Featured Speakers

Steve Miranda is executive vice president of Oracle Applications product development. He is responsible for leading all aspects of product strategy, product development, and product delivery for the entire portfolio of Oracle Applications and related services. Miranda's primary focus is on delivering the industry's most complete, proven, and innovative set of cloud solutions encompassing enterprise resource planning; supply chain, human capital, and enterprise performance management; customer experience; and Oracle Data Cloud applications.

Miranda joined Oracle in 1992 and has held a variety of leadership positions within the development organization. In 2007 he was asked to lead the engineering of Oracle's next-generation suite of software applications, Oracle Fusion Applications. Under his leadership, Oracle has delivered on its promise to help applications customers innovate and remain competitive while leveraging their existing IT investments and increasing the value of those investments with new Oracle products and services.

Prior to Oracle, Miranda worked at GE Aerospace. He holds degrees in mathematics and computational sciences from Stanford University.

Alain Blanc is executive vice president for Oracle Applications in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific and Japan (JAPAC). Blanc has more than 30 years of software sales and sales management experience and draws on this expertise to drive the growth of Oracle's applications and software as a service (SaaS) offerings across the region.

Blanc came to Oracle following the company's acquisition of Hyperion in 2007, when he joined as EMEA vice president for business intelligence and enterprise performance management. Before joining Oracle, he served as vice president for EMEA at Hyperion, where he was a member of that company's global executive committee. Blanc first joined Hyperion in 1996 as managing director of operations in France, working his way up to become vice president for southern Europe in 1998 and eventually vice president for EMEA in 2000.

Prior to his tenure at Hyperion, Blanc held executive positions at Comshare, serving as director of sales and as a division director. Before that, he worked as a consultant at Cegi Tymshare (later McDonnell Douglas Information Systems Group), where he helped pioneer the field of computerized decision-making in France.

Blanc has a master's degree in information management systems and a diploma from Supélec, the top engineering school in France.

Having served numerous positions in the Canadian federal government, including foreign minister, John Baird offers a broad array of sectoral expertise, including in financial services, aviation, infrastructure, energy, and the environment. As minister, Baird supported cross-border partnerships, provided development assistance, and strengthened trade and economic engagement with Canada. His extensive diplomatic, political, and economic experience centers on North and South Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas.

Prior to his tenure as foreign minister, John served as president of the Treasury Board (2006–2007); minister of the environment (2007–2008 and 2010–2011); minister of transport, infrastructure, and communities (2008– 2010); and leader of the government in the House of Commons (2010–2011). He previously spent ten years in the Ontario legislature, where he served as minister of community and social services, minister of energy, and government house leader.

In addition to his work with Eurasia Group, John is a senior business advisor at Bennett Jones LLP and sits on the advisory board of Barrick Gold Corp. and the corporate boards of CP Rail, FWD Group, and PineBridge Investments. He is also a global strategic advisor to Hatch Ltd, a Canadian global multidisciplinary management, engineering, and development consultancy. He holds a bachelor of arts (honors) in political studies from Queen's University at Kingston.

Andrew Sutherland is Senior Vice President of Systems & Technology for Oracle Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) & Asia Pacific (APAC). He is responsible for growing Oracle’s EMEA market share in these key business areas. In this role he develops business strategies and manages competence in Oracle’s technology and systems offerings across the region. He is also responsible for the interaction with Oracle’s product development teams.Sutherland joined Oracle in 1995, and has more than 30 years’ experience in emerging technologies and their application to business challenges. His specific expertise is in the design of solutions incorporating mobile and internet technology.

Immediately prior to joining Oracle, Sutherland established a high tech company that developed technological solutions to the problems of the sensory-impaired. The company received prestigious innovation awards from the Department of Trade and Industry.

Before this he was deputy director of the Centre for Speech Technology Research, a research and development consultancy attached to the University of Edinburgh. During his time there, Sutherland helped win and subsequently oversaw the development of projects in commerce, industry, and the public sector.

In 1988, Sutherland designed the UK’s first parallel-processing speech-recognition system. Based on parallel processors, it operated in real time. Under his management, this technology was successfully applied to problems encountered in aviation, medical reporting, and police reporting.

Sutherland has contributed more than 15 technical publications on multimedia and business issues, including entries in a major encyclopedia. He holds a first-class BSc in electrical and electronic engineering from Edinburgh University, a PhD in digital-signal processing, and an MBA in workflow analysis. Sutherland is also a chartered engineer.

Juergen Lindner is Oracle’s senior vice president of marketing for SaaS, focusing on enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise performance management (EPM) and supply chain management (SCM). He is responsible globally for SaaS thought leadership, go-to-market strategy, and sales enablement.

Prior to joining Oracle in late 2016, Lindner held several leadership roles at SAP SE including global vice president of go to market and sales enablement for all SAP product lines. Prior to that he held product leadership roles in financials, procurement, mobile, analytics, database, and technology. Before joining SAP, he worked for Deutsche Bank and SAP systems integrators.

As a more than 20-year veteran of the enterprise software industry, Lindner is continuously driven to help companies succeed in their transformation journeys and take full advantage of emerging technologies.

Lindner holds a masters degree in international business administration and management from the University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz, Germany.

Jeffrey L. Sampler is a Professor of Practice in Strategy and Technology at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). Previously he was a faculty member of London Business School and the University of Oxford for over 20 years. In addition, he has been a collaborator with MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) for over two decades. His research interests include the strategic implications of new technology, and the management of information as a strategic resource. His work has appeared in such journals as Accounting, Management, and Information Technology, Fortune, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Management Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, Sloan Management Review, and Strategic Management Journal. His paper with John Cross and Michael Earl on the “Transformation of IT at British Petroleum Exploration” won first prize.