Denise Rundle is a General Manager in Microsoft’s CSS (Customer Service & Support) business unit and leads the Community, Advertising, Partner & Sales Support Business Unit. Denise deeply believes that each customer support touch point is an opportunity to show our customers that Microsoft listens and cares, and an opportunity to increase their engagement with our products and services. Her team manages all aspects of Advertiser, Partner Enablement, Microsoft Store, Save and Commercial Presales Support including creating leads and presales from existing customer service interactions and enabling sales through external partners. Denise leads the strategic planning for our social media and online communities investments globally. She also leads an innovative CSS strategic program, “Achieve More” to leverage our customer and partner engagements to drive incremental value. Denise joined Microsoft in 1990 and during her tenure she spearheaded the first 24x7 customer service efforts, built the online support assets in the early days of the internet, established the first Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Community strategy, and has led several different Service Delivery organizations. Denise has an undergraduate degree in speech communications, journalism and public relations and is a mean poker player.

Curt Hill is Vice President of Customer Assurance in Cisco’s Technical Services organization. His team identifies and resolves a broad range of individual and systemic issues and shares its learnings across Cisco and the industry to predict and prevent recurring issues in product and software quality. His organization is also responsible for customer listening, compliance and certifications, customer data protection, and multiple initiatives to improve quality and simplify doing business with Cisco. Hill is an executive sponsor for several of Cisco’s top accounts. Hill joined Cisco as a customer support engineer and went on to lead global technical support organizations and geographies. Under Curt’s leadership, these teams launched new support models and introduced new services for Cisco’s global service provider and enterprise customers. Before joining Cisco, he held positions with Hewlett-Packard, Novell, and AT&T. Hill holds a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in computer science, and has earned his CCIE certification.

James “Mac” McAnally is Vice President of Global Support Delivery, Engineering Resolution (GSD ER). Mac started with HPE in 1985 and has held a number of positions in the Customer Solution Center, Field, and Support Sales organizations. Most recently, Mac led the GSD Customer Solution Center, leading the organization through the HP separation and implementing the Workflow Transformation program. Previously, Mac led Global Support Delivery Americas for Brazil, Canada, Mexico, MCA (Multi-Country Area) and the United States, the start-up of the Costa Rica Global Solution Center, and served as the Site Manager ensuring readiness and the successful transition of existing and new businesses into Costa Rica. Before leading the Costa Rica operations, Mac managed the Americas Value Solution Center, the Mission Critical Solution Center, and the TS Account Management Program. In addition, he started and managed the Field Support Engineering team and spent two years on-site as a Major Account Support Manager for Worldspan. He has also held various positions in the Solution Center as a Project Manager, Production Engineer, and Response Center Engineer. Mac resides in the Atlanta area with his wife. He enjoys spending quality time with his family and friends in outdoor activities such as golfing, fishing, cycling, and motorcycling.

Bob Horton is Director of Field Service Operations for ABB’s Process Automation Division. He has over 20 years of experience in Field Service and Engineering Consulting in such areas as industrial automation, environmental science, energy conservation, and chemical engineering. He is currently responsible for customer satisfaction and profitable delivery of over $50 million annually in field service business. His customers include many household names of chemical, petrochemical and consumer products companies that require 24/7 responses to production emergencies. He is tasked with meeting the demands of an ever-changing marketplace with new processes, technologies, and competitive challenges. Bob attended undergraduate school at North Carolina State University and received a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mauricio has over 24 years of P&L management, program & business management, delivery, operations, maintenance and services management experience in telecommunications industry. Prior to joining FNC, Mauricio held multiple positions at Lucent Technologies and during this time, led the creation & implementation of a Global Program Office responsible for the delivery of a multiyear billion dollar program for one of the major Tier 1 operators. After Lucent, spent some time at NSN, as the Head of the Services Business Management organization, leading all organizational, business and process re-engineering initiatives to fulfill NSN’s services strategic intent, including a process framework and governance for Services BU Strategic Business Reviews. Since joining FNC in 2009, Mauricio was responsible for the Network Delivery Organization responsible for the end-to-end delivery all programs / projects for all our 445+ customers until 3 years ago moved to lead FNC Managed & Maintenance services organization responsible for pursuit, product line management, services agreement management, services delivery & operations including Fujitsu Technical Assistance Center and Network Operations Center.

