2009 Speakers and Advisory Board

Jeff Post

President & CEO, CUNA Mutual Group

Jeff Post heads the company that is the leading provider of insurance and financial services to credit unions and their members worldwide. As of December 31, 2006, CUNA Mutual had annual revenues of more than $2.85 billion, assets exceeding $15 billion, and a global workforce of 5,500 employees. Prior to joining CUNA Mutual in January 2005, Jeff was President and Chief Executive Officer of Fireman’s Fund, a position he held for more than three years before resigning in 2004. As CEO, he led an impressive financial turnaround for the company, improving underwriting results by more than $1 billion and repositioning the company to market leadership in five business segments. In his 10 years with Fireman’s Fund, Post also served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Actuary. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Jeff grew up in the Midwest and received a Bachelor’s Degree in business administration, majoring in actuarial science, from the University of Wisconsin in 1981. He has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience. He is a fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Tim Schaefer

Chief Information Officer, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company

Tim Schaefer is Chief Information Officer (CIO ) for Northwestern Mutual, Milwaukee, WI. In this role, Tim has responsibility for planning, development and deployment of the company’s information technology resources to meet the business needs of the company’s risk and investment product lines, corporate functions and the almost 7,000 financial representatives in 350 network offices across the United States. Tim has been with Northwestern Mutual 20 years serving in a number of IT and non-IT leadership roles. Tim earned a BBA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Masters degree in organizational behavior from Silver Lake College and has completed the Leadership at the Peak Program at the Center for Creative Leadership. In the community, Tim is on the Board of Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Mike Jackson

VP of Global Business Services and CIO, Rockwell Automation

Mike Jackson joined Rockwell Automation in July, 2003, as Vice President, Information Technology and CIO. He added shared services responsibility to his role in December 2005 when he was appointed Vice President, Global Business Services (GBS). In addition to Information Technology, GBS includes shared transactional and other business services supporting Human Resources, Finance and other functions.

He had previously served as Vice President for Information Technology – Pet Health and Nutrition for Procter and Gamble (Dayton, Ohio). Prior to P&G, he was CIO of the Iams Pet Food Company and VP of Information Technology for Mead Paper Company’s Zellerbach Division. He spent the first 15 years of his career in various information technology roles with DuPont, including leading information technology teams supporting Asia Pacific (located in Tokyo, Japan from 1988–1992) and the Freon® and Teflon® businesses.

Rick Roy

CIO, CUNA Mutual Group

Rick Roy is the Chief Information Officer for CUNA Mutual Group in Madison, Wisconsin. He directs the strategy, planning, and deployment of all information technology functions for CUNA Mutual and its affiliates. Before being named CIO in October 2008, Rick served as Senior Vice President of Customer Operations for the company from 2006 to 2008. He directed all customer service and operations functions including claims, call centers, and customer implementations and training.

Prior to joining CUNA Mutual, Rick was Senior Vice President and General Manager of product development at Metavante Corporation. He was responsible for product development and technology architecture for Metavante’s software product portfolio. As a member of Metavante’s executive team, Rick participated extensively in merger and acquisition activities, and directed software development functions across six cities in the United States and Canada.

Rick holds a Master’s Degree in business from Marquette University and a Bachelor’s Degree in management information systems from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Rick has completed additional management programs at Harvard Law School and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Ken McGee

VP & Gartner Fellow, Gartner, Inc.

Ken McGee is a vice president and research analyst at Gartner in Stamford, Connecticut. Mr. McGee currently serves as a member of Gartner’s Emerging Trends and Technologies group, where he primarily focuses on determining how individuals and organizations can effectively use real-time information to achieve a competitive advantage. He is the author of a book dealing with real-time information titled “Heads Up: How to Anticipate Business Surprises and Seize Opportunities First,” published by Harvard Business School Press. Mr. McGee’s research also focuses on how IT is leading, or being led by, societal, government, business and economic changes that will bring about fundamental shifts and new opportunities in our business and personal lives.

