Advisory Board

The Advisory Board of DIGITS is composed of a number of distinguished business leaders who provide directions and strategic guidance to DIGITS.

G. "Anand" Anandalingam

Anand Anandalingam is the Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Management Science at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland . His research focuses on telecommunication networks, and electronic markets' design, economics, industry analysis, strategy, and policy. He also works on global information systems strategy. Professor Anandalingam has published more than 75 papers in refereed journals, and has guest edited volumes on electronic markets for Management Science , and hierarchical optimization for Annals of Operations Research. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers , and INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Science). Anand serves on the editorial board of Telecommunications Systems, and Networks and Spatial Economics, and as the associate editor of Operations Research. His Ph.D. is from Harvard University in operations research with economics.

George L. Kerns

George Kerns is President and CEO of Fusepoint Managed Services (www.fusepoint.com), a Toronto-based managed services provider. He was formally the President and CEO of Digex, a provider of managed enterprise hosting services to companies with mission-critical applications. Digex, a Maryland-based public company, was acquired by MCI in late 2003. He left MCI in mid-2004 after leading the integration of Digex into MCI.

Prior to Digex, he served as Chief Operating Officer of HarvardNet, a business DSL provider; Vice President of Services of Phase Forward, an Application Service Provider for pharmaceutical, medical device and bio-tech companies running clinical trials over the Internet; and Chief Operations Executive for BBN/GTE Internetworking, one of the first full service Internet Service Providers.

Prior to working with Internet businesses, he worked for several years in the wireless industry: as Vice President of Infrastructure and Engineering for EDS Personal Communications, a financial clearinghouse, fraud prevention and billing service provider for wireless carriers; and, as Chief Information Officer for Contel Cellular/GTE Mobile Communications, the second largest wireless carrier at the time.

He started his career as an Information Technology consultant. He worked for several years with Accenture and Deloitte Consulting before founding Strategic Systems Consulting. Consulting engagements were principally provided to large companies for the design, development and implementation of complex business applications.

He earned a BS degree in Mathematics from Furman University and a MBA degree with a concentration in Management Sciences from the University of Georgia.

Henry C. Lucas, Jr.

Hank Lucas is the holder of the Robert H. Smith Chair in Information Systems at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland . He is the author of 11 books and monographs, and more than 70 articles about information technology. His research interests include the impact of information technology on organizations, IT in organization design, electronic commerce, and the value of information technology. His most recent books include Strategies for Economic Commerce and the Internet ( Cambridge : MIT Press, 2002); Information Technology to Design Organizations for the 21st Century (Jossey-Bass, 1996). professor Lucas is currently editor -in-chief of the AIS. He received his Ph.D. from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Harvey F. Seegers

Harvey Seegers is Senior Vice President, Home Depot Direct - the company’s global “Direct-to-Consumer” business. In his capacity, Seegers oversees the overall business of the unit from marketing to fulfillment and customer contact centers.

Prior to Home Deport, Seegers was most recently president and CEO of GE Global eXchange Services (GXS) for more than seven years, GXS is the world's largest provider of business-to-business electronic commerce services.

Seegers joined GE in 1991 and for two years focused on reforming the company's supply chain management practices. From 1993 to 1995, he managed a $200 million unit of GE Transportation Systems, while also serving as the business development leader of this $2 billion global division. In the latter role, CEO Jack Welch presented him with the prestigious GE Chief Executive Officer Award for launching an innovative technology joint venture for advanced railroad electronics. In 1996, GE promoted him to Staff Executive in the Office of the Chief Executive where he assisted the chairman and vice chairman of the Board in analyzing operating issues facing the company. Later in the same year, Seegers was elected as a GE company officer.

A graduate of the University of Virginia, Seegers earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Catholic University, where he was executive editor of the Law Review.

Barry N. Shufeld

Barry Shufeld is Principal of BNS Associates LLC, Advisory Board Member of
Hospitality Technology Magazine and formerly Senior Advisor to BearingPoint
Inc. BNS Associates is an interim CIO and IT services consulting practice
with clients including hospitality, retail, legal, manufacturing and data
center operations. Prior to his current position, Barry served as CIO at a
number of large corporations including Senior Vice President & Chief
Information Officer, Finlay Enterprises; SVP & Chief Technology Officer,
Information Services & Technology, at Triarc Companies Inc. (now
Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc.) which includes Wendy's, Arby's, T.J. Cinnamons
and P.T. Noodles.

Joseph Lagioia

Joseph Lagioia is the founder of the Tnemara Group and an active member of the National Association for Corporate Directors. He has over 28 years of business management, operations and information technology deployment experience across a wide range of industries and clients. His hands-on experience includes responsibility for large P&L management in several countries, as the CEO of a mid-sized services company in Spain and as an Advisory Board member for companies in the UK, The Netherlands, France, and Germany. His positions with Ernst & Young, Oracle Corporation, KPMG, and BearingPoint (formally KPMG Consulting) have included managing partner, global partner-in-charge, senior vice president, and regional vice president. Lagioia has resided in several major cities across the USA and spent over 8 years working in Vienna, Austria; Madrid, Spain; and Paris, France.

Paul E. Misener

Both an engineer and lawyer, Paul Misener is Amazon.com’s Vice President for Global Public Policy. In this capacity, Misener is responsible for formulating and representing Amazon.com’s public policy positions worldwide, as well as for managing the company’s policy specialists in Washington, DC, Brussels, and Seattle. He also is immediate past President of the Internet Commerce and Communications Division of the Information Technology Association of America and a former member of the ITAA Board of Directors. Misener is a former partner and the chairman of the E-commerce and Internet Practice at the law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding. He also served as Senior Legal Advisor and Chief of Staff to a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. Prior to his federal service, Misener was Intel’s Manager of Telecommunications and Computer Technology Policy, and co-founder and leader of the computer industry’s Internet Access Coalition. Misener was a policy specialist for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the late 1980s, where he was a U.S. delegate to several conferences of the International Telecommunication Union; prior to that, he designed communications systems for the military. He received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University and his law degree from the George Mason University School of Law.

Carlos A. Alvarenga

Mr. Alvarenga is a Vice President at Satyam Computer Services Ltd, where he leads the Global Manufacturing Supply Chain Practice. Prior to joining Satyam, Mr. Alvarenga was a Managing Director in BearingPoint, Inc.’s Supply Chain and Consumer & Industrial Technologies Practices. Mr. Alvarenga has worked with both public and private clients, and he has a varied project background in Industrial MFG, consumer products, wireless communications, automotive, nuclear energy, logistics and distribution, information technology, and publishing. Mr. Alvarenga has also led the development of several methodologies, Demand Volatility Management, Supplier Collaboration, Market Strategy Analysis, Change Risk Management, Supply Chain Event Management and Advanced Demand Management. Mr. Alvarenga’s international engagement experience is extensive, and he has worked with clients in China, Singapore, Belgium, Germany, England, Spain, Brazil, Norway, Italy, Japan, El Salvador and the U.S. Mr. Alvarenga holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, and has undertaken studies toward a Ph.D. at Cornell University.