John Avenson oversees and manages the purposes of technology for all disciplines of the Minnesota Twins organization. John and his team develop and deliver baseball, business, and broadcast solutions that elevate the fan experience and team performance. His group creates, implements, and operates innovative technology at Target Field, the Lee County Sports Complex, and the Twins\’ Dominican Republic Development Academy.

Avenson was named a Chief Information Officer of the Year by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Orbie Awards in 2013 and 2018. In 2021, John\’s collaboration with the Large Venue Tech Collective was recognized with a Minnesota Technology Association Tekne award in the Vibrant Tech Ecosystem/Partnership category. He currently serves as Board Chair on the Advisory Board of the MinnesotaCIO Leadership Association.

A veteran of the Persian Gulf War, Avenson served with the United States Marine Corps where he maintained aircraft information for squadrons in the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in Computer Science, Avenson and his family reside in Minnetonka, MN.

Robin is the CIO for the Cargill North America Protein Group. She has 24 years of IT experience in the agriculture, construction, healthcare, government, consulting, retail and financial sectors. Prior to Cargill, she was the VP & CIO at Mortenson Construction and held other senior leadership roles at UnitedHealth Group, Accenture, Best Buy, and Arcadia Financial.  She is known for driving technology-enabled innovation, strategic business transformation, building global shared service capabilities, and transforming IT functions to be value-driven while fostering relationships between the Business, Operations and IT delivery. 

Robin is recognized as a transformational leader in the industry.  She is as a cultural change agent and has a reputation for stepping into very chaotic situations, assessing the landscape quickly, identifying gaps and creating a vision and strategy to move the business forward. Robin has a reputation for building and mentoring strong leadership teams that are based on a change agent philosophy and high expectations of accountability. Focusing on the culture and team member engagement is important to her. Robin’s passion is mentoring leaders and team members that have high potential.

She is active in the community and holds several Board of Director roles. She is part of the Think IT Board of Advisors and the Governing Body for the Minneapolis HMG CIO Executive Leadership Summit.  She’s also on the Board of Directors for EMPOWER Leadership Academy for Girls, WLiT (Women Leaders in Technology), and New Market Bank.  Robin co-leads the Think IT Women in Leadership forums and was also the President and Founding Board Member of the West Lakes Chapter of National Charity League, focusing on mothers and daughters volunteering together.

Robin has twin daughters in their second year of college. She travels quite a bit with her “empty nest” friends and enjoys bootcamp classes, running, volunteering, indulging in fabulous wine around her fire pit, spoiling her little niece and nephews, and riding her Harley. 

Marc Carlson serves as the VP and Chief Information Officer for Land O’Lakes, Inc., where he manages the IT organization and focuses on optimizing operations and infrastructure, deploys new projects and manages relationships with IT suppliers. In this role, Marc helps translate the rapidly changing IT environment into strategies that help drive business outcomes. He’s focused on developing high-performing teams and strives to support employees’ success. Prior to this role, Marc served as the vice president and IT business lead for Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Purina, Supply Chain and Corporate. During this time, Marc’s responsibilities included building the technology roadmap, managing IT strategies and standards, delivering enterprise-wide technology platforms and managing the businesses IT budgets. Prior to joining Land O’Lakes in 2012, Marc spent nine years at Boston Scientific, including as the global senior IT Director for Clinical Science, R&D, Enterprise Architecture and the IT PMO. He led a diverse set of teams across the U.S., Europe, and Asia through successful execution of global technology strategies. Marc also has 10 years of management consulting experience. Marc holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from Iowa State University. 

IT executive with 25 years of global experience leading multi-million dollar digital transformations across automotive, healthcare, consumer packaged goods and retail industries. Direct and fair leader who attracts and empowers high performing teams, able to keep an even temper in tough situations with predictable and calming influence holding things together even during stressful times.

