May 25, 9:00 a.m. PT
Keynote
Keynote
Speakers:
Executive Chairman, President and CEO,
Hitachi, Ltd.
Executive Chairman, President and CEO,
Hitachi, Ltd.
Executive Chairman, President and CEO Toshiaki Higashihara leads approximately 350,000 employees worldwide as he guides efforts to transform Hitachi from a product-oriented company to a sustainable and diverse enterprise that harnesses innovation to solve challenges for customers and society at large. His passion has driven Hitachi to become a leader in the digital transformation (DX) of social infrastructure and helped it to improve quality of life as it also increases value for customers.
Higashihara holds an Engineering degree from Tokushima University in Japan and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Boston University.
Chief, Data Science,
Co-Director,
Institute for Precision
Cardiovascular Medicine
American Heart Association
Chief, Data Science,
Co-Director,
Institute for Precision
Cardiovascular Medicine
American Heart Association
Dr. Jennifer Hall’s laboratory has been a leader in genomics and human heart failure over the past ten years, identifying genes and signaling pathways that are modified in response to reversal of heart failure or left ventricular remodeling.
Dr. Hall is a past Chair of the Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Council of the American Heart Association and has served on many national and international committees. She holds adjunct professor positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Dr. Hall has a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of California Berkeley. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford and Harvard Schools of Medicine.
CEO
Hitachi Vantara
CEO
Hitachi Vantara
Gajen Kandiah became chief executive officer of Hitachi Vantara in July 2020. As CEO, Gajen leads Hitachi Vantara's 11,000 employees with a focus on empowering client-facing teams to leverage the company's digital infrastructure, software and services capabilities to meet the industry-specific transformational needs of clients worldwide.
Prior to joining Hitachi Vantara, Gajen built winning IT businesses within multinational corporations and startups for more than two decades. During 15 years with Cognizant, he helped grow the company from $368 million in annual revenues to more than $16 billion. From 2015 to 2019, he was president of Cognizant's multi-billion-dollar Digital Business, a role in which he led the acquisitions of software engineering company Softvision, marketing solutions provider Netcentric, and Idea Couture, a digital innovation and technology services company. He also led a Cognizant-wide initiative to transform company capabilities and services into an integrated, industry- and client-focused suite of offerings and solutions.
Gajen previously served as senior vice president and general manager of Cognizant's Information, Media and Entertainment; Manufacturing Logistics; Consumer Goods; and Communications industry practices. Before joining Cognizant, he co-founded NerveWire, Inc., a venture capital-backed management consulting and systems integration firm, which was later acquired by Wipro.
SVP International Facilities
and Operations Services,
Worldwide Safety and
Health, and Engineering
The Walt Disney Company
SVP International Facilities
and Operations Services,
Worldwide Safety and
Health, and Engineering
The Walt Disney Company
Rachel is a licensed Professional Engineer and Certified Safety Professional. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Theater, the perfect background for a Disney engineer.
Her early career included a wide diversity of roles such as: medical research with the Veteran’s Administration, Facilities and Construction Management at General Motors, Controls Engineering at General Mills and Technical Support for Allen-Bradley.
Rachel joined Walt Disney World in 1997. She has worked in many different roles including: being part of the team that built and then opened Disney’s Animal Kingdom; leading Technical Services for Walt Disney World; starting Attractions Engineering Services and Quality Assurance, leading a team focused on Maintenance Consistency for Disney theme parks worldwide, leading Engineering Services for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Region, leading the teams responsible for ensuring the safety, operability and maintainability of new Disney resorts around the world and leading safety and health efforts at Disney Parks & Resorts worldwide.
Rachel is currently the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Safety, Health, Engineering & Sourcing. In addition to her global Safety and Health responsibilities, Rachel leads the maintenance, project management, and horticulture teams at Disneyland Resort Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland. She also leads the engineering and safety teams at those resorts as well as at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Rachel and her teams are responsible for the safety and health of the hundreds of thousands of Cast Members around the world and the millions of Guests who visit Disney each year.
Rachel holds US and European patents for a ride safety system she created in 2003.
Rachel has been married for 28 years to Larry, a jazz musician and stay at home dad to their two children, Lawson (20) and Danielle (17). Lawson is following in his mom’s footsteps studying Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is at the University of Florida and hopes to work in the private space exploration field. Rachel is committed to wellness and has set a goal to run a half marathon in every state.
May 26, 9:00 a.m. PT
Keynote
Keynote
Speakers:
Chairman & CEO, Hitachi America, Ltd.;
Chief Executive, Hitachi Global Social Innovation Business; Corporate Officer, Hitachi Ltd.
Chairman & CEO, Hitachi America, Ltd.;
Chief Executive, Hitachi Global Social Innovation Business; Corporate Officer, Hitachi Ltd.
Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational leader, and a global business visionary with 20+ years of senior leadership experience. Prior to his current roles, he held multiple executive roles within Hitachi, including CEO of Hitachi Global Digital Holdings and President & CEO of Hitachi Consulting. Skilled at delivering industry-leading results in growth, profitability, and innovation, Hicham’s current role allows him to utilize his experience to lead Hitachi America in achieving it business growth objectives and driving the Global Social Innovation Business to execute on a mission of powering good while establishing new markets and next-generation digital business models that create environmental, social and economic value.
CEO
Workhorse
CEO
Workhorse
Duane Hughes is a senior-level executive with operational expertise and more than 20 years’ experience including direct business relationships in the automotive, advertising, and technology segments. Mr. Hughes has served as Chief Executive Officer and as a director since November 2019.
Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer and President of Workhorse from August 2016 to January 2019. Prior to joining Workhorse, Mr. Hughes was the Chief Operating Officer for Cumulus Interactive Technologies Group where he managed the company’s day-to-day sales and operations of the business unit. Mr. Hughes spent nearly fifteen years in senior management positions with Gannett Co., Inc.
SVP Brand Experience & Innovation
Tavistock Group
SVP Brand Experience & Innovation
Tavistock Group
With more than 20 years of experience creating experiences, Juan Santos has been involved in award-winning, transformational work. Milestones include the first worldwide webcast for Earth Day, Coca-Cola’s loyalty program MyCokeRewards, Mattel’s shift from toys to play through the creation of BarbieGirls.com, and the implementation of the largest autonomous public transit network in Lake Nona.
In his current position as the Senior Vice President of Brand Experience and Innovation at Tavistock, Juan’s focus is to transform Tavistock’s companies and properties through a mix of storytelling and technology. Areas of expertise include “storydoing,” experience design, and smart and responsive cities.
May 27, 9:00 a.m. PT
Keynote
Keynote
Speakers:
Executive Vice President and
Executive Officer and Chief Environmental Officer
Hitachi, Ltd.
Executive Vice President and Executive Officer and Chief Environmental Officer
Hitachi, Ltd.
As of April 2021, as Chief Environmental Officer, Alistair Dormer is in charge of Environmental Strategy for Hitachi on a global level. He was appointed Representative Executive Officer in Hitachi, Ltd. leading the Mobility Sector in April 2019. Alistair joined Hitachi in 2003 to establish Hitachi’s Rail business in Europe. He was promoted to CEO of Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd. in 2007 and having built a successful business in Europe was promoted to Senior Vice President and Executive Officer Group CEO, Rail Systems Business Unit Hitachi, Ltd. in April 2014, responsible for Hitachi’s global rail business. Under Dormer’s leadership, the Hitachi’s rail business has globalized and grown by more than 300%.
President
COP 26
President
COP 26
Alok Sharma was appointed full-time President for COP 26, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, on January 8, 2021. He was previously Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy and President for COP 26 between February 13, 2020 and January 8, 2021.
Alok was previously Secretary of State for International Development from July 24, 2019 to February 13, 2020 and Minister of State for Employment at the Department of Work and Pensions from January 9, 2018 until July 24, 2019. He was Minister of State for Housing and Planning for the Department for Communities and Local Government from June 13, 2017 to January 9, 2018.
CEO
Rainforest Connection
CEO
Rainforest Connection
Topher has experience building systems for large and small startups and international science projects, including four years working on nuclear fusion at ITER in France. He was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a Draper-Richards-Kaplan (DRK) Fellow, and an “Engineering Hero” by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
With a background in physics, software development and communication, Topher has worked for SLAC Natl Accelerator Lab (High Energy Physics) and the ITER Organization (Nuclear Fusion) and served as CTO for two U.S. startups, where he obtained industry-level experience in software development—the foundation of the Rainforest Connection platform.
May 25, 12:00 p.m. PT
Closing Keynote
Closing Keynote
Speakers:
Partner
TCG Advisors
Partner
TCG Advisors
Todd Hewlin is a Managing Director at TCG Advisors, the leading growth strategy firm in Silicon Valley, and a noted expert on digitization and business model innovation. Todd's latest book, co-authored with Scott Snyder, is called Goliath's Revenge: How Established Companies Turn The Tables On Digital Disruptors. It provides a front-row seat for how digital is changing the fundamental basis of competition and insightful case studies on how established companies are running the Silicon Valley playbook for themselves. Goliath’s Revenge was recently named a “must read” by The Wall Street Journal.
May 26, 12:00 p.m. PT
Closing Keynote
Closing Keynote
Speakers:
Former U.S. Chief Technology Officer
United States Government
Former U.S. Chief Technology Officer
United States Government
An award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist, Smith served as the third U.S. Chief Technology Officer from 2014-2017 helping the President and his teams harness the power of data, innovation, and technology on behalf of the nation.
Today Smith is CEO and co-founder of shift7, a company working collaboratively on systemic social, environmental, and economic problems—finding opportunities to scout and scale promising solutions and solution makers and engage proven tech-forward, open, shareable practices to drive direct impact, together.
Previously, Smith was vice president at Google for 11 years leading new business development and in the leadership team at X founding SolveforX and WomenTechmakers.
She is a board member of Vital Voices, LA Olympics 2028, Thinkof-Us.
May 26, 12:00 p.m. PT
Closing Keynote
Closing Keynote
Speakers:
Author of Data for People, Former Chief Scientist at Amazon
Author of Data for People, Former Chief Scientist at Amazon
Dr. Andreas Weigend, the author of "Data for the People", was the chief scientist at Amazon and a member of the Digital Council of Germany. As advisor and consultant, he works with organizations on consumer data strategy and AI in banking, telecommunication, travel, and retail. He advises Zozo in Japan, SCG in Thailand, and startups in Silicon Valley. He shares his insights at events around the globe, including in a session on Identity and Trust at TEDx in Bangkok, a speech on Data: The New Rules at SLUSH in Helsinki, and the keynote The Data Dilemma at the SWIFT Innovation conference in London. Andreas studied physics and philosophy in Karlsruhe, Cambridge and Bonn, and did his Ph.D. in neural networks at Stanford.
May 27, 12:00 p.m. PT
Closing Keynote
Closing Keynote
Speakers:
SVP, Imagineering R&D, Show,
Ride & Technology
The Walt Disney Company
SVP, Imagineering R&D, Show, Ride & Technology
The Walt Disney Company
Jon Snoddy has lived on the leading edge of entertainment technology his entire career. Prior to heading up Research & Development for Walt Disney Imagineering, Jon worked at NPR and Lucasfilm, started his own companies, and pulled a previous stint at Imagineering developing ride concepts such as the Indiana Jones™ Adventure and founding the original Disney VR Studio.
Today, Jon leads multiple studios within Walt Disney Imagineering: R&D, Ride, Technology, and Show Systems, in the development of new immersive special effects, interactive living characters, Audio-Animatronics® figures, sustainable design practices, collaborative tools, and the next generation of theme parks and resorts.
SVP International Facilities
and Operations Services,
Worldwide Safety and
Health, and Engineering
The Walt Disney Company
SVP International Facilities
and Operations Services,
Worldwide Safety and
Health, and Engineering
The Walt Disney Company
Rachel is a licensed Professional Engineer and Certified Safety Professional. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Theater, the perfect background for a Disney engineer.
Her early career included a wide diversity of roles such as: medical research with the Veteran’s Administration, Facilities and Construction Management at General Motors, Controls Engineering at General Mills and Technical Support for Allen-Bradley.
Rachel joined Walt Disney World in 1997. She has worked in many different roles including: being part of the team that built and then opened Disney’s Animal Kingdom; leading Technical Services for Walt Disney World; starting Attractions Engineering Services and Quality Assurance, leading a team focused on Maintenance Consistency for Disney theme parks worldwide, leading Engineering Services for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Region, leading the teams responsible for ensuring the safety, operability and maintainability of new Disney resorts around the world and leading safety and health efforts at Disney Parks & Resorts worldwide.
Rachel is currently the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Safety, Health, Engineering & Sourcing. In addition to her global Safety and Health responsibilities, Rachel leads the maintenance, project management, and horticulture teams at Disneyland Resort Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland. She also leads the engineering and safety teams at those resorts as well as at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Rachel and her teams are responsible for the safety and health of the hundreds of thousands of Cast Members around the world and the millions of Guests who visit Disney each year.
Rachel holds US and European patents for a ride safety system she created in 2003.
Rachel has been married for 28 years to Larry, a jazz musician and stay at home dad to their two children, Lawson (20) and Danielle (17). Lawson is following in his mom’s footsteps studying Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is at the University of Florida and hopes to work in the private space exploration field. Rachel is committed to wellness and has set a goal to run a half marathon in every state.
May 25, 11:00 a.m. PT
Digital Master Classes
Digital Master Classes
Speakers:
Board Member, Investor,
former CDO & Software CEO
Advisor
Board Member, Investor, former CDO & Software CEO
Ganesh Bell is a board member, advisor, and investor living in Silicon Valley. Most recently, he ran Uptake, a leader in industrial AI and fast-growing Enterprise AI worth greater than $2B. Prior to Uptake, he was GE’s first-ever Chief Digital Officer, a position he helped create. As a Corporate Officer of GE, he created the blueprint for digital business, products, platform solutions, new business models, led the largest digital business across energy as business CEO, and helped create GE Digital.
A proven entrepreneur, Bell has held executive positions across a rare mix of global giants, industry leaders, startups, and hyper-growth companies - including enterprise tech leaders like SAP, Peoplesoft, & JDEdwards. His interest and breadth of expertise span platforms, analytics, enterprise applications, industrial tech, digital business, and AI.
He is a frequent keynoter and sought-after thought leader on AI, Future of Work, SaaS & Digital Transformation by CxOs and Boards. He has been featured in business books, leading media, and recognized for his work - Fast Company named him in its list of 100 Most Creative People in Business World.
May 26, 10:00 a.m. PT
Digital Master Classes
Digital Master Classes
Speakers:
Director of Center for Digital Transformation at Paul Merage School of Business
UCI
Director of Center for Digital Transformation at Paul Merage School of Business
UCI
Vijay Gurbaxani is the Founding Director of the Center for Digital Transformation and Taco Bell Endowed Professor of Business and Computer Science at the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine. His research, teaching, and consulting interests intersect business strategy and digital innovation. His approach is distinctive in its use of economic principles as the lens with which to analyze strategic management questions.
Vijay has extensive experience in management education and advisory services. He has lectured worldwide, taught in degree and executive programs, and provided research expertise to Fortune 500 companies, technology service providers, and consulting firms.
May 26, 11:00 a.m. PT
Digital Master Classes
Digital Master Classes
Speakers:
Research Affiliate
MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)
Research Affiliate
MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)
Professor of Information Systems
ESB Business School, Reutlingen University
Research Affiliate
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Martin Mocker is a professor of information systems at ESB Business School, Reutlingen University, Germany and a Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His teaching and research focus on the digital transformations of large, traditional companies aiming to stay competitive in an increasingly digital economy.
Martin has co-authored the book “Designed for Digital: How to Architect Your Business for Sustained Success.”
May 26, 11:30 a.m. PT
Digital Master Classes
Digital Master Classes
Speakers:
Chief Technology Officer,
GlobalLogic
Chief Technology Officer,
GlobalLogic
May 25, 11:30 a.m. PT
Digital Master Classes
Digital Master Classes
Speakers:
Founder of the Data For Betterment Foundation
and Lopez Research
Founder of the Data For Betterment Foundation
and Lopez Research
Maribel is the founder of Lopez Research, a market research and strategy consulting firm. She’s also the co-founder of the Emerging Technology Research Council, a community of business and technical leaders in Fortune 1000 companies focused on driving innovation and business value by leveraging emerging technologies. Her firm researches mobility, IoT, and AI. Her clients range from start-ups to global firms, including 10 of the Fortune 30.
Maribel is a contributor to Forbes, host of the podcast “Reimagine Hybrid Work,” and author of “Right-Time Experiences.”
Maribel runs Data for Betterment, a non-profit that helps people prepare for job changes as companies embrace the future of work technologies.
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
David leads corporate marketing and communications for Hitachi Vantara, the digital infrastructure, data management, and digital solutions business of Hitachi. He joined the company in 2019 from Bloom Energy, where as a VP he spearheaded communications for the microgrid company’s 2018 $300M NYSE IPO.
From 2016-2018, David led global communications for GE’s largest software business. He was a public relations leader at Cisco from 2008-2016, during which time he was recognized as PRWeek’s PR Professional of the Year.
David previously served as an executive vice president at global PR agency Text 100 (now Archetype). He is a past President of the Public Relations Society of America’s Silicon Valley Chapter.
May 27, 11:30 a.m. PT
Digital Master Classes
Digital Master Classes
Speakers:
Founder And Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
Founder And Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast, and authors a business strategy and technology blog that receives millions of page views per month. Wang also serves as a non-resident Senior Fellow at The Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center. As one of the top technology analysts in the world, Ray has delivered thousands of legendary live and virtual keynotes and spoken at almost every major tech conference. He is the author of the groundbreaking bestselling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business and the upcoming Everybody Wants to Rule The World.
May 27, 11:00 a.m. PT
Digital Master Classes
Digital Master Classes
Speakers:
Vice President, Principal Researcher
Forrester
Vice President, Principal Researcher
Forrester
Michele Goetz serves enterprise architects, chief data officers, and business analysts trying to navigate the complexities of data while running an insight-driven business. Her research covers artificial intelligence technologies and consultancies, semantic technology, data management strategy, data governance, and data integration.
Previous Work Experience
Michele has over 20 years of experience in data management, business intelligence, and analytics. Prior to joining Forrester, she was the VP of marketing at Trillium Software, launching data governance and quality solutions to global enterprises across a variety of industries, including banking, insurance, pharmaceutical, consumer, and energy. At PTC, Michele led customer data management and analytics and established the global data quality and governance program. In addition to Trillium Software and PTC, Michele held various roles in enterprise firms and management consulting, leading research and analytics to identify and forecast market trends, guide go-to-market strategies, gain insight into digital marketing and commerce effectiveness, and support healthcare and pharmaceutical research studies. Michele has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Cybertrend, Information Week, Analytics Week, and ITWorld.
Education
Michele holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics, with a minor in computer science, from Framingham State College.
May 27, 11:30 a.m. PT
Digital Master Classes
Digital Master Classes
Speakers:
Board Member and Stanford University Cloud Lecturer
Stanford University
Board Member and Stanford University Cloud Lecturer
Stanford University
Dr. Timothy Chou has been a leader in enterprise cloud computing since returning to Oracle in 1999 to become the President of Oracle On Demand. In that capacity he was one of the early leaders in moving enterprise applications to the cloud. While at Oracle he authored his first landmark book, The End of Software, which foretold the rise of SaaS applications and featured three early stage startups Salesforce, Netsuite and VMWare.
Dr. Chou has been a public company board director since 2000. In 2007 he joined the board of Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), which provides application cloud services to the nonprofit vertical. And in 2017 he joined the board of Teradata (NYSE: TDC), a leader in enterprise data warehousing and analytics.
More recently he published Precision - Principles, Practices and Solutions for the Internet of Things. The book was recently published in Korea; is in its 3rd printing in Chinese, and the Vietnamese version has been called a guidebook to the future of the economy by the prime minister.
In parallel with his commercial career he has also taught at Stanford University for over thirty years. For fifteen years he taught core computer architecture and only took a break because he had to fly to Bali for a sales kickoff meeting and get back within 36 hours to teach class. After leaving Oracle he went back to Stanford and started the first class on cloud computing anywhere in the world, CS309A (cs309a.stanford.edu).
Dr. Chou has been an advisor, mentor and investor in a number of startup companies, some successful (e.g. Webex) and some not so successful. In 2013 he became the Chairman of Alchemist, a leading enterprise software accelerator. Today he is focused the Pediatric Cloud project, a project to connect all 1,000,000 healthcare machines in all the children’s hospitals in the world and through software and data transform children’s healthcare globally.
May 25, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Director of Solution Architecture
Hitachi Global Social Innovation Business
Director of Solution Architecture
Hitachi Global Social Innovation Business
Udayan’s expertise is in applying digital technology capabilities to architect solutions that address the double bottom-line and delivering a positive social impact while fulfilling business requirements across manufacturing, transportation, and smart spaces. Udayan delivers full stack solution architecture and design support by leveraging a wide range of Hitachi and broader ecosystem technology capabilities for a broad scope of solutions including predictive maintenance, asset management, ML/AI-based failure prediction models, process re-engineering, manufacturing intelligence solutions, and innovative applications of video analytics including lidar.
SVP, Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
SVP, Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
Chris has a long career in both consulting and technology and joined us from Accenture Digital where as Managing Director he had a proven track record of developing and scaling digital technologies in the energy, utilities, and mining industries. Prior to Accenture Digital, he led the North America data and analytics practice for aviation, energy, utilities, and agriculture at Capgemini. In his role at Hitachi Vantara, Chris leads our Industries Practice, closely working with companies like JR Automation and Hitachi ABB Power Grids to help accelerate Hitachi strategy with the transportation, manufacturing, and energy practices.
Vice President, Esys Division and Digital Solutions
JR Automation
Vice President, Esys Division and Digital Solutions
JR Automation
Mike Lashbrook leads the Esys Division and the Digital Solution team for JR Automation. The Esys division focuses primarily on system integration of robotic and automation solutions predominantly for the automotive industry.
Mike has worked in the automotive industry for over 25 years, twenty of which were with General Motors in various manufacturing operations, manufacturing engineering, and corporate strategy roles across North America, Southeast Asia, China, and Europe.
Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering as well as a master’s degree in Manufacturing Systems from Kettering University and an MBA from Harvard University.
Senior Vice President, Sales
Sullair
Senior Vice President, Sales
Sullair
Brian Tylisz, Senior Vice President, Sales, is responsible for the sales of all Sullair portable and stationary products in the Americas. In his nearly 20 years with Sullair, Tylisz has held varying leadership roles, including Engineering Director and General Manager of Oil Free and OEM products.
Tylisz received a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology from Purdue University.
May 25, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Head of Sustainability
Rabobank
Head of Sustainability
Rabobank
Experienced financial expert and executive with a demonstrated history of working as Board Member in the impact investment management, biodiversity, regenerative farming and environmental services industry. Strong business development professional skilled in investment management, Sustainability and corporate governance within international companies, governmental entities and multilateral associations. Project management of investment funds, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and investment in Sustainable Development projects.
Head of Sustainability
Wells Fargo Bank
Head of Sustainability
Wells Fargo Bank
Head of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility at Wells Fargo with more than 20 years of experience in environmental sustainability in both the public and private sectors. Responsible for the strategic integration of sustainability and corporate responsibility across Wells Fargo’s products and services, operations and culture, and philanthropy. Champion and architect of Wells Fargo’s recent sustainable finance commitment, to lend and invest $200 billion to sustainable businesses and projects between now and 2030, with more than half of that earmarked for renewable energy, clean technology and green building initiatives that directly support the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Lead the development of the company’s corporate responsibility/ESG priorities and strategy, non-financial disclosures and reporting, integration of human rights and climate risk management, and strategic environmental philanthropy. Serves on the board of directors for GRID Alternatives. Graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Senior Advisor, Strategy,
IoT & Analytics
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Advisor, Strategy,
IoT & Analytics
Hitachi Vantara
Dynamic senior executive with broad P&L accountability including: digital transformation, strategy, customer experience, sales, marketing, operations, data analytics, data science, design, intelligence, M&A integrations and technology implementations.
Reputation for building high-performing teams while successfully delivering results. Known as a partner and collaborator, who influences across all levels.
Expertise in customer-centric envisioning and delivery with a deep understanding of industry sectors including: financial services, healthcare, insurance, education, non-profit, agribusiness, private equity, energy, utilities, manufacturing and life sciences.
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Suranjan is the Vice President of Financial Services at Hitachi Vantara, based out of London, applying innovation, industry expertise and engineering to address some of the biggest challenges in the financial services world today.
Kicking off his career with the Big 4, Suranjan has been working over 2 decades in the Data and Analytics space. Suranjan has worked exclusively with banks, insurers and asset managers in the last decades. He has architected some of largest Risk, Regulatory and Performance Management solutions for some of the largest banks in the world. This includes building the world’s first real-time risk solution for a large American bank to large middle-office regulation platforms for BCBS 239 and BASEL III compliance.
From "FinTech" to "RegTech", he is working with some of the largest names in the Financial Services space, looking at a wide range of solutions from Big Data, Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence to solve implementation challenges for our Top Tier banking customers. Today, Suranjan is responsible for the portfolio of Hitachi’s strategic financial services accounts across the globe.
May 25, 11:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
General Manager, Data & Extension
Horticulture Innovation Australia
General Manager, Data & Extension
Horticulture Innovation Australia
Dr. Anthony Kachenko is Hort Innovation’s General Manager of Data & Extension. He joined the company in 2014 as the Head of Research & Development, and previously spent seven years at Greenlife Industry Australia in policy and management roles.
Anthony’s Hort Innovation team includes the Extension function, which amplifies the outcomes of levy investments, and the Data & Insights unit, which provides data, knowledge, and insights to underpin all business activities.
Anthony has lived and breathed Australian horticulture for more than 20 years, having extensive experience along the agribusiness value chain. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is Chairman of the Australasia-Pacific Extension Network.
Industry Executive Asia-Pacific
Hitachi Vantara
Industry Executive Asia-Pacific
Hitachi Vantara
Owen leads the development of Hitachi Vantara’s digital supply chain solutions. With over 25 years of experience in supply chain management including global supply chain manager of a logistics company and vice president of a supply chain consultancy, he has led many digital transformation programs across a range of industries from beverages and agri-food to transformer, motor, construction, vehicle assembly as well as chemical and paper manufacturing. Qualified as a chemical engineer, Owen has production, project and executive management experience in manufacturing and is currently completing a part-time PhD in process intelligence.
May 25, 11:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Data Scientist
Hitachi Solutions
Data Scientist
Hitachi Solutions
Angelina is a Data Scientist at Hitachi Solutions America specializing in Natural Language Processing. She is certified as a SparkNLP Healthcare Data Scientist from John Snow Labs, has a M.S. in Statistical Sciences from Claremont Graduate University, and has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
May 25, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
CEO
Hitachi Rail
CEO
Hitachi Rail
Jason White is the Head of Sales & Projects for the Americas at Hitachi Rail. As the Executive Officer, he is responsible for all commercial business for Railway, Mass Transit, and Class One Freight Railroads in the Americas.
Since joining the organization in 2010, Jason has been a key component in the successful commercial strategy and delivery of various rail infrastructure programs in the region’s major metro areas.
Jason’s experience in the rail industry spans more than 17 years with roles in leadership, program management, and sales. Outside of Jason’s current role, he maintains active memberships and involvement with executive boards and governing bodies within the U.S. rail industry.
Head of Turnkey Systems Business Development - North America
Hitachi Rail
Head of Turnkey Systems Business Development - North America
Hitachi Rail
Allan leads the development of turnkey systems win and execution strategies for the North American transit market for Hitachi Rail. He works with financial, civil, and engineering partners to deliver complex infrastructure solutions, proposals, and commercial arrangements to the transit industry. These rail-based transportation projects include financing, designing, building, operating, maintaining, and delivering the project for the public transit authority.
Allan and his team specialize in signaling and systems integration as well as rolling stock supply, resulting in the integration of train control, traction power, communications, and vehicles into advanced transit solutions.
May 25, 11:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
COO
Rainforest Connection
COO
Rainforest Connection
Bourhan Yassin is a long-time veteran of the tech industry, Bourhan has over fifteen years’ experience in building and leading large-scale manufacturing and engineering teams in several Bay Area companies including Powis and Zazzle, as well as the leading Dubai-based e-commerce company MarkaVIP, where he served as long-time COO before joining RFCx.
