Monica Caldas was formerly the Chief Information Officer for GE Transportation, driving global digital transformation, by delivering innovative solutions for GE Transportation, its customers and employees. Monica brings IT industry expertise from both the financial services and industrial sectors to deliver business model innovation through a robust digital strategy.

Monica is also the senior executive co-sponsor for the company’s GE Girls program, a STEM based global company initiative. In addition, she is passionate about employee engagement, continuous improvement and an active member in the GE Women’s Network and Hispanic Forum.  Monica was also most recently recognized in Hispanic Executive Magazine’s Top 2016 Leaders, a finalist in the 2017 Chicago CIO Orbie Awards and recognized by Information Age Magazine as Digital Leader of the Year 2018.

Monica holds a Bachelor of Science in business and management information systems from the University of Connecticut, and a Master of Business degree from Pennsylvania State University.

Jim is a five-time CIO with broad business experience in global enterprise software, high tech, and more recently the ed-tech industry.  With 25+ years of experience in both start-ups and larger businesses, he has driven technology and business system innovations throughout his career. Early on, he focused on business process consulting and system turnarounds for high-growth start-ups. Jim has held executive level positions at several technology companies, including the CIO of  SOLIDWORKS, followed by CIO at parent-company Dassault Systemes, a top-10 enterprise software company, supporting the global, multi-billion-dollar business, and  continued there in a go-to-market Vice President Strategy role for software-as-a-service and cloud-based products.  Jim has held executive level positions at several technology companies. In his spare time Jim is an active Advisor to several Boston based startup companies, including Apprenti, Actifio, Cloud Zero and was an Advisor/Investor in SimpliVity prior to the acquisition by HPE.

Currently he is CIO at Cengage, a $1.4B, global education and technology company based in Boston. He is responsible for driving Cengage’s digital transformation and building successful internal technology roadmaps, including the recent launch of the company’s first subscription offer; Cengage Unlimited.

Shannon Gath was appointed Teradyne’s Chief Information Officer in April 2021 and oversees global information technology and security. Prior to joining Teradyne, Ms. Gath served as the CIO at AMAG Pharmaceuticals and in a variety of senior IT leadership roles at Fidelity Investments and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. She was named an Enterprise Finalist for the 2019 Boston CIO of the Year Awards for her leadership, innovation, and excellence.

She is active in women’s leadership organizations and has served as the Chair of the AMAG Women’s Network, as a member of the Fidelity Enterprise Technology Steering Committee for Diversity and Inclusion and as a member of the Boston Chamber of Commerce Women’s Network Advisory Board.  She joined The Boston Club in 2017 to advance more women to the board room. She was named a “2019 Rising Star” by Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.  Currently she serves on the Board of Directors for Budget Buddies to build financial literacy, confidence, and security of low-income women and girls.  She actively volunteers in support of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education to inspire the next generation of female technologists. 

Ken Grady serves as Vice President & global CIO for IDEXX Laboratories, the global leader in diagnostics and technology solutions for animal health, water & milk quality. Prior to joining IDEXX, Ken served as CIO for New England Biolabs, and global head of IT Shared Services for Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics. In these roles Ken led early adoption of cloud technologies, the launch of new eCommerce platforms, and the commercialization of connected devices & the Internet of Things. Bringing more than 20 years of life sciences and technology leadership, Ken now leads an worldwide organization supporting new product launches, global distribution and support of some of the most innovative and critical diagnostic capabilities in the market protecting our food and water supply chains, and the health and well being of people and their companion animals.  Ken has been profiled for leadership and innovation by partners such as Salesforce.com, Apple and SAP.  Ken is an active member of the community, having served the last several years on town committees, and as a sponsor and senior advisor to Maine’s Project LOGIN. 

Elizabeth Hackenson previously served as Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Technology and Services at The AES Corporation. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, AES is a Fortune 200 company that generates and distributes electric power in 17 countries.

Ms. Hackenson was s a member of the executive leadership team who is responsible for corporate strategy and allocation of capital.  In addition, the office of technology reports to her as well as a number of technology teams such as AES’ energy storage, global information technology and cybersecurity.  She is also responsible for AES’ insurance programs, internal audit and is a board member of several AES companies including Dayton Power & Light in Ohio and AES Chivor in Colombia.

Ms. Hackenson is the former senior vice president and CIO at Alcatel-Lucent, where she was responsible for the operations of the company’s information and communications systems and e-business platforms. Prior to joining Alcatel-Lucent in April of 2006, she held the position of executive vice president and chief information officer for MCI. In this position, she employed innovative approaches to create a business-focused IT organization, and was responsible for the company’s internal systems as well as systems supporting product development.

In 2014, Ms. Hackenson was inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame and her team has won numerous IT and cybersecurity awards. In 2005, Computer World named Ms. Hackenson one of its top 100 premier IT leaders. The Washington Post named her one of the top 200 female executives and Information Week ranked the department she led as one of the top 100 for IT leadership. Her corporate tenure has spanned several Fortune 100 companies including British Telecom (Concert), AOL (UUNET) and EDS. She served in a variety of senior management positions, working in the delivery of information technology services to support business needs across corporate-wide enterprises.

Ms. Hackenson is a Strategic Advisor to the Paladin Group, a board member of the Greater Washington Board of Trade and Red Five Security.

Ms. Hackenson earned her degree from New York State University.

Anjana was the CIO at Hillrom, a leading global medical technology company, where she was driving a large business transformation through digital solutions. Prior to that she held several leadership positions at Novartis as the Americas CIO for Alcon, Global Head of Commercial IT Operations and Global Head of Compliance Services & Information Management. She has more than 20 years of experience across the Life Sciences industry as well as in consulting.  Anjana has had the opportunity to take on some tough challenges and successfully drive large scale transformations throughout her career journey.  She is known for being a change catalyst with a penchant for inspiring, motivating and coaching teams to achieve uncommon results.

Anjana strongly believes that information is a strategic asset that should be leveraged as a competitive differentiator. She has presented her ideas at various conferences and written articles about it.

Anjana has an MBA from the Wharton School and a B.S. in Computer Science Engineering from Bangalore University, India.

Jamie has been a leader in Information Technology within the CPG industry for more than 18 years. Jamie has held roles within Mars, Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer. While starting his career in the U.K. Jamie has held global roles based out of the USA for more 11 years working across boundaries and bringing people together to drive change and technology for growth.

As Ocean Spray’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Jamie is leading our business transformation programs, managing both our Tech division and Digital Team, ensuring the cooperative invests strategically in people and technology to to maintain and grow our business—from supply chain right through to our consumers.

Sean Patrick Lennon, a visionary leader who drives transformation of global, multi-billion dollar organizations from the inside out, was previously with Allergan where he pushed them to become the fastest-growing, most dynamic pharmaceutical company in global healthcare. In his previous role with Allergan IT, Sean has successfully directed integration and divestiture activities for 40+ acquisitions and divestitures since 2010. His know-how enabled the business to rapidly scale, setting the stage for Allergan’s record growth. With Sean’s unparalleled expertise in highly-efficient integration, Allergan IT has captured over $300 million in cost savings by realizing synergies and strategically restructuring during the mergers and acquisitions process. With an eye on aligning the company’s IT strategy and business strategy, Sean spearheads all aspects of technology vision, product development, and digital delivery of customer-oriented technology services, guiding more than 20,000 Allergan associates around the world. 

Prior to joining Watson Pharmaceuticals, now Allergan, Sean served as Vice President of Global Infrastructure Services at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, one of the largest healthcare companies globally. At Novartis, he consolidated client services to their highest satisfaction ratings and reduced budget by $100 million. In 2002, Sean was recruited by pharmaceutical services company C3i to fix its struggling business, a turnaround that he resourcefully executed in less than 60 days as Senior Vice President and General Manager. Sean found his start in the industry with Schering Plough Pharmaceuticals. In 1996, he characteristically rolled up his sleeves to convert Schering Plough’s Managed Care and Health Management group from an entity not delivering value, to a top team in the business with the highest IT satisfaction. Sean initially proved his worth to the company as a consultant in 1994, when he designed and developed the first Third-Party Data Warehouse system in the industry, enabling Schering Plough to deploy its field sales organizations up to 10 days faster than the competition and at a reduced cost.  

Sean is in the highest echelon of experience for managing large technical organizations and leading the development and implementation of business-driven digital IT programs.  He also has extensive operational and financial experience, overseeing all IT Financial Planning and Analysis, leading IT business plan development, financial forecasting, financial analysis, and capital commitment planning, as well as competitive analysis and benchmarking.  Sean possesses strong communication acumen, skilled at delivering technology-oriented messages to nontechnology-oriented people. He has succeeded in breaking down the walls between IT and other business units positioning IT as a key strategic partner. Sean is consistently recognized as a top performer in both measurable results and organization-shaping behaviors. He is very organized and results-oriented with strong process management abilities; he also possesses the insight required to build and focus the high energy of creative teams. Extremely customer-focused, Sean has extensive experience working internationally, having traveled to and done business in more than 50 countries worldwide. He sits on several advisory committees and has received numerous industry honors and recognitions for leadership in delivering innovative technology solutions.  Sean was named 2015 “CIO of the Year” by NJ Tech Council. 

Sean has 33 years of technical and IT management experience, including 22 years specific to Life Sciences. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Business Management from St. John’s University in New York.  

Sean McCourt is Managing Director of Longford & Company, based in downtown Boston. Sean has 17 years of industry experience working with IT executives/CIO’s and has become a valuable asset to many CIO’s through his knowledge of the CIO job market and his connections throughout the industry.

In early 2012, Sean started Longford & Company, a technology services firm dedicated to high quality service and delivery for IT executives. The firm’s focus is working with CIO’s to provide consultants for high impact projects, as well as conducting executive/management level searches. Since 1997, Sean’s dedication and passion for helping IT executives achieve their professional and personal goals has enabled him to build a strong reputation in the industry. Sean received a Bachelor’s in Business Administration/Finance from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

Mark has extensively recruited chief information officers, chief technology officers, chief information security officers and other senior IT leadership talent across varied vertical sectors including Industrial, Consumer, Life Sciences and Higher Education. His consultative approach to search encompasses talent strategy, organization design, search process and diversity recruiting. Mark ’s clients range from the Fortune 100 (McKesson, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Boeing) to smaller high-growth companies (Under Armour, Regeneron, DirecTV) as well as prestigious public and private universities (Harvard, Rockefeller, University of Florida).

Before entering the search field, Mark developed and marketed information systems within the Financial Services and Higher Education sectors. He currently serves on the Advisory Committee for Columbia University’s executive graduate program in Information Technology Management.

Mark frequently addresses conferences and writes on information technology and career management topics. He is the creator of the “Executive Career Counsel” column in CIO Magazine and on CIO.com. He is a member of the Society for Information Management (SIM) and has served as President of the New York Chapter. He sits on the Advisory Boards of The Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF), the national organization dedicated to fostering executive talent among African-American IT professionals, and HITEC, the Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council.

Mark holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from Pratt Institute and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering from Union College.

Ramesh is an accomplished technology leader who excels at delivering business results through the implementation of Technology and Process innovations. Ramesh combines strategic and innovative thinking, Deep engineering and application development skills, and exceptional organizational and strategic leadership abilities to deliver business value. A strategic, executive team player committed to developing and motivating high-performing teams. Highly collaborative leader who builds trust and partners closely with the business to achieve results. Ramesh is recognized as an industry expert, thought leader, and noted public speaker on wide-ranging technology topics including Big Data, ML/AI and Cloud Architecture.

Brian Shield is responsible for technology for the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Management.  He leads the technology team on all phases of the Red Sox strategy from creating a compelling fan experience to enabling an effective front office and baseball operations environment. Shield was named ‘Georgia CIO of the Year’ in 2005, his work in television was recognized with a Technology ‘Emmy’ Award in 2006, and his leadership and commitment to Georgia’s business-technology community was recognized in 2012 when he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia CIO Leadership Association (GCLA). Prior to joining the Red Sox, Shield was CEO of Shield Consulting Group, LLC, where he assisted companies with their strategic decisions regarding technology direction, digital media and IT strategy and leadership.  Prior to starting his own company, Shield served as the EVP and CIO of The Weather Channel where for 14 years he oversaw all technology, including weather.com, mobility, weather systems, broadcast television and IT.  Prior to joining The Weather Channel, Shield served as CIO of FTD, Inc. in Chicago, where he was responsible for all IT including their global network reaching more than 125 countries. Preceding his tenure at FTD, he was CTO at the investment firm of Scudder, Stevens & Clark and formerly with Wang Laboratories. Shield completed his education at Bentley College in Waltham, MA where he majored in Computer Information Systems while minoring in Management and Accounting.  

Matt Aiello is a based in Heidrick & Struggles’ Washington, DC office and specializes in the recruitment of senior-level technology and services executives.   Matt is an active member of the firm’s Information Officers Practice. With ten years of executive search experience, Matt has led CIO, CTO, Heads of Applications, Infrastructure, Architecture and other searches for companies across industries including consumer, retail, media, professional services, software, automotive, and financial services.  He has also helped technology and services clients build or expand their business into the public sector (global, federal/defense, state and local).  In addition, Matt has led executive assessment and succession planning projects for CIOs and business services executives. Before beginning his career in executive search, Matt was a member of the startup team of a successful dotcom, a director of research for a distinguished Washington research group and a public school teacher.  Matt received his BA in political science from Yale University.

Wes advises CEOs facing digital disruption. He provides advisory services to senior business leaders and their investors on how to improve innovation and business performance. Wes is an expert on digital transformation and the business models that are transforming how work gets done in the 21st century. 

Wes helps CEO’s clarify their customer vision, market point of view and ask the hard questions necessary to transform the business.  Using leadership principles learned from Amazon he collaborates with senior leadership to leverage their collective intelligence to create their own culture of innovation.  This proven approach has helped dozens of companies unlock new innovations, objectively assess their own internal capabilities and operational gaps, and transform business models. The outcome is an actionable roadmap on where to place critical digital bets that aligns to broader business strategy and overall investment priorities.

Wes currently serves private clients through Wes Arens and Advisors, LLC on digital strategy and transformation.  As a former Managing Director at managing consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, Wes led numerous digital strategy engagements at Fortune 250 companies across multiple industries (high technology, consumer package goods, retail, education, healthcare, utilities, and advanced manufacturing).

Previously, Wes was Vice President of Merchant Services and Sales with Amazon.com, where he oversaw the commercialization of Amazon\’s outsourcing platform for enterprise customers.  He was responsible for driving enterprise direct sales, channels, alliances, and partnerships.  His team worked closely with leading enterprises to provide e-commerce digital capabilities that leveraged Amazon\’s world-class digital technologies for customer service, payments, order fulfillment and online merchandising.

Prior to Amazon, Wes was a senior executive at Syncra Systems, a leading SaaS supply chain management company providing internet-based collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment solutions to the largest retailers and their suppliers. Wes started his career at IBM and served in various sales management roles during IBM\’s historic transformation from a hardware company to a services company.   When he left he was responsible for IBM’s overall global B2B market place initiatives.

Wes grew up in Boston and graduated from Boston College and currently lives in the Seattle area.

Senior technology executive who leverages emerging and digital technologies to transform organizations, formulate new business models, and facilitate enterprise growth. Business technology strategist with a reputation for driving innovation, developing new revenue opportunities, streamlining IT platforms, and decreasing costs and time-to-market.

Saad has a wide range of experience that includes applied research, management consulting, and leading technology organizations. Currently he is working as Chief Digital Officer where he is responsible for developing overall digital strategy and driving enterprise-wide transformation of Zones’ business model and service offerings. Previously his consulting work focused on IT and digital strategy, new product development, and supporting private equity firms on technology related aspects of their portfolio companies. His technology leadership roles include, Global CIO at Scholastic and divisional CIO at Aetna and The Hartford. He has worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company where he worked with clients on technology strategy and transformation of IT organizations. Additionally, he worked as a research scientist and product developer in the field of Artificial Intelligence at GE Corporate Research & Development and GTE Labs.

Saad has published numerous papers in the field of Artificial Intelligence. He has been a speaker on a number of IT leadership topics at various conferences. Saad has been named one of the Premier 100 IT Leaders by Computerworld magazine. He has a BSc in Computer Engineering from METU, Ankara, Turkey, a PhD in Computer Science and an MBA from RPI, Troy, NY.

