Summerfest Tech 2021

Tim Dickson has served as Generac Power System's Chief Information Officer since August 2020. Dickson previously served as the Vice President of Front Office IT at Motorola Solutions from 2015-2018, and additionally served as a divisional CIO leading Emerging Technologies, M&A, and User Experience for Dell, Inc from 2004-2015.

As EVP and Chief Information Officer of Rite Aid, one of the nation’s leading drugstore chains with fiscal 2021 annual revenues of $24+ billion, Mennen is responsible for all aspects of the company’s information technology operations, strategy and execution. Rite Aid Corporation is on the front lines of delivering healthcare services and whole health merchandise, with their pharmacists uniquely positioned as everyday care connectors to engage with customers, improve health outcomes and lower healthcare costs.

Mennen is responsible for the technology that powers Rite Aid to provide an array of whole health products and services for the entire family through over 2,500 retail pharmacy locations across 17 states. Through Elixir, Mennen is responsible for the technology delivering pharmacy benefits and services to millions of members nationwide.

Prior to joining Ride Aid, Mennen was CompuCom’s Chief Digital Officer and Chief Information Officer, overseeing the information technology and systems, and leading CompuCom’s Digital business unit. Before CompuCom, Mennen led technology organizations across several industries, most recently as the Vice President of Enterprise Architecture and Technology Innovation for Estée Lauder Companies. He also served as the Regional Chief Information Officer for Asia Pacific and Japan at Dell, based in Malaysia.

Mennen brings a wealth of knowledge with two decades of experience leveraging technology to create competitive business advantages and value, with extensive expertise leading digital technology transformation. He is passionate about driving positive change with technology and regularly presents at conferences and leadership events around the world.

Mennen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Kansas. He sits on the University of Kansas Business School advisory board for Business Analytics and Information Systems and is a Governing Body co-chair for the Evanta Global CIO Executive Summit.

Angela Yochem is EVP, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer for Novant Health, a super-regional healthcare system with one of the largest medical groups in the US. She and her teams oversee growth initiatives, and deliver the world-class consumer capabilities, differentiating technologies, and advanced clinical solutions that allow the integrated system to provide remarkable patient care.

Angela has served as EVP/CIO at Rent-A-Center, Global CIO at BDP International, Global CTO at AstraZeneca, and divisional CIO at Dell. She’s held tech exec roles at Bank of America and SunTrust, and held senior technology roles at UPS and IBM. In these roles, she built B2B digital product lines, grew digital retail channels (B2C), created technical services lines of business, and transformed global technology capabilities.

Angela is an Independent Director with Zurich American Insurance Group, and has been a Director for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, BDP Transport, BDP Global Services Asia and Europe, and Rocana, with experience on Audit, Enterprise Risk, Operational Risk, and Governance/Policy committees. She remains an Entrepreneur in Residence, Mentor, and Advisor for venture groups and incubators on both US coasts. Angela serves on the board of Freedom School Partners, a non-profit committed to promoting literacy in the Charlotte area, and co-chairs the executive team of the Go Red for Women Charlotte organization, part of the American Heart Association. She is a Trustee of the Charlotte Regional Business Initiative where she co-chaired the successful city bonds campaign in 2020, and is an advisory board member for the American Hospital Association Innovation Council, the University of Tennessee Tickle School of Engineering, the UT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, and the University of North Carolina Charlotte College of Computing and Informatics.

Angela has a Bachelor of Music from DePauw University and a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee, holds three US Patents and is an author with Addison-Wesley and Prentice-Hall.

Antar joined Okta as SVP, Chief Information Off icer in August 2020 leading Okta’s modern Business Technology organization and evolving Okta’s operating model to support a multi-billion revenue business through people, process, technology and data. Alvina is thrilled to be a part of Okta’s thriving culture as a long time Okta customer and partner enabling a seamless and secure employee & customer experience as the internal technology arm for the business. Business Technology is delivering business outcomes directly aligned to Okta’s strategic priorities, empowering employees everywhere by embracing our dynamic workplace, showcasing ‘Okta on Okta’ as the voice of the customer, and providing trust and transparency with data.

