PANELISTS: Emerging Technologies: What's Hot, What's Not and How Can They Help My Business?

Brian Harp, President, Class IV Solutions
Brian Harp is currently the president of Class IV Solutions, a Westchester-based company that helps small to medium business purchase and use technology solutions. Mr. Harp's experience in emerging technologies spans 20 plus years and includes positions with USC/ISI as a software researcher, with Accenture as an internet and eCommerce delivery manager and with Avanade as a Microsoft .NET Solutions Director. He has written papers on emerging technologies such as semi-structured information and currently helps companies select solutions that utilize emerging technologies such as VOIP.

 

Daniel Hoffman, President & CEO, M5
As President and CEO of M5, Dan plans to redefine the phone system market by replacing the traditional phone system and phone company arrangement with an outsourced solution that businesses can truly trust. Dan joined M5 in early 2001 with over 11 years of experience managing service providers. Prior to M5, Dan co-founded Global Internet Group where he served as President before selling the company to Asia Online, an ISP holding company based in Hong Kong. As Executive Vice President of Operations, Dan grew Asia Online to a major pan-Asian Internet services firm with over 1000 employees. Previously, Dan advised management teams at several service providers including Interport Communications. Before that he ran operations at Education Loan Services, Inc. Dan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a Masters of International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Anthony Daley, Senior Vice President and General Manager, the Americas, Westcon Group North America
Mr. Daley is Senior Vice President and General Manager, the Americas, Westcon Group North America. Previously, he was General Manager, Westcon division. Mr. Daley began his tenure at Westcon Group in August, 1999 as Vice President of sales for the U.S. region. Prior to Westcon, Mr. Daley served as Vice President of sales at Anixter. He studied business administration at Gwinett County Community College in North Carolina. Mr. Daley is a resident of Mahopac.

 

 

James Cosentino, IBM, Certified Consulting I/T Specialist, eServer and Storage Subsystems
Mr. Cosentino has spent thirty two years in the information processing industry as a Systems Analyst/Programmer/Manager, focusing on online systems application
development, performance design, and systems and external storage management. In his current position, Mr. Cosentino conducts briefings at the eServer Executive Briefing Center in Poughkeepsie, the IBM Hawthorne Industry Solutions Lab, and the IBM Palisades Executive Conference Center. He also lectures throughout the world as part of the IBM TotalStorage TopGun program.

Mr. Cosentino was recognized within IBM during his career for technical and marketing achievements including Director of the IBM Golden Circle (twice), National and Regional Director of the IBM Systems Engineering Symposium, Four leadership Forum memberships, Technical Consultant of the Year (1982) - UNY Trading Area, Fifteen SE Symposium memberships and Four "100% Club" Memberships. Additionally, he was one of only twelve field personnel appointed to the IBM U.S. Field Marketing, Services and Support Advisory Council, which provided recommendations on product, strategy, and field support issues to a management panel of IBM executives.

He received a B.S. degree in Marketing from Marist College in 1972. He is an avid reader and sports fan, having played varsity basketball for Christ the King High School in NYC, and later on for Marist College in Poughkeepsie.

A member of the US Naval Reserve (retired), Jim lives in Saugerties NY with his wife
Mary, and they have a son and daughter attending colleges within the State University of New York system.

John Vitkus, Infrastructure Pursuit Team Leader, IBM

PANELISTS: Small Business, BIG Profits - Public Relations Strategies that Work!

