The IDCA Board of Directors (“Board”) is responsible for articulating and upholding the vision, values and mission of the organization. The Board provides the data center community a direct voice into IDCA’s activities and fosters bi-directional interaction with data center experts, designers, developers, managers, owners, operators, and data center solution providers. The Board also acts as the steering committee, hence one key endeavor of the Board is to provide supervision, guidance and direction to the IDCA committee and sub-committees. IDCA Board of Directors consists of multiple research committees, representing IDCA’s research and development body, and makes research and recommendations on programmatic issues of interest to IDCA. The Board makes strategic decisions about the direction and faith of data center industry as viewed by IDCA. The Board is ultimately responsible for the management and monitoring of long-term data center industry goals at the strategic level, verifying soundness with established objectives, and keeping established frameworks accordingly. The Board composition includes carefully elected professionals from diverse backgrounds and perspectives as follows:

Mehdi Paryavi

Chairman
Richard Bowie

Programs Development Council
Richie Etwaru

Data Rights Council
Joseph Yuen

Asian Relations Council
Brian K. Branson

Education Council
Ashley Pridemore

Legal Council
Shaji Nair

International Trade Council
Christine Hoerbinger

Secretary of the Board

Mehdi Paryavi

Chairman

International Data Center Authority

Chairman

Mehdi is Chairman of International Data Center Authority (IDCA). He provides guidance to the IDCA affairs and data center industry via his active presence, in-depth knowledge, diverse expertise and see-through vision. Mehdi’s thoughts are always highly educational and boldly progressive. When he speaks, he delivers exceptionally unique set of eye-opening speeches and lectures that are always life changing. He lectures globally and represents IDCA in summits, seminars, symposium and webinars. Meeting with governmental delegations, including Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Ministers with regards to digital economies, digital infrastructure, digital road-maps, data center and cloud strategies, national standardization and education programs on information technology, as well as discussions with C-Levels across the corporate arena are integral portions of Mehdi’s active role at IDCA. He oversees the developments of the IDCA boards and committees. He provides insight and supervision to the development of the data center standards and utilizes his knowhow, expertise and forward-looking strategies to empower and enable the development of the Application Ecosystem® industry, which is inclusive of information technology, data center, cloud, IoT, AI, etc.

Mehdi is first individual to realize the urge, pioneer the concept and advocate for “application-centric” infrastructures. He actively promotes "data" center specialization across industry verticals suited to the application needs. He is a futurist living in the present, a thought leader in true Cloud “not just Virtualized, but Realized” (as he puts it), expert strategist and transitionist between the logical abstraction layers of cloud to its physical merits and possibilities. His in-depth understanding of the “data center” and its inherited comprehensive unity of IT and Facility merged with his sensible and realistic approach towards energy efficiency and environmentally conscious designs and implementations sheds light into the clouded ambiguities of “Big Data”, “IoT”, and “Cloud” which caters harmony to the world at large.

Mehdi is the pioneer and authority on the digital economy fundamentals, initiatives, and developments. He is passionate about building better lives for the citizens of the world. He emphasizes on the promising merits of building the right foundations for robust and sustainable digital economies around the globe. Mehdi has carried out missions and traveled worldwide to carry the message of global harmony, peace, dialog, liberty, and prosperity through the means of fundamental digital transformation of nations and their emergence to the new global stage.

He has led the campaign to bring knowledge, standardization, compliance, best practices, and technological developments as well as effective expertise to the data center industry, both nationally and internationally specially for mission-critical environments effectively for national security projects, securities and exchange projects, aviation and transport, military and defense, oil and gas, telecommunication, healthcare, etc. Mehdi is known for his immense experience, thought leadership, visionary strategies, comprehensive expertise, effective methods and systematic, yet fluid approach. Mehdi has been personally responsible for the training, education, certification and career development of thousands of data center professionals worldwide.

Aside from his speeches in conferences, symposiums, lectures, sessions with top officials and discussions at expert assemblies, his advice and strategies are typically used as benchmarks at many government and private institutions. Thus, organizations typically seek his recommendations for best practices and approach towards their short-term and long-term planning of cloud, data centers, information technology and data management.

Contact Mehdi at chairman@idc-a.org.

Visit Chairman's Notes: mehdiparyavi.com.

Richard Bowie

Programs Development Council

International Data Center Authority

Member of the Board, Program Development

Richard worked thirty years for the Federal Government designing and teaching management and executive training courses and providing internal management consulting services. Received numerous letters of commendations from top executives, including the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Also received numerous Performance Awards including the Career Achievement Award.

Contact Richard at richard.b@idc-a.org.

Richie Etwaru

Data Rights Council

International Data Center Authority

Data Rights Council

As founder and CEO of Hu-manity.co, Etwaru is known for pursuing the 31st Human Right “everyone has the right to legal ownership of their inherent human data as property.” He is driven to reshape the world by creating a new data economy, where inherent human data is legally human property.

Richie Etwaru has spanned unlikely disciplines and multiple continents over two decades. He has had the honor to operate in academia, entrepreneurship, government advisory, and Fortune 500 companies in financial services and healthcare. He’s been quoted in NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, Computer World, Forbes, VentureBeat, WIRED, and has appeared on dozens of television stations and media outlets globally.

Contact Richie at richie.e@idc-a.org.

Joseph Yuen

Member of the Board

International Data Center Authority

Asian Relations Council

Joseph Yuen is one of the most influential members of the global IT community who is passion resides in bridging eastern and western hemispheres of the globe.

Mr. Joseph Yuen was appointed as the Rotating Chairman of World Trustmark Alliance (WTA) in April 2018; a world organization to promote cyber trust and cyber security under digital transformation with members over 40 countries; and the Chairman of Hong Kong Federation of E-Commerce (HKFEC) since 2015.

Mr. Yuen has intensive experience in Digital Business from being the Founder and CEO of Ecommerce World Limited, and his role as Managing Director of China Post Trade Development Company Limited. Prior his work with China Post, Mr. Yuen was the founder and CEO of Digital Outdoor Television Limited in 2006. The company was the first in Hong Kong to bring HD television program and advertisement, installed over 400 restaurants, computer arcades, 7-11, Circle K and record stores.

Mr. Yuen also has a rich management and marketing experience from local and regional telecommunication industry. He was the General Manager, Marketing of New World Telecom who brings first VoIP deployment in 2002 and a the first FTTH deployment in Thrunet-Korea, as the Regional Senior Marketing Manager of Optical Ethernet Solution from Nortel Network Asia since 1994.

Mr. Yuen was graduated in Bachelor of Electronics Engineering (Communication) degree from the University of RMIT, Australia in 1996, and he is currently the Board Advisor for Guangdong Province Electronics Commerce Association (GDECA); Ecommerce Foundation in European; Russian Association of Internet Trade Companies (AITC) and the Expert committee of APEC Ecommerce Business Group.

Shaji Nair

International Trade Council

International Data Center Authority

International Trade Council

Shaji Nair is the Chairman, CEO and Founder of Future of Technology Summits hosting Future of Technology Summits around the globe. Mr. Nair is a serial entrepreneur, an industry veteran with years of experience on the international frontlines of industry’s development and evolution.

Mr. Nair’s role at the International Data Center Authority is to provide council on is digital trade initiatives worldwide, thus a) help nations build robust and sustainable digital economy platforms b) channel investments into the right venues for the digital transformation era, c) educate, train, certify and enrich the global data center and cloud workforce.

