Jessica Alfaro is a senior manager at Acuity Inc., a management and technology consulting firm serving the public sector. She has over 15 years of experience providing consulting services in IT service management, IT asset management, and enterprise management principles. She helps clients capitalize on their service management investments, and provides the vision and strategy supporting multiple process automation efforts using best-in-class tools.<br /><br />

Akshay Anand is a Product Ambassador at AXELOS®, working on the development of ITIL 4 and promoting the value of good service management. He previously advised Fortune 100 clients on how to improve their ITSM capabilities, implemented toolsets such as Remedy and ServiceNow, and headed up global ITSM activities at Macmillan Publishing.. More recently, Akshay has focused on bringing together Agile development teams and ITSM professionals to address challenges posed by emerging technologies and market shifts, and has occasionally been spotted tweeting as @bloreboy.

<p>HDI's 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Roy Atkinson is one of the top influencers in the service and support industry. His blogs, presentations, research reports, white papers, keynotes, and webinars have gained him an international reputation. In his role as Group Principal Analyst, he acts as in-house subject matter expert for HDI and ICMI, bringing his years of experience to the community. He holds a master's certificate in advanced management strategy from Tulane University's Freeman School of Business, and he is a certified HDI Support Center Manager. Follow him on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/RoyAtkinson" data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/RoyAtkinson">@RoyAtkinson</a></p>

One of the most in-demand business marketing and customer experience speakers in the world today, David Avrin, CSP has shared his content-rich, entertaining, hard-hitting and memorable presentations to enthusiastic audiences across North America and around the world. Recent presentation locations include: Singapore, Bangkok, Melbourne, Brisbane, Antwerp, Buenos Aires, Sri Lanka, Manila, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, London, Johannesburg and Dubai. David Avrin shows business owners and leaders, sales professionals, HR audiences and entrepreneurs how to ferret-out, recognize, craft and promote compelling competitive advantages. David's business insights have been featured on hundreds of broadcast media outlets and thousands of online and print publications around the world. He is also the author of three books including the acclaimed: It's Not Who You Know, It's Who Knows You!, Visibility Marketing, and his newest book: Why Customers Leave and How to Win Them Back was just released this past April.

Alex Banayan is the author of the national bestseller The Third Door, which chronicles his five-year quest to track down Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, Warren Buffett, Maya Angelou, Steven Spielberg, and dozens more of the world's most successful people to uncover how they broke through and launched their careers. Banayan has been named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list, Business Insider's Most Powerful People Under 30, and been featured in major media including Fortune, Forbes, Businessweek, Billboard, Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, and CBS News. He has presented the Third Door framework to business conferences and corporate leadership teams around the world. Microsoft declared that Banayan "cracked the code for success."

<span>Jill Beckman is the executive director over multiple teams in Boston University's 60-person centralized support center: Desktop Services, Collaboration Services, and Operations. These teams are responsible for many of the university's shared services, such as the desktop asset management system, student printing system, email, and the VoIP phone system. Jill also serves as the incident management and request fulfillment process owner for BU and, in this role, has a dotted line to BU's Service Desk team.</span>

Judy has 20+ years in the IT industry ranging from business consultant, operational and support leadership, and industry strategic leadership She is the former Executive Director of HDI and has spoken at many annual conferences as well as local chapter events.<br /><br />

Kara Bereman has been a leader with The Home Depot Technology Support Center for 13 years. She is also the VP of Training and Development for the Austin HDI Chapter and has nearly 20 years experience in IT Support & Leadership. She carries an ITIL and HDI Support Center Director certification with significant experience in KCS as well. Over the last 10 years she has trained and spoken as a practitioner to other companies and local or internal groups on topics including: KCS, Career Development, Problem Management, Change Management, and Swarming.

Patti Blackstaffe doesn't just wrangle resistors into using technology. As CEO of Strategic Sense Inc. and Co-Founder for the leadership development group GlobalSway, she unlocks potential for executives, leaders, and companies preparing for an ever-increasing focus on digital technology. She's obsessed about connecting humans with technology for amplifying wild collaboration, obliterating silos, and inspiring compelling experiences. When she's not leading people experience for digital transformation or advising executive leaders in the technology space, she is an industry advisor for the Business Technology, Management and Analytics Program within the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, a gallery-showing artist, and she dabbles in spatial computing and augmented reality. You can find Patti's company on FaceBook and Twitter @ strategicsense.

Kyle Boatsman is a PM and Change Manager at Texas A&M University. He's implemented new programs in areas of IT security, risk, and compliance and been deeply involved in the development of his organization's change management process. A bit of a "fixer," he loves to take on big challenges and tinker with processes to mature and improve service delivery. Kyle has a PMP, MPA, and extensive experience in the higher ed. and non-profit sectors.<br /><br />

Darrell Bond is a customer service professional with over 29 years experience dedicated to delivering, planning, designing, managing, and improving the delivery of service. Darrell is a founding Partner of RADAR Solutions Group Inc., Canada&rsquo;s HDI Gold Distributor. In addition to helping new companies get off the ground by defining and building service solutions, he also helps established organizations solve service issues, consolidate services, or work their way through outsourcing arrangements. His passion for improving the &ldquo;customer experience&rdquo; has lead him to become an Auditor for HDI&rsquo;s Support Center Certification program where he can apply his expertise in helping clients prove success. In addition to supporting HDI&rsquo;s SCC program, he is also a HDI certified instructor for HDI Support Center Analyst and Knowledge Centered Support (KCS), a proven approach for transforming support from reactive to proactive.

Connie Brandenburg is an IT National Manager for Toyota Motor North America where she manages both the Corporate and Dealer Service Desks and Walk-Up Support. Leveraging Toyota Production System experience, Connie led her team through a seamless deskside move-in to Toyota's new Plano, TX campus for over 5,000 users, and was recognized by top TMNA executives. Her ITIL certifications coupled with her Toyota Way mindset have resulted in continuous improvement opportunities for both service desk and walk-up support. Her passion for running has resulted in the completion of several half-marathons which helps to balance her love for cooking with her husband.

Ben Brennan is the author of Badass IT Support, Founder and CEO of QSTAC, and inventor of the QSTAC® metric for IT Customer Experience. Ben doesn't just throw around the term "World Class Support", he invented a tool to define, measure and deliver it at some of the country's leading tech firms, including Twitter, Yahoo, Box, Jawbone, and most recently as Senior IT Director for Verizon Media. Ben has earned a reputation for bringing a "mind-blowing" customer centricity to the heart of the IT culture at companies worldwide. Brennan has been named by HDI as a Top 25 Thought Leader and Featured Contributor for 2020.

Lea Brovedani is an author and speaker who is one of North America's leading experts on trust. She has been named Top Thought Leaders on Trust for 2017, 2018 and 2019 by the organization Trust Across America. She is also the author of TRUST Me – Restore Belief & Confidence in an Uncertain World and TRUSTED – Secret Lessons from an Inspired Leader, a contributing author in four other books and Lea continues to share her expertise in business magazines around the world. Globally recognized, Lea has worked in numerous industry sectors, specifically health and safety and education and in numerous countries including Canada, USA, Europe, Singapore, Africa and Indonesia. She has developed training programs and workshops that focus on more productive and profitable workforces through leadership strategies that increase efficacy in communication and trust.

