Avivah Litan | Distinguished VP Analyst

Avivah Litan is a Distinguished VP Analyst in Gartner Research. Ms. Litan is currently a member of the ITL AI team that covers AI and Blockchain. She specializes in all aspects of Blockchain innovation, along with AI Trust, Risk and Security Management. Ms. Litan has a strong background in many aspects of cybersecurity and fraud, including the integration of AI with these domains. This background is useful in her current coverage of securing and protecting blockchain applications as well as AI models and data. Her background also supports her research into integrating advanced technologies such as blockchain, IoT and AI to solve specific use cases, such as detecting fake content or goods. Before joining Gartner, Ms. Litan worked as a Director of Financial Systems at the World Bank. She also worked as a journalist and columnist for the Washington Times. She earned her Masters of Science at M.I.T. and graduated a general manager's course at Harvard Business School.

Brent Adamson | Distinguished VP, Research

Brent Adamson is a Distinguished Vice President, Advisory, serving heads of sales, customer service, and marketing. Mr. Adamson's work spans a wide range of commercial challenges, including customer buying behavior, sales performance, customer service operations, marketing excellence, commercial strategy, content marketing, customer/consumer experience and understanding, sales management, personalization, leadership and coaching, organizational productivity, and both in-person and digital customer engagement. He facilitates a wide range of executive-level discussions around the world, including global sales meetings, keynote presentations, board-level presentations, and hands-on best practice workshops. He is well known for his passion for productive disruption. He is a sought-after speaker and facilitator, with 30 years of experience as a professional researcher, teacher, and trainer. He is also the co-author of The Challenger Customer and the best-selling The Challenger Sale. In addition, he is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review. He has also written for a wide range of business publications, including Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Selling Power.

Maria Boulden | VP, Executive Partner

Maria is an Executive Partner for the Gartner for Chief Sales Officers community--also known as the "CSO Whisperer" for her thought partnership to the seniormost in commercial organizations. In this role, she partners with those privileged to create executable work plans to deliver mission critical priorities while challenging paradigms, politics and the world as it used to be. This also involves curating Gartner content to the individual needs of the leader and linking that person to a network of other commercial leaders for powerful diversity of thought. Maria is also the Team Leader of the CSO Executive Partner Team.

Dennis P Gannon | VP, Research

As a Vice President of Research at Gartner, Dennis Gannon spends his days working with Gartner research teams to address the shared challenges of finance leaders and bringing that research to life in one-on-one and group interactions with Gartner clients. Dennis is a regular presenter and keynote speaker at Gartner conferences and facilitates dozens of executive roundtables with CFOs and other finance leaders every year. Since joining Gartner in 2004, Dennis has become sought after by finance leaders for his ability to connect the dots across developments in finance and bring a grounded, long-term perspective to executive challenges. His areas of expertise include capital allocation, cost optimization, finance business partnership, and CFO personal effectiveness.