TechTalk Speaker Series

Aaron Anderson is the President of Brandes Associates, Inc., a commercial technology firm based in Camarillo, California. Brandes Associates specializes in software development, cybersecurity, and systems engineering for the defense, aerospace, and intelligence sectors. Aaron holds a BA from UC Santa Barbara and an MBA from UC Riverside.

With over 20 years of experience in the technology sector, Aaron is known for his strategic vision and ability to lead teams to success. He has a proven track record of driving business growth, implementing major technology innovations and delivering high-quality engineering solutions to both government and commercial partners At Brandes Associates, Inc., he has expanded its service offerings and increased its customer base to expand its software products.  He is currently leading the company’s efforts in integrating AI systems with corporate operations and agile-based software development environments.  

Aaron is a member of InfraGard, the partnership between the FBI and private sector, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Outside of his professional commitments, he volunteers and supports work with families with children on the Autism Spectrum, with a focus on inclusion and accessibility.

John has significant experience in SMB and Enterprise SaaS software, utilizing creativity, facilitative leadership and teamwork to design strategies and execute solutions that create products and services customers love. 

John spent over a decade at Intuit with much of that time focused on leading efforts to build the data platform and move from on premise applications to a cloud-based SaaS platform.  He holds multiple patents in data acquisition, aggregation, and artificial intelligence.  Most recently John was CTO overseeing a multi cloud SaaS metadata platform leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to enable intelligent workflow across large data sets for small business and enterprise customers.

Outside of work John spends his time with his wife and two teenage children in Southern California.  Most weekends you will find them on the soccer field or at beach!

Casey Stoops is the Head of Global IT Operations & Cyber Security at Patagonia. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado @ Boulder (BA US History 1998) and received his MBA from California Lutheran University in 2011. He has been working in technology since 2000, with a focus on technology operations, architecture, and enterprise scale technology management, with experience at Fortune 100 firms before joining Patagonia in 2010 to lead IT Operations.

Casey’s areas of responsibility at Patagonia include global platform technology architecture and vendor management, global cloud computing platforms (Azure, AWS, etc.), global network architecture and management, global IT compliance and data privacy, global cyber security and incident response, global retail technology, global IT disaster recovery & business continuity, global user support and global enterprise application support.

Casey and his various teams regularly donate back to the community and the environment through outreach programs, such as Girls Reimagining Tomorrow (GRiT), partnerships with Homeboy Industries and other community-based organizations that help keep technology out of landfills, as well as direct volunteer work with community environmental organizations in Ventura County and Washoe County (NV).

When not at work, Casey spends time with his family (his wife Marlo, son Jack and daughter Charlotte) and manages his family avocado farms, where he has integrated his passion for technology into the growing operations, implementing sensor systems and automation, to drive efficiency and improve crop performance. Casey is also an avid fisherman and snow sports enthusiast, which has blended well with his work at Patagonia over the years.

Digital transformation accelerated dramatically in many industries due to the pandemic; Media & Entertainment was no exception. This Tech Talk, Nina Skorus-Neely highlighted some of the key shifts impacting the M&E industry with a discussion of unique aspects of the M&E business, the solutions required to support the typical entertainment studio, and how those needs are changing as companies transition toward more digital, direct-to-consumer operations.   

SPEAKER BIO: Nina Skorus-Neely is a senior technology executive in Media & Entertainment, a published author and speaker.  Her 35-year technology career spans both consulting and industry, working in business strategy, solution delivery, complex program management, applied AI research and architecture for global media & entertainment, telecommunications and manufacturing companies.  Her superpower is her unique ability to forge and orchestrate cross-functional teams to deliver complex business capabilities.  

Skorus-Neely most recently served as Vice President in the WarnerMedia Technology organization, responsible for solutions serving the Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) Licensing business.

Prior to this, Skorus-Neely led the technology organization servicing the Theatrical Distribution and Music Licensing organizations at 21st Century Fox, as well as driving programs for their Home Entertainment division. In addition, she formulated technology and cloud strategies for the Fox Filmed Entertainment technology organization.

Skorus-Neely currently serves as Secretary on the Executive Board and co-chair of the Professional Development committee of the WiTH Foundation, a non-profit focused on increasing diversity in the Media & Entertainment technology community. 

In this installment of the TechTalk Speaker Series, Sharena Rice, PhD, neuroscientist and cybernetician, shared stories of finding purpose through combining disciplines, gathering insights that lead to innovation, and frameworks for systems thinking. An audience Q&A followed which was moderated by Earle Charles, PhD, program director for the MS in Information Technology program.

Rice tinkered with electronics as a child and wrote a documentary on human behavior in middle school. At Cal Lutheran, she majored in biochemistry while double-minoring in philosophy and psychology. She looks to invert suffering by expanding what humans and machines can do together. She had a 22-month residency at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In her dissertation research in the OmarLab at the University of Michigan, she studied neural circuits and brain rhythms during navigation, learning, memory and sleep. She was the co-founder/chief scientific officer of Intvo, which creates computer vision automotive software for pedestrian behavior prediction.

Rice currently is a consulting adviser for Evolve Living Labs, a new game platform for sustainable living, and a scientific adviser for Valence Vibrations, which transmits emotions from tone of voice as wristband haptics.

In this installment of the TechTalk Speaker Series, Jeremy Greene, vice president and head of data science at Retina AI, joined us to discuss careers in the field and what makes a good data scientist. In this interactive, virtual event, Greene talked through some real-world case studies on how data science interfaces with marketing teams and other departments within an organization, then took audience questions. The event was moderated by Paul Witman, Director of our Master in Information Technology (MSIT) program, and by Diana Fielding, the Program Specialist.

Greene has a PhD in mathematics from UC San Diego and is an industry leader in analytics and data science. After completing his PhD, he spent 5 years at FICO building fraud detection machine learning models for some of the largest insurance companies globally. He then spent the next 4 1/2 years at the popular micro-investing fintech app, Acorns, where he was the head of data science and analytics. He also teaches analytics courses at Loyola Marymount University's College of Business Administration and is on the board for the MSFE Program at Claremont Graduate University's Drucker School of Management.

In this installment of the TechTalk Speaker Series, CeCe Morken, CEO of Headspace, discussed leadership takeaways around technology and mental health. Morken led us in a guided meditation, share lessons from her 35 years of experience as a highly accomplished technology industry executive, and took audience questions in this interactive, virtual session. 

About CeCe Morken

CeCe Morken is a highly accomplished technology industry CEO with decades of experience building and growing organizations, from start-ups to global, publicly traded companies. 

She joined Headspace after 13 years at Intuit, where she led multiple business units. She served as executive vice president and general manager of the Strategic Partner Group, responsible for the accountant, financial institution, and enterprise platform business generating $700M in annual revenue — in addition to leading both the corporate/government affairs and corporate responsibility functions for the company.

Morken is a graduate of North Dakota State University, with majors in economics and business administration, and attended the University of Chicago Booth’s executive development program. She serves on the boards of GENPACT and NDSU College of Business. Morken also has been recognized as one of The Most Powerful Women in Accounting (2017), National Diversity and Leadership Conference's Most Powerful Women in Technology (2017 and 2019), and has received the Intuit CEO Leadership Award in 2011, 2014 and 2017.

In this interactive session, Katherine Jansen (KJ) covered the foundational elements of innovation and challenged attendees to apply innovation techniques to everyday problems and processes, She also shared examples from her experiences. 

About Katherine (KJ)

Katherine Jansen (KJ) is a financial services generalist with deep experience in strategy, marketing, innovation, customer experience and business development. KJ has an exceptional ability to problem-solve, bring order to chaos, and work with others to drive results.

She was a Strategic Partner Director at Intuit, ran kjadvisory, a private consulting firm and was responsible for strategy and business development for ADP Ventures. Prior to ADP she identified and executed strategic partnerships as the Senior Manager, Business Development for Digital Insight, an NCR subsidiary. In addition, at Digital Insight, she was formerly a principal researcher in XD, created and ran Customer Experience for the firm, and was the SVP Marketing and SVP Corporate Strategy.

Prior to joining Digital Insight in 2000, KJ was the Global Director of Sales for Meridien Research, a financial services research firm. Prior to that, she held positions as Industry Director of Financial Services Strategy for Oracle Corporation, Applications Regional Sales Manager for Oracle’s Financial Services division, and Principal, Treasury Services Corporation.

KJ is a certified Net Promoter Associate as well as a Certified Innovation Catalyst. She is currently on sabbatical, volunteers with Neighborhood Falmouth and rode her bicycle 5,000 miles in 2020.

In this talk, Eric Odero shared his experiences as a leader for technological innovation in the field of clinical health informatics and discuss potential career paths for IT graduates interested in joining this industry.

Watch to learn about:

• Current applications of information technology to improve healthcare services
• Impact and trajectory of electronic health records as a disruptive technology
• Career opportunities for IT professionals to fill vital needs in health informatics

Eric Odero is Healthcare Clinical Informatics Executive, and the CEO of Command Health Informatics (CHI). Eric’s experience as an accomplished leader includes serving as lead Technology Executive at Monocle Health Data and providing his expertise in the Epic Clinical System medical records software. He is a CLU alumnus with an MBA in IT Management and Post MBA in International Business. An avid globe traveler to over 150 countries, Eric has taught executive leadership courses as adjunct Graduate professor at FH-Joanneum University of Applied Sciences in Graz, Austria. Lastly, Eric is a veteran Captain in the United States Army Medical Command with a background in Trauma medicine and several deployments overseas.