Featured Speaker(s)

Brooke Allen Forbes
Director
Merrill Lynch

Brooke Allen Forbes recently joined Merrill Lynch as the Director of Hosted Contact Management Solutions. She leads the CRM Application Service team, which serves multiple business groups within the firm.

Brooke came to Merrill Lynch from Salesforce.Com where, as a managing principal, she lead the company's most complex CRM implementations for clients that included ADP, Staples, Glaxo Smith Kline, eBay and Cox Business Services. She was also a practice manager with services sales responsibility for the northeast area.

Prior to working at Salesforce.Com, Brooke spent more than 10 years in the technology services sector, including several years in the telecommunications industry with GTE and Nortel Networks, where she managed global international strategic alliances, integration service relationships, new business development initiatives and a $20M global account partnership.

Early in her career, Brooke worked in financial services firms, including Salomon Brothers and CMGI Global Operations where she successfully managed two CRM solutions. She has more than 10 years experience in sales, consulting, marketing, business development and operations in technology, software and services firms

Brooke graduated from Colgate University with a B.A. in International Relations.


Clarice Kennedy
CEO
CCN, Inc.

Clarice Kennedy is Chairman and CEO of Chamrock Computer Network, Inc., (CCN) a leading Information Technology Service Management company and workforce solutions provider.

Kennedy founded CCN in 1989, and during the past two decades has guided its growth and expansion into a full-service provider of IT services and talent management solutions for the world's leading companies. CCN has been honored as the 2005 JPMorgan Chase Supplier of the Year; is the recipient of Crain's Magazine's New York Small Business Award; and was named as one of Inc. Magazine's Fastest Growing Companies.

Today, Kennedy manages the strategic development of CCN's service offerings as well as long-range planning for the firm.

Kennedy began her career as a systems programmer, then evolved into a network engineering role supporting European traders at Security Pacific Bank, now Bank of America. Two years later, the entrepreneurial 24-year-old founded CCN and strategically fulfilled the emerging need for IT services as North American companies began widespread deployment of personal computers across the enterprise.

Her leadership has most recently been recognized by the National Association Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Signature Award, and NAWBO Long Island's National Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Kennedy was also named a finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Information Technology.

Kennedy is an active Board member for Dress for Success, a non-profit organization that empowers women transitioning back into the workforce, and serves on the New York Leadership Board of Women in Technology International (WITI), the nation's leading professional trade association. Since 2001, she has served as the technical advisor for The Michelle O'Neill Foundation, a non-profit that benefits children with cancer. Kennedy is a member of Columbia University's mentor program for the Executive Master of Science in Technology Management students, offered by the School of Continuing Education.

Kennedy holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Buffalo State University, Buffalo, New York. She lives in New York with her husband, and her three greatest accomplishments �" her children, Dylan, Connor and Aidan.


Linda Montella-Carter
Senior Project Manager/Global Process Owner
Pfizer, Inc.

Linda Montella-Carter is a Senior Project Manager and Global Process Owner for Pfizer Inc.'s Worldwide Technology Infrastructure group. Linda joined Pfizer in 2001 and currently manages the Fulfillment and Infrastructure Release Processes globally. In addition, Linda is responsible for leveraging a focus on the organizations driving principles and incorporating standard process and implementation methodology within the Shared Services organization using industry best practices (ITIL, Six Sigma, PMF, etc.).

Linda's Information Technology career began in the early 90's as a project coordinator and programmer at Scientex developing relational databases and computerized video graphics for Federal Highway (FHWA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Linda then transitioned to IT Consulting for Forté Systems where she managed projects and initiatives for companies such as: Schering Plough Research Institute (SPRI), Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert, and Unilever. Projects included Remote Workforce Design, System Deployment and Implementation; Help Center needs analysis and planning; and global operating system deployments respectively.

Wrapping up her IT consulting career as a Senior Management Consultant for Vis.align, (formerly Forté Systems), Linda was responsible for EUS Project Management Integration Initiatives for pre and post day 1 activities for two merging Pharmaceutical companies. Linda then transitioned to a full-time career at Pfizer, and began by managing the activities of 60 Help Desk consultants focused on application specific and standard support operations and executive level reporting and analysis. This enabled her to outline recommendations to guide the design, implementation, status, and management of the identified solutions.

Linda received a B.A. in English from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, and is currently enrolled in the MBA program at Seton Hall University with a major in Information Systems. Linda has presented at several conferences and group meetings including SIM, ITSMF, and various local process interest organizations. Linda has completed Project Management Professional training, and is IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certified. Linda currently lives in southern New Jersey with her husband, and her nine month old daughter Isabella.


Sharra Woodward
Assistant Vice President and Manager Infrastructure Governance
Chubb Group of Insurance Companies

Sharra Woodward is an assistant vice president and a manager for infrastructure governance in information technology for the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. She joined Chubb in the Warren, New Jersey world headquarters in 2004. She is currently responsible for managing the relationship between Chubb Specialty Insurance, one of Chubb's business units, and a third-party infrastructure consultant.

Sharra's early career was in politics. While in college, Sharra worked on the 1988 presidential campaign, convention and inaugural and as a White House intern. Upon graduation, Sharra became a budget director for the 1992 Bush (Sr.) campaign. After completion of the campaign, Sharra began focusing on a career in information technology as a systems consultant with American Management Systems, Inc. In 1997, after a leave of absence from consulting to work as a presidential checkwriter on the 1996 campaign, Sharra became an employee of AXA Financial where she was ultimately a director responsible for AXA's annuity systems.

Sharra received a B.S. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is a 2006 graduate of the Society of Information Management's (SIM) Regional Leadership Forum (RLF), a Project Management Professional (PMP) and is IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certified.


Panel Moderator
Caroline Sieber
Director, head of Client Human Resources Management for Global Private Client Technology and Services
Merrill Lynch

Caroline has been a part of the Merrill Lynch Leadership and Talent Management organization for over ten years as a Relationship Manager for Chief Financial Office, GPC Investments and Wealth Management, MLIGS and FAC as well as Recruiting Manager for ML Investment Managers.

Prior to joining ML, Caroline held Human Resources roles at Alliance Capital Management and NASA.

Caroline is a graduate of Mississippi State University.