Mr. McGee is also one of only 12 Research Fellows at Gartner. In this role, he is the primary author and project manager responsible for creating “The Gartner Scenario,” Gartner’s annual report on the current state and future directions of the IT industry.

Thomas Koulopoulos

Founder and CEO, Delphi Group

Tom Koulopoulos is founder and CEO of Delphi Group, a Boston-based thought leadership firm providing advice to Global 200 organizations and governments for the last 15 years. Koulopoulos was named one of the industry’s six most influential information management consultants by InformationWeek magazine. He is recognized as an authority on the implications of information technology on global organizations, with articles appearing frequently in national and international print and broadcast media including BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, CNN and NPR.

Koulopoulos is an author of six books, adjunct professor at the Boston College Graduate School of Management, and guest lecturer at Boston University School of Management and Harvard University. He is one of the industry’s most prolific thought leaders. His insights provide a beyond-the-edge view of the turbulence created by the collision of technology and business. Tom Peters has called his writing “a brilliant vision of where we must take our enterprises to survive and thrive.”

His insights have received wide praised highly by luminaries such as Peter Drucker, Dee Hock (founder of Visa International), and Jim Champy (co-author of Reengineering the Corporation). According to Peter Drucker, “Tom’s writing makes you question not only the way you run your business but the way you run yourself.” His current book, Smartsourcing the Enterprise: How to Drive Innovation, Jobs, and Growth in the age of Globalization, looks at the core drivers and and broad implications of outsourcing and globalization.

Brian Brylow

CTO and Managing Director, Robert W. Baird & Co.

Brian Brylow oversees the Information Technology Department at Robert W. Baird & Co. (Baird). He is the chair of Baird’s Technology Committee and also participates in a number of internal committees and advisory councils. Brian has over 20 years of information technology experience in service management, systems implementation and development. He has helped develop and manage a number of local technical services organizations. Prior to joining Baird in 1998, Brian was a lead technical consultant with Greenbrier & Russel. He is a former chef and graduate of Milwaukee Area Technical College. Brian has been featured in the media, including the Wall Street Journal, and has contributed articles to publications such as Computerworld and eWeek. Brian serves on the Board of Directors of the Information Technology Association of Wisconsin.

Carol Sormilic

Vice President of Total Workplace Experience Center of Excellence, IBM

Carol A. Sormilic is vice president of the Total Workplace Experience Center of Excellence which is responsible for driving the design and delivery of a high performance integrated workplace. The objective is to enable greater employee productivity, higher adoption rates of new IT tools and technology and improved employee satisfaction. Carol’s responsibilities also include leading IBM‘s transformation of corporate and enterprise functions. In her tenure at IBM, Carol has held a diverse series of positions. She was named to her current position in November 2003.

Carol joined IBM in 1981 and began her career with a variety of technical and management positions in the Integrated Supply Chain. Her accomplishments included the reengineering and automation of the procurement, planning and logistics processes that significantly improved productivity and reduced cycle times and costs for ISC. In 1995, Carol transferred to Raleigh, North Carolina, to manage the procurement and development processes on IBM‘s first production SAP instance for the Personal Systems Group. In 1997, she transferred to Somers, New York, as the corporate procurement information technology manager, where she initiated the first procurement e-business applications.

Carol has a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts.

Jane Durment

CIO, Marcus Corporation

Jane Durment is the Chief Information Officer of The Marcus Corporation, a NYSE company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis. She joined The Marcus Corporation in 1996, assuming responsibility for a complete upgrade of enterprise and property systems and networks, and to develop and launch the company’s new e-commerce, distribution and intelligence plans.

Prior to joining The Marcus Corporation, Jane had 20+ years of experience working for technology vendors with responsibilities including consulting, customer support, strategic planning, risk management, project planning and major accounting marketing. She holds a computer science degree from the University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana and an MBA in finance from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Jane also works to advance technology in the company’s two industries, serving on the board of Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) and as a member of the NATO (North American Theatre Owners Association) Technology Committee.

Davor Grgic

Senior Vice President of Technical Services, Kohler Co.

Bio will be posted soon.

