Scott Robinson, chief technology officer, Datalink
ISSUES: Current and emerging storage technologies (i.e. SAN, NAS, iSCSI, storage management, virtualization), the storage industry, Datalink in general. As chief technology officer, Scott Robinson is responsible for developing the company’s storage solutions strategy and overseeing the company’s portfolio of data availability, data recovery, and storage management solutions. Scott directs the company’s research efforts, including industry trend and innovation analysis and testing of new hardware and software products. He consults with IT executives on a regular basis. Prior to assuming this role, Scott was vice president of engineering at the company. In this capacity, he was responsible for developing and overseeing the field engineering and technical support organizations. Upon joining the company in 1989, he was the company’s chief engineer. Prior to joining Datalink, Scott was employed as a software developer by 3M. Scott received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Marquette University and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Tom Sylvester, vice president of technical services, Datalink
ISSUES: Current and emerging storage technologies (i.e. SAN, NAS, iSCSI, storage management, virtualization), the storage industry, Datalink in general. As vice president of technical services, Tom provides strategic vision and leadership for the development and implementation of information technology and communications initiatives that improve employee productivity and quality of service to customers. Tom oversees the delivery and continuous operation of systems that support the company’s distributed and centralized operations teams. Tom joined the company in 1997 and assumed a variety of roles within the field engineering organization, most recently as director of engineering. In this capacity, he led a team of engineers in the design and deployment of data storage solutions. Prior to Datalink, Tom worked for Motorola, Inc., in the cellular infrastructure group for eight years as a technical lead in system administration, storage and storage management. Tom holds a bachelor of science degree in computer science from Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Ari Kaplan, senior consultant responsible for database solutions, Datalink
ISSUES: Database performance tuning, designing storage infrastructures for database environments, database security and rapid backup and recovery of large databases. As senior consultant responsible for database solutions, Ari is chartered with helping Datalink expand its Oracle® storage practice. Ari works closely with customers to help them optimize the performance of their database and storage environments. Additionally, Ari identifies and launches new Oracle storage services and works closely with Datalink’s professional services teams to carry out these services based on industry and Datalink-specific best practices. Ari is past president of the Independent Oracle Users Group and has more than 15 years experience working with large Oracle database applications. Prior to Datalink, Ari spent six years as CEO and founder of Expand Beyond and held senior roles at Oracle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Booz Allen Hamilton, and U.S. Robotics/3Com.

Charles Westling, president and CEO, Datalink
ISSUES: Financial information about Datalink. As president and CEO, Charlie is responsible for operational planning, business plan implementation and overall company growth. Charlie joined Datalink in January 2002 as vice president of business development and was later named vice president of market development. As vice president of market development, Charlie was responsible for overseeing the company’s storage solutions strategy and portfolio, as well as directing product management and marketing. In 2003, he was appointed president and chief operating officer. During his tenure, Charlie forged and strengthened relationships with key technology providers, focused Datalink on enterprise-level accounts and enhanced the company's strategic selling approach. He joined Datalink from Agiliti Inc., where he served as executive vice president of business development. Charlie also held a number of senior management positions at John G. Kinnard Company, Incorporated and Dain Rauscher Incorporated. Charlie earned a master of management degree with distinction from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, at Northwestern University. He also holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Carleton College.

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