WayCoolPeople -TechKnow Conference

Speakers for TechKnow 2001

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	Debbie Barnett Communication Therapy Leverage. The power to act effectively. Debbie Barnett is an accomplished professional speaker and trainer. She recently seized the opportunity to start the motivational speaking company, Communication Therapy. Her topics include “Communicating for Connection”, “Power Listening!”, “Making A Life”, and “Persuade With Power”. Debbie also leveraged her speaking and persuasion by establishing a Toastmasters club at the Associates Corporate Headquarters and served as President for a year. She holds the distinction of Advanced Toastmaster Silver, Competent Leader, and is currently serving as District 50 Secretary.
	R. Gaines Baty, Founder/President R. Gaines Baty Associates, Inc. R. Gaines Baty is Founder/President of R. Gaines Baty Associates, Inc., a retained executive search firm with offices in Dallas and Atlanta. He is also President of Baty Medical Staffing, Inc., a medical staffing organization with offices in Dallas and Houston. After graduating from Texas Tech and working as a Graduate Assistant Football Coach, Gaines joined IBM in a marketing and sales capacity. He entered the search business in September 1977. RGBA was founded in January 1982. RGBA focuses on: IT Management; Professional Services Management; Sales and Marketing for technical-based companies and departments; and General Management Clients which have included: IBM, EDS, Andersen Consulting, Arthur Andersen, Disney, Mirage Resorts, Motorola, Coca Cola, Frito Lay, etc.
	Pat Coleman, District Manager Siebel Systems Pat has over 15 years’ experience working with companies on large data projects. She worked for IBM for 12 years in Kingston, New York and Dallas, Texas, assisting companies through the decision process and initial stages of DB2 database and data warehouse projects. In 1997, Pat joined Red Brick Systems to focus specifically on the data warehouse endeavors. With the Informix purchase of Red Brick Systems in 1999, she moved into the CRM world. Pat has been instrumental in numerous CRM projects with both Chordiant Software and Siebel Systems. Siebel Systems is the world’s leading provider of eBusiness application software. Pat is now a District Manager for Siebel Systems in the Dallas office.
	Deb Davis Deborah Davis brings nine years of senior management experience and twenty-one years of industry experience as she consults with clients regarding leveraging the use of information technology to enable business success. Ms. Davis recently served as President and CEO of edeagroup, a Dallas-based e-Business consulting firm, where she managed all aspects of operations as well as provided leadership on the strategy and direction of the organization. Prior to joining edeagroup, Davis was a Division President with Superior Consultant Company, a publicly traded management consulting and information technology firm. As Division President, she led national business units in development solutions, Internet and e-commerce, network infrastructure, voice and telephony, and data warehousing, as well as a sub-practice in customer relationship management. She assists clients in using information technology solutions, partnership development and achieving sales and profit goals. She has been a frequent speaker for client events and industry seminars. Davis also has been featured in several trade publications for articles regarding effective and innovative uses for Internet and information technology solutions.
	Karen Faith Heller, President WayCoolPeople Karen Faith Heller is the President and CEO of WayCoolPeople, an Executive Placement enterprise specializing in the High Tech, Telecom and eBusiness arena. Her sales and marketing background with IBM, Creative Marketing Strategies, ARC and GTE have enabled her to establish WayCoolPeople as a strategic “talent” consultant to fast-growth High Tech companies. WayCoolPeople is known for placing entire “teams at a time” into start-up companies to enable them to become immediately productive in this fast-paced market. Karen has an additional business initiative in the Sales and Marketing arena with her second company, Imacool, to drive sales for her client companies as an outsourced sales team. Imacool also acts as an agent for International Companies looking to target High Tech US companies for international joint ventures and infusion of investment capital. Karen has 19 years of sales, marketing, management, training and placement experience in the High Tech Industry and utilizes her love of networking to create strong relationships and place more women into positions of leadership. She participates in several networking organizations including WITI, NAFE, North Texas Women’s Business Council, Leadership Texas Alumni Association, Southwest Venture Capital Forum and the Richardson Chamber of Commerce, among others. Karen founded her own business in February of 1999 as a “leap of faith” and through her success assists other entrepreneurs, clients and candidates to achieve their dreams by finding their career “passion”. Karen recently graduated from Leadership Texas 2000, is listed in Who’s Who of International Professionals and has been chosen this year to participate with a select group of 100 women across the USA in the Leadership America Program. karen@waycoolpeople.com
	John McLaughlin, Sr. Technology Engineer Sun Microsystems John McLaughlin is a Senior Technology Engineer for Sun Microsystems and a member of Sun's Vision Council ("Technical Visioneer").With 13 years experience at Sun, John has helped Sun grow from a workstation-only vendor to a computer systems vendor with a full-range of product offerings. As Technical Visioneer, John has delivered high-level Vision and Technology presentations to many audiences. He has been involved with Unix workstations and servers for 17 years and talks and trains on related topics such as Technology Trends, Java, the Internet, security, Solaris, and PC interoperability. John delivers "non-disclosure" and other technical talks to help customers make appropriate investments and decisions related to Sun and Internet technology. John graduated from the University of Glasgow, Scotland in 1982 with a BSc in Computing Science, with honors.
