Speaker Bios

Bill Baer

Bill Baer is a Senior Technical Product Manager and Microsoft Certified Master for SharePoint in the SharePoint product group in Redmond, Washington; having previously worked at Hewlett-Packard Bill Baer has a proven background in infrastructure engineering and enterprise deployments of SharePoint Products and Technologies. While at Hewlett-Packard Bill Baer was awarded the MVP award for his contributions in the Technology Solutions Group, now known as HP Enterprise Business, which encompasses server and storage hardware, technology consulting, and software sales.

Derek Cash-Peterson

Derek Cash-Peterson has over 10 years of industry experience building customized intranets, extranets, and  ‘www’ sites based on the SharePoint platform.  He is currently the SharePoint practice lead at KMA where he helps define architecture standards, create strong site designs, and develop exceptional user experiences.  Previously, Derek was the SharePoint Practice Manager at Boston’s BigBad, Inc., where he managed a team of developers in building external-facing SharePoint sites.  Just prior to joining KMA, he worked as a consultant at a large biotech firm performing a variety of SharePoint-related projects.

Ben Curry

Ben Curry (CISSP, MVP, MCP, MCT) is a well known author and enterprise network architect specializing in knowledge management and collaboration technologies. Ben is a Managing Partner at Summit 7 Systems, a company focused on the next generation of Microsoft products. Ben’s philosophy is that the best solutions are inspired by the best ideas and he encourages his team to continuously generate and share ideas. His numerous publications embody his philosophy.

Ben enjoys sharing his ideas as an instructor, both in the IT world and in the underworld — Ben is a certified scuba instructor with a passion for diving. Ben’s other life passions include riding his Harley Davidson through his hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, coaching his daughter’s softball team. Ben is happily married to Kimberly and is the proud father of their children, Madison and Bryce.

Zlatan Dzinic

SharePoint 2010 MCPD, MCITP, MVP,  Zlatan currently works for Hitachi Consulting as a Senior Manager based in California with work experience ranging across four different continents, he also comes from an extensive Enterprise Content Management and Business Intelligence product and solution background. Most of his career he spent as an Enterprise Strategist, Resource Manager, Technical Lead/System Architect as well as Project Manager or a Best Practices Consultant on large Enterprise Content Management projects and Enterprise Strategy Initiatives, involved from conceptualizing and creating initiatives to getting down and dirty.

His main focus is Developing and Architecting Enterprise Content Management, Document and Records Management, Communities of Practice (Social Networking for Business) including Business Process Management, Business Intelligence and Performance Management Solutions focusing on full blown end to end enterprise industry solutions.

As an internationally recognized SharePoint and ECM technology expert he’s a regular speaker at major Microsoft and SharePoint Conferences worldwide and he also presents at Local Community events on the topics of Enterprise Content Management, SharePoint Server and Technologies, Business Intelligence and Office Business Applications.

Shadeed Eleazer

Shadeed’s expertise spans 13 years of supporting enterprise clients and he is a US Navy veteran with extensive background in cloud services support, Instructional Systems Design, Configuration Management, and Enterprise Social Networking Governance.

Recent projects include supporting an initiative to establish Tennessee as the first SharePoint 2010 compliant state in the US and the first secure SharePoint deployment for Department of Defense. I specialize in SharePoint 2010, Office 365, and Project Server consulting.

Also a very active member of the SharePoint Community, Shadeed is the founder of SharePoint Careers, which delivers career resources for today’s top notch SharePoint professionals; Co-founder of the Baltimore SharePoint User Group and co-organizer of SharePoint Saturday Baltimore.

Bob German

Bob German is the Practice Director for BlueMetal’s SharePoint and Information Management Practice. Prior to BlueMetal, Bob spent 16 years at MSFT as a Technology Architect. Bob has been a pioneer in the development of SharePoint since it’s launch – influencing product design and architecture.

Chris Givens

Chris Givens is the CEO of Architecting Connected Systems, a courseware development company focused on advanced development topics. ACS credits include the top selling worldwide development course in SharePoint 2007. Chris’s past experiences include Microsoft, Avanade, several technology startups in the Seattle area and a 5-year career at IBM. Chris grew up in Oklahoma and is a computer science graduate of the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, OK.

