evidal@miami.edu

Eddie Vidal has over 20 years experience in various areas of Information Technology.  His focus is primarily on service delivery and support for IT infrastructure.  In his current position as Manager of Customer Service and Support for the Telecommunications department at the University of Miami, Eddie supports over 35,000 faculty, staff and students.  He has transformed the Help Desk from a dispatch environment to a Customer Centric Support Center.

Eddie’s experience spans the higher education, hospitality, and travel industries.  He has led project management offices and consulted on numerous engagements.  Eddie started his career with Eastern Airlines as a computer operator and continued growing his career in the travel industry implementing local and wide area networks for travel agencies and cruise lines. This led to his role as Manager of Technical Support at Interval International where he was responsible for managing service delivery teams.

Prior to his current position at the University of Miami, Eddie was Assistant Director of Professional Management and Planning Services at Florida International University.  At FIU, Eddie was responsible for transitioning the desktop support team to the Support Center, setting computing standards and managing software licensing.  His accomplishments in various organizations include managing multi-million dollar budgets, managing the construction of a 500 seat call center, creating Service Level Agreements, implementing customer service initiatives, deploying applications, and re-engineering organizations.

He currently serves as President of the South Florida HDI local chapter.  Eddie has earned certifications for ITIL Foundations and HDI Support Center Manager. 
During his free time, Eddie fundraises for charities, participates in religious ministries and directs the sports program for over 200 children at a private club in Miami.  He is currently undertaking his biggest venture ever; the upbringing of three teenage children.

anoa@sanovagroup.com

Albert Noa has over 20 years of experience in Strategy Development and Execution, System Design & Implementation, Performance Management and Process Improvement across various industries.  Albert is a co-founder and member the of the executive management team at Sanova Group. He is responsible for the development and management of a consulting organization focused on delivery, thought-leadership and performance; providing coaching and facilitation to various clients.

Prior to Sanova, Albert was the Director of Strategic Consulting at Stratasys Group; additionally holding lead and management positions with KPMG LLP and FPL (Florida Power & Light).  

Throughout Albert’s career he has served as a trusted enabler and advisor; combining experience, communications skills and vision with a basic common sense approach;  obtaining success for employers and clients by assuring quality standards, the development and management of methodologies, and developing organizations focused on delivery, thought-leadership, process, performance and the execution of strategy.

Areas of expertise include:

• Strategy Execution
• Business Performance Management
• Facilitation & Training
• Balanced Scorecard
• Change Management
• Process Management and Improvement
• System Design and Development (People, Process, Technology)
• Human Capital Management
• Adaptive Project Management
• Topgrading

The functional areas with specific experience include Information Management, Human Capital Management, Program Management (PMO), Operations Management, and Strategy Management. 

A regular lecturer at MSMIS, MBA and International MBA classes at various Universities and educational institutions; has also presented on the topic of Operationalizing Strategy and Business Performance Management on discussion panels at several regional and national conferences.

Excelling at enabling an environment of teamwork and collaboration; Albert’s team-oriented approach allows for the open sharing of ideas, creating an inclusive and productive atmosphere. This philosophy has enabled success for all.

ADiperna@carnival.com

Tony Di Perna is a Supervisor of I/S Configuration Management for Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) since 2006.

With over 20 years experience in the Configuration Management discipline Tony has had the opportunity to work in several countries in Europe, Canada and United States, some of the most complex programs he has worked on consisted of  development of Cellular systems, US and Canadian Navy ship Frigates, Space Shuttle and Flight simulators.

During his career Tony had to the opportunity both to apply and help improve some of the CM standards that exist today in the industry for Configuration Management, some of his public accomplishments and contributions have been while he was a GEIA member where he participated in the development of the DoD (Department-of-Defense) CM standard in the early 1990s which is today know as EIA-649 as well as the development of UDEF (Universal Data Element Framework) which is lately became a standard and being adapted for use also in other international countries.

Tony always strives for excellence in the Configuration Management discipline and IT Service and Support areas, he is familiar with a wide range of CM industry standards (ISO, DoD, IEEE) as well as ITIL and CMM frameworks, one of his major career accomplishment is his Web Past invention which was filed under USA and International Patent Offices in 2002.

