2018-11-01 Top Tech Exec Awards

HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HIT

CONGRATULATIONS RACHEL PAPKA FOR BEING A TOP TECH EXEC FINALIST

YOUR SDMI FAMILY

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FROM THE PRESENTING SPONSOR

FROM THE P L AT I N U M SPONSOR

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n partnership with Vegas INC, Cox Business is honored to serve as the title sponsor of the eighth annual 2018 Top Tech Exec Awards.

The Top Tech Executive Awards program recognizes and celebrates the contributions, leadership, vision and innovation of information technology executives in Southern Nevada who have excelled in their field and are committed to driving the technology industry and continued economic growth in Southern Nevada.

Each year, we are privileged to present these accomplishments highlighted through this program and are pleased to introduce a new category in 2018 — Startup Tech of the Year. With the exponential growth of new startups that are choosing to call Southern Nevada home, this category will focus on innovative technology solutions, critical to the success of a startup organization.

We warmly congratulate each of the award recipients and nominees for their outstanding contributions and greatly appreciate the partnership of Vegas INC and your support, without which the Top Tech Exec Awards would not be possible.

Vegas INC and Greenspun Media Group is an organization committed to journalism that informs, inspires and moves people to take action, transforming the lives of others.

As a leading nationwide technology solutions partner to a diverse portfolio of local and nationwide business verticals and segments, Cox Business and Hospitality Network works closely with clients to customize voice, video, internet, data

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Photo by Wade Vandervort The Smith Center for the Performing Arts serves as the venue for the Top Tech Exec Awards. Above is a scene from last year’s event.

transport, security solutions and managed services to support their requirements and business objectives with a strong focus on economic growth, community engagement, diversity and inclusion, and technology service excellence.

We are delighted you were able to attend and celebrate our Top Tech Execs.

Once again, congratulations to the 2018 nominees and award recipients!

teinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging would like to congratulate all of the nominees and finalists of the eighth annual Top Tech Exec Awards.

Our Mission is to deliver an exceptional patient experience and accurate results through compassion and cutting edge technology.

By sponsoring this event, we are working towards fulfilling our mission as we continue to align ourselves with individuals and organizations that understand the importance of advanced technology.

The time and energy that these finalists are dedicating to their field is deservedly acknowledged by this event. Each of you should be proud of this accomplishment and the recognition you are receiving.

We would also like to thank the teams at Cox Business and Vegas Inc. for recognizing these deserving finalists and allowing us to be a part of the program.

Derrick R. Hill, Vice President Cox Business & Hospitality Network Las Vegas

FROM THE EDITOR

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he eighth annual Las Vegas Top Tech Exec Awards are a collaboration between Cox Business and VEGAS INC to recognize Southern Nevadans who are helping shape the future before our very eyes. These are people who are often on call 24-7, asked to solve problems that may never have happened in a rapidly evolving industry.

We fielded nominations for the most outstanding information technology executives in Southern Nevada and asked our panel of judges to use the following criteria in reviewing them: • Accomplishments: Examine why the candidate was nominated, and if the applications supports the nomination.

Consider the candidate’s specific individual role in the achievements for which they been cited. Consider the nominee’s commitment to the industry.

• Technology Partnerships: Assessment of the nominee’s

ability to develop strategic relationships with vendors, solution providers and technology partners. Also consider projects that showcase the nominee’s creativity and ingenuity in problem solving.

• Innovation and Vision of the Future: Consider the nominee’s insight and ideas for the future and how it affects the technology industry as a whole.

It wasn’t easy to come up with the winners because there were so many strong candidates. The judges, about whom you can read on the following page, had their work cut out for them!

Craig Peterson, Special Publications Editor craig.peterson@gmgvegas.com

Lifetime achievement award

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Mugunth Vaithylingam cio • college of southern nevada

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aised in Sri Lanka and India, and a Southern Nevada resident for the past decade, Mugunth Vaithylingam said it all started with high-fidelity sound equipment.