Nate Brown is a perpetual student of the world&rsquo;s greatest experiences and the people who create them. Having spent the first decade of this career managing a complex technical support environment for Occupational Health and eLearning software, Nate transitioned to Customer Experience 2015. He was dubbed the &ldquo;CX Influencer of the Year&rdquo; by CloudCherry in 2019, as well as being named a top CX thought leader by TruRating, Qminder, ProcedureFlow, LifeHelpNow, ICMI, and Exceeders. As a passion project, Nate recently created CX Accelerator, a first-class virtual community for Customer Experience professionals. Nate currently serves as the Chief Experience Officer for Officium Labs and can be found at a variety of conferences speaking and training on the CX topics he loves.

Rae Ann Bruno is the President of Business Solutions Training, Inc (BST), an organization focused on training and consulting in various areas of ITIL, Knowledge-centered Service (KCS), Service Desk Improvement, Internal Marketing, Metrics and ITIL Process Improvement. Rae Ann was inducted into the HDI Hall of Fame in 2017 and was named one of Cherwell's IT Legends that same year. She holds several ITIL and HDI certifications and is a Business Associate for HDI ITIL and Support Center certification courses and consulting. She is a member of the HDI International Standards committee and is a frequent speaker at leadership and support conferences and the author of the HDI focus books, Translating IT Metrics into Business Benefits and What Have you Done for Me Lately? Creating an Internal Marketing Culture.

Daniel has 10 years experience in IT with a background in computer science and network engineering. He has worked in positions including desktop support, software support, systems engineering, and help desk management. He has been responsible for technical work including enterprise issue resolution, programming/scripting, and systems administration, as well as personnel and technology management in both public and private sectors. Most recently with The Home Depot has helped shape and implement a successful swarming model.

Mitch Cartmell is a Program Manager with SAIC, providing IT Services to Toyota Motor North America, including Corporate and Dealer Service Desks, Deskside Support, IT Field Support and Technical Support Services. Prior to Toyota, Mitch has delivered complex IT solutions to Neiman Marcus, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Wells Fargo Bank. Mitch is passionate about operational excellence, and draws upon experience with 6 Sigma, ITIL Foundations and process engineering to achieve best-in-class solutions. Mitch holds a BS Industrial Engineering from Oklahoma University.

<div><span>Randy Celaya is an independent, sought-after virtual executive coach, instructor, and keynote speaker in the IT Support, Contact Center, and Service Management industry.</span></div><div><span><br></span></div><div><span>Randy's natural gift to motivate and bring enthusiasm to others is infectious. Whether coaching, training and developing professionals, or consulting with corporations, he strives to help others promote their best self's. Randy began his career as a technical support professional and IT Support /Contact Center Manager. He was the Director of IT Services for PetSmart and Director of Education for Support Technologies. In 2006 Randy co-founded Results Focused Training Corporation and acts as the Founder and CEO for The Coaching Bridge.</span></div><div><span><br></span></div><div><span>Randy was critical in the conception and creation of the help desk industries first training and certification programs Since 1998, Randy has educated thousands of business professionals globally and continues to consult and educate virtually with IT service desks, contact centers, and service and support teams around the world. He frequently writes top trending articles for Support World Magazine, and is a sought-after guest speaker and judge panelist for service and support industry conferences and events. In 2007 Randy was asked to join the National Facilitator Database (NFDB) reserved for speakers who are among the best in their industry.</span></div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div>

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Dedicated IT professional with 30 years experience, over 20 years working in Higher Education. Skilled in IT Service Management, ITIL, Business Relationship Management, Business Analysis, Project Management, Process Improvement, ServiceNow, customer service, problem solving and System Administration. Currently an ITSM Process Manager for Texas A&amp;M University Division of Information Technology Service Desk working as a Change Manager and Service Asset and Configuration Manager, among other duties.

Coming Soon!<br /><br />

Krista Ciccozzi has been a support industry professional for almost 30 years, working in large technical support organizations and smaller IT departments. Regardless of the size, Krista understands the importance of the employees doing the work and the importance of good leadership. Krista received her BA in organizational communications and a certificate in business leadership from Marylhurst University, and her leadership certificate from Dale Carnegie. She is a certified LEAN Six Sigma Green Belt and is past-president of the HDI Atlanta local chapter.

Lionel Clark is Assistant Director for Information Services and Technology at Emory Healthcare. He has over 30 years of IT experience and has been at Emory Healthcare in various levels of IT for the past 22 years. He provides oversight for the Field Services, Specialty Desktop, Desktop Operations, Warehousing and Service Management teams. He has implemented and provided input for many innovative ideas and KPIs to gain efficiencies, and to identify opportunities for performance and service delivery improvements. Lionel holds ITIL Foundation v3, Knowledge Centered Support and Support Center Manager certifications and is a member of the HDI Atlanta Community.

<div>John Custy is a services management authority with extensive experience helping organizations improve their services delivery, become more strategic, and increase value. He is an internationally known speaker and educator who challenges us to think differently. John received his MA from Boston University and his BS from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. In addition, he has earned his ITIL Manager, ITIL Expert, ISO 20000 Consultant, KCS Consultant, and Kepner-Tregoe (KT) certifications. He's also a member of the HDI Faculty and the HDI International Certification Standards Committee. John Custy is the 2015 recipient of the Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award and was also recognized as an IT Industry Legend by Cherwell Software.&nbsp;</div>

Glynis E. Devine works with leaders who want to squeeze the BEST out of life so they can have MORE - more time, more balance, more joy, & more fun! When leaders have more - so do the organizations they serve! Glynis is a Purpose expert certified in Core Motive, who equips professionals with tips, tools, and strategies to: improve your communication Increase your collaboration reduce your level of conflict build better quality relationships  lead positive change  provoke better, faster results  foster autonomy and empowerment  increase your people's level of engagement shift mindsets Glynis shares wisdom she gleaned from 25 years leading a top sales team as a Senior Director. She, was recognized top 5 of 30,000 sales professionals sold 1/2 million dollars' worth of lipstick has led 650 sessions, in French & English, on Leadership, Communications and Core Motive. trains female high potentials in Saudi Arabia as part of Vision 2030 chairs the CAPS Ethics Committee leads Your Soul Journey, a women's empowerment retreat, in Greece By applying the skills from any of her leadership development programs, you'll enjoy more… more time, more balance, more joy, & more fun!

Paul Dooley is founder and Principal Consultant at Optimal Connections, LLC, a services firm that specializes in delivering products and services that help companies better connect with their customers. With over 30 years of experience in customer services and support, Paul has held a wide range of positions &ndash; including field support, front line service desk support, team lead, support center manager, business development manager and director. Paul&rsquo;s wide ranging experience across the companies he has been engaged in has included one of the first case study implementations of Knowledge Management, successfully consolidating multiple support centers, and successfully developing support center people, processes and technology to drive performance to the next level.

