealthcare and Virtusa and spent the early part of his career at Tech Mahindra, his last role as the VP and Global Head of Enterprise Business Solutions including CRM, ECM, Supply chain, Supplier relationship management, BPM, Business consulting, PLM, process consulting.

He has a Masters in Science from the University of North Carolina.

Biography

Tony Higgins is the Chief Technology Officer at Blueprint Software Systems and is responsible for the vision and evolution of Blueprint’s Enterprise Automation Suite, a modern and intuitive tool for scaling process automation initiatives to enterprise scale, allowing organizations to automate complex, end-to-end business processes, reduce manual work and errors, minimize cost, and ensure regulatory compliance across their digital workforce. 

Tony has a broad base of software delivery skills and experience ranging from start-ups to global enterprises, and is passionate about building technology that helps teams to rapidly optimize, automate and digitally transform their organizations.

Biography

Marco Chmura is Director of Quality & Transformation at Morningstar, whose mission is to create great products that help investors reach their financial goals. Marco’s spent the past 5+ years helping Morningstar achieve that mission by developing a process mindset and client-centric culture by championing the voice of the customer and mentoring/guiding leaders as they manage LEAN Six Sigma and Agile development projects. For the past year and a half, he’s also been responsible for helping Morningstar enhance the customer experience through the adoption of emerging technologies such as Robotic Process Automation, AI, ML, Chat, etc.

Biography

Brandon Nott leads Attended Automation at UiPath.  As a former customer, he has built a successful RPA practice and brings firsthand knowledge of all aspects of the RPA life cycle to the product team. An award-winning technologist with a deep focus on sustainable, robust systems design. 

From automating mortgage operations to testing wireless technologies, Brandon takes a holistic approach to digital transformation that brings humans and technology together, seamlessly.  Not only does he create attending automations/robots at night, he is also avid race car driver, proud father of 3 and recently relocated to the NW area!

Biography

José Pires serves as the Global Excellence & Innovation (E&I) Leader for Andeavor Corporation, where he oversees the global identification, prioritization and execution of mission critical business improvements and innovations that add value to the company, business partners and external clients in multiple markets.

Prior to his current role, Pires held Excellence and Innovation leadership positions in large, global companies in the electronics (Sony), semiconductor (Cymer-ASML), food (Nestlé) and infrastructure (Black & Veatch) industries. Throughout his career, Pires developed and refined E&I as an award winning program for innovation, leadership development, strategy execution and value creation globally.

Pires is an advisory board leader and keynote speaker for several global conferences on innovation, operational excellence, leadership development, strategy execution, business transformation, customer engagement and growth acceleration.

He holds a Bachelor in Engineering Physics from the University of Kansas and a Master in Business Administration focused in Investment Banking and Entrepreneurship from the University of San Diego.

Biography

Thom, Managing Partner of EK, was formerly the Vice President of Quality & Operational Excellence for Daikin Applied. Previously, he was the Chief Innovation Officer and Founder of Leanserv LLC, a consulting and Professional Services company. During his 26-year career, he had expat assignments with General Electric in Turkey, Romania, Canada and England. He served as Vice President at Tenneco leading the global Operational Excellence initiative for the company overseeing Manufacturing & Business Operations.

Thom has an extensive background in thedesign and launch of enterprise-wide business systems utilizing his comprehensive background of Lean Six Sigma and Problem Solving leading companies through Recovery, Turnaround and Transformation. Previously, he was the Vice President of Power Solutions at Johnson Controls. In this role, Thom developed and executed the Business Transformation for Power Solutionsfive-year business strategy, and led a team of highly qualified experts to directly impact Quality, Cost, and Delivery to customers, both external and internal. He was the Executive LeanEnterprise & Business Transformation Leader at GE Transportation where he led the re-launch of GE's Lean Six Sigma program across the enterprise of GE Transportation focused on productquality, speed to market, and cost effectiveness. Thom was also the Chief Operating Officer & Business Transformation Leader at GE Capital/ Garanti Bank where he overcame cultural and language barriers to lead the full Operations organization and pioneered Lean Six Sigmamethodologies within the Banking industry of Turkey and Romania.

In addition, Thom has held positions in Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance, and Banking within the Appliances, Plastics, Corporate, Capital, and Transportation divisions of GEas well as three Joint Ventures. Within his consulting business, Thom has also re-engineeredvarious functions while acting as interim executive. He holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degreesin Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia and is a graduate of GE’s prestigious Edison Engineering Program and Advanced Courses.

Biography

Leading company Materials Velocity effort by driving E2E process design of overall cyber ECO-System. Introducing Industry 4.0 to the enterprise allowing the teams to leverage and exploit a connected data/process flow.

Manage creation of future standards and architectural design of the E2E physical process and integrated architecture to lead enterprise digital transformation of our factory systems, processes, technology, and people. Responsibility of BPM implementation at the enterprise level to drive operational transformation.

Biography

Engineering Leader with more than 18 years in world class company having extensive experience in designing, developing and testing enterprise software products. Expertise in domains like Analytics & Business Intelligence, IoT and Machine Learning.

Responsible & accountable for driving global missions with Product Development, Processes and People. Managed end-to-end life cycles of onPrem and cloud enterprise software product components – from whiteboard designs to maintenance releases.

Experienced in building ground-up world-class teams, as well as in driving transformations of inherited teams. Building the team with Innovation as DNA and transformed employee engagement and trust score. Extensive experience in working with geographically distributed teams. Managing a development team of Managers, Architects, Product owners and Program managers.

Excellent balance of Technical skills, Managerial skills and Entrepreneurial skills.
Thrives in a 'start-up like' work environment.  

Biography

Peter Evans was born in 1955. He joined the LEGO in February 2016.

The early part of his career was in Finance in various industries, including Defence, Financial Services and Telecommunications. Peter worked for General Electric throughout the 90’s including spells in
Manchester, Brussels, Shannon (Eire) and Connecticut.

From 2000 to 2013 he worked in Telecoms in the UK, first with Vodafone, then Cable & Wireless, before finally leading Operational Excellence for Virgin Media. From 2013 to 2015 Peter led Process Excellence in Northern Europe for Maersk Line, based in Copenhagen.

Since February 2016 Peter has been Director of LCI (LEGO Continuous Improvement) at LEGO with
specific responsibility for Business Service Operations and is actively involved in establishing a
Global Business Services Organisation for Finance.

Biography

Gustav Toppenberg is a Digital Transformation Executive and Principal Consultant with Janus Insights, LLC. He is an Enterprise Transformation Executive with 20+ years of experience. His background includes building and leading transformational efforts for both small and global companies with a focus on business, data, and digital domains.

His professional experience includes executive roles in enterprise architecture, Lean Agile product delivery, advanced data & analytics, and M&A at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Catalina Marketing, Aon Plc, and Cisco Systems. His academic experience teaching and as a publishing practitioner includes roles as an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago – Quinlan School of Business and as an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley in the areas of advanced analytics/AI, emerging technology, design thinking, and Lean Agile.

He is also a co-author of the recently released book, Architecting Growth in the Digital Era: How to Exploit Enterprise Architecture to Enable Corporate Acquisitions.

Biography

Travis is an expert in change management, organizational effectiveness, and business transformation. With +10 years of experience helping Fortune 100 companies from varying industries and across the globe go through large, strategic organizational changes, Travis brings this expertise to Google's customers and partners as the Americas Change and Culture Lead. Travis holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with an emphasis in consumer behavior, business management, and neuropsychology and a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in management, organizational behavior and theory, and accounting. Travis' education is also comprised of several notable experiences including time studying neuropsychology and neuroscience at Harvard University and performing neurology research on cognitive functioning at Aalborg University in Aalborg, Denmark.

