David Alpert is a Senior Software Developer, Experience Designer, and Digital Strategist who wants to change the IT industry.
With a BSc. Honors in Computer Science and over 15 years of development, leadership, and mentoring experience, David is a passionate visionary focused on identifying and removing friction in all aspects of application development and teambuilding.
David currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba with his superhero wife and 5 amazing kids.
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Amir Barylko started his career in 1994 working for IBM as a senior developer while he was finishing his Masters Degree in computer science. For the past 15 years, he has worked as a team leader and architect. Having started with languages like C++ and Java he spent many years coding in C# and training other developers in topics such as domain modeling, abstractions, patters, automation, dependency injection, testing, etc.
Being an incurable geek, always thirsty for knowledge, his passion for technology moved him towards Ruby on Rails a few years ago, becoming an advocate for RoR web development and recently giving his first RoR training.
Amir is a rare combination of high technical skills, lots of experience in a wide range of platforms, exceptional presentation skills and a great sense of humour. His presentations are always rich in content and fun to attend.
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Terry Bunio currently performs iterations at Protegra. Terry never wanted to be known as a Project Manager. His main career has been in Data Architecture. Along the way, Terry discovered that he enjoys helping to build teams, grow client trust, encourage individual growth, doing project work, and helping to coach teams and solutions. It seems that some people like to call that Project Management.
As an Agile Coach, Terry is known to question assumptions and propose compromises that deliver the most value to the clients and teams he is part of. Terry is committed to Agile implemented according to Lean Principles.
Terry is still bitter about the Green Bay Packers early exit from the NFL Playoffs.
You can follow Terry on Twitter @tbunio or his blog http://bornagainagilist.wordpress.com/
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Frank Conway is product manager, solution architect and project director for Blue Canvas Payroll – a joint venture between IBEX Payroll and Protegra. Frank has been involved since inception with the business concept, design, implementation and ongoing operations of the Everest Platform by Blue Canvas. Frank is also a principal consultant with Protegra.
Like many others, Frank’s journey into the incredible world of computing started when he cut his teeth on a Commodore VIC-20 at the age of 13 . Frank loves nothing more than having the lives of others improved by using solutions he is involved in creating – like all good software developers he feels the true reward is in seeing people using your stuff in production.
Frank has been using agile and lean principles with a particular focus on delivery of practical solutions for many fields including healthcare, financial services and human resources.
When not working Frank extends his expression of creativity to brewing beer on his semi-professional all-grain brewing system.
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Chris Dagenais has been working in software development for 12 years at Point2 Technologies Inc. Starting out developing in java/jsp, and then maturing his skills in C# and .Net, he has a great ability to deliver solutions that satisfy the business and development team(s).
Chris' passion for people and his ability to effectively communicate with business stakeholders and customers led him down the management career path to his current position as Director of Software Development. For the last 5 years, Chris has been leading agile scrum teams and gaining experience with many different aspects of agile management. Firmly believing that many people and companies can benefit from the experience he has gained, his primary focus now is sharing what he's learned with as many people as possible.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @mdchris or http://agileshoptalk.wordpress.com/
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Guy Dugas Chair of Accounting and Computer Education
Business Analysts have traditionally been educated in a traditional career, and then discovered an affinity to business analysis when assigned to an initiative to solve a business or IT problem. Until very recently, there were limited options to 'educate' business analysts from the foundation up. Red River College is soon to launch a Business Technology Management diploma/degree.
Guy Dugas has been the Chair of Accounting and Computer Education in the School of Business and Applied Arts at Red River College since 2007, and is one of the driving forces behind the creation of this diploma program, which conforms to the BTM framework designed by corporate and academic members of the Canadian Coalition for tomorrow's ICT Skills (CCICT).
Guy is very interested in the perspective of our SDEC12 conference attendees, as well as the input and insight shared by these panel members.
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Angie Duncan is a Business Analyst at Protegra. She has been in the software industry for over a decade with most of her experience in Product Management and Business Analysis. Having worked through strategic product planning, market differentiation and detailed feature road-mapping; she enjoys the role of visionary to tie product strategies into the larger company strategic initiatives.
Angie thrives in a team environment and enjoys the community at Protegra.
Outside of work, she spends time at the cottage with her family and she is an avid golfer during the summer months.
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Mike Edwards started his career 25 years ago as a software developer. In the past 15 years his career has gone down the path of leading and managing IT. Mike has recently carved a new path through the wilderness and is now an independent consultant.
A few years ago Mike started incorporating Lean & Agile into his world dominated by PMI. It didn't take long for Mike to figure out how this shift was going to rock his world! Mike has had success bringing together Lean & Agile to help teams transform their world! Although he works with the whole team, his specialty is helping the project management office increase their value. Mike's true passion surfaces when he has an opportunity to speak or teach at events across Canada each year.
You can follow Mike on twitter at @mikeeedwards, LinkedIn: http://ca.linked.com/in/mikeeedwards and on his new blog at http://www.leanpmsolutions.ca .
