Dr. Milton Mattox

CEO, Chief Advisor, USCSI™, United States

Dr. Mattox is a technologist, corporate leader, and author who has worked with some of the world’s most acclaimed companies. An authority in delivering highly complex technology products and solutions, he continues to practice the leadership techniques and methodologies outlined in his books and articles to successfully increase return on investment for companies, organizations, and executives. Milton is an experienced, senior technology executive with an extensive background in software engineering, application development, IT infrastructure and offshore Research and Development (R&D) team management. This includes a proven track record of transforming and accelerating technology development and delivery in alignment with the goals of the business worldwide.

Milton is currently the Chief Technology Officer for Castle Shield, a company that provides corporate enterprises and consumers with cutting edge technologies to secure data and view all security events and vulnerabilities in real-time. Previously, Dr. Mattox was the Chief Operating Officer for Cipherloc Corporation, a leading supplier of high-value data security solutions.

Milton has a doctorate in Organization & Leadership, an MBA, and a bachelor of science in electronic engineering technology. In addition, Milton was an online adjunct doctoral professor for over 4 years at Colorado Technical University, where he taught classes in Leadership, Management, and Technology.

Frederick Schlosser

CEO and Founder, ML Enterprise Software LLC, United States

Frederick is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in various senior management roles. He started his career with Price Waterhouse Coopers and co-founded his first business, a real estate development company in 1986, where he managed a multi-million dollar construction budget and a sizable residential development portfolio. Since then, he has held a wide range of senior management roles in the healthcare, software, and financial services industries serving primarily as a CFO, COO, principal, or co-founder. He founded Solstice Strategies in 2009 to assist companies in developing infrastructure, processes, and procedures in preparation for institutional capital raises.

Currently, he is the CEO and Founder of ML Enterprise Software, which is a Revenue Management Software company and is being developed as an end-to-end SaaS portal targeting the Healthcare sector.

Frederick is a licensed CPA, has an undergraduate degree from Williams College, and an MS in accounting from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Brenda Patton

Realtor, CNE, GRI, SRS - Ebby Halliday Realtors, United States

Brenda is a senior executive with multiple years of experience in negotiations and contracting. She is a passionate realtor and is a residential specialist in the North Dallas area focussing on the communities of Frisco, Plano, McKinney, Allen and The Colony. She joined Ebby Halliday REALTORS® Frisco office in 2014 for their brand and integrity. Ebby Halliday REALTORS® has been in the Dallas area for more than 70 years, has the best name recognition in the market with the highest market share.

Prior to real estate, Brenda worked in defense contracting as a buyer and subsequently as a Procurement Manager at the Boeing Company. She has a wealth of knowledge in negotiations, contracting and risk management and uses that knowledge and skills for your benefit as your representative.

Brenda has a Master’s Degree in Supply Chain Management from the University of San Diego, a Certificate in Dispute Resolution from Southern Methodist University. She has her Bachelor’s from University of Phoenix and her Associate’s is from Arizona Western College.

Prasanna Venkatesan

Program Director, Infosys, India

Prasanna is a highly motivated professional with experience of over 19 years in the IT industry. His unmatched technical knowledge and interest in Artificial Intelligence and Gaming are phenomenal. As a Program Director at one of the major IT companies in the world, Prasanna was instrumental in creating a separate division in the organization for AI and gaming. Prasanna has worked with various organizations across the globe and has managed multi-million dollar projects aligned to the business goals of his clients as well as his organization. In a remarkable span of 19 years, Prasanna is an IT leader and has successfully built teams, conceptualized, and delivered business as well as IT transformation projects by implementing technology solutions.

Prior to joining Infosys, Prasanna has worked for some of the best IT organizations in the world like Cognizant, Accenture, TCS, and Patni Computer Systems.

Prasanna has done his Bachelors from Indian Institute of Technology Madras and went on to do his Masters in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

Dr. Luiz Laranjeira

Senior Researcher and Software Architect, Joyent, United States

Dr. Laranjeira is a senior scientific researcher who generally oversees scientific and engineering teams, including basic and applied research projects, as well as the development of new processes, technologies, or products. Generally, Dr. Laranjeira combines discipline-specific knowledge with leadership and business skills to promote efficiency, profitability and competitive position of organizations and companies alike.

