Instructor Bios

Peter Aiken
Dr. Peter H. Aiken is an award-winning, internationally recognized thought leader in the area of organizational data architecture and engineering. As a practicing data manager, consultant, author and researcher, he has been actively studying these and related areas for more than twenty-five years. His sixth book is titled XML in Data Management and is co-authored with David Allen. He has held leadership positions with the US Department of Defense and consulted with more than 50 organizations in 14 different counties. His achievements have resulted in recognition as one of 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century and bibliographic entries in Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in American Education and other recognitions. His entertaining but clear and concise insights make him a sought after speaker, lecturer and consultant. He is an Associate Professor in Virginia Commonwealth University's Information Systems Department and the Founding Director of Data Blueprint, Inc. Peter is the recipient of the 2001 DAMA International Individual Achievement Award He has served as an advisor to DAMA International and is currently VP of Communications for DAMA International. He also serves as an advisor o the Meta-Data Professional Organization.

Shaku Atre
Shaku Atre is president of Atre Group, Inc., Santa Cruz, CA, a Business Intelligence, and a Data Warehousing Corporation. She is on the board of AtreNet,Inc. , a Web agency, based in Santa Cruz, CA. She has held a wide variety of management and staff positions within IBM for fourteen years and has taught at IBM’s prestigious Systems Research Institute.

Ms. Atre is an internationally renowned expert and she lectures in the business intelligence, data warehousing, data mining, client/server computing, end-user computing, and database fields. She has extensive practical experience in helping a number of clients in establishing successful business intelligence and data warehousing installations. She has lectured on the subject to professional organizations in the USA, Canada as well as in Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. She has taught graduate level courses at New York University.

Ms. Atre is frequently quoted in Computerworld, Information Week, eWeek and other influential computer trade publications. She has written on a regular basis for Computerworld, DM Review, and Information Week. She is a syndicated columnist for a number of computer related webzines.

She is the author of six books, including an award-winning outstanding book on database management systems that has become a classic on the subject: Data Base: Structured Techniques for Design, Performance and Management, published by John Wiley and Sons, New York. The book has sold over 150,000 copies (with its Spanish and Russian translations) and was used as a textbook by leading universities including Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, New York University, Stanford and U.C. Berkeley.
Recently she has co-authored “Business Intelligence Roadmap, The Complete Project Lifecycle “ Addison Wesley, 2003.

Michael Brackett
Mr. Brackett retired from the State of Washington in 1996 where he was the State's Data Resource Coordinator where he was responsible for developing a common data architecture for the State that spans multiple jurisdictions. Mr. Brackett has been in the data processing field for nearly 40 years, during which time he developed many innovative concepts and techniques for designing applications and managing data resources. He is considered the originator of the common data architecture concept, the data resource framework, the data naming taxonomy and data naming vocabulary, the five-tier five-schema concept, the data rule concept, and the business intelligence value chain. He is the founder of Data Resource Design and Remodeling and is the consulting data architect specializing in developing integrated data resources.

Mr. Brackett has written six books on the topic of application design, data design, and common data architectures. His books on Data Sharing Using a Common Data Architecture and The Data Warehouse Challenge: Taming Data Chaos explain the concept and uses of a common data architecture for developing an integrated data resource. His latest book on Data Resource Quality: Turning Bad Habits into Good Practices explains how to stop the creation of disparate data. He has written many articles and is a well-known author, speaker, and trainer on data resource design and data resource quality. He is the President of DAMA I for 2000, 2001, and 2002, and is listed in Who's Who in the West, Who's Who in Education, and International Who's Who.

Alec Sharp
Alec Sharp founded his consulting practice in 1981, now Clariteq Systems Consulting Ltd., and went on to assist many clients with initiating data management programs, developing large database applications, and applying model-driven requirements definition techniques. For the past ten years, he has also been heavily involved in process redesign initiatives, some of which were disguised as ERP implementations or e-Business projects. Interesting recent assignments have included reverse-engineering conceptual models from purchased and legacy applications so clients could understand the business impacts of their systems, helping an insurer establish a business process architecture, conducting a process review of the dialysis programs at a regional hospital, and rescuing e-commerce projects that zeroed in on technology instead of looking at the business process.