Prior to Okta, she spent six years as Zuora’s first ever CIO enabling business growth from $30M to $300M in revenue including a successful IPO in 2018. As ‘The Subscription Economy CIO', she enabled digital enterprises to thrive in the Subscription Economy. Alvina had a natural affinity for creating meaningful relationships as Zuora’s best reference account. She formed a Subscription CIO Exchange gathering the new crop of technology leaders enabling business transformation through disruptive technologies and challenging the status quo. Alvina advised companies on how to launch and monetize recurring revenue products and services to differentiate their business.

Prior to Zuora, Alvina spent 17 years at Dell focused on Digital Transformation, Global Delivery and M&A. Her leadership in Dell's M&A IT practice spanning 20+ acquisitions and divestitures led to publishing an M&A playbook receiving industry recognition. The combination of Fortune 50 and high-growth start-up experience provides Alvina an intangible perspective on agility required to scale while maintaining operational efficiencies. Alvina's leadership in the Dell on Demand program was integral in Dell's expansion from a hardware, perpetual business to an end-to-end software and solutions provider.

Alvina co-founded the Silicon Valley CIO Women’s Network that brings together Bay Area’s leading CIOs sharing diverse perspectives, knowledge, challenges and experiences in a supportive atmosphere. She joined Girls in Tech’s Board of Directors, a global nonprofit dedicated to erasing the gender gap in tech and building the diverse and inclusive tech workforce the world needs. Alvina is also on the board of BUILD, a nonprofit dedicated to igniting the potential of our youth in under-resourced communities through experiential learning and entrepreneurship. Alvina and her husband Ramy have three children, twin 12 year old boys and an 8 year old girl and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.

Darrin Vohs is the Global Vice President Information Officer (CIO) for Molson Coors Brewing Company.

Darrin leads the creation and implementation of Molson Coors’ information technology strategy, including a balanced pursuit of business, information, cyber security, and technical solutions.

Mr. Vohs has been with the company for 27 years and has served in a variety of IT roles including the Regional CIO for Molson Coors Europe and as Vice President of IT Architecture.

Darrin is a member of the Technology United CIO Advisory board, a donor network of the Milwaukee and Waukesha county United Way. On this board he makes a difference in our community through events, volunteerism, and advocacy focused on local students interested in technology. Mr. Vohs is a member of the Gartner Research board for Global CIOs. The Gartner Research Board works with the most senior executives in the world’s largest and most complex organizations to develop the insights required to achieve lasting, positive transformation.

Prior to Molson Coors, Darrin worked at EDS and has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronics Engineering Technology from Colorado State University, Pueblo.

About Molson Coors: For more than two centuries Molson Coors has been brewing beverages that unite people for all of life’s moments. From Coors Light, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian, Carling and Staropramen, to Coors Banquet, Blue Moon Belgian White, Saint Archer Gold, Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, Creemore Springs and more. Molson Coors produces some of the most beloved and iconic beer brands ever made. While the company’s history is rooted in beer, Molson Coors offers a modern portfolio that expands beyond the beer aisle with sparkling cocktails, hard coffee, canned wine, kombucha, cider and more.

Molson Coors Beverage Company is a publicly traded company that operates through Molson Coors North America and Molson Coors Europe, and is traded on the New York and Canadian Stock Exchange (TAP). The company’s commitment to raising industry standards and leaving a positive imprint on our employees, consumers, communities, and the environment is reflected in Our Beer Print and our 2025 sustainability targets.

George Vukotich, Ph.D. is the Founding Director of the Center for Research in Innovation and Smart Cities at the University of Wisconsin Parkside. In this role he works internally with faculty and administration as well as externally with entrepreneurs and larger enterprise organizations to create the future of work bringing in aspects of Smart Cities and Innovation. He is also recognized for his work in helping 1871 in Chicago become recognized at the #1 tech hub in the world along with being a founder of FinTank, a Chicago tech hub focused on innovation in the FinTech space. In addition, George has written books and published papers along with having proudly served in our military. More about George can be found at www.georgevukotich.com or simply by searching online and on YouTube.

David recently joined UScellular as Director of Emerging Technologies and Business Development. He leads a team in the Enterprise / IoT Business Unit looking ahead at new emerging technologies in areas of Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networks, 5G uRLLC/eMBB/Massive IoT, edge compute and private networks.

