TechFuse 2010 Speakers

• Adam Buenz

  Adam Buenz is a five-time Microsoft MVP in Windows SharePoint Services as well as author of three books (Real World SharePoint 2007, 6 Microsoft Office Business Applications for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Professional SharePoint 2007 Development) on SharePoint 2007. He worked with the United States Air Force on enterprise collaboration projects for the last five years. Adam brings a wealth of knowledge about secure collaboration through Midwave Corporation as a SharePoint Architect. Adam runs sharepointsecuritv.com, where he posts ForeFront for SharePoint Microsoft Data Protection Manager, Internet Security and Acceleration Server and Identity Lifecycle Manager articles tiered around secure deployments and sheltered knowledge management systems.
  
  Adam will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  SharePoint 2010 Security Architecture and Claims Based Authentication (CBA)
  
  

• Bob Krone

  Bob Krone brings over 20 years of IT and training experience into his classroom and was the 2009 IT Educator of the Year at Benchmark Learning. He garners rave reviews, no matter the format: in front of a classroom of students, over the internet via remote tools or in a mentoring or consulting situation. Bob is the IT Project Lead and has guided the successful rollout of programs such as our Mentored Learning solution. Bob played a key role in Microsoft's MCDST curriculum development and has created custom course material for key clients. He has recently developed and designed a Windows 2008 PKI course, Windows 2003 PKI Course, Windows 2003 Clustering Course and several Windows Vista awareness seminars as well as a course for Benchmark Learning on Windows Vista for IT Support Professionals to update their skills from previous versions of Microsoft operating systems. When he’s not in the classroom or writing curriculum, he provides Windows networks consultative services to both small- and medium-sized businesses, including 3M, MoneyGram, Deluxe Corporation, the Mayo Clinic and Caribou Coffee, just to name a few.
  
  Bob will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Virtual Machine Manager
  
  

• Brian Lockwood

  Brian Lockwood is a skilled educator who is moved through the roles in the programming world from UI Designer to Architect, with over 15 years of experience in the industry. He is continually customizing his training to the goals and abilities of his students. In 2009, he was named one of the Top 10 instructors in the world by our previous franchisor, which consists of over 240 centers worldwide. Brian has a focus on development and is the lead .NET instructor at Benchmark Learning. Among his many qualifications, he has achieved his Microsoft Certified Professional Developer certification. In 2008, he was asked by Microsoft to write courseware for Silverlight 2.0 (50197: Developing Web Applications using Silverlight 2.0).With great success from delivering the Silverlight 2.0 course, Microsoft then requested Brian to build a one-day, hands-on lab that included topics such as Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, LINQ, Silverlight and Application Lifecycle Management. This offering has been delivered both locally and remotely to universities around the country.
  
  Brian will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  We're Scientists - Effective Prototyping is Imperative!
  .NET Basket Weaving
  Jump Step & Juke with Your Career in Technology

• Craig Yellick

  Craig Yellick is Alto Consulting & Training's vice president and senior application architect, with over 20 years of business systems design and implementation experience. Craig is the author of several books on software development as well as over a dozen technical training classes. Most recently, he architected ZIMS, a large-scale zoological information management system used by zoos and aquaria all over the world. Craig’s design is credited with making off-shore software development substantially more effective, producing higher quality software – faster - using only moderately experienced programmers.
  
  Craig will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Myths Exposed – Microsoft Online Services

• Dan English

  Dan English is a Principal Consultant with Magenic. Dan has been developing with Microsoft technologies for over 12 years and has over 5 years experience with Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. He has been working with SQL Server since version 6.5 and now with 2008 looking towards the R2 release. Dan has screencasts of SQL Server 2008 on YouTube (http://youtube.com/denglishbi) and is an avid blogger. Dan is fully certified with MS SQL Server 2005 and 2008 Business Intelligence. He enjoys keeping in contact with the community at large, responding to forum postings on the Microsoft forums and SQL Server Central areas. Dan is also part of the PASSMN Executive Board.
  
