Tara Combs, IBM Workplace Forms Specialist

Tara Combs is the IBM Workplace Forms Technical Specialist for the Americas. Tara came to IBM with the Workplace Forms acquisition and has over 10 years of experience with forms, content management and records management.

Brian Chaput, IBM Composite Solution Sales Director

Brian Chaput is the IBM Product Marketing Manager for dashboard software solutions, including IBM Lotus ActiveInsight and IBM WebSphere Dashboard Framework. Brian has over 20 years of technical product marketing and management experience. Prior to joining IBM, Brian was employed as a senior Product Marketing Manager at Bowstreet, which was acquired by IBM in 2005.

Andy Blank, Prolifics Security Practice Manager

Since joining Prolifics in 1994, Andrew Blank has held key positions such as Senior Technical Support Engineer, Manager of Training Services, Senior Consultant, and Migrations Practice Manager. Currently, as one of Prolifics’ Solution Directors, Andrew takes part in the design, development and delivery of Prolifics’ projects for such clients as Marsh & McLennan, MetLife and UPS. His expertise in J2EE architectures, portal solutions, IT security, and systems monitoring is integral to the company’s strategic planning for adoption and use of new product technologies. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Business Administration from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Dan Kern, Prolifics ITCAM Practice Manager

Dan Kern joined Prolifics as a Senior WebSphere Administrator and has recently transitioned into the ITCAM Practice Manager role participating in solution design, architecture and deployment of solutions for WebSphere and Tivoli product lines. He has held positions as a Senior Application Engineer with Genuity and Ardais Corporation, a biotech startup company.

Brian Bryson, IBM Rational Marketing Engineer

Prior to joining the IBM Rational in 1995, Brian spent several years in Quality Assurance. Holding various positions from Tester to QA Management, Mr. Bryson learnt and developed the requisite best practices to implementing effective quality management. Since joining IBM Rational, Brian has spoken to individuals and audiences worldwide on numerous aspects of quality management. A former instructor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, Brian has written several papers, articles and presentations which have been delivered at all major quality focussed conferences and forums. In his current role with IBM Rational, Brian is a member of the offering team that plans and delivers IBM Rational's automated quality management toolset.

Bill Coogan, IBM Consulting IT Specialist

Systems and solutions architect for all of IBM's enterprise search offerings within the Content Discovery Portfolio, Bill specializes in enterprise search integration within the WebSphere Portal and Domino offerings. In addition he is responsible for all technical enablement within the WebSphere Portal and Collaboration space. Having worked in the enterprise search and content integration space for over 10 years, in the past Bill has worked for INSO Corporation, Autonomy and Venetica.

Minesh Minilal, Prolifics Portal Specialist

Minesh is a Lotus Workplace Web Content Management (ILWWCM) and J2EE specialist who has led and participated in a number of complex portal e-commerce projects. He has been responsible for the installation, set-up, development, delivery and support of commercial web sites and intranets using products within the ILWWCM suite. In addition, he has extensive experience using HTML, Java Script, DHTML, and Lotus Script to build c ustomized functionality in various portal solutions.

Bob Backofen, Prolifics Portal Practice Manager

Bob Backofen is responsible for new business development and architecting solutions for Prolifics' clients. From proof-of-concept to project deployment, he is heavily involved with key accounts where he assists the IBM and Prolifics teams in best shaping the optimal technology solutions for customers. Bob specializes in Portal Solutions, and has helped develop the portal vision for such clients as JP Morgan Chase, Ernst & Young, Mercer Oliver Wyman, Weil Gotshal, MetLife, and Amalgamated Life. Bob has over 20 years of experience designing, developing and deploying transactional, client/server systems, and currently focuses on application development and deployment upon portal architectures. Prior to joining Prolifics, Bob was Project Manager, Team Leader and Lead Developer at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the New York Institute of Technology.

Shelley Saxana, IBM Security & Market Manager

Shelley Saxena is the Offering Manager for Lotus Expeditor and Lotus Mobile Connect. He has been with IBM for 8 years in roles ranging from Product Development and IT Consulting to Product Management and Market Management.

Bill Holtshouser, IBM Program Director, Strategy / Product Management for WebSphere Commerce and Speech Products

William A. Holtshouser has 24 years of development, product management and marketing experience in high technology. He joined IBM Corporation in 1983 with a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Syracuse University, and in 1998 received his MBA from Duke University. Currently, Bill is Program Director of WebSphere Commerce Strategy and Product Management. In this role he is responsible for all requirements, strategy, portfolio management and thought leadership for WebSphere Commerce. In 2006 Bill also picked up product management responsibility for IBM’s embedded and server speech products.