The Los Angeles Business Journal presents 2015 CIOs of theYear · the eight years since then has grown his engineering team from zero to 30. Under Weiner’s leadership, GumGum’s

Presenting Sponsosr: Gold Sponsors:

Laserfiche®

Workday

The Los Angeles Business Journal presents

This special advertising supplement did not involve the reportingor editing staff of the Los Angeles Business Journal.

June 8, 2015 Advertising Supplement

CIOs of the Year

2015

Community Partners:

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:20 PM Page 25

26 AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL JUNE 8, 2015

CIOs OF THE YEAR 2015

IT'S hard to think of an industry-leadingcompany that could survive without a greatCIO. These important individuals and theirteams play vital roles in making LosAngeles businesses, institutions and non-

profit groups successful. Their decisions oftenimpact all aspects of a business, including theircompany’s growth, profitability, functionality andcompetitiveness in the marketplace.

This is our fourth year of celebrating thecream of the proverbial crop among Los Angeles’finest IT leadership minds with an awards eventfor those who have their hands on the steeringwheels of new technology. Our annual LosAngeles Business Journal CIO/CTO Awards, heldWednesday, June 3rd at the LA HotelDowntown, give us the opportunity to stop for amoment and applaud the IT inventiveness andtechnological achievements of the corporatespace’s hi-tech men and women – the oftenunsung architects and enablers of our compa-nies’ operational successes.

Indeed, it’s the CIOs who are often chargedwith providing the operational tools required tomatch a CEO’s vision for a company. So for allthe great CIOs celebrated by our awards this year,

we say thank you and congratulations! Your tire-less contributions to the companies you serve andultimately, our business community as a whole,are appreciated.

This year’s list of superb finalists (all profiled inthese pages) — each an example of excellence inthe field of corporate technology stewardship —made it even more difficult to arrive at the hon-orees. We are particularly excited to shine a lighton ten particularly outstanding honoreesannounced in ten categories. We applaud each ofthe honorees and the terrific finalists who are alsoprofiled in these pages.

Also, many thanks to the support provided byour presenting sponsors, Robert Half Technologyand Williams Data Management, and to our com-munity partners Association of InformationTechnology Professionals and the Los AngelesChapter of ISSA.

Best regards,

Matthew A. ToledoPublisher & CEO

Publisher’s Letter

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:21 PM Page 26

June 8, 2015 an advertising supplement to the los angeles Business Journal 27

Los Angeles • Westwood • Torrance1.800.793.5533

rht.com/los-angeles

As technology evolves, so do skills and salaries. When it comes to the industry’s most respected resource for starting salary data for more than 70 technology positions, our 2015 Salary Guide will help keep you on pace to innovate.

Download your free 2015 Salary Guide and access our Salary Calculator at rht.com/salary-center.

© 2015 Robert Half Technology. An Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/Disability/Vet. 0914-4305

SALARIESTECHNOLOGY

TODAY

TOMORROW ’ S


Discover how Wilcon candeliver the best performancefor your business.

DARK FIBER

PRIVATE NETWORKS

DATA CENTER

INTERCONNECTION SERVICES

ETHERNET

WAVELENGTH

IP TRANSPORT

TECHNICAL SERVICES

CONTACT US TODAY.

624 South Grand AvenueSuite 2500Los Angeles, CA 90017

+1.888.600.2800

[email protected]

FROM ONE WILSHIRETO THE WORLD

Wilcon provides the most interconnected west coast infrastructure with the most powerful fiber network access in the region.

RELIABILITY. SECURITY. OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2015 HonoreesCIO OF THE YEAR

JAMES BRADYAREA CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICERKAISER PERMANENTE

DR. James Brady has worked tirelessly to partner with KaiserPermanente medical center administrative and clinical leadershipto align IT strategy and goals to the needs of the business. In hisrole as a Kaiser Permanente medical service area CIO, he hasstepped up and taken on a regional lead role in driving the

improvement of strategy and governance between IT and the business.Specifically, he has worked tirelessly to align IT products and services with med-ical center strategic needs.

In addition, Brady has improved the feedback mechanism available for nation-al and regional IT groups by streaming feedback from the business. Recognizingthe need to have an up-to-date, consolidated, and comprehensive view of IT proj-ects at a local medical center, regional, and national view, one of the first thingshe did when he arrived at Kaiser Permanente in 2013 was to engage in an initia-tive to document over 1,700 technology projects that impacted his local medicalcenters, providing a high level view to business leaders, enabling them to betteridentify their strategic priorities.

Brady also saved an estimated $3 million with innovative process identifyingmissed Pulmonary Hypertension, Sepsis, and Pantocypenia reimbursements atKaiser Permanente. He championed numerous in-patient initiatives at KaiserPermanente, such as patient monitoring/fall prevention, bed tracking systemand optimized BUN workflow, nurse call integration, reduced readmissions, andpost-op reminder calls for surgical services. The patient monitoring/fall preven-tion system saved his medical center $350,000 in year one, and similar savingsare expected in ensuing years.

In short, among his peer area CIOs at Kaiser Permanente, Brady has taken alead role in looking for ways to improve the collective influence of the areaCIOs to foster improved regional and national efficiencies, and to provide inno-vate ways IT can better communicate with clinical and business leaders, thusincreasing the value to IT to the organization.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:21 PM Page 28

PROTECT IT.

DON’TCOMPROMISE.

(Your Data)

FREE OFFE

R

DATA PROTECTION REVIEW

Williams Data Management is your trusted source for complete Data Lifecycle Management™. We help you avoid the traps and gaps that leave your company, its clients and its intellectual property vulnerable to disasters or interruptions that cost you time, money, and credibility. From physical and digital storage to onsite hard drive destruction, Williams is your end-to-end solution to ensure your data is secure.

Protect your valuable assets, reduce costs, and maintain compliance. Contact us today! Mention this ad and get your FREE Data Protection Review.

williamssince 1922

data management

www.WilliamsDataManagement.com • 1-888-478-3453

PLAN STORE RETRIEVE DESTRUCT


Congratulations,John Williamsand all the other 2015 CIO Awards winners!

From your colleagues at

ENTERPRISE CIO OF THE YEAR (500+ EMPLOYEES)

JON MICHEL GREENWOODSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL IT SYSTEMSLIVE NATION ENTERTAINMENT, INC.

AS Senior Vice President of Live Nation’s Global IT Systems,Jon Michel Greenwood is responsible for all aspects of LiveNation’s technology systems and strategies globally. Thisincludes the company’s robust event booking systems, enter-prise systems, POS at the company’s clubs, amps and venues,

software development for HOB.com, and VIP ticketing sites and sharedservices for QA and the PMO.

Greenwood perpetually strives to drive process improvements and has aunique ability to create efficient technical solutions to complex businessobjectives. He consistently works efficiently to solve problems, createworkable solutions and forge compromises. In short, he is effective, dili-gent and talented – and brings a hearty background of experience to hisrole at Live Nation.

Prior to Live Nation, he held several positions at Sony Music and SonyCorp. of America including Director of QA, and Sr. Director of ContentOperations and Promotions, overseeing acquisition, reception, DRM andmaintenance for Sony’s content ecosystem for eBook, mobile, music andvideo ecommerce stores, while also directing production, technology andusability work for large scale promotional initiatives with companies suchas Best Buy and Coca-Cola.

A former musician, award winning producer and designer, Greenwoodhas decades of experience in entertainment and technology, havingworked on a vast expanse of products in consumer electronics, entertain-ment, internet, gaming and graphics software with companies and indi-viduals such as Bob Ezrin, Disney, IBM, Microsoft, Monty Python, PinkFloyd and Quincy Jones. He has also achieved multiple US and worldpatents in software, hardware and process.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2015 Honorees

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:21 PM Page 30


With 35,000 customers and officesin seven countries, Laserfiche is the world’s largest privately held enterprise content management (ECM) company.

More than just document management software, Laserfiche provides powerfulworkflows, web forms, mobile apps and digital signature integrations that get the right information into the right hands faster and more effectively than ever before.

A Fortune 500 healthcare company to reduce the cost ofdocument processing by nearly $1 million

A large university system to accelerate the contract reviewprocess by more than 50%

One of the nation’s top digital counties to save $5.5 million byimplementing DoD 5015.2-certified records management

Visit laserfiche.com/LACIO to learn how Laserfiche enables:

© 2

015

Lase

rfic

he. L

aser

fiche

®, R

un S

mar

ter®

, and

Com

pulin

k® a

re r

egis

tere

d tr

adem

arks

of C

ompu

link

Man

agem

ent C

ente

r, In

c. A

ll ri

ghts

res

erve

d.

Laserfiche Proudly Congratulates

K ARL CHAN2015 CTO of the YearThanks for 26 years of technology leadership, vision and innovation!