Tony is proud to be an officer on the South Florida HDI chapter and will work hard to help get it established and make it one of the HDI successful chapters.

LJohnson@carnival.com

Lynn Johnson has more than 25 years of experience in Information Technologies. Her experience ranges from desktop support to network administration to training.  Currently Lynn is the Manager of End User Support, she manages both the Technical Support Desk and the Desktop Support groups. Lynn joined Carnival in April 1988 and took over the management of the support desk in August 2005. During her tenure at Carnival she has been responsible for project coordination and delivery of new technology to all Carnival locations. Lynn has served as logistics coordinator for thirteen new ship deliveries, and IT project manager for all Carnival new builds and refreshes since 2002.

As Co-VP of Programs for HDI of South Florida I will work to identify topics and speakers for each meeting and will survey the membership to validate program content. I am proud to be affiliated with HDI and will work hard to create top quality programs to each and every meeting.

Antonio (Tony) Alvarez has over 16 years of experience in Information Technology. His IT passion and focus revolve around the subjects of virtualization, databases, and process improvement.

Mr. Alvarez began his IT career at Florida International University (FIU) in 1991, where he worked for University Technology Services (UTS) at the Computer Hardware Maintenance and Repair Department. In his position as a Repair Technician, he worked in the repair and troubleshooting of Intel, Apple, and Unix-based computer systems.

He earned a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems while serving as the Senior Computer Repair Technician and manager of the Computer Hardware Maintenance and Repair Department. After his graduation, he was promoted to Coordinator of the UTS Field Team and in this capacity, acted as an information technology subject matter expert and coordinated the activities of the workgroup responsible for maintaining and repairing computer systems across all of the University campuses. Additionaly, he assisted in the development of procedures and policies, organized and improved staff work flow, and designed successful strategies that helped improve the revenue and service of University Technology Services.

In 2005, Mr. Alvarez began working as an Information Technology Coordinator at the College of Law at FIU. In this role he managed, assisted, and mentored desktop technicians and system administrators. In addition, he was responsible for the administration and management of multiple departmental servers which included: Microsoft Active Directory; Windows Server Update Services, Sharepoint, SQL Server, and Linux Nagios Network Monitor.

In 2008, Mr. Alvarez moved to Miami Dade College (MDC) where he began working as a Senior Network Analyst. In this position, he implemented, configured, and was the administrator of the VMware Virtual Infrastructure and the college wide Learning Management System as well as Microsoft SQL Server and Active Directory Administration. Furthermore, Mr. Alvarez has improved the documentation, workflow, and processes involving the technologies he has worked with at the College.
In 2010, Mr. Alvarez was promoted to Senior Database Analyst. In this role implemented, configured, and was the administrator of the enterprise wide MDC SQL Server OLTP environment, business intelligence OLAP environment, and the data warehouse.

jmontes@teksystems.com

Jessica McNelley is the Director of Business Operations for TEKsystems in Miami, FL.  Jessica has been with TEKsystems for over 6 years holding numerous positions. Her current responsibility includes overseeing the Branch Operations in Miami, Naples, and Bonita Springs which includes the management of over 15 internal employees as well as over 100 consultants.

With over 26 years in the staffing industry and rated #1 for nine consecutive years on ITSBR’s (IT Services Business Report) top 20 IT staffing list TEKsystems consistently seeks to understand our client’s technical needs as well as understand the business drivers creating the need down to the soft skills required to be successful in the role and the work environment. At the same time, TEKsytems works with each consultant to understand their experience, career goals and what’s most important to them.

As the director of the office Jessica’s role is to hire, train and lead the recruiters to build the local IT network with referrals and coach them on how to understand those consultants goals while matching their technical and soft skills with each client’s needs.  She is also responsible for promoting and mentoring the account managers who support those local clients on how to understand the IT initiatives and business goals for each client to ensure they present the best candidate. Jessica also serves as Marketing Director on the board of HDI South Florida. In this role, she is tasked with reaching out to the IT community and creating awareness around HDI as well as engaging them to gather feedback. Jessica always strives for excellence in everything she does making her an asset to HDI. .