Memphis Chapter - Society for Information Management
Quarterly Newsletter  |  2013, Vol 3 
About the Newsletter
The Quarterly Newsletter provides an overview of SIM Memphis Chapter news, upcoming meetings, events, and location community outreach programs.
Executive Summary
Strategy Series
The Strategy Series concluded on September 11th at the Hilton Memphis. This year's event raised over $20,000 in funds towards the chapter's outreach programs. With over 120 attendees and keynote speakers that included LT General Honorē, Chris Roberts - founder of One World Labs, and Bob Friday - CTO of Cisco Systems Wireless Networking, the conference was an overall success... more>>
Membership News
The Memphis chapter just keeps growing!  We grew by 10 members in the last quarter and now are at 99 members! 
Who will be our record-breaking number 100?

 

Welcome New Members!

Community Outreach


SIM Awards $6,000 in STEM Grants

SIM made grant awards to two local organizations working to advance STEM initiatives in Memphis. The Memphis Public Library Foundation will receive $3,500 to sponsor a one-day programming workshop for 50 students called "Black Girls Code" at the Library's Whitehaven branch.  Rhodes College will receive $2,500 to help fund a student-led program called Science Saturdays...more>>


 

Teen Tech Camper Recognized for returning as Instructor

Former Teen Tech camper and chronic volunteer Walid Hamedeh was recognized during the SIM Strategy Series for returning to the 2013 program as an instructor. Ever since his participation in 2009, Walid has volunteered with the program and this year, he returned as an instructor...more>>


 

Strategy Series
by Jim Boyd & Jarrett Morgan
Strategy_SeriesStrategy Series concluded at the Hilton Memphis with 140 participants
By Kevin Morgan

 

The Chapter concluded its 27th annual meeting on Wednesday, September 11, which focused on bringing together SIM membership and local IT executives for networking, education, and the Chapter's philanthropic interests. This year's event was attended by over 140 executives and raised over $20,000 in funds towards the Chapter's Community Outreach programs.

 

During the session, Outreach Chair, Dennis Norton and President, Della Adams announced two newly introduced STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) grants which were awarded to Rhodes College for $2,500 and the Memphis Library Foundation for $3,500...more in Community Outreach>>> 

 

The event highlighted the focus on all proceeds funding the Chapter's existing annual outreach programs which will impact over 500 students in 2013 around the Memphis community.

  • Career Technology Day at the University of Memphis
  • Career Panels and Job Shadowing at Hutchison, Immaculate Conception, St. Agnes and St. Mary's Schools
  • Build a Computer at Hutchison Center for Excellence
  • Teen Technology Camps at the Memphis Public Library and Hutchison Center for Excellence
  • Participation by its members in the MILE - Memphis Institute for Leadership Education program at the University of Memphis.  
  • The chapter's Gary Lasko Annual Memorial Endowed Scholarship Fund at University of Memphis and James Robinson Memorial Endowed Scholarship Fund at LeMoyne Owen College

With a continued history in giving back to the community, the participants found themselves together with like minded executives learning and networking, focused on technology and business issues affecting the local community. This year's event brought together headline speakers such as:

  • LT General Honorē of the US Army known for his work with hurricane Katrina, his no nonsense attitude and "Don't Get Stuck on Stupid" common sense approach to problems
  • Chris Roberts, ex-hacker and founder of One World Labs and his comfort breaking presentation on Data Leakage and information vulnerability

and

  • Bob Friday CTO of Cisco Wireless Networking with a message on molding your Mobile Network into a strategic asset for your business. This was followed by break-outs targeted at leadership and growth.

The program also included breakout sessions that included "the under 30" workforce, change management, cloud computing strategies, social media, project management, big data, user authentication, business intelligence, and leadership principles.

Membership_NewsMembership News
by Susan Caldwell

The Memphis chapter just keeps growing!  We grew by 10 members in the last quarter and are now at 99 members!  Who will be our record-breaking number 100?   As one of the earliest chapters formed, Memphis has always lived up to our city's and state's heritage as entrepreneurs and volunteers.  Our chapter continues to lead the way in innovation.   All our members excel in every aspect of their careers and serve as great role models for the IT profession.  Read on!

New_MembersNew Members!

 

 

Dave Barger

CEO, LunaWeb

An entrepreneur and technophile, Dave is dedicated to supporting and promoting Memphis' growing tech community. Dave is the CEO of LunaWeb (a web development company), a founder of LaunchMemphis and GEEKmemphis and the Interactive Expedition. Deemed a "Digital guru" by The Commercial Appeal, he shares his vision of business strategies and tools of the Web with entrepreneurs and established companies in and beyond the Memphis region.

