evidal@miami.edu

Eddie Vidal has over 20 years experience in various areas of Information Technology.  His focus is primarily on service delivery and support for IT infrastructure.  In his current position as Manager of Customer Service and Support for the Telecommunications department at the University of Miami, Eddie supports over 35,000 faculty, staff and students.  He has transformed the Help Desk from a dispatch environment to a Customer Centric Support Center.

Eddie’s experience spans the higher education, hospitality, and travel industries.  He has led project management offices and consulted on numerous engagements.  Eddie started his career with Eastern Airlines as a computer operator and continued growing his career in the travel industry implementing local and wide area networks for travel agencies and cruise lines. This led to his role as Manager of Technical Support at Interval International where he was responsible for managing service delivery teams.

Prior to his current position at the University of Miami, Eddie was Assistant Director of Professional Management and Planning Services at Florida International University.  At FIU, Eddie was responsible for transitioning the desktop support team to the Support Center, setting computing standards and managing software licensing.  His accomplishments in various organizations include managing multi-million dollar budgets, managing the construction of a 500 seat call center, creating Service Level Agreements, implementing customer service initiatives, deploying applications, and re-engineering organizations.

He currently serves as President of the South Florida HDI local chapter.  Eddie has earned certifications for ITIL Foundations and HDI Support Center Manager. 
During his free time, Eddie fundraises for charities, participates in religious ministries and directs the sports program for over 200 children at a private club in Miami.  He is currently undertaking his biggest venture ever; the upbringing of three teenage children.

anoa@sanovagroup.com

Albert Noa has over 20 years of experience in Strategy Development and Execution, System Design & Implementation, Performance Management and Process Improvement across various industries.  Albert is a co-founder and member the of the executive management team at Sanova Group. He is responsible for the development and management of a consulting organization focused on delivery, thought-leadership and performance; providing coaching and facilitation to various clients.

Prior to Sanova, Albert was the Director of Strategic Consulting at Stratasys Group; additionally holding lead and management positions with KPMG LLP and FPL (Florida Power & Light).  

Throughout Albert’s career he has served as a trusted enabler and advisor; combining experience, communications skills and vision with a basic common sense approach;  obtaining success for employers and clients by assuring quality standards, the development and management of methodologies, and developing organizations focused on delivery, thought-leadership, process, performance and the execution of strategy.

Areas of expertise include:

• Strategy Execution
• Business Performance Management
• Facilitation & Training
• Balanced Scorecard
• Change Management
• Process Management and Improvement
• System Design and Development (People, Process, Technology)
• Human Capital Management
• Adaptive Project Management
• Topgrading

The functional areas with specific experience include Information Management, Human Capital Management, Program Management (PMO), Operations Management, and Strategy Management. 

A regular lecturer at MSMIS, MBA and International MBA classes at various Universities and educational institutions; has also presented on the topic of Operationalizing Strategy and Business Performance Management on discussion panels at several regional and national conferences.

Excelling at enabling an environment of teamwork and collaboration; Albert’s team-oriented approach allows for the open sharing of ideas, creating an inclusive and productive atmosphere. This philosophy has enabled success for all.

jose.alvarez@auxis.com

Jose Alvarez has more than 17 years of experience providing tactical and strategic management in various fields of Information technology. Mr. Alvarez obtained a Computer Science degree followed with a Masters of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications and a minor in Business Administration from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. He possesses experience overseeing administrative, financial and service management best practices around ITIL for professional organizations. Mr. Alvarez has served as VP of Finances, Secretary and most recently, president of the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) South Florida local interest group. He is currently the VP of Finances for the HDI South Florida Chapter.

Jose has instituted methodologies for enterprise wide availability monitoring, performance engineering, operations and process integration solutions. Jose is currently working for Auxis Technology Management Inc. as a Director of Infrastructure Technology and had worked for large organizations including, Smith Barney-Shearson, AT&T, Citibank and Siemens where he held several technical and management positions.

ADiperna@carnival.com

Tony Di Perna is a Supervisor of I/S Configuration Management for Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) since 2006.

With over 20 years experience in the Configuration Management discipline Tony has had the opportunity to work in several countries in Europe, Canada and United States, some of the most complex programs he has worked on consisted of  development of Cellular systems, US and Canadian Navy ship Frigates, Space Shuttle and Flight simulators.

