About

Peter brings more than 25 years’ experience in engineering and design of power systems as applied to data centers, trading floors, command and control centers, and telecommunication and broadcasting facilities. He co-founded the Critical Power Coalition (CPC). He Founded EYP Mission Critical and served as its Leader. He served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Inc. He served as Vice President and Managing Partner of HP Global Technology Consulting at Hewlett Packard. He served as the Chief Engineer at Teledyne Technologies Inc. He served in devising and safeguarding facilities of clients such as Stock Exchange, IRS, Merrill Lynch and Bell Atlantic. He serves as a Member of Advisory Board for RampRate, Inc. He has been a Director of Active Power Inc. since February 13, 2015. He serves as a Director of Asetek A/S, EYP Mission Critical Facilities Inc. and International Battery Inc. He served as a Director of Secured Digital Storage Corp., from December 10, 2007 to August 5, 2008. He is an Engineering Design and Implementation Professional, and was the recipient of 2010 Data Center Dynamics “Outstanding Contribution to the Industry” award. Mr. Gross holds an MSEE from Polytechnic Institute in Bucharest, Romania and an MBA from Cal State.

In his role as executive vice president and chief technology officer, Rubinow is responsible for continuously strengthening Catalina’s global enterprise architecture through technology development, implementation and operation.Steve Rubinow brings 25+ years of technology leadership to his role as EVP and Chief Technology Officer. He is responsible for leading Catalina’s global technology function, driving improvements to Catalina’s global enterprise architecture through technology development, implementation, and operation to deliver personalized digital media. Widely recognized as an innovative and transformational technology leader, Rubinow served as CIO for Thomson Reuters’ Marketplaces Division prior to joining Catalina. He previously served as Chief Information Officer for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Euronext for over a decade.

Steve has authored several books on CIO/CTO leadership, and has been the recipient of numerous accolades. He was named one of the top 30 socially-savvy US CIOs in 2013 by Aternity for his use of social media, inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame in 2012, was named one of Computerworld magazine’s Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2012, was recognized as one of the top 10 CIOs on Wall Street in 2010 by Securities Technology Monitor magazine, and named one of the top CIOs on Wall Street in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 by Wall Street & Technology magazine. For many years, Rubinow served as an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University, where he earned an M.S. in Computer Science. His academic accomplishments also include four degrees from the University of Illinois, including a Ph.D. in Chemistry; an MBA in Marketing & Finance; an M.S. in Chemistry, and; a B.S. in Biological Sciences and Chemistry.

Alan is the Managing Director for Project Management Critical Environments. He serves as a technical consultant and resource to project teams engaged in critical facilities projects, including data centers, call centers, network operations centers, and other mission critical sites. He also serves as executive oversight for large critical facilities work in local markets and on dedicated accounts.

Scott Offermann offers technical guidance, strategic insight, and support for client teams with data centers, call centers, high-tech facilities, and manufacturing facilities.

He joined C&W in 2006 as the Critical Operations Manager Americas for a major software client with service in 36 countries.  He oversaw a delivery team of over 450 employees and dedicated service providers. Mr. Offermann has key critical operations experience, including managing nearly 500,000 sf of data center space, distribution, manufacturing, lab environments, emergency power plants, primary substations, building infrastructure, and business critical operations (such as call center and customer facing areas). He created and oversaw development of Critical Operations Policy and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and Methods of Procedures (MOP) for coordinating global maintenance actives minimizing the risk of interruptions due to maintenance. Mr. Offermann focused on delivery, ensuring consistency and optimal uptime within operations.

Mr. Offermann has over 25 years of facilities management and critical operations experience. Prior to joining C&W, he held positions with international distribution, high tech, recreation, manufacturing and retail organizations, call center environments, and national health care organizations. As a published author, his works include the book, Creating a Strategic Energy Reduction Plan (Fairmont Press), and several articles.

As CIO Americas of Dassault Systèmes, Kevin Rota is a leading technology executive with vast experience at transforming and leading organizations. Rota utilizes innovative technical solutions to enable business success, and has demonstrated his skill as a global leader in enterprise strategy across a number of industries.

Rota has deep technical knowledge of information technology; specifically in systems, infrastructure, and software development. He has transformed a multitude of IT and operations teams to align on new strategies and visions while establishing standard planning, budgeting and project execution practices. 

Throughout the years, Rota has a developed strong leadership skills in both corporate and consulting organizations. In his current position as a Senior Executive within the Dassault Systèmes Global Information Technology organization, he has redefined and executed technology programs with a global, regional, and local scope in order to achieve business goals.

