Amy Harp

KEYNOTE Speaker, VP Consumer Marketing at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco

Amy Harp is Vice President of Consumer Experience at R.J. Reynolds, a marketing role that oversees direct-to-consumer and engagement marketing, e-commerce and marketing operations. Prior to joining Reynolds in 2017, Amy held a global position with Illycaffé in Trieste, Italy for six years, where she headed e-commerce in Europe, Asia and the Americas and was responsible for all corporate digital touch points including web, social media and mobile apps.  Prior to illy, Amy was a partner in digital agency Harp Interactive and owner of Eat Street Marketing, working with entrepreneurial ventures as well as with clients such as Pesi-Cola, Dannon, Evian, Allied Domecq and Frito Lay on new product launches and integrated digital marketing initiatives.  Amy and her husband Thom live in Winston Salem and are happily discovering –  and loving –  the charms of southern living after decades as die-hard New Yorkers.

Andrew Sohn

KEYNOTE Speaker, Digital Transformation Leader at Crawford & Company

Andrew Sohn is the SVP of Global Digital and Analytics Services at Crawford and Company. Crawford is the world’s largest publicly listed independent provider of claims management solutions to insurance companies and self-insured entities with an expansive global network serving clients in more than 70 countries. Andrew is responsible for developing and implementing the strategies for leveraging the value of data, advanced analytics, digital innovation and other emerging technologies.

Richard Starets

Managing Director at Small Footprint, a Division of Globant

Richard is CEO of Small Footprint. He worked for several start-up companies before starting Small Footprint. He spent 15 years working and living in Eastern Europe, during which time he built and managed operations across 5 countries for start-up telecoms provider eTel Group (later purchased by Telecom Austria), and also served as an early Sr. Manager for Hungarian telco Novacom, forging strategic international partnerships and new product development. In 2003 he saw the opportunity to leverage the exceptional software engineering talent of the region to provide global IT services and established Small Footprint. Small Footprint is celebrating its 15 year anniversary this year, having established an exceptional company culture envied by many.

Raja Rangineni

Director and Principal Architect at TEKsystems

Raja Chandra Rangineni is a seasoned technologist and hands-on leader known for delivering innovative, data-driven strategies and tactical roadmaps as the core of high-performance commercial solutions in areas of Data Analytics, Enterprise Architecture, Big Data, Cloud, Data Science and Blockchain for global enterprises. He collaborates with executive leadership to articulate vision and chart the course for investment in open source frameworks and services with blueprints and reference architectures. Provide thought leadership and architect models that consistently achieve user acceptance across the business community.

Karl Hightower

Chief Data Officer at Novant Health

Proven innovator and results oriented problem solver who eagerly approaches each challenge and provides enterprise changing solutions. Bringing a wealth of top notch experience and a penchant for learning and incorporating new ideas into delivered solutions with the ability to adapt to any industry and environment. Specialized in driving large, complex global Information Management and Analytics implementations. Demonstrated ability to create and develop maturity into organizations and discipline areas at every company. Extensive experience understanding how data can be leveraged to improve business processes as well as providing analytical insights across a wide variety of industries.

Eric Ellis

Director of Digital Solutions at ettain group

Eric Ellis is the Director of Digital Solutions at ettain group, a staffing solutions company based in Charlotte.  With 15 years of experience in UX, Eric is passionate about applying design thinking to complex problems to create compelling experiences and real value.  He’s applied his craft inside Google, Airbnb, Intuit, and Dropbox, and other successful brands who are all looking to deliver intentional, omni-channel solutions to their customers.

Antonio Raynor

Coder Foundry

Antonio is Director of Education at Coder Foundry. He  holds a computer science degree from East Carolina University. He has over a decade of real world development experience with Microsoft-related projects for medium- and large-sized organizations. His background work includes consulting, development lead, and project management, and he has worked on all aspects of enterprise-level project deployments. He brings his passion for development and instruction to Coder Foundry.

Bill Bronske

Senior Solutions Architect at Globant

Bill Bronske is a Senior Solutions Architect with Globant.  He has over 20 years’ experience delivering custom solutions and commercial software products in key engineering roles. He is the chief architect responsible for Globant’s OTT platform, Signal, a video services platform that powers native mobile client apps, consoles, and smart TVs. His passion to deliver optimum partner value has earned the confidence and repeat business of many startups and mid-size and enterprise customers.  Bill is an inventor of four patented internet technologies and currently leads Globant’s AI and cloud practice team in Seattle.