May 25, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Director, Engineering Technology and Analysis,
The Walt Disney Company
Director, Engineering Technology and Analysis,
The Walt Disney Company
Michael leads a 100+ member multidiscipline team which develops detailed mathematical and physics models for transportation, ride and animatronic systems, custom software and network applications, and robotics. Team responsibilities include the development of optimization algorithms, servo controllers, interactive/immersive experiences, data analytics, and material process solutions.
Michael’s diverse background includes designs of numerous attractions at various Disney theme parks including: Test Track® Attraction; Mission: SPACE® Attraction; Toy Story Mania!® Attraction and the Expedition Everest® Attraction. Michael also designed all the velocity profiles at the worldwide locations of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™
May 25, 11:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Global Director, Smart Spaces and Lumada Video Insights Marketing,
Hitachi Vantara
Global Director, Smart Spaces and Lumada Video Insights Marketing,
Hitachi Vantara
Justin furthers the mission of social innovation and building a more sustainable society through technology and business innovation. Justin has worked with both Silicon Valley startups and fortune 500s that are applying AI, IoT, and other disruptive technologies to improve our cities, commutes, and daily lives. He has worked in the US, Japan, and South Africa on projects that include smart cities, smart parking, electric vehicles, renewable energy, machine learning, and 3D printing. Justin was the recipient of the THINK Prize for the Financial Empowerment Challenge from renowned innovation and design firm IDEO and holds an MBA in sustainable management.
Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development,
Penske Corporation
Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development,
Penske Corporation
Jonathan Gibson leads all marketing, brand, and business development initiatives for Penske Corporation. Gibson also oversees communication processes and messaging, digital innovation, and short and long-term strategic initiatives within Penske Corporation and its subsidiary brands, Penske Automotive Group (PAG) and Penske Transportation Solutions.
Gibson also oversees all marketing and communications initiatives for Team Penske, the motorsports division of Penske Corporation. Gibson joined Team Penske in 2007 as Vice President of Marketing and Communications leading the marketing, communications, branding, and merchandising management teams, while maintaining responsibility for the team’s revenue and executive relationships with corporate partners.
May 25, 10:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Chief Digital Solutions Officer,
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Digital Solutions Officer,
Hitachi Vantara
In his role as the Chief Digital Solutions Officer, Frank leads the Global Delivery, Advisory and Technology Practices within the Digital Solutions Business Unit and has the responsibility to identify, build, and deliver the digital capabilities needed by our clients. He also leads the development of One Hitachi solutions, combining expertise from Hitachi’s mobility, energy, industry, and smart-life companies to solve customers’ business challenges. A seasoned professional with experience leading Fortune 500 global delivery management and transformation programs, Frank is one of the top IT/OT executives in the industry. He built a $500-million industrial IoT business from the ground up and has a strong background in engineering and manufacturing solutions.
Ph.D, Vice President, Research & Development,
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Ph.D, Vice President, Research & Development,
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Harsha Badarinarayan is the VP, R&D and Leader of Detroit Research Center for Hitachi America, Ltd. He has been with Hitachi for over 18 years. In his current role, Harsha is involved in strategic planning for business expansion in the US, specifically related to the Connected & Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and Smart Manufacturing. He spearheads the development and implementation of pioneering technologies dedicated to autonomous mobility (AD/ADAS), Smart Infrastructure, and IoT. Harsha holds 15 US patents and has authored or co-authored over 30 technical publications.
May 26, 10:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Vice President of Business Development
JR Automation
Vice President of Business Development
JR Automation
William Bigot is Vice President of Business Development for JR Automation. His responsibilities include management of the business and market development activities supporting all aerospace and defense business units.
Prior to joining JR Automation in February 2019, Mr. Bigot was Vice President of Nova-Tech Engineering and Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Business Development for PaR Systems. Previously, he spent 24 years in technical and managerial positions with MTS Systems Corporation, where he helped the company become a worldwide leader in the integration of physical and virtual simulation product development in aerospace and automotive markets.
GM Manufacturing Practice
Hitachi Vantara
GM Manufacturing Practice
Hitachi Vantara
Specializing in the manufacturing/industrial products, automotive/aerospace, oil/gas, metals/mining and insurance industries, Sid Verma brings more than 20 years of strategic problem-solving acumen, advising C-Suite/Boards and managing product & services business in IoT and the industrial sector. He has a proven track record managing multi-$M P&L, leading large global teams, and incubating/exponentially growing digital business organically and via M&A in large industrial and services companies.
Sid leads the IIoT and Manufacturing division P&L for Hitachi group to deliver growth strategies and Digital + Business + Operations + Technology transformations at clients using NextGen IT/OT capabilities.
Chief Engineer
JR Automation
Chief Engineer
JR Automation
Randall E. Rounkles is the Chief Engineer for Aerospace at JR Automation. His responsibilities include defining and understanding aerospace specifications and requirements to ensure automation meets industry standards. In addition, Randy supports the company’s strategic initiatives in the aerospace sector.
Prior to joining JR Automation in July 2019, Mr. Rounkles spent 33 years in the aerospace industry working for both Boeing and Spirit Aerosystems. After starting as a sheet metal mechanic at Boeing, he moved into automated fastening, progressed into management positions, and finished his career as Senior Operations Leader for the Advanced Manufacturing division.
May 26, 10:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
SVP, Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
SVP, Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
Chris has a long career in both consulting and technology and joined us from Accenture Digital where as Managing Director he had a proven track record of developing and scaling digital technologies in the energy, utilities, and mining industries. Prior to Accenture Digital, he led the North America data and analytics practice for aviation, energy, utilities, and agriculture at Capgemini. In his role at Hitachi Vantara, Chris leads our Industries Practice, closely working with companies like JR Automation and Hitachi ABB Power Grids to help accelerate Hitachi strategy with the transportation, manufacturing, and energy practices.
President and CEO
Smart Electric Power Alliance
President and CEO
Smart Electric Power Alliance
Julia is a visionary leader at the center of the transformation in the electric power sector to a clean and modern energy future. For the past 20 years she has advised and collaborated with utilities, solution providers, and government agencies on business models, grid modernization, electrification and clean energy policies, strategies, and programs. Julia guides and oversees all of SEPA’s research, education, and collaboration activities for its 1,100 member companies. Julia led SEPA through significant expansion, including rebranding from the Solar Electric Power Association and merging with both the Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid (ADS) and Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP).
Head of Hitachi ABB Power Grids North America
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Head of Hitachi ABB Power Grids North America
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Anthony Allard is Executive Vice President, Managing Director, United States and Head of Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ business in North America.
Allard was most recently CEO of BECIS, a leading energy-as-a-service-solution provider in Singapore. He held several executive-level positions in the power sector, including General Manager and Board Member for GE Prolec Transformers. He was General Manager for the GE-XD High Voltage Products partnership and held strategy and operations management roles for Alstom Grid in North America and the Americas.
Allard holds an MBA from Yale University and a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications from the Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble, France.
May 26, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Principal Program Manager – Americas
Hitachi Rail
Principal Program Manager – Americas
Hitachi Rail
Don Boss is Principal Program Manager–Americas for Hitachi Rail and Project Director of the company’s CBTC Project with BART.
With nearly four decades of leadership experience in complex rail transit systems and high-stakes projects for more than a dozen transit agencies around the globe, Don has successfully led projects focused on rail transit vehicles and systems, automated airport people movers, and complex signaling systems.
Don has held executive and senior management roles with P&L responsibility and has led critical functions to deliver successful outcomes in the disciplines of Project Management; Contract and Subcontract Management; Business Development and Sales; Public, Government, and Labor Relations; Manufacturing and Operations; and Product Introduction.
Project Manager
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
Project Manager
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
Scott Van Dussen leads the Train Control Modernization Program for San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART).
Working with partners from Hitachi Rail, Scott’s organization will implement the largest Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) deployment of its kind in North America on BART’s 125 miles heavy rail system in one of the busiest mega-regions of the United States. A leader who excels in project management and project controls, the team is co-located on site to foster collaboration and ensure that a One Team approach is adopted to successfully complete the project.
Scott’s 25-year career with BART has included transformative projects and the introduction of rider-friendly services. This includes the system’s extensions from Pittsburg to Bay Point, Dublin Pleasanton, as well as the transit authority’s San Francisco Airport and Oakland Airport People Mover projects. He also oversaw the Advanced Automatic Train Control, Automatic Fare Collection Program, and Livermore Extension EIR.
With nearly four decades of leadership experience in complex systems and a degree in Construction Management, Scott’s early career roles included Nuclear and Co-Generation power plants maintenance and startups.
May 26, 11:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Vice President and Head of IoT Edge R&D, Hitachi America, Ltd. and Chief IoT Architect,
Hitachi Astemo, Ltd.
Vice President and Head of IoT Edge R&D, Hitachi America, Ltd. and Chief IoT Architect,
Hitachi Astemo, Ltd.
Sudhanshu is Vice President at Hitachi America and heads the IoT Edge R&D with focus on innovation in Edge-AI space addressing multiple industries including manufacturing.
Additionally, he is also serving as Chief IoT Architect at Hitachi Automotive Systems where his focus is more on embedding emerging technologies–oT/AI–to help improve manufacturing operations. His interests span distributed systems, 5G, Edge AI, federated learning, and robotics. He has authored over 100 patents and peer-reviewed publications. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Sudhanshu is a Senior Member of IEEE.
Global Lead Strategic Ventures & Partnerships - Industrials
Business Development
Ericsson North America
Global Lead Strategic Ventures & Partnerships - Industrials
Business Development
Ericsson North America
Alan Minney leads 5G and Industrial IoT engagement initiatives, ecosystem partnerships, and go-to-market strategy for Ericsson North America’s Industrials team. He has expertise in driving digital transformation, collaborative innovation, and co-development strategies that deliver business value. He works closely with partners, customers, and clients on 5G-connectivity solutions that enable new customer experiences, build engagement, and improve business outcomes.
Mr. Minney held prior roles at a global consulting firm focused on digital transformation and emerging technologies. He brings nearly 20 years of experience in the Information, Communications, and Technology industries in sales, business development, product marketing, and thought leadership.
May 26, 11:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Founder and CEO
EZOPS Inc.
Founder and CEO
EZOPS Inc.
Bikram Singh is the founder and CEO of EZOPS Inc, an A.I.-focused Fin-Tech firm. Bikram has built and managed operational services and technology solutions for banks, hedge funds, asset managers, fund administrators, and custodians. He has over 20 years of experience working at McKinsey, Lehman, Lava, Goldman, and Citi before founding EZOPS. Bikram holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Illinois Institute of Technology.
Global Head of IT and Data
HSBC
Global Head of IT and Data
HSBC
Nitin is an accomplished Business & IT architect, data and digital, transformation, and delivery SME with expertise in delivering global strategic programs in investment, retail, insurance, risk, finance, and other financial services domains for over 20 yrs. Nitin has worked in major financial institutions like ING Direct, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank and is now a global head for IT and Data in the global trade and receivable finance business for HSBC in the UK. Nitin has a strong foundation in functional and technical areas. His unique skillset and innovative approach make him equally effective in matrix set-ups while dealing with business, transformation, technical colleagues, and stakeholders.
Chief Technology Officer, Financial Services
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Technology Officer, Financial Services
Hitachi Vantara
Inderjeet Rana is focused on providing strategic direction for product and services offered by Hitachi Vantara. Creating technology solutions that can be shared within and across industry verticals for not only scale and performance, but for Hitachi vision of innovation as well. These strategic solutions are geared towards solving or delivering a flexible, scalable, and extensible platform to address some common but often complex business challenges and needs.
Prior to Hitachi Vantara, Inderjeet spent 25+ years in banking and financial industry heading various infrastructure technology groups and services. From Merrill Lynch to Barclays and most recently at Newyork Stock Exchange| Intercontinental exchange
May 26, 11:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Director of Business Development and Marketing
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Director of Business Development and Marketing
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Richard is the Director of Business Development and Marketing for Hitachi Cable America. Richard is part of a growing team responsible for strategic growth and segment expansion strategies within the Cable and Medical business divisions. He has a B.S. in Computer Science with an engineering background and over 32 patents to date.
Executive Vice President of High-Performance Medical Solutions Division
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Executive Vice President of High-Performance Medical Solutions Division
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Benjamin Bell is the Executive Vice President of High-Performance Medical Solutions with responsibility for Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Facilities. With 20 years of experience in R&D and manufacturing for the medical device industry, Ben has worked for device companies including Boston Scientific, Navilyst Medical, and Angiodynamics. Ben holds a bachelor's degree in Plastics Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Sr. Director of R&D
Angiodynamics
Sr. Director of R&D
Angiodynamics
Mark is the Sr. Director R&D for AngioDyanmics. He has 22 years of R&D experience in the medical device industry with 20+ product launches. Mark currently leads R&D for the Vascular Access (VA), Oncology Surgery (O/S) and Vascular Interventions and Therapies (VIT) global business units.
May 26, 11:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Senior Advisor, Strategy, IoT & Analytics
Senior Advisor, Strategy, IoT & Analytics
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Suranjan is the Vice President of Financial Services at Hitachi Vantara, based out of London, applying innovation, industry expertise and engineering to address some of the biggest challenges in the financial services world today.
Kicking off his career with the Big 4, Suranjan has been working over 2 decades in the Data and Analytics space. Suranjan has worked exclusively with banks, insurers and asset managers in the last decades. He has architected some of largest Risk, Regulatory and Performance Management solutions for some of the largest banks in the world. This includes building the world’s first real-time risk solution for a large American bank to large middle-office regulation platforms for BCBS 239 and BASEL III compliance.
From "FinTech" to "RegTech", he is working with some of the largest names in the Financial Services space, looking at a wide range of solutions from Big Data, Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence to solve implementation challenges for our Top Tier banking customers. Today, Suranjan is responsible for the portfolio of Hitachi’s strategic financial services accounts across the globe.
Chief Technology Officer, Financial Services
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Technology Officer, Financial Services
Hitachi Vantara
Inderjeet Rana is focused on providing strategic direction for product and services offered by Hitachi Vantara. Creating technology solutions that can be shared within and across industry verticals for not only scale and performance, but for Hitachi vision of innovation as well. These strategic solutions are geared towards solving or delivering a flexible, scalable, and extensible platform to address some common but often complex business challenges and needs. Prior to Hitachi Vantara, Inderjeet spent 25+ years in banking and financial industry heading various infrastructure technology groups and services. From Merrill Lynch to Barclays and most recently at Newyork Stock Exchange| Intercontinental exchange
May 26, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Vice President of Engineering
Sestra
Vice President of Engineering
Sestra
Ben Maphis is a technology leader with success orchestrating hardware and software solutions that deliver advanced IoT solutions across industries. He provided solutions that deliver measurable outcomes across consultative, security, service provider, and product development organizations and built a delivery organization from start-up—establishing business, marketing, product, team talent, and operational support systems. Ben continues to provide thought leadership to global service organizations through speaking engagements.
May 26, 11:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
IT Infrastructure Division
Celepar
IT Infrastructure Division
Celepar
Dario Knopfholz is an engineer specializing in Electronics & Telecom for UTFPR (Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Paraná) with a master’s degree in Computer Networks for Instituto Tecnológico de Educação. With extensive experience in multiplatform file servers, authentication methods, data security, and hardware, Dario Knopfholz has worked for Celepar for more than 20 years. He is currently coordinating the Celepar IT Infrastructure Division and has been responsible for several projects to implement new data transfer and storage technologies, always seeking greater efficiency and security.
May 26, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Vice President, Healthcare & Life Sciences,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Healthcare & Life Sciences,
Hitachi Vantara
Paul joined Hitachi in 2004 and leads Hitachi Vantara’s global digital solutions Healthcare & Life Sciences business, with responsibility for industry strategy, business development and solutions, and supporting Hitachi group collaboration. He has been instrumental in developing the healthcare digital portfolio, bringing key offerings to market such as Hitachi’s Digital Diabetes Prevention solution and establishing the Smart Hospital transformation line of business, both recognised as exemplars of Hitachi Social Innovation. Paul has skills and experience in business incubation, strategy, technology and systems-thinking, and is passionate about improving societal outcomes through innovation, co-creation and collaboration with customers and partners.
Chief Executive,
Northern Care Alliance NHS Group
Chief Executive,
Northern Care Alliance NHS Group
Raj re-joined Salford Royal in January 2015 to lead the development of the Group’s corporate strategy, then becoming the Chief of Strategy & Organisational Development, with responsibility for workforce, digital, service development, estates and facilities. He was also Deputy Chief Executive.
He has previously held the post of Managing Director of Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), created to bring together healthcare and academic organisations in partnership with industry, local authorities, and other agencies to improve health and economic wealth through the spread of innovation.
Raj was Chief Executive of an NHS Foundation Trust that was named Hospital of the Year in 2012 and has held senior roles in teaching and general hospitals. He has been a director of two research organisations and has held regional and national leadership positions in health development and planning.
CCIO and Deputy Director for Research and Innovation,
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
CCIO and Deputy Director for Research and Innovation,
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Jim Ritchie is a consultant kidney doctor and CCIO at SRFT, one of the most digitally mature trusts in the NHS. Jim has supported delivery of the Salford Global Digital Exemplar programme, provides clinical leadership to the digital ‘Living Lab’, and has skills and knowledge in design thinking, system evaluation, and developing collaborative partnerships with industry. Over the last three years, Jim has led the clinical design and development of the NCA Digital Control Programme; a transformational partnership with Hitachi Vantara that will embed advanced technologies and behaviours to optimise operational efficiency and improve care delivery. In addition, he has worked with colleagues to develop partnerships that can deliver new models of care for chronic disease into the NHS.
May 26, 10:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Vice President – Network, Systems, and
Services, CSX Transportation
Vice President – Network, Systems, and
Services, CSX Transportation
Deborah Bittner has been a driving force and key contributor to many systems that enhance railroad safety and operating efficiency, including Positive Train Control (PTC).
Over the past decade, she has been integrally involved in the development and deployment of PTC, a safety technology that represents one of the largest capital programs in CSX history. Previously, she was Head of Transportation and Positive Train Control (PTC) Systems Operations. Bittner joined CSX in 1987 as a technology programmer analyst and has been consistently promoted to roles of increasing responsibility.
Bittner holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Florida State University.
Head of North America Freight Rail,
Hitachi Rail
Head of North America Freight Rail,
Hitachi Rail
Miles has more than 20 years of experience in the rail industry and extensive expertise in the development and introduction of new technologies for the industry. In his current role, Miles leads the commercial teams for freight rail and heavy haul mining at Hitachi Rail with a focus on the future of rail automation and digitization. Previously, Miles led product management, engineering, and commercial teams at GE Transportation and was a senior rail industry consultant at Allied Rail. He has been awarded two patents in rail technology.
May 27, 10:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Vice President,
Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business,
Hitachi, Ltd.
Vice President,
Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business,
Hitachi, Ltd.
Dean is the Vice President, Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business (GSIB), Americas. He has over 30 years of business, academic, and military leadership experience in transportation and mobility, as a computer scientist, educator, commercial pilot, and autonomous and connected systems expert. In his current role he leads and directs the GSIB America's team in commercial development and business strategy across multiple verticals, emphasizing advanced digital solutions and data analytics.
He is an internationally recognized expert in autonomous, connected, electric, and shared transportation systems across air, rail, freight, trucking, and shared system modalities. Before joining Hitachi America, Ltd., he was the General Manager of Voyage, a self-driving car startup, with a mission to super-charge communities with self-driving cars.
He retired from the U.S. Air Force, after 25 years of service, as a full Colonel. Dean also hold a Master’s degree and a PhD in Computer Science from Clemson University.
Vice President, Transportation Industry, Americas
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Vice President, Transportation Industry, Americas
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Since 2011, Simounet has lead the Transportation Industry segment for Hitachi ABB Power Grids in the Americas region.
He has more than 25 years of experience in the rail and transit industry in roles spanning engineering, marketing, sales, product management and business development.
Simounet has extensive experience working with a variety of associations, technical committees and NGOs in the electrical and transportation industry, and is a recognized expert in the field of the electrification of transport and sustainable mobility. He currently serves as a board member of InnovÉÉ and IVI Solutions.
Simounet holds an advanced technical diploma in electrical engineering from the School of Gustave Eiffel in Bordeaux, France, and an Executive MBA from the University of Québec in Montreal.
Vice President – Policy and Mobility
American Public Transportation Association
Vice President – Policy and Mobility
American Public Transportation Association
Art Guzzetti, a 40-year professional in public transportation at the local, state, and national levels, serves as Vice President-Mobility Initiatives & Policy for the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the trade group for the public transportation industry. Mr. Guzzetti is responsible for APTA’s extensive policy development and research agenda and for advancing policies favorable to public transportation with Congress, the Administration, state and local governments, grass-roots and stakeholder organizations, and public policy think tanks. A key current focus is integration of transit networks with new and emerging public and private mobility services.
Product Management Director for Enterprise Transformations
Hitachi Vantara
Product Management Director for Enterprise Transformations
Hitachi Vantara
An aerospace engineer by trade, Shanif has spent the last 5 years driving complex large scale IOT transformations in aviation, mining and transportation, solving customer needs across operations, revenue, customer experience, and human performance delivering optimized workflows back to field personas to drive business efficiency and growth
Chief Director, Digital, Innovation & Chief Lumada Business Officer
Hitachi Rail
Chief Director, Digital, Innovation & Chief Lumada Business Officer
Hitachi Rail
Leonardo Impagliazzo is Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Hitachi Rail where he leads the definition and implementation the global rail digital and innovation strategy. He is also responsible to promote the growth of the Lumada business within rail.
Previously, Leonardo was Vice President Signalling Engineering and then Senior Vice President of RAMS before holding the position of Senior Vice President System Assurance & Control, managing teams working across Integrated Management System activities, the Quality, Safety and Cybersecurity Assurance and Control activities as well as the RAMS and Verification & Validation activities for Hitachi Rail’s products, applications, and systems.
May 27, 10:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
SVP, Enterprise Software Solutions
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
SVP, Enterprise Software Solutions
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
As Head of Enterprise Software Solutions for Hitachi ABB Power Grids, Bryan Friehauf leads the overall strategy for enterprise solutions designed to drive digital transformation in complex business environments. He has 30 years of experience managing technical services organizations in the mining, utility, and manufacturing industries.
General Manager, Energy/Utility Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
General Manager, Energy/Utility Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
Phil Gruber, Vice President of Energy at Hitachi Vantara, leads the energy practice with a focus on unlocking synergy with Hitachi’s newly acquired ABB power grids business. A former partner and competitor of ABB, he brings a deep understanding of the ABB power grids software capabilities. Previously, Phil was the global digital leader at Atkins Engineering where he built a new revenue stream through digital products and services in the areas of data analytics, digital twin, sight inspection, and asset management. Prior to Atkins, he had a long career at IBM, where he first began as a management and IT consultant for U.S. utility companies.
Sr. Director ITOT, Digital Field Services & Innovation
Ameren Services
Sr. Director ITOT, Digital Field Services & Innovation
Ameren Services
Keith Hock leads the digital teams supporting Ameren's Generation, Nuclear, Transmission, Distribution, Gas, and Field business teams. Keith is responsible for developing and executing Ameren's Digital Grid of the Future strategy and the Digital Field Workforce strategy to provide mobility, geospatial, and fully digitized capabilities to Ameren’s 4,000+ field coworkers.
Keith was formerly the Director Transmission Technical Services and Operations Planning, responsible for real-time operations support, short-term planning, control room visualization, hardware infrastructure, cyber-security, GIS, SharePoint, strategy development, and enabling and managing analytics initiatives.
May 26, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Suranjan is the Vice President of Financial Services at Hitachi Vantara, based out of London, applying innovation, industry expertise and engineering to address some of the biggest challenges in the financial services world today.
Kicking off his career with the Big 4, Suranjan has been working over 2 decades in the Data and Analytics space. Suranjan has worked exclusively with banks, insurers and asset managers in the last decades. He has architected some of largest Risk, Regulatory and Performance Management solutions for some of the largest banks in the world. This includes building the world’s first real-time risk solution for a large American bank to large middle-office regulation platforms for BCBS 239 and BASEL III compliance.
From "FinTech" to "RegTech", he is working with some of the largest names in the Financial Services space, looking at a wide range of solutions from Big Data, Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence to solve implementation challenges for our Top Tier banking customers. Today, Suranjan is responsible for the portfolio of Hitachi’s strategic financial services accounts across the globe.
Head of Group IT Strategy & Solutions
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI)
Head of Group IT Strategy & Solutions
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI)
Marek Chlebicki is Head of Group IT Strategy & Solutions at RBI, responsible for IT strategy development, Group technology transformation program, and new IT solutions. Marek has extensive experience in the banking industry as well as consulting across Europe including the CEE region. Previously, he worked as Director of Strategy & Operations consulting for the financial services sector at PwC Poland (responsible for Poland, CEE, supporting Global PwC assignments) and Head of Banking Operations Strategy & Productivity at Sberbank Europe Group.
Marek specializes in strategy definition and implementation, managing complex technology-driven transformations, operational excellence, organizational efficiency management, and using technology and data to transform business and operations.
May 26, 11:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Vice President, Public Sector Partners and Programs,
Amazon Web Services
Vice President, Public Sector Partners and Programs,
Amazon Web Services
May 27, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Global Head, Automation & Innovation Technology, Markets Operations & Technology
Citi
Global Head, Automation & Innovation Technology, Markets Operations & Technology
Citi
Vishwani Pandit is Head of Innovation & Automation Technology for Citi’s Institutional Client Groups Markets Operations & Technology Division, which is present in over 60 countries globally. Their goal is to transform the user experience of global operations teams as well as Citi’s clients by applying innovative solutioning for Straight Through Processing Challenges without compromising on quality, speed, or service. Vishwani’s aim is to demonstrate the competitive advantage that innovation can bring through the creation of scalable and robust solutions that can translate to true value for users and clients. The group specializes in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Transformation, and Workflow Digitization.
Senior Director, Financial Innovation Solutions
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Director, Financial Innovation Solutions
Hitachi Vantara
Saker is Head of Strategy and Growth for Hitachi Vantara's Financial Innovation Division, focused on corporate development and product strategy for innovation-led growth opportunities within North American FSI. Previously, Saker drove self-disruptive inorganic growth across 157-countries as the Global Innovation Leader of PwC, generating 8-figure revenues annually with brand-differentiating solutions and new business models. Earlier, Saker founded KPMG's FSI CIO Advisory and Google Enterprise Search practices, built and exited a payments fintech (now 20m+ customers), and was a major technical and product contributor at Apple, Yahoo, and Palm for the Mac OSX, iPod, Yahoo Search, and Treo. He is a 25-year veteran of the tech, new media, and financial services industries.
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Suranjan is the Vice President of Financial Services at Hitachi Vantara, based out of London, applying innovation, industry expertise and engineering to address some of the biggest challenges in the financial services world today.
Kicking off his career with the Big 4, Suranjan has been working over 2 decades in the Data and Analytics space. Suranjan has worked exclusively with banks, insurers and asset managers in the last decades. He has architected some of largest Risk, Regulatory and Performance Management solutions for some of the largest banks in the world. This includes building the world’s first real-time risk solution for a large American bank to large middle-office regulation platforms for BCBS 239 and BASEL III compliance.
From "FinTech" to "RegTech", he is working with some of the largest names in the Financial Services space, looking at a wide range of solutions from Big Data, Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence to solve implementation challenges for our Top Tier banking customers. Today, Suranjan is responsible for the portfolio of Hitachi’s strategic financial services accounts across the globe.
May 27, 11:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Director, Digital Manufacturing Solutions
Hitachi Vantara
Director, Digital Manufacturing Solutions
Hitachi Vantara
David joined Hitachi in 2016 to broaden his work in Industrial IoT and digital manufacturing. At Hitachi Vantara, he is driving manufacturing operations excellence solutions with clients across various industries. Prior to his tenure with Hitachi, David has focused on providing industrial automation and SAP manufacturing solutions throughout the world. David is passionate about enabling manufacturers—their operators, supervisors, and management—to employ technology to maximize productivity, quality, safety, and flexibility.
Director, Systems Products Division
Hitachi High-Tech Americas, Inc.
