Fox IT Innovator Award

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR AWARD

Frank R. Sanchez is the President of the Enterprise Banking and Retail Solutions division of Fidelity National Information Services. His responsibilities include the strategy, architecture and development of the banking suite of products, including core banking, integration and channel solutions. He also has responsibility for the Auto Finance business and the Commercial Lending businesses within FIS. Sanchez also has revenue responsibility for Strategic accounts which consists of top-tier US and global institutions as well as specific product line revenues.

Prior to joining FIS in January 2003, Frank was the CEO of Sanchez Computer Associates, a public banking technology company that specialized in real-time banking systems for the global market, enterprise customer integration systems and complete internet banking outsourcing. Frank began his career at Sanchez in 1980 and fulfilled many organizational functions including product architecture and engineering, sales and marketing and executive management. He designed and built the industry’s first highly scalable real-time banking system which has successfully been installed in hundreds of financial institutions spanning 16 countries. In 2001, he deployed the industry’s first core banking system on a Linux platform. Throughout his career, Frank has continually provided technology innovations to the financial services and IT industry and has received numerous individual and corporate achievement awards.

Frank served on the technical advisory board for high performance system at Digital Equipment from 1986 – 1991. He was a director of Transaction Systems Architects from 2003 – 2005. He currently serves on the board of Covansys and the Penn State University remote campus curriculum advisory board. Frank attended the University of Connecticut where he studied astrophysics and finance.

SEVENTH ANNUAL IT AWARDS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR AWARD

Co-founder, Chairman, & Chief Strategist, Jeffrey Citron is a technology pioneer and visionary who transformed the financial services industry and is now aiming to redefine the telecommunications industry. Vonage Holdings Corporation has quickly become the leading supplier and name brand associated with Voice over IP (VOIP).

Mr. Citron spearheaded some of the more revolutionary financial services developments over the past decade. In 1995, Mr. Citron founded The Island ECN, a computerized trading system designed to eliminate the problems associated with order execution. Instinet Group recently acquired The Island ECN for $503 million. Today, the newly merged company is one of the largest global financial exchanges and is responsible for more than one in four NASDAQ trades.

Following on the success of The Island ECN, Mr. Citron founded and became the Chairman and CEO of Datek Online Holdings Corporation as Datek transitioned into the online brokerage industry. Under his leadership, Datek had grown to become the fourth largest online brokerage in the US and was recently acquired by Ameritrade Holdings for $1.3 billion. Mr. Citron departed Datek in 1999 and, recognizing a similar opportunity, founded Vonage.

Apart from his entrepreneurial activities, Mr. Citron is continually pursuing philanthropic initiatives. He currently serves on the board of the Montclair Art Museum and through his family foundation, routinely funds medical research, supports the Arts and dedicates his time and resources to children’s charities.

SIXTH ANNUAL IT AWARDS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR AWARD

Niraj Patel is Executive Vice President and CIO at GMAC Commercial Holding Corporation. The Information Technology (IT) department at GMAC Commercial Holding Corp. (GMACCH) is considered the best in the family of General Motors (GM) subsidiaries, known most notably for its dedication to implementing leading edge technologies that improve business performance and operational efficiencies. Led by Niraj Patel, Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Information Officer (CIO), the IT department has built the company’s technology from the ground up and was praised as the Best of Breed in web technologies for all of General Motors. Patel serves as a key player in the company’s long-term business strategies and has helped the organization grow by exponential rates since 1994.

In his present role as EVP and CIO, Patel oversees a staff of more than 600 and guides the corporation’s worldwide activities in application development, infrastructure, telecommunications, and business unit support. He has been a frequent speaker on well-respected industry panels such as the 3Com Technology Committee and at professional conferences such as the Mortgage Bankers Technology Conference. Patel sits on executive boards for GMACCH, MortgageRamp, Group Bazin, and Deskom. In addition, he is the senior manager for McCracken Financial Services (MFS), oversees its fiscal management and budget approval, and holds executive responsibility for its customer list of external clients. Both the President of MFS and CIO of GMAC Commercial Holding Capital Corp. (GMACCHCC) report directly to Patel.

