The digital frontier is bringing a new area of opportunity for businesses of all sizes and industries to leverage IT investments in a multitude of ways.
Event Details
Are using cloud solutions the right solution for your business and if so what constitutes an advisable level of cloud integration for business leaders to solve business needs including customer experience, operational efficiency, business growth, security, and/or increase margins? Join our three panelists for an in-depth discussion. On the panel will be Meenagi Venkat, Worldwide Vice President of Cloud Solutions at IBM; Chris Youngren, Vice President at Risetime; and Mel Heckman, Senior Manager at West Monroe Partners. The session will be moderated by Brian Alletto, Senior Architect at West Monroe Partners.
$7 in advance
$10 at the door if space allows
Registration includes one drink.
Speaker Profiles
Meenagi Venkat (Panelist)
Worldwide Vice President of Cloud Solutions, IBM
In this role, Meenagi is responsible for Pre Sales Technical Support, Solution Strategy, and Client Solutions on IBM Cloud. His team is responsible for helping IBM's clients implement state of the art Cloud solutions on Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud Architectures. In his previous assignment, Meenagi was Vice President of Sales for Smarter Cities and Financial Operations in IBM SWG. This business unit was responsible for IBM's solutions around Smarter Planet Solutions in Public Safety, Social Program Management, Energy, Water and Transportation solving some of the most complex problems caused by rapid urbanization around the globe. Meenagi has substantial experience working with Financial Services clients.
Chris Youngren (Panelist)
Vice President, Risetime
Chris is responsible for the business solutions Risetime delivers based on the technologies and products from the strategic partners. Chris manages these relationships, as well as strategic relationships with other business and technology partners throughout North America. As such, he is responsible for ensuring clients success with all solutions Risetime market, sell and delivery. In addition, as a Vice President, Chris is actively involved in setting the overall strategic direction of the firm.
Chris provides leadership to his clients by creating, reengineering and redesigning business processes and architecting new applications to increase efficiencies by leveraging the partner tools.
Since joining Risetime in 2001, Chris has led teams implementing off the shelf and custom solutions for numerous clients representing a diverse cross section of industry - from local/state government and non-profit organizations to financial and healthcare. Prior to joining Risetime, Chris was a Managing Consultant for Xpedior (Metamor Technologies), leading projects and teams in the full life cycle development of custom business solutions for a variety of clients. Chris received his Bachelors Degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign.
Mel Heckman (Panelist) '04
Senior Manager, West Monroe Partners
Mel is a Senior Manager in West Monroe Partners' Operations Excellence practice in Chicago. He has more than 20 years' experience in ERP, IT infrastructure, custom development, and business intelligence across a wide range of industries. Through his work in various industries, primarily manufacturing and distribution, Mel has developed a deep expertise in information technology planning, architecture, and operations. Mel is an influential and business-focused CIO/CTO with strong technical and business intelligence background. Throughout most of his consulting career he has served in a CIO advisory role. He excels at leading teams in implementing corporate-wide process improvements that result in flexible, scalable solutions to solve challenges. He has experience in multiple industries with organizations ranging from mid-market to Fortune 500 with strong experience in manufacturing and distribution. Mel earned his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He received his undergrad in Operations Management and Information Systems at Northern Illinois University
Brian Alletto (Moderator)
Senior Architect, West Monroe Partners
Brian is a Senior Architect in West Monroe Partners' Security and Infrastructure practice. He has more than 15 years of experience designing, implementing, and migrating IT infrastructure technologies across a broad range of industries.
Brian specializes in design, deployment, and migration of public and private cloud-based compute and storage environments, including Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services, VMWare vSphere, and Microsoft Hyper-V, Brian also has extensive experience with multiple generations of Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, and Windows Server Active Directory. Brian earned his masters degree in Taxation at the University of Denver. He received his undergrad in Accountancy at Miami University