Director, Systems Products Division
Hitachi High-Tech Americas, Inc.
Kyoko joined Hitachi in 2000. Her current role focuses on edge device/computing, digital transformation, and introduction of Industrial IoT applications for industrial customers. Her success in this role was developed from her prior experience within Systems Products Division, where she was responsible for technology sales, management of manufacturing and logistics operations. This experience is complimented by her role in partnership development in various business units within Hitachi. Her passion is to solve customers’ unique problems and challenges using her expertise in the latest digital technology.
May 27, 11:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Lead Marketing and Digital Media Coordinator
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Lead Marketing and Digital Media Coordinator
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Ainsley Reymore is the Lead Marketing and Digital Media Coordinator for Hitachi Cable America. Ainsley joined Hitachi in 2017 after receiving her B.S. from Suffolk University in Boston, MA. She also holds an MBA from New England College in Henniker, NH.
COO & CTO
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
COO & CTO
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Joseph Iamartino is the COO/CTO of Hitachi Cable America’s High-Performance Medical Solutions division. Prior to this role, Joe served as VP, Business & Technology Development for the Performance Cable Systems division in Manchester, NH starting in 2009. Joe has served previously in VP roles for Emerson, TE, and C&M Corporation.
Joseph holds a BSEE from University of Rhode Island and a degree from MS Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is a Retired Adjunct Professor of Business for Bay Path University.
May 27, 10:30 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Head of Information Architecture
Swisscom
Head of Information Architecture
Swisscom
Emanuel Zehnder is the Head of Information Architecture, a newly created role specifically tailored to his skills and experience at Swisscom B2B Customers. Emanuel has over 13 years of experience designing, engineering, and operating global data-centric information systems in different market segments. Before joining Swisscom B2B Customers, he held various senior positions at Fortune 500 enterprises. Emanuel speaks English, German, French, and Dutch fluently and holds a doctorate in Information Management & Leadership, researching how to enhance information sharing of freshwater data across the globe in sensitive economic and political environments.
May 27, 11:00 a.m. PT
Business Track
Business Track
Speakers:
Data integration & Reporting Service manager
CERN
Data integration & Reporting Service manager
CERN
Miroslav Potocký is an IT professional specializing in databases, database storage, and data integration. His career began with an initial role in *NIX system administration followed by more than a decade as DB Administrator/Architect. He was responsible for global Oracle database accounts in HP Enterprise services before moving to CERN where he took over the role of database storage service manager and consultant in CERN’s Information Technology Department—Database Group. This experience has allowed him to take on the challenge of leading internal projects for implementation of scalable, on-demand data integration and reporting infrastructure for Pentaho software at CERN.
May 25, 10:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Head of 5G Marketing,
North America,
Ericsson
Head of 5G Marketing,
North America,
Ericsson
Peter Linder is a 5G evangelist and Head of 5G Marketing for Ericsson in North America. His professional focus is on anything 5G and digital marketing. Onalytica ranked him as the #1 most influential expert across all tech sector topics on LinkedIn in 2020. He aspires to make you understand 5G more clearly and more in-depth, so you can truly grok 5G and maximize your impact on its use in your company.
Peter’s professional career encompasses nearly 30 years at Ericsson, double master's degrees from Chalmers University, and extensive post-graduate education at Ivy League universities. His pet project is a digital mentoring program with more than 200 episodes released to date.
Senior Director, Industry Solutions Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Director, Industry Solutions Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
At Hitachi Vantara, Bjorn Andersson leads marketing for selected industry solutions practices and also interfaces and collaborates with multiple Hitachi organizations on cross-company initiatives on a global basis. He has been involved in the establishment of the Lumada platform and solutions since its inception. With 25+ years of marketing, technology, and product management experience, Bjorn covers a wide range of topics including industry-specific solutions, digital transformation, analytics, visualization, high-performance computing, and Internet of Things (IoT).
May 25, 10:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Samta is Global Consulting Strategy and Marketing leader for Hitachi Vantara. She is responsible for developing and implementing go-to-market strategies for the company’s services portfolio. Samta has deep global expertise in digital transformations, artificial intelligence, big data, and IoT. Her experience spans portfolio marketing, strategy, sales enablement, business development, software products, and industrial domains. Samta is a published author and speaker and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University in marketing and leadership, a BE in Electrical and Electronics, and a Masters in Physics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Premkumar Balasubramanian (“Prem”) heads our Technology and Solutions office and is responsible for strategizing and supporting go-to-market (GTM) pursuits, architecting repeatable solutions for our customers and providing technology and thought leadership in modern engineering and evolving technologies focused on application modernization, data and analytics.
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Tim is a people-focused, global technology executive with a strong commercial orientation from leadership roles in customer service operations, strategic technology sourcing, and financial management.
Tim has a proven track-record of taking on new challenges and successfully leading complex change initiatives across geographies and business functions. His most rewarding career roles have been those where new technology is used to improve customer experience, drive operational efficiencies, and support business growth.
As CIO at Hitachi Vantara, Tim is responsible for the global information technology function supporting Hitachi Vantara’s 10,000+ global employees, our customers and our partners. His current 2021 priorities are enabling the company growth ambitions, powering the future of work, protecting to enable, operational excellence, and building and developing one global team.
Previously, Tim was a technology and global operations leader at Western Union (WU) with a reputation for successfully leading and transforming large global teams of employees and vendor staff. Tim delivered the first phase of the largest WU technology project in-flight at the time – a new global settlement platform responsible for the annual movement of $300B of customer principal. He also led the rapid implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud, Einstein Analytics, and a front-end transaction management application for a 5,000-person customer service organization.
Prior to Western Union, Tim held strategic technology consulting and advisory roles with Information Services Group (ISG) and financial leadership roles with Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Tim completed his Bachelors of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Tim lives with his family in Denver, CO and actively volunteers as a board member of the Colorado Technology Association, and an Assistant Scoutmaster with Scouts BSA.
May 25, 11:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Senior Research Analyst
451 Research
Senior Research Analyst
451 Research
Paige is a Senior Research Analyst for the Data, AI & Analytics Channel at 451 Research, a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, covering core data management topics. Key themes include data privacy, data governance, data integration, metadata management, data quality and master data management. She has experience covering a broad range of technologies spanning the Data, AI & Analytics stack, from databases to self-service analytics.
In current research, Paige analyzes the need for information governance to maximize the value of enterprise data amid proliferating global regulatory requirements and rising consumer expectations for data stewardship. With data privacy and compliance as a specialty focus, Paige explores how the enterprise can align technical requirements with business strategy, enabling more profitable and compliant leverage of data.
Previously, Paige provided marketing and strategy for ZL Technologies, an information governance provider that specializes in the management of unstructured data for compliance, legal and archiving needs. Prior to working at 451 Research, she was a Senior Analyst at Ovum (now Omdia).
Paige received her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and neuroscience from Duke University, and a Master of Management Studies (MMS) degree from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.
Principal Product Marketing Manager,
Pentaho and Lumada Software
Principal Product Marketing Manager,
Pentaho and Lumada Software
Anand is an analytical product marketer with a blend of business and technical acumen, the ability to guide strategy and execution, launch new products, solve complex problems, drive sales and grow the bottom line. His experience spans fast growth and Fortune 500 enterprise software companies, and he is a recognized thought leader and creative thinker with the ability to build relationships and work with cross-functional teams.
May 25, 10:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Director of Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Director of Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Gary Breder is a Solution Marketing Manager at Hitachi Vantara covering the infrastructure portfolio at the foundation of our solutions that modernize the digital core for our clients: digital high-end storage platform solutions. A 30-plus year industry leader in IT hardware, software, and services, Gary has led the transformation and adoption of new technologies and approaches in Enterprise Storage, Information Lifecycle Management, Virtualization, Converged Infrastructure, Cloud Solutions, and ‘as-a-Service' offerings. His deepest area of expertise is how the application of IT technology achieves business outcomes and why it matters to business leaders.
CIO and Technology Vice President
Walmart Mexico
CIO and Technology Vice President
Walmart Mexico
Alonso Yañez joined Walmart in 2018 as the CIO & Technology Vice President. He is responsible for consolidating Walmart’s IT function and strengthening its digital capabilities to enable a radical digital transformation across all business areas. Previously, as CIO and member of PepsiCo’s Executive Committee, he led the company’s digital transformation consolidating the IT ecosystem while developing different disruptive IT platforms. In 1997, he joined Deloitte Consulting as a partner responsible for implementing business solutions through state-of-the-art technologies for global corporations in various industries. Alonso is a frequent speaker at forums on innovation, business, and technology.
May 25, 11:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Senior Analyst
ESG
Senior Analyst
ESG
ESG Senior Analyst Scott Sinclair has a proven history in the IT industry in the areas of enterprise storage and infrastructure. Scott uses his keen understanding and experience to investigate new technologies and design business strategies for Fortune 500 technology companies.
Vice President, Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Colin is an innovative and impactful story teller with over 25 years of experience in marketing and product management and a history of leadership roles at several major infrastructure companies. He has a passion for telling compelling stories about technical products that help customers solve both business and personal pain–and enjoys the challenge of telling them in creative ways. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Northeastern University. He tries to put as many miles on his bike as his aging body will allow, “hangs out” on twitter as @worldc3, and is most definitely team Oxford comma.
May 25, 11:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Global Head, Enterprise Data & Analytics (Global IT)
Hitachi Vantara
Global Head, Enterprise Data & Analytics (Global IT)
Hitachi Vantara
Gauri Kapur is the Global Head, Enterprise Data & Analytics (Global IT) responsible for the Enterprise Data Platform and the AWS and GCP public cloud teams. As a seasoned professional with more than 20 years of experience, she has driven the alignment of technology strategic direction to business vision, served as the champion for data, and steered a cultural shift to embrace and leverage data.
Gauri most recently served as the Vice President of Software Engineering/Data & Analytics at National CineMedia, the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S. She holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Communications and serves on the Board of Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Tim is a people-focused, global technology executive with a strong commercial orientation from leadership roles in customer service operations, strategic technology sourcing, and financial management.
Tim has a proven track-record of taking on new challenges and successfully leading complex change initiatives across geographies and business functions. His most rewarding career roles have been those where new technology is used to improve customer experience, drive operational efficiencies, and support business growth.
As CIO at Hitachi Vantara, Tim is responsible for the global information technology function supporting Hitachi Vantara’s 10,000+ global employees, our customers and our partners. His current 2021 priorities are enabling the company growth ambitions, powering the future of work, protecting to enable, operational excellence, and building and developing one global team.
Previously, Tim was a technology and global operations leader at Western Union (WU) with a reputation for successfully leading and transforming large global teams of employees and vendor staff. Tim delivered the first phase of the largest WU technology project in-flight at the time – a new global settlement platform responsible for the annual movement of $300B of customer principal. He also led the rapid implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud, Einstein Analytics, and a front-end transaction management application for a 5,000-person customer service organization.
Prior to Western Union, Tim held strategic technology consulting and advisory roles with Information Services Group (ISG) and financial leadership roles with Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Tim completed his Bachelors of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Tim lives with his family in Denver, CO and actively volunteers as a board member of the Colorado Technology Association, and an Assistant Scoutmaster with Scouts BSA.
May 25, 10:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Chief Product Officer and General Manager, Software
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Product Officer and General Manager, Software
Hitachi Vantara
As the global head of products, Radhika is responsible for the vision, strategy, delivery, and business performance for all our products and solutions across data storage, data management and analytics, as well as Hitachi’s industry-leading Lumada IoT and industrial software.
Radhika has a unique combination of deep technical expertise and experience in end-to-end business management. She has incubated and scaled several businesses in her previous leadership roles at Lenovo, HP, Cisco, NetApp and Nimble Storage. Before joining Hitachi Vantara in September 2020, Radhika was executive vice president and general manager of software at 3D Systems.
Radhika is a passionate advocate for diversity in tech. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and a master’s in business administration degree from San Jose State University.
May 26, 10:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Corporate Chief Scientist
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Corporate Chief Scientist
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Umesh leads innovation in big data, advanced analytics, and AI solutions for manufacturing, energy, mobility, and other industries. He has 35+ years of research experience. He joined the R&D Division of Hitachi America, Ltd. in 2013.
Prior to that, he was an HP Fellow and Director of the Information Analytics Lab at Hewlett-Packard Labs, Palo Alto, California. Umesh received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and has received the Edgar F. Codd Award for fundamental contributions to data management. He has authored 240+ publications and holds 60+ patents.
Sr. Partner
Frost & Sullivan
Sr. Partner
Frost & Sullivan
Aroop has 20+ years of growth management expertise working with companies to design growth strategies for their existing portfolio of product/offerings and facilitating the development of market entry strategies.
He has designed and supported the integration of the global delivery model for Frost & Sullivan and developed the strategy for leveraging Indian intellect to support the company’s global operations through the GIC operations in Chennai. He also started Frost & Sullivan's business operations in Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, and CEE. In less than 10 years, Frost & Sullivan created 30 offices in these regions that are now some of the company’s most profitable regions.
May 26, 10:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Chief Product Oficer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Product Oficer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
As the global head of products, Radhika is responsible for the vision, strategy, delivery, and business performance for all our products and solutions across data storage, data management and analytics, as well as Hitachi’s industry-leading Lumada IoT and industrial software.
Radhika has a unique combination of deep technical expertise and experience in end-to-end business management. She has incubated and scaled several businesses in her previous leadership roles at Lenovo, HP, Cisco, NetApp and Nimble Storage. Before joining Hitachi Vantara in September 2020, Radhika was executive vice president and general manager of software at 3D Systems.
Radhika is a passionate advocate for diversity in tech. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and a master’s in business administration degree from San Jose State University.
Vice President, Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Colin is an innovative and impactful story teller with over 25 years of experience in marketing and product management and a history of leadership roles at several major infrastructure companies. He has a passion for telling compelling stories about technical products that help customers solve both business and personal pain–and enjoys the challenge of telling them in creative ways. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Northeastern University. He tries to put as many miles on his bike as his aging body will allow, “hangs out” on twitter as @worldc3, and is most definitely team Oxford comma.
May 26, 10:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
VP IOT Group & GM Visual Retail
Intel
VP IOT Group & GM Visual Retail
Intel
Jose Avalos heads the leadership and management of Intel’s worldwide retail and digital signage business. He holds an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School, an MSE in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Follow him @Intel_Jose on Twitter.
Chief Business Development Officer
Shekel Brainweigh
Chief Business Development Officer
Shekel Brainweigh
Relentless entrepreneur, experienced in turning technological solutions into successful business ventures. Rami is leading Retail Innovation Division business development activities since 2018, driving digital transformation of convenience retail services.
Rami co-founded C-nario, a pioneer & leader of digital signage markets, and Goopi, automated video ads creation platform and led its business activities.
Rami led VCON Video Conferencing business activities and its acquisition by ClearOne (NASDAQ: CLRO), and acted as VP of Global Video & International Sales.
BA, Philosophy - Haifa University; Master, Science of Management, Boston University.
Head of Retail, Hospitality & Consumer Goods Consulting EMEA
Hitachi Vantara
Head of Retail, Hospitality & Consumer Goods Consulting EMEA
Hitachi Vantara
Mark is Head of Retail and Hospitality for Hitachi Vantara EMEA. His role is to lead client discussions and solution development within the EMEA region. Mark has 20+ years’ experience, specifically in Retail and Hospitality. During his time, he has worked closely with some of the UK’s and European leading Retail and Hospitality organisations enabling digital transformation of customer engagement and insight, operational cost reduction and reduction in shrink. Mark joined Hitachi in 2017, having previously held senior Retail advisory positions with some of the world’s leading software and consulting organisations.
Director, Smart Spaces and Lumada Video Insights, EMEA
Hitachi Vantara
Director, Smart Spaces and Lumada Video Insights, EMEA
Hitachi Vantara
Christian Dornacher supports customers in their digital journey working within cross-functional teams within Hitachi and with strategic partners to create value and provide insights for customers by applying smart spaces technologies and services.
He has excelled in the IT space for the past 30 years in different technical and business roles with a focus on IoT and smart spaces technologies for over 8 years. Christian holds an electrical engineering degree from the Kempten University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
May 26, 11:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Vice President Global Services
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President Global Services
Hitachi Vantara
Jeremy joined Hitachi Vantara in 2018, leading the Cloud Managed Services business, bringing a wealth of knowledge from his previous roles at SAP. His background in digital transformation, on-prem infrastructure operations, compliancy, and cloud strategy has proven valuable across the organization. He heads the Global Automation Practice which provides HyperAutomation offerings and digital transformation offerings to Hitachi Vantara clients.
Jeremy’s notable accomplishments include modernizing SAP’s SaaS portfolio applications to run on the cloud and achieving FedRAMP Moderate IL4 accreditation; developing operations models which scale through ML increasing SLAs while reducing overhead cost; digital transformation of Hitachi Services through AIOps and HyperAutomation.
May 26, 10:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Research Director
IDC
Research Director
IDC
Pete Marston is Research Director for IDC, responsible for the Worldwide Intelligent Application Services practice. He develops research focused on the lifecycle of application delivery and related services markets that include Custom Application Development (CAD), testing, Application Management (AM), also referred to as ADM (Application Development and Maintenance), and Hosted Application Management (HAM). Mr. Marston's research also reviews how modern application delivery, leading edge technology platforms and tools, and application lifecycle management methodologies are evolving and shaping the application services markets and contractual relationships. His findings help organizations achieve digital transformation objectives.
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Samta is Global Consulting Strategy and Marketing leader for Hitachi Vantara. She is responsible for developing and implementing go-to-market strategies for the company’s services portfolio. Samta has deep global expertise in digital transformations, artificial intelligence, big data, and IoT. Her experience spans portfolio marketing, strategy, sales enablement, business development, software products, and industrial domains. Samta is a published author and speaker and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University in marketing and leadership, a BE in Electrical and Electronics, and a Masters in Physics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Founding Director
Center for Digital Transformation
Premkumar Balasubramanian (“Prem”) heads our Technology and Solutions office and is responsible for strategizing and supporting go-to-market (GTM) pursuits, architecting repeatable solutions for our customers and providing technology and thought leadership in modern engineering and evolving technologies focused on application modernization, data and analytics.
Senior Vice President, Digital Modernization
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Vice President, Digital Modernization
Hitachi Vantara
Adithya Sastry is responsible for the Digital Modernization Practice, a key driver of the Digital Solutions business unit at Hitachi Vantara. He drives the expansion of the company’s digital solutions business by helping customers modernize their solutions to accelerate digital innovation, which allows them to build transformable and scalable digital solutions.
Earlier, Adithya was the senior vice president and general manager for the Americas at Hitachi Consulting where he led the Americas’ P&L including growth, industry solutions and delivery.
Adithya is a seasoned business leader with a strong track record in growing digital businesses by bringing innovative solutions to market, building a sales-driven culture, and developing a strong collaborative partner ecosystem to extend solutions and sales. Before joining Hitachi, Adithya held various leadership roles in P&L, product management and M&A at Cognizant Technology Solutions, General Electric Company and NCR Corporation.
Adithya holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Franklin University, Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Arkansas State University and Master of Business Administration degree in International Business from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Adithya resides in Chicago with his wife and two children, and enjoys tennis and traveling.
May 26, 11:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Research Director
451 Research
Research Director
451 Research
Matt Aslett is a Research Director with responsibility for the Data, AI & Analytics Channel at 451 Research, a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence. This Channel includes operational and analytic databases, Hadoop, grid/cache, stream processing, data integration, data governance and data management, as well as data science and analytics, machine learning and AI. Matt's primary area of focus includes data abstraction, virtualization and analytics acceleration, data culture and data literacy, data streaming, and streaming data integration, as well as hybrid cloud data processing.
Matt is a regular speaker at client and industry events, and has delivered keynotes and moderated panels at Google Cloud Next, Big Data LDN, Hitachi NEXT, Strata + Hadoop World, DataWorks Summit, Percona Live, GraphConnect, In-Memory Computing Summit and NoSQL Roadshow. Matt was listed in Onalytica’s 2021 Who’s Who in Data Management.
Prior to joining 451 Research in 2007, Matt was deputy editor of monthly magazine Computer Business Review and ComputerWire's daily news service. Matt started in IT journalism in 1997 as a staff writer with monthly magazine Unix and NT News, where he became editor in 2000.
Matt holds a BA in multimedia journalism from Bournemouth University in the UK.
Chief Innovation Officer
Flexential
Chief Innovation Officer
Flexential
Jason leads a team focused on defining, assessing, and providing direction on the changing technology landscape of Flexential’s business and customers. He and his team are responsible for developing insights on what is next on the horizon to further position Flexential as a hybrid IT and data center leader. He joined the company in 2011 and has held various roles in product, operations, and technical management.
Jason has over 25 years of experience in leadership positions in product architecture, software engineering, and technical sales and support across a variety of companies, including Sun Microsystems, where Jason was honored as a Distinguished Engineer, VMware, and the Mayo Clinic.
Global Technology Advisor and Executive Analyst
Hitachi Vantara
Global Technology Advisor and Executive Analyst
Hitachi Vantara
At Hitachi Vantara, Tom Christensen focuses on the information technology and services industry.
He has more than 30 years of skilled experience in modernizing the data center for infrastructure including computing and storage to Hybrid-Cloud and Multi-Cloud, Application Modernization, Solution Applications, DataOps, and Big Data Analytics. Tom is also a blogger and advocate for Social Innovation.
Head of Industry Solutions Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Head of Industry Solutions Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Lothar Schubert leads Industry Solution Marketing at Hitachi Vantara, focusing on digital transformation (DX), cloud modernization, and intelligent data operations. With 15+ years of industry marketing experience, prior work includes leadership roles at SAP, GE Digital, and several cloud start-ups.
May 25, 11:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Senior Product Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Product Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Mark is responsible for understanding customer requirements, technology trends, Hitachi Vantara initiatives and the competitive landscape to deliver high-value capabilities in Protector in a timely manner. Mark and his team correlate input from customers, field personnel, sales, marketing and industry analysts to create roadmaps that support our customer’s current and future data protection and DevOp data management needs. He has over 30 years of experience in software development, architecture and solution design, managed services design and delivery, and storage and backup service development and delivery. Mark has held a number of leadership positions during his 16 years at Hitachi, including Lead Architect and Principal Technical Consultant, and previously worked at Glasshouse Technologies, the Open Software Foundation, and Prime Computer. Mark holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
May 26, 11:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Director of Cloud Object Storage, Collaboration and Data Intelligence Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Director of Cloud Object Storage, Collaboration and Data Intelligence Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Tanya is the Director of Product Marketing for the Hitachi Content Platform Portfolio, which includes object storage and related cloud storage gateway, file sync and share, data governance, data protection, and analytics solutions. Tanya has more than 20 years of experience across various product marketing, voice-of-the-customer, and business development disciplines and technologies including cloud, file, object, and NAS.
Senior Analyst
ESG
Senior Analyst
ESG
Christophe Bertrand is the Senior Analyst at ESG with research focus on data protection. He has 25 years of experience in services, software, and high-end storage systems, as well as a passion for the product marketing discipline and product launches. Christophe has spent most of his career in the data storage and data protection space with companies such as Legato Systems, Hitachi Data Systems, and Arcserve. As previous VP of Product Marketing, he spearheaded many product launches including UDP software, appliances, and cloud services.
Christophe has extensive global experience built on many hours in the field with customers, channel and alliance partners, and industry influencers.
May 26, 10:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Global Director
Jacobs Engineering
Global Director
Jacobs Engineering
Susan leads a team of more than 6,000 Drinking Water & Reuse, Water Resources, Conveyance & Storage, Wastewater, and Industrial Water visionaries and doers to develop innovative, sustainable, and technology-enabled solutions for the world’s water challenges.
Jacobs water team is committed to providing industry-leading infrastructure, digital, and environmental expertise to address complex challenges across drinking water, wastewater, desalination, conveyance, and flood control challenges, all with Jacobs’ OneWater approach to water management–looking at our work as a complete system.
Susan is a Technology Fellow with more than 30 years of experience in capacity assessments, system integration, and flow analysis.
Vice President, Americas Digital Insights
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Americas Digital Insights
Hitachi Vantara
Kerry has more than 25 years of experience in advanced analytics with a passion for cross-industry solution innovation and operational integration. Kerry’s teams have delivered award-winning solutions incorporating data science, IoT, machine learning, real-time and big data for clients in telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, mining, multimodal transportation & logistics, and smart infrastructure. Prior to joining Hitachi Vantara, Kerry provided technology advisory for Arthur Andersen and implemented network operations solutions for AT&T, MediaOne, and US West Advanced Technologies.
May 26, 11:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Client Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Client Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Juan Troytino is the Client Partner for Telefonica in Hitachi with a long history of working on Telco and Media on DX projects. Over the last 10 years Juan has been collaborating alongside Telefonica on their data and cloud transformation strategies and has been responsible for cloud adoption in Telefonica driving Collaboration, Infrastructure, IA, and Data TX projects.
Chief Digital Consumer Officer
Telefonica
Vice President, Americas Digital Insights
Hitachi Vantara
Chema Alonso is the Chief Digital Consumer Officer (CDCO) of Telefónica. He leads the strategy for the digitalization of product and service sales processes and the customer communication channels. He also aims to promote innovation of new digital products and services and the generation of internal efficiency supported by the technological capacities of big data and artificial intelligence of Telefónica's fourth platform, with special focus on the digital home. Mr. Alonso is responsible for the innovation of Telefónica's core technologies and the company's relationship with the entrepreneurial ecosystem under an open cooperation model.
He is also Chairman of ElevenPaths, the cybersecurity company owned by Telefónica Tech, which integrates the company's Cloud, IoT/Big Data and Security businesses.
May 27, 10:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Sr. Sales Engineer
Hitachi ID Systems, Inc.
Sr. Sales Engineer
Hitachi ID Systems, Inc.
Bryan Christ is an IT professional with more than twenty years of industry experience. His fascination with technology began four decades ago with the Commodore VIC-20. He first published in 1991 and started his professional career a few years later. He has worked for a number of high-profile companies including Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and MediaFire. Most of his career has been focused on open-source and software development opportunities with an emphasis on project management, team leadership, and executive oversight.
After serving two years as a VCIO in the Greater Houston area, Bryan carried his skills to Hitachi ID where he focuses on security and access governance. He frequently contributes to several open-source projects and SaaS-related endeavors.
May 27, 10:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Vice President, Cloud Engineering
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Cloud Engineering
Hitachi Vantara
Over 20 years of work experience in the IT industry in Cloud & Infrastructure Services Delivery, Transformation functions. Passionate about designing, transforming, and delivering business-oriented IT functions through Cloud, DevSecOps, AIOps and SRE.
Primary areas of expertise are around Cloud and Technology Operations. Have supported several enterprises from Media, Telecom, Manufacturing industry verticals in the US, and a cross-section of multiple industry domains in Nordics and APAC.
At Hitachi Vantara, lead the Global Cloud Engineering Practice that supports Clients with their Cloud Strategy, Adoption, Migration, Modernization, Transformation and Operations journey and prior to that have worked with Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI) and Cognizant in leading Cloud & Infrastructure Services Business Units for specific Industry verticals.
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Founding Director
Center for Digital Transformation
Premkumar Balasubramanian (“Prem”) heads our Technology and Solutions office and is responsible for strategizing and supporting go-to-market (GTM) pursuits, architecting repeatable solutions for our customers and providing technology and thought leadership in modern engineering and evolving technologies focused on application modernization, data and analytics.
Sales Leader EMEA, Hybrid Cloud & As-a-Service
Hitachi Vantara
Sales Leader EMEA, Hybrid Cloud & As-a-Service
Hitachi Vantara
Neil Lewis leads our EMEA Hybrid Cloud and As-a-Service sales team providing outcome-based proposals to our customers and helping to achieve Digital Transformation goals by leveraging Hitachi technologies. Neil joined Hitachi in March 2016 to help build our global cloud product and services strategy and has successfully brought these solutions to life with customers all over EMEA, as well as spearheaded the launch of our EverFlex flexible consumption model globally. He has worked in IT Services for more than 18 years of which the last 13 years have been in Solution Sales with global corporations.
May 27, 10:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Chief Product Officer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Product Officer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
As the global head of products, Radhika is responsible for the vision, strategy, delivery, and business performance for all our products and solutions across data storage, data management and analytics, as well as Hitachi’s industry-leading Lumada IoT and industrial software.
