Gartner Business Intelligence Summit

Merv Adrian is an analyst following database and adjacent technologies as extreme information processing transforms assumptions about how to activate unused information assets. He also watches the way the software/hardware boundary for information platforms is shifting as more processing moves into the hardware layer and appliances change purchasing patterns.

Pedro Arellano is responsible for the marketing and product management of MicroStrategy Cloud Intelligence. With more than 13 years of experience in the high-tech industry, Mr. Arellano has extensive expertise in business intelligence, application development, project management, customer service and sales. He has appeared as a speaker at industry conferences and tradeshows across the US and Europe. Prior to his current role, he held positions at MicroStrategy as Director of Professional Services and Senior Director of Worldwide Technical Support. Mr. Arellano holds a Computer Engineering degree from ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico.

Mark Beyer is a research vice president in Gartner, where he has specialized in information architectures, data integration and business intelligence strategies, data solution architectures and technologies for data warehousing, data marts, and data integration. His area of coverage extends into SOA principles for data management. From a practical perspective, prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Beyer has almost 11 years of direct field experience in data management, integration, business intelligence and application development and was a power user before that.

Andreas Bitterer is a research vice president in Gartner, where he specializes in business intelligence, data integration and data quality, with expertise in open-source and mobile BI, location intelligence, and BI governance.

With nearly two decades of experience in applying people, processes and technologies toward solving business problems and enabling new business capabilities, Patrick Booher delivers business value through creativity, technology and organizational development. Mr. Booher, who is accountable for data governance, data quality and business intelligence, leads a team of talented data management professionals who transform data into reliable, relevant and actionable information that promotes revenue growth opportunities. Mr. Booher, who has been with Autodesk since 2005, has transformed data from a perceived liability into a value generating asset that has strategically transformed the understanding of Autodesk’s customers and business models. Mr. Booher is based in San Rafael, CA.

Stephen Brobst is the Chief Technology Officer for Teradata Corporation. He works with companies on the identification and development of opportunities for the strategic use of technology in competitive business environments. Regarded as a leading expert in data warehousing, he successfully launched three start-up companies related to high-end database products and services in the data warehousing and e-business marketplaces and has taught at several prestigious universities. Additionally, he has authored numerous journal and conference papers in the fields of data management and parallel computing environments.

Mischelle Choinski leads Gartner's U.S. strategy on Education and Healthcare Providers. Her responsibilities include leading the verticals for education and healthcare providers for field sales, collaboration with research, channel collaboration, and other business units within Gartner.

Michael Corcoran is the chief marketing officer for Information Builders. With more than 20 years’ experience in the software industry, he is responsible for working with the executive management team to develop and communicate corporate and product strategy. During his career, Mr. Corcoran has held top management positions in sales and marketing, business development, product management, and systems management. He has played key roles in the development and acquisition of major technologies, including business intelligence (BI), integration middleware, Internet technology, data warehouse, application development, and expert systems. Mr.Corcoran began his career building and managing financial, supply chain, and order processing systems at Grumman Aerospace Corporation.

Michael Corcoran is the chief marketing officer for Information Builders. With more than 20 years’ experience in the software industry, he is responsible for working with the executive management team to develop and communicate corporate and product strategy. During his career, Mr. Corcoran has held top management positions in sales and marketing, business development, product management, and systems management. He has played key roles in the development and acquisition of major technologies, including business intelligence (BI), integration middleware, Internet technology, data warehouse, application development, and expert systems.

Laura Craft has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare and higher education in the areas of IT strategic planning, business intelligence, analytics, research administration and informatics, and data management and governance. She is highly skilled in developing, planning and executing strategies that address business needs and improves information delivery, access and use. Ms. Craft is experienced in the development of customer service organizations and processes, with demonstrated organizational, project management and communication skills.

Nicole Eagan is Chief Marketing Officer of Autonomy and Senior Vice President of HP's Information Management and Vertica Business Unit. Prior to joining Autonomy in 2006, Ms. Eagan served as Verity's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer. Before joining Verity, Ms. Eagan was Vice President, Global Marketing at Quest Software, an application, database and Windows management company. Prior to Quest, Ms. Eagan was the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at Peregrine from 2001 to 2004. Ms. Eagan also held senior marketing, strategy and business development positions at Extricity, a business process management company and Oracle Corporation.

