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Speakers at the Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity -
HA/Resilient Infrastructure
Conference |
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Mark Bass
Mark has
4 decades of IT experience spanning software development, vendor support,
virtually all commercial infrastructure platforms, systems administration and 20
years of IT consulting. Marks roles have included everything from cabin boy to
king (computer operator through VP of Development to business owner) across a
broad spectrum of industries. Mark is currently the Sr Manager of DR with HCSC,
the largest customer-owned health insurer in the United States and fourth
largest overall, operating through its Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in
Illinois,
New Mexico,
Oklahoma, and
Texas, and
several subsidiaries. At HCSC Mark provided leadership for a disaster
recovery program that, for the first time, fulfilled the true business
continuality requirements for the organization. He transformed a fragmented and
ill conceived strategy into a realistic long term plan, with actionable and
short term tactical deliverables.
Prior to joining HCSC, Mark served as an independent consultant with a national
practice providing strategic guidance to senior IT and business executives in
the areas of data center design, infrastructure and DR best practices. Clients
included HCSC, Electrolux, RR Donnelley, Sears, TDS Telecom and Convergys.
Mark holds the standard alphabet soup of degrees and certifications that allow
him to stay gainfully employed in IT industry.
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Joe Cannella
 Joe Cannella has spent his entire career in Information Systems working
with medium-sized manufacturers across many industries including metals,
food, chemical, pharmaceutical, electronics, and automotive. He is an
experienced IS executive with extensive experience leading people,
managing large projects, and administering multi-million dollar budgets.
For the last five years, Joe has led the IS Team at Tempel Steel
including their worldwide implementation of Oracle E-Business. Tempel
is the worlds largest, independent manufacturer of magnetic steel
laminations with operations in North America and Asia. Their
laminations are used in motors, transformers, pumps, generators, and
alternators. Tempel has a reputation for high quality parts, advanced
engineering, and manufacturing flexibility. Tempel’s systems are
critical to their competitive edge for managing material, process,
tooling, engineering, and customer information. Prior to Tempel, Joe
spent 20 years in a consulting firm that specialized in systems and
operations improvement for mid-sized manufacturers. He started as a
systems designer, became a partner, and eventually led the firms as
president. He has taught Materials Management, Supply Chain Management,
and Information Technology classes at the college level and for many
companies; published articles on Systems Planning and Implementation,
ERP Optimization, and Advanced Systems Technologies for Manufacturers;
and has been a frequent speaker for American Production and Inventory
Control Society (APICS), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME),
Illinois Manufacturer Association (IMA), and as an independent expert
for many software vendors.
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Greg Davidson
Greg has over 26 years
of Information Technology experience that encompasses accomplishments
within IT organizations, commercial software development, and IT
consulting organizations. Greg has served in a variety of industries
and roles within IT management, application development, and systems
operations. Within the world of commercial accounting software, Greg
has served as Vice President of product development for two publicly
held, California-based software companies. At Platinum Software his
development team earned the PC Magazine Editor’s Choice Award in 1993.
At one of the world’s largest software companies, Sage Software, Greg’s
development organization won the prestigious Microsoft Industry
Solutions Award, Best Financial Application, three years in a row
(1997-1999). Within the world of IT consulting, Greg has engaged
successfully with many Fortune 500 firms. His assignments included
delivering numerous project turnaround assignments for CIOs, building
and running global Program Management Offices, and managing several IT
Operations teams. In 2004 Greg earned his ITIL Service Manager
Certification (AKA “ITIL Master”) and has been leveraging these best
practices to improve the efficiency of a number of IT Operations teams.
Since 2007 Greg has served as CIO for Active Aero Group, an airline and
transportation management company that provides air charter (passenger
and cargo) and ground express services. Prior to Active Aero, Greg
served as CIO of Accretive Solutions, a national IT and financial
services consulting firm based in New York.
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David Kluger
David Kluger is StorCOM's principal
technology architect. StorCOM's primary focus is aiding the clientele through a
consultative approach on such topics as; overall data protection, management of
data and disaster recovery strategies. Having worked in the IT industry for over
20 years he has gained an extremely wide range of experience. Additionally,
David has public sector experience in consulting and providing leadership to an
array of projects, managing and deploying data protection, as well as disaster
recovery solutions for such organizations as; US Department of Defense, Lockheed
Martin Corporation and Fireman's Fund Insurance. David also spent many years
working as a senior consultant and systems architect at Microsoft, XIOtech and
NetApp. David attended Arizona State University, where he also acquired his
Masters Degree.