Radhika has a unique combination of deep technical expertise and experience in end-to-end business management. She has incubated and scaled several businesses in her previous leadership roles at Lenovo, HP, Cisco, NetApp and Nimble Storage. Before joining Hitachi Vantara in September 2020, Radhika was executive vice president and general manager of software at 3D Systems.
Radhika is a passionate advocate for diversity in tech. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and a master’s in business administration degree from San Jose State University.
Director, Engineering Technology and Analysis
The Walt Disney Company
Director, Engineering Technology and Analysis
The Walt Disney Company
Michael leads a 100+ member multidiscipline team which develops detailed mathematical and physics models for transportation, ride and animatronic systems, custom software and network applications, and robotics. Team responsibilities include the development of optimization algorithms, servo controllers, interactive/immersive experiences, data analytics, and material process solutions.
Michael’s diverse background includes designs of numerous attractions at various Disney theme parks including: Test Track® Attraction; Mission: SPACE® Attraction; Toy Story Mania!® Attraction and the Expedition Everest® Attraction. Michael also designed all the velocity profiles at the worldwide locations of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™
May 27, 11:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Sales Leader EMEA, Hybrid Cloud & As-a-Service
Hitachi Vantara
Sales Leader EMEA, Hybrid Cloud & As-a-Service
Hitachi Vantara
Neil Lewis leads our EMEA Hybrid Cloud and As-a-Service sales team providing outcome-based proposals to our customers and helping to achieve Digital Transformation goals by leveraging Hitachi technologies. Neil joined Hitachi in March 2016 to help build our global cloud product and services strategy and has successfully brought these solutions to life with customers all over EMEA, as well as spearheaded the launch of our EverFlex flexible consumption model globally. He has worked in IT Services for more than 18 years of which the last 13 years have been in Solution Sales with global corporations.
May 27, 11:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Director of Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Director of Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Madhup Mishra is a Director of Product Marketing for Hitachi Vantara's big data & analytics software business including Lumada DataOps Suite and Pentaho. Before that, he was VP Product Management for VoltDB, a DBMS company started in MIT where he led their product management and marketing function. Madhup brings over two decades of experience building and scaling new products around big data, analytics, governance, and cloud.
Vice President, Principal Analyst
Forrester
Vice President, Principal Analyst
Forrester
Noel covers big data, data warehouses, data fabric, data integration, data virtualization, Hadoop, Spark, in-memory, translytical, NoSQL, cloud, ETL, big data integration, data management, data tools, and data security for enterprise architecture professionals. His current focus is on new and emerging markets, modern data architectures, cloud and hybrid cloud deployments.
Previous Work Experience
Noel has more than 25 years of experience in IT and has held various technical and management positions. He came to Forrester through its acquisition of Giga Information Group in 2003. Prior to joining Giga, Noel spent several years at Exodus Communications and led a group responsible for planning and implementing mission-critical enterprise applications including ERP, CRM, and other internal apps. Prior to Exodus, he served as a principal consultant, benchmark specialist, and data architect for Amdahl Corporation. He worked on several very large database applications and deployed high-availability and high-scalability solutions for Fortune 100 companies. Noel has spoken at numerous industry conferences around the globe and is quoted frequently in industry publications such as CNET News, Computerworld, eWeek, InfoWorld, InformationWeek, Forbes, Search.com, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Education
Noel holds a bachelor's degree in business and a postgraduate degree in business administration. He is the author of an Oracle book published by Manning Publications in 1999.
May 27, 11:00 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Executive Director
Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium
Executive Director
Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium
Corinna Noelke is Executive Director of the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium (GMHEC) which was founded in 2013 by three Vermont Colleges: Champlain College, Middlebury College, and Saint Michael’s College. The goal of GMHEC is to create and foster collaborative endeavors among member institutions by serving as an agent for economic and educational initiatives that bring value to all. In addition to building up the Consortium from being its first employee to its current scope, Ms. Noelke was the Project Owner on the implementation of Oracle Finance, Procurement, HCM, and Payroll as well as Blackbaud Advancement. She has worked in various finance functions for the last 20 years, 15 of which were in Higher Ed. Ms. Noelke holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Resource Economics.
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Samta is Global Consulting Strategy and Marketing leader for Hitachi Vantara. She is responsible for developing and implementing go-to-market strategies for the company’s services portfolio. Samta has deep global expertise in digital transformations, artificial intelligence, big data, and IoT. Her experience spans portfolio marketing, strategy, sales enablement, business development, software products, and industrial domains. Samta is a published author and speaker and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University in marketing and leadership, a BE in Electrical and Electronics, and a Masters in Physics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.
Vice President, Consulting Services
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Consulting Services
Hitachi Vantara
Deb Acharya is a Vice President in Hitachi Vanatar’s Digital Enterprise business and leads the Oracle Consulting and Professional Services practices in North America. Mr. Acharya has been in the consulting space for over 20 years and has held several leadership roles in account and practice management including building and growing consulting teams. He has led large global ERP modernization programs both in the On Prem and Cloud technologies. Mr. Acharya holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Computer Applications. Being both a technologist and a business person gives Mr. Acharya a unique perspective to help clients in their digital modernization journey.
May 27, 11:30 a.m. PT
Technical Track
Technical Track
Speakers:
Chief Information Officer,
SurePoint Technologies
Chief Information Officer,
SurePoint Technologies
John Boyd has been a leader in the ERP Technology space for over 20 years. As the SurePoint CIO, he leads the Product and Technology teams to deliver innovative solutions for his customers in the legal industry. Prior to joining SurePoint, John was the Enterprise Product CTO at GE Aviation where he led the organization accountable for the architecture, integration, and infrastructure for the company’s supply chain ERPs generating $40M+ revenue a day. He has a history of successfully tackling the top projects for Fortune 100 companies. He has mobilized teams to design and implement ERP solutions that have created $3B+ ROIs at both GE Aviation and Cisco Systems.
Vice President, Product Engineering Services,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Product Engineering Services,
Hitachi Vantara
Shashank has over 24 years of consulting experience in applications and product development. He has extensive experience in helping clients with strategy, innovation, development, and operationalizing products across industry verticals with a special focus on cloud and digital engineering.
May 25, 10:30 a.m. PT
Society Track
Society Track
Speakers:
Senior Manager, Advisory
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Manager, Advisory
Hitachi Vantara
Sheeny Grewal is a Senior Management Consultant with almost two decades of experience in global Digital Transformation, Sales Excellence, Commercial & Go-to-Market Strategy, Mergers, Acquisition Integration, Business Strategy & Transformation, and Operational Improvements.
May 25, 10:00 a.m. PT
Society Track
Society Track
Speakers:
Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
Hitachi Ltd.
Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
Hitachi Ltd.
Vice President and Executive Officer, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer (CDIO), Deputy Chief Environmental Officer, and Deputy General Manager of Government & External Relations Group
Hitachi, Ltd.
Lorena Dellagiovanna is Vice President and Executive Officer, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer (CDIO), Deputy Chief Environmental Officer and Deputy General Manager of Government & External Relations Group of Hitachi, Ltd. She is acting Chief Executive for Italy and Director of the Board of several Hitachi Group Companies in Italy and Hitachi Europe Ltd., the Hitachi European HQ.
Since joining Hitachi, she has worked in a multi-business environment, gaining experience in different fields and business schemes. She was appointed Finance Director of the Group for Southern Europe in 2007 and in 2010 became the inaugural Director of the Shared Services business of the Group for Europe in the Hitachi European HQ.
May 25, 11:30 a.m. PT
Society Track
Society Track
Speakers:
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
David leads corporate marketing and communications for Hitachi Vantara, the digital infrastructure, data management, and digital solutions business of Hitachi. He joined the company in 2019 from Bloom Energy, where as a VP he spearheaded communications for the microgrid company’s 2018 $300M NYSE IPO.
From 2016-2018, David led global communications for GE’s largest software business. He was a public relations leader at Cisco from 2008-2016, during which time he was recognized as PRWeek’s PR Professional of the Year.
David previously served as an executive vice president at global PR agency Text 100 (now Archetype). He is a past President of the Public Relations Society of America’s Silicon Valley Chapter.
Chief Executive Officer North America,
EcoAct
Chief Executive Officer North America,
EcoAct
William has over 12 years’ experience working with Global and Fortune 500 companies to develop and implement net zero strategies. This includes managing projects on setting science-based targets, climate risk assessments, and assessing GHG footprints (Scope 1- 3) for multinational enterprises. He has worked with leading companies to design and manage their carbon neutral programs.
William began in climate finance with the Gold Standard Foundation, a certification body that evaluates carbon reduction and sustainable impacts using results-based methodologies. He worked with NGOs Nexus for Development (Nexus) and the Group for the Environment, Renewable Energy and Solidarity (GERES) to scale-up more than a dozen carbon reduction projects in Asia and Africa by leveraging innovative market mechanisms such as climate finance and crowd funding.
Head of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility,
North America, Ericsson
Head of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility,
North America, Ericsson
Bhushan Joshi is Head of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility for Ericsson in Market Area North America. He has over 15 years of professional experience in corporate sustainability, business development, energy management, renewable energy, sustainability reporting, sustainability strategy development, and program management.
At Ericsson, Bhushan advocates for the role of the Information Communications Technology sector in enabling other industries take exponential climate action. He is also focused on developing strategies to help telecom operators achieve their energy and sustainability goals with the introduction of 5G and growth in mobile data traffic.
May 26, 10:00 a.m. PT
Society Track
Society Track
Speakers:
Chief, Data Science, Co-Director, Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine
American Heart Association
Chief, Data Science, Co-Director, Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine
American Heart Association
Dr. Jennifer Hall’s laboratory has been a leader in genomics and human heart failure over the past ten years, identifying genes and signaling pathways that are modified in response to reversal of heart failure or left ventricular remodeling.
Dr. Hall is a past Chair of the Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Council of the American Heart Association and has served on many national and international committees. She holds adjunct professor positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Dr. Hall has a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of California Berkeley. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford and Harvard Schools of Medicine.
Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and the Department of Internal Medicine
University of Michigan
Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and the Department of Internal Medicine
University of Michigan
Vice President, Global Lead Healthcare & Life Sciences
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Global Lead Healthcare & Life Sciences
Hitachi Vantara
Paul joined Hitachi in 2004 and leads Hitachi Vantara’s global digital solutions Healthcare & Life Sciences business, with responsibility for industry strategy, business development and solutions, and supporting Hitachi group collaboration. He has been instrumental in developing the healthcare digital portfolio, bringing key offerings to market such as Hitachi’s Digital Diabetes Prevention solution and establishing the Smart Hospital transformation line of business, both recognised as exemplars of Hitachi Social Innovation. Paul has skills and experience in business incubation, strategy, technology and systems-thinking, and is passionate about improving societal outcomes through innovation, co-creation and collaboration with customers and partners.
Chief Scientific Officer
BurstIQ
Chief Scientific Officer
BurstIQ
Executive Vice President,
Weber Shandwick Chicago
Executive Vice President,
Weber Shandwick Chicago
May 27, 10:30 a.m. PT
Society Track
Society Track
Speakers:
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Tim is a people-focused, global technology executive with a strong commercial orientation from leadership roles in customer service operations, strategic technology sourcing, and financial management.
Tim has a proven track-record of taking on new challenges and successfully leading complex change initiatives across geographies and business functions. His most rewarding career roles have been those where new technology is used to improve customer experience, drive operational efficiencies, and support business growth.
As CIO at Hitachi Vantara, Tim is responsible for the global information technology function supporting Hitachi Vantara’s 10,000+ global employees, our customers and our partners. His current 2021 priorities are enabling the company growth ambitions, powering the future of work, protecting to enable, operational excellence, and building and developing one global team.
Previously, Tim was a technology and global operations leader at Western Union (WU) with a reputation for successfully leading and transforming large global teams of employees and vendor staff. Tim delivered the first phase of the largest WU technology project in-flight at the time – a new global settlement platform responsible for the annual movement of $300B of customer principal. He also led the rapid implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud, Einstein Analytics, and a front-end transaction management application for a 5,000-person customer service organization.
Prior to Western Union, Tim held strategic technology consulting and advisory roles with Information Services Group (ISG) and financial leadership roles with Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Tim completed his Bachelors of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Tim lives with his family in Denver, CO and actively volunteers as a board member of the Colorado Technology Association, and an Assistant Scoutmaster with Scouts BSA.
Chief Product Officer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Product Officer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
As the global head of products, Radhika is responsible for the vision, strategy, delivery, and business performance for all our products and solutions across data storage, data management and analytics, as well as Hitachi’s industry-leading Lumada IoT and industrial software.
Radhika has a unique combination of deep technical expertise and experience in end-to-end business management. She has incubated and scaled several businesses in her previous leadership roles at Lenovo, HP, Cisco, NetApp and Nimble Storage. Before joining Hitachi Vantara in September 2020, Radhika was executive vice president and general manager of software at 3D Systems.
Radhika is a passionate advocate for diversity in tech. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and a master’s in business administration degree from San Jose State University.
Strategic Partner Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Strategic Partner Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Marlene Spensley is a Strategic Partner Manager at Hitachi Vantara, developing the UKI channel ecosystem to build incremental profitable revenues with our partners. Marlene has spent her career within the technology channel, working within a number of large partners and distributors. She has a background in hybrid multi-cloud, DevOps, and digital transformation and is passionate about the potential of technology innovation. Marlene was a recent TechWomen100 winner and is an advocate for women in technology.
May 27, 10:00 a.m. PT
Society Track
Society Track
Speakers:
Co-Founder and CEO
Daivergent
Co-Founder and CEO
Daivergent
Byran Dai is the Co-Founder and CEO of Daivergent, a technology platform that empowers adults in the autism and IDD community to achieve their professional and personal goals. The company provides neurodiverse talent with "Success Plans" that consist of evidence-based assessments, career exploration, and skills training which can be completed on the Daivergent platform. Daivergent also connects employers to job-seekers through its career matchmaking service, successfully providing work opportunities to over 200+ service organizations across the globe.
May 26, 11:00 a.m. PT
Society Track
Society Track
Speakers:
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
David leads corporate marketing and communications for Hitachi Vantara, the digital infrastructure, data management, and digital solutions business of Hitachi. He joined the company in 2019 from Bloom Energy, where as a VP he spearheaded communications for the microgrid company’s 2018 $300M NYSE IPO.
From 2016-2018, David led global communications for GE’s largest software business. He was a public relations leader at Cisco from 2008-2016, during which time he was recognized as PRWeek’s PR Professional of the Year.
David previously served as an executive vice president at global PR agency Text 100 (now Archetype). He is a past President of the Public Relations Society of America’s Silicon Valley Chapter.
Vice President, Client Relationships & Sales EMEA,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Client Relationships & Sales EMEA,
Hitachi Vantara
Claire Thomas is Vice President responsible for client relationships and sales for Hitachi Vantara EMEA. Following 5 years at Microsoft, she has been with Hitachi for 9 years, leading a number of social innovation projects across the energy and utilities sector, including leading an award-winning data programme working with South West Water to reduce the impact of pollution on the environment and forming part of Optimise Prime. Claire is a member of the Women of Hitachi committee focused in driving diversity in the technology sector as a whole and making Vantara the most inclusive workplace possible.
9 a.m.
30 min
Keynote
Being data driven is how organizations win in the 21st century. But becoming data driven is tough. A surge of new data threatens to overwhelm even the best prepared, and the pandemic has further intensified pressure on organizations to deliver new digital experiences to remain relevant and competitive. How do you navigate these twin challenges? Join Hitachi CEO Toshiaki Higashihara and Hitachi Vantara CEO Gajen Kandiah, plus special guests from Disney Parks and the American Heart Association, as they explore these topics during the opening keynote of Hitachi Social Innovation Forum Americas.
Executive Chairman, President and CEO,
Hitachi, Ltd.
Executive Chairman, President and CEO,
Hitachi, Ltd.
Executive Chairman, President and CEO Toshiaki Higashihara leads approximately 350,000 employees worldwide as he guides efforts to transform Hitachi from a product-oriented company to a sustainable and diverse enterprise that harnesses innovation to solve challenges for customers and society at large. His passion has driven Hitachi to become a leader in the digital transformation (DX) of social infrastructure and helped it to improve quality of life as it also increases value for customers.
Higashihara holds an Engineering degree from Tokushima University in Japan and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Boston University.
Chief, Data Science,
Co-Director,
Institute for Precision
Cardiovascular Medicine
American Heart Association
Chief, Data Science,
Co-Director,
Institute for Precision
Cardiovascular Medicine
American Heart Association
Dr. Jennifer Hall’s laboratory has been a leader in genomics and human heart failure over the past ten years, identifying genes and signaling pathways that are modified in response to reversal of heart failure or left ventricular remodeling.
Dr. Hall is a past Chair of the Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Council of the American Heart Association and has served on many national and international committees. She holds adjunct professor positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Dr. Hall has a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of California Berkeley. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford and Harvard Schools of Medicine.
CEO
Hitachi Vantara
CEO
Hitachi Vantara
Gajen Kandiah became chief executive officer of Hitachi Vantara in July 2020. As CEO, Gajen leads Hitachi Vantara's 11,000 employees with a focus on empowering client-facing teams to leverage the company's digital infrastructure, software and services capabilities to meet the industry-specific transformational needs of clients worldwide.
Prior to joining Hitachi Vantara, Gajen built winning IT businesses within multinational corporations and startups for more than two decades. During 15 years with Cognizant, he helped grow the company from $368 million in annual revenues to more than $16 billion. From 2015 to 2019, he was president of Cognizant's multi-billion-dollar Digital Business, a role in which he led the acquisitions of software engineering company Softvision, marketing solutions provider Netcentric, and Idea Couture, a digital innovation and technology services company. He also led a Cognizant-wide initiative to transform company capabilities and services into an integrated, industry- and client-focused suite of offerings and solutions.
Gajen previously served as senior vice president and general manager of Cognizant's Information, Media and Entertainment; Manufacturing Logistics; Consumer Goods; and Communications industry practices. Before joining Cognizant, he co-founded NerveWire, Inc., a venture capital-backed management consulting and systems integration firm, which was later acquired by Wipro.
SVP International Facilities
and Operations Services,
Worldwide Safety and
Health, and Engineering
The Walt Disney Company
SVP International Facilities
and Operations Services,
Worldwide Safety and
Health, and Engineering
The Walt Disney Company
Rachel is a licensed Professional Engineer and Certified Safety Professional. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Theater, the perfect background for a Disney engineer.
Her early career included a wide diversity of roles such as: medical research with the Veteran’s Administration, Facilities and Construction Management at General Motors, Controls Engineering at General Mills and Technical Support for Allen-Bradley.
Rachel joined Walt Disney World in 1997. She has worked in many different roles including: being part of the team that built and then opened Disney’s Animal Kingdom; leading Technical Services for Walt Disney World; starting Attractions Engineering Services and Quality Assurance, leading a team focused on Maintenance Consistency for Disney theme parks worldwide, leading Engineering Services for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Region, leading the teams responsible for ensuring the safety, operability and maintainability of new Disney resorts around the world and leading safety and health efforts at Disney Parks & Resorts worldwide.
Rachel is currently the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Safety, Health, Engineering & Sourcing. In addition to her global Safety and Health responsibilities, Rachel leads the maintenance, project management, and horticulture teams at Disneyland Resort Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland. She also leads the engineering and safety teams at those resorts as well as at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Rachel and her teams are responsible for the safety and health of the hundreds of thousands of Cast Members around the world and the millions of Guests who visit Disney each year.
Rachel holds US and European patents for a ride safety system she created in 2003.
Rachel has been married for 28 years to Larry, a jazz musician and stay at home dad to their two children, Lawson (20) and Danielle (17). Lawson is following in his mom’s footsteps studying Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is at the University of Florida and hopes to work in the private space exploration field. Rachel is committed to wellness and has set a goal to run a half marathon in every state.
10:00 a.m.
30 min
Business Track
Strategy Session
Navigating the journey to becoming a data-driven organization can be daunting. Leaders need the right strategies for accessing talent, implementing the systems and processes required for success today, and keeping pace with the emerging technologies that will define tomorrow. In this spotlight session, Hitachi Vantara Chief Digital Solutions Officer Frank Antonyswamy outlines how data-driven leaders are embracing co-creation as a path to overcoming obstacles to digital acceleration
Chief Digital Solutions Officer,
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Digital Solutions Officer,
Hitachi Vantara
In his role as the Chief Digital Solutions Officer, Frank leads the Global Delivery, Advisory and Technology Practices within the Digital Solutions Business Unit and has the responsibility to identify, build, and deliver the digital capabilities needed by our clients. He also leads the development of One Hitachi solutions, combining expertise from Hitachi’s mobility, energy, industry, and smart-life companies to solve customers’ business challenges. A seasoned professional with experience leading Fortune 500 global delivery management and transformation programs, Frank is one of the top IT/OT executives in the industry. He built a $500-million industrial IoT business from the ground up and has a strong background in engineering and manufacturing solutions.
Ph.D, Vice President, Research & Development,
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Ph.D, Vice President, Research & Development,
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Harsha Badarinarayan is the VP, R&D and Leader of Detroit Research Center for Hitachi America, Ltd. He has been with Hitachi for over 18 years. In his current role, Harsha is involved in strategic planning for business expansion in the US, specifically related to the Connected & Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and Smart Manufacturing. He spearheads the development and implementation of pioneering technologies dedicated to autonomous mobility (AD/ADAS), Smart Infrastructure, and IoT. Harsha holds 15 US patents and has authored or co-authored over 30 technical publications.
Technical Track
Strategy Session
Major technology transitions are reshaping the work of the IT function and its ability to drive out cost, increase organizational agility, and create new value from data. From the shift to cloud native applications to the rise of AI, ML and data analytics, it is both an exciting and a daunting time for technology and operational leaders. In this spotlight session, Hitachi Vantara Chief Product Officer Radhika Krishnan shares a comprehensive update on how the company’s product and technology portfolio is evolving to help clients embrace and benefit from these trends.
Chief Product Officer and General Manager, Software
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Product Officer and General Manager, Software
Hitachi Vantara
As the global head of products, Radhika is responsible for the vision, strategy, delivery, and business performance for all our products and solutions across data storage, data management and analytics, as well as Hitachi’s industry-leading Lumada IoT and industrial software.
Radhika has a unique combination of deep technical expertise and experience in end-to-end business management. She has incubated and scaled several businesses in her previous leadership roles at Lenovo, HP, Cisco, NetApp and Nimble Storage. Before joining Hitachi Vantara in September 2020, Radhika was executive vice president and general manager of software at 3D Systems.
Radhika is a passionate advocate for diversity in tech. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and a master’s in business administration degree from San Jose State University.
Society Track
Diversity and Inclusion is the growth engine and source of Hitachi’s Innovation. With a diverse workforce, unmatched teamwork, and broad experience in the global market, we will meet our customer’s needs and contribute to society. Learn how Hitachi is powering good and making a difference to the company’s culture.
Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
Hitachi Ltd.
Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Hitachi Ltd.
Vice President and Executive Officer, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer (CDIO), Deputy Chief Environmental Officer, and Deputy General Manager of Government & External Relations Group
Hitachi, Ltd.
Lorena Dellagiovanna is Vice President and Executive Officer, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer (CDIO), Deputy Chief Environmental Officer and Deputy General Manager of Government & External Relations Group of Hitachi, Ltd. She is acting Chief Executive for Italy and Director of the Board of several Hitachi Group Companies in Italy and Hitachi Europe Ltd., the Hitachi European HQ.
Since joining Hitachi, she has worked in a multi-business environment, gaining experience in different fields and business schemes. She was appointed Finance Director of the Group for Southern Europe in 2007 and in 2010 became the inaugural Director of the Shared Services business of the Group for Europe in the Hitachi European HQ.
10:30 a.m.
30 min
Business Track
Customer Stories
Embark on a sustainment and maintenance digital transformation journey with Disney Parks. Rooted in a high-performance Industrial Internet of Things platform and ingesting data streams at incredible speed, Disney’s Scientific Data Analysis initiative is working to allow guests even more enjoyment of theme park attractions through predictive and prescriptive analytics. Leveraging on premise and cloud-based technologies, Disney Parks is performing immediate diagnostics and prognostics using AI/ML, Digital Twins and self-service analytics.
Director, Engineering Technology and Analysis,
The Walt Disney Company
Director, Engineering Technology and Analysis,
The Walt Disney Company
Michael leads a 100+ member multidiscipline team which develops detailed mathematical and physics models for transportation, ride and animatronic systems, custom software and network applications, and robotics. Team responsibilities include the development of optimization algorithms, servo controllers, interactive/immersive experiences, data analytics, and material process solutions.
Michael’s diverse background includes designs of numerous attractions at various Disney theme parks including: Test Track® Attraction; Mission: SPACE® Attraction; Toy Story Mania!® Attraction and the Expedition Everest® Attraction. Michael also designed all the velocity profiles at the worldwide locations of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™
Mobility
Tested, resilient, and among the safest and most environmentally sustainable ways of moving people and goods, the North American rail and mass transit are seeing a surge in interest. The new administration cites the pandemic recovery and a desire to build back better, including potential infrastructure programs that deliver employment and long-term competitive business advantage in the global marketplace. Join us to learn more about this market and discover how Hitachi’s expertise and capabilities can keep it moving forward.
CEO
Hitachi Rail
CEO
Hitachi Rail
Jason White is the Head of Sales & Projects for the Americas at Hitachi Rail. As the Executive Officer, he is responsible for all commercial business for Railway, Mass Transit, and Class One Freight Railroads in the Americas.
Since joining the organization in 2010, Jason has been a key component in the successful commercial strategy and delivery of various rail infrastructure programs in the region’s major metro areas.
Jason’s experience in the rail industry spans more than 17 years with roles in leadership, program management, and sales. Outside of Jason’s current role, he maintains active memberships and involvement with executive boards and governing bodies within the U.S. rail industry.
Head of Turnkey Systems Business Development - North America
Hitachi Rail
Head of Turnkey Systems Business Development - North America
Hitachi Rail
Allan leads the development of turnkey systems win and execution strategies for the North American transit market for Hitachi Rail. He works with financial, civil, and engineering partners to deliver complex infrastructure solutions, proposals, and commercial arrangements to the transit industry. These rail-based transportation projects include financing, designing, building, operating, maintaining, and delivering the project for the public transit authority.
Allan and his team specialize in signaling and systems integration as well as rolling stock supply, resulting in the integration of train control, traction power, communications, and vehicles into advanced transit solutions.
Financial Services Industries
Climate change and sustainability are two of the world’s biggest concerns today. Governments and global supervisory bodies offer incentives and regulations that encourage global corporations to keep environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) impacts at the forefront of their strategies and operations. In this session, Hitachi R&D highlights the sustainable finance platform we are building with the world’s leading investment banks. We’ll also look at critical players and pipeline development we’re seeing in this space around banking and insurance.
Head of Sustainability
Rabobank
Head of Sustainability
Rabobank
Experienced financial expert and executive with a demonstrated history of working as Board Member in the impact investment management, biodiversity, regenerative farming and environmental services industry. Strong business development professional skilled in investment management, Sustainability and corporate governance within international companies, governmental entities and multilateral associations. Project management of investment funds, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and investment in Sustainable Development projects.
Head of Sustainability
Wells Fargo Bank
Head of Sustainability
Wells Fargo Bank
Head of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility at Wells Fargo with more than 20 years of experience in environmental sustainability in both the public and private sectors. Responsible for the strategic integration of sustainability and corporate responsibility across Wells Fargo’s products and services, operations and culture, and philanthropy. Champion and architect of Wells Fargo’s recent sustainable finance commitment, to lend and invest $200 billion to sustainable businesses and projects between now and 2030, with more than half of that earmarked for renewable energy, clean technology and green building initiatives that directly support the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Lead the development of the company’s corporate responsibility/ESG priorities and strategy, non-financial disclosures and reporting, integration of human rights and climate risk management, and strategic environmental philanthropy. Serves on the board of directors for GRID Alternatives. Graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Senior Advisor, Strategy,
IoT & Analytics
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Advisor, Strategy,
IoT & Analytics
Hitachi Vantara
Dynamic senior executive with broad P&L accountability including: digital transformation, strategy, customer experience, sales, marketing, operations, data analytics, data science, design, intelligence, M&A integrations and technology implementations.