Rick Davidson

Senior Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer, Manpower Inc.

As Senior Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer, Rick Davidson has overall responsibility for leading global IT functions across Manpower’s operations in 72 countries and territories. He is in charge of developing and deploying an information technology strategy that accelerates Manpower’s positioning as the technology leader in the workforce solutions industry. He joined the company in January of 2003.

Prior to Manpower, Davidson worked at the Feld Group, where he was the acting Global CIO for Manpower through a consulting agreement. Prior to joining the Feld Group, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at CNH Global N.V. (formerly Case IH). Davidson also worked for Haworth, Inc., a global furniture manufacturer, as Vice President of Global Information Services. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University.

Oskar Anderson

CIO, WI Department of Enterprise Technology

Oskar Anderson is the administrator of the State of Wisconsin’s Division of Enterprise Technology (DET) within the Department of Administration. He has been in that role since March 2007, and as the state’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) he oversees state government’s IT operations and investments.

Anderson served as CIO for the state Department of Revenue (DOR) from 2001 until joining DET. He also the administrator of the Systems and Information Services Division and CIO for the Alberta Solicitor General Department for six years early in his career.

In addition to the time spent in public sector CIO positions, Anderson has worked about half of his career in the private sector as a systems and management consultant. Anderson has managed system development projects for Transportation, Motor Vehicle, Corrections, Finance, Policing and Corporate Licensing business areas. As a management consultant he was a member of the team that proposed and helped set up the Canadian Center for Justice Statistics and has led several organizational studies. He also has led business process re-engineering and strategic planning projects for transportation, corrections and policing organizations.

Anderson received his computer science education at the University of Alberta.

Greg Pfluger

Vice President, IT, Sentry Insurance

Greg Pfluger joined Sentry Insurance in 2002 as Chief Architect. In that role, he provided technical leadership to accelerate the modernization of Sentry’s legacy applications. He assumed his current role in 2005.

Prior to joining Sentry, Greg worked as a consultant for ten years. His clients included many of Wisconsin’s leading companies, including Miller Brewing, Harley-Davidson, Kohler Co., Pleasant Company, and American Breeders Service.

Greg is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with degrees in Computer Engineering and English Literature. Greg and his wife Connie McElrone have two children and live in Stevens Point.

Sentry is one of the largest and strongest mutual insurance companies in the United States offering a full line of insurance coverages for businesses, families and individuals. Rated A+ by A.M. Best and headquartered in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Sentry has assets of $10 billion and a policyholder surplus of $3 billion. Sentry employees over 500 IT professionals in offices in Stevens Point, Madison, and Appleton.

Leslie Hearn

CIO, TDS Telecom

Leslie Hearn is Vice President Information Systems and CIO of TDS Telecom. She oversees support of internal applications, as well as TDS’ internet service provider, in the areas of systems development and support, computer operations, infrastructure planning and management, advanced technology planning, and project/portfolio management.

Leslie joined TDS Telecom in March 1996 and has held leadership roles in product development, information technology and telecommunication network operations. Prior to joining TDS, she spent seven years in IT consulting and seven years with telecom carrier, USWest.

Leslie completed both her undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Her Masters degree is in Finance with a focus on business modeling.

David Cagigal

Chief Information Technology Officer, Alliant Energy

David Cagigal is a seasoned executive with over 25 years experience in information technology management. The combination of IT and other technologies is a key part of David’s role as CITO at Alliant Energy.

Prior to Alliant Energy, David served as Director of Information Services with DeVry, Inc. where he managed a mission-critical $3M Application Service Provider (ASP) contract with eCollege to ensure a reliable eLearning platform (course availability) for the fastest growing segment of the corporation. Prior to DeVry, David was the Director, Information Application Services for DePaul University, managing three product lines of a PeopleSoft ERP investment for Student Administration, Finance and Human Resources university-wide, as well as an infrastructure group.

David also worked at Maytag in various IT capacities, notably as General Manager within the Strategic Business Development Group, in which he developed an Intelligent Appliances (eCommerce) Strategy and Business Plan centered on consumer value, technology feasibility and profitability.

