Welcome to Microsoft Office Project Conference 2007

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Keynote Speakers

STEVE BALLMER
Microsoft CEO

Steven A. Ballmer is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of software for personal and business computing. Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and was the first business manager hired by Bill Gates. Since then, Ballmer’s leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his tenure at the company.

During the past 20 years, Ballmer has headed several Microsoft divisions, including operations, operating systems development, and sales and support. In July 1998, he was promoted to President, a role that gave him day-to-day responsibility for running Microsoft. He was named CEO in January 2000, assuming full management responsibility for the company, which includes delivering on the company’s mission of enabling people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.

Together with Gates and the company’s other business and technical leaders, Ballmer is focused on continuing Microsoft’s innovation and leadership across the company’s seven businesses. Microsoft’s goal is to provide an integrated platform to enable a seamless experience across a wide range of computing and non-PC devices and services.

Variously described as ebullient, focused, funny, passionate, sincere, hard-charging and dynamic, Ballmer has infused Microsoft with his own brand of energetic leadership, vision and spirit over the years.

Ballmer was born in March 1956, and grew up near Detroit, where his father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Co. He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics. While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the university literary magazine, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. After college, he worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager and, before joining Microsoft, attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

HOWARD PUTNAM
Former CEO of Southwest Airlines

Howard Putnam was raised on an Iowa farm and learned to fly out of a pasture in his Father's J-3 Piper Cub. He entered the airline business as a baggage handler at Midway Airport in Chicago for Capital Airlines at age 17. Capital was soon merged into United and Howard held thirteen different positions in sales, services and staff assignments in several cities, before being named Group Vice President of Marketing for United Airlines, the world's largest airline, in 1976.

In 1978 he was recruited to become President and CEO of fledgling Southwest Airlines in Dallas, TX. While at Southwest Howard and his team tripled the revenues and tripled profitability in three years. They also successfully guided Southwest through airline deregulation and Southwest was the first air carrier to order the Boeing 737-300, which later became the largest selling aircraft ever for Boeing.

Howard led the visioning process at Southwest as well as further developing the "fun" culture and excellent customer service that South is still known for today. Southwest has been profitable in every quarter for over twenty-five years, a record unsurpassed by any airline.

In 1981, Howard was recruited by the board of directors of Braniff International to come aboard as CEO and save and/or restructure the financially failing airline. He was the first airline CEO to successfully take a major carrier into, through and out of chapter 11. Braniff flew again in 1984.

He is the author of "The Winds of Turbulence" on leadership and ethics. Harvard University wrote a case study on his experiences at Braniff, "The Ethics of Bankruptcy" as a model as to how to handle stakeholders in crisis.

He is a founding faculty member and advisory board member of www.Mentoru.com/Putnam, an online education and mentoring site.

Howard and Krista have two children, Michael, a commercial airline captain and Sue, in public relations and marketing.

MICHAEL ANGIULO
General Manager of the Microsoft Project Business Unit

As General Manager of the Microsoft Project Business Unit, Michael Angiulo is responsible for the product development and strategic direction of the Microsoft Project business. While building on the strong foundation of Project on the desktop, he is currently investing in the Enterprise Project Management solution, powered by Project Server and the recently acquired Project Portfolio Server. Prior to this role, Michael was the Group Product Planner for the Information Worker division, leading the worldwide research and strategy teams for the Office System and Real Time Communications groups. Michael has been with Microsoft for over twelve years and has previously held program management roles in Microsoft Research as well as on the Excel, FrontPage and core Office product teams, and has been awarded seven patents. He earned an undergraduate engineering degree from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington, where he has been a repeat guest lecturer on Axiomatic Design as applied to software development.

Conference Speakers

MELINDA-CAROL BALLOU
Melinda-Carol Ballou serves as Program Director for IDC's Application Life-Cycle Management research. She provides thought leadership, expert opinion, and analysis through comprehensive research on application life-cycle management (ALM), with specific focus on software life-cycle process configuration and management, software quality, and IT governance. Ballou is working collaboratively with other teams at IDC to create IDC's PPM research in the context of ALM topics, targeting IT governance as it relates to IT portfolio management, encompassing IT PPM, IT asset and financial management. With more than 18 years experience in the field, Melinda Ballou is an expert on PPM and ALM strategies and technologies. Prior to joining IDC, she founded an independent consulting firm focused on these areas and served as Senior Program Director at META Group for 11 years, where she successfully established and evolved the software development life-cycle management and PPM research practices. Melinda Ballou holds a Masters Degree in Professional Writing from MIU, and a BA from Williams College in Philosophy and Music.

ALAN BEARDER
Alan Bearder, (BS) Executive Director for Microsoft EPM Training and Consulting of Microsoft EPM Division at International Institute for Learning, Inc. Alan is leading the development of Microsoft Official Curriculum for Microsoft Project 2007 certifications at IIL. He has more than 10 years of consulting and training experience with Fortune 500 companies across numerous industries He specializes in project and portfolio management, organizational change management, implementing project management processes and strengthening project management offices. He has successfully planned and deployed Microsoft Project Server to many industries leading organizations and trained hundreds of project managers and stakeholders in the use of the tool and supporting business processes.

AMEYA BHATAWDEKAR
Ameya Bhatawdekar is a Program Manager on the Team Foundation Server team responsible for Team Foundation Server integration with Microsoft Project and Project Server. Before joining the Team Foundation Server team, he was part of the Project team for a number of years working on features like server programmability (PSI), server events and the client object model.