Biography

Bobby Patrick is CMO of UiPath, the fastest growing and leading provider of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and AI software worldwide. In this role, he leads global marketing strategy and execution as UiPath continues to usher in the “Automation First Era,” helping businesses of all sizes digitize everyday business operations and apply AI to drive true digital transformation. A technologist at heart, Patrick has driven significant growth in technology businesses for over two decades, ranging from Fortune 50 to start-ups.  

Patrick has driven significant growth in technology businesses for over two decades, ranging from Fortune 50 to start-ups. He most recently served as CMO for Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s multi-billion-dollar Cloud business. Patrick was responsible for global branding, product marketing, communications and demand generation to deliver on the company's strategic growth imperatives. He served previously as CMO for Basho, GXS (acquired by OpenText), and Digex (acquired by Verizon). Patrick began his career at the FBI as a computer specialist at the age of 16. 

Biography

William (Bill) is Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Research and Planning – Banking, Financial Markets and IT Services at Huawei Technologies, Shenzhen, China.  Bill’s responsibilities include the further development of Huawei’s Financial Services Industry Strategy with research and formulation of new solutions encompassing technology and business architectures, emerging technologies centered on AI/Anaytics, Blockchain, Mobile/Digital and IoT, and evolving business models in the FinTech / RegTech era across the financial services sector.

Bill is also Huawei’s representative and Co-Chair of the China Greater Bay Committee in the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, and a CTO and Executive Board Director for Saving Promise.

Prior to joining Huawei in 2016, Bill was a CIO and CTO for a Blockchain Strategy and Technology company in the US, and a Principal Advisor for a CIO Advisory Consulting firm. Bill has spent most of his 25 year career with IBM, KPMG, and Wells Fargo Bank, stationed in Europe, Americas, and Asia Pacific regions working holding various senior management roles such as CIO, CTO, Principal Technology Architect and Executive Architect. Bill holds multiple industry and professional certifications focused on full-scale enterprise architecture and technology in the Financial Services Industry.

Biography

Cliff Tironi is Executive Vice President - Strategic Accounts. Thinaer is an IoT platform that integrates actionable data from highly-calibrated sensors and real-time employee and client feedback to give their clients unparalleled insight into their operations, predictive analytics to see the future, and consultative business process redesign to get improved results. (https://thinaer.io/)

Prior to working with Thinaer, Cliff was the Manager of Performance Analytics at the Fox School of Business at Temple University.  At Fox, Cliff was the chief architect and co-creator of RoadMap™, a Microsoft-supported tool for students to visualize their progress on competencies across courses. 

Cliff understands the challenges of harnessing never-ending data—and the need to leverage it in imaginative yet impactful ways.  He regularly conducts data visualizations workshops to business professionals across all industries, coaching others to embrace a humanized mindset as a means to making data more relatable and, most importantly, actionable. 

Fluent in Spanish, Cliff earned his M.B.A. from Arcadia University and his B.S. in Marketing from Siena College. 

Biography

J. Patrick Law is the Operations Chief of Fiserv’s Card Services Division. A creative, “out-of-the-box” thinker, client centric and employee engaged leader, Patrick is responsible for the daily operational management of 4,000 ATM/Debit/Network financial services clients. 

Biography

Sebastian is currently heading the operational excellence team for the Swiss Re's Property and Casualty Business Management organization. The team defines, implements and drives the operational excellence strategy for the in-force business of Swiss Re, focusing on making the operating model more efficient and effective.

With more than 20 years of experience in improving large scale organizations better, Sebastian brings his background from financial services, banking, retail and IT sectors. Focusing on the value-add an organization brings, leveraging experts and solutions to bring teams to the next level. Consultant, Operational Excellence expert and change manager who implemented organization transformation at global organizations such as Swiss Re, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, American Express, Home Depot and Target.

Sebastian holds a Master in Business Computing from the University of Paderborn, Germany, he is a Lean Sigma Black Belt and a certified Prosci Change Manager

Biography

Ed is currently Vice-President of Operational Excellence Assessment and Oversight for Duke Energy. His group performs assessments of Duke operational business units, to promote event-free performance and continuous improvement in safety, reliability and efficiency.

Ed joined Duke Energy, (through legacy companies Carolina Power & Light and Progress Energy) in 1983. Over a 36-year career, he has held various operations, engineering, and strategy roles in electrical generation and distribution, including plant manager, engineering director, and fleet operations general manager.     

Ed holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Master of Business Administration from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.     

He has been married to his high school sweetheart for 36 years, has three grown children, and is the grandfather of twin boys. He and his wife Susan reside in Davidson, NC, where he enjoys golf, tennis, running, gardening, and reading.

Biography

Experienced Strategy & Corporate Development Executive with a track record of delivery across strategy development, business performance improvement, BD and M&A, with a passion for the application of digital technology to enable business performance and for driving renewable technology projects to support the Energy Transition 

Biography

Electrical engineer, post graduated in Automation system (both graduated in Rio de Janeiro), working on Oil and Gas market for last 13 years, which part as engineering EPCI projects around the world and part as FPSO Operation support and Manager. Nowadays working as onshore Operation Manager of a FPSO located in Brazil Pre-salt, driving the operation based on people management and leadership perspective. I truly believe that people make the difference for the success of operations and motivation is the key for the professional grow in the team. I already lived in Romania and UK for work and today living in Rio de Janeiro. Married and father of 2 small kinds, I get in my family the support necessary to continuous to try to improve my skills and try to do my best.

Biography

Ida Dunayev is a Senior Director of Information Technology at Johnson and Johnson. Ida leads anArchitecture team for Corporate Technologies group, shaping technology strategies and designingsolutions for Finance, Human Resources, Procurement, Global Services, and other corporate businessfunctions.

Ida has been practicing the architecture discipline for over 20 years. She enjoys this fieldbecause, just like architecture for physical structures, the IT architecture requires a balance of art andscience to create solutions that are practical, elegant, and can withstand changing environmentalconditions.

Prior to joining JNJ, Ida worked for other Pharmaceutical companies, such as Roche, Pfizer/Zoetis andAllergan. She helped to select, design, and connect software solutions supporting the compounds’journey from the research labs through clinical development and manufacturing to the market.Ida has background in software development, system architecture, data management, and integration.

Ida has a MS in Electrical Engineering from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in St. Petersburg andholds Architecture Certifications from The Open Group and The British Computer Society.

Biography

Rameshwar is the Head of Digital Automation @ Avaya. He is an International speaker and blogger on Digital Transformation, Enterprise Architecture & Automation.

He has partnered with the likes of CTO.Academy to Launch the next Generation Enterprise podcast to groom future leaders. He runs the 3^rd largest Automation meetup group in the U.S.A known as DFWRPA which runs on the 2^nd  Wednesday of every month and covers a wide range of topics dealing from Quantum to Cybersecurity .

He is an advisor at various startup’s focused on Blockchain & E-Sports

Biography

Alain is a trained Agile coach/transformation lead with experience in human and patientcentric design of healthcare and has been working more than 12 years at Roche in differentroles.

He has extensive Innovation Management experience (setting up innovation lab, innovationprograms, open innovation, crowdsourcing, knowledge management, innovation culture)In addition he is leading an innovation network at Roche to support the business to innovateand manage innovation programs to support digital transformation at Roche.