Reputation for building high-performing teams while successfully delivering results. Known as a partner and collaborator, who influences across all levels.
Expertise in customer-centric envisioning and delivery with a deep understanding of industry sectors including: financial services, healthcare, insurance, education, non-profit, agribusiness, private equity, energy, utilities, manufacturing and life sciences.
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Suranjan is the Vice President of Financial Services at Hitachi Vantara, based out of London, applying innovation, industry expertise and engineering to address some of the biggest challenges in the financial services world today.
Kicking off his career with the Big 4, Suranjan has been working over 2 decades in the Data and Analytics space. Suranjan has worked exclusively with banks, insurers and asset managers in the last decades. He has architected some of largest Risk, Regulatory and Performance Management solutions for some of the largest banks in the world. This includes building the world’s first real-time risk solution for a large American bank to large middle-office regulation platforms for BCBS 239 and BASEL III compliance.
From "FinTech" to "RegTech", he is working with some of the largest names in the Financial Services space, looking at a wide range of solutions from Big Data, Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence to solve implementation challenges for our Top Tier banking customers. Today, Suranjan is responsible for the portfolio of Hitachi’s strategic financial services accounts across the globe.
Manufacturing
In this panel, hear Hitachi senior executives discuss the latest trends and changes in the U.S. manufacturing market and how they plan to address them.
Director of Solution Architecture
Hitachi Global Social Innovation Business
Director of Solution Architecture
Hitachi Global Social Innovation Business
Udayan’s expertise is in applying digital technology capabilities to architect solutions that address the double bottom-line and delivering a positive social impact while fulfilling business requirements across manufacturing, transportation, and smart spaces. Udayan delivers full stack solution architecture and design support by leveraging a wide range of Hitachi and broader ecosystem technology capabilities for a broad scope of solutions including predictive maintenance, asset management, ML/AI-based failure prediction models, process re-engineering, manufacturing intelligence solutions, and innovative applications of video analytics including lidar.
SVP, Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
SVP, Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
Chris has a long career in both consulting and technology and joined us from Accenture Digital where as Managing Director he had a proven track record of developing and scaling digital technologies in the energy, utilities, and mining industries. Prior to Accenture Digital, he led the North America data and analytics practice for aviation, energy, utilities, and agriculture at Capgemini. In his role at Hitachi Vantara, Chris leads our Industries Practice, closely working with companies like JR Automation and Hitachi ABB Power Grids to help accelerate Hitachi strategy with the transportation, manufacturing, and energy practices.
Vice President, Esys Division and Digital Solutions
JR Automation
Vice President, Esys Division and Digital Solutions
JR Automation
Mike Lashbrook leads the Esys Division and the Digital Solution team for JR Automation. The Esys division focuses primarily on system integration of robotic and automation solutions predominantly for the automotive industry.
Mike has worked in the automotive industry for over 25 years, twenty of which were with General Motors in various manufacturing operations, manufacturing engineering, and corporate strategy roles across North America, Southeast Asia, China, and Europe.
Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering as well as a master’s degree in Manufacturing Systems from Kettering University and an MBA from Harvard University.
Senior Vice President, Sales
Sullair
Senior Vice President, Sales
Sullair
Brian Tylisz, Senior Vice President, Sales, is responsible for the sales of all Sullair portable and stationary products in the Americas. In his nearly 20 years with Sullair, Tylisz has held varying leadership roles, including Engineering Director and General Manager of Oil Free and OEM products.
Tylisz received a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology from Purdue University.
Technical Track
Infrastructure
2020 forced organizations to reevaluate their technology strategies and pivot to a faster and more agile and resilient IT infrastructure. Learn how Walmart accelerated their digital transformation efforts and created an omnichannel buying experience for their customers.
Director of Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Director of Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Gary Breder is a Solution Marketing Manager at Hitachi Vantara covering the infrastructure portfolio at the foundation of our solutions that modernize the digital core for our clients: digital high-end storage platform solutions. A 30-plus year industry leader in IT hardware, software, and services, Gary has led the transformation and adoption of new technologies and approaches in Enterprise Storage, Information Lifecycle Management, Virtualization, Converged Infrastructure, Cloud Solutions, and ‘as-a-Service' offerings. His deepest area of expertise is how the application of IT technology achieves business outcomes and why it matters to business leaders.
CIO and Technology Vice President
Walmart Mexico
CIO and Technology Vice President
Walmart Mexico
Alonso Yañez joined Walmart in 2018 as the CIO & Technology Vice President. He is responsible for consolidating Walmart’s IT function and strengthening its digital capabilities to enable a radical digital transformation across all business areas. Previously, as CIO and member of PepsiCo’s Executive Committee, he led the company’s digital transformation consolidating the IT ecosystem while developing different disruptive IT platforms. In 1997, he joined Deloitte Consulting as a partner responsible for implementing business solutions through state-of-the-art technologies for global corporations in various industries. Alonso is a frequent speaker at forums on innovation, business, and technology.
Cloud
Buckle-up for an exciting ride! This insightful panel of cloud experts will clear up any fog and ensure a smooth takeoff for your cloud journey. They’ll discuss common pitfalls and help you plan for success. You’ll also get a comprehensive understanding of infrastructure, data, and application nuances.
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Samta is Global Consulting Strategy and Marketing leader for Hitachi Vantara. She is responsible for developing and implementing go-to-market strategies for the company’s services portfolio. Samta has deep global expertise in digital transformations, artificial intelligence, big data, and IoT. Her experience spans portfolio marketing, strategy, sales enablement, business development, software products, and industrial domains. Samta is a published author and speaker and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University in marketing and leadership, a BE in Electrical and Electronics, and a Masters in Physics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Premkumar Balasubramanian (“Prem”) heads our Technology and Solutions office and is responsible for strategizing and supporting go-to-market (GTM) pursuits, architecting repeatable solutions for our customers and providing technology and thought leadership in modern engineering and evolving technologies focused on application modernization, data and analytics.
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Tim is a people-focused, global technology executive with a strong commercial orientation from leadership roles in customer service operations, strategic technology sourcing, and financial management.
Tim has a proven track-record of taking on new challenges and successfully leading complex change initiatives across geographies and business functions. His most rewarding career roles have been those where new technology is used to improve customer experience, drive operational efficiencies, and support business growth.
As CIO at Hitachi Vantara, Tim is responsible for the global information technology function supporting Hitachi Vantara’s 10,000+ global employees, our customers and our partners. His current 2021 priorities are enabling the company growth ambitions, powering the future of work, protecting to enable, operational excellence, and building and developing one global team.
Previously, Tim was a technology and global operations leader at Western Union (WU) with a reputation for successfully leading and transforming large global teams of employees and vendor staff. Tim delivered the first phase of the largest WU technology project in-flight at the time – a new global settlement platform responsible for the annual movement of $300B of customer principal. He also led the rapid implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud, Einstein Analytics, and a front-end transaction management application for a 5,000-person customer service organization.
Prior to Western Union, Tim held strategic technology consulting and advisory roles with Information Services Group (ISG) and financial leadership roles with Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Tim completed his Bachelors of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Tim lives with his family in Denver, CO and actively volunteers as a board member of the Colorado Technology Association, and an Assistant Scoutmaster with Scouts BSA.
Innovation
5G promises to transform the industry in ways we’re just beginning to understand: extreme bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and high levels of security and reliability. This session showcases the power of 5G as the key to digital transformation. Learn the five major shifts 5G introduces, how 5G and other key technologies drive industry disruptions, the value of 5G for business, and six categories of 5G use cases to watch.
Head of 5G Marketing,
North America,
Ericsson
Head of 5G Marketing,
North America,
Ericsson
Peter Linder is a 5G evangelist and Head of 5G Marketing for Ericsson in North America. His professional focus is on anything 5G and digital marketing. Onalytica ranked him as the #1 most influential expert across all tech sector topics on LinkedIn in 2020. He aspires to make you understand 5G more clearly and more in-depth, so you can truly grok 5G and maximize your impact on its use in your company.
Peter’s professional career encompasses nearly 30 years at Ericsson, double master's degrees from Chalmers University, and extensive post-graduate education at Ivy League universities. His pet project is a digital mentoring program with more than 200 episodes released to date.
Senior Director, Industry Solutions Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Director, Industry Solutions Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
At Hitachi Vantara, Bjorn Andersson leads marketing for selected industry solutions practices and also interfaces and collaborates with multiple Hitachi organizations on cross-company initiatives on a global basis. He has been involved in the establishment of the Lumada platform and solutions since its inception. With 25+ years of marketing, technology, and product management experience, Bjorn covers a wide range of topics including industry-specific solutions, digital transformation, analytics, visualization, high-performance computing, and Internet of Things (IoT).
Society Track
Gen Z (or iGen), the tech-savvy group raised on digital connection to society, will bring interesting challenges and benefits to companies as they enter the workforce. While organizations are swiftly transforming digitally to keep up, organizational structures and cultures are still critical when it comes to change. Learn what your organization needs to do to compete and stay agile with this incoming generation and its impact on future workforces.
Senior Manager, Advisory
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Manager, Advisory
Hitachi Vantara
Sheeny Grewal is a Senior Management Consultant with almost two decades of experience in global Digital Transformation, Sales Excellence, Commercial & Go-to-Market Strategy, Mergers, Acquisition Integration, Business Strategy & Transformation, and Operational Improvements.
11:00 a.m.
30 min
Digital Master Classes
Conventional thinking says digital platform dominance holds the key to a successful digital business strategy. See Facebook, Amazon, NetFlix and Google for details. But not so fast! 99% of companies won't and shouldn't try to pin their digital strategy on a single platform-centric moonshot. In this Digital Masterclass, software CEO, chief digital officer and Fast Company Most Creative People in Business honoree Ganesh Bell explains that executives leading data-centric transformations can learn more from the digital business principles adopted by the FANG companies than the digital platforms they built.
Board Member, Investor,
former CDO & Software CEO
Advisor
Board Member, Investor, former CDO & Software CEO
Ganesh Bell is a board member, advisor, and investor living in Silicon Valley. Most recently, he ran Uptake, a leader in industrial AI and fast-growing Enterprise AI worth greater than $2B. Prior to Uptake, he was GE’s first-ever Chief Digital Officer, a position he helped create. As a Corporate Officer of GE, he created the blueprint for digital business, products, platform solutions, new business models, led the largest digital business across energy as business CEO, and helped create GE Digital.
A proven entrepreneur, Bell has held executive positions across a rare mix of global giants, industry leaders, startups, and hyper-growth companies - including enterprise tech leaders like SAP, Peoplesoft, & JDEdwards. His interest and breadth of expertise span platforms, analytics, enterprise applications, industrial tech, digital business, and AI.
He is a frequent keynoter and sought-after thought leader on AI, Future of Work, SaaS & Digital Transformation by CxOs and Boards. He has been featured in business books, leading media, and recognized for his work - Fast Company named him in its list of 100 Most Creative People in Business World.
Business Track
Manufacturing
For most industrial businesses, supply chain management has become a strategic imperative. Managing the complexity and exceeding customer expectations requires a new generation of supply chain solutions. To monitor and control supply chains and mitigate risk where possible, Hitachi Vantara worked closely with customers across industries to develop the Supply Chain Control Tower. Hear customer insights and all about the co-creation journey that led to this innovative solution.
General Manager, Data & Extension
Horticulture Innovation Australia
General Manager, Data & Extension
Horticulture Innovation Australia
Dr. Anthony Kachenko is Hort Innovation’s General Manager of Data & Extension. He joined the company in 2014 as the Head of Research & Development, and previously spent seven years at Greenlife Industry Australia in policy and management roles.
Anthony’s Hort Innovation team includes the Extension function, which amplifies the outcomes of levy investments, and the Data & Insights unit, which provides data, knowledge, and insights to underpin all business activities.
Anthony has lived and breathed Australian horticulture for more than 20 years, having extensive experience along the agribusiness value chain. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is Chairman of the Australasia-Pacific Extension Network.
Industry Executive Asia-Pacific
Hitachi Vantara
Industry Executive Asia-Pacific
Hitachi Vantara
Owen leads the development of Hitachi Vantara’s digital supply chain solutions. With over 25 years of experience in supply chain management including global supply chain manager of a logistics company and vice president of a supply chain consultancy, he has led many digital transformation programs across a range of industries from beverages and agri-food to transformer, motor, construction, vehicle assembly as well as chemical and paper manufacturing. Qualified as a chemical engineer, Owen has production, project and executive management experience in manufacturing and is currently completing a part-time PhD in process intelligence.
Mobility
Innovation to protect our health and safety and to advance sustainability and resiliency is not only accelerating but is also laying a foundation for digital transformation across industries. From electrification and data-driven maintenance and operations to technology that helps mitigate the spread of COVID-19, companies that adopt these solutions today will get through the coming years on top and be more prepared to thrive in the digital-driven future.
Global Director, Smart Spaces and Lumada Video Insights Marketing,
Hitachi Vantara
Global Director, Smart Spaces and Lumada Video Insights Marketing,
Hitachi Vantara
Justin furthers the mission of social innovation and building a more sustainable society through technology and business innovation. Justin has worked with both Silicon Valley startups and fortune 500s that are applying AI, IoT, and other disruptive technologies to improve our cities, commutes, and daily lives. He has worked in the US, Japan, and South Africa on projects that include smart cities, smart parking, electric vehicles, renewable energy, machine learning, and 3D printing. Justin was the recipient of the THINK Prize for the Financial Empowerment Challenge from renowned innovation and design firm IDEO and holds an MBA in sustainable management.
Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development,
Penske Corporation
Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development,
Penske Corporation
Jonathan Gibson leads all marketing, brand, and business development initiatives for Penske Corporation. Gibson also oversees communication processes and messaging, digital innovation, and short and long-term strategic initiatives within Penske Corporation and its subsidiary brands, Penske Automotive Group (PAG) and Penske Transportation Solutions.
Gibson also oversees all marketing and communications initiatives for Team Penske, the motorsports division of Penske Corporation. Gibson joined Team Penske in 2007 as Vice President of Marketing and Communications leading the marketing, communications, branding, and merchandising management teams, while maintaining responsibility for the team’s revenue and executive relationships with corporate partners.
Technical Track
Data
The data landscape has never been more distributed and complex. What’s your strategy for becoming a data-driven organization? Listen to a panel of experts share challenges, best practices, and new approaches to data management. Discover how to turn your data into a continuous source of insight and value. Learn how DataOps will help you create new customer experiences, reach higher efficiencies, and achieve better business outcomes.
Senior Research Analyst
451 Research
Senior Research Analyst
451 Research
Paige is a Senior Research Analyst for the Data, AI & Analytics Channel at 451 Research, a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, covering core data management topics. Key themes include data privacy, data governance, data integration, metadata management, data quality and master data management. She has experience covering a broad range of technologies spanning the Data, AI & Analytics stack, from databases to self-service analytics.
In current research, Paige analyzes the need for information governance to maximize the value of enterprise data amid proliferating global regulatory requirements and rising consumer expectations for data stewardship. With data privacy and compliance as a specialty focus, Paige explores how the enterprise can align technical requirements with business strategy, enabling more profitable and compliant leverage of data.
Previously, Paige provided marketing and strategy for ZL Technologies, an information governance provider that specializes in the management of unstructured data for compliance, legal and archiving needs. Prior to working at 451 Research, she was a Senior Analyst at Ovum (now Omdia).
Paige received her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and neuroscience from Duke University, and a Master of Management Studies (MMS) degree from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.
Principal Product Marketing Manager,
Pentaho and Lumada Software
Principal Product Marketing Manager,
Pentaho and Lumada Software
Anand is an analytical product marketer with a blend of business and technical acumen, the ability to guide strategy and execution, launch new products, solve complex problems, drive sales and grow the bottom line. His experience spans fast growth and Fortune 500 enterprise software companies, and he is a recognized thought leader and creative thinker with the ability to build relationships and work with cross-functional teams.
Infrastructure
See the innovative approaches industry leaders are taking to avoid disruption during these turbulent times. Find out what data-driven strategies business focused on to help innovate in software and infrastructure to drive new business growth.
Senior Analyst
ESG
Senior Analyst
ESG
ESG Senior Analyst Scott Sinclair has a proven history in the IT industry in the areas of enterprise storage and infrastructure. Scott uses his keen understanding and experience to investigate new technologies and design business strategies for Fortune 500 technology companies.
Vice President, Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Colin is an innovative and impactful story teller with over 25 years of experience in marketing and product management and a history of leadership roles at several major infrastructure companies. He has a passion for telling compelling stories about technical products that help customers solve both business and personal pain–and enjoys the challenge of telling them in creative ways. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Northeastern University. He tries to put as many miles on his bike as his aging body will allow, “hangs out” on twitter as @worldc3, and is most definitely team Oxford comma.
Infrastructure
Reach your IT infrastructure's potential and set a higher bar for achieving your cybersecurity goals. Discover new approaches that use artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data protection, IT analytics, and data center automation to streamline your processes and make it easier to detect and mitigate cyberattacks.
Senior Product Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Product Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Mark is responsible for understanding customer requirements, technology trends, Hitachi Vantara initiatives and the competitive landscape to deliver high-value capabilities in Protector in a timely manner. Mark and his team correlate input from customers, field personnel, sales, marketing and industry analysts to create roadmaps that support our customer’s current and future data protection and DevOp data management needs. He has over 30 years of experience in software development, architecture and solution design, managed services design and delivery, and storage and backup service development and delivery. Mark has held a number of leadership positions during his 16 years at Hitachi, including Lead Architect and Principal Technical Consultant, and previously worked at Glasshouse Technologies, the Open Software Foundation, and Prime Computer. Mark holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
11:30 a.m.
30 min
Digital Master Classes
Every organization completed at least one wave of digital transformation to survive the pandemic. Digital market leaders have moved the bar. Now companies need to focus on creating the next wave of transformation to outpace the competition. This session will share examples of what best in class companies are doing to differentiate the business and provide insights into what's next for employee and customer experiences. After the presentation, David McCulloch will join Maribel for a fireside chat to discuss how to prepare for a landscape of constant evolution.
Founder of the Data For Betterment Foundation
and Lopez Research
Founder of the Data For Betterment Foundation
and Lopez Research
Maribel is the founder of Lopez Research, a market research and strategy consulting firm. She’s also the co-founder of the Emerging Technology Research Council, a community of business and technical leaders in Fortune 1000 companies focused on driving innovation and business value by leveraging emerging technologies. Her firm researches mobility, IoT, and AI. Her clients range from start-ups to global firms, including 10 of the Fortune 30.
Maribel is a contributor to Forbes, host of the podcast “Reimagine Hybrid Work,” and author of “Right-Time Experiences.”
Maribel runs Data for Betterment, a non-profit that helps people prepare for job changes as companies embrace the future of work technologies.
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
David leads corporate marketing and communications for Hitachi Vantara, the digital infrastructure, data management, and digital solutions business of Hitachi. He joined the company in 2019 from Bloom Energy, where as a VP he spearheaded communications for the microgrid company’s 2018 $300M NYSE IPO.
From 2016-2018, David led global communications for GE’s largest software business. He was a public relations leader at Cisco from 2008-2016, during which time he was recognized as PRWeek’s PR Professional of the Year.
David previously served as an executive vice president at global PR agency Text 100 (now Archetype). He is a past President of the Public Relations Society of America’s Silicon Valley Chapter.
Business Track
Healthcare
Integrating natural language processing (NLP) systems into healthcare units have made a life-or-death difference in patient care. The ever-evolving system can optimize operations, increase quality of caretime, and reduce operating costs. In this session, get a holistic view of how NLP can give healthcare providers meaningful insights by harnessing large datasets stored in the form of speech, text, pictographs, and images for enhanced patient care.
Data Scientist
Hitachi Solutions
Data Scientist
Hitachi Solutions
Angelina is a Data Scientist at Hitachi Solutions America specializing in Natural Language Processing. She is certified as a SparkNLP Healthcare Data Scientist from John Snow Labs, has a M.S. in Statistical Sciences from Claremont Graduate University, and has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
Customer Stories
To protect our rainforests and environment, Rainforest Connection is working with Hitachi Vantara data scientists to create an AI-based model that predicts logging events before they actually happen.
COO
Rainforest Connection
COO
Rainforest Connection
Bourhan Yassin is a long-time veteran of the tech industry, Bourhan has over fifteen years’ experience in building and leading large-scale manufacturing and engineering teams in several Bay Area companies including Powis and Zazzle, as well as the leading Dubai-based e-commerce company MarkaVIP, where he served as long-time COO before joining RFCx.
Technical Track
Data
On their quests to harnessing the value of enterprise data to make better decisions, companies have ended with mixed results. But change is coming as a new generation of technologies makes it easier than ever to unlock the value of business information. By using their own enterprise data platform, Hitachi Vantara gained multiples in cost savings and new revenue in less than three years. Discover how they channeled the power in their data through a combination of smart changes in technology, culture, and process.
Global Head, Enterprise Data & Analytics (Global IT)
Hitachi Vantara
Global Head, Enterprise Data & Analytics (Global IT)
Hitachi Vantara
Gauri Kapur is the Global Head, Enterprise Data & Analytics (Global IT) responsible for the Enterprise Data Platform and the AWS and GCP public cloud teams. As a seasoned professional with more than 20 years of experience, she has driven the alignment of technology strategic direction to business vision, served as the champion for data, and steered a cultural shift to embrace and leverage data.
Gauri most recently served as the Vice President of Software Engineering/Data & Analytics at National CineMedia, the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S. She holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Communications and serves on the Board of Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Tim is a people-focused, global technology executive with a strong commercial orientation from leadership roles in customer service operations, strategic technology sourcing, and financial management.
Tim has a proven track-record of taking on new challenges and successfully leading complex change initiatives across geographies and business functions. His most rewarding career roles have been those where new technology is used to improve customer experience, drive operational efficiencies, and support business growth.
As CIO at Hitachi Vantara, Tim is responsible for the global information technology function supporting Hitachi Vantara’s 10,000+ global employees, our customers and our partners. His current 2021 priorities are enabling the company growth ambitions, powering the future of work, protecting to enable, operational excellence, and building and developing one global team.
Previously, Tim was a technology and global operations leader at Western Union (WU) with a reputation for successfully leading and transforming large global teams of employees and vendor staff. Tim delivered the first phase of the largest WU technology project in-flight at the time – a new global settlement platform responsible for the annual movement of $300B of customer principal. He also led the rapid implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud, Einstein Analytics, and a front-end transaction management application for a 5,000-person customer service organization.
Prior to Western Union, Tim held strategic technology consulting and advisory roles with Information Services Group (ISG) and financial leadership roles with Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Tim completed his Bachelors of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Tim lives with his family in Denver, CO and actively volunteers as a board member of the Colorado Technology Association, and an Assistant Scoutmaster with Scouts BSA.
Society Track
When Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm wrote to clients in early 2020 to tell them his firm was putting sustainability at the center of its investment strategy, it was a watershed moment in corporate sustainability. Today, 80 percent of the top world’s top 5000 companies report on sustainability initiatives. However, challenges remain about the quality and depth of disclosures. During this session, sustainability leaders from Ericsson and EcoAct, an Atos company, explore how data can be both an obstacle and an accelerator of sustainability strategies.
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
David leads corporate marketing and communications for Hitachi Vantara, the digital infrastructure, data management, and digital solutions business of Hitachi. He joined the company in 2019 from Bloom Energy, where as a VP he spearheaded communications for the microgrid company’s 2018 $300M NYSE IPO.
From 2016-2018, David led global communications for GE’s largest software business. He was a public relations leader at Cisco from 2008-2016, during which time he was recognized as PRWeek’s PR Professional of the Year.
David previously served as an executive vice president at global PR agency Text 100 (now Archetype). He is a past President of the Public Relations Society of America’s Silicon Valley Chapter.
Chief Executive Officer North America,
EcoAct
Chief Executive Officer North America,
EcoAct
William has over 12 years’ experience working with Global and Fortune 500 companies to develop and implement net zero strategies. This includes managing projects on setting science-based targets, climate risk assessments, and assessing GHG footprints (Scope 1- 3) for multinational enterprises. He has worked with leading companies to design and manage their carbon neutral programs.
William began in climate finance with the Gold Standard Foundation, a certification body that evaluates carbon reduction and sustainable impacts using results-based methodologies. He worked with NGOs Nexus for Development (Nexus) and the Group for the Environment, Renewable Energy and Solidarity (GERES) to scale-up more than a dozen carbon reduction projects in Asia and Africa by leveraging innovative market mechanisms such as climate finance and crowd funding.
Head of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility,
North America, Ericsson
Head of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility,
North America, Ericsson
Bhushan Joshi is Head of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility for Ericsson in Market Area North America. He has over 15 years of professional experience in corporate sustainability, business development, energy management, renewable energy, sustainability reporting, sustainability strategy development, and program management.
At Ericsson, Bhushan advocates for the role of the Information Communications Technology sector in enabling other industries take exponential climate action. He is also focused on developing strategies to help telecom operators achieve their energy and sustainability goals with the introduction of 5G and growth in mobile data traffic.
12:00 p.m.
30 min
Closing Keynote
The global pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of industries that has been underway for two decades. Businesses and consumers are shifting their spending to companies that leverage structured and unstructured data, beyond-expert algorithms, and machine learning to deliver differentiated customer outcomes. Todd Hewlin, co-author of Goliath’s Revenge: How Established Companies Turn the Tables on Digital Disruptors, will walk you through how companies like yours are running the Silicon Valley playbook for themselves. They are simultaneously building “digital moats” to protect their core lines of business while also growing into entirely new markets and profit pools. You will leave this session with both the macro perspective of how digitization is unfolding now as well as actionable models for how to increase the ROI on your digital transformation in 2021.
Partner
TCG Advisors
Partner
TCG Advisors
Todd Hewlin is a Managing Director at TCG Advisors, the leading growth strategy firm in Silicon Valley, and a noted expert on digitization and business model innovation. Todd's latest book, co-authored with Scott Snyder, is called Goliath's Revenge: How Established Companies Turn The Tables On Digital Disruptors. It provides a front-row seat for how digital is changing the fundamental basis of competition and insightful case studies on how established companies are running the Silicon Valley playbook for themselves. Goliath’s Revenge was recently named a “must read” by The Wall Street Journal.
9 a.m.
30 min
Keynote
Climate change is the challenge of our time. But the global transition to clean energy will take leadership and partnerships across industry. See how Hitachi, the Workhorse Group and Tavistock Development Company are powering environmental and economic good for all.
Chairman & CEO, Hitachi America, Ltd.;
Chief Executive, Hitachi Global Social Innovation Business; Corporate Officer, Hitachi Ltd.
Chairman & CEO, Hitachi America, Ltd.;
Chief Executive, Hitachi Global Social Innovation Business; Corporate Officer, Hitachi Ltd.
Hicham Abdessamad is a transformational leader, and a global business visionary with 20+ years of senior leadership experience. Prior to his current roles, he held multiple executive roles within Hitachi, including CEO of Hitachi Global Digital Holdings and President & CEO of Hitachi Consulting. Skilled at delivering industry-leading results in growth, profitability, and innovation, Hicham’s current role allows him to utilize his experience to lead Hitachi America in achieving it business growth objectives and driving the Global Social Innovation Business to execute on a mission of powering good while establishing new markets and next-generation digital business models that create environmental, social and economic value.
CEO
Workhorse
CEO
Workhorse
Duane Hughes is a senior-level executive with operational expertise and more than 20 years’ experience including direct business relationships in the automotive, advertising, and technology segments. Mr. Hughes has served as Chief Executive Officer and as a director since November 2019.
Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer and President of Workhorse from August 2016 to January 2019. Prior to joining Workhorse, Mr. Hughes was the Chief Operating Officer for Cumulus Interactive Technologies Group where he managed the company’s day-to-day sales and operations of the business unit. Mr. Hughes spent nearly fifteen years in senior management positions with Gannett Co., Inc.
SVP Brand Experience & Innovation
Tavistock Group
SVP Brand Experience & Innovation
Tavistock Group
With more than 20 years of experience creating experiences, Juan Santos has been involved in award-winning, transformational work. Milestones include the first worldwide webcast for Earth Day, Coca-Cola’s loyalty program MyCokeRewards, Mattel’s shift from toys to play through the creation of BarbieGirls.com, and the implementation of the largest autonomous public transit network in Lake Nona.