 

Jennifer Hartsock is Chief Information Officer of Baker Hughes and brings over 20 years of IT leadership to the company. She also leads the company\’s Digital Strategy to drive internal business productivity and accelerate customer outcomes. Hartsock joined GE Oil & Gas in April 2016 as Chief Information Officer, where she oversaw the global IT team and was responsible for driving simplification, acquisition integration, and innovative solutions in support of the Oil and Gas business. Prior to joining GE, Hartsock served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Cameron International. She spent 17 years at Caterpillar Incorporated in a variety of IT positions, culminating with IT Directory and Group CIO for Construction Industries. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in applied computer science with summa cum laude honors from Illinois State University

Steven John is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of AmeriPride Services, a leading textile services and supply company in North America.  As a part of AmeriPride’s executive leadership team, Steven is responsible for the overall leadership of the Information Systems Team, enhancing the customer experience and accelerating the company’s growth strategy through digital innovation and technology. John most recently served as CIO of Workday Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based enterprise applications for human resource management, payroll and finance, where he worked closely with IT leaders and their teams to realize the full benefits of cloud computing. He was an integral part of Workday’s senior leadership team and played a key role in the company achieving and maintaining the highest IT standards and processes. John was previously the CIO at H. B. Fuller Company and Agriliance and also held leadership positions with the Society for Information Management (SIM), First Health, CIGNA, Unisource Network Services and Transora. For ten years, he has also served as a facilitator for SIM’s Leadership Forum and he is a founding member of the CIO Executive Council. He is also a mentor in the CIO Executive Council’s Pathways program and a contributing writer to CIO magazine. John was selected as a ‘Premier 100 IT Leader’ by Computerworld Magazine in 2006 and was presented the CIO Executive Council’s Leadership Award in 2008. Under his leadership, H.B. Fuller was ranked among the ‘Top 500’ leaders in business technology by Information Week in 2009 and he was also recognized by Information Week in 2010 as an industry innovator for his work implementing cloud solutions. John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the University of Utah and completed graduate work at Temple University.

Mr. Knutson has a passion for ensuring that technology works for his clients – strategically, tactically, and operationally. He brings over 25 years of business/ technology leadership experience helping firms such as American Express Financial Advisors, BestBuy, Federated Department Stores, and Thomson Reuters successfully transform their businesses through the appropriate application of technology. He holds a Masters in Management Information Systems from the University of Minnesota and has held Sr IT Leadership and Advisory positions since the 90’s. His forte is making technology an integral part of business strategy – particularly where it improves the customer experience and deepens the understanding of client’s needs. Based on his experiences, he developed his personal tag line: “Strategically Aligned, Operationally Excellent ITsm” His domain experiences run the full spectrum from Strategic Business Planning, Application Development/Deployment and Project/Program Management to Risk Management and Compliance. He realized early on that Leadership and organizational agility is what distinguished the great firms from the good ones. Mr. Knutson shares his knowledge through hosting and facilitation of small groups of forward thinking CIO’s interested in exploring current Technology Leadership challenges through dialogue and experience sharing. He also volunteers assisting technology leaders in transition and serves on the Board of the Minnesota chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM).

Tony Peleska is Vice President of Information Technology for Kraus-Anderson.  He oversees the construction company’s IT strategic planning and development, solution implementation and project management, and also will work closely with the entire family of Kraus-Anderson companies.

Peleska has deep experience as a chief information officer.  Most recently, he served as CIO for Minnesota Housing Finance Agency in St. Paul, where he improved and increased the effectiveness of the IT organization and aligned the agency’s strategic goals with its business initiatives.

He is currently the chair of the board for the Association of Intelligent Information Management (AIIM), the community that provides education, research and best practices to help organizations find, control and optimize their data.  He also serves as a board member of the University of St. Thomas Graduate School of Software Engineering; and is a member of the National Council of State Housing Agencies CIO Council and Evanta CIO Governing Body.

Peleska earned his B.A. from Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minn., and his Executive MBA from the University of Buffalo, New York.  He is a volunteer president of Consulting for Causes; board chair of Nu-Vision Foundation; serves on the steering committee of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce; and is the board chair of the Karth Lake Improvement District in Arden Hills.