“I got interested in building my own tube amplifiers, so I decided to study applied electronics in college at Bharathiar University in India,” said Vaithylingam, who earned a bachelor’s of science in the discipline. “I decided also from an early age that I had a passion for leadership, so I always looked for opportunities to meld these two interests, which is why I pursued my MBA from the University of Hartford after beginning to work professionally in highereducation technology.”

With previous experience as a systems analyst and later a manager in the application department with the University of Hartford, and as director of enterprise applications at Valencia College, Vaithylingam — a 2017 participant in Harvard University’s Emerging Leaders program — originally joined College of Southern Nevada as chief technology officer in February 2009 and was promoted to chief information officer just seven months later.

The recipient of the Most Influential Global CIO Award at the Global CIO Leadership Summit in August 2018, Vaithylingam developed and led implementation at CSN for a new web presence that includes public-facing, marketing-driven content; an internal site that separates college community content from external persons seeking information about the institution; and a single sign-on portal for easy access to commonly-used web-based applications and platforms.

In addition, Vaithylingam is receiving his second Top Tech Exec Award. He previously won in 2015 in the Education category.

He also spearheaded a partnership with Cox Communications for SIP trunking, with 150 trunks implemented — burstable to 300 — that will provide CSN with additional standard capacity and result in a savings of nearly $3,500 a month in recurring service fees over the prior POTS. Vaithylingam — who supports Nevada Youth Network, Three Square and Opportunity Village — said 2019 will bring new technology-driven student unions with the tools to help students success. CSN is also partnering with the City of Las Vegas to integrate the collage into its Smart City initiative.

— Top Tech profiles by Danielle Birkin

THE J U D G E S Debbie Banko

Debbie Banko launched Link Technologies in 2000 with an old computer, a landline and a handful of clients, and has grown the company into a leading provider of professional services in information technology, engineering, business support, project management and cyber security/information assurance.

Laura Fucci

Laura Fucci joined the city of Henderson in November 2012 as chief information officer. A native of Henderson, Fucci earned her bachelor of science degree in

computer science at Oregon State University and obtained a certificate in public management from the UNLV.

Lester Lewis

Lester Lewis is an IT strategist in the state of Nevada. Lewis proudly served in the United States Army where he held the position of telecommunications systems operator.

Les Ottolenghi

Les Ottolenghi is the executive vice president & chief information officer for Caesars Entertainment Corp. Ottolenghi

holds a masters of business administration in internet and information technology strategy from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and a bachelor of arts and sciences in history from Duke University, where he also studied computer science.

Wonda Riner

As the executive director of information technology for the UNLV School of Medicine, Wonda Riner oversees a shared-services IT group that supports the academic, administrative, and clinical needs of the School and its affiliated clin-

ics, UNLV Medicine. With over 15 years at UNLV, Riner has also contributed to the mission of the university by: coordinating the centralized delivery of a campus-wide course management system as the webcampus coordinator; updating business processes to support faculty reporting as the faculty support specialist; and serving as a representative for administrative faculty on various campus committees and as a faculty senator.

hotel/gaming

E D U C ATION

! new award ! •

S TA R T U P

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Christopher Crescitelli president / owner • dreamland LLC

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rowing up in Cocoa Beach on Florida’s Space Coast, Christopher Crescitelli developed an early appreciation for technology, future tech, space exploration and science-fiction storytelling.

“As a child of the early ’70s, my parents were cool enough to bring the first home video games into my life, starting with Pong,” said Crescitelli, who 40 years later worked with Pong creator Nolan Bushnell on the first virtual reality version of the game

Crescitelli traces his creative endeavors back to the fifth grade, when he learned to shoot and develop black and white film, jumping to video arts in high school then going on to attend the Valencia Film Program in Orlando.

“The program was created by the state to train film workers for Disney and Universal, and was a huge break that launched me headfirst into the Hollywood machine,” he said.

In the mid to late 2000s, he was heavily involved in the roll-out of 3-D technol-

ogy, including founding the world’s first 3-D film festival, 3-D fashion show and 3-D nightclub experience, which opened doors to other immersive technologies.

“We work with most major casinos and Fortune 500 companies to assist with future tech needs and experimentation, and also produce the world’s first Virtual Reality Festival, now in its fifth season.”