	Mamie Millard Travelocity.com Mamie Millard has been with Travelocity.com since 1995 and leads software development efforts. Previously, she was Senior Director of Product Development for Travelocity.com, where she managed product and business development, maintenance and end-to-end system design, specifically in client server architecture, transaction processing and database administration. Prior to Travelocity.com, Millard served in various technical and development capacities for Sabre since 1987 and played a critical role in the successful implementation of Internet initiatives for the company. Millard holds a Master's of Science in education from Portland State University.
	Robin Moss, President Ribit Productions, Inc. Robin Moss, founder of Ribit Productions, Inc., is the guiding force behind the rapid growth and development of Ribit Productions, the interactive multimedia company she incorporated in 1994. Moss’ reputation for marketing excellence was earned on the training grounds of such leading high-tech giants as Texas Instruments and Zoëcon. As she managed marketing programs, advertising campaigns and interactive communications projects for these and a variety of other prestigious organizations, Moss gained the solid foundation necessary to understand the multimedia needs of today’s growing companies. In addition to running the operations of Ribit Productions, Moss is an active member of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization, as well as, Entrepreneurial Women Presidents. She also holds a seat on the Digital Imagery Advisory Council, an elite group of respected professionals that establishes educational criteria for advanced interactive multimedia students.
	Debbie Mrazek President The Sales Company Recognized for her extraordinary ability to spot opportunity, Debbie Mrazek is busy connecting the Dallas high-tech industry to other markets. Her passionate desire to bring high-tech leaders together fuels her tireless business development efforts. From developing her own, Ambassador Program, which brings business leaders together in a very intentional way to serving as a Richardson Chamber of Commerce Technology Business Council member that helped to develop the highly successful Third Friday Lunch Series, Debbie focuses on helping others first. As president and owner of The Sales Company, Debbie naturally ignites the high-tech industry with her sales consulting prowess. She is on a first-name basis with executives of Fortune 50 companies and her clients love the results she helps them achieve. Some of her client relationships span more than 20 years. Debbie combines a genuine selflessness and desire to help others achieve their dreams with her incredibly successful sales system model that allows her clients to win every time.
	Kit Phelan, Managing Director Menttium Corporation Kit is the Managing Director of the MENTTIUM 100 program in Dallas/Ft. Worth. MTTM 100 is a cross-company mentoring program for high potential women in the Dallas/Ft. Worth business community. Her past experience includes 15 years with EDS as Divisional Controller, Contract Manager, Senior Corporate Auditor, Account Management web developer, and chief mentor for the Accounting/Finance Development Program (AFD). In addition, Kit has been a Senior Business Consultant with George S. May International. Kit is originally from Michigan and has lived in the Dallas area for 4 years.
	Katrina Roche Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) i2 Technologies, Inc. Katrina Roche is the chief marketing officer of i2 and is responsible for corporate global marketing, including solutions marketing, vertical industry programs, corporate communications and brand management. She is responsible for leading a global marketing organization that supports i2’s strategic vision of defining new economy e-business and supply chain solutions that deliver measurable value to i2’s customers. Roche joined i2 from the Baan Company, Europe’s second largest software company, where she served as CMO. In her role at Baan, Roche was responsible for refocusing the company’s product strategy into the Internet and B2B e-commerce area. Prior to her tenure as Baan’s CMO, Roche served as the general manager of Baan Supply Chain Solutions. In this role, Roche was responsible for bringing the Baan supply chain and transportation product suite to market. Before joining Baan, Roche served as the president and CEO of Cygnus Technology, a consulting firm specializing in providing implementation counsel to multinational companies deploying ERP and supply chain solutions.