CORPORATE BUSINESS CIO OF THE YEAR (100-500 EMPLOYEES)

JOHN WILLIAMSSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PLATFORM OPERATIONSTRUECAR, INC.

TECHNOLOGY is essential to everything TrueCar, Inc. doesbecause it is a technology product company that uses data topower its marketplace. The technology decisions that JohnWilliams makes have a tremendous impact on the success orfailure of the business. Last year, Williams successfully led

TrueCar’s technology team in adopting a new data storage and process-ing platform, Hadoop. The data platform is the beating heart of TrueCarand switching out all the technology that powers it was an enormousundertaking.

Williams looked at where the company would be in the next five to 10years – thinking strategically about not only the size of the data sets, butalso the types of capabilities that would be needed to power next genera-tion TrueCar products. Rather than simply expand and upgrade the exist-ing data platform technology in a linear way, he investigated all optionsincluding completely new technologies and approaches.

By understanding the radical new capabilities of large-scale distributedcomputing, Williams was able to develop a new philosophy of how datacan be ingested, processed, and exposed to power products and services.The economics of these new systems are so good that virtually unlimitedamounts of data can be stored forever. This breakthrough leads to manyunique business advantages for TrueCar.

As the leader of the technology team for a hyper growth company,Williams’ designs solutions with the assumption that the company willexperience massive expansion in market cap within a handful of years. Thisleads to ambitious solutions that unlock incredible new product capabilitiesand yield unique competitive advantages in the marketplace. Williams

believes that innovation often doesn’t come from the top down; it comesfrom all directions and layers within the organization. Williams is driven toensure that TrueCar has the type of culture that captures and values this.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2015 Honorees

EMERGING BUSINESS CIO OF THE YEAR (LESS THAN 100 EMPLOYEES)

KEN WEINERCHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICERGUMGUM

KEN Weiner joined GumGum as its first employee in 2007 and inthe eight years since then has grown his engineering team fromzero to 30. Under Weiner’s leadership, GumGum’s engineeringteam consistently demonstrates its position as an industry opinionleader around several software engineering disciplines. He fre-

quently encourages team members to author papers and present at various tech-nology conferences and meet-ups.

His leadership extends beyond the realm of just CTO. He motivates and edu-cates all GumGum employees and is a critical component of the energy and pas-sion represented in the company’s culture.

As GumGum has become one of the success stories of Silicon Beach, Weinercontinues to be a recognized tech community thought leader, both locally andnationally. He has strived to make GumGum a leader in the digital advertisingindustry by participating in the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s committee for in-image advertising, and his peers call on him continually for his knowledge andexpertise about digital advertising.

Weiner conducts weekly meetings for the purpose of communicating execu-tive business decisions to middle management. Once a year he conducts an engi-neering all-hands meeting to lay out the technology roadmap and reinforce theengineering team’s core values. He has the ability to truly educate and roll outthe engineering roadmap to all facets of the business. He takes the audience intoaccount, adjusting the message so all members of the team can understand, fromthe receptionist to the CFO.

He makes time to give a special effort to research and seek out tools that canhelp engineers do their jobs more efficiently. His choice of using Trello for execut-ing scrum is an example of this. His “move fast and break things” approach is agood fit for a startup environment. Because of that motto, the engineering teamsat GumGum are able to finish large projects within short amounts of time.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:21 PM Page 32

Lifetime Achievement Finalist for the

www.parsons.com

Proudly Recognizes

PARSONS

JOE VISCONTI

Your Innovative Contributions in Technology Help Shape our Progress.

IT Service Partner of the Year Winner for the

Congratulations!

RENEE TRAN

Los Angeles Business Journal’s2015 CIO/CTO Awards

Los Angeles Business Journal’s2015 CIO/CTO Awards



CIOs OF THE YEAR

2015 HonoreesGOVERNMENT CIO OF THE YEAR

MICHAEL SYLVESTERDIRECTOR, BUREAU OF CONTRACT AND TECHNICAL SERVICESLOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES

MICHAEL J. Sylvester is Department Chief InformationOfficer and Assistant Director of the Los Angeles CountyDepartment of Public Social Services (DPSS). He is pavingthe way with his leadership, with an emphasis on utiliz-ing leading edge technology throughout Los Angeles

County, to modernize the department’s systems and make the most ofcontemporary technology.

In the wake of the financial crisis, the need for human services skyrock-eted, while resources at DPSS, like many government agencies, continued totighten. The increase in the number of citizens served, as well as the scopeof services needed, stressed long-standing delivery systems rooted in face-to-face business processes and paper.

Sylvester looked to modernize mission critical technology solutions to fillthe gap between demand and resources. He successfully communicated thisvision to the Department’s Executive team who provided their full support,and to his IT management team and staff who were critical in bringing hisvision to fruition. As one example, Sylvester and his team developed a MobileTechnology Initiative to identify, shape and deploy modern mobile technol-ogy that could improve efficiency and customer service. This initiativeextended public assistance services beyond the traditional office visit, improv-ing customer service and organizational efficiency by enabling self-servicethrough mobile and browser-based technology.

Sylvester and his team were among the first to pioneer and fully integratedocument imaging, web portals, Voice Over IP, call-center telephony andmobile applications for use in the public sector. Shaping these tools to con-form to the complex public policies and procedures and then securing the

necessary buy-in to implement these tools to the scale of Los AngelesCounty has been a true innovation. After shaping the design, Sylvester andhis team successfully convinced multiple groups of stakeholders and over-sight organizations that client sensitive data could be successfully andsecurely available on the web and then via a mobile device.

NON-PROFIT CIO OF THE YEAR

RAY AUSTADWEBMASTERSTEPHEN S. WISE TEMPLE

RAY Austad has been involved in the technology field since 1996.He joined the Stephen S. Wise Temple and Schools team in 2005,and was last year named Digital Communication andInformation Systems Manager. Since 2010, he has been involvedin numerous aspects of the Stephen S. Wise Temple information

security program and works to make programs and systems both usable and assecure as possible. He also enthusiastically brings security awareness to the ITteam, staff, the school and the synagogue community.

Austad has made a name for himself with his consistently excellent andinnovative approaches to problem resolution, especially when it comes toinformation security. He has overseen Stephen S. Wise Temple’s WAF productand he is now instrumental in transitioning the Temple’s security to a new out-sourced provider.

Coworkers report that Austad loves to work with people and help themsolve their problems, which has helped contribute to the effective and cohesiveteam culture at the Temple.

Outside of his work at the Temple, but still highly relevant to Austad’scareer, is his ongoing series of contributions to the Information SystemsSecurity Association (ISSA). ISSA is the nonprofit community of choice forinternational cybersecurity professionals dedicated to advancing individualgrowth, managing technology risk and protecting critical information andinfrastructure.

Austad has significantly stepped up to help ISSA in recent months and hasbeen working on the organization’s annual summit. In addition to previouslyserving as ISSA’s technology director on its board, Austad has returned to beISSA’s security evangelist and help the organization get people to attend its crit-ical information security summit. He has also consulted for the Associationand provided his expertise with web and digital marketing and communica-tion for its monthly meetings. He is also a member of OWASP Los Angeles, andregularly attends InfoSec meetings and conferences.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:22 PM Page 34

JUNE 8, 2015 AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL 35

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2015 HonoreesCYBERSECURITY PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR

SCOTT HENNONSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGER BUSINESSCITY NATIONAL BANK

CITY National Bank’s Scott Hennon has developed, implemented and monitoreda long-term information security and privacy strategy inclusive of the people,processes and technology needed to be successful in the short and long term.He has reviewed, implemented, updated and documented companywideinformation security policies and procedures to align with growing and evolv-

ing security needs and requirements. He developed strong collaborative working relation-ships with groups throughout the company involved with information security matters(Legal, Compliance, Audit, Corporate Security, Application Dev, Network Management,Digital Channels, Operations, Business Dev, etc.). He also partnered with enterprise riskmanagers to map and develop a common definition and understanding of IT risk.

Hennon has implemented leading and innovative cyber security tools and strategiesto prevent the organization and clients from costly data breaches and cyber fraud —including developing and validating Enterprise Cyber Preparedness and Response Plansand adding APT, Advanced Malware, and DDoS protection, “big data” advanced foren-sics, and client fraud protection tools.

Hennon’s expertise has enabled him to detect and prevent millions of cyber-attackattempts against company network and systems. He developed and maintained strong rela-tionships with local and federal law enforcement to share information and fight cyber-crime – efforts were recognized by L.A. District Attorney’s Office for ongoing work andassistance. Hennon also repeatedly leveraged strong security practices as a competitiveadvantage to help generate substantial new business from current and prospective clients.

It’s worth noting that Hennon does not implement security for the sake of security. Hebuilds strong relationships with the different business line executives and senior leader-ship to better understand their goals and challenges, and then provides strategies andoptions for addressing those items. He understands that things like user experience andconvenience are very important to the business lines and so he strives to provide strate-gies to achieve both a world-class user experience as well as world-class security.

