Brian Gillooly
Editor-In-Chief
InformationWeek Events

Brian Gillooly has spent the past 20 years establishing a trusted and significant presence in the business technology community. One of the most recognized personalities in IT media, Brian has built valuable relationships with the most influential practitioners in the technology industry and counts among his closest contacts CIOs from Fortune 50 companies to small businesses.

As the editor-in-chief of Optimize and editor-in-chief of InformationWeek’s events business, Brian had the opportunity to not only engage the people who help shape the direction of business technology – notables like Jack Welch, C.K. Prahalad, Ralph Szygenda, and Michael Dell – but also to share trusted opinions and ideas through his CIO Nation blog, presentations at numerous live events, sage words from his weekly columns, and one-on-one meetings.

In his career in event content-generation, moderating, and presenting, Brian has developed a unique rapport with his audiences by eschewing the staid, lecture-style presentation and establishing a comfortable, often fun (but always informative) approach. As VP of member services New Paradigm, the Toronto-based think tank founded by renowned strategist Don Tapscott, Brian has helped Fortune 500 companies navigate the challenges of the Enterprise 2.0 era.

As president of Force 5 Market Intelligence, Brian continues the same dialogue with the industry by participating in live events, researching market trends, and chronicling important developments for clients in the business technology community.

Kirk Laughlin
Contributing Editor
InformationWeek

Kirk Laughlin is an award-winning writer, moderator and subject expert in information technology and business strategies. He has served in a variety of editorial leadership roles during his 18-year career in journalism. Prior to working with TechWeb’s InformationWeek, he was Editorial Director at Ziff Davis Media/Enterprise Events which included developing programming content for leading Ziff brands - EWeek and CIO Insight. At Ziff Davis, Laughlin built content programs in the areas of CIO strategies, Web 2.0, enterprise mobility, financial industry solutions, storage, security, unified communications, risk management, IT governance, virtualization and business intelligence. He has worked with many leading technology suppliers in developing strategic content solutions for a variety of media platforms.

Prior to joining Ziff Davis, Laughlin served as Editor-in-Chief of several media organizations including America’s Network Magazine, a weekly business magazine; Telecom Planet, a website devoted to networking and wireless issues; and Applied Mobility. He has also directed the launch of several tech industry custom publications. He has won three awards for editorial excellence from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and two awards from the Western Publications Association.

Melanie Turek
Principal Analyst
Conferencing & Collaboration
ICT Practice, North America
Frost & Sullivan

Melanie Turek is a Principal Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. She is a renowned expert in unified communications, collaboration, social networking and content-management technologies in the enterprise. For 15 years, Ms. Turek has worked closely with hundreds of vendors and senior IT executives across a range of industries to track and capture the changes and growth in the fast-moving unified communications market. She also has in-depth experience with business-process engineering, project management, compliance, and productivity & performance enhancement, as well as a wide range of software technologies including messaging, ERP, CRM and contact center applications. Ms. Turek writes often on the business value and cultural challenges surrounding real-time communications, collaboration and Voice over IP, and she speaks frequently at leading customer and industry events, including VoiceCon, Interop and CMP Media's Enterprise 2.0 Conference, for which she serves as an advisory board member and track chair.

Prior to working at Frost & Sullivan, Ms. Turek was a Senior Vice-President and Partner at Nemertes Research. She also spent 10 years in various senior editorial roles at Information Week magazine. Ms. Turek graduated cum laude with a BA in Anthropology from Harvard College. She currently works from her home office in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Tim Perez
Vice President & General Manager, Northeast Area
Siemens Enterprise Communications

Tim Perez is VP & General Manager, Northeast Area for Siemens Communications. In this role, Tim has P&L responsibility for the direct sales force spanning Philadelphia, PA to New York City and the New England Area.

Since joining Siemens in 2000, Perez’s increasingly responsible roles have included Collaboration and Mobility Manager; Senior Group Marketing Manager, where he directed the US analyst and consultant relations team and competitive marketing team, culminating in establishing Siemens’ leadership with firms such as Gartner, Yankee Group and InfoTech; and Director of Sales.

A 1986 Distinguished Military Graduate from the Virginia Military Institute, he served for 10 years as an Army Intelligence Officer. Perez also possesses a Masters in Strategic Intelligence.

Rick Puskar
Vice President Sales – Unified Communications
Siemens Enterprise Communications

Rick Puskar is the Vice President of Sales for Unified Communications at Siemens Enterprise Communications. Mr. Puskar's mandate is to help customers achieve their business objectives and compete more effectively through the implementation of Siemens Unified Communications solutions. Mr. Puskar brings more than 21 years of direct sales, sales management and executive experience to this role. Since joining Siemens in 1987 as a member of the sales force based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he has taken on increasingly responsible roles in sales and sales operations, serving both the direct and indirect sales channels, as well as playing an integral role in a variety of business transformation projects. As one of the principal architects of the Siemens Solution Selling approach and Business Assessment Selling Methodology, Mr. Puskar has helped dozens of customers create the business case required to help them make sound technology purchase decisions.
Puskar holds a B.A. degree in Business Administration / Finance from Waynesburg College where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He resides in Monongahela, PA with his family.

Peter Greco
Director: Strategic Solutions – Siemens Enterprise Communications

Peter Greco is Director of Strategic Solutions Support for Siemens Enterprise Communications. His responsibilities include the market strategy and field support for OpenScape Unified Communications solutions in North America. Mr. Greco has spent 30 years in the communications industry with Siemens, IBM, and ROLM holding positions, in operations, sales, marketing and management.

Mr Greco lives in the Philadelphia area. He has been published in several periodicals and holds an honors Degree from West Chester University.