Patel’s career has included many senior-level management and technology positions in the mortgage industry. As Vice-President of Advanced Technology for GMAC Mortgage, he achieved important industry firsts and has continued that tradition of innovation as EVP and CIO. Among Patel’s accomplishments are developing Investor Query (IQ), the first investor reporting website in the commercial mortgage industry, serving as a founding member in charge of technology for MortgageRamp, and expanding the international presence of GMACCH. He also led the implementation of the first Frame Relay Wide Area Network (WAN), the first production 1000 Gigabyte network, the first 100 Megabyte Ethernet, and the first production versions of both Windows 95 and Windows XP.

Most recently, Patel has been instrumental in rolling out GMACCH’s MPLS Masergy Network, deploying voice and video over IP throughout the enterprise, and establishing IT best practices through industry certifications such as SysTrust. Furthermore, he has served in a leadership capacity for GMACCH’s involvement in Microsoft joint development projects (JDP), such as Windows XP, .NET and Speech .NET.

Patel is frequently featured in both technology and mortgage publications. His technical goals and achievements have been documented in many industry publications, such as Network World, Information Week, Banking Strategies, Computerworld, American Banker, and PC Week. Under Patel’s direction, GMACCH IT has won a number of industry awards, including Computerworld’s 2002 Best Places to Work in IT (United States), CIO Forum’s Top Financial IT Executive of 2002, and DataMirror’s 2003 Real-Time Enterprise Award for Integration. Patel is the also recipient of the 2004 CIO 100 Award – Agile 100, Realcomm Top 25 People to Watch in Commercial Real Estate for 2004, and CIO Forum Top Financial IT Executive of 2003-2004. Patel holds a bachelor’s degree from the Fox School of Business and Management in Computer and Information Sciences (now MIS), Temple University.

FIFTH ANNUAL IT AWARDS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR AWARD

Paul Russell is Chairman and Co-founder of Fiberlink Communications Corporation. Since co-founding the company in 1991, Paul has been instrumental in creating the company’s vision, building a topnotch management team and securing the funding that has enabled Fiberlink to become a leading provider of managed Internet-based virtual private networks.

Most recently, Fiberlink received financing of $50 million from Technology Crossover Ventures. Paul is a successful entrepreneur with a track record of growing companies by recognizing and acting on opportunities in the marketplace. He picks strong, driven management teams with an eye on revenue growth.

Before co-founding Fiberlink with James Sheward, Paul owned Active Amusement Distributors, a distributor of coin-operated amusement and vending equipment. After tripling the company’s revenues over 5 years he sold the company in 1989 for $8,000,000.

He also owns Russell Associates, Inc., a company that imports safety products from Europe and distributes them throughout the world. Over the years he has invested his profits wisely by developing several commercial and residential real estate projects throughout the Greater Philadelphia region.

Paul graduated summa cum laude from Temple University.

FOURTH ANNUAL IT AWARDS

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR AWARD

James Sheward is CEO, Co-founder, and Director of Fiberlink Communications Corporation. Jim built the team and secured the funding that has enabled Fiberlink to become a leading provider of managed Internet-based virtual private networks. Jim’s leadership and focus on the customer shaped the company and made Fiberlink a profitable, customer-centric company that was recently named to the Hot 100 by UPSIDE magazine.

Before co-founding the company with Paul Russell in 1991, Jim was the Western Regional Sales Manager for Systems Industries, which was acquired by Micro Technologies and had a revenue base of more than $50 million.

He was the winner of the Blue Chip Enterprise Award Year 2000, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Mass Mutual Financial Group, and has been recognized as Greater Philadelphia’s 2001 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the Software and Technology Services Category. His articles on backbone-neutral VPNs have appeared in publications such as TMCnet.com. Jim received a dual degree in economics and communications from the University of Virginia.

FOURTH ANNUAL IT AWARDS