Mike Cisek is an analyst in the Midsize Enterprise (MSE) Research team at Gartner focusing on infrastructure and operations and cloud strategy contextualized to meet the needs of midsize organizations. Cisek spent more than 26 years as an IT Leader and technologist and has worked with MSE CIOs and IT leaders as an Analyst for 10 years on strategies and tactics related to infrastructure design, cloud strategy, I&O maturity, cost optimization and IT operations best practices, tailored to organizations their size. Prior to joining Gartner, Cisek held the title of Director of Emerging Infrastructure & Operations Support for a $400 million transportation company. Under his leadership, his team was honored by CIO Magazine and Midsize Enterprise Summit, and was listed twice on the Information Week 500.

A real life “Guardian of the Galaxy,” Dr. Moogega “Moo” Cooper holds the awesome responsibility of keeping the red planet safe from any of the Earth’s contaminants. Moo is the planetary protection lead of the famed NASA 2020 Mars mission—with it’s highly viewed landing on February 18, 2021. Her work with NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is integral to the ongoing mission to discern whether Mars could be habitable for humans and that we don’t harm what’s already there—a job she has been working up to for most of her life.

After graduating from high school at 16, Cooper studied physics as an undergraduate, received a master‘s degree and went on to earn her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at 24 years old with a dissertation on spacecraft materials.

Moo is passionate about empowering organizations and others to achieve their dreams and overcome obstacles that she articulately conveys through her life story and love of her work. A role model for women in science and technology, she is also passionate about introducing more people to the wonders of the STEAM world, including by talking about her work to boys and girls from underrepresented communities and appearing on shows like Because Space and Bill Nye Saves the World.

Moo is a recipient of several awards, including the NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal, the Charles Elachi Award for Exceptional Early Career Achievement, and JPL Voyager Awards for Technical Leadership.

Adam Dennison brings more than 20 years of media, events, and technology marketplace experience to his role as VP, Midsize Enterprise Services (MES), at The Channel Company (TCC). In this role, Dennison is responsible for driving the MES strategy and product development across live and digital events, fostering growth within the MES IT Leadership Network, creating engaging midmarket research, and more. Dennison spends his time with midmarket IT leaders and the vendors that serve them, to best understand how MES can support networking, collaboration, and engagement between both parties. Prior to rejoining TCC, Dennison spent 13 years with IDG, most recently as SVP Publisher at CIO, and GM at IDG Events, responsible for the CIO brand and all US events.

For five days in April 2009, the world was glued to their TV screens as Captain Richard Phillips became the center of an extraordinary international drama when he was captured by Somali pirates who hijacked his ship, the first hijacking of a U.S. ship in more than 200 years.

The hostage drama began on Wednesday, April 8th when a small band of pirates swung grappling hooks and climbed ropes from their skiff onto the Maersk Alabama, a container ship ferrying food aid to East Africa. Firing into the air as they leapt aboard the ship, many of the crew members scrambled into a designated safe room aboard the vessel. On the bridge, the pirates held four sailors at gunpoint, but the crew of 20 outnumbered the four attackers. They managed to wound the apparent leader of the pirates in the hand with an ice pick and regain control. The crew demanded the other pirates leave the ship, but the pirates had scuttled their own small boat. They demanded an escape boat, fuel and food.

To protect his crew, Captain Phillips made a conscious decision to put himself directly in harm‘s way, knowing full well that he might pay the ultimate price for his decision. Amid the standoff, he offered himself as a hostage. Once the pirates settled into one of the ship’s covered lifeboats, the crew attempted to trade the pirate they had captured for Captain Phillips. After they released their captive, the pirates refused to honor the agreement and fled with nine days of food rations and Captain Phillips. Held hostage as a human shield in a small lifeboat with three pirates, he had little to hope for or cling to — except the knowledge that he had done absolutely everything he could to save the lives of the 20 sailors aboard his ship. The U.S. Navy responded to the scene, and negotiations were ongoing between the pirates and the captain of the USS Bainbridge.

On Friday April 10th, Captain Phillips jumped out of the lifeboat and managed to swim a few yards toward the nearby destroyer, but the pirates went in after him and managed to haul him back in. The standoff dragged on until April 12th, when Navy SEAL snipers saw one of the pirates aim his AK-47 machine gun at Capt. Richard Phillips‘s back and concluded he was in “imminent danger.” President Barack Obama, who spoke with Captain Phillips by phone after he was freed, said, “I share the country’s admiration for the bravery of Captain Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew. His courage is a model for all Americans.” Captain Richard Phillips is the author of A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea, about his experience and his remarkable rescue.

This dramatic story was also transformed into an Academy-Award and Golden-Globe nominated film, Captain Phillips, which hit the big screens in fall of 2013. Captain Phillips is a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy a member of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots Union, and a licensed American merchant mariner. He became Captain of the MV Maersk Alabama in 2009. Captain Phillips married Andrea Coggio in 1987. They have two children, Mariah and Danny and reside in Underhill, Vermont.