Phyllis is an innovative and focused professional with more than 20 years experience in Business/IT Strategy, Enterprise service management, governance, customer service and support, service management tool implementation and team building. Accredited ITIL® Trainer, VeriSM Professional certified, she is an accomplished and experienced speaker and writer on Service Management, Metrics and Service Desk, She's now an ITIL author as well: her book "Service Management Online: Creating a Successful Service Request Catalog" was continues to be featured on Amazon and conference bookstores. Phyllis was also an early adopter of enterprise service management, having been engaged in the creation of a shared service center at AutoNation, Inc. and helping clients implement shared service organization processes through her consulting work at Linium.

Brett Dunst is VP of Corporate Communications at DreamHost, a web hosting and managed WordPress service provider. A passionate communications strategist and fierce brand advocate, Brett believes that you shouldn't keep your culture to yourself. The best, most effective organizations use their culture to form the basis of a brand voice and tone that is truly authentic. A brand marketing and public relations professional, Brett can often be found speaking at marketing conferences, consulting for small businesses to understand and surface their brand's strengths, and being quoted in outlets including VentureBeat, Fast Company, and NPR.

Amy Eisenberg is the content manager for HDI where she works with industry experts and practitioners to create content for technical support and service management professionals. She has worked in B2B media and scholarly publishing for more than 20 years, developing content for print and digital magazines, print and email newsletters, websites, conferences, and technical seminars. Follow Amy on Twitter @eisenbergamy, and connect with her on LinkedIn.<br><br><br><br /><br />

Paul Fordiani, CGEIT, is an IT Service Management consultant and Continual Service Improvement professional. He began as a simulation designer and database administrator, and thankfully progressed into a process improvement and compliance auditor. He has been part of many ITSM implementation efforts, as well as several successful ISO 9000 and ISO 20000 certification efforts. He was part of the United States Technical Advisory Group's review of ISO 20000-1:2011. He was an author of the Defense Enterprise Service Management Framework. He has extensive experience in improving operational performance in the Federal domain. He is a retired rugby player and referee, and is an excellent cook.

Vincent Geffray is Senior Director of Product Marketing with focus on IT service alerting, IT team collaboration and process orchestration at Everbridge. He has over fifteen years of experience in the IT operations and service management space, with expertise in critical communications, IT service alerting, application performance management, IT process, runbook, and workload automation. Vincent holds a MS in mechanical engineering and computer science, 2 certificates from MIT Sloan School of Management. He spoke in many industry conferences and performed on Broadway, NYC, in June 2019 with his theater troupe.

An accomplished manager and leader with equal passions for customer delight, employee satisfaction and process efficiencies, I've worked in the support industry at multiple software and quick-service restaurant companies. On the process efficiencies side, I have been instrumental in implementing ITSM tools at multiple companies, most recently Cherwell at Wendy's. I am the Group Manager, Restaurant Technology Support at Wendy's and responsible for developing processes, tools, relationships and teams to provide 7x24 world-class technical support. I've led the team's growth from 17 to 111 people supporting 2881 corporate and franchise restaurants. Before joining Wendy's, I worked at GXS managing the support team delivering support to our global customers. Prior to this, I was at Sterling Commerce, and held positions leading a variety of global support teams.

Gina lives to challenge you to think outside the box to grow your business! As Managing Director of Gibson Group, with over 20+ years experience and certifications including PMP and ACSM, she is frequently called upon by customers ranging from the Fortune 5 to Private companies. No matter where you are in your Agile/DevOps/ITIL adoption, Gina has helped coach leadership and teams through transformational changes. With an inspired vision of leadership, one of her core skills being team development, she is highly collaborative and consistently recognized by internal and external business partners as the driving force behind building relationships that promote success. Gina can launch your business to the pinnacle of performance with an exceptional customer experience!<br />&ldquo;Trusted Force in the Contact Center Industry&rdquo; Tracy Matheson &ndash; Senior Director of Customer Relations

Andrew Gilliam is a passionate Customer Experience innovator and change agent, with a background in IT support and customer service. As one of HDI's in-house subject matter experts, he writes and speaks about service management, technical support, and contact center trends and best practices. Andrew was among ICMI's 2019 Movers &amp; Shakers and Top 50 Thought Leaders for multiple years, and he maintains several HDI and CompTIA certifications, including CASP+. Follow Andrew (<a href="https://www.twitter.com/ndytg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@ndytg</a>) on Twitter, connect with him on <a href="https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/andytg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a>, and discover more at <a href="https://www.andytg.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">andytg.com</a>.

Chris is the Founder of Evolving Management, where he provides resources to help leaders and organizations evolve their effectiveness to better thrive in today&rsquo;s hyper-competitive market, leaping to new levels of success. In 15+ years of developing and leading teams across various industries, from retail, car rental, and customer support, he&rsquo;s learned many lessons. The biggest lesson is that all leaders should continue to evolve their approach and management style. The more one continues to evolve how they manage their career, team, or organization, the harder it is for the competition to replicate what&rsquo;s done well, creating both a moving target and competitive advantage. He&rsquo;s also passionate about sharing his experiences and lessons learned throughout his career with developing unique, game-changing cultures that focused on driving continuous improvement that enhanced both the employee and customer experience. In 2018, Chris was recognized as an ICMI Mover &amp; Shaker in the category of Workforce Manager. In 2019, he also started supporting the ICMI community as a &ldquo;Featured Contributor&rdquo; sharing content and resources. For more information, connect with Chris on LinkedIn and Twitter, or by visiting his website, Evolving Management.

Michelle has a high level of experience, diverse & transitional skills and abilities through many years in the Customer Care/Customer Experience field and has familiarity in a variety of industries with many well-respected companies. She is a strong asset to organizations, leading teams to achieve desired results while creating an environment where people want to work & advocate for the brand, one that nurtures them to learn and grow and is personally successful.<br /><br />

Marlin is a Lead IT Specialist at Northwestern Mutual and has helped to develop the walk up, digital wizards, chat and customer experience services while being there since 2018. He has a strong background in system support, networking and operations management. He has over 5 years experience in the IT support services environment.<br /><br />

Valence is a Principal Research Director in the CIO Practice at Info-Tech Research Group, with extensive experience in helping organizations be successful through optimizing how they govern themselves, how they design and execute strategies, and how they drive service excellence in all work. With 30 years of IT experience in the public and private sector, Valence has developed experience in many Information Management and Technology domains, with a particular focus in the areas of Service Management, Enterprise and IT Governance, Development and Execution of Strategy, Risk Management, Metrics Design and Process Design, and Implementation and Improvement. Prior to joining Info-Tech, he served in technical and client-facing roles at Bell Canada and CGI Group Inc. as well as managing the design, integration, and implementation of services and processes in the Ontario Public Sector. Valence has an Honors Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Toronto.

Melissa Jackman has more than 20 years of experience in managing and motivating support teams in blended internal/external support environments. As Help Desk Manager at Duquesne University, she is currently responsible for a team that supports approximately 15,000 users, and she's passionate about leadership and building and developing strong teams and individuals. Melissa served as the President of the HDI Steel City Chapter between 2015-2017, is a published as Featured Contributor for HDI Support World. She received her MA in Leadership from Duquesne University.

