Featured Speakers

Larry Ellison is chairman of Oracle Corporation and chief technology officer. He founded the company in 1977 and served as CEO until September 2014. He also races sailboats, flies planes, and plays tennis and guitar.

Safra Catz is chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation and a member of the company’s board of directors. She previously served as president of Oracle and has also served as the company’s chief financial officer. Catz first served as Oracle’s chief financial officer from 2005 to 2008, as executive vice president from 1999 to 2004, and as senior vice president from April to October 1999. She served on the board of directors for HSBC Holdings, one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations, from 2008 through 2015.

Gretchen Alarcon is group vice president for Oracle’s human capital management strategy, responsible for development and go-to-market initiatives that help businesses around the world modernize their HR practices through the adoption of Oracle’s HCM cloud apps. Additionally, Alarcon acts as a thought leader, highlighting trends and strategic initiatives in businesses’ transition to the cloud. With more than 20 years’ experience in product strategy, Alarcon uses her knowledge of the industry to showcase the importance of modernization through the integration of cloud apps in core HR, talent acquisition, and HR data analytics. Together with her team, she forecasts future of work movements and delivers initiatives to businesses to protect their bottom line.

Prior to Oracle, Alarcon worked at Icarian, National Semiconductor, Ford, and Silicon Graphics, where she drove the management of workforce suites and aided in the redesign of worldwide human resource functions.

Alarcon holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BA in American Studies from Stanford University.

Jac Amerell is an accomplished senior executive and board member with more than 25 years of success across the financial services, insurance, and investment management industries. Throughout his career, Amerell has held various leadership positions including senior manager at PwC and finance director at Northwestern Mutual. He has had tremendous success over the years, serving as a key strategist and contributor to numerous organizational achievements including developing and implementing technology, and increasing and driving organizational alignment and operational processes that have resulted in significantly enhanced efficiency and internal controls. In his current role at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, he is spearheading an enterprisewide finance initiative involving cloud technology and robotic process automation that will have a major impact on the company’s internal and external reporting, forecasting, and capital planning processes.

Amerell received his bachelor’s degree in finance and his master’s degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin, and he has completed the High-Performance Leadership Executive Education program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

T.K. Anand is senior vice president of product development at Oracle Corporation, reporting to Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison. He is responsible for the analytics product strategy and portfolio that includes Oracle Analytics Cloud, Oracle Analytics Server, and Oracle Analytics for applications.

Prior to joining Oracle in 2018, Anand spent more than 20 years at Microsoft Corporation, working on a number of products and services including SQL Server, Power BI, Azure data services, and Excel. Most recently, he was general manager and partner director of engineering in the Cloud and AI division at Microsoft, where was responsible for business intelligence products including Power BI and SQL Server Analysis and Reporting Services.

Anand has a Bachelor of Technology degree in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He also has a Master of Science degree in computer science from the University of Toronto, Canada, where his research focused on database systems.

Salvatore Ancoretti is the head of customer marketing at Ferrari S.p.A., and has several years of leadership experience within the automotive industry. Ancoretti joined Ferrari in 2008 and has managed several teams, including product development, operational marketing in subsidiaries, and central marketing functions. With the support and partnership of his leadership team, Ancoretti transformed the customer experience. He and his team created the Customer Centric Project, where they mapped and digitized the Ferrari customer journey. Ancoretti is married and has one son. He is passionate about soccer and has been a referee for 20 years.

In May 2018 José Arrieta was appointed chief information officer (CIO) for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Arrieta provides leadership and oversight of the Department's information technology (IT) systems and security activities. As the head of the Office of the Chief Information Officer, he leads the Department’s efforts in developing and implementing IT policies, managing high priority projects, and planning strategic IT investments. As the CIO, he also provides leadership and oversight of the Department’s $6.3B IT portfolio in support of its expansive mission to enhance the health and well-being of Americans.

Arrieta brings more than 15 years’ experience in policy, procurement, and technology solutions to HHS. He is a respected leader in applying emerging technologies, especially blockchain, artificial intelligence, and robotic process automation, to the federal acquisition process.