During his career Tony had to the opportunity both to apply and help improve some of the CM standards that exist today in the industry for Configuration Management, some of his public accomplishments and contributions have been while he was a GEIA member where he participated in the development of the DoD (Department-of-Defense) CM standard in the early 1990s which is today know as EIA-649 as well as the development of UDEF (Universal Data Element Framework) which is lately became a standard and being adapted for use also in other international countries.

Tony always strives for excellence in the Configuration Management discipline and IT Service and Support areas, he is familiar with a wide range of CM industry standards (ISO, DoD, IEEE) as well as ITIL and CMM frameworks, one of his major career accomplishment is his Web Past invention which was filed under USA and International Patent Offices in 2002.

Tony is proud to be an officer on the South Florida HDI chapter and will work hard to help get it established and make it one of the HDI successful chapters.

LJohnson@carnival.com

Lynn Johnson has more than 25 years of experience in Information Technologies. Her experience ranges from desktop support to network administration to training.  Currently Lynn is the Manager of End User Support, she manages both the Technical Support Desk and the Desktop Support groups. Lynn joined Carnival in April 1988 and took over the management of the support desk in August 2005. During her tenure at Carnival she has been responsible for project coordination and delivery of new technology to all Carnival locations. Lynn has served as logistics coordinator for thirteen new ship deliveries, and IT project manager for all Carnival new builds and refreshes since 2002.

As Co-VP of Programs for HDI of South Florida I will work to identify topics and speakers for each meeting and will survey the membership to validate program content. I am proud to be affiliated with HDI and will work hard to create top quality programs to each and every meeting.

Rpinto@heico.com

Robert Pinto has worked in the service and support industry for over 14 years in a Service Desk and Operations management.  Currently, Robert is the Manger of the IT Support Center for HEICO Aerospace Corporation.  The Support Center provides support to the Headquarter office located in Hollywood, Fl. and to 35 other subsidiaries located around the world (i.e. UK, Germany, India, China, etc…).  He has implemented many best practices based on the ITIL framework and Six Sigma.  He is responsible for the internal help desk, desktop support, configuration center, IT procurement and many other project management initiatives.  Before HEICO, Robert worked as a leader of Technical Support for a Bank, Credit Card Company, Wire and Cable Company, Insurance Company, B2B Marine Company, and Equipment Rental Company.  Robert is a certified Support Center Director, ITIL foundation and Six Sigma green belt.   

Robert as the VP of Programs for the HDI of South Florida Local Chapter shall:

•         Identify topics, speakers, and meeting agendas.  
•         Solicit hosts and presenters for each meeting.  
•         Correspond with Newsletter Editor about the upcoming meetings and events.  
•         Serve as primary contact person for fielding educational program ideas and requests.   
•         Vote on issues only to break a tie. 
•         Conduct Chapter and Board of Officer meetings in the absence of the President. 
•         Survey membership monthly to validate program content. 
•         Perform other duties as pertain to the office of Programs.

jmontes@teksystems.com

Jessica McNelley is the Director of Business Operations for TEKsystems in Miami, FL.  Jessica has been with TEKsystems for over 6 years holding numerous positions. Her current responsibility includes overseeing the Branch Operations in Miami, Naples, and Bonita Springs which includes the management of over 15 internal employees as well as over 100 consultants.
With over 26 years in the staffing industry and rated #1 for nine consecutive years on ITSBR’s (IT Services Business Report) top 20 IT staffing list TEKsystems consistently seeks to understand our client’s technical needs as well as understand the business drivers creating the need down to the soft skills required to be successful in the role and the work environment. At the same time, TEKsytems works with each consultant to understand their experience, career goals and what’s most important to them.
As the director of the office Jessica’s role is to hire, train and lead the recruiters to build the local IT network with referrals and coach them on how to understand those consultants goals while matching their technical and soft skills with each client’s needs.  She is also responsible for promoting and mentoring the account managers who support those local clients on how to understand the IT initiatives and business goals for each client to ensure they present the best candidate. Jessica also serves as Marketing Director on the board of HDI South Florida. In this role, she is tasked with reaching out to the IT community and creating awareness around HDI as well as engaging them to gather feedback. Jessica always strives for excellence in everything she does making her an asset to HDI.

