SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Hunter Almgren, Chief Technologist, Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hunter Almgren currently serves as a Chief Technologist in the Americas at HPE. Hunter has a deep technical background in compute and storage technologies from major solution providers. He specializes in high performance computing, data analytics, scale-out storage, and developing global infrastructure standards. Hunter has also helped build and manage POC labs and mixed solution datacenter environments.

Hunter joined HPE in 2014 as a Solutions Architect. Prior to that, Hunter worked at CDW, a National Solution Provider based in Illinois, for four years specializing in architecting enterprise datacenter solutions. During his time at CDW, he helped implement one of the first HPE Cloud Centers of Excellence at CDW’s Technology Experience Center and served as one of the lab’s administrators.

Hunter brings a level of technical expertise second to few. From datacenter transformation to business process optimization, he possesses the ability to clearly define the path from reactive IT to proactive IT.

Jason Bean, Vice President, BI & Analytics Practice Leader, Messina Group Consulting

Jason is a Vice President and the Business Intelligence & Analytics Practice Leader for the Business Consulting division of the Messina Group. Jason brings over 18 years of Management Consulting experience to Messina Group, helping our clients achieve business transformation through the application of Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management initiatives.

Prior to joining Messina Group, Jason was a Vice President and the North America Business Analytics Practice Leader at NTT DATA Americas, leading a practice of 300+ BI professionals.

Jason’s practice at Messina Group specializes in BI & Analytics Strategy, Architecture, Financial Planning & Consolidation, Big Data Analytics, Technology Selection, Data Visualization, MDM & Data Management, serving clients in the eCommerce, Logistics, Financial Services, and Commercial industries.

An accomplished practice leader with a proven record of Business Intelligence practice management, Jason is responsible for BI solution development, P&L ownership, business development, and operational management.

Jason received a BSBA in Finance and Management Information Systems from Saint Louis University.

Fred Bliss, CTO, Aptitive

Fred is the co-founder and CTO of Aptitive, a data and analytics consulting firm in Chicago. We work primarily with mid-size to large enterprise organizations to develop custom applications, data pipelines, and analytical data platforms – all to help make data accessible and meaningful to systems and people who need to make sense of it. By taking a tech/vendor agnostic approach, we help implement and architect these solutions using the best technology and tools that ft an organization’s needs. Fred lives in Chicago with his wife, Julia, and his daughters, Claire and Zoe. He spends way too much time playing with and reading about tech, and always enjoys getting in front of a whiteboard and collaborating on a solution with a group of open-minded visionaries. 

Louis Caron, Global Enterprise Architect, Office of the Global CTO, Hitachi Vantara

As a Global Enterprise Architect, I provide technical leadership to lead banks, financial services firms, insurance and asset management companies, regulators and exchanges take strategic approaches to maximize their IT environments today, while launching new technologies to redefine customer experience and meet demanding compliance requirements.

Bruce McCartney, Senior Data Vault Architect, PerformanceG2, Inc.

An expert in database architecture, design, performance tuning, replication, high availability and security. Mr. McCartney is an excellent problem solver and enjoys sharing his knowledge with clients. Mr. McCartney has been working with Data Vaults for over 12 years, and leading CDVP20 certification classes and consulting with PerformanceG2 for over 2 years. His professional background is extensive, including 30 years of involvement with Oracle. Bruce is an Oracle 12G Certified Professional (OCP) as well as a Certified Data Vault Modeler.

Sridhar Ramaswamy, Ph.D., Digital Analytics Manager, Caterpilllar

Digital Analytics champion and leader, with a passion for building analytics expertise at enterprise level, in solving business problems using big data analytics, machine learning, cognitive computing, quantum computing & artificial intelligence. Currently developing data governance, data strategy and architecture for the Digital Platform. Results-oriented with strong data strategy, governance, evaluation, monitoring, and organizational process and operations.

Adept at executive leadership of center of excellence, marketing strategy and development of effective, multi-platform initiatives. Teaches Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive computing for MBA, master programs at the Univ. of Chicago and Southern New Hampshire University.

Leading roles, in finance, investment, pharmaceutical, Healthcare and fast moving consumer goods industry and in OEM. Skilled at getting individuals, teams and an entire organization to perform at a higher level and to embrace change. Operates as a senior member of the management team providing expertise, insight and accountability with professionalism and high ethical standards.

Solid communicator who institutes initiatives and carries them out creating positive change, efficiency and increased shareholder value.

Deciphers and articulates solutions to complex problems in a systematic and coherent manner to a diverse set of audiences. Hands on in Python, R, Spark, Scala, Hadoop and mapReduce.

Solid background in technology, finance, portfolio planning, cost modeling, budgeting, strategic decision-making, and road map creation for an enterprise. 

Greg Woodard, Principal, Solve

Greg is a Principal with Solve, and is based in Chicago, IL. He architects solutions to provide custom applications, data warehouses and dashboard analytics. The goal is data discovery, self-service, predictive analytics and reporting across the full breadth of functions within organizations. For the past 30 years, Greg has worked on BI and custom application solution for Manufacturing, Supply Chain / Distribution, Financial Services, Insurance, Professional Services, Telecom, and a variety of other industries.