Vince Kellen

VP Information Services

DePaul University 

Vince is the Vice President of Information Services at DePaul University. He offers strategic vision to a staff of 103 in technology architecture, data warehousing, application development, data center operations, networks and telecommunications, classroom technology and labs, and systems support. He also provides leadership to the technology teams managing DePaul’s PeopleSoft enterprise system.

Vince has a background in consulting and entrepreneurship, having served as a partner leading the CRM Strategy practice with marchFIRST and as the Vice President of customer knowledge management and analytics for Scient and as a principal for a wireless collaboration product start-up. Vince has helped a variety of large and mid-sized companies including Exxon, 20th Century Fox, S.C. Johnson, General Mills, Appleton Papers, R.R. Donnelley, Household Finance, Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance Co., Hammacher-Schlemmer, and Abbott Laboratories in the areas of e-commerce, data warehousing, decision support and database systems. Vince is spoken at national and international conferences on CRM, the Internet and technology issues. Vince also authored four books on database technologies which were published by Que, New Riders and M&T Press.

Vince's interest areas focus on the role of e-commerce and data systems in business strategy, decision making and management.

Steve Rubinow

CTO Archipelago Holdings, Inc

Chief Technology Officer, Archipelago Holdings, Inc. The Archipelago Exchange (ArcaEx), the nation’s first totally open, all-electronic stock exchange, had a successful IPO in August 2004. In April 2005, Archipelago agreed to merge with the NYSE to create the NYSE Group. Steve has served as Chief Technology Officer since joining Archipelago in July 2001. Steve is responsible for Archipelago's software development, database development, quality assurance, and operations, with staff located in Chicago, New York, Orlando and San Francisco. 

Steve was most recently working in Silicon Valley as Senior Vice President and Chief Information/Technology Officer at NextCard, Inc., a leading Internet provider of consumer credit that had a successful IPO in 1999. In this role he was responsible for all aspects of technology including software and database engineering, operations, architecture and quality assurance. Prior to joining NextCard, he was the Chief Information Officer at another successful start-up, AdKnowledge, Inc. which was acquired by CMGI in 1999.

Prior to participating in the Internet gold rush, Steve was Vice President, Corporate Management Information Systems at Fidelity Investments where he developed an Information Architecture to integrate the information housed in a vast array of software and hardware technologies across Fidelity’s 40+ divisions. He also developed critical systems for use in the core mutual fund investment area and evaluated new companies as potential candidates for investment by Fidelity Ventures.

Before Fidelity, Steve was Vice President of Marketing Planning at Budget Rent a Car Corporation where he was responsible for much of the company’s development of new strategies and products for both domestic and international markets. Additionally, he developed sophisticated revenue management and database marketing systems to improve Budget’s position in an intensely competitive industry.

Steve also worked for a decade at the Quaker Oats Company (now a division of PepsiCo) where he led a team that is credited with having developed the first data warehouse for the consumer packaged goods industry that integrated large volumes of internal and external data and was readily accessible by business users via an internally developed data query and analysis language. This data warehouse served as the foundation for many advanced applications that Steve later developed, enhancing Quaker’s marketing, sales, operational, manufacturing and financial efforts.

He served on the adjunct faculty in Computer Science at DePaul University from 1986-1994, where he taught undergraduate and graduate classes in database technology and analytic systems. Additionally he has often lectured at the graduate schools of business of Northwestern University, University of Illinois, Illinois Institute of Technology and University of California. He has given dozens of presentations at venues all over the world on the effective use of technology in a variety of industries. He has also published articles in the areas of computer technology, chemistry and statistics.

Steve earned the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry and a M.B.A. at the University of Illinois (ranking first in his class) as well as a M.S. in Computer Science at DePaul University.

John F. Fisher

Senior Vice President &

Chief Information Officer SmithBucklin

John joined SmithBucklin in 1996 as the company's first CIO, creating partnerships across business and service units that supported the development of new technical architecture and standard processes. These new standards and processes created a stable technical foundation for SmithBucklin and its client organizations, which enabled them to achieve success through the application of appropriate technology innovations.

John has over 25 years of experience applying technology solutions to critical business problems. Before joining SmithBucklin, he held senior IT management positions at CNA Insurance Companies, and Continental Bank (now Bank of America).

He is a member of the Society for Information Management (SIM), the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) and the Executives Club of Chicago. In 2002, the Windy City Chapter of AITP selected John to receive their CIO of the Year award. John is an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University, where he teaches graduate level courses in IT Strategy and E-Commerce. He is one of the founding members and past president of the DePaul CTI (School of Computer Science) Alumni Association and in December 2003 received DePaul’s Alumni Champion Award. John is on the Planning and Evaluation Committee of the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago, the advisory board for the Illinois CIO Exchange (ICE) and a member of the technical advisory board for the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN).

John holds an M.S. in Computer Science from DePaul University, a B.S. in Communications from Southern Illinois University, and an M.A. in History of Religions from the University of Ottawa.

Ellen Barry

CIO Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority.

