Dave Bianconi
Chief Executive Officer
Progressive Medical
With the experience of overseeing several businesses and having an entrepreneurial drive, David Bianconi founded Progressive Medical in 1986. Initially a provider of electromedical and other durable medical equipment, under Mr. Bianconi's guidance, Progressive Medical has continually expanded its portfolio of services. From the beginning, realizing the opportunities available, Mr. Bianconi has recruited and developed an experienced team of individuals which helped the company realize significant growth over the past 20 years. Since 1994, the company has successfully sustained a 53% average annual growth rate.
Today, Progressive Medical has evolved into a managed care cost containment company, specializing in coordinating care on behalf of injured parties from workers' compensation, auto-no-fault and personal injury protection cases nationwide.
As Progressive Medical continues to grow, Mr. Bianconi provides the vision and leadership which will enable the company to develop innovative solutions to the customers' needs in the future. Mr. Bianconi provides hands-on leadership, focusing his company's direction on developing innovative services and pursuing other vertical markets.
Mr. Bianconi is an active member of the Red Cross Board, the Westerville Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees and various other advisory boards. Mr. Bianconi also offers his expertise as a speaker at various events. His sound business practices and philanthropic endeavors have enabled him to become a leader within the Central Ohio community and the workers' compensation industry.
Bianconi has been honored with several awards noting his compassionate integrity driven business practices, most notably ranking in Inc. 500's Hall of Fame since 1999.
Denny L. Brown
CIO & VP Information Services
Arizona Public Service
Denny L. Brown, CIO & VP, Information Services, Arizona Public Service(APS) has been in the utility industry since 1973, holding various management positions for APS, Stagg Systems, Inc., and International Business Machines(IBM). He was named CIO & VP, Information Services at APS in July 2001. In 2007, Denny also was named Chief Security Officer.
Prior to joining the APS, Denny served as Global Solution Executive for IBM. In this capacity, he was directly responsible for the worldwide Power Trading and Energy Management business within IBM’s Utility practice which focused on providing innovative technology solutions to the electricity market in the midst of sweeping deregulation and reform, including Power Exchanges, ISO’s, utilities and Energy Services Companies.
In 1992, Denny was appointed President and General Manager, Stagg Systems Inc. Stagg was a wholly owned subsidiary of Arizona Public Service Company at the time. In this position he was responsible for Stagg’s Energy Management and Work Management solution business worldwide.
Preceding his Stagg appointment, Denny spent sixteen years with Arizona Public Service holding several management positions in design engineering, operations, systems integration, systems planning, and corporate modeling.
Denny holds a B.S.E.E. with honors from Arizona State University and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Arizona.
Denny has been an active member of the IEEE since 1973, is past chairman of the EEI CIO Technology Committee and is currently serving on the PNW PAC Board, the Board of Directors of CAPA(Child Abuse Prevention of Arizona) and the Board of the YMCA..
Ted Ford
Chief Executive Officer
Tech Columbus
Mr. Ford is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in government, marketing, higher education, and public-private partnerships. He has specialized in leading transformative change in the context of public/private partnerships.
Ted Ford was named the first President & CEO of TechColumbus in 2005. TechColumbus is the lead organization for stimulating technology-based economic development in the fifteen counties of Central Ohio. TechColumbus provides a full suite of membership programming, business assistance, and other services to tech-based businesses in Central Ohio. In addition, TechColumbus operates a world-class, internationally recognized technology business incubator. Under Mr. Ford’s leadership, TechColumbus successfully led the Central Ohio effort to secure $15 million in State of Ohio funding and $7.5 million in local matching funds to launch the region’s TechStart initiative, an intensive three-year program to accelerate the launch of new tech businesses.
From 2000-2005, Mr. Ford served as President & CEO of Edison Welding Institute, one of the nation’s most successful nonprofit engineering research and development organizations. Mr. Ford reengineered the EWI business model to emphasize efficiency and growth. During his tenure, revenue grew by 50%, while earnings for reinvestment grew from an average of 1% to a maximum of 10%. He also put in place a strategic investment plan to position EWI at the cutting edge of joining technologies needed by the energy, aerospace, heavy manufacturing, and medical device and electronics industries.
Prior to joining EWI, Mr. Ford served as Senior Vice President for University Advancement at Northern Arizona University. His responsibilities included all university fundraising, alumni outreach, public affairs and marketing, government relations and athletics. During his tenure, Mr. Ford led the development and launch of NAU’s first capital campaign with a goal of $100 million. The campaign was successful.
In addition to the above, Mr. Ford has served as a fundraising consultant, business development professional, public policy advocate, state legislative staffer, and executive assistant to the Governor of Ohio.
Donna James
Lardon and Associates
Partner
Donna James is the managing director of Lardon & Associates LLC, and a corporate director for three Fortune 500 public companies. As the former president of Nationwide Strategic Investments, and a former executive vice president for Nationwide Insurance and Financial Services, Donna has over 25 years of diverse line and staff business experience at the highest corporate levels. A formal education and beginning as an accounting professional provided the foundation for her growth and effectiveness in both business and community endeavors. During her corporate career she had an opportunity to link financial decisions and business initiatives to well defined people strategies as the senior vice president for human resources. She continued her growth with broader experience in global administrative services before becoming president of a diversified financial services division.
