Guest Speakers:
William R. Angle, Principal Director, Mission Critical Engineering Dept., CS Technology
Specializing in mission-critical facilities requiring a high degree of redundancy and reliability, Mr. Angle is skilled in designing advanced technology infrastructure. He is instrumental in analyzing factors contributing to reliability and in developing procedures and engineering solutions to achieve client mandated operations. His experience and expertise in reliability engineering have led to the development of new fault tolerant design philosophies, including human engineering, to attain the highest degree of infrastructure integrity and maximize uptime. These fault tolerant design philosophies are showcased in the United Parcel Service Windward Data Center in Alpharetta, GA.
Mr. Angle’s qualifications include 25 years experience in building operations facility management encompassing more than 4.3 million square feet of computer room construction and renovation, corporate space utilization, and facilities strategic planning. Additionally, he has significant project management experience in large building construction and renovation projects.
Mr. Angle holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and an MBA in Finance from the University of Baltimore. He is a board member of the Southeast Chapter of the 7 x 24 Exchange) and is active in the national organization. He is a member of BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) and is a certified Real Property Administrator.
James Dow, Chief Technology Officer, CS Technology
James Dow is a highly experienced technology manager with over 20 years of experience in systems design, systems management, and software development in the Financial Industry.
Focusing principally on Data Center Strategy development and empirical modeling, he has significant external customer accomplishments including, delivery of CTO services for large scale data center and Headquarters development, Global Financial Systems infrastructures, and wireless commerce systems for such Fortune 500 corporations as Bank of America, AIG, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, UBS, Fidelity Investments, and Wachovia.
His management expertise includes formulation, socialization and transition to execution for complex technology strategies. His technical expertise includes both distributed systems and zSeries Operating Systems environments, virtualization technologies, Mass Storage SAN and data replication, as well as LAN, WAN, file and print, messaging, desktop, remote access, internet access, corporate directories, voice / data telecommunications, and network security technologies.
Russell Kurtz, Principal Consultant, CS Technology
Mr. Kurtz is a highly experienced technologist with an extensive background in defining, managing, and delivering complex technology-focused projects.
Mr. Kurtz has a track record of defining business case analyses that affect decisions regarding technical investments through an in-depth understanding of complex technical issues, their interrelationships, and economic effects.
His experience includes both technical work and the building and management of organizations to support various technologies.
Mr. Kurtz has presented at many international business and technical conferences covering such topics as:
- Using Long Run Incremental Cost (LRIC) Analysis to Support Long-Term Network Development Decisions
- Demonstrating the Business Case for the Pure IP optical network; when will the benefits outweigh the costs?
- Evaluating the Vendor Offerings of Next Generation Switches in Terms of Cost, Functionality, and Scalability
- Supporting WDM Architectures by Implementing Innovative OXC Developments for Flexible Routing
- The Business Case for the Evolution Towards the All-Optical Network
- Cross-connect Technology Evolution and Optical Networking
Mr. Kurtz holds a Ph.D in Physics from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.S.E.E from Purdue University. His research topics included Microwave Absorption, Scattering and Re-Radiation and Gravity Radiation in General Relativistic Models.
Having completed all the requirements, Mr. Kurtz has applied to the State of New York for his PE License.
Sabet Elias, Chief Technology Officer, Lehman Brothers
As Lehman Brothers’ Chief Technology Officer, Sabet Elias is responsible for the engineering and support of the core infrastructure, voice, data, servers and storage that support the Firm’s applications and initiatives. In addition, Mr. Elias represents Lehman Brothers at Wall Street roundtable sessions on Linux strategy.
During his tenure at Lehman Brothers, Mr. Elias has held various senior roles including Global Head of E-commerce Infrastructure and Application Engineering.
Prior to joining Lehman Brothers in 2000, Mr. Elias spent five years at AT&T Bell Labs. He is an associate member of the American Society of Engineers and has served on the advisory board of several technical institutes.
Kris Domich, Principal of Data Center Consulting, Dimension Data, North America
Kris has 15 years of technical and consulting experience in information technology infrastructure design, management, and operations. Kris’s repertoire spans continents with significant experience in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, in addition to the US. Recognized globally for a strong business acumen and profound technical knowledge, Kris has served as a direct advisor to the executive leadership of numerous Fortune 100 Companies as well as to the Office of the President of the United States. A recognized thought leader, Kris is often quoted by leading trade publications
Christian Teeft, Director of Engineering, Enterprise Hosting Division, NTT America
Mr. Teeft is Director of Engineering for NTT America’s Enterprise Hosting division. He overseas the team’s responsibilities in product development, advanced hosting technical architecture, and Tier III support. Prior to his current leadership role, he was the Director of the U.S. Data Center Operations where he managed the data center facilities and the service delivery team.
Previous to joining NTT America, Inc., Mr. Teeft held several management positions with at&t.
Joel A. Pogar, Director, Network Solutions, Forsythe
As network solutions director, Joel Pogar is the network practice lead in Forsythe’s western region. Pogar has 16 years of combined experience in telecommunications and data security. He has worked for and advised many companies in the Fortune 50 both domestically and abroad. Some of Joel’s previous engagements include Siemens, Motorola, Intel, Sprint, Boeing, Amoco, Household Finance, United Airlines and the U.S. government.
