Moments of magic

Aruna is a global marketing leader who is passionate about digital transformation, workplace transformation, and DevOps. With her 20+ years of experience in Marketing and management background, she is passionate about elevating marketing into an engine that drives thought leadership and demand generation, with a direct impact to a company’s growth. Aruna specializes in SaaS and digital marketing leading with data driven omni-channel marketing that contributes to the company’s revenue and profitability.

She is currently the VP/CMO of Cisco’s market leading Webex Collaboration business and responsible for all aspects of marketing including demand generation, digital marketing, product marketing, branding and other supporting marketing functions. Before coming to Cisco, she has held other leadership roles at CA Technologies, Juniper Networks and Hewlett Packard.

Lorrissa Horton is Vice President and General Manager of Webex Teams in the Team Collaboration Group (TCG) at Cisco. TCG creates team empowerment through industry leading collaboration tools that enable employees to work anyplace and anytime. Transforming the workplace experience with best-in-class messaging, meeting, video and calling capabilities, both in the cloud and on-premise. Lorrissa manages Cisco's collaboration portfolio in Webex Teams and is laser focused on creating the next generation tools that will revolutionize how people work together. Creating personalized collaboration experiences with artificial intelligence and unifying the user experience with uninterrupted workstreams. Lorrissa is quite passionate about innovation, and has a track record of thinking outside-the-box with the development of nine patents over her career.

Prior to Cisco, Lorrissa brings more than 12 years of diverse experience in product management, productivity software in Microsoft Office, natural language processing, and machine learning with search and NUI experiences, hardware development for sound and video, analytics with Microsoft PowerBI, and business applications for human capital management.

Abhay Kulkarni is the Vice President and General Manager of Webex Meetings in the Cisco Team Collaboration Group. Abhay and his team are laser focused on creating the best meetings experiences in the industry. His team is responsible for development, product management, support and customer success for the Webex Meetings business line, one of the world’s largest SaaS businesses.

At Cisco, Abhay previously led the Webex Platform that powers Webex Teams, Meetings and Devices. A technologist at heart, his work on the platform delivered highly available, world class performance at scale and enables amazing developer experiences via developer.webex.com.

Abhay brings 20+ years of industry experience in building and scaling large cloud SaaS platforms. Before joining Cisco, Abhay was head of engineering at cloud security startup Netskope. Prior to Netskope, Abhay led engineering for Norton Cloud - one of the largest Enterprise clouds managing many petabytes of data for 40M+ users. Abhay holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from University of Pune.

Known for spearheading innovation that accelerates business outcomes, Radhi Chagarlamudi leads the global Platform &Infrastructure Engineering team at Cisco Webex. She and her team oversee the strategy, building, and operation of the infrastructure that supports Webex Cloud.

Radhi is passionate about building high performing teams and has led multiple, complex initiatives, including Cisco’s Data Center transformation to software-defined infrastructure and an AIOps foundation. In her current role, she leads a global team whose charter is to grow the Webex Cloud Platform into new markets supporting innovative ways of working and learning.

Radhi is an active community volunteer using her passion for collaboration, inclusion, and diversity to lead regional STEM programs through Cisco’s Connected Women’s affinity group, and her membership at the Orchid Giving Circle at the Texas Women’s Foundation, which provides large community grants supporting social change and services for the North Texas Asian community.

She holds an electrical and systems engineering bachelor’s degree from Carleton University and an engineering management master’s degree from Southern Methodist University.

Snorre Kjesbu is Vice President & General Manager of Webex Devices at Cisco. He is a global citizen leading a worldwide organization responsible for the collaboration devices business ranging from IP phones to immersive video systems. Snorre’s passion for design with over 20 years of engineering experience are at the core of his belief in always providing authentic user experiences.

Prior to his return to Cisco, Snorre was Executive VP of Design, Creation and Fulfillment at BANG & OLUFSEN in Copenhagen. His résumé also includes SVP at Tandberg and being responsible for R&D on wireless communication at ABB. He and his team at ABB were awarded the Wall Street Journal Innovation award for their work on wireless sensors in 2002.

