2016 Annual Conference Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Jeff Tobe
International keynote speaker and author, Jeff Tobe, is a global thought-leader in the realm of creativity, innovation, and employee engagement.
Tobe weaves tales of his business experience into funny and entertaining narratives on the power of coloring outside the lines of habit and business dogma. Readers of Conventions and Meetings Magazine named him “one of the top 15 motivational speakers in North America.”
Through his high-energy, content-driven presentations, Tobe illustrates methods to realize business and relationship paradigms that will help you redefine success in your organization and personal career. Read more...
Paul Pelletier
Paul Pelletier LL.B., PMP, is a corporate lawyer, project manager, international public speaker, and business executive. For the past 25 years, he has led transformational projects and teams in both government and the private sector.
A pioneer in the legal profession, Paul fused his law career with project management and developed a strategic approach to repeatable legal and project success. A recognized leader in the project management profession, Paul also serves on the Project Management Institute’s Ethics Member Advisory Group. Read more...
Track Speakers
Strategy | Leadership | Technical | Agile | Business Analysis
Jackie Barretta - Leadership Track
Jackie Barretta has led some of the largest teams and toughest projects as a Fortune 500 executive and higher education CIO. Currently the CIO of Willamette University, she formerly held similar positions at Con-way Inc., College of Marin, and PCC.
In her book, Primal Teams, and in numerous articles in prestigious publications, such as Fast Company, Forbes, CIO, and Information Week, Barretta has offered her insights into human nature and team dynamics, twin-elements of her personal success. Her work with technology teams has won her widespread recognition with dozens of prestigious awards for innovation and achievement, including “Premier 100 IT Leader” from ComputerWorld. Her main focus is on team motivation and agility with particular attention given to “super-energy” elite teams. She provides competitive insights into what makes teams rise out of obscurity to become change agents for the entire organization.
Christine Brautigam - Business Analysis Track
Christine A. Brautigam is a trainer and consultant, who moved to Portland in 2015 and founded Inspired Agility. Christine’s focus is on brain-based learning, mindful change management, and deliberately developmental organizations. She has held responsible project management and training positions at IBM, Lockheed Martin, BEA Systems, Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley, as well as multiple years of consulting to the Veterans Health Administration and small to mid-sized companies. She is a former PMP and holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Operations Engineering (BSIOE) from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) in Software Management from Carnegie Mellon University.
Christine is dedicated to adult development and is engaged and interested in expanding the principles, conversations, networks, and the practices of Teal for Teal, Responsive.org, Happy Melly, U.Lab, and the Pyxis Network. She currently enjoys facilitating “Training from the Back of the Room!”
Kevin Ciccotti - Leadership Track
Kevin Ciccotti, CPCC, PCC, has been a student of peak performance and human behavior for more than 25 years. He was trained at The Coaches Training Institute, and the Robbins-Madanes Center for Strategic Intervention, founded by world-renowned human performance experts Anthony Robbins and Psychotherapist Cloé Madanes.
He is certified by the International Coach Federation, CTI, and the Robbins-Madanes Center, and in 2012 was named President of the ICF Nevada Professional Coaches Association. Kevin is an authority in helping project managers and leaders build stronger, more sustainable relationships with their teams, drive engagement, increase productivity, and lead to greater overall success. He brings proven tools and strategies to help leaders understand people’s needs, and helps them use that knowledge to create deeper, more resonant connections. When combined with the tools of Emotional Intelligence, these strategies form the foundation for sustainable success.
Matthew Douglass - Leadership Track
Matthew Douglass has spent many years motivating and coaching project and program managers. His mentoring energy and focus is directed towards helping managers lead cross-functional teams and create winning outcomes.
Matthew honed his skills to inspire and educate audiences through the development of training and sales programs, as well as management of critical programs for a variety of Fortune 500 clients. With an engaging and dynamic style, Matthew connects with his audiences and delivers content that they can use the moment they return to the office.
Cristian Fuentes - Agile Track
Cristian Fuentes has 12 years of experience in software working for various small startup and large IT organizations. As a developer, he has worked on teams that have experimented with and used various XP, agile, scrum and Kanban practices and processes. Cristian is currently an Engineering Manager at Jama Software, where he joined in the early startup stage. Being an early recruit at Jama has allowed him to experience the growth and evolution of the product and engineering organization. Through this growth, Cristian has been closely involved with the Jama engineering team, as it has evolved and adapted to a changing landscape, in pursuit of effective and empowering ways to work.