IT TEAM OF THE YEAR (INTERNAL)

VIC HERRERA (TEAM LEADER)

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICERDTT SURVEILLANCE, INC.

FROM the moment Vic Herrera took leadership of the DTT ITTeam over ten years ago, he has not only transformed, but alsoestablished key management standards within the department,which have proven successful. Not only has the team’s produc-tivity increased quantitatively, but more so, qualitatively. His

management success is attributed to the fact that he has achieved an unpar-alleled balance of stringency and empathy when dealing with his team.

Herrera and his team are adept at deciphering and comprehending thecurrent (and assessing the future) technological needs of the business. Thisis accomplished through numerous meetings and Q&A sessions with notjust his own department, but most importantly, other departments withinthe company. The team meticulously crafts technological blueprints androadmaps, and when presenting these to other members of the organiza-tion, resolutely solicits feedback and input. Herrera and his fellow team-mates never fail to implement viable proposals and solutions from thecompany, assuring everyone that their needs are met and their ideas arenot falling on deaf ears.

Subsequently, DTT’s members have come to respect and admire Herreraand his team’s technological methodology - and at the same time - takedelight in seeing their ideas come to fruition.

Knowing that a team that communicates well stays together, Herreramaintains a strict open-door policy where communication is concerned. Hewholly welcomes new and innovative ideas, and constantly challenges oth-ers around him to think outside the proverbial, “box.” He is a huge propo-nent of his team working collaboratively, thereby strengthening the bondsand relationships formed therein. In addition, Herrera never fails to recog-nize and reward creative team members with tokens of gratitude such as

movie tickets, gift cards, lunches, weekend trips, etc. His intrepid – yet pru-dent – approach to change has positively manifested itself in the countlessnew and more profitable methods by which the company operates.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:22 PM Page 35


CIOs OF THE YEAR

2015 HonoreesIT SERVICE PARTNER OF THE YEAR (EXTERNAL)

RENEE TRAN (TEAM LEADER)

VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONSPARSONS

RENEE Tran is a role model who takes charge, influences deci-sions, and is not afraid of responsibility or providing inputand feedback. She is an active listener who builds consensususing logic, common goals, and cues from others to encourageconfidence and optimism in everyone she works with. She is

goal oriented and leads by example. She focuses, and places a high priority,on eliminating obstacles for the Information Systems department, so theycan achieve their objectives.

Tran’s Business & Technology Solutions group comprises an eclecticteam of talented individuals who are multidimensional thinkers and prob-lem solvers. These individuals are trusted advisers who are encouraged tothink innovatively, take calculated risks, build a network of reach-back tal-ents, and collaborate strategically to achieve their missions and guaranteecustomer satisfaction.

Tran’s vision is for the group to contribute directly to Parsons’ corebusiness by identifying enabling technology to solve customers’ problems.

She also encourages her group to build great customer rapport throughwillingness to dive into the trenches, and excel at the fundamentals ofproject management. Tran is in a unique position to provide technology-inspired business innovation for Parsons’ internal teams as well as its cus-tomers. She has brought a vision for accelerating business line growththrough technology-inspired services. These include an increasing empha-sis on Parsons’ innovative use of technology to enable business growth;facilitating service delivery improvements through automation; and grow-ing, protecting, and leveraging Parsons’ intellectual property.

She is a key supporter of innovation and supports the information sys-tems department’s metric on the subject – so much so that she has madeit a requirement in her direct report’s annual performance goals. Tran

places as much emphasis on supporting opportunistic innovation, whichis often generated through resolving customer challenges on a daily basis,as she does for targeted innovations focused on advancing Parsons’ coredifferentiators.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

KARL CHANCHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICERLASERFICHE®

DESPITE having been with Laserfiche for more than 25 years, KarlChan continues to bring fresh perspectives to his role every day.In is his belief that all IT initiatives should increase the compa-ny’s capabilities to deliver innovation to both internal and exter-nal customers. To this end, he encourages the software develop-

ment and marketing teams to think creatively about how to solve businessproblems and package those solutions to generate revenue and establish acompetitive advantage.

As one of the first Laserfiche employees, Chan has also been instrumental inshaping the company’s entrepreneurial culture.

An adaptable leader with keen business acumen to compliment his sharptechnical skills, Chan took on the task of leading the marketing team after thesudden and unexpected death of the company’s Vice President of Marketing in2013. During his tenure as both CTO and Acting Head of Marketing, the com-pany launched a very successful new product, Laserfiche Forms, and begandeveloping and planning for the release of a new cloud platform

The successful launch of Laserfiche Forms is a feather in the cap of Chan’slegacy with Laserfiche. It is an e-forms product that was originally developed tosolve an internal problem of managing the high volume of internal employeetravel requests. Chan’s team extended the solution for recruiting purposes toallow candidates to fill out job applications online, which triggers internalworkflows that automatically route the information to HR.

When Chan saw how successfully the e-forms solution was meeting thecompany’s needs, he seized the opportunity to create business value andmonetize the solution by bringing it to market. He worked with product mar-keting to brand the solution “Laserfiche Forms” and sell it to customers. As aresult of his creativity and vision, company revenue grew by 11.4% in 2013and 15% in 2014.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:22 PM Page 36


ALBERT AHDOOTCOLOCATION AMERICA

ONE of the thingsthat makes AlbertAhdoot such anexcellent technolo-gy executive is thathe listens with hisears, eyes andheart. He paysattention to othersand understandsthat when leaders

step down from their corporate perchesa true conversation can take place. Bytaking a vast interest in the employeesat Colocation America, he promotescommunication through conversation –talking with employees and not just tothem. This interactivity creates anopen and fluid conversation.

Ahdoot has a clear vision, plain andsimple. His aptitude empowers him toeffectively identify opportunities thatsomeone without his experience maynot notice or know how to properlyexecute. His inspiration and vision inleadership allows Colocation Americato be more lean and flexible, helpingthe company adjust faster than com-petitors. It also helps increase insightinto how to improve the flow of deliv-ering value to customers, and hisinsight helps Colocation America toquickly pivot the direction of the busi-ness when the time presents itself.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

FINALISTS This year’s esteemed CIO of the Year finalists are arranged belowalphabetically by last name. Congratulations to all of the finalists!2015

DAVID ALEXANDERLOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OFWATER AND POWER

DAVID Alexander relies on empower-ment, diversity, and engagementthroughout the team. He opts to pro-mote leadership from within the teamby encouraging the team to collaboratewith and guide the stakeholdersthroughout the organization in a mutu-ally beneficial manner. He also relies ondiversity and inclusion in his organiza-tion and encourages team member par-ticipation. He enables the team mem-bers to participate in all aspects ofstrategic planning, program develop-ment and implementation, and opera-tional duties and encourages engage-ment and discussion of pertinent top-ics. Finally, he motivates his team toengage with stakeholders and draw thestakeholders into discussion with teamin order to facilitate education andvalue add in cyber security.

In short, Alexander engages in alllevels of organization. This is especiallychallenging as the organization is oper-ationally and financially three discreteorganizations. He must manage threesets of liaison activities and continue toensure a strategic and tactical execu-tion of an enterprise IT security pro-gram, but Alexander succeeds at thistask with flying colors.

KUNAL ANANDPREVOTY

AS co-founder andCTO of Prevoty,Kunal Anand notonly leads thecompany’s engi-neering team, he isalso heavilyengaged with all ofPrevoty’s strategiccustomers. He can,and does, therefore

deliver guidance to the entire organiza-tion, not just on the technical elementsof the product offering, but also oneffective sales, marketing, operationsand support aspects of the business.

Anand has led the engagement withall of Prevoty’s “lighthouse” accounts,including Visa, Sony and Time Warner.His technical acumen, coupled with hisindustry expertise, make him a naturalthought leader and the company’sentire go-to-market strategy is built onthe understanding of the market thathe brings. Passionate about innovation,he sets goals for his engineering teamthat has them spending 20% of theirtime not doing day-to-day develop-ment work, but rather coming up withnew innovations that can help enter-prises protect their data and their users.

ALAIN AVAKIANBLACKLINE

ALAIN Avarkian washired as CTO ofBlackLine in July2014, based on hisskills learned fromover 25 years ofexperience at sev-eral growingInternet companieswhere he wasinstrumental in

providing the technology vision, strate-gy and leadership to help organizationsscale from concept through publicofferings, acquisitions and beyond, cou-pled with his rare mix of exceptionalinterpersonal and management skills.