Snorre holds a Master of Science from the University of Bristol and has been a guest lecturer at the Stanford Network Research Center in Stanford University. He has obtained more than 20 patents in the areas of communications and video conferencing and is on the board of directors for several IT companies. When not working, Snorre can likely be seen on a pair of skis – whether on snow or water.

Omar Tawakol is the VP & GM of the Cisco Contact Center Business Unit. Prior to joining Cisco via the acquisition of Voicea in 2019, Omar was the founder and CEO of Voicea. Voicea built an enterprise voice AI that was used as a meeting assistant in over 10,000 companies. Voicea started in 2017 and was backed by a variety of corporate investors including Cisco, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.

Prior to Voicea, Omar Tawakol was the founder and CEO of BlueKai which was the leading Data Exchange and Data Management Platform company in the advertising industry. Oracle acquired BlueKai in 2014. At Oracle, Omar was the SVP & GM of the Oracle Data Cloud (ODC). Through organic growth and acquisition, the ODC became the largest Data-as-a-Service business in the marketing industry serving 97 of the top 100 US digital marketers.

He earned an MS in CS from Stanford University and a BS from MIT.

Carlos Cong is the Director of Enterprise Technology Services at Paychex. In his role, Carlos leads the technology direction and operations for our Unified Communications, Network, Data Center and Field, End Point and Paychex PEO IT Network and Infrastructure engineering teams. Mr. Cong also oversees the company's communication budget planning and execution.

Mr. Cong has developed and implemented a wide array of technologies nationwide on both carrier grade and enterprise grade environments including Data Centers, VoIP networks, IP Networks, Infrastructure environments including compute, storage, web and application layers, and Unified Communication’s; including video and interactive collaboration technologies. He has also, through leading departments of over 200 employees, developed employee retention programs, trained staff in new technologies, and developed career advancement programs. Mr. Cong has served as Director and Sr. Director in two companies prior to joining Paychex.

Craig Thomas is a proven technology executive, thought leader, and change agent with 25 years of experience providing transformational IT leadership, spearheading critical technology initiatives and aligning technology with business goals. He currently serves as VP of Software Development at TMobile where he has responsibility for supply chain, financial, payment processing, and workforce productivity solutions. In addition, Craig leads a team driving enterprise-wide change with the Workforce Transformation Program.

Craig specializes in managing companies undergoing rapid growth and technology-assisted business transformation.  He has experience defining and delivering strategic business initiatives, operating technology solutions and IT turnarounds. Over the past eight years, his focus has been leveraging digital transformation to enable rapid growth while sustaining industry-leading cost efficiency.

Prior to joining T-Mobile, Craig spent six years leading customer experience and billing development for MetroPCS, a provider of no contract, unlimited wireless communications service and the fifth largest facilities-based wireless carrier in the Unites States. Craig contributed to the company’s strategy as a member of the leadership team and drove tactical initiatives including implementation of the core customer service and billing platform, the evolution of MetroPCS into a tax-inclusive product model and the nation’s first LTE deployment.

Earlier in his career, Craig was a senior consulting leader in the Dallas area leading large development programs and eCommerce initiatives in the retail, travel and transportation industries. He began his IT career with Ernst & Young LLP. Craig earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance from Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business and a Master of Business Administration degree from Baylor University.

DeAnna Woody is Vice President of Contact Center Services for OceanX. DeAnna is a proven leader in acquisition and customer care industry with responsibility for 20+ direct-to-consumer beauty and health brands. DeAnna specializes in innovative management and technology solutions to support best in class customer care and retention strategies. DeAnna has over 25 years of experience in the direct-to-consumer space and spent most of her career in leadership positions of increasing responsibility with Guthy-Renker and OceanX before being promoted to Vice President.

In 2010, DeAnna was a key business stakeholder and core member of the team that transitioned the OceanX contact center to a cloud-based solution. As early adopters of the “cloud,” OceanX was instrumental in providing meaningful feedback and user experience perspective to Cisco to be leveraged in future innovation of the Cisco Contact Center platform.

