John Baldoni is chair of the leadership development practice of N2growth, a global leadership consultancy. John is an internationally recognized leadership educator, executive coach and speaks throughout North America and Europe. John is the author of more than a dozen books, including MOXIE: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership, Lead with Purpose, Lead Your Boss, and The Leader’s Pocket Guide. In 2014 Trust Across America named him to its list of top 100 most trustworthy business experts. Also in 2014 Global Gurus ranked John No. 11 on its list of global leadership experts. John has authored more than 500 leadership columns for a variety of online publications including Forbes, Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg Businessweek. His leadership resource website is www.johnbaldoni.com Less   View all posts

Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, Ph.D. New York State Chief Information Officer, Director of the Office For Technology Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart serves as New York State Chief Information Officer and Director of the Office for Technology. As the Governor's top information technology advisor and a member of the Governor's cabinet, Melodie develops, implements and oversees IT investments for the State of New York, a $130 billion enterprise with over 190,000 employees serving a statewide population of 19 million. The State has approximately 5,600 IT professionals, and spends approximately $2 billion in information technology annually. Melodie, a veteran of IT, started her career in Information Technology 30 years ago as a Systems Engineer for the IBM Corporation. Subsequently, she worked as an IT executive in two Fortune 20 companies, the largest healthcare hospital in the country, and in the public and private non-profit sectors. During her 13 years with IBM, she quickly rose through the ranks and served as an Instructor in Database and Data Communications at the IBM Advanced Technical Education Center in Los Angeles and authored several courses published by Science Research Associates. After leaving a successful career at IBM, Dr. Mayberry-Stewart became a Chief Information Officer in the health care industry as the first CIO at Community Health Corporation, (California), St. Thomas Hospital (Tennessee) and Beth Israel Medical Center (New York). After 14 years in healthcare IT, she turned her interest to the energy industry where she became a Vice President and General Manager of Shared IT Services and Global IT Delivery for the Amoco Corporation, with global headquarters in Chicago, and was acquired by BP Oil in the UK. Melodie has worked extensively with non-profit companies to help their organizations better serve their constituents. Her work brought her to the attention of the newly elected Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. In 2002 he appointed her as the City's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and CIO. In May 2007, Dr. Mayberry-Stewart was appointed NYS CIO and Director of the NYS Office for Technology. Melodie has been nationally recognized in InformationWeek's 2009 Government CIO 50 list. In addition, she received numerous honors including, Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2009, Year Up 2009 Urban Empowerment Award, ITT Technical Institute 2009 Woman of Inspiration Award, 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Black MBA Association and the National Technical Association Lifetime Achievement Award, US Engineering and Technology Women of Color Technology Award for Managerial Leadership and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Melodie serves on the boards of the Harriman Research and Technology Development Corporation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Center for Computational Nanotechnology Innovation, and is a member of the Advisory Council of Center for CIO Leadership where she provides strategic advice and counsel to Center leadership and assures the Center's research, education and content are directly relevant to the professional growth and challenges facing CIOs. Less   View all posts

Stephen Laster is the Chief Information and Technology Officer of Harvard Business School and a member of the HBS administrative leadership team, which oversees the School’s academic, research and administrative computing teams. Stephen sits on several Harvard University committees focused on leveraging technology across the Harvard community. As an educator, he has taught courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive/professional levels in the areas of Web development, problem solving, software design, virtual team management, and e-learning product development. Prior to joining Harvard, Stephen held several critical leadership positions for Babson College, including CTO for Babson Interactive, Babson's for-profit eLearning company, and Director of Curriculum Innovation and Technology. Stephen served as a trustee for Babson College from 1992-94. Stephen is also principle of Intelligent Solutions, LLC. Intelligent Solutions engages with select organizations to transform their ability to leverage information technology and collaborative tools to achieve outstanding business results. Intelligent Solutions brings the power of technology, practice, and education to core business problems, and provides strategy and educational consulting to enable a new generation of information workers, products, and services. Prior to focusing his career on the apex of technology, education, and consulting, Stephen worked in the information technology and technology product development industries. He has developed and run a network monitoring business, developed enterprise software packages, and led major re-engineering and implementation efforts. Stephen has held leadership positions at Stride Rite, Art Technology Group, CrossComm, and Advanced Business Technologies, Inc. Throughout his career, Stephen has managed diverse teams of business and technology professionals. He has managed distributed teams across the United States, Poland, and India. Stephen sits on the board of Recycline, and is a seasoned speaker and consultant. He has helped organizations to develop effective operational practices leveraging people and technology for outstanding results. He is considered to be a leader in e-learning and digital community building, and was recognized by IBM for thought leadership in message oriented middleware and by Ed Tech Magazine as a thought leader in educational technology. Less   View all posts