Avakian is a gifted communicatorand understands that all employeesneed to have exposure to BlackLine’stechnology roadmap along with regu-lar updates on its progress. Under hisdirection the company’s developmentteam contributes to BlackLine’sbimonthly global employee newsletterproviding updates on major initiativesalong with important metrics and mile-stones. In addition, Avakian gives semi-annual presentations to all employeesduring monthly all-hands meetings, healso presents each year specifically tothe sales team at their annual kick-off,and he presents once a year to all cur-rent and prospective customers atBlackLine’s annual User Conference.

KEVIN BOWMANCELLUPHONE

CELLUPHONE recent-ly opened itsChicago distribu-tion center andsimultaneouslyupgraded to thelatest version of itsERP, MicrosoftDynamics AX,over a period of 90days. Kevin

Bowman, the company’s CIO, was atthe forefront of ensuring that theupgrade happened seamlessly and wasable to scale with the business as thenew distribution center opened.Bowman provided unfailing support tothe entire team at Celluphone and itsclients – the Independent retailers thatare the lifeblood of Celluphone’s busi-ness.

Bowman makes it a personal goal toalways go above and beyond with theproducts and services Celluphoneoffers to its customer base, and usesMicrosoft Dynamics AX to do so. Thestrong technological core ofCelluphone, under Bowman’s leader-ship, led to a profit of $680,000 withinthe first four months of opening thedistribution center in Chicago.Bowman’s technology plan shinesthrough at Celluphone, as the technol-ogy that Bowman was instrumental indeveloping and implementing gener-ates significant positive ROI.

SCOTT BURNSGOLDLINE, LLC

SCOTT Burns’ goalas Vice Presidentof InformationTechnology atGoldline is to cre-ate a safe environ-ment where histeammates canexpress themselveswithout any judg-ment. Through

this environment, he hopes thatemployees will feel more comfortablewith failure and taking chances. As theIT department innovates, he recognizesthat there will be opportunities wherethey are leveraging new capabilities orexploring new practices in which noone in the room is an expert. Burnsasks his team to participate in designsessions, where they draw pictures andprocess flows in a space where all canfeel humble enough to express whatthey don’t know.

Burns focuses on getting work doneand therefore looks for achievableinnovation initiatives. For example, asBurns’ team introduced new capabili-ties on the phone system, data centerand other key initiatives, they alwayslooked to advance the company’sworkflow efficiency or the stability,adaptability, and fault tolerance of theplatforms being implemented – posi-tive changes were consistently bundledtogether for increased leverage.

CAL NET TECHNOLOGY GROUP

CAL Net Technology Group is consid-ered by many to be among the premierproviders of IT Services in SouthernCalifornia, because it understands itscustomers, their technological needs,and has built an exceptional organiza-tion that is accountable and delivers.This starts at the top of the organiza-tion with a focus on understandingbusinesses’ changing needs, whichtranslates to the alignment of the entireCal Net organization to the success ofthe companies it works with. Cal Netunderstands that IT is a critical enablerof businesses, not just a point solution,and it instills this understanding in itsteam daily, working as a cohesive unitto solve business issues through IT.

Cal Net is extremely adept technical-ly, working with the premier technolo-gy companies in the industry: MSFT,HP, EMC, ShoreTel, and others to shapehow technology can improve business.At the same time, Cal Net’s leadershipteam realizes that technology is onlyhalf of the equation, and focuses oncreating high performing teams andproviding exceptional service.

CHRISTIAN CASEBUNIM-MURRAY PRODUCTIONS

BUNIM-MURRAY is a unique environmentwith a production schedule that drivestight time lines, sends people across theworld to film shows, and creates hugeebbs and flows in staffing. ChristianCase, the company’s CIO, is able toestablish strong ties with the differentstake-holders in his different divisionsand with the executives in the organi-zation, by understanding the uniqueneeds of the business and deliveringsolutions that make their lives easier.

Case is constantly communicatingwhat projects are ongoing and whereproject are with both his IT team andwith the entire company. He trulyviews IT as an enabler and competitiveadvantage for Bunim-Murray and isconstantly looking for ways to improvesystems and process. Whether it isworkflow solutions, scalable telephonysystems, or an infrastructure that sup-port a distributed network of produc-tion specialists. He has internalized theunique requirement of Bunim-Murray’sbusiness and is continuously architect-ing the IT infrastructure to address it.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:23 PM Page 37


MARTIN CORDOVACENTINELA HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER

MARTIN Cordovahas developed sev-eral standards thathave been imple-mented atCentinela HospitalMedical Center tocreate an effectiveIT department.One of the stan-dards is “Service

Standards.” This concept was present-ed in a departmental meeting that out-lined the goals of the process. To fur-ther stress the importance of thisagreement, each team member signeda copy as his or her commitment tothe process.

Cordova also promotes innovationwithin his IT departments in the formof “Idea Challenges.” In this manner,he encourages his team to be innova-tive with the goal of fostering efficien-cy, cost reductions and improving cus-tomer service. Team members areencouraged to bring their ideas forwardin departmental meetings so that theycan be reviewed and implemented.Cordova understands that his teamexperiences on a daily basis input fromthe hospital departments that they serv-ice which gives them first-hand knowl-edge for creating specific and effectivesolutions to issues as they arise.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

FINALISTS2015PABLO DA SILVANEW HORIZONS COMPUTERLEARNING CENTERS

AS a leader of Sales,Operations,Technical Supportand nowInformationTechnology, PabloDa Silva has beenintegral to build-ing the next lead-ers of NewHorizons

Computer learning Centers. AtNHSoCal, the company’s mission is toempower people to succeed throughlearning. Pablo Da Silva takes theDrucker style of leadership andapproaches any project head on beforeenlisting his team. Through research,practice, implementation and improve-ment, he and his teamwork mentalityshine through daily.

One of Da Silva’s best characteristicsis his availability for employees tobrainstorm with. He allows employeesto have a voice, and be heard, whichmakes a huge impact in the company’sculture. This helps him stay up to dateon newer technologies, strategies, andprocess improvement. Without him,New Horizons would not be able togrow and develop at the rate it hasover the last year.

SEAN DANIELSWILDWOOD SCHOOL

SEAN Daniels at Wildwood School looksto align technology initiatives andschool goals. He constantly works tobuild a strong IT foundation, and helpensure that technology is helpingWildwood deliver on its core missionof providing top tier education for itsstudents. In one example, Daniels hastaken an innovative focus to cloudsolutions to provide 24/7 access foreducation while reducing cost.

In another specific example, as thehead of the IT and Ed tech depart-ments, Daniels has been integral in lay-ing the groundwork around the devel-opment of Wildwood’s new technologylearning space (tecdec). The spaceallows students to be creative aroundareas of technology: designing, build-ing and tinkering. He is also workingwith educators to drive the innovationlab to spearhead new lesson plans withthis program, helping Wildwood use ITas part of its curriculum. At all times,he Daniels prioritizes his objectives tohis team and successfully identifiesnew projects to ensure the schools ITenvironment stays current.

TINA DENUIT-WOJCIKENPLUG

TINA Denuit-Wojcik at Enplugtakes a specialapproach to estab-lishing strong tieswith the compa-ny’s business andpromotes this rela-tionship throughall levels rangingfrom developer to

executive. Examples of this include set-ting up a weekly engineering reportthat details all of the tasks accom-plished during the time period – this issent out to the entire team who is ableto learn about the details of the engi-neering side of things.

Denuit-Wojcik also spearheads aquarterly Q&A session with the engi-neering team, allowing everyone in thecompany to gain a broader understand-ing and give opportunity for discussionon tech/business alignment. She hasalso implemented a program where anew member of the company isrequired to use the product in its latestiteration from set-up to configuration –making sure everyone has an innateunderstanding of the customer experi-ence. In fact, the company’s technolo-gy plan and business value are knownthroughout the organization as a resultof Denuit-Wojcik’s initiative.

DEBORAH FIORELLANBCUNIVERSAL - PARKS ANDRESORTS

DEBBIE Fiorella hasan exceptional skillthat enables her toclearly articulatethe company futurevision to her team.She demonstratesstrong leadershipby empowering theteam to becomecompany visionar-

ies by understanding each of their rolesin delivering the company vision.

Currently, Universal Studios isembarking on several key projects: 1)opening of the Wizarding World of HarryPotter; 2) opening of SpringfieldAttractions; and 3) expanding WiFithroughout Universal StudiosHollywood. These efforts are multi-mil-lion dollar projects requiring tremendouscoordination efforts with multiple IT andconstruction vendors. Through Fiorella’sleadership and vision, the managersresponsible for these projects are thrivingand successfully meeting their deliver-ables. She also fosters creative thinkingby presenting problems to the teammembers and allowing the teams or indi-viduals to develop the process, system, orstrategy to create a solution. She believescreative thinking should be rewarded,especially in instances when such think-ing leads to the creation of efficiencies,minimization of outages, and mitigationof impacts to business operations.