SIDDHARTH BHATIA
Siddharth Bhatia is a Senior Group Program Manager on the Visual Studio Team System team. He works on the Project Management, Work Item Tracking and Reporting aspects of Team Foundation Server. He’s been at Microsoft for seven years and an interesting past assignment was working on the Speech Server v1 product.

THOMAS BIRDSALL
Thomas Birdsall, MBA – Manager, Business Transformation PMO, PG&E
Thomas brings over 20 years of program and project management experience in the telecommunications and energy delivery industries. He has driven change as a project management principal and manager on large-scale, multi-million dollar Information Technology and General Construction / Maintenance projects. Most recently, Thomas has led the integrated scheduling and PMO development efforts for PG&E’s Business Transformation PMO and has been responsible for championing the value of best practice project management across the organization.

CHRIS BOYD
Chris Boyd is a Program Manager for the Microsoft Project Team. He primarily focus on server features in areas of programmability and deliverables. Before joining Microsoft, he co-owned a small consulting and services business in Toronto, Ontario where he grew up and went to School. Before owning his own business, he attended the University of Waterloo where he received his Bachelor of Mathematics.

MICHAEL AARON BROWN
Michael Aaron Brown, PMP, is currently a Sr. Project Manager in the Corporate Internet Group at JPMorgan Chase. In his current roll, he is responsible for resource and capacity planning, IT Finance support, and serves as the lead Program Manager for the deployment of Microsoft Project Server and Microsoft Office SharePoint Services within the department. Over the past 10 years, Michael has been in various Project Management and Project Support Offices within the bank. Prior to joining the bank, Michael was a consultant with Coopers & Lybrand and several other systems consulting organizations, specializing in Systems Delivery Methodology and Project Management support.

Michael has spoken at many Project Management Conferences on topics such as “Establishing the ‘Virtual’ Project Support Office,” “Preparing for an Enterprise Project Management System Implementation,” and “Critical Chain concepts for Project Portfolio Management.” Michael served on the University of Chicago curriculum advisory committee for the development of their Certificate in Project Management program, and has authored several articles published on PM Solutions and Gantthead.

CAROL BUBAR
Carol Bubar is the Senior Director of the Operations Excellence group for Human Resources at Microsoft Corporation. Carol has been with Microsoft Corporation for 16 years. During this time, she has worked in various MS divisions including Operations and Hardware.

In her current role, Carol has taken on the challenge of transforming the global HR business infrastructure and web communications to drive business value and to develop the world-class capability Microsoft Corporation aspires to be known for. Prior to Microsoft, Carol worked with HP and Boeing.

Away from work, Carol is passionate about volunteering and helping others, quilting, and spending time with her family, where she lives in Redmond, WA.

LARRY BULL
Larry Bull, Manager of OPM3® Products and Services at Project Management Institute (PMI), is an Industrial Engineer whose corporate career includes senior leadership roles as Director of Information Services and Chief Financial Planning Officer for CSX Transportation, a national rail transportation company, and Chief Financial Planning Officer for NovaCare, a national healthcare provider. Prior to joining PMI in 2004 to lead Developerelopment and operation of OPM3 ProductSuite, Larry directed his own management consulting enterprise specializing in business performance improvement and project leadership. Larry now directs all OPM3 product and service requirements for PMI. He completed his MBA studies at Duquesne University and received his M.Ed. in Instructional Design from Penn State University.

JERED CADY
Jered Cady, Executive Vice President of Synergy Business Solutions, has worked in the computer and software business for over 30 years. He has a deep understanding of business processes in the project accounting, financial, and distribution markets, and broad experience in financial reporting and analytics. A former employee of Solomon Software, he has worked in the financial reporting and budgeting market for 15 years and in theMicrosoft Dynamics SL market for over 10 years. Jered brings his 25+ years of sales and marketing background to Synergy.

JESSE CARNATHAN
Jesse is a software design engineer with Microsoft Office Project Server. He has been instrumental in the design and implementation of many Project Server 2007 PSIs. His functional expertise relates to PWA enterprise custom fields, lookup tables, and all resource management features.

BEN CHAMBERLAIN
Ben Chamberlain is a Senior Product Manager in the Microsoft Office Project group. Ben has worked extensively with Global 500 firms to design and implement project and portfolio management solutions. He joined Microsoft from UMT, where he led a product management team responsible for the creation and commercialization of the UMT Portfolio Manager, which was acquired by Microsoft in January 2006 and is now known as Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server.

SCOTT CHAPMAN
Project Hosts CEO

Scott Chapman is the President and CEO of Project Hosts, the leading provider of on-demand Microsoft EPM solutions and a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. Scott has been both a market leader and technology leader in applications hosting using Microsoft technologies since 1999. He has founded two hosting companies – the first was acquired by a public company – and had a successful management consulting career with McKinsey and Company. Scott holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a PhD in Physics from UC Berkeley.

GARY L. CHEFETZ
Gary L. Chefetz, Project MVP, author, coauthor and editor of more than 12 books covering Microsoft Project and Project Server.

AIK CHEN
Support Escalation Engineer, Microsoft Corporation

Aik Chen serves as the global escalation resource for both Project Server and Portfolio Server. He started with the Premier support team back in 2000 and over the many releases have contributed to numerous partner / customer offerings, with the most recent being the PPS Implementation Workshop on EPM University.

PATRICK CONLAN
Patrick Conlan is a Senior Program Manager with the Microsoft Office Project Team. Patrick comes from the database technologies world, with over 15 years of systems programming and database design and administration against large scale transaction processing and decision support systems. He has been in the Project Team for over four years, prior to joining the team he spent three years with the Microsoft SQL Server Team. Patrick’s areas of interest are Team Management, Reporting in general and Programming against the Project Server API. Please don’t ask him any UI questions as he can bite.

