Information Systems Department

IS Advisory Board Biographies

 

Steven Anderson, Edward Jones
Steve currently has responsibility for Books & Records, Packaged Products, Canada and UK IS departments at Edward Jones. Specifically, he is responsible for Jones' customer accounts, Mutual Fund, Insurance Trading, Branch and Home Office systems supporting US, Canada and UK businesses. The major projects / efforts include:
     ·All regulatory efforts
     ·New products and services
     ·Real Time Books and Records
     ·Problem Management / Reduction
     ·Growth of Canada and UK businesses
 
Prior to joining Edward Jones, Steve worked for Brown Shoe Company as a programmer within their IS division. His key responsibilities were supporting our warehouse inventory systems, sales forecast systems and working with a team to define how Brown could utilize a client server platform and leverage the internet. These were the early days when the Windows platform was evolving and languages such as Visual Basic were entering the market.
 
Anderson started with Edward Jones in 1993 while pursuing my second masters degree, Masters Information Management at Washington University. Learning has always been an important part of his life, as he spent most of the 1980s and 1990s in class rooms.
 
His Words of Wisdom: Never stop learning. It makes life fun.

Michael Aufdembrink, The Outsource Group
Michael Aufdembrink is CIO of St. Louis based The Outsource Group. He has more than 22 years of experience helping organizations strategically utilize information technology to drive sustained operational excellence.
Prior to joining The Outsource Group, Mike served as Vice President of IT at Sara Lee Corporation, Managing Director of EPS Technology and provided consulting services for major organizations during his time at Accenture. Mike holds a bachelor's of science degree in electrical engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, as well as Master's in Business Administration and Master's of Science in Information Systems from the University of Missouri - St. Louis.

Paul Boal, Mercy
Paul is currently the Director of Business Intelligence Architecture for the St. Louis based Mercy Health System. Mercy, a regional health system with 18 acute care hospitals and more than 200 clinics, is the 9th largest Catholic health system in the nation (28th largest over all). Paul and the Business Intelligence team are responsible for the design, development, and support of centralized data warehousing, reporting, and analytical solutions across Mercy's operations.
Paul's background includes application development, consulting, and solution architecture. His primary focus for the past 8 years has been the development, architecture, and management of data warehousing and business intelligence solutions. Paul has been published in Teradata Magazine, ASP Today, and Dr. Dobb's Journal. He holds bachelor degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
Paul lives in Kirkwood, MO with his wife, two daughters, and son.

Samuel Bennett, The Boeing Company, Associate Board Member

Cody Brandt, KPMG, LLP

Sheila Burkett, SpryDigital
Sheila a partner and Strategic Consultant for Spry Digital, LLC. Spry Digital provides nimble web solutions utilizing the WordPress, Drupal and Google Business Application platforms. In addition to her role at Spry Digital, she is a member of the BounceBack St. Louis team as a coach and mentor to those in career transition. Along with these primary roles, Sheila continues to run Tuxedo Park Management and Tuxedo Park Leasing, plus teaches an online version of Information Systems Concepts and Applications for UMSL.
Prior to starting her own business, Sheila was a partner at Edward Jones with over twenty years of experience in their Information Systems division. Her experience is primarily in software maintenance, design and development but also includes project management, strategic planning, IS general controls and infrastructure management.
Sheila has her bachelors degree from UMSL with an emphasis in MIS and her masters degree from Washington University. She is currently on the Craft Alliance board, the St. Louis Panhellenic Alumnae Association and an active member of the Delta Zeta Alumnae.

David Burlis, Express Employment Professionals
David Burlis owns an Express Employment Professionals office in St Louis. David opened the office in 2006 and has been helping clients in both locally in St Louis and nationally by solving their HR and employment needs with tailored solutions that meets their needs. Express has just celebrated its 26th anniversary of helping companies find the right people as well as helping individuals find the right company. David is active in the community as a member of numerous Chambers of Commerce in the St Louis area as well as SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), HRMA (Board Member - Human Resource Management Association of Greater St. Louis), and is on the Board of the Kirkwood – Des Peres Chamber of Commerce as well as the University of Missouri St Louis IS Board of Advisors. He is a graduate of the Leadership Chesterfield program. David is also the President and Director of the Human Capital Advisory Alliance – ACA-St Louis.
Prior to starting the Express Employment Professional office, David was the Vice President of Information Technology for Sears in Chicago. Prior to Sears, David was the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) and SVP of Information Technology at CIGNA Insurance in Hartford, CT. He had also held senior leadership roles at Prudential Healthcare in New Jersey, The Associates First Capital in Dallas Texas, and Thorn EMI in Wichita. He is originally from St Louis where he worked at Edison Brothers Stores and helped form Edison Brother Mall Entertainment. He has a bachelor’s degree in communication from St. Louis University and a master’s degree in business from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Michael Coats, Edward Jones, Associate Board Member