TODD FRIEDMANMATTEL

TODD Friedman is a versatile leaderwith over twenty years of experience inInformation Security and IT manage-ment. He currently leads globalInformation Security for Mattel, theworldwide leader in the design, manu-facture and marketing of toys and fam-ily products.

Friedman has spent over twodecades in information technology,previously in the insurance and enter-tainment industries, where he lednumerous functions, including infra-structure planning and management,systems integration, PMO, projectmanagement, governance, compliance,and for the past decade, informationsecurity. Prior to joining Mattel in2012, Todd was SVP / CISO ofUniversal Music Group, the worldlargest music company. He has a num-ber of certifications, including CISSP,CISM, CRISC and CIPP.

TAK FUJIIPANCREATIC CANCER ACTIONNETWORK

TAK Fujii wasrecruited to thePancreatic CancerAction Network asthe organization’stech leader toupgrade the tech-nology needs for agrowing enterprise.His first action wasto implement a

strong information technology gover-nance structure. He followed theInformation Technology InfrastructureLibrary (ITIL) framework and imple-mented Incident Management, ReleaseManagement, Problem Management,Service Desk, etc. to stabilize and createreliability from the existing network,server and application environment.While implementing each section ofITIL, he educated the information tech-nology team on the merits of each. Thegreatest impact was the immediate sta-bilization of the “tech” environmentsince the hardware and applicationteams were working together to focuson uptime.

The resulting increase in uptime andreliability provided Fujii with credibili-ty among his Executive Leadershippeers, opening a dialog where theinformation technology team couldtake on a greater role in supportingstrategic business initiatives.

RICK GEHRINGERCARUSO AFFILIATED

AT CarusoAffiliated, RickGehringer hasestablished a pro-gram and projectmanagementapproach to inno-vative technologyprojects. Thisapproach providesa macro view that

supports the business vision and amicro view that supports the projectsthat help to deliver the vision. Thevision, as well as the related program,is broken up into individual projectswith release milestones.

Also, Gehringer’s project portfoliomanagement techniques ensure thatthe most important projects to thebusiness are undertaken and the lessimportant projects are deferred. Heuses business metaphors to describebusiness systems in order to take themystery out of the underlying technol-ogy. In the past year, he has conceived(or contributed to the conception of)various market-facing innovations thatare unique in Caruso’s industry. Eachinnovation Gehringer has developedand implemented has contributed tothe guest/customer experience, and inmany cases, has been revenue-generat-ing.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:59 PM Page 38


LORI GETZCYBER EDUCATION CONSULTANTS

SINCE 2004, LoriGetz has worked asan InstructionalTechnologist inLos Angeles. Shehas a Master ofArts in EducationalTechnology fromSan Diego StateUniversity and iscertified by

isafe.org as an Internet Safety Specialist.In 2008, she founded Cyber EducationConsultants and began speaking to stu-dents, parents, and educators aboutInternet safety, security and ethics.Since that time she has reached out toInternet users across the world. Hermission is simple — to help bridge thegap between a young generation ofdigital natives and their parents andteachers.

Today, Cyber Education Consultantsprovides workshops, professional devel-opment and consulting services tomore than 100 schools across thecountry. Getz often lectures live, speak-ing to parents, teachers and students.She has been published in several areasincluding as an online expert for mom-logic.com, kidsinthehouse.com andmost recently was featured in RachelSimmons’ new edition of “Odd GirlOut” and Lucie Hemmen’s, PhD“Parenting a Teen Girl.”

CIOs OF THE YEAR

FINALISTS2015DAVID GIRDNERANTROPY

ANTROPY, which was co-founded byDavid Girdner, has a proven trackrecord of delivering robust, cost effec-tive IT solutions to small businessesthroughout Southern California.Founded in 2001 by Girdner and JodyMarc Cohn, Antropy provides a widevariety of Information Technologyservices to a diverse set of clients rang-ing from single user home offices tocorporations with multiple locationsacross the nation. Girdner and his firmservice a client list that includesaccounting firms, private K-12 schools,entertainment companies, law firms,and medical practices.

Under Girdner’s stewardship andtechnical know-how, Antropy is com-mitted to providing excellent serviceand robust IT solutions that fit theneeds of a variety of businesses. Hestrives to develop partnerships with hisclients to ensure the highest levels ofservice and satisfaction.

MARK GOVATOSCROSSROADS SCHOOL

AT CrossroadsSchool, MarkGovatos has aunique perspectiveof how an ITorganizationshould deliver forits user base as hehas been with theorganization forclose to 30 years,

starting as a Mathematics Instructor,moving to Mathematics DepartmentChair, and heading the ComputerScience division before moving into ITadministration.

From those roles Govatos under-stands the complexities of how aschool operates and the role that ITplays in the education process. He hasinsight to the needs of the teachingstaff, department staff, and administra-tion staff. This has helped him createdeep relationships with all ofCrossroads constituencies and he hasbecome a vital part of the school’s staff.He has a hand in the day to day run-ning for all technology of the school.He has been given the responsibility ofnegotiating all contracts and keeps inopen line of communication with allvendors or personnel that have to dowith the schools technology needs.

RICHARD GREENBERGLOS ANGELES COUNTYDEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

COMPARED to many other organizations,the amount of sensitive and personalinformation within LA County PublicHealth (PH) is staggering. The PHapplications, Internet, and Intranet, areconstantly targeted with a multitude ofattack methodologies.

Richard Greenberg had a vision foran application security managementsolution, and a training solution toprovide ongoing training for theApplication Development and theSecurity Office personnel. This projectwas part of his larger initiative toimplement a Secure ApplicationDevelopment Lifecycle in PH thatwould result in robust and compliantDPH software applications. The firstcomponent of his solution was to workclosely with the Project ManagementOffice and Application DevelopmentDivision to integrate a Security ReviewProcess into the project conceptualiza-tion process and all subsequent phasesof the software development lifecycleprocess. The subsequent trainingefforts, as well as use of the new tech-nological tools, have shown to be ofgreat value.

CREIGHTON GRENOBLEASCENDANT SERVICES, INC.

CREIGHTON

Grenoble has devel-oped a remarkabletrack record ofbeing able to for-mulate and under-stand businessobjectives and strat-egy, and then deliv-er technical organi-zations and solu-

tions that meet those objectives. He hasexpertise managing large client engage-ments and building quality relationshipswith clients and is a seasoned programmanager and systems architect, with abroad background in information securi-ty, enterprise infrastructure and applica-tion development. He’s a successful con-sultant, executive and entrepreneur whohas repeatedly demonstrated his abilityto grow a practice, build long-term clientrelationships, lead teams, and operate asmall business.

In 2002, he founded and began tolead Ascendant, a successful, informa-tion technology focused consultingfirm. Clients are consistently satisfiedand the firm thrives on follow-onwork. Typically, engagements involveGrenoble and Ascendant acting as an“extension arm” of the CIO or ITDirector, and often leading major ini-tiatives, such as enterprise-wide pro-grams, large projects and improve-ments in the management of innova-tion and operations.

NATE HORBZ

NATE Ho’s philoso-phy on leadershipcomes in twoparts. First andforemost, leadingby example is non-negotiable. Hefeels he couldnever ask anyoneto do anythingthat he would not

do himself, all of which roots in humil-ity. It may not necessarily be worth histime to clear something as simple as apaper jam, but there is certainly valuein morale, social equity and howeverslight reduction in administrative over-head by just taking care of it himself.

Ho believes it is important for an ITleader to allow room for failures andmistakes. He believes that “failures”may be an overly harsh word for whatare essentially “teachable moments.”Allowing people to learn from theirmistakes is one of the easiest and bestways to help them grow. Outside of hisrole at RBZ, Ho is also a member of theISSA’s Los Angeles chapter and partici-pates in the monthly meetings to pro-mote security awareness.

RICK HOPFERMOLINA HEALTHCARE

RICK Hopfer, CIOof MolonaHealthcare, isresponsible forestablishing thecompany’s strate-gic technologydirections by lead-ing the ITOrganization toalign technology

objectives, operations, programs, andinvestments around Molina businessobjectives. Improving quality and effi-ciency of IT delivered of servicesreduces annual operational expensesleaving more of the annual budget toprovide for our members. Along withestablishing Molina’s new Service andEnterprise Architecture programs,Hopfer reorganized other aspects of hisleadership team. Core IT services acrossthe company have been consolidated,gaining operational efficiencies whilecreating tighter alignment with each ofMolina’s unique lines of business.

Hopfer possesses an uncanny abilityto influence positive impact on thecore business and is exemplary of howone can influence growth throughinnovation, leadership and motivation.He is a strong CIO who never losessight of the key business strategies andobjectives.

