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As Vice President of Product Planning at Hitachi Data Systems and Chief Engineer at the Disk Array Systems Division, Michael leads a team of thinkers that contemplate and help enact the future of Hitachi’s expanding global IT portfolio. Presently on long term assignment in Japan, Michael engages with a variety R&D teams using a clear understanding of customer and market requirements to guide direction and inspire innovation. Previously Michael served as Senior Director of Product Strategy at HDS and RSD. Michael joined HDS in 2001 after serving as CEO and owner of a consultancy company focused on complex Enterprise and Systems management design and deployment. His professional background also includes stints at IBM, IBM partners, and other IT startup companies. These roles have help Michael develop his keen focus on solutions for the problems of tomorrow. Michael holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, NM.
Eric Hibbard is CTO Security & Privacy and is responsible for Hitachi’s storage security strategy. In this technology leadership role, Eric provides guidance to both Hitachi management and technology teams. He is also an industry thought leader, who serves as the International Representative of INCITS/CS1 Cyber Security, Co-Chair of the ABA E-Discovery and Digital Evidence (EDDE) Committee, Vice Chair of the IEEE-SA Information Assurance Standards Committee (IASC), Vice Chair of IEEE Security in Storage Work Group (SISWG), and Chair of the SNIA Security Technical Working Group. Eric has over 30 years in advanced information and communications technology (ICT), working for government, academia, and industry. He also holds a unique combination of professional certifications: CISSP, CISA, ISSAP, ISSMP, ISSEP, and SCSE. Eric is based in Santa Clara, CA.
As the Director of Strategy in the Office of Technology and Planning, Ken Wood researches the industry and gathers customer, and non-customer, requirements for solving IT problems by incubating, developing and bringing to market, solutions that only Hitachi can uniquely provide. In this role, Ken is responsible for developing the company’s long term product strategies and reference architectures using Hitachi’s entire technology portfolio, while also exploring and applying these technologies to new and existing business opportunities. Ken has served for four years on the Storage Networking Industry Association’s Technical Council and five years on the Data Management Forum’s Board of Directors. Ken holds a B.S. in Computer Science and M.S. degree in Software Engineering.
Gary Pilafas leads the strategic customer engagement for the combined current and future technology strategies for HDS with Hitachi, Ltd’s Disk Array Systems Division. He has many years of developing large enterprise strategies and leading technology transformations which have lead to a 75% savings in operational expenses and infrastructure modernization. Prior to joining Hitachi Data Systems, Gary was the Chief Architect and Managing Director of Enterprise Architecture at United Airlines where he spent 8 years establishing enterprise architecture hardware and software standards, massive financial reductions in CAPEX and OPEX dollars while UAL restructured under bankruptcy. Prior to UA, he was a technology Director for MyPoints.com, Moore Wallace Corporation (purchased by R.R Donnelley), Walgreens and AT&T. Pilafas holds degrees in Aviation and Management from Southern Illinois University. He also spent 8 years as a Naval Aircrewman in the United States Marine Corps.
