Featured Speaker(s)

Mark Dronzek

CIO, Family Health International
Dronzek has more than twenty years of experience spanning leadership positions in pharmaceuticals, start-ups, state and federal government and overall technology strategy. His roles during the past decade have been globally focused, including enterprise implementations, business processes and infrastructure deployment. In his current role he delivers global technology services to offices in nearly forty developing countries and which support field work in an additional thirty nations. Prior to his current role, Dronzek was a divisional CIO for a Global Shared Services division, founder of several start-ups, and a consultant to Fortune 500 companies. He has conducted numerous presentations at national and international conferences, is a member of several CIO organizations, and a board member of a non-profit. Dronzek also is married with two children and is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and Kenpo.

Mark Paxton has been in the IT industry for more than 30 years and has also held the following positions:

Computer Operator, Programmer/Analyst, Systems Analyst, Project Manager, Manager of Advanced Technologies and Methods (ATAM), Manager for Commercial Software Development, Director of Product Planning in Commercial Software Development, Director of Operations, Director of Applications and has been a CIO four times:

• CIO for Crown Books
• CIO for The Body Shop
• CIO for TV Guide and VP of Technology for its parent company Gemstar TV Guide
• CIO for North Carolina’s Department of Transportation

With the recent administration change, Mark is now looking for his next opportunity. In the interim, he is consulting.

John W McCarley Senior Vice President - BB&T
John is Sr. Vice President in the IT Services division of BB&T Corporation. BB&T is a full-service financial institution offering banking, insurance and investments. It is the nation's 11th largest financial-holding company with approximately 30,000 employees and more than 1,500 locations in 11 states and Washington, D.C. Previously, John has held VP-IT and Chief Information Officer positions with Bowe Bell & Howell, BroadBand Technologies and a $2B, international paper company.

John has over 30 years IT experience in product and service companies, the last 20 in management. John, a North Carolina native, holds a BS in Computer Science and a MBA from North Carolina State University. John serves on the AITP RTP Chapter Management Advisory Council and is a past officer of the Society of Information Management, NC Chapter. He resides in Raleigh, NC with his wife, but frequently escapes to the NC coast to enjoy boating and scuba diving.

Dr. Sam Bayer, Chief Executive Officer, b2bdot0
As CEO, Sam brings over 27 years of experience in launching and growing software businesses. Sam has held management positions at IBM, Amdahl, Agfa, Sapiens, and Haht Commerce. He also founded, and successfully IPO'ed Axiom Systems, founded MarketAcuity, and was recently President of Datacraft Solutions and US CEO for Memex, Inc. Sam is a senior consultant for the Cutter Consortium and also sits on several advisory boards, including Six Sense Analytics, Nipendo, Inc., and Memex, Inc. While his roles and experiences are diverse, Sam's focus throughout his career has been aligning technology with business needs. He is a thought leader and published author on Agile project management and software development.