  Dan will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Leveraging the Microsoft BI Toolset to Monitor Performance

• Dan Villanti

  Dan Villanti takes pride in adding extra value to classes by finding and presenting information beyond what you would get out of a book. Our students’ high information retention rates are a testament to his superior presentation skills. These qualities have helped him become one of the top five Exchange 2003 instructors nationwide for our previous franchisor, which consists of over 240 centers worldwide. Dan’s dedication doesn’t end in the classroom, as he frequently travels to deliver on-site consulting and mentoring to clients upgrading or migrating to new Microsoft Exchange and/or Citrix XenApp technologies. He also develops and teaches custom classes based on clients’ exact needs. His specialties are Microsoft Exchange Server (2000/2003/2007) and Citrix XenApp (4.0/4.5/5.0). Dan won the Instructor of the Year award for us in 2005 and was chosen as the #4 IT Instructor in the World at the conference hosted by our former franchisor in August of 2006.
  
  Dan will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Citrix

• Don Donais

  Don Donais joined Benchmark Learning in 2005 as a Business Applications Instructor. Before coming to Benchmark Learning, Don spent time in the public education world. His education background serves him well at Benchmark Learning. He teaches core Microsoft Server 2003, Exchange 2007, SharePoint 2007 and 2010, Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, as well as ITIL v3 Foundations. Don is also a member of the Springboard Technical Series Expert Program (STEP) team associated with Microsoft. This group evangelizes about Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
  
  Don will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Windows 7 - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
  SharePoint Governance

• Doug Splinter

  Doug Splinter has been providing strategy, system architecture, and technology consulting for major network and system implementations for the past fifteen years. Doug currently leads the Unified Communications Practice (UCP) for Convergent. In that capacity, he consults regularly with major corporations considering a unified communications strategy or in the process of implementing a unified communications system. Doug and his team provide system integration and review, unified communication design and infrastructure assessments as well as integration design for vendors including Mitel and Microsoft.
  
  Doug will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Unified Communications

• Eric Van Heel

  Eric Van Heel, Inetium, has over 10 years of information technology experience. He has expertise in a wide variety of infrastructure disciplines to include Microsoft, Novell and Cisco solutions and Wide Area Networking (WAN) technologies. With strong leadership, excellent technical, communication, presentation and customer-service skills, he is a resourceful problem solver with proven ability to bring quick resolution to challenging situations.
  
  Eric will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Exchange 2010 Migration Best Practices
  
  

• Glenn Leifheit, CSSLP

  Glenn Leifheit, a Security Archtect at FICO, has worked in secure software development for the past 4 years. He is currently leading a large secure software development lifecycle rollout and handling duties for PCI (Payment Card Industry Standards) and other secure software reviews.
  
  Glenn will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Implementing a Secure Software Development Lifecycle

• Jarvis Davis

  Jarvis Davis has extensive experience in the areas of systems management and operating system deployment. He spent fifteen years in various corporate IT roles at Campus Crusade for Christ, most recently as the Systems Management Architect responsible for planning and deploying ConfigMgr 2007. He is now working in the Twin Cities area as a Solution Architect for Virteva, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, with an emphasis on the systems management space. An active blogger, both personally and professionally, you can find his posts at verbalprocessor.com. Jarvis is also the President of the Minnesota System Center User Group (MNSCUG.ORG).
  
  Jarvis will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Operating System Deployment in the Real World

• Jason Bock

  Jason Bock is a Principal Consultant for Magenic, a Microsoft MVP (C#) and an INETA speaker. He has worked on a number of business applications using a diverse set of substrates and languages such as C#, .NET and Java. He is the author of Applied .NET Attributes, CIL Programming: Under the Hood of .NET, .NET Security, and Visual Basic 6 Win32 API Tutorial. He has written numerous articles on software development issues and has presented at a number of conferences and user groups. He is a leader of the Twin Cities Code Camp and runs the Twin Cities Languages User Group. Jason holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Marquette University. Visit his web site at www.jasonbock.net.
  
