Speakers

Clinton Ages
Unlocking Human Sigma: A Thrilling Dive into Next-Level Stakeholder Management!

Amateur Gourmet Chef Coach Clinton Ages has a passion for food and for high performance. As a ICF (International Coaching Federation) Certified Professional Coach, Clinton leverages his experience in Organizational Behavior and Change Management to optimize and drive delivery. He obtained his Masters from Georgia Tech in Management of Technology and his Bachelors from Georgia State University in Computer Information Systems. When Clinton isn’t driving performance, he can be found at home looking for any excuse to use power tools for a DIY home project or working in the yard.

Jonathan Babcock
Agile, Executive Blind Spots, and the Evolution of Business Analysis

Jonathan Babcock, a Director at Jabian Consulting, is a solution definition and delivery strategist with 20+ years of experience partnering with business leaders to reach their goals through people, process, products, and technology. I've advised clients from line-of-business management to C-level executives across several industry verticals. He enjoys writing and speaking locally and nationally on business analysis, solution definition and delivery methods, communication techniques, professional development, and team leadership. His current professional passion is applying principles of business and process analysis to help clients deliver complex projects and scale their delivery capabilities. He is active in the Atlanta-area business analysis community, and has served as vice president of professional development for the IIBA Greater Atlanta Chapter, helping them achieve recognition internationally in 2018 with the IIBA chapter award for professional development. Jonathan has spoken at several industry conferences including Building Business Capability, BA World, PMI Professional Development Day events, and IIBA chapter events.

Paul Crosby
Your AI Buddy: Business Analysts in the AI Ecosystem

Meet Paul Crosby of The Uncommon League. Paul doubles as a full-time instructor and product manager, imparting practical advice on artificial intelligence and business analysis, Project Management, Scrum, Product Management, and Strategic Enterprise Analysis. Paul isn't your run-of-the-mill consultant, folks. He’s also the brains behind four books: “Fail Fast Fail Safe - Harnessing Failure to Succeed”, “The Uncommon Book of Analysis Techniques”, “7 Powerful Analysis Techniques”, and the bright shiny new “Positive Conflict - Transform Discord into Collaboration and Innovation”. His thought-provoking insights have been showcased at events across North America and Europe, including BA World, Project World, Building Business Capabilities, Government Symposiums, IIBA conferences, and many more. And if that wasn't enough, Paul is also a board member of the Sing Your Life - Uncommon Foundation. Under his guidance, the foundation has partnered with TechFluent, Women in Technology, and a host of other organizations to promote Business Analysis, Agile, Product Management, and Project Management skills to new audiences. His mission? To catapult talented individuals into rewarding technology and analysis careers.

Daniel Fay
Elevate to Empower: Unleashing Personal Leadership, Servant Leadership Mastery, and Organizational Impact

Daniel Fay, PMI-PBA provides a dynamic approach to his training and presentations. Dan is not theoretical, with over 30 years experience, Dan shares his knowledge and lessons learned across the IT and Aviation industries. Dan has:
• consulted literally world-wide in project management and business analysis
• supported over 6000 managers in business analysis, project management and leadership
• been an invited speaker at international management and leadership symposiums including Project Summit/Business Analysis World, and IIBA and PMI Chapters, including many virtual presentations and webinars
• led projects for teams from 3 to over 300 members
• assisted over 1000 Managers in obtaining their PM and PMI-PBA certifications
• assisted organizations in getting to their ‘New Normal’

Christy Foley
Conflict Mastery: Building Confidence, and Mastering Resolution Techniques

Christy L. Foley is an attorney, mediator, and arbitrator who has dedicated her professional career to teaching others about conflict resolution, mediation ethics, and e-mediation techniques. As a teacher at heart, she loves teaching groups how to create peace in their workplace. Christy is considered a leader in the field of conflict resolution. She was a pioneer in e-mediation, having started E-Mediation Services in 2018. She has also served as Chairwoman of Florida's Mediator Ethics & Advisory Committee ("MEAC") since 2018. Moreover, she serves as an officer in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Florida Bar. Her professional experience has given her the skills necessary to be an effective and dynamic speaker, regardless of whether she is presenting online or in-person. Christy's presentations are particularly unique because she finds ways to get the audience involved in a conversation to ensure people stay engaged throughout the entire presentation (even in groups of 1,000+ people). Christy has spoken in front of local, statewide, and nationwide audiences - both in-person and through virtual conferences. She is repeatedly asked to come back and present again for many organizations, such as the Florida Bar, Florida Dispute Resolution Center, Jacksonville Bar Association, and Full Sail University. In 2010, Christy's popular presentation style led her to teaching in higher education. She currently serves as a Lecturer at the University of Central Florida.

