Glenn Allison
Director, Network Services
W.W. Grainger
Glenn Allison is a technology professional with over 15 years’ experience leading diverse high performing teams focused on improving the customer experience. He is currently responsible for management of the communications infrastructure at Grainger, a leading distributor of facilities maintenance products and services with over two million customers in 157 countries and 2011 Sales of $8.1 billion. His responsibilities include management of customer facing communications infrastructure including web, phone, fax, mobile, and hundreds of branch offices as well as improving internal collaboration for over 20,000 team members using capabilities such as blogs, video, social media, mobility, audio , video, web conferencing, instant messaging, and email. Prior to joining Grainger, Glenn held senior consulting and engineering roles for Exodus Communications where he supported large scale eCommerce sites including BestBuy.com. Prior to that, he held senior engineering roles for TSR Wireless, one of the largest privately held FCC licensed paging carriers. In addition to leading technology teams, Glenn occasionally writes for the technology news site TechCocktail and is a Junior Achievement volunteer at the College of Lake County in IL. Glenn graduated with honors from Northwestern University with a M.S. in Information Technology and received his MBA from University of Chicago.
Jim Phillips
SVP/CIO Technology
Stanford Federal Credit Union
Jim Phillips has over twenty years of experience in technology for financial services. Prior to arriving at Stanford Credit Union, he served as the SVP & CIO at Arizona Federal Credit union in Phoenix Arizona overseeing Production, Operations, Infrastructure, Project Management and Reporting groups. Before joining Arizona Federal Jim was a Managing Director at Parks Consulting and M ONE, Inc. working with mid-sized financial institutions focused on both strategic and operational improvement initiatives. He has also served as a Sr. Manager at Accenture, VP of Systems at Bank of America and development manager for a healthcare provider. Jim is a frequent public speaker on IT best practices and strategic planning and was chosen as one of Bank Systems and Technology’s most Innovative CIOs in 2007. Jim holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Frank Gillman
Chief Technology Officer
Allen Matkins
Frank J. Gillman is the firm's chief technology officer and is responsible for all information systems. He has more than 23 years of experience in law firm administration in the areas of technology and human resources. Frank is widely recognized as a champion for new and innovative technologies for the legal industry, does a variety of public speaking, and serves on the customer advisory board of several major technology companies that provide products/services to law firms.Prior to joining Allen Matkins in 1997, Frank was the director of operations for Nossaman LLP for nine years. Frank graduated from Boston University in 1985.
Mike Fauscette
Group Vice President, Software Business Solutions
IDC
Michael Fauscette leads IDC’s Software Business Solutions Group which encompasses research and consulting in enterprise software applications including ERP, SCM, CRM, PLM, collaboration and social applications, software partner and alliance ecosystems, open source software, software vendor business models, SaaS andcloud computing, and software pricing and licensing. He also provides thought leadership in the area of social applications and the transition to the social business.
With extensive executive experience with software vendors ranging from large enterprise companies to small Silicon Valley startups, Mike brings a uniqueperspective by relating research data and trends to the overall strategic focus and go to market strategy of application software companies. Having spent an extensive amount of time working with software end users throughout his career, Mike has a business process oriented and end user focused approach to software research and analysis. He conducts market research, analysis and consulting on emerging markets and technologies like social business, enterprise 2.0, go to market strategies, end user requirements, application implementation, vendor business models, partner strategy and end user experience.
Prior to joining IDC, Mike held senior consulting and services roles with seven software vendors including Autodesk, Inc., PeopleSoft, Inc. and MRO, Inc. His software experience spans the entire enterprise life-cycle process and covers all facets of the Global software business. An ex-US Naval Officer, he began his technology career as a Surface Line Engineering Officer. Mike is a published author, blogger and accomplished public speaker on software, social media and software services strategies.
Mike graduated with special honors from Jacksonville State University with a B.A. in Sociology and History and with honors from Widener University with a M.S. in Business.
Mary Wardley
Vice President
IDC
Mary Wardley, joined IDC in 1988 and currently manages IDC's CRM and Enterprise Applications programs. As vice president of the CRM Applications Software program, her primary responsibility is delivering leading qualitative and quantitative market sizing and analysis of the CRM software segments. This research in connection with IDC’s Software Research group provides the most comprehensive look at the evolving CRM and enterprise applications market available.
