CIO STRATEGY MEETING

Facilitators Include:

Mark Gelhardt, Vice President of Technology Governance
U.S. Bank

Colonel Gelhardt, at the pinnacle of his military career was selection to work at The White House as the CIO, supporting President Clinton, the VP, the White House Staff, and the U.S. Secret Service managing all the classified automation and telecommunications.  Colonel Gelhardt is a combat veteran.  Colonel Gelhardt is a well-known speaker and the author of “My time at the Clinton White House”. 

Since retiring from the service Mark has held multiple leadership positions in IT and InfoSec.  CIO/CSO for World Airways – the largest US wide body long-hall charter airline.  CTO (Global Operations)/CISO for InterCall – the world’s largest conferencing company.  Chief Information Security Officer for TravelClick – a Software as a Service company in the hospitality space.  Consulted as the Interim CISO for the Georgia Lottery & NCR.  Currently Mark is the VP, Global Technology Governance for US Bank/Elavon.

Walt Carter, Chief Digital Officer and Chief Information Officer
Homestar Financial Corporation

With more than twenty-five years in technology leadership roles, Walt specializes in alignment to purpose and technology innovation. Prior to joining HOMESTAR Financial Corporation as Chief Digital Officer and CIO in March of 2018, Walt and his teams implemented technology changes for Primary Capital Mortgage to drive 205% growth in origination volume in just over two years. Before joining Primary Capital Mortgage, his team at Generation Mortgage received accolades from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s, Bloomberg and MarketWatch for innovative use of technology as a key differentiator for the company. 

Walt is adept at working through complex business challenges and has successfully implemented several enterprise-wide packaged software solutions. Walt is a frequent speaker to professional groups on the topics of leadership, governance, risk management and compliance. 

After earning a BS in Physics from Guilford College, he began his career as a technical officer in the US Air Force, and over the years he has served in a variety of technology leadership roles with companies such as Fidelity, Gannett, BDM, TRW, and Ajilon Consulting. Walt earned a Master’s degree in Public and Private Administration from Central Michigan University in 1991. While at TRW, he won the President’s Award for his leadership on their largest commercial project.   Walt was named Corporate CIO of the Year in 2014 by the Georgia CIO Leadership Association.

Kas Naderi, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Technology
Atlantics American Corporation

Mr. Naderi is the Senior Vice President of Technology for Atlanticus Holdings (NASDAQ: ATLC) and the Chief Information Officer for Atlanticus’ auto-loans subsidiary.  He joined Atlanticus in September of 2004 to help start and grow Atlanticus’ presence in the sub-prime auto financing space. He was instrumental in the merger and acquisition of Wells Fargo’s CAR Financial Services division,  HSBC’s ACC Consumer Finance, and Just Right Auto dealership group. In March of 2014, concurrent with the CIO role for Atlanticus’ auto subsidiary, Kas stepped into a role of strategic importance as a turnaround executive for Atlanticus Holdings focused on providing Sales Finance, unsecured Mastercard ™, and personal loans to millions of customers across the United States, United Kingdom, Guam and Saipan.

Through proprietary data mining, flexible technology platforms, digital application process, and instant decisioning, Atlanticus’ financial services companies have helped provide $25 billion in financial solutions to over 17 million customers.  Atlanticus’ companies stay ahead of the curve using Big Data Analytics and innovative technologies in order to offer the best and most efficient financial service experiences to their customers.

From 2000 to 2004 Mr. Naderi served as the Chief Technology Officer for two Atlanta FinTech organizations – one focused on developing a Municipal Bond trading platform and the other focused on supply chain optimization using Point of Sale standard-based digital receipts. Prior to 2000 Kas was the Senior Director of Emerging Technologies for Intercontinental Hotels where ComputerWorld magazine recognized him as one of the United States’ top 100 premier technology leaders. From 1989 to 1998, he held several leadership positions within IBM’s research and development laboratory in Austin, TX, including overseeing the development of the AIX operating system, OS2 data communication subsystem, WebSphere middleware, and Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) application framework.

Marty Smith, Executive Vice President Head of Risk Science
GreenSky, LLC.

Mr. Smith is a seasoned IT executive who brings more than 25 years of experience to his current role at GreenSky.  Over his career, Mr. Smith has created technology strategies for multiple high-growth ventures including IPG, ChoicePoint, and The Home Depot.  His business/technology acumen spans many diverse industries to include: Healthcare, Business Services, Technology, Financial Services, Government Services, Retail, Hospitality, Work Force Management, Finance, Background Screening, Insurance and Data Analytics.  Mr. Smith has been recognized for his technology leadership by CIO.COM (CIO 100),GCLA (CIO of the year) and Atlanta Technology Professional of the Year by ATP

Ed Harris, Global Director of Information Security
Mauser Packaging

Mr. Harris is the Global Director of Information Security for Mauser Packaging Solutions, a privately held international company with a presence on 5 different continents.  He has a Master’s Degree in Information Systems Management and has 27+ years of Network and Security experience.  He’s a Certified Information Systems Security Professional.  He’s a founding member of the Retail-ISAC and is a former member of the National Security Council for the US Chamber of Commerce.  Mr. Harris is a security evangelist and international speaker and has been speaking academically and professionally for more than 25 years.

