Keynotes you
just can't miss
shaping the path forward for AI and the enterprise live, on stage,
at PegaWorld iNspire 2024.
Francesca Devrient
Global Senior Director, CS Product & AI
Booking.com
Francesca is a seasoned leader with more than 20 years of experience in product, tech transformation, and AI. She joined Booking.com in 2022 and leads a new AI-focused initiative that builds on her track record of innovation and impactful leadership. In her current role as Global Senior Director at Booking.com, she oversees four core pillars – platforms strategy, product, AI, and platform support and tech, driving strategic product vision and AI initiatives for enhanced customer experiences. Previously, at Red Hat, she led global teams, implementing transformative strategies. Her notable achievements there included spearheading multi-million-dollar tech transformations and optimizing partner strategies for substantial revenue gains.
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Jess Cuthbertson
Executive, Customer Analytics & Decisioning
National Australia Bank
Jessica was appointed Executive, Customer Analytics & Decisioning in April 2022 at Australia’s second-largest bank – National Australia Bank (NAB). She has had a decade-long career leading data engineering, analytics, decision science, and marketing functions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
With a passion for combining insight and creativity, Jessica designs personalized customer experiences that go above and beyond expectations. Having delivered two major customer decisioning change programs, she is now onto her third challenge at NAB: leading the Customer Brain program that has increased customer engagement by 40% in the first year.
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Grant Ries
Chief Data & AI Officer
T-Mobile
Grant Ries is the Chief Data and AI Officer at T-Mobile. Previously, he was the CEO and a board member of Deep Sync, a leading data and technology company in the marketing industry. Prior to Deep Sync, Grant was a member of the executive leadership team at Liveramp (NYSE: RAMP), where he held several roles, including CEO of Liveramp B2B, and ran the following businesses: Data, Marketplace, Advanced TV, and Emerging Markets. Grant joined Liveramp through the acquisition of Pacific Data Partners, a B2B data and technology company he co-founded. Before Liveramp, Grant co-founded and served as board member and chief revenue officer of BlueKai, the world’s largest consumer data marketplace and data management platform. When Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) acquired BlueKai in 2014, Grant co-launched a global business unit, the Oracle Data Cloud, and served as its vice president. He is an active angel investor and has provided advisory and operating support for his various investments in the technology sector for more than 20 years.
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Katrina Fluss
Supervisory Program and Management Analyst
Department of Veteran Affairs
Katrina Fluss, Veteran Health Administration (VHA) Supervisory Program and Management Analyst, supports the Veteran Family Member Programs (VFMP). This portion of the Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) provides the sole method for Veterans, family members, and caregivers to apply and receive benefits from such critical healthcare programs as Spina Bifida, Children of Women Vietnam Veterans, CHAMPVA, Camp Lejeune and the Foreign Medical Program. She started with the VA 15 years ago, as a Voucher Examiner processing claims for CHAMPVA and has worked across the program in eligibility, Document Management, Project Management and Program Analytics. Over the years she developed a passion for the programs and their mission of supporting Veterans and their families across the country.
Her unique background in workflow management as well as her incredible determination and dedication to the mission of the VA is vital to the process of modernization. Her work towards the introduction of modernized applications to The Veteran Family Member Programs aims to increase efficiency and improve the Veteran and family members experience. Partnerships helmed by her and her team demonstrate the true value of applying Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Product Line Management (PLM) methods to deliver incredible value in projects with increasingly limited time and budget.
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George Brittingham
Technical Director
Department of Veteran Affairs
George Brittingham serves as the Technical Director for the Community Care Product Line (CCPL) within the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Information and Technology (OI&T). He maintains a PMP certification and has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. In his current role, he is charged with architecting healthcare applications serving the 19-million-strong population of Veterans as well as their beneficiaries as part of the VHA’s $28.5B obligation to Community Care through the Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC).
His background in blending project management and technology for both private businesses and government-led healthcare initiatives allows him to source best-in-class Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) products from private industry while also serving the unique needs of the VA through standards-governed interoperability.
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Alan Trefler
Founder and CEO
Pega
Alan Trefler is the Founder and CEO of Pegasystems Inc., (NASDAQ: PEGA) the leading enterprise AI decisioning and workflow automation platform provider. He is a visionary leader, technology change-agent, innovative philanthropist, and a trusted advisor to business executives around the world.
He first gained visibility on the international stage when he earned a chess Master rating at age 19 and, against all odds, tied for first place in the 1975 World Open Chess Championship. This facilitated his early AI work at Dartmouth College, where he began developing computer systems capable of playing the complex game. As a lead software developer in the early 1980s keenly observing client frustrations surrounding tech, he was inspired to apply the principles of designing chess programs to bridge the gap between tech and business needs.
Alan founded Pega with the vision of making tech accessible to all with software that brings business and IT together to unlock radical agility and innovation like never before. Pega’s business is deeply rooted in changing the way the world builds software to solve problems today while ensuring clients can evolve their applications as their needs change, concepts he explains in his book called Build for Change®.
Since then, Alan has earned multiple patents and overseen the expansion of Pega from start-up to a $1.4+ billion, global, public company. Today, Pega software is used by many of the most recognized and successful brands and government agencies around the world to unlock business transforming outcomes by personalizing engagement, automating customer service, and streamlining operations.
Alan has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades for his lifetime of effort both inside and outside of work, including Public Company CEO of the Year by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, Software CEO of the Year by the American Business Awards, and the Babson College Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs. His book, Build for Change, is a best-seller.
Alan and his wife Pam are champions of education and community support. They founded the Trefler Foundation in 1999 to support and improve education and workforce development, health care, and healthy lifestyles. They are dedicated to creating progress and change, especially in communities that experience significant disadvantages.
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Kerim Akgonul
Chief Product Officer
Pega
Kerim is responsible for delivering Pega’s full suite of products built on the Pega Infinity™ Platform. Kerim leads the company’s 1,000 plus team of engineers, product managers, designers, and architects, building best-in-class solutions across 1:1 customer engagement, customer service, and intelligent automation.
Kerim is focused on leveraging the latest technologies and development approaches such as low-code, AI, robotics, and cloud to support business users. He is an advocate for building software that makes the underlying technology transparent and serves the needs of the business. This focus on business impact has contributed significantly to the company being recognized as a leader in the major product and technology categories important to clients including low-code, customer relationship management (CRM), case management, intelligent automation, real-time analytics, and business process management (BPM).
Kerim began his career at Pega developing applications for customers in financial services and insurance, and he put his customer-centric perspective to work in establishing the company’s product management function. Early in the company’s history, Kerim recognized the power of connecting back-end operations to front-end, customer-facing applications. He continues to focus the product team on developing applications that allow business visionaries to innovate how their organizations interact with customers and help employees get work done more effectively.
Kerim holds a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
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Don Schuerman
Chief Technology Officer
Pega
Don Schuerman is CTO and Vice President of Product Marketing at Pegasystems, responsible for Pega’s industry-leading platform and CRM applications. He has 20 years of experience delivering enterprise software solutions for Fortune 500 organizations, with a focus on digital transformation, mobility, analytics, business process management, cloud and CRM. Don has led enterprise software implementations and provided technology and architecture consulting to senior business and technology executives from Fortune 500 organizations, including American Express, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and BP. Don holds a BS in Physics and Philosophy from Boston College.
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