Ali Bidabadi, Senior Director, Global Cloud Consulting & Architecture, Fortinet

Ali Bidabadi leads Global Cloud Architects team at Fortinet where he focuses on creating multi-cloud security reference architecture and providing cloud migration roadmap to customers . He has more than 15 years of experience designing and building Cybersecurity, SDN and NFV products in public/private clouds and data centers.

Prior to Fortinet, Ali was a technical Product Manager at Juniper and a Principal Software Architect at Cisco where he designed and implemented an NFV-based orchestration platform for Cisco’s Mobility Core Business (MCBU). He was a founding member of Intel Security Controller team (ISC) and led the L4-7 integration of Intel advanced Security products with VMware NSX, Cisco ACI, and OpenStack/ODL platforms.

Lee Bogner, Global eCommerce + Food Chief Architect and Emerging Market and Innovations Strategist, MARS Inc.

An e-commerce executive since 1996, Lee Bogner is Global Enterprise Architect for eCommerce and digital innovations at Mars, Inc. – the world’s premier confectionery, food and pet care CPG. Here he advises global and emerging markets businesses on D2C, B2B and hybrid online marketplace e-commerce strategies and operations; e-retail digital product content and syndication; social, video and community e-commerce and analytics; as well as game-changing virtual consumer experiences – including the ground-breaking, pandemic-ready, patent-pending consumer experience app Mars Treat-Town for Halloween.

At recent CG, consulting and retail posts, Lee led e-commerce architecture for J&J and Accenture and was head of e-commerce strategy and operations directing Bed Bath and Beyond’s buybuyBaby.com e-Retail business. Prior, Lee held senior consulting and management roles at Accenture; CIO think-tank The Research Board; IBM, several digital; social; analytics; media and e-commerce startups.

Additionally, Lee helps shape the next generation of digital business leaders as professor of e-commerce, information systems and analytics at Hofstra University’s Zarb School of Business.

Priyank Desai, Sr. Solutions Engineer, Couchbase

Experienced Solutions Engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry. Skilled in IBM DB2, Requirements Analysis, Enterprise Architecture, Agile Methodologies, and Databases. Strong engineering professional with a Master’s Degree focused in Applied Computer Science from Kennesaw State University – College of Science and Mathematics. 

Deena Freed, Solution Specialist, Ardoq

An innovative professional with extensive experience in technical consulting, business process modeling, enterprise architecture and design. Career spanning 20 years, serving various Fortune 500 clients via customer facing roles across Pre-Sales, Professional Services, Training and Customer Success.

Jarvis Ka, Enterprise Architect, Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance

My passion is to grow business by leveraging technology.

The world is evolving and progressing with technology. We can no longer do business using paper and pencil. Technology plays a significant role in the success of the company. The challenge is how to work together to leverage technological advancements to enhance business.

I currently manage and direct an enterprise architecture team to set technology standards, solutions, and strategies. In the past, I managed a thirty billion dollar pension system and a development team for the state of Indiana.

I have broad experience in financial services and startups. I developed my first commercial website in 1997. As an entrepreneur, I established multiple businesses and managed the entire business life cycle. I also worked with over three thousand companies ranging from Fortune 100 to new startups.

I have taught programming classes as an adjunct professor at a local college for over ten years.

Chris Lamoureux, Chief Operating Officer, Veriday

Chris Lamoureux is the Chief Operating Officer of Veriday Inc. Veriday means “Honest Day”, which was chosen to represent the culture and belief of putting the client first; an honest day, delivering honest work. Veriday develops products, solutions, and methods to enable digital transformation.

With over thirty years of experience in the information technology industry, he has successfully delivered digital transformation in multiple industries including the banking, wealth, insurance, software, and telecommunications industries, as well as the public sector.  He brings strong general management, digital transformation skills to Veriday and to his clients.

He is currently driving the vision and roadmap of a next-generation digital and content marketing automation platform for financial and insurance advisors supported by enterprise marketing and compliance professionals. Digital Agent, a unique and innovative technology, will help advisors boost leads/revenue and improve client service while reducing regulatory risk through content review optimization tools for compliance. Wealth and Insurance marketing professionals also use Digital Agent to publish and track content that they distribute to their advisor networks.

Specialties: #digital transformation, Digital transformation,#martech, #wealthtech, regtech#, Digital marketing for enterprise sales, organizations in wealth and insurance industry, #payments, payments transformation, Program and project management, #fintech, financial services, #Portal, #Liferay Liferay consulting and development.

Bob Ruf, President/Founder, ChiTech Resources

Bob has spent the past 25 years finding seasoned IT Professionals achieve meaningful employment. Bob founded Chitech Resources in 2021 to truly partner with companies and technologists to further their career goals and corporate objectives. Bob is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University where he met his wife of 20 years and has 2 energetic boys. He is a 4th generation Chicagoan and currently lives in the Roscoe Village neighborhood. When he’s not coaching his kids in various sports he can be found watching the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Lee Sobotkin, Enterprise Solutions Architect, Boomi

Lee Sobotkin is an Enterprise Solutions Architect at Boomi, solving integration and data management challenges for global and hyper-growth organizations. This includes defining, shaping, and implementing a vision for digital transformation based on Boomi technologies.

Christian Trujillo, Senior Solutions Architect – Partner Ecosystem, Red Hat

Christian Trujillo is passionate about open source, Red Hat, architecting solutions, and all things related to technology. He has been in the industry in different capacities for over 10 years and enjoys helping organizations digitally transform in a more agile way. He has architected many solutions where technology, people and process have allowed many companies to become digital leaders while collaborating and working better together amongst teams. Besides being passionate about IT he is also passionate about developing people and helping them have successful and rewarding careers.

Valeria Utsis, Director of Application Architecture, Discover Financial Services

Experienced Director of Application Architecture with over twenty years of experience in the IT industry. Responsible for leading a team of skilled technical experts that deliver client-focused solutions. Extensive expertise in application architecture, design and development of large scale distributed systems using variety of modern technologies. Strong background in application support, performance, database programming and problem resolution utilizing various methodologies. Outstanding communication skills which provide the ability to work effectively with both business and technical staff at all levels of an organization.

Ed Vázquez, Principal & Head of IT Infrastructure, Adams Street Partners

Eduardo is an IT Executive with over 20 years of experience. Having worked in both small and large enterprise environments he brings a unique perspective with the challenges of building effective IT architecture/processes and fixing ineffective engrained IT architecture/processes. He has worked in healthcare, legal and sales industries, but predominantly in alternative investment firms. He is currently Head of IT Operations and Security at Adams Street Partners, spanning IT security and infrastructure technologies. He is currently tasked with building a disciplined and scaling cloud infrastructure to support a quickly growing business with increased reliance on IT. He was named MVP of the firm in 2021 for his team’s performance/readiness during the pandemic.