Irma Fabular is a senior managing partner with Gartner Consulting. She leads the North America Consulting industry practices for education, academic medical centers and healthcare providers. Ms. Fabular has more than 25 years of experience in various aspects of information technology strategic planning, acquisition, implementation and project management. She has led many consulting engagements focused on optimizing the contributions of information technology solutions and resources to organizational performance and transformation. Her areas of expertise include strategic planning, governance, IT services management, application software and integration service procurement, portfolio management, project and program office development, and independent verification and validation. Ms. Fabular has worked with several large organizations in education, healthcare, government and other nonprofit industries.

Chor-Ching is an expert in industry focused analytics and real-time data integration solutions. Prior to LogiXML, he led integration solutions at Deltek for the flagship Costpoint ERP platform. Prior to Deltek, Chor-Ching was responsible for user-focused integration, situational awareness, and analytics platforms at JackBe and Institutional Shareholder Services. He started his career with GE Information Services where he graduated from GE's Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP), achieved his Six Sigma BlackBelt certification, and spearheaded product development to drive the evolution to process-based B2B supply chain orchestration and visibility. Chor-Ching studied Accounting Information Systems and Finance at Virginia Tech and serves as an advisory board member at his alma mater.

Donald Farmer is the Vice President of Product Management for QlikTech, the leading vendor in the emerging field of “Business Discovery,” a user-driven approach to business intelligence. Donald is an internationally respected speaker and writer, with 25 years experience in data management and analysis. He has applied his knowledge in fields as diverse as archaeology and fish-farming. Before joining QlikTech, Donald was a leader of the Microsoft Business Intelligence team, working on new products for ETL, predictive analytics and OLAP. An author of several books and many articles, Donald is also a Guest Professor at Southwestern University in Chongqing. He is married to Alison, an artist, and lives in an experimental woodland house near Seattle.

Donald Feinberg is a vice president and distinguished analyst in Gartner Intelligence in the Information Management group. Mr. Feinberg is responsible for Gartner's research on database management systems and data warehousing infrastructure.

John Ford is the Director of Business Intelligence at OfficeMax. He has over twenty years of experience in the information technology field and has spent his last ten years focused on BI solutions. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University.

Ted Friedman is a vice president in Gartner Research, where he is a member of the Information Management team. His research focuses on data integration, data quality, information governance and information management strategy.

Bill Gassman is a research director in Gartner Research, where he is part of the Business Intelligence infrastructure team. He is the lead analyst for the topics of business activity monitoring and Web analytics.

A veteran of analytics, Goodarzi has lead several teams in designing, building and delivering predictive analytics and business analytical products to a diverse set of industries. Prior to joining 1010data, Goodarzi was the Managing Director of Mortgage Analytics at Equifax, responsible for the creation of new data products and supporting analytics to the financial industry. Previously, he lead the development of various classes of predictive models aimed at the mortgage industry during his tenure at Loan Performance (Core Logic). Earlier on he had worked at BlackRock, the research center for NYNEX (present day Verizon) and Norkom Technologies. Goodarzi’s publications span the fields of data mining, data visualization, optimization, and artificial intelligence.

John Hagerty brings more than 30 years of experience in enterprise applications and technologies to his role as research vice president in Gartner's Business Intelligence group. His research focus is analytics, including supporting technologies and applied best practices by content area.

Gareth Herschel is the Gartner lead analyst on the use of analytics to drive improved business performance in the area of customer relationships. Today's analytical enterprise uses metrics to improve (not just track) performance, employs predictive analytics to drive better decisions, and applies social network analysis and text mining to improve understanding of customer segmentation, value and satisfaction across the marketing and customer service channels.

Bill Hostmann is a research vice president and distinguished analyst in Gartner Research, where he focuses on business intelligence.

Adam Jenkins provides business consulting, strategy, and implementation guidance focused primarily around Adobe’s customer analytics solutions in the Financial Services and High Tech verticals. Adam has a strong background in Web analytics, Enterprise analytics, Multichannel call center analysis, and Marketing analytics & optimization. Prior to joining Adobe, Adam worked as a senior analytics consultant and SME for Omniture products for multiple Fortune 100 clients.

