Wendy's CIO shares his thoughts on building a next generation customer experience, and designing with cross-functional teams. Vaconi shares how  cloud computing, mobility and  AI provide the technical  foundation for delivering  on new business opportunity.

Relevant Blog: Wendy’s Unveils New Global Restaurant Design Standard

BIO:

Kevin Vasconi

Chief Information Officer

Kevin joined Wendy’s as our Chief Information Officer in 2020. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of Wendy’s global technology efforts, including Consumer-facing Digital, Restaurant Technology, Enterprise Architecture and Technology, and Information Security.

Prior to joining the Company, Kevin served as Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer at Domino’s Pizza, Inc. At Domino’s, he served on the executive leadership team and was responsible for developing and leading all domestic and international technology capabilities. Emphasis on technology innovation helped Domino's achieve more than half of all global retail sales in 2019 from digital channels, primarily online ordering and mobile applications. 

He has been recognized in the Top 10 of Nation’s Restaurant News’ Power List for his technology and innovation leadership, overseeing the team that spearheaded digital innovations that changed the pizza landscape and have served as inspiration for the broader QSR category.

Kevin has more than 30 years of technology experience across multiple industries including automotive, hardware, software and retail. His tenure prior to Domino’s includes service as CIO and VP of Engineering for the Stanley Security Solutions division of Stanley Black & Decker; SVP & CIO, R.L.Polk & Co.; and Chief Technology Officer for a number of business units and platforms within the Ford Motor Company. 

You’ll find the Son of Baconator in his favorites on the Wendy’s mobile app.

Kevin received his B.S. in Technology from Purdue University.

In this podcast with Accenture's Christie Smith, we discuss the organizational learnings from the company's recent book Radically Human and the  changes in required to successfully navigate the future of work. 

 Her bio:

Christie Smith is the global lead of Talent & Organization/Human Potential at Accenture. Christie joined Accenture in 2020 to lead and expand the transformation offerings that address the complex change management challenges facing CEOs, C-suites and boards, and assumed leadership of global Talent & Organization/Human Potential in March 2021. In 2022, she became Accenture’s Executive Pride Sponsor, representing and promoting LGBTIQ+ equality at the highest level of the organization.

Previously, Christie was with Apple where she was the global vice president for Inclusion & Diversity (I&D), I&D business partners and I&D solutions. She managed the global expansion of the function and the team in all regions and countries where Apple had offices and retail stores. Her leadership at Apple was integral to iconic products such as Memoji, iPhone Camera and iOS software in multiple languages. In addition, at Apple, she was instrumental in the growth of female and underrepresented minorities, expansion of scalable solutions in recruiting, global pay equity and compensation, and development of leaders.

Prior to her role at Apple, Christie served as interim CHRO at Grail, a start-up cancer detection company, and was a principal with Deloitte Consulting. As a national Human Capital leader at Deloitte, she was responsible for working with global clients on their talent management, organizational design, workforce planning, compensation strategies, I&D and HR technology solutions. In this role, Christie led large-scale technology implementations, change management, risk and communication strategies.

She also has deep expertise in CEO consulting around global talent strategies, along with CEO succession and executive team structure, management and capability. As a strategist, she led new product offering strategies for Deloitte in the United States and global markets, including the development of customer strategy in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) countries. As part of her strategic framework, she leveraged deep data analytics to drive predictive socioeconomic and political factors that would impact business and market strategies.

Her leadership in business development and expansion includes being the west region managing principal of Deloitte Consulting, where she led growth in consulting, technology, human capital and strategy. She also led Deloitte’s west region Life Sciences industry practice. Christie was part of the leadership team that drove expansion of Deloitte Consulting into China and greater APAC. Christie also was responsible for the founding and leadership of the Deloitte University Centers for Inclusion and Community Impact. 

 She is a frequently sought-after speaker on leadership, strategy, I&D, and people analytics. She has been covered by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Forbes and CNN. Christie has been recognized as a Most Influential Woman in San Francisco (2012-2015), Women to Watch from Diversity Magazine (2012), Top 50 Diversity Leader (2020) and a leader in Fast Company’s Queer 50 list (2021). She is a member of the Committee of 200 (C200) and World 50 Women.

Her recommendations:
https://mastersofscale.com podcast
Michael Gervais on Finding Mastery
“Radically Human: How New Technology is Transforming Business and Shaping Our Future” by Paul R. Daugherty and H. James Wilson.” 

In this podcast we discuss the intersection of  digital identity, security and artificial intelligence. 

Joe Burton, Chief Executive Officer, Telesign

Joseph Burton is the CEO of Telesign. Before Telesign, he served as CEO of Plantronics (now Poly) from 2016 to 2020, after joining the company in 2011 as Chief Technical Officer and then serving as Chief Commercial Officer. He started his career in 1990 as a software engineer, was acquired into Cisco in 2001 and served as Cisco's CTO for Unified Communications until 2010. Burton specializes in digital transformation, growth acceleration, corporate and go-to-market strategies, and has extensive expertise in technology and product development. He was most recently a Senior Advisor to the management consulting company McKinsey & Company. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems and completed the Stanford Executive program at Stanford University.
You can follow Joe at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-burton/ and Maribel at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maribellopez/ and @MaribelLopez

In this podcast, I speak with Michelle Donnelly, the Chief Revenue Officer at Groq, about how advancements in AI accelerators are enabling companies to process workloads that were previously unimaginable.

Michelle's bio.
Michelle Donnelly, the Chief Revenue Officer at Groq,  a startup known for accelerating systems with real-time artificial intelligence and high performance computing solutions. Michelle is a results-oriented executive with 20+ years of experience leading and operating distribution and go-to-market functions in hyper-growth environments.

Known to be customer-obsessed and a “growth hacker,” Michelle joined Groq from Salesforce where she led Retail and Consumer Goods sales organizations focused on cloud strategy, strategic partnerships, ecosystem development, and revenue growth. Under her leadership, her teams shaped customer demand, scaled for rapid growth, and exceeded revenue targets year-over-year.

When Michelle is not working, she is hanging out in San Francisco with her husband, her teenage daughter, and her pandemic puppy. Michelle has traveled the world and is rumored to have hung out with gorillas in the Congo, trekked the Himalayan mountain ranges, and studied yoga in India.

 In this podcast, we talk about Groq's customer work, including the recent Army Validation Report conducted with Groq customer, Entanglement AI™, on their cybersecurity anomaly detection capability that runs on Groq hardware. 

Report: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD1180411
Video: US Army Confirms 1000x Performant Cybersecurity Technology by Entanglement AI™ Run on Groq™ Hardware  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ8V8kMxGfs

The book recommendation can be found here:
 Turn the Ship Around! L. David Marquet https://davidmarquet.com/turn-the-ship-around-book/

You can follow Michelle at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelledonnelly/
You can follow Maribel at :  https://www.linkedin.com/in/maribellopez/ & on Twitter @MaribelLopez

In this podcast, Sharon Mandell describes how AI helps her team at Juniper and Juniper Networks'  IT customers to deliver better experiences.  Links to information discussed in the podcast.

2022 Juniper Networks AI Report: https://juni.pr/3CyRdyu

Assessing AI Security Risk: https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/12/09/best-practices-for-ai-security-risk-management/

Cassie Kozyrkov’s AI Lectures: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRKtJ4IpxJpB_2ei8-5eWU31EZ6uSj9_s

Bill Schmarzo’s Big Data MBA Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaQqEd_Tx4Ep1bOIFEzDJNXI9r64rjhXL

Ethical Machines by Reid Blackman (Book): https://www.reidblackman.com/ethical-machines/

A Beginner Guide on Synthetic Data: https://towardsdatascience.com/synthetic-data-key-benefits-types-generation-methods-and-challenges-11b0ad304b55

The Real Promise of Synthetic Data: https://news.mit.edu/2020/real-promise-synthetic-data-1016

Bio.
Sharon Mandell is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer leading Juniper’s global information technology team. In this role, she leads the ongoing enhancement of the company’s IT infrastructure and applications architectures to support the growth objectives of the company. She and her team are also responsible for showcasing Juniper’s use of its technologies to the world. Prior to joining Juniper in 2020, Mandell was the Chief Information Officer for TIBCO Software and previously developed her leadership strategy at Harmonic, Black Arrow (now Cadent), Knight Ridder and the Tribune Company. Throughout her career, Mandell developed a level of expertise in cyber security and compliance, enterprise architecture and road mapping, data and analytics, digital transformation and customer service. She is passionate about supporting women in STEM careers and in her free time Mandell serves on various arts and education related boards. She also proudly serves on the computer science advisory board at Temple University. Mandell holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Temple University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-mandell-juniper/ @sharonomink

Peter Scott (AI leader and author of Artificial Intelligence and You) is an expert on all things AI, Peter Scott is on a mission to help us to get along with artificial intelligence. He has given TEDx talks, spoken to audiences as diverse as transformational leaders, executives, and British parliamentarians, and created a program to train coaches in helping clients become resilient to exponential disruption. A Master’s degree in computer science from Cambridge University led him to spend more than thirty years working for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, helping advance our exploration of space. A parallel pursuit of the human development field as a certified coach positioned him to recognize and address technological disruption. The births of his children brought him into a mission, to help people understand, use, and advance AI for the betterment of all.

In 2020, Scott started the Artificial Intelligence and You Podcast, bringing together expert guests as diverse as politicians, CEOs, philosophers, developers, and artists to help audiences understand this incredibly complex thing called AI. He has recorded over 100 episodes and generated an audience of more than 1,000 listeners. Scott is also the founder of Next Wave Institute, an international educational organization teaching how to understand and leverage AI to thrive through technological disruption.