 

Kathy Eikenberg

Sr. Director of IT Business Operations and Governance, ServiceMaster

 

 

Tony Fischer, 

Director of Information Technology, City of Germantown

Tony has over 20 years experience in the technology sector.  He currently serves as the Director of Information Technology and a Key Business Executive for the City of Germantown.  Prior to serving with the City, Tony led the Global IT Service Delivery organization for the Americas region at Medtronic.  He also was the chairman of the Medtronic Information Technology Operations Committee which set worldwide standards for software and hardware solutions for the company's 45,000 employees.

 

Tony also serves as a Communication Specialist for FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue program where he has provided technical expertise at many of the nation's largest disasters and  has been a Reserve Firefighter for over 25 years. His combination of technology and emergency services experience provides a unique insight into the business continuity needs of organizations.

 

Tony holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Memphis and a masters degree in Technical Management from the University of Phoenix.  He has also completed the Executive Education Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

  

 

Clay Kearney

Manager IT Services and Support, ACH Food Companies

Clay serves as Manager of IT Services and Support for ACH Food Companies, leading teams responsible for the company's network, servers, firewall, PC support, and help desk.  With more than 20 years of IT experience, Clay has led various projects in infrastructure, ecommerce, and development.

 

   

Don Kwasigroh

Director IT, FedEx Services

Don is Director, IT within the Enterprise Foundational Services organization. In this role, he is responsible for the overall development and deployment of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications across the enterprise and customer-facing systems domains. 

 

Prior to joining FedEx in 2003, Don held positions with several local organizations including Artaban Solutions, The Mallory Group, Ideal Chemical & Supply Company, and Wang's International. Don holds an Executive MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Union University.

 

 

Ken Robison

Director IT Business Process Management, ACH Food Companies

Ken is the Director of IT Business Process Management for ACH Food Companies.  ACH Food Companies market, sell and manufacture a premier branded portfolio of cooking oils, spices and seasonings, baking ingredients and foodservice brands in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico.  Some of their brands include Mazola® oil, Spice Island®, Durkee®, Tone's® and Weber® spices, Fleischmann's® yeast and Karo® corn syrup. 

 

In his current role, Ken is responsible for leading business process management projects and evaluating core business systems to increase organizational effectiveness.  He also partners with the ACH Leadership Team and key business process owners to identify strategic opportunities for systems and process improvement across the organization. 

 

Ken began his 23 year IT career as a support analyst and developer at Great Western Consumer Finance Group and International Paper.  He joined ACH Food Companies as a developer and later moved into a business analyst position before transitioning into a management role leading a Business Analysts team.  Ken has a B.S. in Business Administration with a minor in Management Information Systems from the University of Tennessee.

 

Randy Simpson

V.P. Information Technology, Education Realty Trust

 

 

Jay Tomasello

Managing Director Enterprise Customer, FedEx Services

Jay serves as Managing Director of the Enterprise Customer organization at FedEx Services and is currently charged with delivering customer information capabilities for all FedEx operating companies.  During his time at FedEx, Jay also led the shipping services development team delivering on large corporate initiatives supporting FedEx's e-commerce offerings and leading a large software transformation effort. 

 

Prior to joining FedEx, Jay served as a Director at the tech startup Verified Person, which was started by former Apple CEO John Sculley.  At the startup, Jay was responsible for development oversight of all revenue generating applications, led a SOA transformation of customer facing systems and contributed significantly to leading the company towards profitability.  Jay has Bachelor of Computer Science and Master of Business Administration degrees from University of Memphis.  

  

  

Jim Wardrop

Chief Enterprise Architect, ServiceMaster

Jim Wardrop is the Chief Enterprise Architect with ServiceMaster. Jim has wide-ranging experiences providing global business and technology leadership. His technology background includes; strategic sourcing, global outsourcing, technology evolution roadmaps and significant organizational transition activities.

Prior to ServiceMaster, Jim led the Strategy and Planning discipline for Nissan North America, where his responsibilities included IT, Data Center, consolidation logistics and e-Business services.  Jim spent more than 15 years in the engineering and manufacturing areas of Ford Motor Company in Detroit MI. A few of his responsibilities included: Computer Aided Design,  IT Systems and Services for manufacturing and IT supplier performance management.

 

Jeff Wilhelmy

Sr. Business Information Manager for Converting Papers, Pulp, and Sector Supply Chain, International Paper

Jeff is originally from Cincinnati, OH and has a degree in Economics with a double minor in Management Information Systems and Psychology from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH.  In the early 90's Jeff joined Gibson Greeting Cards Inc. as a Marketing Analyst. At Gibson, Jeff went on to a sales support role providing customer and product analysis for sales and new business development.