keith.ruth@auxis.com

Keith Ruth is an IT Professional with over 16 years of experience in Support and Service Management.  He has extensive experience in Enterprise-level hardware and software support.  Keith is experienced in the startup and management of Service Desk operations and the deployment and administration of Incident Management tools.   He is an HDI Certified Help Desk Manager and ITIL Practitioner (Support and Restore) and also has over 7 years experience in Change Management at the Enterprise Level.  With a strong background in Enterprise-level NOC operations monitoring systems, sites and services in a 24x7 high availability environment, Keith is currently the Service Support Manager with AUXIS Technology Management, Inc.  Keith joined HDI in 2005 and has been the VP of Communications for the South Florida HDI Chapter since 2009.

Jsanchez3@carnival.com

Jonathan Sanchez has over 12 years experience in a large range of Information Systems, including Server and desktop client infrastructure.   He is currently employed at Carnival Cruise Lines as a Technical Support Specialist - Level 3 - Subject Matter Expert.  Actively supporting over 12,000 Shoreside and Shipboard users in hardware, software, network, security issues through phone, email, chat, automation and voice over IP systems. 

Jonathan is also a SharePoint administrator and a Intranet Webmaster where he has re-engineered the infrastructure for the IT support documentation library, improving maintenance and departments collaboration.  He is a project lead in the IT SELF SERVICE CENTER, which contains the IT SERVICE CATALOG as it pertains to ITIL best practices, using InfoPath forms that publish to SharePoint using advanced customized workflows.

He is also a Project lead for upgrading the HEAT (Ticketing System), implementing the Development environment setting up SQL databases and IIS for WebUi  and Self Service users website.  Jonathan has transformed the Technical Support Desk from Email centric to self service streamline service.

Accreditations include:

• MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator in Server 2003)
• MCDST (Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician)
• MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional in Windows XP)
• MOSM (Microsoft Office Specialist Master)
• Network +
• A+  
• ITIL v2 (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)
• Areas of expertise include:  Team building and leadership, Training & Quality Assurance, Targeted Marketing , Business Planning, Project Management, Customer Service, Strategic planning & Implementation.

Jonathan has 2 daughters and a beautiful wife that keeps him alive and well, while living in South Miami Kendall area , where he actively participates in the Hammocks Community Home Owners Association assisting with IT planning and development.   He is also a musician at heart where he spends his "off time" jamming on his drums with professional musicians.    He is a self motivator and a communicator, coordinator and a leader, where he focuses on listening skills prior to the technical jargon.

As a Webmaster for the HDI South Florida chapter he has redesigned and redeveloped the website infrastructure using the WebArtrends.com platform.  Implementing  a booking engine for RSVP events, dynamic database driven content and content management system for a solid future foundation of this organization.

VP WEBMASTER - JIMMY LOTTS JR. JLotts@avemarialaw.edu Jimmy is a MySQL Database engineer since 2005 and ColdFusion Developer since 2007. Jimmy is a certified Electronic Engineer that had opportunity to work on Programmable Logic Controllers from 2000 to 2002 as well as establish himself as a primary resource for logical diagram development and conflict detection.   From 1998 to current Jimmy has been utilizing his abilities to develop and program web applications. Designing both the frontend interface as well as the backend interface to allow web site administrators to update, add, or delete information that will be viewed to all site visitors. Jimmy’s goal for the HDI South Florida Chapter is to establish an interface for both site visitors and administrators to update information, moreover build and maintain communication between officers and members.

CO-VP VENDOR RELATIONS - HENRY SANCHEZ hsanchez@ryder.com Henry Sanchez is a supervisor for Ryder’s Service Desk and Knowledge Management.  Henry is in his 5th year with Ryder all spent working with their Service Desk in different facets. Henry has been working in IT for 12 years working as desktop support as well as service desks throughout those years.  Henry is a graduate of Florida International University with a bachelors in Business Administration majoring in MIS. Henry is the VP of Vendor Relations and is responsible for the setup and coordination of sponsor or vendor to come to the meetings.