Position Papers

Dr. Nicholas (Nick) Bell, CIO, Global Product Development, Information Technology, General Motors

Nick Bell was appointed as the CIO, Global Product Development in December 2012 and is responsible for all IT applications development and support of GM’s Global Product Development function, as well as contributing to the IT Transformational journey in General Motors IT.

Prior to his current position, Nick was Executive Director Vehicle Solutions IT. He has also served as the Global CIO for GM Information Technology, Manufacturing & Labor (from April 2010) and responsibility for GM IT’s “2010 Program” (re-contracting of out-sourced IT Global...

Mike Perez, Strategic Projects and Services Manager, Technical Information Solutions, Caterpillar Inc.

Mike Perez is the Strategic Projects and Services Manager for Technical Information Solutions at Caterpillar. Mike and his team are responsible for the management of Caterpillar’s Technical Information Transformation which is a joint development project with PTC to migrate, develop, and implement an integrated off-the shelf solution for technical information authoring, management, delivery, and access, replacing Caterpillar’s legacy solution. Mike is also responsible for operational support of the current technical information delivery system, media delivery, and Caterpillar’s Translation Services. Over his 28 year...

John Leney, Vice President & Global Head – Sales and Marketing, Geometric

John Leney is a Vice President and the Global Head – Sales and Marketing at Geometric. He is responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of business growth strategies for Geometrics’ targeted industry verticals. John is also responsible for leading the Go-to-Market strategy and development of the sales processes and competencies in the company. John joined Geometric in 2012 and was responsible for leading the Global Automotive Industry Vertical of the company. Prior to joining Geometric, he was a Senior Director in Dassault...

Sathish Kumar Thirugnanam, Consultant, NPI VE - Innovation and Transformation Group, Tata Consultancy Services

Sathish Kumar Thirugnanam is a business consultant with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of the leading Business & IT solutions providers for global customers. As a member of the Innovation and Transformation Group (ITG) at TCS he focuses on providing business solutions to manufacturing customers in the areas of New Product Introduction and Development.

Sathish comes with a rich experience in manufacturing processes and concepts associated with product development and has been working with leading automotive, aerospace, industrial machinery & hi-tech customers...

Steve Gwizdala,Territory Sales Manager, Jive Software

Steve Gwizdala has been in the enterprise application space for over 20 years. His career spans the entire product lifecycle from design, build, manufacture, and distribute to present day on connecting, collaborating, and communicating more effectively in the enterprise.

Steve Fennessey, Director of Business Innovation, Imaginatik

Steve Fennessey is Director of Business Innovation for Imaginatik. His focus is on helping organizations build a systemic and sustainable innovation capability to significantly improve their profitability and business operations. Through a mix of consulting and advisory, hands-on innovation projects, program management, and an award-winning enterprise software platform, he helps clients develop their innovation capability into a permanent competitive advantage. He has been providing innovation and technical consulting services to fortune 100 clients such as Eli Lilly, Dow, and Procter & Gamble for two decades.

A graduate of The...

Megan Pukala, Assistant Brand Manager, Fortune 500 company

Megan Pukala received a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and more recently completed her MBA from The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Megan resides in Cincinnati, OH, and was recognized as one of the city’s 40 Great Leaders Under 40 by Venue Magazine. Professionally, Megan works in brand management for a Fortune 500 company.

Thomas A. Gill, Practice Manager, PLM Enterprise Value & Integration

Tom Gill has over 25 years of experience applying computer-based solutions to engineering and manufacturing. Before joining CIMdata he worked as an independent PLM consultant, after spending over 20 years at high-volume manufacturing companies.

Mr. Gill has worked on projects in numerous industries, including fabrication & assembly, food & beverage, defense, chemical, and medical devices. He has executed PLM strategy projects, solution evaluation-and-selection projects, deployment planning, and training development for industrial clients. He delivers solution providers competitive and technical product analyses, white papers, and case studies.

Mr. Gill led...

Ken Versprille, Ph.D., Executive Consultant and Practice Manager, Social Product Development & Collaboration

Dr. Ken Versprille has over 35 years of experience in the application of computer-based solutions for engineering and manufacturing. He joined CIMdata after 16 years heading the Design Creation and Validation service at CPDA. His research spans geometric design, design collaboration and automation, PLM standards and openness, and the integration of CAD across PLM applications.

During 15 years at Computervision, Dr. Versprille became the equivalent of CTO, and was R&D Vice President of core applications. He was a lead architect of the CADDS...

Suna Polat, Ph.D., Director, Collaborative Innovation & Social Product Development Consulting Practice

Dr. Suna Polat has over 23 years of experience in technology development, product development, innovation management, implementation of strategic innovation capabilities—including modeling and simulation (M&S), open innovation, knowledge management, and social technologies—and driving change and adoption, through her career at Procter & Gamble (P&G) and with her own consulting practice thereafter.

Prior to joining CIMdata, Dr. Polat developed expertise in transport phenomena (and CAE modeling) in academia, and spent over 21 years at P&G, where initially she developed process and material technologies for...