Speakers
Sarepta Ridgeway is a Director, Strategic Sourcing within RSM’s Strategic Sourcing group.
Sarepta reviews and offers guidance regarding contracts for the purchase of goods and services for all RSM lines of business. Prior to joining the RSM team, Sarepta worked with CenterPoint Energy helping to implement and grow their strategic sourcing and category management team. She has vast indirect procurement experience, including category management, strategic sourcing, process development and improvement, talent management, risk mitigation, contracts drafting and negotiations, value engineering, and achieving substantial cost avoidance and cost savings, with long-standing expertise in technology purchasing and spend. Sarepta earned an MBA through LeTourneau University, a BS through University of Houston, and an AA through San Jacinto College. She has earned a C.P.M. (Certified Purchasing Manager) through the Institute for Supply Management; CPSM (Certified Professional in Supply Management) through the Institute for Supply Management; PMP (Project Management Professional) through the Project Management Institute: and CTPE (Certified Technology Procurement Executive) through International Computer Negotiations. Sarepta has also been a member and chairman of the CAUCUS Executive Advisory Committee, an advisory board to CAUCUS (a leading IT procurement professionals’ association) and has presented at prior CAUCUS events, at Supplier Diversity events, taught on a collegiate level, and promotes knowledge-sharing with her colleagues and peers.
Melanie Berry, Strategic Sourcing Management Director, Synovus Bank 
Melanie Berry is a Sourcing professional who has worked in the Financial Services industry for nearly 20 years. She has spent much of her career supporting IT category spend inclusive of hardware, software and services contracts. Currently she serves as Sourcing Director at Synovus Bank in Columbus Georgia. Her direct responsibilities include leading the Sourcing process for critical and high value contracts with a strong focus in the IT category.
Melanie got an up close look at software audits when a jaw dropping number caused significant changes in how Sourcing and IT partner in the inquiry, engagement and resolution of vendor audit inquiries.
Kasey Frank, Global Senior Category Manager, Willis Towers Watson
Session: TBD
Kasey Frank, CTPE is the Global Senior Category Manager for Willis Towers Watson, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company headquartered in London, England, where she oversees the IT Infrastructure category comprised of over $100M in enterprise and globally deployed software and hardware. Kasey has been an IT Procurement professional since 2014 and prior to WTW, successfully built the IT procurement department, systems and formal procurement processes for Ramsey Solutions, a Dave Ramsey company. Additionally, Kasey has 15+ years' experience working in the legal profession, specifically focused on contracts and commercial law and has experience as a small business owner.
Kasey received her Master's degree in Conflict Management with a focus in Mediation and Negotiation from Lipscomb University in, Nashville, TN in 2012 and served as a Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31 Dual Listed Mediator for over 7 years. Kasey is originally from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and currently resides in the Greater Nashville, Tennessee area with her husband Jeremy of 15 years, her two children and 2 dogs.
Ruth Ginzberg, CTPS, Senior IT Procurement Specialist
Ruth Ginzberg is the Sr. I.T. Procurement Specialist at the University of Wisconsin System. With an annual budget of approximately $6 billion, the University of Wisconsin operates 26 campuses serving 180,000 students and employing more than 39,000 faculty and staff. Ruth is responsible for the procurement, negotiation and administration of the enterprise-wide portfolio of software licenses, cloud contracts, I.T. service contracts, and library technologies. She also is responsible for providing consulting and support services to campus-based purchasing agents doing technology procurements at the individual campus level.
She serves on the ICS Board, and is the vice chair of the Technologies Committee of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact. She has an allegedly useless humanities degree in Philosophy with a concentration in Ethics, and an advanced technical degree in Information Systems Security.
Jennifer Gardiner
Jenni Gardiner is the Technical Supplier Manager in the Shared IT Procurement Services department at Assurant, Inc. Gardiner is a highly effective Global Information Technology Sourcing expert & Vendor Manager with over 21 years of experience in Category Management, Strategic Sourcing, Project Management and Vendor Management/Governance.
She has demonstrated mastery of developing and successful execution of complex Category Management including: IT (hardware, telecommunications, mobility, networking, software, hosting), Outsourcing (ITO, BPO, etc.) and Services. In addition she has successfully implemented formalized corporate-wide Vendor Management Programs, Partnership Improvement Plans, Spend Analytics and IT Sourcing Policies and Procedures.
Her previous position at Assurant was with governance responsibilities over Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, EMC, CA, HP, Verizon and Cisco.
Luke Montoya
Luke Montoya is the current Chairman of the CAUCUS executive advisory committee. He is the Strategic Sourcing Director at RSM US LLP, the fifth largest USA accounting/consulting firm. Prior to joining the sourcing team, Mr. Montoya worked in RSM’s legal department as an attorney, negotiating a variety of contracts, including vendor agreements. In addition, Mr. Montoya has advised RSM with respect to vendor disputes, contract compliance, terminating vendor contracts, and software audits. Before joining RSM, Mr. Montoya was a corporate attorney at Winston & Strawn LLP, a national law firm headquartered in Chicago. Mr. Montoya obtained his law degree from Vanderbilt University, earning a Law and Business Certificate in addition to his J.D., and is licensed to practice law in Illinois. Mr. Montoya earned his B.A. degree from Bradley University.
Elgin Ward
F. Elgin Ward is both an attorney and ICN Senior Consultant. A skilled negotiator, contracts manager, and educator, Mr. Ward has extensive experience in technology deals.
In addition to working in Asia for more than 5 years and his lengthy experience as a technology consultant in multiple cities in North America and also in Europe, Elgin has been teaching fundamental and advanced purchasing seminars to management professionals for over 20 years. He has both developed and taught a Contract Management Seminar for the American Management Association, as well as co-developed and taught an ICN SLA Lab course and an ICN Cloud Contracting seminar for purchasing professionals in a wide variety of industries including public utilities, insurance, financial institutions, semiconductors and other manufacturing, transportation and telecommunications.
Prior to joining ICN, Elgin was Corporate Counsel for Deseret Generation & Transmission Co-operative, where he successfully prepared and issued documentation for hundreds of RFPs for outsourcing, maintenance, diagnostics, and security for the construction of power generation, electric power transmission and distribution lines, microwave and other telecommunication facilities. Elgin has successfully established and maintained purchasing and contracting documentation systems, and he is superbly experienced in negotiating and drafting purchase agreements for raw materials, equipment, computer hardware and software, transportation, engineering services and maintenance.
Elgin also supervised the preparation and issuing of bid documentation for hundreds of RFPs, which totaled millions of dollars, for major industrial equipment. He also has developed and presented seminars on the legal aspects of buying and selling and on how to avoid legal pitfalls in contract administration.
Mr. Ward holds a Juris Doctor degree from Brigham Young University – J. Reuben Clark Law School, and a BA from the University of MA.