Previously he served as senior director technology and planning in the office of the CTO for iconectiv’s new technology initiatives, including Chair of the GSMA VINES working group, the 5G Open Innovation Lab and IoT eSIM RSP.

David also spent many years as a director in AT&T’s Internet of Things Business Unit, responsible for IoT/enterprise platforms, architecture and vendor relationships; as chief technology officer at Loc-Aid Technologies, where he led the technology vision and licensing of location aggregation services for the gaming, financial services and ID verification industries; and director of product management at SnapTrack, which invented/patented Assisted-GPS location technology and was acquired by Qualcomm in 2001.

David has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology's Stuart School of Business, where he also held an adjunct faculty position within the Stuart School of Business MBA program. David is currently a mentor with the University of Texas Dallas (UTD) MBA Entrepreneurial program.

Mary-Suzanne Powell has built a twenty-year career around improving building performance and business efficiency while working for companies that are dedicated to helping the world run smarter, smoother and safer. In her current role, she serves as the vice president for vertical markets and advanced solutions at Johnson Controls as part of the Building Solutions North America (BSNA) division. She leads a team of global experts who provide our customers with a complete set of operating solutions comprised of a collection of data platforms, digital solutions, applications and building systems that harness data from inside and outside the building to deliver financial outcomes and enhance building performance, safety, and comfort.

Dr. Mark Cotteleer is a Managing Director in Deloitte’s industry-leading Supply Chain and Network Operations (SCNO) Consulting practice, where he specializes in “Digital Supply Networks.” Along with his team, he collaboratively works with clients and other stakeholders to identify, choose, and deploy solutions in pursuit of true operational and organizational value. His approach combines a deep technical understanding with a human-centered approach to technology deployment. Immediately prior to joining Deloitte Consulting, Mark was a research director for the firm, leading Deloitte’s well-regarded Center for Integrated Research.

Throughout his career, Dr. Cotteleer’s practice and research has focused on the application of advanced operations and information technologies (OT and IT) in pursuit of value delivery. A sought-after advisor, researcher, and speaker, he has developed a global reputation as a thought leader in these knowledge domains. At Deloitte, he led global research efforts around Industry 4.0, Future of Work, Future of Mobility, Additive Manufacturing, Digital Reality, Blockchain, and other technology-related subjects.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Dr. Cotteleer was a professor at Marquette University where he taught and conducted research on technology and supply chain management and led the Marquette University Center for Supply Chain Management. He was also a Visiting Associate Professor of Operations Management at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. His research is widely published in top management and academic journals such as the Harvard Business Review, Production and Operations Management, MIS Quarterly and others. In addition, he has published numerous practitioner articles and best-selling case studies.

Mark is the recipient of several research and teaching related awards including "Best Paper 2008" from the Journal of Operations Management, the George S. Dively Award for Outstanding Research from Harvard Business School, "Educator of the Year" (2007 and 2009) from the Marquette Executive MBA program, and the John P. Raynor, S.J., Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence (2012).

Prior to Marquette, Mark was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Business School and a research assistant at both the University of Michigan Business School's Office of Manufacturing Management Research and the Center for International Business Education.

In addition his academic work, Mark has nearly 30 years of independent and Big Four based consulting experience. He has consulted for Ernst & Young, LLP where he led Business Process Reengineering teams in the design and development of technology-enabled business processes, and for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), focusing on the design and implementation of order management and production planning information systems. In independent practice, Mark has worked with numerous clients in manufacturing, supply chain, distribution, business analytics, healthcare, and service industries.

Mark received his Bachelor's degree in Finance (cum laude) from Marquette University, where he earned the Wall Street Journal Award for the Outstanding Student in Finance. He earned a MBA (high distinction) in Operations Management from University of Michigan Business School and a Master's degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he won the Arthur Andersen Award for Outstanding Student in the Joint MBA/MS-IOE program.

Mark lives in Franklin, WI with his wife Angela, and his three children – Andy, Matt, and Laine. The family dog is named Wally.

Tarik Moody was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He spent most of his life in Atlanta. Tarik received a 4-year scholarship from Army ROTC to attend Howard University. He graduated in 1996 from Howard’s School Of Architecture in Washington DC. He practiced architecture in Detroit and Minneapolis and served in the Army Reserves for 14 years.