In conjunction with research services , Mary also contributes to primary technology research projects under contract with software publishers. The result of this work has appeared in the form of white papers and case studies, and has been used for product positioning and planning.
Mary is a frequent speaker at domestic and international industry events such as trade, vendor, user, and development groups, on topics ranging from global market trends to specific market segments. Mary is often quoted in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The BostonGlobe, as well as the leading software and computer industry trade publications.
Mary’s in-depth involvement with IT groups provides a valuable real-world perspective to traditional market analysis. Prior to the joining the Software Research group she was senior analyst with the Strategies for Microcomputers and Office Systems program at IDC. In this capacity she provided a continuous consulting service to a client base of Fortune 1000 companies, focusing on end-user computing issues such as software migration, training, implementation, integration, and distributed environments.
Vanessa Thompson
Research Manager
IDC, Enterprise Social Networks and Collaborative Technologies
Vanessa Thompson is the research manager for IDC's Enterprise Collaboration and Social Solutions program. In this position, she provides a holistic view of traditional and emerging collaboration channels being applied internally and externally to the enterprise. Vanessa has a business process oriented and end user focused approach to software research and analysis and her main areas of focus are collaborative applications, Web 2.0 technologies, enterprise social networks and unified communications (UC) applications.
Since joining the IDC Asia Pacific team in 2011, Vanessa has been an analyst covering the software market in Australia. Her research program was focused on data organisation and management with additional focus on collaborative applications and social business. Previous to joining IDC Asia Pacific, Vanessa worked in the financial services industry as a technology strategy analyst. Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Business Studies from Massey University, with a major in Information Management.
Doug Klein
Collaboration Specialist
Cisco
Doug Klein, a business transformation specialist and a field leader at Cisco’s Collaboration Solution Delivery, Program Development, Mentoring and Central Area Strategy unit, is well versed in the entire Cisco Collaboration portfolio. As a strategic collaboration expert, Doug has covered transformational accounts in Chicago since 1999 and has spent the past 13 years finding solutions that support and enhance the core business drivers for Cisco customers, including enterprise, global, commercial and service providers clients. He holds an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
Adam Marlin
Director of Collaboration Services
Cisco
Adam Marlin is currently responsible for all US Commercial Collaboration sales at Cisco, bringing 20 years of unified communication technology sales, partner/channel management, business development and leadership experience to his role. Adam oversees all aspects of Cisco’s continued growth in its US Commercial Collaboration sales segment, constituting a team of over 100 direct sellers delivering more than $1B million in annual TelePresence, Communications, Contact Center, Web-ex SaaS service and IM/Presence. Adam also plays a leading role in the integration of Cisco’s Collaboration and TelePresence offerings and go-to-market strategies across the region. Prior to its acquisition by Cisco, Adam held several sales director roles at Tandberg where his teams contributed as two of the largest regions worldwide. These areas were recognized in numerous quarterly filings for achieving unprecedented sales growth along with leadership in building Tandberg’s Immersive Telepresence market.
Earlier in his career, Adam served as an Area Vice President of Sales at Siemens Communications as well as a Director of Strategic Alliances & Business/Channel Development for Siemens Openscape Collaboration portfolio. The Siemens HiPath OpenScape application was an early foray at delivering Unified Communications through presence, voice and video collaboration in partnership with Microsoft and Accenture. Routes to market included Deloitte Consulting, Hewlett Packard and a host of Microsoft integration partners. Before joining Siemens, Adam spent over 10 years with AT&T, Lucent and Avaya in various national and global telecommunication sales, marketing and strategic alliance management roles.
Adam earned a Bachelors Degree in Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University and has completed the Executive Education in Strategic Alliances program from the Wharton School of Business.
Gus Gustafson
IT Director, Microsoft
Gus Gustafson, IT Director, Microsoft has been with the company since October 1997. Over his career he has held several different roles within the company including Finance Controller, Marketing Manager, Chief of Staff, and Director of Strategy & Planning. He has spent time in many different parts of the company including the US Subsidiary, WW EPG HQ, WW SMSP HQ, North America Finance, WW Communications and now MSIT.
Gus is responsible for positioning Microsoft IT as a strategic partner with the senior leaders in the US Marketing & Operations (M&O) & US Developer and Platform Evangelism (D&PE) group by developing & managing direct relationships with key stakeholders, influencers & subject matter experts.