PAUL CONROY
Paul Conroy has worked as a Consultant for Microsoft Consulting Services in New Zealand since May 2006, where he is focused on delivering Microsoft EPM solutions throughout the Asia Pacific region. Prior to working for Microsoft, Paul spent 10 years in the British Submarine Service and has worked as a Solutions Architect for a New Zealand based partner where he also had a strong focus on EPM delivery.

GARY CRICH
Gary currently works for the Microsoft Consulting Services, Services Solutions Team (SST) for EPM and is also shared with the EPM World Wide Center of Excellence team as an EPM Architect. Gary has been working with all enterprise versions of Project since inception with many successful installations of Microsoft Project at several Fortune 500 companies globally. Gary has participated in Performance and Scalability labs, created custom solutions for customers, resolved many performance issues, provided training and guidance to customers and staff around the world.

Currently Gary is working on the deployment of the largest implementation of Project 2007 in the world. He also shares his time with many other customers and staff in successful implementations of Project Server 2007. Gary also finds time to speak at Technical Conferences and Web Casts on Administration, Installation and Migration from Project Server 2003 to Project Server 2007.

DREW DANIELSON
Drew Danielson is a test lead in Microsoft Office Project. He currently manages a team that is responsible for testing the user interface features in the Microsoft Office Project client. He has been a member of the Project test team for 7 years, primarily focusing on client features including scheduling and reporting. Drew received two bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Business from the University of Washington. In his spare time he enjoys fly fishing, rafting, hiking and Husky football and basketball games.

SCOTT DALEY
Scott has been working in the enterprise project management software space since Project Central. He joined the EPM Services Solution Team at Microsoft Consulting Services almost 2 years ago where he is the lead consultant for the Western US. As lead consultant, Scott is responsible for the quality of all significant Microsoft Consulting Services EPM engagements from Denver to the West Coast. Prior to coming to Microsoft he worked for Program Planning Professionals and before that for a Great Plains partner. He lives in Issaquah, Washington.

MIK DAS
Mick Das is a Senior Application Development Consultant in the WW Services group of Microsoft. He has been with Microsoft ten years and has worked with the Sharepoint platform developer technologies for the last three years, including .NET Object model, Web Services, Web Part development and other developer features. He has presented and provided developer guidance on WSS and MOSS 2007 to over fifty partners and enterprise customers. He has also started working recently on enhancing content for Project Server Developers. He has a Masters degree in Computer Science from University of Virginia and is currently pursuing a graduate business degree from Indiana University.

DAVID DUCOLON
David’s career spans 20 years in the fields of software Development, IT consulting and project management. He has held positions with the US Department of Defense, Oracle and Siebel Systems. David is currently a Senior Program Manager with Microsoft Project with responsibilities covering time tracking and fiscal management functionality. He is also the lead Program Manager for Resource Management.

LARRY DUFF
Larry Duff is a Support Engagement Manger with the Microsoft Application Development Consulting Group and has been with Microsoft for eight years. For five years he worked with the Project Server team supporting partners and customers that are Developing solutions using Project Server. He has spoken at numerous conferences on Project Server Development related topics. Prior to joining Microsoft Larry wrote software for retail point-of-sale systems and the Space Shuttle program. He has a BS in Computer Engineering and a MS in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology.

SAMANTHA DUNBAR
Samantha Dunbar leads the Corporate and Investment Banking Program Management Office (PMO) at Wachovia, reporting to the Chief Operating Officer of the Division. The purpose of the CIB PMO is to provide best-in-class project governance, portfolio management, and project execution across CIB's business units. The PMO work’s in partnership with line of business COOs, Finance, Technology, Operations and Client Services to effectively select, manage, and track projects required to meet CIB’s business objectives.

Sam joined Wachovia in 2004 from Bank of America where over the last ten years she functioned in a variety of roles and in her last assignment managed a Program Integration Team for Bank of America’s Treasury Services Division. Sam has extensive experience in Wholesale Banking, Project Management, CMM, Six Sigma Methodology and PMO Strategy. She earned an undergraduate business degree from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of South Carolina.

EMMANUEL P. FADULLON
Emmanuel P. Fadullon is a senior consultant with Microsoft Services and a member of the Worldwide Center of Excellence for Enterprise Project Management. He has been with Microsoft for over 6 years. Emmanuel has worked in various technology areas including messaging, infrastructure, portals and software Development. Prior to Microsoft, Emmanuel worked at the IT division for several companies including IBM, AIG and Credit Suisse.

AMJAD FAROOQ
Amjad Farooq is the Head of Business Improvement, Managed Services Division, at QinetiQ.
Dr Farooq has a PhD in Physics and considerable expertise in Business transformation, strategic planning and outsourcing. He is particularly interested and skilled in bridging the gap between real business needs and technologies that will transform organisations.

Amjad has worked for QinetiQ since 1987 in many different roles which have included leadership of large research programmes as well as business transformation activities.

CHRISTOPHE FIESSINGER
As a Senior Technical Product Manager for Microsoft Office Project Server, Christophe Fiessinger is responsible for IT professional and Developer evangelism. Christophe focuses on promoting the value of Project Server by speaking at global Microsoft conferences like Tech Ed, SharePoint Conference, Tech Ready and Project Conference. He is a major advocate for enterprise deployments of Project Server, speaking on topics such as architecture design, line of business integration and reporting customization. Christophe also focuses on whitepapers, trainings, blogs and other technical readiness materials related to Project Server.

