DuWayne Peterson is President of DuWayne Peterson Associates, a consulting firm that provides advisory services to major corporations in the area of information technology management and to early stage technology companies in all aspects of their business. He is also Chairman of the Pasadena Angels, a group of individual investors that invest in early stage technology companies in the San Gabriel Valley. Prior to forming his firm in 1991, Peterson was Executive Vice President, Operations, Systems and Telecommunications of Merrill Lynch. He has also held senior information technology positions with Security Pacific, RCA, and Citibank. Peterson holds a BS from MIT and a MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Peterson serves as Chairman of the Technology Advisory Council for NASDAQ and on the Board of Technology Review, Inc. He is a Life Member of the Board of Trustees for MIT and is also on the Board of Trustees for Claremont Graduate University. Peterson holds a B.S. from MIT and a MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Rich Cormier is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Edwards Lifesciences. LLC, a position he has held since 2001. Mr. Cormier is also a member of the Edwards’ Senior Leadership Team. Mr. Cormier has over 27 years experience in all aspects of Information Technology and has led numerous technology initiatives across large scale, global organizations. Rich has also demonstrated a career-long commitment to developing the talent and potential of others. Since joining Edwards, Rich has successfully transformed a domestic IT Team into a global one, capable of delivering complex, enterprise solutions. Prior to joining Edwards, Rich served as Vice President and CIO of Leiner Health Products. While at Leiner, Rich was instrumental in establishing Leiner’s strategies for Advanced Production Scheduling and Vendor Managed Inventory. Rich also distinguished himself as a progressive business-oriented IT professional while working at both Monsanto and Chevron Corporation. Mr. Cormier holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Washington State University.
Pankaj Jalote is a Microsoft Chair Professor with Department of Computer Science and Engineering at I.I.T. Delhi. Before this he was with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur since 1989, where he was also the Head of the Department from 1998 to 2002. Earlier he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, where he also held joint appointment in the Institute of Advanced Computer Studies. From 1996 to 1998, he was Vice President (quality) at Infosys Technologies Ltd., a large Bangalore-based company providing software solutions worldwide, where he spearheaded Infosys's successful move to high maturity levels of the CMM. From 2003 to 2004 he was a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, USA.
He is the author of CMM in Practice , (Addison Wesley, 1999), a book that has been translated in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean; Software Project Management in Practice (Addison Wesley, Feb 2002); the highly popular textbook An Integrated Approach to Software Engineering, (Springer 1991, 2nd Edition 1996, 3rd Edition 2005), whose Indian edition was recognized as the bestselling book in computer science by its local publisher; and the graduate-level book Fault Tolerance in Distributed Systems , (Prentice Hall, 1994). He is on the Board of Advisors of many software companies in India and USA, is a Technical Advisory Board member for Microsoft Research, India, and is on the Editorial Board of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, and International Journal of Empirical Software Engineering.
His research interest is in software engineering (software quality, software process improvement, software architecture analysis), and fault tolerant systems and reliability.
He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
Jerry Thode is a recognized leader in Information Technology consulting services providing IT strategy for mid-sized enterprises. He is currently the Tatum Regional Practice Leader where he launched a series of very successful IT practices to establish Tatum LLC as the leader in IT strategy and consulting for small to medium sized enterprises.
Prior to joining Tatum, Jerry Thode was the Pacific Southwest Area Vice President for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young consulting. He has over 25 years of consulting experience in a variety of information systems areas including information systems strategic planning, large scale custom systems design, development and integration, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package selection and implementation, knowledge management, and other emerging technologies. He has performed consulting projects for a variety of clients including Fluor Corporation, Jacobs Engineering Group, GM Hughes Electronics, Nissan Motor Corporation, ARCO Division of British Petroleum, AT&T Wireless, Walt Disney Company, Paramount Pictures, Bergen Brunswig Corporation, and Port of Los Angeles.
Joel Manfredo is the former senior vice president, Information Technology for The Irvine Company, a 110-year-old, privately held company known for its comprehensive focus on quality of life in the balanced, sustainable communities it has planned and developed on the Irvine Ranch in Orange County, California. Before joining The Irvine Company in March 2004, Joel served as managing director, eBusiness Solutions and chief technology officer for CarrAmerica Realty Corporation, a major office Real Estate Investment Trust with revenues in excess of $500 million. Prior to that, Joel was with The Rouse Company, the commercial real estate firm that began master planning the city of Columbia in 1967. During his tenure there, Joel served as development director, group leasing and operations manager, and senior group manager. He was handpicked by The Rouse Company's CEO to serve as the firm's vice president and director of information strategies. In this role, Joel oversaw a $43 million overhaul of the firm's IT environment.
In 2007, Joel served on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Chapter of the Society of Information Management. He was also named one of the top 100 CIOs in the US and received the Digital Impact Award from Realcomm “for consistently demonstrating leadership qualities related to the Real Estate IT industry, for willingness to test and implement leading-edge technologies and for persistence in the quest for international best practices”. He also serves as the Chairman of the CIO Roundtable sponsored by UCI and its Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO) Consortium and as the Chairman of the Advisory Council of Realcomm (an organization focused on the intersection of technology and Real Estate).
Sangam Sangameswara is founder and Chief Executive Officer of GluTV, Inc. a provider of innovative Internet Television Services. Prior to GluTV, Sangam was Chief Technology Officer of SpecificMEDIA, Inc. a leading Internet Advertisement Network. At SpecificMedia, Sangam was responsible for managing product development and technology strategy of SpecificMEDIA. Prior to joining SpecificMEDIA Sangameswara was Chief Technology Officer of LeapQ, Inc. During his tenure with LeapQ, Inc. Sangam implemented the design and development of an enterprise-wide, analytic business process management platform. Before joining LeapQ, Inc. Sangameswara served as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Techsar, Inc. where he managed the operation, technology and product strategy for an innovative, enterprise supply management solution and deployed it for fortune 100 customers. Sangameswara has over 20 years of experience with leading companies such as Apple Computer, Intel, FocalLink (AdKnowledge) where he held engineering and management positions. Sangameswara has Bachelor and Master Degrees in Electrical Engineering from India and MS Degree in Computer Science from University of Illinois, Chicago, IL.
Christian Lau brings 13 years of technical experience to the table. He spends most of his time managing the technical operations of a multinational company. His expertise includes managing large scale data center and network operations; the creation and management of e-commerce applications, websites, enterprise level applications, and systems; Microsoft Dynamics GP integration at the enterprise level, and the implementation of digital asset management systems in the media and print industries.
Christian has served as the Information Technology Director for Jupiter Media's PictureArts division, and the Systems and Technology Manager for Reed Elseviers Harcourt Education Group.