Linda Sanford

It’s a great pleasure to introduce our next speaker.

Linda Sanford’s career at IBM began in 1975 when she joined the company as an engineer after graduating from St. John’s University. Linda actually got her first taste of the world of commerce at an even earlier age -- operating a vegetable stand to sell produce from her family’s potato farm where she grew up on eastern Long Island.

Throughout her career, Linda has assumed one big job after another -- and exceeded expectations at every stop.

As an executive leader, she was instrumental in reinventing IBM’s flagship mainframe computer into an open system and in driving IBM’s comeback in storage. She is currently driving IBM’s company-wide transformation efforts.

Her accomplishments have been well recognized throughout the business world. She has been named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Business by Fortune Magazine, one of the Top Ten Innovators in the Technology Industry by Information Week, and one of the Ten Most Influential Women in Technology by Working Woman Magazine. She is currently is serving as chair of the Business Council of New York State.

We’re pleased she could join us today to discuss trends in the global market IBM and their customers are contending with – and then engage in some dialogue during the Q&A.

Please join me in welcoming IBM Senior Vice President Linda Sanford …

Galen Ho Senior Vice President, Performance Excellence

Galen Ho is Senior Vice President for Performance Excellence, responsible for program management; engineering and technology; strategic planning; mergers and acquisitions; internal audit; information technology; and mission success for the company’s U.S.-based operating groups. The groups collectively employ some 45,000 employees in the U.S., U.K., Sweden and South Africa and generate annual sales in excess of $10 billion. Previously, Ho was president of BAE Systems’ Information & Electronic Systems Integration Sector. Prior to that, he served as President of the former Lockheed Martin Aerospace Electronics Systems (AES) business segment.

He joined IBM as an avionics systems engineer in 1972 and subsequently held various management positions. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and did graduate study work at Ohio State University. While serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, he was awarded the Vietnam Combat Service and the Air Force Meritorious Service Medals.

Steve Mezak

Steve Mezak is a veteran of 6 startups, including Aspect Development, sold to i2 for $9B and Digital Market, sold to Agile Software for $75M. His roles ranged from technical lead to CTO and CEO. He has over 25 years of software development experience moving from writing software code to responsibility for managing software teams and budgets. Steve founded Accelerance in 2001 to share his expertise in successfully integrating in-house and outsourced development teams (both on and offshore) for dramatic cost and time savings. As an internationally acclaimed speaker and consultant, Steve has shown hundreds of software executives how to use outsourced development as a major strategic advantage for developing their software. Steve has a BS in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and studied at UC Berkeley and City University in London.