Tarik currently works at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee as the Director of Digital Strategy and Innovation, on-air host and content producer. He also hosts the award-winning syndicated radio show Rhythm Lab Radio.

Tarik is the host of several podcasts including By Every Measure, Diverse Disruptors and ‘This Bite’, a food podcast.

Tarik’s passion for technology led him to create 88Nine Labs in 2018. 88Nine Labs’ mission to make the Milwaukee tech and startup scene more inclusive for underrepresented communities through talks, hackathons, and more.

Teddy Nykiel covers technology and startups for the Milwaukee Business Journal and Wisconsin Inno. As a journalist for nearly 10 years, her work has been published by outlets including Reuters, the Associated Press and USA Today. She previously was a staff writer for the personal finance site NerdWallet. Originally from the Chicago area, Teddy attended college at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and then spent four years in San Francisco before moving to Milwaukee in 2018.

Erin Schilling is the technology and innovation reporter for the Atlanta Business Chronicle and its startup brand, Atlanta Inno. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a journalism degree and joined the Chronicle in 2020 during an exciting time for the Atlanta technology ecosystem. She previously worked at the Reporter Newspapers.

Shane Arnold serves as the Sr Staff Cloud Architect at GE Healthcare. As the Cloud Infrastructure Architect, Shane is responsible for leading a team of engineers and architects that design, support, and build GE Healthcare’s global enterprise data & analytics platform which enables organizational machine learning, data science and artificial intelligence development.

Shane is a Milwaukee native who prior to his role at GE Healthcare, he has held various engineering and technical leadership roles at many of Milwaukee’s major companies which include, Johnson Controls, Northwestern Mutual, Miller Coors, and BMO Financial.

Shane has a deep passion and proven track record in mentorship, volunteerism, relationship cultivation in an effort to try to connect people from underrepresented communities with information, direction, and opportunities.

Shane received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The University of Kansas as well as a bachelor’s in information science and Technology from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.

Elizabeth Tate is the Director of Public Policy & Sustainability at Clarios. In this role, Elizabeth serves as the company lead for both U.S. policy engagement and global sustainability strategy implementation. From her start as an attorney at Fried Frank, she has since gained more than 15 years of experience in sustainability, technology and climate policy. Elizabeth joined Johnson Controls in 2015. Before that she held a senior policy role at the Alliance to Save Energy and also served as counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee. She holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, and a Certificate of Business and Public Policy from the Wharton School of Business.

Desiree Montecillo- Narvaez, MD, MPH is Environmental Health Specialist at UNICEF HQ in New York and currently coordinates PECP programme implementation in the 4 PECP countries. As technical lead of UNICEF’s Healthy Environments for Healthy Children global framework, Desiree works in the interface between children’s health and the environment, preventing the health impact of environmental hazards ( toxic metals and chemicals, hazardous waste, risks such as air pollution and climate change) on children’s health. Desiree was previously Programme Officer at UNEP Chemicals and Health Branch in Geneva where she was secretariat to the Lead Paint Alliance and worked on projects promoting the environmentally sound management of lead-acid batteries. She was also secretariat to the Global Mercury Partnership and worked on policies and plans related to children’s environmental health. Earlier, Desiree worked briefly at WHO HQ and with the Philippine Department of Health as Regional Director.

Desiree holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology, a Medical Degree, a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of the Philippines, and a Certificate in Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Stanford University in the USA. She has presented in various fora (national, regional, global) and has co-authored as well as reviewed several scientific publications.

Drew McCartor is Pure Earth's Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships and leads the organization's Global Lead Program, which aims to prevent children’s exposure to toxic lead from unsound industrial activities and contaminated products. Drew is a lawyer and environmental health professional with 12 years of field experience designing and leading environmental assessments and risk-reduction projects at sites contaminated by toxic chemicals.

Girish Ramachandra leads national Technology Industry practice at Wipfli. Over the past 21 years, he has been an entrepreneur himself and has worked with a number of technology companies helping them to scale up to the next level. Girish leverages his vast experience and knowledge of how technology can optimize operational efficiencies and maximize growth potential, to help start-ups and/or scale-ups, and investors to collaborate and establish sound business models.