CLIVE HOUSTON-BROWNUNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE

TWO years ago, theUniversity of LaVerne completedthe plan for the“2020 StrategicVision.” The areaof technology inenhancing theeducational enter-prise as well ashelping with cost

efficiencies was integral to the 2020Strategic Vision. Dr. Houston-Brownhas been a champion of aligning hisarea and his leadership with the 2020Strategic Vision. Coupled with this atti-tude and behavior, he works closely,collaboratively, and authentically witheach of the Vice Presidents across theinstitution. As a result, he has achievedand exceeded tactical goals that heidentified in the 2020 Strategic Visionand is on the path to exceed the tech-nologically related 2020 goals identi-fied by the Board of Trustees and thecampus.

Dr. Houston-Brown not only contin-ually communicates and disseminatesthe plan for technology within theUniversity of La Verne 2020 StrategicVision, he also seeks feedback fromeach individual and group on how itcan adjust, add to, or eliminate itemsfrom the plan.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:59 PM Page 39


MICHAEL KEITHLEYCREATIVE ARTISTS AGENCY

MICHAEL Keithley is a visionary technol-ogist with strong business acumen. Histechnology vision and strategyroadmap is his gateway into leading hishigh functioning team to success. He isa though leader when it comes to tech-nology and is able to think outside thebox in leading the CAA technologyteam to define a brand like no other.He was responsible for the technicalaspects of the joint venture betweenCreative Artists Agency and Intel,which resulted in the CAA/Intel MediaLab located at CAA’s headquarters. Hecontinues to serve as a liaison betweenSilicon Valley’s technology communityand not just Creative Artists Agency,but also the entire Hollywood creativecommunity.

Keithley continues to share with thebusiness, how the technology groupcan consistently provide value.Reporting to a partner at CAA, hespends time getting first hand informa-tion on what the companies prioritiesare which allows him to align accord-ingly and readjust his vision if needed.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

FINALISTS2015BRUCE KHAVARCAT, INC.

A Cyber securityvisionary, BruceKhavar’s life longmission has beento provide aneffective solutionto protect againstcyber securityattacks for con-sumers to businessenterprise across

all industries globally. His systems havebeen internationally tested and haveproven to be 100% hacker-proof over a6-month period. Commonly firmswould have a 2-week window to hackinto a system.

Khavar’s patented technology isground breaking and has raised theinterests of the homeland security inKorea on the highest level — to thepresident, where the #1 cyber securityexpert has endorsed and claimed CAT,INC. as poised for being the global #1leader in cyber security solutionsbecause of it’s ground breaking nextgeneration paradigm solution that is 5-10 years ahead of what currently existsin the global market place today.

KEN KWANENGAGE:BDR

KENNETH Kwan isone of the co-founders ofEngage: BDR. Hededicates himselfto building thetechnology andbusiness parts ofthe company fromthe ground up, sohe understands

very well that the tie between businessand technology is critical. He alwayscarefully evaluates the feasibility, riskand cost of every project from the busi-ness side, and schedules with team toensure the execution to meet businessobjectives and budget. He loves criticalthinking, which is required during theplanning of every major technical proj-ect.

Kwan stays in the forefront of cut-ting edge technology, also encouragesengineers to digest new technology byparticipating open source foundation,technical global conferences, and col-laboration with other technical compa-nies in the industry. He sets up manycontests for engineers to solve realworld business problems, to incubaterevenue generators/new business mod-els, and to inspire the rising of newtechnology to stand out of all othercompetitors in the industry.

JASON LIDOWTHE DIGITRUST GROUP

JASON Lidow has been providing infor-mation security solutions to middle-market companies in the retail, health-care, education, technology, finance,manufacturing and financial industriesfor the past twelve years. He serves aspresident and founder of the DigiTrustGroup.

Lidow’s company, DigiTrust, is amanaged security services firm thatfocuses on using people, processes andtechnology to proactively provide thehighest level of information security atclient organizations. Lidow and histeam do this by actively identifying,blocking and researching attackers.Through managed security and securityconsulting services, Lidow works toprovide the confidence businesses needto operate in a highly complex, threat-ening and interconnected world. Inshort, he and his team act as a securityoperations center (SOC) for organiza-tions that either do not have a SOC orrequire augmented SOC functionality,while also reducing the overall cost ofsecurity for all sizes of organizations.

PHILLIP LIEBERMANLIEBERMAN SOFTWARE

PHILIP Lieberman isa highly accom-plished securitysoftware executivewith more than 30years of industryexperience. He hasan established trackrecord of findingshortcomings inexisting market

solutions and filling those gaps withinnovative new products. As presidentand founder of Lieberman Software, hedeveloped the first products to serve theprivileged password management andshared account password managementspace. His company released its firstcommercial product in 1994, but tracesits roots back to 1978 when it wasfounded as a software consultancy.Today he continues to introduce newsolutions to resolve the security threatof unmanaged privileged accounts.

Lieberman Software has consistentlyprovided unique solutions that fill theniche of managing privileged accountsthroughout the cross-platform enter-prise. Something of a visionary,Lieberman pioneered the privilegedidentity management space by releas-ing the first product to this market in2001. Since then, the company has reg-ularly updated and expanded its privi-leged password solution set whilegrowing its customer base in thisvibrant and emerging market.

SAMEER MAINIACCOUNT CONTROL TECHNOLOGYHOLDINGS, INC.

IN 2014, SameerMaini was promot-ed from CIO ofAccount ControlTechnology, Inc.(ACT) to CIO ofAccount ControlTechnologyHoldings (ACTHoldings), an enti-ty created to assist

ACT’s acquisition and integration ofConvergent, a business four timesACT’s size. Maini was challenged toleverage technology and expertise fromboth organizations to enhance ACTHoldings’ leadership in the industry.He has succeeded in integrating thewealth of knowledge, best practicesand leading-edge technologies fromthree separate divisions, within a 70-person IT team, whose members aredispersed among 19 office nationwide.

Leveraging his extensive backgroundin call center support both in the U.S.and internationally, Maini has providedthe vision as ACT Holdings’ CIO to leadthe company’s numerous technologyenhancements, including a complexmigration to an account managementplatform, the implementation of a callcenter speech analytics program, andthe building of a world-class infrastruc-ture to support exponential growth.

BRAD MARYMANMARYMAN AND ASSOCIATES

BRAD Maryman is an experienced com-puter forensics consultant. Prior tofounding Maryman & Associates, heserved as a Supervisory Special Agentwith the Federal Bureau of Investigationfor 29 years. During that time, Marymanconducted and supervised investigations,and served as an Information SystemsAdministrator and Security ProgramsManager. Maryman has conducted foren-sic data acquisition, retrieval and analysison a multitude of digital evidence includ-ing electronic business records, networklogs and encrypted files. Additionally, Mr.Maryman has a wide-range of electronicdiscovery experience, specifically, recover-ing and processing electronic records pro-duced by a variety of computer operatingsystems and applications.

In 1991 he founded the FBI’s firstComputer Analysis Response Team(CART) and served as its team leader. Heestablished the agency’s first state of theart computer forensics laboratory, whichis now replicated across the nation.Drawing on his years of training andexperience with U.S. GovernmentInspection processes, he has consultedfor corporations and public agencies toperform all-scope security assessmentsand special analysis reviews.

REBECCA MENENDEZAUTRY NATIONAL CENTER OFTHE AMERICAN WEST

AT the AutryNational Center ofthe AmericanWest, as a museumserving education-al and inspira-tional purpose, cre-ativity brims fromevery part of theorganization. Insuch an organiza-

tion, the IT systems must be built withan eye on the horizon of what tech-nologies are yet to come. RebeccaMenendez is charged with looking tocurrent and emerging technologies tosee how these can be implemented tosupport whatever new needs arise.These technologies include virtualdesktop, mobile device managementand increasing mobility with theupcoming Windows 10 operating sys-tem, VLAN for devices in the museum’sgalleries, and researching softwaredefined networking to see if this tech-nology can help ease some of the painpoints of managing a complex system.

Menendez is driven to ensure thatthe IT systems support the creativeforces on staff, rather than serving as aroadblock, while keeping the networkand data secure and ensuring that budg-etary restrictions are responsibly upheld.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 7:00 PM Page 40


HOWARD MILLERLBW INSURANCE AND FINANCIALSERVICES

HOWARD Miller isthe Director of theTech SecureDivision at LBWInsurance andFinancial Services.He provides riskmanagement solu-tions includingcomplete insur-ance programs for

a wide range of organizations with afocus on technology and media sectors.He provides additional expertise in thearea of technology related risks such asintellectual property, information secu-rity, professional services, technologyproducts and executive exposures. Heis a Community Outreach AdvisoryBoard Member for the InformationSystems Security Association of LosAngeles and helped found a ProVisorsTechnology Group.