Christophe started his Microsoft career in 2001 working as a Consultant in France. Prior to joining the Project BU he was working as a Principal Consultant in the EPM World Wide Centre of Excellence serving EMEA for 3 years. During his engagements he introduced EPM product and strategies to Microsoft subsidiaries and customers; additionally he was working on large cross border EPM implementations doing architectural design, reviews and LOB integration.

JAMES FLAVIN
James Flavin is the CTO and co-founder of Project Hosts, the leading provider of on-demand Microsoft EPM solutions and a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. James leads the Project Hosts technical team and has architected and directed the implementation of one of the world’s most technically advanced and successful Microsoft hosting operations. James has over 20 years of experience in the computer industry with an emphasis on platform delivery for application software and holds various Microsoft certifications including MCSE and MCDBA.

SIMON FLOYD
Simon Floyd is the Global Industry Technology Strategist for Innovation and Product Lifecycle Management within the Worldwide Industry Solutions Group at Microsoft. Simon is responsible for the overall Industry value strategy, vision and solutions-based architecture to address current and future trends, customer pains and opportunities. Simon has a 17 year background in software and hardware product design having held leadership roles in product strategy, management and marketing. He is also responsible for innovations in residential solar electric power generation and handheld electronic point-of-sale devices.

PRADEEP GANAPATHYRAJ
Pradeep is a Senior Program Manager on the Project Server team, currently working on the technical integration of Portfolio Management features with the Project Server architecture. The goal is to produce a single server with both Project and Portfolio Management capabilities. Pradeep also owns the Workflow feature for the upcoming release. He's been working in the software industry for about 8 years and with Microsoft for 5.5 years. Prior to joining Microsoft, he worked as a Software Developer/Project Coordinator at IBM Global Services on various enterprise technologies in the e-commerce space.

MIKE GRUIA
Mr. Gruia is a Principal Program Manager Lead in Microsoft Office Project business group. Mr. Gruia provides a leadership role for Microsoft in developing software solutions for enterprise portfolio management and the IT investment process. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Gruia was president of UMT, a company that he co-founded and was acquired by Microsoft. Mr. Gruia spearheaded the creation of the modern portfolio management and IT governance. Throughout his career, Mr. Gruia has written and consulted for leading Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.

STEVEN HADEN
Steven Haden is a Principal Consultant for Microsoft Services in France. He specializes on Enterprise Project Management (EPM) deployment and customization. Steven has been working with Project Server 2007 for the past year and Project Server 2003/2002 since 2002. Steven is member of the EMEA Regional Competency Centre Consultant for EPM. He holds a Computer Science Engineering degree from the EPFL in Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).

ROBERT HAPPY
PMP, Senior Consultant & Executive Team Member, Project Management Practice, Inc. (PMPI)

Over the past 15 years, Robert Happy has consulted with hundreds of organizations involving thousands of employees to establish effective Project Management practices. Robert continues to consult with organizations with one mission in mind – optimizing the application of project management customized to meet each organizations unique business requirements. Over the years, Robert has focused much of his time working with a variety organizations ranging from National Research Council, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Bell Helicopter-Textron, Fifth Third Bank, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, US Marine Corps, United Way, Abbott Laboratories, Amgen and Genentec, to name only a few, developing project management organizations, methodologies, processes and information systems to support a variety of application areas. Robert is currently an authorized Senior Level II Consultant with Franklin Covey Corporation and a Executive Team Member and Officer of the Project Management Practice, Inc. (PMPI).

LUKE HUMPHREY
Luke Humphrey is a Program Manager with the Microsoft Office Project Team. Luke began his career at Microsoft as an Escalation Engineer providing top-tier support for F500 customers deploying Microsoft Project 2000-2003 EPM solutions. Joining the product team in October of 2005, Luke oversaw implementation and delivery of the Active Directory Synchronization, Custom Field, and Microsoft Operations Server Management Pack features for the 2007 release. Before joining Microsoft, Luke developed operations management systems for various engineering companies in Southern California. Currently his focus is on Project and Application Portfolio Management.

RYAN JACKSON
Ryan Jackson is currently the Director of the (EPMO) Enterprise Program Management Office within the Global Outsourcing Group of Computer Sciences Corporation. For the past 7 years Ryan has been responsible for managing all of the Transition Program Management Offices for CSC's global IT outsourcing engagements ranging from 2 million to over 20 million in total program costs. During his career with CSC, he has been instrumental in developing recognized best practices for CSC's approach to Transitions and Program Management.

Before joining CSC, Ryan worked as a law enforcement officer for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department. He retains his status as a Police Officer within the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department Reserve Unit.

Ryan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice and Computer Science from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.

ADRIAN JENKINS
Project Supportability Program Manager

Adrian Jenkins is the Project Supportability Program Manager with the Microsoft Customer Services and Support (CSS) organization and has been working on Project since 1990. He is responsible for running the Microsoft Project beta, channeling product feedback from CSS back to the Project team, helping to drive targeted features into the product and looking at features in general to make sure they adhere to supportability goals.

MICHAEL JORDAN
Michael Jordan is the Lead Architect for EPM in the West Region and member of the World Wide Center of Excellence. Michael has been with Microsoft for 8 years serving in technical roles from Application Development, Systems Engineering, SQL Database and Project Management. He has been working with EPM for the last 4 years architecting, troubleshooting and implementing large deployments at priority customer sites. As a member of the COE he performs a role as an extension to the Product Group by providing field feedback, spec reviews, product guidance and running customer programs for marketing initiatives.