In his current position as the Senior Vice President of Brand Experience and Innovation at Tavistock, Juan’s focus is to transform Tavistock’s companies and properties through a mix of storytelling and technology. Areas of expertise include “storydoing,” experience design, and smart and responsive cities.
10:00 a.m.
30 min
Digital Master Classes
Software and data are key assets in companies in the digital world. That’s because a firm’s distinctive knowhow—what it knows how to do better than its competitors-- is now its key differentiator. Knowhow drives innovation, but without codifying knowhow in software, innovation doesn’t scale easily. In turn, knowhow is increasingly derived from data by applying machine learning software. As a result, all companies must think like software companies. Making this shift is not easy. The fundamental differences between the economics of the digital and physical worlds require business leaders to undertake a systematic rethinking of how their companies will compete in a software-driven world. Attendees will learn what this shift means for their strategy, business model, investments, capabilities, workforce and culture.
Director of Center for Digital Transformation at Paul Merage School of Business
UCI
Director of Center for Digital Transformation at Paul Merage School of Business
UCI
Vijay Gurbaxani is the Founding Director of the Center for Digital Transformation and Taco Bell Endowed Professor of Business and Computer Science at the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine. His research, teaching, and consulting interests intersect business strategy and digital innovation. His approach is distinctive in its use of economic principles as the lens with which to analyze strategic management questions.
Vijay has extensive experience in management education and advisory services. He has lectured worldwide, taught in degree and executive programs, and provided research expertise to Fortune 500 companies, technology service providers, and consulting firms.
Business Track
Manufacturing
When the average commercial aircraft is manufactured, tens of thousands of nutplates are tediously hand-assembled. To improve this process, JR Automation and Hitachi Vantara introduced the SmartAttach automated cell to help the aerospace industry automate nutplate attachment and provide advanced machine analytics.
Vice President of Business Development
JR Automation
Vice President of Business Development
JR Automation
William Bigot is Vice President of Business Development for JR Automation. His responsibilities include management of the business and market development activities supporting all aerospace and defense business units.
Prior to joining JR Automation in February 2019, Mr. Bigot was Vice President of Nova-Tech Engineering and Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Business Development for PaR Systems. Previously, he spent 24 years in technical and managerial positions with MTS Systems Corporation, where he helped the company become a worldwide leader in the integration of physical and virtual simulation product development in aerospace and automotive markets.
GM Manufacturing Practice
Hitachi Vantara
GM Manufacturing Practice
Hitachi Vantara
Specializing in the manufacturing/industrial products, automotive/aerospace, oil/gas, metals/mining and insurance industries, Sid Verma brings more than 20 years of strategic problem-solving acumen, advising C-Suite/Boards and managing product & services business in IoT and the industrial sector. He has a proven track record managing multi-$M P&L, leading large global teams, and incubating/exponentially growing digital business organically and via M&A in large industrial and services companies.
Sid leads the IIoT and Manufacturing division P&L for Hitachi group to deliver growth strategies and Digital + Business + Operations + Technology transformations at clients using NextGen IT/OT capabilities.
Chief Engineer
JR Automation
Chief Engineer
JR Automation
Randall E. Rounkles is the Chief Engineer for Aerospace at JR Automation. His responsibilities include defining and understanding aerospace specifications and requirements to ensure automation meets industry standards. In addition, Randy supports the company’s strategic initiatives in the aerospace sector.
Prior to joining JR Automation in July 2019, Mr. Rounkles spent 33 years in the aerospace industry working for both Boeing and Spirit Aerosystems. After starting as a sheet metal mechanic at Boeing, he moved into automated fastening, progressed into management positions, and finished his career as Senior Operations Leader for the Advanced Manufacturing division.
Energy
Find out how the latest innovations can get us closer to a clean energy future in North America. This panel focuses on how upgrading the nation’s transmission infrastructure and digitizing the electrical grid can help build a carbon-neutral future and a more resilient and flexible energy system.
SVP, Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
SVP, Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
Chris has a long career in both consulting and technology and joined us from Accenture Digital where as Managing Director he had a proven track record of developing and scaling digital technologies in the energy, utilities, and mining industries. Prior to Accenture Digital, he led the North America data and analytics practice for aviation, energy, utilities, and agriculture at Capgemini. In his role at Hitachi Vantara, Chris leads our Industries Practice, closely working with companies like JR Automation and Hitachi ABB Power Grids to help accelerate Hitachi strategy with the transportation, manufacturing, and energy practices.
President and CEO
Smart Electric Power Alliance
President and CEO
Smart Electric Power Alliance
Julia is a visionary leader at the center of the transformation in the electric power sector to a clean and modern energy future. For the past 20 years she has advised and collaborated with utilities, solution providers, and government agencies on business models, grid modernization, electrification and clean energy policies, strategies, and programs. Julia guides and oversees all of SEPA’s research, education, and collaboration activities for its 1,100 member companies. Julia led SEPA through significant expansion, including rebranding from the Solar Electric Power Association and merging with both the Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid (ADS) and Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP).
Head of Hitachi ABB Power Grids North America
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Head of Hitachi ABB Power Grids North America
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Anthony Allard is Executive Vice President, Managing Director, United States and Head of Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ business in North America.
Allard was most recently CEO of BECIS, a leading energy-as-a-service-solution provider in Singapore. He held several executive-level positions in the power sector, including General Manager and Board Member for GE Prolec Transformers. He was General Manager for the GE-XD High Voltage Products partnership and held strategy and operations management roles for Alstom Grid in North America and the Americas.
Allard holds an MBA from Yale University and a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications from the Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble, France.
Mobility
North America is connected by the best freight rail system in the world and it keeps the economy moving. As a large Class I railroad, CSX is one of the major transportation companies that serves the eastern half of the continent. With a continuous focus on excellence, CSX is undertaking an Operational Transformation that’s powered by Digital and in partnership with Hitachi Rail. Let’s explore the Digital Journey to learn how CSX and Hitachi Rail are shaping the future of Freight Rail.
Vice President – Network, Systems, and
Services, CSX Transportation
Vice President – Network, Systems, and
Services, CSX Transportation
Deborah Bittner has been a driving force and key contributor to many systems that enhance railroad safety and operating efficiency, including Positive Train Control (PTC).
Over the past decade, she has been integrally involved in the development and deployment of PTC, a safety technology that represents one of the largest capital programs in CSX history. Previously, she was Head of Transportation and Positive Train Control (PTC) Systems Operations. Bittner joined CSX in 1987 as a technology programmer analyst and has been consistently promoted to roles of increasing responsibility.
Bittner holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Florida State University.
Head of North America Freight Rail,
Hitachi Rail
Head of North America Freight Rail,
Hitachi Rail
Miles has more than 20 years of experience in the rail industry and extensive expertise in the development and introduction of new technologies for the industry. In his current role, Miles leads the commercial teams for freight rail and heavy haul mining at Hitachi Rail with a focus on the future of rail automation and digitization. Previously, Miles led product management, engineering, and commercial teams at GE Transportation and was a senior rail industry consultant at Allied Rail. He has been awarded two patents in rail technology.
Technical Track
Innovation
Emerging Technologies such as AI, analytics, IoT, automation, blockchain, 5G, and others are driving the new wave of digital transformation in nearly every sector. In this session, we will focus on the Manufacturing, Mobility, and Energy sectors as they transform to embrace the concepts of Manufacturing to Zero, Connected Mobility, and Digital Energy. We will discuss the role and importance of emerging technologies in accelerating these transformations, and we will highlight innovations from Hitachi R&D in these areas.
Corporate Chief Scientist
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Corporate Chief Scientist
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Umesh leads innovation in big data, advanced analytics, and AI solutions for manufacturing, energy, mobility, and other industries. He has 35+ years of research experience. He joined the R&D Division of Hitachi America, Ltd. in 2013.
Prior to that, he was an HP Fellow and Director of the Information Analytics Lab at Hewlett-Packard Labs, Palo Alto, California. Umesh received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and has received the Edgar F. Codd Award for fundamental contributions to data management. He has authored 240+ publications and holds 60+ patents.
Sr. Partner
Frost & Sullivan
Sr. Partner
Frost & Sullivan
Aroop has 20+ years of growth management expertise working with companies to design growth strategies for their existing portfolio of product/offerings and facilitating the development of market entry strategies.
He has designed and supported the integration of the global delivery model for Frost & Sullivan and developed the strategy for leveraging Indian intellect to support the company’s global operations through the GIC operations in Chennai. He also started Frost & Sullivan's business operations in Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, and CEE. In less than 10 years, Frost & Sullivan created 30 offices in these regions that are now some of the company’s most profitable regions.
Data
In this session, we’ll explore new ways to modernize data, grow revenue, and drive innovation for smart outcomes. We’ll also discuss the key benefits of DataOps and how to develop a Data Modernization strategy. Turn your data into a cost-effective, never-depleting source of insight and growth to build new opportunities for your enterprise and empower your decision-makers!
Global Director
Jacobs Engineering
Global Director
Jacobs Engineering
Susan leads a team of more than 6,000 Drinking Water & Reuse, Water Resources, Conveyance & Storage, Wastewater, and Industrial Water visionaries and doers to develop innovative, sustainable, and technology-enabled solutions for the world’s water challenges.
Jacobs water team is committed to providing industry-leading infrastructure, digital, and environmental expertise to address complex challenges across drinking water, wastewater, desalination, conveyance, and flood control challenges, all with Jacobs’ OneWater approach to water management–looking at our work as a complete system.
Susan is a Technology Fellow with more than 30 years of experience in capacity assessments, system integration, and flow analysis.
Vice President, Americas Digital Insights
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Americas Digital Insights
Hitachi Vantara
Kerry has more than 25 years of experience in advanced analytics with a passion for cross-industry solution innovation and operational integration. Kerry’s teams have delivered award-winning solutions incorporating data science, IoT, machine learning, real-time and big data for clients in telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, mining, multimodal transportation & logistics, and smart infrastructure. Prior to joining Hitachi Vantara, Kerry provided technology advisory for Arthur Andersen and implemented network operations solutions for AT&T, MediaOne, and US West Advanced Technologies.
Society Track
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence quickly showed that patients with other health conditions, health disparities, and social determinants of health were more likely to suffer a higher burden of illness or mortality. Understanding these factors was a vital step in the fight against the disease. However, patient health data is stored in dissimilar registries and privacy laws prevent data sharing, which slows collaboration and research. During this session, learn how the American Heart Association teamed up with Hitachi Vantara and blockchain experts BurstIQ to provide researchers with a co-developed Precision Medicine Platform. This platform securely aggregated data sets and provided machine learning and other data analytics tools to accelerate the medical community’s understanding of why certain demographics were at greater risk.
Chief, Data Science, Co-Director, Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine
American Heart Association
Chief, Data Science, Co-Director, Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine
American Heart Association
Dr. Jennifer Hall’s laboratory has been a leader in genomics and human heart failure over the past ten years, identifying genes and signaling pathways that are modified in response to reversal of heart failure or left ventricular remodeling.
Dr. Hall is a past Chair of the Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Council of the American Heart Association and has served on many national and international committees. She holds adjunct professor positions at the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Dr. Hall has a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of California Berkeley. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford and Harvard Schools of Medicine.
Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and the Department of Internal Medicine
University of Michigan
Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and the Department of Internal Medicine
University of Michigan
Vice President, Global Lead Healthcare & Life Sciences
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Global Lead Healthcare & Life Sciences
Hitachi Vantara
Paul joined Hitachi in 2004 and leads Hitachi Vantara’s global digital solutions Healthcare & Life Sciences business, with responsibility for industry strategy, business development and solutions, and supporting Hitachi group collaboration. He has been instrumental in developing the healthcare digital portfolio, bringing key offerings to market such as Hitachi’s Digital Diabetes Prevention solution and establishing the Smart Hospital transformation line of business, both recognised as exemplars of Hitachi Social Innovation. Paul has skills and experience in business incubation, strategy, technology and systems-thinking, and is passionate about improving societal outcomes through innovation, co-creation and collaboration with customers and partners.
Chief Scientific Officer
BurstIQ
Chief Scientific Officer
BurstIQ
Executive Vice President,
Weber Shandwick Chicago
Executive Vice President,
Weber Shandwick Chicago
10:30 a.m.
30 min
Business Track
Mobility
To improve efficiency in one of the most crowded U.S. metro areas, Hitachi is delivering a digital train control system for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). The communications-based train control (CBTC) system, created by Hitachi Rail, will increase capacity and improve service. Before the pandemic, BART averaged 405,000 weekday trips to connect the San Francisco peninsula to several cities in the East Bay area – and currently runs on a control system that is over 48 years old. Hitachi’s new CBTC system will allow BART to safely operate their trains on tighter schedules with more closely spaced intervals, significantly increasing throughput and passenger capacity. It will also provide the ability to operate 30 ten-car trains per hour on the main corridor and help meet BART’s demand of over 30,000 passengers per hour.
Principal Program Manager – Americas
Hitachi Rail
Principal Program Manager – Americas
Hitachi Rail
Don Boss is Principal Program Manager–Americas for Hitachi Rail and Project Director of the company’s CBTC Project with BART.
With nearly four decades of leadership experience in complex rail transit systems and high-stakes projects for more than a dozen transit agencies around the globe, Don has successfully led projects focused on rail transit vehicles and systems, automated airport people movers, and complex signaling systems.
Don has held executive and senior management roles with P&L responsibility and has led critical functions to deliver successful outcomes in the disciplines of Project Management; Contract and Subcontract Management; Business Development and Sales; Public, Government, and Labor Relations; Manufacturing and Operations; and Product Introduction.
Project Manager
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
Project Manager
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
Scott Van Dussen leads the Train Control Modernization Program for San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART).
Working with partners from Hitachi Rail, Scott’s organization will implement the largest Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) deployment of its kind in North America on BART’s 125 miles heavy rail system in one of the busiest mega-regions of the United States. A leader who excels in project management and project controls, the team is co-located on site to foster collaboration and ensure that a One Team approach is adopted to successfully complete the project.
Scott’s 25-year career with BART has included transformative projects and the introduction of rider-friendly services. This includes the system’s extensions from Pittsburg to Bay Point, Dublin Pleasanton, as well as the transit authority’s San Francisco Airport and Oakland Airport People Mover projects. He also oversaw the Advanced Automatic Train Control, Automatic Fare Collection Program, and Livermore Extension EIR.
With nearly four decades of leadership experience in complex systems and a degree in Construction Management, Scott’s early career roles included Nuclear and Co-Generation power plants maintenance and startups.
Customer Stories
To improve the food and beverage service industry, software-forward tech company Sestra Systems solves problems that traditional hardware companies can’t. TapWise, their Smart Dispensing solution, uses a cloud-based platform to transform any dispenser and provide control over access and dispensing and insights into behavior and trends. With the ability to integrate with other systems, TapWise is the most versatile solution in the industry. It addresses the needs of every venue – large or small, self-service or bar service – on one common platform. Learn how Sestra Systems’ solutions extend traditional IoT use cases to provide real-time performance and touchless self-service, even in environments without access to cloud.
Vice President of Engineering
Sestra
Vice President of Engineering
Sestra
Ben Maphis is a technology leader with success orchestrating hardware and software solutions that deliver advanced IoT solutions across industries. He provided solutions that deliver measurable outcomes across consultative, security, service provider, and product development organizations and built a delivery organization from start-up—establishing business, marketing, product, team talent, and operational support systems. Ben continues to provide thought leadership to global service organizations through speaking engagements.
Healthcare
Learn how Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group, is using analytics and technology to redefine its operating model and identify gaps in digital solutions to provide effective and high-quality patient care. Join us to learn about organizational challenges and other challenges within the healthcare community. We’ll also discuss how technology and transformation are key to the healthcare industry’s COVID-19 recovery, especially with the backlog of surgeries.
Vice President, Healthcare & Life Sciences,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Healthcare & Life Sciences,
Hitachi Vantara
Paul joined Hitachi in 2004 and leads Hitachi Vantara’s global digital solutions Healthcare & Life Sciences business, with responsibility for industry strategy, business development and solutions, and supporting Hitachi group collaboration. He has been instrumental in developing the healthcare digital portfolio, bringing key offerings to market such as Hitachi’s Digital Diabetes Prevention solution and establishing the Smart Hospital transformation line of business, both recognised as exemplars of Hitachi Social Innovation. Paul has skills and experience in business incubation, strategy, technology and systems-thinking, and is passionate about improving societal outcomes through innovation, co-creation and collaboration with customers and partners.
Chief Executive,
Northern Care Alliance NHS Group
Chief Executive,
Northern Care Alliance NHS Group
Raj re-joined Salford Royal in January 2015 to lead the development of the Group’s corporate strategy, then becoming the Chief of Strategy & Organisational Development, with responsibility for workforce, digital, service development, estates and facilities. He was also Deputy Chief Executive.
He has previously held the post of Managing Director of Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), created to bring together healthcare and academic organisations in partnership with industry, local authorities, and other agencies to improve health and economic wealth through the spread of innovation.
Raj was Chief Executive of an NHS Foundation Trust that was named Hospital of the Year in 2012 and has held senior roles in teaching and general hospitals. He has been a director of two research organisations and has held regional and national leadership positions in health development and planning.
CCIO and Deputy Director for Research and Innovation,
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
CCIO and Deputy Director for Research and Innovation,
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Jim Ritchie is a consultant kidney doctor and CCIO at SRFT, one of the most digitally mature trusts in the NHS. Jim has supported delivery of the Salford Global Digital Exemplar programme, provides clinical leadership to the digital ‘Living Lab’, and has skills and knowledge in design thinking, system evaluation, and developing collaborative partnerships with industry. Over the last three years, Jim has led the clinical design and development of the NCA Digital Control Programme; a transformational partnership with Hitachi Vantara that will embed advanced technologies and behaviours to optimise operational efficiency and improve care delivery. In addition, he has worked with colleagues to develop partnerships that can deliver new models of care for chronic disease into the NHS.
Financial Services Industries
As emerging markets pressure the financial services industry to become more open and sustainable, leading financial institutions are exploring the open-banking ecosystem, which will offer new and innovative services while remaining maximumly secured. But the restructuring of a bank’s business model requires a technological backbone that meets security, governance, and compliance requirements. Join this discussion to learn how financial institutions can use technologies to gain a competitive edge by becoming smart and open.
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Suranjan is the Vice President of Financial Services at Hitachi Vantara, based out of London, applying innovation, industry expertise and engineering to address some of the biggest challenges in the financial services world today.
Kicking off his career with the Big 4, Suranjan has been working over 2 decades in the Data and Analytics space. Suranjan has worked exclusively with banks, insurers and asset managers in the last decades. He has architected some of largest Risk, Regulatory and Performance Management solutions for some of the largest banks in the world. This includes building the world’s first real-time risk solution for a large American bank to large middle-office regulation platforms for BCBS 239 and BASEL III compliance.
From "FinTech" to "RegTech", he is working with some of the largest names in the Financial Services space, looking at a wide range of solutions from Big Data, Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence to solve implementation challenges for our Top Tier banking customers. Today, Suranjan is responsible for the portfolio of Hitachi’s strategic financial services accounts across the globe.
Head of Group IT Strategy & Solutions
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI)
Head of Group IT Strategy & Solutions
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI)
Marek Chlebicki is Head of Group IT Strategy & Solutions at RBI, responsible for IT strategy development, Group technology transformation program, and new IT solutions. Marek has extensive experience in the banking industry as well as consulting across Europe including the CEE region. Previously, he worked as Director of Strategy & Operations consulting for the financial services sector at PwC Poland (responsible for Poland, CEE, supporting Global PwC assignments) and Head of Banking Operations Strategy & Productivity at Sberbank Europe Group.
Marek specializes in strategy definition and implementation, managing complex technology-driven transformations, operational excellence, organizational efficiency management, and using technology and data to transform business and operations.
Technical Track
Innovation
This is your look into the future of data. See how data will be consumed, managed, and stored, learn about trends in hybrid IT, and discover the architectures for traditional and modern applications that ensure data mobility from edge to cloud. After learning how AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics will affect storage, you’ll leave with insights on the future of business continuity and strategies on how to optimize your infrastructure for microservice and container architectures.
Chief Product Oficer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Product Oficer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
As the global head of products, Radhika is responsible for the vision, strategy, delivery, and business performance for all our products and solutions across data storage, data management and analytics, as well as Hitachi’s industry-leading Lumada IoT and industrial software.
Radhika has a unique combination of deep technical expertise and experience in end-to-end business management. She has incubated and scaled several businesses in her previous leadership roles at Lenovo, HP, Cisco, NetApp and Nimble Storage. Before joining Hitachi Vantara in September 2020, Radhika was executive vice president and general manager of software at 3D Systems.
Radhika is a passionate advocate for diversity in tech. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and a master’s in business administration degree from San Jose State University.
Vice President, Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Colin is an innovative and impactful story teller with over 25 years of experience in marketing and product management and a history of leadership roles at several major infrastructure companies. He has a passion for telling compelling stories about technical products that help customers solve both business and personal pain–and enjoys the challenge of telling them in creative ways. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Northeastern University. He tries to put as many miles on his bike as his aging body will allow, “hangs out” on twitter as @worldc3, and is most definitely team Oxford comma.
Innovation
Innovation in AI, lidar and video analytics are enabling new insights that are helping to enhance safety, operations, and customer experience for many industries. Retail is automating stores to create a seamless experience for customers to simply pick up what they want and walk out, while providing rich insights for the retailers to run their businesses better. Learn how this leap forward in technology is enabling leaps forward for businesses to thrive in the new digital world.
VP IOT Group & GM Visual Retail
Intel
VP IOT Group & GM Visual Retail
Intel
Jose Avalos heads the leadership and management of Intel’s worldwide retail and digital signage business. He holds an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School, an MSE in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Follow him @Intel_Jose on Twitter.
Chief Business Development Officer
Shekel Brainweigh
Chief Business Development Officer
Shekel Brainweigh
Relentless entrepreneur, experienced in turning technological solutions into successful business ventures. Rami is leading Retail Innovation Division business development activities since 2018, driving digital transformation of convenience retail services.
Rami co-founded C-nario, a pioneer & leader of digital signage markets, and Goopi, automated video ads creation platform and led its business activities.
Rami led VCON Video Conferencing business activities and its acquisition by ClearOne (NASDAQ: CLRO), and acted as VP of Global Video & International Sales.
BA, Philosophy - Haifa University; Master, Science of Management, Boston University.
Head of Retail, Hospitality & Consumer Goods Consulting EMEA
Hitachi Vantara
Head of Retail, Hospitality & Consumer Goods Consulting EMEA
Hitachi Vantara
Mark is Head of Retail and Hospitality for Hitachi Vantara EMEA. His role is to lead client discussions and solution development within the EMEA region. Mark has 20+ years’ experience, specifically in Retail and Hospitality. During his time, he has worked closely with some of the UK’s and European leading Retail and Hospitality organisations enabling digital transformation of customer engagement and insight, operational cost reduction and reduction in shrink. Mark joined Hitachi in 2017, having previously held senior Retail advisory positions with some of the world’s leading software and consulting organisations.
Director, Smart Spaces and Lumada Video Insights, EMEA
Hitachi Vantara
Director, Smart Spaces and Lumada Video Insights, EMEA
Hitachi Vantara
Christian Dornacher supports customers in their digital journey working within cross-functional teams within Hitachi and with strategic partners to create value and provide insights for customers by applying smart spaces technologies and services.
He has excelled in the IT space for the past 30 years in different technical and business roles with a focus on IoT and smart spaces technologies for over 8 years. Christian holds an electrical engineering degree from the Kempten University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
Cloud
More than 50% of modernization projects fail? Many waste time and money and hinder agility by keeping businesses from capitalizing on modern technology. Listen to a panel of cloud experts address common pitfalls and discuss modernization approaches to avoid failure and ensure a successful path to becoming a data-driven enterprise.
Research Director
IDC
Research Director
IDC
Pete Marston is Research Director for IDC, responsible for the Worldwide Intelligent Application Services practice. He develops research focused on the lifecycle of application delivery and related services markets that include Custom Application Development (CAD), testing, Application Management (AM), also referred to as ADM (Application Development and Maintenance), and Hosted Application Management (HAM). Mr. Marston's research also reviews how modern application delivery, leading edge technology platforms and tools, and application lifecycle management methodologies are evolving and shaping the application services markets and contractual relationships. His findings help organizations achieve digital transformation objectives.
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Samta is Global Consulting Strategy and Marketing leader for Hitachi Vantara. She is responsible for developing and implementing go-to-market strategies for the company’s services portfolio. Samta has deep global expertise in digital transformations, artificial intelligence, big data, and IoT. Her experience spans portfolio marketing, strategy, sales enablement, business development, software products, and industrial domains. Samta is a published author and speaker and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University in marketing and leadership, a BE in Electrical and Electronics, and a Masters in Physics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Founding Director
Center for Digital Transformation
Premkumar Balasubramanian (“Prem”) heads our Technology and Solutions office and is responsible for strategizing and supporting go-to-market (GTM) pursuits, architecting repeatable solutions for our customers and providing technology and thought leadership in modern engineering and evolving technologies focused on application modernization, data and analytics.
Senior Vice President, Digital Modernization
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Vice President, Digital Modernization
Hitachi Vantara
Adithya Sastry is responsible for the Digital Modernization Practice, a key driver of the Digital Solutions business unit at Hitachi Vantara. He drives the expansion of the company’s digital solutions business by helping customers modernize their solutions to accelerate digital innovation, which allows them to build transformable and scalable digital solutions.
Earlier, Adithya was the senior vice president and general manager for the Americas at Hitachi Consulting where he led the Americas’ P&L including growth, industry solutions and delivery.
Adithya is a seasoned business leader with a strong track record in growing digital businesses by bringing innovative solutions to market, building a sales-driven culture, and developing a strong collaborative partner ecosystem to extend solutions and sales. Before joining Hitachi, Adithya held various leadership roles in P&L, product management and M&A at Cognizant Technology Solutions, General Electric Company and NCR Corporation.
Adithya holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Franklin University, Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Arkansas State University and Master of Business Administration degree in International Business from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Adithya resides in Chicago with his wife and two children, and enjoys tennis and traveling.
11:00 a.m.
30 min
Digital Master Classes
To continue doing business during the ongoing pandemic, your company might have invested a lot in digital technologies. That doesn’t make your company ready for digital business though. As digital technology is moving into customer offerings, most established companies find that they are not designed to deliver these digital offerings. Here’s how to change that. Do you know what your customers are willing to pay for when it comes to digital? Can you innovate rapidly without creating the next legacy debacle? Are your processes ready to support new digital business models? If your organization struggles with one of these challenges, this Digital Masterclass is for you. In this session, professor and MIT researcher Martin Mocker will discuss the need for business executives to design their companies to be able to create digital offerings that help them deliver new value propositions. Using practical company examples from his book “Designed for Digital,” Martin talks about the relevance of digital design, the challenges that come with it, and the role business executives play in addressing them.
Research Affiliate
MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)
Research Affiliate
MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)
Professor of Information Systems
ESB Business School, Reutlingen University
Research Affiliate
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Martin Mocker is a professor of information systems at ESB Business School, Reutlingen University, Germany and a Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His teaching and research focus on the digital transformations of large, traditional companies aiming to stay competitive in an increasingly digital economy.
Martin has co-authored the book “Designed for Digital: How to Architect Your Business for Sustained Success.”
Business Track
Manufacturing
Private 5G mobile networks for manufacturing are poised to create economic value, improve worker safety, and deliver more sustainable workplaces. Top use cases include real-time production automation, collaborative robots, digital twinning of production flows and more. Collaboration is key to creating viable ecosystems capable of delivering real solutions to real customers. In this session, Hitachi and Ericsson discuss their ecosystem and partnering approach, maintaining momentum working through trials, and getting to commercial success.
Vice President and Head of IoT Edge R&D, Hitachi America, Ltd. and Chief IoT Architect, Hitachi Astemo, Ltd.
Vice President and Head of IoT Edge R&D, Hitachi America, Ltd. and Chief IoT Architect, Hitachi Astemo, Ltd.