Christine Hoerbinger

Secretary of the Board

International Data Center Authority

Secretary of the Board of Directors

Christine Hoerbinger is the Secretary of the Board of Directors at the International Data Center Authority (IDCA). Christine comes from 30+ years of experience working with some of the world’s most reputable institutions. She has edited Regional Economic Outlooks (REO), coached, supported and organized writing course for MCD economists, planned and organized Washington-based outreach events for management and policymakers and drafted commentaries for international press, blogs, books, articles and surveys.

She is an expert writer and editor who has served in the capacity of Chief Editor, Analyst, Researcher, Consultant, Project Evaluation Officer, Public Affairs Officer and Assistant Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Contact Christine at christine.h@idc-a.org.

Ashley Pridemore

Legal Council

International Data Center Authority

Legal Council

Ashley Pridemore is a business and financial law specialist, securities and due diligence attorney who is expert in range of securities transactions including: (i) real estate investment trusts (REITs); (ii) business development companies (BDCs) investing in middle market companies; (iii) private equity offerings; and (iv) programs structured to qualify as like-kind exchanges under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. Ashley is a graduate of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where she graduated cum laude. She was a member of the National Trial Team, an articles editor of the Journal of Business and Technology Law, litigation and advocacy award recipient and a member of the business law society. Ashley has firm grip over information technology industry and the legal frameworks, codes and norms around the industry. Up until January 2016, Ashley has served as Vice President at SK Research, a division of RCS Capital Corporation (NYSE:RCAP).

Contact Ashley at ashley.s@idc-a.org.

Brian K. Branson

Education Council

International Data Center Authority

Member of the Board

Brian Branson is a veteran and seasoned executive who has served Corporate America for decades. He has served in Global Knowledge Training for 11 years, as the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) since April 2009 after being the organization’s Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for four years. During this period Brian has lead his organization in training, educating and providing certifications to information technology professionals not only the Fortune 500s, the Federal Government but globally as the largest professional training company. Prior to joining Global Knowledge, his roles included: Vice President/General Manager of DoubleClick, Inc.’s Enterprise Marketing Services Division, CFO of SmartPath, Inc., before its acquisition by DoubleClick, CFO/Treasurer position at BTI Telecom, a $250+ million local exchange carrier, and Ernst & Young.

Contact Brian at brian.b@idc-a.org.

Technical Standards Committee

IDCA Technical Standards Committee represents IDCA’s interest in matters pertaining to standards. Technical Standards Committee is composed of elite members from diverse yet premier data center-run organizations who are engaged with in-depth issues of data center industry at hand. Committee’s core mission is to provide remedy to the current data center industry gaps via developing the next-generation data center standards necessary to address and provide resolution to those gaps. All Technical Standards Committee’s effort is fundamentally rooted in the Application Ecosystem (AE)℠ and within the framework of the Infinity Paradigm®. In addition, the Committee further identifies potential new standards needed by the data center community and takes the necessary steps to initiate development of such needed standards with the appropriate organizations. Committee Members are also responsible to conduct unremitting interactions with the key industry stakeholders such as operators, providers, investors and end-users to ensure proper data center foundations, standardization and compliance are rooted within the diverse data center industry segments. Technical Standards Committee’s composition includes carefully elected technical data center experts from diverse industries, backgrounds and perspectives as follows:

Mark Thiele

Apcera
Rick Collins

AIG
Ben Calvert

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Eric Wendorf

Linkedin
Carlos Limon

NBC Universal
Sami Smeirat

Orange
Dikran Kechichian

TechXact Group
Boris Privalikhin

Time Warner Cable
Marchelle Adams

U.S. Courts
Anil Reddy

LaSai Technologies
Shawn Zandi

Linkedin
Everett Thompson

Colliers International
DeWayne Moore

VISA
Dr. Bob Sullivan

Independent Consultant
Christopher Neil

Microsoft
Lance Shinall

CBRE
David Shaw

Callosum Partners
Richard Zanatta

IDCA
Karl Rose

Bloomberg
Timothy Grant

MLB Advance Media
Dr. Shiyghan Navti

Vodafone Group
Riccardo Effetti

Sky
John Ayoh

Central Bank of Nigeria
Dan Cooper

Comcast
Charles Schilke

Johns Hopkins University
Kevin Luong

LinkedIn
Denis Nwanshi

ConverseLink
Lance Walker

H5 Data Centers
Zouhir Almai

TechXact Group
Susanna Kass

Baselayer Inc.
Marcelo Knobel

UNICAMP
Dave Ferrise

Rodan + Fields
Rakhi Shah

Her Majesty R & C
Olaleye Babatunde

Afreximbank
Mário Sergio Rachid

Embratel
Rick Parker

USC
Nabeel Mahmood

Independent Consultant
Simon Eventov

Align Communications
Jose C. Siqueira

DATAPREV

Carlos Limon

Member of Technical Standards Committee

NBC Universal

Data Center Director

Carlos Limon is the Data Center Director of NBC Universal. He has over 20 years of experience in the IT field. During his tenure, he has held different roles that position him as a strong leader and someone who can be depended on to deliver results. In his current Data Center Director role in NBC Universal, Limon has lead diverse projects. From large scale facilities design and construction, to migrations, MEP upgrades and maintenance coordination. He is also responsible for the day to day operations of the data centers and manages a team across the US. Limon has also successfully deployed DCIM solutions to enhance the operations of the data center team. These implementations include multiple data feeds to and from the DCIM solution to enable workflows, monitoring, inventory and reporting.

Ben Calvert

Member of Technical Standards Committee

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Chief Information Security Officer

Ben Calvert is a seasoned IT leader with years of global experience at Fortune 500 companies. He is a leading cyber-security expert with key focus on information security that enables managing risks to critical business processes. He is currently the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operating out of Stanford University. Previously, he has served in key positions such as Senior Manager at HP IT Security, Information Security Officer at Integrated Device Technology Inc. and Information Security Officer at Mercury Interactive.

Ben is passionate about enabling business initiatives using security risk management methods. He is an MBA and creator of partnerships with business units and IT functions resulting in competitive advantage. His cyber-security expertise has earned him numerous achievements in the Information Technology industry.

DeWayne Moore

Member of Technical Standards Committee

VISA

Lead System Architect

Moore is an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in data center technology and operations. He currently serves as a Lead System Architect with Visa, where he leads large scale data center migrations globally. His broad and well rounded expertise is the result of the variety of experience he has had, ranging from mainframe support to relational database management, technical support to data center capacity planning, systems engineering to space and power planning, and beyond. Moore holds a Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Devry University and numerous industry certifications, including the DCIS and DCOS credentials from International Data Center Authority.

Eric Wendorf

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Global Critical Infrastructure Engineer

Eric Wendorf is a Global Critical Infrastructure Engineer for Linkedin. His technical expertise in data center space, power, and cooling planning and deployment help him advance Linkedin's platform delivery to higher densities, ultimately reducing the cost-to-serve. He is responsible for the health and viability of the critical data center facilities operating Linkedin's website, world's most credible professional network. Eric and his peers have brought new waves of infrastructure and operations innovation and effectiveness as a leading cloud operator through the diverse data centers they concurrently run and maintain.

Eric holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a minor in International Business Management from the Smeal College of Business at The Pennsylvania State University. Before working at Linkedin, Eric was the IT site lead at a strategic customer account data center for HP (Hewlett Packard). He managed the daily service and installation of the IT hardware within two 4MW computer rooms, and in very close coordination with the site facility infrastructure vendor, ensured routine PM of the facility. He also was responsible for completing monthly SOx compliance audits and was the main point of contact for the annual ISO27001 audits.