Christer Johnson leads business intelligence and advanced analytics and optimization services for IBM Global Business Services in North America. These services consist of leveraging optimization, simulation, predictive modeling, forecasting, and other advanced mathematical techniques to identify and capture operational cost savings as well as revenue enhancing opportunities for IBM’s customers. Christer has more than 17 years of business analytics and optimization experience. He has consulted with companies in a wide range of industries including government, transportation, consumer package goods, healthcare, insurance, and telecommunications. His team specializes in using advanced mathematics to create value for companies such as GlaxoSmithKlein, Merck, Aetna, the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, and Express Scripts to name a few.

Lisa Kart is a research director in the Gartner Vertical Industries team. She is responsible for delivering market forecasts, industry trends, and strategic advice to technology and service providers in financial services. She has 16 years of experience in the financial services industry, and more than 20 years experience in analytics.

Dave Kasabian is responsible for developing and executing Tagetik’s global positioning and go-to-market strategy. Kasabian has over 20 years of experience in the performance management software market. Most recently as the founder of the Pervasive Performance Group (PPG) and as Research Director with AMR Research (nowGartner) where his coverage area included performance management and business intelligence technology and processes. Before joining AMR Research, Dave was a Director at Alvarez and Marsal Business Consulting and spent 13 years at software vendors Cartesis (nowSAP) and Hyperion Solutions (nowOracle) in various management positions including Product Marketing, Product Management, Implementation Services, and Channel Alliances.

John Landis was appointed Sr. Director of BIDA in September 2007. John leads a tightly-focused group as it targets the business’s data needs at Cox Communications, and evaluates new technology and business data models. The group is responsible for integration of all internal and external application data, analysis, reporting and the enterprise data warehouse at Cox Communications. John Landis joined Cox in 1994, where he started in IT responsible for the design and support of various information systems.

Doug Laney is a research vice president for Gartner Research, where he covers business analytics solutions and projects, performance management, and data-governance-related issues.

As General Manager of Product Management for SQL Server in Microsoft’s Server and Tools Division, Douglas Leland is responsible for the Company’s product and business strategy for database management and business intelligence products and solutions. Since joining Microsoft in July 1991, Douglas has held a variety of positions. Most recently Douglas was General Manager of the Identity and Security Business Group also in Microsoft’s Server and Tools division. Prior to this role, Douglas was the General Manager of Small Business in Microsoft’s Small & Mid-Market Solutions and Partners division, where he was responsible for product and business strategy for servicing Small Businesses around the globe. Douglas served as Director of Microsoft's university relations program, where he was responsible for developing partnerships with leading universities which foster technological innovation and enhance the teaching and learning experience. In the late 90’s Douglas held the position of Director of Marketing for SQL Server, responsible for product marketing and channel development activities for Microsoft's enterprise database products. Prior to this role, Douglas served as a network and database systems engineer, working with fortune 500 companies in the New England region. Before joining Microsoft, Douglas specialized in client-server application consulting for large-scale distributed systems development and database management. Douglas graduated from the University of Virginia in 1987 and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and management information systems.

Lori Lewis is focused on providing clients with enterprise applications services and solutions to solve some of their most pressing business problems in HP’s Enterprise Services organization. For over 2 decades, she has championed innovative communication approaches and is a compelling, passionate ambassador of the art and science of marketing and the amazing results it can achieve when done with integrity and passion. Ms. Lewis’ credentials, track record, and enthusiasm are essential ingredients her team relies on as they work together to establish HP as the undisputed leader in information management and analytics services.

Alessio Lolli is a subject matter expert when dealing with Corporate Performance Management; since he joined the company in 2004 Alessio has constantly been involved in complicated projects covering many areas of the CPM arena which he also leverages during pre-sales activities both locally and internationally. Since 2007 Alessio is part of the Tagetik North American team contributing to the growth of the company as the liaison between North America and Italy.

Ken McGee is a VP and one of only 14 Research Fellows at Gartner. Mr. McGee has extensive experience helping clients deal with IT budgets, IT cost-saving efforts, and other financial and business-related matters pertaining to IT. He also focuses on issues challenging CEOs, CFOs and other senior executives in order to help clients determine the information and information technology solutions these leaders require to perform their jobs optimally. Additionally, Mr. McGee works with other CIO research team members to analyze emerging trends having the greatest impact on the IT industry. He has also authored the book "Heads Up," which analyzes how individuals and organizations can effectively use real-time information to achieve a competitive advantage. In his role as a Research Fellow, Mr. McGee serves as the managing editor, primary author and project manager responsible for creating "The Gartner Scenario," Gartner's annual report on the current state and future directions of the IT industry.

