The Los Angeles Business Journal presents 2014 …2014/06/16 · 22 AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO...

Presenting

Sponsor:

Gold Sponsors: Kaiser Permanente

SonicNet

Trident USA Health Services

WASH Multifamily Laundry Systems

The Los Angeles Business Journal presents

This special advertising supplement did not involve the reportingor editing staff of the Los Angeles Business Journal.

June 16, 2014 Advertising Supplement

CIOs of the Year

2014

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22 AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL JUNE 16, 2014

CIOs OF THE YEAR 2014

IT'S hard to think of an industry-leadingcompany that could survive without agreat CIO. These important individualsand their teams play vital roles in makingLos Angeles businesses, institutions and

nonprofit groups successful. Their decisionsoften impact all aspects of a business, includingtheir company's growth, profitability, functional-ity and competitiveness in the marketplace.

This is our third year of celebrating the creamof the proverbial crop among Los Angeles' finestIT leadership minds with an awards event forthose who have their hands on the steeringwheels of new technology. Our annual LosAngeles Business Journal CIO of the YearAwards, held Wednesday, June 11th at the HyattRegency Century Plaza, gave us the opportunityto stop for a moment and applaud the IT inven-tiveness and technological achievements of thecorporate space's hi-tech men and women - theoften unsung architects and enablers of ourcompanies' operational successes.

Indeed, it's the CIOs who are often chargedwith providing the operational tools required tomatch a CEO's vision for a company. So for allthe great CIOs celebrated by our awards thisyear, we say thank you and congratulations!

Your tireless contributions to the companies youserve and ultimately, our business community asa whole, are appreciated.

This year's list of superb finalists (all profiledin these pages) - each an example of excellencein the field of corporate technology stewardship- made it even more difficult to arrive at the hon-orees. We are particularly excited to shine alight on eight particularly outstanding honoreesannounced in eight categories - "Enterprise CIOof the Year" (500+ Employees), "CorporateBusiness CIO of the Year" (100 - 500 Employees),"Emerging Business CIO of the Year" (less than100 Employees), "Government CIO of the Year,""Non-Profit CIO of the Year," "CybersecurityLeader of the Year," "IT Team of the Year," and"IT Service Partner of the Year." We applaudeach of the honorees and the terrific finalists!

Best regards,

Matthew A. ToledoPublisher & CEO

Publisher’s Letter

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JUNE 16, 2014 AN ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL 23

WASH Congratulates Our CIO,John Buccola, on This Honor!

2014 CIO of the Year Finalist

As CIO of WASH, John is leading

the way in transforming laundry

room operations through technology

and innovation.

We celebrate John, his IT

team and all the other

Los Angeles Business

Journal CIO of the

Year nominees on

their achievements.

www.washlaundry.com

TridentUSA Health Services is the leading national provider

of bedside diagnostics, mobile clinical and hospice services

at post-acute care facilities, including Skilled Nursing,

Assisted Living and wherever the patient calls home.

www.TridentUSAHealth.com

TridentUSA Health Services

congratulates the CIO/CTO award

finalists for advancing technology

and innovation.

H E A L T H S E R V I C E S

®

®

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 HonoreesENTERPRISE CIO OF THE YEAR (500+ EMPLOYEES)

JONATHAN SEECHIEF INFORMATION OFFICERPEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY

JONATHAN See is committed to aligning IT initiatives with the business ofPepperdine University. Given that Pepperdine’s business is education, Seehas actively promoted many initiatives to enrich that business. First heaggressively expanded the Technology and Learning department whichpartners with faculty members to enhance teaching and learning by effec-

tively using today’s ever-burgeoning tools. In addition, he has expanded theUniversity’s Business Intelligence department. This department conducts high-enddata analytics in order to help University departments and executives make moreinformed decisions.

Further, See is currently leading the enterprise-wide CRM initiative. This is a high-risk effort that requires collaboration, detailed project planning, resource sharing, andexecutive buy-in. He has achieved institution-wide consensus on the importance ofthis implementation, obtained the funding, is leading the CRM project, and remain-ing transparent in the communication thereof.

See has recreated the IT division of Pepperdine University to be proactive ratherthan reactive. As such, he has charged his staff to carefully listen to constituents byundertaking a “listening tour,” and then apply their creative technology skills inredesigning business processes to save the institution time, money, and energy. Onesuch example is the electronics signature initiative that See spearheaded, which notonly implemented currently available software, but had it integrated with encryptionand knowledge storage so that documents at Pepperdine may be electronically sent,tracked, signed, routed for approval, stored, archived, audited, and reported upon.

See’s “people focus” is sharp and effective as well. He has designed the administra-tion department of the IT division to actively develop talent within the division. Inresponse, IT administration has allocated significant funding to professional develop-ment, created a transparent process for applying for those funds, and convenes acommittee to review the applications. In addition, he supported the creating of acareer advancement program through which employees may actively climb the careerladder and/or receive mentoring on how to expand their skills and grow their careers.

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CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 HonoreesCORPORATE BUSINESS CIO OF THE YEAR (100-500 EMPLOYEES)

MARK SMITHCHIEF INFORMATION OFFICERNIGRO KARLIN SEGAL FELDSTEIN & BOLNO, LLC

MARK Smith is the Chief Information Officer for Nigro,Karlin, Segal, Feldstein & Bolno. He has been the head oftheir IT department since 2007. He is responsible formanaging all IT initiatives for NKSFB and manages a teamof twelve IT professionals. He has led strategic IT initia-

tives in the Business Management, Sports Management, Family Office,Family Law, and Publishing industries. He is known for his ability to exe-cute M&A projects with tight timeframes and manage projects on budget.

The NKSFB infrastructure has been designed by Smith and his team foragility and growth. The adoption of the Office 365 platform, ThompsonReuters GoFileRoom document management system and numerous othercloud based services enables NKFSB to scale quickly and maintain uniformstandards across the organization. By utilizing cloud based services forMobile Device Management, Secure Web Gateway and other core services,the TCO is lowered dramatically for ongoing infrastructure management.

He led a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity program that iswell ahead of any other competing Business Management firm. The strate-gy is based on implementing NetApp Storage Area Network with replica-tion to a recovery site in Arizona for the server and data infrastructure,coupled with backup workstation seats in Cypress, California. This pro-vides usually expedient recovery time and point objectives. Regularreviews of the business units’ needs insure the plan meets the businesscontinuity objectives.

In order to provide access to 8 TB of data to nearly 300 employees,while keeping costs under control, and maintaining high levels of systemsperformance as required by L.A.’s largest independent BusinessManagement, Tax and Audit firm, Smith and his team have implemented

a virtualized server infrastructure for over 90% of the firm’s applicationand data servers, highly leverages V-Motion for redundancy and maxi-mum availability and WAN acceleration devices between all sites to opti-mize application performance and minimize file access times, amongother innovative features.

EMERGING BUSINESS CIO OF THE YEAR (LESS THAN 100 EMPLOYEES)

ADAM DUROTECHNOLOGY DIRECTORZEHNERGROUP

ADAM Duro is an example of a professional that is both a highlyintelligent “techie” and a terrific communicator. He has the rareability to thoroughly understand, and clearly communicate com-plicated roadmaps to ZehnerGroup’s clients, which often spanacross multiple industries, product lifecycles and initiatives. He

does this by understanding the client, their business goals as well as knowingclients’ current and target users’ needs. Add to this his tenacity for breakingdown technological boundaries, working around budget constraints andaggressive timelines, and you can see why ZehnerGroup and its clients are sofond of him.