Contact Eric at eric.w@idc-a.org.

Shawn Zandi

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Principal Staff Architect, Global Infrastructure Architecture and Strategy

Shawn Zandi is Leading LinkedIn's Global Infrastructure Architecture, including Production Data Centers, Backbone, Edge Networks, DC Interconnects, Compute, and Storage Infrastructure.

Zandi is the product owner of the Falco and OpenFabric projects at LinkedIn, and is a board member on the OpenSwitch project steering committee. Zandi's role at LinkedIn is to economically grow and scale data center, backbone, IP, and optical networks with correct architecture, long-term strategy, and clear roadmaps in place. He holds multiple patents and is an advisor to multiple technology startups in Silicon Valley.

Kevin Luong

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Regional Manager, Data Center Engineering

Kevin Luong is the Regional Manager for LinkedIn's Data Center Engineering team. Previously, Kevin was a Data Center Decomissioning Manager at Amazon Web Services where he was involved in managing operations support for AWS data centers.

Kevin is an articulate and innovative manager with over 6 years proven success overseeing Information Technology (IT) globally. Highly organized and analytical, with an extensive background in Datacenter installation, configuration, and support of multi-platform systems. Kevin is skilled in applying best practices in project management, including those used to initiate, plan, control, monitor and report upon all phases of project activity. Furthremore, Kevin has a proven track record in increasing team productivity worldwide in multiple Data Centers, quality, and customer satisfaction.

Contact Kevin at kevin.l@idc-a.org.

Dave Ferrise

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Rodan + Fields

Enterprise Architect

Dave Ferrise is the Enterprise Architect - Architecture COE Lead at Rodan + Fields. In his role Dave leads the Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence with responsibility for developing & maintaining architecture standards in support of emerging business imperatives, while also providing oversight and architecture guidance during solution design and delivery phases of Software Development Life Cycle.

Dave has 30+ years of experience in IT ranging from the Software Industry to IT Services and the CPG industry and beyond. Dave has the ability to assess and understand emerging technologies and recognize their place in an enterprise architectural landscape. Furthremore, envisioning and implementing integrative architecture that enables business capabilities and anticipates the business, industry and technology changes in advance.

Contact Dave at dave.f@idc-a.org.

Dikran Kechichian

Member of Technical Standards Committee

TechXact Group

Chief Consultant

Dikran is Chief Consultant, Auditor and Lecturer at TechXact Group and Member of Technical Standards Committee at IDCA. Dikran has over 23 years of solid design, development and implementation of data centers and mission-critical infrastructures. His knowledge and knowhow in data center facilities, specially energy and power components is next to none. He has served as the technical heart of the workgroups he has worked with in the past.

Dikran has traveled to every country in the world and provided his expertise locally to institutions. He is well versed to the local norms and international implications of policies and technical implementations. Dikran is an expert designing renewable & hybrid energy systems, integrated efficient telecom power solutions, electro-mechanical design of large data centers, designing complete panel boards, switchgear and control systems, auditing and designing telecom sites and data center facility infrastructures, managing data center construction, defining and optimizing data center needs. Dikran comes from a history of designing alternative energy and on-site power generation design and development. He has designed and validated DC powered generators, UPS systems, STS/ATS, solar systems, and other complex power systems he is the technical spine to meeting data centers’ requirements.

Contact Dikran at dikran.k@idc-a.org.

Sami Smeirat

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Orange

VP Jordan Telecom Group-CEO Jordan Data Communications Ltd (Orange Internet)

Sami Smeirat is the Vice President of Jordan Telecom Group for Business Services (Orange), CEO of Jordan Data Communications Ltd (Orange Internet), CEO of Wanado and Deputy CEO & Chief Commercial Officer of Cyberia Jordan. Sami is a result-driven top executive with 18 years of senior management experience that encapsulates commercial, technical and operational excellence at the highest levels of management.

Sami’s innovation & transformation skills have delivered major contributions to all key stakeholders including Shareholders, Employees and Customers.

Sami’s skill set is comprehensive & includes Strategic Planning, Change Management, Efficient Resource Management, Cost Optimization, Financial Management as well as excellent Communication & Negotiation skills.

Sami is well-versed with the latest management best practices and is an experienced practitioner of Management-By-Objectives/Benchmarking/Dynamic Voice of Customer/Customer Journey/Balanced Scorecard/Quality of Service, Transformation, Agility etc.

Sami’s expertise and value-add has been recognized by several high-profile organizations, who have requested his representation; these include Board Member of ARISPA, Board Member, Zara Holdings ( Jordan Largest Hotels Owner), Board of Trustees of Princess Sumaya University, Board Member of Light Speed Communications, Member of the ‘Elite’ Leaders’, France Telecom, and Member of Private/Public partnership, Ministry of Public Development.

Zouhir Almai

Member of Technical Standards Committee

TechXact Group

Regional Director

Zouhir Almai is an active member of the Technical Standards Committee. A data center trainer, Lead Security Auditor and DCA, and one of highest ranked certified DC trainer by IDCA. Zouhir is an expert in the area of data center safety and security as well as one of the world’s best ICT and Network engineers. Zouhir is an expert in the area of Cloud Security and Governance, ICT Platforms for Virtualization and Cloud Methodologies.

Zouhir Almai has assisted for almost 20 years a hundreds of top organization such as federal and state government, ministries, central banks, telecoms and Fortune 500 companies in improving their IT use by developing clear, aligned and monitored strategies, including governance and management, cloud-computing, both physical as well as IP security, BCP & DRP, IT infrastructure, etc.

His career spans many industries: telecom carriers, bank and finances, government, offshoring, manufacturing, distribution, real-estate, etc. Conscious of the importance of knowledge sharing, Zouhir Almai gives numerous lectures at a local and international scale related to IT issues, next generation network engineering, technologies trends and data centers.

Contact Zouhir at zouhir.a@idc-a.org.

Dan Cooper

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Comcast

Executive Director for Critical Infrastructure

Dan Cooper is the Executive Director for Critical Infrastructure at Comcast, responsible for the development of the company’s long-range plan for ~1,600 mission critical sites. In his role, Dan is defining the full framework for the US national critical infrastructure program, providing strategic, efficient solutions for successful execution.

Dan's area of focus inculdes Strategic Planning, Site Evaluations, Data Center Expansion, Infrastructure Operations, Project & Vendor Management, Contract Negotiations, ITIL Processes, Program Management, Risk Management, Team Development, Quality Management

Initially joining Comcast as a Critical Infrastructure Consultant, Dan drove efforts to establish the framework for a five-year national data center expansion and improvement initiative. Areas of concentration included but were not limited to site evaluation, solutions planning, team development, and leadership in the area of critical infrastructure. He over the Data Center Expansion Strategies including the implementation of a Basis of Design program for standardization and comprehensive criteria development for future builds. Furthremore, he led a team to identify resources, defining roles & job family, and establishing the training curriculum to support the 2018 launch of Comcast’s internal engineering team. He had provided leadership in the piloting & development of a quick-alert national monitoring and alarm program — to reduce instances of down-time and increase visibility of site health.

Susanna Kass

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Baselayer Inc.

EVP, Head of Innovation and Sustainability Strategy

Susanna Kass is Executive Vice President, Head of Innovation and Sustainability Strategy at BASELAYER Inc., a startup company that manufactures advanced modular technology for data centers and sustainable energy infrastructure management software for web scale cloud providers, Fortune 500 companies, and Utility providers.