Elizabeth Bracken, Executive Vice President and Creative Director, Thompson & Bender
Elizabeth Bracken, Executive Vice President and Creative Director began her career in 1976 with the Gannett Suburban newspaper group (now The Journal News). Before joining T&B in 1990, she had risen to the position of Vice President of Marketing for Gannett's entire 10-newspaper group, with special assignments at USA TODAY. Since joining Thompson & Bender, she has managed a diverse number of award-winning public relations programs for small and large clients from the public and private sectors including: The Buick Classic at Westchester Country Club, New York-the New York Metro area's only annual PGA Tour event; the "launch" of The Journal News, the most dominant newspaper in the market; the reopening of The Hotel Thayer at West Point; the opening of Kykuit-the Rockefeller home in Pocantico Hills, N.Y.; on-going P.R. and advertising for White Plains Hospital Center; the grand opening of The Westchester in White Plains, N.Y. and the New Roc City entertainment complex in New Rochelle, N.Y. among many others.

Nancy Dana Gold, The Gold Standard
One of the Hudson Valley's most experienced marketing and public relations professionals, Nancy Dana Gold founded The Gold Standard in April, 1992. The firm serves a wide range of clients, including corporations, small businesses, tourist attractions, conference centers, arts organizations, municipalities, museums, hospitals and major trade expositions.
A graduate of Wellesley College, Ms. Gold works creatively with businesses, non-profit organizations and public agencies to meet their communications needs. She is skilled at bringing people together into a dynamic planning process, analyzing challenges and identifying marketing strategies to help them realize their shared vision.

PANELISTS: Perspectives on Health Care Cost Containment

Markham F. Rollins III, Co-Chairmnan & CEO, The Rollins Agency, Inc.
Markham F. Rollins III, Co-Chairman & CEO of The Rollins Agency, Inc., and head of the company's Commercial Insurance Group, earned a bachelor's degree from The University of Hartford in business administration with a major in Insurance in 1980. Mark and his brother Chuck, who together own The Rollins Agency, Inc., share responsibility in running the company.

In his position as head of the Commercial Insurance Group, Mark has responsibility for the company's 75 largest clients as well as the training and sales management of the entire commercial lines support staff and sales team. He is also responsible for overseeing all new commercial business production.

Mark is very active in the insurance industry and has held positions on advisory council boards for several insurance companies including the National Board for Fireman's Fund and the advisory board for Aetna. He is also a past board of director of the Independent Insurance Agents of Westchester.

In December of 1999, Mark co-founded an international network of agents that operate under an umbrella organization, TechAssure. These agents are committed to providing quality insurance solution to companies in the rapidly growing technology industries. This network will further enhance the international capabilities of The Rollins Agency, Inc.

Currently, Mark serves on the executive committee of the Westchester County Association and The Westchester Information Technology Cluster. He is also Past President of The Westchester Artificial Kidney Center, The Community Fund of Bronxville, Eastchester and Tuckahoe, Board of Trustees of the Bedford Presbyterian
Church and of the World Trade Council of Westchester and former member of the Board of Directors of The Westchester Visiting Nurse Services. He also serves on the Board of Directors of The Bronxville Scout Committee and is an Eagle Scout himself.

Mark and his wife Sally reside in Bedford, New York with their three children, Markham, Jonathan and Christopher.

Jerilyn J. Medrea, VP, Global Human Resources, SMARTS
As Vice President of Global Human Resources at SMARTS, Medrea is responsible for all aspects of human resources and diversity for SMARTS globally. More importantly, she drives the people process at SMARTS; an effort the company brands "peoplesmarts." Medrea brings to SMARTS more than 20 years' experience linking people and organizational strategies in ways that enhance employee morale and motivation, improve recruiting results and decrease turnover. Prior to SMARTS, Medrea was Vice President of Human Resources for Trancentive, Inc., where she effectively designed and implemented the company's recruiting, training and benefits infrastructure. Under her leadership, Trancentive was able to meet recruiting goals and reduce overall recruitment costs by 60 percent. Prior to Trancentive, Medrea held key management positions at both PricewaterhouseCoopers and Pepsico. As Director of Global Human Resource Solutions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Medrea generated $2 million in new business and drove recruitment of all personnel into global equity practice - increasing headcount by 50 percent. At Pepsico, Medrea reorganized and managed the company's global stock option plan, "SharePower," for over 90,000 employees in 47 countries globally. Medrea holds degrees from Harvard University, Michigan State University, as well as Heidelberg College.