He is actively engaged in the academic community, and currently serves at the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University as an adjunct professor focused on blockchain, business management, and public procurement.

Prior to becoming the CIO, Arrieta served as the associate deputy assistant secretary for acquisition, acting deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Grants and Acquisition Policy and Accountability, the senior procurement official, and the small business executive at HHS. He spearheaded HHS Accelerate, the first blockchain-based capability to receive an Authority to Operate in the federal government.

As the former director of Schedule 70 Operations with the General Services Administration (GSA), he led the largest IT contract in the world. It averaged $15B /year in business volume, providing IT products and services to federal, state, and local customers.

Prior to GSA, Arrieta was the first senior executive director of the Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization for the Department of the Treasury. Arrieta was Treasury’s representative to the National Security Council and focused on the impact of blockchain on the US national security posture.

Arrieta has built a strong reputation among his peers within the federal government and with industry stakeholders. Most notably, his accomplishments have been recognized by receiving the Pinnacle Award’s IT Innovator of the Year award in 2018.

Michael Basch is senior vice president, CX Sales, for Oracle’s North America Applications division. Passionate about technology, people, and diverse businesses, Basch has more than 20 years of experience in enterprise software sales and leadership at high-growth SaaS companies. Prior to joining Oracle, Basch was chief revenue officer at Achievers, where he was responsible for revenue growth and customer success. Before Achievers, he spent 15 years at Salesforce in various sales leadership positions. During that time he was credited with opening its first sales hub outside of San Francisco in Toronto, starting its Healthcare and Life Sciences division, and optimizing its Retail division.

Steven Birdsall is senior vice president, HCM Sales, for Oracle’s North America Applications division. A proven leader, Birdsall has more than 25 years of experience in sales, general management, field operations, marketing, product development, and alliances in enterprise software, SaaS, and digital media. His areas of expertise include accelerating growth, improving profitability, increasing sales productivity, scaling global organizations, and developing high-performance teams. Before joining Oracle, Birdsall was the chief revenue officer at Anaplan, a role he assumed following a successful tenure as EVP and CRO at Radial, Inc. Prior to this, Birdsall held several leadership positions at SAP, including global and regional COO positions around the world, plus several GM roles. Earlier in his career, he served in key executive roles at Hearst, Adobe, Computer Sciences Corp (CSC), and Diebold Inc. Birdsall holds a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the University of Utah and an MBA from Brigham Young University.

Des Cahill leads product strategy, messaging, and marketing for the Oracle Customer Experience Cloud suite. The Oracle CX Cloud suite empowers organizations to take a smarter approach to customer experience management and business transformation initiatives.

Cahill holds an MBA from San Jose State University and a BS in managerial economics from Union College.

Antonia Casamassima is CIO at Ferrari since the end of 2017. Her extensive experience in ICT matters, her passion and target focus have proved to be essential in the ongoing transformation and strategic evolution of Ferrari ICT.

She spent most of her working life in Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). She joined FCA in 1988 and from then she covered several ICT roles in FCA commercial, manufacturing and plants with increasing responsibilities. She contributed significantly to the Globalization process in the‘90s as Program Manager for the FCA information system implementation and start-up in Argentina and India. In 1999 she moved to financial services area, becoming a pillar in the evolution strategy up to the bank transformation. Eventually she was the first CIO for FCA Bank Group, from 2015 to 2017.

Married, with a degree in Information Science, she is known and appreciated for her commitment, her leadership skills and attitude for leading change. In 2015 she was awarded the prestigious title of “Maestra del lavoro” by the President of the Italian Republic.

Sarah Chavarria is executive vice president and chief people officer at Delta Dental of California and its enterprise affiliates, which operate in 15 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. She leads the overall human resources function, employee and corporate communications, strategic planning, and the corporate foundation. Chavarria is focused on leading the business transformation through developing the required culture, organizational capabilities, leadership, and experience for employees and customers. In her year and a half at Delta Dental, she has implemented the first cloud-based solution for the enterprise, transformed HR, and delivered change and communication capabilities.

