Dr. Douglas E. Comer is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University. Formerly, he served as VP of Research at Cisco Systems. As a member of the original IAB, he participated in early work on the Internet, and is internationally recognized as an authority on TCP/IP protocols and Internet technologies.

Dr. Comer has written a series of best-selling technical books on Computer Networks, Internets, Operating Systems, and Computer Architecture. His 3-volume Internetworking series is cited as an authoritative work on Internet protocols and technologies. Dr. Comer’s books have been translated into 16 languages, and are used in industry and academia in many countries.

Dr. Comer consults for industry, and has lectured to thousands of professional engineers and students around the world. For twenty years he was editor-in-chief of the journal Software – Practice and Experience. He is a Fellow of the ACM and the recipient of numerous teaching awards.

Johna Till Johnson is CEO and Founder of Nemertes Research, where she sets research direction and works with strategic clients. Under her leadership, Nemertes has emerged as a leading trusted advisor to Fortune-50 and other world-class organizations. A widely regarded expert, Ms. Johnson currently serves as the content committee chair at the Wall St. Technology Association (WSTA), which provides technology guidance to some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated financial services firms. She regularly speaks at industry trade shows, conferences, and seminars, including Nemertes Navigator360, IDG’s FutureIT, ISC, and (WSTA). She writes regular columns on cybersecurity and IoT for TechTarget. Prior to founding Nemertes in 2002, Ms. Johnson served as chief technology officer (CTO) at Greenwich Technology Partners, a global consulting and engineering firm. Prior to that, she led the Global Networking Strategies Service business unit of META Group. Prior to that, as Senior Technology Editor she oversaw the lab-testing program at Data Communications magazine, providing testing and assessment of up to 16 emerging technologies per year. She also has designed and developed security, speech-synthesis, and free-space laser products at companies including Mosler Security Systems and Digitus Corp. Ms. Johnson holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering/computer science (BSEE/CS) from The Johns Hopkins University, has conducted graduate work in nuclear and particle physics at the University of Rochester, speaks three languages, and has published a science fiction novel. She is an avid urban kayaker and novice woodworker and candymaker.

Brian Silverman

Brian is a Network and Cloud Architect at McKesson, one of the oldest and largest healthcare companies in the US and currently operating in 16 countries. He is responsible for linking the needs of their businesses with infrastructure technology so they may serve their customers. This includes architecting and designing networks for McKesson’s global backbone, regional WAN’s, distribution centers, offices, clinics, and pharmacies, in addition to our private and public cloud environments. Areas of recent focus include SD-WAN, multi-cloud public cloud enablement, security for McKesson’s Operational Technology environments, and planning and implementation of our global network organization.

Sam Gambarin

Sam Gambarin joined Kaiser Permanente in 2010. Over the years he has been providing leadership over numerous functions at Kaiser Permanente. Currently Sam is leading architecture, design, creation, product management, and operations of Application Platform-as-a-Service (aPaaS) and System of Intelligence PaaS at KP. Sam is also responsible for managing multiple platform components to enable development teams to deliver Cloud Native and Cloud Hybrid solutions. He is a key contributor to creation of Shared Technical Services/Digital Foundation framework for Kaiser Permanente.

Sam has more than 20 years of IT experience, including positions at Razorfish, AT&T, Travelocity, and NASA. He is proven results-driven leader unafraid to get involved in the details regarding initiatives concerning strategy, practices, processes, solution-building, and operations.

Sam holds an MBA in information systems and Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the San Francisco State University.

Michael Thomas Clark

Michael Clark has worked in large enterprise computing for over 25 years, first in operations and engineering, and for the past decade in architecture and strategy. He began his career in network and server platform engineering at Bausch & Lomb, where he was instrumental in developing B&L’s global network infrastructure and in launching their first website.

Mike then moved on to Fidelity Investments, where he ultimately took on management of desktop and server operations for Fidelity’s Retail Operations group, merged 19 technology support organizations across the U.S. into 1, and ran network and telecom operations for the Boston region. He spent his final 5 years at Fidelity in the Enterprise Architecture group focused on various platform infrastructure initiatives, including leading the effort to develop a unified server strategy for the firm.