Alain has set up an Innovation and agility program to build new capabilities in theorganization so support the organizational transformation. This program focuses on Agileways of working, incl. rapid prototyping, co-creation with customers. This program supportsour company’s transformation to move the organization to a more self-organizedorganization.

Biography

Bill Wong is currently the AI and Data Analytics Practice Leader for Dell Technologies responsible for supporting Canadian commercial businesses and public institutions. He spends his time developing AI strategies for firms, providing guidance on how to accelerate AI development, worked with universities in advancing AI research, and publishes a quarterly AI newsletter focused on AI adoption in Canada.

Previously, Bill has held roles an enterprise architect in consulting and AI and analytics roles in development, and product management during his tenure at Dell, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM. He also published numerous books and whitepapers on advanced analytics and data management and often speaks at conferences.

Biography

Biography

Rias Attar is an accomplished operational excellence and project management professional. He is recognized for his ability to help strategize business architecture, identify areas to improve processes and outcomes, turn around businesses from deficient to profitability, champion continuous improvement efforts, deliver challenging cross-functional programs while working collaboratively with diverse types of stakeholders, lead and coach winning teams, and inspire staff to deliver ambitious results.

Mr. Attar has planned and executed transformational projects (Business and Technology) that contributed over $500M of combined EBITDA impact and is managing a portfolio of initiatives that adds between $200 and $300M of EBITDA annually. He established PMOs, led Lean and Six Sigma efforts, championed Change Management, ensured proper Governance while reducing Bureaucracy, and has set proper business directions while staying focused on motivating staff, inspiring trust and confidence, developing people’s skills, and generating enthusiasm.

Mr. Attar worked for different companies at a variety of industries such as: Michelin (Tires), Friede Goldman Halter (Oil & Gas) , DHL Express (Courier), and General Electric/Genworth (Mortgage Insurance), and Maple Leaf Foods (Food Processing and Supply Chain). Prior to working at Caesars (Entertainment/Hospitality), he spent a few years in the consulting business working with companies such as Danone Dairy (Food Processing), Steel Tech (Steel Manufacturing/Rolling Mill), Sport Master (Clothing/Retail), and dipndip (Chocolate F&B). 

Mr. Attar started his professional career in Finance as an FP&A analyst then moved to project management and operational excellence about 18 years ago. During that time, he worked/lived in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, The Middle East, Toronto-Canada, and now in Las Vegas. 

Mr. Attar has a bachelor degree in Finance, got his MBA from University of Texas, and have a few certifications in project management such as (PMP) Project Management Professional, (ACP) Agile Certified Practitioner, and (CSM) Certified Scrum Master. He is also a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB).

Outside of work, Rias is a devoted family man with a wife and 3 kids. His best time is when he spends it with his kids playing board games, riding bikes, swimming, or just watching movies. Rias loves sport, tries to work out often, practiced Jiu Jitsu and Kick Boxing for years, and enjoys lap swimming every once and a while. He also loves music and plays the classical guitar.

Biography

16 years in BASF.

Was as Global Technology Manager in BASF Ludwigshafen, Germany. Responsible for ~10 chemical plants technology, located in China, Germany, USA, Korea.

As 1^st inventor for ~20 international patents, in the field of chemical process and digitalization, which are used in BASF chemical plants globally.

Was as Cluster plant manager in Shanghai site.

Currently work as Head of BASF Greater China Smart Manufacturing team, support ~30 sites in Greater China region digital transformation, from consulting, digital solution developing, implementation, service, maintenance, etc.

Also as Head of Smart Verbund Project for BASF Guangdong Verbund Project

Biography

Aditi Sinha is the Global Head for Consumer Source Data Acquisition at NielsenIQ (formerly The Nielsen Company LLC) and is based in New York, USA. In her space, she is responsible for creating and executing the operational strategy, digital transformation of data collection and consumption, as well as directing the delivery of the day to day operations across the global markets where NielsenIQ operates.

Aditi has over 25 years of experience in leading country, regional and global teams in massive transformations, operations, customer service & sales across 2 diverse industries - data analytics & logistics. Her forte is leading agile digital transformation in complex market environments. She has a demonstrated track record of success in managing large scale global operations, culturally and ethnically diverse teams, stakeholders and clients.

She is a mentor for start-up incubators for leading technology institutions in India and a sponsor of education for orphaned & abandoned girls through social institutions.

Biography

My mission is to improve cities by striving with things perceived as impossible, applying innovation to solve complex problems, building high performing teams, and using a liberal dosage of data and tech driven strategies to improve services for consumers and businesses. 

Biography

I help clients become ‘Future Fit’; enabling their workplaces to become more productive, profitable, collaborative and attracting the best talent to their teams through implementing the right real estate technology strategy for their business. With over 30 years industry experience, including 15 years as CIO, I’m passionate about helping businesses succeed.

IT, Real Estate and Human Resources must collaborate to create 'Future Fit' workplaces to attract and retain top talent. It's a cultural and competitive imperative. CEOs, COOs and CFOs who do not insure that they have 'Future Fit' workplaces will face an insurmountable competitive disadvantage and miss growth opportunities.

Biography

Michael Muilenburg is the Director of Operational Technology at 3M in the Engineering, Materials, and Process Technology Organization.

• During his 35+ year career at 3M, he has worked in manufacturing
  operations, process development, product development, Lean Six Sigma
  and supply chain. 
• He holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University
  of Nebraska-Lincoln and masters degrees in Manufacturing Engineering
  from Northwestern University, and Polymer Engineering from Stevens Institute
  of Technology. He has also completed a masters certificate from the Shingo
  Institute at the Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.
• Outside of his operational excellence career, He is an avid musician who
  plays guitar, bass, mandolin, bouzouki and other instruments. He is the
  sole proprietor of Sheridan Avenue Music, a recording studio and music
  lesson business.

• Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmuilenburg/
  email: AlchemyMN@gmail.com phone:612.209.1468

Biography

Donald Kuk is an innovative, multiple industry award winning Global Transformation, Cognitive Automation and Operational Excellence Senior Executive with 20 plus years of delivering record setting top line growth, customer and employee satisfaction, and margin improvement leading rapid Enterprise Transformation and Intelligent Automation for the world’s most highly regarded manufacturing, retail and centralbanking, insurance, technology, health care and health sciences industry leaders.

Widely published successes include advanced metrics, analysis, strategy, mission, vision, opportunity identification, milestones, budget and roadmap development, multi-tiered communication, transformation and improvement program management, training, change and performance management, and results verification.

Named the “Enterprise Whisperer” by Fortune Magazine, Donald is a frequent invited Conference Chairperson, Keynote Speaker, Session Chairman and Tutorial Presenter at CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO, Operational Excellence and Enterprise Strategy events worldwide.

Biography

Eric Fisher is a Senior Solutions Architect at Micro Focus. With over 10 years of industry experience at Micro Focus, (and HPE, HP, and Opsware by heritage), he works with some of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the US to evangelize automation, promote Micro Focus' cloud and automation solutions, and help to translate technology into business value.

Based in Phoenix, AZ, he has a passion for technology and over 20 years’ experience working with data center engineers and IT experts, both as a consultant and a customer. 

Biography

A former Research Director at leading IT industry analysis firm Gartner, Mark has an extensive background in enterprise architecture, business process management and change management, having held executive positions with a number of technology companies.

Mark has authored or co-authored four books on business and process management, including “Thrive! How to Succeed in the Age of the Customer” and “In Search of BPM Excellence” and  “People Centric Process Management.  Widely respected for his knowledge and views on business change, he is the creator of “Next Practice” and has variously been described as a ”BPM Guru”, a “Thought Leader” and a “Master of Mindset”. 

