2010 Ohio CIO Executive Summit

Chris just recently transferred to FirstGroup America in Cincinnati Ohio where he now holds to position of VP & CIO.

Boult began working at Greyhound in April 2008, bringing more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry to the company. In addition to overseeing the company's entire IT division, Boult is responsible for identifying new technology that will help grow revenue, improve the on-board communications system and enhance package delivery service.

His career began in 1986 with British Airways as a designer and developer for the company's reservation system. In 1987, he joined American Airlines and its travel reservations division, SABRE, where he worked for the next nine years. In 1996, Boult began working for Dallas-based Accenture as the senior manager of the company's transportation and travel group. He then traveled back to London in 2000 to join Adecco as the IT director for its UK operations. Boult joined Blue Arrow Recruitment in 2001 as the chief information officer, and then rejoined Accenture in 2003 as a partner with the company. Boult earned his bachelor's degree with honors in German and Italian from Lancaster University in Bailrigg, Lancaster, UK.

Marc Brown is SVP, Corporate Service Center and CIO of Del Monte Foods Company, one of the country’s largest and most well-known producers, distributors and marketers of premium quality, branded and private label food and pet products for the U.S. retail market, generating more than $3.7B in pro forma net sales. Brown is responsible for Del Monte’s Pittsburgh-based corporate service center and leads all IT strategic planning, development, implementation and support throughout the Del Monte network.

He is a past chair of the Grocery Manufacturers of America Information Systems Committee, which comprises chief technology executives from its member companies that, collectively, represent annual U.S. sales of more than $500B.

Before joining Del Monte in 2002, Brown worked in a variety of information technology positions for Heinz North America and Heinz Frozen Foods divisions. Prior to working for Heinz, Brown held a variety of consulting positions with Andersen Consulting.

Brown earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and holds a M.M. degree from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

As President and CEO of Cincinnati Bell Inc., Jack Cassidy leads the greater Cincinnati region’s fi rst choice for communications services. Cincinnati Bell provides wireless, wireline, long distance and broadband services and produces $1.3B in revenue.

He is responsible for developing, establishing and executing the company’s strategic and operational plans for all Cincinnati Bell companies including Cincinnati Bell Wireless, Cincinnati Bell Telephone, Cincinnati Bell Entertainment, Cincinnati Bell Any Distance and Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions.

Previously, Cassidy served as President and COO of the local Cincinnati Bell operations. As President of Cincinnati Bell Wireless, he led the company’s launch into the wireless business, and later, the prepaid PCS business, branded i-wireless.

Cassidy actively serves on many boards that play key roles in the development and vitality of the community. He currently serves on the boards of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Cincinnati Business Committee, Cincinnati Museum Center, 3CDC and the Boomer Esiason Foundation, and he is a member and past chair of the Chamber’s Minority Business Accelerator Program. He sits on the Advisory Board for the Anthony Munoz Foundation, the Boys and Girls Club of Cincinnati and the Marvin Lewis Community Fund.

Chris Curran is a Partner at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants and the firm’s Chief Technology Officer. He works closely with senior management on their most complex and strategic technology issues, helping to prioritize and align technology investments, define the IT organization, deploy technology governance and management practices, and develop business and technical architectures.

Chris spearheads Diamond’s annual Digital IQ Study, in which several hundred C-level business and technology executives express their beliefs about IT’s role in economic competition.

In addition to contributing to Diamond’s white papers, Chris writes the CIO Dashboard blog, is a featured columnist on CIO.com, and regularly contributes to several other publications including the CIO Leadership Forum, CIO Insight, Investor’s Business Daily, Baseline, InformationWeek, and Insurance & Technology. He is also an active member of the Center for Information Systems Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and serves on MISQ Executive’s advisory board.

Dr. LaVaughn M. Henry joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland as VP and Senior Regional Officer for the bank’s Cincinnati Branch Office in 2009.

As the leader of the Cincinnati Branch Office, Dr. Henry is responsible for building and maintaining a strong presence and reputation for the bank throughout the central and southern Ohio, and eastern Kentucky region. He works closely with key stakeholders, including the board of directors of the Cincinnati branch, business advisory councils, depository institutions, business and civic leaders, and the public.

Dr. Henry has diverse experience in the private and public sectors. Most recently, he served as senior director of market economics and risk analysis at PMI Group, one of the nation’s largest mortgage insurers. He previously held positions as director of regional communications at Fannie Mae and assistant regional manager for government affairs at Ford Motor Company. Dr. Henry served previously in senior economic positions with the Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the FDIC’s Resolution Trust Corporation, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he led consulting engagements with the Federal Housing Administration.

