Brooks Esser is the Worldwide Lead for HP’s CIO Agenda program.  He has over ten years of experience in services, industry and solutions marketing.  Prior to joining his current position, he served as a finance manager at several HP divisions, and also managed HP’s syndicated market research activities for several years.  Esser holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Pacific, and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Doug serves IT Infrastructure & Operations professionals, primarily focusing on green IT, green business, and IT leadership skills. His research helps IT executives successfully approach green IT, determine strategy, and then move from green IT awareness to action. Previously at Forrester, Doug was the global council manager and senior advisor for the Forrester Leadership Boards IT Infrastructure & Operations Council, a best practice community for senior IT executives in $1 billion-plus organizations. In this role, Doug regularly advised clients on Green IT strategy and practices. Additionally, Doug was also an advisor on the Forrester Leadership Boards Enterprise Architecture Council. Prior to Forrester, Doug was a VP of strategy and business development for Red Oxygen, a wireless communications startup, and living and working in Australia and France. In addition, Doug co-created CU Networks, a computer networking and servicing startup serving the students of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Doug holds a B.S. in finance from University of Colorado at Boulder and was awarded the Undergraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurial Excellence.

Jay Leek, CISM, CISA, CISSP is currently a global manager of Corporate IT Security Services at Nokia where he has been directly involved in the negotiations and management of multi-million dollar IT security outsourcing relationships. Over the past 15 years, Jay has also worked as a product manager for information security vendors as well as a consultant to numerous telecommunications companies, government agencies and financial institutions assisting them with business development, strategic planning and architectural design required to meet their ICT and security objectives.  He is also a frequent speaker on information security related topics at domestic and international conferences.

  Shehzad Merchant serves as Senior Director for Strategy at Extreme Networks, where he drives the direction for data center networking. With over 17 years of industry experience, and an engineering track record highlighted by the achievement of several technology patents, Merchant is a veteran of wired and wireless Ethernet and communications. Prior to Extreme Networks, Merchant held various technology and executive management roles including CTO at Nevis Networks, a company specializing in network security. Prior to that Merchant was co-founder and VP of Engineering at Polytime Systems. Merchant earned an MS in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Tate Cantrell’s primary responsibilities include product design and development and data center operations.  Mr. Cantrell has been in the mission-critical facilities business for more than 15 years and has overseen the build-out and operationalization of some the largest and most sophisticated data centers in the industry.Prior to Verne Global, Mr. Cantrell was Vice President, Data Center Technologies, at Dupont Fabros Technology, the second-largest pure-play data center REIT in the United States. He was responsible for development and execution of operational strategies critical to the start-up of the Dupont Fabros Development Wholesale Data Center business model, the first of its kind in the industry.

Robert Petrocelli founded GreenBytes® in 2007 and serves as chief executive officer. Prior to establishing GreenBytes, Petrocelli founded Heartlab, Inc. in 1994, a medical information technology company that was sold to Agfa in 2005.  Petrocelli was awarded a patent on archival technology utilized for the long-term storage of patient data, including cardiology images, demographics and reports. Petrocelli received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2001 and has made the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America list four times.

Barb Goldworm is president and chief analyst of FOCUS (www.focusonsystems.com), a research, analyst and consulting firm focused on systems, software and storage, with an emphasis on virtualization and improving IT agility, TCO and ROI. A frequent keynote speaker, columnist, and author, Barb has spent thirty years in the computer industry, in various technical, marketing, sales, senior management, and industry analyst positions with IBM, Novell, StorageTek, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and multiple successful startups. In addition to the current virtualization tracks at Interop, Barb also created and chaired Interop's Network Storage Track. She has been one of the top ranked expert speakers at SNW and Data Center Decisions and has been a regular speaker for TechTarget, Ziff-Davis and hundreds of other virtualization events and webcasts. She is also virtualization chair for Blade Systems Insight, and chaired the 2007 Server Blade Summit. Barb also has been a regular expert columnist since the 1990s for publications including Network World, ComputerWorld, TechTarget SearchServerVirtualization and others. She serves on multiple advisory boards and is a frequent judge for awards such as Best of VMworld, and Product of the Year. She has published hundreds of articles, business and technical white papers and market research reports on virtualization, systems, software, storage networking and systems management. She recently published the book, "Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs" (Wiley & Sons), available on Amazon.com. Barb started her career with virtualization in the 1970s with IBM's VM/370, and spent a decade in technical roles as a software developer, systems architect, systems engineer, and software development manager. After another decade in product management, marketing and sales, up through VP of marketing and sales, Barb has spent the last ten years as an analyst, consultant, author and speaker.

