SPEAKERS AT THE IT PMO/PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE

Conference Chair:
Randy, Wimmer, IT Portfolio Manager, Walgreens Boots Alliance

Accomplished, results driven leader with over 25 years of IT and business experience. Developer of strategies as well as tactical solutions enabling IT Portfolio Management and PMO capabilities within various companies such as Allstate Insurance, MillerCoors and currently Walgreens. Successfully and consistently demonstrates an ability to deliver seamless, cost effective solutions leveraging critical thinking and established frameworks (e.g. PMBOK, CMM, ITIL, etc.). Enjoys working in a team setting that utilizes common goal/objectives definition, collaboration, joint problem solving, and knowledge sharing. Develops fellow professionals (internally/externally) by providing coaching, mentoring, and serving as a volunteer conference chairman for CAMP IT Conferences. He is an avid craft beer fan and is planning to take the Certified Cicerone exam.

Marcel Bautista, Agile Engineering Program Manager, iCIMS

Marcel is an experienced project manager having worked across various industries including Access Control Systems, Broadcasting, and Human Resources Information Systems. He received his first taste of Agile methodologies in 2010 as a Product Owner guiding the development of On-Air Systems at NBCUniversal and has been passionate about providing value early and fast to customers ever since. As a member of the Agile Engineering Center of Excellence, he now leads the Agile transformation at iCIMS, a SaaS company comprised of 19 development teams. Marcel is an avid learner of all thing Agile and applies these insights and his unique experience to implementing Program Management within iCIMS.

BlumhorstDave

David Blumhorst, Daptiv Principal Evangelist, Changepoint

Dave Blumhorst joined Daptiv in December 2009 and his professional services team is focused on enabling successful business outcomes for customers using Daptiv’s PPM toolset. Prior to joining Daptiv, Dave ran EffectiveIT Group, a Daptiv partner and process consulting firm, that delivered implementation services to Fortune 1000 clients such as Carlyle Group, Beam Global, and Aegon USA.

 

Dave is a seasoned executive that has run IT, professional services, and finance departments. He has served as a controller and CFO for small to mid-sized companies, served as CIO at mid-sized companies such as Clarent, and was the senior director of the IT-PMO at PeopleSoft. Throughout his 30+ year career he has always found innovative ways to use technology to create business value.

Mark Bodman, Senior Product Manager, ServiceNow

Mark is a Senior Product Manager at ServiceNow responsible for the Application Portfolio Management product and serves as the IT4IT Adoption forum chair. Mark has leveraged the IT4IT standard at more than 100 engagements since 2013. Mark is IT4IT™ certified and has a long history in the Enterprise Architecture practice. Mark is an executive advisor, thought leader and mentor to many in the IT industry. Prior to ServiceNow, Mark worked on cross-portfolio strategies to shape HPE’s products and services to include service multi-source service brokering, and IT4IT adoption. Prior to HPE, Mark spent 4 years as Product Manager at Troux, and before that 9 years in Dell IT in various roles to include Manager and Enterprise Architect.

Nicole Bossert, Vice President, PMO, HUB International

Nicole Bossert is Vice President of the Project Management Office at Hub International where she is responsible for the success of strategic technology programs and projects, including Mergers & Acquisitions integrations. In her current role, she directs a team of 40 project management professional executing multiple programs & projects for the Enterprise. Nicole leverages her infrastructure, PMO, and consulting background to drive prioritization and value within the organization.

Shelley Donovan Ritchie, Director Project Delivery – Project Delivery and IS
ACL Laboratories

Shelley Ritchie is a Project Management and Quality Management Professional with a true passion for realizing value through Portfolio Management. Shelley has over 20 years of experience in Information Services with 13 years being in the healthcare industry, Shelley has over 4 years’ experience in building and managing a successful and transformative Portfolio. Shelley severed as a Technology Services Portfolio Manager at GE and had the main responsibility of facilitating the planning, governance, resourcing and reporting on a portfolio of technology-related projects. Shelley currently is building a Project Delivery Framework at Aurora ACL Laboratories and supporting the maturing of ACL’s Portfolio Management through resource management, governance and process establishment. Shelley is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2003 who holds a Master’s of Science in Project Management and Bachelor’s Degrees in Finance and Computer Science. Shelley is currently studying for her Portfolio Management Certification.