BSc in Mechanical Engineer with specialization in Aeronautics from ITA – Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, MBA in Marketing from ESPM – Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing and Agribusiness from Harvard Business School. Working experience in Agricultural, Forestry, Mining, Construction and Aviation industries. Also served as Chairman for Latin America Regional Management Committee at AEM - Association of Equipment Manufacturers and as Management Committee Executive Secretary at Integration Crop-Livestock-Forestry (ICLF) Support Network in Brazil.

Rhonda Monks leads the development of brand strategies, policies, customer satisfaction initiatives, and product support programs for more than 300 Construction Equipment dealer locations in North America. She oversees more than $40 million annually in warranty dollars, product improvement programs, and customer goodwill. In addition, Rhonda has over 30 years of experience with service parts materials management, product development, product quality, and product support for CNH Industrial.

Neil Johnson serves as Vice President of Fujifilm's Technical Solutions & Support group within the companies Graphic Systems Division. His team is responsible for all support including; consumables, software, color management cloud system, hardware support and consultative services. Neil began his career with Burroughs Corporation as a service technician. Then has work in a number of management roles for AGFA Corporation, Fujifilm Corporation totaling 31 years of Field Service management experience ranging from local/regional support to most recently being responsible for service for all the Americas. Experienced in; mergers; operational efficiency, development of new technologies, achievement of financial goals, etc.

Johnny is Senior Vice President of Gas Business Enablement for National Grid, responsible for transforming how National Grid’s US gas employees serve their customers by standardizing processes across the legacy companies and implementing a new front-office technology platform. He is a Professional Engineer from the UK who joined the National Grid team in 1997 and has since held a variety of technical and commercial roles in the UK and US for both the electricity and gas sides of the business. He has previously led the transformation of Customer Operations in the UK gas business, which included National Grid’s first implementation of performance excellence. In his last role, Johnny ran National Grid’s 2,400-person customer field service organization across all US jurisdictions for gas and electric, focusing on using performance excellence in the field.

As Vice President of Field Services for the Cox Communications Virginia Region, Bob is responsible for providing strategic leadership for Field Services Residential and Commercial Operations, and CommCenter Operations. Bob is an inspirational executive leader specializing in leading change in large organizations, delivering strong business results and building effective business relationships. He has high emotional intelligence, with an eye for talent and a skill for leadership development and employee engagement throughout all levels of the organization. His strong business acumen, blended with 30 years of operational experience, process improvement and expense reduction, lead to a culture of excellence, employee satisfaction and customer loyalty. Recognized for his leadership skills with the 2006 Cox Leader of the Year Award for Virginia, Bob is passionate about developing and mentoring others, while ensuring a world class experience for Cox’s customers. He is a mentor for Cox Communications, Cox Enterprises and Women in Cable Telecommunications or WICT. Bob is also a Board Member of the Southeast Virginia Boys and Girls Club board of directors.

Forrest Yount is the Operations Transformation Leader for U.S. Field Operations at United Technologies, Climate, Controls & Security. He joined the company over 13 years ago and has over 13 years of HVAC industry experience. Forrest was also a Lieutenant and Submarine Officer for the United States Navy for seven years. He holds an MBA from the University of Florida and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

 

Chris leads the design and deployment of the Otis Internet of Things (IoT) operational and market strategy and is implementing changes to Otis’ service infrastructure through IoT adoption.

Chris has 24 years of experience in the building service industry. After three years in banking in New York City and completion of a graduate degree, Chris started with Otis in Chicago as a maintenance supervisor. He then held positions of increasing responsibility including Account Manager, Branch Manager and General Manager before transitioning to Otis North America Headquarters and now works in World Headquarters. Chris also has eight years of experience in the fire protection industry.

Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and computer science from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and a Master of Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Born and raised in South Milwaukee, WI, Chris Gresser currently resides in Bossier City, LA. Gresser is a retired Air Force Master Sergeant and been with Medtronic 1 year-21 years electronics field repair. He completed his MBA program in 2016. In his current role, he leads a team of 8 Field Service Engineers spanning 240 accounts across 17 states. His qualification includes being known for the Led Continuous Improvement Program for 2,000 people for 3 years. He also increased annual production output by 315% by changing workflow-new process adopted companywide.