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Kevin Giles is a senior systems analyst with Investors Group. He has over 12 years of experience in the information technology field specializing in systems and business analysis. Recently, his work has focused on implementing business intelligence solutions for the IGM Financial group of companies which includes Investors Group Inc., Mackenzie Financial Corporation and Investment Planning Council.
Kevin is the President of the IIBA Winnipeg Chapter and previously, he also served as the VP of Professional Development and VP of Communications for the chapter.
He is married to Liz and has two children, Katherine and Nolan.
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Vickie Gray is an executive coach, management consultant for IT organizations, corporate trainer and speaker, former software developer, and with her partner Paul Reeves has been instructing McCarthy BootCamps globally since 2003. Her clients include executives and teams from Toyota, Red Hat, Transcontinental, game developers, startups, consulting firms and non-profits.
She is the author of Creating Time, about using the Core Protocols to slay the Time Eating Monster, and her next book on using the Core will be published soon. She and Paul live in Nova Scotia, Canada with two clever greyhounds and a flock of wandering chickens. You can find her at www.simplerulesandtools.com and on Twitter as adaptivecoach.
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Doug Hiebert is a software developer at Protegra Inc., with over five years of software development experience. His passion for deeply learning technologies both new and old has often landed him in a mentorship role with those around him. He loves the "aha!" moments that come up while solving difficult problems, devising simple solutions to complex problems, and helping others learn.
His programming interests outside of his day job as a Java developer are playing around with Ruby and Scala frameworks and exploring aspects of functional programming. In an ideal world without bills to pay or other responsibilities, Doug would likely have been an indie game developer.
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Gerry Kirk's passion is bringing people together to create extraordinary results. He uses innovative approaches including Kanban, Agile and Lean Startup to guide organizations and communities to produce higher value, increase productivity and quality, delivered by highly motivated, empowered teams. He delivers creative, engaging learning using training from Innovation Games® and Training from the Back of the Room. Lately Gerry is focused on helping individuals through personal coaching and Personal Kanban workshops. Gerry is based in Ontario, Canada.
Gerry will also lead an SDEC12 Post Conference Workshop.
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Mark Kulchycki, P.Eng, Software Architecture Manager, Manitoba HVDC Research Centre
Mark Kulchycki is the Software Architecture Manager at the Manitoba HVDC Research Centre. He is responsible for planning and managing the development efforts of the Manitoba HVDC Research Centre's software products, primarily the Power Systems Computer Aided Design (PSCAD) product, which specializes in electromagnetic transient simulation studies.
Mark has been a driving force behind incorporating many of the Agile methodologies within the development group at the Manitoba HVDC Research Centre. He considers himself a student of Agile and keeps an open mind to many of the practices. He supports and encourages the development group to regularly experiment with new methodologies.
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Jonathan Lipps (Sauce Labs, San Francisco) has graduate degrees in philosophy and linguistics but is currently enamored with building things in code. He works as a developer on various levels of Sauce Labs's website and infrastructure and is excited about the potential of Selenium-in-the-cloud to accelerate the development of rock-solid applications.
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Cory Maksymchuk is a software developer at Protegra and has been a regular speaker at SDEC. He has spent most of the last 7 years working in the Java stack as part of large software development initiatives. His true passion in life is finding elegant solutions to difficult problems and truly gets excited seeing great ideas come to life.
Were he not to be a software developer, Cory would most certainly be an inventor.
Outside of work, Cory spends some of his free time working on home renos, being a Dad and learning two new pet technologies: Scala and Android.
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Paul Misseghers is the Senior IT Manager for Cargill AgHorizons (Canada).
Paul has leadership experience in IT governance, applied methodologies, application delivery, enterprise architecture, and shared infrastructure services. In addition to leading the local Cargill IT team, Paul is an active leader in a project to transform IT into a strategic partner for the Cargill Agricultural Supply Chain platform. This project spans several regions including North America, Latin America, Europe and Australia.
Paul started his IT career with AT&T Canada, AT&T Labs and Convergys, and in more recent years, has held various management positions with The Great-West Life Assurance Company.
In his off hours, Paul is an enthusiastic amateur photographer; a hobby that he manages to fit in between late night conference calls with counterparts in Asia, Europe and Australia, and spending time with his wife Tanya.
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Trish Rempel has been passionate about application development since she first discovered Logo Writer in elementary school. With over ten years in the field, she believes in the value of team collaboration and continuous improvement. She adapts her role to fit the needs of the team and the project, and that has included application developer, systems analyst, team lead, and the list will likely grow.
Some of her favourite technologies and methodologies include:
C#, Flex, MVC, agile/lean principles, team building, and clean code.
Trish is also a wife and mom, and her geeky interests include Star Trek, RPGs, fantasy novels, and nerdcore rapping. You can follow Trish on Twitter @trishrempel or her blog http://trishrempel.com.
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Robert Reppel has written his first commercial software application more than 25 years ago. He has seen many since, as agile coach, team lead and developer, for companies from start-ups to multinationals. He works as Senior Solutions Architect at PayByPhone.com.