Laura Dribin, Founder, Peritius Consulting

Peritius was founded in 1989 by Laura Dribin, a refugee from a big five consulting firm. She watched projects succeed, but saw too many fail or limp across the finish line. She believed there was a simpler way.
So, Laura began a journey to find wise people who understood the value of solid and repeatable approaches, but didn’t get lost in those approaches when a creative solution revealed itself. She believed she could mix experience with drive and make these complex initiatives easier to complete. She knew that the hardest part of any job was to hire individuals with strong soft skills / high EQ that knew how to engage people and get them to drive to the desired outcome. . The end result is her current company, Peritius Consulting.


Today, Laura spends her time actively growing her business, biking, getting out of town as much as she can for fun and gilding her empty nest!

Katie Ellis, Director, Program Management, Cars.com

Katie Ellis is the Director of the Enterprise Program Management Office for Cars.com. Katie uses her background in organizational change and project management to facilitate the strategic planning process for the company and lead initiatives to deliver on our growth strategy. Prior to Cars.com, Katie was part of the inaugural digital technology organization at McDonald’s, led change management programs for the company’s enterprise technology department, and tested an employee engagement tool.

 

Katie has a MS in Positive Organizational Development and Change from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and a BA in International Studies from the College of William and Mary. Katie is committed to supporting working mothers, especially new moms, and leads a neighborhood parents group in Chicago.

Dana Fanno, Sr. Manager, Portfolio, Program and & Project Management, Country Financial

Dana has been leading and practicing project, portfolio and strategic planning for the past 18 years. Since 2002, Dana has done grass root development, implementation and transformation of four PMOs (including global). She is known for PMO start-ups and driving transformational organization change across several functions, regions and levels. Dana began her career with Procter & Gamble in IT, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has worked in a variety of industries and roles; both business facing and IT. Dana has provided progressive team leadership, consulting experience and delivered highly effective results in business and technical environments.

 

Dana graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington with a Bachelor of Science degree in Quantitative Business Analytics. She received her Master’s Certification in Project Management from George Washington University in 2002, her PMP in 2002 and her Six Sigma Green Belt in 2009. Dana has been an active PMI member since 2002.

 

More of Dana’s professional background can be seen on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-fanno-pmp%C2%AE-3094408/

Brad Jeske, Sr. Manager, Health Plan IT Strategist, HCSC

Brad Jeske is a senior leader in the Health Plan industry who works across IT and Business helping manage and drive interactions around strategic engagements, integration and continuous improvement. His diverse background and experience in Operations, Marketing/Sales, and Information Technology provides a deep understanding of the End to End Enterprise Program and Project execution and value creation. Brad is leading a Process Design and Governance discipline delegated to incubate, optimize, and mature process improvements through a network of Centers of Excellence and Communities of Practices.

Cara Judy, VP of Delivery and Quality Management, Peritius Consulting

Cara is a demonstrated and accomplished professional with 15+ years of experience executing strategic initiatives for her customers. She has worked on both sides of the IT / business divide and has helped C-level executives and senior management leverage technology to enable business strategy and corporate vision. Her significant overseas work experience arms her with a global perspective.

 

Cara’s key areas of expertise include: Project/Program/ Portfolio Management, Organizational Change Management, Business/IT Alignment, & Business Process Redesign. Cara spent her early career in Management Consulting delivering complex projects for multinational organizations. Prior to joining Peritius, she worked as the Director of Program Management at both Amcol International and Komatsu America Corp.

Amy McJoynt, Sr. Manager, Centric Consulting

Amy McJoynt is a Senior Manager at Centric Consulting. Amy has over twenty years of experience improving business results by successfully leading large, complex technology initiatives. At her current client, Hub International, she has led programs for M&A acquisition integrations, CRM program rollout across regions, and the launch of the Data & Analytics initiative.

Jeff Manhardt, Vice-President-Program Manager, M&T Bank

Jeff Manhardt is a strategic technology leader with over 18 years of a proven track record achieving project & program management objectives while utilizing situational leadership to manage global teams. He has managed dozens of projects & programs for a Buffalo-based top 20 Bank and is a bank acquisition specialist. Jeff’s experience, skill-set and thought leadership propelled him into managing the Technology Program Management Office in July 2014 responsible for program managers, project/program support personnel & business requirement analysts and a portfolio of over 100 projects & programs.