Before rolling out a new DevOps tool, Chef, Duro personally executed adeep-dive research of the platform to create a best practice guide forZehnerGroup to help the team master the tool. He did this for his colleagues,before introducing the new program, to ensure that they had the supportneeded to make it a success. Implementing DevOps drastically reduced thetime the team required to ramp up new resources on a project. And, it’s helpedto reduce the time taken to deploy new work. The result is a happy team thatis able to focus more on adding value to clients’ products and less on the oncetimely task of deploying new code, or briefing new team members.

Duro is also well versed in a wide variety of project methodologies and bestpractices. An evangelist of Agile project management, one of his first initiativesat ZehnerGroup was to pioneer the use of this cutting edge process rolling outacross the organization. He ensured that adoption of the tools would be aneasy and seamless process for the team.

By introducing (and effectively and empathetically communicating) newtechnologies and leveraging best practices, while remaining flexible to experi-ment and discover more effective solutions, Duro has constructed a creativeenvironment where the company, and its people, can develop into the bestpossible versions of themselves.

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21 38_cio.qxp 6/12/2014 2:06 PM Page 25

GOVERNMENT CIO OF THE YEAR

JIM GREENCHIEF INFORMATION OFFICERLOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

JIM Green, CIO for the Los Angeles County Department of PublicHealth is primarily focused on managing the IT organizationand its people to ensure delivery of IT infrastructure, applica-tions and related services across Public health at the desired risk,service levels and within budget.

He reaches out to co-workers to help them feel more comfortablearound technology, providing solutions and building consensus. He hassucceeded in reducing redundancies while creating an efficient and IT-cen-tered environment.

Green has effectively aligned Public Health IT efforts with its variousbusiness units to deliver value, enable growth, and unlock the potential ofinformation technology. He has accomplished this alignment by restructur-ing the organization, instituting a winning strategy pertinent to key per-formance indicators and implementing proven business methodologies.

Under Green’s leadership, a new section was added to the IT organiza-tional structure that never existed before, Business Solutions. The in-housebusiness/technology experts serve as “consultants” to the Public Healthbusiness process owners, helping them to evaluate their operations and tolisten and understand their business challenges and opportunities andthen subsequently make improvement recommendations to these businessleaders. If the improvements have technology implications, these analystsare responsible for ensuring that the technology changes or additions areplanned and implemented correctly.

Green is increasingly working with non-IT colleagues, addressing issuessuch as business strategy, business process design and management, newproduct or service development, and compliance. He is also managingbusiness processes, such as shared services, product development, andoperation. He has implemented development processes, including prioriti-zation and continuous deployment to add structure to software changerequests and the order in which they’re processed. These processes concen-

trate on those efforts the organization believes will have the greatest valueto Public Health and its clients, the public.

Under Green’s leadership, Public Health IT has moved from beingviewed as merely infrastructure to a strategic business partner that drivesinnovation, fuels growth, and initiates change.


CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 Honorees

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Strengthening Lives for Purpose, Service, and Leadership

www.pepperdine.edu

PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY PROUDLY CONGRATULATES

JONATHAN SEEChief Information Officer

Los Angeles Business Journal’s CIO of the Year

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 HonoreesNON-PROFIT CIO OF THE YEAR

DAVID LAMCIO/CISOSTEPHEN S. WISE TEMPLE AND SCHOOLS

DAVID Lam, CIO/CISO for the Stephen S. Wise Temple andSchools is a strong advocate for coaching and mentoring oth-ers, both within and beyond his team. He is willing to takethe time to work on solutions for the entire organization,regardless of whether or not it involves any technology ele-

ments. He is someone that people on his team and on his peer team trust,and that skill through issues and problems in a strategic way.

Lam is constantly looking for ways to improve the organization’s opera-tion and works closely with executives to implement their programs in away that supports multiple missions. For example, using a Six Sigma BlackBelt methodology, Lam has worked with the organization’s Accounting,Communications and Center for Youth Engagement departments to workon business improvement projects that don’t necessarily involve technolo-gy. He constantly strives to be empathetic to the needs of other depart-ments and to meet their needs in the best possible way.

He communicates his strategic vision by meeting regularly with mem-bers of the leadership team. By gathering information on needs and cul-ture, he works to tailor the technology roadmap to specifically meet theneeds of the organization. Most recently, he has been working with theelementary school to reduce the total cost of IT systems and create ubiq-uitous wireless networking in preparation for 1:1 / bring-your-own-device computing.

He is also constantly looking for innovation in both managing his teamand in working with others. Two years ago, he installed a $750,000 phonesystem at zero net cost to the organization by creatively looking at thebudget and working with the vendor. Additionally, Stephen S. Wise wasone of the first religious schools in the country to offer remote learning,and is constantly implementing new and cutting-edge systems. Morerecently, Lam has been exploring the use of cloud technologies to lowerour cost of computing.

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CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 HonoreesCYBERSECURITY LEADER OF THE YEAR

DAN MEACHAMDIRECTOR, IT SECURITYTRIDENT USA HEALTH SERVICES

DIRECTOR of IT Security for Trident USA Health, Dan Meacham is a high-ly accomplished information security leader with more than 15 yearsof experience protecting information assets, risk management, inci-dent management and compliance management. He is recognized asa top contributor to the information security community through

support and advisory board membership at the University of Dallas, Texas A & MUniversity, UCLA Extensions and VHA.

Meacham’s enterprise-wide security and risk management strategies set the stan-dard for enterprise security operations in large public, private and not-for-profitorganizations. Meacham has managed domestic and international investigationteams and budgets. Some of his career highlights include developing a nationalinformation security architecture model for healthcare, CISO finalist for the UnitedNation’s World Health Organization (2006) and transforming a 32% PCI compli-ance program to 97% compliance in less than 12 months.

Moving to the Los Angeles area from Dallas in early 2010, Meacham beganbuilding on his legacy of community and industry involvement and quicklybecame engaged with the Los Angeles cybersecurity community. In 2010, Meachamwas one of four founding co-hosts to the Evanta Southern California ChiefInformation Security Officer Summit. This year’s 2014 CISO summit will beMeacham’s 5th year serving as a co-host and governing body member.

At Trident USA, he communicates his security programs to the leadership teamquarterly and leverages dashboards and metrics to help communicate his messages.

Meacham also supports Dr. Varaz Shahmirian and the UCLA Extension as anadvisory committee member for the UCLA Extension Certificate in InformationSecurity program. He also contributes time supporting Dr. Dan Manson of Cal PolyPomona with CyberWatch West as a National Visiting Committee member and theCyberDefense competitions. Leveraging Meacham’s connections, communityengagement, and position as the Director of Education for the local InformationSystems Security Association Los Angeles Chapter, he supports the expansion of theCyberDefense competitions, mentoring, and coaching of cybersecurity teams.