Amanda DoAmaral is an educator, activist, and co-founder of Fiveable - a social learning network for students. She spent a half a decade teaching high school history in Oakland, CA, where her passion for creating equitable educational opportunities was ignited. Amanda has been a vocal advocate for inclusive history curriculum and is active within the Milwaukee tech community.

Sherry is a mother, a scientist and an entrepreneur. Her passion and love for life and science has taken her far from Northern Asia to America, from studying bacteria, plants to populations of humans, and from researching obesity genetics as a medical college professor to founding GenoPalate, a company that provides a direct-to-consumer solution for eating uniquely based on genetics for a healthier life.

A note from Sherry: I am a scientist in life sciences. From the moment I saw those living creatures under the microscope for the first time, I was taken by biology. Today, my fascination towards finding how a life is created and works has only grown stronger. For college, I studied microbiology at one of the best life sciences programs in China and came to the U.S. to complete my graduate education in molecular biology. After getting my Ph.D. from Marquette University, I embarked on a 11-year research journey of elucidating what genetic factors contributed to the alarmingly prevalent obesity and metabolic disorders of our society in the U.S. and around the globe. As a researcher specializing in clinical genomics, my interests and efforts have been devoted to elucidating the genetic and epigenetic (a key link between the gene and the environment) mechanism underlying the differences of people’s traits. I use a comprehensive system encompassing molecular, informatics and statistical technologies in solving the clinical questions in my lab. My work in creating new knowledge in science has been documented in more than a dozen original publications in journals of impact. In order to extend and expand the application of the innovations and knowledge I have through my research work, I founded a company GenoPalate, Inc. in 2016 to provide people a new way of accessing knowledge of genetics and nutrition, for a healthier life.

Art Hopkins co-leads the firm's Technology Officers Practice and is a member of Board & CEO Advisory Partners, advising clients across industries on a range of leadership initiatives. He has extensive experience in CTIO, digital, data, CTO roles as well as a personal interest and focus on the changing role of the top tech executive. He has also been a co-leader of the firm's global Diversity and Inclusion Practice.

In addition to recent professional services searches for global executives at leading consulting firms, Art has recently completed CIO and technology executive searches for major players in the consumer, energy, food and tech spaces. Notably, he also recruited the first-ever chief inclusion officer for a well-known e-commerce company as well as the CEO of a national civil and human rights organization, and has been a thought leader on the topic of “belonging" as a key component of a holistic approach to DE&I.

Professional Experience
Prior to joining Russell Reynolds Associates, Art was with Atlanta-based Macquarium, an experience design and strategy firm, most recently as CEO and earlier as president. There, he was responsible for leading the transformation of the firm from a regional interactive agency to an industry-leading design firm. Prior to this, he spent ten years with Blackwell Consulting Services as vice president of consulting, where his responsibilities included management of the consulting organization and leadership of key client initiatives. Earlier, he was with William James & Associates as a consultant, building and integrating custom software solutions for financial institutions. Art began his career as Supervisor of Participant Accounting at NBD Trust Co. of Illinois (now Chase Bank).

Education & Affiliations
Art received his BA in finance from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is very active in the community and has a personal interest in matters related to education and workforce development. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for the Information Technology Senior Management Forum, the only national organization that exists to further the pipeline of Black tech executives, and the Board of Directors of Bain-Capital-backed Rural Sourcing Inc., Art has served on the Executive Board of Directors for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Georgia's Commission for School Board Excellence, Junior Achievement of Georgia, and as the Board Chair of the WEB DuBois Society.

Kathy is the CEO of the MKE Tech Hub Coalition – a non-profit focused on inclusively doubling tech talent in the Milwaukee region with over 90 members. Kathy is a long-term tech executive, leading sales and partnerships for $500M+ businesses in hardware, software, and services. After receiving her master’s degree in Workforce and Talent Development, specifically in response to AI and automation, Kathy helped large multi-national organizations transform their talent in alignment with their digital transformation. Kathy also serves on multiple non-profit boards in the Milwaukee region.

Chelsea has held regional and national leadership roles within the technology industry over the last decade. Currently a Market Leader at SoftwareONE – an $8B global technology services company – she’s responsible for driving strategic direction and execution across key transforming markets. After graduating college with a degree in music performance, Chelsea began her career in technology and has since had the opportunity to work globally with clients across four continents. She’s an active proponent of recruiting and mentoring diverse talent pools and currently leads SoftwareONE’s Women in Technology Board along with active involvement in SoftwareONE’s DEI initiatives.