Patrick Meehan is a vice president and research director in Gartner's CIO Research group and CIO role service director. His specific research areas include CIO communication strategies, business performance management, business intelligence, and decision impact and agility; as role service director, he provides focus on the business innovation and contribution opportunities facing CIOs.

Mike was formerly CEO of Sleepycat Software, makers of Berkeley DB, the open source embedded database engine. Mike spent two years at Oracle Corporation as Vice President for Embedded Technologies after Oracle’s acquisition of Sleepycat in 2006. Prior to joining Sleepycat, Mike held technical and business positions at database vendors Britton Lee, Illustra Information Technologies and Informix Software. Mike has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Krishnan works very closely with Netezza’s Digital Media customers in an advisory capacity, driving big data solution architectures and best practices for management of Internet scale web analytics. He is an authority on the use of big data technologies, such as Hadoop and massively parallel data warehousing technologies, towards solving analytical problems in the online digital advertising, customer intelligence and real time marketing space. Krishnan has worked in R&D, consulting and technology marketing roles within information management companies and enabled data warehousing solutions for large media and consumer electronics organizations like Apple, Microsoft and Kodak. He holds an M.S. degree in computer science from the University of Georgia with specialization in large scale distributed information systems.

Brad Peters is the CEO and co-founder of Birst. Brad has spent the last 10 years building analytics products and solutions. Prior to Birst, he helped found and later led the Analytics product line at Siebel Systems which forms the basis of Oracle’s current OIBEE product family. Recognizing the limitations of enterprise analytics offering and power of Cloud technologies, Brad founded Birst in 2005. Brad started his career as an investment banker for Morgan Stanley in the New York M&A practice. Brad received a BS and MS in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley. his MBA from Harvard.

Judah Phillips creates economic value from data and research. He is the creator of the OMMA Metrics and Research conferences in both NYC and SF and has guest lectured at universities, such as Stern School of Business at NYU. Judah also created worldwide DAT (Digital Analytics Thursdays), writes a columns for content sites, and has spoken at events across Earth, such as X Change, I-COM, eTail, and AdobeMAX. He is an advisor to several early-stage internet companies, including YieldBot and Localytics, and is also on the strategic advisory boards for Webtrends and Observepoint. He holds an MBA and an MS.

James (Jamie) M. Popkin is the managing vice president of the Gartner for Technical Professionals Data Management Strategies team. He is also a Gartner Fellow Emeritus and chairman of Gartner U.S. Symposium/ITxpo. Mr. Popkin is currently covering text analytics, e-discovery, business analytics and information modeling topics with a background in search, enterprise content management, business intelligence and social software topics. He previously managed the IT Leaders Business Intelligence and Information Management Research group and was involved in the development of the Pattern-Based Strategy (PBS) research theme. Mr. Popkin can discuss business intelligence, performance management, data management and integration, and PBS topics. He also ran Gartner Research in Asia/Pacific and Japan, is the co-author of "IT and the East: How China and India are Altering the Future of Technology and Innovation" and was the founder of the Gartner China Outsourcing Summit. From this experience Mr. Popkin can discuss the ICT industries of China and India.

As Vice President of Information technology for 20th Century Fox, Sarath is responsible for driving the business intelligence and Customer relationship management information strategies to support the home entertainment and the EST/VOD business units. Prior to joining 20th century Fox nine  years ago, Sarath consulted for the Fortune 500 companies to help develop their BI strategy, design and implement their data warehouse solution.

Nigel Rayner is a vice president in Gartner Research, where he covers financial management applications and how finance systems impact the role of the CFO and the finance function. With more than 30 years of finance and business application experience, Mr. Rayner is an acknowledged expert on how to deploy financial management applications as part of an ERP strategy. His research also focuses on ERP instance consolidation and the implementation of shared services for finance.

James Richardson is a research director at Gartner, where he focuses on business intelligence (BI) and performance management.

