Operationalizing AI for Enterprise

Ed Macko is the Global Vice President and General Manager for Healthcare & Life Sciences (HCLS) industry. In his role(s), Ed works with clients worldwide to leverage information technology to solve critical business problems. Ed provides strategic technical and business leadership to drive digital transformation across the HCLS clients (commercial and academic hospitals, health plans, pharmaceutical, biotech, and government) including working with strategic business partners. Some of Mr. Macko’s activities include technical and digital business strategy, architecture, business development, presales client engagement, product development, and industry standards. This includes leveraging capabilities like Cognitive Computing, AI / Machine Learning, Automation, Security and Blockchain across solutions for Enterprise Health Analytics, Population Health, Real World Evidence, Consumer Engagement, Fraud, Supply Chain, Clinical Trials Optimization and Translational Medicine. These solutions and capabilities spanning various data domains across the continuum of care (clinical, financial, administrative, genomics, consumer, social determinants, etc.). My expertise includes strategy, architecture, development, deployment and support across hybrid , multi cloud environments in a highly regulated environments (e.g. HIPAA, HITRUST, GxP, GDPR, FISMA). Ed received a bachelor’s degree with honors including a double major in information systems and business administration with a minor in Computer Science from Appalachian State University. He has worked for IBM for the past 25+years in product / solution development, business development, and client engagement roles including last 15 years as the HCLS CTO. Ed previously worked as a Software Engineer for NASA and commercial airline industry.

Milind serves as Chief Technology Officer at Early Warning, the fintech company owned by seven of the country's leading banks. In this role he oversees the teams responsible for the technology and engineering of solutions that empower financial institutions of all sizes to make confident decisions, enable fast payments, and mitigate fraud. With more than 20 years of experience in technology leadership roles, he specializes in reimagining and fortifying core platforms and processes while building strategic innovative capabilities to fuel growth. 

Prior to joining Early Warning in 2020, Milind served as EVP & Chief Information Officer for Innovation & Strategic Services at Wells Fargo Bank. There he was responsible for technology strategy to position the bank for the future, relying on engineering excellence in capabilities such as data, advanced analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, automation, distributed ledger platforms, and quantum computing research. 

He has an extensive background in highly regulated financial industries and managing large scale portfolios of critical transaction processing platforms, applications, data, and infrastructure services. In previous roles, Milind was responsible for Citigroup’s global data, advanced analytics and regulatory services technology, and payments technology at JPMorgan Chase. 

Milind has a Bachelor of Technology Degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and an MBA in Computer Information Systems and Finance from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. He has co-authored a book on Java2 Network Security published by Prentice Hall.

Harveer Singh serves as the Chief Data Architect and Global Head of Engineering at Western Union since July 2020, where he manages the Data Platforms, Data Marketplace, Martech & Adtech Platforms, Digital Banking Integrations (WU+), Loyalty Platform and several Consumer Financial Ecosystem platforms<br><br>Harveer is a technology executive with experiences spanning several industries such as financial services (including banking, payments, insurance, capital markets, and asset management), retail, and professional services. Previously, he has been working in EY&rsquo;s Financial Services where he currently co-leads EY&rsquo;s Next Generation architecture & solutions for Financial Services. Prior to EY, Harveer held various consulting roles at Deloitte, IBM, and Accenture.<br><br>Harveer has extensive experience in Digital Transformation, Technology Management, Data architecture, Governance and Platform development. His past track record has proven success through his design and implementation of tech strategies, business cases, multiyear roadmaps, platforms and solutions. Haveer was was inducted in Forbes Technology Council in Jan 2022.<br><br>Harveer also enjoys philanthropy work and is currently involved with Western Union Foundation, Mark Cuban Foundation, She Jobs Initiative and others.

Anu Shultes is an entrepreneur and Forbes 50 over 50 honoree for her commitment to and progress towards Financial inclusion. She is a 30 year veteran of the Financial Services industry with senior leadership roles at Providian, National City, AccountNow, Blackhawk Network and more. She is the CEO of Ahead Financials and LendUp. Anu is passionate about building products that get people ahead financially. Her significant experience in building efficient operational processes and teams to support them has led her to become one of the few female CEOs in Fintech.

James currently is SVP of Technology and Engineering for Chime. Chime is a leading financial technology company founded on the premise that basic banking services should be helpful, easy and free. Chime is the market leader in the U.S. challenger banking segment. Before Chime, James founded and ran an independent strategic technology advisory consulting firm. He formerly was PayPal&rsquo;s Global CTO and SVP of Payment Services. At eBay, James was VP of Technology and led the architecture and systems teams, re-writing the entire eBay.com platform. James lead a number of strategic technology initiatives, including delivering open platforms, creating infrastructure services, systems software, 3rd party developer ecosystems, enterprise analytics and overall site operations running the world&rsquo;s largest marketplace at scale. With more than 30 years of technology experience that spans banking, commerce, payments, the military, academic world, business consulting, enterprise platforms and infrastructure, James Barrese has broad experience in digital transformations, financial systems, high performance processing systems, security, infrastructure and developing innovative product solutions for consumers and businesses. James earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Stanford University. He is based in Silicon Valley. He also served in the U.S. Army and currently serves as an independent director for Visteon, the leading automotive technology company delivering the next generation of digital cockpits and electronic control systems for the world's top automobile manufacturers.

Amit Aghara is the Chief Technology Officer at Fintech, LLC - the leading payment and data solutions provider for the alcohol industry. Amit is responsible for the development, maintenance, and security of the Fintech platform. Fintech processes over $43B in alcohol invoice payments annually servicing nearly 200,000 alcohol retailers, distributors, and suppliers which includes 70% of all major retail brands nationwide. It provides its clients automation for invoice payment, order processing, AP management, data insights, and market intelligence. Fintech is leading the transformation of the alcohol and beverage supply chain industry using its strategic positioning and innovative data collection process. Amit started his career at IBM building software products in an emerging technology group working on payments gateway, integration middleware, and mobile platforms. After IBM, Amit built two successful technology startups, Kore.ai and Kony. In the more recent position as Chief Technology Officer with Kore.ai, Amit effectively led the creation and implementation of a market-leading virtual assistant platform that contributed to significant company growth. Additionally, Amit has been granted five patents by USPTO and has been featured for his expertise in several technology publications.