David holds a BS and MBA from DePaul University.

Alex Yarmulnik

CIO, Midwest Airlines

Alex Yarmulnik is the Vice President and the Chief Information Officer for Midwest Airlines. He joined Midwest Airlines in 1999 with the specific goal of improving the company’s IT capabilities, developing IT long term strategy, and aligning technology to support the rapidly changing airline environment.

Prior to joining Midwest, Alex held the position of Director of Applications Development for department store chain, Saks Inc. (formally Carson Pirie Scott). He also spent 8 years with e-Funds, a leading provider of EFT software and hosting solutions. Alex’s 20+ years of IT experience include responsibilities over software development, infrastructure deployment, project management, strategic planning, vendor management, and security. He also served 7 years as an adjunct faculty in the Computer Science department at Lakeland College.

Alex holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Business Administration from Seton Hall University and an MBA from Marquette University with a focus on Finance and Marketing.

Gregory Smith

SVP and CIO, Wheaton Franciscan

Gregory A. Smith is senior vice president and chief information officer for Wheaton Franciscan Services, Inc. Smith joined the organization 20 years ago. Since that time, he has served in various leadership roles throughout the Covenant Healthcare System in Milwaukee including director of marketing, vice president of marketing and senior vice president of corporate services. Eventually Smith assumed the role of executive vice president for Covenant. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and a master’s degree in business administration from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee. Smith also serves on the McKesson Provider Technology Strategic Advisory Council.

James Herzfeld

VP of IT & CIO, Journal Sentinel Inc.

James Herzfeld is the Vice President of Information Technologies and CIO for Journal Sentinel Inc. Jim is also responsible for facilitating the CIO group for all Journal Communications companies.

Jim has been an Information Technologies professional for 25 years. Jim has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems. He has experienced and implemented manufacturing change from very manual processes to full computerized automation workflows.

Jim was made Vice President and CIO of Journal Sentinel in January of 2000.

Jim holds memberships and positions in board member of the Center for Technology Innovation — University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee, strategic board member of Entech (Empowering Non-profits through Technology), board member of the Waukesha County Information Management Panel and past President and member of the Milwaukee IT Leadership Forum.

Frank Ace

CIO, Department of Justice

Frank Ace graduated with a degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1984. He has held a variety of technical and management positions in private sector insurance and financial services organizations for 10 years. He came to the State of Wisconsin, Department of Health and Family Services to manage their Applications Development efforts in 1994 amd took the positions of IT Director at the Department of Justice in 1998. Frank has served as Vice Chair, and Chair of the Wisconsin State IT Directors Council, and as Co-Chair of the Wisconsin State Technology Leadership Council.

Peter Logothetis

SVP and CIO, QBE Regional Insurance

Peter Logothetis is senior vice president and CIO of QBE Regional Insurance, formerly Winterthur US Holdings. He has over 30 years of experience in IT management – mostly in the insurance industry with organizations like Kemper and Liberty Mutual. With QBE Regional, he oversees an IT staff of 290 people and IT functions in multiple U.S. locations. Logothetis holds an MBA in information systems from DePaul University and served as an adjunct professor of computer science.

Philip Loftus

CIO and VP of IS, Aurora Health Care

Philip is the VP of IS and CIO at Aurora Health Care, where he is responsible for defining and implementing the IT component of Aurora’s strategic goal of providing an integrated approach to health care delivery. Previously, he was SVP and CIO at Caremark where he implemented the move to a paperless mail order pharmacy system based on electronic documentation and workflow, developed one of the major systems supporting the new Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, and launched a high performance eBusiness Internet website with several million active users. He has 25 years of IT experience in the pharmaceutical industry with GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and what is now AstraZeneca, working extensively in both Europe and the US.