 

Jeff left Gibson for about three years where he held the position of Manager of IT and Data Processing for Integrated Research Associates, a market research company specializing in control store testing for fortune 500 consumer package goods companies. Jeff then returned to Gibson where he served as the Operations Manager while starting up an enterprise wide ERP project utilizing JD Edwards One World with best of breed bolt-on applications. During this project Jeff served as the leader for the Order-to-Cash processes and systems.

 

In the late 90's Jeff joined International Paper as the IT Manager for the Imaging Papers business in the Loveland, OH.  The Imaging Papers business was created as a result of several acquisitions and Jeff's major focus in this role was to consolidate all of this business onto a single systems platform.  Upon completion of this consolidation project in 2002 Jeff and his family relocated to Memphis, where he accepted a role as the IT liaison to the enterprise SAP supply chain project for the Printing & Communications Papers (P&CP) and the Coated and Super Calendar sectors (now Verso). Jeff later moved to the Business Liaison Manager role, and then to a Deployment Manager role leading the implementation of the Planning & Scheduling portion of the SAP project for P&CP.  In 2009 Jeff joined the P&CP IT team as the Sr. Business Information Manager for Converting Papers, Pulp, and Sector Supply Chain.

Members on the Move!

 

Sue Hull-Toye, Assistant Vice Provost for Technology Utilization, University of Memphis

Carolyn (Sue) Hull-Toye has been named Assistant Vice Provost for Technology Utilization.  Sue is currently director of client support services.

 

Danita Macon, Director North America Technology Distribution Production, Nike

Formerly the Director of Enterprise Infrastructure Services at the University of Memphis, Danita has assumed the position of  Director North America Technology Distribution Production at Nike.

 

Ellen Watson, CIO and Vice Provost for Information Technology, University of Memphis

Ellen has been appointed Chief Information Officer and Vice Provost for Information Technology.  Ellen has served as Interim Vice President of Information and Technology and CIO since July 2011.

Members in the News!

 

Judy Brown, Assistant Professor Management Information Systems, University of Memphis

Judy has received the George Johnson Fellowship award for for their significant contributions in the areas of research, teaching or service.  Judy was awarded the George Johnson Service Fellow and was one of only five from the College who received the award.  Read the article here.

 

Maria Lensing, Vice President, AT&T

Maria has been named to the Memphis Business Journal's 2013 Class of Top 40 under 40. Read about it here.

 

  

 

Judy Simon, Director Center for Innovative Technology Management, University of Memphis

As part of a $1.8 million grant to the University of Memphis by the National Science Foundation, Judy has been awarded $34,200 to study ways to diversify the cybersecurity workforce by attracting women and minorities. Read about it here.

SIM Membership Benefit - Career Center

 

One of the many benefits of SIM membership is the Career Center, a resource for assisting you with managing your career.  Some of the resources and tools you will find are:

  • Career Portal
  • On-line Collaboration - coaching, sharing, communications, and connections
  • Members in Transition Programs such as the MIT LinkedIn Group, National Weekly Telecom (the world is flat -- you never know who knows whom), and more
  • Helping Hands Program - directory of those MIT willing to provide part-time contract work
For more information, click here.
 
MILE Mentoring Program

The Memphis Institute for Leadership Education (MILE) kicked off it's 
7th year of pairing business executives in the local community with top talent at the University of Memphis. Its mission is to prepare Fogelman College of Business and Economic students to be future leaders in the city of Memphis through leadership development programs and mentoring. For more information about the MILE program, click here, ask a fellow Chapter member that is mentoring, or contact Dr. Robert Taylor (email).
Community_OutreachCommunity Outreach
by Dennis Norton
Build_A_ComputerSIM Awards $6,000 in STEM Grants
By Dennis Norton
 

Nancy Knight accepts 2013 SIM STEM Grant Award made to Memphis Library Foundation

Photo courtesy EFM, Inc. 

SIM made grant awards to two local organizations working to advance STEM initiatives in Memphis.  The Memphis Public Library Foundation will receive $3,500 sponsor a one-day programming workshop for 50 students to be held at the Library's Whitehaven branch.  The workshop is called "Black Girls Code" and is geared to young women of color.

 

 

 

Rhodes College will receive $2,500 to help fund a student-led program 

Dr. Suzanne Bonefas accepts 2013 SIM STEM Grant Award made to Rhodes College

Photo courtesy EFM, Inc. 

called Science Saturdays. Rhodes partners with four K-12 schools located near the Rhodes campus. They take students and parents on field trips around Memphis to get the kids excited about science.  Rhodes will receive $2,500 from SIM to help fund this program for this academic year. 

Photo courtesy EFM, Inc.  

 

Former Teen Tech camper and chronic volunteer Walid Hamedeh was recognized during the SIM Strategy Series and presented with a gift of a brand new computer.  The computer was donated by Presidio and presented to Walid by Wayne Thompson.   