Darryl Jacoby is the Group Supervisor of Help Desk and Desktop Services for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. JHU APL is the nation's largest university affiliated research center and Darryl's teams support over 7,000 customers who solve complex research, engineering, and analytical problems that present critical challenges to our nation. Darryl has more than twenty five years of IT experience leading and mentoring dynamic, high-performing teams. His leadership style puts a heavy focus on staff engagement and career development and helped contribute to JHU APL being recognized as a ComputerWorld Top 100 Places to Work in IT for 2018 and 2019. In 2019, Darryl was selected as a Finalist for HDI's Manager of the Year award.

Randall Jaynes is the Senior Artistic Director and a veteran Blue Man with the internationally acclaimed Blue Man Group. He trained for ten years in Grotowski-based intensive physical theatre before receiving a graduate degree from the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. His original character-based solo shows employ dynamic physicality and explore the precarious psychology between fact and fable. Randall&rsquo;s most recent production &ldquo;Billy Nijinsky&rdquo;, a tale of the dangerous relationship between the everyman and the idealized self, won Best Production at the NYC International Fringe Festival. Randall holds a black belt in Southern Shaolin Kung Fu.

Roman Jouravlev an ITIL 4 lead architect responsible for ITIL continual development. After working for more than 15 years in ITSM, mostly in Russia, as a trainer, consultant, quality manager and – many years ago – service desk manager, he joined AXELOS in 2016 as an ITSM Portfolio Development Manager. Before ITIL 4, Roman has authored and translated several books and many articles on IT management.<br><br><br><br /><br />

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Mark Kimionakis is the director of the Desktop Services team within BU's IT Help Center, which has both a field support team and an engineering branch. His team consists of 35 staff and supports more than 90 departments and schools within BU. Desktop Services is also responsible for many of the university's shared services, such as the desktop asset management system, the endpoint device security system, imaging, and virtual desktops. Mark also acts as the service owner for multiple service components in BU&rsquo;s IT service catalog.

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Matt Lacy is the senior IT manager for Texas A&M University's Help Desk Central. Matt leads a team of approximately 55 student workers and six full-time staff to operate A&M's central help desk. With more than 18 years of IT experience, Matt plays an integral strategic role in many of the organization's continual service improvement efforts. Matt is currently studying management in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, and was the recipient of 2018 Texas A&M Student Employment Impact Award. Matt holds is certified in KCS Foundations and holds his HDI Support Center Team Lead and HDI Support Center Manager certificates.

As SysAid Technologies' first employee, Sarah Lahav has remained the vital link between SysAid and its customers since 2003. She is the current CEO and former VP of Customer Relations at SysAid, two positions that have given her a hands-on role in evolving SysAid solutions to align with the dynamic needs of service managers. Sarah's thoughts on Women in Tech was most recently highlighted in Fast Company - "Stop calling us women in tech. It's marginalizing and needs to evolve" - https://www.fastcompany.com/90379948/stop-calling-us-women-in-tech-its-marginalizing-and-needs-to-evolve

Cindy Leavitt is the CIO and VP of Information Technology at Temple University. At Temple, she's responsible for planning and implementing technology initiatives and overseeing key IT units, including the help desk, university-wide end-user support services, academic computing, and more. Her thirty years of experience span all aspects of IT, including strategic planning, project management, system design, operations, and application development. Cindy is passionate about creating empowered and innovative teams, and she is committed to being an authentic and positive leader who practices what she preaches and leads by example. Cindy received her MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Wayne&rsquo;s own journey to excellence has been fueled with an unrelenting passion for empowering people. From a childhood fascination with magic and visualization, Wayne&rsquo;s gift and passion for seeing great potential and acting on it has grown to international proportions: he one of North America&rsquo;s premier corporate presenters, a veteran of thousands of successful shows and presentations, a published author, and peak performance coach to professionals of all walks of life.<br /><br />

Steve McMillan is the Director of IT Network Services for Mercury Insurance, a publicly held casualty insurance company located in multiple states. Steve and his team are focused on the design, build, implementation, and operations of IT systems in disciplines such as network, telephony, contact center technologies, ITAM, and AV Tech. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science in IT, a Master's of Management, and has spoken on IT disciplines such as Knowledge Management and IT Transformation internationally. Steve spends his spare time reading, traveling with his lovely wife Debbie, and is an 8th degree black belt in Jujitsu, teaching self-defense seminars as far away as the UK and Spain.

Justin Menapace is currently the lead of the Employee Technology Experience team at Freddie Mac, responsible for engagement, adoption and development of the end-user technology strategy for Freddie Mac's 11,000+ employees. Previously he was the Executive Support team lead on the Desktop Support team at Freddie Mac, providing end-user support to all officers and executive coordinators. He is the creator and former strategic lead of the IT Solution Center, which provides walk-up support and service for employees. He has also played key roles in strategic initiatives including the deployment of new mobile technology and unified communications services. Justin holds a Master's in Technology Management from Georgetown University and a B.S. in Information Sciences and Technology from Penn State.

Dr. Alma Miller is an enthusiastic entrepreneur, speaker, and educator with over 15 years of experience in the IT industry. She obtained both a Bachelors and Masters in Electrical Engineering, a Masters in Technical Management, and a Doctorate in Engineering from George Washington University. Dr. Miller is a trained organizational psychologists and an authority on leadership development. But in practical terms, she considers herself a relationship counselor between development and operations teams. She started her consulting company, AC Miller Consulting, in 2013 to drive and champion DevOps transformations from an organizational change perspective (the soft skills of DevOps). Since then, AC Miller has provided services to government and commercial clients across multiple industries. Dr. Miller speaks at industry conferences and events, and teaches graduate courses for Johns Hopkins and University of California Irvine. Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn.

As the current Product Director of Training, Services and Content for ICMI and HDI- Fancy brings over twenty years of experience specializing in consulting, training and human resource development. She has authored multiple videos on LinkedIn Learning including IT Service Desk: Management Fundamentals, IT Service Desk: Service Management, IT Service Desk Customer Service Fundamentals, and IT Service Desk Careers and Certifications: First Steps. As a consultant, she has advised, trained and certified thousands of contact center and service and support leaders including executives, managers, analysts, technicians, and corporate trainers around the world in virtual and classroom environments. In addition to training, she has developed learning programs and facilitated customized curriculum for Fortune 500 companies in the areas of process improvement, customer experience, quality management, workforce management, presentation, communication, and time management skills. Fancy is currently pursuing a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Learning and Organizational Change from Baylor University. She received her Master of Science Degree in Human Resource Development with a specialization in Adult Education from Texas A&M University. She is a published author on generational conflict strategies featured in the 2018 publication "Cultural Impact on Conflict Management in Higher Education" and was a featured speaker at the 2016 TEDx TAMU speaking on The XYZ Strategies for Succeeding in a Multi-Generational World. She served on the Texas A&M Graduate Advisory Board and the Steering Committee for The Academy for Future Faculty and was awarded the 2016 AFF Senior Fellow. She was selected to serve as a Texas A&M Student Representative Commencement speaker for December 2017 graduation ceremonies. As a fifth generation Texan, she lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Kevin, son Mills, and their cat Sparky. She's an avid sports fan and enjoys rooting for the Texas A&M Aggies and all Dallas sports teams. Her favorite team is anyone that her son is playing on! <br>