Ray Creely, Retired from IBM

Mr. Creely recently retired from his position as Developer Relations Executive for IBM's Global Technology Unit with responsibilities for the Communication Sector and Security. He has over 30 years experience in information technology and has expertise in solution design and development, project management and systems integration. As the Developer Relations Executive, Mr. Creely works with Israeli based technology companies to provide a variety of industry and security based solutions to clients globally. In the US, he has worked with both the Atlanta Israeli Chamber of Commerce and the California Israeli Chamber of Commerce to explore opportunities.
Mr. Creely received a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Missouri, St Louis. He has continued his education within IBM through a variety of programs including the Harvard Business School.
Mr. Creely was an active member of Washington University's Center for the Advancement of Information Technology (CAIT). He is working with the St. Louis School District and UMSL's Center for International Studies in developing a high school international business curriculum.
He is a mentor at Soldan International Studies High School and he also has served as a Scout-master for the Boy Scouts of America where he supports the local community in developing future leaders.

Eric Crum, Panera Bread Company
Eric Crum joined Panera Bread in December, 2008, and currently serves as Director of Financial Applications within the IS team. He has responsibility for managing Panera’s finance applications, including Oracle E-Business Suite, finance-related business intelligence systems, and in-café financial activities. Prior to joining Panera, Eric owned and operated an IT services firm based in Fairview Heights, IL that focused on serving the technology needs of small businesses. Prior to that, he spent 17 years working a variety of technology roles in the Global Technology and Operations division at MasterCard Worldwide.

Eric holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from the University of Missouri-Rolla. He and his wife, Sharolyn, have two children, Alyssa and Brianna, and reside in Villa Ridge, MO

Debbie Erickson, Metro St. Louis
Debra Erickson, vice president and chief information officer of St. Louis-based Metro. She reports to Metro Chief Executive Officer Larry Salci. Erickson joined Metro after serving as a senior information technology executive at both Peabody Energy, Inc., and Ameren Corporation, Missouri's largest electric utility company, where for more than a decade she served as head of applications development in Information Technology.
Her experience also includes a stint in management consulting for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Erickson holds a bachelor of arts degree from Lindenwood University and an MBA from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. A native of Columbia, Mo., Erickson resides with her husband, Tim, and children Holly and Adam in Frontenac, MO.

Paul Eveld, Wells Fargo
Paul is currently an independent consultant working with several local businesses to support and enhance their business systems and infrastructure. He has managed and implemented several computer lab and technology upgrade projects for area grade schools. Paul was with Monsanto for most of his career and in his last role was responsible for global purchasing and payables SAP support, global order to cash SAP support, global expense reporting, Monsanto Corporate site services and security systems. He is the lead of the Monsanto IT Coop program placing 40 coop students yearly. Paul has a broad background in application development and infrastructure management and has extensive experience working closely with business management. In prior roles at Monsanto, he has provided IT support for US Sales organization, Global Marketing, Manufacturing, and Finance.
Paul has a BSBA in Business, with an emphasis in MIS, from the University of Missouri St. Louis. He continued his education in a Monsanto sponsored Components of Corporate Strategy curriculum at John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University.

Mary Fowler, UMSL

David Friedrichs, 
David previously was a Senior Manager in the St. Louis Advisory practice at KPMG LLP with extensive experience in auditing information systems. After Graduating suma cum laude in 1997 from UM-St. Louis with a BS in Accounting and a BS in MIS, he worked in the Business Consulting practice of Arthur Andersen until 2001, when he moved to the Advisory practice at KPMG. David holds a number of certifications including CPA, CISA and CIPP. He recently completed a two year rotation in KPMG's IT Risk Management function under the leadership of the firm's Chief Privacy Officer. While on rotation, David served as interim Chief Information Security Officer. As a member of KPMG's Information Governance Center of Enablement, David helps his clients protect information assets based on their business value and associated risks. As a student, David was very active at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, and continues to be involved as an alumnus. He is a member of the Alumni Association, is a mentor in the MIS Mentoring program, and regularly participates in University and COBA functions throughout the year. David and his wife Alicia live in St. Peters.