Greg Ratcliff bring with him more than 15 years of experience with critical systems analysis and management.  In his current role, Ratcliff leads a group that focuses on increasing the value of Liebert Services’ offerings and bringing usable data to customers via Reporting Systems, Big Data Analysis and Internet of Things (IOT) technologies.  

Prior to joining Liebert Services, Ratcliff led the global monitoring group product management and marketing efforts at Liebert North America.  He has several patents in IOT and power management and has published many articles and white papers.

Ratcliff has undergraduate degrees in applied mathematics and information systems, and has a master’s degree in business administration.

Hiren Dalal is VP, Operations & Transformation at CA Technologies. Hiren has led many key transformation programs at CA including Self Service for CA Support, Lean Six Sigma and Agile Transformation for Global R&D team. He is a strong believer in applying change management principles in conjunction with process improvement methodologies to deliver value to customers. Hiren has played several key roles at CA and is an Agile expert, Certified Scrum Master and Product Owner, Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt who was first introduced to the benefits of Lean Six Sigma at General Electric.

Christie Morin is the Program Director over Self Service at CA Technologies. Christie’s specialty is in working with Customer Support organizations in driving value of Self Service internally to ultimately deliver an exceptional customer experience. Christie is an instructor of CA’s Lean Six Sigma and is working towards her black belt certification. Christie holds a variety of certifications such as PMP, ITIL, KCS and Green Belt (LSS).

Mary Proud supports the technical and management teams for Worldwide Sorter Support, Presort Services and Intellijet Printing at Pitney Bowes. In this role, she is responsible for analytical reporting, procurement, and site support. Mary also supports these teams in consistently achieving high levels of client satisfaction, inventory controls, and specialized projects. Mary is a champion for both internal and external client satisfaction.  She joined Pitney Bowes in 1985 and has held various customer service positions; Installation and Customer Training Representative, Production Mail Coordinator and Customer Service Manager. Mary hold her BA in Business Administration from Holy Family University in Philadelphia.

Timo Moeller is currently the Global Director - Customer Support, Product Field Performance & Commitments at First Solar.  He is responsible for leading the strategic development and execution of the company’s Customer Service strategy. His team is also responsible for all Performance and Warranty Contracts and negotiations of all First Solar product sales globally, from components to utility scale power plants.

Previously, Timo served in various Product Management and Technical Service roles in First Solar and BASF with 20 years of experience in this sector.  He spent the majority of his career in Germany, and moved to the US in 2011 to establish a new regional technical service organization for First Solar.  

He has a Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical College Worms, Germany and a Degree in Business Management with a focus on Information Management from VWA Mannheim, Germany.  He currently resides in Cave Creek, Arizona with his wife.

Richard Mack has a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. He started working for Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG in Research & Development driving key developments for high speed printing equipment. He then had various roles in operational service management in the USA and Germany. Currently he is pioneering the new digital services area to drive customer performance and developing respective business models to increase after sales revenue.

Over his near 14 year career with JCB, Chris Giorgianni has served in several roles leading up to his current position as Vice President of Product Support and Government & Defense.  Giorgianni began his career with JCB as a Product Marketing Specialist for Backhoe Loaders in 2003.  After a little more than a year in the role, he advanced to the United Kingdom, becoming JCB’s first American employee to be based at the company’s world-wide headquarters.  While overseas, he spent 1 ½ years as the Global Product Manager for Backhoe Loaders and another eighteen months as Regional Manager for the Nordic, Poland and Baltic States. 

Returning to the US in 2007, he rejoined the North American team as General Manager of the Southeast Region.  Following that role, Giorgianni served in the role of General Manager of Product Marketing and recently Vice President of Product where he was the North American knowledge base for all things product related, leading a team of product and sales managers.  In addition, he managed and mentored the employees in JCB’s Management Trainee Program.  In January of 2014, Giorgianni was promoted to Vice President of Product Support, where he leads the service and parts operations in the USA, Canada and Mexico. In January of 2015, in addition to Product Support, he assumed global responsibility for JCB's Government and Defense division. 

Originally from Pittsburgh, PA Giorgianni received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the United States Air Force Academy.  A decorated Air Force veteran, he served his country meritoriously, earning numerous awards and obtaining the rank of Captain prior to leaving the military to join the heavy equipment industry in 1998. 