Ellen Barry is the CIO for the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority.  The Authority owns and manages McCormick Place, Navy Pier.  In addition to traditional aspects of a CIO, Ms. Barry has successfully implemented a revenue generating initiative by insourcing the delivery of Internet and Technical Services to Exhibitors, Show Management and Meeting Planners for McCormick Place, Navy Pier and the Hyatt McCormick Place; installing wi-fi cafes supporting over 3000 concurrent users within the facility; and implementing a gigabit circuit to ‘next generation networks’ including Internet2. 

Prior to MPEA, Ellen Barry was the 1^st Deputy Chief Information Officer for the City of Chicago.   As 1^st Deputy CIO, Ms. Barry was responsible for two major outsourcing initiatives, one for desktop support and one for data center operations.  Previous to her role as 1^st Deputy CIO, Ms. Barry worked with Chicago’s Police Department in numerous IT and Strategic Planning activities including efforts toward implementation of a major Criminal History Records Information System.  Prior to coming to the City of Chicago, Ms. Barry worked as an internal consultant for various private sector organizations in strategic IT development, planning and project implementation. 

Ms. Barry holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a MBA in Quantitative Methods and Computers from Loyola University.  Ellen Barry has been a life-long resident of the City of Chicago.

Ms. Barry is the recipient of the 2003 Excellence in Corporate IT Leadership Award presented by WITI (Women in Technology, International) Chicago Chapter.

Ms. Barry is the President-elect CTI, Advisory Council Member

Ergin Uskup

Ex President and Ex CIO

United Stationers Inc

Ergin Uskup is the retired President of United Stationers Technology Services LLP and the retired Senior Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer of United Stationers Inc.  He  worked at United Stationers from February 1, 1994 until September 2002.  United Stationers is the largest distributor of business products in the United States (sales $4.0 billion); distributing more than 35,000 products from 70 distribution centers throughout the country.

Before joining United Stationers, Mr. Uskup was Vice President of Corporate Information Services at Baxter Healthcare Corporation from 1990 to 1994 and Vice President of Business Technology and Strategic Computing from 1987 to 1990.  Before joining Baxter, Mr. Uskup worked as Vice President of MIS and Chief Information Officer at Signode Corp. (now ITW Inc.) from 1980 to 1987 and at Clow Corporation from 1974 to 1980.  Mr. Uskup was Manager of Operations Research at Motorola, Project Manager of Operations Research at Amoco (now BP) and Burlington Industries during the period of 1964 to 1974.

Mr. Uskup holds a BS and an MS degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Raleigh, a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Uskup has been a member of the graduate faculty as adjunct professor at DePaul University (1970 to 1980), Northern Illinois University (1980 to 1984) and Lake Forest Graduate School of Management (1993 to 1998) teaching a variety of IT and Management Science courses at the graduate level.  He is an active member of the Society for Information Management (SIM) professional organization and its President for the calendar year of 2002 and Chairman for 2003.Mr. Uskup was named as one of the top 100 CIO’s in the country in 2003 by the Computer Magazine.

Mr. Uskup is married, has 3 children, and enjoys tennis, theater and music.

Prof. Olayele Adelakun

Co-Chairman, Organizing Committee

Assi. Professor DePaul University.

Olayele Adelakun is an Assistant professor of MIS at DePaul University Chicago, Illinois, School of Computer Science, Telecommunication and Information Systems (CTI). His research focuses on IT Outsourcing, ERP systems implementation, and Information systems quality and Evaluation. He has conducted case studies in both medium size companies and multinational companies in Finland and the United States. He was the chairman of the 2001 and 2002 IT outsourcing conference and the moderator of the 2003 offshore outsourcing panel discussion at DePaul University. He started the study abroad program in the school CTI in 1993. He has also given several executives presentation. He has published over thirty articles in conferences, books and journals. He holds an M.S. in Information Processing Science from University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland and Ph.D. in Information Systems from the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, Turku, Finland

Prof. Tom Muscarello

Co-Chairman, Organizing Committee

Asso. Professor DePaul University.

Dr. Muscarello is an Associate Professor in DePaul University’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI.) He spent 3 years working on special technology development projects in the President’s Office. In his position as Director of External Research Dr. Muscarello focuses on efforts to increase the visibility and reach of DePaul University and CTI. This position focuses on building strategic relationships with business and government, building joint university-industry labs, developing new product offerings, and positioning CTI as a vital force in the economic and social fabric of the city and state.

He was founder and served as executive director, for its 2 year run, of the DePaul Technology Incubator facility (DeTech). He is currently Director of the Persusive Media Technology Lab, The Laboratory for Software Metrics. He is also a charter member of Chicago’s Mayor’s Council of Technology Advisors (having co-chaired the committee on R&D and Commercialization), and is a charter member of the Waukegan New Harbor City Renaissance Commission. His current activities focus heavily on development and commercialization of technology products and companies.

Dr. Muscarello has an extensive background in business, government, and academia. He specializes in the areas of Health Care and Medical Systems, knowledge management, customer service, business intelligence, and IT marketing. He has an extensive background in strategic planning and business system methods, enterprise system metrics and enterprise application integration.