Advisory Committee
Mrs. Shirley Bridges is an accomplished Information Technology Executive and entrepreneur. She is the former CIO/SVP of Delta Air Lines and President of Delta Technology Inc, a 1,500 person global technology company. As an advisor at Full Circle Group, Bridges ensures that we have an infrastructure that supports our growth strategy and that financial rigor is maintained within the organization. Bridges is a specialist in delivering large projects and delivered on a 5 year $180 million dollar SAP project to Delta Air Lines at a cost savings to Delta of $1 billion over 5 years. She also managed annual technology budgets of over $400 million. Bridges is the recipient of many IT awards including Georgia CIO Leadership Association's "CIO of the Year" in 2007. Bridges has a B.A. in mathematics from Clark Atlanta University. She also completed financial training in a series 6 and 63.
Dr. Nagesh Vempaty has more than 18 years of experience in the design and development of large scale software applications, including the architecture and delivery of a number of Web applications for the healthcare space. As the CTO of PatientPoint™, he leads a large technical team in building applications for the healthcare and pharmaceutical markets.
Dr. Vempaty was previously the CTO/co-founder of venture capital-funded startups Epiance, Aalayance and HSupply.com and has held technology positions at WebMD, Tenneco Gas and NASA. The author of several papers and patents, he received a BS from IIT Madras and an MS and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, all in computer science.
In 1999, Dr. Vempaty founded hsupply.com, a leading business-to-business e-services marketplace that was designed to meet the disparate needs of hotel buyers, franchisers and suppliers. He set the company's long term technical vision, drove product creation and managed engineering, deployment and operation of the customized hosted e-commerce solution. He has been credited with developing the first mobile procurement solution.
Ms. Audrey Eng has served as a leader in Quality Assurance and Testing domain for over a decade and a half years and has experience in leading and managing testing projects and teams for enterprise and Internet software releases. Audrey has proven expertise in quality assurance process improvement, black and gray box testing, software development lifecycle methodology, test planning and automation tools, budgeting and forecasting. Key initiatives at Gap Inc. were recorded in several industry articles in which the company received numerous awards for flawless rollouts.
Ms. Eng has deep and proven experience working in Retail Operations, Consumer Packaged Goods, Finanical Sector, and Government. Audrey has lead and developed Quality Assurance and Testing Centers of Excellence. Ms. Eng experience has been utilized at leading organizations such as Wells Fargo Bank, Gap Inc., Cisco Systems and other Fortune 100 organizations. Ms. Eng has a B.A. Degree in Psychology from the University of Michigan and a M.S. in Education and Organization Development from the University of Pennsylvania.
A proven leader in both corporate and the entrepreneurial world, Mr. David Sondergeld has enjoyed and continues to enjoy a wide variety of technical, business, and industry experiences. While the majority of his career has been focused on technology and the design, support and maintenance of large scale corporate applications, he has also enjoyed career roles on the Vendor side, leading a professional services team, consulting, running his own management and software consulting company as well as running a small US based import sales and operations firm. While diverse in background David has focused the latter part of his career in strategy and planning, program execution and the life cycle maintenance of Supply Chain Systems in the Grocery, Specialty Apparel and Discount Retail Markets.
Mr. Sondergeld has deep and proven experience working in Retail Operations, Consumer Packaged Goods, Finanical Sector, Government, Health Care Services. Dave has also successfully managed a very diverse work force and have built teams from the ground up including onshore, offshore and near shore.
Mr. Gary Donaldson is an Informational Technology Executive, Consultant and Entrepreneur. He recently served as Vice President of an Application Software Development Portfolio with Delta Airlines and as an IT consultant with Adam International University. Gary also serves on the board of BJ&G Holdings LLC. His IT experience includes 22 years with the United States Army, where Gary held a variety of command and staff IT positions throughout the U.S., Far East and Europe. He holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern Mississippi and a master's degree from Pepperdine University in management. Additionally he completed an Executive Strategic Leadership Program developed by the Thunderbird International School of Leadership.
Mr. Zeron Turlington is a principal at Full Circle Group responsible for New Business Development, Marketing and Communications. Over the past 15 years, Mr. Turlington has led enterprise transformation initiatives to improve communication effectiveness and business processes at Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, IBM, Summit Bank, Mutual of Omaha, Progressive Insurance and the Florida Department of Insurance.
Mr. Turlington was responsible for Domestic and Offshore Call Center Technology at Delta Air Lines, the world's largest airline. He also led the planning, development and implementation of the DeltaNet Employee Portal while serving as the General Manager - Corporate Intranet at Delta Air Lines. Mr. Turlington has conducted workshops and published articles on portal and intranet implementation best practices for IT professional associations and technology publications.
Dr. Charlie Chunyang Peng has more than 20 years of proven and practical experience and has an extensive research background in the design and development of large education and research, retail, science, healthcare solutions, and has authored several patents. One of his research projects on chemical composition was been registered with the United States patent office. As the Chief Security Architect of SAIC he leads the application of security controls throughout the development lifecycle.
Dr. Charlie Chunyang Peng has worked at several Fortune 500 organizations including Gap Inc. The Home Depot, Glaxo SmithKline, and as a teaching assistant and laboratory instructor at the University of Texas at Austin. He has authored several whitepaper and has received a BS from Henan University in China, MS (Computer Science) for the prestigious Beijing Teaching University, continued his Computer Science work at the University of Texas at Austin, and went on to receive a Ph.D from the University of Texas at Austin.
While working at Gaussian Inc. and Wayne State University Dr. Peng contributed to the design and development of one of the world largest scientific computation packages named Gaussian. His specific responsibilities included the design and coding of geometry optimization algorithms using artificial intelligence technology. This computational package has been distributed globally. The technology it was based on was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry later in 1998 to both Walter Kohn and John Pople.
Paul Bryan is a user experience researcher, design strategist, and international speaker. Since co-founding Usography (pronounced yoo ZOG ruh fee) in 2002, his clients have included some of the largest and most successful corporations in the world, including: The Home Depot, Coca-Cola, SAP, Delta Air Lines, Philips, Macy's and Bloomingdales, Georgia-Pacific, Cox Enterprises, ING, and GE, among others. Paul's research and strategy work has included locations throughout North America, South America, and Europe. His most recent user experience research has been focused on multichannel shopping using iPads.
Experience: At Sapient in the 1990's, Paul was the Information Architecture lead on multi-million dollar design projects. In 2002, Paul co-founded Usography, a user research and design strategy agency near Atlanta that conducts research and design strategy projects for corporate clients. Paul provides research leadership and best practices to help clients discover user needs through a variety of quantitative and qualitative research approaches.
Mr. Dennis Butts has more than 35 years of business experience in voice/data communications, finance, sales and marketing, business development and strategic alliance relations. He was instrumental in the development of more than 50 successful business ventures for clients and has been involved in three IPO and numerous PPM offerings.
Mr. Butts is the Founder, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer for DMB Sports Group, Inc. and Digital Media Broadcasting Corporation. Digital Media Broadcasting Corporation is a major player in the broadcasting world, providing networks that cover sports, government, education, entertainment, associations and corporations. DMBC delivers broadcasts over digital broadband and wireless on a global basis.
In 2009, Mr. Butts formed DMBC Interactive, Inc. to provide interactive video-to-video applications for the commercial, government, sports and college markets. The DMBC Interactive network is the launch pad for several portals including Military Comm Networks, a military portal to support our troops, veterans and their families, Interactive College Networks, Inc. and Faith-Based Networks, Inc.
Mr. Butts is a highly decorated Marine Corp veteran serving in Vietnam with the famed First Battalion Ninth Marines (The Walking Dead) and Third Battalion Ninth Marines as a forward observer where he received three Purple Heart Medals, Presidential Unit Citation For Valor, and Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. A book has been written regarding his experiences in Vietnam named Beyond the Wall the Journey Home available online and a full-feature movie is currently being written.
Mr. Phil Wilkerson has a proven record in Information Technology and is an industry veteran known for delivering and implementing business solutions. Mr. Wilkerson has worked at several Fortune 500 organization such as: Bank of America, The Coca Cola Company, The Home Depot, Gap, Inc., Levi-Strauss, Zoho Corporation, and Macy’s California.
Phil has participated on several industry advisory boards, published whitepapers, and has received various awards for innovation and successful mission-critical implementations that focused on cost efficiency and ensuring responsive solutions. Mr. Wilkerson has worked in the Information Technology domain for over 25 years.