Tim Rolfing is Assistant Vice President Information Technology at Western National Insurance Group.

Tim has served in a variety of information technology leadership roles over the last twenty plus years with a focus in the Financial Services, Health Care and Property and Casualty Insurance industry.  Currently, Tim is responsible for Strategic Projects and Planning at Western National Insurance Group, a private mutual insurance company with 115 years of experience serving policyholders\’ property-and-casualty insurance needs.   Most recently, he is leading their agile adaption journey.

Prior to that, Tim has held a variety of senior leadership roles over Application Development, Mergers and Acquisitions, Security, Architecture and Chief of Staff for the CIO at Travelers, Allianz Life, CHS and Optum.   Tim has also served in a consulting role during his career, most recently at Mayo Clinic.   

Tim has earned his Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification and the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriting (CPCU) designation.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and an MBA from Marquette University.

Dee Thibodeau is chief executive officer of Charter Solutions, a healthcare information services company consistently awarded for results in the areas of management consulting, analytics, business process, integration and application development. As CEO since 1997, Ms. Thibodeau has led the company in delivering sustained profitability with annual revenue growth and a record of outstanding customer relationships.  Her expertise and passion are focused on business process improvements that profoundly increase healthcare quality and efficiency. An experienced board member, entrepreneur, and investor in emerging companies, Thibodeau has made companies successful by creating highly productive teams focused on strategic planning, customer relationships, sound business practices, and innovative uses for new and existing technologies. Ms. Thibodeau  has served in top executive positions in the technology and financial industries since 1986, when she was vice president and later president of the largest computer training facility in the Midwest. She has been president of Milestone Investments, Inc. a national hotel investment company, and was president of Arco Transcription, Inc. one of the nation’s largest medical transcription companies. Ms. Thibodeau has since served as president of EDI Solutions, a translation software developer, and negotiated the merger of EDI with St. Paul Software where she served as executive vice president until taking the helm of Charter Solutions. Throughout her career, Thibodeau’s leadership has extended to serving on the boards of directors of more than a dozen companies including Dri-Steem, The Credit Company, Microworx, Arco Transcription, Milestone Investments, EDI Solutions, HCMC Advisory Board, as well as on boards of trade, professional and non-profit organizations.  Currently she serves on the Board of Directors of BRAAS, M Health, Women’s Health Leadership Trust, Minnesota High Tech Association, and Minnesota Visiting Nurses Agency. Ms Thibodeau also started  Minnesota Women Corporate Directors and is on the Advisory Board for Women in the Boardroom. Ms. Thibodeau has been on the Governance, Nominating and Compensation Committees of many boards and well suited to serve on these committees. Ms. Thibodeau has received numerous awards for her success in leadership, her business results and her advocacy for women entrepreneurs and for women serving on boards.  She received a Lifeline Award from Upsize magazine in 2007; the Minnesota Business Owner of the Year award from the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) in 2004; and recognition as one of the “Top 25 Innovative Women” by the Minneapolis/St Paul Business Journal, one of 500 Top Diversity Awards in the US and the Jean Harris Award in 2012 from the Women’s Health Leadership Trust. Thibodeau is an alumna of the University of Minnesota, Mankato, and of the Executive Management Development Program at University of St. Thomas, St, Paul. She has received leadership awards and recognition from The Business Journal, Div 500, Twin Cities E-Commerce Forum and the National Association of Women Business Owners.

Srilekha has 20 years of experience building teams to launching products, while maturing organizational execution models. Srilekha is a Computer Science graduate, and has worked as a Software Engineer, Engineering Manager, to now a cross functional leader. Her passion lies in building scalable organizations that broaden human possibilities using technology.

Srilekha leads the Prime WW Tech Shared Services at Amazon where her team is working on inventing on behalf of Prime customers, solving hard problems that are unique to Prime at Amazon. Prior to Amazon, Srilekha was with Google where she led the GSuite Enterprise Program Portfolio and Augmented Reality programs using AI/ML, Geospatial Intelligence and Computer Vision.