Bruce Gay
Unveiling the Power of the Inverted Pyramid, Transforming Ordinary into Decision-Making Tools

Bruce Gay, PMP, CSM, helps individuals improve their management skills, become better leaders, and achieve professional greatness. Bruce has over two decades of experience managing large, complex programs and customer relationships across multiple industries. He is the owner of Astrevo Labs, a consulting firm that provides project management training and coaching. Bruce enjoys “getting things done” and working collaboratively with others to solve hard problems. Bruce is a well-received speaker in the areas of design thinking and project management, cross-team collaboration, and AI tools for projects, and has presented at regional and international conferences. For the past 15+ years, Bruce managed product teams that incorporated UX Design and Design Thinking methodologies into their product development processes. Bruce lives in Pittsburgh, USA with his wife, two daughters, and his two dogs. Bruce is an active volunteer within the project management community and has served as Director of Corporate Sponsorship for the PMI Pittsburgh chapter for several years.

Mark Hunt
IT's All About AI

Mark has worked in many facets of Information Technology for over 25 years-- as a Business Analyst, Project Manager, Program Manager, QA Analyst, SME and Change Agent. He has also worked in varied areas such as healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, agriculture and more.  He has spoken at many clients and at several IIBA chapters and Professional Development Days such as Minneapolis, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg.  Mark engages his audience with topical and informative subjects with humor and keeping the participants involved and engaged.

Robin Hunt
Leveraging Data for Value

Robin Hunt has spent 20 years+ inspiring people to think something new about their everyday work life with data. As co-founder and partner of ThinkData Solutions, Inc., she strives to leave a lasting impact in data analytics and beyond through her unwavering commitment to empower others through education and data. She encourages people to invest in themselves and never stop learning. Along with her business partner Daniel Bishop, Robin has built a woman- and minority-owned business. While based in Birmingham, Alabama, ThinkData’s impact extends nationally and internationally. ThinkData has created a registered data analyst apprenticeship, the first of its kind in Alabama, to develop the local data talent pipeline that is needed to move the state forward.

Robin has created customized curricula that offer a path to a data analytics career. She has developed effective, practical courses for LinkedIn Learning, including Career Essentials in Data Analysis by Microsoft and LinkedIn, the data analyst career learning path of the Microsoft Global Skills Initiative, the collaboration of Linkedin, Microsoft, and GitHub to offer free skills development learning.

She is the author of the Official CompTIA Data+ Content and she is the co-author of the Official CompTIA Data Systems+ Content. ThinkData offers training for these certifications as an authorized training organization. Her commitment to education and data extends to an ongoing partnership with the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education and the Alabama Department of Education. ThinkData provides datasets that meet the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Acts to a research team that includes the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, UAB School of Education, and the University of Alabama.

She is a member of the State of Alabama Office of Education & Workforce Statistics Advisory Board, a member of the Alabama Committee on Credentialing and Career Pathways’ Information Technology Technical Advisory Committee and is a Microsoft Certified Learning Partner and a Microsoft Certified Trainer.

John Kennedy
The Power to Create Time

John has been speaking at conferences for many years including PM, business, sports, military and Medical. John is a #1 International Bestselling Author, Master Executive Brain Coach, International Speaker, Trainer and Process Efficiency Consultant. Early in his life John realized that what excited him was “solving the unsolvable”. From building the first handheld energy efficiency assessment computer in the 70’s, to helping growing companies innovate using technology, to solving critical problems for some of Chicago’s largest businesses as a project rescue specialist, John looked for new challenges. In 2007 he was presented with his biggest challenge when the US Marines contracted him to develop a program to improve Warfighting and reduce casualties in combat, the toughest of all environments. In response he pioneered the field of Applied Neuroplasticity. This innovative application of his highly effective process efficiency methodology to the brain using neuroplasticity as the medium was extremely successful. The resulting Combat Brain Training program has helped thousands of people rapidly improve their focus, memory and faster, better decision making under stress, regardless of starting cognitive baseline. After supporting many elite military units including pilots, Snipers and Navy SEAL's, John brought his program to the civilian environment. John now combines his extensive efficiency consulting background with his proprietary Combat Brain Training program to help leaders, teams and companies exceed their performance expectations very quickly. creating unparalleled results