Kelly is currently the Category Manager of Technology at Johnson Controls focusing on the rapidly evolving Engineering and Global Products businesses to drive maximum value across the organization. Kelly has worked in technology procurement for going on 10 years. During those years he also took part in Supplier Diversity, being an ambassador on assisting minority group members (MBEs) on how to partner with corporations.

Dave Berka has served in various non-profit roles in Milwaukee since 2016. His experience lies primarily in building effective partnerships with donors and community organizations, conducting research and policy analysis, and designing and implementing efficient programs and initiatives that address the community’s most pressing needs.

Currently, Dave manages data and resource equity projects for United Way’s Community Impact division, as well as United Way’s Techquity initiative, which began in 2020 in response to emergency needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Techquity takes a collective impact approach to addressing the digital divide in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington counties. Techquity employs four main strategies: ensuring affordable access to broadband; securing reliable digital devices for community members and organizations; equipping the community with digital skills, literacy trainings, and vocational opportunities; and using the Techquity coalition’s collective voice to fight for the digital equity and inclusion of every member of the community.

Dave is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Duke University. He lives in Milwaukee County with his family.

Tammie Brings is a Program Manager with Molson Coors Beverage Company. In this role, Tammie manages multi-million dollar Global Transformational, and IT Programs focused on Supply Chain and Applications, as well as the IT Security Portfolio. She is also actively involved in shaping the culture at Molson Coors by contributing as a member of one of the company’s ERGs (Building Relationships & Empowering Women (BREW)) and participating as a peer mentor and coach within the organization.

Prior to joining Molson Coors in 2017, Tammie spent 5 years working in IT Project Management with local industry leaders and more than 9 years in corporate/community Event Management. Tammie was responsible for multi-million-dollar event budgets and would produce upwards of a dozen Microsoft and Association tradeshows annually along with corporate events and community events including the Muskego Chamber of Commerce Jammin’ on Janesville in 2011 & 2013 and The Midwest Regional Firefighter Combat Challenge in 2007 and 2008.

Tammie lives in the Bayview area of Milwaukee with her family and spends much of her free time enjoying events and establishments around the city. You will often find her at a festival, farmers market, city park or enjoying our lakefront. When illness struck her family, Tammie became a passionate advocate for family resources with Gilda’s House and the American Cancer Society. Her volunteer work has continued through the years, and she recently graduated from Project LEAD sponsored by the United Way of Milwaukee and Waukesha County’s. She currently sits on the Advisory Council of the United Way Techquity, looking to bridge the digital divide and promote digital equity and inclusion.

Bill has over 28 years of experience with Ernst & Young (EY) serving privately held entrepreneurial companies and publicly held companies in the manufacturing, retail and consumer products industries. His particular focus is on serving private companies or subsidiaries of public companies with multi-national and multi-location engagements reporting under US GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards. In addition, Bill has assisted and advised multiple clients in accounting and reporting matters, registration statements and public filings. Bill has also assisted and participated with clients in business acquisitions, due diligence, purchase accounting and working capital adjustment resolution.

Bill is a graduate of Marquette University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting. He is a Certified Public Accountant and member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In addition, Bill serves as the Campus Coordinating Executive for Marquette University leading recruiting efforts for all service lines at EY.

Bill is the executive sponsor for both EY Milwaukee’s Ripples Task Force, its local corporate responsibility program and College MAP (Mentoring for Access and Persistence), a mentoring program designed to support access to education and bridge the digital divide for underserved youth in Milwaukee. He is currently serving in the position of Treasurer and serves on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of BizStarts, a one-stop resource center that helps entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses.

Lynn J Fyhrlund serves as the Chief Information Officer for Milwaukee County. As Chief Information Officer, Lynn is charged with the creation of strategic IT initiatives that align with Milwaukee County’s long-term goals. He works closely across all departments and Elected Officials to deliver innovative programs and services that enhance employee, department, and constituent services.