His main interest is the people side of the business: How do ways of thinking, social interactions, organizational structures and processes influence the shape of software systems? What are the types of decisions and actions which result in a useful, fit-for-its-purpose, cost-effective and maintainable solution?
His current focus is on .NET (http://github.com/robertreppel), with occasional forays into Java and PHP.
You can follow Robert on Twitter at @robertreppel
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Steve Rogalsky first started experimenting with agile and lean techniques as a child. He learned the importance of ‘test first’ and the folly of ‘test last’ after starting a snow ball fight with the older kids in the neighbourhood. While playing the popular lego game of ‘zoom your vehicle towards your brother’s vehicle and see which one breaks first’, he honed his simple design and iterative development skills.
Steve is a process and culture hacker, accomplished agilist, and co-founder of the Winnipeg Agile User Group. Passionate about his family, working with people, solving problems, coaching, agile, lean, and continuous improvement. You can find him at http://winnipegagilist.blogspot.com and on Twitter as srogalsky.
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Barb Spurway is a Business Analyst/Consultant at Protegra, and a member of the SDEC12 organizing committee. Barb has worked in many IT delivery and consulting roles, including program management, business analysis, and product and software development.
Barb’s favorite consulting assignments are helping clients achieve better business results through process improvements, including building and implementing software. She loves problem solving, contributing to excellent teamwork, and working at Protegra.
She spends her free time at the cabin with friends and family, and is an extremely avid, if not altogether competent, golfer.
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Shona Suderman joined the Winnipeg Airports Authority (WAA) as the Director of Information Technology in 2011 and is leading the WAA IT Team through a new initiative of Common Use Infrastructure and support. Airport Common Use systems work on the premise that the airport acts as an IT service provider to the airlines and other tenants. The airport operates passenger processing systems (that issue boarding passes and bagtags) and baggage handling systems (that ensure a bag is routed to and from the correct plane and luggage carousel) for the airlines to simplify operations and improve airline and passenger service.
Previous to her time with WAA, Shona worked in IT Consulting, Architecture and Sales and has acquired a vast exposure to IT systems with a well rounded knowledge base of IT Infrastructure and Enterprise systems design, architecture and best practices for support and operations.
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Craig Tataryn A professional Java developer for a decade, Craig has worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from Recruiting, Purchase Order, Revenue Collection and Mortgage systems, applications running on iPad and iPhones, as well as, web services for children's educational toys.
Craig has honed his skills on Scala, Java, Wicket, Spring, Hibernate, Maven, Camel, CXF and iOS application development. Craig also enjoys his role as the Founder/Editor of The Basement Coders Developer Podcast and as the Founder of both the Winnipeg JVM Programming Group and Functional Programming Group.
"I love to learn and more importantly I love to teach. Hoarding knowledge is one of the most petty and selfish things you can do, especially as a contractor. This is why I always make it a point to document and share my knowledge with my client's employees."
You can follow Craig on Twitter @craiger, @bcoders, http://tataryn.net, http://basementcoders.com.
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Alyson Teterenko Software Developer, Manitoba HVDC Research Centre
Alyson Teterenko is a Software Developer at the Manitoba HVDC Research Centre. She is a member of the software development team responsible for the PSCAD (Power Systems Computer Aided Design) product.
Alyson has a passion for Agile software development. She is a regular participant at the Winnipeg Agile User Group meetings, where she brings back ideas to the PSCAD team. She has a strong interest in improving user experience. Alyson recently travelled to Barcelona, Spain for a PSCAD European User Group meeting, where she connected with users to learn about how they use the software and generate ideas to create a better user experience.
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Stuart Williams develops software at Investors Group in Winnipeg. His work passions are automation and efficiency, which he justifies with reducing costs and errors. Proof is his use of the Dvorak keyboard layout.
He has an undergraduate degree in Physics, and a Masters degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington. His experience teaching software development spans industry, university, conferences, and high school age.
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Adam Yuret has worked in the software industry as a sapient exploratory tester for 13 years. While having always been a process troublemaker, he discovered the agile/lean principles aligned very much with his own values and became a passionate advocate for collaborative process improvement. Today, he facilitates Seattle Lean Coffee every Wednesday morning and works as an independent consultant helping organizations achieve alignment and a collaborative learning culture.
You can follow Adam on Twitter @AdamYuret, his blog www.contextdrivenagility.com, and LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/adamyuret.
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Munna Zaman heads the Information Technology Division for the City of Winnipeg’s Water and Waste Department, a large organization that helps protect public health, property and the environment by supplying high quality drinking water, treating sewage, managing land drainage and flood control, and providing garbage and recycling services.
Mr. Zaman is responsible for leading the planning and operation of the organization’s technology and information systems. As a member of the senior management team, he participates in the formulation and recommendation of the department’s Strategic Plan as well as the overall management of the organization. Prior to joining the City of Winnipeg, Mr. Zaman served as a senior manager and the Director of Information Technology for the Province of Manitoba’s public housing and social services departments.
Mr. Zaman obtained an MBA from the University of Manitoba and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Winnipeg.
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