Susanna has a proven track record of entrepreneurship and innovation success for Cloud Computing and Digitalization, Energy, eCommerce, social media and Global Enterprise Transformation. She has held roles including Head of Innovation at NextEra Energy, COO, International Operations at eBay Inc. and Trilliant Network, as well as General Manager at Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems. Susanna is a co-lecturer at Stanford University Sustainability Urbanization Systems (SUS) in School of Engineering, Graduate School of Business (GSB) in Corporate Strategy and SDSU Master of Business Entrepreneur Program.

She has been the recipient of numerous awards including Distinguished GSB Alumna Award in Energy from Stanford University, Distinguished MBA Alumna from Pepperdine University, Distinguished Entrepreneur Award from NMSU, and Presidential Entrepreneur Award from SDSU. Susanna graduated from Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program, and holds an MBA from Pepperdine University and BS in Computer Science and Business Administration Marketing from SDSU.

Karl Rose

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Bloomberg

EMEA DC Projects Manager

Karl Rose is the EMEA Data Centre Projects Manager at Bloomberg L.P. His main role currently revolves around data center migrations/builds including site selection, migration, decommission. Also he is responsible for standards, reporting, budgeting and general day to day running of the 60+ data centers in the region.

Karl has worked in data center roles for over 25 years with his first full time role being a mainframe hardware planner for British Telecommunications. Over a short space of time this led to the role encompassing the day to day running of the data center itself. His career has then grown across a few sites to the current regional role managing 60+ data centers in Europe, Middle East, Africa and India.

Over the past 8 years Karl has been working on the migration of 19 legacy data center spaces to new and improved facilities, 16 new space builds and decommission of 13 surplus locations. Alongside this Karl has worked as part of a global team to improve/standardize the way the business manages its data center spaces, reporting and budgets.

Olaleye Babatunde

Member of Technical Standards Committee

African Export-Import Bank

Head of Information Technology

Olaleye Babatunde is Head of Information Technology at African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), a multilateral trade finance institution headquartered in Cairo Egypt.

Olaleye has over two decades of cognate experience in managing corporate information technology function in the financial sector and leading high performing multi-cultural teams in Africa. He was previously Chief Information Officer at Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria, a member of Standard Bank Group of South Africa.

His solid professional track record includes aligning technology with enterprise strategy and leading successful delivery of large technology projects such as data center & private cloud infrastructure procurement and information security standards implementation. He has also led successful implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning and Core Banking projects.

His executive education includes Digital Business Transformation and High Performance Leadership programs at IMD Switzerland, Business Leadership program at IESE Business School, Spain and Senior Leadership Program at Global Leadership Centre in South Africa. He holds an MBA and M. Sc. in Computer Science. He is also certified on The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF).

Rick Parker

Member of Technical Standards Committee

USC Keck School Of Medicine

Consultant

Rick Parker is currently a consultant for the University of Southern California Keck School Of Medicine responsible for the Operations of the Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute datacenter

Rick has over 30 years experience in IT from systems engineering to IT management for organizations from multiple startups to large internationals like McAfee Security and Activision. Rick has been active in Cloud Computing since its inception in 2006, starting Bedouin Networks one of the first public IaaS services and starting the Los Angeles Cloud Engineering Meetup Group. In addition to Cloud computing Rick has been designing and implementing the concept of an Enterprise Monitoring Architecture for efficient large scale enterprise systems monitoring.

Nabeel Mahmood

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Mahmood

Independent Consultant

Nabeel Mahmood is a Technologist, Futurist and a Keynote Speaker. His career is driven by one question – what’s next? He is passionate about the power of technology to deliver competitive and transformational change and the need to develop digital leadership that will create the enterprise of the future. He believes strongly in simplification, with a purpose.

Nabeel brings 18 plus years of experience leading large-scale global technology organizations through seasons of explosive growth via M&A, global expansion, implementing new business models and technology innovation. His expertise includes leading organizations through transformation changes, connecting IT to the needs of the business, technology innovation, Big Data, Cloud, ERP, IoT, Mobility and Data Centers. He brings a unique blend of experiences spanning the entire breadth of technology from Grid to Chip. At, heart he’s a true technologist and futurist, he is a proven strategist, winsome communicator and leader with extraordinary vision and operational expertise within very large, complex organizations.

Nabeel is a strategic executive identifying opportunities that are being underpinned by emerging technologies. He serves on multiple boards and is an advisor to CIOs and CEO across a number of industries.

Simon Eventov

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Asst Director of Design & Build

Align Communications

Simon is an Assistant Director Design & Build at Align Communications.

Simon's specialties are in Data Center Strategy, Data Center Design/Build/Fill, Critical Facility Operations, Change Management Policies, Disaster Recovery

Simon is a Disciplined and driven senior leader with over twenty years of experience partnering with customers to develop data center strategies that match their business expansion and reduction objectives with technical requirements. He has led successful implementations of large-scale critical facilities throughout the US, Japan and Europe.

Marcelo Knobel

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Dean

University of Campinas (Unicamp)

Marcelo Knobel is the Dean of the University of Campinas (Unicamp) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM). A Full Professor of Physics, Knobel held several leadership roles at Unicamp, including Vice-Rector for Undergraduate Programs.

Marcelo also served as Executive Director of the Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano) at CNPEM. Knobel received both his bachelor’s and his doctoral degrees in Physics from Unicamp, and was a postdoctoral researcher in Italy and Spain. He has published more than 250 scientific papers and numerous opinion pieces in newspapers and magazines.

Mário Sergio Rachid

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Executive Director

Embratel

Mário Sergio Rachid is the Executive Director of Digital Solutions for Embratel and CEO of Hitss & Primesys.

Mário is a Professional with 25 years of experience. He has been leading executive roles for the past 10 years in multinational companies.

Mário has experience in assembling and developing companies in the telecommunications and services sector. He was elected for two consecutive years (2016 and 2017) as a leading IT Executive in Brazil. He has numerous publications in the media.

Jose Claudio Lima de Siqueira

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Manager, Department of Infrastructure Planning & ICT Services

DATAPREV

Jose Claudio Lima de Siqueira is the Manager, Department of Infrastructure Planning and ICT Services of DATAPREV.

Jose is an experienced Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry.

Jose is a strong professional with a MBA Executivo em Economia e Gestão: Relações Governamentais focused in Business/Managerial Economics from FGV - Fundação Getulio Vargas.

Rakhi Dhulia-Shah

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs

Deputy Director, Information Technology

Rakhi Shah is the Deputy Director of Information Technology for HMRC.

Rakhi has led digital transformation of major publishing company, and was responsible for Product, Engineering, and Infrastructure teams, resulting in a global data and content acquisition.

She created and executed product strategy for an engineering institution which allows them to operate in the AI field.

She led global Product Management team from bankruptcy to profitability, resulting in strategic acquisition within a media monitoring company.

Rakhi is an energetic transformational leader/innovative thinker with a track record of delivering successful outcomes in complex scenarios. Diverse industry knowledge leading multiple functions (engineering, product, ops and business development). She has a proven ability to design and execute effective bottom-line enhancing strategies.

Dr. Bob Sullivan

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Independent Consultant

Robert Sullivan, commonly known as "Dr Bob" in the industry, retired in 2000 after a 32 year carrier with IBM’s Storage Systems Division in San Jose, CA. He then worked as a consultant to the Uptime Institute of 10 years, retiring for a second time in 2010. He is now an independent consultant in the Data Processing industry, concentrating on education and training in the areas high density computing and energy efficient and effective data center infrastructures.

