David Stodder heads up research practices in the areas of Information Management and IT Performance Management with specialization in Business Intelligence and Analytics. David has for nearly 20 years articulated the next steps in the evolution of information technology toward strategic business applications and services that deliver intelligence throughout organizations. He was the founding chief editor of Intelligent Enterprise, a CMP Technology publication, in 1998 and served as editorial director and editor-in-chief through 2006. Previous to Intelligent Enterprise, he helped found and for 10 years served as chief editor of Database Programming & Design, a Miller Freeman, Inc. publication. David directed the Intelligent Enterprise Summit and Database Summit Series conferences, and has served on planning committees and spoken at numerous IT industry events. His research, writing, analysis and speaking engagements have focused on how business intelligence, performance management, search, information integration, databases, SOA, business rules and process management come together in cutting-edge information architecture.

Aaron Zornes is the founder and chief research officer for the MDM Institute (formerly the CDI-MDM Institute). Mr. Zornes is also conference chairman for the MDM SUMMIT conference series which is the most widely attended professional conference focused exclusively on MDM,CDI, and data governance (New York City, San Francisco, London, Frankfurt, Sydney, and Madrid). Mr. Zornes is a noted speaker and author on Global 5000 enterprise IT issues and is the most quoted industry analyst on the topics of master data management (MDM), customer data integration (CDI), and data governance. In that capacity, he has advised solution providers such as Accenture, Alliance, Acxiom, BearingPoint, Cognizant, Data Foundations, Dun & Bradstreet, DWL, EDS, Experian, i2 Technologies, IBM, Identity Systems, Initiate Systems, Metavante, Microsoft, Omikron, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Pitney Bowes/Group 1, Purisma, SAP, SAS/DataFlux, Siebel, Siperian, Tata, and Teradata on MDM requirements and product planning. Mr. Zornes has also worked with companies such as 3M, Allergan, American Express, Barclays, Bell Canada, Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, COUNTRY Financials, Educatioal Testing Systems, Fidelity, GE Healthcare, Honeywell, Information Handling Services, Intuit, Lloyds TSB, MCI, McKesson, Medtronic, Microsoft, Motorola, National Australia Bank, Nationwide Insurance, Nextel, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Novartis, Qwest, Roche Labs, Rogers Communications, Scholastic, Suncorp-Metway, SunTrust, T. Rowe Price, Telekom South Africa, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo, Westpac, Weyerhaeuser, and Woolworths Australia to develop MDM investment plans and architectures. Mr. Zornes is also the editor and lead contributor to DM Review’s CDI and MDM Newsletters as well as the monthly columnist for both CDI and MDM. Prior to founding the MDM Institute, he was founder and executive VP of META Group’s largest research advisory practice for 15 years. He has also held line and strategic management roles in leading vendor and user organizations, including executive and managerial positions at Ingres Corp., Wang, Software AG of North America, and Cincom Systems. Mr. Zornes received his M.S. in Management Information Systems from University of Arizona.

Gwen Thomas is President of The Data Governance Institute, which provides in-depth, vendor-neutral information about - and assistance with - tools, techniques, models, and best practices for DataGovernance. Gwen also serves as publisher of the Institute’s flagship website, www.datagovernance.com, as well as SOX-online.com (www.SOX-online.com), the web’s largest collection of vendor-neutral Sarbanes-Oxley news and information, and also several smaller websites focused on various IT and data concerns.

Using components from the free DGI Data Governance Framework, and working with systems integrators such as CIBER, Inc. and IBM, Gwen has designed Data Governance programs for Sallie Mae, Wachovia Banks, Walt Disney World, Coors, NDCHealth/Wolters Kluwer, and others. Before governance got “hot” and she decided to focus entirely on data-related concerns, Gwen spent a dozen years working in the trenches and in management roles as a systems integration consultant and Knowledge Manager. Prior to that she was a college teacher, a marketing/pr person, and a publisher of a literary magazine.

A frequent presenter at industry Data events and publications, Gwen is author of Alpha Males and Data Disasters: The Case for Data Governance. Her next big writing project is the book Asking About Data: Questions to Ask Your IT Department.