 

Over the last 10 years, Jeff’s results oriented, process driven leadership approach has culminated with projects & programs completing within 10% of time and cost earning him an award for Best Technology Project Manager in 2014.


Jeff has also served as Adjunct professor at Canisius College Center for Professional Development and spoken at conferences such as Finance Transformation Summit, Recession Proof PDUs and at multiple PMI chapters in the Northeast and internationally.

Jeff received his PMP® certification in May 2005 and has served on the PMI Buffalo chapter Board since 2007 in the positions of VP of Programs, VP of Professional Development and currently as VP of Technology & Business Services.


Jeff has also served on the boards of the Buffalo Chapter of the IIBA, BA/PMWorld Toronto Board of Advisors & the Graycliff Conservancy.


He holds a BS degree in Business Management from D’Youville College and is the principal owner of the Dramjam Consulting organization. Jeff’s professionalism, extensive banking experience and strong community leadership serves the Bank & community with distinction.

Justin Nelson, Change Capability Architect

Having had topic relevant roles that include Head of strategic change management, Country CIO and Global product manager. Justin’s experience of what to and what not to do was earnt and learnt at Microsoft, Kellogg, Unilever and Sony. Today he will share approaches to successfully address change strategy, user change, change saturation and the risk of change collision. With the realities of digitization, commoditization, and new or transforming business models – the customer demand and resulting IT change management needs are only going to increase. This conversation will provoke you to assess your approach to continuous change.

Nirmalya Pal, IT Governance and Process Improvement Leader, HCSC

Nirmalya is an experienced IT Governance Professional with Management Consulting background. She is a Process Improvement expert working with the EPMO for Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), the nation’s largest customer-owned health insurer covering 15 million members at five Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Montana. Nirmalya has about ten years of driving delivery excellence for Portfolio, Program and Projects and helping organizations improve business value. 

Nicky Phelps, Analyst, IT Planning and Analysis, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.

Full biography coming soon!

Pat Saint, Senior Portfolio Manager, Global IT PMO at Roche Diagnostics

Pat is a Change Leader with 30 years of Fortune 500 corporate experience in Information Technology (IT) and Supply Chain Operations – primarily in healthcare, defense, and aviation regulated industries.

 

Presently, Pat is a Senior Portfolio Manager, Global IT PMO at Roche Diagnostics in Indianapolis, Indiana who oversees the “CIO’s Top Key Projects, leads strategic and operational project portfolio process improvement initiatives, plus provides project manager onboarding, mentoring, and team coaching.

 

Leading a dual career, Pat retired with the rank of Colonel in the United States Marine Corps and is a graduate of Indiana University, Kelley School of Business and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

 

Additionally, Pat is a Certified Prosci™ Change Management Practitioner, a Certified Master Coach, an Author, a Speaker, and a certified Coach in Conversational Intelligence® (C-IQ).

Annur Sumar, CTO, Maetech; Microsoft MVP, Former Vice President of IT D&P

Annur Sumar is a Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter MVP and technology consultant in the areas of Infrastructure Design, Enterprise Content Management, CRM, Microsoft Azure, System Center and Cloud Technologies. Annur is an industry recognized leader and independent speaker around strategic service automation, technology driven process improvements, IT service alignment, engineering best practices and operations management. All of which are targeted in his presentations to helping businesses with complex IT environments lower Total Cost of Ownership and raising Return On Investments.

 

Prior to joining a Microsoft Partner Consulting firm, Annur served as a Vice President of Technology for Duff & Phelps. One of the world’s leading independent financial advisory firms serving client needs in the areas of valuation, investment banking, transaction advice, and dispute consulting. During his tenure at Duff & Phelps, Annur worked closely with Microsoft product teams and case study managers in providing invaluable feedback around how businesses such as his were able to benefit from cloud technologies that were molded into business solutions. As a Microsoft MVP and industry expert, Annur brings 10 years of experience to work actively with other MVPs and Microsoft Partners to provide industry insight and strategic direction.

Grant Zemont, Senior Engagement Manager, Rego Consulting

Grant Zemont has centered most of his career around the discipline of project management as a practitioner, leader, and educator. He currently helps companies implement project and portfolio management (PPM) tools and process, focusing on end-user adoption, operational use, and training. His approach focuses on the people side of the equation, embracing conscious leadership principles.