<p> Ric Mims has more than twenty-five years of experience in service desk management, ITSM, consulting and operations. Ric has held various positions throughout his career, from team leader to help desk manager to ITSM consultant. He's also served in many capacities for HDI, including as a member of the HDI Faculty, a frequent speaker at HDI conferences and a former local chapter President. Ric's most recent work encompassed Project Leadership for planning, design and implementation of IT Service Management initiatives for companies such as Occidental Petroleum, Charles Schwab and Cepheid BioTech to name a few. Currently he functions as ServiceNow Solutions Architect for Precision Task Group in Houston, TX.</p><br><br>

Julie is a dynamic, engaging change agent who brings integrity and passion to everything. Through her books, articles, speaking, consulting, and teaching — her purpose is to change the world through thought-provoking dialog and interaction. Julie has a B.S. degree in computer science from The Ohio State University, a MaED from the University of Phoenix, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Management and Organizational Leadership in Information Systems &amp; Technology from the University of Phoenix. She also is an ITIL Expert, Certified Help Desk Director, and Certified Governance IT Professional. Julie speaks at conferences worldwide on topics of leadership, business, knowledge management, service management, governance, organization development, process engineering, service level management, and continual improvement.

Deborah Monroe is one of 18 Master EQ practitioners in the world, through the Global EQ Community of 6 Seconds. She's also an associate with the Institute for Organizational Performance and an HDI business associate. Working with all levels of executive leadership, management, and individual contributors, Deborah concentrates on integrating humans and processes to create a balanced working environment. Her aim is to build understanding and empathy, creating a positive bottom line through employee and customer retention.

Gina Montague is passionate about staff development, process improvement, and creating positive employee & customer experiences. Gina has over 25 years of leadership and service experience and is proud to have a career in the support industry. Since 2010, Gina has had the honor of leading the award-winning support team at Infinite Campus, a software company that is transforming K-12 education. Gina is a presenter at national conferences and other industry events, sharing her lessons learned on a variety of topics related to employee and customer engagement. Gina has been an active member of the HDI Minnesota Local Chapter since 2003.

David started his formal career as an operating systems programmer and systems architect which required that he look at not just the code he had written, but also how the resulting operating system might impact the applications that would run on the computer. Later, while serving in the US Army he was tasked to apply that approach to looking at different forms of systems and complexity regarding where & how US Forces were engaged. This required working within the integration of the staff functions (personnel, intelligence, operations, logistics and later civilian-military operations & planning). After his military service, he continued to apply a systems approach to his job and later as a consultant. He is recognized (and certified) as an ITIL Expert applying the approach that ITSM represents a management system. Since mid-2018 he has worked with clients to assist them to integrate their ITSM activities with the critical need to include better cybersecurity hygiene. Every organization thought they had a good cybersecurity program until they realized they'd been attacked or penetrated and missed it until long after the cybersecurity incident. As a result, he designed and build a course to address the need for organizations to develop a cybersecurity program that works and evolves to meet the rapidly changing threat landscape.

Christopher is CEO at TalentKeepers. Chris has over 30 years of experience in the human resources industry, the majority of which has been in the employee engagement, selection, assessment, and retention arena. Christopher co-founded TalentKeepers in 2000. Prior to co-founding TalentKeepers, Christopher was the Vice President of Business Development for AlignMark, a former division of The Thomson/Rueters Corporation. Christopher is a national speaker and published author on the subject of employee engagement and retention including a book "Talent Keepers: How to Engage and Retain Great People" published in 2017. Christopher is a member of the American Psychological Society and an Associate Member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the Florida State University, and a Master of Science degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Central Florida.

Kari Nelson&rsquo;s background and expertise has focused on numerous digital transformation technologies including servers, storage, networking, services, software, virtualization, and ITaaS. Prior to joining Cherwell Software, Kari spent over 15 years with Hewlett Packard Enterprise.<br /><br />

Jay Nesselroad Starting on Apple 2's, a Vic-20 and some mini computer basic, I have been working in this industry since before the A+ certification existed. Over all, I have over 20 years of professional experience in IT with roles including technician, help desk analyst, system operator, programmer, system manager, project manager, and IT analyst. Not necessarily in that order. I currently function as the Monitoring Strategy Analyst for the Global Technical Service Center at Worldpay based in Cincinnati Ohio.

DeAndrea Norris is the IT Customer Experience Manager for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). DeAndrea has 20 years of extensive hands-on experience managing customer support teams focused on improving the customer experience within the organization. In her previous roles, DeAndrea has held positions as the Help Desk and Relationship Manager, supporting over 7,000+ internal customers. She helped to contribute to APL being recognized as one of Computer World Top 100 places to work in IT for both 2018 and 2019. As a proud HDI member, she loves to share her vast experience of managing teams and improving the customer experience.

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<p>Gary Nugent is CEO of the new Informa Tech division, created in January 2019. He joined the Group in 2014 as Commercial Director for the Business Intelligence division and was latterly Group President of its Agribusiness, Financial and Infrastructure Intelligence verticals, where he was responsible for driving their profitable and sustainable growth while ensuring the company remained a trusted partner to its customers across the globe.</p> <p>Gary has over 20 years of International Sales and Marketing experience having lived and worked in Dubai, Geneva, London and Paris. He joined Informa from Alcatel Lucent, where he was most recently Head of the Managed Services Business. Prior to that Gary held the position of Head of Marketing. Before joining Alcatel-Lucent Gary worked for leading global Information Technology brands such as Oracle, Sun Microsystems and IBM.&nbsp;</p>

Leslie O'Flahavan has helped thousands of people learn to write well for online readers. She has delivered customized writing courses for customer service agents, social media managers, and support desk staff. She is a problem-solver for all the writing-related challenges faced by contact centers: e-mail, chat, and social media. She helps contact centers train agents to write excellent e-mail, measure the quality of their e-mails to customers, and rewrite and maintain their entire library of canned answers. Recently, she completed a complete overhaul of customer service writing for a global airline's domestic and international contact centers. Leslie is a Lynda.com author of three courses Technical Writing: How to Write a Quickstart Guide, How to Write Customer Service Email and Customer Service: Writing for Social Media. Leslie is the co-author of Clear, Correct, Concise E-Mail: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents.