  Jason will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  What's New In the .NET 4.0 BCL

• Jason Strate

  Jason Strate, Digineer Inc., is a database architect and administrator with over twelve years of experience. In July 2009, he was awarded Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for SQL Server. His experience includes design and implementation of both OLTP and OLAP solutions as well as assessment and implementation of SQL Server environments for best practices, performance and high availability solutions. Jason is a SQL Server MCITP and participated in the development of Microsoft Certification exams for SQL Server 2008.
  
  Jason will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Getting to Know Your Indexes     

• Jon Buck

  Jon Buck is the lead Professional Development and Design/Media Educator and the 2009 Educator of the year for Benchmark Learning. Jon’s commitment to student satisfaction is second to none. His education philosophy is centered on using multiple learning styles to make material familiar, relevant and easy to understand for each student. Jon started his career as a trainer for the United States Air Force. He was responsible for training both enlisted members and officers on problem solving and decision making. He developed training programs and wrote procedures for the 321st Missile Wing in Grand Forks, ND. It was there Jon developed his love for writing. He obtained his Bachelor’s of Applied Science in Technical Communications and began working as a technical writer and trainer for US Bank. There, Jon was responsible for creating training programs for new partners while following strict banking regulations. Jon is also an Adobe Certified Expert and teaches Captivate, Acrobat, FrameMaker, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and HTML/XHTML/CSS. In addition to training, Jon specializes in video editing, sound editing and curriculum development. In his spare time, Jon is the Program Director for the Rosemount Wrestling Club.
  
  Jon will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Professional Imaging

• Kent Huelman

  Kent Huelman joined the Benchmark Learning team in July of 2007. Kent carries several Microsoft and CompTIA certifications but is proudest of his Microsoft Certified Trainer status. His certifications include MCSE 2003: Security, MCITP: Enterprise Administrator, CCENT, CCNA, A+, Network+, Security+, CTT+ and CISSP. Kent’s teaching and mentoring spans a wide array of IT infrastructure and security topics in our classrooms and Mentored Learning Classroom. The Mentored Learning students he has worked with are the first to attest that he has been a valuable resource to their learning. Kent never hesitates to start up an impromptu whiteboarding session or in-depth discussion to help students better understand the material. Kent enjoys combining his years of real-world IT administration experience and his computer training background to provide additional content and context to his classes.
  
  Kent will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Cryptography – Encryption

• Lara Rubbelke

  Lara Rubbelke brings her passion for architecting, implementing and improving SQL Server solutions to the community as a Technology Specialist for Microsoft. Her expertise involves both OLTP and OLAP systems, data management, performance tuning, encryption, ETL and the Business Intelligence lifecycle. She is an active board member of the local PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server) chapter and regularly delivers technical presentations at local, regional and national conferences, user groups and webcasts.
  
  Lara will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Distilling the Cloud: SQL Server Azure

• Lu Patrick

  Lu Patrick joined Benchmark Learning in mid-2006 after spending the four years prior as an independent consultant and trainer, specializing in assisting companies with their SMS 2003 and MOM 2005 deployments. Lu has created custom courseware on Windows Installer Service, System Center Operations Manager and System Center Configuration Manager. She has also delivered private training on AdminStudio. Before coming to Benchmark Learning, Lu provided desktop software support, implemented software solutions and was a systems manager for LANs and VAX systems.
  
  Lu will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Stop the Noise! How to Tune a Management Pack for YOUR Environment

• Mark Vickerman

  Mark Vickerman has been delivering education to various audiences for more than ten years. He has a passion for education, especially when delivering SQL Server and ITIL classes, which makes Mark one of the most diversified yet relevant Educators to our students today. What further makes Mark unique is his business acumen, stemming from his real estate business that he has co-owned for five years. Being responsible for the operation of a business allows Mark to share stories with his various IT and business students on how IT and business interface through strategy, service, perceived value and results. While Mark is one of Benchmark Learning's SQL and ITIL leads, he also has many other strengths and competencies in teaching, including Crystal Reports, Microsoft Excel VBA and Microsoft Access.
  
  Mark will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  ITIL v3 Intermediate Paths: Where the Rubber Meets the Road!

• Matthew Teegarden

  Matthew Teegarden joined the Benchmark Learning IT Educator staff in 2005. Prior to this position, he worked for eight years designing numerous solutions for SMS infrastructures. He is able to use his prior experiences in the IT trenches to help his students more easily take their classroom education and apply it immediately in their work environments. Matthew currently teaches courses covering SCCM 2007, Server 2008 Administration, WMI, VB Scripting, SQL 2008 Administration, SharePoint 2007 Administration, ITIL and PowerShell. He co-authored the course “50025 PowerShell for Administrators”. Matthew approaches each class with technical detail and know-how but also with humor.
  
  Matthew will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  SCCM with PowerShell - Get More Done in Less Time

• Mike Schwantes

  Mike Schwantes has been in the technology field for over eighteen years. He has attained several credentials, including the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA) and is certified in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) management methods. Mike has performed technology-engineering tasks within many of the Fortune 100 companies and many small business organization. Included in these tasks are systems integration, network design, client/server implementation and administration, and internetworking office locations around the globe. He shows great knowledge of technology solutions utilizing Microsoft Windows Servers, Exchange Servers and networking solutions such as Cisco. Mike shows a great understanding of business and what it takes to lead companies in the direction they want to go through the use of today’s best technology practices.
  
  Mike will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Exchange 2010 Migration Best Practices

• Phil Wicklund

  Phil Wicklund has years of experience architecting and administering corporate SharePoint environments. He taught Mindsharp’s 2003 and 2007 SharePoint developer course from 2004 to 2007. Today as a SharePoint consultant at RBA Consulting, Phil shares real-world insights and in-depth best practices with clients of all varieties. Phil is currently writing a SharePoint 2010 book, titled SharePoint 2010 Workflows in Action, and he maintains an active SharePoint Blog at http://philwicklund.com

• Sanjay Kaul

  Sanjay Kaul is a database professional with over 20 years of experience in various database technologies including SQL Server, Sybase and Oracle. Starting his profession as a consultant, he has helped customers implement small, medium and large database projects over the years including both OLTP and Data Warehousing. In his current position, as a SQL Server Technology Specialist, he spends his day as an ambassador for Microsoft¬—promoting, evangelizing and assisting customer realize their potential using SQL Server Technologies and evenings furthering his culinary skills.
  
  Sanjay will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  SQL Server Consolidation Through Virtualization

• Scott Davis

  Scott Davis is a seasoned consultant with a decade of consulting experience on both the Microsoft and Java platforms. Scott began working with Silverlight in the 1.1 Alpha. Scott is the owner and Principal Consultant for Ignition Point Solutions. Recent projects for Scott include writing Silverlight 2.0 and Windows Mobile 6 applications, as well as executive-level IT strategy and planning consulting. In addition to consulting full time, Scott is the leader of the Twin Cities Silverlight User Group, President of BizLounge Entrepreneurship Group and an adjunct instructor at St. Mary’s University in the Information Technology Management masters program.
  
  Scott will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Making the Transition to Silverlight (or WPF)
  Being a Technology Entrepreneur

• Scott Taschler

  Scott Taschler has been an Enterprise Systems Engineer in the Twin Cities for more than 14 years, and has designed security solutions for Fortune 500 customers across Minnesota and the Midwest US. Scott has a broad, cross-functional background in security technologies, including network security, host security, data security, and risk and compliance. Scott excels at translating business requirements into optimized solutions that balance security against other business imperatives. Scott has been a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) for 13 years, and holds a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.
  
  Scott will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  Relentlessly Securing the Digital World: Today and Tomorrow

• Zandy Garrard

  Zandy Garrard is Principal Consultant for the portal and collaboration at RBA Consulting. He has been working in the Microsoft portals space for the last 10 years and is respected as a subject matter expert and presenter.
  
  Zandy will be presenting the following topic at TechFuse 2010:
  SharePoint 2010 Backstage Pass, An Insider’s Guide to the Newest SharePoint Features!