Michael Gallagher, Accenture, LLP
Michael is a Partner in the Health and Life Sciences, Health Payor practice of Accenture. He is also the St. Louis Office Location Lead Partner. He has been with Accenture since 1994. He leads Accenture's Health Payor eCommerce offering and has over 20 yrs experience working with leading health insurers, pharmaceutical organizations and pharmacy benefit management companies. His clients have included UnitedHealth Group, Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto, Centene, Express Scripts, Astra-Zeneca, Pfizer, Radiometer Medical, and many of the large Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans.
Prior to Accenture, Michael was a management consultant for a small high-tech consultancy in Chicago. He also spent several years as a management re-engineering specialist with St. Louis Childrens Hospital, was a technical communications specialist with AT&T Bell Laboratories, and an analyst in the Computer Aids to Tax practice of Arthur Andersen & Co. LLP.
Michael and his wife Martha have lived in St. Louis since 1991 and have four children.
Michael has a BA degree from Marquette University and a Master Health Science (MHS) from Washington University in St. Louis.

Bryan Garcia,Equifax
Bryan D. Garcia is Senior Vice President, Technology. He is responsible for corporate product development, platform architecture, quality assurance and corporate telecommunications services.
Mr. Garcia joined TALX Corporation in 1984 as a programmer for interactive voice response applications and was responsible for the hardware and software development for the TALXWare platform. In 2007 TALX was acquired by Equifax, and is now known as TALX Provider of Equifax Workforce Solutions. During his tenure Mr. Garcia has held increasingly responsible positions with TALX and Equifax. Presently, he manages the software development, QA and platform architecture for all Equifax platforms. He manages a team of over 200 technology professionals consisting of employees, domestic and offshore contractors. One of TALX growth strategies has been strategic acquisitions. In addition to TALX specific responsibilities his team is also responsible for delivery of all Equifax North America IVR platforms and the delivery of a Global Exchange and Office Communication Server platform for Equifax. Mr. Garcia has been responsible for evaluating the technology of the acquisitions and driving the appropriate technology integration strategy for each of the acquisitions.
Prior to joining Equifax, Mr. Garcia was instrumental in the creation of the Computer Studies program and the creation of the first computer lab at Harris Stowe State College and where he served as an adjunct faculty member for 7 years.

Gilbert Hoffman, Mercy
Gilbert L. (Gil) Hoffman, who has been named by ComputerWorldmagazine as one of the top 100 chief information officers in the United States, recently accepted the position of CIO at Mercy. He previously was CIO at Maritz, at which he started his career in Computer Operations Division in 1973. He then held a series of technology leadership positions in applications development and client consulting, helping to design and develop systems for client programs. He was promoted to vice president of Computer and Network Operations in 1989. In 1994 he became VP Director of Information Technology for Maritz Research and in 1996 he became a corporate officer and promoted to VP Director of Information Systems for Maritz Performance Improvement Company.
In 1998 Gil was named the corporation's first Chief Information Officer and Director of Maritz Global Technology Services. In this position, he oversees the development and deployment of innovative information technology throughout the corporation, in the United States and abroad.
Under Gil’s leadership, Maritz has been named by InformationWeekas one of the nations Top 500 Most Innovative Companies through the effective use of technology. Maritz has received this recognition each year for the last eleven years. In addition, ComputerWorld has named Maritz one of the top 100 places to work in I.T.
Gil holds a master's in Computer Resources and Information Management from Webster University, St. Louis and is a founding member of the St. Louis CIO Board, a member of the Webster University of Business and Technology Advisory Board, and a winner of the Maryville University Alumni Tribute Award.
Married with three children, Gil and his family enjoy boating on the lake and all types of outdoor activities.

Jay Knobbe, Ameren

As Manager, Application Development at Ameren Corporation, Mr. Knobbe leads an IT department that supports a diverse collection of internal clients including regulated and un-regulated Generation, nuclear Generation, Substations, Transmission, Fleet Services, Power Trading and Marketing, Fuels, and various other operational business units. Also as a member of Amerens IT Lead Team Mr. Knobbe establishes direction for a wide range of tactical and strategic IT issues.
Mr. Knobbe has over 20 years of Information Technology experience, beginning his career at Ameren in 1988 as an application developer working on early client server projects. Since 1992 he has held a variety of increasingly responsible IT management positions and was promoted to manager in 1998.
While at Ameren, Mr. Knobbe has supervised a number of application development product deployments, managed application integration efforts for three acquired utilities, oversaw the retirement of mainframe legacy systems at our Callaway nuclear plant, and served as the IT management lead for Amerens Source to Settle initiative.
Mr. Knobbe holds a BS degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Missouri - St. Louis and a MBA degree in Information Management and Finance from St. Louis University. He currently serves on the University of Missouri St. Louis Information Systems Advisory Board.
Ryan Kolkovich, Monsanto