Doug Jones, Vice President Voice and Collaboration Services, currently has product management responsibilities for AT&T’s Cisco meetings, voice and collaboration services Doug has worked in the communications industry since beginning his career with AT&T in 1986 as a hardware developer in Labs. He has held numerous positions in product management, business development and technology development. Prior to his current role, Doug was responsible for business development of AT&T’s first web collaboration services. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications from Stevens Institute of Technology. Doug also holds two telecommunications related US Patents. Doug and his wife reside in Southlake Texas with their three children.

As IBM's Chief Information Officer, Fletcher Previn leads a global team of 12,000 whose mission is to prioritize the user experience and provide secure, global IT at scale for ~350,000 IBM employees worldwide. Fletcher defines the IT strategy, tools, devices, and infrastructure that create a productive internal environment. Under his leadership, IBM has pioneered new ways of delivering IT by establishing an agile culture and operationalizing design to better enable IBM's transformation to a cognitive enterprise.

Gary has over 25 years of Fortune 500 information technology experience in the biotech, entertainment and retail industries. Since joining Amgen in 2007, he has held leadership roles in architecture, service management and information security, and has led Enterprise Architecture since 2017. His primary responsibilities include global technology strategic planning, IT strategic partner liaison, program leadership of CIO digital transformation initiatives, and leadership of Amgen’s global platform, solution and enterprise architects.

He is the Chairman of Amgen’s Global Architecture Review Board, a member of the IS Leadership Team, and sits on Amgen’s Commercial, Manufacturing, Research & Development and G&A Technology Councils. He is also a member of numerous strategic partner Customer Councils and the TOGAF and AES societies.

Gerald Charles, Jr. is an innovative technology strategist, recognized thought leader, and C-Suite advisor building strategies and business models that create markets, generate revenue streams, improve customer experiences, and inspire corporate campuses of the future.

Mr. Charles is a published McGraw-Hill author and author of multiple industry-changing POV platforms on topics including the 21st Century work force/work space, Collaboration, Cybersecurity, and innovation in the Public Sector. He is a noted speaker and has run annual workshops at the Nobel Public Services Summit in conjunction with the Nobel Peace Conference.

As Under Armour’s VP of Global IT Operations, Revenue, and Strategy, he rebuilt their Global IT Infrastructure, Cyber Security, and Retail IT Operations and now is leading their development of Omni Consumer Engagement and Commerce services, enabling their brand and Connected FitnessTM platform. This follows a decade of leadership in Cisco Systems elite strategy teams, formed to be advisors to C-suite executives of their top global customers to dramatically move their businesses.

Previously, Mr. Charles served as VP and Chief Technologist for OAO Technology Solutions and VP, Systems Integration for Engineering at BDM/TRW, where he was one of the chief architects of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR System.

Mr. Charles is a Board member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), NPower’s Maryland Advisory Board, AT&T’s Business Advisory Council, and Brighton Park Capital’s Special Advisory Group. He is a past Board member of the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County (CRCMC) and advisory boards of the Federal Computer Week /e-Gov Institute for their Annual Security & Enterprise Architecture Conferences and Boy Scouts of America (Troop 96).

Mr. Charles is an alumni of International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2), National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM), and National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).

He won the Congressional Medal for Outstanding Service and Achievement in college, holds a M.S. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and Illinois Institute of Technology, respectively, and CISSP (ISC2) certified (2004 – 2013).

Janet Preteroti, Vice President of Member Experience at Clearview Federal Credit Union, began her career with the Credit Union in 2004 leading the organization’s Contact Center operations.

Ms. Preteroti was promoted to Assistant Vice President of Operations in 2011. In that capacity, she oversaw the continued growth in the Contact Center, while adding responsibilities related to sales, servicing of debit and credit cards, and deposit operations. In 2013, she added the branch network to her team. In recent years, her focus has narrowed to the Contact Center and the network of 18 financial centers, with the member experience of upmost importance. Ms. Preteroti was promoted to Vice President of Member Experience in June of 2020. In this role, she provides leadership in connecting MX to strategic goals and partners with other leaders to ensure a cohesive experience over the various channels available to members.

Prior to joining Clearview, Ms. Preteroti’s background included call centers in the banking, health care, and car rental industries.

Ms. Preteroti holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Studies from Duquesne University and a Masters of Leadership and Liberal Studies, also from Duquesne University. 