 

Walid was a camper at Teen Tech Camp - Library in 2009. He came back as a volunteer for three years and served as the SCRATCH programming instructor this year.   His parents were in the audience and were thrilled for their son.  Walid is the oldest of five children all of whom were home-schooled by their mother.  He was also recognized by the Memphis Library as "Volunteer of the Year" in 2011.

Ninth Anual Teen Tech Camp at Memphis Library

By Dennis Norton

 

Teen Tech Camp - Library just gets better every year! Twenty-two students 
were taught SCRATCH programming by Walid Hamedeh, an alumnus of the 2009 camp.   Ed Charbonnet and David Ulloa treated the kids to a five-part supply-chain simulation called "Jump Start, Inc."   A new addition to this year's camp was a 3D Printer demonstration over lunch. Other SIM volunteers assisting in the camp were Diane Coons, Mark Gillenson, Jana Markowitz, Phillip Mashburn, Dennis Norton, Rich Stanley, Dick Vandenberg.

SIM Educators' Conference Held at Center for Excellence

By Dennis Norton and Jana Markowitz

 

Our first "Careers in IT" Educators Conference was held at the Hutchison 

Photo courtesy of Hutchison School

Center for Excellence on Friday Aug 23. Invitations were sent to schools across the city.  There were about a dozen or so attendees - from St. Mary's, Briarcrest, Hutchison and a Student Outreach Services Counselor from EdSouth. Stephanie Drouillard, Branch Manager of Robert Half Technology, spoke about skills in demand and salaries. Also attending to answer questions about their schools' computing programs were Bob Johnson (Rhodes) and Divya Choudhary (CBU Engineering School and Society of Women Engineers representative).

Second Annual Teen Tech Camp at Center for Excellence

By Dennis Norton

 

Teen Tech Camp - Hutchison was held July 8-12. Students learned 

Photo by Dennis Norton

SCRATCH programming and were treated to several Bright Shiny Object speakers.  The camp wrapped up on Friday with an IT Career Talk presented by Jana Markowitz.  Dave Pekol and Lakshmi Visvanathan booked BSOs.  Mark Gillenson and Dennis Norton attended as SIM representatives.

 

  
Upcoming Meetings
@ the Crescent Club
6075 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, TN 38119
 
 

 

October 3, 2013 
Maximizing Training Effectiveness - 
Lessons from Military Aviation Research
Dave Kaiser, Vice President & Chief Learning Officer, Crew Training International, Inc. Dave will relate examples of training interventions from the aviation industry to the latest learning science and show us how to use that knowledge to design and implement learning solutions that enhance human performance. 

 

November 7, 2013 
Innovation 
Kevin Boggs, Director of Technology Transfer and Research Development, FedEx Institute of Technology Research universities generate new knowledge as well as educated students. Such universities have both the societal obligation and the natural tendency to generate innovations that make our world a better place. 

 

December 5, 2013 
Holiday Party 
Celebrate our Year! Spouses and Significant Others Invited, please join the Revelry at Duck's Unlimited.
    
  
Have SIM Memphis News to Share for the Next Quarterly Newsletter?
  
Please email Kevin Morgan

 

  
SIM Memphis

2013 Board of Directors

  

PRESIDENT

Della Adams

 

VICE-PRESIDENT

Mario Simmons

 

TREASURER

Deborah Campbell

 

MEMBERSHIP CO-CHAIRS

Jana Branham

Susan Caldwell 

 

PROGRAM CHAIR

John Oglesby 

 

COMMUNITY OUTREACH CHAIR

Dennis Norton

 

MARKETING CHAIR

Kevin Morgan

 

STRATEGY SERIES CO-CHAIRS

Jim Boyd

Jarrett Morgan

 

SIM INTERNATIONAL LIAISON

Rick Pride 

 

PAST PRESIDENT

Dick Vandenberg

  
  
Have SIM Memphis News to Share for the Next Quarterly Newsletter?
  
Please email Kevin Morgan

 

  
Newsletter Contributors
  Dennis Norton

Jana Markowitz 

Jarrett Morgan
Jim Boyd
John Oglesby
Kevin Morgan
Susan Caldwell
  
About SIM
Established in 1968, the Society for Information Management (SIM) is the premier network for IT leaders. SIM is comprised of more than 3,600 members including CIOs, senior IT executives, prominent academicians, and foremost consultants. Through its 31 chapters, SIM provides resources and programs inspired by IT leaders for IT leaders that enable CIOs to further develop their leadership capabilities and those of the emerging leaders in their organizations. SIM provides the premiere collective voice to advocate policy and legislation on behalf of the IT profession. 

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