IT Leadership Summit Speakers

Thornton May is America's leading CIO career doctor, tirelessly researching the environmental and psychological diseases that destroy IT leadership careers. On the road over 250 days a year making 'house calls' with leading CIOs, Thornton has assembled one of the world's most respected medicine chests of empirically tested job-saving, business-growing remedies in the IT business today.

In addition to career doctoring, Thornton teaches Executive Education at four major universities, writes columns on technology for two leading publications, advises major organizations and government agencies on how to think differently about the future, all the while conducting seminal anthropological field research into technology use behaviors of the various tribes comprising modern society.

Thornton brings a scholar's patience for empirical research, a second-to-none gift for storytelling and a scathingly honest sense of humor to his audiences. His exuberance is infectious. After prolonged exposure you go home and wring the personality out of your clothes. Most importantly you will be refreshed, revitalized and re-armed to win the career wars in front of you.

Mr. Bruce Barnes has over thirty-six years of experience as a senior level officer in the technology arena, including very influential roles in Fortune 100 companies. He has received numerous industry accolades, including having been recognized by the industry press as one of this country's most noted CIOs. He is a recognized voice at national industry events and in major industry publications. He is an ongoing advisor and retained coach for a number of successful senior level corporate leaders.

Currently, Mr. Barnes is the founder and CEO of BOLD VISION®, a senior management consulting consortium comprised of "C Level" executives, which operates as a trusted advisor and consultant to a number of noted CIOs and other I/T leaders, as well as to several large I/T product providers.

Prior to this current role, Mr. Barnes served as the Vice President of I/T Strategy and Planning for the Nationwide Enterprise, a $200B international insurance and financial services company. There, he was responsible for the overall technology strategy, I/T architecture, information security, and I/T governance processes for the global enterprise.

Prior to that, Mr. Barnes served as VP and Chief Information Officer for Nationwide Financial Services, a $100B international financial services company, where he oversaw all facets of technology services and operations within that publicly-held organization.

Prior to that, he served as Chief Information Officer for Ohio's largest privately owned HMO, and he also held various management positions with an international library/information services company, the Washington (DC) office of a major technology vendor, and as an officer in the United States Army.

He is a co-founder for the nationally acclaimed "CIO Solutions Gallery" at The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

He is a graduate in five sciences from The Ohio State University.

Daniel Martinez is VP, Technology at the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association [PRCA]. He is responsible for all technology initiatives and the IT department at the PRCA. Dan is leading the development and implementation of a new core rodeo system, replacing a system that has been in place for well over 30 years.

Prior to arriving at the PRCA, Dan worked for Borders Group Inc. [Borders Books and Music], Intellidata, Owens-Illinois and the U.S. Air Force. He is a ten year veteran of the Air Force, where he flew helicopters.

Dan graduated from the United States Air Force Academy. He earned a Master of Science degree from George Washington University in Management Information Systems.

Cheryl Smith is a principal at an expert IT consulting firm that offers services in IT Crisis Management. The firm specializes in providing support to companies facing an IT crisis or major "one-time" IT-related event (www.smithandassociates.us.com). She has been responsible for the successful turnaround and completion of critical IT projects and ventures throughout the world.

Prior to her work in IT crisis management, Ms. Smith was the CEO of a technology startup company, utility.net. utility.net offered Broadband over Power Line (BPL) networks to the major US electric companies for commercial sale of broadband to customers in their rural territories, and SmartGrid applications for utility use. She was the global CIO for McKesson Corp—a Fortune 15 health care company; the CIO for KeySpan (now National Grid)—one of the largest energy companies in the US; the VP for Strategic Systems at Verizon; and the MIS Director for Honeywell Federal Systems. She was a Principal at Ernst & Young, one of the "Big 6" consulting firms, for 7 years, successfully managing major IT efforts for a number of Fortune 100 companies in the US and around the world. Her initial years in the industry were spent building 3 core systems that remain in use on Capitol Hill (the electronic voting system on the House floor, the House publication system, the cable communication system used by both the House and the Senate) at the U.S. House of Representatives.

She is the co-founder of the CIO Institute, a certificate program for IT leaders at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business. In addition to teaching and international speaking engagements, her articles on IT problems, issues and challenges—with 'insider information' on how to resolve—have been published worldwide. Smith holds both Bachelor and Master degrees from Penn State.

Szmadzinski was a Consulting Partner at KPMG and PwC, formerly Coopers and Lybrand. He has served as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Information Officer and Chief Operating Officer for numerous companies, including GMAC, Edcor Services, WorldCom (post-bankruptcy), Amerisure Insurance, Barr Pharmaceuticals, Continuum Health and Champion Industries, among other firms.

In these roles, he led transformations that increased shareholder value and improved technology development. Szmadzinski also directed the IT and Business Systems Transformation Practice for AlixPartners for more than nine years.

Szmadzinski holds a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems and Physics from Grand Valley State University and a master of business administration from the University of Michigan. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers and frequently speaks on business change, strategy and IT systems.

Frank Trogus is the Vice President Supply Excellence for Shell Downstream. He is responsible for hydrocarbon supply chain processes, systems and competencies globally. Prior to this he was General Manager Information Technology for Shell Downstream responsible for Global Manufacturing and Supply & Distribution. He previously held a similar position as CIO Shell Oil Products U.S. and Motiva Enterprises, LLC where his responsibilities included Business IT strategy, infrastructure, applications development and support, networks and business information processes.

Other assignments with the Shell companies included Vice President Technology at the Shell Westhollow Technology Center as well as earlier management positions in refinery operations, merger and acquisitions, and the corporate center in areas of planning and economics.

He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas and has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Dayton. He also serves on several industry and community advisory boards, including a past role as Committee Chair of the American Petroleum Institute General Committee on Information Management Technology.

John M. Iraci is Vice President, Enterprise Infrastructure for DJO Global, the largest non-surgical orthopedic rehabilitation device company in the United States and among the largest globally, as measured by revenues. John oversees global support of 3,000+ users, telecommunications, networking, servers, operations and data centers. DJO Global’s network consists of more than 20 remote sites worldwide, spanning North America, Australia, Africa and Europe. Previously, John spent ten years with Kelco, originally a division of Merck and, later, a division of Monsanto. As Infrastructure Manager, John was responsible for all network operations including data centers, LAN/WAN, Servers, Help Desk and Telecommunications.