Kevin Leahy is Group General Manager, Data Centre Solutions for Dimension Data Holdings. The $6 billion company is a specialist IT services and solution provider that helps clients plan, build, support & manage their IT infrastructures.

Dimension Data Date Centre Business Unit brings together for clients all the critical components needed for a next generation data centre; industry recognized cloud leadership, industry recognized network leadership, expertise inside the data centre spanning virtualization, storage, backup and disaster recovery and facilities along with unique consulting capabilities to plan, build and enable clients on an optimal data centre journey for their business.

Prior to taking on this role, Kevin joined Dimension Data in October 2011 as Chief Architect Virtualization and Cloud for the data centre solutions (DCS) across Dimension Data group. Where he was responsible for defining the tools and architecture Dimension Data implements to solve client business challenges using virtualization and cloud. He was also responsible for the data centre solution roadmaps in these areas spanning server, storage and desktop virtualization as well as private cloud and professional services to help clients exploit public and hybrid cloud solutions. He worked with Dimension Data global accounts to define strategic approaches to address their unique IT requirements.

An industry veteran based in New York, Kevin joined Dimension Data after a 32 year career with IBM where career highlights included leading development of the IBM high end networking and fibre optic advanced technology, the mainframe channel and I/O subsystem and power systems development for the corporation. He launched the IBM WebSphere platform and introduced storage virtualization into the market. From there he led the IBM virtualization strategy followed by the IT Optimization strategy. His last role at IBM was leading the cloud sales strategy for services.

He is a graduate of The Cooper Union in NYC with a degree in Electrical Engineering and lives with his wife in Saugerties, NY.

Dustin Haisler is the Chief Innovation Officer for e.Republic. As the finance director and later CIO for Manor, TX, a small city outside Austin, Haisler quickly built a track record and reputation as an early innovator in civic tech.

A member of Code for America’s original steering committee, Haisler pioneered government use of commercial technologies not before used in the public sector – including Quick-Response (QR) barcodes, crowdsourcing and gamification. In 2010 Haisler launched Manor Labs, a website that let residents submit their own ideas and vote other peoples’ ideas up or down. The most popular suggestions went to city officials for review and possible implementation. Haisler looked to the private sector to help broaden the adoption of these and other civic innovations, joining California-based Spigit as director of government innovation. While at Spigit, a company that makes crowd-sourcing and innovation management software, Hailser helped design and deploy innovation programs for New York City; Bogota, Columbia; and even part of the space program (through NASA’s Langley Research Center).

Notably, Haisler helped design and launch one of the first government open innovation programs in the United States in 2010, which received global recognition as a new model of citizen engagement and innovation. Among other first-in-nation innovations, Haisler architected a Crowdsourcing Master Land Use Plan (Harford County, MD) and patented a crowd-based business process (Crowd-as-a-Service). Named a Government Technology Top 25 Doer, Dreamer and Driver in 2009, his work has been featured in Wired, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Inc. and the Today Show on NBC. An in-demand speaker, he has given two TEDx speeches – one on Disrupting Government (TEDxAustin) and the other on Disrupting Education (TEDxLivermore).

As Chief Innovation Officer, Haisler has a strategic role to help shape the company’s products, services, and future direction. Primarily, he leads e.Republic Labs, a market connector created as an ecosystem to educate, accelerate and ultimately scale technology innovation within the public sector.

Umesh Patel is the General Manager, Eaton Power Quality Division – Canada and responsible for driving revenue in power quality products and service. Prior to joining Eaton, Patel was with Honeywell for 15 years in various positions of increasing responsibility in general management, sales, and business development. He has lived in five countries and earned global citizenship through his direct business involvement in over 20 countries spanning all continents.  Patel holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Antoine serves as the Chief Information Officer at Eurostar, the only high speed train that directly links the UK to France and Belgium via the Channel Tunnel. They have been taking travellers from city center to city center since 1994.Antoine joined Eurostar in December 2013, bringing with him a combination of IS expertise and travel industry experience. He came to Eurostar from Corsair International, the second largest French airline and part of the TUI Travel group, where he was CIO.
Prior to his role at Corsair, Antoine was director of quality and information systems for the Swiss airline, Baboo, and founder and CEO of Air Turquoise, a start-up, low-cost regional airline. Before that, he was head of e-commerce for Air France. Antoine has also founded several companies, served on the board of a web agency and as a mentor to entrepreneurs.

David Muller is the Vice President of Engineering at Experian Consumer Direct, leading the technical team that oversees the delivery of web and mobile applications for the consumer marketplace. He is passionate about data and KPIs, recognizing that the quality, content and relationship of data truly drive value for an organization.