He coordinates the delivery and execution of IT Solutions & Services to an agreed strategic IT/Business plan that enable joint strategies. His role is accountable for building a solid connection between Microsoft’s field & corporate businesses and the MS IT organization by advising senior leaders on how effective People, Process and Tools support their existing and emerging business needs.
Mike Ostrowski
Team Lead
CDW
Mike Ostrowski has more than 20 years in the IT industry and currently leads CDW’s portal and social business implementation team. Over the years, Mike has filled many IT roles including COBOL programmer, notes/domino developer, portal developer and CIO. Mike’s background has been in integration and collaborative portals and has a new found love of social business. Mike helps customers road map their web needs which often includes a mix of ERP, web applications, and social media.
Bruce Beals
UC Solution Architect, Team Lead, CDW
Bruce Beals is the Team Lead for CDW’s Unified Communications Solution Architects. He has 22 years of experience in telephony, data and unified communications, all focused on the process of understanding client’s business goals and requirements, and translating them into cohesive Unified Communications designs. His current role ensures consistent methodology and expertise across CDW’s unified communications practice, as well as identifying industry trends and assisting in the development of solutions and strategies addressing the continually evolving unified communications landscape. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events. Bruce currently resides in Grand Haven, Michigan.
Andrew Hunkins
Technical Specialist - Microsoft Lync Enterprise Voice
CDW
Andrew Hunkins has been with CDW since June of 2008 when he joined as a Unified Communications (UC) Technical Specialist to support the joint initiative from Microsoft and Nortel: the Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA). Following the financial downfall of Nortel, Andrew was reassigned to support Unified Communications opportunities involving both Cisco and Microsoft technologies. More recently, Andrew is currently focused on Microsoft Lync solutions where customers are using Lync for primary voice communications such as a PBX replacement. Andrew has been involved in over 300 UC solutions for enterprise customers and brings extensive experience with traditional voice communications to provide a smooth transition to Microsoft Lync. http://www.cdw.com/content/solutions/unified-communications/conferencing-collaboration.aspx
Prior to joining CDW, Andrew founded Unimax Systems Corporation, providing communications management software to large enterprise customers, where he served as Unimax’s CTO and later CEO and is presently a member of Unimax’s Board of Directors.
www.unimax.com
Andrew holds two patents in disparate data synchronization, served as President of the Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum, founded the VoIP Consortium and is a recipient of the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500 Award (1999). As a well-known industry leader, he has been a featured speaker at global telecommunications industry events including the Enterprise Connect conference (formerly VoiceCon).
Andrew lives in the Minneapolis metro area with his wife and two children.
Todd Juchem
Microsoft UC Technical Specialist
CDW
Todd Juchem has been with CDW since 2010 as a Microsoft Unified Communications Technical Specialist focused on Exchange & Lync. Todd has more than 16 years in the IT channel working with customers and partners of all sizes. Prior to joining CDW, Todd held positions with both Microsoft and Ingram Micro with roles in sales and marketing. Much of Todd’s background has been focused on Microsoft in a variety of roles, including serving as the Microsoft Market Development Manager, Microsoft Partner Solutions Advisor, Licensing Development Specialist and Account Executive.
Todd earned his MCP Certification (Microsoft Certified Professional) in 2009 for volume licensing. He is also well known as the creator of the Microsoft Open License Boot Camp for Partners that he produced while with Ingram Micro and Microsoft.
Todd currently lives in Buffalo, NY.
Andrew Dignan
Sr. Manager – Collaboration
CDW
Andrew Dignan is the senior manager of CDW’s Collaboration practice. Andrew is responsible for the “Go to Market” strategy for everything related to Collaboration at CDW. His team consists of the Collaboration, Video, and Contact Center Solution Architects. His strength lies in his ability to bridge the gap between the technical and business level conversations. Andrew’s background in engineering as a CCIE as well as consulting experience have been critical in helping him lead one of the strongest Collaboration practices on the globe. Previous to this role, Andrew ran the Contact Center Practice at CDW. Before joining CDW, Andrew spent time at Berbee Information Networks, Meridian IT Solutions, and N2N Solutions.