He is currently working to build a new brand and franchise model called VR Arcade, as well as new gaming initiatives for casinos.

Ellen Noto chemistry honors teacher • coronado high school

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self-described geek, Ellen Noto admitted that it all started with the game Pong, and only grew more intense from there.

“My embarrassing claim to fame is that I was one of the original members of the ‘Commodore 64 Club’ for our town when I was only 12,” said Noto.

Raised in rural Western Massachusetts, Noto holds a bachelor’s of science in chemical engineering from Tufts University, a master’s degree in education from Harvard University and is currently

pursuing a master’s degree in education leadership from WGU. After graduating from Tufts, Noto worked as a chemical engineer in the environmental field prior to participating in the Mid-Career Math and Science program at Harvard. She moved to Southern Nevada in 2012 and joined Coronado High as a chemistry teacher in 2014.

She currently teaches chemistry honors and AP research and serves as the department chairwoman. With her love of technology and engineering, she is also

the advisor for the award-winning Coronado Robotics Team.

“I am especially encouraged by the number of young women who have joined robotics,” said Noto. “We have grown to 35 percent of our membership is female as compared to the national robotics average of 23 percent and STEM professional average of 18 percent.”

The educator serves as advisor for Dreams Come True, a student-led organization that supports Make-A-Wish.

Jason Stump vice president of it • westgate las vegas resort and casino

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ason Stump developed a taste for technology as a seventh-grader in rural Illinois, when he got his first computer and couldn’t get a video game to run.

“I remember having a feeling that technology would be the future,” said Stump.

Over the past 25 years, Stump has worked in leadership-level positions at Harrah’s, Argosy Gaming Co., Pinnacle Entertainment, Affinity Gaming and Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino, which he joined in March 2017 as vice president of information technology.

At Westgate, he has been instrumental in spearheading several initiatives.

“Over the past 12 months, we have invested millions of dollars in technology, and were the first in Nevada to roll out a new casino management system version that included a new loyalty program called WoW=World of Westgate, where customers can earn points for almost anything they spend their money on at the resort, including sportsbook bets,” Stump said.

“Parallel to these efforts, we rolled out mobile apps to our employees that

translated into improving the guest experience, and also rolled out promotions such as the Manilow Spin that enabled our customers to spin a virtual wheel on the slot machine.”

Westgate Las Vegas is also one of the few casinos with a sportsbook offering cashless wagering on a mobile app, he said, and is also going green with automated digital coupons.

Stump currently serves as president of Technology & Diversity for Charity, which raises funds for nonprofits that focus on children and teenagers.

COMMUNITY EXEMPLARY AWARD

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Mike Harty vice president of development • caesars Entertainment

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fter receiving a bachelor’s helping Caesars Entertainment of arts degree in political build a precursor to its Total Rescience from the University wards loyalty program — and was of Notre Dame and an MBA from offered a job with the company in the University of Texas at Austin, 2003 as director of information Mike Harty turned to business technology with responsibility for consulting as a means of gaining marketing applications. He has broad exposure to various indus- served in numerous capacities since then, having held the post tries and business functions.

“Over time I focused more and of vice president of development more on technology, as the field for three years.

“We are in the midst of a major was fascinating, and I realized I iniwas pretty good at solving tough technology-transformation technology problems,” said Harty, tiative, and as part of this effort who moved to Southern Nevada are replacing a substantial set of our marketing, hospitality, fiin 2009.

After graduating, Harty spent nance, and HR products,” he said. a decade with consulting firm “These are complex initiatives inAccenture, primarily focused on volving hundreds of employees, consumer products and travel/ so helping lead these efforts is transportation companies. Along challenging and fun. For example, the way, he was instrumental in in the past year, we’ve migrated

DAVID BLOCK Senior Vice-President, Software Engineering TransAct Technologies, Inc.

TRANSACT CONGRATULATES

DAVID BLOCK

FOR BEING A FINALIST IN VEGAS INC.’S TOP TECH EXEC AWARDS.

our decades-old financial and HR systems to new cloud-based platforms. These new applications provide the foundation for Caesars to build a more global, diverse business.”

