SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
SPEAKERS AT THE CLOUD ARCHITECTURE
CONFERENCE – APRIL 16, 2024
Dan Adams, RSM, Aviatrix
Dan Adams brings 25 years of experience as an Entrepreneurial Regional Director/Manager/ VP/GM in high technology. Dan has a broad base of experience with starting, building, leading and coaching teams where innovation, teamwork and customer valued solutions are required. Excellent at translating technical solutions into unique value propositions, developing customized processes for his teams, engaging executive leadership, partnering internally/externally and establishing long-term relationships.
His track record of achievement in enterprise software includes opening territories for early stage companies and securing market leadership in high-growth organizations. He has successfully established market leadership positions in such categories as enterprise Contract Management, IT Governance, Project Portfolio Management, IT Infrastructure Automation, Virtual Computing and Compliance Management.
Dan holds a BS in Finance from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University.
Patrick Kinard, Sr. Server Operations Manager, CPS
Patrick Kinard is a Senior Server Enterprise Operations Manager at the Chicago Public Schools. He has more than 30 years of information technology management experience in the private and public sectors. Today, Patrick has a senior role in managing the data service centers for one of the world’s third-largest school districts. He is responsible for all central data center, cloud, and on-premise school-based server operations.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Southern Illinois University and has earned multiple information technology management certifications.
Kyler Middleton, Cloud Security, Veradigm
Kyler grew up in rural Western Nebraska, fixing neighboring farmers’ computers in exchange for brownies and Rice Krispies. Then she was going to be a librarian to help people find the information they need. Then she discovered computers were a real job, and more than just a fix for her munchies, and she’s now been a systems, network, call center, and security engineer, and is now a DevOps lead, and software engineer. She speaks at any conference that will have her, hosts Day Two Cloud podcast from Packet Pushers, and writes up cool projects with approachable language and pictures as part of her Medium series, Let’s Do DevOps, with the intention to upskill anyone of any skill level. I have an insatiable curiosity and desire to help the folks around me succeed and grow. So – Let’s Do DevOps.
Connect with Kyler: LinkedIn Website
Val Mushinskiy, Principal and Vice President of Cloud Services, ZS
Val Defines and leads the execution of cloud strategy for ZS. He leads Cloud Center of Excellence team that manages infrastructure and operations for enterprise and client solutions.
Val built and now manages Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) team. CCoE leverages DevSecOps principles and thoughtful solution architecture approaches to manage all aspects of clous infrastructure & operations for applications and solutions that are hosted on numerous ZS’s public clouds. CCoE’s Managed Service Provider team engages in supporting solution implementations on client owned public cloud environments.
Val’s expertise includes vast experience in software development, architecture, management, and cloud operations across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
Val holds an MS in Software Engineering and Project Management from DePaul University and a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Ben Nicholson, Global Practice Lead – Prisma Cloud, Palo Alto Networks
Ben Nicholson has worked at Palo Alto Networks for the past 8 years. In that time he has worked as a Professional Services Engineer, Global Solutions Architect, and is now a Global Practice Leader for Prisma Cloud. He has deployed Prisma Cloud for a multitude of customers and has in-depth working knowledge of many security platforms.
Trent Ridgway, Head of Cloud Infrastructure & Security / Senior IT Project Manager, Anning-Johnson Company
Senior Cloud Security Engineer with delivering corporate Business & IT solutions. My role encompasses the entire project management cycle and the execution of key tasks. My role assists direct support of business revenue objectives and cost-saving measures. I have successfully eliminated 100% of on-premise server infrastructure for business and operate 100% in the cloud and SASE partners. Had zero impact on business productivity and downtime when moving to a work-from-home model overnight for the pandemic.
Rod Stuhlmuller, VP of Solutions Marketing, Axiatrix
Rod is an early-stage technology market creation leader with a broad base of knowledge in cloud, data center and mobile networking, network management, network security and AI. Prior to Aviatrix, Rod led product marketing at Nicira, the early-stage startup that created SDN and the network virtualization market and was acquired by VMware in 2012. Prior to Nicira, Rod has held management positions at several startup companies including ActivCard (ActivIdentity) after beginning his career in field systems engineer and product management roles with industry leaders Bay Networks, Synoptics and Novell.
Connect with Rod: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rod-stuhlmuller/
Dov Thorner, Enterprise Leader – Spot Security, Spot by NetApp
Dov Thorner is a top producing sales professional and leader, with over 15 years’ experience delivering a wide variety of enterprise solutions and technologies to organizations of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups. He has a proven track record of developing new business and cultivating long-term strategic relationships with organizations spanning a diverse range of industries including finance and professional services, technology, energy, healthcare and higher education. A life-long learner, Dov brings hard work, ideas, passion, positive and endless energy and a little humor to every organization!
