IBJ honors top technology execs
Technology leaders are instrumental in helping their organization advance and innovate. IBJ and TechPoint’s fifth annual CTO/Tech 25 of the Year program honors 40 men and women who excel at using technology to help their employers achieve their strategic goals.
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José V. Martínez
OneAmerica Financial Partners
senior vice president and
chief information officer
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Gene Burcham
Electric Plus
systems manager -
Tony Newcome
ActiveCampaign
chief technology officer
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Laura Larimer
Consultant, previously Indianapolis Public Schools
information technology officer
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Tracy Barnes
Indiana Office of Technology
chief information officer -
Dr. Patrick McGill
Community Health Network
chief analytics officer
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SALES & MARKETING
Katie Baird
Content Marketing Specialist
Codelicious“Katie is a talented marketer and incredible leader who sets an example for our team each day. The volume of work Katie is able to produce in a given week is incredible, and she does it all while embodying the Codelicious culture of rest. When COVID hit, Katie spearheaded the development of a series of free computer science lessons, including a weekly instructional video, which allowed teachers to continue teaching CS while eLearning. Outside of work, Katie sets the example by taking time to recharge through music, staying active and spending time with her people.”
—Christine McDonnell
Co-Founder and CEO at
Codelicious -
SALES & MARKETING
Drew Beechler
Director of Marketing
High Alpha“Drew is an outstanding individual, and I’ve had the privilege of working with him for over 10 years. When I first met Drew, he was an Intern at Studio Science, where I was first exposed to his maturity and talent. Adding him to the leadership team at High Alpha was a no-brainer, and his work ethic and impact have met and exceeded my every expectation. Drew has played an integral role in the conception and launch of a number of Indy’s most visible tech companies. He is passionate about Indianapolis, and he is a tremendous addition to the 2021 Tech 25 class.”
——Kristian Andersen,
Partner at
High Alpha -
SALES & MARKETING
Brad Beutler
Director of Content Marketing
Terminus“I’ve worked with hundreds of marketers in my career and Brad stands out as the best of the best. His work ethic, creativity, and incredible ability to effortlessly blend soft skills like branding with rigorous quantitative analysis make him one-in-a-million. More importantly, though, his qualities as a friend and teammate are just as superlative. The city and tech scene of Indianapolis are both better because of Brad. We are so lucky to have him on our team and he is more than deserving of this Tech 25 award.”
—Justin Keller
VP of Marketing at
Terminus -
SALES & MARKETING
Drew Detzler
Director of Marketing and Acquisition
DemandJump“In a time when the world desperately needs leaders to inspire others, I cannot think of a more deserving person than Drew. Not only has Drew transformed DemandJump’s go to market strategy, but he also finds time every single week to spend 1:1 time with our next generation. He mentors and inspires our high school youth to help them find their passion and path in life. The impact of Drew’s selfless contributions will truly be handed down for generations. He’s transforming our future generation’s lives, leading the trajectory of the company he works for and being a loving husband and father with two small children at home.”
—Christopher Day
CEO & Co-Founder at
DemandJump -
SALES & MARKETING
Kat Gordon
Head of Customer Success
Malomo“As CEO, you dream of finding talent like Kat. I was lucky enough to meet Kat at the start of our journey, and her impact has been swift, immeasurable, and constant. She has a can-do attitude, rarely asks for help, and constantly supports her team’s growth. Kat exhibits a rare combination of drive, resilience, and compassion, and I hope to work with Kat for the duration of my career.”
—Yaw Aning
CEO at
Malomo -
SALES & MARKETING
Sally Perkins
Insight Storyteller
Authenticx“Sally is a star performer on and off the ‘stage’ and within Authenticx. Sally puts her whole heart into her work and has led our company’s approach to data-backed storytelling. In her role, she has made a lasting impact on some of the largest corporate health care organizations in the world by helping them truly hear and feel the perspective of the patients they serve. Because Sally’s background is in communications, research and storytelling, her perspective has influenced our product in unique and important ways.”
—Amy Brown
CEO/Founder a
Authenticx -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Owen Boberg
Data Scientist
Indiana Management Performance Hub“Owen is a key people asset for the State of Indiana’s data-driven culture. The insights he provides are critical to informing policy and agency operations. His love of learning and high standards improve every team and product implementation that he is a part of. It is rare for someone this early in their career to be so accomplished and have such a big heart for service. MPH and the State of Indiana are lucky to have him. I can’t wait to see what he achieves in the future.”
—Josh Martin
Chief Data Officer at
Indiana Management Performance Hub -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Andrea de Souza
Global Head of Research Data
Sciences and Engineering, Information and Digital Solutions
Eli Lilly and Company“Andrea combines an incredible set of skills across multiple domains (life science, data science, financial strategy, high emotional intelligence, etc). With these skills, Andrea has broken through barriers and delivered on commitments that so many prior leaders failed to achieve. In addition, her sense of community is very high, and she constantly gives back to others so that future leaders, especially women of color, can achieve even more. Both Lilly and Indiana are lucky to have Andrea here.”
—Ramesh Durvasula
Vice President, Research IT at
Eli Lilly and Company -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Ben Hall
Senior Advisor – IT
Elanco“Ben has led program management of the S4/Hana environment for the last 30 months—an incredible orchestration of internal employees across multiple departments and external partners across almost a dozen companies. It was an incredible accomplishment to complete the Lilly Technology Service Agreements exit on time. Ben demonstrated complete ownership throughout the program; no challenge was too big. His resourcefulness and stakeholder management skills really paid off. No other company was able to achieve what we were able to achieve in such a short period of time; all through Ben’s leadership attributes.”
