IoT in Action Event Series 2020

An information technologist with global experience in designing, deploying and managing new product launches and unique technology solutions across multiple industries and market segments. Success across domestic and international hardware and software sales, services, and operations, inclusive of product design, business development, sales and new routes to market.

Currently, Microsoft General Manager IoT Device Experiences. The Internet of Things (IoT) Device Experience Team is responsible for the global relationship management and sales performance of more than 8,000 OEMs that are designing and selling many of the most exciting and widely used devices such as Point of Sale, Self Service Kiosks, Digital Signage, ATMs, GPS/PNDs, Industrial PCs and even wearable and other emerging IoT device categories. Sales ecosystem includes silicon providers, ODM’s, value-added resellers, system integrators, independent service vendors, service providers as well as OEMs. Our mission is to accelerate and scale repeatable device-to-cloud solutions with device ecosystem partners globally.

Previously, CEO at DDNi. A Silicon Valley-based device to cloud platform ecosystem provider for consumer and enterprise computer manufacturers and suppliers. A complete lifecycle management solution that collects and analyzes device data, personalizes a user experience, narrowcasts communication channel and delivers incremental revenue and profit throughout the lifecycle of each device. General Manager at Lenovo Group International. Led the consumer personal computer business. Launched Lenovo’s first ever consumer products and services into North America and implemented a new supply chain model for selected retailers and distributors. IBM Director of Technology Group. Led sales, development, product design and marketing teams on new generation hard drive designs. Launched the world's smallest removable hard drive. Created a global consumer brand strategy, product development, retail routes to market and service and support.

Ben has been with Insight for three years and is responsible for leading the IoT Center of Excellence as well as strategic delivery. He has been building with IoT solutions for a number of years in areas like industrial, residential, agriculture and heavy machinery. He has been writing software in .NET to solve business problems by introducing automation and building robust, cloud-based applications. He has worked in many industries including service-based organizations, lecture capture software, and commercial insurance.

His passion is to be able to deliver value to his customers as well as building solutions where scaling and performance are part of the design from the first line of code to go-live.

Michelle Kositch works for Microsoft as the Americas Azure IoT Co-Sell Lead in the Consumer Device Division. She has been with Microsoft for 10-years spending her time working with OEM’s developing their IoT Strategy and onboarding their devices to Microsoft’s Azure Commercial Cloud while helping them monetize new revenue streams. Prior to driving the Americas Azure IoT Strategy, Michelle worked with Microsoft’s Azure Government Cloud and Healthcare ISV’s. She helped these ISV’s take their IP and bundle it with Microsoft’s cloud, then helped them onboard as Managed Service Provider’s (MSP). Once these ISV’s became MSP’s she worked with them in the field to develop and drive new revenue streams within the State and Local Government Healthcare Sector. She was hired by Microsoft to incubate their Virtualization Strategy and once completed, she moved into an Alliance role with Dell driving their US Window Server business. After much success, she then moved to the HP Alliance driving their Server business for the Americas and the Government Sector. Prior to Microsoft, she worked for British Telecom as a Global Account Director managing a global sales organization focused on IT Outsourcing and Consulting Services. Michelle also spent 10 years with Siemens Business Services selling Global Outsourcing Services to companies like Google, eBay, AT&T, and Hitachi.

Michelle lives in the Bay Area and is married to a CEO of a Silicon Valley Electrical Contracting firm. She has three children; a daughter (Morgan) who is a Graduate of The University of Oregon and works as a Webmaster in San Diego; a son (Cole) who is a graduate from The University of Colorado at Boulder working in the Bay Area as a Biological Engineer, and another son (Bryan) who is a Robotic Mechanic at Tesla. Her hobbies include snow skiing, biking and hiking with her husband and English Lab (Roxy) in the Lake Tahoe area.

Miguel Morales has been building, defining and commercializing connected products for his entire career, now twelve years. Before coming to Microsoft, Miguel was the Director of IoT for a Fortune 250 Industrial OEM, Parker Hannifin. He began his career working in various digital processor divisions within Texas Instruments. At Microsoft Miguel spends his time helping customers commercialize secure, scalable solutions using connected products as a Sr. Specialist for IoT Devices. Miguel holds a bachelor’s in Computer Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration from Baylor University.

Stephen Welch is VP of Data Science at Mariner, where he leads a team developing deep-learning based solutions for manufacturing applications. Prior to working with Mariner, Stephen was VP of Machine Learning at Autonomous Fusion, an Atlanta-based autonomous driving startup, where Stephen lead the design, development, and deployment of machine learning algorithms for autonomous driving.

Stephen is also the author of the educational YouTube channel. Welch Labs, which has earned 200k+ subscribers and 10M+ views. Stephen holds 10+ US patents, and engineering degrees from Georgia Tech and UC Berkeley.

Consummate nerd and hockey player, loves IoT, Serverless, Python, C# and building IoT solutions. Kevin is an Azure IoT Solution Architect with Microsoft based in Calgary, Canada, working predominantly in the Industrial IoT (IIoT) space with Microsoft’s industrial partners. Twitter: @khilscher

Sreedhar Patnala, is the technology lead of Dover Digital, a unit responsible for Dover’s digital transformation. He is responsible for IoT strategy, product development and digital revenue growth at Dover corporation. In a short period, Sreedhar championed Dover’s IoT platform and multiple IoT initiatives to be successful and revenue generating. Dover is a diversified global manufacturer with annual revenue of approximately $7 billion.