As Director of Americas Field Services, Jeff has led Polycom’s Global Service organization in the delivery of onsite services for Polycom customers throughout North and South America. Since 2009, Jeff has grown the Field team through expansion into Canada, Mexico and Brazil, supporting international growth while building capabilities to support a rapidly expanding service portfolio for new product Implementations and Professional Services. This service delivery team includes 90 staff and over 200 contractor technicians. In 2011, Jeff led the worldwide integration for Field support during the $89M acquisition of Hewlett Packard’s Halo division by Polycom, with a first year cost savings of $800,000. For this accomplishment, along with supporting the growth of CALA services, Jeff was awarded Polycom’s 1st annual CEO award. In 2012 he created a Sales Lead Incentive Program for Field Engineers to submit and track qualified leads into Sales Operations. This incentive program has resulted in nearly $1M of incremental revenue during the past 18 months. Jeff received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1996, and has been working in Field Services since 2001. - See more at: http://fieldserviceusa2014.wbresearch.com/speaker-jeffrey-babe#sthash.Nw...

Bill has over 25 years of global experience in the Field Service and Aftermarket Services industries.  Bill currently works for JLG Industries, a division of Oshkosh Corporation. Oshkosh, which is celebrating its 100 year anniversary in 2017, is a world leader in designing, manufacturing and servicing a broad range of access equipment, commercial, fire & emergency, military and specialty vehicles. JLG is the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of access equipment, including aerial work platforms, scissor lifts and telehandlers.

As JLG’s IT Director, Customer Sales & Service, Bill leads the team responsible for support of all the JLG global customer facing functions including Sales, Marketing, E-Business and Aftermarket Services, including Parts Distribution and Field Service. This includes operations in North America, South America, Europe, Singapore, China and Australia. 

Bill and his team are in the process of implementing a new field service and support solution for all the company’s North American service centers. This initiative extends the use of a field service solution which has been successfully operating in JLG’s Australia operations for over 5 year. In addition to traditional service work order management, this initiative will incorporate the use of telematics to connect customer’s equipment to JLG applications, which will allow for proactive equipment monitoring, predictive and scheduled service, overall fleet management and ultimately a lower total cost of ownership.

Prior to working for JLG, Bill has held leadership positions in consulting, operations, finance and information technology functions for three separate Fortune 500 companies, including Andersen Consulting, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain and ARAMARK Corporation.

Tim Spencer has a diverse background of manufacturing management, operations leadership, service and support, and general management.  Working within multi-billion dollar companies, he has service experience driving change leadership across global environments.  With unique solutions and innovation, Tim has led revenue and profit growth, new product development, and customer satisfaction at The Standard Register Corporation, General Binding Corporation, ACCO Brands, WMS Gaming Inc, Scientific Games, and most recently with Bunn-o-matic Corporation.  He is the recipient of excellence awards from both Gartner Group and Aberdeen, and has been recognized by technology organizations for implementations in field service management solutions. He is a graduate of the University of Utah with a degree in Business Finance and currently resides in Springfield, IL.

Samuel DiFabbio III (Sam) has been an operations technology professional with FedEx Office (formerly Kinko’s) for 10 years managing product & program ownership as well as service & delivery. He has led teams that defined, developed, and implemented complete business process transformation as well as cutting edge backend service layer and cloud implementation. Most recently, he has partnered with his leadership to rebrand the organization’s “Field Technology” team to “Field Services,” which has transformed a culture of “technicians” to broadly trusted operations professionals. A native of Ohio’s “Rust Belt” and a decedent of a family of steelworkers, hard work and determination are second nature to him. Sam received his B.S. from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA in 2005 and currently resides in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

I earned my BS and MS in Industrial Engineering from The University of Alabama.  From 2004 to 2008, I worked as an Industrial Engineer for United Parcel Service.  Since January of 2008, I have worked for a family of field services companies headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.  From 2010 to 2015, I served as Chief Operating Officer of Satellites Unlimited Inc. – one of the nation’s largest labor fulfillment contractors for Dish Network.  In early 2016, I transitioned into a role with McKinney Communications Corporation (“MCC”), the parent company of our family of field services companies that includes Satellites Unlimited.  Today, I serve in multiple roles for MCC including General Manager of Digital Electronic Supply (“DES”), COO of Custom Labor Solutions (“CLS”), and VP of Strategy and Business Development for MCC.  I am married to my high school sweetheart and have two children, ages 6 and 9.  I am an avid outdoorsman and am the Co-Founder and Branch President of the Alabama Chapter of The Quality Deer Management Association (The QDMA).

Mike Assunto is the Vice President of Service and Operations at Flo-Tech LLC, a Managed Print Services provider based in Middletown, CT with nationwide service and support coverage. Prior to joining Flo-Tech, Mike held key management positions at Northern Business Systems, as Director of Service and IKON Office Solutions as Marketplace Director of Service for New York City. Since joining Flo-Tech, he has expanded Flo-Tech’s service organization of experienced technicians to maintain consistently high levels of customer satisfaction. Mike is committed to technical excellence and the professional development of his service team, implementing extensive certification processes and training curriculums along with a career development and recognition program. Mike has also implemented key technologies to support technicians in the field, including FieldAccess’s FieldConnect mobile application as well as Flo-Tech’s Service intranet portal.

Breeden has a broad array of field service engineering experience including field service management, business development, service marketing, organization development, industrial safety, fleet management, training, CRM, and call center operations.  Breeden is the author of The Intentional Field Service Engineer and creator of the Field Service7℠ development program.  His service industry experience includes clinical diagnostics and scientific instrumentation, irrigation system controls, banking equipment, homeland security optical readers, and industrial weighing systems.  Breeden has held positions from field service engineer to vice president of global operations with P&L responsibility of $115MM.  Breeden holds a Master’s degree in Business Management from Pepperdine University and is currently Vice President of Service Operations for Fairbanks Scales.  Breeden resides in Asheville, North Carolina.

Tom Voirin is a senior executive in the telecommunications market with extensive experience in the Service sector spanning over 30 years. He has been responsible for the national and international deployment of communication equipment and has led global Service initiatives to implement "Best Practices" in the engineering, program/project management, field installation and provisioning of Optical Networks.

In his career he was the Sr. Director of Deployment Services at Tellabs, Vice President & General Manager of Professional Services at ADC Communications, the Director of Quality & Customer Satisfaction at Motorola, the Director of IT Infrastructure Delivery at Royal Philips and currently Tom is employed at ISCO International as the Vice President of Customer Services.   

His strengths lie in aligning customer expectations with service delivery capabilities to exceed revenue and profit goals.  Under his leadership he has directed companies to attain a sustainable competitive advantage by defining, developing and articulating a common framework for the company’s service strategy.  He is a leader that engages employees to fight competitive pressures with effective business tools allowing them to feel “connected” to the company. He leads process improvement in a positive collaborative manner resulting in increased profitability and customer loyalty.  Most importantly, he has mastered the art of leveraging customer feedback to create an effective change management system.  

Tom values his family and time spent with them.  He has been married to his wife, Linda, for 40 years.  Together they have 3 children, Adam, Greg and Chris. Tom is a Certified Tree Farmer and has planted over 25,000 trees at his farm in NW Illinois. Tom enjoys working outside, traveling with his family and volunteering at local non-profits and community outreach program.

Syd Briggs has been the General Manager of Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric since January 6, 2009.  He previously served seven years with Southwest Arkansas Electric Cooperative in Texarkana, Arkansas and 11 years with Rio Grande Electric Cooperative in Brackettville, Texas in Accounting, Finance, and Member Services.  Since becoming a General Manager, Syd has been active with presentations at Cooperative functions, National and State conferences, local clubs, and other organizations.  Syd has an MBA from Texas A&M Texarkana and a BBA in accounting from Sul Ross University in Texas. 

Rick's career has spanned over 35 years all of which has been spent in the Technology Services market. After spending the early years in Field Service in technical and technical management roles, Rick consolidated his Marketing and Technical Education with his passion for service, and entered the emerging role of Services Sales. For the past 25 years, Rick has carried a bag and has built and lead successful Services Sales teams for several industry leaders such as IBM (Nulogix), Sun MicroSystems, DecisionOne and Customer Engineering Services. Rick has been actively involved in the Services Industry, chairing the Canadian Services Section of CompTIA for 8 years, while also serving on the Board for 3. Rick is the Vice President, Technology Services Sales, for Customer Engineering Services.

Debra's career has spanned more than 25 years, crossing industry lines which include restaurant management, healthcare & wellness, home security and, most recently, cash automation for financial and retail sectors. Debra's greatest strengths lie in her ability to see the holes and gaps, allowing her to put the large and small pieces together seamlessly. Debra has her PMP from PMI and is currently working on her Graduate Certificate in Project Management and her Master's in Project Management.

Electronics Technician Graduate from Centennial College - Toronto, Ontario. Hands-on experience in the field commission and repairing commercial Fire Alarm Systems with Edwards (now ChubbEdwards) and Simplex (now SimplexGrinnell - Tyco). Held progressive Management roles from Field Supervisor to Major Accounts & Business Development Manager in the Fire Protection industry. Current role as Director, Technical Services with Henry Schein Canada, a Dental distributor for Merchandise and Equipment to Dental Practitioners. Responsibilities are for all aspects of the Technical Services business in Canada.

Jason Young has been called a "rare breed" when it comes to developing leaders and customer service initiatives. No wonder. As a former senior-level manager at Southwest Airlines, Jason learned the value of a successful workplace culture. During his 10-years with the airline consistently rated No. 1 in customer service and employee satisfaction, Jason Young was a key driver in creating and developing the company’s innovative training programs for its successful leadership and customer service culture that have become renowned in the business world today.

Driven by the need to extend his unique insight in leadership development to others outside Southwest, Jason Young separated from the pack in 1998, when he left the airline to launch his own consulting practice to focus on corporate training and development services specializing in culture, leadership, customer service and team building. Today, as president of LeadSmart, Inc., Jason Young shares his vision in developing successful corporate cultures with forward-thinking companies, including Starbucks, IHOP, Radio Shack and Tyson Foods, to name just a few. He has even returned to his old turf—Southwest Airlines—to extend his knowledge as a corporate training consultant in the leadership development area once again. Jason has captured his philosophy of creating high performance cultures in his books, The Culturetopia Effect and Servicetopia.

Capturing the innovative strategies and tactics he created at Southwest Airlines, Jason Young offers insight and practical information that can be implemented immediately. His keynote presentations and training programs are in demand for audiences of all types—from senior level executives to front line employees. Jason’s messages reach to the core of every audience member with his unique style and engaging presentation skills. Participants are treated to a compelling experience that will change the way they view themselves, their customers and the company for which they work.

Jason Young’s keynote presentations are designed to reinforce the concepts and skills geared to increase learning and assist in the transition from the meeting room to the workplace. The result is an inspirational encounter that resonates long after his presentation is over.

Vivek Joshi, CEO and Founder of Entytle, Inc., is an executive with significant Aftermarket Service experience in various industries, spanning diversified industrial manufacturing, healthcare, private equity and high technology.  He previously was founder and CEO of LumaSense Technologies Inc., a temperature and gas sensor manufacturer, from inception through February 2013; an Operating Partner at Shah Capital Partners; and Senior Vice President of Marketing for Sun Services, a $3.6 billion division of Sun Microsystems.  He was also a senior executive at GE and has extensive experience in Aftermarket business in various companies during his career.  Vivek has an M.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville and a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT, Mumbai.

Gary York is an experienced entrepreneur and technologist with a track record of starting and growing technology companies to success. He has over 30 years of experience in the areas of enterprise commercial software development. He has held technical and executive positions with leading technology companies in Boston, Silicon Valley, and Alabama.

Gary advises early stage technology entrepreneurs.  His focus is in the areas of strategic planning, product marketing and development, operational excellence, stage appropriate process development, team development, and innovative culture development.  He is working to develop the next generation of technology entrepreneurs in the Birmingham community.

Gary is currently CEO of Help Lightning, a leading innovator in mobile augmented reality. Help Lightning develops and delivers mobile communication, collaboration and cognition through merged reality and virtual interactive presence for users needing help solving problems currently across 50 countries. 

Gary is former Chairman of Emergency Callworks. Emergency Callworks was acquired by Motorola Solutions in 2015.  Emergency Callworks provides emergency management hardware and software to 9-1-1 Call Centers with an innovative, web-based, integrated, high availability, mission critical architecture to support call handling, mapping, dispatch, and management.  The company captured over 6% of the U.S. market in four years.

Gary is founder and former Chairman of Awarix.  Awarix was acquired by McKesson in 2007.  Awarix provides enterprise patient care visibility solutions for healthcare providers to improve patient flow and improve patient safety. Awarix increases the visibility of clinical events along with patient, staff, and asset location to improve workflow and communications for the healthcare enterprise. Awarix addresses the critical problems of patient diversion and nursing shortages to help increase revenue, reduce cost, improve productivity, and improve patient satisfaction.  The Awarix solution produced a rapid return on investment for hospital customers up to an 11% increase in revenue and 19% increase in patient flow.