Susan Hanley

Susan Hanley (Sue), president of Susan Hanley LLC, is a recognized expert in the design, development, and implementation of successful portal solutions, with a specialization in Microsoft SharePoint. Her consulting practice is dedicated to helping clients achieve high-impact business outcomes with portal and collaboration solutions. She is a frequent writer and speaker on the topic of implementing successful intranet portal solutions, portal strategy, governance, user adoption, and measuring the value of SharePoint investments. Sue is the co-author of Essential SharePoint 2007: Developing High Impact Collaboration Solutions and Essential SharePoint 2010: Overview, Governance, and Planning and writes a blog on SharePoint and Collaboration for Network World Magazine that can be found at http://www.networkworld.com/community/sharepoint.  In 2010, she was named one of the Top 50 SharePoint Influencers.

Immediately prior to establishing Susan Hanley LLC, Sue led the Portals, Collaboration, and Content Management practice at Dell Professional Services (formerly Plural, Inc.).   Sue joined Plural after more than 18 years of consulting experience at American Management Systems, Inc. (AMS).  In 1995, she became the first Director of Knowledge Management for AMS.

Jason Himmelstein

Jason Himmelstein, MCTS, MCITP, is the SharePoint Practice Director for Sentri, Inc. and has been working with Microsoft Server technologies since 1998 when he was supporting Motorola in Austin, TX. He went to work for the University of Texas for 5 years where he developed expertise in Active Directory and Exchange. He left UT to go on the road doing work for Dell in a partnership with Microsoft doing architecture, design and implementation of Active Directory and Exchange. He started working with SharePoint in 2007 as an Enterprise Architect for Raytheon Company. Today he leads a team of dynamic SharePoint Consultants for Sentri, a four-time Microsoft Partner of the Year. Outside of this crazy working world he is a happily married father of 2 boys and a die-hard Texas Longhorns and San Antonio Spurs fan.

Dan Holme

Dan Holme is one of the most respected voices in the SharePoint community—a bestselling author, consultant, and speaker. As AvePoint’s Chief SharePoint Evangelist, Dan utilizes his expertise in Microsoft technologies and 17 years of experience solving customers’ IT challenges to educate the global SharePoint community.

Rebecca Isserman

Rebecca has been a SharePoint Developer, since 2005 when she attended the Portal University with Levi, Ray, and Shoup in Springfield, IL. She is a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD), a SharePoint Server MVP in 2011, a Microsof Certified Trainer, and a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in WSS 3.0 (MCTS). She has been a web designer/developer since she was fifteen notepad coding HTML 3.0 websites. She enjoys working with SharePoint 2007, because she can perform the roles of administrator, developer, designer, and architect. She has presented at several conferences, code camps, user groups, and SharePoint Saturdays in the past three years. She currently works for Planet Technologies.. She lives with her cat, Gambit. If you would like to contact her you can e-mail her at rebecca.isserman@gmail.com or fill out the contact form at her blog http://www.mosslover.com.

Mike Lotter

Founder and Chief Organizer of SharePointSaturday.org, Michael is a SharePoint Solution Architect at CFA Institute, and travels throughout the United States implementing SharePoint and InfoPath-based solutions. He is an active speaker at East Coast Code Camps and user group meetings, and is a co-author on O’Reilly’s SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide.

Sean McDonough

Sean is the Chief SharePoint Evangelist for Idera, a Microsoft gold certified partner and creator of tools for SharePoint, SQL Server, and PowerShell.  As a consultant, Sean has worked with a number of Fortune 500 companies to architect, implement, troubleshoot, tune, and customize their SharePoint environments. Sean is an MCPD, an MCTS, and the co-author of both the “SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide” (http://tinyurl.com/SPDRGuide2007) and the “SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide” (http://tinyurl.com/SPDRGuide2010). He can be reached through his blog (http://SharePointInterface.com) or Twitter (@spmcdonough).

