SPEAKERS AT THE DISASTER RECOVERY / BUSINESS CONTINUITY – RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE CONFERENCE

Russell Cozart, Sr. Director, Product Management, Cyxtera Technologies

Russell leads product management for Cyxtera’s Extensible Data Center Platform, focused on delivering innovative, software powered, on-demand data center solutions for the modern enterprise. He has 15 years of experience in the industry, deeply entrenched in the development of infrastructure, compute, and cloud platforms and technologies. Russell has led major product and platform launches at multiple Fortune 500 companies where he has been engaged from concept to delivery. He is a native Texan and is based out of Cyxtera’s Addison, Texas office. Russell is a travel enthusiast as well as a pilot, so he enjoys spending as much time as possible in the clouds.

Scott Davis, Global Enterprise Architect, Hitachi Vantara

Scott’s extensive experience, from mainframe programming to CTO, has helped him develop a deep understanding of technology’s potential to deliver business outcomes across multiple industries. His passion, and specialty, is creating narratives that lead with vision, bridge the gaps, and ultimately build stronger trust relationships between business and technology groups. Scott is part of Hitachi Vantara’s global Enterprise Architects team, working with partners and Hitachi companies to co-create value for our collective customers on their journey through digital transformation to inspire what’s next.

Lawson Kelly, Chief Technology Officer, Hyatt

Lawson Kelly, Chief Technology Officer for Hyatt Hotels Corporation, has spent over 20 years in information technology spanning multiple industries including print publishing, financial services, telecommunications, wholesale distribution, and hospitality. In his current role, he is responsible for Hyatt’s IT architectural governance and global infrastructure which serves 700+ hotels in over 50 countries. A native of the Southeast, Lawson relocated to the Chicagoland area in 2005 as part of performing a corporate systems disaster recovery from New Orleans, where his employer at the time was headquartered, to Chicago due to Hurricane Katrina landfall and the subsequent flooding of the metro New Orleans area.

Denise Lintz, Director of Core Infrastructure, Information Services, U.S. Cellular

Denise Lintz is the Director of Core Infrastructure at U.S. Cellular Corporation. She is responsible for a team of 80 people who enable project delivery and reliability for the IS Network & Data Centers, Systems (Platform, Virtualization, and Storage & Backup) and Applications (Database, Middleware, and Environment Delivery), Monitoring, and Infrastructure Operations. She graduated in 1991 from Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. She did internships at IBM and Allstate while in college and worked for major corporations including Ace Hardware Corporation, OfficeMax, and Nicor Gas before joining U.S. Cellular in 2012.

Nicholas J. Meyer, CBCP | IT Disaster Recovery Senior Analyst, American Family Insurance

The son of a forest ranger, Nick learned the importance of responsibility and preparedness while growing up in the backwoods of northern Wisconsin. He is rarely without his pocket multi-tool. Trained in anthropology and archaeology, he quickly learned that the growing fields of IT and technology promised an exciting career path that involved better pay. After 25 years of eclectic IT experience including midrange systems, database design, phone system management, satellite teleport design and management, along with PC networking, he saw opportunities in business continuity and disaster recovery. For the past 3 years he has been working with a small team of dedicated co-workers focused on developing and improving the IT Disaster Recovery program for a Fortune 500 insurance provider. His professional quest is to assure that IT systems are built resilient, recoverable and testable, and to make this goal an automatic, organic process within corporate business program development.

Ryan F. O’Halloran, Vice President of Managed Services, Access One, Inc.

Ryan O’Halloran, Vice President of Managed Services, offers broad knowledge from 11 years of experience in Engineering, Managed IT and Cloud Services. Previously, Ryan served as the Principal Cloud and Managed Services Architect for Mindsight (a premier Cisco Partner in Chicagoland) as well as the Director of Technology at Framework Communications (Managed Services Provider). Ryan has held numerous industry certifications in Networking, Data Center, Cloud, Security and Consultation.

Kevin Piket, Senior AE, Access One, Inc.

Kevin Piket is a Sr. Account Executive with Access One, Inc. and is responsible for generating new business and working with strategic partnerships. Kevin has over 24 years of experience in sales primarily at emerging-growth IT Support Companies and professional service firms ranging from startups to already established companies. Kevin’s primary background is in sales leadership, business development and client expansion. Kevin is also an adjunct Professor at Aurora University teaching sales and marketing classes at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

 

Kevin has volunteered his time over the years in the community most recently as a Coach and Mentor with the Naperville Unit Community School District 203 Incubator Entrepreneurship classes and he’s a member of the Naperville Unit Community School District 203’s Business Partnership Advisory Council. Kevin graduated from Aurora University with an MBA in Leadership and from Eastern Illinois University with a BA in Communications.

Jeff Roseman, Director IT Infrastructure & Security, Wilton Brands

Jeff is an experienced IT executive with over two decades of experience in both technology management and consulting roles. With experience in global business, marketing, sales, business process re-engineering, and as an IT director, CIO and consultant, he has worked both sides of the technology world. Mr. Roseman possesses an extensive background working with regional, national, and international businesses in a variety of industries including professional services, healthcare, distribution, manufacturing, legal, real estate, construction, and non-profit. He has a broad knowledge of IT strategy, networking, telecommunications, training & development, systems integration, mergers and acquisitions, facility relocation, and business continuity planning.

 

Mr. Roseman continues to be successful moving IT teams from a crises management mentality to predictive, proactive, disciplined organization. He has previously lectured on social media & networking, IT leadership, customer relationship management, endpoint security, and disaster recovery planning. Mr. Roseman has a bachelor’s degree and an MBA in Information Systems and Marketing from the University of Iowa. He mentors undergraduate/MBA students in the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business and serves on College’s SoMAC board. He lives in Wheaton with his wife and two teenage daughters.

Kalyan Srinivasan, AVP, IT Infrastructure Operations, CNA Insurance

  • Driven, hands-on, decisive, and proven executive, who has delivered several successful technology transformations.
  • Experience in handling large complex IT Infrastructure projects, both on-premise and Cloud, responsible for end-to-end IT Operations and Transformations.
  • Provide Cloud advisory, design and set up, security, migration and operations.
  • Help customers in setting up BCP DR strategies.
  • Set global vision and strategy for infrastructure architecture, operations, and partners
    Experience in working with service providers and corporates.
  • Currently responsible for end-to-end IT Infrastructure Operations for CNA, a $10B P&C Commercial Insurer.

Jason Wankovsky, Vice President, Consulting Services & CTO, Mindsight

Jason is currently the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Consulting Services at Mindsight, an IT Services and Consulting firm located in the Chicago area. Jason is responsible for driving the technology vision of the organization. He is also focused on the creation and delivery of high value managed services for clients across multiple industries. Jason leads the solution architecture team that is responsible for delivering optimal technology services and solutions that enable the businesses of clients.

 

Jason has 20 years of experience in IT management and executive leadership, with expertise across all technologies and platforms, including public, private and hybrid cloud. Prior to Joining Mindsight, Jason was Vice President of Solution Architecture at OnX, an IT Solutions provider.