In-Person

Chicago CIO Community

Executive Summit

December 4, 2024 | Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile

December 4, 2024
Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile

Governing Body Agenda Location Sponsors Contact

Governing Body Co-Chairs

Corrado Azzarita

The Kraft Heinz Company
Global CIO

Rita Fisher

Reynolds Consumer Products
CIO and EVP, Supply Chain

Ron Guerrier

Save the Children
CTO

Rajeev Khanna

Aon Corporation US
Global Chief Technology Officer

Laura Kohl

Morningstar
CIO

Mike Parisi

ITW
VP CIO

Jane Possell

CNA
EVP, Chief Information Officer, Analytics, Operations

Gagan Singh

Ascension
Chief Information Officer

Tom South

Northern Trust
Executive VP & Chief Information Officer

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CIO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Chicago CIO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda

December 4, 2024

morning afternoon evening

7:45am - 8:30am Registration & Breakfast

8:30am - 9:15am Keynote

Words That Work — Executive Power Language

Val Wright

Global Leadership & Innovation Expert, Author

Guest Speaker

For CIOs, the stakes are extraordinary in every conversation. Revenue of millions or billions is in jeopardy during board meetings, investor calls, media interviews, customer interactions and employee conversations. The most successful executives realize this and prepare what to say and when to say it with precision. Val Wright shares new ways to approach common business conversations.

Join this keynote to learn:

The power of the written word to demonstrate the value of technology
How to cultivate a dynamic relationship with your board and get positioned for board roles
Powerful retorts and feedback that overcome resistance every time and consistently delivers results

Please note that this session will be recorded.

9:15am - 9:40am Networking Break

9:40am - 10:25am Breakout Session

Would You Be Your Own Customer?

Jeff Burlin

Senior Director, Executive Engagement Programs

Twilio

As a consumer, you have certain expectations of trust in the businesses you shop at and the organizations you engage with. Building trusted relationships with customers requires a multi-faceted strategy that spans everything from data privacy management to delivering seamless personalized experiences that anticipate customer needs. We can all think of companies that meet this ideal of great customer engagement and…some that don’t. Now be honest – does your organization meet your own personal standards for trusted experiences?

Join this session to discuss:

Unifying and activating customer data to earn, not erode, customer trust
Crafting strong customer and stakeholder feedback loops
Creating highly personalized experiences that anticipate customer needs

9:40am - 10:25am Breakout Session

A CIO and Board Imperative ― Mastering Applications Complexity

Jennifer Fitzgerald

Director, Product Management, IT Automation

IBM

In today's digital economy, enterprise value and risk are increasingly tied to the technology landscape. With the average enterprise managing 1,000 applications across multiple clouds, technology sprawl is a board-level concern. Generative AI is projected to boost developer productivity by 40%, accelerating application proliferation and presenting governance challenges.

Join this session to learn about:

Achieving real-time visibility across technology systems for risk oversight
Streamlining tech ecosystems for cost optimization and operational efficiency
Implementing systematic vulnerability management in an AI-accelerated landscape

9:40am - 10:25am Executive Boardroom

Lost in a Sea of AI — Solving Paralysis with Readiness

Eric Ellis

CTO, Public Sector & Innovation Strategist

Lenovo

Saurabh Dhiman

Global Head - CHC Digital Health and Science

Sanofi

Vasu Modekurti

SVP and CIO -

UL Research Institutes & UL Standards & Engagement

The speed of AI’s evolution—and the rapidly developing ecosystem that surrounds it--can make choosing the best path forward for your business challenging. Do you look at employee experience first or customer experience? Start with people or process? When AI is everywhere, business leaders have to find ways to cut through the noise, overcome decision-making paralysis, and stay focused on the use cases that will deliver quickly for their unique business needs.

Join this boardroom to discuss:

What AI readiness looks like and identifying use cases with the potential to generate value quickly
Evaluating the constantly evolving AI ecosystem
Overcoming AI-overwhelm to define a real and transformative AI vision for your business

Executive boardrooms are intimate and interactive sessions designed to foster dynamic dialogue around a specific, strategic topic. These private, closed-door discussions encourage attendee participation and are limited to 15 attendees (seating priority is given to CIOs).