Chavarria brings more than 25 years of expertise and experience in healthcare, organizational transformation, and people engagement to Delta Dental. Prior to joining Delta Dental, she was chief people officer at NantHealth, where she integrated eight acquisitions into a single company and worked to take it public a year later. She also served in a similar role at Optum360, a joint venture between Optum and Dignity Health, where she helped establish the role of and then served as people officer, positioning the company as a market leader. In addition, she spent her earlier career in respected organizations including Oracle, Medibuy, and Levi Strauss.

Chavarria received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at El Paso. She holds certifications in the General Electric Change Acceleration process, the Myers & Briggs Foundation, and the Connor Change Model.

Jon Chorley is group vice president of product strategy for Oracle's supply chain management (SCM) applications and leads the team responsible for driving the business requirements and product roadmaps for these applications. Oracle's best-in-class SCM applications support value-chain transformation through the enablement of the information-driven value chain. These solutions include product lifecycle management, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, asset lifecycle management, value-chain planning, and order fulfillment.

Chorley is also the chief sustainability officer for Oracle. In this role, he drives and coordinates all initiatives, both internally and externally, related to environmental sustainability. This responsibility covers all areas, from IT infrastructure and business operation to corporate reporting and risk management. Oracle is committed to developing practices and products that help protect the environment.

Chorley has more than 25 years of experience in the software industry in a broad set of roles including sales, implementation, and development. He began his career with IBM, selling and deploying systems and application software. He was also a principal at Modular Systems, a consulting company specializing in supply chain applications for midsize companies. In addition, Chorley has led software development at Synon for a CASE development tool, and was vice president of National Envelope, a major paper company. He has been with Oracle for 15 years. Prior to his current role he was responsible for the development of Oracle's supply-chain logistics applications.

Chorley graduated summa cum laude with a joint BA in physics and geophysics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Doug Clare is vice president of product management, leading the FICO Analytic Cloud initiative and FICO’s cybersecurity initiative. He has been with FICO for more than 25 years, and has deep expertise in helping banks and other businesses manage fraud, risk, and the customer experience.

In previous roles, he led product management for FICO’s fraud prevention/detection software applications, managed FICO’s global relationships with payment card processors and other channel delivery partners, and served as the retail and client partner/development team leader for key accounts. He has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Jerry Driessen is the assistant CIO for the City of San Jose, California, a role he has held since March 2019. He oversees the business solutions and products-projects divisions for the City and plays various roles on several of the City’s innovation efforts.

Driessen has 25 years of public service experience. He moved to San Jose from Minnesota, where he was CIO for Hennepin County, the state’s largest local government. As CIO, he was responsible for leading the county’s technology strategy and operations, as well as overseeing IT efforts with lines of business and its internal tech community.

Throughout his career, Driessen has demonstrated a commitment to public service and an ability to complete initiatives successfully. He has a strong background in maturing service delivery, promoting online and self-service capabilities, and leading transformation efforts through customer-focused IT.

Driessen’s undergraduate and graduate degrees are in public administration. He loves cooking and the outdoors, including horseback riding, fishing (especially ice fishing), and gardening.

Paul Gaynor is the global advisory technology consulting leader with responsibility for setting PwC’s global vision and strategy in consideration of technology developments and market trends related to cybersecurity, the cloud, emerging technologies, Industry 4.0, and many other topics. Gaynor has been at the forefront of creating customer, digital, and information experiences across multiple industries, including leading large complex organizations through technology-enabled transformational programs. Based in the firm’s McLean, Virginia office, he has nearly 30 years of experience at PwC.

Steve Gerken is senior director of finance for General Dynamics Mission Systems, and has more than 18 years of experience in aerospace and defense. Over the course of his career he has held numerous positions within finance and accounting, including controller, financial planning and analysis director, program finance manager, and business transformation analyst. He is currently leading a project for a fully integrated cloud-based ERP solution.

Eric Grancher leads the database services group in the CERN IT department, supporting databases related to mission-critical assets such as the particle accelerator and experiments that supports CERN’s infrastructure and research. Since joining CERN in 1996, Grancher’s responsibilities have included work on Oracle RAC application scalability, storage scalability for databases, and high-availability architectures. Prior to joining CERN, he graduated as engineer at the French school Telecom ParisTech, and earned an MSc at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. He has been an OakTable member since April 2005 and has specific interest in database applications and performance. Grancher is a frequent speaker at industry events and Oracle community forums where he shares his vision, strategy, and experience in managing and driving unique databases.