IT TEAM OF THE YEAR

JAMES CRAWFORD (TEAM LEADER)

REGIONAL CIO AND VICE PRESIDENT, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIAKAISER PERMANENTE

AS Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California Regional CIO andVice President, Jim Crawford and his executive team areresponsible for serving technology to more than 3.7 millionmembers in Southern California. Crawford leads the deliveryof information technology to more than 6,000 physicians

and 61,000 employees who work in 14 medical centers and nearly 200medical offices across Southern California. The team is responsible fordelivering value for almost $1 billion dollars in operating and investmentspend.

Crawford cultivates leadership through his team by empowering andgrooming his management staff for executive level roles. As regional CIO,Crawford leads a team of Area Information Officers (AIOs—very similarrole to CIOs, but at local facilities) who oversee the Kaiser Permanentelocal hospitals and medical office buildings. From this team of 11 AIOs,Crawford has provided two AIOs with interim Executive Director opportu-nities that resulted in the promotion of both candidates after serving inthe interim role.

This remarkable IT organization repeatedly demonstrates its ability todeliver large, multi-year investment programs on time and on budget.

One example is Kaiser Permanente’s general laboratory implementation.The $64 million dollar replaced the Kaiser Permanente Southern California(KPSC) legacy general laboratory system, which processes more than 60million laboratory tests annually. With roughly two-thirds of its 3.7 millionKP members having laboratory-based information in their electronic med-ical record, the team was tasked with top-notch collaboration and execu-tion among IT, the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, andKaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals. This collaboration includedsystem configurations, standardizing test menus, designing and building

interfaces, testing, training, user adoption, ensuring proper billing inter-faces, and deployment. The medical informatics team on the business sideworking in tandem with IT professionals is an example of Crawford and histeam’s ability to help blur the lines among business and IT professionals inthe name of delivering ‘best-in-class’ technology.

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www.MolinaHealthcare.com42044CORP0614

Congratulations Molina Healthcare congratulates Rick Hopfer as an honoree for

the Los Angeles Business Journal’s CIO of the Year Awards.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to growing the success of our organization through technology.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 HonoreesIT SERVICE PARTNER OF THE YEAR

CAL NET TECHNOLOGY GROUP

CAL Net Technology Group is unquestionably a leader in the ITServices Support market. This starts with their people and theirculture. Cal Net’s highly skilled team consists of some of thebest and most talented engineers in the Southern Californiaarea, trained in the technologies, systems and processes that

keep businesses running smoothly. Clients know that no matter the issueor the problem that Cal Net can handle it. This is just one of the reasonswhy, at an executive level, clients consider Cal Net to be a trusted partner.

The Lead Engineer is an extremely experienced senior systems engi-neer who has the added responsibility of making sure the Cal Net teamis running efficiently day-to-day. The Technology Manager is a virtualCIO for clients, making sure IT infrastructures are stable, secure and thateach client’s business is benefiting from the latest technology innova-tions. Whether it is disaster recovery or security management, clients canrely on the Cal Net Technology team to bring their organizations up tobest practices.

Cal Net invests heavily in its personnel to keep them up to date withthe latest technologies. They host admin training seminars, have a quar-terly training program, fund certification classes, as well as hold weeklyprofessional services meetings where they discuss the latest technologies

and how to best serve their clients. Employees attend monthly meetingsto get updates on company vision, training and cultivate company cul-ture where they give awards and provide incentives to staff in variouscreative forms.

Cal Net matches a remarkable level of systems expertise with a fanaticalattention to customer service. The senior members of the organization arealways accessible to clients should they have a question or concern, andthey make sure that Cal Net is going the extra mile for our group. Cal Nethas clearly earned a reputation for earning its business by doing the rightthing for their clients and their employees.

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KEVIN BOWMANCELLUPHONE

KEVIN Bowman has been with Celluphone for nearly10 years, during which time he has risen through theranks to his current position of CIO. As CIO, he man-ages infrastructure and business application systems ofthe $150 million company. He implemented the com-panywide ERP system (Microsoft Dynamics AX), whichhelped to increase productivity and ease of access toinformation for all employees as well as the Point ofSale as the business expanded from being a wholesalebusiness to a retail business.

Bowman’s implementation of Microsoft DynamicsAX increased efficiency by 50 percent. Employees nolonger needed to manually reconcile sales, inventory,and shipping records across various nonintegrated sys-tems. He also worked to enhance dealer and customerservice; Celluphone provides a great value in managingrebates and responding to individual customer requeststhanks to Bowman’s involvement in ensuring employ-ees are happy with and able to use the ERP system.

JOHN BUCCOLAWASH MULTIFAMILY LAUNDRY SYSTEMS

WHEN John Buccolajoined WASH in 2013,the privately ownedlaundry company wasexploding withgrowth and in direneed of an IT leaderwith the vision andskills to keep pacewith the company’sbreak-speed success.Just a mere 30 daysprior to the close ofthe largest interna-tional acquisition inthe company’s 67-year history, Buccolatook the reigns as

CIO of WASH. The timing was critical because, with-out strong IT leadership, growing pains could havecrippled WASH.

Buccola brought in process where there was none.He swiftly assessed the talent, upgraded where neces-sary and rebuilt WASH’s IT infrastructure to successful-ly handle massive expansion and international inte-gration. In the short time that Buccola has been CIOof WASH, he has demonstrated phenomenal leader-ship by successfully scaling the IT organization andinfrastructure for tremendous growth, while signifi-cantly improving operational efficiencies and func-tionality. All of this has dramatically strengthenedWASH’s competitive market position.

CHARLES CARMICHAELNAI CAPITAL

CHARLES Carmichael has been tasked with providing avast array of technology products and the attendanttraining and services to implement value for NAICapital as an enterprise. His leadership has been feltin all of the organization’s business operations. Hehas successfully refocused NAI Capital’s technologystrategy while positioning the company for growthwith improved and new technology services over thecoming years.

Carmichael’s revitalization program over the pastyear has successfully brought technology further to theforefront of the business. The company’s brokers andstaff know their requests, needs and desires are notonly appropriately addressed but also embraced. Thisimproves the overall working environment and acts asa recruiting tool to attract top-notch seasoned brokersand retaining staff members. By delivering personal-ized service quickly and efficiently, Carmichael hasestablished a reputation for competence and efficiencyamong the 300 consumers of technology serviceswithin the organization.

CHRISTIAN CASEBUNIM-MURRAY PRODUCTIONS

BUNIM-MURRAY is a unique environment with a produc-tion schedule that drives tight timelines, sends peopleacross the world to film shows, and creates huge ebbsand flows in staffing. Christian Case, the company’sCIO, is able to establish strong ties with the differentstake-holders in his different divisions and with theexecutives in the organization, by understanding theunique needs of the business and delivering solutionsthat make their lives easier.

Case is constantly communicating what projects areongoing and where projects are with both his IT teamand with the entire company. He truly views IT as anenabler and competitive advantage for Bunim-Murrayand is constantly looking for ways to improve systemsand process. Whether it is workflow solutions, scalabletelephone systems, or an infrastructure that support adistributed network of production specialists. He hasinternalized the unique requirement of Bunim-Murray’s business and is continuously architecting theIT infrastructure to address it.