 Outside Amazon, Srilekha is a visiting faculty at Harbour.Space university. Srilekha serves on the Board of PCs For People, a non-profit helping bridge the digital divide by providing the necessary tools to low-income families.

 

Teddy serves as the Chief Technology Officer of Land O’Lakes leading the company’s digital transformation by leveraging existing and emerging technologies, to discover, implement and deliver solutions and ecosystems. Prior to his current role, Bekele served as Vice President of Ag Technology for WinField United. Bekele holds an MBA from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University. His community leadership includes serving as Chair of the Minnesota Broadband Task Force, Chair of the Federal Task Force on Precision Ag Connectivity, Director on the Board of Stella Health, Director on the Board of Genesys Works Twin Cities, and MnTech.

Proven information technology executive with over twenty two years of leadership experience. Established track record delivering large scale systems initiatives, managing and developing global teams, taking costs out of operations and building partnerships with customers, vendors/contractors, C-level executives. Areas of expertise include leading & executing business systems strategy, large-scale CRM & ERP implementations, business acquisition & integration work, international program management, business process re-engineering and custom software development.

Mary leads a number of critical functions within the IT organization and with Business partners as needed.  She is responsible for overseeing expense management, resource management and employee development, managing control and process improvement efforts, and identifying benchmarking and industry information.  Mary has held various positions within Allianz IT since 2005.  Prior to joining Allianz, she held IT-related roles within Fingerhut and Metris Companies.  She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Makato State University.

Tim Dokken is a passionate, senior technology executive with over 24 years of financial services experience, delivering solutions to businesses and consumers globally.  He is currently serving as the Vice President – Information Technology at Johnson Brothers in St. Paul, MN.  Previously, he was the Chief Technology Officer of LiveGiveSave, Inc., a technology startup whose mission is to help people through their everyday spending to effortlessly give to causes they care about and save for their future.  Prior to that, he was with Merrill Corporation, leading the SaaS products of MerrillBridge.com and DataSite.com, spent 7 years at Thrivent Financial transforming the IT organization, and 13 years at American Express in a variety of technology and business leadership roles.  Tim started his career in Public Accounting, which laid a solid foundation to understand the mechanics of how businesses run.  In addition to technology, Tim is passionate about his family and giving back to the community.  He and his wife are very involved in their local church and in the community, as living out their faith is central to his family.  Tim and his wife also enjoy quality time with family and friends, along with sailing the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior.

Sarah Engstrom is Chief Information Security Officer at CHS, Inc. Located in Inver Grove Heights, MN, CHS, Inc. is a farmer-owned cooperative in energy, agriculture and financial services – serving a diverse set of domestic and international customers. Sarah joined CHS in December 2015 and is responsible for building an information security program that spans governance, compliance, architecture and incident management. In addition to security, Sarah leads data privacy and employee productivity for the organization.

Sarah spent the last 13 years of her career with Target in a senior leadership role for both Information Technology and Information Security organizations. She has experienced and navigated significant challenges as well as multiple organizational changes in the security industry. She is excited to bring her expertise to a new organization and establish a program that supports culture, builds trust and fosters open collaboration and problem-solving.

Sarah\’s passions extend beyond the corporate realm. She is very active in fitness, health and well-being, yoga and travel. These passions enable her to provide an open, supportive and nurturing environment to her co-workers and team – a means to differentiate herself in an otherwise stressful and tumultuous field.

Kathryn Freytag was formerly Vice President and CIO at Donaldson Company. She joined the company in January 2017, bringing more than 20 years of experience with Fortune 100 companies leading global IT organizations and delivering strategic technology initiatives. Prior to Donaldson, she spent six years with Honeywell International, where she was VP and CIO for Building Solutions and then Enterprise Systems & Solutions. Kathryn also held technology leadership positions at Stratsys, Medica, American Express, and Wells Fargo & Company. Kathryn has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Iona College and an MBA in information systems from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management. She chairs the governing body of Minneapolis CIO Executive Summit; sits on the Hennepin County IT Advisory Board; and serves on the Board of Directors for NuWay and WithAll.