She grew up in Bethel Park, PA and presently resides in Washington, PA with her children, Anessa and Nick. 

Jared Myers is Contact Center Operations Manager at OceanX. Jared graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, with a BA in Communications and has 18 years in the direct to consumer space, working with a variety of clients ensuring customer retention, satisfaction, and growth. His passion is empowering his team with tools and technology that allow them to deliver results that surpass client & customer expectations. When not working he enjoys spending time with his family in the outdoors, especially hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains around Asheville, NC.

Jason is the Customer Strategy & Applied Design (CS&AD) Offering leader for Deloitte Consulting LLP’s US Government & Public Services (GPS) practice which helps clients discover, design, and prototype strategies for customer growth and innovation. A core mission of the CS&AD practice, and one of Jason’s personal drivers, is to help clients and Deloitte’s talent elevate the human experience in everything they do.

With more than 10 years of experience, Jason applies his deep knowledge from the global private sector to help public sector leaders develop and launch innovative programs, products, and services. Through creating differentiated experiences and marketing strategies, and harnessing authentic storytelling and human centered design, Jason enables clients to better deliver their mission and more effectively meet customer and citizen needs.

Jeff Sturman is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Memorial Healthcare System/South Broward Hospital District. Previously he was a Partner with Cumberland Consulting Group, a national healthcare IT consultancy, as well as Ernst & Young’s Healthcare Consulting practice. Mr. Sturman has over 25 years of healthcare experience, specifically in the planning, management and facilitation of digital transformation, organizational change, operational impacts, and overall governance. He is an accomplished, results-driven executive with demonstrated success leading healthcare digital initiatives.

Jérôme Rouch-Sirech has over 15+ years of international work experience across retail, consulting and marketing. His various assignments have always revolved around building, expanding and turning around businesses and brands, as well as growing market share (L’OREAL, PRAMEX, PUMA). He is currently based in Singapore, being responsible for PUMA’s Direct to Consumer business (O&O stores and e-commerce) in South East Asia, and the alignment of PUMA’s local franchise partners. Prior to moving to Singapore, he was responsible for PUMA’s retail business in India. He holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Forward-thinking IT visionary and strategic planner with a reputation for challenging the status quo, driving change and innovation while simultaneously leading mission-critical operations and teams’ necessary for a 24x7 global service-oriented company. The proven ability to build high-performing teams and form strategic partnerships has resulted in a very strong record of success delivering technology that transforms businesses that spans over a 20+ year career.

Malcolm Fraser is a Product Manager working for Tetra Pak and have worked within technical infrastructure service for the past +20 years. Providing the best internal IT experience for our 25 000 end-users daily where collaboration tools like video meetings never been more important than today. Tetra Pak is a world leading food processing and packaging solutions company. Working closely with our customers and suppliers, we provide safe, innovative and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people in more than 160 countries.

Marc Mancher is an innovator that has spent the last 25 years advising, running and operating front and back office technology and operations. In today’s convergence of AI and operations, Marc’s focus is on how to improve service to citizens while maintaining a close eye on the bottom line. In this capacity, as a Principal in Deloitte Consulting, he leads its Federal, State, Local, and Contact Center and Intelligent Automation business lines. Marc’s clients have included household names such as Google, IBM, T-Mobile, USAA, Anthem, the US Navy, and various government entities. Marks blend of expertise across industries and initiatives make him an asset to coordinate work across State agencies and identify common threads and efficiencies to deliver on the State’s enterprise solution vision.

Matt Messick is the Chief Information Officer for the Dallas Cowboys. In his role, Matt leads the team responsible for the technical operations of AT&T Stadium, Dallas Cowboys Headquarters at The Star, and all Jones Family related entities. Matt oversees a team of IT professionals dedicated to maintaining the Cowboys reputation as the leading franchise in professional sports.

Joining Rent-A-Center in 2016, Mike held numerous leadership positions before being promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer. As the CIO, Mike has been responsible for transforming the Rent-A-Center technology team into a world-class technology organization that fosters innovation and operational excellence to evolve the customer experience and value proposition for their consumers.