KEVIN KELLY
Kevin Kelly is the Senior Product Manager for Team Foundation Server at Microsoft. Kevin has been with Microsoft for 13 years. And most recently served as the Principal Program Manager for Team Foundation Server work item tracking and version control subsystems.

KC VOOTKURI KRISHNA
KC Vootkuri Krishna is a Software Design Engineer/Test in the Microsoft Project team. He is responsible for overseeing the Project Server Interface design as well as testing the Project Server Eventing feature. Before joining the Project team, he worked in the Microsoft Visual J# .Net and Visual Studio .Net teams, where he was responsible for testing the functionality and performance of J# class libraries. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Outside of work, KC enjoys basketball, snowboarding and riding his motorcycle.

NARESH KUMAR
Naresh Kumar is the EPM Practice Delivery and Functional Lead for TATA Consultancy Services (TCS). He leads the global delivery of EPM solutions and is also responsible for sales of various Microsoft-TCS vertical (Retail Renovator) and horizontal (PMLC, Collaborative Business Intelligence) solutions. He has more than ten years experience in leading large projects across various industries, technologies, and geographies. He has worked primarily in the domain of financial services and has good experience in leading large EPM Implementations with complex customizations and integration with LoB systems.

JEAN-FRANCOI LESAUX
Jean-Francois LeSaux is the Lead Architect for the MCS US Enterprise Project Management Center of Excellence which is composed of a group of EPM subject matter experts helping customers and partners plan, integrate and deploy the EPM solution in large enterprises. He has consulted and supported many EPM customers for the past four years including Project Server 2003 and 2007 RAP and TAP programs.

IVAN LLOYD
Ivan is Projects Director at Corporate Project Solutions, one of the UK’s leading Project Management consultancies. Ivan has over 15 years experience of implementing enterprise project management solutions combining people, process and technology aligned to increasing organisational project management maturity. Ivan has led assignments for many blue chip organisations including; The Eden Project, Defence Estates, The Financial Services Authority, Channel 4 Television and Freeserve. Prior to joining CPS, Ivan worked for two other leading Project Management organisations.

Ivan is an acknowledged industry expert on Enterprise Project Management and has contributed to various magazines and undertaken numerous presentations. Ivan is a past member of the judging panel for the APM’s annual Project Management Awards, is President of the Microsoft Project Association in the UK and has been appointed by Microsoft to their advisory council on Enterprise Project Management based in Seattle as the UK representative.

Ivan is a certified Project Management Professional and a PRINCE2 Practitioner.

PETER IOVINO
Peter Iovino is CEO of UMT Consulting Group North America and is actively involved in managing the client base throughout North America. He is accomplished in corporate communication and process design as well as being a developer of UMT's methodology for Portfolio Management and Business Alignment.

Peter's strong interpersonal and communication skills as well as his ability to develop strong client relationships have been instrumental in establishing UMT as a leader in the area of Portfolio Management.

Peter has over 15 years experience in consulting and for the last 10 years has focused on Portfolio Management where he has led engagements for over 50 clients focusing on initiative creation, selection, and management while augmenting UMT's best practices. He is involved in selling, planning, and leading Portfolio Management engagements for clients in a wide variety of industries including financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals, utilities, manufacturing, and entertainment.

Peter has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication from Wake Forest University with a focus in corporate communication. After graduating, Peter began his career at Chase Manhattan Bank and completed a twenty-four month training program in Technology and Operations Management Development.

DAVID LUPER
MBA, PMP, MCP – Senior Director, Sequence Advisors

With 15 years in management consulting and project management, David brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the effective management of programs and projects to Sequence’s clients. Leading programs and projects in the software development, financial services, insurance, healthcare, and retail industries, he provides clients with a broad understanding of cross-industry project management practice and lessons learned. Having been involved with PG&E’s Business Transformation program since its inception in early 2005, David has served as an on-site advisor and resource for PG&E in the development and roll-out of effective program and project management solutions.

RICH MURPHY
Rich has more than 35 years of experience in the project management, commercial software development, and engineering fields. His project management experience began as the project controls engineer for the engineering and construction effort of a $4 billion nuclear power plant. Since 1980, he and his long-time partners have led the development of many leading commercial project management software systems. After Microsoft’s acquisition of one of the systems developed by this team in August 2000, Rich joined Microsoft, and participated in the development of Project Professional and Project Server. In December 2002, Rich and his team formed EPK Group LLC, to develop a comprehensive portfolio and resource management system based on the Microsoft Project, Project Server, and SharePoint platforms.

ERIC S. NORMAN
Eric S. Norman, PMP, is a skilled lecturer, consultant and leader with extensive business process design experience supporting a broad array of companies across the IT industry. Mr. Norman is a frequent presenter at trade conferences at the Local, Regional, National and International level, and is a recognized authority on project Work Breakdown Structures. He was selected to lead the Project Management Institute’s update to the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures- Second Edition, published in October of 2006. Currently Mr. Norman is employed by ChoicePoint, Inc of Alpharetta, Georgia where he is Vice President and Chief Project Officer.

HEATHER O'CULL
Heather O’Cull is a Program Manager II for the Microsoft Project team and primarily works on the Project client including the Visual Reports feature. Prior to joining the Project team three years ago, Heather received a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Purdue University.