Alec is a past president of the British Columbia DAMA chapter, and in 1983 was a founding member of its predecessor. He is a popular conference presenter, and has spoken for DAMA on many occasions, including the DAMA International Symposium, various DAMA Regional Symposia, and numerous chapter meetings. Alec conducts workshops on Data Modeling (introductory and advanced), Workflow Process Modeling, Use Cases, and Application Logic Modeling at large organizations throughout North America and abroad. His book “Workflow Modeling” (co-authored with Patrick McDermott) was published by Artech House in February 2001, and is currently the best-selling book on the topic

Graham Witt
In Graham's over 30 years of industry experience, he has developed specialist expertise in system specification, user interface design, data modelling, relational database design, data quality, the use of metadata repositories and CASE tools, and information management. As well as completing a number of successful projects in these areas for major clients in a variety of industry sectors (including education, health, telecommunications, finance, transport and government), he has developed a reputation as an effective educator in these disciplines, and has published in the information management press.

He is particularly expert at developing logical models of physical data resources, to support the development of Executive Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Data Warehouse sourcing and new system development.

Graham is the manager and principal presenter of Simsion Bowles’ Practical Data Modelling and Data Modelling Masterclass courses, and developer and presenter of our Data Model to Database course. These courses have been presented both publicly and to a number of organisations in-house.

He is the co-author, with Graeme Simsion, of the second edition of the seminal text on data modelling “Data Modeling Essentials”.

Publications:
“Is Data Modeling Standing Still?”: Database Programming & Design, August 1997.
“The Role of Meta Data in Data Quality”: Journal of Data Warehousing, Winter 1998.
“Data Modeling Essentials” (Ed 2), Coriolis Press, 2000 (co-author with Graeme Simsion).

Marcie Barkin Goodwin
Marcie Barkin Goodwin is President and CEO of AXIS software designs, inc., a software consulting, training and development company.

Marcie transforms software training into a positive learning experience through solid expertise and a humorous approach.

Her classes produce ‘tool jockies’ equipped with an understanding of the critical issues associated with analysis, modeling, and corporate standards as well as the skills needed to successfully implement projects.

With ten years in-the-trenches experience in analysis, design and CASE administration, complimented by a six-year training career, Ms. Goodwin is a seasoned veteran who brings expertise and flair to the art of knowledge transfer. Clients include Johnson & Johnson, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Fireman’s Fund Insurance, Deutsche Bank, World Bank, M&M Mars, Coca Cola, Premera Blue Cross of Washington and Alaska, PSC, Norwest Financial, Seagate and many others.

Tom Haughey
Tom Haughey is considered one of the four founding fathers of Information Engineering in America. He is currently President of InfoModel, Inc, training and consulting company specializing in practical and rapid development methods. His courses on data management, data warehousing, and software development have been delivered to Fortune 100 companies around the world. He has worked on the development of seven different CASE tools, over 40,000 copies of which have been sold to date. He was formerly Chief Technology Officer for the Pepsi Bottling Group and Enterprise Director of Data Warehousing for Pepsico. He was also formerly Vice President of Technology for Computer Systems Advisers, who market the CASE tools called POSE and SILVERRUN. He wrote his own CASE tool in 1984. He formerly worked for IBM for 17 years as a Senior Project Manager. He is an author of many articles on Data Management, Information Engineering and Data Warehousing.

His book, Designing the Data Warehouse-The Real Deal will be published later this year.

Dave Hay
A veteran of the information industry since the days of punched cards, paper tape, and teletype machines, Dave Hay has been producing data models to support strategic information planning and requirements analysis since the mid-1980’s. He has worked in a variety of industries, including, among others, power generation, clinical pharmaceutical research, upstream and downstream oil production and processing, forestry, banking, foster care, and broadcast.

He is the founder and president of Essential Strategies, Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to helping clients define corporate information architecture, identify requirements, and plan strategies for the implementation of new systems, including data warehouses.
A pioneer in the use of standard data models for standard business situations, he is the author of the book, Data Model Patterns: Conventions of Thought, published by Dorset House. He has brought his considerable experience in requirements analysis into play in writing Requirements Analysis: From Business Views to Architecture, published by Prentice Hall.

Dave’s bachelor’s degree in philosophy is from Claremont McKenna College, and he has an M.B.A. in Quantitative Analysis from New York University.

