SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Yuri Camargo, Director Application Architecture, Avanade

Yuri has over 33 years of experience working in IT. Most of his career was developed in consulting positions helping clients in different industries to differentiate themselves through new technologies adoption and business processes digitization. He has been working, mostly, on Application Development & Modernization projects with a heavy focus on architecture design & implementation, as well as IT governance & strategy.

Matt Cammarata, Sr. Solutions Architect, OutSystems

Matt is the global leader in low-code application development. For the last 14 years, he has specialized in helping customers design solutions and workflows across dozens of platforms. He is based out of Chicago, Illinois, and his love for software development is only matched, by his love to attend music concerts.

Prajwal Deshpande, Director Transformation Delivery, NiSource

Residing in north suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, Prajwal has been with NiSource for more than nine years. Beginning his career in Information Technology, he has served in a variety of leadership positions. Over the last two years, he has been focusing on introducing and implementing technology and transformation that will improve the safety of employees, customers, and the community.

Grant Ecker, VP, Chief Architect & Executive Coach, Danaher

Grant Ecker is the Vice President Chief Enterprise Architect at Danaher where he is partnering closely with the architects across the company to lead strategy development, establish technology standards, governance processes and to identify opportunities for modernization and transformation. Prior to Danaher, Grant was the VP, Global Head of Architecture at Walgreens Boots Alliance, and he held a similar role at Medtronic. Earlier in Grant’s career he held architecture and management roles with expanding responsibility at Lowe’s and General Mills. Grant is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, he received an MBA from University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, and his BS in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Grant is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Chief Architect Forum, a board member of the Women in Architecture initiative and he holds various board advisory roles out of Chicago, Illinois. Please connect with Grant at www.LinkedIn.com/in/GrantEcker.

Todd Fontana, Microsoft 365 Architect & Collaboration Manager, John Bean Technologies Corporation

Todd is an accomplished results driven Enterprise Solutions Architect and IT Manager with over 25 years in the IT industry. During his career, he has supported various platforms across different facets of technology.
Currently he holds the position as Microsoft 365 Architect & Collaboration Manager for John Bean Technologies. This role includes directing team members toward accomplishing strategic goals while providing technical oversite over cloud identity management and message security. Todd also serves as the Technical Lead for internal projects related to M&A for Microsoft 365 applications and services as well as responsibility overseeing policy and governance for the Microsoft practice through strategic partnerships.
Prior to his current role at John Bean Technologies, Todd specialized in M&A consulting, primarily as a Solution Architect in both pre and post sales roles, as well as tenure, as an Enterprise Account Executive overseeing active accounts while providing innovative solutions for his customers.

Daniel Hebda, Chief Strategy Officer, Mega International

For over 20 years, Dan has been at the forefront of technology innovation that helps businesses meet their strategic goals. In his current position as Chief Strategy Officer for MEGA, Dan drives the company’s strategy, focusing on formulating product direction that meets evolving market needs for business transformation software solutions. He has worked closely with Fortune 100 companies for many years, providing advice and direction on business transformation and innovation from the perspective of enterprise architecture and change management.

Chris Johnson, Manager of Field Mobility at NiSource

Residing in Northwest Indiana, Chris has been with NiSource for more than 8 years. Chris began his career in Information Technology at the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange where he served in a variety of leadership positions. Over the last several years, he has been focusing on introducing and implementing technology to improve the day to day lives of our frontline employees. Solutions include a new modern telematics solution, a connected vehicle solution to improve cellular communication in the field and a replacement of our legacy MDTs with iPads with vehicle docking solutions.

Matt Jones, Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture, The Fitch Group

Matt Jones leads the Enterprise Architecture practice at Fitch Group and has over 25 years of experience in the software industry. Matt has worked on a variety of projects in organizations ranging from small startups to large enterprises. Matt is passionate about helping technology teams bring the right people together to come up with a plan to solve the right problem.

Charles Lawton, Sr. Director, Enterprise Architecture, Eversana

Charles Lawton leads the Enterprise Architecture practice at EVERSANA Life Sciences, a contract outsourcer of services which help bring pharma products to market. Charles has 26 years of experience in IT and entered the architecture discipline after spending 21 years in infrastructure and operations. With experience across multiple industries including manufacturing, education, software development and now life sciences, and with extensive background in M&A due diligence, organizational integration and value creation, Charles takes a business capability-led approach to understanding an organizations technology landscape and how it enables the organization’s strategic goals and business roadmap.