Michael Giard - Agile Track
Michael Giard is a Technical Project Manager and Operations Manager for the Quality Business Systems (QBS) group within Intel. He has over 16 years of Information Technology, Project Management, and Customer Service experience.
Michael is a proven leader who has experience with partnering across multi-functional teams located across various geographic environments. He has transformed his team from using a Waterfall methodology to a high performing Agile team in under a year, increasing his team’s velocity and performance.
Kelly Goodwin - Business Analysis Track
Kelly Goodwin is a Senior IT Consultant at XPO Logistics, and the current President of the IIBA Portland Metro Chapter.
She has more than ten years of business analysis and project management experience at Fortune 500 companies (XPO, Nike, Cambia Health Solutions). Kelly is known for her energy, enthusiasm, and creativity.
Lorie Gordon - Technical Track
Lorie Gordon has a background in Software Engineering and, for the past 10 years, has been leading teams in a three-fold role of Software Development Manager, Scrum Master, and Project Manager. Working for two global organizations, Lorie has led several distributed teams with members in North America, APAC, and EMEA. Her first team lead a successful grassroots initiative to bring Agile-scrum into the software development practice. Once the framework was proven, she guided the continued adoption of Agile-scrum through retrospectives and focus groups, partnering with software development teams and managers, project managers, and other scrum masters.
Currently at webtrends, Lorie focuses on coaching and practicing scrum as a team-oriented framework, while forecasting release level plans for upper management. She now volunteers with AgilePDX and attends local gatherings including AONW, ProductCamp, and PNSQC.
Mike Goss - Business Strategy Track
Mike Goss, PMP, is an accomplished trainer, speaker, author, and project manager. As a multifaceted college instructor, he has taught Sales, Marketing, Management, and Business Computer Applications courses. He is the author of "Breaking Through Walls," a business novel about overcoming life's obstacles, as well as the host of a weekly business-building tips broadcast on Portland radio station KXL.
Mike’s speaking career has helped public and private agencies think of problems and solutions in new ways. His emphasis on leadership topics is bolstered by a successful career in banking, sales, and thirty years of PMP training and consulting. An active volunteer in the community, Mike achieved a DTM with Toastmasters International in 2012 and has served the PMI-Portland chapter through educational sessions and keynote presentations.
Brad Hermanson - Technical Track
Brad Hermanson, PE, PMP is a senior consultant and project manager in Portland, Oregon. He leads Hermanson Consulting Company LLC, a firm specializing in project management, risk and decision management, organizational and human development, and environmental strategies.
Brad's experience includes his role as Company Director of Project Delivery and Quality for a 550-person consulting engineering firm with over 700 projects and a combined total active project revenue of over $300 million. He has provided project management support on some of the most complex and controversial environmental projects in the United States. As an active member of the PMI volunteer community, Brad has taught or co-taught the project risk management section of the PMP certification course for almost ten years. Brad is an enthusiastic and entertaining speaker and is sure to be a favorite at this year’s conference.
Jeff Holman - Agile Track
Jeff Holman has over 16 years of experience in the software industry, where he has worked in various roles and has been a passionate supporter of Agile methodologies. He is currently the Director of Engineering at Jama Software, where he has witnessed tremendous growth and the ever-growing need to scale Agile processes, to keep up with a demanding market.
Jeff’s software career began as a web developer, delivering solutions to diverse industries. Next, he wrote desktop software that supported inventory and reporting functions. From there, Jeff joined a rapidly growing company as a developer, and soon transitioned into leadership roles that included Team Lead and Application Management. It was at this time that he began to explore Agile techniques to help solve inefficiencies he was observing with quality and delivery. Since then, Jeff has managed multiple Scrum teams and coached others in Agile roles throughout the organization.
Rebecca Knight - Technical Track
Rebecca Knight is an Agile portfolio expert, highly experienced in creating sustainable Agile organizations and systems. Seasoned senior Project Manager, she is professionally trained and certified in traditional and agile models. Rebecca has a professional services background in Project Delivery across a myriad of industries and technologies. She specializes in performance consulting in cross-functional management teams with the end result of creating end-to-end agile delivery systems.
