2019 New Product Awards Categories Judging Committee
COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Sandy Brandmeier, President
Sonova USA, Warrenville, Illinois
Sandy Brandmeier has led global portfolio businesses across diverse industries including healthcare, life sciences, education, industrial, and–most recently–hearing. The global footprint of her work spans Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Sandy is especially valued for her passion for transforming businesses by innovating in the midst of ever-changing environments. Sandy has a reputation for developing high-performing teams and fostering a culture that embodies respect and true caring. She harnesses positive energy and momentum by inspiring organizations to rally around a powerful mission and to deliver a best-in-class customer experience.
Sandy joined Sonova, the world leader in hearing care, in the fall of 2018 as President, USA. Prior to that, she was the CEO for Wall Family Enterprise, a global portfolio of market leading businesses serving the early learning, library, and civic institution markets. She has held President and General Manager roles at Danaher and GE in the life science and healthcare segments, and spent several years in a start-up business in the music industry.
Sandy holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri. She recently celebrated 27 years of marriage with her musician husband and is continually inspired by her three teenage daughters.
“The Stevie Awards honor some of the best and brightest companies in the world,” Sandy commented. “I’m honored to Chair the New Products and Product Management Committee and thrilled to be associated with an organization of this caliber.”
COMMITTEE
Sameer Ahirrao, CEO
www.ardentsec.com, Catonsville, Maryland, United States
Mr. Ahirrao is an accomplished security leader, founder of Ardent Security, and Information Systems Security Officer at CMS. He brings two decades of enterprise security experience with large enterprises such as Lockheed Martin, Symantec and Deloitte. He is an Electronics and Telecommunication Engineer with various accolades in security such as CISSP, CISA and CCSP.
Shailaja Arsid, Consultant
Tiny Planet Infotech Private Limited, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Kavihalakshmi Baskar, Sr Data Analyst
Inovalon, Wexford, Pennsylvania, United States
KavithaLakshmi Baskar is the Senior Data Analyst in Inovalon Inc for the last 5 yrs. Inovalon is a health care data analytics company. He has been responsible for: scheduling and executing custom analytics for multiple healthcare clients; performing ad-hoc development to support on demand requests; generating monthly reporting and metrics to showcase performance; providing tier II support to quality clients to minimize process disruptions; developing solutions to complex software design issues for numerous product development cycle; designing and/or developing SSIS packages to modify and streamline data sets for clinical quality clients. KavithaLakshmi demonstrated her experience with Microsoft T-SQL and SQL Reporting Services (SSRS), Python, .Net, Power-point, Excel, MongoDB Hadoop, and VSTS.
Raveesh Chugh, Head of Strategic Security Partnerships
Amazon Web Services, Seattle, Washington, United States
Accomplished cloud technology professional with 15+ years experience in business and technology roles. Skilled at Business Development with extensive experience in partnership management and revenue achievement for cyber security solutions. Proven ability to manage P&L and exceed business goals. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he also mentors startups on how to build successful AWS partnerships.
Abhiram Cuduvalli Bhaskar, Architect
Cisco, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Abhiram has over 20 years of technical and managerial experience in the Information Technology industry, which includes a decade as people leader at Dell, Adobe and Cisco.
George Lin, Managing Partner
GML & Associates, San Ramon, California, United States
Edward B Martin, Executive Vice President
EAM-Mosca Corporation, Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, United States
Ed Martin is the EVP of Sales & Marketing at EAM-Mosca Corporation, a privately held manufacturer of innovative, automated end of line packaging systems. The company serves the Americas Region as part of Mosca GmbH, headquartered in Waldbrunn, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. Through various commercial leadership positions, Ed has a significant track record of increasing revenue, vertical market diversity, and enterprise value of post entrepreneurial Middle Market manufacturing businesses. His leadership approach places a high value on leveraging superior innovation, new product development and Total Cost of Ownership principles to drive growth.
Peter Mullins, Group Creative Director, Experience Design
Publicis Sapient, London, United Kingdom
Peter Mullins is Group Creative Director in Experience Design at Publicis Sapient UK, and is the Head of Creative for their Financial Services International business. With industry experience spanning Europe, UAE, and Australia, he builds high-performance teams that help clients better understand and refocus their services around customers. His focus is in unlocking deeper and mutual value between customers and brands through the creative application of design, technology and data; and helping teams to uncover opportunities for innovation and new value creation.
Shalini Nandan-Singh, Legal Practitioner and Business Mentor
Legally Shalini, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Drawing on more than 15 years’ experience as a lawyer and a woman in business, Shalini Nandan-Singh helps entrepreneurs protect their businesses and their bottom lines with empowered legal advice and contracts. Her keen insight into the nuances and practicalities of law as a tool for protecting and empowering women in business have seen her engaged as a speaker for digital and live events, presenting to both Australian and international audiences. Shalini firmly believes that business legals should be designed to create positive business boundaries that drive client relationships founded on compassion and understanding.
Supriya Pande, Senior Software Engineer
Mouser Electronics, Dallas, Texas, United States
Supriya is a Senior Software Developer with extensive experience in developing distributed web applications using Microsoft technologies. She is a Microsoft Certified Azure Cloud Developer, and her main expertise includes implementing complex and scalable solutions using Azure Cloud services. She is passionate about Machine Learning and Data Analytics. She is an avid programmer, and in her free time she likes she likes to explore new features in the technology space.