Sue Peterson

Vice President of IT, Sargento Foods

As Senior Director of Information Technology (IT) of Sargento Foods Inc., Sue oversees all of the Sargento IT functions, including the development, implementation and support of information systems, security and compliance, data management and integrity, and project/portfolio management. Sue’s unique background allows her to work closely with departments to properly align IT and business strategy. Sue joined Sargento in 1997 and has held various management positions in Finance, including supporting the Consumer Products Division business decisions and leading the implementation of key software solutions. Prior to her current position in IT, Sue was the Assistant Treasurer. Before joining Sargento, she spent twelve years with the Kohler Co. in various Finance and Accounting roles.

Sue is a graduate of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a degree in Finance, and also earned an MBA from UW-Milwaukee. Sue is also a licensed CPA. She is President of the Plymouth Board of Education and serves on the board of the Family Resource Centers of Sheboygan County. Sue is married and lives in Plymouth with her husband and two children.

Byrne Chapman

Vice President of IT, American Family Insurance

Byrne Chapman is the vice president of Information Services (I/S) Division for American Family Mutual Insurance Company. He is responsible for the division’s strategy, results, operational budget and more than 1,000 employees.

Byrne began his career at American Family in 1985 as I/S technical support manager for central systems. In this role, he was responsible for all mainframe computing and database management systems on all company platforms. In 1999, he was appointed Vice President of I/S. Prior to joining American Family, Byrne served as the I/S manager at Wisconsin Physician’s Service for eight years.
Byrne earned a bachelor’s of science degree in business from Edgewood College, in Madison, Wisconsin. He is an active board member of the Ronald McDonald House and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Consortium for Global Electronic Commerce. He has received several national industry honors, including being named one of the 2001 “Elite 8” chief information officers (CIOs) by the editors of Insurance and Technology magazine, and one of the 2002 “Premiere 100” IT leaders by Computerworld magazine.

Ed Meachen

CIO, UW System

Edward Meachen is Associate Vice President for Learning and Information Technology at the University of Wisconsin System. In June 1997 he was asked to step into the position on an interim basis and was officially appointed Associate Vice President in March 1998. Prior to coming to UW System Administration, Ed was Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Services at UW-Parkside for eight years and the Director of the Library Learning Center at UW-Parkside for two years. In 2000 Ed helped establish the Academic ADL Co-Lab and continues to serve as the Co-Lab Commission Chair.

He was appointed as a member to the Council of Chief Information Officers for the UW System in 1995 and currently serves as its Chair. He has served as a member of the UW System Distance Education Steering Committee as well as the UW System Task Force on Academic Computing and Emerging Technology.

Ron Kraemer

CIO, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Ron Kraemer is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Vice Provost for Information Technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In this capacity, he provides leadership for the use of information technology to enhance teaching, learning, research, and administrative services across the campus. Kraemer serves on various leadership committees in the UW System for identity management, student services, course management services, the campus portal, administrative leadership, research computing, equity and diversity, and crisis management. Kraemer also serves on several regional/national leadership groups, including the EDUCAUSE Advisory Group on Enterprise Information Systems and Services (AEGIS), the Board of Directors for WiscNet (Wisconsin’s statewide education and research network), the Oversight Group for BOREAS-Net (the Broadband Optical Research, Education and Sciences Network), and is Vice President of the Northern Tier Network Consortium.

Peter Strombom

FCHIME and Past Chair, CHIME; President, Strombom Associates; Conference Chair

Peter has been in information technology in diverse industries for the last 36 years and is acknowledged for his leadership role in the evolution of information technology management in healthcare.

Recognized as a Fellow of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), where he was a founding member in 1992, Peter is past Chair of the organization and of the CHIME Foundation. He has also served as Chair of the Information Executive Council of Voluntary Hospitals of America (VHA) and of numerous industry advisory boards. Peter’s broad experience, keen vision and innovative approaches to issues enabled many accomplishments under his leadership. Peter has presented and effectively participated in a variety of regional and national forums covering the spectrum from advocacy to national security.

Peter has recently retired as Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of a horizontally integrated regional healthcare system in the US. He is now focusing on helping accelerate strategic innovation in the field through facilitation of synergistic partnering between industries and with government. Additional initiatives address business continuity and health records interoperability. He is also actively engaged in corporate and individual mentoring.