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

9:40am - 10:25am Executive Boardroom

Advancing Customer Experience ― A Pathway to Business Growth

Geoff Hooper

Director, Enterprise Solutions Engineering

RingCentral

Satya Donapati

VP of IT & Head of Data Analytics

Trustmark

Vikas Wali

VP & CIO, Government Business

Elevance Health

Leading CIOs seek to create a seamless user experience and leverage AI for superior customer outcomes. By creating more intimate and personalized interactions, AI can significantly improve client satisfaction and drive business growth.
Join this session to discuss how to:

Streamline processes and tailor AI insights for a better customer experience
Capture and analyze customer interactions to derive actionable insights
Increase the efficiency and effectiveness in customer-facing functions

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

10:25am - 11:05am Networking Break

10:30am - 10:55am Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Evanta’s Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

11:05am - 11:50am Breakout Session

Building Your Own Software in the GenAI Era

Paulo Rosado

CEO & Founder

OutSystems

Frank Schmid

Chief Technology Officer

Gen Re

Global reinsurer Gen Re decided to build custom applications internally after realizing that off-the-shelf solutions didn't meet their particular needs. Frank Schmid, CTO of Gen Re, and Paulo Rosado, CEO of Outsystems, will discuss how an AI-powered software development platform can help teams build faster and without incurring technical debt.

Join this session to learn:

Eliminating technical debt without creating the technical debt of the future
Preference of platforms over tools to make use of network effects
Low-code’s position in the GenAI era
AI-assisted coding copilots in the world of low-code development

11:05am - 11:50am Breakout Session

IT as a Business Driver — Driving a Digital Mindset with Better Employee Experiences

Tim Flower

VP, Digital Employee Experience Evangelization

Nexthink

Today’s CIOs face lofty expectations and a changing set of skills necessary to be successful. They are expected to build healthy team cultures remotely, drive the adoption of emerging technologies, align with corporate objectives and the list goes on. To meet this moment, how can CIOs support employees to better enable digital business in complex organizations?

Join this session to discuss:

How CIOs should focus on delighting employees through superior IT and unrestrained productivity
Proactive identification of employee experience issues before they become IT problems
Effective automation to powerfully remediate problems in seconds

11:05am - 11:50am Executive Boardroom

Change Management Leadership for IT Adoption

Brian Peterson

Co-Founder & CTO

Dialpad

Mir Ali

Global Head of Software Engineering & Digital Product Delivery

The Kraft Heinz Company

Shazia Mian

CIO

Witt/Kieffer

Technology is one challenge, people and culture are others. CIOs are tasked to provide the necessary tools, training, and process adjustments to optimally use Gen-AI throughout the enterprise. Yet, key change management strategies are needed to effectively implement Gen-AI projects.

Join this session to discuss:

Evangelizing GenAI use case adoption and overcoming hesitation
Ensuring trust and safety so users have confidence in AI outputs
Securing resources and developing strategies to bring organizational adoption effectively

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

11:05am - 11:50am Executive Boardroom

Keep the Party Going — Strategies to Securely Scale Your Cloud Native Success

Brent Schroeder

Head of Office of the CTO, CTO Americas

SUSE

Qasim Khan

CIO, EVP, Wealth Management, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking

U.S. Bank

Eric Nelson

VP - Head of IT Functional Capabilities

The Kraft Heinz Company

Cloud native computing promises a future of agility, scalability and responsive innovation. Early adopters celebrate its virtues while signaling caution that pitfalls hidden in its complex landscape must be addressed.

Join this session to discuss practical strategies that:

Accelerate developer adoption and operational scale
Mitigate the security risks of new attack surfaces and rapid change
Optimize costs and organizational efficiency

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

11:05am - 11:50am Executive Boardroom

The Critical CFO-CIO Partnership for Realizing IT Value

Keith Siegfried

GVP, Unified Service Experience

Rimini Street

Mark Forbes

CIO

Marathon Cheese Corporation

Julie Nash

CIO

Arlo Technologies

In today’s dynamic business landscape, the synergy between CFOs and CIOs is crucial for shaping enterprise technology investments and driving innovation. Collaboration is essential for aligning financial strategies with technological advancements.