Dennis Baden is a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles, and a member of the Financial Services and Global Information Officers practices. He has worked with a wide variety of clients, particularly in the recruitment of senior technology, operations, data, and digital executives for global banks, hedge funds, asset managers, insurance and technology companies, as well as chief executives and general managers for the utilities and software/solutions providers that support the industry.

Recent assignments have ranged from recruiting chief executives, chief operations officers and chief information officers to heads of development, infrastructure, data, operations and digital. While the focus has been financial services, Dennis has a track record of recruiting top technology talent across all industries.

Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Dennis was a Corporate Associate at the global law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo P.C. In that capacity, Dennis focused on venture capital financings, mergers & acquisitions and securities law. 

Prior to law school, Dennis worked as a recruiter at a boutique technology recruiting firm in New York City where he focused on senior level technology roles across multiple industries. 

Dennis received a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from Boston College Law School.

Doug Barta currently serves as Chief Information Officer at PAREXEL, a leading global biopharmaceutical services organization, providing a broad range of knowledge-based contract research, consulting, medical communications, and technology solutions and services to the worldwide pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. Headquartered near Boston, Massachusetts, PAREXEL operates in 80 locations in 51 countries around the world, and has approximately 19,000 employees.

Previously Mr. Barta served as CIO of Guy Carpenter, a Marsh & McLennan company and a global leader in providing risk and reinsurance intermediary services.

Prior to that, Mr. Barta was with Fidelity Investments serving as Chief Operating Officer of Fidelity Investment Management Technology where he ran operations for Asset Management’s technology division. Mr. Barta also served as SVP IT Transformation and as SVP CFIT, Fidelity’s financial systems business where he held leadership responsibility for Fidelity\’s ERP and reporting environments as well as spearheading the effort to create and deploy a comprehensive cost and profitability platform.

Prior to Fidelity, Mr. Barta served as Managing Director of The Hackett Group, where he ran the World Class IT and the Business Intelligence Practices. Prior to Answerthink, Mr. Barta was a founding member and EVP of Nauticus Networks, Inc., a tier-one networking equipment startup that was acquired by Sun Microsystems. Prior to Nauticus, Mr Barta served as a key executive in Legacy Technology, Inc., a boutique consulting firm specializing in business intelligence solutions for F1000 companies (acquired by Answerthink Consulting Group). Mr Barta began his career as a hardware engineer with DEC’s MicroVax division.

Mr. Barta received a computer design engineering diploma from Cornell University in 1986 and completed his MBA in finance and entrepreneurial management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1992.

Before joining Korn Ferry, Wolfgang was with Russell Reynolds Associates and a member of the firm’s Technology Sector. He specialized in technology enabled business transformation and advised clients across industries on digital transformation, organization and enablement. He is based in Boston. Previously, Wolfgang served as Partner and Managing Director for the Boston Consulting Group in their Digital Transformation Practice. Prior to that, Wolfgang was Partner for the Strategic Information Technology and Operations practice at Oliver Wyman. Earlier in his career, he held various leadership roles for AlixPartners, Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg, and Accenture.

Wolfgang earned his Master’s in Computer Science from the Technical University in Munich, Germany. He also has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the Technical University in Munich, Germany and Mathematics from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Wolfgang is fluent in German.

Gerald is the chief information security officer for LogMeIn responsible for the overall security, compliance and technical privacy of LogMeIn’s products and corporate assets. Prior to this position, Gerald was the chief security officer for Demandware (now known as Salesforce Commerce Cloud) and accountable for the corporate information security governance and management framework. In this role he was also the data protection officer for the Demandware GmbH, a German subentry.

Previous to Demandware, Gerald was a Principal Software Systems Engineer at MITRE. He focused on cyber security, advanced web services, and identity management technology and their application in the context of complex government programs. He architected and implemented the security environment for Air Force programs, focusing on the development and execution of the overall information assurance, including security engineering, configuration management, and certification and accreditation. Gerald also supported modernizing health IT, especially within the S&I Framework initiative of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). In this role he is was also actively engaged with the identity and privacy management communities. Before MITRE, Gerald worked in several positions at Sun Microsystems, focussing on technical support for regulatory and litigative activities in Europe and the US, industry collaborations, standards development, and strategic research and development. 

Gerald is IT Sector Chief for the Boston FBI/Infragard Chapter and served on the Burlington, MA Information Systems Advisory Board.

Tim Crawford is ranked as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Chief Information Technology Officers (#4), Top 100 Most Social CIOs (#7), Top 20 People Most Retweeted by IT Leaders (#5) and Top 100 Cloud Experts and Influencers. Tim is a strategic CIO & advisor that works with large global enterprise organizations across a number of industries including financial services, healthcare, major airlines and high-tech. Tim’s work differentiates and catapults organizations in transformative ways through the use of technology as a strategic lever. Tim takes a provocative, but pragmatic approach to the intersection of business and technology. Tim is an internationally renowned CIO thought leader including Digital Transformation, Cloud Computing, Data Analytics and Internet of Things (IoT). Tim has served as CIO and other senior IT roles with global organizations such as Konica Minolta/ All Covered, Stanford University, Knight-Ridder, Philips Electronics and National Semiconductor. Tim is also the host of the CIO In The Know (CIOitk) podcast. CIOitk is a weekly podcast that interviews CIOs on the top issues facing CIOs today. Tim holds an MBA in International Business with Honors from Golden Gate University Ageno School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from Golden Gate University.

Michael Curmi is a technology leader with significant global experience across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, leading teams of 1000 people in over 50 countries. He has a passion for defining technology-enabled strategies that can transform operating models and the ways in which corporations conduct business.