Bob Zurek

VP Product Management at LabCorp

Bob is the current VP of Consumer Products at LabCorp. Prior to joining LabCorp, Bob was CTO at HealthcareSource. Previously to HealthcareSource, Bob was CTO of Scribe Software (acquired by Tibco) where he led engineering, qa and product management for the connectivity and applications business. Bob was SVP of Products at Epsilon responsible for overseeing campaign management, loyalty and data products. Bob was also VP Products at Endeca (sold to Oracle). Prior to Endeca, Bob was CTO and VP Product Mgt for Infobright. Bob has also served as CTO and VP Products at EnterpriseDB as well as VP Products/Strategy at Ascential Software (acquired by IBM). . Prior to EnterpriseDB, Bob has been director of product strategy in IBM’s Information Platform and Solutions Group, where he was responsible for driving and executing the technical strategy for information integration solutions as they relate to software, hardware, services, vertical industries, and emerging markets. Before that, Bob was vice president of product management and advanced technologies at Ascential Software (acquired by IBM) where he was instrumental in developing and driving Ascential’s enterprise data integration software strategy. Bob has also held executive positions with Powersoft and Sybase, and was vice president and chief technology officer of Incentive Systems. Bob has founded or co-founded several startups including Infinity Systems (sold to Powersoft), Lumapath, CohesionSG, MyCollegeFAQ and Azoppa. Bob received a BS from Keene State College.

Bobby Davis

Coder Foundry

Bobby is the Co-Founder and CTO of Coder Foundry. He brings an extensive background of technical knowledge to the team. A serial entrepreneur, he has been involved in multiple start-ups. With his custom technology development consulting group he is a Microsoft Gold Partner. As a consultant he leads efforts to design, build, and deploy applications for companies. Also, through his consulting practice, he has been providing IT job placement in the region for the past fifteen years. He has extensive experience in training, mentoring and developing IT talent. Bobby earned a Bachelor of Science degree from UNCG.

Brian White

Senior Solutions Architect at Small Footprint, a Division of Globant

With a background in business and as a weekend studio potter, Brian White’s unique experiences fuse his creative passion with technical problem solving, bringing software solutions into form. As a senior solutions architect, he questions the status quo and asks if there’s a better way to do something. Brian is a self-taught developer who has worked on projects across many industries and technologies since 2001. He has juggled many roles as a full stack developer – having a hand in everything from requirements to architecture, testing to deployment. Since moving to Small Footprint in 2012, Brian has blended his attention to detail from the developer-side with a keen understanding of the business and technology needs of his clients.

Caitlin Vlastakis Smith

Director, Service Design & Strategy at Globant

Cait leads service design and digital strategy for Globant, working alongside clients and teams in healthcare, clinical research and insurance. Her “superpowers” are distilling complexity into action and rallying teams around a shared vision. You can find her facilitating workshops and leading discovery engagements with other talented humans who believe technology—when applied thoughtfully—can make our lives better. Her background spans user experience design, content strategy, and marketing. Some of her clients include GE, IBM, QuintilesIMS and Security First Insurance.

Cait is passionate about bringing human-centered design principles into business, technology and government.

Diana Medina

Director of e-Commerce Solutions at Inmar

Diana Medina joined Inmar in September 2017 as the Director of e-Commerce Solutions. She leads the development of innovative e-commerce solutions to help Inmar’s retail partners compete and stay ahead in the digital retail environment. Prior to joining Inmar, Diana was Director of e-Commerce Merchandising at Lowes Foods, Inc. She held various marketing and e-commerce positions with the regional grocery retailer, solidifying experience in digital marketing, customer loyalty, shopper marketing and media. During her time at Lowes, she was a key player in a rebranding initiative that generated double-digit growth for the chain, and she helped design and implement a new e-commerce strategy that generated over 35 percent e-commerce growth. Diana also has extensive experience in running successful targeted marketing in both digital and traditional media.

Edson Yanaga

Director of Developer Experience at Red Hat

Java Champion & Microsoft MVP. Software Craftsman. Empowering developers all around the world with Red Hat tools & expertise to allow better software delivered faster and safely.

