The Advisory Board for the Master of Science in Information Systems Program is comprised of experts in the field, and we engage them actively in the curriculum development process. If you are an information systems leader interested in developing the talents of the next generation of IS leaders, please contact Program Director Tal Lev, [email protected], 206-616-0290.
Scott Baxter
Partner Director of Program Management
Microsoft
www.microsoft.com
Scott is a general manager in the Commerce and Ecosystems organization focused on attracting customers and partners to Microsoft’s commercial cloud business. His current team works closely with the worldwide field seller community to simplify presales negotiations and agreements with small, medium, and enterprise customers.
Scott specializes in delivering commerce solutions across the entire quote-to-cash process. In his previous roles at Microsoft, he managed engineering investment portfolios for Microsoft’s Commercial Licensing and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) businesses. These portfolios enabled $42B and $20B, respectively, in annual revenue for the company.
Scott graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Economics/Mathematics.
Michele Denny
IT & DA Director, Infrastructure & Operations, Products & Business Results
Boeing
www.boeing.com
Michele is BGS Business Success Leader CIO for Commercial Services. In this role, Michele supports Parts and Distribution Services; Supply Chain, Commercial Modifications, Engineering and Specialty Products (CMESP), Commercial Training Solutions and BGS Sales & Marketing. She is responsible for partnering with the business leadership, aligning on critical business objectives, and power the business via cutting edge solutions.
Prior to this role, Michele was the director of Infrastructure & Operations (I&O) Product & Business Results Office (PBRO) where she was overseeing the business operations of I&O, and H2 transformation. Her responsibilities included: simplifying business processes and driving productivity, quality, savings, and collaboration across her organization.
In her three decades at Boeing, Michele has held a number of leadership positions. Michele was director of IT&DA Cloud, Compute and Storage responsible to deliver Boeing computing infrastructure by leveraging the best cloud technologies and processes. Additional roles she has held include, director of IT&DA Product Support & Services, responsible for Application Development. She was Senior Manager of IT&DA Business Partners for BCA Airplane Development. She was the Senior Manager of the IT&DA Infrastructure Service Management Office, and has also held leadership positions within BCA, including Senior Manager of the 787 PP&C Derivative team and Manager of the 787 Fuselage PP&C team.
Michele has an Enterprise Architecture certification from Carnegie Mellon, a Project Management Professionals Certification, a Master’s Certificate in Project Management from Villanova University, an MBA from Seattle University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Washington.
Michele is dedicated to giving back to her community and is a board member for the non-profit organization Domestic Abuse Women’s Network (DAWN) and serves as a board member to the University of Washington Master of Information Systems (MSIM) Advisory Board.
Michele resides in Seattle, Washington and is the proud parent of three children.
Teresa Duran
Managing Director and CIO Advisory
Unify Consulting
www.unifyconsulting.com
Teresa Duran is an award-winning technology executive recognized for advising and leading companies through significant transformational change and modernization strategies across corporate and non-profit sectors from Fortune 100 to mid-sized companies. Her expertise encompasses emerging technology, revenue growth strategies, risk management, and customer retention.
With over two decades of experience in Technology, Teresa has held pivotal roles as a CIO and Head of Technology on three occasions across different industries. In these roles, she provided comprehensive oversight of the entire technology domain, leading successful business transformations, developing digital and data strategies, and driving innovative product development and new business models.
Additionally, Teresa is known for leading robust cybersecurity programs to protect organizations from evolving threats and managing swift incident responses. Her expertise in Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) supports organizations to prioritizing and mitigating risks across technology and data privacy domains.
Currently, Teresa is the Managing Director and CIO Advisory for Unify Consulting. Additionally, Teresa offers board advisory services to SullivanCotter and Agency Cybersecurity Inc. She is a member of NACD and Athena, and Seattle’s 50/50 Women on Boards leadership committee.
Teresa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and an MBA, along with several technology certifications including PMP, ITIL, QTE, Azure AI, and CSM. Dedicated to developing future technology leaders, she serves on the MSIS Board of Advisors at the University of Washington.
Tanya Hannah
Chief Information Officer North America
Aon
www.aon.com
Tanya Hannah believes in using technology in new, surprising, and smart ways to make life better for people. Ms. Hannah oversees the tech that enables government operations – everything from healthcare, transportation, public safety to environment, sustainability, and general government. She’s passionate about ensuring equal access to the technology needed for civic and cultural participation, education, and employment.
Ms. Hannah was named both “National Non-Profit / Public Sector CIO of the Year” ORBIE and LocalSmart “Golden Gov County Executive of the Year” by the by the Inspire CIO Network and StateScoop News Group, respectively. Other recent honors include CIO 100 awards, national Government Experience awards and Future Edge50 awards.
Ms. Hannah previously served as a senior executive at Amazon and Computer Sciences Corporation. She’s a native of Philadelphia and received her BA from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Michael Isensee
Partner
KPMG
www.kpmg.com
Michael is a Partner in KPMG’s Seattle Advisory practice with over 25 years of IT risk consulting and assurance experience. He has significant experience in the areas of IT risk and compliance, IT audit and attestation, information security and project management. His technical expertise includes a wide range of applications and platforms. Michael has served various industries internationally, with an emphasis on hi-tech and retail clients. In addition, Michael has guest lectured regularly at such institutions as OSU, UW, the University of Hamburg, and Seattle University as well as being published in the Puget Sound Business Journal and German-language publications. His credentials are significant with an MBA-equivalent degree from the University of Siegen (Germany) as well as being a CPA coupled with various technology certifications such as a CITP, CISA, CGEIT, PMP, and ITIL.