Sudhanshu is Vice President at Hitachi America and heads the IoT Edge R&D with focus on innovation in Edge-AI space addressing multiple industries including manufacturing.
Additionally, he is also serving as Chief IoT Architect at Hitachi Automotive Systems where his focus is more on embedding emerging technologies–oT/AI–to help improve manufacturing operations. His interests span distributed systems, 5G, Edge AI, federated learning, and robotics. He has authored over 100 patents and peer-reviewed publications. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Sudhanshu is a Senior Member of IEEE.
Global Lead Strategic Ventures & Partnerships - Industrials
Business Development
Ericsson North America
Global Lead Strategic Ventures & Partnerships - Industrials
Business Development
Ericsson North America
Alan Minney leads 5G and Industrial IoT engagement initiatives, ecosystem partnerships, and go-to-market strategy for Ericsson North America’s Industrials team. He has expertise in driving digital transformation, collaborative innovation, and co-development strategies that deliver business value. He works closely with partners, customers, and clients on 5G-connectivity solutions that enable new customer experiences, build engagement, and improve business outcomes.
Mr. Minney held prior roles at a global consulting firm focused on digital transformation and emerging technologies. He brings nearly 20 years of experience in the Information, Communications, and Technology industries in sales, business development, product marketing, and thought leadership.
Financial Services Industries
Financial institutions face a number of regulatory, social, and ethical considerations when it comes to their customers’ privacy expectations. In an era of increased data breaches, consumer distrust is on the rise. And it isn’t easy to identify the best approach to keeping data safe while still remaining transparent. Join our panel of experts as they discuss how to help financial services companies optimize their data collection and management processes to manage risk and, more importantly, rebuild trust.
Founder and CEO
EZOPS Inc.
Founder and CEO
EZOPS Inc.
Bikram Singh is the founder and CEO of EZOPS Inc, an A.I.-focused Fin-Tech firm. Bikram has built and managed operational services and technology solutions for banks, hedge funds, asset managers, fund administrators, and custodians. He has over 20 years of experience working at McKinsey, Lehman, Lava, Goldman, and Citi before founding EZOPS. Bikram holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Illinois Institute of Technology.
Global Head of IT and Data
HSBC
Global Head of IT and Data
HSBC
Nitin is an accomplished Business & IT architect, data and digital, transformation, and delivery SME with expertise in delivering global strategic programs in investment, retail, insurance, risk, finance, and other financial services domains for over 20 yrs. Nitin has worked in major financial institutions like ING Direct, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank and is now a global head for IT and Data in the global trade and receivable finance business for HSBC in the UK. Nitin has a strong foundation in functional and technical areas. His unique skillset and innovative approach make him equally effective in matrix set-ups while dealing with business, transformation, technical colleagues, and stakeholders.
Chief Technology Officer, Financial Services
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Technology Officer, Financial Services
Hitachi Vantara
Inderjeet Rana is focused on providing strategic direction for product and services offered by Hitachi Vantara. Creating technology solutions that can be shared within and across industry verticals for not only scale and performance, but for Hitachi vision of innovation as well. These strategic solutions are geared towards solving or delivering a flexible, scalable, and extensible platform to address some common but often complex business challenges and needs.
Prior to Hitachi Vantara, Inderjeet spent 25+ years in banking and financial industry heading various infrastructure technology groups and services. From Merrill Lynch to Barclays and most recently at Newyork Stock Exchange| Intercontinental exchange
Customer Stories
In this riveting session on partnership through innovation, Amazon Web Services Vice President of WWPS Partners and Programs, Sandy Carter, delves into the ways customer obsession and digital transformation drives innovation. Sandy discusses the culture of innovation at Amazon, and she highlights the importance of using a customer-centric approach and having a keen sense of curiosity when developing innovative solutions. She provides exciting examples and applicable best practices on working backwards from your customers and collaborating with partners to accelerate innovation.
Vice President, Public Sector Partners and Programs,
Amazon Web Services
Vice President, Public Sector Partners and Programs,
Amazon Web Services
Technical Track
Innovation
Powerful outcomes begin with optimized business processes and IT process integration. Hyperautomation uses advanced technologies to augment the processes that deliver more impact than traditional automation capabilities. Learn how hyperautomation will help you automate the future and see what’s next for automation and orchestration in IT
Vice President Global Services
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President Global Services
Hitachi Vantara
Jeremy joined Hitachi Vantara in 2018, leading the Cloud Managed Services business, bringing a wealth of knowledge from his previous roles at SAP. His background in digital transformation, on-prem infrastructure operations, compliancy, and cloud strategy has proven valuable across the organization. He heads the Global Automation Practice which provides HyperAutomation offerings and digital transformation offerings to Hitachi Vantara clients.
Jeremy’s notable accomplishments include modernizing SAP’s SaaS portfolio applications to run on the cloud and achieving FedRAMP Moderate IL4 accreditation; developing operations models which scale through ML increasing SLAs while reducing overhead cost; digital transformation of Hitachi Services through AIOps and HyperAutomation.
Edge/Cloud/Innovation
Where that data is generated heavily depends on the nature of your business. It could be a remote facility, a factory or distributed IoT devices. Whatever the case, the future of digital business will be driven by companies’ ability to receive, manage, and analyze information to and from these edge points. Hear best practices, lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid from our panel of experts in data integration strategies from edge to cloud.
Research Director
451 Research
Research Director
451 Research
Matt Aslett is a Research Director with responsibility for the Data, AI & Analytics Channel at 451 Research, a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence. This Channel includes operational and analytic databases, Hadoop, grid/cache, stream processing, data integration, data governance and data management, as well as data science and analytics, machine learning and AI. Matt's primary area of focus includes data abstraction, virtualization and analytics acceleration, data culture and data literacy, data streaming, and streaming data integration, as well as hybrid cloud data processing.
Matt is a regular speaker at client and industry events, and has delivered keynotes and moderated panels at Google Cloud Next, Big Data LDN, Hitachi NEXT, Strata + Hadoop World, DataWorks Summit, Percona Live, GraphConnect, In-Memory Computing Summit and NoSQL Roadshow. Matt was listed in Onalytica’s 2021 Who’s Who in Data Management.
Prior to joining 451 Research in 2007, Matt was deputy editor of monthly magazine Computer Business Review and ComputerWire's daily news service. Matt started in IT journalism in 1997 as a staff writer with monthly magazine Unix and NT News, where he became editor in 2000.
Matt holds a BA in multimedia journalism from Bournemouth University in the UK.
Chief Innovation Officer
Flexential
Chief Innovation Officer
Flexential
Jason leads a team focused on defining, assessing, and providing direction on the changing technology landscape of Flexential’s business and customers. He and his team are responsible for developing insights on what is next on the horizon to further position Flexential as a hybrid IT and data center leader. He joined the company in 2011 and has held various roles in product, operations, and technical management.
Jason has over 25 years of experience in leadership positions in product architecture, software engineering, and technical sales and support across a variety of companies, including Sun Microsystems, where Jason was honored as a Distinguished Engineer, VMware, and the Mayo Clinic.
Global Technology Advisor and Executive Analyst
Hitachi Vantara
Global Technology Advisor and Executive Analyst
Hitachi Vantara
At Hitachi Vantara, Tom Christensen focuses on the information technology and services industry.
He has more than 30 years of skilled experience in modernizing the data center for infrastructure including computing and storage to Hybrid-Cloud and Multi-Cloud, Application Modernization, Solution Applications, DataOps, and Big Data Analytics. Tom is also a blogger and advocate for Social Innovation.
Head of Industry Solutions Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Head of Industry Solutions Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Lothar Schubert leads Industry Solution Marketing at Hitachi Vantara, focusing on digital transformation (DX), cloud modernization, and intelligent data operations. With 15+ years of industry marketing experience, prior work includes leadership roles at SAP, GE Digital, and several cloud start-ups.
Society Track
Toxic air remains the biggest environmental risk to the health of Londoners, with road vehicles the leading cause of air pollution. To help the city reach carbon-reduction targets, a consortium comprised of Hitachi, Uber, Royal Mail, Centrica, UK Power Networks and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks conceived of ‘Optimize Prime’, the world’s largest commercial electric vehicle pilot. Designed to overcome challenges associated with the electrification of commercial fleets, the project will deliver insights about vehicle usage, recharging, energy optimization, demand forecasting and demand response that will likely inform EV adoption strategies the world over. Join this session to learn about the program, and the challenges of operating an Internet of Things pilot at massive scale.
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications,
Hitachi Vantara
David leads corporate marketing and communications for Hitachi Vantara, the digital infrastructure, data management, and digital solutions business of Hitachi. He joined the company in 2019 from Bloom Energy, where as a VP he spearheaded communications for the microgrid company’s 2018 $300M NYSE IPO.
From 2016-2018, David led global communications for GE’s largest software business. He was a public relations leader at Cisco from 2008-2016, during which time he was recognized as PRWeek’s PR Professional of the Year.
David previously served as an executive vice president at global PR agency Text 100 (now Archetype). He is a past President of the Public Relations Society of America’s Silicon Valley Chapter.
Vice President, Client Relationships & Sales EMEA,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Client Relationships & Sales EMEA,
Hitachi Vantara
Claire Thomas is Vice President responsible for client relationships and sales for Hitachi Vantara EMEA. Following 5 years at Microsoft, she has been with Hitachi for 9 years, leading a number of social innovation projects across the energy and utilities sector, including leading an award-winning data programme working with South West Water to reduce the impact of pollution on the environment and forming part of Optimise Prime. Claire is a member of the Women of Hitachi committee focused in driving diversity in the technology sector as a whole and making Vantara the most inclusive workplace possible.
11:30 a.m.
30 min
Digital Master Classes
The notion of transforming one’s products and services using digital technology is no longer an exercise in abstract thinking. In fact, there are so many examples of successful transformation in multitudes of industries, and the availability of vast bodies of knowledge, from consultants and advisors to playbooks and guides. So, with all of this know-how and evidence, why is it that more organizations have had difficulty in finding their pathway to transformational outcomes? Recent statistics (ref. Gartner, McKinsey) show a high failure rate among enterprises that are attempting to transition to a software-driven value model. In this session Dr. Sunil Singh, CTO GlobalLogic, will share real-world insights on what it takes to create a Software Product-Driven Organization --an organization that thinks and acts like a software company—combining the “right” organization and culture, a technology approach that is innovative yet capable of rapidly releasing products, and business metrics and KPIs that promote a new, software product/platform approach. During this session Dr. Singh will talk through the strategic pillars of:
Chief Technology Officer,
GlobalLogic
Chief Technology Officer,
GlobalLogic
Business Track
Healthcare
New, innovative technologies are transforming healthcare, driving strong social innovation, igniting data-driven opportunities, cutting costs, and helping the medical community save lives. High Performance Medical Solutions, a division of Hitachi Cable America Inc. that provides services and solutions that meet the most stringent, life-saving medical needs, and Angiodynamics Inc. discuss the positive impact that material science and manufacturing technologies are having upon procedural catheter devices.
Director of Business Development and Marketing
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Director of Business Development and Marketing
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Richard is the Director of Business Development and Marketing for Hitachi Cable America. Richard is part of a growing team responsible for strategic growth and segment expansion strategies within the Cable and Medical business divisions. He has a B.S. in Computer Science with an engineering background and over 32 patents to date.
Executive Vice President of High-Performance Medical Solutions Division
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Executive Vice President of High-Performance Medical Solutions Division
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Benjamin Bell is the Executive Vice President of High-Performance Medical Solutions with responsibility for Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Facilities. With 20 years of experience in R&D and manufacturing for the medical device industry, Ben has worked for device companies including Boston Scientific, Navilyst Medical, and Angiodynamics. Ben holds a bachelor's degree in Plastics Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Sr. Director of R&D
Angiodynamics
Sr. Director of R&D
Angiodynamics
Mark is the Sr. Director R&D for AngioDyanmics. He has 22 years of R&D experience in the medical device industry with 20+ product launches. Mark currently leads R&D for the Vascular Access (VA), Oncology Surgery (O/S) and Vascular Interventions and Therapies (VIT) global business units.
Financial Services Industries
Many non-financial companies continue to embrace embedded finance, but traditional financial institutions are struggling to thrive in a quickly evolving landscape. Leaders have recognized that the balance of power swings to those who own the customer experience and use new technologies to retain customer loyalty and increase their lifetime value. Join this insightful discussion to learn how digital transformation can help you gain competitive advantage to meet customer demands for integrated experiences.
Senior Advisor, Strategy, IoT & Analytics
Senior Advisor, Strategy, IoT & Analytics
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Suranjan is the Vice President of Financial Services at Hitachi Vantara, based out of London, applying innovation, industry expertise and engineering to address some of the biggest challenges in the financial services world today.
Kicking off his career with the Big 4, Suranjan has been working over 2 decades in the Data and Analytics space. Suranjan has worked exclusively with banks, insurers and asset managers in the last decades. He has architected some of largest Risk, Regulatory and Performance Management solutions for some of the largest banks in the world. This includes building the world’s first real-time risk solution for a large American bank to large middle-office regulation platforms for BCBS 239 and BASEL III compliance.
From "FinTech" to "RegTech", he is working with some of the largest names in the Financial Services space, looking at a wide range of solutions from Big Data, Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence to solve implementation challenges for our Top Tier banking customers. Today, Suranjan is responsible for the portfolio of Hitachi’s strategic financial services accounts across the globe.
Chief Technology Officer, Financial Services
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Technology Officer, Financial Services
Hitachi Vantara
Inderjeet Rana is focused on providing strategic direction for product and services offered by Hitachi Vantara. Creating technology solutions that can be shared within and across industry verticals for not only scale and performance, but for Hitachi vision of innovation as well. These strategic solutions are geared towards solving or delivering a flexible, scalable, and extensible platform to address some common but often complex business challenges and needs. Prior to Hitachi Vantara, Inderjeet spent 25+ years in banking and financial industry heading various infrastructure technology groups and services. From Merrill Lynch to Barclays and most recently at Newyork Stock Exchange| Intercontinental exchange
Customer Stories
Celepar, which provides information and communication solutions to the state of Paraná, Brazil, is responsible for many essential applications across safety, healthcare, traffic, tax, and more. Learn how they cut costs, saved space, and optimized their services for the citizens of Paraná when they successfully migrated to a modernized infrastructure solution – without disruption.
IT Infrastructure Division
Celepar
IT Infrastructure Division
Celepar
Dario Knopfholz is an engineer specializing in Electronics & Telecom for UTFPR (Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Paraná) with a master’s degree in Computer Networks for Instituto Tecnológico de Educação. With extensive experience in multiplatform file servers, authentication methods, data security, and hardware, Dario Knopfholz has worked for Celepar for more than 20 years. He is currently coordinating the Celepar IT Infrastructure Division and has been responsible for several projects to implement new data transfer and storage technologies, always seeking greater efficiency and security.
Technical Track
Infrastructure
As data becomes the key driver to accelerating growth, proper data governance becomes paramount. Compliance and governance regulations have not only increased, but they have expanded to include data privacy and information security. With proactive strategies and a holistic approach to data governance, you can help your organization get ahead of regulations, automate data management actions, and achieve the delicate balance between ensuring security without throttling access.
Director of Cloud Object Storage, Collaboration and Data Intelligence Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Director of Cloud Object Storage, Collaboration and Data Intelligence Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Tanya is the Director of Product Marketing for the Hitachi Content Platform Portfolio, which includes object storage and related cloud storage gateway, file sync and share, data governance, data protection, and analytics solutions. Tanya has more than 20 years of experience across various product marketing, voice-of-the-customer, and business development disciplines and technologies including cloud, file, object, and NAS.
Senior Analyst
ESG
Senior Analyst
ESG
Christophe Bertrand is the Senior Analyst at ESG with research focus on data protection. He has 25 years of experience in services, software, and high-end storage systems, as well as a passion for the product marketing discipline and product launches. Christophe has spent most of his career in the data storage and data protection space with companies such as Legato Systems, Hitachi Data Systems, and Arcserve. As previous VP of Product Marketing, he spearheaded many product launches including UDP software, appliances, and cloud services.
Christophe has extensive global experience built on many hours in the field with customers, channel and alliance partners, and industry influencers.
Data
As most customer interactions are digital, it’s critical to provide an amazing experience if you want to streamline processes, build loyalty, and increase profitability. Customers want access to highly personalized, customizable digital experiences anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Learn how to give your customers modern, real-time experiences with insights from transactional, device, social, and behavioral data.
Client Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Client Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Juan Troytino is the Client Partner for Telefonica in Hitachi with a long history of working on Telco and Media on DX projects. Over the last 10 years Juan has been collaborating alongside Telefonica on their data and cloud transformation strategies and has been responsible for cloud adoption in Telefonica driving Collaboration, Infrastructure, IA, and Data TX projects.
Chief Digital Consumer Officer
Telefonica
Vice President, Americas Digital Insights
Hitachi Vantara
Chema Alonso is the Chief Digital Consumer Officer (CDCO) of Telefónica. He leads the strategy for the digitalization of product and service sales processes and the customer communication channels. He also aims to promote innovation of new digital products and services and the generation of internal efficiency supported by the technological capacities of big data and artificial intelligence of Telefónica's fourth platform, with special focus on the digital home. Mr. Alonso is responsible for the innovation of Telefónica's core technologies and the company's relationship with the entrepreneurial ecosystem under an open cooperation model.
He is also Chairman of ElevenPaths, the cybersecurity company owned by Telefónica Tech, which integrates the company's Cloud, IoT/Big Data and Security businesses.
12:00 p.m.
30 min
Closing Keynote
What is a data-driven nation? How do we unlock the collective genius of humanity to transform people, places, and systems? Leveraging examples from around the world, former U.S. Chief Technology Officer and shift7 CEO Megan Smith shines a spotlight on the opportunities and obstacles facing innovators coming together to solve the world’s biggest challenges.
Former U.S. Chief Technology Officer
United States Government
Former U.S. Chief Technology Officer
United States Government
An award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist, Smith served as the third U.S. Chief Technology Officer from 2014-2017 helping the President and his teams harness the power of data, innovation, and technology on behalf of the nation.
Today Smith is CEO and co-founder of shift7, a company working collaboratively on systemic social, environmental, and economic problems—finding opportunities to scout and scale promising solutions and solution makers and engage proven tech-forward, open, shareable practices to drive direct impact, together.
Previously, Smith was vice president at Google for 11 years leading new business development and in the leadership team at X founding SolveforX and WomenTechmakers.
She is a board member of Vital Voices, LA Olympics 2028, Thinkof-Us.
Every time we do something, even just turn on a light, we create data that businesses collect and use to make decisions about us. In many ways this has improved our lives, yet, we as individuals do not benefit from this wealth of data as much as we could. Join Andreas Weigend, the former Chief Scientist at Amazon and a member of the Digital Council of Germany, as he discusses the Data Dilemma.
Author of Data for People, Former Chief Scientist at Amazon
Author of Data for People, Former Chief Scientist at Amazon
Dr. Andreas Weigend, the author of "Data for the People", was the chief scientist at Amazon and a member of the Digital Council of Germany. As advisor and consultant, he works with organizations on consumer data strategy and AI in banking, telecommunication, travel, and retail. He advises Zozo in Japan, SCG in Thailand, and startups in Silicon Valley. He shares his insights at events around the globe, including in a session on Identity and Trust at TEDx in Bangkok, a speech on Data: The New Rules at SLUSH in Helsinki, and the keynote The Data Dilemma at the SWIFT Innovation conference in London. Andreas studied physics and philosophy in Karlsruhe, Cambridge and Bonn, and did his Ph.D. in neural networks at Stanford.
9 a.m.
30 min
Keynote
What is sustainable digital business leadership? See Alistair Dormer, the Chief Environment Officer for Hitachi, discuss the company's environmental vision — including achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 —and sustainable digital business leadership in clean rail, EV fleets, and rainforest conservation.
Executive Vice President and
Executive Officer and Chief Environmental Officer
Hitachi, Ltd.
Executive Vice President and Executive Officer and Chief Environmental Officer
Hitachi, Ltd.
As of April 2021, as Chief Environmental Officer, Alistair Dormer is in charge of Environmental Strategy for Hitachi on a global level. He was appointed Representative Executive Officer in Hitachi, Ltd. leading the Mobility Sector in April 2019. Alistair joined Hitachi in 2003 to establish Hitachi’s Rail business in Europe. He was promoted to CEO of Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd. in 2007 and having built a successful business in Europe was promoted to Senior Vice President and Executive Officer Group CEO, Rail Systems Business Unit Hitachi, Ltd. in April 2014, responsible for Hitachi’s global rail business. Under Dormer’s leadership, the Hitachi’s rail business has globalized and grown by more than 300%.
President
COP 26
President
COP 26
Alok Sharma was appointed full-time President for COP 26, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, on January 8, 2021. He was previously Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy and President for COP 26 between February 13, 2020 and January 8, 2021.
Alok was previously Secretary of State for International Development from July 24, 2019 to February 13, 2020 and Minister of State for Employment at the Department of Work and Pensions from January 9, 2018 until July 24, 2019. He was Minister of State for Housing and Planning for the Department for Communities and Local Government from June 13, 2017 to January 9, 2018.
CEO
Rainforest Connection
CEO
Rainforest Connection
Topher has experience building systems for large and small startups and international science projects, including four years working on nuclear fusion at ITER in France. He was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a Draper-Richards-Kaplan (DRK) Fellow, and an “Engineering Hero” by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
With a background in physics, software development and communication, Topher has worked for SLAC Natl Accelerator Lab (High Energy Physics) and the ITER Organization (Nuclear Fusion) and served as CTO for two U.S. startups, where he obtained industry-level experience in software development—the foundation of the Rainforest Connection platform.
10:00 a.m.
30 min
Business Track
Mobility
The pandemic has caused travel to change significantly, so what does the future look like for mobility in North America? Breakthroughs in technology like self-driving vehicles, driverless metros, and electric vehicles are only the beginning. As the ways in which we travel and how we travel change, new ecosystems are created alongside aging infrastructure. Explore how innovation, data, and policy intersect to shape and drive mobility and create social and economic value in a rapidly changing environment.
Vice President,
Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business,
Hitachi, Ltd.
Vice President,
Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business,
Hitachi, Ltd.
Dean is the Vice President, Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business (GSIB), Americas. He has over 30 years of business, academic, and military leadership experience in transportation and mobility, as a computer scientist, educator, commercial pilot, and autonomous and connected systems expert. In his current role he leads and directs the GSIB America's team in commercial development and business strategy across multiple verticals, emphasizing advanced digital solutions and data analytics.
He is an internationally recognized expert in autonomous, connected, electric, and shared transportation systems across air, rail, freight, trucking, and shared system modalities. Before joining Hitachi America, Ltd., he was the General Manager of Voyage, a self-driving car startup, with a mission to super-charge communities with self-driving cars.
He retired from the U.S. Air Force, after 25 years of service, as a full Colonel. Dean also hold a Master’s degree and a PhD in Computer Science from Clemson University.
Vice President, Transportation Industry, Americas
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Vice President, Transportation Industry, Americas
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Since 2011, Simounet has lead the Transportation Industry segment for Hitachi ABB Power Grids in the Americas region.
He has more than 25 years of experience in the rail and transit industry in roles spanning engineering, marketing, sales, product management and business development.
Simounet has extensive experience working with a variety of associations, technical committees and NGOs in the electrical and transportation industry, and is a recognized expert in the field of the electrification of transport and sustainable mobility. He currently serves as a board member of InnovÉÉ and IVI Solutions.
Simounet holds an advanced technical diploma in electrical engineering from the School of Gustave Eiffel in Bordeaux, France, and an Executive MBA from the University of Québec in Montreal.
Vice President – Policy and Mobility
American Public Transportation Association
Vice President – Policy and Mobility
American Public Transportation Association
Art Guzzetti, a 40-year professional in public transportation at the local, state, and national levels, serves as Vice President-Mobility Initiatives & Policy for the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the trade group for the public transportation industry. Mr. Guzzetti is responsible for APTA’s extensive policy development and research agenda and for advancing policies favorable to public transportation with Congress, the Administration, state and local governments, grass-roots and stakeholder organizations, and public policy think tanks. A key current focus is integration of transit networks with new and emerging public and private mobility services.
Product Management Director for Enterprise Transformations
Hitachi Vantara
Product Management Director for Enterprise Transformations
Hitachi Vantara
An aerospace engineer by trade, Shanif has spent the last 5 years driving complex large scale IOT transformations in aviation, mining and transportation, solving customer needs across operations, revenue, customer experience, and human performance delivering optimized workflows back to field personas to drive business efficiency and growth
Chief Director, Digital, Innovation & Chief Lumada Business Officer
Hitachi Rail
Chief Director, Digital, Innovation & Chief Lumada Business Officer
Hitachi Rail
Leonardo Impagliazzo is Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Hitachi Rail where he leads the definition and implementation the global rail digital and innovation strategy. He is also responsible to promote the growth of the Lumada business within rail.
Previously, Leonardo was Vice President Signalling Engineering and then Senior Vice President of RAMS before holding the position of Senior Vice President System Assurance & Control, managing teams working across Integrated Management System activities, the Quality, Safety and Cybersecurity Assurance and Control activities as well as the RAMS and Verification & Validation activities for Hitachi Rail’s products, applications, and systems.
Energy
So many challenges can block the pathway to a carbon-neutral future. Hear about Ameren’s vision for the future, their journey to digitalization, and how they use Lumada Asset Performance Management (APM) to monitor critical equipment and make data-driven decisions across their fleet. This session will also explore how power providers can break down organizational silos and manage risks to achieve strategic outcomes.
SVP, Enterprise Software Solutions
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
SVP, Enterprise Software Solutions
Hitachi ABB Power Grids
As Head of Enterprise Software Solutions for Hitachi ABB Power Grids, Bryan Friehauf leads the overall strategy for enterprise solutions designed to drive digital transformation in complex business environments. He has 30 years of experience managing technical services organizations in the mining, utility, and manufacturing industries.
General Manager, Energy/Utility Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
General Manager, Energy/Utility Industry Practice
Hitachi Vantara
Phil Gruber, Vice President of Energy at Hitachi Vantara, leads the energy practice with a focus on unlocking synergy with Hitachi’s newly acquired ABB power grids business. A former partner and competitor of ABB, he brings a deep understanding of the ABB power grids software capabilities. Previously, Phil was the global digital leader at Atkins Engineering where he built a new revenue stream through digital products and services in the areas of data analytics, digital twin, sight inspection, and asset management. Prior to Atkins, he had a long career at IBM, where he first began as a management and IT consultant for U.S. utility companies.
Sr. Director ITOT, Digital Field Services & Innovation
Ameren Services
Sr. Director ITOT, Digital Field Services & Innovation
Ameren Services
Keith Hock leads the digital teams supporting Ameren's Generation, Nuclear, Transmission, Distribution, Gas, and Field business teams. Keith is responsible for developing and executing Ameren's Digital Grid of the Future strategy and the Digital Field Workforce strategy to provide mobility, geospatial, and fully digitized capabilities to Ameren’s 4,000+ field coworkers.
Keith was formerly the Director Transmission Technical Services and Operations Planning, responsible for real-time operations support, short-term planning, control room visualization, hardware infrastructure, cyber-security, GIS, SharePoint, strategy development, and enabling and managing analytics initiatives.
Technical Track
Data
The migration to zero-trust isn’t easy. Many organizations don’t have the time or resources to fully explore what this new model means for their security. Security leaders grapple with how to best secure new cloud-based applications and legacy systems, and still allow employees to access applications and services. All this while keeping attackers out. Learn how to streamline your zero-trust journey and achieve higher levels of operational maturity and cybersecurity resilience.
Sr. Sales Engineer
Hitachi ID Systems, Inc.
Sr. Sales Engineer
Hitachi ID Systems, Inc.
Bryan Christ is an IT professional with more than twenty years of industry experience. His fascination with technology began four decades ago with the Commodore VIC-20. He first published in 1991 and started his professional career a few years later. He has worked for a number of high-profile companies including Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and MediaFire. Most of his career has been focused on open-source and software development opportunities with an emphasis on project management, team leadership, and executive oversight.
After serving two years as a VCIO in the Greater Houston area, Bryan carried his skills to Hitachi ID where he focuses on security and access governance. He frequently contributes to several open-source projects and SaaS-related endeavors.