JOEL OLESON
As Sr. Technical Product Manager for SharePoint Products and Technologies, Joel Oleson owns the technical messaging and product positioning for the IT Professional audience. With more than 10 years of experience in the Internet Industry, Joel has a vast background in web technologies. First, starting out with Internet and intranet application web design including enterprise high availability solutions including SANs and SQL clusters. Later he moved into design and infrastructure architecture, engineering, and operations. Previous to his 6 years at Microsoft, Joel spent a few years at a McCaw startup designing extranets and deploying intranet business applications. His first experience on Microsoft campus came in the form of a contract job at Slate.com managing the staged deployment including web publishing aspects of a daily webzine. In 2000 he was brought in to lead the initial deployment and service offering of an early version of both SharePoint Team Services and SharePoint Portal Server which would become the largest and most influential deployment of SharePoint Products and Technologies. Over the next 5 years he would play the role of lead architect in deployment of Microsoft’s global intranet portal and collaboration service offering. He rarely misses an opportunity to present at TechEd (since 2003), various SharePoint Conferences internal and external, and has presented at dozens of internal, customer, and partner conferences and summits.
Be sure to check out the latest blog entries: http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/

ZELJKA PAVIC
Zeljka Pavic, (PMP, BS Engineering), Vice President, Enterprise Solutions at International Institute for Learning, Inc. Zeljka is currently leading strategic global partnership program with Microsoft. Zeljka has more than 20 years of IT Solutions and Project Management consulting experience in the telecom, banking, and manufacturing industries. Zeljka has led numerous Enterprise Project Management initiatives, including Project Management Office development, Project Management Competency Programs and Enterprise Project Management Methodology and Tools development and deployment.

STEPHANE PERRIN
Stéphane Perrin is currently Project Management Solutions Manager in Volvo Information Technology, the IT Business Unit of Volvo Group. In his current role, he is responsible for the solutions, the tools experts and the deployment of Microsoft Enterprise Project Management within Volvo. Over the past 6 years, Stéphane has been in various Project Management and Project Support Offices within Volvo. Prior working in Project Management, Stéphane has worked on web applications, applications integration, document management tools.

PHYLLIS POST
Ms. Phyllis Post has more than 18 years of IT management experience across several industries including pharmaceuticals, typesetting, publishing and web development. Ms. Post has experience in Portfolio Management, Enterprise Architecture, web and IT applications, document management and project management. Through her various roles, she has been engaged with both business and IT leaders to deliver innovative solutions to the most demanding business problems to realize competitive advantage, improve business efficiency, and enhance customer value.

Ms. Post has an MBA in Technology Management from the University of Phoenix and a BA from Douglass College.

KESHAV PUTTASWAMY
Keshav Puttaswamy is the Group Program Manager of the Project business unit at Microsoft Corp. He manages the team that defines the features and technical specifications for the Project products. Prior to this role, Keshav was a lead program manager responsible for delivering features in the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management solution. Keshav has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics from Dartmouth College and has worked in the Project group for over eleven years. Away from work, Keshav enjoys cricket, photography, spending time with his one year old daughter, and travelling with his wife.

DAN RENIER
Dan Renier is a Principal Consultant at Milestone Consulting Group, a Microsoft Gold Partner specializing in the deployment of Microsoft’s Enterprise Project Management and Standard solutions. Dan is internationally known for his creation of the YJTJ™ Process for Microsoft Project, and his personal ability to motivate and educate organizations on successfully using Microsoft Project.

Dan periodically contributes to a number of Microsoft Project publications; is a frequent guest speaker at local and global Microsoft conferences on project management and Microsoft Project; and is the Education Officer of the Twin Cities Microsoft Project Association.

Mr. Renier holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Montana, and a Master’s Degree in Health Care Administration from the University of Denver.

MICHELE RODGERS
Michele is currently responsible for portfolio management of all IT projects for Santander Consumer USA. This includes all the projects on IT assets and solutions. In her previous role, she served as the Controller for Santander Consumer USA where she was responsible for all Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable financial aspects. Prior to joining Santander, Michele served as Chief Financial Officer for Soft Link Solutions, Inc. and Springbow Solutions, Inc. in Dallas where gained a vast array of experiences in finance and technology consulting. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Financial Management for Allied Riser Communications Corporation.

JOHN ROECKER
John Roecker, Ph.D., Manager of Career Framework at Project Management Institute (PMI®), has over 35 years of professional development experience. He has worked in academic institutions, corporate settings, and more recently in a professional association. Dr. Roecker was on the team that developed a corporate university for a large, multinational information services corporation. At the Project Management Institute, Dr. Roecker has managed professional development programs and the selection of technical papers for all PMI Global Congresses. His current responsibilities are to lead the development of an Internet based set of templates that corporations may use as they develop project management career ladders. Dr. Roecker earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin at Stout, A Master of Science and Doctor of Education from Nova Southeastern University.

PRABA SANTHANAKRISHNAN
Praba Santhanakrishnan is a Senior Program Manager in Microsoft IT. He manages the team that defines the features and technical specifications for the Time & Expense Solution in the Apollo Program for the Microsoft Enterprise Services Business. Prior to this role, Praba was a lead program manager in Microsoft Business Solutions IT working in Dynamics Transaction Engine for MBS business. Praba has a bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Bharathiyar University in India and has worked in Microsoft IT for about five years. Away from work, Praba enjoys Golf, Biking and spending time with his family.

BORIS SCHOLL
As a Senior Technical Product Manager for Microsoft Office Project Server, Boris Scholl is responsible for IT professional and Developer evangelism. Boris focuses on promoting the value of Project Server by speaking at Global Microsoft conferences like Tech Ed, IT Forum, Tech Ready and Project Conference. He is a major advocate for enterprise deployments of Project Server, speaking on topics such as performance, scale and high availability and Development. Boris also focuses on Whitepapers, Trainings and other technical readiness materials related to Project Server.