His efforts also included the rebuilding of the Rent-A-Center Information Security practice to be fluid, flexing to address the evolving threat landscape. Modernizing the End User Computing capability, promoting a proud and productive workforce within the RAC corporate environment and the creation of their Experimentation-as-a-Service practice in which provides innovation and experimentation support to the organization.

Prior to Rent-A-Center, Mike held senior leadership positions within logistics, pharmaceutical, information security, and innovation firms.

As a dedicated technologist, Mike stays close to the world of disruptive innovation to challenge conventional delivery methodologies and gain competitive advantage. Mike lives in McKinney Texas, where he and his wife, Dawn, of 20 years are raising their two daughters.

Rajeev Khanna is Chief Technology Officer and SVP of Information Technology Platform Services for Aon. Since joining Aon in April 2015, Rajeev has been responsible for all IT platform services, including hosting services, cloud, databases, middleware, data center, end user services, collaboration network, devsecops and testing platforms. Rajeev is also responsible for enterprise architecture to lead Aon technology strategy. Additionally, Rajeev is head of technology for Aon data and analytic services to deliver products and solutions that enable industry distinguishing, insightful decision-making, and to accelerate digital transformation.

In a career spanning nearly three decades, Rajeev has held various leadership roles across industries. Prior to joining Aon, Rajeev was Vice President of Global Infrastructure Services at Expedia. At Expedia, Rajeev led the implementation of innovative solutions based on emerging technologies including private cloud implementation to support faster launches of new products and capabilities. During his tenure at Asurion, a rapidly growing electronic device protection insurance company, he led their global infrastructure production services. Rajeev spent fourteen years with UBS AG in various leadership roles supporting all business divisions across the bank’s global portfolio of services. He has also held various technical and business leadership positions with Pencom Systems, Bankers Trust, and Ingersoll-Rand.

Rajeev serves on several advisory boards and councils to lend his expertise and insight in order to advance and shape the future of technology. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University and an MBA from Seaton Hall University.

Shelly is a Managing Director in Deloitte’s Government and Public Services practice, bringing over 20 years of experience as a technology transformation leader. Her work includes implementation of large statewide applications, customer and technology strategy development, contact center implementations, and human-centered design. Her passion is understanding people – their actions, decisions, and feelings – and leveraging those insights to guide decision-making, generate ideas, improve experiences, and ultimately deliver better solutions.

Shelly joined Deloitte in 2007 and has held a variety of roles within the Deloitte US member firm and Deloitte Global firm. Before her current role, Shelly lead a global infrastructure organization that was responsible for delivering enterprise products & solutions, developing technology strategies, and transforming the delivery of infrastructure services through cloud technologies and DevSecOps processes.

Shelly attended the University of Texas at Austin for undergrad and completed a global MBA at TRIUM (NYU Stern School of Business, London School of Economics, and HEC Paris).

Stanley Toh has over 20 years of experience in end-user service delivery and new technologies that changes the end-users experience landscape. Stanley has an excellent leadership track record managing diverse global teams in successfully multiple M&A transformation; executing global IT operations transformations; implementing leading edge & cloud technologies; enhancing end-users experience with AI, ML & automation workflows; plus managing IT outsource & service partners. He successfully uses matrix management style to promote initiatives that embrace forefront technologies with calculated risks within the organization and externally with outsource partners.

Tamara Jensen is a Senior Technical Product Manager specializing in the strategic vision for the Customer Contact Experience team at T-Mobile.  Tamara has a demonstrated history of highly innovative solutions in the telecommunications industry.  Most recently she coordinated the COVID response to enable more than 12,000 T-Mobile Care Experts to work from home - in less than two weeks.   The pandemic interrupted the very tail end of a two-year effort to help integrate Sprint and T-Mobile into the New T-Mobile.   Tamara was responsible for leading the telephony and call routing projects for the merger. The first phase was to bring unified experience to the combined customer base.   As that was completed in August, the second phase of the effort kicked off and she is now leading highly talented project teams to consolidate two world-class platforms into one.

Tamara holds a BA in Management Information Systems from Western Washington University, and Master of Science, Information Technology, Business Intelligence and Analytics from Purdue University Global.