Muller has more than 20 years of global experience in leading corporations in the successful delivery of cost-effective, high-performance solutions. He has solid experience in developing and implementing business strategies with relevant policy, building business support and allowing organizations to respond quickly as conditions change. His multi-industry knowledge and out-of-the-box thinking help organizations deliver lasting value to their customers.

An accomplished speaker, Muller has regularly presented at executive and technology conferences in North America, Hong Kong and Australia. Previously, Muller has worked at CoreLogic, Ingram Micro, IBM and Software AG. Muller completed the management development program in business administration and management from the University of South Africa.

Eric Wells is Vice President of Data Center Services at Fidelity Investments, the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the number one provider of workplace retirement savings plans and a leading online brokerage firm.

With over 20 years of experience in global IT strategy & service delivery, Eric also serves as an advisor for Centercore data center solutions. In addition to launching several innovation efforts at Fidelity, Eric helped launch the OpenCompute Foundation Certification & Interoperability project.  He is also on the Board of Advisors for SMU’s Data Center Systems Engineering graduate program.  Eric received his Bachelor of Science degree in Management & Information Systems from Babson College in 1991.

Magdalena is an accomplished oriented B2B marketing leader with 15 years of progressive experience. Her immense knowledge and expertise assists businesses to grow by understanding customer needs and developing and executing winning commercial strategies.

Magdalena has strong experience in business strategy, analytics, new market/product development, CRM strategies, commercial excellence, building successful start-ups, leaderships and talent development and B2B marketing in the US, Asia, and Europe.

Most recently, she led all marketing efforts for GE Capital’s Global Financial Solutions Group, which helps companies grow in foreign markets by providing financing for acquisitions and working capital in over 20 of the most sought after investment countries around the world.

Grant Bodley is a strategic sales and industry leader with over 20 years of sales, consulting and business management experience with many of the world’s most exciting companies, from high-growth start-ups to global industry leaders. He has demonstrated an incredible ability to build, inspire and lead high performance teams to achieve dramatic results. He is also an accomplished public speaker with exceptional interpersonal and communication skills.

Having spent much of his career focused on enabling manufacturers to leverage technology to transform their business operations, he is currently providing Hortonworks with global manufacturing leadership within one of the fastest growing technology segments, namely Big Data, which holds tremendous benefit for Manufactures. With the advent of low cost sensors and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications technology, manufactures are now able leverage Big Data Insights to transform their business. There, he is working with leading manufacturers and the global partner ecosystem to unlock the tremendous benefits that big data insights hold for manufacturing.

Previously, he led SAP’s Strategic Customer Program in the West Region of North America, which included responsibility for SAP’s most strategic customer relationships and the success of all lines of business, including software revenue growth, consulting and premium support services. During his time there, he achieved dramatic results in terms of both revenue growth and customer success.

Cary Sylvester makes geek look chique and in the process has turned Keller Williams Realty into a technology company masquerading as a realty company.

Yolisa has over a decade of IT experience in the Financial Services industry with a focus in IT Project Management, Business Processes and Application Development. She has gained vast experience through working with large corporates such as Bytes Technology Group, Standard Bank, First National Bank and presently, Sanlam. In her current role, she ‘owns’ relationships between IT and several business units and also acts as an IT advisor to those business units.

In her position at Sanlam as a visionary, energetic and goal-oriented IT Executive, her title demands experience in planning, developing, and implementing cutting-edge Information Technology solutions to address business opportunities and needs. Yolisa is required to develop strategic plans for various implementations and operations of client services, product support and quality assurance. She has the proven ability to liaise with business and technical stakeholders at all levels of the organization. One of her key strengths is excelling in high-pressured environments, and being able to chart a course with quality delivery as the key driver.

Yolisa is passionate about innovation in IT and firmly believes that it must produce tangible benefit to the business.  She has many areas of expertise due to her diverse work experience and some of these areas include Strategy Management, Business Process Improvement, Vendor Management, Change Management, Leadership and Project Management.

As Chief Software Architect, John ensures Scientific Games’ software solution is well engineered and operable while actively collaborating with strategic partners and investors in achieving business and technical objectives.With two billion in revenues, Scientific Games is a leading innovator in the global lottery and regulated gaming industries. The company acquired WMS gaming in 2013 and announced plans to acquire Bally Technologies in 2014.

With a 33 year tenure in the pharmaceutical, food service, and specialty retail industries, Vijay’s experience has been with Pfizer, ARAMARK, Sodexo, and GNC.