Previously he served as the IT Director – Business Applications for Information Technology for Milwaukee County. In this role, he oversaw Information Technology Application Services which provides, operates, and maintains computing and software services that meet the needs of Milwaukee County. During his tenure, he engineered a number of important changes to IT at Milwaukee County. Among these were substantial upgrades to the Mainframe infrastructure, Criminal Justice Information System, advances in the utilization of document management and collaborative tools, and critical investments in the use of technology for Master Data management.

Prior to joining Milwaukee County, Lynn served as a Command Sergeant Major in the United States Army Reserve. In this role, he served as the senior non-commissioned officer for the 3-339th Infantry Regiment – Basic Combat Training. He led the Battalion on several training initiatives, working to improve training environments, optimizing processes, inspiring drill instructors to continuously improve, and leveraging digital platforms to improve experiences.

In addition to his administrative tasks, Lynn served on the CIO Advisory Board for Technology United where he is working with Techquity to bridge the digital divide by fostering greater digital equity and inclusion throughout our community. He also is a volunteer with Team Rubicon which is an organization that serves communities by mobilizing veterans to continue their service, leveraging their skills and experience to help people prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and humanitarian crises.

Nicole Gulatz has served as Vice President, Development at Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee since October 2019, leading a team that oversees fundraising, special events and volunteers to support more than 40 locations and thousands of kids across the city.

She began her career at the American Red Cross’ national headquarters in 2007. Following that she served in a variety of roles supporting in-kind donations and corporate partnerships. In 2012, she moved to Milwaukee to focus on managing relationships with some of the Midwest’s largest corporate supporters. She served as Chief Development Officer of the American Red Cross – Wisconsin Region from 2015-2019, leading the fundraising team through multiple disaster response campaigns including statewide flooding and national responses including Hurricanes Harey, Irma, Maria and Michael.

Nicole is a member of TEMPO, the Planned Giving Council of Eastern Wisconsin and is a past president of the Junior League of Milwaukee where she remains an active member. Outside of work, Nicole enjoys movies, hiking, reading & making zines and long-distance running. She is a native of Kenosha, Wisconsin and graduate of UW-Madison.

Shane Arnold serves as the Sr Staff Cloud Architect at GE Healthcare. As the Cloud Infrastructure Architect, Shane is responsible for leading a team of engineers and architects that design, support, and build GE Healthcare’s global enterprise data & analytics platform which enables organizational machine learning, data science and artificial intelligence development.

Shane is a Milwaukee native who prior to his role at GE Healthcare, he has held various engineering and technical leadership roles at many of Milwaukee’s major companies which include, Johnson Controls, Northwestern Mutual, Miller Coors, and BMO Financial.

Shane has a deep passion and proven track record in mentorship, volunteerism, relationship cultivation in an effort to try to connect people from underrepresented communities with information, direction, and opportunities.

Shane received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The University of Kansas as well as a bachelor’s in information science and Technology from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.

Kiki Mwiti is the Founder and CEO of DYVVYD (divvied, diversified), which is the tech industry’s 1st D&I investment platform and digital community for investors and startups. DYVVYD leverages AI, data and machine learning to provide overlooked and often underestimated founders the power to access capital. The platform targets investors who are “ahead of the curve” in terms of prioritizing investments in underrepresented founders—such as women, people of color, LGBTQIA and older founders and provides a digital community where both investors and founders can be introduced foregoing barriers such as the warm intro or elite network. DYVVYD is intentional on closing the funding gap for women & minorities by digitizing investor relations specifically for these specific groups only, via introductions & deal flow, making recommendations based on activity/interaction and collecting data against successful connection points. Her work pushing for inclusion in the tech industry has been featured in Forbes, The LA Times, CBS Bay Area News, Information Weekly + more.

Nadiyah Johnson graduated from Marquette University with a master’s in computational science and is currently pursuing a PHD with a focus on computer science and mental health. Her research is predominantly geared toward mobile Health (mHealth). Nadiyah’s research has granted her recognition at several conferences around the globe. She previously held a role at GE Healthcare as a product developer with a specialty in data science. Nadiyah’s passion for diversity in STEM led her to launch her company Jet Constellations, a local software company. It’s social impact arm functions to promote racial diversity in the tech industry through STEM education and entrepreneurship programming as well as building a nurturing ecosystem of diverse techies and entrepreneurs. The Milky Way Tech Hub recently announced a target raise of $50M to address racial disparities in the tech space. As founder, Nadiyah aims to rebrand Milwaukee as “The Milky Way Tech Hub” – a tech hub representative of Milwaukee’s diverse population.

Nadiyah is a recent Milwaukee Business Journal 40 under 40 honoree. She enjoys painting and teaching computer science in her free time. She currently sells her art in pop-up shops at local art fairs. When Nadiyah isn’t painting or working in the community she is spending quality time with her family.

Personal twitter: @nadiyahjohnson
Company twitter: @themilkywaymke

Rashaun Williams, an expert in the financial world looks to share his life story and passions for financial literacy and tech investing. From a youth on the south side of Chicago, to an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, learn how Rashaun Williams went started Queensbridge Venture Partners with hip-hop artist and investor, Nas, and working with other celebrities and athletes as tech investors.

For more background and information on Rashaun, please visit Rashaun's page

Candice Matthews is a General Partner at Lightship Capital, where she finds and funds high growth, minority led companies operating in underserved ecosystems throughout the Midwest. Since the launch of the venture fund in 2020, Lightship Capital has raised more than $50MM for investment into underrepresented founders operating in the CPG, E-Commerce, Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, and Healthcare spaces. Candice also directs programming at Lightship Foundation, the inclusion focused entrepreneur enrichment program guiding minority founders with instruction in product development, brand building, leveraging artificial intelligence for business and fundraising.

Candice expands upon her work driving representation in innovation with her role on the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium for NASA, where she leads diversity of thought as new cultures and economies are developed. She also sits on the advisory committee and selection committees for technology for the Ohio State University and Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center; ensuring that as technology is commercialized from these entities, diversity is at the forefront of decision making.

Karen Kerr is passionate about partnering with entrepreneurs to build technology-based companies. She has spent more than two decades as a venture investor, instigator, and advisor to intrepid entrepreneurs. Karen is the founder and Managing Director of Exposition Ventures. She is also a lead Investor with the Portfolia Rising America fund. Most recently she was Executive Managing Director at GE Ventures where she led a team investing in advanced manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, and enterprise software companies that drove productivity at General Electric. She was previously a Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners and started her career as a Sr. Associate and Kauffman Fellow at Patricof & Co. Karen was a Director at Intellectual Ventures and helped to launch numerous startups as Senior Director of New Ventures and Alliances at the University of Southern California.

Karen earned a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chicago and an AB in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College.

She is a member of the Charter Class of Kauffman Fellows and is active on multiple boards including the Kauffman Fellows, mHub, ORAU, and the Clean Energy Trust boards as well as the University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division and Institute of Molecular Engineering Visiting Committees, and the Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees.

Karen has been recognized as a CVC Rising Star, a Crain’s Tech 50, one of LA’s Top Innovators, Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40, and C200 Women Business Leaders.

Nathen Harvey has built a career on helping teams realize their potential while aligning technology to business outcomes.

As a Cloud Developer Advocate at Google, Nathen helps the industry understand and apply DevOps and SRE practices in the cloud. These practices are rooted in the understanding that increased reliability comes with increased velocity.

He is part of the DevOpsDays conferences global organizing committee and was a technical reviewer for the Accelerate State of DevOps Report.

Prior to joining Google Cloud, Nathen was Vice President of Community Development at Chef. He led a team of open source software engineers, worked with customers to improve their infrastructure automation and compliance, and helped foster a community of technical professionals who were improving their organizations' velocity and stability.

Nathen's father thought misspelling his children's names would be a fun prank to play with consequences that would last a lifetime.

Nathen co-hosted the Food Fight Show, a podcast about DevOps, and managed operations and infrastructure for a diverse range of web applications over the span of his career.

Elaine Stephens, leads the customer engineering team for Wisconsin. She is responsible for driving the success of Google Cloud by bringing the best people and solutions to Wisconsin customers. She has over 25 years of experience specializing in software development, data warehousing, and data science.

Elaine enjoys being involved in the community. She serves on the board of both Women in Technology Wisconsin and Wisconsin’s MIT Alumni club. She has been a frequent guest lecturer at both UW Oshkosh and St. Norbert College talking to the students about AI and other disruptive technologies. One of her favorite ways to give back is judging student technology pitch contests such as Wisconsin YES! and Technovation for Girls.