Claudia Imhoff
Claudia Imhoff is the President of Intelligent Solutions and popular speaker and internationally recognized expert on Customer Relationship Management and the infrastructure to support this initiative – the Corporate Information Factory. Dr. Imhoff has co-authored four books on these subjects and writes monthly columns for technical and business magazines. She has served on the Board of Advisors for DAMA International and is an advisor and a faculty member for The Data Warehousing Institute. She won the 1999 Individual Achievement Award from DAMA International and is an advisor for several technology and commercial companies. She frequently delivers keynote addresses at conferences sponsored by software companies and their user groups, The Data Warehousing Institute, The Economist and many international organizations. She has appeared on World Business Report with Casper Weinberger, Microsoft’s Getting Results programs, and web casts sponsored by DM Review, Better Management, and many hardware and software vendors.

Dr. Imhoff is an instructor for all of the Corporate Information Factory seminars and overviews.

Jonathan G. Geiger
Mr. Geiger is the Executive Vice President of Intelligent Solutions. He has over twenty-five years of management and hands-on experience in information management, including data warehousing, customer relationship management, quality assurance, data administration, application development and support, productivity management, and training. Mr. Geiger specializes in data warehousing, customer relationship management, and data management, having gained his initial experience as a program manager at a major electric utility company, and subsequently as a consultant. He led a multi-company effort to develop a commercial enterprise data model for the utility industry, and has been very involved with activities related to Total Quality Management.

Mr. Geiger has written over thirty articles on data warehousing, customer relationship management, and related topics, is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences, and is a co-author of Data Stores, Data Warehousing and the Zachman Framework: Managing Enterprise Knowledge (McGraw-Hill, 1997) and Building the Customer-Centric Enterprise: Data Warehousing Techniques for Supporting Customer Relationship Management (John Wiley & Sons, 2001).

Mr. Geiger is an instructor for all of the Corporate Information Factory seminars and overviews.

Graham Rhind
Graham Rhind is an acknowledged expert in the field of data management, and has specialized for over 12 years in international address and postal code methodologies. He
gained his knowledge by working with international data from both the marketing side and the technical side, giving a unique insight into the needs of all aspects of international data management. He is now an independent consultant and owner of GRC Database Information, helping customers as diverse as postal authorities, customer care centers and Internet mapping companies to understand and manage international data. He has published three books, “Building and Maintaining a European Direct Marketing Database”, “Global Source Book for Address Database Management” and “Practical International Data Management – A guide to working with global names and addresses” (2001).

Bob Seiner
Robert (Bob) S. Seiner is the owner and principal of KIK Consulting Services. Mr. Seiner is recognized in the IT industry for his depth of knowledge and involvement in the field of business intelligence, knowledge/content management, stewardship & governance, metadata management, data warehousing and data management.

Mr. Seiner is the publisher of an internationally recognized internet publication focused on the management of knowledge, information and data as valued corporate assets. The Data Administration Newsletter (TDAN.com) attracts close to forty thousand visitors every month, and is a reputable and non-biased on-line source for information about the knowledge management and data management industries.

Graeme Simsion
Graeme has been involved in data management as a practitioner, manager, teacher and researcher for 24 years. His experience ranges from “hands on” database administration to working with company presidents to incorporate data management ideas into business strategy.

Over the past 20 years Graeme developed Simsion Bowles and Associates into Australia’s leading provider of data management and data modeling expertise, employing some 65 staff in three cities. Simsion Bowles also established strong credentials in information systems planning and specification, and in business process design, maintaining a strong data focus.

Graeme has a reputation for constantly challenging the conventional wisdom of data modeling and data management. His ideas on “reinventing” data management, and treating data modeling as a creative activity have been widely influential.

Graeme has also developed courses on data modelling at introductory, advanced and masterclass level, and presented these in Australia, North America, and Asia.

In 1992, Graeme published the book Data Modeling Essentials. Whilst aimed at practitioners, it has also become widely used by universities and colleges. He published a second edition with Graham Witt in 2000.

Graeme has also consulted and taught in business process design (developing Australia’s most widely-used industry training course) and IS planning (principal author of the ACS Certification program in IT strategy and management, equivalent to two postgraduate units). As one of Australia’s best-known authorities on information systems topics, he has regularly briefed senior executives, and has played a strong role in bringing data management issues to the attention of general management.

