Philly Tech Week 2018

Dana S. Wilson currently serves as Vice President of Customer Experience for Comcast Cable, the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone provider to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. In this role, she is responsible for leading end-to- end improvement initiatives to transform the experience for Comcast customers. Dana previously served as Executive Director of Strategy & Operations where she led departmental strategic initiatives to drive customer-focus and high performance across products. During her tenure, Dana has led the delivery of Comcast’s Olympics experience for both the 2012 Summer and 2013Winter games. In addition, she led the integration of the NBC Sports Live Extra Olympics app on X1, providing Xfinity customers with 1,000 hours of live streaming coverage of the Sochi Winter Games. The innovative experience was the first of it’s kind in the industry and gave customers 500 extra hours of live event coverage on the set-top box. Dana started her career at Comcast as Senior Director of Product Planning and Delivery for Comcast Interactive Media, where she managed execution of the Xfinity product roadmap for online and mobile entertainment. Prior to joining Comcast in 2011, Dana acquired a wealth of knowledge from the management consulting, chemical, utility and municipal industries. Dana has worked for companies such as: Accenture, Rohm and Haas Company, Philadelphia Gas Works and City of Philadelphia where she gained her engineering experience and extensive knowledge in the areas of enterprise performance management, operational excellence, product development, customer service, and manufacturing. Dana S. Wilson is a graduate of Drexel University and holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering. During her professional tenure, Dana has obtained a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification which reflects her expertise in leading and executing initiatives within an organization that are focused on driving high performance and customer service.

As Chief Innovation Officer of Power Home Remodeling, Timothy is responsible for all aspects of technology for this high-growth-mode company that is transforming the home remodeling industry. This includes the company’s unique, state-of-the-art collaborative intelligence platform, which enables seamless, real-time communication across a network of thousands of employees, partners and customers in 21 states. Since joining Power as a consultant in 2007, Timothy’s counsel, vision and leadership have been instrumental to the company’s growth and aggressive expansion objectives. Understanding the need to better communicate with employees in the field, as well as provide the company with a way to seamlessly track, facilitate, engage with and support marketing and sales progress, customer experience, installation processes, and post-installation payment cycles, Timothy and his global business technology team developed NITRO. A radical and visionary departure from conventional solutions to these challenges, NITRO is now the most technologically innovative and advanced enterprise solution in the industry. As such, its capabilities were instrumental in the company’s rapid growth to its current state as the nation's 2nd largest exterior home remodeler with more than $520 million in revenue, and is viewed company-wide as the critical tool to Power’s continued success.

Timothy's educational background doesn't start in a top university. In spite of having a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, Timothy decided to tackle life first—going on the road with a band and financing the tour himself. After a year of truly experiencing life, Timothy returned home in debt and needed to figure out his next move. After a series of jobs in varying industries from aerospace to engineering, he found his home in computers, technology and innovation. In 1985 he founded Sintaks, a regional systems integrator working with clients such as ARAMARK, GMAC, SEI, etc. After growing the company for more than 10 years, Timothy sold Sintaks to Cannon in 1996 as Cannon viewed this acquisition as strategic to their goal of connected devices. The entrepreneur bug had taken hold of Timothy, so he went on to start, grow and sell multiple technology companies, laying the groundwork for the creation of Data In Motion, a systems innovation company. Power became a customer of the company in 2007 before finally integrating the company fully into the technology division of Power in 2012. Timothy currently resides in Collegeville, PA.

Kip Wetzel is a Principal at Navigate, a Strategy and Management Consulting firm focused on the success of organizations in greater-Philadelphia. Kip leads Navigate’s Digital Transformation and Design Thinking Practice, bringing extensive strategic knowledge and practical insight from his digital leadership across a number of industries. In his role, Kip is helping partners leverage human-centered design and disruptive technologies to drive innovation around their most critical business imperatives. Prior to joining Navigate, Kip was Vice President of Enterprise Social Media Strategy at Capital One where he developed and executed a company-wide social media strategy to maximize the impact of emerging technology platforms for banking, lending, and credit business lines. Kip also spent over a decade at Comcast as a digital product manager; spanning a number of roles, Kip launched myriad cross- platform entertainment experiences for millions of Comcast users and lead the company’s transformation of customer engagement through social media. Kip is an alumnus of Villanova University and currently sits on the boards of The Philadelphia Outward Bound School and The Philadelphia Arts & Business Council.

