Outsourcing For Professionals Fall 2009: Guest Speakers

September 11

Joseph (Bob) Assenzo, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering & Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, 1963–1966.; Ph.D. Executive Director, C-Path Educational Programs, and Founding Operating Board Member.

Bob Assenzo, PhD, served as Executive Director for the Drug Information Association (DIA) from 1996 to 2003. He was responsible for the oversight of all DIA offices and staff, provided direction to the DIA Board of Directors on strategic and operational planning, and supervised the overall operation of this international volunteer association. He previously had been President of the DIA Board of Directors. Under his leadership, membership more than doubled to 27,000 members working in the pharmaceutical and related health care industries. Prior to DIA, Dr. Assenzo served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs & Project Management and Senior Advisor for Novo Nordisk in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before joining Novo Nordisk he served in capacities of increasing responsibility and leadership for The Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan for 28 years, culminating his service as Executive Director, U.S. Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs, Medical Communications, and Pharmacovigilance. For this service, Dr. Assenzo received The Upjohn Company Distinguished Employee Award.

In addition to his current work as head of Education at C-Path, Dr. Assenzo serves as an Adjunct Professor of Biostatistics & Epidemiology at the University of Arizona and participates in its Clinical Research Scholars Program. Dr. Assenzo has a BS degree in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University, a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Harvard University and a PhD in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from the University of Oklahoma. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

September 25:

Leonardo Gonazalez, MBA - Finance Director - International Hospital Corp. (IHC) www.internationalhospital.com

Leonardo Gonzalez has served as Finance Director with IHC since 2007. His participation in the company started as Chief Financial Officer of the CIMA Hermosillo hospital, where a turnaround was instrumented, becoming the first hospital to achieve the JCI Accreditation in Northwestern Mexico and currently in the process of developing the first private heart center in the region. Mr. Gonzalez has recently transitioned into his new role as Corporate Finance Director at IHC’s headquarters in Dallas, TX, participating in the development and operation of IHC’s international finance management strategy, as the company prepares for a new stage of accelerated growth.
Prior to joining IHC and the healthcare industry, Mr. Gonzalez had also served with world leading institutions in the financial services and manufacturing industries, such as KPMG and Citigroup, where his responsibilities have included executive and financial management, investment advisory, accounting and tax planning, and turnaround leadership and execution, among others.
Mr. Gonzalez has an MBA in International Management and a specialization in Global Finance from Thunderbird, The School of Global Management, and a BS in Accounting and Finance from “Tecnologico de Monterrey” (ITESM) in Mexico. He participates in different boards of directors of several civic and charitable organizations in Mexico and the USA. He lives in Dallas, TX with his wife Cyntia and their 2 children.

October 2:

Surya Kant, President, TCS North America

Surya Kant, or Sury as he is popularly known, is the president for the North America operations of Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global IT services firm.  In this capacity, Sury is responsible for overseeing and strengthening customer relationships and revenue in the U.S. and Canada.  Sury also plays a key role in growing TCS’ business in new markets and expanding its range of technology and service offerings. 

Sury has been with TCS for over 29 years, and has made significant contribution to the growth of the company and the software industry. Until 2005 he served as head of customer delivery in New Delhi, a role in which he managed many of TCS’ key customer relationships and grew the delivery centers in the region substantially.

Prior to this, he served as head of TCS’ operations in Japan and the United Kingdom, respectively.  Sury started the company’s operations in Tokyo, Japan in 1987, and in the early nineties ran the TCS operations in the U.K.

Sury has also worked in the areas of project management, software quality assurance and delivery center management.  His efforts in these areas significantly contributed to TCS achieving the distinction of being the first organization in the world to be assessed at enterprise-wide CMMI level 5 and PCMM Level 5, an indication of the best in class. 

Sury initiated the Employee Satisfaction Survey in TCS, a survey that has been very well received and is now recognized as a best practice across the entire Tata Group.  TCS employees have rewarded the company for its efforts resulting in TCS being ranked as the Best IT Employer in India by the Dataquest-IDC survey over the years.

Sury is currently a member of a number of bodies connected with various academic institutions.  He is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences and academic institutions and is actively involved with various social causes. 

Sury, who is fluent in several languages, is a member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), USA and was nominated to the Tata Group Top Strategic Leadership Program in 2004.  Sury also sits on the IT Services Board of Directors for the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). 

In 1976, Sury received his Bachelors of Electrical Engineering with a specialization in Electronics from the Delhi College of Engineering and in 1978 he received his Masters in Electrical Engineering with a specialization in Computer Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, both at the top of his class.

Photos of Sury's talk (41 MB)

October 23:

Jennifer Bond, Vice President, International Affairs and Senior Advisor for Global Initiatives, US Council on Competitiveness.

Jennifer Sue Bond currently serves as Senior Advisor for International Affairs at the Council on Competitiveness. She helped to establish and develop the Council’s Global Initiative including forming a Global Advisory Committee of experts and thought leaders, developing a major Mexico initiative and helping to establish initiatives and leadership dialogues with Ireland, Brazil, the EU and Japan as well as an Advisory Task Force on China.   As part of her activities in support of innovation in the United States, she also served as the Council’s project director in support of the new Professional Masters Programs nationally and is active in the PSM movement.

Ms. Bond is the former Director of the Science & Engineering Indicators Program at the National Science Foundation, where she expanded greatly the international coverage of this flagship report of the National Science Board as well as indicators on human resources and output and input indicators for science technology and innovation. Ms Bond worked for Senator Joseph Lieberman as an expert on education policy for two years and previously worked as the Senior International Policy Analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  She also has held research positions at MIT, the World Bank, the Board on Science, Technology and International Development at National Academy of Sciences, and was the Director of the Science Policy Unit at the Brazilian Space Research Institute.  She currently serves on the Metrics Advisory Committee for AUTM—the Association of University Technology Managers and also serves on the Community Advisory Board of WISE—Women in Science and Engineering for the University of Arizona.

For over a decade she was a United States Representative to the OECD and the Vice Chair of OECD's National Experts on Science, Technology and Industry Indicators – NESTI. She also has worked with the EU on several issues including the Community Innovation Surveys, Public Attitudes Towards Science and Technology, and Mega-Science Issues. She has been on the Editorial Board of the APEC/PECC Science and Technology Profile and the Ibero- and InterAmerican Network on Science and Technology Indicators (RICYT) and served on the International Advisory Council for the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.   She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Bi-National Sustainability Laboratory and the Amity Foundation.  

Ms. Bond holds a B.A. from Stanford University in International Affairs/Political Science and a Masters' Degree in Science, Technology and Public Policy from George Washington University. She has written and published extensively on science, technology and innovation policy topics.  She speaks French, Spanish and Portuguese; has studied and worked in France and Brazil; and has traveled and lectured extensively in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia. She is active in the Stanford Alumni affairs, serves as Vice President of the Stanford Alumni Association of Southern Arizona, a member and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and the Cosmos Club in Washington D.C.