Franklin Lamm, Jr., Unisys

Kayvan Lavasani, Edward Jones, Associate Board Member

Grace Lange, Microsoft

Grace Lange is currently the WW Services Sales Leader in the Microsoft Services Division. Her responsibilities include managing the Services Global Accounts program developing the overall strategy and vision for the program, managing the community of global services (sales) executives, and interfacing directly with key Global Customers in order to drive revenue and customer satisfaction.
Other roles in her 9 year tenure at Microsoft include: Industry Solution Director for US Health and Life Sciences; WW Discipline Owner - Sales Leadership; Director, MSNA Rewards and Incentives; Enterprise Sales Segment Director; Major Accounts Sales Manager.
Before joining Microsoft in 2001, Ms. Lange had several roles in Information Technology and Business Operations. She has more than 30 years of experience in all aspects of strategic planning, budget management, logistics and distribution, financial reporting, and information systems design, development, and implementation and she has been a CIO of a major health system and IT Director for a major health plan in the Midwest. In addition, she has worked as a Medical Technologist concentrating in the areas of Microbiology and Immunohematology.
She is a past member of the Advisory Board for the School of Engineering at Washington University and has guest lectured in several areas at Washington University including Health Informatics.
She holds a B.S. degree in Medical Technology and Chemistry (MT – ASCP) from St. Louis University (magna cum laude) and a M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Missouri– Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) . She has done additional graduate work at the PhD level in Information Management at Washington University.

Jim Malke, HP
Jim has been with HP for 4 years serving as an account manager for a variety of enterprise and government accounts. Prior to HP, Jim spent 10 years in account management at Telcordia-Bellcore supporting AT&T. Prior to Telcordia, Jim worked for 17 years at Digital, HP and IBM in various sales and marketing capacities. Jim has an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University and a BS in Physics from the University of Missouri St. Louis. Jim is a native of the St. Louis area and currently resides in Wildwood with his three children.

Judy Marth, The Boeing Corporation
Judy Marth serves as both the Director of the Information Technology group and Chief Logistics Integration Officer supporting the Global Services & Support organizations in Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS). Her team supports the IT needs at the eight major sites as well as numerous others across the BDS Business Unit.
In this dual role, she is responsible for all IT solutions and service delivery to Global Services & Support, and leads the effort to ensure that integrated service-ready information systems solutions support GS&S business strategies. She also partners with BCA Commercial Airplane Services (CAS) IT for common business solutions and cost savings, and she manages related IT proposal development for potential growth opportunities.
Marth was previously the IT Director of Supply Chain Management Systems for IDS and Phantom Works. Prior experiences include the Computing and Network Operations organization supporting the Midwest Region for Service Delivery Management and Operations; Finance Systems; the Missiles Division of McDonnell Douglas; and the Telecommunications Division of McDonnell Douglas Automation Company.
Judy has a BS in Business Administration from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She and Ron have been married more than 25 years and have two children, Alex and Lisa. Her hobbies include boating, water-skiing, horseback riding, exercise, and having family fun.

Susan Meyer, MasterCard Worldwide
As Director and Business Leader in the Fraud Management Solutions team, Ms. Meyer is responsible for global product strategy & development for MasterCard fraud detection services. In the past year she has spearheaded the development of a world-class data mart for fraud analytics, and partnered with a variety of leading specialists to launch new fraud detection models.
During her 14 years at MasterCard, Ms. Meyer has also served as a product manager commercializing a variety of new products and services related to financial services processing, introducing global services for e-commerce, chip, and prepaid cards.
Before joining MasterCard, Ms. Meyer held sales and product management roles in telecommunications and financial services software development. Ms. Meyer holds a B.A. from Macalester College and a Master of Science in Information Systems from the University of Missouri - St. Louis.
Ms. Meyer resides in St. Charles, MO with her husband and daughter.

Charles Moore, Express Scripts
Charlie Moore is an IT Sr. Director at Express Scripts, for whom he has worked the past 11 years. He has led both Infrastructure and Application teams, with particular focus on project, availability, incident, problem, change, and systems performance management. Most recently, Charlie has been assigned the lead role over the upcoming Medco/ESI infrastructure integration. Charlie received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Central Methodist College in 1995, and graduated from the Express Scripts / UMSL PMBA cohort program in August of 2011.