Prior to joining IBM, Bob received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University and an MS and PhD in Applied Mechanics from Stanford University. In his 32 year carrier at IBM he did technology, component and new product development work, installation planning and consulting work in computer room environment and hardware installation issues. Key projects in his IBM career included working on the team that developed the Winchester disk technology, creating the Hot Aisle/Cold Aisle equipment layout concept, plus identified the need to eliminate Bypass Airflow and Recirculation in the computer room and have all air flowing in one direction. These and other critical concepts he identified are now generally accepted and employed throughout the data processing industry. Along these lines he contributed a great deal of the original research on raised floor and non-raised floor cooling technology.

In addition Dr. Sullivan is an internationally recognized expert, who has been involved in diagnosing and resolving critical cooling problems in hundreds of data centers over the last twenty seven years. He is also a recognized expert in the areas of computer room environments, environmental controls, hardware installation, computer room layout, power and power distribution, grounding, cooling and air flow, plus contamination identification and remediation.

He speaks regularly at national and international conferences, develops educational material and teaches courses, and presents seminars on various aspects of the efficient and effective data center, as well as, leading edge technologies in the data processing field.

Dr. Sullivan has been honored to be named one of “five people who changed the data center” by TechTarget in August 2010.

Anil Reddy

Member of Technical Standards Committee

LaSai Technologies

CEO & Founder

Anil Reddy, is the former Microsoft's Head of Cloud Infrastructure Strategy and Global Data Center Capacity Acquisition & Management where he was responsible for delivering over 200 Microsoft web portals, Live and Online Services around the world including infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability. He was also the Chief Strategy Officer for Microsoft India. He is currently the acting CEO and Founder at LaSai Technologies where he runs his successful consulting practice.

Anil is proven executive with 28 years of creating successful businesses, products, regions and winning teams. Born in the Cloud-Incubation to maturity. Strong hands on experience in building products, solutions, GTM strategies and execution. Focus on data driven decision making, with a strong penchant for execution. Anil Reddy has successfully managed data center project delivery strategy and long-term road maps for multiple assignments, driving capacity across the Globe and building Subject Matter expertise across the company and industry.

Lance Shinall

Member of Technical Standards Committee

CBRE

Sr. Engineering Operations Director

Lance Shinall brings over 35 years of experience to his current role as Sr. Engineering Operations Director within C.B.R.E.’s Data Center Solutions. In this role, Lance is responsible for leading Data Center Operations for organizations requiring data center and mission critical facilities operations. Lance has a proven track record in Facility and IT Infrastructure Operations Management with a focus on Data Center Operations for most of his career.

Prior to joining C.B.R.E., Lance has most recently led Data Center Operations for McAfee, significantly reducing their Global Data Center footprint by 75% and establishing the McAfee Global Private Cloud Platform for McAfee’s Web Gateway product.

Prior to this Lance led IT Infrastructure Operations for companies such as Fujitsu, Hostess, Commercial Metals Corporation and Alliance Data. Lance also has extensive facilities management background playing a key role in construction and operation of The EDS 3.5 Million Sq. Ft. World Headquarters site in Plano, Texas consisting of over 3.5 Million Sq. Ft. of Class A office space and a complex of Data Centers totaling 15 MW of capacity. Working for Johnson Controls FM, Lance led facility operations for Merck’s World Headquarters and later Managed J.C.I.’s FM Operations for the High Tech/Banking vertical market serving clients such as Bank of America, Vanguard and Charles Schwab critical facilities.

David Shaw

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Callosum Partners

Senior Advisor - Data Centers

David Shaw is the former SVP & COO at IO Data Centers, Global Direct at Perot System, Director of IT System at HonorHealth and Managing Director of North America at Uptime Institute.

David Shaw is an industry veteran, a highly accomplished, industry recognized IT Executive, specializing in Operations & Data Centers including the development & management of IT Services, Managed Service Providers throughout the US, Europe and Asia/Pac. Possessing an exceptional track record delivering services to the Financial, Healthcare, Retail /Manufacturing and Government verticals.

David has 16 years of ITIL service management, plus the delivery of secure mission critical services. Forward-thinking, key contributor and innovator to strategy planning and long-range success.

His specialties are, Leadership, Data Center, design, build, engineering, Operational Readiness, migrations. 24 x 7 IT Operations, NOC/SOC DCIM. Automation and Autonomics. Cloud, Data Security, SSAE16, ISO 27000, Service Management, ITIL Incident/Problem/Change Management, MSP management, Outsourcing, RFI/RFP.

David Shaw was recognized as the “Data Center Manager of the Year”, awarded at Data Center World / AFCOM 2013 and a member of the International Data Center Authority (IDCA) Technical Standards Committee.

Christopher Neil

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Microsoft

Senior Program Manager

Christopher is the Senior Program Manager at Microsoft. His role involves working with the Microsoft Azure team as a partner service evaluating data centers for opportunities.

Prior to his current role he was the Director of Data Center Services at Expedia, responsible for infrastructure support delivery to all Expedia brands including Expedia, Travelocity, trivago, Orbitz, Mobidata, Wotif.com, Traveldoo, Ebookers, CheapTickets, Hotwire.com, Hotels.com, etc.

Mr. Neil started his career 28 years ago as Electronic Technician at the US Navy, he worked nearly a decade at MAJIQ, before he took on the role of GIS – Infrastructure Platform Services Manger at Expedia where he succeeded for 6 years. He then became promoted to Manager, GIS – Infrastructure Capacity Management, Service Delivery Sr. Manager and now Director Data Center Services for Expedia Inc. With nearly three decades of solid track record, serving some of the most mission critical applications.

Mr. Neil brings valuable expertise to IDCA’s Technical Standards Committee. His expertise and duties include but are not limited to managing data center operations ensuring 99.999% availability for all critical infrastructure, data center space planning, capacity and forecast modeling, developing and maintaining a 5 year Expedia data center strategy supporting trending and capacity management modeling, strategy planning and development of roadmaps for data center strategy, establishing operational standards, processes, intake and auditing programs in support of data center operations, selection, development and evaluation data center staff, and more.

Rick Collins

Member of Technical Standards Committee

AIG Group

Sr. Director of Global Data Center Operations

Rick Collins carries decades of experience in IT transformation and data center infrastructure. He is the Sr. Director of Global Data Center Operations at AIG who manages over 200 data center sites and locations globally. He has experience in managing data center people, sites, data center facilities and technology across several industries. Rick has been successful in developing strategic and operational plans, establishing and operating data centers, directing budgeting, mergers and acquisitions.

Rick is an expert in designing application migration plans, BCPs, project management, transition and relocation management, data center operations, planning, etc. He has a proven ability to solve problems and make decisive cost effective decisions that impact the bottom line. Experience being and working with C-level executives across all markets to negotiate contracts, close deals and win the confidence and support at all levels of the organization.

Contact Rick at rick.c@idc-a.org.

Boris Privalikhin

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Time Warner Cable

New York Data Center Manager at Time Warner Cable Inc. | Business Class Data Center Manager

Boris Privalikhin is a New York City Business Class Data Center Manager at Charter Communications, formerly Time Warner Cable, the second nation’s largest cable operator. He is an expert in data center services and space, power and cooling planning and deployment.

Boris has more than fourteen years of experience in building, relocating and managing Mission Critical Data Centers for Navisite / Time Warner Cable / Charter Communication. His previous assignment was with Legg Mason – asset management firm with offices and data centers in New York, Maryland and Connecticut.