With over 20 years of experience in global, enterprise IT service and operations management, a self-proclaimed customer service junkie, 'IT whisperer" and "change sage,' Michael is passionate about service. As a change catalyst, he has a track record of conceiving, evangelizing, and heading revolutionary global initiatives in various industries. He is fascinated with the details that allows us to engage with and execute on disruptive ideas. Michael has a knack for infusing user insights to optimize the customer journey while propelling service agility, responsiveness, and transparency. Michael has held various leadership and principal consulting roles at T-Mobile, Activision | Blizzard, BayCare Health Systems, USAA, Rite Aid, Columbia University and CHANEL to name a few. <br><br>

Manuel is the coach that will take you to the gym, not just send you there. He is the author of the book Getting To The Next Level: A Blueprint For Taking You And Your Business To The Top. He has over 30 years of business, management, and training experience in the computer and electronics industries. He has owned several successful businesses, managed several successful IT and MSP service companies, and coached or mentored many more around the world. Manuel is a thought leader on Agile as applied to Business Strategy and as applied to Service Delivery processes. Manuel is a well-known author, speaker, and trainer on these subjects at industry conferences and in the IT consulting community for Small and Medium-sized Businesses. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering Technology and Automated Manufacturing Technology.

Andrew Pritchard has spent 30 years helping customers around the world understand how technology can solve business problems. A technologist by trade and a storyteller by nature, he has more than 15 years in the IT service management space, with companies like AT&T, Remedy, BMC, and now Perspectium: an innovator in integration as a service. He also enjoyed success with Oracle, Polycom, and NetApp which provided a broader perspective on the role of IT in serving the needs of the business in order to satisfy the end customer.

Doug Rabold is Founder and Principal Consultant of Bold Ray Consulting in San Antonio, Texas. As an IT Operations Manager he has had direct oversight of over a dozen different ITIL processes including Change Management, Problem Management, Configuration Management, Knowledge Management, IT Asset Management, IT Procurement and Telecom Expense Management. Beyond Service Management, Doug is an acknowledged expert at customer experience and employee engagement and has led teams of up to 250 resources and managed asset values totaling multiple millions of dollars. Doug successfully transitioned from a sales career to IT Operations in 2009. He has significant experience in public speaking, including the HDI Conference, the HDI Leadership Summit, the AOTMP Vendor Edge Conference, the itSMF FUSION Conference, the Cherwell Roadshow series, the SAMS USA Symposium, the ITAM Review US Conference and the Service Management World Conference. As a lifelong learner he attended the University of Illinois and holds certifications in ITIL Foundations, HDI Support Center Director, HDI Problem Management, HDI Technical Support Professional, HDI Support Center Manager, Knowledge Centered Support Principles and Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt. Doug is currently serving as an HDI national officer as Regional Vice President for chapters in Pacific Coast, Southwest and Great Plains states. He previously served as District President for New York and Ontario chapters and in various roles on the HDI San Antonio Chapter Board. He served two terms on the Cherwell Customer Advisory Board helping guide development of the ITSM tool from a customer perspective. Doug was a key contributor to Whataburger's 2015 HDI Team Excellence Award winning team. More recently he was named a 2018 finalist for the HDI Manager of the Year Award and was selected as the People's Choice Award winner. This award acknowledges and honors a service and support manager who has excelled at supporting any or all IT services within their organization. Doug is a self-professed "process guy" while being a committed servant leader. He is most proud of his ability to grow and develop talent at the individual and the team level. If you have a few minutes, ask Doug about the one thing he is most proud of in his career...

Brandy Ramirez is the former Associate Director at Edwards Lifesciences which she joined in 2014. She held several positions across the IT organizations and led a mix of managed service teams across the globe. Designed and implemented the standard for several operational processes such as global metrics, application development, and incident management. Hold a BS degree in IT Security, certified Scrum Master, certified SAFe Agilist, ITIL OSA certified, and Data Science certification from University of California, Irvine. Brandy enjoys reading about different methodologies and studying for different certifications.

Pam Roberts is a senior leader with proven success in designing, implementing, and delivering global service centers across verticals of healthcare, commercial, and government. She has an excellent track record of defining support to meet business needs with an intense customer service focus. By using flexible and out of the box thinking to quickly adjust direction, she has been able to meet fast-paced business objectives. This mindset has resulted in raising the standard for service delivery, and significantly reduced operating cost. Pam has demonstrated proficiency in continual improvement, utilizing staff development, process design, defining performance metrics while sustaining a customer-centric culture.

Keplyn Robinson has been in IT service management for over twenty years educating and advising organizations all over the US and Europe. She began her career in radiology software where she quickly realized her love for training. Her dynamic, interactive style of teaching has brought accolades from every level of IT. After gaining her ITIL v3 Expert certification she has worked with many different organizations from higher education and healthcare to government and retail organizations helping guide the design and implementation of best practices that enabled these organizations to meet and exceed their business goals. Throughout her career she has helped certify thousands of professionals in achieving their ITIL foundation and practitioner&rsquo;s certifications.

Becky Roemen has deep-rooted passion for customer experience strategy and operations. She&rsquo;s an accomplished leader of digital, operational, and customer experience transformations. Becky launched her career in technical marketing before serving as a contact center systems engineer, and quickly became an advocate for customer-centric design. Becky has been recognized as an ICMI Top 50 Thought Leader and her articles can be seen in several trade publications. Currently serving as a Senior Consultant of CX Strategy &amp; Operations at TTEC Digital, Becky helps organizations of every shape and size rise above their most complex customer experience hurdles. Follow Becky on Twitter (twitter.com/BeckyRoemen) and connect with her on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/becky-roemen/).

Will Ross is the Assistant Group Supervisor for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Will has over 20 years of extensive hands on IT experience leading dynamic, high-performing customer support teams. In his current role, Will leads a support team of 70 staff which includes 5 managers supporting over 7,000+ internal customers. In his previous roles, Will has held positions as the Regional Director of IT & Help Desk and Field Services manager. He is very proud to have helped contribute to APL being recognized as one of Computer World Top 100 places to work in IT both 2018 and 2019. In 2018, Will presented "Being the Boss you want to work for!" during the HDI conference in Vegas as well as to his local HDI chapter. Will uses his style of storytelling and comedy to keep the audience laughing and engaged. He has a passion for creating strong leaders with empowered and innovative teams. Will received his Master's in Computer Information from University of Maryland University College (UMUC).

Refer to CV attached as additional file.<br /><br />

Jeff Rumburg is co-founder and Managing Partner of MetricNet, LLC. He was awarded the Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award by HDI for his contributions to the IT Service and Support industry. He has authored a best-selling book on Benchmarking, and has published more than 100 whitepapers on IT Support Best Practices. He has also been retained as a service and support expert by more than half of the FORTUNE 1000, including such well-known companies as American Express, Intel, General Motors, IBM, and USAA. Equally broad is his industry experience, which includes benchmarking IT service and support in every major industry. Prior to co-founding MetricNet, Mr. Rumburg was president and founder of The Verity Group, an international management consulting firm specializing in benchmarking and competitive analysis. As president of The Verity Group, Mr. Rumburg launched a syndicated benchmarking service that provided service desk benchmarks to more than 1,000 corporations worldwide. Additionally, Mr. Rumburg has held executive positions at META Group, and Gartner. As vice president at Gartner, Mr. Rumburg led a project team that reengineered Gartner&rsquo;s global benchmarking product suite. And as vice president at META Group, Mr. Rumburg&rsquo;s career was focused on service center Benchmarking and reengineering. Mr. Rumburg's education includes an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, an M.S. magna cum laude in Operations Research from Stanford University, and a B.S. magna cum laude in Mechanical Engineering. He is author of A Hands-On Guide to Competitive Benchmarking: The Path to Continuous Quality and Productivity Improvement, and has taught graduate-level engineering and business courses.