Emily Fath

UX Specialist at Small Footprint, a Division of Globant

Emily is a UX designer and researcher who currently works primarily on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) software. Last year she graduated from Indiana University with a master’s in human-computer interaction design, which caught her eye while searching for ways to combine two of her major interests: technology and human psychology. Emily is passionate about research plans, visual communication, and designing at the “minimum viable fidelity.”

Jason Twichell

Lead Instructor at Coder Foundry

As a Full-stack .Net Instructor I regularly lead groups of students on topics including C#, ASP.Net MVC, Web API, Xamarin, LINQ, SQL, JavaScript, jQuery and Bootstrap. As a Sr. Developer and Technical Lead I have delivered value through the identification and adoption of emergent technology, monitoring and managing application performance, mentoring team members, performing code reviews and participating in panel discussions.

John David Ariansen

Silvertone Analytics

John David specialized in data visualization and has spent years honing the craft of telling stories through data. He is the Co-founder and Director of Analytics at Silvertone Analytics, sits on the Triad Local First Board of Directors advising on how to leverage data and also teaches Tableau through Code HQ.

John Richardson

Engagement Manager at Small Footprint, a Division of Globant

John has been involved at almost every level of the software delivery life cycle, from proof-of-concepts for sales to production delivery of software solutions for enterprise clients’ needs. This experience led him to transition to a Engagement Manager role at Small Footprint, a division of Globant, that is able to leverage knowledge of Agile principles and his background as a software architect into a functional role that can aid the translation of client needs into innovative solutions with a high performance engineering team. He is an advocate for adopting software engineering practices that lead to a high quality, maintainable product and is also a proponent of putting sound process in place that supports that goal.

Kadian Langlais

Vice President of Digital and DTC at Renfro Corporation

Kadian Langlais is a transformative digital retail business leader with broad strategic management experience and a proven track record of delivering measurable value and growth. An expert in eCommerce, digital strategy, fashion, and retail with big-picture vision and deep hands on experience with multi-channel retailers, pure play and direct-to-consumer. Kadian is the Vice President of Renfro Corporation, the largest socks company in the world, with 21 brands. Kadian is leading the company’s digital initiative and transforming Renfro’s consumer-facing and eCommerce strategy by implementing a holistic digital plan that touches on every consumer digital touch points.

Karen Howard

Director of Digital Marketing at Renfro Corporation

In April 2016, Ms. Howard joined Renfro Corporation as Director of Digital Marketing. In 2018, her role was expanded to assist in Renfro’s digital journey by driving strategy and execution in digital operations and data governance. Her role involves collaborating and aligning with internal stakeholders, retail and brand partners to interpret customer insights and business drivers to identify systems and processes to support the organization’s overall strategic vision.

Before joining Renfro Corporation, Ms. Howard held management and upper management positions with top retailers like Tractor Supply Company, Home Depot, The Container Store, Pier One Imports, Benchmark Brands, Fabric.com (An Amazon Company), to name a few. Her retail experience spans from traditional, to international, to pure-play eCommerce and Omnichannel retailing organizations. She has over 30 years’ experience in retail digital and store management, buying, merchandising, marketing, logistics/supply chain, loss prevention, customer care, user experience, operations, and master data management.

Ms. Howard has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Clothing/Textiles Fashion Merchandise & Retail Management from Western Carolina University, and a certificate of completion from the University of Maryland’s Robert H Smith School of Business for Direct to Consumer eCommerce Executive Education Program.

Kari Fellers

Head of Digital Experience and Design Team, Customer-Facing Products at LabCorp

Laura Dezarn

Vice President of Information Technology at Truliant Federal Credit Union

Michael Goff

Director, Agile Transformation Strategies at Small Footprint, a Division of Globant

Michael is the Director of Agile Strategies with Small Footprint, where he leads Agile software development projects and agile transformations.  The goal of his projects is for businesses to deliver high value to customers and stakeholders through adopting agile across the entire organization, not just the development teams. He has 15+ years of new product development experience, ranging from software engineering to product line management. Michael is a certified Product Manager, Product Owner, and Scrum Master.

Sachin Solkhan

Director, Software Engineering at Fidelity Investments

Sachin Solkhan is a Digital Technologist with several year’s experience developing software solutions and leading teams for the enterprise. He is passionate about Agile practices, Software Engineering and application of Artificial Intelligence technologies.