Chirantan “CJ” Desai serves as chief product officer at ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW).

Desai is responsible for all of ServiceNow’s products, platform, design, engineering, and cloud infrastructure operations.

Prior to joining ServiceNow, Desai was the president of the Emerging Technologies Division at EMC where he had a full P&L responsibility for emerging technology products with a focus on launching and growing new businesses.

From November 2004 to September 2013, Desai held several product leadership roles at Symantec Corporation, including executive vice president of Information Management and senior vice president of Endpoint and Mobile Security.

Desai began his career with Oracle Corp and was a key member of the team that launched Oracle’s first cloud service. Desai has a master’s degree in Computer Science and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is on the board of directors at Zebra (NASDAQ:ZBRA).

Blair Pleasant is President & Principal Analyst of COMMfusion LLC and a co-founder of BCStrategies (formerly UCStrategies). As a communications industry analyst, she provides strategic consulting services and market analysis on business communication applications, technologies, and markets, aimed at helping end-user and vendor clients both strategically and tactically. Her primary areas of focus are Unified Communications and Collaboration, contact center and customer engagement. Blair provides clients with a variety of custom consulting services, including market analysis, surveys and research, white papers, product assessment, competitive analysis, strategic development, vendor analysis, marketing and product positioning, partner development, and more.

She is a frequent speaker and participant in industry conferences, webinars, podcasts, and other events to help educate customers, solution providers, channel partners, investors, and others about the evolving Unified Communications and Collaboration and contact center markets.

Blair’s blogs and articles can be found on www.bcstrategies.com and www.commfusion.com. She also tweets on Twitter as blairplez, and you can find her on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Ms. Pleasant received a BA degree in Communications from Albany State University, and an MBA in marketing and an MS in Broadcast Administration from Boston University.

Dave Michels, a self proclaimed communications protagonist, is the founder of TalkingPointz which offers commentary and research including a well known monthly Insider’s Report. Dave’s unique perspective on enterprise communications and collaboration comes from a career involving communications and IT leadership positions. A published author, Dave posts opinions and research at TalkingPointz.comand also contributes regularly to multiple news and analysis sites including No Jitter.

Dr. E. Brent Kelly is President and Principal Analyst at KelCor, Inc. where he provides strategy and counsel to CxOs, investment analysts, VCs, technology policy executives, sell side firms and technology buyers. He has made measurable real-world contributions in telecommunications, manufacturing, electronics, oil field services, chemicals, and mining. Brent has a strong background in numerical methods and applied artificial intelligence with significant experience developing IoT and AI solutions. He has written hundreds of articles and reports in the unified communications and collaboration industry and regularly delivers webinars and thought leadership addresses at public and private events. He is a regular presenter at Enterprise Connect, the communications industry trade show where his well-respected tutorials and technology sessions have covered topics such as AI in the Contact Center, Cisco versus Microsoft for communications and collaboration, WebRTC, and cloud-based unified communications services. Brent has taught technical seminars in North America, Europe, Australia, and South America. His articles on NoJitter.com have often ranked among the most widely read in the industry. Dr. Kelly has a Ph.D. in engineering from Texas A&M University specializing in thermodynamics and artificial intelligence and a B.S. in engineering from Brigham Young University. Dr. Kelly has served two terms as an elected official in his Utah community and is co-owner, with his wife, of a gourmet chocolates manufacturing company.

Irwin Lazar develops and manages research projects, conducts and analyzes primary research, and advises enterprise and vendor clients on technology strategy, adoption and business metrics, Mr. Lazar is responsible for benchmarking the adoption and use of emerging technologies in the digital workplace, covering enterprise communications and collaboration as an industry analyst for over 20 years.

A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and sought-after speaker and author, Mr. Lazar is a blogger for NoJitter.com and contributor for SearchUnifiedCommunications.com writing on topics including team collaboration, UC, cloud, adoption, SD-WAN, CPaaS, WebRTC, and more.

Mr. Lazar’s earlier background was in IP network and security architecture, design, and operations where he advised global organizations and held direct operational responsibility for worldwide voice and data networks.