Boris started his Microsoft Career working as a Development Consultant in the Portals area back in 1999. Prior joining the Project BU he was working as a Senior Consultant in the EPM World Wide Centre of Excellence serving EMEA for almost 3 years. During his engagements he introduced EPM product and strategies to Microsoft subsidiaries and customers; additionally he was working on large cross border EPM implementations doing architectural design, reviews and LoB integration

DARSHITA SHAH
Darshita Shah is the Senior Process Consultant at TATA Consultancy Services (TCS). She has more than ten years experience and has been involved in several project management process assessments, CMMi deployments, Software Process Control and EPM Training programs globally. Darshita has also been associated with the Software Process Engineering Group as the Quality Lead for more than 5 years now.

MIKE SHUGHRUE
Mike Shughrue is an MCS consultant attached to the World Wide Center of Excellence for EPM. Mike has been a consultant with Microsoft for the past 7 years. Mike has a bachelor’s degree in computer science
From the University of California, San Diego. Away from work, Mike enjoys outdoor activities, cooking, spending time with his wife and son and international travel.

PHIL SMAIL
Phil Smail is a Program Manager within the Microsoft Project Business Unit. His primary areas of focus are Reliability, Scalability, Performance, Administration and Security. He has over eleven years under his belt at Microsoft including working as a Developer eloper Consultant in both the United Kingdom and Ireland. He also spends too much time on his X-Box

BRIAN SMITH
Brian joined Microsoft in 2002 initially working on Solution Accelerators including the Solution Accelerator for Six Sigma. 3 years ago Brian moved into PSS and is an escalation engineer supporting Project. He also served as a Beta engineer supporting customers on the Beta program for Project Server 2007. Before joining Microsoft Brian worked for a partner in the UK integrating Project to a Professional Services Automation solution. Since the launch of 2007 Brian has been running a support blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith.

RICHARD SMITH
Richard Smith is a Senior Product Manager within the Microsoft Office Visio Product Marketing Group based in Redmond, Washington.

He joined Microsoft in the United Kingdom in 2001 as a member of the Microsoft Office Specialist Sales team. Over the following years he worked with a wide selection of Microsoft’s UK Enterprise Customers and Partners covering all aspects of Microsoft’s desktop application suite of Products included Microsoft Office Project and Office Visio. Richard moved to Microsoft Corporation in late 2006 to oversee Visio’s worldwide Partner strategy.

A graduate of the University of Manchester in England, Richard holds a BA Honors Degree in Business Management. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two young children all of whom have grasped the outdoor life in Washington having learned to ski in their first winter season.

DANIEL STANG
Dan is an analyst with Gartner, Inc. where, for the past ten years, he has covered project and portfolio management and application development and integration. Dan’s research focus includes the intersection of PPM tools and organizational process, writing on such topics as “PPM Investment and Implementation,” and “Process and Process Automation for PPM” and more recently, investigating the relationships forming between PPM and Application Lifecycle Management technology areas such as Software Change and Configuration Management. Prior to joining Gartner, Dan worked for Faulkner Information Services, a niche IT-based research company, covering a number of technologies, including Project Management, application development, and ERP. He holds a bachelor's degree from LaSalle University, Philadelphia, PA and is based in Gartner’s Delran, New Jersey office.

ALICE STEINGLASS

Alice Steinglass is the lead program manager for Project Standard, Project Professional and the project manager features in the EPM solution. She is responsible for selecting and designing new product features.

PAUL SZYARTO
Paul Szyarto is the CEO and an Executive Consultant of The Project Group America Inc. He joins with more than 12 years’ experience in business development, project and portfolio management, and installation/integration/implementation of systems at various organizations in both, the public and the private sectors. For the last few years he has been an independent consultant specialized in the implementation of SAP solutions at large US enterprises. His specialty is assisting organizations with leveraging SAP and Microsoft Project to produce maximum value to drive the decision making process.

LEENA TIPRE
Leena Tipre is the EPM Practice Director for TATA Consultancy Services (TCS). She leads the TCS EPM Practice globally and is responsible for sales and delivery support of the various Microsoft-TCS joint vertical as well as horizontal solutions on EPM platform. Leena has previously worked on SAP functional and technical consulting projects, and has setup offshore development centers for SAP engagements. She has worked on large programs in a variety of change, project and program management roles, and has been instrumental in developing a strong pool of EPM Technical and Functional Consultants at TCS.

DANIEL THEANDER
Daniel is leading UMT's financial services practice and has more than ten years experience in developing methodologies and solutions that help organizations derive optimal and ongoing value from their project and application investment portfolios. He has helped many Fortune 500 companies - including Bank of America, AXA Financial, Wachovia, New York Life - operationalize governance frameworks along with implementing UMT's Portfolio Management methodology and software solution (recently acquired by Microsoft). Daniel also heads UMT's methodology development and quality assurance functions.

Prior to joining UMT, Daniel worked at Deloitte & Touche and American Management Systems (now CGI). Daniel is a native of Sweden and holds an MBA and a BA in Economics.