Joseph Parker, MasterCard Worldwide

Joseph Parker is Vice President, Customer Operations Services for MasterCard Technologies, a global business unit for MasterCard Worldwide in St. Louis, Missouri.  In this role, Mr. Parker defines global support strategies and leads the Emerging Products support teams in seven countries.  Members of his organization provide first and second level operational support and implement system processing changes for MasterCard customers.
Mr. Parker previously served as Director of Charitable Giving and Community Giveback for the St. Louis Chapter of Society of Information Management.

Greg Schlake, AT&T

Margaret Shoptaw, Dell
Margaret is a Sales Engineer for Dell. She previously worked as an Enterprise Account Manager at CommVault selling data management software to businesses in the St. Louis metropolitan area with annual revenues of $500M or more. Prior to joining CommVault in the fall of 2010, Margaret was in the field sales organization at Microsoft for 7 years focused on Fortune 500 customers in the St. Louis area. Before joining Microsoft in 2003, Margaret served for 3 years as a Principal in IBM's Global Services Division responsible for selling and delivering infrastructure consulting services to businesses in Missouri and southern Illinois. Prior to IBM, for 10 years Margaret operated her own consulting firm providing network and system administration services to small and medium sized businesses in the St. Louis area. Her first job, after graduating with a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in MIS and Finance from UM-St. Louis, was at MasterCard in several roles supporting their BankNet network used for the authorization and clearing of credit card transactions.

Joe Tocco, Scottrade
Joe is the Managing Director of Development for St. Louis-based Scottrade, a leading branch-supported online brokerage firm. He has more than 15 years of experience in IT. Joe joined Scottrade in 2005 as Senior Manager of Development. Prior to joining Scottrade, he was an IT consultant working for some of the largest consulting firms worldwide. Currently, he oversees over 200 associates responsible for developing all trading and non-trading systems, back office systems, portal applications, business intelligence systems, and enterprise applications such as customer relationship management (CRM).
Joe has a BS in Accounting from Missouri State University.

Kristin Tucker, TDK Technologies, LLC

Dustin Wilcox, Centene Corporation

Dustin Wilcox is the Chief Information Security Officer for Centene Corporation, a national leader in the healthcare services field and member of the Fortune 500. He has over 20 years experience in a variety of Information Technology disciplines spanning a diverse array of industries including financial services, defense, energy, and healthcare. Dustin began his career as a network engineer and has held a number of technical and business leadership positions ranging from security consulting, to systems integration and enterprise architecture, to mergers and acquisitions.
Dustin holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Iowa where he also served as Student Body President and Chairman of the Association of Big Ten Students. He holds or has held a number of technical and administrative certifications including CISSP, CSSLP, GSEC, CCNA, and CNE among others.
Dustin, his wife Paula, and their four daughters reside in O’Fallon, Illinois where they are active in their community and in worthy causes across the St. Louis region.

Lisa Yanker, IBM
Lisa Yanker leads the Worldwide WebSphere Application and System z sales team for IBM. She is responsible for sales strategy and execution, marketshare growth, resource planning and deployment, and all aspects of sales, support and client satisfaction across this segment of the WebSphere portfolio worldwide. She has 20+ years of sales and sales leadership experience, dedicated to helping customers achieve business objectives through the application of technology. Lisa also has experience with Mergers & Acquisitions, serving as the Integration Executive for a strategic software business in the Information Management space.
Lisa has been active in both K-12 and University-level mentoring, is a member of IBM’s Diversity Council and Women in Technology Organizations, and volunteers at local community organizations.
Lisa holds a BS in Business Administration, and an MBA from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and is an IBM Certified Professional.

Mark G. Zimmerman, Schnuck Markets, Inc.
Mark serves as Vice President, Information Technology, for St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets, Inc., a family owned and operated grocery retailer. He is responsible for all IT aspects of the company, including application development, network and database management, computer operations and technical infrastructure. Mark also serves as Information Security Officer for the company. Mark began his career with Schnucks in September of 1997 in the position of Manager, Systems Development.
Having more than 20 years experience in the Information Technology career field, Mark began as a computer operator with the U.S. Air Force in 1982. He has served in a variety of roles throughout his career -- computer operator, database administrator, application developer, systems analyst, consultant, project manager, and most recently in executive management.
His education includes a bachelor of science in Business Administration (emphasis in MIS) from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and an executive MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. He is active in the St. Louis metro community, previously serving as a member of Goodwill's a.d.e.p.t. Business Advisory Council. He is also an active member of the RGCA CIO Forum, serves on the United Way Technology Committee and is also a member of the Food Marketing Institute's IT Committee.
Mark and his wife, Diane, have 2 children and reside in O'Fallon, Illinois.