Graeme has held numerous honorary academic and industry positions, including Senior Fellow of the Department of Information Systems at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Australian Computer Society Information Systems Board. In 2000, he was appointed as an Advisor to DAMA International.

Len Silverston
Len is a consultant, author, lecturer, and pioneer in the field of data management. He has devoted the last 20 years to helping organizations effectively manage, integrate and utilize information by designing quality data models, data warehouses and database designs.
He has been a data integration, data warehouse, and data management consultant for the last 20 years and has helped a great many organizations implement successful data integration solutions. His clients include small, medium and large companies from a vast number of industries such as United Airlines, Pitney Bowes, Goldman Sachs, AIM Securities, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sun Microsystems and many others.

He is the best selling author of “The Data Model Resource Book” (http://silverston.wiley.com) series now in its second edition and in multiple volumes. His first book, The Data Model Resource Book: A Library of Logical Data Models and Data Warehouse Designs (John Wiley and Sons, 1997) was rated #12 on the Computer Literacy Best Seller List and paved the way for his subsequent books, The Data Model Resource Book, Revised Edition, Volume 1: A Library of Universal Data Models for All Enterprises (Wiley, 2001) and The Data Model Resource Book, Volume 2: A Library of Universal Data Models for Industry Types (Wiley, 2001). These books represent an extremely detailed and comprehensive set of over 230 re-usable, proven data models and encompass decades of real life database design experiences, examples and insights, including data models for numerous industries, data warehousing and e-commerce. They are used frequently as a textbook for data modeling in a great number of universities. He has also written many articles on database design and data warehousing in publications such as Data Management Review and The Data Warehouse Institute’s Journal of Data Warehousing.

In addition to his publications, Mr. Silverston has developed extensive software versions of these models that have helped a great number of organizations to quickly jump-start their data management, data warehouse, and e-commerce development efforts while helping to enhance the quality of their models. Microsoft Corporation has licensed Mr. Silverston’s generic universal data model software worldwide and these models and associated SQL code are now included as part of Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition.

Mr. Silverston has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences. His seminars have been widely appreciated by groups such as Barnett Data Systems, regional DAMA chapters and DAMA International, the Software Productivity Center, Database Design and Programming seminars, Oracle International conferences, CA World conferences, and a host of other international groups. Due to his accomplishments, he was nominated for the 2002 DAMA International Achievement Award.

John Ladley
John Ladley is a well-known data warehouse practitioner and a popular speaker on information and knowledge management. John is widely published and has a regular column in DM Review.com. Prior to founding KI Solutions, John was Senior Program Director of Data Warehouse strategies and a Research Fellow at Meta Group. Mr. Ladley is an authority on business performance measurement architectures, collaborative applications, and information resource management. Prior to joining META Group, Mr. Ladley was director of technology planning for Alliance Blue Cross of Missouri. His 20+ years of IT experience also include working as a management consultant with the Coopers and Lybrand IT practice where he specialized in the healthcare, insurance, defense and consumer products industries. He is a co-author of ITERATIONS, a data warehouse methodology, and authored Knowledge Logistics(™) the groundbreaking process use by KI Solutions at many Fortune 500 clients. He is currently working on a new book, "Knowledge Logistics(™) - Managing the Value of Information and Knowledge".

Lisa M. Loftis
Ms. Loftis is a Vice President of Intelligent Solutions. She is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) expert with 15 years experience in assisting organizations to adopt a customer focus. Ms. Loftis has worked with numerous large organizations in North America, South America, Europe, and the United Kingdom on all aspects of successful Relationship Management. She specializes in combining the technology necessary to support true CRM business strategies with the organizational structures, executive leadership, and cultural factors required to migrate an organization toward customer orientation.

Ms. Loftis has helped clients to understand and develop all components of the integrated customer information environment. Her activities in this area have included assistance in the development of customer information systems (operational and warehouse), the integration/interaction of customer repositories with other systems (marketing, sales automation, knowledge management, document management, telephony, etc.), the development of robust enterprise customer data models for use in all future customer systems development, and the development of strategic implementation plans which prioritize customer systems initiatives and provide a roadmap for the construction of the integrated customer information environment.