Miller holds CRM (Certified RiskManager) and CIC (Certified InsuranceCounselor) designations and hasworked in the insurance industry since1996 and joined LBW, where he is cur-rently a Vice President, in 2004. He hasalso been on the advisory board of theInformation Systems SecurityAssociation of Los Angeles, driven bythe organization’s work in being thevoice of information security for thebusiness and non-profit community inLos Angeles.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

FINALISTS2015KIMBERLY PEASECITADEL INFORMATION GROUP,INC.

KIMBERLY Pease co-founded CitadelInformation Group as a trailblazerunderstanding and focusing on theneed for cyber security management inthe private sector. Her determination todrive Information Security awarenessinto Los Angeles has been diligent andunwavering since 2002. She embraces abelief that every business has a right toprosper without cybercriminals imped-ing its mission.

One of Pease’s favorite quotes is“Nobody is as smart as everybody.”Information Security will only bemanaged successfully if everybodydoes his or her part. Pease inspires cre-ative thinking by assessing all anglesof an issue, by incorporating differentviews and perspectives and having anopen mind. Pease draws from her SixSigma Black Belt knowledge and skillto focus on continual improvement.Throughout her career, Pease hasmaintained an emphasis on produc-tivity and costs and embracing newtools, new ideas, and new methodolo-gies to develop efficiencies.

MIKE PETERSENTM FINANCIAL FORENSICS, LLC

MIKE Petersen, the IT Manager for TMFinancial Forensics, LLC is excellent atapplying high-end technology solu-tions to meet the needs of his business.TM Financial Forensics is a nationalbusiness and disputes consulting firmspecializing in financial, accounting,economic, engineering, scheduling anddamages analyses.

As a one-man IT shop within theorganization, he does an exceptionaljob and is dedicated to excellence. Heis very responsive to business needsand is always looking to do things bet-ter for the businesses he works with.Recently, he has been working on asecure high-availability network for theorganization.

RAJ RAJKOTIANEXTGEN TM, LLC & FUNDDREAMER

RAJ Rajkotia as asenior IT executiveleader has workedand managed largeteams at Toyota,Westfield, Bank ofAmerica andGeneral Motors.Learning best prac-tices from theselarge organizations,

he has built NextGen TM and appliedlean strategies to help clients leveragetechnology. His company and teamspecialize in a new wave of disruptivetechnologies such as Social, Mobile,Analytics (Big Data) and Cloud.

Rajkotia has consistently providedtransformative strategies and consultingservices to client companies since 2005.He has a strong background in Financeand Technology Management that hashelped companies transform and current-ly they are an emerging TechnologyStartup Incubator Company for the LosAngeles region. Rajkotia and NextGenTM have incubated several startups andhave successfully launched FundDreamer,a next generation Crowd FundingCompany focused on EmpoweringWomen Entrepreneurship and Causes. Heis an innovative thinker always looking togenerate business efficiencies, drive busi-ness growth and attain competitive busi-ness advantages through use of technolo-gies and innovative processes.

RICHARD RANDLEMBSG

AS outsourced CIO, Richard Randlehelps IT technicians communicate inthe language of business — costs, bene-fits, risks, and return on investment.With an internal team of IT consult-ants, he oversees over 60 IT profession-als at his clients. He is chief strategist,coach, and escalation resource.Basically, when IT technicians arestuck, they call Randle.

Randle is particularly adept atachieving collaboration in tense situa-tions where various technical expertspresent conflicting recommendations.He and his consulting team at MBSGdesign and support systems in-the-cloud, on-the-ground, and blended.The winds of technology are blowingin the direction of cloud, mobile andsecurity, and Randle helps clients har-ness these forces and deploy emergingtechnologies within budget constraints.Randle reminds the IT experts he over-sees that just because a technologyworks and is affordable, does not nec-essarily mean it is the right answer tounderlying needs of their business. Hehelps his team understand the reasonsbehind any new technology.

NAVDEEP REDDYENPLUG

AT Enplug, Naveep Reddy communi-cates his technology plans and businessvalue through the organization by con-stant education. Every member of thecompany is expected to have a highlevel understanding of the technologyused. Individual project managers areencouraged to perform their ownresearch on technology solutions andsuggest superior choices to the incum-bent solutions. The process made inmaking technology decisions is alwaysclearly laid out by Reddy and his teamand critiques are not only allowed, butalso expected.

Creative thinking is promoted andfostered by Reddy via extremely highlevels of cross company communica-tion. A high level of understanding ofthe core product companywide pro-duces a fertile environment for innova-tion. Processes are improved, new fea-tures are developed, and issues areresolved by this persistent collaborativeinterchange – directly impacting busi-ness efficiency positively for increasedrevenue generation and high levels ofagility that is a significant competitiveadvantage in an industry, whichadheres to ‘traditional paradigms.’

CHERYL F. SANTORMETROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT

CHERYL Santor, Information SecurityManager for Metropolitan WaterDistrict of Southern California, hasover 25 years of InformationTechnology experience in the financialfield and water industry. She has expe-rience with every aspect of InformationTechnology.

Working with Metropolitan hasexposed her to SCADA and ProcessControl Systems, bringing a new aspectto her Information Technology skills.Providing oversight of the control sys-tems without hindering operations is anexperience to which Santor is bringingher regulatory background togetherwith a sense of standards and best prac-tices for access control levels appropriateto the systems workflow. Santor hasserved as President of ISACA(Information Systems and Audit ControlAssociation) Los Angeles. She is also amember of ISSA (Information SystemsSecurity Association) and FBI Infragard.

MEGAN SAVAGETECH SAVAGE

ONE of the thingsMegan Savage ofTech Savage does isencourage clientsto think outsidethe box in theirsolutions. Insteadof approaching abusiness issue witha specific solutionin mind, Savage

challenges them to fully define theproblem and business need first, beforedeciding on a solution. By fully analyz-ing and mapping a business problemor business processes, Savage and herteam are able to uncover additionalareas where efficiency can be improvedthan they may have initially focusedon, and then brainstorm how a combi-nation of technology and businessprocess changes can address each issue,based on budget and priorities.

Savage has also found that Kaizensessions can be very useful tools toinvolve the business in defining theircurrent process and pain points, cre-atively collaborating on short and longterm solutions, and owning the resultsof the implementation.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 7:00 PM Page 41


ERIC SCHLISSELGEEKTEK IT SERVICES

ERIC Schlissel andthe GeekTek teamdistinguish them-selves from theircompetitionthrough technicalexpertise andthrough customerservice. The cus-tomer service dis-tinction is the one

that makes Schlissel most proud. Heleads by example in ensuring that thehallmarks of every client interactionare listening and empathy. Byapproaching his client relationships inthis way, he quickly establishes strongties with his clients’ teams.

Under Schlissel‘s stewardship,GeekTek is a nimble organization whereteam members wear many hats and areencouraged to contribute collaborative-ly to any number of organizational andoperations initiatives. This diversity ofthought is key to fostering ongoing cre-ativity in problem solving. Schlisselruns workshops were the teams practiceseeing and solving problems from theend users’ perspective as opposed tofrom purely a systems perspective.Schlissel consistently demonstratesleadership amongst his own team andalso within his clients’ organizations.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

FINALISTS2015HERSEL SHOUMERLA NETWORKS

AFTER working atlarge enterprisecorporations for 16years and achiev-ing the highlyregarded CiscoCCIE certificationin 1997, HerselShoumer formedLA Networks, an ITconsulting and

networking company. LA Networks’mission has always been to become itsclients’ trusted adviser by deliveringbest of breed solutions. Since its hum-ble beginnings, LA Networks was builtas an engineering and consulting firmwith extensive expertise in the areas ofUnified Communications, Wireless,Data Center Architectures, Wide AreaNetworks, and Local Area Networks.The LA Networks differentiator is a pas-sion to deliver excellent value and serv-ice to its customers and partners.

Since he launched, Shoumer hasdemanded excellence from his partnersand employees by the following coreprinciples: Honesty and Integrity,Leadership, Family values, OpenCommunication, and Passion inTechnology. LA Networks has grown tobecome one of the best-known private-ly held and highly technical IT solutionproviders in Southern California, withover $25 million in annual revenue.

STAN STAHL, PHDCITADEL INFORMATION GROUP; INFORMATION SYSTEMSSECURITY ASSOCIATION - LA

STAN Stahl, Ph.D. isthe President ofCitadelInformationGroup. A pioneerin the field ofinformation securi-ty, Dr. Stahlentered the field in1980. Earlier in hiscareer he secured

teleconferencing at the White House,databases inside Cheyenne Mountainand the communications network con-trolling the nation’s nuclear weaponsarsenal.

Dr. Stahl excels at helping his clientsdevelop and implement informationsecurity management strategies consis-tent with their unique information secu-rity responsibilities, their business reali-ties and their cultural circumstances. Hehas that rare gift of being able todescribe the complexities of informationsecurity in a way that makes sense toreal-world non-technical business profes-sionals. Dr. Stahl has served as Presidentof ISSA-LA — the Los Angeles Chapter ofthe Information Systems SecurityAssociation — since 2008 and is the cre-ator of the Chapter’s It Takes the Villageto Secure the Village program.