Dr. Henry earned both a Doctorate and Master’s degrees in economics from Harvard University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Rockhurst University.

David Johns is the SVP and CIO of Owens Corning, a world leader in building materials and composite systems and solutions. Johns leads the Global IT & Global Business Shared Services organization which includes all Owens Corning business shared service centers, manufacturing technology, project portfolio management and information systems – the latter of which ranked 62nd in the 2006 InformationWeek 500 and 5th on the 2005 <em>Baseline</em> 500.

Johns has extensive managerial and technical experience involving global supply chain activities, large-scale systems design and development, and other technology related activities. He was inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame in 2009.

Prior his current assignment, Johns served as SVP, CIO and Chief Supply Chain Officer. In this role, he was responsible for global information systems and supply chain functions leveraging people, process and technology to transform Owens Corning’s supply chain and drive change across the enterprise.

In 1999, Johns was named SVP and CTO where he led the Owens Corning Technology Group, which paired the company’s science and technology and information systems organizations. Johns also served as VP and CIO with responsibility for leading and integrating the design, development and operations elements of ‘Advantage 2000’, the company’s enterprise-wide reengineering program.

Doug Keeley, CEO and Chief Storyteller of The Mark of a Leader, is one of North America’s leading communicators, a serial entrepreneur and a self-professed “leadership junkie.” Today his revolutionary program is inspiring leaders and workforces to improved performance with a revolutionary approach called “Five Level Leadership.”

Keeley started the first of several businesses in 1978, and quickly became a pioneer in the marketing and communications industry.

In 2004, he embarked on a journey to help create a new generation of leaders with The Mark of a Leader. This unique, story-based program uses multimedia to share insights into the success of many of the world’s greatest leaders and brands to show how they can be applied to business today.

Keeley has written a book of inspiring stories, authored many magazine features and columns, and has appeared in several books on creativity and corporate culture. He is also an inductee in the Meetings & Incentive Travel Hall of Fame.

K. Ananth Krishnan joined Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in 1988 and is currently the CTO of TCS. He also Chairs the TCS Corporate Technology Board. In 2007, he was named in Computerworld's "Premier 100 IT Leaders" as well as Infoworld's "Top 25 CTOs."

He has been a principal architect and lead consultant in the Architecture and Technology Consulting Practice and was head of the TCS Systems Management and Systems Software Group.

Krishnan was an invitee to the quarterly management review with the TCS Board from 2000 - 2004 and the board meetings of Jataayu Software from 2000 - 2005. He is also on the customer advisory boards of Symantec and IBM-Rational.

He is a senior member of the IEEE, a member of the Computer Society of India, and is an invited faculty member in the Department of Management Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Krishnan has an M.C.S. and M.S. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He has a B.S. in Physics from Fergusson College in Pune, India.

Thornton May operationalizes Henry David Thoreau's aphorism, "It's not what you look at, it's what you see." Collecting data from all corners of the technology world, May synthesizes the insights of the top thinkers on the planet seeking to understand where we have been, where we are today and where we are going. He teaches at four business schools, writes for five magazines, researches at three think tanks and keeps in monthly contact with more than 1,000 C-level executives via the CIO Leadership Network.

Piyush Singh is Senior Vice President and CIO of American Financial Group, Inc. He is responsible for creating the vision and direction of American Financial Group’s IT strategy and operationally executing that vision to take the specialty insurer to the next generation. Singh holds a Master’s degree from the University of Delhi, an M.B.A. from Bradley University and CPCU designation.

Singh is on the board of directors of International Accounting and Systems Association, Advisory Council of College of Business for Bradley University, Editorial Advisory Board of Insurance and Technology magazine and the Executive Committee of the Cincinnati Chapter of American Red Cross.

Pat Toole is VP and CIO of IBM. He is responsible for advancing the company’s transformation agenda and aligning IBM’s IT investments to the business strategy. Before becoming CIO in 2009, Toole was General Manager of IBM intellectual property, overseeing the direction of IBM’s intellectual property portfolio and IBM’s global patent program while advancing company-wide intellectual property and innovation. Toole joined IBM in 1984 and has held a variety of executive and management positions across the company, including VP in IBM’s corporate enterprise on demand transformation and IT business, General Manager of the IBM engineering and technology services division, and senior site executive of IBM Charlotte in North Carolina.

Toole is a member of the IBM Performance Team, which implements IBM strategies and drives overall business performance. He is also a member of the IBM Integration & Values Team and has served on the IBM Technology Team. Toole represents IBM on the board of trustees on the Committee for Economic Development.

Toole holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Queens University of Charlotte, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.