Mark is passionate about the people aspects of change, he has spent much of the last ten years travelling the world, learning, teaching and researching the cultural aspects of change and how executives perceive business and process improvement In this capacity he has literally taught hundreds of people and been fortunate to interview and interact with many CEO’s .

Biography

Dr. Kirchmer is an experienced practitioner and thought leader in the field of Digital Transformation and Business Process Management (BPM). He co-founded BPM-D, a consulting company focusing on digital process transformation, operational excellence and customer experience by leveraging the discipline of BPM. Before he was Managing Director and Global Lead of BPM at Accenture, and CEO of the Americas and Japan of IDS Scheer, known for its ARIS Process Software. 

Dr. Kirchmer has led numerous transformation and process improvement initiatives and has worked with hundreds of clients in technology, financial, health, consumer goods and manufacturing industries. He has published 11 books and over 150 articles. He is affiliated faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and  received a research and teaching fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. 

Biography

Anthony (Tony) Huffman has over 15 years of operations leadership experience in the electronic solutions, life sciences, and aerospace industries. He has expertise in a range of digital transformation technologies and is a recognized expert in strategy deployment, quality systems, risk management, and EBITDA driven operational excellence. Tony has worked closely with operations leaders across 20 countries, establishing capabilities founded on Koch Industries, Market Based Management®, Danaher Business System, and Toyota Production System. Tony has led hundreds of operational excellence and strategy development events all over the world, including leading c-suite level members. Tony is driven to build and grow organizations, markets, and margins.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Iowa State University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Northern Illinois University. He is certified in Operational Excellence, Six Sigma, and Leadership. Tony sits on the Board Advisory Team for the University of Illinois at Chicago; Supply Chain and Logistics Center, and Enterprise Digitalization; Digital Transformation for Manufacturing.

Biography

Rudy was probably one of the first to recognize the potential of Process Mining. After 10 years in business consulting at IBM and other companies, he founded ProcessGold in Frankfurt, Germany in January 2010. It was the first consulting company specialized in Process Mining.

In 2016 ProcessGold published its own solution, which is used by EY worldwide as a standard for process audits. At the end of 2019 ProcessGold was acquired by UiPath where Rudy supports, as Vice President for Process Mining, the over 8000 customers of UiPath in the integration of Process Mining and Robotics Process Automation (RPA).

Biography

Dominik has more than 10 years of experience around modern IT architectures. He helped many large clients to adopt LeanIX, and combines product & technical expertise with a deep understanding of modern EAM. Currently, he drives Customer Success Engineering and topics around Cloud-Native at LeanIX. He holds a master's degree in Computer Science as well as an MBA, and is a father of three very agile kids.

Biography

Julian is responsible for shaping Software AG’s Process Mining solution – ARIS – the industry leading platform that integrates process mining with business process management. His close collaboration with key customers, global market analysts and innovative spirit enable him to define and implement strategies to achieve operational excellence and ensure customer success.

Before joining Software AG, Julian was a researcher and project manager for the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence where he delivered innovative projects that combined AI and BPM. Julian is a recognized global speaker and author of several articles in high-ranking scientific journals.

Biography

Greg Pepper has been an IT professional for 20+ years with expertise in Security, Networking & Cloud Computing. Initially working for Sony Online Entertainment, Price Waterhouse Coopers & Organic. Greg has spent the last 15 years working for Cisco & Check Point helping customers to design, plan and implement secure networks throughout the Internet Edge, Campus Backbone, Data Center and Cloud Environments.

Biography

Oliver Maeckel is Partner / Vice President at Siemens Advanta Consulting. He has been with Siemens AG since 1997. The focus of his current work is, in particular, the digitization of project business processes and the optimization of the development and delivery of "first-of-its-kind" large-scale projects. Over the last years, he and his team were able to decrease risks and to speed up project business processes in the pre-sale, sales and execution phase using digital technology.

Biography

J-M Erlendson is a Business Process Architect, Methodology Specialist, Conference Speaker, and Transformation Engineering Lead with over 15 years of experience in Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Architecture, Supply Chain Management and Project Management, helping clients develop and implement business process frameworks, hone process-centric strategies, and execute process improvement and architecture modernization projects.

He is a leader in business, founding and running multiple highly-successful independent arts companies and charities. He is a process and EA tools expert and high-level trainer with years of experience in documentation, simulation, analysis, improvement and as a vehicle for change management. He combines this technical skill with strong leadership and relationship management skills, having run multiple BPM and EA-focused projects with cross-functional supporting teams.

He also has a strong track record in business development, creating new relationships both internally and externally to drive BPM adoption and sales opportunities. He has consulted for a variety of clients in Canada and the United States, particularly in public sector, retail, utilities, manufacturing, lottery and gaming, telecom and oil and gas.

Biography

As a Sr. Cloud Ops Advocate, Pierre Roman engages with the operations and infrastructure communities on behalf of Microsoft. He is part of a team that drives growth and adoptions of the Azure platform by providing upskilling guidance and bringing community feedback to the product groups.

With over 25 years of experience in the industry, he brings a well-rounded view of all facets of the Ops/infra lifecycle. His skills enable him to relate to his audiences and cultivate relationships at all levels (from the nuts and bolts guy/gal to management.)

He’s a husband, a dad, a hockey fan, a gadget freak and a geek.

Pierre is always ready for a conversation (in English or français - naturellement).

Biography

Dr. Abramov has an internal drive to improve things around him. Throughout his career, he has developed and implemented processes to improve organizations and operations and their effectiveness by leading significant changes.

Dr. Abramov joined Adama in 2012 as Executive VP for Global Operations. ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd. is one of the world's leading crop protection companies, with a revenue of ~4 B$.

A large part of Eli’s role at Adama has been to deliver on the company purpose of "Creating Simplicity in Agriculture” through operations. 

During the 6 years, under Eli’s leadership as an Executive VP for Global Operations, Adama has become the best in class within its Industry on all aspects of Supply Chain and Inventory management. In addition, the Operations team have managed to drastically reduce the cost of goods which reflects in huge improvement on all aspects of the business performances.

Before Joining Adama, from 2009 to 2012, Dr. Abramov has served as CEO of Baran Group, the largest and leading Engineering and project management Group in Israel. The Group serves many different industries (Chemical and Petrochemical, Energy, Water, Infrastructures, Telecom and more). 

Dr. Abramov holds a Ph.D. (Summa cum Laude) in Materials Science and Engineering, 

Ben- Gurion University of the Negev.

Eli is also a member of the Executive Board of the Israeli Manufacturing Association and serves as the Head of the biggest Union within the association responsible for the Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Industries

On a more personal note, Eli is a strong proponent of giving back to the community, and serves as Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Sami Shamoon College for Engineering.

Biography

Jabe Bloom has led teams and companies and developed software and products for almost 20 years. He has served as a Chief Architect, Principal Technical Director and Chief Technical Officer. In each of these roles his focus has been on connecting creative, ideation processes with software engineering and operational excellence.

Jabe’s deep practical experience, constant experimentation, and extensive theoretical investigations and readings inform his public speaking and provide a foundation for his active mentorship to colleagues, clients and entrepreneurs. As a consultant, public speaker and writer, he works with a diverse clientele. He advises and trains clients on innovation and flow thinking through a series of lectures, workshops, classes and consulting.

Jabe has been a guest lecturer on Abductive Thinking and Creativity at NYU’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. He is an internationally recognized keynote speaker, addressing topics such as Lean Systems, LeanUX, Complexity Theory, Psychology and Sociology, Management as Design and Design Thinking.