	Gail Smith, National Practice Leader Digital Education Solutions Luminant Worldwide Gail A. Smith is the National Practice Leader for Digital Education Solutions at Luminant Worldwide. Smith has over 20 years of experience in business development, management and marketing in the information systems arena. She received her early management training and success with J.C. Penney. Her sales and marketing career was launched at Xerox Corporation, where she spent eight years as an exceptional performer and leader. Gail was one of the first innovators to be involved with the Infomart in Dallas, Texas, providing leadership in attracting high tech companies and events into the center. Prior to Luminant Worldwide, Gail was co-founder of inmedia, Inc. – an interactive multimedia and web development company which was started in 1992 and acquired by Luminant in 1999. At Luminant, Gail provides leadership and direction in defining and implementing digital education solutions and business strategies for Global 1000 companies. Gail earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas Tech University. She has been active in the community and professional ranks for several years and is an alumna of Leadership Texas and Leadership Dallas. Gail currently serves on the board of the American Electronics Association – Texas Council, and is an active member of the American Society of Training & Development, and other professional and educational organizations.
	Lynne Smith, Central Area Vice President of Sales iPlanet Lynne Smith is Vice President of Sales for the Central Area of iPlanet, a Sun/Netscape Alliance, a leading provider of open software and services for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. Joining Netscape in 1995, Lynne has overall responsibility for sales quota attainment for all product lines within the 24 state Central Area, as well as Telco Accounts in the Central & Western US (acquired by AOL in 1999). Her responsibilities include the management of area sales teams who identify customer needs and present solutions, products and services in support of strategic sales goals and objectives. She develops and implements sales strategies, develops and coordinates sales presentations and coordinates services needs with internal support areas as needed to ensure successful customer deployments of the iPlanet products. Lynne spent 6 years at TI in various technical, sales and marketing positions. Immediately before joining Netscape Lynne spent 6 years at Oracle Corporation doing new business development and sales management for Dallas based Fortune 500 companies. Lynne is currently on the advisory board of the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce Executive Women’s Roundtable. She is also an alumnus of LEADERSHIP AMERICA; a national organization that recognizes, educates and connects accomplished women, and a former board member of Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
	Eric Stevens, VP Research and Technology Evangelism Jetform Mr. Stevens has over 20 years computing industry experience. He has developed and deployed many different types of business applications, including financial systems, insurance systems and hotel systems. In addition, Mr. Stevens has sold office equipment, computer systems and software. Over the past 10 years he has focussed on workflow and electronic form solutions, including the re-engineering of business processes as a prelude to the implementation of workflow. Mr. Stevens has worked for both large companies and small start-ups. These companies include Wang Laboratories, SHL Systemhouse, Imara Research, Nixdorf, Symantec, Delrina and he is currently Vice-President, Research and Technology Evangelism for JetForm Corporation where he is responsible for strategic technology research and assists in setting and communicating the company’s technology direction.
	Kelley Styring, Sr. Group Manager Consumer Insights, Frito-Lay, Inc. Kelley currently leads consumer strategy for Frito-Lay’s $7B+ portfolio of snack brands including Lay’s, Ruffles, Doritos and Cheetos, among others. Recent contributions include not only the WOW! Introductory Consumer Strategy, but new snack occasion identification, new measurement systems for in-store stopping power, and new product pipeline development. Kelley previously led Market Research for P&G’s U.S. Personal Cleansing Category and Global Diaper Businesses. She has an MBA from the University of South Carolina. Prior to entering the field of Consumer Insights, Kelley worked as an industrial designer for NASA, USAF, Black & Decker Household Appliances, The University of South Carolina, the South Carolina Commissioner of Health, and briefly owned and operated her own T-Shirt company. She has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Design from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
	Darlene Yaplee, VP of Solution Integrator Sales Sun Microsystems, Inc. Darlene is responsible for the vision, strategy and implementation for Sun's global eIntegrator sales. Her organization delivers the premier program for eIntegrators who create eBusiness strategies for dot-com and bricks & mortar companies. She manages the globalization, solution portfolio, sales development, sales achievement, and Go-to-Market strategies for eIntegrators. Darlene has been with Sun for over 12 years. She started with Sun as a Marketing Manager in 1988 for the Advanced Development Group and has since progressed as Group Marketing Manager, Inter-Continental Marketing Director, International Marketing Director and most recently as the Vice President of Worldwide Field Marketing. She has been a key architect for Sun's iForce initiative to address the what, why, who and how to dot-com. Darlene was a recipient of the YWCA "Tribute to Women and Industry" Award in March 2000 and was the University of California at Davis Commencement Speaker in June 2000. Prior to Sun, Darlene was with Hewlett-Packard as a Product Manager for Languages and the Marketing Manager of Retail and Distribution Industries working closely with partners. Darlene graduated from the University of California, Davis with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics.