Newswise — Irvine, CA - (March 07, 2018) - The fourth annual, “Road to Reinvention: Leadership in the Digital Age,” conference, hosted by the Center for Digital Transformation (CDT) at UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business, will be held Thursday, March 22, 2017, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center, 100 Academy in Irvine, California. 

Designed for senior executives and board members, the 2018 Road to Reinvention conference will explore critical issues with topics including: disrupting industries with code, driving game-changing innovation, what’s next in digital technologies, and getting your workforce ready for the future.

“2018 brings business new challenges. While software, especially AI, continues to transform industries, many jobs are being automated. Platform companies are dominating raising concerns about industry competitiveness. And our reliance on the digital infrastructure has raised cybersecurity risks. Through a series of thoughtful conversations with experienced leaders, our program will focus on helping attendees understand how to navigate the road ahead,” said Vijay Gurbaxani, founding director of the CDT and Taco Bell Professor of Business and Computer Science at the Merage School.

On the agenda are featured keynote presentations, one-on-one interviews, and panel discussions with experienced executives including:

  • Kiva Allgood, Chief Commercial Development Officer, GE Ventures
  • João Barros, Founder & CEO, Veniam
  • Henry Bzeih, CTO & SVP of Automotive, FLEX
  • Jeff Calcagno, MD, Senior Director of New Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Innovation
  • Bryan Cunningham, Executive Director, UCI Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute
  • Nick Desai, Co-founder & CEO, Heal
  • Susan Doniz, Group CIO, Qantas
  • Ada Duan, General Manager of Business Development/Gaming, Microsoft
  • Jarrett Dube, Head of Creative Brand Marketing-VR, Samsung
  • Russ Garcia, CEO, Menlo Micro
  • Martin Giles, CDT Senior Industry Fellow, San Francisco Bureau Chief, MIT Technology Review
  • Oren Goldschmidt, President, Pivotus Ventures
  • Vijay Gurbaxani, Founding Director, Center for Digital Transformation
  • Robin Hensley, Vice President of Applications Development & Customer Engagement Technology, UPS
  • Robert Houlihan, Chief Commercial Development Officer, Mercury Insurance
  • Dr. Eugene Izhikevich, Co-founder, Chairman & CEO, Brain Corp
  • Shabnam Jalakian, SVP & Chief Information Security Officer, First American
  • Peter Marx, Advisory Board Member, Office of Extraordinary Innovation, Los Angeles Metro
  • Miriam McLemore, Enterprise Strategist, Amazon
  • Kathy Misunas, Board Director, Tech Data Corporation and Boingo Wireless
  • Jeetu Patel, Chief Product Officer, Box
  • Ryan Permeh, Co-founder & Chief Scientist, Cylance
  • Rebecca Scholl, Vice President of Digital Innovation, Genpact
  • Susan Swenson, Board Director, First Responders Network Authority and Harmonic
  • Margarethe Wiersema, Dean's Professor, Strategic Management, The Paul Merage School of Business
  • Mingdi Xin, Assistant Professor, Information Systems, The Paul Merage School of Business
  • Dean Yoost, Board Director, MUFG Union Bank & Pacific Life Insurance Company
  • Scott Zogg, Chief Security Officer & Fellow, Rockwell Collins

The 2018 Road to Reinvention conference is made possible by generous sponsors including our benefactor, The Beall Family Foundation; Gold Sponsors – CGI, Salesforce, UPS, TRACE3, Hitachi Consulting, HCL, Technosssus, IBM, and Xelleration; and, Silver Sponsors – Accenture, Liferay, Magenic, ServiceNow, and CONNEQT.

Seating is limited. To register, visit: centerfordigitaltransformation.org. Registration is $595 per person, or $450 per person if you register together with a colleague. Cost includes the day-long program, breakfast, lunch, refreshment breaks and a closing reception. 

About the Center for Digital Transformation

The Center for Digital Transformation works to advance the competitiveness and productivity of businesses in the digital economy. Guided by a distinguished and talented external advisory board, the center provides executives with a better understanding of the dynamics of the digital revolution and what these forces mean for their industries and organizations.

About The Paul Merage School of Business

The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine offers four dynamic MBA programs – plus PhD, specialty masters and undergraduate business degrees – that prepare business leaders for our digitally driven world. Through our programs, students acquire the exceptional ability to grow their organizations through strategic innovation, analytical decision-making, digital information technology and collaborative execution. While the Merage School is relatively young, it has quickly grown to rank consistently among the top five percent of all business programs worldwide through exceptional student recruitment, world-class faculty, a strong alumni network and close relationships with both individual business executives and global corporations. Additional information is available at merage.uci.edu.

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