Austin IT Executives of the Year 2006

On November 2, 2006, the Austin chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) presented the ninth annual Austin IT Executive of the Year Awards in conjunction with the Austin InnoTech - the region's largest gathering of IT executives, educators & vendors - and the Austin Technology Council - Austin's catalyst for technology innovation. The InnoTech/AITP awards ceremony was held at the Austin Convention Center, and it was attended by about two hundred area IT professionals, executives, and suppliers.

Austin AITP honors IT professionals in the Austin, Texas area who have demonstrated leadership skills in the areas of product or service development and benefits, team management and guidance, and overall community service.

"We are pleased to continue this growing event honoring Austin's outstanding IT contributors," said AITP president, Keith Stone. "It is a real pleasure to honor this year's IT leaders such as Manoj Saxena, Greg Sedlock, Russ Finney who are recognized for their contributions by their employers, their peers, and the community as a whole."

"The Austin IT Executive of the Year ceremony continues to be Austin's showcase event highlighting the accomplishments of Austin CIOs, CTOs, VPs of Engineering and their peers," said Steve Guengerich, Chairman, 2006 IT Executive of the Year Awards. "These individuals are being recognized for showing great innovation and unique progress which in turn contributes to Austin's overall reputation as major technology center."

The primary sponsors of the event were Juniper, St. Edward's University Professional Education Center, Microsoft, Time Warner Cable, Amplify FCU, and Oracle Corporation. Three major awards were presented: the Austin IT Executive of the Year - Private Sector, the Austin IT Executive of the Year - Public Sector, and the Austin Information Technologist of the Year.

Russ Finney, Vice President of Tokyo Electron, named Austin IT Executive of the Year (Private Sector)

Tokyo Electron has a major presence within virtually every semiconductor manufacturer in the US. The company supports these customers with a staff of over 1,400 U.S. based employees in twenty different cities and locations. Tokyo Electron’s IT staff supports these operations through a U.S. shared services model based in Austin, Texas.

In 2006, Russ and his staff completed a three year upgrade of the key enterprise systems for all of the organization’s U.S. companies. This ERP upgrade enabled many of the key major business processes to be revised and enhanced for significantly increased responsiveness and efficiency. The IT team also rapidly implemented a new manufacturing system which has allowed the organization’s California-based operations to utilize outsourced manufacturing facilities for its key product lines. Each of these accomplishments proved critical to the future the company and its relationships with its customers and manufacturers.

Russ is also very active in the Austin technology community serving on the boards of Austin AITP, the AusTech Alliance, and the UT Professional Development Center. He is a past president of the Austin Chapter of AITP, and he recently served on the national board of directors of the same organization. He was the chairperson of the Austin InnoTech conference in both 2004 and 2005.  

Greg Sedlock, Information Technology Director for the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, named Austin IT Executive of the Year (Public Sector)

TWIA provides “windstorm” insurance for Texans in coastal counties – especially for those who are unable to get insurance from commercial insurance companies -- and deals in a dynamic and changing niche in the insurance market.

Last year, TWIA handled thousands of claims due to Hurricane Rita, all of which were submitted with a few days after the storm. Preparing for “the big one” that might hit Galveston, is a daunting challenge. The increase in hurricane activity and forces at work in the insurance industry have made life much more complicated for TWIA.

This year’s Public Sector recipient developed a long-term road map within his first few months at TWIA and then invested the time to build solid relationships with its directors and executives to obtain broad support for these initiatives. The business is seeing the fruits of his team’s efforts and, as a result, the Texas economy is better able to recover from the forces of nature now and in the future. 

Manoj Saxena, founder and CEO of Webify Solutions and Vice President of IBM, named Austin Information Technologist of the Year

Going from inception to successful acquisition by IBM earlier in 2006 - in a matter of a few short years – is no small feat. This year’s recipient of the Information Technologist / CTO of the year had a vision and strength of conviction for what Service Oriented Architecture (or SOA) could do to have a transformational effect on industries such as healthcare and insurance, among others, making his company a leader it is space along the way.

Through his leadership, Webify’s technology demonstrated huge impact to its customers by, for example, reducing manual touches in key business processes by over 80% - thus reducing major costs for them. The impact of Webify’s technology was also evident on the top line of its customers, delivering over 60 times the anticipated growth in business volume.

This year's Information Technologist recipient has a philanthropic purpose that matches his technology vision. He believes in "doing well by doing good" and in investing in the local community. He is an advisory member of the GlobalGiving and used to be on the board of the Austin chapter of United Way and of Lifeworks.

Top Panel of Judges selects this Year's Winners

This year's recipients were chosen by Steve Guengerich, Director, Bridgepoint Consulting and Chairman, 2006 IT Executive of the Year Awards, Andres Carvallo, CIO, Austin Energy and 2005 IT Exec of the Year, Public Sector, Umesh Manathkar, CIO, Silicon Labs and 2005 IT Exec of the Year, Private Sector, Samy Aboel-Nil, CTO, MessageOne and 2005 Information Technologist of the Year, Cathy Fulton, CTO and founder, NetQoS and 2002 Information Technologist of the Year, Alisha Ring, President, Austin Technology Council, and Keith Stone, President, Austin AITP.

2006 Innotech Continues its Year over Year Growth

Nearly two thousand IT professionals stopped by the Austin Convention Center to participate in the city's biggest technology event. "Once again we exceeded attendance records for Innotech," said Andres Carvallo, 2006 Innotech Chairperson. "This is a great testimony to the hard work of the show producers, the advisory board, and the support of both the ATC and AITP organizations. All the presentation venues were active and full throughout the day, and the show's keynote speakers such as Randy Mott, executive vice president and CIO of HP, and John Soyring, vice president, Solutions and Software, IBM were outstanding. The conference continues its momentum in becoming the yearly gathering point for Austin's high tech community, and I am pleased to have served as chairperson in 2006."