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Greg Sanker is an IT service management author, speaker, and practitioner with decades of global IT experience, ranging from a Fortune 10 tech giant to the public sector. An international speaker known for his practical been-there-done-that advice, Greg frequently blogs about excellence in service management on <a href="http://itsmtransition.com/" style="outline: none;" data-mce-href="http://itsmtransition.com/" data-mce-style="outline: none;">ITSMTransition.com</a> and was recently named an Top 25 Thought Leader in Technical Support and Service Management by HDI.

Megan Selva is the group content director for HDI and ICMI. In this role, she's responsible for managing the overall content strategy and ensuring that HDI and ICMI's content meets the needs of the technical support, service management, contact center, and customer service communities. Megan has been with UBM, HDI and ICMI's parent company, since 2006. Prior to taking on her current role, Megan was HDI's senior editor; before that, she was the training courseware editor and a member services representative in the Customer Care Center. Megan received her MPS in publishing from The George Washington University and her MA in history from the University of Guelph in Ontario.<br><br>

Glenn Setliff is a technologist who enjoys working in educational environments. He recently completed an MBA, which helped him bring a more strategic view of technology to his organization. Setliff is a former presenter at HDI Fusion and regularly shares case studies and expertise at technical conferences, where he also enjoys hearing from other IT leaders about their successes.<br /><br />

Scotty Shepherd is the Training and Quality Assurance Manager for Texas A&M's Help Desk Central, where he is directly responsible for the recruitment and training of student technicians. Scotty has over 14 years of IT experience and has been teaching other IT professionals since 2008. Prior to joining the Help Desk Central team, Scotty served as the IT manager for the Texas A&M Health Science Center Help Desk and Bryan Support Team. Scotty received his BA in history with a minor in psychology from Texas A&M.

As VP of Technical Support at DreamHost, a web hosting company, Andrea's main focus is providing 24/7 support through multiple languages and various channels including email, Live Chat, and social media and self help. Through evolutionary restructuring and a widely distributed team, Andrea has created an omnichannel experience to handle an increasingly connected, technical, and multi-country customer base. Under her direction, DreamHost is constantly recognized for its exceptional customer service.

Jason is a senior manager of program management at Akamai Technologies in their Global Services and Support division and leads a global team of program managers that handles strategic programs and business transformation initiatives. He served as the President of the itSMF USA Boston LIG from 2012-2015.<br /><br />

Richard Sykora is a senior leader with a diverse background and over 24+ years of experience in Call Center and Service Management including Global Operations, Relationship Management, Work Force Management, Change Management, identifying Business Process Improvements using ITIL and Lean Best Practice methodologies. Richard's background include strategic planning, program and project management, and data analysis in order to execute on theories, policies, business plans, and overall management of Support Services. Richard is currently Senior Manager, Support Operations at Blackbaud, and is Vice Chair on the Non-Profit ReStart Career Development program

Doug Tedder is the principal of Tedder Consulting LLC, a Service Management and IT Governance consultancy. Doug is a recognized thought leader who is equally adept in interactions from senior leadership to day-to-day practitioners. Doug's passion is helping and inspiring IT organizations not just to be good, but to be great. His attention to detail, industry knowledge, emotional intelligence, and the ability to "see the big picture" and make it actionable has resulted in a track record of success in transforming IT organizations into valued business leaders. Doug holds numerous industry certifications in disciplines ranging from ITIL®, COBIT®, Lean IT, DevOps, KCS™, VeriSM™, and Organizational Change Management. Doug was recognized as an "IT Industry Legend" by Cherwell Software in 2016, and named to HDI's "Top 25 Thought Leaders in Technical and Service Management" for 2018. Doug is an author, blogger, and frequent speaker and contributor at local industry user group meetings, webinars, and national conventions. Doug is a member and former president of itSMF USA, a member of HDI, a contributing author to VeriSM™, and co-author of the VeriSM™ Pocket Guide. Follow Doug on Twitter (@dougtedder) or visit his website (dougtedder.com).

Jeff Toister helps organizations get their employees obsessed with customer service. He is a best selling author who has written three customer service books, including The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service. Feedspot has named his Inside Customer Service blog one of the Top 50 customer service blogs on the planet. Jeff has been recognized as a top customer service thought leader by Global Gurus, ICMI, and Comm100. Thousands of people around the world, including many service desk professionals, subscribe to Jeff's Customer Service Tip of the Week email. More than 140,000 people on six continents have taken his video-based training courses on LinkedIn Learning (a.k.a. Lynda.com). Jeff's training videos include Customer Service Foundations and Leading a Customer-Centric Culture.

Dan Turchin is the co-founder and chief product officer of Astound, the leading provider of machine learning and natural language processing solutions for enterprise service management. Prior to Astound, Dan was vice president of product at DevOps leader BigPanda, chief product officer at security analytics company AccelOps (now Fortinet), and a senior director of product strategy at ServiceNow. In 2000, Dan co-founded mobile enterprise machine learning company Aeroprise and served as CEO until it was acquired in 2010 by BMC Software. He was also a founding board member at Rhomobile prior to its acquisition by Motorola. Dan is passionate about building great teams that build great products that solve hard problems that change lives. He's a big fan of Orwell, Dr. Seuss, youth soccer, adventure sports, and Tynker. Dan has BS and BA degrees from Stanford University.

Hannah Ubl's core mission is to create organizations that don't suck. She's devoted her career to flipping the traditional workplace script, throwing out the old "employees are lines on a spreadsheet" in favor of treating people at work more like… well, people.<br><br>As Co-founder of Good Company Consulting, she's sought after for her bold take on building workplaces that prioritize the human experience while simultaneously increasing the bottom line. Hannah's dedicated the past decade to researching people at work - not just top talent and leadership - but everyone in between. She's discovered a strangely well-kept secret for recruiting and retaining the workforce of the future: the best recipe for organizational success is rooted in mindfulness, empathy, and kindness.<br>Hannah's work is a fresh approach to the standard (and outdated) workplace<br>

20 years in financial services. Served in leadership capacities in IT, marketing, PR, lending, and customer service, with deep exposure in digital, strategic management, and team development. Served in 13 different roles within the organization spanning services in retail banking, training, collections, corporate communications, technical support, and mortgage lending. Currently is one of the resource managers of the credit union's IT Service Desk, supporting over 20,000 employees worldwide.<br /><br />

Shundale (Dale) Varnado is an experienced IT manager with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital and healthcare industry. Dale manages specialized teams within Field Services to provide efficient desktop support. Dale serves as the project manager for realignment initiatives in Field Services to maximize production support, specialty desktop support, service request and project team efforts.<br /><br />

Shundale (Dale) Varnado is an experienced IT manager with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital and healthcare industry. Dale manages specialized teams within Field Services to provide efficient desktop support. Dale serves as the project manager for realignment initiatives in Field Services to maximize production support, specialty desktop support, service request and project team efforts.<br /><br />