Dr. Mohammad Rifaie is the Vice President of Enterprise Information Management (EIM) at RBC Financial Group, where he leads and directs an organization of 300 employees and consultants responsible for the provisioning, delivery and enablement of enterprise-wide Information Management services and solutions. Dr. Rifaie’s mandate is directed towards the consolidation, standardization, and integration of information and data management practices with a focus on innovation, improving effectiveness and efficiency. Dr. Rifaie leads 6 core groups in the areas of Information Strategy, Business Intelligence, Data Management, Solution Delivery, EIM Client Services and AML Technology Operations. The Information Management industry has recognized Dr. Rifaie’s continuing contributions through two separate awards in 2011: Information Management Magazine’s 2011 Top 25 Information Managers and the 2011 InfoWorld Leadership Award.

Lyn Robison is a research vice president in the Data Management Strategies team of the Technical Professionals research group. Mr. Robison provides guidance on topics including data mobility, mobile data strategy, BI and mobility, master data management, data clouds, unstructured and semistructured data management, metadata management, and information quality.

Chris Rogaski is Sr. Director Analytic Applications at eBay. Chris has been at eBay since 2002 and has been responsible for driving multiple analytic capabilities such as product investment ROI analytics, customer behavior analytics, experimentation, personalization and inventory analysis. In addition to the analytic capabilities, Chris has contributed to the data infrastructure at eBay by growing/incubating Microstrategy, SAS, R and Hadoop at eBay. In his current role, Chris is responsible for development groups that create applications on top of the robust eBay data infrastructure. The shared goal for the development group applications is to create business value using data. Prior to eBay, Chris worked in academia as a physical/atmospheric chemist. Due to his background, Chris is highly interested in using analytics for deriving business value from data and returning that value to eBay’s customers.

Jason Rose is head of business intelligence (BI) solution marketing at SAP. Jason leads the go to market activities for the industry’s leading on premise and cloud based BI solutions: SAP BusinessObjects. With over 12 years of experience in BI and performance management Jason is able to drive crisp customer communications, tailor market messages and grow SAP’s thought leadership position in BI. Joining Business Objects in 2005 and holding leadership positions in both sales and marketing, Jason has been helping customers solve critical business issues through the application of information and putting in place the right incentives. Jason is a frequent speaker at conferences, and analyst events on analytics and the impact of information on corporate performance and decision making.

Rita Sallam is a research vice president at Gartner, where she focuses on business intelligence (BI), analytics and performance management. This includes writing about and advising organizations on market trends, vendors and best practices. Of particular interest is advanced analytics on diverse data and an emerging area that Gartner is calling collaborative decision making, which is the convergence of technologies that improve the quality and transparency of decisions.

Chago is AutoZone’s Vice President of IT. He is responsible for all business applications, demand management, enterprise architecture, resource management, stores technical support, and project management. Previously, he was Vice President of Consulting Services and Chief Information Officer at Lewis & Fowler in Denver Colorado. He joined Lewis & Fowler from The Sports Authority where he spent several years as Vice President for Information Services’ Solutions Delivery. Prior engagements include Senior Director for Applications at Quantum Corporation, Executive Director for Open Systems Software Engineering and Business Intelligence at CSG Systems in Denver, CO; and Sr Manager for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence at MCI Telecom. Chago has been responsible for implementing several data warehousing and business intelligence platforms as well as several successful ERP implementations, the new AutoZone’s DIY and Commercial Customer e-commerce sites, new micro-merchandising system, labor and workforce management system; and other enterprise applications in the retail, media, manufacturing and telecomm industries. He earned the prestigious “Best ERP Implementation” Editor’s Choice Award by Oracle Corporation’s Profit Magazine in 2003. Chago is married to Renee Lynn Santiago from Westminster, Colorado, who is a Senior Advisor at FedEx. He is the father of five children. He served with distinction in the US Air Force as an Information Technology Officer and later as a Space Operations Officer where among other leadership roles he served with high honors as the Director of Operations for the NORAD Missile Warning Center in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. He also served as the senior Missile Warning officer in the Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander in Chief’s Battle Staff at Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm earning the Department of Defense Meritorious Service Medal among several other awards and decorations for operational excellence during the conflict. Chago also served as an exchange officer assigned to the Royal Air Force Strike Command Headquarters in High Wycombe, United Kingdom. He earned the distinction of Honor Graduate from the USAF Squadron Officer School. Chago is very involved in the community and currently serves on the Board at the Ronald MacDonald House in Memphis Tennessee. Chago earned his BS from University of Puerto Rico and an MA in MIS from Webster Marymount University in St. Louis, MO. He is also a Teaching Fellow on leadership, project management and risk management at the Fogelman College of Business and Economics, University of Memphis. Chago is a member of the Memphis, TN, Society for Information Management’s (SIM) Executive Advisory Board.