Dan Helfrich is chairman and chief executive officer of Deloitte Consulting LLP. As CEO, he leads a US$10 billion business comprised of more than 50,000 professionals who help clients solve their most complex business issues and shape their futures with confidence.

Prior to this role, he led the government and public services practice, with nearly 15,000 professionals helping to solve our nation’s biggest challenges across all levels of government, including all 15 US cabinet-level agencies, 44 states, and more than 60 of the top 100 universities. Helfrich advised government leaders in transforming into more efficient and effective organizations across areas of technology modernization and innovation, human capital, strategy and analytics, customer experience, and enterprise operations.

In Helfrich's more than 20 years with Deloitte, he has led large customer-centric transformations for both public and private sector clients. He also previously served as Deloitte’s chief strategy officer for human capital and led the civilian government sector. In addition, he writes and speaks regularly on topics such as purpose-driven leadership, elevating citizen and customer experience, and the future of work.

Helfrich holds a Bachelor of Science in international economics and a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University.

Kirstin Hornby is a seasoned marketer with repeated success building and propelling marketing programs to drive customer acquisition and revenue, combining strategic oversight with a hands-on skill set. She has worked with both large and small companies across a variety of industries, with a focus in ecommerce and digital marketing, including marketing leadership roles at PayPal, Gap, Polyvore, Yahoo, and Rakuten. She has a BA in philosophy from Princeton University and an MBA with a focus in marketing and strategy from Kellogg School of Management. She currently runs marketing and customer service for the marketplace division of Rakuten US.

Dawn is responsible for building the fan base of the NFL and growing the NFL brand. This includes responsibility for strategy, advertising, promotions, marketing, and supporting NFL Clubs. She also oversees marketing for the NFL Network, and planning and execution for all NFL Events.

Prior to joining the NFL, she was Vice-Chairman of the Parthenon Group. Prior to Parthenon, she spent 11 years at PepsiCo. She was the Global CMO of Frito-Lay, then CMO of Pepsi-Cola North America, then became President and the CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America.

She was twice named to Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business.” She is passionate about diversity and led PepsiCo to receive the highest honor from Catalyst for their Women of Color Global Program.

Author, keynote speaker, and former Merrill Lynch stockbroker Mark Jeffries has become a trusted adviser and communications consultant to some of the world's largest and most successful corporations, agencies, and partnerships.

Dividing his time mostly between the United States, Canada, and Europe, Jeffries is invited to deliver his highly effective keynotes on business communication, influence, and presentation to audiences across many industries. His speeches are relevant, entertaining, and filled with instantly useable takeaway ideas.

He has also mastered a fascinating niche: moderating major corporate events. He has rapidly become the go-to person for facilitating, moderating, and emceeing multinational events for large and small organizations around the world. As well as running countless industry panels and chatting with more than 150 C-Suite executives on stage, Jeffries has also interviewed many celebrities including Will Smith, Richard Branson, Bob Mueller, Serena Williams, Michael Phelps, Janet Yellen, and Michael J. Fox.

Jeffries has published two books, What's Up with Your Handshake? and The Art of Business Seduction, and has just launched two highly innovative and very engaging elearning courses dedicated to elevating users into trusted advisors, persuasive communicators, and key influencers.

Discussing the power of business influence and networking 2.0, Jeffries regularly appears as an expert guest on NBC’s Today Show, Fox Business, and BBC News, and he writes for The Huffington Post.

Don Johnson is executive vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure product development. He is responsible for leading product strategy, engineering, and operations of Oracle’s infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) portfolio and oversees the data centers and network infrastructure that power Oracle’s cloud services globally. Johnson’s primary focus is on rapidly growing and expanding the industry’s best enterprise-focused cloud platform and delivering the most secure, reliable, cost-effective, high-performance infrastructure for running mission-critical workloads.