Chris McNulty

Chris McNulty is a strategic product manager for SharePoint Solutions at Quest Software, where his responsibilities include the strategic product direction for Quest’s SharePoint solutions. Chris is a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), and a member of the Microsoft Solutions Advocate and MVTSP programs. A frequent speaker at events around the U.S., Chris is the author of the “SharePoint 2010 Consultant’s Handbook – Managed Metadata Service,” and blogs at http://www.chrismcnulty.net/blog and http://www.sharepointforall.com.

Prior to Quest, Chris led the SharePoint consulting practice at KMA, a New England-based Microsoft Gold Partner. He holds an MBA in investment management from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, and has more than 20 years’ experience in financial services technology with John Hancock, State Street, GMO, and Santander

Mark Rackley

Solutions Architect

Mark has been developing software applications for over 17 years filling the roles of Project Manager, Business Analyst, Lead Developer, and Solutions Architect. Mark has worked in large corporate environments, small software start-ups, and as a consultant bringing real world knowledge and experience to his blog posts, articles, and presentations. Mark currently works for Juniper Strategy, LLC as a Solutions Architect and SharePoint Practice Lead making key SharePoint architecture and development decisions as well as bringing the appropriate SharePoint Best Practices to his clients and customers. Mark’s goal as a speaker, blogger, and author is to help every new architect and developer avoid the frustrations and brick walls he ran into while learning SharePoint.

Paul Swider

Paul J. Swider is an international speaker, writer and freelance consultant. In addition he is president of the Charleston SharePoint Users Group and a contributing author of the new Professional SharePoint 2010 Development book published by Wrox Press. He is an accomplished entrepreneur straight from a barrier Island near Charleston; SC. Paul chases the tides and winds as an avid boater and sailor.
Paul is grateful he is able escape the summer heat in Charleston and consults with some of the most successful companies in the world. 17 years of software consulting experience combined with many Microsoft certifications and speaking credentials has made Paul an authority in the SharePoint Community. Paul has trained and consulted thousands of SharePoint administrators, developers and architects.

Rick Taylor

Rick is a SharePoint architect and has assisted numerous, large companies in their implementations including the US Air Force, Charles Schwab, and Nestle. He is a published author, co-author, and contributing author. Rick worked for Microsoft on the Platform Engineering Team for BPOS, and is now a Senior Technical Architect for Perficient. Rick is based in Phoenix, AZ and is an avid Triathlete (Clydesdale class), enjoys playing chess and is active in the Boy Scouts of America.

Erica Toelle

Erica Toelle is a seasoned business analyst and has been working with SharePoint since 2004. Erica has spent much of that time focused on Organizational Change Management (OCM) project roles and was among the first in the industry to customize OCM methodologies to be more appropriate for the fast-paced nature of SharePoint implementations. Erica enjoys helping customers take their initial deployment through to enterprise-wide adoption so they get the most value out of their software investment.

Sadie Van Buren

Sadie Van Buren is a Senior Software Engineer at BlueMetal Architects, a Gold-Certified Microsoft Partner based in Watertown, MA.  She designs SharePoint solutions and leads deployments, with a strong focus on strategy, usability, information architecture, and business process improvement.

Sadie has a Bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and a Certification in Project Management from Boston University, and is a Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP).  She is a member of the Boston Area SharePoint User Group, the Boston Knowledge Management Forum and the Boston chapter of SIKM (System Integrator Knowledge Managers).  She is the creator of the SharePoint Maturity Model, and blogs about SharePoint and technology at http://amatterofdegree.typepad.com/.

Phillip Wicklund

Phil Wicklund is the author of Deploying Cloud-based Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Solutions by Microsoft Press, as well as SharePoint 2010 Workflows in Action by Manning Publications. He has over 7 years of SharePoint experience and is a MCM candidate for SharePoint, a frequent blogger, speaker, and author around SharePoint products and technologies. He started working with SharePoint back in 2003 and has since architected and administered many dozens of corporate SharePoint environments. He started as a SharePoint development instructor and has since moved into consulting with RBA, where he shares real-world insights and in-depth best practices with his clients.