He learned leadership at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and spent five years as a British army commissioned officer. Following business school, he worked in management consulting for firms including A.T.Kearney and Deloitte. He then spent four years as the CIO of the world’s largest travel management company, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, driving global transformation in a very competitive industry. After two years leading CSC’s technology strategy practice, he now works for Fidelity in the internal business consulting division, formulating and driving programs to optimize value derived from technology.

Martin is a results driven C-Level Executive and Business Leader with extensive experience across Manufacturing, Consumer Goods, Food, Automotive, Transportation and Insurance industries, delivering value globally in large Fortune 100 corporations and privately-owned companies. He focuses on high quality business outcomes which result in customer satisfaction and return on investment.

Martin has been the CIO for 10+ diverse companies, coupling a strategic focus with tactical management, and has delivered $multi-million value across multiple industries. He has also successfully driven Industry 4.0 / Operational Intelligence Strategy to increase manufacturing efficiency and reduce costs.

He is a regular presenter at conferences and webinars on subjects including Digital Transformation, IT Strategy, Organisational Change Management, and Industry 4.0. Martin holds an MBA with Distinction from Warwick Business School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with Mathematics from Kings College London.

Abbas Faiq has over 12 years of CIO experience and is currently the Chief Information Officer at PTC. He has been in this role since 2015.  At PTC, Abbas leads a global IT organization that is responsible for business applications, cloud and on prem infrastructure, security, IT operations and all levels of IT governance.  He was part of the management team that led PTC’s transformation to a subscription model. Prior to PTC, Abbas was the CIO at Cepheid, a medical device company based in Sunnyvale, CA.

Abbas is a recognized technology leader with a track record of creating highly productive and strategically business aligned IT organizations.  He has over 25 years of experience in successfully managing technology functions in high tech and healthcare/life sciences industries.

John Freeman is a global technology leader with more than 20 years of IT management experience spanning manufacturing, insurance, financial services, and commercial software industries.  He has a passion for operational excellence and delivering transformational business solutions.

John currently serves as PTC’s Vice President of IT Shared Services. Headquartered in the Seaport district of Boston, Massachusetts, PTC is a $1B+ company with over 6,000 employees operating across 30 countries.  John has been at PTC for more than 10 years and has managed all facets of Information Technology and Security in his tenure. PTC’s technology helps industrial companies to create value for themselves, their customers, and the world.  At the forefront of innovation, PTC enables global manufacturers and their customers to realize double-digit impact through technology, designed for all the ways they work.  Through a combination of Augmented Reality, Industrial IoT, PLM and CAD solutions, PTC technology has helped its customers achieve some impressive results.  Field-proven solutions enable customers to accelerate product and service innovation, improve operational efficiency, and increase workforce productivity. 

Shannon Gath was appointed Teradyne’s Chief Information Officer in April 2021 and oversees global information technology and security. Prior to joining Teradyne, Ms. Gath served as the CIO at AMAG Pharmaceuticals and in a variety of senior IT leadership roles at Fidelity Investments and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. She was named an Enterprise Finalist for the 2019 Boston CIO of the Year Awards for her leadership, innovation, and excellence.

She is active in women’s leadership organizations and has served as the Chair of the AMAG Women’s Network, as a member of the Fidelity Enterprise Technology Steering Committee for Diversity and Inclusion and as a member of the Boston Chamber of Commerce Women’s Network Advisory Board.  She joined The Boston Club in 2017 to advance more women to the board room. She was named a “2019 Rising Star” by Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.  Currently she serves on the Board of Directors for Budget Buddies to build financial literacy, confidence, and security of low-income women and girls.  She actively volunteers in support of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education to inspire the next generation of female technologists. 

David Gerstle serves as Chief Digital Officer for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the transit authority for greater Boston and 5^th largest transit authority in the nation. Prior to joining the MBTA, David worked in govtech for Booz Allen Hamilton, where he was proud to be part of the team of leaders turning around the Affordable Care Act’s healthcare.gov and Federally Facilitated Marketplace. With over 10 years of data, transportation, and govtech leadership, David now leads the premier civictech group in state & local government, using the modern tools of research, design, and technology to help riders use our transit system. David speaks and advises other organizations on how to move from project to product mindset and aligning technical and organizational approaches.

Tom Harvey is VP & CIO with Alkermes, a fully integrated, global biopharmaceutical company. Following the 2011 merger of Alkermes, Inc and Elan Pharmaceutical’s Drug Technology business, Tom became responsible for all Alkermes plc Information Technology systems and solutions supporting a diversified portfolio of more than 20 commercial drug products and a substantial clinical pipeline of product candidates that address central nervous system (CNS) disorders such as addiction, schizophrenia and depression. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Alkermes plc has a R&D center in Waltham, Massachusetts; a research and manufacturing facility in Athlone, Ireland; and manufacturing facilities in Gainesville, Georgia and Wilmington, Ohio. Tom joined Alkermes as Director, Enterprise IT Applications in June 2005 and was named to Vice President Information Technology in March 2007. Prior to joining Alkermes, Tom worked for Abbott Laboratories for over 16 years in a number of roles within Information Technology including Manager, Corporate Internal IT Audit and Director IT for Abbott Diabetes Care. In addition, Tom held the position of senior consultant with Deloitte specializing in custom inventory and manufacturing support solutions. Tom holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting Information Systems from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Jo Hoppe is an experienced executive who has held a wide range of Information Technology, Software Development and Operations positions in Fortune 500 companies. Her business background is international in scope and has included assignments in IT, Software Development, Marketing, P&L Management and Operations. Jo also has extensive experience with mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Jo spent the last five years at PAREXEL, a $2 B global Contract Research Organization serving the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical industries. PAREXEL has over 14,000 employees with offices in 52 countries. Prior to joining Parexel, Jo worked at Pegasystems where she served as CIO. In this capacity, Jo was responsible for designing and building a comprehensive portfolio of enterprise solutions and products that exploit the intrinsic business advantages of Pegasystems rules-based BPM technology. From 1999-2003, Jo worked at CMGI, a $1.2B global Internet holding company where she held the dual role of EVP/CIO of CMGI, and CTO of uBID, CMGI’s $750M online auction and eCommerce business. Jo also managed a host of other operational responsibilities including asset management, Corporate Travel, Amex Administration, and Group Purchasing. Prior to her CMGI assignment, Jo held CIO positions at Addison Wesley Longman (now Pearson Education), Pearson Plc\’s $5 B educational content/media company, and at Houghton Mifflin Co. Jo\’s background also includes 12 years of software development experience at Atex Media Solutions. In her last few years at Atex, Jo held the position of V.P. and General Manager of Atex\’s Newspaper Product Division, a $60M P&L. Jo is an active member of Society for Information Management (where she holds the position of President of the Board ) and has been featured in CIO Magazine, Upside Magazine (Outstanding Women in Technology), Mass High Tech, Boston Women’s Journal, ComputerWorld, Publishers\’ Weekly and the Seybold Report.