I am the VP of IT Development & Operations at CHS and a technology leadership blogger. I have 20 years of experience in enterprise technology in a variety of disciplines including DevOps, cloud computing, mobile computing, cyber security, and IT leadership. I am passionate about leading innovative technical teams that create a competitive advantage for business. Prior to CHS, I held various IT leadership positions at Wells Fargo and GMAC Financial Services. I earned my MA in Organizational Leadership from Bethel University.

Tammylynne Jonas is a digital and technology executive with almost 20 years of experience in publicly traded, customer-facing environments. She is skilled at designing technology strategies that solve real-world business problems and increase shareholder value.

Tammylynne is CIO for Holiday Stationstores in MN. Holiday Stationstores is a $4B petroleum and c-store business with 520 locations. Holiday was acquired by Couche Tard in December 2017. Tammylynne is a Senior Director on the Global IT team with responsibilities for: Vendor Management, Strategy and Business Partner Alignment.

Prior to Holiday, Tammylynne spent 15 years at Kohl’s Department Stores. Tammylynne was responsible for the strategy and planning efforts for Kohl’s digital and omnichannel roadmaps. In addition, she had responsibilities for building the company’s loyalty, customer service and digital payment programs.

Prior to Kohl’s, Tammylynne was a consultant for Accenture. At Accenture, she had various technology and change management roles across the United States.

Tammylynne serves on the Board of Directors for the Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota, and on the Board of Directors for the MN Better Business Bureau. Tammylynne holds an Executive MBA in International Business from Marquette University, and she has undergraduate degrees in Mathematics, English and Spanish

In 2015, Tammylynne was named a “40 Under 40” award winner by the Milwaukee Business Journal. In 2017, she was named “Young Alumna of the Year” by Marquette University. In 2019, she was selected as a finalist for “Orbie CIO of the Year” in Minneapolis/ St. Paul. Tammylynne is married with 3 children, aged 10, 6 and 4 and resides in Medina, MN with her family.

Patrick Joyce is Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Medtronic. In this role, he is responsible for global functions, strategies, operations and execution related to security and privacy across the company, including IT/cybersecurity, physical/facility and travel security, identity & access management (IAM), product/device security programs and data privacy. Within Global IT, he is also responsible for several global functions supporting Master Data Management, IT Quality Management and Legal/Compliance.
Patrick joined Medtronic in 2005 to initially build the Corporate IT Audit function, providing audit and consulting services across Medtronic’s global business units, corporate functions and IT organizations. In subsequent roles, he has had responsibility for leading Medtronic’s Global IT Program & Portfolio Management Office, as well as many of the IT Core Process and Applications Teams. Prior to joining Medtronic, Patrick has held roles in both the public and private sector, serving in IT leadership positions at Carlson Companies, United Healthcare, Methodist Hospital/Park Nicollet Medical Center and several IT consulting and managed services firms. Earlier in his career, Patrick served as a U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer with assignments both domestically and overseas. Patrick obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and graduate degree from Troy University. He is active in community and international service through Rotary International and also serves on several local non-profit and professional association boards, including the Minnesota High Tech Association, and the North Star Youth Exchange Foundation.

Doug Koch has worked in medical device, pharmaceutical and chemical companies with experience in both process and discrete manufacturing.

He has worked in patient recruitment for clinical studies to sales, marketing, technical project management and customer service.

Currently he is the CIO for Edina Realty Home Services, Inc. a $10B annual sales full service real estate brokerage firm that is a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate based in Edina Minnesota.  Edina Realty is the market leader for the state of Minnesota and western Wisconsin for the last 21 years .  Edina Realty is also rated one of the best 150 large companies to work in the Twin Cities at for the last 7 years.

As real estate is primarily a financial industry, security is paramount so standardization and security initiatives are a high priority.

Doug is an avid sailor and storm spotter who has a love for the outdoors.