He is the founder and former CEO of ComFrame Software Corp., a leading information technology consulting company. ComFrame was acquired by NWN in 2010.  ComFrame was recognized as one of the fastest growing and most successful startup companies in Birmingham, working with companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, Children’s Hospital of Birmingham, Computer Sciences Corporation, Honda, and SouthTrust Bank. ComFrame was recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the top 500 fastest growing companies in the country. 

Gary is also founder, former President, and Chief Technology Officer of Emageon, Inc, an enterprise medical imaging solution provider for healthcare. Emageon was recognized numerous times as the fastest growing company in Birmingham, and captured over 200 hospitals nationwide including Kaiser Permanente, Baptist Healthcare System of Alabama, Sisters of Mercy Healthcare System, Sutter Health, BJC Healthcare, and St. Vincent’s Hospital. Emageon successfully changed the medical imaging market by providing scalable, enterprise-wide medical imaging solutions. Gary helped Emageon raise over $30M in institutional funds from leading venture groups such as Southeastern Technology Fund, Harbert Management, CB Health Ventures, and Ascension Health Ventures.  In early 2005, Emageon had a successful Initial Public Offering.

Gary received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, and served as a research fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a popular speaker and author in the areas of entrepreneurship and technology.  He is a winner of the Smithsonian Innovation Award and an EDPA Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation.  He is on the Board of the Birmingham Venture Club, TechBirmingham, the McWane Science Center, and Urban Avenues.

Tobias Dengel is the CEO of WillowTree Inc., a global leader in mobile and web application strategy, design and development. 

Previously, Tobias co-founded Leads.com. As President of the company, he managed its rapid expansion as an early pioneer in packaging online search products, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL, together for sale to small businesses. In 2005, Leads.com was acquired by Web.com, where Tobiasworked in an executive role until 2009.

Prior to starting Leads.com, he was SVP & General Manager of AOL Local & Yellow Pages. He previously held a variety of roles in the AOL Business Affairs department, including VP, International. Tobias began his career as an Analyst at the management consulting firm AT Kearney. He holds a BSE in Finance (Wharton) and a BSE in Systems Engineering, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

Shahar Chen, CEO & Co-Founder of Aquant, is an entrepreneur and expert in the field service world. Shahar brings more than 15 years of both business and technical expertise in leading sales, innovations, design and implementations of enterprise mobile workforce management applications, cloud implementations and workforce planning and scheduling solutions. Shahar started Aquant with the mission of bringing a unique AI solution to the field service world, enabling companies to maximize their products’ uptime by making smarter, data-driven, optimized decisions throughout the customer service process. Prior to starting Aquant, Shahar spend 14 years at ClickSoftware, where he served in various positions for sales, consulting, and innovation, with his most recent positions serving as an Enterprise Sales Executive and Director of Solution Center.

Assaf Melochna, COO & Co-Founder of Aquant is an expert in Field Service. He has years of business and technical expertise in enterprise software as well as consulting experience for Fortune 500 companies on field service management. Assaf started Aquant with the vision of helping service companies to maximize their products’ uptime. Assaf brought a unique approach from his experience as a Major in the intelligence forces (IDF) where he specialized in turning massive data to knowledge, and knowledge to actions. Applying AI, on top of this proven methodology, enables service companies to leverage their data throughout the service lifecycle to make smarter, faster, data-driven decisions throughout the customer service process. Prior to starting Aquant, Assaf spent 10 years at ClickSoftware, where he served in various positions in consulting and innovation.

Laurent Othacéhé has been one of the most innovative thought leaders in the field service industry for over 20 years. Prior to Cognito iQ, he was founder and CEO of 360 Scheduling, a company he grew to be a leading provider of mobile workforce scheduling and optimisation software. Othacéhé has been recognised as ‘one of the most influential people in field service’ for several years running.  His current mission is to change the face of field service through Cognito iQ’s Operational Performance Analytics technology which provides a revolutionary approach to Field Service Management.

Patrice Eberline is Vice President of Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax where she uses her years of service delivery experience working with prospects and existing customers to fully leverage the value of ServiceMax to their field service organizations.