As chief evangelist and CMO for BDNA, Ido Sarig leads customer and community outreach, communications and strategic planning. Specializing in product strategy and corporate development, Ido has a long career as a senior technology executive and a venture partner with a leading VC firm in Silicon Valley. Formerly senior VP of technology strategy for Mercury Interactive, he was responsible for the technology roadmap, strategic industry acquisitions and business opportunities. Ido has participated as an industry speaker for more than 12 years, domestically and internationally, at various technology and user-group conferences and venture capital events including Oracle Open World and STAREAST.

Bernard Golden is called a “cloud guru.” He is CEO of HyperStratus, a Silicon Valley cloud consulting firm that helps its clients plan, design, and implement cloud initiatives. HyperStratus clients include the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, HelloWallet, Sun Microsytems, and Hewlett- Packard. Bernard is the Cloud Computing Advisor for CIO Magazine. His widely-read CIO.com blog on cloud computing has been called “brilliant and incisive.” His blog's influence was recognized when it was named a “Top 25 Cloud Computing Blog” by CloudTP. He is the author or co-author of three books on virtualization and cloud computing, including Virtualization for Dummies, the most popular book on the subject ever published. Bernard is a popular and engaging presenter, speaking throughout the world at conferences like CloudWorld, Cloud Connect, Structure, and EDUCAUSE.

Climate Savers Computing executive director Pat Tiernan has more than 15 years experience in technology, most recently driving sustainability strategy and execution as Hewlett Packard’s vice president of Social and Environmental Responsibility. Tiernan is a recognized expert in green technology, sustainability issues and the future of IT energy efficiency and its impact on climate change. At Climate Savers Computing, Tiernan promotes the adoption of energy-efficient computers and power management tools worldwide. Under his leadership, the organization has topped 500 members, has launched a chapter in India, and expanded its partnership with the U.S. EPA and its ENERGY STAR program.

Randy Rowland is responsible for the managed hosting business unit for Terremark. As part of his role, Mr. Rowland oversees the operation of Terremark’s Infinistructure™ and The Enterprise Cloud utility computing product offerings.  Mr. Rowland has more than 14 years of experience in the IT services industry, including eight years with Data Return, where he was most recently responsible for product development.  Prior to that, Mr. Rowland previously held senior positions in sales engineering and IT consulting for Data Return and CompuCom.   Born in Brawley, California, Mr. Rowland received his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Distribution from Texas A&M University.  He lives in the Dallas area with his wife and children.  

An industry veteran who brings over 23 years of network, systems, and application management experience, he joins EMC from the nLayers acquisition where he was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Product Management. Previously, Bob served as Vice President of Marketing at Packeteer, Network Physics, and Manage.com, leading product marketing & management, product strategy, integrated marketing, corporate communications and channel development. Bob holds a BA in Mathematical Science from the Johns Hopkins University and an MSEE from George Washington University.

Jesse Rothstein is the CEO and co-founder of ExtraHop Networks, where his technical vision and expertise in enterprise networking give ExtraHop a competitive edge in the industry. With a world-class team under his leadership, Jesse is responsible for the technical architecture of the innovative ExtraHop Application Delivery Assurance platform. Jesse co-founded ExtraHop after a six-year tenure at F5 Networks where he was a Senior Software Architect and co-inventor of the TMOS platform. Jesse was the architect and project lead for the BIG-IP v9 development effort and the technical lead for frameworks, clustering, and performance. Prior to F5, Jesse worked in product development at Motive Communications and the Trilogy Development Group. Jesse specializes in designing and implementing high-performance networking products. Jesse graduated from Rice University with bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.  