William Golden, Senior VP, NY Sales, Oxford Health Plans

 

 

 

 

Michael Brachlow, Director and Founder, BenefitPort
Mike began his career at Provident Life in 1972 where he worked his way up the ladder from rater to underwriter to claims manager to sales manager. Mike was awarded the "Man of the Year" award in 1988 for consistently being their top producer. He then became a Principal at Professional Group Marketing where he stayed for five years. In 1994 Mike formed Brachlow Associates which he built from the ground up to become a successful general agency which then merged with Weston Insurance Brokerage in 1996. In 1999, Weston Insurance Brokerage became one of the founding members of the BenefitPort Network and quickly grew nationwide.

Mike is a member of the National Association of Health Underwriters. He currently donates his time to coaching his children in soccer, baseball and football, helping in soup kitchens as well as the Bridges to Community organization in which he recently went to Nicaragua to help build homes. Mike is the proud father of four children, the oldest of which is now working as a marketing representative for BenefitPort Northeast. He lives in Harrison, NY

Luisa Marciano, Director of Human Resources, Abigail Kirsch Culinary Productions
in Business Administration and Management. She holds her PHR (Professional in Human Resources) certification issued by Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). Luisa is a currently a member of SHRM, the Westchester Business Council's Human Resources Committee and the JSEC Westchester Chapter.

Luisa has over 13 year of Human Resources experience in the hospitality industry. She began her career with Marriott Hotels where she held the position of Human Resources Specialist for 3 years. She then worked with Dolce Conference Destinations for seven years as Director of Human Resources for Tarrytown House and District Director of Human Resources for Dolce, IBM Palisades and IBM Learning Center in Armonk, New York.

In 2001, she joined Abigail Kirsch Catering as their Corporate Director of Human Resources. She is currently responsible for the overall Human Resources function including benefit development and implementation, wage and compensation strategies, performance management, recruiting, legal compliance, policy and procedure development and corporate strategic planning for their six properties and their Off Premises Division. Luisa graduated Mary Mount College in Tarrytown, New York with a Bachelor's degree

 

PANELISTS: Making the Web "Work" for Your Business

William Abram, President, Pragmatix
Bill Abram, President of Pragmatix, Inc., founded the company in 1992 to create a software development and technology consulting firm. Under his leadership, Pragmatix has implemented a wide range of business process and technology improvement solutions for Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller organizations. An IBM Business Partner, Pragmatix also provides a full range of managed e-business hosting solutions. For every client, Pragmatix provides the business analysis, project management, and on-going support needed for long-term success.

A trailblazer in information technology, Bill has a strong track record of streamlining business processes and improving a company's bottom line. Prior to founding Pragmatix, Bill was president of Abram & Yagoda Systems Group, a firm he established in 1983 to build LAN-based, multi-user PC applications.

Before discovering his entrepreneurial direction, Bill was Project Executive with McDonnell Douglas Automation Company. Earlier in his career, Bill served as Assistant Controller at Montefiore Medical Center.

Bill is a member of the Westchester County Association and serves on the board of the Westchester Information Technology Cluster. He is Chairman of the Board of The Volunteer Center of the United Way, a member and former treasurer of the Association for Electronic Health Care Transactions, and an active volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. He is a past trustee of Woodlands Community Temple, and has chaired several advisory committees for the Board of Education in Ardsley, NY.

Bill earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY and an MBA in Finance from Pace University, Pleasantville, NY. Bill currently resides in White Plains, NY with his wife Barbara and their three children.

Gian Zoppo, CEO, Straighthink
As the Chief Information Officer of two of the top five strategic communications agencies in the world, Gian Zoppo defined business-to-business (B2B) Internet applications and world-class Websites that launched his companies into the global market place, and drove new business wins of over $326 million. Gian's ability to create significant business value through his visionary application of emerging technology is well chronicled by Information Week, Network World, and CIO Magazine.