Brad Horst is the Vice President of CIO Advisory Services at Microdesk; a global building industry consultancy. Brad leads the CIO Advisory Services team to assist Architects, Engineers, Builders, Manufacturers and Building Owners with leveraging the latest trends in technology, providing strategic planning for IT as it relates to the industry. As a Registered Architect with over 20 years of industry experience, Brad brings the knowledge and insight that helps to drive more business value and a more holistic approach to IT.

Swami Jayaraman is responsible for providing Infrastructure, Operations and Service Delivery for Iron Mountain globally. He leads Iron Mountain’s digital transformation efforts, providing infrastructure services that are secure, stable and performant. He is passionate about enabling businesses through technological innovation and providing services that are both fit for use and fit for purpose.

Prior to joining Iron Mountain in 2019, Swami spent 8 years at Bank of America transforming and managing infrastructure services. He focusses on the trifecta of growth: people, process and technology. Has a keen business sense and is capable of understanding customer and business requirements and making technology become an invisible enabler of the business.

Prior to that, during his 11 year stint at Computer Sciences Corporation, he wore multiple hats and was part of the team the put together a go to market strategy around on-prem cloud solutions, one of the very few companies to offer this as a service to customers at that time.

Swami earned a MBA degree from the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts in Amherst. 

Phillip Knutel, Ph.D., is Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. He oversees the Academic Technology Innovation Center, the library, online/hybrid/blended learning, systems, networks, telecommunications, IT support services, information security, media and production services, administrative computing, application development, and project management. Since arriving at Babson in 2015, he has replaced the entire campus network to enable a cloud strategy, as well as streamlining and simplifying Babson’s IT architecture including extensive migrations to Workday and Salesforce. Dr. Knutel received his Ph.D. in higher education from Michigan, an Ed.M. from Harvard, and a B.S. magna cum laude from Vanderbilt (where he also served as president of his college student association). His 1998 dissertation, \”Adoption of an innovation: The process through which faculty decide whether to use instructional technology\”, focused on how and why faculty begin using technology to enhance student learning. He has served as a faculty member at Bentley University (where he was also CIO), and is on the faculty of the German Graduate School of Management and Law.

Dr. Leach is Vice President of IT at Alexion Pharmaceuticals. He has a global role providing the strategy and IT solutions for Alexion\’s R&D, Global Quality and Human Experience (HR + Patient Experience). Until recently, Dr. Leach also lead IT for Global Operations (Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Customer Operations) groups. Prior to Alexion; he formed the Global Data Office at Biogen, lead Biogen\’s R&D IT group, was the first CIO at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, lead Discovery & Preclinical Sciences IT at Merck & Co., was a Principal at Booz Allen Hamilton, and Vice President IT & Informatics at CuraGen Corporation. Dr. Leach is currently an advisor to the CEO of Monocl, CEO of Beasy and mentors startups and has mentees across multiple industries.

Bill’s background spans Consumer Products, Business Services, Life Sciences, Consulting, Academic and Non-Profit sectors.  He has broad international experience, a deep understanding of technology and a strong strategic orientation.  Bill has led projects, teams and business reviews in over 20 countries, including multiple acquisitions and divestitures, product and drug launches, organizational changes, and major projects.

Currently Bill is working as CIO for The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge.  In this role his team supports the breakthrough science that is defining the boundaries of our knowledge, understanding and application of genetics.  His team runs a world class High Performance Compute, Storage and Network environment and they are defining the benchmarks for leveraging the cloud in the life sciences.

Through his work with Strategic Partners Group he built a successful track record consulting for a number of small biotechs.  At Biogen Bill worked closely with the commercial team on multiple drug launches (Tecfidera, Alprolix, Eloctate) and was a lead in the work to prepare the clinical and commercial supply chain in preparation for those launches.

Bill also brings extensive senior leadership experience in a broad range of global consumer products businesses for Gillette and Procter & Gamble, including personal care, small appliances, portable power, and stationery products.  This included co-leading the integration of Gillette’s $4B US business into P&G’s systems and processes, and performing a board level review of a multi-year, $500M investment in building global capabilities.

Bill serves as chairman of the governing board of Ascentria Care Alliance and as a Steering Committee member and liaison to the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University’s Venture Mentoring Network.  He has been recognized by CIO magazine as a Rising Star and as a Premier 100 IT leader.