As Senior Director of Product Management for CA, Matt Sherrod helps define product direction and strategy for the company’s portfolio of integrated Service Assurance products that show how well the infrastructure is delivering business services. He spent the last eight years in a number of field and management positions at NetQoS, prior to its recent acquisition by CA. Previously, Sherrod spent ten years as the Director of Communications for ARCO Alaska, where he was responsible for delivering Voice, Video and Data services for the Alaskan Oilfields. His major projects included next-generation high-speed networking and Linux Beowulf supercomputing. Sherrod has a master’s degree in Management Information Systems and a bachelor’s degree in Applied Math/Statistics and Computer Science from Texas A&M University.

Richard Whitehead is Director of Product Management at EMC Ionix. Richard is in charge of the Ionix for IT Operations Intelligence, our solution that automates service and infrastructure root-cause analysis, monitoring, and reporting across both physical and virtual environments. Richard brings to EMC Ionix more than 20 years' experience in the systems and network management marketplace. He also has a broad background in communications and security. Prior to EMC, Richard has worked for and advised a range of Silicon Valley startups - in addition to having been an advisor to Splunk and the CTO at Clarus. In addition, Richard with the Vice President of Strategic Technologies at Micromuse, which was later acquired by IBM. Richard served at Micromuse for nearly eight years.

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.

Tom Mantz served as the first Chief Information Officer for Praxair, a global provider of industrial gases. In this role, he led the development of a virtual, global IT resource from previously independent country-based IT organizations. His efforts led to the adoption of global IT standards and the implementation of a common, global communications infrastructure. Working with business partners, Mr. Mantz provided IT direction for global ERP initiatives. Prior to joining Praxair, Mr. Mantz served as Vice President and co-founder of the Renaissance Strategy Group, a global consultancy focusing on the application of the Balanced Scorecard methodology to issues associated with the development and implementation of business strategy. While at Renaissance, he applied Balanced Scorecard techniques to the development of IT Strategy. Mr. Mantz began his career at Nolan, Norton & Co., a leading IT strategy firm. Over 14 years, he served in a number of roles, eventually becoming Partner with responsibility for the firm's IT executive education programs. Mr. Mantz now serves as Managing Director of MNL Associated, where he consults with major organizations on improving the return from information technology. His practice specializes in the design of benefits-focused IT implementation programs. During his more than 25 years of IT leadership and management, Tom has concentrated on the development of business aligned IT strategies, the implementation of IT human resource processes and the delivery of executive education programs.

Dr. Rob Rennie has been the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Vice President, Technology for Florida State College at Jacksonville, Florida since 1997. Prior to taking his current position, he was the CIO for Mt. San Antonio College in Los Angeles, is a former principal of the technology strategy practice of Xentrek Systems, Inc. and held a visiting scholar faculty appointment in Information Systems at the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA. Rob has been a CIO for over twenty years and is known for building the reputations of organizations on a foundation of innovation, value creation, excellence and technology leadership. Dr. Rennie serves on Software AG's International Executive Committee, is a member of Apple's University Executive Forum and is a board member of Curriki. Florida State College has won numerous awards for its highly innovative and successful technology environment having been ranked first in the Nation three of four years by the Center for Digital Education, rated 'Most Wired' by Yahoo, and having been featured by several major technology firms for best practices and successful innovations. In 2004, Dr. Rennie was honored as one of Computerworld's Premier 100 IT leaders. Rob received his Bachelors degree from Rollins College, Masters from The University of Oklahoma, and Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

Bette Walker most recently served as vice president and chief information officer for Delphi Corporation, a leading global automotive supplier.  In this position, Walker was responsible for global strategic and operational information technology.  Walker served as a member of the Delphi Strategy Board, the company’s top policy-making group, and as a key member of the Global Transformation and the Transition Services restructuring boards. Walker joined Delphi in 1997 as chief information officer for the company’s then largest division, Delphi Engine Management Systems before becoming chief information officer for Delphi’s global entity. Walker previously served as the vice president of Information Technology with AlliedSignal, Inc. in the Automotive and Aerospace sectors.  Prior to AlliedSignal, she held several positions with Digital Equipment Corporation including director of Information Technology for Latin America. Walker earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from the University of New Hampshire and attended the Executive MBA Program at Boston University.  In 2000, she completed the Global Leadership Executive Development Program at Harvard University. Walker served on the Research Board and Oakland University Board of Visitors for the School of Business Administration from 2004 through 2009. She has been recognized by ComputerWorld as one of the Premiere 100 Information Technology leaders and by Automotive News as one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Automotive Industry.  Walker’s leadership received five consecutive CIO 100 designations and the InformationWeek 500 ranking of innovative information technology organizations for five consecutive years.  Walker is recognized as an expert in the areas of restructuring and vendor management and is a frequent speaker in Information Technology and leadership forums.

John Dohm is a distinguished executive with extensive experience in most aspects of information technology, strategy development, and business management. Dohm is currently the VP of IT at True Religion Apparel and is focused on the key company objectives of retail expansion, product line expansion, and international expansion. In support of the business strategy, John has initiated a three element model for IT at True Religion - implementing foundational systems, focusing on business processes, and driving Lite IT.

John was previously CIO and VP of E-commerce at American Standard. In this role, he managed a worldwide IT organization and was a member of the corporate Strategy & Planning team. Dohm has numerous accomplishments at American Standard, including supporting global supply chain initiatives, driving a global SAP deployment, negotiating vendor agreements, improving productivity within the IT function across 13 countries, and instituting structured portfolio and program management techniques.

Before American Standard, Mr. Dohm was a Partner and founder of the Distributed Computing Infrastructure practice for Deloitte & Touche. During his tenure, the practice grew at a 300% annual growth rate and was one of the fastest growing practice areas within the Firm. Dohm remains the fastest tenured partner in the history of the firm, being promoted from Senior Consultant to Partner in under four years.

Another notable experience was the foundation a software and services company that concentrated on enabling organizational accountability. The concept was to link business strategies to projects, then track the return on the projects and tie rewards to accomplishments.

John's interest in computing started early when he did assembler programming for Timex Sinclair machines in the late 1970s. Afterward, he developed software for a variety of platforms, including the original IBM PC. Dohm also started one of the early Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) in 1982. His interest in business began during the mid 1980's when he founded a software development firm focused on call centers.

Mr. Dohm received his MBA from the Northwestern Graduate School of Management (Kellogg) and a combined MS/BS in Computer Science from Loyola University. He has published articles on topics ranging from computer science to organizational design and has been a key speaker at industry conferences and events.

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.

Tom Mantz served as the first Chief Information Officer for Praxair, a global provider of industrial gases. In this role, he led the development of a virtual, global IT resource from previously independent country-based IT organizations. His efforts led to the adoption of global IT standards and the implementation of a common, global communications infrastructure. Working with business partners, Mr. Mantz provided IT direction for global ERP initiatives. Prior to joining Praxair, Mr. Mantz served as Vice President and co-founder of the Renaissance Strategy Group, a global consultancy focusing on the application of the Balanced Scorecard methodology to issues associated with the development and implementation of business strategy. While at Renaissance, he applied Balanced Scorecard techniques to the development of IT Strategy. Mr. Mantz began his career at Nolan, Norton & Co., a leading IT strategy firm. Over 14 years, he served in a number of roles, eventually becoming Partner with responsibility for the firm's IT executive education programs. Mr. Mantz now serves as Managing Director of MNL Associated, where he consults with major organizations on improving the return from information technology. His practice specializes in the design of benefits-focused IT implementation programs. During his more than 25 years of IT leadership and management, Tom has concentrated on the development of business aligned IT strategies, the implementation of IT human resource processes and the delivery of executive education programs.