Looking ahead, Harty said the company’s technology transformation is ongoing, with a focus on marketing and hospitality, and will enhance customer service and business capabilities.

“Technology and technologybased innovation is critical to our overall success, so I anticipate no lack of exciting initiatives and growth opportunities,” said Harty, who is also chairman-elect of the Spina Bifida Association and sits on the advisory board of the local chapter.

Rachel Papka chief healthcare infoRmatics officer steinberg diagnostics

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Nevada resident since age 2, Rachel Papka developed an interest in technology while working in radiology at Northern Nevada Medical Center.

“In the early 2000s, Universal Health Services decided to implement an electronic health record and I was asked to be a superuser at a time when EHRs were new and clinicians were being introduced to no longer using paper charts,” said Papka, who holds a bachelor’s of science in business management from the University of Phoenix and a master’s degree in healthcare administration with a concentration in informatics from Saint Joseph’s University. “I fell in love with the idea of using technology to help patients.”

After 15 years with UHS, Papka was part of the team at Healthinsight that brought HealtHIE (health information exchange) Nevada to fruition.

She joined the 60-year-old Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging in May 2014 as director of health systems.

She now serves as chief health informatics officer.

“I collaborate with all departments constantly to be in a stage of reinvention,” she said. “Some 2018 accomplishments include a patient portal leveraging images, results and financial information on one platform; real-time patient reminders with the ability for patients to provide feedback on their most recent visit; and the completion of a major interface project to include real-time ordering with Southwest Medical Associates.”

Active with Tech Impact and a mentor at Cimarron High School, Papka said 2019 will bring new atools for patients of SDMI, with a focus on ensuring staff are equipped with the necessary technology to provide the best patient experience.

NONPROFIT

P R I V ATE B U S I N E S S

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Cesar Guerrero IT Manager catholic charities of southern nevAda

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rowing up in San Diego, it was ready to crash. Guerrero was didn’t take a crystal ball for tasked with finding a system that Cesar Guerrero to realize that was cost effective and had all of the technology was going to play a piv- requirements that they needed to effectively run their organization. otal role down the road.

“I upgraded our entire telephone “I knew it was the wave of the future, and unknowingly it became the system, but instead of purchasing most important field in the future,” the phones and the servers and said Guerrero, who majored in com- software, which would have cost the puter science, attended Methodist agency $150,000, we partnered with College and moved to Southern Ne- Cox Communications and got the upgrade and they put all the money vada in 1996.

He joined the 75-year-old non- — invested — upfront, which allowed profit Catholic Charities of Southern us to use the savings to help more Nevada in June 2007 as office coor- people,” said Guerrero.

Looking ahead, “We are plandinator for the IT department. He ascended the ranks to supervisor prior ning a renovation that will allow to being promoted to IT manager us to help even more people,” he said. “The Fertitta family has been five years ago.

According to Guerrero’s nomina- gracious to us and is going to fund tion for the Top Tech honor, Catho- most of it so we can help get people lic Charities’ multiple campuses in off the streets and into a stable enSouthern Nevada were operating on vironment that is safe for kids, our a very old legacy phone system that future.”

Paul Smith CIo Desert Radiology

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ailing from upstate New York, and overseeing a complete transforPaul Smith has always been mation of the information technology interested in technology and and services business function and platforms. tinkered with writing code.

“We have created one of the largest, “Early in my career in Nashville — which has the moniker of the Health- most reliable and most scalable medcare Industry Capital because of the ical imaging platforms in the country diverse number of healthcare com- and deliver managed technology sopanies headquartered there — I was lutions that support enterprise-wide a marketing director at a technology imaging to dozens of healthcare enstart-up and the lead programmer tities throughout Nevada and across quit the day before a major demo, several Western states,” Smith said. so I spent the entire night repro- “This impacts healthcare throughout gramming the systems and data- the region by expediting the time to bases,” said Smith, adding that the deliver and report on patient imagexperience shifted his interest and ing from clinics, hospitals and emerfocus away from marketing. “Since gency rooms, and helps our physithen, I have been leading technology cians diagnose more quickly so that groups to achieve strategic business clinicians at hospitals and medical offices can develop treatment plans goals.”