Wes Knight, Chief Information Security Officer
Georgia Department of Revenue

Wes has been involved in IT for over 39 years starting out with IBM in Atlanta. After leaving IBM in 1996, Wes started a company doing Network and Network Security consulting and training. This eventually evolved to focus on Security including Assessments and Forensics.

Wes has held several positions in Information Security since joining the DOR twelve years ago. He is currently the Chief Information Security Officer and manages the DOR Office of Information Security.

Wes serves on several Executive Advisory Committees and the Evanta CISO Governing Body. He was awarded the 2018 Information Security Executive Southeast People Choice Award.

Eric Garner, Chief Information Officer and Chief of Staff
Aldridge|Pite LLP

Eric is the Chief Information Officer/Chief Strategy Officer for Aldridge Pite LLP, and manages IT, Operations, Facilities and Strategy for the firm. Eric served as Chief Information Officer for RE/MAX Regional Services located in Alpharetta, GA, where he supported an international franchise business model for 400 plus franchises with over 10K agents. Eric has a B.S. Degree in Advertising from the University of Alabama, and an MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  In 2005, Eric received a Six Sigma Black Belt from Arizona State University. Eric also earned a Chief Information Executive Certificate from the Institute of CIO Excellence at the University of South Carolina in 2008. He also holds a certification in IT Healthcare from the University of Connecticut, an ITIL Foundations certification, a certified ScrumMaster certification and is working on a CGCIO certification at the University of Georgia.

Eric serves on several board positions including the UAB Graduate MIS Program and several startup company boards.

Scott Stanton, Chief Information Security Officer
Avanos Medical and Halyard Health

As CISO for Halyard Health, Scott Stanton oversees Cyber Security for a $1B medical products manufacturer.  Stanton is also interim CISO for Avanos Medical, a $600M business unit recently divested from Halyard.   He joined Halyard in 2015 as Sr. Mgr. of Infrastructure Security and created its security program during their spin-off from Kimberly-Clark in 2015.

Previously, Stanton held several architecture, strategy, and program management roles during his 10 years with the Information Security program at Cisco Systems. Prior to Cisco, Stanton held technical security roles for Scientific-Atlanta, Coca-Cola, and General Electric.

Robin Bienfait, Chief Executive Officer
Emnovate & Atlanta Tech Park

Robin Bienfait was the Chief Enterprise Innovation Officer and senior advisor for Samsung. Robin joined Samsung with 30 years of experience in mobility, security, business development, enterprise sales, wireless network operations and engineering. As a global intrapreneur, Robin launched Samsung Business Services and advised on the B2B investment strategy. Now as CEO for Emnovate, Robin is advising and providing leadership to emerging businesses. Prior to Samsung, Robin served as chief information officer for BlackBerry, where she led the enterprise business unit and software development team, end to end product security, tier 3 technical customer service, global network services, corporate security and corporate IT. Robin held senior leadership positions across AT&T including Bell Labs, Global Network Services/GNOC, business continuity and disaster recovery, and compliance. As an officer at AT&T, Robin’s last role was leading of global network services and chief compliance officer, environment, health and safety.

A global influencer holding 15 patents, she is the recipient of several awards and was recently named as one of the top 100 CIO’s in STEM and Inc.’s top 18 women to watch in 2018.

Andy Green, Vice President, Global Infrastructure and IT Operations
PRGX USA, Inc.

Andy Green serves as PRGX, Vice President of Global Infrastructure Support and Operations and leads the development and transformation of a global IT operation that manages SaaS solutions and IT services for Amazon, Kroger, Target, Walmart, Tesco, and other global, retail leaders. He is responsible for the delivery of IT services including Software-as-a-Service, Data Centers, Network Operations, Cloud, Security, Compliance, and DevOps.

Prior to joining PRGX, Andy was Senior Director of Cloud Infrastructure for PTC where he led global IT operations that managed SaaS solutions and IT services for Coca-Cola Refreshments, Dell, Austal, US Navy and other manufacturing, retail and defense organizations. In 2015 and 2016, he was recognized for excellence in service delivery.

Prior to PTC, Andy was Director, Global IT for Servigistics where he had the overall responsibility for the company’s global IT strategy, IT Security, business systems, and IT infrastructure including the company’s SaaS solution which hosts high-profile clients such as Dell, Cisco, GM, and Coca-Cola Refreshments.

In addition to various technical certifications, he holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Florida Atlantic University. Andy graduated with honors from FAU.

Nicole Keaton Hart, Chief Information Officer
Fulton County Government

Nicole Keaton Hart is an experienced, influential leader and cultural change agent in Information Technology and Cybersecurity, who drives security and digital transformation initiatives. With over 25 years in Information Technology, Nicole is a proven visionary and pragmatic leader.

She has held key senior leadership and strategic CIO and CISO roles, focusing on IT, business and cyber security synchronizations across major industries such as financial services, consumer packaged goods, retail, oil & gas and health IT.

Today, Nicole spends most of her time serving in the capacity of Cybersecurity Strategist and Deputy Chief Information Officer, balancing the competing priorities of Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity.