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Olayele Adelakun, a SV trip organizer, is an Assistant professor of MIS at DePaul University Chicago, Illinois, College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM). 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 has chair several academic and industry focus conferences. He started the study abroad program in the school CDM in 1993. He has also conducted several executives presentation. He has published over forty 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.

Barbara Huba, a SV Team Lead, obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Management Information Systems with a minor in Spanish and Public Speaking at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and a Master's Degree in Business Information Technology with a minor in IT Management/Analysis from DePaul University.
Passionate about information technology from a young age, she has always displayed an interest in expanding her knowledge in the newest technology available. Always taking on a leadership role within every group/team project at work and school, she has provided much support to her teammates through her high-level organizational, interpersonal, and collaboration skills. Barbara has also taken on volunteer leadership role such as Student Ambassador of the College of Computing and Digital Media during her graduate education at DePaul University, and has volunteered through Habitat for Humanity during her undergraduate degree at UIUC and through her employment at First American Title Insurance Company. Barbara has loyally worked for this same employer in the real estate title insurance industry for the last 10 years within escrow disbursement, but looks forward to moving her career specifically into only IT related positions.

Tanya Dereklis

Tanya Dereklis, a SV Site Developer (HTML & CSS), just graduated with an MS in Business Information Technology. She also holds an MBA in Marketing. In her role as a CRM Developer, she worked closely with the ERP Developer and the CRM Business Analyst to help manage the execution of CRM across digital channels to refine the digital marketing activities in an effort to amplify the way content is delivered to the target population.

Extensive qualifications in all facets of information systems methodology from conceptual design through documentation, implementation, quality review, and enhancement. She continues to leverage new ideas and technologies to push the marketing agenda by using growing trends to satisfy and engage the audience.

Leonidas Dereklis, a SV Site Developer (Java Script), is a certified network professional (CCNA/CCNP) with outstanding academic and professional credentials. CurrentIy, he is employed as a Network Specialist at Schneider Electric.

Leo has strong background in network and server support coupled with scripting/ programming and web development experience. Leo holds an MBA in Management and a MS in Network Security from DePaul University. He graduated with a 4.0.

Rita Ogbogu, a SV Team Member, is a graduate student at DePeaul University.

Willie Jones, a SV Team Member, is a graduate student at DePaul University.


LJ

 

LJ Filetti, a SV IT PM, is a graduate of DePaul University's College of Computing and Digital Media, as well as a technology and business professional. LJ graduated Summa Cum Laude with a GPA of 3.92 and a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems. LJ also has over five years of professional experience addressing the technical and business needs of corporations of all sizes.

After graduating from CDM, LJ plans to continue his education by earning an MBA and continue to grow as a young professional. The trip to Silicon Valley was a very rewarding and insightful experience for LJ in hisevolving career. During the trip and throughout all the visits, LJ was most interested in the culture of the cluster and its application to corporate success. The culture set in Silicon Valley is the bare minimum requirement for any new entrants into the cluster. LJ will forever take his experiences in Silicon Valley with him in his future professional and educational pursuits.

Amy Rosen, a SV Team Lead, will be finishing her MS in Information Systems with an emphasis on Information Security and Compliance in Sept of 2014. She'sworking full time and going to school part time and have managed a GPA of 3.95.
She's been in IT for 15 years and has worked for varying types of business from Fortune 500 to tech startup, from Pharmaceutical to Advertizing and have grown from each experience. Most recently she's been working for a well respected management consulting firm and have been focusing on project management and process improvement while still getting to work on issues with technology. Amy's goal is to procure a position using her background in IT coupled with her education in Security both to their full potential. Her best case scenario would allow for a position like that to open within her current company but she's open to opportunities.

This experience, this class involving a trip to Silicon Valley to study the effect of clusters on various companies, was an amazing and unique learning opportunity. It was exciting to see all the companies in various states (start up to successful exit to mega company Google) and to learn about the VC process. She thinks that what's important to her is the awareness of environmental conditions to look for in Chicago to know if things are improving or not. She would like to be in a position to influence the conditions in Chicago to encourage cluster growth.

Demarco Kelsey, a SV Team Member, is a network technician at the DePaul School for Computing & Digital Media. He is entering his last full year of graduate school and plans on starting his capstone in the fall of 2015 to complete his degree.

Demarco holds a Bachelor's of Art in Computing from DePaul University. And in recent years, was also a continuing education student at the University of Miami, FL. He plans to become an operations engineer and start his own company. In his ever-vanishing spare time, Demarco enjoys watching ice hockey, college football, exercising, sci-fi movies, enjoying good food, spirits, and live theatre. Demarco lives in Illinois but at some point in the near future plans to travel to north California and expand his IT career.

Demarco recently has visited Silicon Valley to do research on IT cluster theory. His researched proved the corporate atmosphere in Silicon Valley is a different planet compared to his corporate encounters in the midwest and the northeastern part of the country. Demarco's experience in Silicon Valley has given him new direction in his own career and has led him to support the IT cluster framework and theory.

Christopher Hein, a SV Team Member, is currently a student at DePaul University studying Information Systems and computer science. He is beginning an internship with Lifeline Response in September. Visiting the various companies in California he learned about how businesses in the tech industry works.
It was interesting getting insight from owners and employees of companies such as FreeWheel and Google. Hearing about FreeWheel's life cycle and how it evolved impressed him a lot, and illuminated the complex process of going from startup to a fully funded and functioning company. Overall the trip gave him a great idea of what kind of job positions he's interested in, such as a business analyst or project manager, and how exciting working for a startup can be.