Smith is a former management and ensure patients get their results consultant with a global consulting as quickly as possible.”

Desert Radiology is an official firm and co-inventor on multiple systems, methodologies and business community partner of City Impact processes for identifying population Center and supports charitable health trends. He joined Desert Radi- events such as Opportunity Village’s ology as chief information officer in Magical Forest and the American August 2015, pioneering the CIO role Lung Association’s Scale the Strat.

government

h e a lt h c a r e

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Brok Armantrout special projects coordinator Boulder City

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s a child in Livermore, Calif., Brok Armantrout remembers tinkering with technology with his father.

“I remember sitting on his lap while he played with his ham radio, using an oscilloscope to fine tune his equipment,” said Armantrout, who was born in Oregon and holds a B.S. in geography with an emphasis on urban planning from Brigham Young University. “He bought me an old stereo amp that wasn’t working and together we figured out which tubes needed to be replaced. I was hooked and became the ‘go-to’ kid in elementary school to help the teacher run the projectors.”

He launched his career as the city planner/zoning administrator for the City of Sandy, Utah — often assisting the IT department with software problems — and moved to Boulder City in 2004, when he joined the City of Boulder City as community development director, responsible for supervising city planning and building permitting as well as oversight of the

municipal airport, the redevelopment agency and, from 2012 to 2017, the city’s IT division and its governmentaccess television station, also serving as the primary liaison for the world’s first public droneport. He was named contracts/real estate officer in 2017.

“I work with our outside vendors for needed IT-related services,” said Armantrout, who was instrumental in instigating a project to connect city facilities to City Hall. “The project connected our fire station, airport and swimming pool complex to City Hall, and added high-speed fiber connection to the internet, which allowed the city to move our network servers to a hosted cloud service, instantly creating a disaster-recovery option for our workforce.”

Armantrout — who supports Habitat for Humanity and volunteers with Boulder City High’s broadcasting class — said the city’s next major project will be an upgrade of its current Cisco phone system to take advantage of VoIP and cloud technology.

PUBLIC BUSINESS

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David Block Senior Vice President of Software Engineering • TransAct Technologies

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or David Block, it all began with an electronics kit he received in the seventh grade.

“I used the kit to build a lie detector for a science project, and won first place for my ‘research’ on ‘Who Lies Better, Boys or Girls?’’” said Block, who was raised in the Bay Area, and still resides there, commuting regularly to Las Vegas.

“In 1975, when the first home computer kit, the Altair 8800, was introduced, I immediately became hooked and have been ever since, whether building a robotic, maze-solving ‘mouse’ for IEEE’s first MicroMouse contest in 1977, or developing electronic devices or software and seeing them in use today.”

Block’s Top Tech Exec nomination notes that he is one of the Web’s earliest bloggers, organizing a website that offered coverage of the grueling 1,200 mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race in 1996 and in 1997, when he himself traveled the length of the race by snow-machine and small plane.

Block — who supports Partners in Health — attended UC Santa Cruz for two years prior to trans-

ferring to the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley, and launched his career while still a student with a couple of early micro-computer companies. He joined TransAct Technologies in October 2015 as senior vice president of software engineering.

TransAct is a global leader in developing software-driven technology and printing solutions for high-growth markets.

“When I arrived at TransAct, software development split between Las Vegas and our Ithica, N.Y., office, and was under a single head of engineering whose background was mostly electronics, firmware and mechanical design, so bringing me on to take over the software aspect was a bit of a challenge,” he said, adding that software repositories were not used by all the teams, builds were not automated and other normal software development processes were not in use. “I put these processes in place, transferred all software development to Las Vegas, added a software quality department and helped double the size of our software team.”

Honoring Vegas Inc's 2018 Top Tech Exec finalists!

Congratulations on being recognized as a Top Tech Exec Finalist for 2018!

We thank you for your dedication to your community each and every day and proud to call you a member of the Desert Radiology team.

Top Tech Exec finalist Paul Smith Chief Information Officer

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