Mike Willis

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Mike is a retired PwC audit partner with public company reporting and audit experience and knowledge of relevant reporting standards, regulations and process and control considerations.  He was the Founding Chairman of XBRL International and served in other collaborative leadership roles. He is currently the Assistant Director of the Office of Structured Disclosure at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission where he is responsible for leading the design and implementation of technological processes and tools to support the many structured data needs of the Commission, including the creation, implementation, and maintenance of forms and processes designed to capture structured data from SEC registrants through their filings with the Commission.

Michael Wharton

Wharton Consulting

Michael Wharton is a Project Management Consultant and Trainer. Michael’s career started as a software developer before moving into project management. His passion to improve project management processes begin in 2003 using tools like project professional, project server and agile/scrum. Since then he has trained hundreds of project managers and implemented project server in over twenty-five PMOs. He has passed over forty-four Microsoft certification exams giving him a solid technical background with Project, SharePoint Server, Office 365 and Azure portal.

Steve Stone

Author, "Digitally Deaf: Why Organizations Struggle with Digital Transformation"

Steve is an accomplished executive with over 34 years of experience in the technology services and retail industries. He possesses an outstanding record of achievement and leadership. Steve has proven capabilities in strategic visioning, planning, and execution of complex technology efforts for world class companies.

Steve is the author of Digitally Deaf: Why Organizations Struggle with Digital Transformation, Springer Publishing, (ISBN 978-3-030-01833-7), due for release in February, 2019.

Steve has served as CIO, building and managing large, international technology organizations to fuel the growth and profitability of two of the largest retailers in the United States. He has a proven track record of building high performing teams and being a trusted partner to his business peers.

Steve was an early adopter of data warehousing and business intelligence in retail providing analytic services that provided key capabilities during Lowe’s tremendous growth period of 1992-2011. He is an active supporter of innovation and has served in key strategic planning roles for multiple retailers.

In addition, Steve maintains a high standard for understanding the latest trends and developments in the retail and technology sectors. He is a sought-after speaker and active council member of the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) and the International Institute for Analytics (IIA).

Steve Vest

UX Architect at Small Footprint, a Division of Globant

After 16 years and several roles within the website and application business, Steve claims to know a thing or two about UI design, UX and working with clients and dev teams to build and evolve quality interactive products. He is passionate about delighting end users and enjoys working with teams to provide user experiences that evoke the “I really like how this thing works” rating.

Tera Simon

Delivery Director at Globant

Tera is a Delivery Director for Globant, a digitally native company that leverages the latest digital and cognitive technologies and methodologies to transform organizations in every aspect. Along with working at Globant, Tera is a professional speaker who speaks on leadership, confidence/empowerment and technology.
Tera has been recognized for having a passion for discovery and serving as the integrator of operations and client expectations, as well as the true hub for all project-related information within the organization. Tera has helped define, document and implement process within numerous businesses.
When Tera is not sprinting from meeting to meeting, you can find her supporting local breweries, traveling, and educating anyone that will listen on why football is the greatest sport around.
Follow me at @tcaldsimon.

Tim Bigwood

CEO at Noregon

Tim is CEO of Noregon, responsible for providing strategic leadership for the company by working with the executive management team and the Advisory Board to establish long-range goals, strategies, plans and policies.

Tim Lavinder

Ecommerce & Digital Marketing Guru at Renfro Corp

Tim Lavinder has 10 years of Ecommerce and Digital Marketing experience with deep experience in both B2B and DTC. Currently he is the Senior Manager of Ecommerce and Digital Marketing at Renfro Corporation.

Trish Martin

Senior Digital Strategy Consultant at Globant

Trish has 15+ years of experience in product management, strategic planning, organizational change management, and business development. As a Senior Digital Strategy Consultant with Globant, she loves to collaborate with curious and creative people to design digital transformation experiences that produce high customer and business value while optimizing process and culture within our partner organizations. Prior to joining Globant, Trish served as Vice President of Product Management at The Achievement Network, a non-profit education consulting organization in Boston, MA and as the Director of Assessment Software Products at Measurement Incorporated in Durham, NC.

Trish earned her doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from East Carolina University.