Kurt Schlegel is the agenda manager for Gartner's Analytics, Business Intelligence, and Performance Management research agenda.

Bill Schmarzo is responsible for setting the strategy and defining the service line offerings and capabilities for the EMC Consulting Enterprise Information Management and Analytics service line. He has more than two decades of experience in data warehousing, BI, and analytic applications. Bill authored the Business Benefits Analysis methodology that links an organization’s strategic business initiatives with their supporting data and analytic requirements, and co-authored with Ralph Kimball a series of articles on analytic applications. Bill has served on The Data Warehouse Institute’s faculty as the head of the analytic applications curriculum. Previously, Bill was the vice president of Analytics at Yahoo where he was responsible for the development of Yahoo’s Advertiser and Website analytics products. Before that, Bill oversaw the Analytic Applications business unit at Business Objects, including the development, marketing, and sales of their industry-leading analytic applications.

Chris Schroeder has an extensive marketing background that includes 6+ years of analytics experience. He is currently the lead digital analyst for Scottrade Inc., an online financial services firm. In his prior role at Elsevier, a health and science publisher, Chris led implementation, analysis, and data integration efforts for more than 100 websites. Chris was a marketing agency consultant and project manager before moving into enterprise-level analytics.

Roy Schulte is a vice president and distinguished analyst in Gartner Research on the Business Intelligence team. His specialties include event processing, real-time operational intelligence, CEP, BAM, message-oriented middleware (MOM), publish-and-subscribe, and cloud messaging.

Vi Shaffer is research vice president and global industry services director for healthcare providers at Gartner. As an analyst, she covers the office of the CIO and CMIO, including IT governance, strategic planning, and changing strategies and structures, and the key initiative of electronic health records. She also evaluates healthcare megasuite vendors and covers major innovations and changes in healthcare business/clinical applications and business/clinical analytics, including corporate performance management/cost accounting, revenue management, ERP, and awareness platforms.

As an entrepreneur, Kevin has successfully navigated and integrated the areas of gaming, new media, technology, and design. As Co-founder of Area/Code in 2005, Kevin was a pioneer in rethinking game design and development around new technologies (like GPS) and new platforms (like Facebook). Area/Code worked to develop next-generation game experiences not only for major consumer product groups like Nokia, Nike and Puma but for media giants such as MTV, Discovery Channel, CBS and Disney. Their Facebook game Parking Wars, commissioned by A&E Television to promote its show of the same name, served over 1 billion pages in 2008. The company was acquired by Zynga in 2011, becoming Zynga New York. Other ventures include the social TV company Starling, building on synchronized audience participation around broadcast television. He co-founded AFK Labs in 2008, designing next generation dynamically responsive environments, designing for the (now defunct) largest and densest sensor mesh on the planet. Kevin is currently advising and investing in several new startups including locative games, education analytics, luxury retailing, algorithmic sports analysis, visual search, and online video advertising. Kevin’s thinking and ventures have been featured in major business publications such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Wired, Businessweek and Fast Company. Recent feature profiles include everything from Dwell to the New Scientist, the Design Observer, and the Calcalist in Israel. Slavin and his partner at Area/Code were named to Creativity Magazine’s Creativity 50. Kevin understands business and technology from the corporate side as well having spent

Michael W. Smith is a vice president in Gartner Research, focusing on the value of IT. Mr. Smith's principal responsibilities include the development of business performance frameworks and methodologies to help organizations evaluate IT-enabled business initiatives. Mr. Smith's published research covers topics involving how to use business methodologies such as Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard and Six Sigma to demonstrate the business value of IT. Mr. Smith conducts workshops and assessments for Gartner clients and prospects.