Patrice brings over 18 years of services and leadership experience to ServiceMax, and has held key leadership roles in several fast-growing software companies. Focused on delivering high impact and long-term customer success, Patrice has a broad background in all aspects of implementation delivery, from methodology to package content, as well as creating/implementing best practice strategies for deployment, training, and adoption across large and complex organizations. Prior to ServiceMax, Patrice was with SuccessFactors, serving as Global Director of SMB Professional Services as well as SuccessFactors University. Prior to SuccessFactors, she was Vice President of Professional Services at Infor, where she led a global staff of consultants across four discrete Corporate Performance Management practices and hosted operations.

Patrice holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from the University of the Pacific, with special study in strategy development and conflict resolution.

Jim Hoskins is the Vice President, Apps Strategy & Development for DSI, the digital supply chain company that creates mobile-first and cloud-first supply chain solutions for the digital economy. Jim started with DSI in 1998 and has served in various delivery and services roles. Jim’s has been involved in hundreds of supply chain and technology service projects. Over his years at DSI, Jim has been instrumental in the design and development of DSI’s mobile platform and Cloud Inventory™ products as well as many mobile applications like, field service, route sales, mobile delivery and many others.  Jim earned his BS in Management at Mid-America Nazarene University.

David Crist is President of Brother Mobile Solutions, Inc. The company’s innovative mobile and label printers provide market-leading businesses in route accounting, field service, public safety, manufacturing/warehouse and retail industries with high-value, specialized solutions to improve workers’ productivity, lower operating costs, gain a competitive advantage and service customers more effectively.

Mr. Crist sets the strategic direction for all customer and partner-facing functions and leads an experienced team of professionals in achieving aggressive year over year revenue increases. He is responsible for leading the development and implementation of a wide range of growth initiatives including new products, markets, channels, strategic alliances and acquisitions. 

Prior to joining Brother Mobile Solutions, Mr. Crist spent 23 years in numerous sales, marketing, business development and executive positions with Hewlett-Packard Co., Zebra Technologies Inc. and Crane Company.  He joined the company in 2009 as Regional Vice President focused on commercial, industrial and vertical markets at Brother. 

Mr. Crist received his Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. He lives in the Chicago area with his wife and three children.

Bob leads the strategic and operational excellence initiatives at Starr and Associates Management Consulting in Atlanta. He is responsible for formulating and driving change strategies such as business process improvement, lean implementation, cost reductions, quality improvement, and customer-supplier relations. He has worked with technical service-based organizations and manufacturing facilitates applying six sigma methodology to resolve complex challenges and forming quality management systems to sustain the gains. He has revitalized complacent cultures, turned around failing divisions, and built high-caliber quality management teams.

Bob has a BS from Rowan University and an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has Six Sigma Black Belt certification and ISO 9001 Lead Quality Auditor credentials. He lives in Carrollton, Georgia with his wife Barbara. 

Bob enjoys camping, kayaking and stargazing through his Dobsonian telescope with his grown children.

Randy Thompson is the Director of Product Management for the Wind River Helix Device Cloud service for IoT device management. Thompson has worked with over 200 companies on IoT and connected products since 2001. Working in technical sales and customer success roles have provided valuable experience in the technical, business, and adoption challenges of IoT projects. As product manager, he has at the forefront of emerging needs for security and manageability of IoT devices. Thompson has an MBA from Bryant University and a BSEE from the University of Texas.

• 21+ years B2B SaaS Integration experience in eCommerce
• 3+ years enabling brands and maximizing Connected Customer Experience
• 6 years Product Management experience
• Certified in Pragmatic Marketing Framework for Practical Product Management
• 3 years Agile/SCRUM Software Development Life Cycle methodologies
• 3 years Project Management experience
• 6 years Technical Senior Solution Consulting experience

One of Sara’s passions is bringing people together. She achieves this as the program director of the Field Service event portfolio where service executives come together to identify best practices, inspire innovation, and build career-long relationships. With a deep curiosity towards industry evolution and fulfillment in helping executives solve their most pressing challenges, Sara conducts market research that leads to the development of the esteemed Field Service USA, Europe, and Fall conferences. She’s been researching, recruiting speakers for, and managing market-leading events for over 10 years in the service, supply chain, finance, pharma, and wellness industries. Prior to conference producing Sara held various roles in technology career counseling, publishing, advertising/PR, and human resources.