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Biographies
John Schladweiler has 35 years of experience in the information systems industry. With a blend of vendor, client, and consulting experience, he brings significant breadth and depth to his role as practice leader. His experience includes engagements with Chase Bank, The Equitable, Board of Trade Clearing Corporation, Neff Company, Freightliner Trucks, Edify Corporation, and a number of start-up e-commerce and application integration software companies and ASPs. As co-founder of debis IT Services North America (DaimlerChrysler subsidiary of the $3 billion debis Systemhaus in Europe), in three years he built an application hosting and computer networking business including consulting services with contracts totaling $130 million and revenues of $26 million. As Senior VP of the Realtors Information Network [www.realtor.com], he led the development of an Internet site which received a Computerworld Smithsonian Award for Innovation, and is currently receiving over 80 million hits per month. Prior to that, he served as Senior VP of Business and Strategy Development for Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services, Senior Technology Consultant for Strategic Planning Associates (an international management consulting firm), and VP of Systems Planning for Harris Bank. Earlier, he spent 17 years with IBM in a number of product management, sales, and systems support roles. Schladweiler has a BA from Northwestern University and an MBA from University of Chicago. [More] Donald Hollis assists clients in developing strategies for leveraging technology and quality practices to improve payments-related transaction processing products, as well as in finding appropriate acquisitions. His clients have included NCR, Tandem, Unisys, Cash Station, First National Bank of Chicago, S.W.I.F.T., Edify Corporation, Deluxe Corporation, SAIC, and others. From 1981 to 1996, Hollis was an Executive VP of First Chicago Corporation, responsible for its technology leadership and its commercial transaction processing businesses. He was a VP and Group Executive of Chase Manhattan Bank from 1971 to 1981. He also served as a Director, General Manager, and Chief Operating Officer of Interactive Data Corporation (a Chase Subsidiary), and as a Director of a number of other technology-based Chase subsidiaries. He was also frequently involved in buying and selling IT companies. Hollis serves on the Executive Committee of the Illinois Institute of Technology's Board of Trustees and on the IITRI board of Governors. He is a Director of S2 Systems and QuickStream Software. He has served on the Board of Advisors for Banker's Magazine and on the New York Federal Reserve Bank's Payments Risk Committee. He is former Chairman of the Executive Committee of the American Banker's Association's Operations and Automation Division, is past President of the National Association for Check Safekeeping, is past Chairman of the American Management Association's Information Technology Counsel, and has served on CBOE, ABA, NACHA, and BankWire task forces. Hollis graduated from Kent State University with a BS in Business Administration. Bernard Sergesketter provides consulting to clients in the areas of marketing, executive sales, national account management, and total quality management. Sergesketter was a senior executive with AT&T, and for several years had line responsibility for AT&T's corporate sales in the Central Region of the United States. His responsibilities also included the back-office functions for corporate sales for AT&T globally. Sergesketter incorporated the principles of quality into the AT&T sales processes in the Central Region, and co-authored a book about it. Along with Harry Roberts of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, he wrote Quality is Personal: A Foundation for Total Quality Management published by the Free Press, New York, 1993. The book is currently in its fifth printing. In addition to sales and marketing experience, Sergesketter has also held senior level positions in engineering, operations, information systems, and finance. He is a graduate of Purdue University, and has received Purdue's Outstanding Electrical Engineer Award (1992) and Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award (1988). He is on the board of Westell Technologies and the Solar Corporation, and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Illinois Institute of Technology. David Adolphson is a business-oriented IT consultant and executive. Adolphson has 30 years of experience in the financial services, health care, and manufacturing industries. He has a strong track record of increased responsibility and achievement in leading people, managing project portfolios, and implementing technologies that contribute to the enterprise mission. He has a proven ability to transform businesses through reengineering processes and implementing IT, communicating and working effectively with all levels of business and IT personnel, achieving tangible benefits, delivering to demanding schedules and budgets, and reducing total costs. Adolphson has Big Five Consulting experience with KPMG, where he was a leader in the Financial Services Information Technology Transformation practice. He has also held Senior IT Executive roles with Aon, CNA Financial, and Harris Bank, and built on solid systems application development and management experience at International Harvester and IBM. He holds an MBA with concentrations in Finance and Management Policy from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University, and a bachelors degree in Physics from The Monmouth College at Monmouth, Illinois. He has spoken and written on business and IT topics such as acquiring and retaining profitable customers, justifying