Matt Holbrook
UC Solutions Architect
CDW
Matt is a passionate technology architect with over 12 years of experience in Unified Communications and Contact Center architecture, design, and development using Cisco technologies including Unified Communications, Contact Center Enterprise, IP-IVR, Customer Voice Portal, and Cisco Email/Web Interaction Manager. As a senior technologist he has continued to define technology solutions that help solve business problems for customers in all vertical markets. With excellent management and people skills, Matt has architected outstanding solutions that exceed client business and financial expectations.
Raminder Mann
Collaboration Sales Specialist
Cisco
Raminder Mann is a collaboration sales specialist at Cisco and is primarily responsible to help businesses improve business processes by leveraging collaboration solutions. Few technologies affect businesses as broadly as unified communications. From customer service to individual productivity, these solutions have a huge impact on work efficiency. They also affect day-to-day operating expenses, creating new opportunities to reduce costs and improve profitability. Raminder has worked with numerous businesses and helped them migrate from legacy phone systems & call centers to unified communications. Raminder has been part of the telecom industry for the last 12 years in various capacities including design, implementation and business consulting.
Laura Wolf
Social Business Sales Executive - West IMT
IBM
Laura Wolf is a social business executive at IBM. In her role, she works with customers throughout the western United States and all of Canada to help them to understand the impact that social technologies can have on their day-to-day business and their business results. Laura works closely with customers to help them align their culture and their goals to insure successful implementations and adoption. She is passionate about social business and has dedicated the past five years of her career to this exciting space. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computing Science from Texas A&M University and a Master Deal Maker Certificate from Wharton.
Rupert Clayton
IBM Collaboration Solutions Architect
CDW
Rupert Clayton is a solutions architect for IBM collaboration at CDW. He helps CDW’s customers design and implement innovative messaging, collaboration and social software solutions using IBM software and cloud services. Rupert has managed and implemented IBM collaboration software for 19 years and is the author of four books on these technologies. After stints in London and Chicago, he’s now based in San Francisco again.
Ken Snyder
Emerging Technology Solutions Lead - Collaboration
CDW Corporation
Ken Snyder is Emerging Technology Solutions Lead for CDW, a leading provider of technology products and services for business, government and education. In this capacity, Ken leads solution development focused on new Unified Communication (UC ) & Collaboration products and solutions enhancing CDW’s ability to sell, design, implement and support enterprise UC & Collaboration solutions.
Dave Wooster
Dave Wooster, Partner Development Manager (Collaboration), US Sales/Channels
Cisco
Unified Communication Solution Architect – DC Metro and Carolinas
CDW
Lane Cooper
Contributing Editor
CIO magazine, Computerworld and Network World
Lane F. Cooper has over 20 years of experience as a researcher, reporter and editor analyzing the business and technology industry. On average, Lane meets with 600 CIOs and senior enterprise executives every year to understand the impact of evolving technological developments on organizations of all sizes across all industries. He has organized and moderated many live and online events and works with a variety of high-tech clients and CIO magazine to ensure that information is presented in a context that is useful to an audience of sophisticated technology buyers and implementers. News services and magazines that have carried his by-line include: Network World, Byte Magazine, TechWeb, Optimize, Information Week, Telephony, Communications Week, ComWeek International, and Enterprise Systems Journal. He lives in Washington DC, where he is the Editorial Director of BizTechReports, an independent reporting agency that analyzes user trends in business technology.
CIO magazine, Computerworld and Network World
Mr. Rubel blogs in the IDC Government Insights Community (http://idc-insights-community.com/government). His Twitter handle is thomrubel.
Prior to joining IDC Government Insights, Mr. Rubel served as Vice President at META Group, where he focused on assisting clients to more effectively communicate IT transformational value to business processes for improving operations and policy outcomes. During his career, he also initiated and served as Director of the State Information Technology Program at the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices, where he guided the development and implementation of an IT program that included management and procurement, electronic government transactions, enterprise strategies, and policy solutions. In this role, he managed a twelve-governor IT Task Force and a Corporate Advisory Group composed of more than 30 IT companies that served as a resource and sounding board for the governors and the Center's projects and programs.
From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Rubel served as Assistant Under Secretary for Small Community and Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was Deputy Director of Intergovernmental and Consumer Affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation from 1987 to 1989.
He is a frequent speaker and is often tapped by national and industry-specific media outlets – including Business Week, Federal Computer Week, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Technology, Government Computer News, and Government Technology – for his opinions on strategy and technology trends. An Iowa native, he is a graduate of the University of South Dakota.