Dr. Rob Rennie has been the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Vice President, Technology for Florida State College at Jacksonville, Florida since 1997. Prior to taking his current position, he was the CIO for Mt. San Antonio College in Los Angeles, is a former principal of the technology strategy practice of Xentrek Systems, Inc. and held a visiting scholar faculty appointment in Information Systems at the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA. Rob has been a CIO for over twenty years and is known for building the reputations of organizations on a foundation of innovation, value creation, excellence and technology leadership. Dr. Rennie serves on Software AG's International Executive Committee, is a member of Apple's University Executive Forum and is a board member of Curriki. Florida State College has won numerous awards for its highly innovative and successful technology environment having been ranked first in the Nation three of four years by the Center for Digital Education, rated 'Most Wired' by Yahoo, and having been featured by several major technology firms for best practices and successful innovations. In 2004, Dr. Rennie was honored as one of Computerworld's Premier 100 IT leaders. Rob received his Bachelors degree from Rollins College, Masters from The University of Oklahoma, and Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

Bette Walker most recently served as vice president and chief information officer for Delphi Corporation, a leading global automotive supplier.  In this position, Walker was responsible for global strategic and operational information technology.  Walker served as a member of the Delphi Strategy Board, the company’s top policy-making group, and as a key member of the Global Transformation and the Transition Services restructuring boards. Walker joined Delphi in 1997 as chief information officer for the company’s then largest division, Delphi Engine Management Systems before becoming chief information officer for Delphi’s global entity. Walker previously served as the vice president of Information Technology with AlliedSignal, Inc. in the Automotive and Aerospace sectors.  Prior to AlliedSignal, she held several positions with Digital Equipment Corporation including director of Information Technology for Latin America. Walker earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from the University of New Hampshire and attended the Executive MBA Program at Boston University.  In 2000, she completed the Global Leadership Executive Development Program at Harvard University. Walker served on the Research Board and Oakland University Board of Visitors for the School of Business Administration from 2004 through 2009. She has been recognized by ComputerWorld as one of the Premiere 100 Information Technology leaders and by Automotive News as one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Automotive Industry.  Walker’s leadership received five consecutive CIO 100 designations and the InformationWeek 500 ranking of innovative information technology organizations for five consecutive years.  Walker is recognized as an expert in the areas of restructuring and vendor management and is a frequent speaker in Information Technology and leadership forums.

John Dohm is a distinguished executive with extensive experience in most aspects of information technology, strategy development, and business management. Dohm is currently the VP of IT at True Religion Apparel and is focused on the key company objectives of retail expansion, product line expansion, and international expansion. In support of the business strategy, John has initiated a three element model for IT at True Religion - implementing foundational systems, focusing on business processes, and driving Lite IT.

John was previously CIO and VP of E-commerce at American Standard. In this role, he managed a worldwide IT organization and was a member of the corporate Strategy & Planning team. Dohm has numerous accomplishments at American Standard, including supporting global supply chain initiatives, driving a global SAP deployment, negotiating vendor agreements, improving productivity within the IT function across 13 countries, and instituting structured portfolio and program management techniques.

Before American Standard, Mr. Dohm was a Partner and founder of the Distributed Computing Infrastructure practice for Deloitte & Touche. During his tenure, the practice grew at a 300% annual growth rate and was one of the fastest growing practice areas within the Firm. Dohm remains the fastest tenured partner in the history of the firm, being promoted from Senior Consultant to Partner in under four years.

Another notable experience was the foundation a software and services company that concentrated on enabling organizational accountability. The concept was to link business strategies to projects, then track the return on the projects and tie rewards to accomplishments.

John's interest in computing started early when he did assembler programming for Timex Sinclair machines in the late 1970s. Afterward, he developed software for a variety of platforms, including the original IBM PC. Dohm also started one of the early Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) in 1982. His interest in business began during the mid 1980's when he founded a software development firm focused on call centers.

Mr. Dohm received his MBA from the Northwestern Graduate School of Management (Kellogg) and a combined MS/BS in Computer Science from Loyola University. He has published articles on topics ranging from computer science to organizational design and has been a key speaker at industry conferences and events.