Sachin Patil, Lead CAE R&D Technical Specialist
Karma Automotive LLC, Irvine, California, United States
Aditya Raju, Senior Manager - Digital Strategy
Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Aditya is Senior Manager, Digital Strategy at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. As a senior leader with a strong background in healthcare and retail, he has had success in establishing a lasting presence in new products. He has the ability to identify, lead and manage, analyze business opportunities, and successfully implement projects which have continuously built measurable value. He excels at expanding leading-edge products. His qualities include exemplary leadership; the ability to set clear goals and oversee their effective execution; and directing/coaching/inspiring teams and individuals to shine.
Berna Samiloglu Acar, New Business Development Director
Sodexo Benefits & Rewards Services, Istanbul, Turkey
Berna Samiloglu Acar is a senior executive experienced in digital transformation strategy, business models and execution in telecommunications, media, and consumer goods industries. She held end-to-end business management positions in various fields such as digital content, media, marketing and financial services. After spending more than 12 years in the telecom industry, she is currently working as the New Business Development Director of Sodexo Turkey. She has extensive expertise in Corporate Venturing, Partnership Development & Strategic Alliances, Product Development & Management. She was awarded the Growth Company Alliance/Management Excellence award in 2010 by the Association of Alliance Professionals for Turkcell's Partner Program.
Kshitij Saxena, Senior Product Manager
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Washington, United States
Kshitij (KJ) Saxena currently leads the product management team for enterprise mobility experiences at Microsoft, which includes the Microsoft Edge browser on iOS and Android, Microsoft launcher on Android, and the Managed Home Screen on Android, all of these delivering experiences for organizations to increase productivity and ease of use across their employees while maintaining security and flexible customization. KJ has a diverse experience in product development across hardware and software products in both enterprise as well as consumer segments. He has led multiple product initiatives for Microsoft, starting from greenfield and scaling them to millions of users. A few iconic products that he has worked on in the past include Microsoft Surface, Microsoft HoloLens and Microsoft Xbox.
Jina Shin Anson, VP Branding
LifeVantage, Sandy, Utah, United States
Jina Shin Anson is an achievement-driven marketing professional with over 17 years of progressive experience in research, brand management, and international business for health and beauty products. She has launched hundreds of products globally for multiple companies. Jina’s leadership style goes beyond just managing projects. Her skills include being strategic, tactical and organized. She leads by example, delegates when possible, and provides challenging assignments. Her main professional goal is to build other young leaders.
Julian Stubbs, Strategy & Marketing Consultant
Independent, Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
Now working (mainly pro-bono) as an independent consultant, I started my career in consumer and financial advertising before working long term for British Telecom in, inter alia, operational management, market research, market strategy, product portfolio management and new business development, before retiring to teach as a senior lecturer in the University of Greenwich’s Business School covering the same areas.
Pratik Thanki, Senior Manager - Energy Trading and Risk Management
Publicis Sapient, Houston, Texas, United States
Pratik is an innovative and a renowned leader with 12-plus years of experience in Energy and Finance industries. As a delivery lead, he has led several large programs for multiple organizations, such as investment banks, utilities, oil/gas majors and LNG companies. He possesses an elite Energy Risk Professional (ERP) certification. With the use of strong domain knowledge in Natural Gas, LNG, Oil & Refined Products, and Power-- including trading, hedging and valuation--he has collaborated with other industry leaders in the space and delivered high value business and IT transformation programs involving globally distributed delivery teams. Pratik holds a Masters Degree in Information Technology from University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Pratik also holds both Microsoft and Sun (now Oracle) certifications: Sun Certified Java Developer; Microsoft Certified Professional; and Microsoft Certified Database Administrator.
Naresh Venkat, Head of AI/ML Partnerships
Google, San Francisco, California, United States
I am currently the Head of AI/ML partnerships at Google. My team is responsible for all the AI partnerships and alliances for Google Cloud, across core AI and Applied AI scenarios. Prior to this, I wore several hats: led the Security and Networking partnerships for Google Cloud; was the director of private cloud partnerships at Trend Micro; led several products (Data Center management, cloud management, advanced malware security and cloud security) for Dell; worked on Dell's LBO efforts; and spent several years as a software engineer.
Greg Wixted, CEO & Visiting Co-Professor of Entrepreneurship
Xpert Innovation, London, United Kingdom
Greg founded Xpert Innovation in 2010, after 15 years working at some of the biggest ad agencies on the planet at board level. He is also a co-professor at the University of North Carolina, teaching entrepreneurship. He has founded several start-ups, including a Tech start-up, an artisanal food brand, a boutique resort brand, an AI-driven Insurance company in the USA and a sports innovation business in the Middle East. He has won over 40 awards for his work and is a jury member of several global creativity festivals and awards. He has worked with many global brands helping to develop innovative ideas and fresh thinking.
Benjamin Woolf, Technical Product Consultant
OurCrowd, Jerusalem, Israel
Ben Woolf is currently an Analyst at OurCrowd Venture firm in Israel. He has over 10 years work experience in business, specifically in technical product management, international relations, and operations, as well as building an A.I Games recommendation system for Telefonica, and a globally recognized study abroad organization. Prior to this Ben worked as an international ambassador to an American multinational, expanding operations to England, France, Austria, Canada, and Israel.