Date/Time
Date(s) - November 13, 2019
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Location
Omni Severin Hotel
Categories
Join us as the panel below highlights best practices in technology across small and large companies. Including topics such as guiding a company through a system conversion, compliance when using the cloud for systems, and data and the foundation of how companies are using blockchain and cryptocurrency.
The panel will include the following speakers:
- Denise Ardery, Senior Director of IT at MacAllister Machinery
- John Kleb, Partner, Strategic Technologies at Sikich
- Riann Stroud, Senior Cybersecurity Manager at the Mako Group, LLC
- Moderator: David Kerr, Managing Director at Allos Ventures
Additional information on our panelists and moderator:
DENISE ARDERY
Denise Ardery is the Senior Director of Information Technology for MacAllister Machinery. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Indiana University and an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan, but believes that her true education has come through spending the last three decades at MacAllister. Denise started her career in the Finance Department, managing the outstanding receivables. However, her love has always been in how technology can enhance productivity and efficiency. She formally moved into IT at MacAllister 15 years ago, focusing much of her effort on system/ERP conversions and business intelligence. A little over 3 years ago, Denise moved into her current role. She loves the management side of IT and works hard to develop her folks to make sure that they are in the right job — right for the company and right for the employee.
Denise has been married to her husband, Jim for 25 years and they have three daughters. She enjoys spending time with her family including their dog, Jasper, and volunteering with the teenage music group at her church.
JOHN KLEB, CPA
Partner, Strategic Technologies
John Kleb is a partner with a focus on Strategic Technologies. He began his career building a six-person CPA firm to handle small business accounting. Being part of a small firm, John gained exposure to issues facing other small businesses that blended his CPA background with his passion in technology.
He joined Sikich in 1995 when his accounting practice of 13 years was acquired to lead a newly formed Small Business Unit. In 2000, John was assigned the role of creating a Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision at the time) practice. His energy and visibility within the Microsoft ecosystem helped cement Sikich as a global leader in ERP implementation. John also was instrumental in starting the hugely popular Directions Conference for those in the NAV tech community all over the world.
In 2015, John migrated from ERP software to Business Intelligence applications and formed the Strategic Technologies team within Sikich’s technology division. This has allowed John to engage in the exploration of emerging technologies and their practical applications for the firm’s clients.
In his current role, John is a thought leader in new technologies such as Robotics Process Automation, Cognitive Intelligence, Machine Learning, Analytics and Blockchain.
SERVICE AREAS
- Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV
- Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server
AFFILIATIONS
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
- Illinois CPA Society
EDUCATION
- Master’s Degree in Finance, Illinois Benedictine College
- Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, Metropolitan State College
- Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry, Metropolitan State College
RIANN STROUD
Riann Stroud has worked in Cybersecurity for over 19 years, currently as the Senior Manager of Cybersecurity at The Mako Group. In this role she is a leader in the company’s cyber and cloud security practice and assists clients in conversions to the cloud and evaluating current cloud environments.
Prior to The Mako Group, Riann served as Manager, Identity Access Management at Sallie Mae. While there she managed SailPoint, User Behavior tools and various Cloud projects as well as AD provisioning and Operations. She spent the majority of her career gaining experience in audit and compliance, incident response, cloud, disaster recovery, identity access management, and performing risk assessments.
Riann currently serves as a board member of the ISACA Indianapolis chapter and holds the following certifications: CISA, CRISC, CISSP, CEH, ECSA, CCSK, A+ , Security+. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Security from Westwood College, Denver. Riann is passionate about mentoring girls in cybersecurity programs and empowering women in technology.
DAVID KERR
David Kerr joined Allos Ventures in June of 2018. A career entrepreneur with expertise in building and growing tech companies, David brings more than two decades of experience in executive management, business development, international, fundraising, sales and marketing.
David was most recently CEO of Octiv, a B2B Saas company focused on document generation and contract lifecycle management that was acquired by Conga, an Insight Ventures portfolio company in April 2018. Prior to Octiv, David served as VP and General Manager at Groupon and General Manager of eCommerce at Angie’s List. David also held an international post as president of GHX Europe. He also led GHX Mobile Solutions after NoInk, where he was President and CEO, was acquired by GHX.
David also served as Board Chairman of beauty ecommerce site Jada Beauty which was acquired by Sally Beauty Holdings (NYSE: SBH) and now operates as Loxa Beauty. He also is founder of Flatworld Equity LLC, a seed-stage fund, that was an early investor in the Erasmic Fund (now Accel India) and a member of Gravity Ventures an early-stage venture fund.
His early career included sales, marketing, research associate and executive leadership roles with Everypath, Cummins Engine Corporation and the Hudson Institute.
Education: BA, Princeton University