Join this session to explore:

Strengthening the CFO-CIO relationship to make data-driven decisions on emerging technologies and ROI
Harmonizing views on IT investments and driving results-driven projects
Communicating business and technology priorities

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

11:50am - 12:35pm Lunch Service

12:35pm - 1:10pm Keynote

Transforming Application and Service Delivery for the Modern IT Environment

Jason Trunk

VP & Field CTO

Island

Delivering business critical applications safely is a delicate balancing act. The user experience is frequently compromised as application, infrastructure, and security teams negotiate the adoption of new services. Unfortunate trade-offs are sometimes necessary to address operational needs for the sake of maintaining security, but these trade-offs can make certain use cases unfeasible or diminish their value to the organization.

In this session, we will discuss:

Revolutionizing workspaces by balancing productivity, security, availability, and user experience.
How quickly new technologies like the enterprise browser can be adopted to provide a competitive advantage
Strategies for reducing the effort required to deliver applications and enhance organizational operations

1:10pm - 1:35pm Break

1:35pm - 2:20pm Breakout Session

The Recipe for a Successful Spin-Off

Eric Firer

CIO, Kellanova North America

Kellanova

A spin-off presents an opportunity for IT to drive value, promote an innovative culture and build an effective team. However, the CIO must balance planning for the new company while minimizing disruption to current employees and customers. Eric Firer shares how the lessons learned through Kellanova’s spin-off can be applicable to many aspects of IT.

Join this session to discuss:

Defining an IT operating model to organize talent, processes, technology and data
Building a high-performing team to make an impact and execute business goals successfully
Leading effective communication and change management through complex transformation

1:35pm - 2:20pm Breakout Session

Demonstrating IT’s Value to the Board

Janet Zelenka

Board Member and Audit Committee Chair

IDEAL Industries and US Venture

Christopher Przybysz

CIO

IDEAL Industries

CIOs face several challenges when presenting to the board of directors. By communicating in business terms and focusing on optimizing shareholder value and managing risk, CIOs can ensure the board understands how IT investments drive overall business success. As a CIO, CFO and a board member, Janet Zelenka shares her unique perspective on how to successfully demonstrate IT’s value to the board.

Join this session to discuss:

Bridging the technical and business language gap to ensure the board understands the significance of IT initiatives
Ensuring that IT projects are closely aligned with the overall business strategy and demonstrating how they support key business goals
Providing clear evidence of IT projects driving ROI or managing risk

1:35pm - 2:20pm Executive Boardroom

Elevate AI from Personal to Organizational Productivity

Saket Srivastava

CIO

Asana

Sayeed Shariff

Executive Director

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

David Todd

SVP & Chief Information & Security Officer

White Lodging

Asana’s State of IT research reveals that 77% of IT leaders feel responsible for leading AI transformation within their organization. Saket Srivastava, CIO at Asana, leads this discussion on the ways AI is transforming from a personal tool to an organizational productivity teammate that helps accelerate growth.

Join this peer roundtable to discuss:

Building the right foundation for AI implementation
Deploying AI tools at scale across teams and workflows
Delivering greater ROI at every level

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

1:35pm - 2:20pm Executive Boardroom

Keeping Pace with Cyber Risk

Hussein Din

SVP, Cybersecurity & Enterprise Architecture | CISO

U.S. Renal Care

Frank Yanan

SVP, BISO

Bank of America

As technology continues to evolve, cyber threats are right there matching that growth stride for stride. How are you developing your cybersecurity strategy to keep up with the risks posed by emerging technologies?