Prior to Dover, Sreedhar held several Software development leadership roles at Altisource (Financial company) and Dell EMC (Data & Storage industry giant). Sreedhar was the Vice president responsible for building next generation PaaS and SaaS applications along with Devops at Altisource. At Dell EMC, Sreedhar held several roles and responsible for large data center storage software, Common platform that enabled unified architecture for EMC storage products.”

Scott has managed Azure and Windows partners at Microsoft for over 15 years. He has predominantly focused on early stage technology offerings supporting new business models and new markets helping promote rapid growth with strategic partners. After earning a BS and MS in engineering from Stanford University, he led a robotics application team at Boeing before helping lead the sales, marketing and service of high-growth companies in electronic assembly (GPD) and semiconductor manufacturing (Applied Precision).

The combination of working in engineering and sales, coupled with working for both technology start-ups and large international companies gives him a unique perspective to support partner growth objectives.

Matt Vasey is responsible for AI Business Development globally at Microsoft working to build out the ecosystem of technology partners, standards bodies, and other innovation catalysts that are required for the next generation of AI and Mixed Reality solutions, services, and systems.

An active officer and board member for industry organizations and standards bodies he currently serves on the board of the OPC Foundation, Industrial Internet Consortium’s Steering Committee, and the Association for Advancement of Automation’s AI board of advisors. Previously he served as Chairman of the OpenFog Consortium leading its merger with the IIC.

Outside of Microsoft, Mr. Vasey has led regional and international teams driving revenue and business expansion ranging from startups to Fortune 100 technology companies. Mr. Vasey earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Trent University in Canada.

Bryan, known as B V A, has focused on Digital Transformation and the ‘Cloud’ since 2007. For the past 4 years his focus has be concentrated on the Industrial IoT space, with connected devices. He is passionate about utilizing the Cloud as an enabling technology to solve real world problems. Bryan has presented at various Microsoft events, Channel Company XChange, and multiple Industry Events.

David Trice joined Honeywell about a year ago, quickly transitioning from his role as Chief Product Officer for the Connected Enterprise in HBS to the GM and Vice President of Honeywell Connected Enterprise for Buildings. His responsibilities include driving the strategy for Honeywell’s Connected Buildings to ensure that we operate fast and meet the challenges of the rapidly changing market. He also leads the development of processes that allow us to rapidly scale up agile software development and blend that capability with domain expertise to solve customer problems in the Building market better than our competition.

David brings to Honeywell more than 28 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur with strong product development and software capabilities. He joined us from IoT software provider CX Technologies, a company he established and served as CEO. Prior to that, he held leadership roles with StarPound Technologies, Oracle, and he founded Revenue Technologies (which was acquired by Oracle). He earned a bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Chad Lich is a Sr. IoT Technical Specialist with Microsoft based in St. Louis, Missouri. He is focused on building Edge-to-Action IoT enabled products and services with enterprise companies across the Americas.

Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Lich worked with Build-A-Bear as the Director of BI and Bearvelopment and Intelligrated (Honeywell Company) as the Director of BI and Development, leading teams and building solutions to take advantage of business opportunities. Chad holds a Bachelors in Information Management from Webster University and a Masters of Business Administration from Southeast Missouri State University.

Jennifer Anderson is a Principal Solution Specialist on the Americas IoT team at Microsoft, supporting development of the IoT ecosystem. In her role, Jennifer works with partners to create and refine their IoT strategies, build solutions on Microsoft’s Azure platform, and help them monetize new revenue streams and digitally transform. She has held numerous strategic sales and marketing positions during her 13 years at Microsoft, including serving as an Account Manager on the Dell OEM team, driving implementation of digital product distribution in the US Retail channel, and rolling out new programs, processes and distribution agreements to the WW retail channel. In 2013, Jennifer spent four months working as a Loaned Executive on the Microsoft Giving Campaign.

Prior to Microsoft, Jennifer worked for Xerox Corporation, DoubleClick Inc., and software startup Tripoint Systems Development Corporation. Additionally, aa marketing intern at General Electric during business school, she developed a multigenerational product plan for the Global Nuclear Fuel division. Jennifer is a graduate of Cornell University, where she earned both her BA and MBA.

Jennifer has a track record of giving and a passion for community service. After college, she spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer, where she served as an English as a Second Language instructor in a small village in the Russian Far East. Jennifer now lives in Seattle with her family, including three young children and two cats. When she is not busy parenting, she enjoys cooking, travel, and exploring the outdoors.

Manisha is an IoT cloud solution architect with Microsoft based in Seattle, WA. She is focused on building IoT and Edge solutions with partners across the Americas. She is passionate about Microsoft’s mission and seeks to achieve it through her work.

Prior to Microsoft, Manisha worked as a Risk Specialist at Cisco Systems. Manisha holds a Bachelors in Computer Science and a Masters of Business Administration from University of North Carolina.

With the recent acquisition of Softweb solutions by Avnet, I now am the Director of IOT for North America in Avnet ISS (Intelligent Software Services Division). I work closely with end clients and associated Avnet representatives to bring their IoT enablement to life.

The scenarios can vary greatly but I am involved from business use case scenarios all the way to final deployment. I am frequently involved with key technical personnel to create the right sustainable solution and assure the associated use case is deployed to maximize customers ROI.