Currently Boris managing 35,000 SF Business Class Data Center in Downtown Manhattan. He leads the team of data center technicians, providing Data Center Services and IT/Critical Infrastructure lifecycle support, including planning, installation, commissioning, on-site management and maintenance, monitoring, troubleshooting and de-installation, following operational policies and industry standards and developing and implementing best practices - operating and maintenance strategies - to ensure continuous availability of CI systems. Boris is a certified PMP and ITIL Certified in IT Service Management.

Contact Boris at boris.p@idc-a.org.

Lance Walker

Member of Technical Standards Committee

H5 Data Centers

Data Center Facility Manager

Lance is a Data Center Facility Manager for H5 Data Centers, one of the leading privately-owned data center operators in the United States with over two million square feet under management.

Previously served as a Data Center Engineer for CHRISTUS Health, one of the nation’s largest Catholic healthcare delivery systems where he was responsible for the operational maintenance, availability, capacity planning and monitoring of the Enterprise Healthcare Data Center and related environmental and facilities concerns.

Lance has extensive technical knowledge and experience in Enterprise Data Center Facilities in the areas of power, cooling and space planning. Day-to-day responsibilities include overseeing data center facilities operations, active monitoring of all CHRISTUS data centers, monitoring detection systems, managing relationships with facilities & technology based vendors, and ensuring the capacity and availability of all the data centers across the environment. Responsible for the Electrical distribution systems design and evaluation, Mobile Electric Power (MEP) hardware/software products, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), building controls and automation, HVAC cooling systems, airflow balance and analysis, cooling towers, chillers, load calculations and space planning.

Lance comes from 21 years of experience from the U.S. Air Force. He has worked in the capacities of Implementation Planning Chief, Electrical Team Leader, 28th Civil Engineer Squadron, NCOIC Electric Systems, Deployment Cell, HQ U.S. Special Operations Command, etc. at United States Air Force and United States Special Operations Command.

Lance works as part of a cross-functional team that deals with the full spectrum of technology and will fulfill the role of third level support for data center operations, providing training and direction to other technical staff that perform the bulk of the first and second level support tasks.

Contact Lance at lance.w@idc-a.org.

Technical Standards Committee Advisory Council

Cynthia Stoddard

CIO of Adobe Systems
Rebecca S. Wanta

Former CIO/CTO, PepsiCo, Wellsfargo and MGM
Stewart H. Gibson

USI Holdings
Michelle S. Walker

SIO Director of State Department
Eric Johnson

CIO of Talend
Ralph Loura

CIO of Lumentum
Dr. Alaeddin Al-Badawna

VP of ADMA-OPCO

Mark Thiele

Chair of Technical Standards Committee

Apcera

Chief Strategy Officer

Mark serves as the Chairman of IDCA Technical Standards Committee. His successful career in IT spans 25 years and has focused on both operating roles and on driving cloud adoption across enterprises of all sizes. Thiele has deep industry experience and extensive knowledge of the requirements of policy-driven cloud computing and drives cross-functional strategic initiatives as Chief Strategy Officer for Apcera.

Prior to joining Apcera, Thiele was the Executive Vice President of ecosystem development at Switch SUPERNAP, builders of the world’s highest-rated data centers. He is also the President and Founder of Data Center Pulse, an organization created to promote best practices in the data center industry. Thiele has held executive roles at HP, Gilead, VMware and Brocade and is a member of nonprofit groups including The Green Grid and Infrastructure 2.0, where he advocates for data center and cloud industry evolution.

A globally recognized speaker at leading industry events on a wide range of topics including cloud, IoT, data center, DevOps, and IT leadership, Thiele is a regular content contributor to InformationWeek, GigaOm, Data Center Knowledge and other publications. Thiele also serves on the technical advisory board of several startups.

Contact Mark at mark.t@idc-a.org.

Timothy Grant

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Major League Baseball Advance Media

Vice President, Technical Facilities

Timothy Grant is the Vice President of the Technical Facilities at MLBAM (Major League Baseball Advance Media). MLB, WWE Network, WatchESPN, HBO Now, NHL, PGA Tour Live, CBS Sportsline's Madness on Demand service are all being streamed by the data center infrastructure that Tim provides to the broadcasting industry. Tim leads a topology of data centers extending to 18 facilities just in the United States with an extremely talented team of directors, management, integration and operations staff to design, build, operate and maintain our technical office and broadcast data center facilities.

The team that Tim leads over primary services of MLB which are to deliver live video content to customers in multiple formats via 24x7 environment and backbone infrastructure for OTT and VOD to major partners such as Sony and HBO. MLBAM is probably the fastest growing live streaming and video broadcasting network for whom the responsibility of supporting all infrastructures falls under Tim’s team. Tim is an expert in adhering media and IT layers with data center facilities and infrastructural possibilities.

Contact Tim at timothy.g@idc-a.org.

Michelle Sparrow-Walker

Member of Technical Standards Committee

United States Department of State

Director of Systems & Integration Office

Ms. Sparrow-Walker served in the Department of State since September 2007 after serving over 25 years with Department of Army supporting both Military and Civilian Personnel Systems and Data Centers. She is currently the Department Director of the Information Resource Management Bureau’s, Systems and Integration Office.

Ms. Sparrow-Walker has a wide variety of experience in IT Financial Planning and Budgeting, Contracting, and IT Systems Development, Operations and Maintenance. Her significant accomplishments include the centralization of a distributed Army Civilian Recruitment System, supporting over 300,000 worldwide internal users, as well as the general public; the deployment of the State Department’s first Enterprise Intranet SharePoint environment, one of the largest implementations of SharePoint in the world – second only to Microsoft itself, the implementation of the State Department’s Enterprise Data Warehouse, and the Department’s first implementation of a Modular Data Center, which provides the ability to expand and contract IT resources based upon the needs of the Department.

As SIO Director, Michelle is responsible for operating the U.S. State Department’s core data centers, providing enterprise collaboration services, and delivering integrated software solutions. Michelle’s goal is to meet the Department’s information technology strategic mission by driving efficiencies in the Department’s core Data Centers through increased virtualization, reduced operational costs, and private cloud computing.

Contact Michelle at michelle.w@idc-a.org.

Eric Johnson

Member of TSC Advisory Council

Talend

Chief Information Officer

Eric is the SVP, CIO at Talend. Prior to his role at Talend. Prior to his current role Eric held the SVP, CIO at DocuSign, where he has built a successful IT strategic vision and organization to scale in a hyper growth environment. Eric brings over twenty years of global leadership experience in information technology with a proven track record delivering complex, high value solutions across a wide range of industries. With success in building and leading highly effective global teams while supporting largely distributed workforces, Eric has developed, driven and delivered strategic IT architectures and cloud solutions to support rapidly growing global businesses.

Eric began his career with Deloitte Consulting where he specialized in supply chain and manufacturing solutions across high tech, consumer, oil and gas, and other industries. Eric went on to hold the SVP, CIO role at Informatica where he supported the growth of the company into a $1B global market leader.

Dr. Alaeddin Al-Badawna

Member of TSC Advisory Council

Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company

Vice President

Dr. Alaeddin Al-Badawna, the winner of CIO Gold Award, the recipient of “Legend CIO” life time achievement award, and Emirates National Records from H.H. Sheikh Saeed Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan is now a member of IDCA’s Advisory Council. Dr. Al-Badawna currently works as ERP Project Manager at Al Dhafra Petroleum Company and Al Yasat Petroleum Company, of ADNOC Group, is a proven leader in Information Technology field and an internationally acclaimed CIO. In his 30 years of association with ADNOC group under various leadership roles, Dr. Al-Badawna has put exemplary business strategies & vision with sustainable IT roadmap and as VP – IT of Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company has achieved numerous milestones by initiating strategic projects related based on new technologies & IT services. Under his stewardship, his Company has delivered projects in Digital Transformation, Cloud Computing, Office Collaboration, Converged Data Centers, Unified Communications and ERP projects that introduced significant improvements in efficiency, responsiveness, enhanced performance, increased productivity and foster faster decision making.