Gian is currently the CEO of Straighthink, a strategic consulting firm specializing in the technology considerations of post-merger optimization, corporate turnaround, and venture backed businesses. Gian holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Computer Information Systems, and specialization in Information Technology. Gian has over twenty-years of extensive business and managerial experience in organizational structuring and performance, and is a recognized expert in business technology planning, and enterprise infrastructure design.

T. Gregory Bender, Founder, CampaignBuilder.com
Mr. Bender's career in technology began in earnest in 1994 when he founded BDInter@ctive (BDI) an award-winning Interactive Agency. In 1998, he co-founded YourGrocer.com (YG) where, as interim CEO, he helped YG to dramatically build the e-business and customer base through online marketing strategies. He secured a majority buyout from Brand Equity Ventures (BEV) in 1999, and over the next two years, BEV invested over $5 million into YourGrocer.com.

Mr. Bender has been a featured speaker at Internet and marketing industry conferences in New York and San Francisco, and provided expert opinions and quotes to The New York Times, @New York, Forrester Research, Forbes.com and others.

In 2000-2001, he served on the Senior Advisory Board of CarePackages.com (CP) an e-commerce gifting and online greetings service. In September 2001, he helped CP engineer a merger with Student Advantage (NASDAQ: STAD). In September 2001, Mr. Bender founded CampaignBuilder.com, an e-mail marketing automation and software consulting firm that enables marketers to quickly analyze results in real-time to determine the effectiveness of their campaigns. In 2001, he also formed Message Logix, Inc., a Rye-based company that helps corporations to increase revenue, brand perception, customer loyalty and eCommerce transactions while championing ethical privacy and permission-based email marketing and list management best practices.

Mr. Bender has provided strategic Internet and Intranet direction to numerous well-known companies and organizations including AOL, GE Capital, BarnesandNoble.com and AMC (AMCtv.com) and is one of the founding members of Advertising Bureau (IAB). Collaborating with the IAB Board of Directors, he was instrumental in helping to develop the first banner Ad standards as well as designing and managing the organization's website (www.iab.net). He is a graduate of The New School/Parsons School of Design.

Howard Millman, Data System Services
Howard operates Data System Services, a networking and security consulting firm who helps clients share information easily and safely. In addition, he is a professor of Computer Information Systems and Business Communications at SUNYWCC & SUNYDCC as well as a contributor to the New York Times and Int'l Herald Tribune. So, with all those credentials, it's likely he knows what he's talking about.

 

 

 

Christopher Furey, Founder and CEO, Savvy Networks, USA
Mr. Furey is founder and CEO of Savvy Networks, USA, a Tarrytown-based company specializing in managed colocation, web facing line-of-business applications, off-site backup, disaster recovery and business continuity solutions. As a result of his leadership in developing Savvy's capability to support clients requiring compliance with HIPPA privacy standards, the company hosts about 30 million employee health records for several BlueCross and health insurance plans and major corporations. Mr. Furey has extended Savvy's compliance specialty beyond healthcare to include the financial services sector and other markets.
An IT industry veteran since 1981, Mr. Furey has consulted at the executive level to develop key IT strategies for government, national brands and hundreds of small and mid-sized enterprises. Before starting Savvy Networks in 1997, he was a managing partner of six firms where he held P&L responsibilities.

Mr. Furey attended Seton College and Colorado State University. A founder and former president of WITC, Mr. Furey is a board member and technology advisor to several non-profit organizations in the New York metro area. He lives in Ossining, NY with his wife and three children.

PANELISTS: Get Recognized! Sales and Marketing, Secrets to Success

R. Vincent Park, Executive Vice President/Edge Communications, a 23-year communications and marketing veteran, comes to Edge Communications after serving as Vice President of Business Development & Internet Strategies for United Business Media and PR Newswire Inc. A senior counselor, he manages traditional and interactive marketing, alliance development and communications programs for clients in the consumer electronics, technology and Internet services fields. He offers special experience with, and insight into, combining new media and business development techniques with traditional public relations communications.