Johnson joined Oracle in 2014. He founded Oracle’s cloud engineering development center in Seattle and grew it to thousands of engineers in the span of several years, attracting an influx of top engineering talent to build Oracle's innovative next-generation cloud infrastructure. He led Oracle’s acquisitions of Dyn and Zenedge, and integrated the technology and teams into the growing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure group.

Prior to joining Oracle, Johnson was a technical leader at Amazon Web Services (AWS). He joined AWS in 2005 as a senior engineer and led engineering initiatives at AWS across a range of cloud computing technology areas, from core platform systems to database services. Johnson holds an MS in mathematics from the University of Washington and a BA from Columbia University.

Polly LaBarre arms leaders with a Maverick Manual to hack the status quo and ramp up originality, invention and game changing disruption. Co-author of Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win, Founding team member of Fast Company magazine and co-founder of Management Lab, the think-and-do tank where she consults with top global brands. Polly is also a top speaker who leaves audiences with actionable lessons from organizations and leaders who are transforming their cultures and industries by breaking the rules and harnessing the human element. She inspires people to engage and reimagine the challenges they face, become fearless experimenters, and rethink the work of leadership.

Polly is the co-author of the award-winning book Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win, which was a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller. Mavericks was a “Business Book of the Year” for the Financial Times, the Miami Herald, and The Economist, which called the book “a pivotal work in the tradition of In Search of Excellence and Good to Great.” CNN, CNBC, and GMA all created series around the book.

Bernard Marr is an internationally bestselling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a strategic business and technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps organizations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and leverage new technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.

LinkedIn has ranked Marr as one of the world’s top five business influencers, and the # 1 influencer in the UK for 2018/2019. He is a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day Marr actively engages his more than 1.6 million social media followers and shares content that reaches millions of readers.

Orlando McGee is a results-driven senior executive with more than 25 years of success in supply chain, distribution, transportation, and operations. His broad areas of expertise include lean and continuous improvement, network design and optimization, supply chain management, and innovation.

Currently, McGee is the executive vice president of global operations with Anixter. Throughout his executive career, he has held strategic leadership positions with Anixter, Cintas, the Kellogg Company, and W.W. Grainger. He has been responsible for leading distribution network transformations that result in significant cost savings and profit increases.

McGee earned an MBA with a concentration in international management from Lake Forest Graduate School and a master’s in legal studies from Governors State University.

McGee retired from the United States Air Force in 2006, after serving a distinguished 20 plus year career.

Named Multicultural Leader of the Year by the Illinois Diversity Counsel, McGee continues to work as an advocate for diversity in the workplace.

He has been married to his wife Doreene for 23 years, and their daughter, Adia Trinity, is a high school sophomore. They currently live in Lisle, Illinois.

Andrew Mendelsohn is executive vice president for database server technologies at Oracle. He is responsible for the development and product management of Oracle’s family of database products, including Oracle Database, Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database, Oracle Berkeley DB, and Oracle NoSQL Database. In addition, Mendelsohn is also responsible for Oracle Database Cloud services including Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud and Oracle Autonomous OLTP Database Cloud, and for engineered systems such as Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Database Appliance, Oracle Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance, and Oracle Big Data Appliance.

Mendelsohn has been at Oracle since 1984. He began his career at Oracle as a developer on Release 5.1 of Oracle Database. Prior to joining Oracle, he worked at HP and ESVEL.

Mendelsohn holds a BSE in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University and performed graduate work in computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rondy Ng is senior vice president of ERP application development at Oracle, with responsibility for leading all aspects of product strategy, product development, and product delivery for Oracle's ERP applications and cloud services.

Under Ng’s leadership, Oracle has developed and delivered the award-winning Oracle ERP Cloud, with rapid adoption from thousands of midsize, large, and global organizations. He has worked closely with C-suite executives and heads of finance, operations, and strategy to reimagine their business processes while taking advantage of the latest technologies in pursuit of new business models and growth.

Ng’s vision for Oracle ERP Cloud has helped customers implement the latest innovations in artificial intelligence, digital assistants, natural language processing, blockchain, and the Internet of Things to enhance productivity, reduce costs, and improve internal controls. Three years in a row since 2017, Oracle ERP Cloud was named a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Core Financial Management Suites for Midsize, Large, and Global Enterprises, and positioned for the highest ability to execute.