He received both a BS in Computer Science and an MBA from Northeastern University.

Todd Mazza is Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at FM Global, a leading commercial insurance company based in Johnston, Rhode Island. Todd joined FM Global in September, 2022 to lead the Enterprise Technical Capabilities organization. His responsibilities include global technology strategy development and execution of technical operations. He oversees the Digital Transformation Platform teams, Infrastructure & Cloud Services, Enterprise Architecture, Data Governance, Integration Services & Content, Search and Knowledge Management Services. Before FM Global, Todd was VP of IT, and Interim CIO, at Rockwell Automation.

Todd’s career spans many senior leadership roles at some of the most well-known global brands, including vice president of Go To Market Technology at Workday, global Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Americas Chief Information Officer (CIO) at AECOM and global Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Levi Strauss & Co. Prior, he served in various leadership roles at Decurion Management Corp., MGM Mirage and NBC Universal.

Todd holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Central Florida, in Orlando, Florida, and an associate’s degree in business from Florida State University, in Tallahassee, Florida. He’s won a variety of professional awards with his team over the years, and has served various communities on Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards.

George Moore is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Cengage Learning, reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer. In this role, he is responsible for shaping Cengage Learning’s long-term technology vision and focusing innovation across the company during a transformative time.

Ray was recruited to the Healthcare industry in 2000 and accepted the position of CIO for the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (US affiliate of Novartis AG). Over four plus years, Ray successfully turned around a fledgling IT organization. Ray then accepted the role of Global CIO for Novartis Pharmaceuticals AG. Ray and his family re-located and embraced the new role and life in Switzerland.
In his new role in Switzerland, Ray stayed focused on improving the business and enabled a “lean” methodology to drive significant global savings to the Novartis operating model. Ray was a member of the Executive Committee as well as a member of the Executive Commercial Committee. Ray led a global IT organization makeover which was rooted in a cultural transformation program and a relentless focus on driving the business. Ray returned to the US in 2008 and was recruited to join Biogen as their Chief Information Officer. Reporting directly to the CEO and being a member of the Executive Committee, Ray was an active participant in the governance, growth and transformation of Biogen. Ray re-created the IT organization at Biogen enabling IT to become a strategic asset to company’s success. Ray oversaw the creation of a company wide Data Sciences Organization to leverage the emerging “big data” revolution. The new IT organization is now considered essential to the future growth of Biogen as the focus for IT has dramatically shifted to leveraging “big data”, analytics, social and mobility to create new ways of operating. Ray was also the interim Head of HR for a year when the Biogen’s transformation began in 2011. Ray resides in Boston, Massachusetts and has recently decided to shift his energies towards directorships on various Boards and an adjunct professorship at a local University. Ray has his degree in Computer Science from Montclair University and has participated in extensive Executive Education programs at Harvard University and IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland. 

Kevin is the founder and Director of the M.S. in Cybersecurity Policy and Governance Program at Boston College, and an Assistant Professor of the Practice at Boston College Law School and in Boston College’s Carroll School of Management’s Business Law and Society Department. With over 20 years of combined law enforcement, military, national security, business, higher education, and teaching experience, he has worked as an analyst and an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of Defense, law firms in Boston and Washington, D.C., and as the General Counsel for an international software company based in Seattle, Washington. Along with his teaching at Boston College, Kevin is a Research Affiliate at the MIT Sloan School of Management and he has taught courses at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was also the Deputy General Counsel to the Superintendent. Kevin serves as a Trustee for the Board of Boston College High School, as a Member of the Boston College Law School Business Advisory Council, as a Director of the Board for Reading Cooperative Bank, and as an Advisor for HYCU, Inc. From 2016-2017, he was the Panel Lead for the Collegiate Working Group for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security\’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE). Kevin regularly provides expert strategic counsel and training for organizations regarding cybersecurity, privacy, and varying business concerns.  He also provides expert commentary on such matters for varying local, national, and international media outlets. 

Greg Saltzman is the CIO and senior vice president of IT for CIRCOR International, which is a global manufacturer specializing in highly engineered, complex and severe environment products that serve long-term, high growth infrastructure markets, including oil and gas, power generation, industrial and aerospace & defense.

Prior to his current role, Saltzman worked at SumTotal as the vice president of cloud operations. There, he managed multiple data centers around the world supporting more than 3,000 private-cloud and software-as-a-service customers, worldwide. Before joining SumTotal, Saltzman held a senior leadership role in cloud operations at Kronos. He previously served as CIO at inVentiv Health and as vice president of IT at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He has also worked in various IT operations leadership roles at Lightbridge, CMGI, Ziff Davis Publishing and Micro Binary Solutions.

Saltzman earned a bachelor of science in computer information systems from Dowling College in New York. He has written a column focused on technology management and also served as co-chair for the IT track at the Drug Industry Association’s annual meeting. Additionally, he holds a US and international patent for a geo-spatial temperature-tracking device.

Thanks to her gift for teamwork and creativity, Melissa Sawyer has never met a problem she can’t solve. Intuitive, ambitious, and driven by a helping mindset, Melissa is on a mission to consistently exceed her client’s expectations.

Melissa is motivated by a genuine desire to build long lasting, mutually beneficial relationships. An experienced professional whose career has taken her all over the country, she is now eager to focus her attention on serving the thriving business community in her beloved home of Charlotte. As a former Executive Director for the Inspire CIO Leadership Network, Melissa is a trusted resource and has a track record of successful collaboration and business growth. Now, she is thrilled to be bringing her expertise to her position with Hylaine where she is determined to help Charlotte’s business community prosper.