Mr. Lazar holds an MBA from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from Radford University where he received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve, Ordnance Corps.

Jim Lundy is the founder and CEO of Aragon Research. Jim also serves as the lead analyst for collaboration, content management, content analytics, digital workplace, learning and sales engagement.

Jim has over 30 years of technology and management experience as a vendor, user, and analyst. Jim spent 12 years at Gartner, where he formed and led the collaboration and social software research team and also served as lead analyst for enterprise content management (ECM) and corporate learning. Jim has extensive experience in product strategy, development, and go-to-market plans.

Prior to founding Aragon Research, Jim was the VP/general manager of the collaboration business unit at Saba Software. Jim also spent 15 years at Xerox in a variety of software and hardware sales and marketing positions. Jim has a B.S. in finance from Penn State University.

Marc F. Beattie is a Senior Analyst & Partner at Wainhouse where he focuses on workplace communications & collaboration. He has authored public and private reports on product strategies, distribution structures, emerging technologies and industry applications. He regularly consults with end users, established vendors, emerging companies, and the financial community. Prior to founding Wainhouse, Marc was an early member of PictureTel and Polycom - holding positions in product management, business development and sales management - and spent 13 years working within the industry. He has been an independent analyst and consultant since founding Wainhouse in 1998. He can be reached at mbeattie@wainhouse.com.

Robin Gareiss is President and Founder of Nemertes Research, where she oversees research product development, conducts primary research, and advises leading enterprises, vendors, and carriers. She serves as chief financial officer, as well.

For 25+ years, Ms. Gareiss has advised hundreds of senior IT executives, ranging in size from Fortune 100 to Fortune 1000, developing technology strategies and analyzing how they can transform their businesses. She has developed industry-leading, interactive cost models for some of the world's largest enterprises and vendors.

Before joining Nemertes, Ms. Gareiss shaped technology and business coverage as Senior News Editor of InformationWeek. She also served in a variety of capacities at Data Communications and CommunicationsWeek magazines, where helped set strategic direction, oversaw reader surveys, and provided quantitative and statistical analysis. In addition to publishing hundreds of research reports, she has won several prestigious awards for her in-depth analyses of business-technology issues. Ms. Gareiss also taught ethics at the Poynter Institute for Advanced Media Studies. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, and American Medical News.

She earned a bachelor of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois.

Sheila McGee-Smith, who founded McGee-Smith Analytics in 2001, is a leading communications industry analyst and strategic consultant focused on the contact center and enterprise communications markets. She has a proven track record of accomplishment in new product development, competitive assessment, market research, and sales strategies for communications solutions and services.

McGee-Smith Analytics works with companies ranging in size from the Fortune 100 to start-ups, examining the competitive environment for communications products and services. Her professional accomplishments include authoring multi-client market research studies in the areas of contact centers, enterprise telephony, data networking, and the wireless market. She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, user group and sales meetings, as well as an oft-quoted authority on news and trends in the communications market.

Zeus Kerravala is the founder and principal analyst with ZK Research.Kerravala provides a mix of tactical advice to help his clients in the current business climate and long term strategic advice. Kerravala provides research and advice to the following constituents: End user IT and network managers, vendors of IT hardware, software and services and the financial community looking to invest in the companies that he covers.

Broadway: On Your Feet (Jose Fajardo); Leap of Faith (Angel); In the Heights (Piragua Guy); Hair. Off-Broadway: Pirates of Penzance (Delacorte), In the Heights (DRAMA DESK AWARD); Godspell (York); A New Brain (Lincoln Center). Regional: Zorro, The New Musical (Garcia) Alliance Theatre, Little Miss Sunshine (Buddy Garcia), La Jolla Playhouse. Workshops/Readings: The CHER Project (Moore/Elice); Prince of Egypt (Stephen/Scott Schwartz); Havana (Wildhorn/Trujillo), Nightingale (Sheik/Sater). Eliseo has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Centerand Feinstein’s. He's also performed with Sting, Jason Mraz, Vanessa Williams, Sir Elton John , Mariah Carey and John Legend to name a few. Eliseo is a proud member of the Broadway Inspirational Voices.