Ng joined Oracle in 1990 and has held a variety of product development leadership positions within Oracle. He holds a Master of Science degree in computer and electrical engineering from Cornell University.

John Nicastro currently serves as senior vice president, Enterprise Data, for SiriusXM, the world’s largest audio entertainment company, and the premier programmer and platform for subscription and advertising-supported audio products. With the recent addition of Pandora Media, SiriusXM reaches more than 100 million people with its audio products and services.

In his role, Nicastro is responsible for leading the ongoing transformation and delivery of core data and analytics solutions across the company. With a continuous focus on strategic growth and digital transformation, he has a passion for leveraging data products and analytics services to fuel the next generation of innovation at scale.

Prior to SiriusXM, Nicastro served as vice president, head of enterprise analytics, for CA Technologies where he was responsible for defining and executing CA’s data strategy. Prior to CA, Nicastro served in a variety of senior data and technology roles for Cablevision, now Altice USA, including business intelligence, network engineering, software engineering, and big data engineering.

As both a professional and practitioner, Nicastro has been awarded multiple patents, and was a recent recipient of the CIO 100 and Drexel LeBow Analytics 50. He holds an MBA from Colorado State University, an undergraduate degree from NYIT, and has attended numerous professional and executive studies at MIT. He currently resides in New York with his wife Jennifer and two sons, Dylan and Tyler.

Dhanurjay “DJ” Patil is an American mathematician and computer scientist who served as the Chief Data Scientist of the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2015 to 2017. He is the Head of Technology for Devoted Health. He previously served as the Vice President of Product at RelateIQ, which was acquired by Salesforce.com, as Chief Product Officer of Color Labs, and as Head of Data Products and Chief Scientist of LinkedIn.

Anthony Portannese is managing director and chief human resources officer for the Depository Trust Company (DTC). He's also a member of DTC’s Executive Committee and Operating Committee. He is responsible for leading all global human resources activities, including the planning, design, and delivery of corporate compensation and benefit programs, executive compensation programs, employee relations, talent strategies, and diversity.

Portannese joined DTC in 1981. During his career at the company, he held numerous leadership roles within human resources, operations, real estate, and corporate services. He was promoted to managing director in 2005. He also serves as chair on the Foundation Board of the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Jeff Register, a member of the senior executive service, is currently the deputy director, defense human resources activity (DHRA) in the office of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness (OUSD (P&R)) in the US Department of Defense (DoD). As the deputy director, Register serves as principal advisor to the director in overseeing and coordinating the work of the field activity that maintains comprehensive personnel database repositories, directly administering personnel policies, and managing DoD-wide education, outreach, and personnel support programs.

Prior to this assignment, Register served as the chief of staff for DHRA, where he was responsible for the direct management and day-to-day oversight of DHRA headquarters, including resource management, procurement, legal, operations, information technology, and human resources directorates. Register also previously served as a policy lead within the DoD identification card policy office, where he was responsible for coordination and resolution of cross-cutting and complex policy, and technical and business process issues related to the implementation of the DoD next generation common access card.

Register graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering. He also holds of Master of Science degree in engineering management from George Washington University and a Certificate in Identity Management from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Register served on active duty for nine years in the United States Navy as a naval aviator in the E-2 Hawkeye community. After leaving active duty, Register worked in the private sector as a federal security and identity management consultant before returning to the Department of Defense.

Rita Sallam is a distinguished vice president analyst and Gartner fellow in the Data and Analytics team. Her focus includes tracking and predicting market trends, vendor assessment and selection, and identifying best practices for making analytics pervasive and strategic to the business. Of particular interest is how all aspects of data management and analytics are being disrupted by AI-enabled augmented analytics. She is also focused on building a methodology for valuing data and analytics portfolios including AI investments.

Sallam joined Gartner in 2008 with almost 20 years of experience in the enterprise software market. Before that, she spent 10 years with Oracle, delivering role-based competitive intelligence and strategic analysis on BI, data warehousing, data integration, and master data management markets. Prior to that, she led business planning, investment fundraising, and strategy development for two middleware startups and was a management/strategy consultant for Arthur D. Little.

