Scott Acheson, Director, SAP Global Marketing
Scott Acheson has over 16 years of IT and software development experience with the last 6 years being devoted to the customer reference and loyalty programs. Currently, Scott serves as the global business lead and project manager for the design, development and deployment of the SAP CRM 7.0 Global Reference Management System (RMS). Responsibilities include requirements gathering, design, deployment (roll-out), change management and training for all SAP users worldwide. Successfully managed the delivery, training (including classroom and webex training sessions, user documentation, self-guiding e-learning modules and roll-out of the RMS application for Release 1 in February 2007, Release 1.1 in June 2007, Release 2 in September 2007, Release 3 in October 2008 and Release 3.1 in November 2009.

Tami Andrews, WW Customer Reference Program, Dell
Tami is one of the industry's most experienced customer reference professionals. She has worked in the high tech industry for the past 25 years for such companies as Motorola, Compaq, HP, CBIS, NetIQ and Dell. Tami joined Dell in 2006 to manage the PG Client reference program but later transitioned onto the WW Customer Reference Program team. Tami holds a BA degree in Marketing from LeTourneau University and an MBA from The University of Phoenix.

Abby Atkinson,, Senior Director, Ambassador Reference Program, Infor
Abby has an extensive marketing management background in high tech companies including Computer Associates, D&B Software, and Software AG, where her strategic vision combined with operational expertise enabled her to build strong teams and successfully drive key initiatives. This track record led Infor executives to tap Abby to implement and build a global reference program to support strategic and revenue goals across Infor’s sales, channel, marketing, public relations, analyst relations, and product management organizations.

Abby is responsible for global program strategy, implementation, internal and external adoption, communications, operations, and management, as well as program presence in online communities and social media networks. Under Abby’s strong leadership, the Infor reference program continues to grow in value to the company and to its customers through its ability to identify and leverage customer success and strengthen customer relationships. Thanks to Abby’s commitment to create accurate and detailed monthly, quarterly and annual metrics reports, combined with attributable revenue results and enthusiastic adoption, the program enjoys a reputation as a win-win by all constituents, most notably executive management. Abby serves as the Chairperson of the Customer Reference Forum Metrics SIG; in this role she fosters the understanding of the value of metrics reporting to reference programs.

Kenneth Chang, Senior Director, WW Customer Programs, Hitachi Data Systems
As Senior Director of Worldwide Customer Programs at Hitachi Data Systems, Kenneth Chang is responsible for the Customer Reference Program, Customer Advisory Boards, Executive Briefing Centers, and Corporate Events. Mr. Chang's background includes customer marketing, corporate marketing, channel marketing and sales from NEC Technologies, Alcatel/Genesys, Ingram Micro.

Cynthia Hester, Director, Customer Reference Program, VMware
Cynthia has more than twenty years experience in global marketing, strategic planning, communications, and business development primarily in the high technology arena. As a senior level manager, she has developed and implemented global strategic marketing plans, including advertising, marketing communications, third party relations, events and public relations. I have managed multi-million dollar budgets and cross functional internal/external teams during the course of my career. Her current position involves marketing leadership for strategy, planning and management of customer reference programs for VMware. This includes customer engagement, management of a cross functional, global team, and program management of an integrated customer reference program.

Polly Kruse, Director of Global Customer Programs, for Ariba, Inc.
Ms. Kruse has 14 years of experience dedicated solely to reference and customer program management. She began her career with J.D. Edwards launching and managing their highly successful program which was one of the first customer reference programs in the industry. The program became a benchmark for many organizations and was the adopted best practice following the firm’s acquisition by PeopleSoft. In addition to core program elements, Polly has substantial experience in the management of user events, customer briefing centers, customer councils, customer advisory boards, and customer communications. She has spent time working for organizations based in India, Japan, Australia, as well as the U.S. She is currently the Director of Global Customer Programs, for Ariba, Inc. Polly holds a B.S.B.A in International Business and a MS degree in Communication both from the University of Denver.

Rhett Livengood, Director of Marketing, Intel® Solution Services, Software and Solutions Group, Intel Corporation
Rhett Livengood is WW Director of B2B Customer Engagement at Intel which includes manages Intel’s Customer Reference Program, Enterprise and Telco Board of Advisors, online communities, and business marketing campaigns. He manages sales development activities with Intel’s Influencer sales team targeting Global 2000 enterprises worldwide.

During his decades in the IT industry, Rhett has managed country and worldwide sales and marketing for Intel Services group and served as the worldwide Marketing Manager of the Intel® Solution Centers and Services Division. He was also Worldwide Marketing Manager for the Intel® Architecture Content Group and Product Marketing Manager of Intel’s Mobile Computing Group, and held marketing and engineering positions in Intel’s memory, processor, and platform divisions. Before joining Intel in 1987, Rhett spent five years as a design engineer for Honeywell. He was also worldwide Director of Marketing at Novellus Systems from 1995 to 1997.

Rhett holds a BS degree in Chemical and Materials Engineering from the University of Iowa and an MS degree in Chemical and Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley

Rochelle Silveira, Director, Global Reference Office, NetApp
As the Director of NetApp's Global Reference Office, Rochelle Silveira is responsible for the Global Customer and Pathway Reference Program, the VIP Advocacy Community, and Revenue Acceleration Programs. Rochelle's 20 years of experience in the high-tech industry includes expertise in the areas of Customer Reference and Relationship Management, Communications, Events Management, Go-To-Market Readiness, and Product Lifecycle Management, for companies such as NetApp, Sun Microsystems and Symantec. Rochelle holds a BA degree in Business Management from St. Mary's College, Moraga.

Michael Stephenson, Senior Director, Global Customer Programs, Oracle Corporation
Michael is currently responsible for a global program focused on increasing customer engagement within Oracle's top 2000 customers. He develops and executes strategies that focus on customer advocacy, increasing customer loyalty, satisfaction and referencing. Prior to his current position, Michael managed global industry referencing, and successfully created and managed industry-leading partner and consulting organizations for Oracle. Michael's background also includes leading global services, sales and marketing organizations for a number of high technology companies. He has a demonstrated ability to increase market share, revenue and customer satisfaction. Michael has pursued doctoral studies at Krannert Graduate School of Management (Purdue University) and he holds Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees from Iowa State University.

Wally Thiessen, Manager, Customer Engagement Marketing, SAS Institute (Canada) Inc.

Wally leads SAS Canada's retention efforts, which he launched in 2002 as a strategy to protect customer revenue streams through the development of strong customer communities. His team manages customer-focused marketing programs including References, Communities (online and face-to-face) and Academia.

Prior to joining the Marketing department, Wally managed SAS Canada's Financial Sector Sales Team, and began his career in IT sales in 1987. He holds an HBBA from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.