Customer Keynote: Thomas K. Sneed, Vice President & Chief Information Officer – Marathon Oil Corporation

Thomas K. Sneed is vice president and chief information officer at Marathon Oil Corporation. He began his current assignment in 2003.

Since joining Marathon in 1981 as a computer application programmer, Mr. Sneed has progressed through a series of increasingly senior technical and management positions. He served as vice president of Information Technology at Speedway SuperAmerica, a convenience store chain, and led the Information Technology group for Marathon Petroleum Company LP.

A native of Dayton, Ohio, Mr. Sneed holds a bachelor's degree in computer & information science from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He is past chairman of the American Petroleum Institute's (API) Information Management and Technology Committee. He serves on the board of the Greater Houston Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Hispanic Scholarship Foundation. Mr. Sneed is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC).

Industry Keynote: Iraj Ershagi, Director of the Petroleum Engineering Program and Executive Director of CiSoft − University of Southern California

Iraj Ershaghi is the Omar B. Milligan Professor and the Director of the Petroleum Engineering Program at the University of Southern California. He is also serving as the Executive Director of CiSoft (Center for Smart Oilfield Technologies) and USC Executive Director of USC-KOC Center of Education and Research. His areas of research and publications and consulting are smart oilfield technologies, reservoir characterization, naturally fractured reservoirs, unconventional resources, well testing and improved recovery processes.

He is a licensed petroleum engineer and has conducted studies for many U S based and international oil and Gas companies. He worked for Signal Oil and Gas Company and the oil and Gas division of California State Lands Commission before joining USC. Since at USC, he has served as a petroleum engineering consultant to Companies such as Texaco, Aera, OXY, Southern California Gas Company, Federal agencies such as the Department of Justice, and the U S Department of the Interior, and national oil companies such as Pertamina and PetroVietnam. He has been the recipient of SPE's Distinguished Faculty Award, Distinguished Member Award, Western North America Distinguished Service Award, and Technology Transfer Award for Development of the Smart Oilfield Technology Curriculum and Western Regional North America Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award. As a fellow of Institute for Advancement of Engineering, he received the Outstanding Educator Award of American Association for Advancement of Engineering and the Outstanding Educator Award of Orange County Council of Engineers and Scientists. He served as SPE's Distinguished Lecturer during 2006-2007. In 2010 he was the recipient of the SPE’s John Franklin Carll award. In 2012 he received the SPE/AIME Honorary Member Award.

Opening Keynote: Lane Sorgen, General Manager, South Central US – Microsoft

As General Manager and Partner of Microsoft’s South Central US, Lane is responsible for Microsoft’s Customer and support teams that service South Central’s Enterprise Customers, which are primarily Oil & Gas. Lane’s team ensures customer satisfaction through consulting, delivery and support of Microsoft’s customers’ operations.

Lane joined Microsoft in 1996 as a Manager of Product Development and has held various jobs within the organization. Prior to his current position, Lane was Vice President for Microsoft’s Small and Mid-Market Solutions and Partners (SMS&P) in the US.

Innovation Keynote: Iain D.W. Urquhart, General Manager, US Specialist Sales & Enterprise Partner – Microsoft

Iain Urquhart is the General Manager of Microsoft’s National Solutions Organization. The National Solutions Organization is responsible for setting and executing go-to-market strategies with Microsoft’s Industry, Partner, and Technical Specialist that service Microsoft’s US Enterprise Customers.

Iain brings over 17 years of Industry experience to his current role including direct sales, sales and marketing management, operational, and executive management. As an employee of Microsoft for over 11 years, Iain has served as the Managing Director across Microsoft’s US Commercial Industries where he managed Industry Solution engagement across Manufacturing (Process and Discrete), Financial Services, Retail and Hospitality, Healthcare and Life Sciences, and Professional Services customers.

Prior to Microsoft, Iain served as Vice President of Partner Services for BroadVision, Incorporated. In this role, he led an organization directly responsible for worldwide alliances with technology providers, independent-software-vendors, business integration consultancies and outsourcers.

Luncheon Keynote: Tom Koulopoulos – Expert on Innovation, The Cloud, Future Trends, Technology, & Author of Cloud Surfing and The Innovation Zone (Photo courtesy of Leading Authorities Speakers Bureau)

Tom Koulopoulos is passionate about helping business people understand the challenges and opportunities of leading edge technology. He urges business leaders to think young, rise to the occasion, and never underestimate the next big idea. As founder of the global think tank Delphi Group, Koulopoulos maintains a keen insight and vision on the direction and evolution of business and technology. He was named one of the industry’s most influential information management consultants by InformationWeek magazine and he is widely recognized as an authority on the implications of technology on global organizations, with articles and market insights appearing frequently in print and broadcast media. He has also authored nine books.

Koulopoulos is an Executive in Residence at Bentley University and has been the executive director of the Center for Business Innovation at Babson College, an adjunct professor at the Boston College Wallace E. Carroll Graduate School of Management and a guest lecturer at the Boston University School of management and Harvard University.