investments in IT, and extending the application of methodology to Expert Systems implementation projects. Charles Francis is a 39 year veteran of the information revolution. He is the founder of Granite Bridge Associates, Inc., a firm that provides technology due diligence and IT risk evaluation services to the investment community and to corporations. In his role as a principal of the company, he leads and participates directly in engagements for clients. He has led efforts that ranged from evaluations of B2B dot-coms and software companies to the development and implementation of strategies for IT and other technology organizations. He also played a critical role in the start-up success of a technical consulting division for a Fortune 50 company, and in the development of an IT audit process for a major bottling company. Francis is an acknowledged expert in software development methods and organizations; IT management, processes, and procedures; IT consulting; and client assessment and measurement methods. He has written several articles, and has spoken on technology management topics at numerous conferences, including the Business Week IT Conference. Francis has also held several high-level management positions. At Sterling Systems in the 1970's, he directed a large staff of programmers, analysts, and IT managers for programming, financial modeling, and facilities management contracts for State and US Departments of Energy and Transportation, as well as various transit agencies throughout the US. In the 1980's, he was VP of Technical Services at Morino Associates, a highly successful software company that later became Legent Corporation. In that role, he was responsible for software development, technical consulting, education, and MIS services. He was a key player in the company's successful transition from a small, private firm to a major, publicly-traded software giant. He also served nearly five years as VP of the Information Services Group and Chief Information Officer at Comdisco, Inc., a Fortune 500 leasing company. There, he was responsible for the development of worldwide applications, the delivery and management of the entire information systems infrastructure, and technology due diligence for the corporation and for the Comdisco Venture Group. Prior to his current endeavor, he was a co-founder and principal of Do Diligence Partners, Inc., a company that helps investors and corporations make strong investment decisions and mitigate IT risks through effective technology due diligence. John Sandberg brings 25 years of product development and networking experience to the practice. He began his career with Amoco Corporation, managing the design, development, and implementation of their worldwide telecommunications network for 250 corporate and subsidiary sites. Subsequently, he played key roles in the development of several IT start-up ventures funded by Peregrine Ventures. He was instrumental in establishing the $85 million Networking Services Group for Comdisco, ultimately rising to the level of Executive VP. At debis IT Services North America, he was responsible for building and operating an application hosting and computer networking service with 1999 revenues of $18 million. Sandberg brings to the project team an outstanding blend of technology, product management, and financial expertise in developing, implementing, and operating network computing systems. He has a BS in Physics from DePaul University. Tom McKittrick has concentrated on the development, delivery, support, management, and promotion of technology solutions during his 33 years in the software business. Over the past 11 years, he has focused that rich experience on helping investors and corporations make smarter investment decisions, and on working with them to help those investments succeed. As a co-founder and principal of Do Diligence Partners, Inc., he leads and directly participates in engagements for the investment, technology, corporate IT, and IT consulting communities. McKittrick has been directly involved in the technology investment evaluations of dozens of software and e-commerce companies seeking investments of $2 million to $100 million. In addition, he has consulted with companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 50 giants, providing evaluation, software product management, development management, process reengineering, and application software requirements and design services. In the latter category, he led a major project to evaluate the configurator-based dealer sales and order processing system for a leading truck manufacturer, and developed a comprehensive stabilization plan for the software. Subsequently, he led the development of a detailed requirements database for a replacement application that is designed to handle over $10 billion in sales annually. James Kreston has over 40 years experience as a contractor, field service technician, field sales engineer and consulting engineer in the electrical and mechanical fields. He is a licensed and registered electrical and/or mechanical engineer in thirteen states. Jim attended Illinois Institute of Technology where he received a BS degree in Electrical Engineering in 1963. Since 1980, most of Jim's work has been in the design and commissioning of custom environments for telecommunications and computer facilities. His client list for these types of projects include Blue Cross, debis IT (a DaimlerChrysler company), City Colleges of Chicago and several hospitals. He has also worked as a subcontractor for RKM Design Consultants and EDW Associates for customers including IBM, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Wrigley, Walgreen, Motorola, and others. Terri Heath has spent the last nine years providing consulting services to both US and international