Rob Schilling is senior vice president of ERP sales for Oracle’s North America Applications division. He leads an 800-person organization that shows enterprise customers the value of moving their back-office systems to Oracle’s cloud application suite.

Schilling rejoined Oracle in September 2018 after spending time at Nokia as vice president of IoT, applications, and analytics; and at SpaceTime Insight, where he was CEO until its acquisition by Nokia; and at SAP, where he held senior vice president and general manager roles across North America and Japan.

Jill Timm leads the finance function at Kohl’s, which includes the financial planning and analysis, financial reporting, business unit finance, tax and treasury teams and provides investor relations support.

Timm joined Kohl’s in 1999 and has held financial roles including director of financial reporting, vice president of financial planning, and vice president of business unit finance. During the last 20 years, she has been instrumental in implementing best practices, driving cost saving initiatives, and influencing new strategic initiatives.

Prior to joining Kohl’s, Timm worked for Arthur Andersen in the audit division.

Carl Walser is the chief information officer and senior director of IT for General Dynamics Mission Systems. He is responsible for the timely delivery of cost-effective IT capabilities, products, and services that enable GDMS business success. His responsibility spans both US-based and international IT service delivery areas.

Walser started his professional career with General Electric on the manufacturing management program, a two-year manufacturing leadership program comprising four assignments at two GE business units. Over his career, he held positions of increasing reasonability within the manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, quality assurance, and information technology organizations while working at GE, Martin Marietta, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics. While working within IT, he held leadership positions within applications development, infrastructure, program management, and customer relationship management teams.

Walser has a Bachelor of Science degree from Rochester Institute of Technology in electrical engineering technology, and a Master of Science degree from Union College in computer science.

As Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney, Duncan Wardle and his team helped Imagineering, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, and Disney Parks innovate, creating magical new storylines and experiences for consumers around the globe.

As founder of iD8 and innov8 he now brings his extensive Disney experience to audiences around the world using a unique approach to design thinking that not only places the end user at the core of the creative thinking process but also looks in new and usual places to uncover insights for innovation, helping people capture unlikely connections and leading to fresh thinking and disruptive ideas.

Delivering a series of keynotes, workshops, and ideation forums, his unique design thinking process helps companies embed a culture of innovation into everyone’s DNA.

Wardle is a multiple Ted X speaker and contributor to Fast Company magazine. He teaches master classes at Yale, the University of North Carolina, Duke University, and the University of Florida. In 2008 he received the American Citizen of Choice Award at the White House. In 2014 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Edinburgh University in Scotland. He also holds the Duke of Edinburgh Award, presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Greg Williams is a leading authority on technology trends and the ways they impact business and society. As editor-in-chief of WIRED, Williams meets the innovators, thinkers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and creatives who are changing the world and writes on a variety of subjects, including innovation, technology, business, creativity, and ideas. A journalist and author of five novels, Williams formerly served as the executive editor of WIRED for seven years before taking the publication’s helm. He possesses a unique combination of storytelling expertise and an in-depth knowledge of the future of technology and entrepreneurship. This enables him to transform complex information into entertaining and accessible insights that prepare audiences for what’s coming next. Williams primarily speaks on what’s new and what’s next and how businesses and brands can best prepare themselves for what’s coming. He also has extensive experience as a conference facilitator and moderator.

He speaks on topics such as the Internet of Things, smart phones as a remote control for life, wearables, hardware as the new software, robotics and artificial intelligence, the power shift from top-down to distributed models, e-commerce, data, and why old business models don’t work. Spending his days scanning the horizon for world-changing technologies, ideas, and companies, Williams is constantly on the lookout for genuinely transformative trends. His dynamic presentation style enables his audiences not only to understand these shifts, but also inspires them to implement the changes they need to make in order to move their businesses and brands forward is a fast-changing landscape.

Williams has delivered keynote speeches at technology and corporate events throughout Europe and the Americas, at educational institutions such as the Strelka Institute in Moscow, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising in London, and Oxford University, and has given future trends presentations to numerous corporate clients in the energy, banking, retail, and fashion sectors.