IBIT

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Fox Information Technology Award Recipients

NIRAJ PATEL

Niraj Patel

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

SONDRA L. BARBOUR

Sondra L. Barbour

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI

Sondra Barbour is the CIO and vice president of Operations for Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems & Solutions (IS&S), a $4 billion business area of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., IS&S employs over 15,000 people with key locations in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Arizona, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Ms. Barbour is responsible for the operation, maintenance, and future directions of IS&S technical infrastructure, enterprise applications, facilities, support services, publications, employee health & safety, and supply chain. She is also responsible for IS&S activities under the Lockheed Martin LM21 Operating Excellence initiative.

Most recently, Sondra had served as director of the IS&S Transformation Program, orchestrating efforts to re-engineer business processes and leverage technology to improve productivity, saving the company more than $220 million over the last four years. She also managed the development of the IS&S employee portal.

She has 19 years experience in the design and development of large scale information systems. Her background includes management roles in engineering, functional and program operations areas for large software development systems (1+ million lines of code) with engineering and operations staffs of 1000 or more professionals.

Sondra is a volunteer with Lockheed Martins’ Network of Volunteer Associates, an organization volunteering time and resources to give back to the community. She also is a member of the steering committee for the Pennsylvania Eastern Technology Council’s CIO Institute and sits on the advisory board for the Math Options program for young women at Pennsylvania State University Delaware County. Within IS&S, she acts as the Executive Sponsor for the Delaware Valley Diversity Council.

Sondra is a graduate of Temple University with a double major in Computer Information Sciences and Accounting. She is also a graduate of IS&S’ Program Management Development Program.

She and her husband, Ron, reside in Collegeville, PA. They are the proud parents of 2 young children.

FIFTH ANNUAL IT AWARDS

PAUL H. RUSSELL

Paul H. Russell

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

JAMES SHEWARD

James Sheward

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

GEORGE C. NOLEN

George C. Nolen

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LEADER AWARD

George C. Nolen is President and CEO and leads Siemens Corporation in the United States. The $16.6 billion U.S. company is a technology leader with 65,000 employees. He is also Chairman of the Board of Siemens One (the U.S. company’s cross-selling and solutions arm) and is on the board of the Siemens Foundation, which is dedicated to the support of science, mathematics and technology education in America’s high schools.

George is also serving as President and CEO of Siemens Information and Communication Networks Inc., the U.S. unit of Siemens ICN, which provides integrated voice and data networks and solutions for telecommunications carriers, cable providers and enterprises. George was responsible for bringing the ICN division back to profitability in 2003.

From 1998 to 2002, George was President and CEO of Siemens Enterprise Networks LLC. He was responsible for successfully building the enterprise business into a cohesive customer-focused solutions provider. In doing so, he was instrumental in growing Siemens’ worldwide Enterprise unit into a more profitable, multi-billion dollar business.

George joined Siemens in 1982 as a member of the sales force. He went on to serve as senior vice president of sales and service for Siemens Business Communication Systems, Inc., where he was responsible for channels, accounts, support centers, telesales, and enhanced services within North America.

George is a member of the United States Chamber of Commerce (Washington, DC). He is also a member of The Business Roundtable, where he serves on the Security Task Force, and a member of NYC2012, the organization seeking to host the 2012 Olympics in New York City. George is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

FOURTH ANNUAL IT AWARDS