clients. Her project work has included marketing work, strategic planning, customer satisfaction, market analysis and development, e-business strategy, product distribution studies, market research studies, and operational efficiency studies. Clients include Turtle Wax, Edify Corporation, Neff Company, Weber Associates, Saarland Economic Promotion Corporation of Germany, Commonwealth Edison, and Minute Maid. Through her work with Sergesketter & Associates, Heath has published several articles regarding the call center industry, including Tips for Choosing a Call Center Site in Europe, published in Telemarketing & Call Center Solutions magazine in June 1998, and The Intelligent Interface, published in TeleProfessional magazine in June 2000. Prior to her consulting focus, Heath was Marketing Director for Sara Lee Personal Products Poland, located in Warsaw. She originally moved to Poland in 1991 as a part of the MBA Enterprise Corps, an international organization specializing in selecting and placing US business professionals in central Europe to work for local companies and to help bring them Western business practices. She acted as the Marketing Director for the River Company, located in Krakow, from 1991 to 1993. Heath holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Manu Vora has over 30 years of leadership experience as a specialist in productivity enhancement with emphasis on the ISO 9000 compliance initiatives and Total Quality Management practices. He provides strategy, planning, and execution assistance to senior-level management for customer value creation, employee engagement, and continuous process improvement leading to enhanced financial performance. Dr. Vora has published extensively on these topics and has led numerous work sessions to assist client corporation achieve ISO 9000 compliance. David Fabish has 20 years of experience in the information systems industry. His combination of client-facing responsibilities and technical expertise allows him to provide a broad, balanced perspective to IT strategy solutions. As an internal consultant for Ford Motor Company, he developed the strategy and implementation plan for business process improvement and systems integration in the area of IT project portfolio management, projected to result in $50 million annual efficiency savings. He also was responsible for coordinating the $1.2 billion North American IT budget, and ensuring alignment with corporate strategy and objectives. As the engagement manager for Comdisco's Continuity Software group, he was responsible for cultivating the relationships with enterprise software clients representing over $20 million in sales from industry verticals including financial services, healthcare, public sector and manufacturing. He also developed the software product strategy based on deep understanding of customer requirements and technical capabilities. He has Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Recommend David's work at Schladweiler Associates (LinkedIn) Cathy Hartke is a sales executive with a background in services, product management and marketing. Her background enables her to align business requirements with the capabilities of the service, provide expert guidance on product decisions, and collaborate with client leadership in building a detailed and achievable implementation plan. She was a core member of the team that designed and implemented www.realtor.com with responsibility for the user functionality and product features. The resulting web site received the Smithsonian Innovation award and five Wall Street Journal articles. It currently has 4 million properties and serves 5 million consumers per month. Cathy joined Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services, and then SunGard following a buyout. She held the position Director of Business Operations for the disaster recovery consulting business responsible for training and technology management including expense budget management and financial practice management support for delivery engagements. Following the SunGard acquisition of Comdisco, she moved into a senior level position of sales support and training for the Software team which offered a disaster recovery planning tool generating over $80M in annual revenue. In this role she introduced a new product, built a sales and sales support team and won new customers by the hundreds. Jackie Lynch is an account Manager with a background in financial services and human resources. As a relationship Manager at Computershare Investor Services, Inc., she was responsible for management between Computershare Investor Services and the client. She established relationships with key personnel including the Corporate Secretary, Investor Relations and Human Resources. This role also included the up-sell and cross-sell of related products and services. She assisted clients with special projects, troubleshooting and problem solving. Prior to joining Computershare, Jackie was a Human Resources Officer at JP Chase where she worked on the defined benefit plan. She consulted with actuaries and administered and calculated pension funds for current and former employees. This process included counseling employees on pension options, tax implications and retirement issues. She also assisted with new system testing and development. While living in Atlanta, Jackie worked as a Human Resources Generalist at Macy's and i Fleet. She was responsible for recruiting, employee orientation, payroll and implementing personnel policies and procedures. Before moving to Atlanta, Jackie worked for Discover Financial Services as a Senior Benefits Analyst and at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation where she assisted in closing insolvent institutions. |
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