Kevin began his carrier in the consumer products industry a large Pepsi Cola franchise before taking a management role with American Brands in 1986. He began his technology career at MicroAge Technology Services and has been in the technology solution development space since 1996. Kevin was a founding partner in Excipio Consulting where they developed complex RIO models to help executive management formulate the business case for large IT decision. Over the years he has worked for Broadwing Technology Services, Aeritae Consulting, Ciber, Risk Analytics and HTC Global Services where he enables effective solution design and execution in a variety of industries.

Kevin has been a SIM Minnesota Chapter leader for 16 years and has Held Board positions on and off during this time. He currently is entering his 15^th year as Programs Director and was recognized by SIM National being awarded “Leader of the Year”

He also has volunteered for “Fishing for Life” a non-profit organization serving under privileged inner-city youth, and families of military veterans.

Kate Lanners is a Business IT Leader for the Industrial divisions at Ecolab Inc; working with Industrial leadership to align technology solutions with business strategies.

Kate began her career with Ecolab in 2004 and worked in IT roles as Network Telecommunications, Project Management, Integration Program Manager and IT Project Portfolio Manager following the Nalco and Champion acquisitions. Most recently IT Program Leader for Global Supply Chain.

Kate holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from the University of Phoenix, an MBA from Capella University, and a Dispute Resolution Degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

Heather purchased On-Demand Group (ODG), a technology consulting company and family business, in 2008 with her brother, Sean Manley. They have since led the organization through significant growth and expanded ODG’s business clientele to reach global markets by offering offshore solutions in Southeast Asia. Under their leadership, ODG has grown over 30x in the last decade. She attributes their growth to ODG’s outstanding team and adhering to their mission of partnering with clients who align with their morals and ethics and appreciate transparency, honestly and partnership. ODG provides technology resources for individual and project consulting, contract to hire/direct hire needs and offshore services. WBENC certified since 2008.  www.ondemandgroup.com

In 2013, Heather founded Crooked Water Spirits, an award-winning national spirits line that produces unique bourbons, gins, rye, brandy and ready-to-pour cocktails like the Old Fashioned, Boulevardier & Negroni. As a certified Whiskey Sommelier, all recipes are made in-house by Heather. Found in over 7 states and over 500+ liquor stores, restaurants and airlines, gathering over 70 awards nationally. CWS looks to scale with integrity and high value, while remaining 100% owned and self-funded by Heather. CWS’s heavy philanthropic focus has helped non-profits raise over $150k since 2019. WBENC certified since 2014. www.crookedwaterspirits.com

Heather owns Heather’s Dirty Goodness, a boutique spice company with products sold in Kowalski stores, I Like You and online. HDG is focused on low salt and high flavor with integrity, in alignment with her father’s diet restrictions. He was a passionate food connoisseur that had heart disease and needed healthy options. www.dirtygoodness.com

Heather currently serves on the Board of Directors for SIM-MN (Society of Information Management). Heather also served as the Board President for the National Association of Women Business Owners MN, from 2011-2014, where she helped establish the MN Women Business Owners Hall of Fame and as President of the Burnsville Rotary Club from 2020-2021.

Passion include the following: continuous personal improvement & exploration, landscaping, dogs, entertaining, and all things food and wine.

As the Chief Information Officer at Taft, Andrea is responsible for firm-wide information technology and security initiatives across all of Taft’s offices and practices areas. Bringing more than 25 years of experience to the firm, Andrea has a track record of success defining business strategy, developing teams and leading technology and operations departments for large law firms and corporate organizations.  Prior to joining Taft, she served as the Chief Information and Technology Officer for a large law firm based out of NYC and spent time leading technology organizations for Faegre Baker Daniels LLP and Target Corporation based in Minnesota.  As founder of the non-profit professional networking forum i.WILL, Inspiring Women Igniting Leadership & Learning, Andrea is committed to supporting and empowering women. 