STEVE TOTH
Steve Toth, President of Synergy Business Solutions, is an experienced Microsoft Dynamics SL senior consultant and has worked as a Senior Project Manager for the last 15 years. Before becoming a financial systems consultant, he held a variety of high-level financial positions including an Audit Manager’s position with Coopers and Lybrand; the CFO of NMR of America, a publicly-traded medical technology company; and CFO of Assisted Living Concepts, where he managed the company’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. He was previously certified as a CPA in both New Jersey and Oregon. Steve has successfully designed and implemented more than 80 Microsoft Dynamics SL project, financial, and distribution systems.

STUART TRAHAN
Stuart P. Trahan is Chief Technology Officer of forProject Technology, Inc. With over 20 years of experience, Mr. Trahan is considered a leading subject matter expert in Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS), Integrated Master Scheduling (IMS) and project management software design and implementation.
An expert in the application of Microsoft Project, Mr. Trahan was the founder of Compliance Software Technology, Inc. (CSTI) and the original designer of the forProject™ software suite. He has implemented IMS and EVMS solutions for clients such as United Defense, Teledyne Ryan, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Honeywell, ITT Industries, Computer Sciences Corporation, Lockheed Martin and many more.

KUMAR VADAPARTY
Kumar Vadaparty is a Director in Global Private Client Technology group of Merrill Lynch. He is responsible for developing frameworks to be used by other developers in GPCT, providing development support for other developers, and finally supporting and rolling out developer tools. He works in Integrated Solutions and Services group of Core Application and Integration group (CAI) within GPCT. CAI performs the twin roles of assisting developers with deploying software, and developing innovative framework solutions to meet their business needs.

As a part of his role, Kumar and his team developed earlier this year (2007) an innovative framework leveraging MSFT’s Workflow Foundation. This framework, called Data Services Framework, won developer’s award in Windows in Financial Services magazine. This framework is being used in some of the large initiatives. Prior to Merrill Lynch, Kumar was a member of Technical Staff at Bell Communications Research, and prior to that he was an Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Kumar holds a Ph.D., in Computer Science.

BOB WALKER
Bob Walker is a Technical Solutions Professional working in the Microsoft UK Ltd Enterprise and Partner Group specializing in Enterprise Project Management (EPM). He joined Microsoft UK Ltd in 2003 working with Customers, Partners and internally within Microsoft to evangelize and support sales, training and deployments of EPM across the UK, EMEA and globally within Microsoft. Prior to joining Microsoft UK Ltd he work for a Global Project and Programme Management Company delivering; Projects and Programmes, implementations of EPM and competitor products across many industries.

TOM WESTCOTT
Tom Westcott is the CEO and founder of Project Solutions Group, a full-service project management consultancy and Microsoft Certified Partner specializing in project and portfolio management strategy, consulting, training and systems implementation.
Tom began his career as an independent consultant at Cambridge Technical Partners (CTP). After years of exceptional service, CTP hired Tom as a project manager in their Custom Education Services division. His primary responsibility within the division was to implement customer training programs, with such clients as Lucent, Mutual of New York, and ADP.

In 2001 Tom applied his expertise in project management and staffing to start a unique project and portfolio management consulting business that he named Project Solutions Group (PSG).
In 2002 PSG began their partnership with Microsoft, to ensure the long term success of Microsoft’s Project Server customers. Since the relationship with Microsoft began, PSG has become recognized as a trusted business advisor as well as one of the top Microsoft partners in the North East, New York, Mid Atlantic, and Northern California markets. In 2006 PSG received its official University affiliation at the University of Wisconsin’s Executive Education Center in Madison, WI. allowing PSG to teach university accredited courses on-site to customers across the globe. Tom continues to teach at the U of W, where he teaches a variety of Masters Level Project Management Courses.

In addition to being a gifted businessman Tom is a certified project management professional, being a well-regarded and well sought after public speaker, and instructor. Tom is also a published author and has had articles published in various trade publications including PM Network, DM Review, Chief Project Officer, Bank Technology News, and Projects@Work.

KEITH WILSON
Executive Team Member, Project Management Practice, Inc. (PMPI)

Keith’s background includes 23 years of successful management and consulting experience, with a focus that includes project management, training, marketing, strategic alliances, and business planning across many industries. In addition to a Diploma in Business Administration, he has a Bachelor of Commerce with honors, a Masters in Business Administration, and is a certified trainer in Franklin Covey Project Management, We Sell with the Best (IBM Xerox Sales Methodology), and Oracle. Keith has managed complex, multi-million dollar projects and provided in-depth business analysis to many different industries, ranging from high technology to retail.

Keith was the VP of marketing for Symantec and was a member of the management team that purchased Time Line Solutions Corporation (project management software) from Symantec. He formed a partnership and started the Project Management Center in 1990 to offer project management training and consulting. Currently, he is a shareholder/executive of the Project Management Practice, a FranklinCovey alliance partner, and specializes in project management consulting and training.

MICHAEL YINGER
Michael Yinger is the Deputy Project Manager for the Project Manager Competency Development Framework. This is his second Project Management Institute (PMI) standards project. Previously he worked on the Project and Portfolio Management Standards. Mike owns and runs a consulting company delivery business and technology integration services. Previously he worked for Zamba Solutions as the VP of Delivery Operations and Cambridge Technology Partners as the Service Line Lead for Web Enabled Technology. Mike is a PMP and a member of the PMI Consensus Body. He lives and works outside of Denver, Colorado.

ERIC ZENZ
Eric Zenz is a Program Manager II for the Office Project team. Over his five years with the team, Eric has owned Project Server’s deployment features and its integration with Office SharePoint Server. Most recently, he served as the Release Manager for Project and Project Server 2007. Prior to joining Microsoft, Eric served as an Associate at Wilshire Associates in Los Angeles. Eric has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.