SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Sean Brown, Chief Product Officer, Rising Cloud

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them” – Steve Jobs

My strength lies in anticipating market changes, empathizing with customer needs and accelerating return on value to my offerings.

• 20+ years experience in Security and Collaboration software and SaaS and Cloud product management
• Proven leadership managing offerings in multi-billion dollar markets
• Confident with customers, analysts, marketing, finance, legal and internal technical teams
• Specialities in infrastructure as a service, container and micro-service based applications, cyber security, identity and access management and fraud prevention
• Co-author Cloud Identity for Dummies – https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/9L19Q1EP

Ed Fee, Senior Manager, Technical Sales, Infoblox

With fourteen years at Infoblox, Ed helped transition Infoblox from its roots as a DNS & DHCP company to its current leadership position as the Single Authoritative Database containing every single IP address, every single network, and every single DNS record. This authoritative database service can act as a control plane for provisioning, securing, managing, and monitoring all your physical and virtual assets both on premises and off premises including public cloud infrastructures. Uniting networking with security improves visibility, performance, and protection.

Prior to working at Infoblox, Ed held roles in Network Security Engineering and as a Security Solutions Architect, building very secure, and highly available & reliable global network architectures.

Matt S. Frye, Architecture Competency Lead, CUNA Mutual Group

Experienced Cloud Architect with a demonstrated history of working in the insurance industry. Strong information technology professional skilled in C#, Cloud Security, Azure DevOps (automation), Azure, and Agile Methodologies.

Jim Gehring, Digital Strategist & Evangelist at Expedient

Jim Gehring is a seasoned IT influencer with over 14 years of experience serving Fortune 100 clients, including Facebook, Intel, Roche/Genentech, Wells Fargo, Diebold, BP, and more. He has owned or played a key role in over 10 startups, providing him with a wealth of experience in operational strategy and execution, business development, and training for managed and shared services.

Jim has held various roles throughout his career, including database systems and data warehousing leader, infrastructure services, consultant, product development, business development strategy (marketing and sales), evangelist, facilitator, and coach. He is currently the digital strategist and evangelist at Expedient, where he focuses on accelerating digital transformation with full-stack cloud and infrastructure services.

With his deep expertise and proven track record, Jim is a go-to influencer and thought leader for C-suite IT executives. He has a keen understanding of the challenges facing IT organizations and a passion for helping companies drive growth and achieve their goals.

Karthik Kandamuri, Enterprise Architecture Director, AbbVie

Karthik is a leader in Information Management covering Cloud and Hybrid Computing, Digital Transformation, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, AI/ML and Advanced Analytics

Joseph Kupiec, Team Lead, Security and Risk Services, PSM Partners

Joseph currently serves as Team Lead for PSM’s new Security and Risk Services department. Previously, he served in the same capacity for the project-based Cloud Solutions Group. His primary focus is architecting solutions leveraging Microsoft’s Azure platform. Prior to joining PSM, he lead and co-lead cloud architecture and engineering teams for software development companies.

Val Mushinskiy, Principal and Vice President of Cloud Services, ZS

Val Defines and leads the execution of cloud strategy for ZS. He leads Cloud Center of Excellence team that manages infrastructure and operations for enterprise and client solutions.

Val built and now manages Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) team. CCoE leverages DevSecOps principles and thoughtful solution architecture approaches to manage all aspects of cloud infrastructure & operations for applications and solutions that are hosted on numerous ZS’s public clouds. CCoE’s Managed Service Provider team engages in supporting solution implementations on client owned public cloud environments.

Val’s expertise includes vast experience in software development, architecture, management, and cloud operations across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.

Val holds an MS in Software Engineering and Project Management from DePaul University and a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Narendra Rao, Sr. Customer Success Engineer, Couchbase

Narendra is a Thought Leader with years of experience in Information Technology. He has extensive sales engineering and solution architecture engagements with relevance in HealthCare, Education, Manufacturing, Retail and Finance sectors. Narendra currently is focusing on Customer Success at Strategic Major Customers at Couchbase. Prior to Oracle Corp and Dell Technologies, Narendra was an entrepreneur running his own consulting business in ERP Systems in the Midwest.

Narendra holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering Management Science and Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering.

Trent Ridgway, Infrastructure and Security Manager, Anning-Johnson Company

Senior Cloud Security Engineer with delivering corporate Business and IT Solutions.  My role encompasses the entire project management cycle and the execution of key tasks.  My role assists direct support of business revenue objectives and cost-savings measures.  I have successfully eliminated 100% of on-premise server infrastructure for business and operate 100% in the cloud and SASE partners. Had zero impact on business productivity and downtime when moving to a work-from-home model overnight for the pandemic.

Jonel Rienton, Manager, Global SAP Basis and Enterprise Databases Global Digital & Information Technology Department, Littlefuse, Inc.

Jonel is a strategic thought leader who builds high performing teams that have the rigor to innovate and address modern challenges. Additionally, he is able to craft and execute deliberate strategies while being adept to emerging opportunities.

Annur Sumar, Chief Technology Officer, Cloud Unity

Annur Sumar is a Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter MVP and technology consultant in the areas of Infrastructure Design, Enterprise Content Management, CRM, Microsoft Azure, System Center and Cloud Technologies. Annur is an industry recognized leader and independent speaker around strategic service automation, technology driven process improvements, IT service alignment, engineering best practices and operations management. All of which are targeted in his presentations to helping businesses with complex IT environments lower Total Cost of Ownership and raising Return On Investments.

Prior to joining a Microsoft Partner Consulting firm, Annur served as a Vice President of Technology for Duff & Phelps. One of the world’s leading independent financial advisory firms serving client needs in the areas of valuation, investment banking, transaction advice, and dispute consulting. During his tenure at Duff & Phelps, Annur worked closely with Microsoft product teams and case study managers in providing invaluable feedback around how businesses such as his were able to benefit from cloud technologies that were molded into business solutions. As a Microsoft MVP and industry expert, Annur brings 10 years of experience to work actively with other MVPs and Microsoft Partners to provide industry insight and strategic direction.

Andrew Wickett, VP North American AM2C & AMC Enterprise, Micro Focus

Andrew is responsible for the North American Mainframe/Enterprise Business – including Sales, Presales, Delivery, Architects – and Value Engineering, Customer ROIs & Business Cases.

Prior to joining Micro Focus, he was VP of Architecture at American Express International, CTO of PayMoTech and Systems Director at Toronto Dominion Bank. Andrew also founded two high-tech companies that were both sold to multinational organizations. Since joining Micro Focus in 2009, he played an instrumental role in guiding large scale customers in their journey as they move from mainframe to cloud.

Andrew has more than 35 years of experience in applications development and management of software and systems, with a BSc and graduate education in Computer Science, Economics and Mathematics.