Aimee Martin is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Data Recognition Corporation, a national leader in the development and delivery of educational assessments.  Prior to joining DRC, Aimee led the Information Security, Compliance, and Project Management Office functions at Vista Outdoor. Aimee has over 15 years of experience in security and compliance, spanning multiple different industries and functions including internal and external IT audit, compliance, risk management, disaster recovery planning, and project management. In her current role at DRC, Aimee is responsible for driving information security program maturity and various compliance programs. Aimee holds the following certifications: CISA, CRISC, PMP.

Anudeep Parhar is a global business executive who specializes in technology and business operations. His 20+ year career spans leading global Product, IT and Customer Operations organizations for businesses of varying size and complexity in Healthcare, Electronic Content & Services, E-Commerce & Payments, and Digital Security technology.

Anudeep joined Entrust Datacard in 2016 to lead the company’s rapid expansion to the cloud for all facets of the business. His vision and leadership is vital to transforming the company’s technology operations for colleagues and customers and increasing the digital security posture. He joined the company from Bloom Health where he served as chief technology officer. He previously held executive level IT and Technology roles at Digital River, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and Thomson Reuters.

Anudeep holds a Master’s in Computer Science from the Minnesota State University Moorhead, a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Engineering from Gulbarga University, India and Executive Leadership Program from Carlson School of Management. He actively participates in several community and professional organizations.

In his spare time, he enjoys cooking and baking with his family, traveling, world music and diversity of visual and performing arts.

Christine is CEO and founder of Evocent Leadership Development.  In her company she specializes in executive coaching for individuals and leaders who want to be better leaders, especially during times when the corporate environment becomes difficult, messy, and challenging.  She brings over 30 years of experience as an IT Leader, working with global teams for a Fortune 20 company.  Christine has led large organizations with more than 300 employees and contractors working across six continents.  She has extensive global experience, including living and working abroad. 

 With first-hand experience in leading companies through significant organizational change, Christine knows that while organizational change is “the new normal,” the process is often more painful than it has to be.  She works with organizations to alleviate that pain by shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach, so that the corporate leadership infrastructure is better prepared to address the many issues that arise in these challenging environments. 

 Christine’s specialties include working with individuals and leaders in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields, non-American-born leaders, leaders growing into a global or new stretch role, or simply supporting executives work their way through disruptive organizational change.  She is also adept at providing guidance with respect to onboarding and general career transition.

GLOBAL IT LEADER AND TRUSTED BUSINESS PARTNER
For 20+ years I’ve been building technology organizations that spur and support enterprise growth. From setting the IT vision and roadmap to building high-performance cross-functional teams, I’ve been able to add significant value to the entire company by:

** Aligning the IT organization with business units and goals.

** Transforming technology from cost center to strategic business partner and growth enabler.

** Building the infrastructure, teams, and cloud / shared services solutions to drive down operational costs while enhancing delivery performance.

Over the span of my career I’ve built a reputation for leveraging IT to drive business results and ultimately transforming IT organizations into trusted strategic business partners. In addition, I’ve been recognized for exceptional interpersonal management and proven ability to partner with fellow executives. I bring strong experience in financial management, project management, vendor management, and continuous process improvement and am experienced developing/managing scalable capital and expense budgets.

I’ve been called a visionary, collaborative, and adaptive leader who builds strong teams that consistently deliver against expectations.

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS
* Certified Public Accountant exam
* ITIL Foundations v3 Service Management

Specialties:
Leveraging technology with a business investment focus
Developing and executing IT strategies
Building the results-oriented, cross-functional teams that drive transformational change

Cris Ross, CIO, Mayo Clinic, has 30 years prior experience in healthcare, technology and government. At Mayo Clinic, he is responsible for all information technology. Since joining in 2012, he has revamped IT strategy, helped lead an enterprise-wide EHR convergence program, developed partnerships and initiated major innovation programs in data, analytics and machine learning. Prior to joining Mayo Clinic, he held technology and business leadership roles with Surescripts, MinuteClinic and UnitedHealth Group. Previously he held various roles as a tech entrepreneur, financial manager and a congressional aide.