He started with Sodexo USA 28 years ago and has served in various roles such a VP, Information Systems and Technology for Sodexo USA’s Education Markets and then as the Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer for the Education Markets of Sodexo USA. In that role, he also chaired the Sodexo USA Culinary Council. In 2009 he was appointed to the role of CIO for Sodexo UK & Ireland and the Board for Sodexo UK Limited. He currently serves as the CIO-Remote Sires, Asia and Australia or Sodexo Global Information Systems & Technology, based in Singapore.

Vijay served as the Executive Advisor and founding chairperson of Sodexo’s Pan Asian Network Group. In addition, he served on the Ally Advisory Board of Sodexo’s GLBT Employee Business Resource Group and as a member of the Board of Directors and then the Advisory Board of Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund. He was also instrumental in starting Women Work- Sodexo UK & Ireland’s Women’s Network Group as an Executive Advisor.

Vijay is sought as a speaker at Fortune 500 company events; industry and non-profit conferences and at university campuses; in the areas of entrepreneurship, aligning IT with business strategy, student insights, customer segmentation, mentoring, diversity and inclusion. In the past, Vijay also owned and operated several GNC (General Nutrition Centre) franchises in the Chicago-land area- an endeavor that he was involved in for over 15 years. During that time, he was elected by the franchise community to serve a two year term on GNC’s National Franchisee Advisory Board in 2005.

Vijay has a B.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences from India, M.S. in Human Nutrition & Food Services Management from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an M.B.A. from the Keller Graduate School of Management of Chicago. 

Nkosana Mbokane is an inspirational and accomplished business executive with over twenty years of experience in Information Technology, business management, corporate strategy development, risk management, and corporate governance. Before joining TechnoChange, Nkosana previously worked in various executive positions for global as well as local South African companies including: Chevron Oil, British American Tobacco, Accenture South Africa, State Information Technology Agency, and Perishable Products Export Control Board.

As an entrepreneur, he has assisted in South Africa’s TSIBA College business plan and strategy for their TSIBA Entrepreneurship Centre back in 2006. Nkosana also advised global companies on turnaround strategies, divestiture, mergers and acquisitions process, and IT and corporate governance improvement. He continues to play a major role on several boards in private and state-owned companies.

Nkosana holds an MBA degree with a distinction in corporate strategy, and is a certified Prince II and PMBOK foundation practitioner. He has published papers in the International Journal for Business and Commerce on the South African National Development Plan and worked with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), where he presented with the CPUT team in Namibia on the implementation and impact of the National Development Plan in improving education in South African.

David is the Chief Information Officer at Tourism Australia, the Australian Government agency responsible for attracting international visitors to Australia, both for leisure and business events.

Barry Money has led innovation projects globally for over 25 years. He is the one of the founding architects of the Toyota Kaizen Marathon, a global innovation initiative and a Gold Medal winner of Toyota’s best practice in innovation.

Today, Barry drives retail innovation for the Toyota brand in Australia, combining years of Toyota Production System and lean management experience with the latest entrepreneurial thinking in retail best practice and technology.

He is a firm believer in the power of the customer driven retail connection and in his own words he is “allergic to bad customer service.”

Schooled by some of the greatest contemporary thinkers in The Toyota Way and the Toyota Production System, Barry spent many of his formative years living in Japan formulating his own unique blend of thought leadership on lean management, innovation and customer service excellence.

Realizing that these kaizen and innovation concepts could benefit small to medium enterprises around the nation, Barry established Broken Wing Enterprises, which today serves to assist companies in their quest to implement innovative new ideas and drive improvements throughout their own value chains. Barry is an occasional blogger, avid writer and is often known to deliver passionate keynote speeches at global innovation events.

Barry Money is both an entrepreneur and intrapreneur, championing both small to medium enterprise innovation as well as dynamic corporate transformation.

Barry is a devoted father and husband and in his spare time he can sometimes be found in his library with a great book and a good cup of tea.

Barry Money is available at the following contact details:

(m) 0418-409-233

(e) [email protected]

Jonathan Gill has spent the last twenty years working in the IT sector, specialising in complex IT systems for the education, health, engineering, accountancy and retail industries. His experience with web front-end systems dates back to 1999, but his core focus is on developing bespoke information management systems.

His most recent work has been for Watchfinder & Co., a Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track Hot 100 ‘Ones to Watch’ company, building the company’s entire IT infrastructure to support rapid growth and maintain a stock roster of over £18,000,000 of high-value luxury items across multiple locations while catering to over seven million website visitors each month.

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