Join this session to discuss:

Mitigating risks and improving resiliency
Complying with regulatory requirements
Developing cybersecurity talent and skills

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

1:35pm - 2:20pm Executive Boardroom

Leading With Empathy — Putting People First

Ron Guerrier

CTO

Save the Children

Praveen Moturu

Vice President – Chief Enterprise Architect

Mars

In this highly competitive labor market, it’s critical for IT leaders to take a human-first approach to leadership. They must be authentic, empathetic and adaptive to support employees, especially in remote or hybrid environments. How can CIOs support their people leaders in this approach?

Join this session to discuss:

Assessing the soft skills of your leaders
Creating moments to foster inclusion and boost culture
Identifying your current level of transparency and room for growth

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

2:20pm - 3:00pm Networking Break

2:25pm - 2:50pm Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Evanta’s Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

3:00pm - 3:45pm Breakout Session

Driving Customer Care Through Innovation

Sean McCormack

Chief Information Officer

First Student

Everyone wants to have a cool product, but what matters ultimately is end user experience. That’s what First Student had in mind for FirstAlt — an alternative student transportation solution that went from ideation to market in just nine months.

Join this session to learn how the team:

Overcame the challenges of launching a startup with an enterprise
Engaged partners across the organization
Stayed focused on the customer

3:00pm - 3:45pm Analyst Breakout Session

CEO Concerns 2025

Don Scheibenreif

Vice President - Distinguished Analyst, Customer Experience Research

Gartner

CEOs are enacting new post-crisis strategies to deal with geopolitical risks and talent challenges; leveraging AI and sustainability. Join this session as Don Scheibenreif, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, breaks down Gartner’s annual global CEO survey to shine a light on the agenda shifts that CIOs should anticipate next.

3:00pm - 3:45pm Executive Boardroom

Delivering an Analytics Strategy that Packs a Punch

Luigi Guadagno

SVP, CTO

Advantage Solutions

As CIOs seek to drive business value from data and analytics initiatives, they face both cultural and technical challenges. CIOs must partner with the business in creating a long-term analytics strategy that enables the organization to make data driven decisions.

Join this boardroom to discuss:

Evolving data governance efforts to power accuracy in reporting and analytics
Overcoming technical obstacles and cost pressure to ensure analytics programs get prioritized
Building a business case to create a strategy that has measurable outcomes and results

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

3:00pm - 3:45pm Executive Boardroom

IT Resilience — Maintaining Control Through Disruption

Zach Jecklin

CIO

Echo Global Logistics

Srini Sundarrajan

CIO

Ryerson

Now more than ever, organizations globally are looking at cyber attacks and business disruptions through a new lens of severity. With the stakes high, CIOs are evaluating how to create a resilient IT strategy in alignment with the broader organization.

Join this session to discuss with your peers:

How to respond and adapt quickly to disruptions or unplanned changes
Diversification of tooling to reduce risk
Tactics for a cyber-resilient future

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

3:45pm - 4:10pm Break

4:10pm - 4:45pm Keynote

Leading Effective Transformation in an Age of Constant Change

Michael Giresi

Chief Digital Officer

Molex

To successfully lead transformation, IT leaders must consider technology, processes, and people. Mike Giresi shares the strategies he’s implementing at Molex to improve customer value, employee experience and business outcomes in an ever-evolving business landscape.

Join this keynote to discuss:

The five key elements for transformation
Scaling technology effectively
Building a clear vision and aligning the organization effectively

4:45pm - 5:00pm Closing Comments and Prize Drawing

5:00pm - 6:00pm Networking

Networking Session | Empowering Paths — Uniting Women in Technology

Join us for a toast as we celebrate the women and allies in our community who continue to lift each other up and champion a more inclusive future.

This session is open to all genders and identities.

5:00pm - 6:30pm Governing Body Reception

Governing Body Reception

Governing Body members host this reception for attendees to enjoy an evening of peer networking.

December 4, 2024

morning afternoon evening

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Location

Venue & Accommodation

Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile

More Information

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile at a reduced conference rate. Reservations should be made online or by calling 1-877-303-0104.

Deadline to book using the discounted room rate of $329 USD (plus tax) is November 11, 2024.

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