Steven D. Levitt, Best-selling Author of Freakonomics

When mild-mannered economist Steven D. Levitt published a paper linking a rise in abortion to a drop in crime, it set off a firestorm of controversy and had both the conservatives and liberals up in arms. But Levitt has no political agenda and is the last person to be called a moralist. He is a brilliant but uncomplicated man who uses simple questions to reach startling conclusions. The Wall Street Journal has said “If Indiana Jones were an economist, he'd be Steven Levitt,” he has shown other economists just how well their tools can make sense of the real world.

Steven Levitt is a tenured professor in the University of Chicago's economics department (he received tenure after only two years) and is the recipient of the American Economic Association’s prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, given to the country's best economist under 40.

Originally published in the U.S. in 2005, Freakonomics instantly became a cultural phenomenon. Hailed by critics and readers alike, it went on to spend more than eight years on The New York Times bestseller list, having sold more than 5 million copies around the world, in more than 35 languages. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt shows how economics is, at root, the study of incentives— that is, how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. Freakonomics shows that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and—if the right questions are asked—is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking.

Terri Mikol, Director, Data Governance Office, UPMC

Terri Mikol has 29 years of experience in Information Technology with a focus on software development and transforming data into valuable information. She has worked in Healthcare related organizations for 26 years, with 12 years of focus on Healthcare Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence, and 4 years of focus on Data Governance. Her deep experience with high volume, high variety, and highly complex data, has enabled her to lead efforts to deploy a unique Data Governance Program at UPMC, designed to increase value of UPMC’s data assets by engaging the entire organization in data related work to make self-service analytics a reality.

Terri has a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and is a member of the Data Governance Professional Organization.

BJ Fesq, Chief Architect and Chief Data Officer, CIT Group

BJ Fesq is Chief Architect and Chief Data Officer at CIT Group where he is responsible for the firm’s technology strategy, enterprise architecture, and data management practices. BJ is currently leading strategic efforts to modernize CIT’s technology platform through the use of innovative capabilities in areas including data virtualization, master data management, mobile apps & devices, scrum, ALM, and data center automation.

BJ has worked at several of the world’s largest financial services institutions, most recently as Chief Architect and one of the first Technology Fellows at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was responsible for grid computing and mobile strategy for the enterprise. He has held several prior architecture and application development roles at JP Morgan Chase, Standard & Poors, Credit Suisse, and Chubb.

BJ has been a conference speaker at Informatica, JavaOne, Under The Radar, IMN Cybersecurity, and other global technology conferences. In late 1990’s and early 2000’s, BJ was an active participant in the Java and Web Services communities, serving on several expert groups including JSR-151 which incorporated XML standards into the J2EE platform and the WS-Security OASIS Technical Committee.

BJ holds several patents and graduated from the University of Rochester where his honors thesis studied the application of artificial intelligence to the robotics domain.

Larry Keyser, Solution Architect/Technical Lead, United Technologies

Larry Keyser is a Solution Architect / Technical Lead in the Corporate IT function at United Technologies. His responsibilities include the envisioning, design, development and implementation of Supply Chain Enterprise IT systems and the Master Data Management program. Additionally, he serves as the lead for the Corporate IT applications department on their journey to internal Gold-level quality certification. Larry joined UTC in 2006 and has held a number of positions of increasing responsibility including, SAP CRM at Pratt & Whitney, JDE, .NET and workflow solutions at Hamilton Sundstrand and custom solution architecture at Carrier Corporation.

Deborshi Dutt, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Deborshi Dutt is a principal in Deloitte’s Life Sciences Technology practice. Deborshi advises life science executives to innovate their business/enterprise to improve profitability and health outcomes of patients by investing in “hindsight,” “insight,” and “foresight.” He drives complex transformation projects for Life Sciences Companies for their Commercial and R&D business functions in Big Data, Data Warehousing, MDM (Customer, Finance, Product & Vendor), Governance & Custom system development.

Ryan Hoffmeister, Senior Manager, Deloitte Consulting, LLC

Ryan Hoffmeister is a senior manager in Deloitte’s Life Sciences Technology practice. Ryan’s focus is at the intersection of digital and information management / analytics technologies. In this capacity, he leads projects in the deployment of processes and technologies that enable clients to realize the value of their digital investments through increased customer engagement and analytics to measure their effectiveness.

Kurt Rosenfeld, Vice President and founder of Data Integration and Business Intelligence, CTI

Kurt Rosenfeld is Vice President and founder of Data Integration and Business Intelligence at CTI. He oversees the company’s strategic drive and rapid growth in these markets. He has helped to build a consulting team able to deliver a wide variety of DI and BI solutions across numerous industries. Kurt has a wealth of industry experience spanning strategic, technical and commercial roles.

Vimal Vel, VP of Partner Strategy, Dun & Bradstreet

Vimal Vel is the Vice President of Partner Strategy at Dun & Bradstreet, where he is responsible for solutions that are developed in collaboration with the company’s Strategic Alliances and Partners. He specializes in integrating product strategy and Innovation to drive scalable content monetization models. He also plays a key role in D&B’s Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) Strategy that natively integrates D&B’s business data and insights into partner work-flows and vertical market solutions.

In his current role, Vimal leads the strategy to deliver new solutions to and through D&B’s alliance partnerships. He has led Product Management and Strategy in D&B’s Sales & Marketing Solutions line of business, delivering both innovation and revenue growth into the business portfolio. He also has deep product experience in the Telecommunications and Semiconductor Industries.

Vimal has a MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dennis Rossi, Master Data Management Competency Lead, Knowledgent

As competency lead focused on MDM and EIM Strategy, Dennis Rossi engages in solution development and delivery for clients of Knowledgent’s Financial Services, Insurance and Commercial Practice. To ensure Knowledgent best meets demand for high quality, low risk solutions, Dennis works directly with customers, overseeing teams and engaged in project delivery. With over 20 years of experience in the IT field, Dennis specializes in data management, enterprise architecture, organizational change management and IT leadership.

Nick Kramer, Solution Partner, Knowledgent

As Solution Partner, Nick is responsible for supporting Knowledgent’s Client Partners to frame out, plan new engagements and perform as practitioner in ensuring execution. Nick provides support across various industries in Knowledgent, highlighting Knowledgent’s ability to apply data and analytics best practices across sectors. Nick also works very closely with their partner ecosystem, applying domain expertise to match use case to technology solution and to ensure that the partner’s solutions drive business value.

Anil Chakravarthy, CEO, Informatica

Anil Chakravarthy is responsible for product development, product management and product marketing of the Informatica Product Portfolio. For nearly a decade, Chakravarthy has held leadership roles at Symantec Corporation. Most recently Chakravarthy was the executive vice president of Information Security at Symantec, responsible for overseeing engineering, product management and operations for an extensive product portfolio including Data Loss Prevention, E-Mail and Web Security (on-premise and cloud), Managed Services, Trust Services and Authentication. Previously at Symantec, Chakravarthy led multiple product groups including Endpoint Protection, Mobile Security and Management, Encryption, Storage and High-Availability and India Product Operations as well as Enterprise Global Consulting. Prior to Symantec, Chakravarthy led product management for enterprise security services at VeriSign. Chakravarthy began his career at McKinsey & Company, where he rose to become the co-leader of the E-Business Practice in the Business Technology Office. Chakravarthy received a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Varanasi, India. Additionally, Chakravarthy received his Master of Science and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michelle Blackmer, Senior Director Customer Advocacy, Informatica

Michelle Blackmer leads Customer Advocacy at Informatica. She and her team focus on fostering relationships with Informatica clients, understanding their challenges and successes and providing channels for clients to share their stories. Michelle previously led Healthcare Industry Marketing at Informatica where she was responsible for healthcare go-to-market. With over 15 years of enterprise software and application marketing experience there is no place Michelle would rather be than in front of a client whether that be meeting with them face-to-face or conveying “voice of customer” to her colleagues. Michelle sees an opportunity to free the value locked in application data silos for organizations to realize their potential.

Prior to joining Informatica, Michelle launched the first Watson based predictive analytics solution at IBM, led healthcare product strategy at Initiate systems (successfully acquired by IBM), implemented Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) and Medication Administration Record (MAR) for GE Healthcare and drove delivery and project management of beta projects at scheduling.com and Dynamic Healthcare. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in business administration and marketing from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Michelle is a frequent blogger on Informatica Perspectives and often speaks on the value that can be realized when organizations deliver clean, safe and connected information about the things that matter most to their business. Michelle is based out of her home office in Seattle, Washington.

Jakki Geiger, Senior Director of Information Quality Solutions (IQS) Marketing, Informatica

Jakki Geiger is the Senior Director of Information Quality Solutions (IQS) Marketing at Informatica, responsible for the go-to-market strategies of solutions such as: Total Customer Relationship, Total Supplier Relationship, and Financial Hierarchies Management, among others. Over the course of her 15 year career spearheading marketing for companies of all sizes — from 10 employees to 50,000 employees — Jakki has experienced the pain of not having clean, consistent and connected customer information to drive marketing programs and reporting. Of course, this was before joining Informatica. Jakki joined Informatica following the Siperian acquisition, where she was responsible for solutions marketing. Before Informatica, Jakki held marketing leadership positions at several venture-funded startups resulting in exponential growth and successful acquisitions by Oracle, Thomson Reuters and Informatica. She graduated magna cum laude with an M.A. in integrated marketing communications from Emerson College in Boston and earned a B.A. with honors in Psychology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Jakki is a published author and frequent speaker on the business value that can be gained when people have access to clean, consistent and connected information about the things that matter most to their business. She’s based at Informatica’s headquarters in Redwood City, California.

Jeff Koss, Senior Product Specialist, Informatica

Jeff Koss is a Senior Product Specialist. He has been with Informatica since 2001. He has helped many customers understand the value of Informatica products and solution in many different industries including Financial Services, Healthcare, Oil & Gas, and Manufacturing. He has over 25 years of experience working with software developing applications, building data warehouses, and working on various business intelligence projects. His focus the past few years are big data, virtualization and metadata management.