Mark has worked in the Business Intelligence arena for 23 years. His experience spans three distinct industries and over nine functional areas. He has utilized or managed six BI/Reporting tools during his career. He has a BBA in Business Economics and Finance, plus he has continued his education in Information Technology. Mark brings a balanced perspective to his BI efforts as he has worked both for IT organizations and various business units. Currently, he is employed in Technology and Operations Services at US Bank as the leader of Client Access and Reporting. In that role he manages the Enterprise Database, the WebFOCUS Infrastructure and Reporting Center of Excellence, plus Data Modeling Services. He has been with US Bank for a total of over 13 years. With the help of Mark’s teams, hundreds of BI applications have been built for tens of thousands of internal users and countless external clients, resulting in millions of dollars of revenue enhancement and/or cost reduction. For more than seven years, he has managed the relationship with Information Builders and has sat on their WebFOCUS Advisory Council.

Paul Sonderegger is Oracle’s Senior Director of Analytics Strategy. Prior to joining Oracle, he was Chief Strategist at Endeca, a discovery analytics company. Before Endeca, Paul was a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, specializing in search and user experience design. Paul has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University.

Bhavish Sood is a research director with Gartner's Technology and Service Provider Research. Mr. Sood covers analytical applications worldwide and database management system markets, business intelligence and data management for the Asia/Pacific region. Additionally, Mr. Sood is researching how business applications and business intelligence software are being consumed on smartphones and media tablets.

Jeff is an 11 year Allstate employee (Information Architect) and is passionate on finding new and better ways to turn data into insights. He has experience with designing traditional data warehousing solutions and has observed the many challenges that many users encounter when trying to understand and consume Enterprise data models. As a result, he advocates for new generation visual analytic techniques that enable users to overcome the many limitations and bottlenecks of traditional methods. The practice of visual analysis has grown exponentially and the strategy is constantly being refined to maintain a balance between agility / enablement and ability to always reach the correct decision.

Patricia Syverson is a Senior Manager of Business Intelligence at OfficeMax. She has over fifteen years of experience in the information technology field primarily focused on BI solutions. She holds an BS in Computer Information Systems from DeVry Institute of Technology.

Dr. Harold Trammel has been involved in information management and delivery throughout his career. He was the Director of a Medical University of South Carolina Drug and Poison Information Center from 1975 until 1984. From there, he joined the University of Illiniois College of Veterinary Medicine National Animal Poison Control Center, where he developed its medical records database. This system was designed with the intent of extracting usable insight about animal poisoning experiences that could be used to guide future case management. In 1996, the Animal Poison Control Center was acquired by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Dr. Trammel, along with the systems he had developed and intellectual property in them, became part of the ASPCA. In 2001, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center implemented Antox, a comprehensive electronic medical records system. Since 2011, Harold has been the Vice President for Application and Data Services in the Information Technology Group and is now responsible for bringing an enterprise data strategy and business intelligence to the ASPCA operations.

Ardley Tschetter is an Information Architect at OfficeMax spending his last fifteen years building enterprise data warehousing solutions for both the retail and supply chain industries. His focuses are providing database design and architectural solutions using various DBMS and BI tools. He holds an MS in Information Systems from DePaul University in Chicago.

Ron Van Zanten is the Vice President of Data Quality for Great Western Bank. Ron has over 18 years of system management and design experience – starting with SCO Unix administration with Ingress databases through Unix/Oracle and now Windows Server/SQL Server. He has designed and built data warehouse and business intelligence applications. At PREMEIR Bankcard, Ron designed and implemented a comprehensive BI solution that generated a 733% ROI. At PREMIER over 30 TB/ 65 billion rows of data was leveraged in all aspects of the business. Ron moved to Great Western Bank in March 2011 and is working on a project to create a BI/CRM environment to be leveraged by the enterprise. Ron has a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics and a MBA with an Information Technology concentration.

Rebecca “Becky” Wanta is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for MGM Resorts International. She is responsible for the strategic management and leadership of the Information Technology department, including technology, software development, operations and project management. Ms. Wanta leads the design and implementation of the technology foundation that supports the Company’s growth agenda. She works closely with Company leaders to ensure the appropriate technology strategy is in place to support company goals and objectives. Additionally, Ms. Wanta oversees and leads efforts to harden and strengthen the overall technology infrastructure and operating environment to ensure a robust, agile, flexible, and innovative-centric technology platform.