PABLO DA SILVANEW HORIZONS COMPUTER LEARNINGCENTERS

PABLO Da Silva has worked hard to create an environ-ment where his employees are comfortable, happy andmost importantly, growing personally and profession-ally. All New Horizons of Southern California IT teammembers have free access to all of New Horizons’training offerings, and are encouraged to take advan-tage of them to develop themselves. As CIO for a tech-nology training company, Da Silva strongly believes inbeing on the cutting edge of technology. In additionto leading a successful business unit, he is a highly per-sonable leader.

In 2013, Da Silva made the decision in conjunctionwith his team to switch the organization from tradi-tional phone systems entirely over to a Microsoft Lyncenvironment. In addition to saving money for thecompany, this has helped employees across the boardby linking their phone systems with their email andOutlook calendars to help keep better organized andmore mobile.

RAY AUSTADSTEPHEN S. WISE TEMPLE AND SCHOOLS

RAY Austad has beeninvolved in the tech-nology field since1996. He joined theStephen S. WiseTemple and Schoolsteam in 2005, andhas recently beennamed DigitalCommunication andInformation SystemsManager. Since 2010,he has been involvedin numerous aspectsof the Stephen SWise Temple infor-mation security pro-gram and works to

make programs and systems both usable and assecure as possible. He also enthusiastically bringssecurity awareness to the IT team, staff, the schooland the synagogue community.

Austad is currently an active member of theInformation Systems Security Association Los Angeles,currently fulfilling the role of Security Evangelists, hav-ing previously served on its board for one year. He’sconsulted for the association and provided his expert-ise with web and digital marketing and communica-tion for their monthly meetings and annual summit.Ray is also a member of OWASP Los Angeles, and regu-larly attends InfoSec meetings and conferences.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 FINALISTS This year’s esteemed CIO of the Year finalists are arranged belowalphabetically by last name. Congratulations to all of the finalists!

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LORI GETZCYBER EDUCATION CONSULTANTS

SINCE 2004 Lori Getz has worked as an InstructionalTechnologist in Los Angeles. She has a Master of Arts inEducational Technology from San Diego StateUniversity and is certified by isafe.org as an InternetSafety Specialist. In 2008, she founded Cyber EducationConsultants and began speaking to students, parents,and educators about Internet safety, security and ethics.Since that time she has reached out to Internet usersacross the world. Her mission is simple — to helpbridge the gap between a young generation of digitalnatives and their parents and teachers.

Today, Cyber Education Consultants provides work-shops, professional development and consulting serv-ices to more than 100 schools across the country. Getzoften lectures live, speaking to parents, teachers andstudents. She has been published in several areasincluding as an online expert for momlogic.com,kidsinthehouse.com and most recently was featured inRachel Simmons’ new edition of “Odd Girl Out” andLucie Hemmen’s, PhD “Parenting a Teen Girl.”

RICHARD GREENBERGLOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OFPUBLIC HEALTH

COMPARED to manyother organizations,the amount of sensi-tive and personalinformation withinLA County PublicHealth (PH) is stagger-ing. The PH applica-tions, Internet, andIntranet, are constant-ly targeted with amultitude of attackmethodologies.

Richard Greenberghad a vision for anapplication securitymanagement solu-tion, and a training

solution to provide ongoing training for theApplication Development and the Security Office per-sonnel. This project was part of his larger initiative toimplement a Secure Application DevelopmentLifecycle in PH that would result in robust and compli-ant DPH software applications. The first component ofhis solution was to work closely with the ProjectManagement Office and Application DevelopmentDivision to integrate a Security Review Process into theproject conceptualization process and all subsequentphases of the software development lifecycle process.After processes were put in place, Greenberg purchasedand deployed both a static and dynamic scanner toscan source and compiled code.

CREIGHTON GRENOBLEASCENDANT SERVICES, INC

CREIGHTON Grenoblehas developed aremarkable trackrecord of being ableto formulate andunderstand businessobjectives and strate-gy, and then delivertechnical organiza-tions and solutionsthat meet those objec-tives. He has expertisemanaging large clientengagements andbuilding quality rela-tionships with clientsand is a seasoned pro-gram manager and

systems architect, with a broad background in infor-mation security, enterprise infrastructure and applica-tion development. He’s a successful consultant, execu-tive and entrepreneur who has repeatedly demonstrat-ed his ability to grow a practice, build long-term clientrelationships, lead teams, and operate a small business.

In 2002, he founded and began to lead Ascendant,a successful, information technology focused consult-ing firm. Clients are consistently satisfied and the firmthrives on follow-on work. Typically, engagementsinvolve Grenoble and Ascendant acting as an “exten-sion arm” of the CIO or IT Director, and often leadingmajor initiatives, such as enterprise-wide programs,large projects and improvements in the managementof innovation and operations.

VIC HERRERADTT SURVEILLANCE, INC.

AS soon as Vic Herreraassumed leadership ofthe DTT IT team, henot only transformedit, but established keymanagement stan-dards within thedepartment that haveproven to be signifi-cantly successful. Theteam’s productivityhas increased bothquantitatively andqualitatively. Hismanagement successis attributed to thefact that he hasachieved an unparal-

leled balance of stringency and empathy when dealingwith his team.

Herrera is adept at deciphering and comprehendingthe current (and assessing the future) technologicalneeds of the business. This is accomplished throughnumerous meetings and Q&A sessions with not justhis own department, but with other departments with-in the company. He meticulously crafts technologicalblueprints and roadmaps and when presenting theseto the rest of the organization, resolutely solicits feed-back and input and never fails to implement viableproposals and solutions from the company, assuringeveryone that their needs are met and their ideas arenot falling on deaf ears.

NATE HORBZ, LLP

NATE Ho’s philosophyon leadership comesin two parts. First andforemost, leading byexample is non-nego-tiable. He feels hecould never ask any-one to do anythingthat he would not dohimself, all of whichroots in humility. Itmay not necessarilybe worth his time toclear something assimple as a paper jam,but there is certainlyvalue in morale,social equity and

however slight reduction in administrative overheadby just taking care of it himself.

Ho believes it is important for an IT leader to allowroom for failures and mistakes. He believes that “fail-ures” may be an overly harsh word for what are essen-tially “teachable moments.” Allowing people to learnfrom their mistakes is one of the easiest and best waysto help them grow. Outside of his role at RBZ, Ho isalso a member of the ISSA’s Los Angeles chapter andparticipates in the monthly meetings to promote secu-rity awareness.

GINNY DAVISTECHNICOLOR

GINNY Davis managesTechnicolor’s world-wide informationtechnology services.She and her teamsupport 15,000 usersat 153 sites in 29countries. In her roleas Senior VicePresident, Davisserves all ofTechnicolor’s businessunits, including enter-tainment services,which includes HomeEntertainment, PostProduction, DigitalCinema and the

Digital Production – Visual Effect businesses. In addi-tion to the Entertainment Services business group, shealso supports the Set-top Box & Gateway business aswell as the robust Intellectual Property & Licensingbusiness divisions. She supports more than 100Technicolor customers, including all of the major stu-dios and the combined cable, satellite and telecommu-nication industries.

