Wendi Fowler, President

Wendi Fowler, President/CEO Beacon Life Tech

Wendi Fowler is an accomplished entrepreneur and leader for more than 25 years in the local technology field as past CEO and owner of The Client Server, Inc. Most recently Wendi has integrated her technology background with a her passion for improving the lives of Seniors with innovations and tech in Continuous Life Care Communities throughout the U.S. As founder of Beacon Life Tech, Wendi leads Low Voltage projects with developers and executive management to reach the most effective technology for every area of the community. She is known for her professionalism and dedicated community service, as well as her highest level of leadership by empowering others to achieve their goals. Wendi is the 2017 SWFRTP Woman of the Year in Technology, and most recently nominated for 2019 APEX Award. Wendi has been appointed various community honors and industry certifications. She is a board member and officer of several corporate and non-profit organizations.

Colleen Jorgensen, Vice President

Colleen Jorgensen, Area Mobility Manager AT&T

Colleen Jorgensen is the Southwest Florida Mobility Manager for AT&T. Colleen supports AT&T on the Nation Business Team, providing small to large businesses the relationships they need to help their business grow, automate and gain profits. After a 15 year career in Sales Training and going back to school for a Network Administration Degree, she has been working in the technology sector leading and training sales teams. In addition to her career, SWFLTech, her family, including five children, she also volunteers for the SWFL Dress for Success program as a mentor and internet job search educator.

Warren Baucom

Warren Baucom, Director, Partnerships and Entrepreneurial Activities, Economic Development Office

Warren Baucom is Director of Partnerships and Entrepreneurial Activities with the Economic Development Office of Lee County. In this role, Warren facilitates programs and connections, filling in gaps along the spectrum of economic opportunity in Southwest Florida, with a special emphasis on Veteran’s entrepreneurship and access to capital. Warren joined the Economic Development Office in 2004 working in business retention and expansion outreach. He has managed local expansions and corporate locations projects including eMaint Enterprises, Ace Hardware, Newcastle Aviation, and Crown Linen. In his role with the EDO, he also provides support to the Horizon Council and the Lee County Industrial Development Authority. Warren serves on the board for the Florida Economic Development Council as the Southwest Regional Director. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors for SWFLTech, former President of the SWFL Small Business Resource Network, and served as Administrator of the Lee County Enterprise Zone. Prior to joining the Economic Development Office, Warren held a variety of management roles within the hospitality industry and served in the United States Air Force as an intelligence analyst stationed in Okinawa, Japan and at RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom. He is a graduate of the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University.

John LaFreniere

John LaFreniere is the CIO of Verge Information Technology, LLC, currently on assignment at Tenet Healthcare, Dallas, TX as the Chief IT Architect. With VergeIT John works as a leader within the company and with large clients to deliver IT transformation, technology, innovation and cost savings across all aspects of IT. Previously he was the Global Vice President of Architecture for the Hertz Corporation in Estero, FL. Along with traditional IT architectural responsibilities, John was the technology transformation executive with Hertz; focused on positioning Hertz for the future through cloud and data initiatives, and application transformation. A sought after speaker in technology forums, John has also served in multiple board and advisory positions through the years and brings these experiences and his personal enthusiasm for technology to the SWFLTech. Throughout his 30-year career, John has held IT leadership positions for Ally Financial, Vanguard Car Rental, GMAC, Cisco, AT&T and variety of technology service companies. He has a broad spectrum of experience in architecture, data management, application delivery, business integration and application migration, and infrastructure design.

Brian A Wallace

Brian A. Wallace has spent more than 18 years in the computer technology industry. He is a Linux enthusiast. In a typical week he is designing and managing servers and networking systems. His IT career began as a Sony help desk technician, and later worked in medical IT, and eventually in education as a university instructor in technology, in Florida. Brian enjoys learning more about building containers using the various tools: OpenShift, Kubernetes, GIT, Docker, Red Hat. As a college instructor, he has taught for several years in all aspects of computer information technology. Brian has extensive experience in building out network infrastructure; network design concepts, planning & implementations; and also, with cloud computing offerings. He holds several Windows and Linux certifications, and a master’s degree in Management Information Systems from Hodges University. He was instrumental in implementing the first IT program for Red Hat Linux Computing at Keiser University in Fort Myers, Florida. He was also a champion of the push to bring students into the awareness of the programs of SWFLTech.