Before joining Forsythe, Pogar was a national practice director for Siemens in Phoenix, AZ. Prior to Siemens, Pogar was a professional services manager at Nortel in Cincinnati, OH.
Pogar’s extensive professional certifications include the industry recognized Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert (CCIE) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional plus numerous product certifications from Nortel, Siemens, 3Com, Novell and Checkpoint. Pogar has extensive expertise in VoIP, networking and data security.
Pogar is an accomplished speaker and frequently writes for a variety of trade publications. In 2000 he was recognized in the “Who’s Who” of IT professionals and has testified as an expert witness in several high-profile court cases involving technology issues.
Pogar has earned undergraduate degrees in business and information systems from Indiana University and the University of Phoenix. He is currently working towards an MBA from the Keller School of Management.
David Friedlander, Global Technology Services Leader, Integro Insurance Brokers
David Friedlander is an IT leader with over 14 years experience in various IT leadership roles. Currently Mr. Friedlander is responsible for the strategy, procurement, maintenance and implementation of the infrastructure of Integro Insurance Brokers, a global complex risk Insurance Broker. His hands on capabilities allow him to fully understand and harmonize the interaction of workstations, servers, security and network components. Prior to joining Integro, Mr. Friedlander's most notable achievement was designing and building a 7 x 24 global Data Center and Network Operations Center for a large offshore financial services company with offices spanning 30 countries and 100 locations worldwide.
Martin Ward, Director of Products Marketing, Symantec
Currently the Symantec Director of Product Marketing for VERITAS NetBackup, Marty has twenty years of software industry experience in marketing, product management, engineering, sales, and customer support. Most recently Marty was Vice President of Marketing and Products at Asempra Technologies, building a pre-product start-up into a revenue-generating company. Prior to that, Marty was Director of Product Management and Marketing at VERITAS Software, building and managing the team responsible for marketing all Storage, Server, and Application Performance management products as well as High Availability and Disaster Recovery software. Prior to VERITAS, Marty was in Senior Product Management of Data Protection solutions at Sun Microsystems after spending several years in IBM product development of operating systems and storage software and managing the engineering team responsible for development of Tivoli Storage Manager. Marty holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Pennsylvania State University.
John Sawyer, SecureAgent Software
John Sawyer directs sales and technology implementation for SecureAgent Software. With more than 15 years experience in enterprise technology, Sawyer provides disaster recovery and data center operations solutions for the financial, insurance and airline reservation industries. A graduate of the University of Texas, he was a television reporter prior to redirecting his communication skills to data center technology. Sawyer serves the New York financial market for SecureAgent Software and resides in Jersey City, NJ.
Varghese Thomas, Vice President, Financial Markets, SAVVIS, Inc.
Varghese Thomas is the VP of the Financial Markets Vertical for SAVVIS. He is responsible for defining the Financial Markets Vertical strategy and solutions to meet demands of the market. He previously managed the Global Strategic Solutions team for one of SAVVIS’ largest financial markets accounts working on projects such as global content/exchange acquisition and direct exchange feeds.
Prior to SAVVIS, Varghese ran and integrated several Client Services organizations through the BRIDGE Information Systems mergers. He was responsible for the Client Services team of Technical Account Managers, Client Account Managers, Project Management and Field Service Groups deploying and supporting leading market data applications at major brokerage firms while providing industry-leading customer service.
Varghese has also worked at the Smith Barney (Citigroup) Market Data Group, managing various market data solutions for their Trading units along with the associated Market Data Vendors.
Ronald H. Bowman, Jr., Executive Vice President, Tishman Real Estate Services, Tishman Technologies
Ronald H. Bowman, Jr. is a seasoned real estate professional with over 24 years experience directing strategic planning, leasing, consultation, construction, and management programs both nationally and internationally.
Prior to joining Tishman, he founded the Unique Infrastructure Group, LLC and was President of PM Contracting (a Sister company). Mr. Bowman also served as Senior Vice President at CB Richard Ellis.
Ajay Kapoor, Director, Professional Services, Avaya
Mr. Kapoor is responsible for the professional services that surround Avaya's world class communication systems including network consulting, security, and unified communications. Ajay is an IP Telephony veteran and has spent most of the last decade focused on the technology and the largest deployments in the world. Previously, he was Director of Customer Advocacy for Avaya Global Services and has also held leadership roles in Research & Development, Customer Support, and Client Service Management. Ajay is a graduate of the University of Texas with degrees in Computer Science and Philosophy and has previously presented at Networld+Interop, Voicecon, and the International Association of Avaya Users (InAAU).
Thomas Baylark, Alliancesphere
For the last decade of his 25 years in the industry, Thomas has provided consulting support to a broad spectrum of global organizations in the area of Open Systems solutions. In his work with more than 200 global organizations, he has worked with senior executives, technical specialists and enterprise implementation teams; facilitating sessions that help attendees select and implement successful mission-critical IT projects. In his work with global technology vendors, Thomas often provides the voice of the enterprise customer to help ensure that end-user issues are heard. Thomas brings an experienced and balanced approach to transforming IT and corporate information assets into competitive weapons. He excels in the analysis and selection of solutions and their providers to maximize client success.