Mike has spent the last 5 years engaged in global professional services activities. He recently became a Partner at Exceptional Leaders International, where his focus is on working with mid-market companies, many of them private-equity owned, to synchronize their business imperatives and technology strategies. He has deep experience in global networking and cloud implementations.

Mike is currently the Technology Industry and IT Consulting Executive at Renaissance Tech & Media. He has been with the company since 2010.

Now Boston-based, Mike hails from Canada, where he received his undergraduate education at The University of Western Ontario. He has since done graduate work at both Brandeis and Harvard.

In his spare time Mike enjoys photography, traveling, and digital audio recording.

Ernest Lefner

Ernest co-founded ONUG with Nick Lippis after realizing that the user community needed to take control of their own destiny and expedite the network transformation. At the time he was VP of the Internetwork Engineering organization at Fidelity Investments and under his leadership Fidelity hosted the first ONUG in Boston in February 2013.

A 12-year veteran of Fidelity, Ernest was responsible for leading the team that engineered world class network, security, and application delivery services driving value to the customer beyond infrastructure management. Ernest also managed the Network and Voice service portfolio as well as Global Network Operations LAN/WAN teams and has held various technical and leadership roles.

Mark has over 30 years of technical sales and account management experience in the software and semiconductor industries. For the past decade, his entire focus has been on bringing the benefits of cloud computing to the enterprise. Most recently his cloud vision has expanded to include microservices and DevOps. He passionately believes that the current wave of technology innovation can significantly improve the state of the art in enterprise software application delivery.

Prior to turning to the dark side Mark had 10 years of experience as an embedded software developer. He prides himself on having kept current on the technology front while still being able to find his way around a debugger.

Mark holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University.

Aakash is the CTO of Oak9.  He is focused on building foundational security capabilities to help customers transform their security practice and deliver dynamic, comprehensive & risk-appropriate security that enables the velocity of modern software development.

Aakash is a proven leader in cybersecurity. Over his 17 years in the industry, he has held a wide range of roles.   He has successfully built & evolved security practices at large organizations to enable new business models and support their digital transformation. He has defined security strategies to enable the adoption of Cloud, AI and IoT.  As a security architect, he has architected and implemented security for core products across market verticals, including Healthcare and Defense. Prior to these roles, Aakash conducted cutting-edge security research in trusted computing, tamper resistant systems and critical infrastructure at organizations like MIT Lincoln Labs and Carnegie Mellon.  Aakash has contributed to industry standards and taught information security courses.

Aakash holds a M.S. in Information Security from Carnegie Mellon and a B.S. in computer engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Michael Thomas Clark

Michael Clark has worked in large enterprise computing for over 25 years, first in operations and engineering, and for the past decade in architecture and strategy. He began his career in network and server platform engineering at Bausch & Lomb, where he was instrumental in developing B&L’s global network infrastructure and in launching their first website.

Mike then moved on to Fidelity Investments, where he ultimately took on management of desktop and server operations for Fidelity’s Retail Operations group, merged 19 technology support organizations across the U.S. into 1, and ran network and telecom operations for the Boston region. He spent his final 5 years at Fidelity in the Enterprise Architecture group focused on various platform infrastructure initiatives, including leading the effort to develop a unified server strategy for the firm.

Mike has spent the last 5 years engaged in global professional services activities. He recently became a Partner at Exceptional Leaders International, where his focus is on working with mid-market companies, many of them private-equity owned, to synchronize their business imperatives and technology strategies. He has deep experience in global networking and cloud implementations.

Mike is currently the Technology Industry and IT Consulting Executive at Renaissance Tech & Media. He has been with the company since 2010.

Now Boston-based, Mike hails from Canada, where he received his undergraduate education at The University of Western Ontario. He has since done graduate work at both Brandeis and Harvard.

In his spare time Mike enjoys photography, traveling, and digital audio recording.