Keith Ellis has been an executive in the technology industry for over 25 years, starting with the industry trend-watcher International Data Corporation (IDC). He has held roles as CEO, COO, board member, investor, or mentor to various technology companies, co-founded and sold a business analysis company as well as being a former Chair of IIBA. As Chief Growth and Engagement Officer for IIBA, he is responsible for leading IIBA’s global growth strategy, including strategic partnerships, corporate and academic programs, chapters, and membership value.

Keith is a recognized voice in the business analysis community, has published and spoken extensively in our field, and, at one point had over 60,000 attendees to his webinars annually. His 2008 study, The Business Analysis Benchmark, quantified for the first time the economic impact of mature business analysis practices and their positive impact on overall project success rates. Keith holds an undergraduate business degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada and MSc in Computer Science from Lancaster University in the UK for his research in business analysis.

David Mantica is the VP and General Manager for SoftEd US. Fueled by his passion for developing empowered knowledge workers through training and coaching, he helps companies develop their teams with the critical skills to stay effective in the face of VUCA.

Drawing from his experience having successfully built his B2B training firm (growing it to $13M in seven years), David speaks on the impact of technology on leadership and management, helping organizations cope with the ever-changing demands and complexities of modern business.

With over 30 years of experience and more than 700 speaking engagements, he has inspired better work practices in marketing, product management, project management, software development, executive management, and other key areas of technology and business operations.

David resides in Raleigh-Durham, NC, where he provides consulting to business owners. Driven by his love for helping people grow while maintaining their mental health, he also mentors a number of rising executive leaders, providing pro bono career coaching services that utilize his Career Insurance methodology. David is well known for his ability to butcher the English language, which is why this bio had to be heavily edited.

 

Karl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software development consulting and training company in Portland, Oregon. He has a PhD in organic chemistry. Karl is the author of 13 books, including Software Development Pearls, The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Software Requirements, More About Software Requirements, Successful Business Analysis Consulting, and a forensic mystery novel titled The Reconstruction. Karl has also written many articles on software development, design, project management, chemistry, military history, consulting, and self-help, as well as 18 songs. He has delivered hundreds of training courses, webinars, and conference presentations worldwide. You can reach him at ProcessImpact.com or KarlWiegers.com.

 

Lora McCoy is a Certified Business Analysis Professional with over twenty (20) years of experience in the information technology industry playing various roles in varying projects ranging from focused technical efforts to enterprise, strategic transformations. She has performed and led strategy, change enablement, quality assurance, project management and more.  She has done so in change endeavors for many functional areas of a company in. This experience spans varying company sizes in multiple industries including Banking and Finance, Service Management, Education, Retail, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Construction Equipment, Government. Lora has significant experience enabling strategic change through a holistic lens considering any combination of people, process, data, and technology, ensuring long term adoption and scalability. She is driven by a deep passion for making a difference in others’ worlds. This passion is evident in her daily consulting engagements as well as her efforts in education and mentorship where she enables others to grow in the world of business analysis including guiding others in achieving IIBA certification internationally.

 

Beverly Mundy Weable started the practice of business analysis more than two decades ago at a little cable company in downtown Atlanta. She has enjoyed performing analysis across multiple businesses almost non-stop in the years since and has kept here CBAP #198 active since 2007. She is currently performing business analysis at a 5-years in startup in Chicago as ‘Technical Product Manager.’ Her LinkedIn tagline says it all: “analyzing the business, managing the scrums, and serving the people.” She is looking forward to spending time with the Albany group sharing tales about making it through heavy waters to get to the other side.

 

John Dobbin is a senior Agile consultant based in Dubai and working in MENA, APAC and Europe. He is currently leading a major Agile Transformation for one of the world's largest banks. John was an early adopter of Agile in his own development and integration company in the late nineties: helping major media and advertising companies respond to digital disruption. He has a background in Mathematics and is passionate about porting cutting-edge complexity theory into the domain of business, helping them to become infinitely adaptable to complex environments.

Tommy is passionate about helping organizations thrive by working with them to identify and develop the talents of individual contributors, leaders and teams. He works with executives and line of business leaders to identify barriers to high performance and to design appropriate learning solutions that lead to individual and organizational success.

Tommy brings a diverse background and base of experience to the solution development process. He has spent nearly 30 years working in the field of learning and performance development. As a consultant he has worked with leading companies including Amgen, Biogen, Novo Nordisk, Marriott, BMW, Lutron, Kite Pharm, Worldwide Clinical Trials, and others.

In addition to his consulting experience, he has held senior leadership roles in operating companies as the Chief People Officer for Lonesource, a business supply company, and senior sales executive for TRG, a technology training company.

He holds a master’s degree in Corporate Communication from Seton Hall University and has been on the teaching staff of the University of Phoenix where he taught public speaking. He is a frequent guest speaker on leadership in the MSW program at NC State University.

He is also a volunteer consultant for the Executive Service Corp of the Triangle. A non-profit that provides organizational development consulting and training services to the area’s non-profit organizations.
He began his career as a professional actor appearing on Broadway in the Tony Award winning original production of A Chorus Line. His book, Now Presenting, You! – Vital Tips from Business and Theatre for Crafting Presentations with Impact is due out in the Spring of 2021

Dave Saboe is an Enterprise Agile Coach, podcaster, and author. He is passionate about helping individuals, teams, and organizations do the best work of their lives. Dave has been in the Business Analysis and Project Management field for two decades and has led teams of Business Analysts, Scrum Masters, and Coaches. He is a frequent industry speaker and helped create the IIBA’s Agile Analysis certification exam. Through coaching, mentoring, and his podcast, Mastering Business Analysis, Dave helps Business Analysts and Product Owners do the best work of their lives.

Throughout Gina Schmidt’s career, she has successfully managed and participated in enterprise-wide multi-vendor projects while performing in a diverse number of roles as an internal consultant with a Midwest phone company and as an external consultant with a large global business consulting services company. As a known expert in project management and business analysis, Gina has provided training and consulting services to various third-party training companies and was often engaged as a speaker and seminar instructor by many professional associations, including IIBA, PMI, BA World, Building Business Capability Conference, Women in Technology, We Build Character (non-profit CIO mentoring). Gina is also an author of “Mastering Business Analysis Versatility: Seven Steps to Develop Advanced Competencies and Capabilities” which is part of a Business Analysis Professional Development Series offered by J. Ross Publishing.

Dr. Michael White is the founder of The Business Analysis Doctor, LLC, a global and award-winning business analysis training provider. He has been a business analysis practitioner for over a decade. He has driven innovation at some of the top financial institutions in the U.S. and holds a doctorate in Business Administration as well as the CBAP, AAC, CBDA, and CPOA designations from IIBA.