Dr. Huzefa Kagdi

Dr. Huzefa Kagdi, Interm Dean U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering F.G.C.U., President/CEO Beacon Life Tech

Dr. Huzefa Kagdi is currently the interim dean of U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). Previously, he was a department chair and full professor of Software Engineering. Prior to joining FGCU, he was an associate professor with tenure and graduate coordinator at Wichita State University in Kansas. His experience includes faculty positions at Missouri S&T and Winston-Salem State University, and software engineering roles in industry. He earned his PhD and MS in Computer Science, and BE in Computer Engineering. He has researched software engineering with emphasis on software data science, software analytics, mining software repositories, empirical software engineering, program comprehension, source code analysis, and software visualization. The results of his research have been published in top-tier ACM/IEEE software engineering venues, such as TSE, ESE, ICSE, ICSME, ICSE, ASE, and MSR. He has secured extramural funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and industry. He is a recipient of the IEEE ICPC 2013 Most Influential Paper (MIP) and the 2016 WSU Excellence in Teaching Award. He is a senior member of IEEE.

John Schlager

John Schalager, CEO & Co-Founder, Inceptus

Mr. Schlager is the CEO & Co-Founder of Inceptus, trusted advisors providing military grade cyber defenses and high-end consulting services that focus on helping organizations deal with the increasing risk and impact of cyber-attacks. Combining best of breed technologies, advanced data analytics, exclusive threat intelligence and elite analysts with years of digital combat experience Inceptus builds ultimate cyber resilience that aligns with an organizations business strategy. He was the Co-Founder & Chief Cyber Strategist for Skout Secure Intelligence (now Barracuda MSP). Skout is a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) and Consulting Company offering cyber services to clients across numerous verticals including Critical Infrastructure, Financial Services, Information Technology, Healthcare and Retail. He was responsible for development and operations of the Secure Intelligence Center (SIC), the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), Skout Labs as well as for the overall selection, design & operations of all services offered by Skout. He was the Chief Information Security Officer of the United States Capitol Police responsible for the overall design and deployment of enterprise cybersecurity program, including its associated technologies and policies. He was an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton where he investigated malicious activities and designed and developed operational security strategies for the assessment, detection, remediation, and continuous monitoring of large-scale enterprises. He developed strategies for the clandestine detection, containment, eradication and continued monitoring of Foreign Nation States and the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT). Mr. Schlager was an Information Security Officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where he was responsible for the cybersecurity program and posture of the office of criminal enforcement, forensics, and training (OCEFT) and the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). Mr. Schlager graduated with a Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, majoring in Cybersecurity with a minor in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland University College. He is an active member in numerous honor and leadership societies including the National Society of Leadership and Success – Sigma Alpha Pi, the National Honor Society for the Computing, and Information Disciplines – Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Throughout John’s career he has also held many IT Certifications including the Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP), Cisco Certified Networking Professional (CCNP), Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), Cisco Certified Design Associate Checkpoint Certified Security Expert (CCSE), Checkpoint Certified Security Administrator (CCSA) and the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE).

Randy Mitchelson, APR, Co-Founder & Board Advisor

Randy Mitchelson, APR, is an award winning entrepreneur, writer and community leader. After holding leadership positions at KeyBank, Marketplace Bank and Bank of America, Randy founded National Web Leads and started an internet marketing and public relations career that evolved into becoming vice president of sales and marketing at iPartnerMedia, an award winning digital marketing agency and Google Partner. Randy’s expertise has been featured in Search Engine Journal, RackSpace, Adobe’s CMO.com, Media Leaders, CMSWire, Entrepreneur.com and Website Magazine. He has co-founded five non-profits including the Southwest Florida Regional Technology Partnership (now SWFLTech). Randy is a Golden Image Award recipient from the Florida Public Relations Association where he is also President of the Southwest Florida chapter. He also serves on the board of directors with the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce. Randy earned a Bachelor of Science and MBA at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.