<p>Jamie Vernon has held a variety of IT roles over the last 20 years, including end user support, database administration, infrastructure, application development, and project management across in healthcare, telecommunications, mining, and energy. At STARTEK, Jamie has been tasked with helping customers adopt advanced technology in their pursuit of strategic improvement of their customer care; his leadership has resulted in 14 straight quarters of 99.999% IT service uptime, along with responsibility for initiatives related to chatbots, robotic process automation, omnichannel, workforce management, and <span style="font-size: 10pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 10pt;">more.</span><br></p>

Jill has worked for Northwestern Mutual since 2018 as a Lead Technician of the Technology Service Center on the Technology Customer Success organization. She is in charge of running two separate walk up services centers and has been in the IT service and support industry for over 20 years. HDI is now stranger to her, she has been the VP of Programs for the Brew City local HDI chapter for over 15 years and has facilitated several panels at HDI conferences in the past.<br /><br />

Mike Weber, senior manager of member support at National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC), leads a customer support center of 200 professionals that provide customer care for enterprise software solutions. NISC support centers had the good fortunate of earning an HDI CSAT Elite Top 50 award, which recognized top-ranked support centers in customer satisfaction, for five years in a row.<br /><br />

Chief Morale Officer Kirk Weisler is an expert at creating outrageously cool workplace cultures and high performance teams. Over the past 19 years over 50,000 Leaders from organizations including Delta, MAYO Clinic, Johns Hopkins, YUM Brands, Bausch & Lomb, General Mills, Coca Cola, have specifically sought Kirk's advice and wisdom on building teams, strengthening leaders and improving culture. His unique background as a US Army Ranger, a member of the 19th Special Forces Chaplaincy, his work with At-Risk Youth and experience as a Master Storyteller & Team Builder make him a very fun, engaging, and sought after speaker. He authored the Best Smelling book, The Dog Poop Initiative and the semi –sweet best smeller, "The Cookie Thief. Kirk lives in Phoenix AZ with "Wonderful wife Rebecca and their six remarkable children."

Chief Morale Officer Kirk Weisler is an expert at creating outrageously cool workplace cultures and high performance teams. Over the past 19 years over 50,000 Leaders from organizations including Delta, MAYO Clinic, Johns Hopkins, YUM Brands, Bausch & Lomb, General Mills, Coca Cola, have specifically sought Kirk's advice and wisdom on building teams, strengthening leaders and improving culture. His unique background as a US Army Ranger, a member of the 19th Special Forces Chaplaincy, his work with At-Risk Youth and experience as a Master Storyteller & Team Builder make him a very fun, engaging, and sought after speaker. He authored the Best Smelling book, The Dog Poop Initiative and the semi –sweet best smeller, "The Cookie Thief. Kirk lives in Phoenix AZ with "Wonderful wife Rebecca and their six remarkable children."

Chief Morale Officer Kirk Weisler is an expert at creating outrageously cool workplace cultures and high performance teams. Over the past 19 years over 50,000 Leaders from organizations including Delta, MAYO Clinic, Johns Hopkins, YUM Brands, Bausch & Lomb, General Mills, Coca Cola, have specifically sought Kirk's advice and wisdom on building teams, strengthening leaders and improving culture. His unique background as a US Army Ranger, a member of the 19th Special Forces Chaplaincy, his work with At-Risk Youth and experience as a Master Storyteller & Team Builder make him a very fun, engaging, and sought after speaker. He authored the Best Smelling book, The Dog Poop Initiative and the semi –sweet best smeller, "The Cookie Thief. Kirk lives in Phoenix AZ with "Wonderful wife Rebecca and their six remarkable children."

Tom Wilk is the PC Engineering manager at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. He has become a performance improvement leader helping employees find their way along their career path. Recently he has started mentoring others and consulting to help others become performance management leaders. Tom recently serves as the President of the Steel City Chapter in Pittsburgh after holding the VP of Programs for two years. Additionally he is the Committee Chair for National Sponsorship Programs for HDI Local Chapters Inc.

Tom Wilk is the PC Engineering manager at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. He has become a performance improvement leader helping employees find their way along their career path. Recently he has started mentoring others and consulting to help others become performance management leaders. Tom recently serves as the President of the Steel City Chapter in Pittsburgh after holding the VP of Programs for two years. Additionally he is the Committee Chair for National Sponsorship Programs for HDI Local Chapters Inc.

Paul has been actively involved in ITSM for more than 35 years in the roles of managing consultant, Service development manager and as ITIL developer. Paul was co-author of the ITIL publication "Planning to Implement IT Service Management", was a member of the ITIL advisory group for ITIL Version 3 and member of the architects team for the ITIL Practitioner. Paul is also co-director and owner of GamingWorks, the company that developed the internationally renowned 'Apollo 13 – an ITSM case experience' ITSM simulation game as well as the most recent 'Phoenix Project' DevOps simulation and 'MarsLander' which can be used to support ITIL4® courseware. He was also co-author and developer of the 'ABC of ICT' (The Attitude, Behavior and Culture of ICT) publications, having conducted ABC workshops and simulation workshops with delegates representing more than 5000 organizations world-wide.

Jason Wischer is an IT manager with 15 years of experience in the financial services, digital marketing, and retail services industries. He volunteers with his local HDI chapter in Milwaukee and has served in various roles leading the local chapter community, including Midwest Regional Director and past chair of the HDI Member Advisory Board. Jason is passionate about helping others achieve their career goals and about creating a positive culture in the workplace.<br /><br />

GariLynn was HDI Los Angeles' former President and is now VP of Social Media. She works as a Senior Program Manager for Entertainment Partner's Client Experience Team. Her current pet project involves designing and spearheading the company's NPS and Voice of the Customer Program. She also helped create EP's Technology Transformation Office and the ACTION! Team which were responsible for increasing employee engagement, improving client focus and increasing innovation time through highly productive, self-managed teams. She is a Customer Experience Expert and Information Technology Leader with over 15 years of coaching and mentoring people in fast paced environments. Her specialties include building strong relationships and collaborative teams in high-touch, agile environments. Not to mention, she has mad skills with identifying and streamlining inefficient processes and managing service desks and vendors. She holds a BA degree in Computer Science from the University of San Diego and decided to go the technical support route instead of the software engineering route. This gives her over 24 years total IT experience dedicated to improving customer service levels in any endeavor she pursues. She says, "Customer service is a way of life, not just a thing you try to do."

Ms. Zornes has served as Zendesk's Chief Customer Officer since February 2019. She represents the collective voice of Zendesk's customers and leads the teams responsible for helping customers onboard and maximize the benefits of the company's growing product portfolio. She brings 20 years of experience as a leader in customer support, operations and services, most recently leading global customer support for Microsoft Office consumers, enterprise customers, and partners. Ms. Zornes holds a masters degree in science and a minor in computer science from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany and extended executive education at the Harvard Business School and INSEAD for international business and global management and MIT's Executive MBA program at the Sloan School of Management.