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Eric Ledyard
Eric Ledyard steers Ahead’s technology
vision and is responsible for defining the company's evolving technology
strategy. Eric works directly with Ahead customers to understand their
current environment and assist in designing solutions that address
current needs while keeping an eye on future requirements. Prior to
joining Ahead, Eric was the Sr. Systems Engineer for the Business
Continuance and Disaster Recovery team, managing 20 states in the
Midwest. Eric was a key member of the technical competitive analysis
team at EMC providing expert insight on Hitachi Data Systems and IBM
virtualization products. Prior to working at EMC he held engineering
roles for Sun Microsystems as storage specialist as well as two
technology resellers specializing in storage solutions as well as
high-performance systems architecture. Prior to transitioning into a
pre-sales architecture, Eric has significant end user experience where
he was hands utilizing the technology and managing data center
environments, this experience provides him with a profound understanding
of all aspects of the value chain. Eric attended the Purdue School of
Engineering with focus on Computer Engineering and Electrical
Engineering Technology.
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Mike
Peebles
Mike Peebles is the
Product Marketing Manager at Hewlett-Packard responsible for the
Information Management suite of products in the America’s region. This
includes solutions for business continuity and availability, governance
and ediscovery as well as document workflow transformation. He has
extensive experience in architecting storage and data protection
solutions. Since joining HP in
1997, Mike has held technical and management positions within HP’s
storage and software businesses focusing on current as well as future
storage issues. Mike has applied his expertise within the Americas as
well as Europe. Prior to joining HP
Mike held hardware design engineering and engineering management
positions focused on HP-IB and SCSI storage device development.
Mike was also the Manager for Technology Assessment and Acceptance
during which he identified new storage solution business opportunities.
Mike has an MBA and a B.S. of Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University.
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Nick Schmidt
Nick Schmidt
is currently the senior manager of CDW’s Information Technology, overseeing
IT infrastructure Services. Mr. Schmidt’s organization encompasses
Telecommunications, Network Services, System Engineering, IT Security, and
Data Center Services. He is a 30-year I.T. veteran. with extensive
experience leading organizations ranging from domestically focused
operations to multi-million dollar global technology organizations.
Prior to CDW, Mr. Schmidt has served in multiple capacities in private and
publically held companies primarily focusing on infrastructure excellence.
With extensive experience gained from within major telecommunications
providers as well as leading consumers of telecommunications services, Mr.
Schmidt brings a wealth of information to his perspective.
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Annur
Sumar
Annur
Sumar is a Sr. Infrastructure Architect for Duff & Phelps. One of the
world’s leading independent financial advisory firms serving client
needs in the areas of valuation, investment banking and transaction
advice, and dispute consulting. Annur is responsible for planning,
designing, engineering and implementing the underlying technology
infrastructure for Duff & Phelps ranging from the Datacenter to the
Desktop. Prior to joining Duff & Phelps, Annur served as a Senior
Consultant for Unified Synergies, LLC a leading Technology Consulting
firm in the area of Strategic Infrastructure Design and Technology
driven Business Intelligence, positioning and designing strategic
technology driven process improvements for clients by aligning IT
Services, Engineering best practices, Operations Management, and
Helpdesk Support to lower Total Cost of Ownership and raise Return on
Investments. Annur’s most recent accomplishments for Q1 of 2009 at Duff
& Phelps includes the planning, designing and engineering of a Server
Consolidation / Virtualization Architecture and a Unified Infrastructure
Strategy based on the (MOF) Microsoft Operations Framework Model.
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Robert Warja
Robert Warja has many
years of experience in IT Data Center management, including disaster
recovery and change control, working mainly in the banking sector,
although he has also held roles within the beverage and insurance
industries along the way. He has significant experience in Business
Continuity and currently serves as the Business Continuity Officer for
Marquette Bank. Bob has built DR and BCP programs from scratch, and is
all-too-familiar with the challenge of selling DR/BCP to senior
management.
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