Frank Kowalkowski
New Horizons in Business Analysis: Ensemble Analytics for Competitive Advantage

Frank Kowalkowski, President, Knowledge Consultants, Inc., is President of Knowledge Consultants, Inc., a firm focusing on business performance, business analysis, data science, business intelligence, artificial intelligence, and statistical techniques across industries. More recently Frank has been involved in conducting workshops, professional training sessions, and assessments of business structures and transformation, data science, and analytics for process management efforts. He is the author of a 1996 book on Enterprise Analysis. His most recent publications are a featured chapter in the business book Digital Transformation with BPM. His chapter is titled “Improve, Automate, Digitize”, he also has a chapter in the business architecture book titled Business and Dynamic Change and a chapter on semantic process analytics in the book Passports to Success in BPM, and most recently a key chapter titled Intelligent Automation and Intelligent Analytics in the 2020 book Intelligent Automation.

Trent Leopold
Psychometrics for Strategic Business Analysis

Trent Leopold is an active, professional Sr. Business Analyst with more than 25 years of experience in the private and public sectors. His focus is on discoveries and research concerning the human mind and how these discoveries directly apply to Business Analysis.  He is a longitudinal research participant with a major U.S. university in an international neuroscience project exploring human brain function.  Leopold's experience includes serving as an advisor to two U.S. Presidents, a U.S Vice-President and two Texas Governors. Trent is an active member of the "IIBA" and "PMI," and serves to establish Business Analysis standards. He is an “IEEE” officer, involved with creating international professional standards including those endorsed by the "ISO" most recently pertaining to AI governance. Leopold received a lifetime achievement award from "Who's Who."  Trent’s education includes a MSc. degree in Managerial Science and he's a licensed airplane pilot.

Len Marchese
The BA's Role in Leading Opportunity-Based Innovation

This presentation highlights the transformative potential of integrating a process, dialogue, and analysis to identify and validate opportunities. It underscores the pivotal role BAs can play in driving organizational transformation from lagging to leading.

Joe Perzel
The BA/PM Conundrum

Joe Perzel has been defining requirements, leading projects of all sizes and managing staffs since 1982 in both a corporate and vendor capacity.  He has a background in multiple industries such as healthcare, insurance, finance, government, manufacturing, non-profit and education.  Presently Joe is President of the Minnesota Chapter of IIBA, partner at JPerzel Inc. as well as Program Manager at Surescripts LLC.  Previously he has held leadership positions at Cargill, Thomson Reuters, MN Workers Compensation Bureau, International Multifoods and PMI Minnesota. Joe has been speaking since 2002 on topics ranging from leadership, management/strategy, negotiations/sales.  He has presented keynotes, chapter meetings and workshops internationally to multiple corporate, government and non-profit organizations, BBC (Building Business Capability) conference, IIBA chapters, PMBA Conferences, PMI Global and Region 2, over 20 PMI chapters, local and global Society for Quality (ASQ), International Project Management Assoc. (IPMA) and the PMO Impact Summit. 

Kevin Reiter
Workshop: Making Decisions Using the Cynefin Framework

Kevin is a 20+ year veteran in the world where business demands meet IT solutions.  He has spent the last 16 years specifically working in the Agile Transformation space, helping teams and leaders discover better ways to work together and deliver value.  His love for teaching, coaching, and mentoring others has also been demonstrated over the last 13 years in his role as an Adjunct Professor at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, teaching classes in business, management, and finance.

Kevin has his Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Northern Iowa.  He has previously led workshops and speaking sessions at conferences including Humanizing Work, DSMAgile, and Entrefest, and has also presented to the Cedar Rapids IIBA chapter on two previous occasions.