Jarrod Spector was nomi¬nated for both a Tony and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his performance as Barry Mann in Beautiful – The Carole King Musical. He made his Broadway debut as Gavroche in the origi¬nal production of Les Miserables, and went on to play a record-breaking 1500 performances as Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys. He recently originated the role of Sonny Bono in The Cher Show. National Tours: Les Miserables, Jersey Boys; Off-Broadway: Hamlet (Hamlet); Regional: Roman Holiday (Irving Radovich). He has toured the country with his critically-acclaimed solo concerts and duet performances with his wife Kelli Barrett. Jarrod grew up in Philadelphia, attended Princeton, and trained at the Atlantic Theater Company in NYC. @jarrodspector

Kelli Barrett has been a principal role in five different Broadway shows: Wicked, Dr. Zhivago, The Royal Family, Baby it’s You! and Gettin’ the Band Back Together. She’s starred in over 26 major television shows and feature films including the recurring roles of “Maria Castle” on Netflix’s The Punisher, “Liza Minnelli” in the Emmy nominated FX series Fosse/Verdon, and “Nadia” on the CW’s Dynasty. Look for her upcoming turn on Apple’s Dickinson. Off-Broadway she originated “Sherrie” in Rock of Ages, and “Frankie” in On Your Toes! (Encores!) Her favorite role to date was playing “Eliza Doolittle” in the Michael Arden directed Bay Street production of My Fair Lady. She’s also a published writer, director, coach and founding member of the non-profit organization The Hysterical Womxn’s Society. See her award-winning duet cabaret filmed with Tony-Nominated husband Jarrod Spector Look At It My Way in Season 3 of The Kate series for PBS. @kelli_barrett.

Honored to do anything for BCEFA at any time! Broadway: For the Girls w/ Kristin Chenoweth. Off-Broadway: R.R.R.E.D., The Marvelous Wonderettes, My Big Gay Italian Wedding, Fav Regional/International/Tours: A Taste of Things to Come, Jawbreaker, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Bare, Into the Woods and Grease. Marissa works as a recording artist and back up singer for some of New York City and Nashville‘s finest! She has had the honor of singing backup for Shoshana Bean, Patti LuPone, Jessica Vosk, Betty Buckley, Marty Thomas & Lillias White to name a few. She is proudly represented by Bloc Talent Agency. Follow her at @themarissarosen!

Shoshana Bean’s three independent solo albums have all topped the iTunes R&B and Blues charts in the US and UK, with her fourth and most recent project, SPECTRUM, debuting at #1 on the Billboard Jazz charts. She has sold out solo concerts around the globe, lent her voice to countless films and television shows, amassed millions of views on YouTube, and performed alongside Ariana Grande, David Foster, Postmodern Jukebox, Brian McKnight, and Michael Jackson. Shoshana is a veteran of the Broadway stage having made her debut in the original cast of Hairspray, starring as the very first replacement for Elphaba in Wicked and most recently as Jenna in Waitress. She won a IRNE Award for her performance as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and earned a Jeff Award nomination for her portrayal of CeeCee Bloom in the pre-Broadway musical production of Beaches.

Telly Leung is a New York City native, Broadway performer, recording artist, producer, & theater arts teacher. His Broadway & national touring credits include Aladdin in Disney's Aladdin on Broadway, In Transit, Allegiance, Godspell, RENT (final Broadway company), Wicked, Pacific Overtures, Flower Drum Song. In 2010, he starred as Angel in RENT at the Hollywood Bowl. Television audiences will remember him as Wes the Warbler on Glee, as well as his guest star appearances on Instinct, Odd Mom Out, Deadbeat and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Telly is featured as a coach for the Jimmy Awards in the PBS documentary, Broadway or Bust. He can be heard on many original Broadway cast recordings and has released two solo albums - I’ll Cover You and Songs for You - on The Yellow Sound Label. He holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama. He has taught master classes and courses at American universities across the country and has been a guest teacher at drama programs all over the world, from Edinburgh to Tokyo. His producing credits include the concert series Broadway Back Together, the musical short film GRIND, and the original virtual musical The Nice List streaming free this holiday season. @tellyleung www.tellyleung.com