Top Tech Exec Awards Honorees

Mike Zill

Lifetime Achievement Award

Senior Vice President Global Shared Services | Becton Dickinson

Zill is an inspirational, business-savvy executive with a proven track record of partnering and collaborating to translate vision into reality. Presently, he leads global shared services at Becton Dickinson (BD) and serves as Senior Vice President. Zill has more than 25 years in operations and information technology leadership at a number of respected firms including Motorola, ON Semiconductor, Cisco Systems, ResMed, and CareFusion, where he was Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer prior to an acquisition by BD. Experienced at organizing the chaotic and speaking the language of business, he has led global teams in a variety of industries including high-tech, consumer tech, medical devices, M&A, LBOs, and IPOs. Zill also has a wealth of global experience in Europe and extensive business dealings across Asia, where he established multiple software centers of excellence. His community activities include participation on the board of the Society for Information Management San Diego, serving as a Cal State San Marcos advisory board member, and acting as a key technology advisor and fundraiser for YWCA San Diego’s Becky’s House® Domestic Violence Program.

Prudence August

Cox Business Exemplary Award

Vice President of Information Technology | Palomar Health

With 26 years of healthcare experience, August is a dynamic leader at Palomar Health. She was responsible for creating an Electronic Health Record (EHR) foundation ready for the opening of the new Palomar Medical Center in 2011, and led the team to expand electronic charting capabilities to support the entire Palomar Health district. She has greatly improved Palomar Health’s ability to support advanced clinical information systems that share patient health information with a full spectrum of health services such as hospitals, birth centers, rehabilitation and long-term care centers, and home health care and hospice services. The EHR implementation has also improved patient safety and care across all disciplines by leveraging technology to ensure the correct medications were being delivered to the right patient at the right time through point-of-care barcoding, decreasing the turnaround times for orders through computerized provider order entry, and improving electronic Nursing and Core Measure Documentation.

Joe Gursky

Honoree, Nonprofit Small

Information Technology Director | USS Midway Museum

The USS Midway Museum is the most-visited historic naval ship museum in the world, and Gursky has made heroic strides in converting this World War II-era aircraft carrier into a 21st-century museum for all ages and walks of life. Gursky is responsible for the Midway’s new datacenter, that’s 50 times more energy-efficient, and whose infrastructure is now protected from salt and dust. He’s installed new SharePoint 2013 server architecture to update an aging database, and a disaster recovery system that’s vital to the Midway’s $22 million annual business. Many of Gursky’s forward–thinking IT programs have directly benefited and enhanced the interactive experience for the ship’s visitors.

Sal Saldivar

Honoree, Nonprofit Large

Chief Information Officer | La Maestra Community Health Centers

Saldivar has played a key part in the success and growth of La Maestra Community Health Centers, which offer quality healthcare and social services to San Diego’s most culturally diverse and lowest-income communities. As La Maestra expanded its facilities in 2014, Saldivar and his team built out all the IT Infrastructure and services on time and saved the company significant money. They have virtualized all the hardware/servers, completed a digital/virtual upgrade of their phone system, and upgraded the surveillance cameras. Saldivar’s team also increased overall efficiency and patient care by making the clinics paperless and by networking all the medical devices that measure patients’ vital signs, so the data can feed directly into the organization’s Electronic Health Records.

LCDR Nathan Seaman

Honoree, Government

Information Systems Officer  |  Naval Medical Center

LCDR Seaman has demonstrated exceptional leadership and strategic vision for both the Naval Medical Center San Diego and Navy medicine as a whole. The processes implemented by his stellar team are serving as a blueprint for the way forward of the entire Navy Medicine Enterprise. Seaman migrated to an enterprise cloud email service, increasing access and functionality for staff while decreasing operational and manpower expenses. He also implemented a Thin Client desktop architecture to provide bedside electronic medical record charting to inpatient antfety, increased healthcare staff access to patient information, and decreased operational expenses.

Frank Paredes

Honoree, Education

Director of Information Technology | San Ysidro School District

Paredes has expertly designed and implemented 21st-Century Classrooms into the San Ysidro district, which serves more than 5,550 students. In these 220 state-of-the-art classrooms, Paredes and his team have installed interactive white boards, fixed mount digital projectors, wireless microphones, sound systems, central control units, document cameras, DVD/VCR units, and teacher computer stations to enrich learning. Paredes is championing the implementation of Chromebooks; redesigning the infrastructure at district schools to accommodate a 1:1 initiative, which will be implemented in the next year; and ensuring that the school’s required Smart Balance online testing is successful.

Robert Swisher

Honoree, Private Micro

Chief Technology Officer | Business.com

Swisher excels as a hands-on technical expert with a keen business sense who’s greatly contributed to Business.com’s impressive success. In 2014, he led a massive digital overhaul by building a homegrown content management system and implemented a revolutionary analytics reporting and visualization suite built upon intention-based data used to develop content and drive the business forward. His introduction of real-time lead matching technology reduced the time of lead delivery by more than 500 percent, while simultaneously reducing the error rate by 90 percent. Swisher also reduced overall communication and application delivery costs by more than 50 percent and created a mobile-friendly content experience, delivering actionable and educational material of varying types.

Tal Almog

Honoree, Private Small

Vice President of Operations | MaintenanceNet, Inc.

Since 2011, Almog has created a culture of information technology operations excellence based on innovation at this enterprise software and data intelligence services company. His team supported the development and massive global launch of the company’s new cloud-based ServiceExchange platform, and now oversees its ongoing operation and automated campaign management solutions in support of thousands of business customers worldwide. In 2014, Almog scaled technology services and IT operations in alignment with MaintenanceNet’s year-over-year revenue growth of 50 percent—an increase that required 24/7 support of as many as 300 technology distributors and 23,000 technology resellers. He’s been a key force in the company’s achievement of 73 percent gross profits in 2014.

Abe Lietz

Honoree, Private Mega

Chief Information Officer & Vice President of Operations | Jenny Craig and Curves International

An outstanding leader with a plethora of knowledge and expert guidance of his 90-plus team, Lietz greatly contributed to the successful merger of Jenny Craig and Curves, allowing for a smooth transition in forming one company with two brands. Efficient in all manners of business, he adroitly steered more than 45 major projects in 2014 alone, many with “go-live” dates that were launched without a hitch. These projects positively impacted the building and growth of the company’s European and Australian offices and improved its U.S. business functionality. He is respected as a team player with great integrity and passion.

Terry Orletsky

Honoree, Private Large

Vice President of Information Technology | The Ken Blanchard Companies

A true leader with 45 years of IT experience, Orletsky joined The Ken Blanchard Companies in 2003, and has played a significant role in increasing the leadership training organization’s global reach. Founded 35 years ago, the company has grown to six corporate offices and 31 global partner offices, effectively doubling its size and revenue in the past 12 years. Orletsky successfully implemented a modern infrastructure, moving the company to leading-edge technologies within budget constraints. His team has created a world-class, award-winning website, utilizing the latest in modern CMS technology. Their global digital content and training delivery system has attracted more than 70,000 users since its deployment in 2012.

David Henderson

Honoree, Public Small

Chief Information Officer | Sequenom, Inc.

A seasoned information technology leader with more than 20 years of progressive experience, Henderson has had great success in strategic planning, technology development, vendor management, and production support for all of the company’s information systems. Through a series of intelligent technical initiatives, he has increased efficiency, reduced costs, and supported the launch of the company’s first molecular diagnostics tests. Additionally, Henderson has implemented a Laboratory Information System with web-based outreach, sample tracking, and external system interfaces in a CLIA-regulated environment, and created a company disaster recovery system with installed enterprise backup.

Brian Kelley

Honoree, Private Medium

Director of Information Technology | Tarr Inc.

Kelley is a results-oriented professional, recognized at Tarr Inc. for taking on major initiatives, adapting to rapidly changing environments, and resolving mission-critical issues to ensure bottom-line success. His extensive experience and leadership in technology has fueled the company’s incredible growth and success. He co-founded their new CRM for customer relationships that helped doubled last year’s sales volume. Due to his strategic planning and assessment standards, he helped the company save more than $300,000 in technology expenses, and approximately $100,000 by implementing a 59-phone system. Kelley was also integral in the launch of Tarr Inc.’s customer service in Mexico and successfully started a Metro E connection to link to headquarters.

Jeanette Sanchez

Honoree, Public Large

Chief Information Officer | AMN Healthcare

Sanchez has established herself as a strategic business leader at AMN Healthcare, launching and spearheading the multi-year project to effect a quantum change to nearly all the company’s systems. She has greatly advanced AMN’s strategy and productivity through the implementation of Cloud-based solutions, lowering IT and business resource costs. This implementation has dramatically improved service, reliability, and capability for all of AMN’s team members, healthcare professionals, and clients. Sanchez has updated and improved bandwidth for all networks between 40-plus corporate locations nationwide, completed computer hardware refreshes for more than 1,800 employees, consolidated multiple data centers to single Co-Lo, developed information security and disaster recovery roadmaps, and more.