Justin McDermott, VP, IT Strategy and Enterprise Architecture, Wintrust Financial Corporation

There is no better feeling than the “Ah-ha” moment when you solve a puzzle. Strategy has drawn me into a remarkable career path. What better job than to have the opportunity to solve puzzles every day, leading into progressively larger puzzles for the grand finale “Ah ha” moment. My friends would say, and I would agree, that I am an inquisitive person. I’ve taken those skills and used them in my professional life to do root cause and critical path analysis, helping me shape and develop solutions that are flexible and agile but have continuity and a north star to follow. At the same time, I love learning new things, how things work, and history. I take what I’ve learned and continuously apply that to situations, asking, “What if?”. This is all great in theory, but if you cannot communicate it, it’s just idea’s in one person’s head. I’ve spent a great deal of time refining my soft skills to help share in plain language and helping people understand topics using the target audience’s language. The Rosetta Stone of IT language to Business language.

I spent most of my early career in the United States Army stationed in Germany. I deployed to support US Central Command doing network administration and satellite communications. Afterward, I moved on to finishing out School at DePaul and spent some time advocating on the Illinois Board of Higher Education. After school, I entered the corporate world focusing on Network Security and expanded out into Security Architecture and then into IT management, culminating in IT Strategy and thought leadership.

Krista Miller, Senior Director Enterprise Architecture, Northwestern Mutual

Krista Miller is Senior Director of Enterprise Architecture for Northwestern Mutual. She oversees the advancement of the company’s Technology Governance and Application Portfolio Management Practice (APM).

Krista has over 20 years of experience in a broad area of technology roles. Her background in technology operations, omni-channel development and support, as well as infrastructure engineering, showcases her diverse experience across different industries, including finance, insurance, and retail. One of Krista Miller’s strengths lies in driving operational excellence and technology efficiency. Driving process improvement, governance, and workflow automation has significantly optimized technology operations and enhanced overall efficiency within organizations.

In her current role in Enterprise Architecture for Northwestern Mutual she is responsible for identifying and reducing risk though thoughtful governance. This practice includes governing to architectural principles and standards along with managing the portfolio of applications to ensure alignment to target state architecture and reducing the complexity of our environment. By actively managing the application portfolio, she helps optimize the technology landscape, streamline operations, and minimize risks associated with legacy or redundant applications.

Karen E. Semonson, Senior Advisor, FarWell

Karen Semonson is an experienced Senior Advisor at FarWell. In her role, she leverages her expertise to help clients achieve their transformation goals and establish their new business and operating models. She sees the big picture, co-creates a vision and strategy, and leads the team to deliver the valuable results needed. Karen is a thought leader and speaker in her field. Her extensive knowledge and experience create service offerings, where she shares insights and best practices to solve client’s, significant business problems. Recently as an Architect, Karen helped customers create new business and solution capabilities for private and public Cloud products, AI and Machine Learning model operations for an e-commerce supply chain, and new NIST compliance requirements for a government supply chain distributor. As a Non-Profit Board Officer, she transformed a Big 3 Software, U.S. user group into a 24,000-member global community in 147 countries. For over 10 years, Karen gave presentations at U.S. and EMEA forums to diverse audiences of executives and practitioners. Karen has over 20 years of senior IT leadership with specialties in strategy, architecture, and execution.

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-semonson/

Saptarshi Sengupta, Sr. Director of Brand and Corporate Marketing, Denodo

Saptarshi Sengupta is the Sr. Director of Product Marketing at Denodo Technologies. He is responsible for leading customer marketing, content marketing, analyst relations and press relations among other product marketing responsibilities. Saptarshi brings in a wide range of industry knowledge including enterprise software, consumer electronics, networking and semiconductor, and two decades of engineering, product management and marketing leadership experience.

Ryan Shober, RSM, SnapLogic

Ryan Shober is the Great Lakes Regional Lead at SnapLogic with more than 10 years of experience helping organizations simplify and accelerate their digital transformation journey. Specializing in helping companies scale using Generative AI, Ryan uses this experience to enable business leaders to automate, integrate and orchestrate the flow of data across the enterprise.

CJ Voss, Senior Manager Enterprise Architecture & Development, Pella Corporation

CJ Voss is a distinguished professional currently serving as Sr. Manager of Architecture and Development at Pella Corporation, a leader in the design and manufacturing of windows and doors. With a robust background in ITSM, App Dev and Architecture, CJ brings a wealth of experience and a track record of success to the role. At Pella, CJ is responsible for enterprise architecture, digital development, qa, and DevOps, where his strategic vision and commitment to excellence drive innovation and operational efficiency.

Before joining Pella, CJ honed his skills at Advanced Technology Services, where he led architecture and development of ATS’ next generation platform for industrial maintenance and Industry 4.0 capabilities. His expertise in platform development and product innovation has been instrumental in providing a medium for fostering growth and establishing lasting relationships with clients and stakeholders.

CJ is a passionate leader, known for his innovation and start-up mindset, servant leadership style and ability to inspire passion within his teams. He holds a bachelor’s from The Pennsylvania State University in Information Science and Technology, underscoring his commitment to continuous learning and professional development. At Pella, CJ continues to leverage his skills and experience to contribute to the company’s reputation for quality and innovation, embodying the values that have made Pella a trusted name in the industry.