Termed as the Virtual Strategist by global CIO forum, Dr. Al-Badawna strongly advocates that “IT is the lubricant oil in the engine of change”. For his transformational performance and valuable contributions in the IT field, Dr. Al-Badawna has received several accolades from prestigious institutions across the globe. To name a few, SVUS announced him the Gold Winner as the CIO of the Year 2016 in the IT International awards in San Francisco, Enterprise Channels MENA awarded him as “Legend CIO”, Best in Biz awarded him for two consecutive years as “Technology Executive of the Year” for 2015 & 2016, Stevie Awards recognized him as “IT Executive of the Year “ and he was honored with “Leading by Example Zayed (Founding father of UAE) Award in 2018” as an acknowledgement of his valuable contributions in the Information Technology field and for receiving recognitions at both regional and international levels.

A Certified Project management professional and a member of American Society of Project Management Professionals, Dr. Al-Badawna has continuously enriched his knowledge through various professional certificates such as Executive Leadership Development Program from IMD Business school, IT Governance Assurance Forum Certificate using Cobit from Finance Audit department, Government of Dubai and has also presented a paper on ADMA-OPCO Process Management System (APMS) at the Intelligent Energy Conference and Exhibition Amsterdam, Netherlands.

An avid reader and keen enthusiast in learning and adapting to advanced technologies, Dr. Al-Badawna firmly believes that to stay competitive in the current disruptive market, organizations must adapt quickly to emerging technologies. He is currently providing guidance and enabling technology prerequisites such as IoT, AI technologies along with Cloud Computing and Data analytics to leverage and create new business models for effectively engaging with their consumers at every stage of their digital transformation journey.

Everett Thompson

Member of TSC Advisory Council

Colliers International

Head of Data Center Consulting, Americas

Everett Thompson heads Colliers' data center practice in the Americas. Everett Thompson is a 25 year, multi-disciplinary (Technical, Financial, Commercial) veteran of large-scale infrastructure and technology businesses. As CEO of Wired Real Estate Group Inc., Everett Thompson worked in the US, Asia, and EMEA markets advising investors, lenders and enterprises on cloud, colocation and data center investments up to $100 million. Everett Thompson has worked with some of the largest investors in the space, including Iron Mountain, AT&T, Amazon, Adobe, Verizon, Goldman, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Machine Zone, Shiseido, US Dept of Energy, and others.

During Everett Thompson's previous role at Equinix he has worked with numerous large cloud, tech, and telecom firms, including Google, Yahoo!, Electronic Arts, Sprint, Internap and others.

Richard Zanatta

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Rich Zanatta is the former Director of Networking and Facilities at the United States House of Representatives. His in-depth knowledge in both technology and data center infrastructure help him drive and manage organization-wide transformations and ensure alignment with business strategies. Zanatta was responsible for ensuring the House has viable voice and data communications, sustainable data centers and supports various Business Continuity elements supporting the the U.S. House.

Zanatta has a unique combination of military, private and public sector experience. Before joining the House in 2001, Zanatta worked for Lucent Technologies / International Network Services as a project manager and Managing Consultant and served in the United States Navy for 24 years. He served as a Presidential Communications Officer and Chief of Information Technology at the White House Communications Agency and Chief Integration Officer at U.S. Space Command/NORAD.

Contact Richard at richard.z@idc-a.org.

John Ayoh

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Central Bank of Nigeria

Director of Information Technology

John Ayoh is the Director of Information Technology at the Central Bank of Nigeria, the financial sector regulator with the overall control and administration of the monetary policy of the largest economy in Africa.

Under John Ayoh's leadership, the Bank attained and has maintained the ISO27001 certification for Information Security practice over the past four years. A Delivery versus Payment (DVP) settlement system has also been successfully implemented, thereby eliminating the credit and liquidity risks associated with the processing of government securities. Most importantly, a consolidation of all government agencies’ cash balances has greatly improved cash and resource management by the Federal Government of Nigeria. John has recently established a Cyber Security Working Group that will oversee an industry-wide effort to effectively manage cyber threats.

Mr. Ayoh was the founder and CEO of Hightower Technology Partners (HTTP), a technology consulting firm before joining the Central Bank. He formerly held the positions of Chief Information Officer, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Technical Officer at Airtel Nigeria, one of Nigeria’s leading telecommunications companies, until June 2008 to focus on developing HTTP. He was a member of the team that established Airtel, which previously traded under the Celtel, Vmobile and Econet Wireless brands, in 2001. Prior to joining Airtel, John held CIO positions in three banks, including the United Bank for Africa, currently one of Nigeria’s largest.

Mr. Ayoh is one of the most respected and reputed information technology executives and visionary experts across the continent of Africa.

Dr. Shiyghan Navti

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Vodafone Group

Head of Cloud Advisory Group

Dr. Shiyghan Navti heads the Vodafone Group's Cloud Advisory Group. Based in London, he leads a key project to develop Vodafone's ISV cloud strategy across UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Dr. Shiyaghan Navti is a Certified Cloud Trainer for CloudSchool, a leading vendor neutral cloud Canadian educational services provider, and ITPreneur, Europe's leading training provider for the Cloud Credential Council. He has solid grasp and deep understanding of core cloud architecture, service management, security and risk management best practices that underpin the IBM Bluemix, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.

Furthemore, Dr. Navti has developed first hand knowledge and experience of running a cloud platform and mobile payments start-up using agile development best practices and public cloud services from IBM Bluemix and Google Cloud Platform.

At IBM, Dr. Navti led a team of senior pre-sales consulting IT specialists across Europe, responsible for driving adoption of one of the first hosted private cloud platforms in the industry. He has led the development of IBM's Africa Expansion strategy for key countries in Sub-saharan Africa. The strategy was used to secure a $1bn investment in Africa.

Dr. Shiyghan Navti is a deeply technical engineer who has degrees in Structural Engineering, Architecture, Numerical Modeling in Engineering Mechanics, and PhD in Computational Modeling combined with sound business and commercial awareness acquired from a variety of business leadership roles.

Denis Nwanshi

Member of Technical Standards Committee

ConverseLink

Senior Vice President, Technology Innovation

Denis is a senior IT architect and digital transformation strategist with a proven track record providing a wide range of consulting services to blue chip organizations across Europe and North America. He specializes in helping organizations shift to next generation enterprise architecture frameworks and implement data-driven business platforms based on blockchain, cloud, virtualization, microservices, RESTful web services, APIs, big data, machine learning, end-to-end security, omnichannel, payment systems, STP, IoT, software-defined networks, DevOps, BOTS, and other key technologies.

Denis is also a co-founder and executive at B2B digital skills development venture ConverseLink where he heads technology innovation and works with a talented cross-functional team dedicated to creating high impact, experiential virtual learning solutions for dynamic organizations.

A demonstrable leader who places a strong emphasis on governance, integrity, risk management, regulatory compliance, and sound financial management, Denis develops strategic IT road maps, business cases, and project plans that resonate with peers and executive management. A methodical problem solver and researcher, he has been fortunate to gain valuable vertical experience including insurance, banking, retail, e-learning, government, high tech, and energy. He has extensive experience assembling and mentoring high performing teams, establishing IT and business Centers of Excellence, and helping to drive business change using LEAN and agile techniques.