Emrah Ercan is the director of digital strategy & innovation at Suez Water Technologies and a member of the Company’s innovation and digital board of directors. He joined Suez Water (formerly GE Water) in 2012, bringing more than 15 years of innovation and commercial leadership experience to the organization.

In his current role, Mr. Ercan oversees corporate digital strategy, facilitating company activity in industrial IoT and asset performance management. This responsibility extends to include applying big data analytics and artificial learning to industrial water treatment and energy/resource management. Previously, he served as VP of strategic initiatives at GE Oil & Gas and GE Digital, where he established an internal incubator to fund early-stage digital oilfield ideas, which were later implemented across the global commercial team.

Prior to Suez (GE), Mr. Ercan spent ten years at Ashland, where he held a variety of management, operations, sales, and marketing roles, ultimately serving as the company’s West Coast territory manager and leading a successful effort to streamline operations, strengthen the product line, and drive growth.

Mr. Ercan holds an MBA from the University of Southern California, an MS in Industrial Engineering from Chalmers University in Sweden, and a BS in Chemical & Process Engineering from Bogazici University. In 2013, Mr. Ercan was honored by, then CEO, Jeff Immelt with the GE Corporate Innovation Award – in recognition of his achievements in the digitalization of the global field service team. Emrah is a member of the American Turkish Young Society Leaders (YSL) and an executive board of director of Stamford Metal Group in Stamford, CT. He is an avid reader, a devout Besiktas fan and resides in New York City with his family.

Leslie Zacharkow is a designer/developer living in Berkeley, California. She studied Industrial Design at the University of the Arts and spent 8 years in Philadelphia before moving west. Her hobbies include leaving work early to spend time outside, planning her escape back east, and working on Tabby Cat (of course).

Mark Willis is a designer, strategist and entrepreneur. After a decade directing digital strategy at Harvard University, he recently moved the Philadelphia area to grow his design firm, Clean Sheet Co., and to consult with startups and digital projects at the intersection of art and technology. He’s a co-founder at the Philly-based Texel Foundation, a new consortium creating open-source infrastructure to power blockchain-driven artwork projects.

Aniyia is a creator, inventor and tech changemaker. She started a fashion hardware company, Tinsel, in 2014, in response to the lack of tech products developed with women in mind. After coming up with the idea of an audio accessory that doubles as a beautiful piece of jewelry, she left her role in marketing at the tech company Voxer to pursue it fully. Aniyia Williams has background in the arts and tech, as well as a decade of training as singer of classical music and opera. She has held roles in marketing, community management, business development and non-profit fundraising. Alongside building Tinsel, Aniyia is a co-founder of Zebras Unite and serves as Executive Director of Black & Brown Founders, which provides vital resources to Black and Latinx entrepreneurs building tech companies with limited capital.

Jason Berger is a partner at the Philadelphia based law firm Margolis Edelstein and chairs the firm’s Entertainment and New Media practice group.

Jason’s expertise lies in recognizing talented artists, individuals and companies, developing strategy to achieve long-term success, and protecting their interests by rigorously negotiating and drafting the agreements forming the basis of their business relationships.

Jason’s practice focuses on securing and negotiating agreements in the music, television/film, digital media, technology, art and fashion industries. Jason’s client base covers the entertainment, media and technology industries and includes established and developing artists, songwriters, producers, bands, independent record labels, digital distribution companies, content creation and management companies, music publishing companies, apparel companies, management companies, executives, actors, models, and multimedia fashion and lifestyle companies.

Jason is a member and active participant in The Recording Academy’s Philadelphia Chapter, formally serving as an Advisor to the Board of Directors and currently involved in the Chapter’s Advocacy Committee.

Jason is active in his community of Philadelphia, PA, where he is an adjunct professor at Drexel University’s acclaimed Music Industry Program, teaching a wide variety of music and entertainment related topics. When not assisting his clients or working with his students, he is involved in a variety of music related endeavors from curating live performances to cofounding and developing nicethingsMUSIC, a technology inspired independent record label and distributor.