More than a manager, Davis is an innovative leader.She excels at “big picture” challenges like strategic clar-ity and the alignment of IT with Technicolor’s businessinterests, needs and realities. Multidimensional, shealso excels at the details; managing her relationshipswith staff, peers and management in collaborativewin-win-win ways.

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RAFI KHARDALIANMETACLOUD

METACLOUD’S businessis technology, so itsCTO is the chief offi-cer of a majority ofwhat the companydoes. Rafi Khardalianis constantly engagedwith the president,CEO, sales organiza-tion, and productorganization to makesure all of them areworking synergistical-ly to reach the organi-zation’s goals. He wasthe thought leaderwho first definedMetacloud’s product

offering and the one who has continually worked torefine what that product offering is and whatMetacloud does as a business.

Khardalian regularly shares the product pipelinewith the entire staff at all-hands meetings, andexplains which features his team has added and whythey’re important to customers. He is adept at under-standing the needs of his audience, and consequentlycommunicates at a more general level when speakingwith non-technical employees, saving the technicaldeep-dives for meetings with those who will under-stand it. He has a gift for making the most technicallyarcane subject matter easy to understand for anyone.

KEN KWANENGAGE: BDR

KENNETH Kwan is oneof the co-founders ofEngage: BDR. He dedi-cates himself to build-ing the technologyand business parts ofthe company fromthe ground up, so heunderstands very wellthat the tie betweenbusiness and technol-ogy is critical. Healways carefully evalu-ates the feasibility, riskand cost of every proj-ect from the businessside, and scheduleswith the team to

ensure the execution to meet business objectives andbudget. He loves critical thinking, which is requiredduring the planning of every major technical project.

Kwan stays in the forefront of cutting edge technol-ogy, also encourages engineers to digest new technolo-gy by participating in open source foundation, techni-cal global conferences, and collaboration with othertechnical companies in the industry. He sets up manycontests for engineers to solve real world business prob-lems, to incubate revenue generators/new businessmodels, and to inspire the rising of new technology tostand amongst all other competitors in the industry.

HOWARD MILLERL/B/W INSURANCE & FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC

HOWARD Miller is theDirector of the TechSecure Division atL/B/W Insurance &Financial Services. Heprovides risk manage-ment solutionsincluding completeinsurance programsfor a wide range oforganizations with afocus on technologyand media sectors. Heprovides additionalexpertise in the areaof technology relatedrisks such as intellec-tual property, infor-

mation security, professional services, technologyproducts and executive exposures. He is a CommunityOutreach Advisory Board Member for the InformationSystems Security Association of Los Angeles andhelped found a ProVisors Technology Group.

Miller holds CRM (Certified Risk Manager) and CIC(Certified Insurance Counselor) designations and hasworked in the insurance industry since 1996 andjoined L/B/W, where he is currently a Vice President,in 2004. He has also been on the advisory board of theInformation Systems Security Association of LosAngeles, driven by the organization’s work in beingthe voice of information security for the business andnon-profit community in Los Angeles.

CHRIS MULLENRETIREMENT HOUSING FOUNDATION

CHRIS Mullen, Retirement Housing Foundation’sDirector of Information Technology Services, is one ofthose rare individuals who came up through the ranks,learning every aspect of the business as he rose fromboth a technical perspective and a business perspec-tive. He has experience in all areas, from clerical tomanagement, and is able to apply that experience tohelp him relate to the various departments within theRHF culture, bringing together groups with differentpriorities and agendas.

He recently created a Steering Committee to workwith the heads of each department to make sure hehas a clear idea of their issues and that they have athorough understanding of why he is recommendingcertain solutions and how these solutions will beimplemented. He is frank and open with all depart-ments, and encourages feedback and input on everymajor decision so that stakeholders feel that they arepart of the decision process.

DR. SHAHZAD MUNAWWAREN POINTE TECHNOLOGIES

DR. ShahzadMunawwar is a strongadvocate of keepingpace with industryinnovation, and assuch, he ensures thathis team has a clearunderstanding ofteam and companygoals, as well as theoverall direction ofthe industry. Clearcommunication, effi-cient decision-makingand defining account-ability/ownership forassigned tasks defineDr. Munawwar’s lead-

ership style. He is a mentor who believes in enhancingthe skill set of his team, in order to not only benefitthe organization, but also foster individual growth.The divisional managers at En Pointe look up to Dr.Munawwar for career counseling and advice on howto excel in their respective roles.

Dr. Munawwar’s extensive industry knowledge, abil-ity to gauge customer needs, and a modest, amiabledemeanor make him a vital player in managing themost critical business-to-business relationships at EnPointe. He champions the importance of maintainingstrong relationships and collaborating with partners,vendors, and customers.

RICK HOPFERMOLINA HEALTHCARE, INC.

RICK Hopfer, CIO ofMolina Healthcare, isresponsible for estab-lishing the company’sstrategic technologydirections by leadingthe IT Organizationto align technologyobjectives, operations,programs, and invest-ments around Molinabusiness objectives.Improving qualityand efficiency of ITdelivered of servicesreduces annual opera-tional expenses leav-ing more of the annu-

al budget to provide for members. Along with estab-lishing Molina’s new Service and EnterpriseArchitecture programs, Hopfer reorganized otheraspects of his leadership team. Core IT services acrossthe company have been consolidated, gaining opera-tional efficiencies while creating tighter alignmentwith each of Molina’s unique lines of business.

Hopfer possesses a strong leadership focus that res-onates and inspires his entire team. He focuses on thefact that technology serves as the foundation andenabler of all healthcare solutions that Molina pro-vides. In turn, employees are clear on the mission ofthe team, their importance in the process, and canfocus on fulfilling the company’s needs.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 FINALISTS

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Join us as we honor the 2014 Nonprofit and Corporate Citizenship Award NomineesSusan Abrams, Happy Trails for KidsLeticia Aguilar, Union BankChristian Ahumada, Clifford Beers Housing, Inc. Rev. Andy Bales, Union Rescue MissionCharles Belk, I Will Make You A Star ProductionsDaniel Berman, Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman LLPTony Berns & Jake Kaufman, The Guardians of the Los Angeles Jewish HomeChanel Boutakidis, Five AcresRobbie Brenner, Relativity MediaSteve Brockmeyer, Bolton & CompanyLester Brown, Perkins Coie LLPVince Bryson, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern CAMarisol Camelo, South East Women’s OrganizationCancer Support Community of Redondo Beach, Hirschberg Foundation & Livestrong, Tour De PierNeil Carrey, Baker & Hostetler, LLPMike Chen, Kaufman, Schmid, Villaluna, Chen & Mullen LLPMegan Chernin, The LA Fund for Public EducationSteven Chroman, Esq., Chroman LawTamara Craver, The Posse FoundationMayer Dahan, Dahan Properties/Dream Builders ProjectRemi De La Rocha, AltaMed Health Services CorporationDixie Dohrmann, Christian Outreach In ActionSeth Eklund, PF Bresee FoundationMary Emmons, Children’s Institute Inc. Lydia Floyd, Hands for HopeSusan Galeas, Alzheimer’s Association, California Southland ChapterAdam Garone, The Movember FoundationArbi Ghazarian MD, Glendale Community Free Health ClinicPatricia Giggans, Peace Over ViolenceJackie Goldberg, Senior Star PowerJay Goldinger, Food on FootAmy Grat, International Trade Education ProgramsRobin Greenberg, Beverly Hills Greater Los Angeles Association of RealtorsRobert Greggs II, DDS & Delwin McCarthy, DDS, The Institute of Advanced Laser DentistryDr. Jay Grossman, Homeless Not ToothlessDaniel Grunfeld, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLPMichael Hackman, Hackman Capital PartnersRich Haluschak, Art Center College of Design/The Design AcceleratorStephen Henning, Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman LLPJason Hill, Young WarriorsJim Hodgson & Sandra Baker, Down Syndrome Association of Los AngelesLee Hutter, JP Morgan ChaseRyan Iwamoto, 24 Hour HomeCareKen Jones, Woodbury UniversityStan Kasten, Los Angeles DodgersDan Kearney, KROQ-FMMichael Kelley, Sidley Austin LLPKathy Kellogg Johnson, Kellogg Garden ProductsSkye Kelly, Heal One World

Patricia Kennedy, Step Up 4 VetsDarlene Kiyan, Break the CycleDeborah Klar, Klar & AssociatesLarry Laboe, NewFilmmakers Los AngelesVictoria Lanier, Education Through Music—Los AngelesEdward Lodgen Esq., Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLPLong Beach Rescue Mission Team, Long Beach Rescue MissionKarl Lott, Holland & Knight LLPMaribel Marin, 211 LA CountySteven Markoff, ProCon.orgElyse Mayberry, Cats at the StudioMary McDonnell, Greater Los Angeles Association of Legal AdministratorsSteve McFarland, Better Business BureauLaura McHolm, NorthStar Moving CompanyRon McNeill, Powered By Youth Foundation, Inc. Bruce Nelson, Glendale Adventist Medical CenterRobert Newman, Independent Film & Television AlliancePatrick Niemann, Ernst & Young LLPStephen Peck, US VETSStacy Phillips, Phillips Lerner, A Law CorporationMatthew Plocher, Northwestern Mutual Los AngelesC.N. Franklin Reddick III, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLPMari Riddle, Centro Latino for LiteracyJames Rishwain, Jr., Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw PittmanStanford & Adrienne Rubin, Loeb & LoebJames Rushton, Western LA County Council, Boy ScoutsJane Sacarro, Camp KesemMegan Schnaid, The Guardians of the Los Angeles Jewish HomeRandy Schwab, Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los AngelesDonald Schwarz, RBC Wealth Management, The Tailored Portfolio Management GroupMatthew Scibilia, Team AMVETSVivian Siegel, Jewish Vocational ServicesMarchelle Sellers, Mending Kids InternationalKim Sentovich, WalmartMartine Singer, Para Los NinosMark Stagen, Emerald Health Services, Youth Business AllianceJaneen Steel, Learning Rights Law CenterMary Jane Stevenson, City Year Los AngelesBrian Tompkins, 360 Degree Solutions/ Weingart Center AssociationJoe Torre & Ali Torre, Joe Torre Safe at Home FoundationThomas Vozzo, Homeboy IndustriesRichard Walden, Operation USATony Walker, St. Anne’s Fred Walti, Los Angeles Cleantech IncubatorNicole Weinstock & Nuri Amanatullah, Housing Corporation of AmericaRobert Weiss, XPRIZE Foundation, Inc. Booker White, BTW ProductionsMinda Wilson, Affordable Healthcare ReviewClaire Wineland, Claire’s Place Foundation, Inc. John Wordin, Ride 2 RecoveryTony Yanow, Golden Road BrewingLisa Young, The Rescue Train

REGISTER TO ATTEND!AWARDS LUNCHEONWednesday, June 25, 2014 • 11:00am-1:30pm

The L.A. Hotel Downtown333 S Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071

Individual tickets: $75 / Corporate table of 10: $650

For more information, please call Mary Kaminski at 323.549.5225 ext. 213or email [email protected]

HOSTED BY:GOLD SPONSOR:

Five Acres Moss Adams LLP

PLATINUM SPONSORS:PRESENTING SPONSOR:

21 38_cio.qxp 6/12/2014 2:07 PM Page 33


RAJ RAJKOTIANEXTGEN TM, LLC

RAJ Rajkotia, as a sen-ior IT executiveleader, has workedand managed largeteams at Toyota,Westfield, Bank ofAmerica and GeneralMotors. Learning bestpractices from theselarge organizations,he has built NextGenTM and applied leanstrategies to helpclients leverage tech-nology. His companyand team specializesin a new wave of dis-ruptive technologies

such as Social, Mobile, Analytics (Big Data) and Cloud.Rajkotia has consistently provided transformative

strategies and consulting services to client companies since2005. He has a strong background in Finance andTechnology Management that has helped companiestransform and currently they are an emerging TechnologyStartup Incubator Company for the Los Angeles region.Rajkotia and NextGenTM have incubated several startupsand have successfully launched FundDreamer, a next gen-eration Crowd Funding Company focused on empower-ing women entrepreneurship and causes. He is an innova-tive thinker always looking to generate business efficien-cies, drive business growth and attain competitive busi-ness advantages through use of technologies and innova-tive processes.

RICHARD RANDLEMBSG

AS outsourced CIO,Richard Randle helpsIT technicians com-municate in the lan-guage of business —costs, benefits, risks,and return on invest-ment. With an inter-nal team of IT consult-ants, he oversees over60 IT professionals ashis clients. He is chiefstrategist, coach, andescalation resource.Basically, when ITtechnicians are stuck,they call Randle.

Randle is particu-larly adept at achieving collaboration in tense situa-tions where various technical experts present conflict-ing recommendations. He and his consulting team atMBSG design and support systems in-the-cloud, on-the-ground, and blended. The winds of technology areblowing in the direction of cloud, mobile and security,and Randle helps clients harness these forces anddeploy emerging technologies within budget con-straints. Randle reminds the IT experts he oversees thatjust because a technology works and is affordable, doesnot necessarily mean it is the right answer to underly-ing needs of their business. He helps his team under-stand the reasons behind any new technology.

NAVDEEP REDDYENPLUG

AT Enplug, NavdeepReddy communicateshis technology plansand business valuethrough the organiza-tion by constant edu-cation. Every memberof the company isexpected to have ahigh level under-standing of the tech-nology used.Individual projectmanagers are encour-aged to perform theirown research on tech-nology solutions andsuggest superior

choices to the incumbent solutions. The process madein making technology decisions is always clearly laidout by Reddy and his team and critiques are not onlyallowed, but expected.

Creative thinking is promoted and fostered byReddy via extremely high levels of cross companycommunication. A high level of understanding of thecore product companywide produces a fertile environ-ment for innovation. Processes are improved, new fea-tures are developed, and issues are resolved by this per-sistent collaborative interchange – directly impactingbusiness efficiency positively for increased revenuegeneration and high levels of agility that is a signifi-cant competitive advantage in an industry whichadheres to ‘traditional paradigms.’

HOVIG SAFOIANSADA SYSTEMS, INC

HOVIG Safoian co-founded SADASystems in 2000based upon the beliefthat technology canempower people totransform their world.Safoian led SADA’smanaged IT servicespractice, which pro-vided both on-siteand remote IT sup-port, and oversaw theaddition of servicesand solutions to aug-ment the productsthat SADA resellstoday, including

Microsoft and Google cloud technologies. Today,SADA Systems is committed to the development ofcutting-edge solutions for market-leading technologies.

In accordance with this mentality, Safoian recentlyoversaw the revamp of SADA Systems InfrastructureManaged Services practice, which adheres to industrybest practices and allows SADA’s on-premises clientbase to continue to take advantage of a completelymodernized managed services offering. The infrastruc-ture, deployment and engineering teams Safoian man-ages actively participate in the conception and cre-ation of services and solutions, and are activelyengaged in customer deployment projects and the go-to-market process for those tools and services.

MEGAN SAVAGETECH SAVAGE

ONE of the thingsMegan Savage of TechSavage does is encour-age clients to thinkoutside the box intheir solutions.Instead of approach-ing a business issuewith a specific solu-tion in mind, Savagechallenges them tofully define the prob-lem and businessneed first, beforedeciding on a solu-tion. By fully analyz-ing and mapping abusiness problem or

business processes, Savage and her team are able touncover more areas where efficiency can be improvedthan they may have initially focused on, and thenbrainstorm how a combination of technology andbusiness process changes can address each issue, basedon budget and priorities.

Savage has also found that Kaizen sessions can bevery useful tools to involve the business in definingtheir current process and pain points, creatively collab-orating on short and long term solutions, and owningthe results of the implementation.

SHANE O’NEILLSWAGBUCKS

SHANE O’Neill joinedSwagbucks in 2013 toeffectively organizeand commandeer thecompany’s existingtechnology and prod-uct teams. Arriving toa talented yet some-what fragmentedteam structure, he hasimplemented a diver-sified engineeringstrategy allocatingwell-balanced devel-opment resources toeach company prod-uct and new offering.To maximize efficien-

cy and increase returns on company investment intechnical product creation and engineering, O’Neill hasoverseen technical accountability programs to monitorperformance, functionality and intuitive workflow.

O’Neill has worked diligently to not only under-stand but truly embody the values that makeSwagbucks’ technology team an invaluable resource tothe company’s overall business – and the culture thatdrives its inspiration. Responsible for building a teamstructure and implementing quality leadership, he hassought to refine the team’s work to better serve thecompany’s advertisers and clients – ultimately increas-ing bottom line revenue and driving technology toserve overall business interests and growth.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 FINALISTS

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STAN STAHLCITADEL INFORMATION GROUP

STAN Stahl, Ph.D. isthe President ofCitadel InformationGroup. A pioneer inthe field of informa-tion security, Dr. Stahlentered the field in1980. Earlier in hiscareer he secured tele-conferencing at theWhite House, databas-es inside CheyenneMountain and thecommunications net-work controlling thenation’s nuclearweapons arsenal.

Dr. Stahl excels athelping his clients develop and implement informationsecurity management strategies consistent with theirunique information security responsibilities, their busi-ness realities and their cultural circumstances. He hasthat rare gift of being able to describe the complexities ofinformation security in a way that makes sense to real-world non-technical business professionals. Dr. Stahl hasserved as President of ISSA-LA — the Los AngelesChapter of the Information Systems Security Association— since 2008 and is the creator of the Chapter’s It Takesthe Village to Secure the Village program.

RENEE TRANPARSONS

RENEE Tran’s leadershiphas been instrumentalin transitioning theParsons’ IT focus fromthe back office to thefront lines. She hasbrought a vision foraccelerating businessline growth throughtechnology-inspiredservices. These includean increasing empha-sis on Parsons’ salessupport; facilitatingservice deliveryimprovementsthrough automation;applying innovative

use of technology to solve client problems; and grow-ing, protecting, and leveraging intellectual property.

Tran’s Business & Technology Solutions group iscomprised of an eclectic team of multi-dimensionalthinkers and problem solvers. Her vision is for theteam to contribute directly to project proposals,demonstrate great client rapport through a willingnessto dive into the trenches, and to excel at the funda-mentals of project management. She leads by exampleand focuses on eliminating obstacles for the team toachieve objectives. Her trusted advisers are encouragedto look beyond the norm, take calculated risks, build anetwork of reach-back talents, and partner strategicallyto achieve their missions.

DIMITRY SLABYAKECHOTECH GROUP

DIMITRY Slabyak fos-ters an environmentof learning andimprovement foreach memberthroughout his teamat EchoTech Group,where leadership isbuilt with the follow-ing principles: leadingby example and theprinciple that everyemployee is part ofthe team. Slabyak ispassionate aboutwhat he does and itshows in how willinghe is to strive for his

own (as well as his team’s) improvement. Under Slabyak’s stewardship, EchoTech Group’s

close business relationships allow for a very specialbond where ideas and communication seem to flowwith maximum efficiency. This allows for a tighterproject execution and expectations being met, withoutthe excess of unnecessary managerial and accountsstaff. The clients that EchoTech Group typically takeson allow them to work within their philosophy andframework, which is “taking a very personal approachto each client in sharing ideas, strategies, and expertiseto manage expectations and deliver integrated prod-ucts for the B2B and B2C landscapes.”

Get it as it Happens.Local Business News from Your Local Business Source.

News & Reports @LABJnewsEvents, Awards & Promotions @LABJcommunity

Congratulations!

Los Angeles Business Journal 2014 CIO/CTO Awards Winners

Nonprofi t CIODavid Lam, CISSP

CIO/CISO, Stephen S. Wise TempleVice President, ISSA-LA

Cybersecurity Leader of the YearDan Meacham

Director, IT Security, Trident USA Health ServicesFormer Director – ISSA-LA

CIO/CTO NomineesStan Stahl, PhD

President, Citadel Information GroupPresident, ISSA-LA

Richard Greenberg, CISSPISO, LA County Department of Public Health

Vendor Director, ISSA-LA

David GirdnerNetwork Engineer, Antropy, Inc

Former Director, ISSA-LA

Ray Austad, CISSPInformation Security Consultant, Farmers Insurance

Former Board Member, ISSA-LA

Brad MarymanPresident, Maryman & Associates

Community Outreach Advisory Board Member, ISSA-LA

Howard Miller, CRM, CICVice President, L/B/W Insurance & Financial Services, Inc.Community Outreach Advisory Board Member, ISSA-LA

ISSA-LA’s core belief is that ‘It takes the village to secure the village’ SM

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MIKE VILLEGASK3DES

MIKE Villegas is Vice President for K3DES, LLC aPayment Card Industry Qualified Security Assessor(PCI QSA) firm. He is responsible for performing infor-mation security assessments for PCI DSS, generatingReports of Compliance and Reports of Validation forPCI assessments and PCI payment applications, respec-tively. He also provides information security consult-ing to clients related to security solution, InformationSecurity Due Diligence, FFIEC examinations, ISO-27002, GLBA, and HIPAA.

Villegas brings to K3DES more than 30 years ofexperience in IT audit, risk management and informa-tion security. He is a recognized leader in each of thesefields and has been active in local chapters respective-ly. Villegas is in high demand for lectures at key pro-fessional organizations such as Information SystemsAudit & Control Association (ISACA), Institute ofInternal Auditors (IIA), CA-World, OWASP, VanguardSecurity Expo, and the Information Systems SecurityAssociation (ISSA).

