Daphne is the co-founder and co-CEO of Coursera, an education company that partners with many of the top universities and organizations in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.
She is also the Rajeev Motwani Professor in the Computer Science Department and the Oswald Villard University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. She is the author of over 180 publications.
Daphne pioneered in her classroom many of the ideas that are key to Stanford’s massive online education effort.
Among the many awards she has won include a 2004 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and she was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2011.
Daphne has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a PhD from Stanford University.
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Sebastian is the CEO and cofounder of Udacity, a for-profit education company offering massive open online courses or MOOCs. Prior to his time at Udacity, Sebastian was a Google VP and Fellow, where he was involved in the creation of Google Glass, the driverless car initiative, and Google Street View. Among his academic posts, Sebastian has been a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University.
Sebastian led development of the robotic vehicle Stanley, which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and which has since been placed on exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
In recognition of his contributions, Sebastian was elected into the National Academy of Engineering and also into the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2007. Fast Company selected Sebastian as the fifth most creative person in business in the world.
Brook is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, an educational and trade publisher. He has held this role since January 2013. In this role, he is responsible for core IT operations and infrastructure services across HMH’s global office network.
Prior to his time at HMH, Brook was the CIO of the White House, a role he had held since the beginning of President Obama’s first term.
Prior to that, he held several senior IT leadership roles, including roles within the Democratic National Convention Committee, The American Red Cross’ Hurricane Recovery Program and QRS Newmedia.
He has been recognized for exceptional information technology leadership in Computerworld’s 2012 Premier 100 IT Leaders, Federal Computer Week’s The Federal 100, and InformationWeek’s The Government CIO 50 lists.
Brook holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in Political Communications from The George Washington University.
Among other topics, Cathy discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:
Cathy Bessant’s Biography
Cathy Bessant is Global Technology and Operations executive at Bank of America and a member of the company’s executive management team.
Since 2010, Cathy has been responsible for delivering end-to-end technology and operating services across the company through a team of nearly 100,000 employees and contractors in 35 countries around the world. Global Technology and Operations provides the platforms and fulfillment services that sustain the company’s consumer banking, wealth management, commercial banking, treasury services, sales and trading, and investment banking businesses – as well as risk management, finance and other critical support functions. Cathy’s team also oversees the company’s business continuity and information security strategies and policies.
In addition, Cathy chairs Bank of America’s Environmental Program, a position she has held since 2011. She has held a number of senior leadership roles for the company. Most recently, she was president of Global Corporate Banking. Prior to that, she was president of Global Treasury Services and Global Product Solutions; chief marketing officer; president of Consumer Real Estate and Community Development Banking; National Small Business Segment executive; and president of Bank of America, Florida. She joined Bank of America as a corporate banker in Texas in 1982.
Cathy currently chairs the board of directors of Foundation For The Carolinas, one of the largest community foundations in the United States. She also is the lead director for Florida Blue, formerly Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, and is a member of the board of trustees for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Named to American Banker’s “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking” list in 2013 for the third consecutive year, she was also honored as one of Computerworld’s “2013 Premier 100” IT leaders. Cathy was No. 4 on the 2013 Institutional Investor Tech 50 list of financial services leaders in technological achievement and innovation, and in 2011 was named “Best CIO” by Waters Technology at the American Financial Technology Awards.
Among other topics, Ken discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:
Ken Venner’s Biography
Since January 2012, Ken has been the CIO of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX, a company that designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.
Prior to his time at SpaceX, Ken was the Executive Vice President, Corporate Services and Chief Information Officer of Broadcom Corporation, a role he held for over a decade. In that role, his purview included Real Estate, Construction, Facilities, Security, Travel, Administrative Services, and all business systems, computing and telecommunications infrastructure.
Prior to his time at Broadcom, Ken served as Vice President of Product Management and Chief Information Officer of Rockwell Electronic Commerce. Prior to that, Ken held a number of information sciences and information technology management positions for over 11 years at Lucent Technologies and AT&T Bell Laboratories.
Ken received a B.E. from the Stevens Institute of Technology, an M.E. from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.B.A. from New Hampshire College.
Jay Ferro’s Biography
Jay is the current CIO for the American Cancer Society. During his time in that role, he has led a transformation of the IT function, which has included consolidating the operation, and rendering it much more efficient and innovative in the process.
Prior to his time at the American Cancer Society, Jay was the SVP and CIO for AdCare Health Systems, Inc. where he was responsible for the people, strategy and operations of the nationwide IT group. Prior to AdCare, he was VP and CIO for Chartis Aerospace (formerly AIG Aviation), a leading global aerospace insurer. In addition to his role as AVP of IT with AIG Personal Lines, he was selected as CFO for operations and systems in 2006 and led multiple global IT finance and governance standards initiatives that resulted in millions of dollars in savings for the organization.
In recognition of his accomplishments, Jay was selected as Georgia CIO of the Year in 2011. He is also the chairman of the board of directors for TechBridge, an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization which helps other nonprofits use technology to improve their capability to serve the community. Jay is also on the alumni board of directors for the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia and the current chairman of the Georgia CIO Leadership Association.
Jay has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Georgia, and an MBA from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.
Among other topics, Marc discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:
Marc Saffer’s Biography
Marc is Chief Information Officer of J. Crew, a role he has held for three and a half years. During that time, he has played an integral role in transforming J. Crew’s technology, and helped improve the organization’s e-commerce operation.
J. Crew is the fourth company that Marc has served as CIO, having held that role at Duane Reade, Columbia House, and Footstar Corporation. He also was a vice president of IT at Macy’s, and he can still be seen every Thanksgiving morning piloting a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Among other topics, Kevin discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:
Kevin Hart’s Biography
Kevin is the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Cox Communications, a multi-service broadband communications and entertainment company with more than 6 million residential and commercial customers. In that role, he is responsible for providing overall leadership, strategic and operational direction to the planning and development of an integrated technological platform. He also aligns the technology strategy with overall business objectives.
Prior to his time at Cox Communications, Kevin was Chief Information Officer at Clearwire Corporation. While there, he was responsible for the company’s Information Technology, Enterprise Network Deployment Planning Office, and Business Process Management functions. His key accomplishments with Clearwire included leading the transformation of the IT organization during the deployment of the company’s 4G wireless broadband service across the nation.
Kevin also spent time as the CIO at Level 3, one of the world’s largest IP communications providers, and held leadership roles at Capgemini Consulting, International Paper and the former Southwestern Bell Communications (SBC).
Kevin earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tulsa and an MBA in Finance with Honors from Notre Dame.
Randy is VP and CIO of Caterpillar Inc. He has responsibility for Caterpillar’s Global Information Services division, which includes the corporation’s IT systems and global security.
Prior to his time at Caterpillar, Randy worked at Chevron Corporation where he was CIO for Chevron’s worldwide exploration and production business. He was responsible for the company’s global IT strategy and IT operations in 23 countries. During his 29-year tenure with Chevron, Randy held engineering, marketing and IT management positions in the U.S. and Canada. Prior to being named CIO, his career at Chevron included IT positions with responsibilities for Chevron subsidiaries in Canada, Latin America and global strategic planning for Chevron Corporation.
Randy is a native of Toronto, Canada, and he graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. He earned his MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
John is the chief technology officer of CA Technologies. In that role, he is responsible for technical leadership and innovation, further developing the company’s technical community, and aligning its software strategy, architecture, and partner relationships to deliver customer value. John is also responsible for delivering the company’s common technology services, ensuring architectural compliance, and integrating products and solutions.
In 1999, John founded ITKO, and built the LISA product suite designed to improve the effectiveness of application development teams, especially those involved in custom applications, SOA, and cloud computing. The company was acquired by CA Technologies in 2011.
Prior to ITKO, John led SaaS and E-commerce transformations for global enterprises at Trilogy and Agency.com.
John earned degrees in business and computer science from Trinity University and Columbus University. And he has authored a best practices book, “Service Virtualization: Reality is Overrated.”
