Chapter Information
The economic environment is forcing CIOs to reprioritize and reevaluate their initiatives. Join Chicago’s CIO’s and IT executives in a strategic thinking forum, with attendance by invitation only, where leading executives will discuss key issues related to the role of IT leadership in today’s economy, describe the challenges they are facing and share their best practices with the audience in a lively, interactive environment. TechExecs is an open organization and a true network of Senior IT Executives across all regions of the United States. Our open environment encourages awareness, peer recognition, relationship building, strategic thinking and idea contributions to help shape the success of our peers in the community.
Honorary Chapter CIO Chair(s) |
 Chapter ChairDonald Naglich Director, Technology Infrastructure University HealthSystem Consortium Don has over 20 years of experience in the I.T. industry in diverse settings such as manufacturing, legal, consulting, and healthcare, nationally and internationally. He has overseen all aspects of I.T. from software development, data centers, infrastructure, SAN, and telephony, to national and international systems management, along with all technology support areas. Don’s business experience ranges from senior leadership positions in sales and business development, to strategic, tactical, project, and operations planning and management, ROI analysis, budgets, etc. Don’s specialty is transforming I.T. shops from being viewed as a necessary expense to becoming integral essential business units wielding competitive weapons. His teams have won national awards for innovative use for technology and excellent communications. He has been a speaker at numerous conferences including the Illinois Association of Park Districts and the TechLaw Conference, and has been quoted several times in the trade press.
Previous Chapter Chair Mark Cummuta is currently the CIO for JobAngels.org, a non-profit organization using Web 2.0, social media and innovative interactive technologies to link the millions of US job seekers with volunteer mentors, “Job Angels” willing to assist them in the skills and tasks in finding new employment. Mr. Cummuta is an accomplished IT Executive with nearly 25 years of IT, business, corporate enterprise and consulting experience, after serving our country as a US Marine. Having led a number of firms in CIO, CTO and VP of IT, Applications and Research & Development roles, successfully grown consulting divisions with full P&L authority, and built award-winning products and teams for over 10 years, he started his own successful CIO Advisory Services firm six years ago. Mr. Cummuta has been an invited speaker on BPM (Business Process Management), Lean Six Sigma, data warehousing, program / project management and numerous other technologies and methodologies, and has been quoted in The Wall St. Journal, Crain’s Chicago Business, Aberdeen Research, and others. He writes on on-going series of articles for CIO Magazine’s online resource website, CIO.com on executive job search skills and strategies. Mr. Cummuta holds a dual MBA from Loyola University of Chicago, has completed one year of law school for Intellectual Property Protection from DePaul University, and is named on several patent applications in online multi-media collaboration tools and global logistics tracking systems. Finally, as parents of teenage triplets, Mr. Cummuta and his wife use their years of experience in leadership and persuasive speech in their day-to-day survival. For Mr. Cummuta’s CIO.com Executive Job Search blog, go to: http://advice.cio.com/blogs/cio_job_search_a_real_life_chronicle.
Chapter Vice Chair Whitney Jasnoch is the Senior Client Principal in charge of Sales with Obtiva Corporation. Whitney is a 15-year veteran of IT, providing real world business and technology solutions for several large local and Midwest clients. Also focusing on building relationships with start-ups / young companies, his efforts have applied agility to businesses on multiple levels.Whitney is additionally trained as a business motivational speaker, and is involved in multiple user groups and forums in the Chicago area. He is a frequent speaker at various events and an active volunteer.
National Chapter – Bio
Anthony Huang A well known industry icon, Anthony Huang has been a successful entrepreneur with a solid track record of having started and sold four profitable business ventures along with serving as the CIO for two venture backed healthcare corporations. Presently, Anthony serves as the CEO of TechExecs Network overseeing national growth activities, maintaining national CIO relationships, serving as the Chief Strategist for TechExecs Social Applications Team, an Angel Investor and Venture Strategist. Anthony Huang founded Techxans and TechExecs Network back in 2000. Techxans and TechExecs Network received its worldwide recognition for helping to launch EnronX.org which was the largest Ex-Enron social networking site. The entity was mentioned on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, CIO Magazine along with over 33 global TV, Radio and News Agencies. Prior to TechExecs Network, Anthony Huang was the CEO of Rexton InterActive, a Premium IBM Business Partner, that led the market in providing strategic web advisory for over 100 major clients across 23 different industries. Anthony began his career with Apple Computers and Ernst & Young and was a recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1998 by The Greater Houston Partnership. He has been a speaker at numerous conferences including InformationWeek, Gartner Midsize Enterprise Summit, TiE Venture Forums and Red Herring Venture Forums. Anthony graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Management Information Systems, Pursued Innovations Management Training with MIT, and lives in Houston with his wife and two children.
Rick Kinnard Prior to working full time at TechExecs National, Rick served as the Dallas TechExecs Chapter Vice Chair for two years. He is presently responsible for managing all national forum and social events along with cultivating relationships with TechExecs Coprorate Sponsors. Rick begin his technology career at the young age of 16 when he created dithering in 1980 to create millions of colors on an Apple II which was “limited” to only 8 colors 5 years before it came to regular use in software. His early telecom career allowed him the pleasure of working with American Airlines, ATT, Sprint, US Postal Service, several Republican Party campaigns, various religious organizations and Non-Profits such as Special Olympics. At one point he was managing the accounts for 9 different companies including several insurance companies, US Postal Service and the Nielson Rating surveys. In 1990 Rick bought out his employer and re-launched the business as Trans-Tech Services Inc. He quit college to dedicate more time to the business, and applied his knowledge of systems analysis and design to transform the internal processes; from sales to shipping. He mirrored a Xenix system to Windows and created a CRM program from scratch. He developed “Collision Vision”; a computerized automotive estimating system. Within 3 years Trans-Tech had tripled in size to over 17,000 business customers nationwide selling software and systems, and other specialty items. In 1995 finished 8 years with the United States Navy Reserves In 1998 he started a web design consultancy RKDIA providing dynamic web design for various web based retailers and web based auction sites. Since 2000 he has provided his telecommunications expertise through Time Warner, Cypress, Birch Telecom, Centric Voice, and XO Communications. He has helped hundreds of businesses position their telecommunications resources for efficient and profitable results. He is proud to have helped Dallas Food Bank and Make-a-Wish Foundation as part of his many successful strategies to increase productivity and profitability. Rick has built a personal network of several hundred business contacts. Rick has three boys, two are well on their way to becoming Eagle Scouts and one is a Bear Cub scout. They enjoy weekend adventures throughout Texas. |