ANDREW WAAGERETENTION SCIENCE

ANDREW Waage has a passion for data and machinelearning. He incorporates many cutting edge tools intothe Retention Science backend such as Ruby, Rails,PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, MongoDB, Cassandra,Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Cloud, machinelearning, and data mining, to name a few. He alsoseamlessly translates the company’s technical structurewith outside eCommerce CMO’s that are currentlyusing Retention Science.

One of the reasons why Waage is so effective is thathe consistently takes a thirty thousand foot view ofwhat technology is needed by today’s ecommerce retail-ers. He anticipates what problems Retention Science’stechnology can help solve for retailers allowing thecompany to deliver the best services to its clients. Also,under his technological stewardship, the roadmap foradditional features and backend necessary to accom-plish a continual build out has been effectively collabo-rative between the data science team, the engineer teamand the needs of Retention Science’s clients.

PHILLIP WALKERNETWORK SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

PHILIP Walker is thetype of CIO that leadsby example. He has agreatly skilled teamthat he works withand he has no prob-lem doing the minis-cule tasks to get thejob done. Walkerunderstands theimportance of detailand instills that in histeam working withthem on every taskfrom beginning toend. He encouragesnew and innovativeideas and is encourag-

ing with his employees come up with ideas that areout of the box.

Under Walker’s stewardship, Network SolutionProviders , this past year, NSP launched a full-scaleturnaround to elevate its business performance anddeliver greater value to all of its clients during thistime of change. They have actively created a more val-ued and successful NSP, with a commitment to collab-oration, innovative offerings and outstanding serviceto their customers. This is partly due to walker’s insis-tence of giving customers all the info they need to runtheir business and be successful.

LINCOLN WALLENDREAMWORKS ANIMATION

LINCOLN Wallen isresponsible for thedesign, implementa-tion, successful opera-tion and overall tech-nical direction ofDreamWorksAnimation technolo-gy initiatives. Underhis leadership,DreamWorksAnimation wasnamed to the 50 MostInnovativeCompanies list inMIT’s TechnologyReview by demon-strating creative,

effective management in inventing and deployingtechnology within the company. Wallen was able toaccomplish this because of his strategic direction and aworld-class technology team. He supports and encour-ages the generation of ideas and forward thinkingfrom his team, propelling DreamWorks Animation tobe at the highest quality of animated content creation.

One of Wallen’s key goals is to make the technolo-gy development and innovations at DreamWorksAnimation more visible in the wider technology worldand to other businesses in other markets. This requiresthat all employees understand the direction andimpact of technology efforts. He is the studio’s tech-nology ambassador and works to determine the mostoptimal balance between extended capabilities andbottom-line efficiency gains.

DAVID WATTSNETFUSION, INC.

NETFUSION’S CIO,David Watts is verydetail oriented andincredibly thorough,and ensures that hisclients’ expectationsare aligned with hisown and those of histeam. He places spe-cial emphasis on clearcommunication. Hefocuses first on clari-fying and articulatingthe client’s businessobjectives. Secondly,he lays out for theclients how technolo-gy can best accom-

plish those objectives along with the pros and cons ofeach choice. He works to perform all of this within thecontext of the client’s specific objectives, infrastruc-ture, budget, and compliance requirements.

Another strength that Watts exhibits is his long-standing business relationships, not only with clients,but with his connections within the industry and out-side his industry throughout Los Angeles. Watts sup-ports the growth of other businesses through hisinvolvement in Provisors, a network of business pro-fessionals and advisors, and through collaborationwith other IT related vendors.

CARL TRUDELUSAMP, INC.

CARL Trudel extendsbeyond the tradition-al CTO role. Hemakes it his missionto not only focus onand solve the keytechnical problemsuSamp faces, but healso has a vestedinterest in buildingproduct solutions thatwill bring value touSamp’s clients. Hismain mottos of “Howcan we do better?”and “What makes usuniquely differentfrom our competi-

tion?” inspire continued success and innovation, andthis attitude permeates through to the rest of the exec-utive team.

uSamp is first and foremost a technology company,but Trudel’s technology plan extends beyond theneeds of the technology side of the organization to thecompany’s business strategy as well. His plan ensuresthat the technology systems are set up for major scaleand flexibility. Therefore, he supports the collectivecompany vision to not only remain focused on imme-diate needs but also maintain a forward-lookingapproach to prepare for where the company may needto be in the next 2-3 years.

CIOs OF THE YEAR

2014 FINALISTS

21 38_cio.qxp 6/12/2014 4:51 PM Page 36


The Los Angeles Business Journal congratulatesthe 2014 CIO/CTO Awards Nominees:

David AlexanderLos Angeles Department

of Water and Power

Andrew AnvariFusion Storm

Ray AustadStephen S. Wise Temple and Schools

John BealeCity National Bank

Kevin BowmanCelluphone

John BuccolaWASH Multifamily Laundry Systems

Cal Net Technology Group

Charles CarmichaelNAI Capital

Christian CaseBunim-Murray Productions

James CrawfordKaiser Permanente

Pablo Da SilvaNew Horizons

Computer Learning Centers

Ginny DavisTechnicolor

Adam DuroZehnerGroup

Michael ForoutanUNICI

Todd FriedmanMattel

Lori GetzCyber Education Consultants

David GirdnerAntropy

Jim GreenLos Angeles County

Department of Public Health

Richard GreenbergLos Angeles County

Department of Public Health

Creighton GrenobleAscendant Services, Inc.

Scott HennonCity National Bank

Vic HerreraDTT, Inc.

Nate HoRBZ LLP

Rick HopferMolina Healthcare, Inc.

Bernie HowroydAppleone

Rafi KhardalianMetacloud

Ken KwanEngage: BDR

David LamStephen S. Wise Temple and Schools

Jason LidowThe Digitrust Group

Brad MarymanMaryman & Associates

Dan MeachamTrident USA Health Services

Howard MillerL/B/W Insurance

Christopher MullenRetirement Housing Foundation

Dr. Shahzad MunawwarEn Pointe Technologies

Shane O’NeillSwagbucks

Raj RajkotiaNextGen TM, LLC

Richard RandleMBSG

Navdeep ReddyEnplug

Hovig SafoianSADA Systems

Cheryl SantorMetropolitan Water District

Megan SavageTech Savage

Jonathan SeePepperdine University

Hersel ShoumerLA Networks

Dimitry SlabyakEchoTech Group

Mark SmithNigro Karlin Segal

Feldstein & Bolno, LLC

Stan StahlCitadel Information Group

Paul SunokEntisys Solutions, Inc.

Renee TranParsons

Carl TrudeluSamp

Mike VillegasK3DES

Andrew WaageRetention Science

Philip WalkerNetwork Solutions Provider

Lincoln WallenDreamWorks Animation

David WattsNetFusion, Inc.

21 38_cio.qxp 6/12/2014 2:07 PM Page 37


CIOs OF THE YEAR 2014 EVENT SCENE

Over 260 attendees were on hand at the event, held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles on June 11th.

21 38_cio.qxp 6/12/2014 4:51 PM Page 38

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