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Emily Baranello of SAS, Steve S. Rao with the Town of Morrisville, and Patrick Turner of Small Footprint, Inc.

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Emily Baranello Thumbnail   Emily Baranello, Senior Director, Education Practice, SAS

Emily Baranello is a Senior Director in SAS’ Education Practice. She leads teams that work to expand the use of SAS for administrative data-driven decision making, academic research, and teaching in both the K-12 and higher education markets throughout the United States.

Prior to taking this position, Emily led sales and outreach efforts for SAS in K-12, including promotion of SAS’ web-based curriculum resources, enterprise decision support solutions and more.

Emily’s career has been spent almost entirely in working with the public sector, with a large portion dedicated to working within the Education market. This area of interest may be enhanced by her personal relationships; since Emily comes from a family of educators…her mother, mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law and husband are all teachers.

Emily is a graduate of North Carolina’s Elon University with a degree in psychology.

Follow SAS on Twitter and Facebook

 

Steve Rao Thumbnail   Steve S. Rao, Councilman At Large, Town of Morrisville, North Carolina

Steve S. Rao, a native of Charleston, West Virginia, serves as an At-Large Councilman for the Town of Morrisville. Elected in 2011 and re-elected in 2013, Councilman Rao is the first and currently only Indian American elected official in Wake County and the Triangle region. He serves as a Delegate to the Triangle J Council of Governments, Co- Chairs the Smart Growth Committee, and serves on the CORE and Cary Joint Task Force Committees. He also serves as an ex-officio member of the Morrisville Innovation Foundtation.

A ten year resident of Morrisville, he resides with his wife, Komal Parekh, and their two children, Sonia and Rayan. Steve earned his B.A. in political science from Emory University, where he was a collegiate tennis player, and his J.D. from the West Virginia University College of Law. He is also a 2009 graduate of the prestigious Institute of Political Leadership Fellows Program.

Today, Steve is the Business Development Manager at Alphanumeric Systems, were he manages partnerships for the company, along with driving revenue growth and helping companies reduce costs through innovative IT solutions.

 

Patrick Turner Thumbnail   Patrick Turner, CTO, Small Footprint, Inc.

Patrick started coding software at the age of 10 and has been building software professionally for nearly 20 years. He spent 15 years in the manufacturing sector, including 10 years in the medical device industry. His ability to align business needs to the appropriate technology has proven successful across a wide range of projects from sales force automation to clinical research technology.

Patrick, along with his wife Alison, an accomplished pastry chef, and their kids William and Fiona relocated to Winston-Salem in 2007 to be closer to the outdoor opportunities that North Carolina has to offer. Shortly after the move, Patrick became a customer of Small Footprint and was so impressed by the effectiveness of the blended local and offshore model for building great software that he bought into the company in 2009. Since that time, Small Footprint has continued to leverage and refine this unique approach successfully—resulting in a greater than 50 percent growth each year.

As the demand for software development services in North Carolina has grown, Patrick has become increasingly involved with local educators to raise awareness of the need for software development professionals in the Carolinas. He is actively involved with organizations including North Carolina New Schools and the Yadkin Valley Career Academy, exposing educators, parents, and students to possibilities within the industry and preaching the gospel that everyone can benefit from a basic understanding of the role that software development plays in our personal and professional lives.

Follow Small Footprint, Inc. on TwitterFacebook, and LinkedIn

 

James Branigan with Bright Wolf and Chris Lamb with Device Solutions Inc.

 Bright Wolf and Device Solutions

James Branigan, Managing Partner and Founder of Bright Wolf

James Branigan is the Managing Partner and one of the Founders of Bright Wolf, LLC.  Bright Wolf helps companies design, develop, deploy and operate Machine-To-Machine and Internet-Of-Things systems.  James has a BS in Computer Engineering from NC State and an MS in Computer Science from UNC Chapel Hill.  James lives with his wife and daughter in Creedmoor, NC.

Chris Lamb, CTO and Co-Founder of Device Solutions Inc.

Chris Lamb co-founded Device Solutions 10 years ago.  During the past 10 years, Device Solutions has grown into a 30 person team providing embedded hardware and software development services, certification consulting, customized device testing and unique M2M products.  Prior to co-founding Device Solutions, Chris was with Ericsson & Sony-Ericsson and has an SB in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MSEE from NC State.    

Ryan Kraudel with 6fusion

6Fusion

Ryan Kraudel, Vice President, Marketing & Product Management of 6fusion

As VP Marketing & Product Management, Ryan owns all of 6fusion’s marketing strategy, planning and execution, as well as defining and managing the product roadmap.  Ryan is an innovative 15-year
marketing veteran with a broad range of global marketing experience in go-to-market strategy, product marketing, product management, communications, and competitive analysis.  He has worked with
companies of all sizes, from Fortune 100 companies to early stage startups, to develop and execute marketing strategies that drive results.  Prior to 6fusion, Ryan led the team at GXS (recently acquired by
OpenText for over $1B) responsible for growing their Managed Services business from $40M to $150M in 6 years.

 

Connect with 6fusion on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Special Edition: Wireless Connections

wrcncmayor

 

Wireless Connections 

The Wireless Research Center’s first show featured Ann Revell-Pechar, as host and  Gerry Hayes, President/Founder and Larry Steffann, General Manager, of the Wireless Research Center of North Carolina, as co-hosts. Ann welcomed into the studio Mayor Vivian Jones, and Marla Akridge.  The conversation was centered on economic development and the positive impact the Wireless Center is making on the area.

Mayor Vivian Jones, Town of Wake Forest

Vivian Jones is the four-term Mayor of the Town of Wake Forest, NC. Prior to serving her first term, Jones found great success in the catering and restaurant industry. She grew up in Red Cross (Randolf County), NC, and attended the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now UNC-Greensboro).

Marla Akridge, Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce

Marla is President of the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce.  She attended Ohio State University and Auburn University, where she received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, respectively.  Upon graduation, Akridge moved to Jackson, Tenn., where she spent several years working at a research facility at the University of Tennessee.  Over the next few years, Akridge taught continuing education computer courses at various community colleges in Tennessee.  After serving on the board of directors at the Dyersburg/Dyer County Chamber of Commerce in Tennessee, Akridge went to Prattville, Ala., where she served as president of the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce for five years.  Akridge then moved north to assume the president’s role at the Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce in Ohio.