Executive Advisory Board Highlights

The College of Computing and Software Engineering (CCSE) Dean’s Executive Advisory Board is an elite panel of business and industry leaders who support and guide to accomplish the College vision. These distinguished members provide strategic counsel, act as ambassadors, enhance our visibility, support events, promote hiring of our graduates, strengthen community engagement, and assist in fundraising activities.

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  Chris Arrendale
  CEO-CyberData Pros

  Chris has more than 22 years of experience in the technology, privacy, security, and software industry. Chris graduated with his BA from Emory University and his MS from Southern Polytechnic State University. Healso maintains several professional certifications including Certified Information Privacy Professional, Certified Information Systems Security Professional, Certified Ethical Hacker, Certified Information Systems Auditor, Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer, Certified HIPAA Privacy Security Expert, as well as many other security, privacy, and cloud certifications.
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  Edward W. Ayer
  Director of Engineering and Technical Management
  Robins Air Force Base

  Edward W. Ayer, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Air Force Sustainment Center Director of Engineering and Technical Management located at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. His responsibilities include providing executive leadership and technical direction to a workforce of more than 2,000 scientist, engineers, and engineering technicians, executing a $2B annual workload, providing oversight of $27M in technology insertion programs, and serving as the approving official for the Air Force Sustainment Center Software Enterprise Software Information Systems, Platform IT, IT Services, and IT Products.
• Jason Barden
  Director of Sales Operations
  Genuine Parts Company (NAPA)
  
  
  As a KSU Alumni and leader within the Automotive Industry, Jason is excited to cultivate new connections between Higher Education and Industry.
• Robert Cole
  Managing Director, Technology Delivery Executive
  Bob leads Cloud and Technology Delivery programs, ranging from Cloud Migrations, Systems Integration, Product Engineering, Delivery and Support for the Accenture's clients. Bob has over 31 years of experience providing IT Consulting/Management Services to global enterprises. This includes deep and broad experience across the entire life cycle of IT including Enterprise Architecture, IT Leadership, Cloud-based (AWS, Google, Oracle) solutions, Oracle ERP System Integration, Application Management and Outsourcing.
• Leonard Greski
  Architecture Practice Lead
  LeadingAgile, LLC
  Leonard leads the Architecture practice at LeadingAgile. He is the leader in helping companies achieve business agility. He has 30 years of experience leading teams to deliver better software, faster.
• Andrew Hamilton
  Co-founder of cybersecurity service
  Cybriant
  Andrew is the co-founder of cybersecurity services provider Cybriant.
• Trish McCall
  The ADAM Program,
  Co-Founder/ Director,
  Program Management
  HPCC Systems
  Trish McCall leads initiatives working with corporate and academia to help grow the HPCC Systems open-source community, with emphasis on creating an ecosystem of advocates for expanding the value of the HPCC Systems platform while supporting STEM initiatives for students. Trish is also the co-founder of the ADAM Program, a tool donated to The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children by LexisNexis Risk Solutions to assist with the distribution of missing child posters and recovery efforts. She works to build essential relationships with law enforcement, public safety, and private sector professionals in the advancement and awareness of the ADAM Program. Trish holds a BS in Computer Science Information Systems from Kennesaw State University.
  
• Phillip Parks
  CEO
  Shaw Industries, Inc
  Phillip has worked at Shaw Industries for 32 years, building and managing dynamic and productive Application Development teams. He lives in Dalton with his wife, Lynda. They have six adorable, smart grandchildren. He’s an active cyclist, riding both road and mountain biking.
• Michael Parlotto
  Vice President Emerging Technologies
  InComm Payments
  Michael Parlotto brought his unique mix of technical, creative and leadership skills to successfully deliver on numerous large-scale initiatives since joining InComm Payments in 2003. In his role as Vice President, Emerging Technologies he has immersed himself in the development of numerous innovative offerings in a wide range of disciplines. Focused on a mission to drive disruptive tech in bold new directions through spirited collaboration, he engages retailers, brands, and the community in seeking to develop mutually beneficial arrangements that help build exposure to emerging technology in practice.
• Joe Sumpter
  IT Sales and Compensation Solutions Manager
  NCR
  Joe is a member of the Financial Services Hardware Innovation team at NCR. He fosters cross industry innovation combining hardware and software

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  Steve Taylor
  Technology Manager- Product Manager, IT Risk & Compliance
  State Farm

  Steve Taylor, MBA, CPCU is a Technology Professional with 3 decades of progressive leadership experience across multiple Fortune 100 companies with the past 23 years in leadership at State Farm. Steve’s leadership has covered a variety of domains including Agency, Project, Software, Service, Retail, Logistics, Manufacturing, and Technology. He is an entrepreneurial lifelong learner and servant leader whose goal is to stay relevant in the ever-changing world of business and technology. Steve enjoys helping others through their career journeys enabling them to perform at the highest levels as they contribute to the success of the team and enterprise. Outside of work, Steve enjoys the outdoors, sports, riding ATV’s, woodworking, reading, and spending time with family.
  

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  James Tollerson
  Infrastructure Security Director & FSO
  Norfolk Southern

  James conducts regulation inspections to ensure our security management programs are in compliance with the Federal Railroad Administration and other government agencies, regarding the security concerning with Norfolk Southern critical infrastructure.  He manages enterprise Information Technology projects that impact our critical infrastructure and operational systems. He is the Senior Insider Threat and lead a team from several other departments to reduce the Insider Threat risk by strengthen the Insider Treat Program.

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  Flavio Villanustre
  SVP, Technology & CISO
  LexisNexis Risk Solutions

  Dr. Flavio Villanustre is a RELX Distinguished Technologist. In his current role, he is the senior vice president of technology and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, leading information security and cybersecurity for the organization, and the HPCC Systems big data platform open-source initiative.
  

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