Keynote Speakers

Jeff Jonas, Chief Scientist, IBM Entity Analytics Group
Jonas is chief scientist of the IBM Entity Analytics group and an IBM Distinguished Engineer. The IBM Entity Analytics group was formed based on technologies developed by Systems Research & Development (SRD), founded by Jonas in 1984 and acquired by IBM in January 2005. Prior to IBM’s acquisition, he led SRD through the design and development of a number of extraordinary systems, including technology used by the surveillance intelligence arm of the gaming industry. Leveraging facial recognition, this technology enabled the gaming industry to protect itself from aggressive card count teams, the most notable known as the MIT team and the subject of the book “Bringing Down the House” and recent movie “21.” Today, possibly half the casinos in the world use technology created by Jonas and his SRD team. His work frequently is featured on the Discovery Channel, Learning Channel and the Travel Channel. And it has a significant bearing on how service providers might start thinking about their customer databases. Read more about Jonas and his work at http://jeffjonas.typepad.com.

Vercie L. Lark, CIO, EMBARQ
Lark is the CIO of EMBARQ Corp., which operates in 18 states offering voice, data, high-speed Internet, wireless and entertainment services to more than 5 million customers. EMBARQ generates more than $6 billion in revenue annually and is included in the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations. Lark is responsible for strategy, planning and operations of internal IT systems, applications and communication services. Prior to becoming CIO, Lark was vice president of IT infrastructure services at EMBARQ, where he led teams responsible for IT data centers, voice and data communication services and computing platforms. He began work at EMBARQ during November 2005. Prior to joining EMBARQ, Lark worked for four years at Hewlett Packard and approximately 12 years for Compaq Computer Corp., where he held several executive leadership positions in IT and HP Managed Services. He currently serves on the technical advisory councils for Prairie View A&M and Florida A&M and is an active board member of the Boys Hope Girls Hope organization in Kansas City. Lark earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical systems engineering from Wright State University of Ohio in 1985 and subsequently began his career in technology as an electrical systems engineer at Monsanto Research Corp.

Maria Pardee, managing director of global integration for BT
Maria Pardee, now managing director of global integration for BT, joined the company in September 2005 as CIO for BT Retail. With the goal of identifying and shaping opportunities to gain strategic and operational advantages through the use of IT solutions, Pardee and her team focused on three basic e2e customer experiences — concept to market (C2M), lead to cash (L2C) and trouble to resolve (T2R) — to develop new services and practices. In July 2007 she became president of global integration. In this role, Pardee expanded the scope of her responsibilities to include key partner relationship management, ensuring value generation and alignment with BT Global Services major partners. Previously, she worked for BearingPoint Inc., a company that provides business consulting, systems integration and managed services to Global 2000 companies, medium-sized businesses and government organizations. She has more than 25 years of telecommunications and IT experience, and at BearingPoint, she was managing director of the Communications and Content Division where she quickly increased revenue, pipeline and engagement opportunities. Before that, she was a vice president at American Management Systems Inc., where she managed more than 20 software development and management consulting initiatives.

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