PAUL SUNOKAGILE360, A DIVISION OF ENTISYSSOLUTIONS, INC.

PAUL Sunok, who serves as the Directorof Agile360 (a division of EntisysSolutions, Inc.), is always looking for-ward to help his clients get better atwhat they do. He looks at businessneeds and attempts to find ways for hiscompany to help them meet them inthe best way. He’s always asking strate-gic questions, but more importantly,really wants to help his clients growand get better.

What really tends top impress thosewho work with Sunok is that he isalways looking to find new and inno-vative ways to implement better andbetter solutions while staying withinthe customer budget. He’s perpetuallywilling to go the extra mile to do theright thing, do it quickly, and do it atthe right price. On top of that, histeam is dedicated to excellence andrepeatedly surprises us with their levelof skill.

KIM A. TERRYGUTHY-RENKER LLC

KIM Terry has builta strong 140 per-son IT team sincehis arrival atGuthy-Renker,seeking out themost talented peo-ple possible, thendelegating respon-sibility for out-comes not just

tasks. Developing a conceptual visionfor the future, then planning a way totransition this ‘new world’ is a hall-mark of his career. He leverages his 30+years of technology and managing peo-ple to guide organizations through dif-ficult journeys, supporting his teamand knocking down roadblocks.

Terry has been leading Guthy-Renker though a difficult and lengthymodernization of its systems for mostof the past five years. Much of the pastcomputing was built and run by busi-ness process outsourcers, so the compa-ny had little capability to execute an ITmodernization program. Also becauseof the highly outsourced businessmodel, the company had no mecha-nisms to review, approve or manage ITprojects. Therefore, Terry started fromscratch. Projects started to becomemore successful, more accountable andmore visible. Success built upon suc-cess.

MIGUEL O. VILLEGASK3DES, LLC

MIGUEL O. Villegasis Vice Presidentfor K3DES, LLC aPayment CardIndustry QualifiedSecurity Assessor(PCI QSA) firm. Heis responsible forperforming infor-mation securityassessments for

PCI DSS, generating Reports ofCompliance and Reports of Validationfor PCI assessments and PCI paymentapplications, respectively. He also pro-vides information security consultingto clients related to security solution,Information Security Due Diligence,FFIEC examinations, ISO-27002, GLBA,and HIPAA.

Villegas brings to K3DES more than30 years of experience in IT audit, riskmanagement and information security.He is a recognized leader in each ofthese fields and has been active in localchapters respectively. Villegas is in highdemand for lectures at key professionalorganizations such as InformationSystems Audit & Control Association(ISACA), Institute of Internal Auditors(IIA), CA-World, OWASP, VanguardSecurity Expo, and the InformationSystems Security Association (ISSA).

JOE VISCONTIPARSONS

JOE Visconti is theCTO for Parsons,where his role is todevelop the corpo-rate IT roadmap tohelp achieveParsons’ businessgoals. This entailshaving an intimateknowledge ofParsons business

strategies, a wealth of understanding asregards the state of IT in Engineeringand Construction, and a practical sensefor how to incorporate the latest ITtrends for delivering computerizedservices to Parsons. The role includesoversight for computing standards,enterprise architecture, IT innovation,competitive intelligence, and vendormanagement. Visconti has spent 33years in IT related positions for globalengineering firms during an IT careerthat spans 39 years.

In times of uncertainty, Visconti isknown for being particularly decisiveand doesn’t shy away from takingmeasured risks to achieve needed out-comes. He also has a strong knack forseeing strategic technology patternswhile interpreting and forecasting theimpact of those technologies will haveon companywide operations, growthand strategic objectives.

PHILLIP WALKERNETWORK SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

BUSINESS and IT alignment is a majorgift possessed by Phillip Walker. Hiscoworkers report that he is able tounderstand tech and use tech to createa very good infused model. He has cre-ated optimize the value that IT con-tributes to his business. He has success-fully created outline a strategic ITroadmap that has successfully alignedIT strategy to business strategy, and hasshared understanding of how IT appli-cations, technologies and services willcontribute to business objectives –today and in the future, and a sharedfocus on where to expend scarceresources, time and money.

Walker has created a credible work-ing relationship between the IT organi-zation and the rest of the business asevidenced by reliable daily operations,responsive problem management andpredictable, and innovative solutiondelivery. Walker has created clear met-rics as a way to compare product inno-vation options; and whether concept’srequired investment in R&D is produc-ing the desired results.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 7:00 PM Page 42


DAVID WATTSNETFUSION, INC.

NETFUSION’S CIO,David Watts isvery detail orient-ed and incrediblythorough, andensures that hisclients’ expecta-tions are alignedwith his own andthose of his team.He places special

emphasis on clear communication. Hefocuses first on clarifying and articulat-ing the client’s business objectives.Secondly, he lays out for the clientshow technology can best accomplishthose objectives along with the prosand cons of each choice. He works toperform all of this within the contextof the client’s specific objectives, infra-structure, budget, and compliancerequirements.

Another strength that Watts exhibitsis his long-standing business relation-ships, not only with clients, but alsowith his connections within the indus-try and outside his industry through-out Los Angeles. Watts supports thegrowth of other businesses through hisinvolvement in Provisors, a network ofbusiness professionals and advisors,and through collaboration with otherIT related vendors.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

FINALISTS2015ABER WHITCOMBSGN

SGN CTO AberWhitcomb – previ-ously CTO and Co-Founder ofMySpace – applieshis knowledge andexpertise in build-ing the world’s orig-inal social network,and scaling it toglobal capacity. The

large-scale infrastructure challenges hetackled and overcame in this processnow inform the strategy of his role atSGN in mobile gaming. MySpace’s userpeak reached about 125 million monthlyactives in 2007, but SGN’s network ismuch bigger. SGN’s network of gamescomprises 500 million downloads,including 35 million players on its mostpopular title “Cookie Jam.” This vastplayer base means millions of transac-tions and in-app purchases per daywhich SGN’s IT infrastructure must seam-lessly accommodate to generate revenue.

Whitcomb’s major innovation atSGN is its patent-pending “MasterKey”system, a platform which allows a gameto be developed and coded once, andthen simultaneously published to allmajor games platforms –Amazon/Kindle, iTunes, Google Playand Facebook. The same system alsodelivers content updates, game mainte-nance, and other technology updates.

JONATHAN WONGPLAYBOY ENTERPRISES, INC.

PLAYBOY originallyrecruited JonathanWong for his skillsets in buildingand migratinglarge enterpriseinfrastructure andtechnology at thecusp of a privateequity acquisition.The acquisition

involved the collapse of 13 legacy sites;the ground-up build of a new worldclass headquarters; the migration ofmultiple petabytes of data; and thereverse engineering of hundreds ofhome grown applications within ashort timeframe. Wong adapted exist-ing technologies to the newly definedbusiness model, which was to trans-form the 60-year-old business frommedia empire to brand managementcompany. He then began to draft anew pool of custom applications todrive revenue initiatives for the newlydesigned business.

Within his first three years, IT opera-tional costs were reduced by 43% andperformance gains were seen across theboard by up to 900%, while still adheringto enterprise best practices. Wong is cur-rently working with the CEO and CFO tore-architect Playboy’s business systems toproperly reflect and complement theirnew directions for the enterprise.

MATT WONGCIVIC RESOURCE GROUPINTERNATIONAL

MATT Wong recent-ly joined CivicResource Group asCTO bringing inmore than 20years’ experiencespecifically in thebuilding of cloudapplications andservices. His pro-fessional experi-

ence also spans working on developingconsumer-facing mobile applications.

Wong is a curious type of IT execu-tive: his massive knowledge ofInformation Technology as a disciplinecombined with his unique knowledgeof all technologies available (old, newand emerging) is near encyclopedic.Building on this strength, he cultivatedthe idea of bringing in new innovationtechnology on “as needed” basis andintegrate it into Civic Resource GroupInternational’s solutions specific to proj-ects requiring innovative fine-tuning.While running the IT dept, Wong pos-sesses a rare brand of business acumenand a combination of old/new school ofwisdom in that he is a key Executivewho routinely, proactively, (but tactful-ly) steps outside of his area of responsi-bility when he feels that a particularbusiness situation requires his input.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 7:00 PM Page 43


CIOs OF THE YEAR 2015 EVENT SCENE

Over 300 attendees were on hand at the event, held at The LA Hotel Downtown in Los Angeles on June 3, 2015.

25 44_cio_06_08_15.qxp 6/4/2015 6:25 PM Page 44

Documents

The Los Angeles Business Journal presents 2015 CIOs of theYear · the eight years since then has grown his engineering team from zero to 30. Under Weiner’s leadership, GumGum’s