Ms. Loftis has also helped organizations to understand best practice CRM business strategies across Sales, Marketing, Service, and Risk Management. She has provided education on the organizational structures required to facilitate customer-focused business objectives, and has helped companies to secure executive level sponsors for the move to CRM. Additional areas of CRM experience include educating executives on CRM principles and developing business cases for customer-focused initiatives.

Ms. Loftis is an instructor for the Customer Relationship Management related overviews and seminars.

George Kelly Flanagin
George Kelly Flanagin is a software architect with over 20 years of experience in the design, delivery, and business management of IT products. He has managed the production of several well known commercial products, served on the Board of Directors of a multi-national corporation, and is the author of several articles and papers on a variety of technological topics. George also teaches the C++ curriculum for the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering.

Susan R. Jacobs
Susan R. Jacobs is the former Vendor Relations Manager for eCommerce at Capital One, where her responsibilities included offshore development in India with Infosys. Her technological interests are in email marketing, spam, and data sampling for marketing tests. Her professional background is in organizational psychology and sociology, and she has research interests in the problems of teamwork among introverts in the IT workplace.

Dr. Pamela Kiecker
Dr. Pamela Kiecker is an internationally known expert on consumer behaviour, and she is the Executive Director of the Interactive Marketing Institute. In addition to multiple publications, her current research interests are in design of web sites for special demographic groups, and the perceptions of confidentiality and privacy among consumers on the Internet. Dr. Kiecker is currently on sabbatical from her position as Professor of Marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University..

John N. Pastore, Jr.
John N. Pastore, Jr. is the former CTO of Capital One. John has over 30 years in IT, with solid experience in finance, manufacturing, and operations. He is a present and past member of several academic and industry boards, and is an internationally recognized futurist and technology strategist. John pioneered non-traditional marketing techniques such as Information Based Decisioning during his 19 years as an executive with Capital One and Levilor.

David Loshin
David Loshin is the president of Knowledge Integrity, Inc, a consulting and development company focusing on customized information management solutions including information quality consulting, information quality training, business intelligence solutions, metadata management, data standards management, and business rules solutions.

David is widely recognized as an expert in Information Quality, frequently contributing to Intelligent Enterprise, serving on the Editorial Board of DM Review magazine, started writing a monthly column for DM Review in October 2002, is a quarterly featured columnist for the Data Administration Newsletter (www.tdan.com), and is the channel expert of the B-EYE-Network's Information Quality and Data Integration channel.

David's most recent book, "Business Intelligence: The Savvy Manager's Guide" was published in June 2003, and has been hailed as a resource that allows readers to "gain an understanding of business intelligence, business management disciplines, data warehousing, and how all of the pieces work together." David is also the author of "Enterprise Knowledge Management - The Data Quality Approach," (Morgan Kaufmann, 2001) which describes a revolutionary strategy for defining, managing, and implementing business rules affecting Enterprise-wide knowledge management and information compliance.

In addition, David was invited to create and teach a graduate-level course on Data Quality at New York University, has been asked to create courses for The Data Warehousing Institute (www.tdwi.org), has presented at the annual DAMA/Meta Data conference, and has taught tutorials on data quality at a number of Information Quality Conferences. David is often asked to speak at vendor events and web seminars, and also frequently serves as a judge for numerous industry best-practices awards.

Gwen Thomas
Gwen Thomas is President of The Data Governance Institute, a private, vendor-neutral organization dedicated to providing practical assistance with Data Governance, Stewardship, and Compliance. The DGI helps organizations find alignment and clarity through publications, coaching, training, and implementation assistance. Gwen also serves as publisher for the largest collection of vendor-neutral Sarbanes-Oxley news and information.

Gwen has designed Data Governance programs for Wachovia Banks, Walt Disney World, Coors, NDCHealth/Wolters Kluwer, and others, working with IBM, systems integrator CIBER, and other partners. As an employee of CIBER, she designed their Sarbanes-Oxley practice and worked with a series of large and mid-sized organizations to reduce risk in Data Integration, Web Portals, and Content Projects. She has served as the Corporate Knowledge Manager for PaySys International/Credit Card Software, a teacher of college English classes, and publisher of a literary magazine. Her first job after graduating from Florida State University was touring with a live stage production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

A frequent presenter at industry Data events and contributor to publications such as z/Journal, RiskCenter's SarboxAlert, and FSI (Financial Solutions International), Gwen is author of Alpha Males and Data Disasters: The Case for Data Governance.