Charu Jain
Senior Vice President Merchandising & Innovation
Alaska Air Group
www.investor.alaskaair.com
As the senior vice president of merchandising and innovation, Charu Jain serves as a change leader driving strategy and execution for both employee and guest-facing innovation along with taking Alaska Air Group to the next level with merchandising our products and services and managing our ever-evolving distribution channels. In collaboration with the commercial team, operating divisions and technology teams, Charu oversees the implementation of technology and processes that drive forward momentum around growing revenues, defining guest interaction, employee experience and innovation.
Charu joined Alaska Airlines in 2017 as vice president Information technology services and chief information officer, where she led the technology integration of Virgin America and a highly engaged organization with more than 500 information technology professionals fueled to create an airline people love by connecting people through technology.
Prior to joining Alaska Airlines in 2017, Charu held roles at United Airlines and worked across industries at IBM and PWC as a thought partner and change leader. Charu has successfully led large-scale transformations including multiple M&A efforts and delivered integrated, scalable technology solutions that enable fast-growth expansion, dramatic business efficiencies, and lasting improvements in market competitiveness, service delivery and customer satisfaction.
Charu holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and an MBA in International Management. With a passion for developing STEM talent, Charu serves on the University of Washington Foster School of Business MSIS Advisory Board.
Kim Kamla
Portfolio Director for Enterprise Applications
Avanade
www.avanade.com
Kim has had a 20 year career in IT in a variety of roles ranging from leading IT operations and application software development, to IT strategy guidance and program delivery. In her current role at Avanade, she works closely with internal business partners including Sales, HR, Finance, Legal and Business Operations to enable, streamline, and transform business processes by leveraging technology.
Kim is a 2013 graduate of the University of Washington’s MSIS program and holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Washington.
Lily Ley
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
PACCAR Inc
www.paccar.com
Lily Ley is Vice President and CIO for PACCAR ITD. In this role, Lily is responsible to provide vision and leadership for developing and implementing information technology initiatives. She directs the planning and implementation of enterprise IT systems in support of business operations in order to improve cost effectiveness, service quality and business development. She focuses on minimizing cost and maximizing results, in addition she will find new ways to help customers and the organization profit from how data can provide value added services.
Lily has been with PACCAR for 28 years. She has held the positions of IT Director Kenmex and IT Director Kenworth Division. She transferred to ITD in February, 2010 since then increasing responsibilities. She is on the MSIS Board of Advisors at University of Washington.
Lily has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and an MBA from CETYS University.
Expertise: Software development, project management, process oriented, strategic planning and operations
Jennie O’Brien
Assistant Vice President IT
Costco
www.costco.com
Jennie is the technology, operational, and thought-leader in Costco IT responsible for all online and ecommerce order fulfillment for the entirety of North America. In short, any online package delivered from this $227B retailer funnels through her myriad of teams and systems. Jennie has been responsible for helping to grow the business and has been leading the efforts to integrate Costco’s acquisition of a business unit of Sears responsible for big ticket ecommerce orders and custom deliveries. Additionally, Jennie worked in Accounting prior to IT and therefore has been actively involved in enhancing business and financial reporting for operations. She has driven multiple systems to the cloud and has created a monitoring, alerting, and support model to keep all the ecom orders flowing uninterrupted and in time for the member. Under her leadership, these same teams migrated from legacy processes (e.g. Waterfall) to more modern and effective ways of delivery (Agile).
While she is driven by enabling the business through technology, she maintains a keen focus on Diversity & Inclusion, sustainability, and supporting a workplace culture not based on institutional exploitation. She is passionate about sharing her experiences as an active mentor in order to help motivate others and encourage growth.
She received her BA from Washington State University and completed the Albers School of Business & Economics Executive Leadership Program at Seattle University.
Nikhil Sarnot
Managing Director
Accenture Security
www.accenture.com
Nikhil is a Security Managing Director, based in Seattle, with over 17 years of management consulting experience working with clients across US, Europe, Africa and India. He is part of Accenture’s Products Operating Group (Consumer Products), serving clients in Retail, Consumer Goods, Travel, Life Sciences, Automobile and Industrial sectors. At Accenture, he has dual leadership roles – leads the North America – Strategy & Risk practice, leads the West Security practice, for Consumer Products.
Nikhil has extensive experience advising CXOs of several Fortune 500 clients across the business and IT advisory service spectrum and has worked with mid-large size companies in both an advisory and audit capacity, assisting them in understanding, assessing and mitigating the risks in their business and IT organizations. He focuses on helping clients build security & privacy programs from the ground up, understanding maturity of programs, establishing strategic direction, developing target operating model & governance framework. He has worked across several industries and brings deep insights into cyber risks and regulations relevant to his clients.
He is an engineer by academic background and is an alumni of University of Southern California.
Alok Tyagi
Managing Director
Accenture
www.accenture.com
Alok is a technology executive in Seattle area focused on enabling digital transformation of enterprise IT. In his journey with Accenture, Alok has played global roles across geographies and has helped build global network of technology capabilities. He is passionate about technology trends, modern engineering practices and how they can help organizations reach their full potential. It his 25 years of experience Alok has consulted many fortune 500 companies and has delivered many successful transformation programs.
Alok is also technology lead in Accenture’s Pacific North West council. He is an alumni of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in India and has also done Master’s in Business Administration.