Ross is chairman of the Board of the eHealth Initiative and serves on the boards of directors for Zipnosis, an emerging telehealth vendor. He was a member of the Health IT Standards Committee for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2009 to 2016 and has served on advisory panels for the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HL7, and the Veterans Administration.

Ross earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Minnesota and a master’s degree from Yale School of Management.

William Scandrett is an accomplished information security leader with a proven track record of establishing successful security programs across retail, finance, and healthcare industries.  As CISO for HealthEast, William is responsible for the GRC, Identity, and Cybersecurity programs as well as technology compliance and risk management.

Prior to HealthEast, William served as Information Security Director at Ameriprise Financial where he led the Identity Management program.   William also led the GRC programs for Ameriprise and GMAC ResCap and consulted at Best Buy through Accenture to help establish their global technology compliance program and software development methodologies.

William holds a CISA and CRISC certification and is recognized in the information security community for knowledge, vision and leadership in the areas of Identity, Compliance, and Risk Management.  He has been asked to attend a number of CISO forums and roundtables and has spoken at elite events such as the Gartner Identity conference.

Melissa Scheppele leads A. O. Smith as the Senior Vice President of Information Technology, Chief Information Officer.

Is a strong IT leader with a wealth of experience in establishing global IT strategies, building, and directing complex global information technology teams and leveraging her extensive background in developing processes and leveraging technology solutions to help advance organizations.

As Chief Information Officer, Melissa is responsible for the continued growth and transformation of the Company’s information technology platforms, as well as the creation of the Company’s technology strategies to assist the Company in meeting its goals and objectives. Additionally, she serves as a member of the Company’s Executive Leadership Team, which is responsible for shaping the Company’s overall corporate strategy and direction.

Previously, Melissa served as chief information officer and vice president at Triumph Group, a global aerospace and defense business, where she drove the creation of IT shared services to create efficiencies within the organization. Prior to that, she served as chief information officer and vice president at Ascend Performance Materials, a global specialty chemical manufacturer, where she led an initiative to upgrade the company’s IT infrastructure and leveraged technology platforms to help advance operations.

Melissa has also held management positions at: CIO By Request, Cooper Industries, Tyson Foods and Nestle USA. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in public administration and political science from California State University, Fullerton. 

Tyrone (Ty) Spratt, Chief Business Technology Officer (CBTO) with MNIT Services at MDA, BAH and DLI, has 20 years of government experience holding various business and IT positions within DHS, DNR and MNIT. Ty has also had stops in city and county government and private sector experience with UnitedHealthCare. Known for his collection of colorful ties and irrepressible laugh, Ty has been part of many large IT endeavors including SWIFT and IT consolidation and the current modernization of the state’s Workers’ Comp application. Ty earned his undergrad and MBA from Metropolitan State University and is a certified project manager (PMP). Active in his community as basketball coach for Anoka Ramsey Athletic Association, Ty lives in Coon Rapids with his wife Betsy and two sons Isaac (15) and Samuel (13).

Greg Thayer is an accomplished, hands-on information technology and security leader with over 25 years of expertise.  He is currently the CISO for Comm-Works, based out of Minneapolis, MN.  Greg has extensive experience in multiple information security domains.  His unique skillset of knowledge, education, and management skills along with his depth of technical expertise enables him to effectively manage all aspects of IT and Security functions.

In his role as CISO, he has overall responsibility for the company\’s Information Security Program as well as the development of policies and procedures, governance, risk management, vulnerability management, incident response, organizational assessments, security training, vendor risk management, and the continuous maturity of the company\’s security program.  

Prior to his current role of CISO, Greg served 16 years in various levels of IT leadership with the most recent title of CTO.  In that role, he was responsible for service desk, infrastructure, software development, business applications, telecommunications, security, and disaster recovery.

Greg has numerous industry certifications including CISM, ITIL, CSM.  He is also a member of the following organizations:  InfraGard, ISACA, ISSA, and SIM-MN.