She provides enterprise-level agile training and coaching for Agile Portfolio Management across multiple departments: IT, Marketing, Product Management, and Product Development. Rebecca is incredibly enthusiastic about technology innovation, small business evolution, and community leadership.
Kevin McCarthy - Leadership Track
Kevin McCarthy is CEO at 360 Narrative Group, a brand development and digital design agency, and the 2016-17 President for the National Speakers Association, Oregon chapter.
Kevin’s dynamic speaking career began in 1994 while he owned the 13th largest Century 21 office in the United States. Thriving as a speaker, he sold his real estate company and began traveling the country helping industry leaders position themselves for a brave new World Wide Web.
During his extensive travels, Kevin developed a web-based software solution that positioned his real estate clients for optimum success, but with unforeseen consequences. He eventually sold that company for a substantial sum during the craziness of the dot com era. That’s when his next “opportunity” blindsided him with a prison sentence. Enter “The BlindSpot Zone,” a transformative lecture series that Kevin developed to help others avoid the pitfalls that happen when good people make bad choices.
Line Mørkbak - Business Strategy Track
Line Mørkbak is an experienced senior business consultant who is passionate about developing and facilitating practical learning solutions that empower change within teams and organizations.
As a Global Management Consultant she brings a wealth of applied knowledge in experiential learning from her work with European and North American clients. Line is a strong believer in co-creations within teams. She helps global and local teams utilize their cultural mix, and encourages dispersed teams to harness productivity through engaged virtual collaboration. Line has spoken at venues around the world including the Society for Intercultural Education Training and Research Conference, ATD Cascadia Conference, the Nordic Business Council, the Danish Cultural Conference in Oregon, and various seminars at University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Jeff Oltmann - Business Strategy Track
Jeff Oltmann, PMP leverages his over-30-years of experience in product development and project portfolio management to educate and inspire his students and lecture attendees. He is on the graduate management faculty at Oregon Health and Science University and holds a Master of Engineering degree.
Jeff is currently the principal consultant at Synergy Professional Services, where he specializes in new product development, technology and engineering management, and project portfolio management. Jeff’s experience in large, complex project portfolios provides valuable perspective to today’s project management community. He is an active PMI Portland member and is the founder of the Portfolio Management Roundtable.
Sabrina Rahn - Business Analysis Track
Sabrina Rahn, PMP, PMI-PBA, has for 20 years leveraged her vision to Inspire, inform, and help others through continuously fostering team cooperation and respect. Her experience includes various project management roles within the manufacturing and healthcare industries. Former roles include Project Manager and Engineering Coordinator for Blount International, Inc. and Project Coordinator for Salem Health. Sabrina recently joined Horizon Air as project manager and will continue her work in change management and process development.
Sabrina began her career in manufacturing, moving quickly from operations to project methodology development for manufacturing support systems. Her roles have included project manager and business systems analyst, as well as SharePoint project site development and communications manager. Sabrina holds a Bachelor's in Organizational Leadership from Warner Pacific University. She enjoys training and coaching in continuous improvement and change management. Her belief that, “opportunity for growth and learning can be found in any challenge, no matter how small,“ infuses her presentations with engaging insights into the subtleties of human communication.
Tim Runcie - Technical Track
Tim Runcie, PMP, MCP, MCTS, P-TSP, MVP is a veteran of Project, Program, and Portfolio Management with a true love for teaching and helping organizations to optimize their processes and use of technology. As the President of Advisicon, Tim has written over 36 books on PM Methodologies and Technologies, covering topics relevant to a range of industry sectors including Information Services, Healthcare, Construction, and Energy. Tim is an accomplished speaker and trainer, and is actively involved in the PMI community as a volunteer technical writer and instructor. He also hosts a free weekly webinar on technology and methodology topics, which include free PDUs.
Tim sits on the Microsoft Advisory Council to help influence and improve PPM technologies for the Project Management community of practice. When not leading or mentoring organizations, he is actively involved in teaching classes, or developing courses and training programs centered on the disciplines and technologies of project management.
Stephanie Smith - Business Analysis Track
Stephanie Smith, PMP, has enjoyed the ever-changing landscape of business analysis and project management over the past 20 years. Stephanie has seen these changes from the viewpoint of a business analyst for large ERP implementations, EDI system upgrades, business transformation projects and training development for global manufacturing corporations, federal agencies, and international non-profit organizations. Stephanie enjoys looking at how business analysis has been affected by different movements in the past and pondering questions such as, “Did continuous improvement cause us to question our ability to do things right?” and, “Did lean concepts cause us to devalue creativity?”
She also enjoys looking at where we are headed in the future and is excited to work with others to discover the emerging future of business analysis and project management. Stephanie believes that business analysts are by nature learners and with the popularity of “learning cultures”, she believes business analysts are in their heyday.
Aashish Vaidya - Agile Track
Aashish Vaidya is a Staff Consultant at Cambia Health Solutions, a not-for-profit, health solutions company. He works with teams and large portfolio projects as an internal Agile and Quality coach. He is a founding member of Cambia’s Enterprise Transition Community, Agile Best Practices Exchange, Software Development Best Practices Exchange and other Communities of Practice. He has led Cambia’s transition of Agile practices both at team and at enterprise level.
Aashish has over 20+ years of industry experience working in various leadership and management positions for companies such as Compaq, Intel, Kronos Incorporation, along with Cambia. Aashish has been a presenter and a panelist for Technology Association of Oregon, AgilePDX, RoseCity SPIN and PNSQC. His two appearances at PNSQC highlighted Cambia’s transition efforts to Agile and Scaling Agile. An agile practitioner for over 9 years, he holds Scrum Alliance’s CSP, CSM certification, and Scaled Agile Framework’s SAFe Agilist certification.
Philicia Weaver - Business Strategy Track
Philicia Weaver is the Director for Global Initiatives at Blount International, Inc., where she implemented a project management office that fully integrates project management, change management, and leadership/sponsorship.
Philicia has over 20 years of experience developing leaders and has worked for companies such as Disneyland, Wells Fargo Financial, and Marsh/Wausau Benefits. She holds an MBA and certifications in Change Management (Prosci), Strategic Workforce Planning, Six Sigma, 360° feedback, Myers Briggs, Situational Leadership, and is a member of the Boss Whispering Institute.
Panel: ACP Instructors - Agile Track
Diane Brady PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP: 18+ years of project management experience utilizing agile (Scrum, Kanban, Lean), waterfall and mixed methods and tools. PMI-Portland Chapter Past President.
Peter Heaver PMP, PMI-ACP: 15+ years of experience with emphasis in Agile (Scrum, Kanban, Lean), quality assurance, and software engineering. PMI-Portland Chapter Director of PMI-ACP Certification.
Patricia Kelley PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP: 15 years of project management including coaching engineers to become good Scrum Masters.
Brian Kronstad PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP SAFe (SA): 20+ years of project management experience using a variety of methodologies including Agile, Waterfall and vendor specific. IT experience in Software Engineering, Quality Assurance, and IT Organizational Leadership, Design & Strategy.
Lunch Speakers
Trish Kelley - Day 1
Trish has been a project manager for over 20 years; working in health insurance, banking software development, utility software, website development, start-ups, and mobile application development. She is currently on contract at Nike as a scrummaster.
Trish is a longtime volunteer at the PMI Portland Chapter, beginning as a PMP instructor in 2008 and serving on the board from 2013-2015. Trish currently serves the Chapter as an ACP instructor, the Director of Toastmasters, and the PDU Reporting Expert. When she is not working or volunteering, Trish enjoys camping, hiking, and traveling.
Jean Richardson - Day 2
Jean Richardson is an award-winning project manager with expertise in both traditional and Agile project management. She holds a master’s degree and PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, CSP, and ITIL certifications. Jean currently serves as the Vice President of Professional Development for the PMI-Portland Chapter and is the sponsor of the 2016 Annual Conference.
Panel: Contemporary Project, Program, and Portfolio Management - A View from the PMO
Jeff Ely has spent over 20 years in fortune 500 companies working on, supporting, and sponsoring numerous multi-million-dollar programs and projects. In his most recent role at Intel, Jeff manages the IT project management standards and policies as a member of the Program Management Office (PMO). He also leads a global software development team which creates tools for managing the $1.3 billion IT portfolio. His development team has been recognized within and without the organization for its analytical excellence and insights in the space of project performance and visibility.
Mark O. Johnson is the Director of Project Management Operations for Providence Health and Services. He has over 20 years of experience leading teams and managing projects in different industries. At AT&T Wireless he was part of the executive team that built and launched 9 wireless phonecompanies in 9 different countries. For the past 10 years, Mark has supported project managers in health care at Regence, Kaiser and now Providence. His current passion is making the Providence PMO the preferred place for health care project managers to work in the Portland area. He’s exploring flexible hours and work locations, continuous improvement, and has recently launched an executive mentor program within Providence. He shares the benefits of his daily meditation practice by leading a meditation support group for his team and others.
Tracey Massey, PMP, is the Senior IT Manager of Planning, Projects, and Portfolio Management at Multnomah County. Tracey holds an MBA from Portland State University and a BS in Marketing from OSU. With her marketing and project management background, Tracey has cultivated a unique, non-traditional perspective on IT management and application development processes. She has managed application development teams and provided strategic guidance for Application Services. Previously, she was a Project Manager and Analyst at Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) and the Director of Proposal Development at Benova, Inc.
Mike McClain is a senior level manager at Portland General Electric, currently leading the IT Project Management Office. He holds a BA with emphasis on business sustainability, and has 30 years of technology experience with the US Navy in advanced electronics, US Coast Guard in oceanographic research, and PGE Information Technology Services. He has managed IT business functions in multiple disciplines, from server platforms and application services to IT Governance. He also acts as a mentor and coach in both his professional and personal life. Mike is a strong advocate of building high performance teams with an emphasis on mutual-accountability and individual self-worth. His current focus is the formal introduction of portfolio management and project transparency within the IT PMO.
Saby Waraich (moderator) is an international speaker and coach with over 16 years of experience in Information Technology, Project Management, and Leadership Development. Positive and exuberant, Saby is dedicated to bringing out leadership qualities in others by blending unique wisdom and practical application. He is a Senior Information Systems Manager at the City of Portland, and teaches as an adjunct professor at PCC and the University of Phoenix. For the past 7 years, Saby has been an active PMI Portland Chapter volunteer. He currently serves as the Chapter Past President, as an instructor for PMI Portland Chapter PMP prep courses, and co-hosts a weekly roundtable meeting in downtown Portland.
Panel: What’s up with Project Management?
Adam Edgerton is currently Production Director at Copious, a digital commerce agency focused on enriching the experience customers have with brands and retailers. He previously spent time at Instrument and Metal Toad, two dynamic Portland-based digital content consultancies, managing digital projects of all flavors. Along the way, Adam had the privilege of working with numerous industry-leading organizations including Nike, Sequoia Capital, DC Comics, Sony, PBS, and Intel. Adam is the founder of PDX Digital PM, a Portland meetup group for digital project managers and producers.
Jimmy Godard, moderator, is currently the president of the PMI Portland chapter. Through his exuberant and engaging personality, Jimmy continues to grow and mature the organization with a clear and positive vision. He is a global change leader at Bank of America, where for 18 years he has served in various functions, such as Program, Change, and Service Delivery Manager. He has led efforts within Bank of America to transform both process and technology for Infrastructure, End-user Computing, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Divestitures. Jimmy continues to motivate and inspire the PMI community and business community alike, and challenges these communities to embrace collaboration and optimize the balance between leadership, business acumen, and technique.
Ernest Mayer earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University in 2012. He holds a Six Sigma Green Belt and is studying for his Black Belt certification. Ernest has 25 years of experience working in industry, the last 17 of which have been in aerospace, managing laboratories, practicing project management, and initiating and leading Lean Six Sigma programs. For 20 years, he has provided Leadership Skills training to individuals, industry, and to faculty and staff in academia. As a Process Engineer at Providence, Ernest provided leadership in business improvement projects using techniques and tools including GE Change Acceleration Process (CAP), GE Workout, AIM, Prosci, and Lean Six Sigma to facilitate the empowerment of teams to achieve efficiency, effectiveness, and cost reduction improvements.
Lorie Gordon (see above)
Tracy Thomas is currently Director of Professional Services Operations at Jive Software. In this role, Tracy works with other Jive groups to run projects, define new services packages and run a Project Management Office (PMO), to enable Jive’s group of Professional Service Project Managers. Tracy holds a BS in Physics from the University of California, San Diego and a Ph.D. in Physics from Northwestern University. Tracy has a background in software development and project management in several business areas including embedded software, solutions for the military, outsourced software development, and social business software. Tracy is a member of the Technology Association of Oregon committee on Project Management. In her leisure time, Tracy enjoys the local Portland beer and food scene.