IoT
When it comes to creating exceptional customer experiences, Disney is second to none. Learn how IT/OT convergence with DataOps helps Disney enhance its theme park attractions while improving operational efficiency. By applying prescriptive actions to real-time IoT data, Disney can continuously optimize operations and maintenance while meeting guests' growing expectations at scale.
Chief Product Officer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Product Officer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
As the global head of products, Radhika is responsible for the vision, strategy, delivery, and business performance for all our products and solutions across data storage, data management and analytics, as well as Hitachi’s industry-leading Lumada IoT and industrial software.
Radhika has a unique combination of deep technical expertise and experience in end-to-end business management. She has incubated and scaled several businesses in her previous leadership roles at Lenovo, HP, Cisco, NetApp and Nimble Storage. Before joining Hitachi Vantara in September 2020, Radhika was executive vice president and general manager of software at 3D Systems.
Radhika is a passionate advocate for diversity in tech. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and a master’s in business administration degree from San Jose State University.
Director, Engineering Technology and Analysis
The Walt Disney Company
Director, Engineering Technology and Analysis
The Walt Disney Company
Michael leads a 100+ member multidiscipline team which develops detailed mathematical and physics models for transportation, ride and animatronic systems, custom software and network applications, and robotics. Team responsibilities include the development of optimization algorithms, servo controllers, interactive/immersive experiences, data analytics, and material process solutions.
Michael’s diverse background includes designs of numerous attractions at various Disney theme parks including: Test Track® Attraction; Mission: SPACE® Attraction; Toy Story Mania!® Attraction and the Expedition Everest® Attraction. Michael also designed all the velocity profiles at the worldwide locations of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™
Society Track
As companies increasingly seek to direct their influence into social impact, data and AI organizations are at a unique position to effect change through their sourcing efforts for training data. However, at the heart of data-driven organizations is the imperative that quality and cost not be compromised. In this session, participants will learn about implementing "double-bottom line" strategies in their vendor selection for data labeling, and gain awareness of the opportunity that the autism and neurodiversity talent communities can provide to their AI product development.
Co-Founder and CEO
Daivergent
Co-Founder and CEO
Daivergent
Byran Dai is the Co-Founder and CEO of Daivergent, a technology platform that empowers adults in the autism and IDD community to achieve their professional and personal goals. The company provides neurodiverse talent with "Success Plans" that consist of evidence-based assessments, career exploration, and skills training which can be completed on the Daivergent platform. Daivergent also connects employers to job-seekers through its career matchmaking service, successfully providing work opportunities to over 200+ service organizations across the globe.
10:30 a.m.
30 min
Business Track
Financial Services Industries
From evolving customer demands and profitability pressures to a persistent regulatory and competitive environment, AI and data analytics technologies have been powerful for financial institutions looking to future-proof their operations. Join AI leaders in this discussion to learn how intelligent frameworks help you generate new revenue streams, reduce fraud, and forecast risk management more accurately.
Global Head, Automation & Innovation Technology, Markets Operations & Technology
Citi
Global Head, Automation & Innovation Technology, Markets Operations & Technology
Citi
Vishwani Pandit is Head of Innovation & Automation Technology for Citi’s Institutional Client Groups Markets Operations & Technology Division, which is present in over 60 countries globally. Their goal is to transform the user experience of global operations teams as well as Citi’s clients by applying innovative solutioning for Straight Through Processing Challenges without compromising on quality, speed, or service. Vishwani’s aim is to demonstrate the competitive advantage that innovation can bring through the creation of scalable and robust solutions that can translate to true value for users and clients. The group specializes in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Transformation, and Workflow Digitization.
Senior Director, Financial Innovation Solutions
Hitachi Vantara
Senior Director, Financial Innovation Solutions
Hitachi Vantara
Saker is Head of Strategy and Growth for Hitachi Vantara's Financial Innovation Division, focused on corporate development and product strategy for innovation-led growth opportunities within North American FSI. Previously, Saker drove self-disruptive inorganic growth across 157-countries as the Global Innovation Leader of PwC, generating 8-figure revenues annually with brand-differentiating solutions and new business models. Earlier, Saker founded KPMG's FSI CIO Advisory and Google Enterprise Search practices, built and exited a payments fintech (now 20m+ customers), and was a major technical and product contributor at Apple, Yahoo, and Palm for the Mac OSX, iPod, Yahoo Search, and Treo. He is a 25-year veteran of the tech, new media, and financial services industries.
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement Partner
Hitachi Vantara
Suranjan is the Vice President of Financial Services at Hitachi Vantara, based out of London, applying innovation, industry expertise and engineering to address some of the biggest challenges in the financial services world today.
Kicking off his career with the Big 4, Suranjan has been working over 2 decades in the Data and Analytics space. Suranjan has worked exclusively with banks, insurers and asset managers in the last decades. He has architected some of largest Risk, Regulatory and Performance Management solutions for some of the largest banks in the world. This includes building the world’s first real-time risk solution for a large American bank to large middle-office regulation platforms for BCBS 239 and BASEL III compliance.
From "FinTech" to "RegTech", he is working with some of the largest names in the Financial Services space, looking at a wide range of solutions from Big Data, Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence to solve implementation challenges for our Top Tier banking customers. Today, Suranjan is responsible for the portfolio of Hitachi’s strategic financial services accounts across the globe.
Customer Stories
Swisscom’s Business Customers division is the number one business telecommunications service and IT outsourcing solutions provider in Switzerland. Learn how they streamline disparate data to quickly and easily aggregate data from across their business to gain a holistic view of customers and service operations.
Head of Information Architecture
Swisscom
Head of Information Architecture
Swisscom
Emanuel Zehnder is the Head of Information Architecture, a newly created role specifically tailored to his skills and experience at Swisscom B2B Customers. Emanuel has over 13 years of experience designing, engineering, and operating global data-centric information systems in different market segments. Before joining Swisscom B2B Customers, he held various senior positions at Fortune 500 enterprises. Emanuel speaks English, German, French, and Dutch fluently and holds a doctorate in Information Management & Leadership, researching how to enhance information sharing of freshwater data across the globe in sensitive economic and political environments.
Technical Track
Data
As multicloud and hybrid cloud environments become more common, you need a robust hybrid cloud operations strategy if you want to get ahead of the curve. But with complex integrations, threats to security, and inadvertent expenses, where do you begin? This session reviews proven techniques for planning and building a strong hybrid cloud environment and discusses ways to speed your application modernization journey.
Vice President, Cloud Engineering
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Cloud Engineering
Hitachi Vantara
Over 20 years of work experience in the IT industry in Cloud & Infrastructure Services Delivery, Transformation functions. Passionate about designing, transforming, and delivering business-oriented IT functions through Cloud, DevSecOps, AIOps and SRE.
Primary areas of expertise are around Cloud and Technology Operations. Have supported several enterprises from Media, Telecom, Manufacturing industry verticals in the US, and a cross-section of multiple industry domains in Nordics and APAC.
At Hitachi Vantara, lead the Global Cloud Engineering Practice that supports Clients with their Cloud Strategy, Adoption, Migration, Modernization, Transformation and Operations journey and prior to that have worked with Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI) and Cognizant in leading Cloud & Infrastructure Services Business Units for specific Industry verticals.
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Sr. VP, Technology and Solutions Office,
Hitachi Vantara
Founding Director
Center for Digital Transformation
Premkumar Balasubramanian (“Prem”) heads our Technology and Solutions office and is responsible for strategizing and supporting go-to-market (GTM) pursuits, architecting repeatable solutions for our customers and providing technology and thought leadership in modern engineering and evolving technologies focused on application modernization, data and analytics.
Sales Leader EMEA, Hybrid Cloud & As-a-Service
Hitachi Vantara
Sales Leader EMEA, Hybrid Cloud & As-a-Service
Hitachi Vantara
Neil Lewis leads our EMEA Hybrid Cloud and As-a-Service sales team providing outcome-based proposals to our customers and helping to achieve Digital Transformation goals by leveraging Hitachi technologies. Neil joined Hitachi in March 2016 to help build our global cloud product and services strategy and has successfully brought these solutions to life with customers all over EMEA, as well as spearheaded the launch of our EverFlex flexible consumption model globally. He has worked in IT Services for more than 18 years of which the last 13 years have been in Solution Sales with global corporations.
Society Track
During this session, Hitachi Vantara’s Chief Product Officer Radhika Krishnan, Chief Information Officer Tim Langley-Hawthorne, and TechWomen100 Honoree and Strategic Partner Manager Marlene Spensley discuss the challenges associated with building diverse technical teams. They’ll share practical advice from their own careers on how to engage, recruit, retain, sponsor, and create outstanding technical careers for diverse professionals.
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Information Officer
Hitachi Vantara
Tim is a people-focused, global technology executive with a strong commercial orientation from leadership roles in customer service operations, strategic technology sourcing, and financial management.
Tim has a proven track-record of taking on new challenges and successfully leading complex change initiatives across geographies and business functions. His most rewarding career roles have been those where new technology is used to improve customer experience, drive operational efficiencies, and support business growth.
As CIO at Hitachi Vantara, Tim is responsible for the global information technology function supporting Hitachi Vantara’s 10,000+ global employees, our customers and our partners. His current 2021 priorities are enabling the company growth ambitions, powering the future of work, protecting to enable, operational excellence, and building and developing one global team.
Previously, Tim was a technology and global operations leader at Western Union (WU) with a reputation for successfully leading and transforming large global teams of employees and vendor staff. Tim delivered the first phase of the largest WU technology project in-flight at the time – a new global settlement platform responsible for the annual movement of $300B of customer principal. He also led the rapid implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud, Einstein Analytics, and a front-end transaction management application for a 5,000-person customer service organization.
Prior to Western Union, Tim held strategic technology consulting and advisory roles with Information Services Group (ISG) and financial leadership roles with Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Tim completed his Bachelors of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Tim lives with his family in Denver, CO and actively volunteers as a board member of the Colorado Technology Association, and an Assistant Scoutmaster with Scouts BSA.
Chief Product Officer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Chief Product Officer and General Manager
Hitachi Vantara
As the global head of products, Radhika is responsible for the vision, strategy, delivery, and business performance for all our products and solutions across data storage, data management and analytics, as well as Hitachi’s industry-leading Lumada IoT and industrial software.
Radhika has a unique combination of deep technical expertise and experience in end-to-end business management. She has incubated and scaled several businesses in her previous leadership roles at Lenovo, HP, Cisco, NetApp and Nimble Storage. Before joining Hitachi Vantara in September 2020, Radhika was executive vice president and general manager of software at 3D Systems.
Radhika is a passionate advocate for diversity in tech. She has a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and a master’s in business administration degree from San Jose State University.
Strategic Partner Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Strategic Partner Manager
Hitachi Vantara
Marlene Spensley is a Strategic Partner Manager at Hitachi Vantara, developing the UKI channel ecosystem to build incremental profitable revenues with our partners. Marlene has spent her career within the technology channel, working within a number of large partners and distributors. She has a background in hybrid multi-cloud, DevOps, and digital transformation and is passionate about the potential of technology innovation. Marlene was a recent TechWomen100 winner and is an advocate for women in technology.
11:00 a.m.
30 min
Digital Master Classes
The pandemic has showed us that even advanced insight-driven businesses go back to the data in times of chaos. While historically data moved enterprises ahead with predictions and next best actions, that all collapsed under the new realities of the past year. Enterprises are now getting their proverbial data foundation houses in order to ensure they can live in the moment. There is no going back. Chaos is here to stay and your competition is taking the reins of disruption with data. Faster, farther, smarter – at the edge of business, data is your lifeline. Join this [Digital Masterclass] session with Forrester Research Vice President and Principle Analyst Michele Goetz to learn where your company needs to be in the next twelve months to ensure its survival.
Vice President, Principal Researcher
Forrester
Vice President, Principal Researcher
Forrester
Michele Goetz serves enterprise architects, chief data officers, and business analysts trying to navigate the complexities of data while running an insight-driven business. Her research covers artificial intelligence technologies and consultancies, semantic technology, data management strategy, data governance, and data integration.
Previous Work Experience
Michele has over 20 years of experience in data management, business intelligence, and analytics. Prior to joining Forrester, she was the VP of marketing at Trillium Software, launching data governance and quality solutions to global enterprises across a variety of industries, including banking, insurance, pharmaceutical, consumer, and energy. At PTC, Michele led customer data management and analytics and established the global data quality and governance program. In addition to Trillium Software and PTC, Michele held various roles in enterprise firms and management consulting, leading research and analytics to identify and forecast market trends, guide go-to-market strategies, gain insight into digital marketing and commerce effectiveness, and support healthcare and pharmaceutical research studies. Michele has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Cybertrend, Information Week, Analytics Week, and ITWorld.
Education
Michele holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics, with a minor in computer science, from Framingham State College.
Business Track
Manufacturing
At Hitachi, our collaboration brings the best ideas and technologies together to address industrial problems. Similarly, seamless partnerships between operations and technologists result in rapid and results-driven solutions. New instrumentation, novel insights, and complex advanced analysis are more accessible than ever. But a well-defined problem, the desire of few, and a few simple, but crucial, steps stand in the way. Hear industry experts share real-world use cases and how to overcome challenges and barriers.
Director, Digital Manufacturing Solutions
Hitachi Vantara
Director, Digital Manufacturing Solutions
Hitachi Vantara
David joined Hitachi in 2016 to broaden his work in Industrial IoT and digital manufacturing. At Hitachi Vantara, he is driving manufacturing operations excellence solutions with clients across various industries. Prior to his tenure with Hitachi, David has focused on providing industrial automation and SAP manufacturing solutions throughout the world. David is passionate about enabling manufacturers—their operators, supervisors, and management—to employ technology to maximize productivity, quality, safety, and flexibility.
Director, Systems Products Division
Hitachi High-Tech Americas, Inc.
Director, Systems Products Division
Hitachi High-Tech Americas, Inc.
Kyoko joined Hitachi in 2000. Her current role focuses on edge device/computing, digital transformation, and introduction of Industrial IoT applications for industrial customers. Her success in this role was developed from her prior experience within Systems Products Division, where she was responsible for technology sales, management of manufacturing and logistics operations. This experience is complimented by her role in partnership development in various business units within Hitachi. Her passion is to solve customers’ unique problems and challenges using her expertise in the latest digital technology.
Customer Stories
To push the frontiers of science and technology, CERN performs world-class research in fundamental physics and unites people from all over the world. Learn how CERN uses container-based software, like Kubernetes, with private cloud resources to build a highly available deployment of Pentaho software tools to address the needs of different CERN user communities.
Data integration & Reporting Service manager
CERN
Data integration & Reporting Service manager
CERN
Miroslav Potocký is an IT professional specializing in databases, database storage, and data integration. His career began with an initial role in *NIX system administration followed by more than a decade as DB Administrator/Architect. He was responsible for global Oracle database accounts in HP Enterprise services before moving to CERN where he took over the role of database storage service manager and consultant in CERN’s Information Technology Department—Database Group. This experience has allowed him to take on the challenge of leading internal projects for implementation of scalable, on-demand data integration and reporting infrastructure for Pentaho software at CERN.
Technical Track
Infrastructure
Can your current IT infrastructure handle the shift to distributed cloud? Learn about the capabilities required and how infrastructure and data lay the foundation to reach the best outcomes. Take a look at a roadmap that will help you achieve faster results with less disruption to your business and budget. We’ll cover data center automation, cloud resource integration, application modernization, and balancing UX with governance and control.
Sales Leader EMEA, Hybrid Cloud & As-a-Service
Hitachi Vantara
Sales Leader EMEA, Hybrid Cloud & As-a-Service
Hitachi Vantara
Neil Lewis leads our EMEA Hybrid Cloud and As-a-Service sales team providing outcome-based proposals to our customers and helping to achieve Digital Transformation goals by leveraging Hitachi technologies. Neil joined Hitachi in March 2016 to help build our global cloud product and services strategy and has successfully brought these solutions to life with customers all over EMEA, as well as spearheaded the launch of our EverFlex flexible consumption model globally. He has worked in IT Services for more than 18 years of which the last 13 years have been in Solution Sales with global corporations.
Data/Innovation
Data is everywhere in modern organizations. It lives in databases, data stores, applications, and more. Data fabric brings all of these disparate sources together, whips them into shape, and incorporates best practices for governance to ensure your data is accessible by the right people when they need it. In this session, we’ll take the mystery out of data fabrics and highlight why you need your own.
Director of Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Director of Product Marketing
Hitachi Vantara
Madhup Mishra is a Director of Product Marketing for Hitachi Vantara's big data & analytics software business including Lumada DataOps Suite and Pentaho. Before that, he was VP Product Management for VoltDB, a DBMS company started in MIT where he led their product management and marketing function. Madhup brings over two decades of experience building and scaling new products around big data, analytics, governance, and cloud.
Vice President, Principal Analyst
Forrester
Vice President, Principal Analyst
Forrester
Noel covers big data, data warehouses, data fabric, data integration, data virtualization, Hadoop, Spark, in-memory, translytical, NoSQL, cloud, ETL, big data integration, data management, data tools, and data security for enterprise architecture professionals. His current focus is on new and emerging markets, modern data architectures, cloud and hybrid cloud deployments.
Previous Work Experience
Noel has more than 25 years of experience in IT and has held various technical and management positions. He came to Forrester through its acquisition of Giga Information Group in 2003. Prior to joining Giga, Noel spent several years at Exodus Communications and led a group responsible for planning and implementing mission-critical enterprise applications including ERP, CRM, and other internal apps. Prior to Exodus, he served as a principal consultant, benchmark specialist, and data architect for Amdahl Corporation. He worked on several very large database applications and deployed high-availability and high-scalability solutions for Fortune 100 companies. Noel has spoken at numerous industry conferences around the globe and is quoted frequently in industry publications such as CNET News, Computerworld, eWeek, InfoWorld, InformationWeek, Forbes, Search.com, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Education
Noel holds a bachelor's degree in business and a postgraduate degree in business administration. He is the author of an Oracle book published by Manning Publications in 1999.
Applications
Adapting and innovating through change to keep your ERP systems up and extend the value of your business process management is critically necessary for running an efficient end-to-end process and compliant enterprise suite of business applications. Mistakes in the modernization process are costly and time-consuming, delaying ROI, derailing business cases, and stifling growth. Join and listen how to execute ERP the right way from a customer executive and an industry practitioner.
Executive Director
Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium
Executive Director
Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium
Corinna Noelke is Executive Director of the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium (GMHEC) which was founded in 2013 by three Vermont Colleges: Champlain College, Middlebury College, and Saint Michael’s College. The goal of GMHEC is to create and foster collaborative endeavors among member institutions by serving as an agent for economic and educational initiatives that bring value to all. In addition to building up the Consortium from being its first employee to its current scope, Ms. Noelke was the Project Owner on the implementation of Oracle Finance, Procurement, HCM, and Payroll as well as Blackbaud Advancement. She has worked in various finance functions for the last 20 years, 15 of which were in Higher Ed. Ms. Noelke holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Resource Economics.
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Global Consulting/Service Portfolio Marketing and Strategy Executive
Samta is Global Consulting Strategy and Marketing leader for Hitachi Vantara. She is responsible for developing and implementing go-to-market strategies for the company’s services portfolio. Samta has deep global expertise in digital transformations, artificial intelligence, big data, and IoT. Her experience spans portfolio marketing, strategy, sales enablement, business development, software products, and industrial domains. Samta is a published author and speaker and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University in marketing and leadership, a BE in Electrical and Electronics, and a Masters in Physics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.
Vice President, Consulting Services
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Consulting Services
Hitachi Vantara
Deb Acharya is a Vice President in Hitachi Vanatar’s Digital Enterprise business and leads the Oracle Consulting and Professional Services practices in North America. Mr. Acharya has been in the consulting space for over 20 years and has held several leadership roles in account and practice management including building and growing consulting teams. He has led large global ERP modernization programs both in the On Prem and Cloud technologies. Mr. Acharya holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Computer Applications. Being both a technologist and a business person gives Mr. Acharya a unique perspective to help clients in their digital modernization journey.
11:30 a.m.
30 min
Digital Master Classes
Which kinds of companies will thrive and which will get crushed by the powerful forces in the global business landscape now at work? In a world where digital transformation is not enough, learn the 7 elements of digital giants. Gain insights into what innovative companies are doing right now to position themselves in this new reality. Learn how to take your business from status quo to market leader. Get ready to build, partner, or perish.
Founder And Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
Founder And Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast, and authors a business strategy and technology blog that receives millions of page views per month. Wang also serves as a non-resident Senior Fellow at The Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center. As one of the top technology analysts in the world, Ray has delivered thousands of legendary live and virtual keynotes and spoken at almost every major tech conference. He is the author of the groundbreaking bestselling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business and the upcoming Everybody Wants to Rule The World.
Computing up until now has been driven by people using computers to buy stocks, transfer money, fill out a PO or track the sales process, the Internet of People. We’re about to enter the third generation of enterprise software driven by things/machines, the Internet of Things. Conservative estimates put the number of things at hundreds of times the number of people and machines can send thousands of times more data than people ever could. While this will fuel the development of new technologies, the most significant change will be the digital transformation of companies that build machines and companies that use those machines to deliver service. This talk will highlight five major components of this third generation of enterprise software and three business models that will reshape every company that makes machines. On a planet, where we are demanding more every day, we need precision power, water, agriculture, transportation, healthcare, mining, oil and gas machines so that our future farms, utilities, mines, railroads and hospitals can operate with greater precision, and offer more and better services at lower cost with higher quality.
Board Member and Stanford University Cloud Lecturer
Stanford University
Board Member and Stanford University Cloud Lecturer
Stanford University
Dr. Timothy Chou has been a leader in enterprise cloud computing since returning to Oracle in 1999 to become the President of Oracle On Demand. In that capacity he was one of the early leaders in moving enterprise applications to the cloud. While at Oracle he authored his first landmark book, The End of Software, which foretold the rise of SaaS applications and featured three early stage startups Salesforce, Netsuite and VMWare.
Dr. Chou has been a public company board director since 2000. In 2007 he joined the board of Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), which provides application cloud services to the nonprofit vertical. And in 2017 he joined the board of Teradata (NYSE: TDC), a leader in enterprise data warehousing and analytics.
More recently he published Precision - Principles, Practices and Solutions for the Internet of Things. The book was recently published in Korea; is in its 3rd printing in Chinese, and the Vietnamese version has been called a guidebook to the future of the economy by the prime minister.
In parallel with his commercial career he has also taught at Stanford University for over thirty years. For fifteen years he taught core computer architecture and only took a break because he had to fly to Bali for a sales kickoff meeting and get back within 36 hours to teach class. After leaving Oracle he went back to Stanford and started the first class on cloud computing anywhere in the world, CS309A (cs309a.stanford.edu).
Dr. Chou has been an advisor, mentor and investor in a number of startup companies, some successful (e.g. Webex) and some not so successful. In 2013 he became the Chairman of Alchemist, a leading enterprise software accelerator. Today he is focused the Pediatric Cloud project, a project to connect all 1,000,000 healthcare machines in all the children’s hospitals in the world and through software and data transform children’s healthcare globally.
Business Track
Healthcare
As recent world events have proven, remote wireless access to data-driven insights is key to maximizing healthcare, safety, and security. But the word “wireless” is misleading. Behind every cloud of big data lives a complex world of highly diverse cables and critical infrastructures that form the backbone of modern society. Hear Hitachi Cable America Inc. share thoughts on the importance of cables and wireless technologies and increased digitalization for the third and fourth industrial revolutions.
Lead Marketing and Digital Media Coordinator
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Lead Marketing and Digital Media Coordinator
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Ainsley Reymore is the Lead Marketing and Digital Media Coordinator for Hitachi Cable America. Ainsley joined Hitachi in 2017 after receiving her B.S. from Suffolk University in Boston, MA. She also holds an MBA from New England College in Henniker, NH.
COO & CTO
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
COO & CTO
Hitachi Cable America, Inc
Joseph Iamartino is the COO/CTO of Hitachi Cable America’s High-Performance Medical Solutions division. Prior to this role, Joe served as VP, Business & Technology Development for the Performance Cable Systems division in Manchester, NH starting in 2009. Joe has served previously in VP roles for Emerson, TE, and C&M Corporation.
Joseph holds a BSEE from University of Rhode Island and a degree from MS Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is a Retired Adjunct Professor of Business for Bay Path University.
Technical Track
Applications
Innovative challengers are continuously changing industries. Hear from SurePoint, award-winning provider of software solutions to law firms, on how they are transforming the legal industry. With customized enterprise software, SurePoint optimizes practice management and financial performance operations to free lawyers from administrative burdens and help law firms harness optimal efficiency and profitability. Discover tips and insight on how to reimagine your future opportunities in this session.
Chief Information Officer,
SurePoint Technologies
Chief Information Officer,
SurePoint Technologies
John Boyd has been a leader in the ERP Technology space for over 20 years. As the SurePoint CIO, he leads the Product and Technology teams to deliver innovative solutions for his customers in the legal industry. Prior to joining SurePoint, John was the Enterprise Product CTO at GE Aviation where he led the organization accountable for the architecture, integration, and infrastructure for the company’s supply chain ERPs generating $40M+ revenue a day. He has a history of successfully tackling the top projects for Fortune 100 companies. He has mobilized teams to design and implement ERP solutions that have created $3B+ ROIs at both GE Aviation and Cisco Systems.
Vice President, Product Engineering Services,
Hitachi Vantara
Vice President, Product Engineering Services,
Hitachi Vantara
Shashank has over 24 years of consulting experience in applications and product development. He has extensive experience in helping clients with strategy, innovation, development, and operationalizing products across industry verticals with a special focus on cloud and digital engineering.
12:00 p.m.
30 min
Closing Keynote
SVP, Imagineering R&D, Show,
Ride & Technology
The Walt Disney Company
SVP, Imagineering R&D, Show, Ride & Technology
The Walt Disney Company
Jon Snoddy has lived on the leading edge of entertainment technology his entire career. Prior to heading up Research & Development for Walt Disney Imagineering, Jon worked at NPR and Lucasfilm, started his own companies, and pulled a previous stint at Imagineering developing ride concepts such as the Indiana Jones™ Adventure and founding the original Disney VR Studio.
Today, Jon leads multiple studios within Walt Disney Imagineering: R&D, Ride, Technology, and Show Systems, in the development of new immersive special effects, interactive living characters, Audio-Animatronics® figures, sustainable design practices, collaborative tools, and the next generation of theme parks and resorts.
SVP International Facilities
and Operations Services,
Worldwide Safety and
Health, and Engineering
The Walt Disney Company
SVP International Facilities
and Operations Services,
Worldwide Safety and
Health, and Engineering
The Walt Disney Company
Rachel is a licensed Professional Engineer and Certified Safety Professional. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Theater, the perfect background for a Disney engineer.
Her early career included a wide diversity of roles such as: medical research with the Veteran’s Administration, Facilities and Construction Management at General Motors, Controls Engineering at General Mills and Technical Support for Allen-Bradley.
Rachel joined Walt Disney World in 1997. She has worked in many different roles including: being part of the team that built and then opened Disney’s Animal Kingdom; leading Technical Services for Walt Disney World; starting Attractions Engineering Services and Quality Assurance, leading a team focused on Maintenance Consistency for Disney theme parks worldwide, leading Engineering Services for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Region, leading the teams responsible for ensuring the safety, operability and maintainability of new Disney resorts around the world and leading safety and health efforts at Disney Parks & Resorts worldwide.
Rachel is currently the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Safety, Health, Engineering & Sourcing. In addition to her global Safety and Health responsibilities, Rachel leads the maintenance, project management, and horticulture teams at Disneyland Resort Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland. She also leads the engineering and safety teams at those resorts as well as at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Rachel and her teams are responsible for the safety and health of the hundreds of thousands of Cast Members around the world and the millions of Guests who visit Disney each year.
Rachel holds US and European patents for a ride safety system she created in 2003.
Rachel has been married for 28 years to Larry, a jazz musician and stay at home dad to their two children, Lawson (20) and Danielle (17). Lawson is following in his mom’s footsteps studying Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is at the University of Florida and hopes to work in the private space exploration field. Rachel is committed to wellness and has set a goal to run a half marathon in every state.
Search
U.S.A.