Speakers at the Cloud Computing Conference

Sufel Barkat
Sufel Barkat is an Experienced Executive with over 20 years of diversified experience in healthcare, hospitality, pharmaceuticals, services, technology, consulting, and manufacturing. He has formulated financial and quality strategies, policies, and procedures and developed world-class business and supplier relationships to achieve budget and schedule goals.  He has also implemented strategic and tactical process improvement initiatives that increased shareholder value. He acted as a Global Executive responsible for outsourcing, centralization, and cloud computing strategies and built state of the art central financial systems while leading teams in a different mix of onshore and offshore environments.  He also delivered major process improvements and received recognition for the delivery of highly integrated systems in different sectors of industry, such as healthcare, hospitality, pharmaceuticals, services, technology, consulting and manufacturing.

Mike Chase
As Sr. Director of Cloud Services for En Pointe Technologies, Mr. Chase is actively involved in the recruitment of talented engineers from aroundthe world who are certified in the diversity of products surrounding next generation virtualized datacenters as well as the visionary behind the innovative “think tank” designs & best practice methodologies used at EnPointe to provide high value solutions leveraging state-of-the-art Cloud Services to our customers. His involvement keeps En Pointe moving with high velocity on a wide range of Cloud technologies with sheer focus and extreme precision. On time, on budget, and often replacing current customer expenditures on legacy technology and leveraging them into new private and public Cloud solutions, Mr. Chase oversees the strategy and execution of numerous Cloud offerings across our various technology practices including but not limited to: Cloud Desktops, Cloud Servers, Cloud Storage, Cloud Applications,  and Cloud Voice. Mr. Chase has over 20 years of successful experience with complex global datacenters during his work with such firms as Wells Fargo Bank, IBM/ISSC, Mobil Oil Corporation, Union Oil, LA Cellular, Capitol Records, Equant, AT&T, Broadcom, Experian, among others. His experience spans the design, implementation, operating, optimization, interoperation, migration, and upgrade of datacenters worldwide utilizing technologies from a wide array of hardware manufacturers and software publishers such as Cisco, HP, EMC, Microsoft, Quest Software, VMware, Citrix and more. Since virtualization is the next generation datacenter, Mr. Chase has now focused his expertise exclusively in Cloud Services since it’s both the most challenging and yet most promising next wave in an emerging technology revolution. Mr. Chase holds numerous industry certifications such as the prestigious Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE# 7226), Cisco Technology Solutions Specialist (TSS), Trend Micro Certified Security Expert (TCSE), and EMC Technology Architect (EMC-TA), and has training in various Unix/Linux system platforms. Mr. Chase holds a Juris Doctor degree in law from California Southern University.

Bryan Doerr
Bryan Doerr is the Chief Technology Officer at Savvis. Bryan provides technology and strategy leadership for network, hosting, and security infrastructure, product development and M&A support. In this role, Bryan identifies new technologies related to IT services, assesses value to Savvis and its customers, and leads initial testing and integration. Before joining Savvis, he held positions in management; software technology research, including large scale object-oriented system development, patterns-based architecture, and real-time object-oriented runtime systems; and software/hardware development for real-time  systems at Bridge Information Systems, Boeing, and the Applied Physics Laboratory. Bryan holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and a Masters Degree in Information Management from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Avi Freedman

As Vice President, Cloud Services for ServerCentral, Freedman leads the definition, sales and engineering, of ServerCentral's Private Cloud and VM Platform services.  Prior to joining Server Central, Freedman had a number of roles at Akamai from October 1999 to August 2009, including Vice President of Network Architecture and Infrastructure and Chief Network Scientist.  Avi Freedman was most recently Distinguished Engineer and Chief Network Scientist for Akamai Technologies, where he oversaw the development and evolution of Akamai's network and content delivery technologies to new applications. In his former role of Vice President and Chief Network Architect for Akamai, Avi led the growth and management of Akamai's globally distributed network from 250 networks to over 1000 networks. Prior to joining Akamai, Freedman served as Vice President of Engineering at AboveNet, where he led the architecture, implementation and operation of AboveNet's ISXs and of the AboveNet global IP network.  In 1992, Freedman founded Netaxs, the first ISP in Philadelphia, PA.  He was CEO until 1998, became CTO after a merger in 1999, and was on the board of FastNet, which bought Netaxs in 2000.  Freedman studied computer science at Temple University in Philadelphia, and is a frequent contributor of articles and tutorials to networking publications and conferences.  He was on the Advisory Council of ARIN for the first four years of ARIN's existence.  Some of his past tutorials on BGP and routing can be found at http://avi.freedman.net.

Greg Hubbard

Greg is a technology professional with achievements in small and large organizations, from dot-com startups to Fortune 1000 companies. He is currently the Director of Application Development for Q Interactive (formerly CoolSavings Inc.) one of Chicago's premier online advertising companies, where he's responsible for resource management and technology research. Greg also serves as software architect for one of Q Interactive's business lines. He previously held technology positions at CNA Insurance and Trans Union Corp.

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.

Eddie Maltas
 Eddie Maltas has over 26 years of experience.  Mr. Maltas is working with Zenith Infotech Ltd located in Warrendale, PA, as Program Director for the demand awareness initiative. His team works with end clients as ambassadors to Zenith’s private cloud solution; performing: needs analysis, assisting in product evaluations, educating the market on the concept of how to get started with Business continuity and eventually transitioning into a complete private cloud virtual environment.  Prior to joining Zenith, Mr. Maltas founded and successfully sold EdVenture Inc., a Business Consulting Firm in Alabama; Directing Business Partner Services for IBM/Tivoli; Network and IT Engineering Manager for Motorola and Software Engineer for United Technologies on the classified Star Wars Defense initiative. Mr. Maltas’ expertise covers: Cloud Storage solutions & Virtualization, IT and Network infrastructures, Customer and Technical Tier I & II Global Call Centers, and overall Business Operations.

Bob Rugza

Bob Ruzga has over 22 years of experience.  Mr. Ruzga joined Initial Tropical Plants in June 1984. He has over 22 years of experience in all areas of IT: strategy planning, infrastructure management, change management, IT compliance, systems administration, and application development and vendor management.  From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Ruzga was appointed the VP of IT for Initial Security, an American Manned Guarding business and a former sister company of Initial Tropical Plants.  Prior to joining Initial Tropical Plants, Mr. Ruzga spent two years at the City of Waukegan where he was the Manager of Data Processing.  Mr. Ruzga holds a BS in Computer Science (application development) along with a minor in Business Administration from Northern Illinois University and is an active member of the Technology Executive Network.

Richard Stone

Richard Stone is Senior Solution Manager at Compuware, responsible for Cloud-based Application Performance Management solutions.  Prior to joining Compuware, Richard has held senior marketing and product management positions at Hewlett Packard, Compaq, plus a number of other US and European IT companies. He has extensive experience in cloud-based solutions and technologies, and has brought a number of cloud-based solutions to market: These include cross-industry solutions such as E-Mail, Web Conferencing, and Sales Force Automation; and vertical market solutions in industries such as Insurance, Retail Banking, and Telecommunications. His domain expertise also includes mobile computing, security, compliance, and high-availability solutions for all market segments (SMB, Enterprise, and key verticals such as Finance, Government, Healthcare, and Retail.Richard Stone is the Senior Solutions Manager at Compuware.