As president of Nationwide Strategic Investments, she had direct responsibility for five U.S and global based affiliates, plus a venture capital fund. She also led a new business innovation team with responsibility for discovering, analyzing and commercializing emerging opportunities. Prior to this assignment she was executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Nationwide Mutual Insurance and Financial Services with global responsibility for human capital management, corporate real estate, procurement, security, technology, public relations, advertising, brand management, and aviation.
In her roles as a corporate director for Coca Cola Enterprises, Limited Brands, Conseco Inc., and Intimate Brands she has experience serving on the governance, audit, affiliated transaction, compensation, and inclusion committees; as chair of the audit committees for Limited Brands and Coca-Cola Enterprises, and she chaired the special committee for Intimate Brands recombination with Limited Brands.
Jordan Miller
Chief Executive Officer
Fifth Third Bank
Mike Morris
Chief Executive Officer
American Electric Power
Michael G. Morris is chairman, president and chief executive officer of American Electric Power Co., Inc. Morris was chairman, president and CEO of Northeast Utilities System from 1997 to 2003, where he led the company during its $1.3 billion sale of the Millstone Station nuclear plant in 2001, a $679 million merger with Yankee Energy System Inc., and the acquisition of Connecticut Valley Electric Co. He was also heavily involved in the formation of ISO-New England, as well as restructuring and retail customer choice in the New England states.
Before joining Northeast Utilities, Morris was president and CEO of Consumers Energy, principal subsidiary of CMS Energy, and president of CMS Marketing, Services and Trading. He was previously president of Colorado Interstate Gas Co. and executive vice president of marketing, transportation and gas supply for ANR Pipeline Co., both subsidiaries of El Paso Energy. Morris was the founder and president of ANR Gathering Co., one of the first gas marketing companies in the United States.
Morris is past chairman of the Edison Electric Institute. He also serves on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Board, the National Governors Association’s Task Force on Electricity Infrastructure, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, Business Roundtable (chairing the Business Roundtable's Sustainable Growth Initiative), and the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation. Morris serves as a director of the boards of Alcoa, Battelle, Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, and The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. He is past chairman of the board of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and the Ohio Business Roundtable. Morris received a law degree, cum laude, from the Detroit College of Law in 1980 and is a member of the Michigan Bar Association. He is a past member of the Board of the Detroit College of Law.
Terry Rapoch
Dayta Ohio
Chief Technology Officer
Terry Rapoch is the President and Chief Executive Officer of daytaOhio, Ohio’s Wright Center for Data that is a $44.5M collaborative investment by industry, public sector organizations and academic institutions as part of Ohio’s Third Frontier Project. It is a center of excellence focused on improving the performance of individuals and organizations through the innovative visualization of complex information and processes in defense, energy and medical applications. daytaOhio’s goals are to attract new investments, promote business development and create new high wage, high tech jobs in Ohio. Terry is responsible for implementing this strategic vision working with the daytaOhio Board and collaborators from Ohio and beyond.
Terry served as the Chief Technology Officer for daytaOhio from January 2005 until his appointment as President and CEO in July 2007. In 2003, he was named NCR’s loaned executive on the community team that successfully developed the daytaOhio proposal and then supported the initial startup of the organization. He joined NCR in November 1997 as Chief Information Officer for NCR’s Americas Region after holding senior management and executive positions in information technology with three major Canadian communications companies and serving as the Chief Information Officer of NCR Canada.
Meg Williams
Retired AVP Nationwide Insurance
Margaret (who goes by Meg) Williams is an Ohio native with over 35 years of successful Business Management and Information Technology leadership spanning a wide variety of industries, including insurance, government, manufacturing, publishing, online services, and finance/banking, and consulting. She has extensive experience leading initiatives to develop
business systems, re-engineering business processes, completing system integrations and conversions, building data centers, implementing new technologies, and negotiating and managing large multi-supplier contracts.
Most recently, Meg held positions within Nationwide insurance as CIO of their Scottsdale
Insurance affiliate, CIO/COO of Nationwide Bank, and AVP, Information Technology starting up a new function for Continuous Improvement. She was nominated, and awarded, ComputerWorld’s Premier 100 CIO honor in 2005, and was a contributor to a recent publication by Ouellette & Co. – Leading IT Transformation: The Roadmap for Success.
Meg attended Ohio Northern University as a Freshman Honor Scholar, and The Ohio State University, has completed the Executive MBA program at OSU Fisher College of Business, the Executive Leadership program at the University of Virginia (Darden School of Business), Project Management training through Battelle Institute, has a Master’s Certificate from International Computer Negotiations, and Expert and Master’s Certificates in business process from the Hammer Institute.
Meg has 2 sons, both married. Her oldest son lives with his family in Bradenton, FL, and her youngest son lives with his family in Powell, OH. She is the proud and busy grandmother of 3! In addition to spending time with family, Meg enjoys reading, fishing (fresh and salt water), walking her dog, and is planning a world tour in preparation for retirement. She is active in
the community, has served in both volunteer and board level positions in various organizations, and has been asked to serve on the board of the Athena Foundation – a professional businesswomen’s organization whose mission is to support, develop, and honor women leaders.