Denis sits on the Sheridan College Professional Advisory Council of the Faculty of Applied Science and Technology. He also organizes stimulating tech talks for the highly popular Analytics & Technology meetup group which he founded in 2014.

Riccardo Degli Effetti

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Sky

Head of Data Center Operations

Riccardo is the Head of Data Center Operations at Sky. He has years of experience in the data center and IT infrastructure space and has been very involved in the EU/UK Data Center community.

Previously he was DC Operations Manager at Rackspace Hosting, responsible for the management of Rackspace Managed Hosting's Data Centers in the EMEA, overseeing DC Support Techs, Security, Production Techs, Inventory and M&E Engineers providing Fanatical Support 24/7/365 to Rackspace Customer base. He has shouldered responsibility on capex and opex budgets, Customer life-cycle, PPM and expansion plans, energy efficiency initiatives, H&S and ISO standards among others.

Charles Schilke

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School

Director and Senior Lecturer

Charles Schilke is a Director and Senior Lecturer at The Edward St. John Real Estate Program, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Charles directs the 25-year-old Edward St. John Real Estate program, the longest established such program in the Washington DC-Baltimore region, conferring the Master of Science in Real Estate and Infrastructure (MSREI) degree. He teach courses in Real Estate Law; Real Estate Development I and II; and Infrastructure Finance, organizes annual MSREI Career Fairs.

Charles represents MSREI program at real estate academic conferences, including Harvard Real Estate Conference and Cornell Baker Program in Real Estate Conference; He serves on Board of Harvard Real Estate Academic Initiative and is a member of Harvard Real Estate Alumni Organization, a member of Cornell Real Estate Council and an affiliate member of Cornell Hotel Society

Prior to this, Charles found and directed the Georgetown Master of Professional Studies in Real Estate program, and grew program to 300 students, 100 practitioner faculty, and 50 commercial real estate courses.

Rebecca S. Wanta

Member of TSC Advisory Council

RSW1C

CEO & President

Rebecca (Becky) S. Wanta was ranked 4th in the Top 50 Female CIOs and 12th in the top 200 CIOs by Exec Ranking. Over her remarkable career, Rebecca Wanta’s experience includes the roles of SVP/CIO of MGM Resorts International, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President for the largest worker’s compensation insurance company in California, State Compensation Insurance Company; Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Best Buy, Global Chief Technology Officer for PepsiCo, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Wells Fargo, and Chief Technology Officer and Deputy Chief Information Officer for The Money Store/First Union.

Prior to returning to her successful consulting practice, she was Executive Vice President/Chief Information Officer & Chief Technology Officer (EVP/CIO & CTO) for Pacific Compensation Insurance Company where she led the transformation of Business and Technology which resulted in the company’s positive net operating results and market-share expansion; improved customer stickiness and reduced customer churn. Prior to joining Pacific Compensation Insurance Company, Rebecca Wanta was Senior Vice President/Chief Innovation and Information Officer for MGM Resorts International where she implemented MLifewhich revolutionized the Gaming and Hospitality Industry, and transformed the technology team from its “keeping the lights on” focus to driving and delivering business value.

She is currently the CEO & President of RSW1C. As a seasoned executive with more than 30 years transforming business and technology she helps deliver business value and increased competitive advantage. Rebecca Wanta continues to partner with Fortune 50+ companies as either their Senior IT Executive/CIO or retained consultant and is a highly-regarded agent of change who has successfully turned around business and technology organizations across multiple industries and company cultures to improve profitability and market share. She establishes strong business partnerships and develops high performing teams to continue the revenue driven transformation & market expansion.

She also focuses on business incubation, executive-in-resident, and technical advisor to businesses hastening their go-to-market entrance. Rebecca sits on several advisory boards and holds two intellectual capital patents in Apparatus and Method for Standardized Banking Data System Interfaces and Method & Apparatus for a Broker Entity.

Stewart H. Gibson

Member of TSC Advisory Council

USI Holdings

Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer of USI

Stewart H. Gibson is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for USI. He has been with USI since 2006 and has over 25 years of experience managing technology organizations from start-ups to Fortune 500 businesses. USI’s technology team has been named three times to the Information Week 500 which lists the 500 top users of innovative business technology.

 Before joining USI, Mr. Gibson held several positions within Pitney Bowes Inc. In his five years with Pitney Bowes, he was responsible for the technology behind pb.com and the My Account extranet serving over 850 thousand registered customers. He also managed applications in 130 countries which processed more than $15 Billion in postal funds annually.

Mr. Gibson also served as the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of eFacility.com, which specialized in providing products and services to the property management industry. His background includes 15 years in various positions with General Electric, including CIO of GE Support Services. While at GE, he earned his Six Sigma Black Belt certification and graduated from GE's Information Systems Management Program.

 Mr. Gibson received a degree in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University with a minor in Ergonomics. Mr. Gibson is based in Valhalla, New York and lives in Connecticut with his wife and 3 children.

Marchelle Adams

Member of Technical Standards Committee

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

Program Analyst

Marchelle is a member of the Technical Standards Committee Advisory Council. Marchelle is the Program Analyst for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. She is the Architecture Branch Chief for the Cloud Technology and Hosting Office. Marchelle deals with one of the world's most sensitive mission-critical infrastructure, which is unique in nature and critical from the aspects of national security, integrity, availability and privacy. She is an engineer by background, with people skills bridging the communication gap between technical staff and business execs. Marchelle has solid background as an experienced systems engineer who understands complex architectures and frameworks and has lead and managed teams throughout her career. She has more than a decade experience in supporting commercial and government sectors has is fully capable of interfacing and managing such institutions.

Being a program manager for the High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) planning team, Marchelle has facilitated and coordinated the identification of a plan of action to address HA/DR within the data centers. She has solid grasp over Data Center Operations, having developed Data Center Operations Strategic Planning and Charters. She now leads the Cloud Technology and Hosting Office of the United States Courts as the Architecture Branch Chief.

Contact Marchelle at marchelle.a@idc-a.org.

Cynthia Stoddard

Member of IDCA TSC Advisory Council

Adobe Systems

Senior VP and Chief Information Officer

Cynthia Stoddard is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Adobe Systems Incorporated. As senior vice president and chief information officer of Adobe, Cynthia Stoddard oversees Adobe’s global Information Technology team. In her leadership role, Cynthia spearheads a global strategy for delivering services that form the mission-critical backbone for the company. This includes providing always-on systems and enterprise applications that enable us to run Adobe’s business; delivering productivity to employees everywhere; and providing the information and data services for real-time decision making and personalized customer experiences.

Cynthia is an IT industry veteran, with more than 25 years of business experience and IT expertise leading large global organizations in supply chain, retail, and technology development. Before joining Adobe in 2016, she was chief information officer and senior vice president at data storage and management company NetApp, where she led the company’s traditional IT functions while also expanding focus on innovation, customer-facing programs, and strategic partnerships. She previously held a number of information technology and technical leadership positions at supply chain, retail, and technology companies including Safeway Inc. and APL Limited.

Cynthia is a recipient of the CIO 100 Award in 2017 for Adobe IT’s innovative ways to deliver business value. Additionally, she is the recipient of Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Award, was named among the top Women of Influence in 2016 by Silicon Valley Business Journal, and was recognized as one of Huffington Post’s Top 100 Most Social CIOs in 2015 and 2016.