Leadership from Google, Atlassian, Vaya & the City of Detroit Join Robust Interop ITX 2018 Keynote Lineup


SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Interop ITX, the independent conference for tech leaders, announced additions to its 2018 Keynote lineup. Joining its previously announced speakers will be representatives from Atlassian, the City of Detroit, Google and Vaya. All presentations will be delivered from the Keynote stage with the intent to educate and inspire today’s technology professionals and send them back to the office with valuable takeaways aimed at advancing their businesses and their careers. 

Interop ITX will take place April 30 – May 4, 2018 at the Mirage in Las Vegas, NV. For more information and to take advantage of pre-conference pricing, please visit: interopitx.com  

“We’re thrilled to be welcoming such an incredible mix of technology leaders to our Keynote lineup this year,” said Meghan Reilly, General Manager, Interop ITX. “Each of these speakers brings with them a unique and valuable background our audience can learn from and capitalize on, whether they join us from staff, management, or executive levels or across a broad range of verticals.”

  • Aubrey Blanche, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Atlassian: works with teams across the business to provide greater opportunities for all employees. Her work spans the talent lifecycle from increasing access to technical education for underrepresented minorities through recruiting, retention, and advancement of all Atlassians. In all areas of Blanche’s work, she seeks to design effective interventions, programs, and talent practices that create equal opportunities for all employees, and for the global tech industry. She is an advisor to SheStarts, a Sydney-based accelerator focused on exclusively supporting female founders, BeVisible, and Joonko. Blanche is also the co-founder of Sycamore, a community aiming to fix the VC funding gap for underrepresented founders.
     
  • Beth Niblock, CIO, City of Detroit: was first introduced to the City of Detroit when she was tapped by the Obama Administration to serve as part of a team of technology officials to support the city. As the CIO for the City of Detroit, Niblock manages significant upgrades to its infrastructure, making city business transparent, and making Detroit online an easy place to do business. Prior to her current role, Niblock was the first CIO appointed to a merged Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government in 2003. During her 11 years at the helm, she was challenged with unifying IT systems and infrastructure, while implementing systems and in return received various awards.
     
  • Sam Ramji, VP Product Management, Google Cloud Platform: has more than 20 years of experience within the technology industry. He was the founding CEO of Cloud Foundry Foundation, Chief Strategy Officer for Apigee, designed and led Microsoft’s open source strategy, founded the Outercurve Foundation, and drove product strategy for BEA WebLogic Integration. In addition to his role with Google, Ramji also currently serves as an advisor to many companies including Accenture, Insight Engines, and the Linux Foundation as well as served on the World Economic Forum’s Industrial Internet Working Group.
     
  • Nicole Sanchez, CEO and Founder, Vaya: has spent more than two decades working on building inclusive organizational cultures. Sanchez helped build one of the country’s first AmeriCorps programs where she was able to work on the practical application of diversity, leading teams of people from all over the world in service to communities. Her first job working on diversity in tech was in 1999 which showed first-hand the obstacles that prevent talented people from accessing opportunities within the sector. Sanchez has continued to educate about those challenges through her lectures about diversity in the workplace at UC Berkeley.

The above speakers join Interop ITX’s previously announced Keynotes:

  • Jennifer Pahlka – Founder and Executive Director, Code for America: recently served as the US Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she architected and helped start the United States Digital Service. She is known for her TED talk, Coding a Better Government, and is the recipient of several awards including MIT's Kevin Lynch Award, the Oxford Internet Institute's Internet and Society Award and the National Democratic Institute's Democracy Award.
     
  • Dr. Zulfikar Ramzan – Chief Technology Officer, RSA: is responsible for leading the development of the company's technology strategy and will focus on bringing to market the innovations that help RSA’s customers take a business-driven approach to security. Prior to joining RSA, Ramzan served as CTO of Elastica (acquired by BlueCoat), where he leveraged machine learning technologies and natural language processing to enable customers to more securely access and use cloud services. Before Elastica, Ramzan respectively served as chief scientist of both Sourcefire, acquired by Cisco in 2013, and malware analytics company Immunet, acquired by Sourcefire in 2010. He also previously served as the technical director of Symantec's security technology and response division.

To learn more about this year’s Keynotes as well as view the current 2018 program lineup, visit: interopitx.com/keynotes

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About Interop ITX
Interop ITX is the industry’s most trusted independent Conference focused on Full Stack IT education for technology leaders. The event continues the 30 years Interop has dedicated to providing IT decision makers with a trusted environment to learn, collaborate and uncover new strategies and solutions they need to lead their teams and their businesses through constant change and disruption. Employed by a Conference-first model, Interop ITX offers both breadth and depth of content to a broad IT audience across core areas: Infrastructure, Security, Cloud, Data & Analytics, DevOps, and Leadership & Professional Development. For more information, visit interopitx.com. Interop ITX is organized by UBM plc. UBM is the largest pure-play B2B Events organizer in the world. Our 3,750+ people, based in more than 20 countries, serve more than 50 different sectors. Our deep knowledge and passion for these sectors allow us to create valuable experiences which enable our customers to succeed. Please visit www.ubm.com for the latest news and information about UBM. 

Media Contact:
Kimberly Samra
InteropPR@ubm.com
415-947-6362