Earning her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Professional Sales from Ferris State University in Michigan, Melissa began her career in Chicago with AT&T where she sold phone systems and fax machines, which were transformational technology at that time! Her next stop was Cable & Wireless Communications where she led a team of her peers in enterprise software sales until she got married and headed back to Michigan to start a family. Grateful for the opportunity, Melissa was a stay at home Mom, Room Mom and Girl Scout leader for all 3 of her daughters and she enjoyed every minute of it! In 2008 the family relocated to Charlotte and since then Melissa has launched and built several C-suite focused organizations. It was her collaboration with C-suite executives that inspired Melissa to take on her role with Hylaine where she can help develop innovative solutions to business challenges resulting in a thriving community in which to live and work.

In her downtime, Melissa enjoys cooking, traveling, exploring Charlotte’s food and brewery scenes, and spending time with her family and friends in the great outdoors. She is an avid hiker, she loves the lake and the beach alike, and most of all she loves spending time with her three amazing daughters.

As senior vice president and Chief Information Officer, Mark Sherwood leads the Global Technology Solutions group, which drives the effective use of information technology, security, and hosting to support agility and productivity across Nuance’s businesses. With a strategic focus on supporting the company’s global customer base and delivering superior outcomes, Mark oversees infrastructure operations, core data services, business systems, SaaS delivery, information security, and internal and external hosting while continually driving new innovation and a cloud?first strategy. Prior to joining Nuance, he served as the vice president of IT at Symantec and held numerous leadership roles at Cisco Systems.  Mark earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine and holds an M.B.A. from California State Polytechnic University.

Tom Stumpek currently serves as the Chief Information Security Officer for Lahey Health.

Prior to his current role he served as an independent advisor for Cybersecurity start-ups and enterprise clients helping them navigate the complex world of information security, risk and effective Cyber management.

Previously, Tom held several C level positions over twenty-three years at the General Electric Company including those of VP/CIO, CTO and CISO with multiple, global GE business units. Those businesses spanned a broad spectrum of industries in manufacturing, financial services, corporate and insurance. Tom also earned his Six Sigma Master Black Belt while at GE.

From a Cybersecurity perspective Tom has expertise in both Enterprise Risk Management and the technology aspects of Cyber. Tom has presented at several conferences including Secure World “Vendor Risk Management – Understanding and Managing 3rd Party Cyber Risk” and the IoT Security Conference “Enterprise Risk Management and Developing a Corporate Strategy”.

Tom’s webinars include “Cybersecurity Benchmarking for CIOs” and“ Evolution of Executive Reporting”. Tom has been the primary contributor to two recent whitepapers “The Top 7 CIO Challenges” and “Analyzing The CIO’s Roles & Responsibilities For Cybersecurity”.

Tom recently moderated a day-long event titled “Scaling your Third Party Risk Management Platform” which featured industry leaders across Governance, Risk and Cybersecurity.

Tom currently serves on the Technology Steering Committee for Care Dimensions and was formerly on the Beverly Hospital IT Steering Committee in Beverly, MA.

Mike was appointed Takeda’s first Chief Digital Trust Officer in April 2022, since joining as Chief Information Security Officer in August 2018. Mike is accountable to ensure Takeda meets its critically important security and trust responsibilities, as deeply embedded and as consistently as possible, in a rapidly disruptive landscape of data, digital and technology innovation across healthcare. Data and digital aspirations across life sciences present new challenges across privacy, security, ethical, and reputational risk areas. Digital Trust capabilities, platforms, and services will be expanded to reflect this critical shift in business strategy. Data, digital and cloud centricity underscores all parts of the biopharmaceutical value chain; Mike and his team are evolving to ensure the focus of protection extends to enabling and assuring Trust and Resiliency. As healthcare continues to extend data and digital products to providers, patients, donors, and other external stakeholders, the \”users\” will number in the tens of millions. Trust and reputation will be directly linked to these digital engagements. 

Prior to joining Takeda, Mike was CISO at Allergan plc and before that, VP, Information Security Assurance at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).  He has led due diligence and integration efforts for more than 50 acquisition and divesture transactions throughout his career, including four major acquisitions and one significant divestiture each valued at more than $40 billion. 

Mike was enshrined into the CSO Hall of Fame in 2021, recognized within HMG Strategy’s 2020 Global Technology Executives That Matter and 2019’s 100 Technology Executives to Watch and was awarded Information Security Executive of the Year within the Northeast region and Healthcare industry in 2020 and 2015.  He is a regular speaker, author, and expert panelist on digital trust, information risk, healthcare resiliency and cybersecurity.  Mike passionately advocates cross-industry sharing and collaboration and has served on the Board of Directors for the Health Information Security & Analysis Center (H-ISAC) since 2017.  Mike is a venture capital Board Advisor for Cyberstarts, and sits on the executive advisory boards for Okta, Armis and Palo Alto. 

Mike holds an MBA from St. Joseph’s University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.  Mike splits his time between his home office in Cambridge, MA USA, and offices in Zurich and Tokyo. 

Brad Whitehall is Vice President, Information Technology & CIO for UniFirst a leading supplier of uniforms, workwear and related products to businesses big and small since 1936. UniFirst provides a wide range of apparel from traditional uniforms, industrial wear, specialty and protective clothing to corporate casual and executive attire. Brad brings over 20 years of IT management experience having worked previously at Wex Inc., BJ’s Wholesale Club, The MathWorks, Information Resources Inc., Johnson Controls, and United Technologies. Brad holds a PhD from the University of Illinois in Computer Science.