Vincent has a long history of being present at the launch of new technologies. He began his career with Panafax Corporation (later part of Panasonic), where he served as part of the team that helped launched the fax industry in the United States. Vincent left Panasonic to work with Comverse Technologies, a pioneer in voicemail. He then became a partner at Roundhouse Public Relations Inc., where his work focused on consumer electronics and emerging imaging technologies. He served as a lead person on the Nikon and Altamira accounts, among others, and handled such events as Victoria's Secret Fashion Show WebCast, One Digital Day with Fortune Magazine, WIRED Magazine Technology Internet Event '98, etc.

After Roundhouse merged with Earle Palmer Brown (EPB), Vincent served as a full partner and the thought leader for the development of EPBi and Panoramic Digital, the new media arm of the company. He also developed the IMPRESS™ program of Internet marketing communications strategies which, according to one client, was almost solely responsible for generating extraordinary market share gains and doubling of sales projections for a major division within the company.

As PR Newswire's Global Markets Vice President/Business Development & Strategic Alliances, Vincent created online strategy and implementation for UBM/PR Newswire's small business initiatives with AOL, Wells Fargo, Dell and Bloomberg. He leveraged existing marketing assets to drive customer acquisition, e-commerce and revenue goals as well as developing and implementing customer acquisition strategy. Additionally, utilizing internal, external and Internet channels, Park developed and implemented online loyalty programs including vendor and partner content management programs for IntraNet strategies, wireless strategies and streaming video strategies with such companies as Microsoft, Lycos, CBS Marketwatch, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo!, etc.

Vincent has served as a speaker at scores of industry events, including the COMDEX, CES, Internet World, Media Convenience Seminars, NEC / Japan Society conference on Mass Media's High Tech Future and Photo Marketing Association, among others.

He holds a masters degree from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and a B.F.A. from North Carolina School of the Arts. Vincent also earned a 1985 Tony Nomination for Best Original Book and Score for the Broadway show "The News." A founder of New York's Perry Street Theater, he has also received two OBIE Awards for direction and writing in the Off-Broadway arena. He is actively involved in the community of White Plains, New York, where he lives with his wife and business partner Ilene Semiatin.

Robert O. Sanders Jr., CMP, CEO & Founder, Hospitality Resource Group Inc.
Robert O. Sanders Jr., CMP is Founder and CEO of Hospitality Resource Group, Inc. Prior to creating HRG, Robert worked for numerous prestigious companies within the hospitality industry. Robert's areas of expertise include; sales and marketing, training and operational management.
In 1983, he joined the Marriott Corporation in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Over a period of twelve years, he held sales positions for various Marriott Hotels and in 1993, became the Director of Catering Sales for the Marriott Marquis, the flagship hotel in New York.
In 1994 Robert joined Abigail Kirsch Culinary Productions, the largest catering firm in Westchester, as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. His responsibilities included developing a marketing campaign and providing leadership for a staff of fifty. In addition, he was responsible for creating advertising campaigns and for staff training. While at Abigail Kirsch, overall sales volume increased 18% and Robert created several award winning advertisements and promotions.
Robert is active in community affairs including past Chairman of the Board of the American Red Cross in Westchester County, Board member and chairman of the Membership Committee of the Westchester County Association and a past Board Member and student teacher for Junior Achievement.

In April 1999, Robert received the honor of being the first recipient of the Samuel J. Friedman Humanitarian Award. This prestigious American Red Cross award acknowledges individuals whose compassion and caring touches the lives of many. In March 2004, Robert joined a group of business leaders on a humanitarian trip to Nicaragua to build houses for peasant families.

Michael Weinstein, former CEO, Snapple Beverage Group