As a senior researcher and software architect/developer with 30 years of overall software development experience in the IT industry, Dr. Laranjeira has a strong academic background (i.e., a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering), and a solid understanding of all phases of the software development lifecycle. His expertise also includes conducting research and development in areas such as distributed systems, computer and network security, high-performance computing (CPU+GPU), machine learning, blockchain, and cryptography. He leads software projects, teams, and performs as a senior individual contributor where he architects, designs, and implements complex distributed multithreaded software systems, including those that run on multicore and distributed platforms and meet real-time and fault-tolerance/high availability requirements.

Alecia Andersen

Chief Executive Officer, V3 Enterprises, United States

Alecia is an intelligent, solutions-focused, no-holds-barred marketing, sales and operations executive. She dives headfirst into solving complex, deep-seated challenges, uncovering possibilities and reframing thinking to capitalize on opportunities that have previously eluded similar teams by leveraging enterprise market insight and general on-demand software expertise. Having cultivated an unequivocal forte for unearthing greater capabilities in sales, marketing, and operations, Alecia has earned a reputation as a thought leader who is equally analytical as she is a visionary.

As the current CEO of V3 Enterprises, she is committed to providing healthcare organizations with the tools, services, and advice needed to be leaders in the industry. V3’s innovative programs, cutting-edge solutions, and market strategies help acute care facilities achieve practical results through collecting pharmaceutical rebates, among other positive results. Alecia has a proven track record of successful turnarounds and buildups in Software and Healthcare Consulting. She is an expert consultant on technology safety and security, and has worked on various projects at the federal and state government levels within the United States. In addition, Alecia is also the Chief Executive Officer of Sampson R Bean Consulting, where they provide sales and marketing consulting that keeps organizations updated on the latest technology solutions.

Alecia completed a BSBA in Accounting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Shankar Sundaram

Corporate Vice President, New York Life Insurance Company, United States

Shankar Sundaram is a healthcare leader with more than 15 years of experience in driving IT investment decisions and operating big bet initiatives. His primary areas of concentration are IT strategy planning for technology innovation and business transformation, post-merger technology integration, complex program planning and oversight, technology organization optimization, and technology vendor evaluation and contracting. He has worked across various industries, including healthcare, insurance, and telecommunications. He considers himself a ‘forever student,’ eager to both build on his academic foundations in computer science and engineering and stay in tune with the latest technology trends through continued coursework.

Shankar is currently the Corporate Vice President for New York Life Insurance Company, with the Group Benefits Solutions division where he focuses on technology planning and delivery to launch rapidly growing lines of business, partnering with insurance technology companies to build bleeding-edge insurance solutions and leading technology implementation for product launches.

Prior to joining New York Life, Shankar worked in product and technology leadership positions at major insurance and telecommunications companies like Cigna and Motorola. Shankar has a Master of Sciences from the University of Illinois, Chicago and a Bachelor of Technology from Nagpur University, India.

Dr. Elijah Porter II

Electrical Engineer and Scholar, United States

Dr. Porter is a theorist, educator, and engineer who has spent fifteen years working as an electrical engineer, and the most recent fifteen years working as a mathematics educator. He has positioned himself as a leading contributor to mathematics education at the K-12 level. Dr. Porter has committed himself to challenge the social injustice in education, mathematics education, specifically. He uses the tools of social science, cognitive ecology, and semiotics to facilitate the development of all learners. He has found an innovative approach to integrating his engineering experience with his educational experience to develop a promising “meta” approach to learning.

Dr. Porter has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education, a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineer; and a Bachelor’s degree also in Electrical Engineer.

Ed Mayer

Senior Vice President, Enterprise Services & Delivery, Radian Group, United States

Ed Mayer is a senior-level business technology leader well renowned for “getting things done” by focusing on five key areas: (1) ROI, (2) delivery, (3) effectiveness, (4) cost containment, and (5) customer satisfaction. He is always mission-focused. He is courageous, possesses great thought leadership, deals well with ambiguity, as critically needed organizational agility, and has a great EQ/IQ mix.

The key to Ed’s effectiveness is his ability to influence, inspire, and direct the most efficient use of people, processes, tools, and technology. He has specific expertise in creating, building out, and leading IT and Business enterprise delivery teams of all sizes – particularly initiatives >$25M.

At present, Ed is the Senior Vice President – Enterprise Services & Delivery at Radian Group Inc. During his first stint with Radian Group, Inc. in 2002 to 2007, led the Merger & Acquisition team and MGIC – a combined $10B market cap merger. M&A synergies of nearly $200M were identified and restructuring charges of $185M were being realistically tracked and audited by Mayer’s Integration Planning Office. Prior, Mayer ran Radian’s IT PMO for 4+ years. Apart from Radian, Ed has worked in senior positions with organizations like Synchronoss Technologies, Cigna, and VerticalNet.

Previously, Ed served in the U.S. Navy for 5 years as an Intelligence Specialist. He was embarked on the Commander Second Fleet’s Flagship for 3 years before serving 2 years under the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence at the Headquarters of the Allied Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal by Vice Admiral James R. Sanderson, USN.

Ed has earned a BA (Summa cum laude) in Management Information Systems from Holy Family University and a Doctorate in Jurisprudence from Temple University School of Law (Dean’s List). He is a member of the American Bar Association, and was admitted to practice before the bar of the United States Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Niraj Kumar

Director – Delivery, Nagarro, India

Niraj is a technology geek with a major interest in the IT services domain and has expertise in Managed Services, P3O Practice, Consultancy, Transition, and Transformation of an IT service delivery process. He has steered multiple application managed services engagements & operations across verticals based on an internationally recognized framework (TIPA).

Niraj has experience of more than 22 years in the IT industry and managed multi-million dollar projects for Fortune 500 companies globally. He is currently working as a Director in a leading IT company in the world, Nagarro – a leader in digital product engineering & drives technology-led business breakthroughs. Prior to Nagarro, he has worked with an organization such as Erricson, JK Technosoft, Patni Computers, Keane, Cap Gemini, and more.

Niraj has done his Master’s in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee – one of the premier institutes in India. He also has multiple professional and technical certifications under his belts, such as ITIL (Expert), PMP, Kepner & Tregoe, SIAM (Prof.), TIPA, and VERISM.

Vladimer Botsvadze

Mentor - Abu Dhabi SME Hub

Vladimer Botsvadze is a world-renowned digital transformation and social media influencer, advisory board member, and keynote speaker who initiates change, drives growth, and positions brands as market leaders in their industries. He has more than 15 years of international experience with a proven track record and has enjoyed an outstanding career at the top of the technology industry.

Ranked among the Top 15 Global Artificial Intelligence Thought Leaders by Thinkers360 with over 130,000 followers across his social media platforms, Vladimer has become one of the world's top speakers on technology and he has been booked by Startup Grind, Digital Talk Forum, AI Conversational Summit, and Global Marketing Summit. His performance at the Global Marketing Summit has been watched by 50,000+ participants from 143 countries, 6 continents, and 922 cities.

Vladimer is currently an Advisory Board Member of RETHINK Retail in Orlando, Florida. He has been elected as a jury member at the Digital Revolution Awards and the Prolific North Marketing Awards in the UK. In addition, he is a member of the Marketing Judging Committee of the American Business Awards. He has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, and Yahoo Finance. Vladimer is a career mentor at the University of Westminster and a marketing mentor at global start-up accelerators and summits including Startup Wise Guys, Abu Dhabi SME Hub, Seedstars, Take Off Istanbul, FasterCapital, and APX VC.

Vladimer has been recognized as a Transformative Leader of the Year by Exeleon Magazine, Enterprise World Magazine has listed him among the Top 5 Successful Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2022, and Insights Success Magazine has named him among the Top 10 Inspiring Business Leaders Making a Difference.

Melissa Brickhouse

Technology Leader and Coach

Melissa Brickhouse is a senior Data Science Professional leveraging 22+ years of critical thinking and strategy to drive product innovation and organizational excellence. Her expertise in data analysis, business intelligence, and strategic decision-making have helped organizations to expand their capabilities in Data Science, business processes, and 360-degree organizational growth. Melissa is a thought leader in Data Analytics and a motivational coach helping individuals as well as organizations to reinvent from within. She is also the founder of Reinvent Within which helps professionals focus on career growth through workshops, coaching sessions, and online programs.

In her current role as Director for Data Analytics Reporting and Operations at Cigna, the leading multinational managed healthcare and insurance company, Melissa supports the data warehouse, SQL, ETL, data mapping, and reporting needed for effective intelligence operations. An expert in data science tools, she uses Tableau and other data visualization tools, to design and build dashboards to support the IT needs of the organization. Melissa is associated with Cigna for more than 18 years now. Prior to Cigna, she worked with Eastman Kodak in the capacity of System Analyst way back in the 2000s.

Melissa has earned her Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Penn State University. She is an MBA in Finance from Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

Dr. Kenneth Cooper

Founder/DataPoint Solutions Consulting, LLC

Dr. Kenneth Cooper is a Cybersecurity industry leader with 25+ years of experience in innovating, developing strategic solutions, ensuring secure integration, and applying security-first design and architecture engineering for Department of Defense systems, Broadband and Media Telecommunications Service provider Systems and Corporate Fortune 100 companies and State and Local Government agencies in several States and their major cities and metropolitan areas. Understanding organizational landscapes and identifying their core environments that require Cybersecurity focus for protection and risk mitigation is his specialty.

Dr. Cooper has been the driving force for many companies’ Cloud and Digital transformation innovation. The Strategic visionary for defining and implementing Cybersecurity initiatives and organizational Risk and Threat management programs. He has designed Identity and Access Management for Cloud, On-Premise, and Hi-security environments such as FedRAMP in recent years, as well as developed solutions for FinTechs and several startups in the Health and Insurance industries.

In his current role as Director of MSSP Client Delivery at Aprio, the leading CPA and business advisory firm in the world, he is creating growth and leading digital transformation for MSSP clients. He is also the CEO and Founder of DataPoint Solutions Consulting, a top-tier cybersecurity consulting firm that has experts in cybersecurity strategy, design, architecture, implementation, and assessment. Previously, Dr. Cooper was associated with organizations and universities such as CompTIA, Transamerica, Charter Communications, Ottawa University, Southern New Hampshire University, Colorado Technical University, CGI, Oxford Global Resources, Compaq Computer Corp, and Guoxin Lucent Technologies Network Technologies. He has also served the United States Air Force for 16+ years where he was a network systems technician, System Architecture and Integration Specialist, and Telecommunications Engineering Specialist.

Dr. Cooper holds a Doctorate in Computer Science from Colorado Technical University, with a sub-discipline in Computer Engineering; Data protection and Data privacy requirements such as PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, and NYDFS regulatory and compliance have been his key focus. Data transport security, Data storage security, and Data Processing security are his SME areas. He has earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Hawaii Pacific University and his Master’s in Computer Engineering from Colorado Technical University.

Dr. Eddie Tiggs

Education and Business Consultant at Consulting Services of America, LLC

Dr. Eddie TIggs is an accomplished scholar, finance executive, and serial entrepreneur with more than 30+ years of experience in education, finance, healthcare, food service, and disposable paper industries. His expertise includes relationship management, human relations, critical thinking, educational counseling, mentoring of adult students, mortgage finance, team performance improvement, and training. Dr. Tiggs is a passionate educationist and believes in mentoring young minds to achieve robust career growth.

Way back in the ‘90s, Dr. Tiggs started his career in sales and business development for organizations like Wyeth, Roberts Pharmaceuticals, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, and others for more than a decade. During these years, he was involved in developing teams, recruitment, training, and mentoring professionals for retail sales. In the early 2000s, Dr. Tiggs entered the finance domain where he recruited, trained, and provided leadership decision-making and planning to identify and close business gaps. He developed and cultivated 6 new branch locations throughout Arizona and Nevada and advanced new markets generating $2MM/month in production.

The entrepreneurial journey of Dr. Tiggs started in 2006 with Synergistic Mortgage Advisors. He sustained company growth through change management and the creation of business plans, loan originations, new branch development, ongoing personnel training, mentoring of loan officers, developing new internal and external partnerships, and recruiting future leadership. He has associated with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage as Underwriter apart from his association with the University of Phoenix and DeVry University as Adjunct Faculty. Currently, Dr. Tiggs is the Education and Business Consultant at Consulting Services America, LLC, where he specializes in presenting strategic solutions for the improvement of tangible results (Leadership, Personnel, and Work environment).

Dr. Tiggs has completed his Bachelor’s in Physical Sciences from The University of New Mexico and is an MBA in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. He received his Ph.D. in Education – Global Training and Development from Northcentral University in 2018.

Nathalie Bar

Head of Customer Advocacy and Global Campaigns at Temenos I Top 100 CMA

Nathalie is an award-winning marketing leader with more than 20+ years of experience in B2B technology, telco, and FinTech industries. Her expertise in global campaigns and customer advocacy campaigns has impacted her organizations tremendously in terms of marketing processes, demand generation, million-dollar pipelines, etc., that led her to win the Top 100 CMA strategists list.

Her marketing journey started in the late 90s or rather early 2000s and worked in managerial as well as leadership capacities in global organizations such as Wily Technologies, CA Technologies (formerly Computer Associates), Nortel, Avaya, Tata Communications, and Temenos. In her current organization, Temenos, the leading banking platform provider, Nathalie is the Head of Customer Advocacy and Global Campaigns, where she is responsible to lead customer advocacy programs with data analytics techniques. She has developed or built programs from scratch at CA, Avaya, Tata, and Temenos enhancing and strengthening the marketing processes.

As a speaker at various marketing events, Nathalie is passionate about customers and enjoys sharing their success stories highlighting the human factor and how they impact their clients’ lives.

Dr. Cindy Gordon

CEO, SalesChoice Inc., Canada

Cindy is the Founder and CEO of SalesChoice, a SaaS AI company that focuses on Ending Growth Uncertainty for Human Advantage, using advanced AI and Data Science methods. Dr. Gordon is an international AI thought leader and AI business strategy pathfinder, and she is passionate about educating boards and senior executives on the practical realities of designing, developing, and sustaining Responsible AI.

She is known as an expert in solving complex business strategy and IT innovation modernization challenges. She brings deep expertise in SaaS, Software, Enterprise Software, Customer Relationship Management, Predictive Analytics, AI, Data Sciences, Generative AI and Enterprise Modernization. She has extensive business transformation and change management expertise to advance new ways of working, technology adoption, and alignment practices to achieve Customer Focus and Operational Excellence across diverse F500 organizations.

Under Cindy’s leadership, SalesChoice has won many awards: CEO Sales Automation Award - Canada - 2023, Digital CEO - Bonhill Award - 2022, Disruptive AI Innovation Award, Mindbridge AI Award, Start-up Canada AI Entrepreneur of the Year for 2017 National and Regional Award Winner, Top 100 Silicon Valley Companies to watch, Hottest Vendor of the Year by Aragon research for 2017, etc. She has worked with many of the tier one Technology leaders like Accenture, IBM, Intel, LG, Microsoft, Rogers, SAP, Salesforce, Siemens, Xerox, etc. in designing, building, or deploying modernized systems.

Prior to founding SalesChoice, Cindy held senior executive or partner leadership roles at Accenture, Xerox, and Citicorp. She is a global thought leader with 14 books in the market and her latest book is The AI Dilemma. Cindy actively speaks on AI and Transformational Change, with a focus on AI Ethics and Law. Cindy is a co-founder of the International AI DIRECTORY. She is active in the community promoting AI and Diversity and is the former National Spokesperson for Women in Tech for CATA and was awarded the prestigious Top CEO in Tech in Canada winning the Sara Kirke and EY Award in 2017 for her Community, Diversity Mentoring, and Innovation Leadership. She is currently a Forbes AI Board Advisor, an Adjunct AI Ethics/Strategy Professor at George Brown College, a Board AI Advisor at Forbes and at the University of Arizona. In 2022, she was recognized as one of the Top AI Global Influencers by Onaytica.

She is a Board Advisor of the International AI Forum and was the Conference Chair in Nov 2022 focused on AI Modernization. She is also a Governor General Award Winner for her Technology Innovation Leadership advancing STEM and Innovation across Canada. Academically, Dr. Gordon has a doctorate from the University of Toronto (“Complexity Science and Technology”, and a Master’s of Education from the University of Alberta (“Smart Wallets/ Smart Technology). She has also completed advanced studies from MITon AI Business Strategy (2021) and recently received an Honorary Doctorate in Applied AI from George Brown College (2023), and is actively teaching AI Ethics and Law. She also has leadership and work experience as a Venture Capitalist at XDLI. Dr. Gordon is very active in the international and national AI communities, and sits on the: AI Forum Board of Advisors, Forbes AI Board of Advisors, and most recently she was an International Judge for AI Business Models at the Women in the June 2023 AI International Conference, and the Global AI Forum Conference as a Keynote. Board and Leadership Governance are key strengths of Dr. Cindy Gordon. Cindy has completed her ICD Board Certification on board governance and is passionate about ethics, transparency, and strategy alignment with technology modernization programs (AI, IoT, Relationship Intelligence, Mood Health & Wellness). Dr. Gordon writes an AI Forbes column to share best practices as she values life-long learning and knowledge sharing. Based in Toronto