He is currently the Chief Flow Officer at PraxisFlow, a consultancy that helps organizations take a systems level view of their work. Mr. Bloom holds a bachelor’s degree in Photography & Philosophy from Bard College (NY) and is currently pursuing a PhD in Design Studies at Carnegie Mellon University.

Jabe can be found with wife and his children in Pittsburgh, when he is not, in a classroom, on a plane or reading in a hotel room.

I try to collect and tell interesting stories about the future…. Sometimes, when people find the stories compelling enough, they use them to make useful things. 

Biography

Biography

Magnus Penker is an internationally-renowned thought leader on innovation, sustainability, and business transformation. He is a speaker in prestigious global forums and events, such as – The Global Peter Drucker Forum, top-ranked international business and design schools, a variety of associations, and some of the world’s largest companies. Mr. Penker is currently writing Play Bold and a 5 Volume Series on Business Innovation titled The Complete Guide to Business Innovation and is contributing as an editor at the International Journal of Innovation Science.

As a result of these achievements he has been honored with the Business Worldwide Magazine award as the ‘Most Innovative CEO Sweden 2016’ and appointed as a Global Top 100 CEO by CEO Monthly year 2018. Additionally, he has launched 10 start-ups as well as acquired, turned around, and sold +30 SMEs all over Europe.

Through his best-selling American books on digitization and IT engineering and his more than 20 years of experience as a management consultant and business leader, Mr. Penker inspires leaders to find a new way of thinking and organizing to stay on top.Mr. Penker is driven by the recognition that in these turbulent times, we must understand what we are really good at and determine how we can use those capabilities and competencies to create advantages in a globalized market with endless possibilities. The global map is being redrawn at speeds we have not seen before, and historically low interest rates are attracting capital to global digital-risk projects that will further strengthen this movement.Mr. Penker has a B.Sc. in Computer Science (CTH, Sweden) and an MBA from the Henley Business School, England.

For the past 10 years, he has used his practical and theoretical insights to develop InnoSurvey®, a leading methodology and global innovation database which is used to analyze and to provide advice to companies, business leaders, and scientists around the world. Today, Mr. Penker is the CEO and Founder of the Innovation360 Group, which is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and in New York, USA.

Biography

Phil Simpson is a Sr. Principal Product Marketing Manager at Red Hat, responsible for go-to-market strategy and positioning for Red Hat’s  business rules and business process management products.

Phil has extensive experience with business rules and BPM, having held senior product management roles at an early business-rules pioneer and senior marketing roles at several leading enterprise technology companies. 

Prior to joining Red Hat, Phil was a product manager for the data analytics firm Renesys and was a director at SeaChange International, Ironhead Analytics, and Rulespower. 

Biography

Zahra Mahedi is passionate, collaborative and empathetic Martech Leader within the digital space for 15 years. She currently leads marketing and operational digital transformation for the global conglomerate Honeywell, PMT division.

She has a track record and the unique ability to create a vision and bring it to fruition, while also generating tangible results. Her role at Honeywell sits between marketing, sales and IT, which allows for continuous opportunity to connect the dots across functions to scale operational and digital excellence. She leads a global cross-functional teams of 30+ people and is a true believer of putting people first (employees and customers alike).

She has worked for companies and clients such as; Dove, Kraft, FedEx, RBC Royal Bank, ATB financial.

Biography

Hylton Southey is Managing Director of the U.S. at LeanIX. Southey leads a growing in-market team, supporting LeanIX’s rapid expansion in the region and fueling long-term strategic growth for the company.

Southey has nearly 20 years of experience leading high-growth technology sales organizations and operations teams. Prior to LeanIX, he spent 10 years at Mimecast, where he served as Vice President of Business Development and VP of North American Sales.

Biography

David holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford. He is a contributor to the OpenFlow spec and the author of Beacon, the OpenFlow controller at the core of commercial products from Big Switch Networks, Cisco, and others, and open source controllers such as Floodlight and OpenDaylight. His thesis used SDN to improve virtualized data center performance.

Biography

Jan Minnis is a graduate of Georgetown University, and has extensive experience as an executive in the private sector, education, and non-profit organizations. She is the former Chief Information Officer of the National Education Association (NEA).  Jan has deployed full life cycle change management and project management methodologies for a large customer list of non-profits such as National Education Association, Fannie Mae Foundation, Sukyo Mahikari, and Federal clients such as the CDC, NIH, and Dept. of Health & Human Services. She has spent many years as a technology leader delivering innovative solutions and providing operational efficiencies and process management. 

She is ITIL and Change Management/Prosci certified. She has deep experiences in fast-paced environments, managing multiple priorities and deploying enterprise level changes for strategic and critical multi-million-dollar programs.  Jan is originally from Washington, DC.  She currently lives in Lake Spivey, GA with her husband and four children. Following her work as an executive, she had provided consulting services around the greater Atlanta area as an organizational change consultant. She helps many Atlanta based companies with technology and enterprise-wide changes. Her commercial list includes SunTrust, Newell Brands, McKesson, Time Warner, Quintiles, and Freddie Mac.  She continues to work in the education sector as a board member of the SAT/ACT Leadership Enrichment Academy. Currently she is a Global Change Manager at WarnerMedia.

Biography

Jakob is Co-Founder and CEO of Camunda – responsible for the company’s vision and strategy. He’s also the driving force behind Camunda’s global growth and takes responsibility for the company culture. As well as holding an MSc in Computer Science, he co-authored the book “Real-Life BPMN” and is a sought-after speaker at technology and industry events.

Biography

Dr. Keith A. Clinkscale is a recognized Lean Six Sigma Black Belt & Operational Excellence Executive known for establishing best-in-class strategic performance management programs. Keith Clinkscale demonstrates a combination of broad industry experiences, performance management acumen and a history of results-oriented management consulting to drive significant improvement and cost savings. As a seasoned Industry Executive and Management Consultant, Keith built a reputation of excellence in all areas of operations.

His skillset includes over 30 years of Executive Coaching, Training and Content Design, Process Improvement, Benchmarking, Total Quality Management, Balanced Scorecards, Business Process Re-engineering, Strategic Planning, and High Performance Teams. Keith’s experience and sensitivity to customer concerns has always enabled him to provide a high level of service, whether in industry or as a consultant. Keith has headed the Performance Management Office at Palm Tran. Keith’s team provided executive coaching, goal and target setting through benchmarking, established and reported balanced scorecards, developed department scorecards and held department directors accountable for addressing deficiencies. Dr. Clinkscale has been the champion of Performance Reporting, Management and Improvement at Palm Tran.

Keith has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University and a PH.D in Strategic Leadership from Concordia College & University. He is now the Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Management for Palm Beach County and supervises all activities related to the long-term strategic plan of Palm Beach County as well as the strategic planning of over 30 county departments. Keith is responsible for assisting the Board of County Commissioners (BCC), Executive Team, Department Directors, and staff with the development of long-term goals, objectives, strategies, and actions.

Biography

Nicole Scheffler is a Tech Diva dedicated to sparking success by leading engineering teams and serving women in technology with the Tech Diva Success collection. She has a track record leading engineering teams at a Fortune 100 company where she witnesses the fast past of digital acceleration post covid as well as the need for diversity.

Nicole also speaks often on proven success principles to help define your aspirations, goals, and building diverse cultures. Applying more than 16 years’ experience in a fast-paced technology career, the wisdom featured in her best-selling “Pillars of Success” book with Jack Canfield, and hundreds of hours interviewing women in tech on her podcasts, Nicole provides a clear success framework for building diverse cultures and empowering women. Her courses, content, and speaking, help tech divas fires burn brighter while her leadership drives customer success for Enterprise customers.

Biography

For two decades, Hao has led digital transformation initiatives for IBM, Unilever, GE, Ford, GM & collaborated with IDEO & the Aspen Institute to drive social innovations.

Also, he’s successfully started two non-profits that partner with the education systems in the United States and China to nurture the next generation of innovators. Lastly, to strengthen his physical, mental & spiritual self, Hao recently completed a US Navy Seals training program.

Biography

Torsten is Senior Consultant at Siemens Advanta, a new organization within the Siemens AG, delivering integrated solutions from consulting to design to implementation and supporting unique digital journeys end-to-end. He is passionate about risk and project management and drives the optimization and digitization of project business processes.

In recent years, Torsten was in lead of exemplary projects in various industries:

•Design and implementation of project and enterprise risk management processes and tool landscapes

•Comprehensive risk analysis for large and complex projects

•Development of project business tools and methodologies

•Conception of company-wide knowledge management for project business

•Development of business models for different solutions

Biography

Rajesh currently heads the RPA & Conversational AI (Chatbot) CoEs at Nokia. He is responsible for globally implementing these technologies to deliver extreme automation benefits. Prior to this role, Rajesh was heading Platforms/Automation for HCL’s Business Services Division, where he delivered Automation solutions to multiple large global companies.

Rajesh brings strategic and operational expertise in Technology & Process led Transformation, Automation, Outsourcing and Emerging Technologies, and has held global leadership positions in these areas with people & PnL responsibilities, including board positions.

He holds a Business Management diploma (PGDBM) from XLRI and a Bachelor of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur, India. He is a trained Six-Sigma Black Belt and a certified Information Security Lead Auditor for ISO 27001.

Biography

Michael has over 30 years’ experience in IT infrastructure marketing in high-tech organizations. He has launched ten application, system, and network monitoring products.

Michael has held positions as asolution architect, technical marketing manager, and product manager, before his current role asproduct marketing manager. He has a BS in in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. You can find him on Twitter @Michael_IT2.

Biography

Dr. Balázs Kégl is Chief Data Scientist and the Head of AI research leading a team of researchers and engineers working on cutting edge AI research motivated by telecommunication applications. His team is part of at Huawei's Noah's Ark Lab, a world class research with facilities located in China, Canada, UK, and France.

Dr. Kégl's research focuses on learning autopilots for engineering systems to make them more reliable, safer, and more energy efficient. Balázs joined Huawei's Algorithm and Software Design Department in France on sabbatical from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), where he was a senior research scientist from 2006 to 2019 and head of the Center for Data Science of the Université Paris-Saclay between 2014 and 2019.

Dr. Kégl is co-creator of a code-submission platform (RAMP) to accelerate building predictive workflows and to promote collaboration between AI consumers and data scientists. Balázs graduated from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary with an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering.  He obtained a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada and was assistant professor at the Université de Montréal from 2001 until 2006.

Biography

Ash Pahwa, Ph.D., is an educator, author, entrepreneur, and technology visionary with three decades of industry and academic experience. He has founded several successful technology companies during his career, the latest of which is A+ Web Services.

Dr. Pahwa earned his doctorate in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He is listed in Who's Who in the Frontiers of Science and Technology. He is also a Google Certified Analytics Consultant. His expertise includes search engine optimization, web analytics, web programming, digital image processing, database management, digital video, and data storage technologies.

In Industry, Dr. Pahwa has worked for General Electric, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Xerox Corporation, and Oracle. He founded CD-Gen, Inc. and DV Studio Technologies, LLC., which introduced successful products for CD-Recording (CDR) and MPEG encoding. His book, CD-Recordable Bible was published in English, Japanese, and German.

In Academia, Dr. Pahwa teaches courses at California Institute of Technology (Caltech Pasadena) and the University of California system. Since 2008, he taught many courses at UC Irvine, UCLA, and UC San Diego.

Biography

Shelli Brunswick, COO of Space Foundation, brings a broad perspective and deep vision of the global space ecosystem — from a distinguished career as a space acquisition and program management leader and Congressional Liaison for the US Air Force — to her current role, including overseeing Center for Innovation and Education, Symposium 365 and Global Alliance. Advocating for space technology innovation, entrepreneurship, diversity and inclusion, Shelli collaborates with organizations around the world to connect government, commercial and educational sectors.

Shelli actively participates with Women in Aerospace Foundation, Women’s Global Gathering, United Nations Space4Women, WomenTech Network, World Business Angels Investment Forum, Tod'Aérs and Manufacturer’s Edge. Connect with Shelli on LinkedIn and Twitter and Space Foundation on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Biography

Krishna Prasad Seshagiri Rao is a senior director of platform engineering of Bengaluru-based Target in India, an extension of the U.S. retailer Target’s headquarters operations.

In this role, Krishna leads platform engineering, one of the pillars of the data sciences team. The team is responsible for managing Hadoop infrastructure, Teradata systems, the MicroStrategy reporting platform and in-house built platform products to support enterprise reporting, datac ollection, data search and A/B testing.

Under his leadership the platform engineering team completed the journey to modernize DataStore platforms that enabled the shift from traditional data warehouse platforms to open source data store platforms. The team also played a crucial role in conceiving and implementing productideas to eliminate dependency on expensive third party reporting, data collection and A/B testing tools.

Krishna joined Target 12 years ago and has worked in many leadership roles with expertise in the merchandise space planning and supply chain domains. He excels in managing complex and large enterprise Business Intelligence platforms and building high performing teams with a strong agile culture, focused on product and design thinking in a matrixed global organization.

Krishna received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from P.S.G. College of Technology, Tamil Nadu. He is also a certified software quality analyst and a sun certified Java developer. Krishna is married and lives in Bangalore with his wife and two children. When not at work, he enjoys long distance running and has completed seven full marathons including two world majors(Chicago 2016, New York 2017).

Biography

Dr. Ulrich Kalex is responsible for the product strategy, roadmap and development execution for Software AG’s Alfabet product line. Under his aegis, Software AG has contributed significantly to defining and shaping the EA, Strategic IT Planning and Portfolio Management markets.

Biography

For over 20 years, Dan Hebda has been at the forefront of technology innovation that helps businesses meet their strategic goals. In his current position as Chief Strategy Officer for MEGA International, he drives the company’s strategy, focusing on formulating product direction that meets evolving market needs for business transformation software solutions.

Dan has led many complex programs in business transformation, from the perspective of enterprise architecture and change management. Through his expertise, he helps organizations begin projects faster and deliver ROI sooner. His background in business architecture, process analysis, technical architecture, application integration, and product customization has helped him guide companies in their strategic initiatives and use enterprise architecture to produce valuable business outcomes.

Biography

Biography

Extensive professional and leadership experience in Aerospace Engineering, Project Management and Business Transformation/Improvement. Professional in delivery of complex Aerospace projects.

Very good record of delivering projects. Excellent networking capability. Experienced in Continuous improvement, Lean thinking, Quality management, Six Sigma and Industry 4.0 / Digitization. 

Biography

Biography

Anisa Aull is a Global Product Marketing Manager at Celonis, where she works to align the evolution of the core Celonis solution with customer needs and challenges. Her focus areas include Celonis's soltuion for system migration along with Celonis's Automation, AI Engine, Action Engine capabilities.

Biography

Tim Wigham grew up in Southern Africa. He served in the British Commandos for eight years between 1992 and 2000 and departed as a Royal Marines Captain after serving on operations in Northern Ireland, West Africa, and the Caucasus.

In 2001, Tim completed his full-time MBA in Cape Town. His electives focused on strategy, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

Tim then started a business in South Africa which specialised in SME executive leadership breakaways across a range of industries, to help leaders build strong team cohesion, clear strategy, mission, vision, and authentic company values.

In the sports industry, Tim worked on mental toughness with several of the Springbok rugby players who went on to be World Cup winners in 2007.

Tim is currently the head of performance at Exceed in Aberdeen, Scotland. He has worked as a performance improvement expert in the energy sector since 2007. Exceed has provided performance solutions to over 30 offshore teams, including drilling and decommissioning projects for several Operators in the North Sea. These teams have all achieved exceptional results through their commitment to a proven process which includes a rig-based performance coach.

Tim is married and has three young children. He has lived in Scotland since 2012. His main interests include faith, family, fitness, reading, writing, and learning. He also enjoys blogging about inspiration.

Biography

After his diploma in business engineering in 2003, Martin Kunze started at KPMG in the Post-Merger Integration Division for big clients all over Europe and the USA to consult in IFRS, US GAAP, and HGB.

In 2008, he joined Süd Chemie AG as global manager for corporate business services to prepare their SAP Finance and BI Systems (HGB/IFRS) for the envisioned MBO from One Equity Partners.
By 2010, Martin moved to The Linde Group (DAX30) as a global process owner for AP/AR and cash management. In his 10 years within Linde, he implemented a global card and alternative payment solution, helped to roll out the group-wide used banking interface, and supported several vendor payment and customer cash allocation platform installations.

In 2017 Martin was appointed to Head of Process Excellence, taking care of process excellence in all operational finance areas (RTR, AR, AP, CO, AA) and led the establishment of Linde Group’s robotics process automation initiative with his IFRS, US-GAAP, and HGB know-how.
His current responsibility is the setup of a “Process Mining Factory” for the Linde PLC, to support the decision-making and synergy gain process in the post-merger situation.

Biography

“What do you get if you cross a Quality Guru with a Computer Honcho? You probably get someone who sounds and acts like Norman Rankis” Quoted from Microsoft TechNet.

Basing his career on the above quotation, Norman has gained the reputation of being highly motivated and qualified Information Technology Director/CIO with an expansive experience in bringing technology solutions with cost savings to upper management.

Over the years, Norman has been exceptional in preparing and analyzing complex technical matters involving existing and emerging issues pertaining to the subject area. Norman serves as a subject matter expert.

Biography

Rob serves as the Vice President- Global Operational Excellence for Global Container Terminals reporting directly to the CEO. Prior to his leadership position with Global Container Terminals, Rob held leadership roles across multiple industries withinFortune 500 companies such as: Sony, PepsiCo, Allegheny Technologies Inc., GE, and Johnson Controls International.

Over two decades of experience driving Operational Excellence and Business Transformation has resulted in over one billion dollars of organizational cost savings and generated revenue. He is a subject matter expert (SME) in Lean, Critical Problem Solving, SixSigma, Strategy Deployment, Reliability Centered Maintenance, Change Acceleration, Enterprise Operation / Business Systemsand Business Operating Models.

A current C-suite operational excellence executive, Rob’s primary industry background centers on manufacturing (technology)and service based environments. He has held positions including Industrial Engineer, Production Manager, Lean-Six SigmaMaster Black Belt, Executive Director- Strategy Deployment & Product Technology Leadership, and Interim Vice President-Global Business Operations. He was instrumental with the design, development, and implementation of new advanced manufacturing production lines and plant start-ups in both domestic and international locations.

Additionally, Rob served in the United States Air Force where he was assigned globally in high-pressure assignments. Experience Rob’s broad industry experience includes assignments in the Aerospace, Electronics, Bottling, Metals, Transportation, Energy, Automotive, Logistics, and Banking industries. He has delivered organizational value through an intense focus on Strategy Execution, Critical Problem Solving, Risk Reduction and Sustainment, and Change Acceleration within challenging environments.

One of the Six Sigma initiatives for which Rob was responsible was requisition to platform process which facilitates company new product launches. This initiative was a critical component of the company’s process-improvement program and represented 1 of 40 big processes throughout a Fortune 5 company. Results included: 80% system reuse, 6 month reduction incycle, and a 35% reduction in sole-source suppliers and overtime.

Rob focuses on accelerating organizational speed and efficiency via partnership and key problem solving capabilities to resolvecritical business challenges. He functions as a subject matter expert (SME) and strategic business partner to organizational executive leadership teams across the business value chain focused on execution of renewed business strategy.

Rob is an energetic motivational speaker and is an accomplished communicator. Rob has made significant intellectual contributions in the areas of Performance Improvement, Operational Excellence, Strategy Execution, Reliability Centered Maintenance, Supply Chain Optimization, Engineering & Product Development, Enterprise Operating / Business Systems and Business Operating Models.

His ability to stay ahead of the latest trends in Strategy Execution, Business Transformation and Process Innovation has Rob frequently asked to deliver keynote addresses to organizations such as NASA and the United States Air Force.

Rob is a two time published author and the developer of the Machine Order of Analysis©, Cause and Effect Check Sheet©, Strategy to Execution Maturity Model, and the Four Phase Approach to Competitive Advantage.

Rob holds a MBA from the University of Pittsburgh with a concentration in Operations & Strategy and is a graduate of the MIT Sloan Executive Education Program in Strategy & Innovation.

Biography

Biography

Being a technology enthusiast, Ashima has worked in 3 product companies and a non-profit charity organization over the last 17 years of my career. Started with writing the code, Ashima’s curiosity steered her towards front-end Business where she could see first-hand what customers need and what any vendor should offer. Technology trends follow human desires and ambitions and that intrigued her to step into technology and business defining strategy roles. 

Having worked in many diverse roles at SAP from Development and Quality program manager for SAP CRM, SAP IT Portfolio governance, Consulting Operations through to leading SAP Cloud Application Services globally, Ashima is currently working at SAP in Client Delivery Management role for Cloud managed services in Europe. 

Prior to joining SAP, Ashima worked at Oracle and Pivotal Software Ltd. managing ERP projects and operations. Through those stints, she has lived in India, Vancouver, Singapore, London and now has her home in Germany. 

Ashima believes in constant evolution which is fast-paced and purpose driven. Transformation is inevitable and being ahead of it, by knowing the pulse of market and customers is the only way for success for everyone. Ashima’s passion is to bring ideas to living reality, using technology.

Biography

Jon has over 25 years of experience in software engineering, managing and leading both development and testing teams. He has worked for large, billion-dollar companies, as well as consulted with start-ups as they build out their technology stacks from scratch.

Regardless of his title or role, his passion has always been focused on quality. He recently built a new QA team, with heavy focus on automated testing and CI/CD, and is now back leading several large scale engineering projects. When not at work, Jon is spending time with his wife, daughter, dog, and watching sports.

Biography

Biography

Steve Sarafinovski is a natural leader that began his career on the front lines of the transit industry, and has progressed his versatile background through his experiences in operations, technology project management, transit scheduling and resource management.

Currently, as a strategic leader in Resource Planning and Optimization of the Capital Projects Group division at Metrolinx, a crown agency of the Government of Ontario, Steve does what he does best which is exploring and finding opportunities by implementing efficiencies and automated processes within his projects portfolio.

Being a recipient of the Innovation Award at Metrolinx, as well as being awarded the “Top 40 Under 40” honours from the transit industry, achieving success in implementing new and more efficient processes, has been the cornerstone of his career. Steve is also the Founder of KJS Group, a consulting firm that offers expert management consulting and strategic planning advice for small to medium businesses.

Biography

At LeanIX, Christian built up a powerful Customer Success team, starting with 3 people in Bonn and growing it to 45 people in Bonn and Boston today.

He introduced scalable processes for making customers successful in using the LeanIX SaaS solution and ensuring growth contribution by generating constant value of LeanIX to its customers.

With an extensive career in companies such as TellSell Consulting (now KPMG Strategy & Operations), Deutsche Telekom, IBM, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, he is an expert in Digital Transformation, IT Management and Business Development and Leadership.

Biography

Wes is Product Marketing Manager for the Operations Bridge at Micro Focus. He has 6 years of experience with Micro Focus and HPE in product marketing, global enablement, sales and business development all within the IT Operations Management market.

He is a published author, 4-time marathon runner, and cycling enthusiast. Wes is based out of in Dallas, TX.

Biography

Omar Mourad is a Civil Engineer with M.Sc. Degree in Engineering SystemsManagement. He has 27+ years of progressive experience in the Construction Industry in Project Management, Quality and Business Process Management, inaddition to Academic Teaching and Research experience.

His practical construction experience covers Private and Public business sectors in Construction, Consultancy, Real Estate Development, and Government organizations. He was exposed to a vast range of project types; e.g., commercial & residential buildings, Industrial, Parks, Infrastructure, Utilities, etc.

Omar collaborated in an Academic team to conduct a research in the field of the application of Artificial Intelligence in engineering. International Journal and Conference Papers were published. He has participated as a speaker in several international conferences.

Currently, Omar is the Group Manager of the “Systems and Processes” Department in Engineering Contracting Company Group of Companies, ECC Group, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Based on his long experience in Construction, Omar believes that the Construction Industry lags well behind other major industries from a technological point of view and needs serious efforts to improve it. He believes that Business Process Management and Improvement is one of the main drivers to improve the Industry.

Biography

I have a mixed background in software engineering, machine learning, materials science, and physics. I have an active Top Secret Security clearance 

Biography

Bryan Eckle is a partner at Summit2Sea Consulting (S2S). He collaborates with clients and leads our consulting team to identify and solve complex problems with clean and simple solutions. Bryan's expertise lies in implementing people, process and technology solutions to financial management, procurement, budget and overall data analytics challenges.

He is constantly evaluating emerging technologies across data analytics, process automation and AI / machine learning in order to identify the optimal solutions to our client’s business challenges. He received his BS in Business Administration from Mary Washington College and holds a certification in ICAgile.

Biography

 President - CyberXR Coalition
• Global D&I Advisor, Board Member - XR Safety Initiative (XRSI)
• Educator of the Year - ICMCP
• Global Keynote Speaker

XR Safety Initiative (XRSI): Advise XRSI on global diversity and inclusion policy, perspectives, and standards within the Cybersecurity and XR ecosystem. Govern strategic implementation of global initiatives on establishing baseline standards and discovery of novel cyber attacks in emerging technologies. www.xrsi.org

CyberXR Coalition: Lead the global coalition of D&I-focused leading organizations to advance diversity and inclusion within the fields of XR and Cybersecurity. www.cyberxr.org

The STEM Broker, LLC: Influence, advocate, and execute customized immersive tech and STEM initiatives, programs, and events for organizations to implement and/or further enhance their diversity and inclusion objectives. Follow @TheSTEMBroker. Visit www.thestembroker.com for more details.

Contributor:
2020 - “Immersive Technology Standards for Accessibility, Inclusion, Ethics, and Safety”
Download here: www.cyberxr.org/xr-standards

Author:
2016 - “The Top 5 Rules of Engagement for Parents Raising A Girl in STEM” (eBook)
2014 - "The Soul of a Single Parent: How to Snapback and Get Your Swag On"
2012 - "Good Bosses Gone Bad: How to Survive the Workplace When Your Boss Sucks" 

Biography

Mr. Khan is a seasoned senior executive with over 23 years of C-Level experience across multi-sector Fortune 2000 and start-up companies.  His industry expertise lies within Healthcare Administration, Financial Services, and BPO Services where his areas of expertise include strategy, operations & administration, RPA/automation, business transformation, technology innovation, process-led reengineering, product development and building global organizations at scale. He has consistently exceeded results throughout his executive career and has established new service delivery models that remain in operation 15+ years later.                       

Mr. Khan is currently President of IRPA’s Digital Solutions Exchange guiding IRPA’s 100,000+ global members establish strategy, drive business transformation through process-led automation and digital business transformation. He is a Board Advisor to i-Tuple, a firm engaged by Private Equity, Hedge Funds and Family Offices to assess target companies across people, process and technology and validate their investment thesis. He also sits on the Board of Payssurance, a healthcare start-up. Prior to that, he was Founder and CEO of Skills International - a not-for-profit firm focused on global talent migration and immigration to Canada.  Mr. Khan was a member of Immigration Round Table co-sponsored by the Conference Board of Canada and the Federal Government of Canada.  He has been instrumental in helping public companies in Canada to address critical skill gaps. 

Prior to this role, he was Group President, of Xerox’s $1.7B Healthcare Administration and Human Capital Management Solutions. He managed 1300+ healthcare BPO contracts with Fortune 2000 and SMB clients including delivery, automation and service delivery to their employees. He managed a global organization of Sales, Strategy, IT Services, Delivery Operations, Product Management and Customer Service of 11,300+ professionals across 23 countries. He was at the forefront of defining health wellness solutions for customers.

Biography

My goal is to enable organizations to thrive in the digital age. This requires that organizations be successful at creating customer journeys, smart processes, and bots built for change.

Specialties: Event Management, Process Management, AI in Decision Optimization, Business Intelligence in Automation Efforts, and Scenarios in Policy Management.

I also try to entertain people with my art and music. I paint, create fractals and do digital art. 

Biography

IT Senior Leader with a 20-year career spanning Banking and Financial Technology, leading Architecture and Delivery streams. 

Biography

Aura had joined Mondelēz International in 2017, after completing 2 years MBA in Information Management from SPJIMR, Mumbai, India during which she had also attended a month long classroom program at Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. After rotating across Innovation and Supply Chain functions within Mondelēz, she finally joined the Enterprise Architecture team, and has been there for 3-and-a-half years now.

As a Governance and Planning Lead, she monitors Digitalization, Innovation and Technology related projects across all Functions and Geography of the company. During this tenure, she has also been honored as 30-Under-30 Super Star by Celerity Supply Chain Community in 2019, and as FMCG Rockstar by Future Group in 2020. Aura had done B.E.(Hons) Chemical Engineering from BITS Pilani and had worked across Procurement Consulting, Data Analytics and Programming, domains. Besides her corporate profile, Aura is a Writer, Indian Classical Singer and Dancer . She is also a published author, her book being available both in paperback and kindle format on Amazon globally.

Her debut book is entitled  "Dozen Pebbles Washed Ashore by Life". 

Biography

Biography

Subject matter expert in areas of business transformation, GRC, and business intelligence. 10+ years of experience in leading global cross-functional teams, coordinating both strategic and tactical efforts to drive continuous improvement and business transformation across multiple service-oriented industries.

Biography

Sandy Kemsley is an independent analyst and systems architect, specializing in digital process automation (DPA),  business process management (BPM), the social enterprise, enterprise architecture and business intelligence. During her career, she’s run product companies and service firms and worked for large organizations. She is also a globally-featured speaker on the topic of BPM and its impact on business.