—Sumit Pendharkar
Senior Director at
Elanco -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Josh Hurst
Software Architect
Trava Security“Josh has tremendous insight into the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, how to develop technology to serve that market, and how to patiently and thoughtfully help business owners and stakeholders navigate the complexities of technology solutions. He has a wealth of experience in helping startups go to market, and now, with Trava, he is excited to not only help us in the early stage of our company, but also help us scale our products as we grow. He was a critical first hire for Trava and will continue to be an inspiration to our engineering team as we build it and to all our team members at Trava.”
—Rob Beeler
CTO at Trava Security -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Christopher Nord
Senior Principal Systems Engineer
Raytheon Technologies“Chris is a high-performing leader on a diverse team of high performers. Chris brings great energy to the team as he strives to improve those around him through active mentoring and by modeling leadership behaviors such as a willingness to tackle the hardest customer problems. He embodies the Raytheon Intelligence & Space values of Trust, Respect, Collaboration, Innovation, and Accountability. His passion for his work has driven growth of the GMR-1000 product into tangential adjacent markets. Chris is a great communicator who delivers the right message for every audience. Chris is the kind of leader whom supervisors prize highly on their team.”
—Charles Hohne
Chief Engineer at Raytheon Technologies -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Maggie Ober
IT Manager
Allegion“Maggie excels at delivering software products and has continuously taken on more responsibility. She has led teams that delivered three major software products that have been instrumental in Allegion’s digital transformation. Her responsibilities have grown from leading one product team to leading three product teams. Maggie is responsible and uses that strength to deliver solutions. Maggie is passionate and positive about her work and excels at building relationships and teams.”
—Jennifer Sivak
Vice President, Americas IT at
Allegion -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Amrutha Pulikottil
Data Science Team Lead
Resultant“Amrutha goes above and beyond in everything she does. She is a career mentor, not only for her team, but for other data science individual contributors. She selflessly goes out of her way to help people grow both personally and professionally. As a data scientist, her ability to identify the right methodology to solve a problem, and then work with non-technical decision- and policy-makers to deeply understand the impact sets her apart. Amrutha is a true champion for women in data science and Indianapolis is lucky to have her.”
—Sandip Biswas
Data Science Manager at
Resultant -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Rick Seifert
Senior Director, IT
OneCause“I cannot overstate the impact Rick’s expertise and undying commitment have had on our growth and success. Rick’s biggest strength is his ability to solve problems—he’s our ‘MacGyver.’ Regardless of his actual title or role responsibilities, Rick has always been one to go above and beyond, to help solve the urgent needs of today and find a better, more efficient and effective way for the future. He keeps OneCause moving forward. Rick genuinely cares about our people, customers, and the impact we make together. He is the personification of our core values, bringing our mission of “Build Better Tomorrows” to life every day.”
—Steve Johns
CEO at OneCause -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Scott Sendelweck
Director, Employment Branding
Community Health Network“Scott brings a unique blend of expertise, leadership and innovative thinking to the fabric of Community’s marketing communications team and the network’s HR organization. The pandemic created an urgent need to reimagine internal communications and an opportunity for us to develop new strategies around culture and brand. Scott has taken on this challenge with humility and drive. He brought the Dynamic Signal tool to life in a short period of time, adding functionality ahead of our targets. Ultimately, this shows his dedication to our caregiver experience and our network vision ‘to create an exceptional experience, with every life we touch.’”
—Courtney Jones
Executive Director, Marketing and Communications at
Community Health Network -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Matt Smith
IT Manager, Applications
Indianapolis Airport Authority“Matt is an exceptional tech leader exhibiting IAA’s values of Respect, Integrity, Trust and Excellence. His customer service attitude creates innovative technical solutions that millions benefit from each year. He continually goes above and beyond in supporting internal staff and external partners to the benefit of the traveling public and community. Through his more than 13 years with the organization, he’s grown tremendously professionally and uplifted others around him. He is passionate about serving others through his strategic projects and mentorship with his alma mater. Matt is a critical contributor to the IAA and represents the future.”
—Reid Goldsmith
Senior Director, Information Technology at
Indianapolis Airport Authority -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Matt Swanson
Lead Product Engineer
SEP“I’ve worked with Matt, literally from the beginning. I conducted his on-campus interview as an intern. His technical brilliance was obvious immediately, delivering at very high levels of quality and productivity. Over time, he demonstrated extraordinary ability to see the big picture (CRUCIAL in a professional services environment), clarity of thought, and an enviable ability to communicate ideas in writing. That he performs at that level and still consistently finds time to contribute to the community is amazing. Matt is truly what Tech 25 is all about and represents the best that our community has to offer.”
—Raman Ohri
President at SEP -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Phil Tarnowski
Director of Product
Elate“Phil is a force-multiplier. He is the type of person who not only accomplishes more in a day than seems possible, but somehow helps others be more productive, efficient, and better along the way. He is inquisitive, optimistic, creative, and diligent. I often describe him as the ultimate team-player, always making sure everyone is aligned and rowing in the same direction. He is the first to show up and the last to leave, making sure that everything he committed to is done and done well, while also making time to help others. His ability to bring people together is a testament to the authentic joy it is to work with him.”
—Brooks Busch
CEO at Elate -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Marie Williams
UX Designer
enVista“It has been an honor to be Marie’s supervisor since she began with enVista. The work that Marie puts out is consistently stellar, detail-oriented and customer-centered. Marie shows incredible dedication to enVista’s clients, always striving to connect problems to solutions for enVista’s end-users. Not only does Marie consistently complete the tasks and projects on her plate with amazing quality, but she is continually focused on growing her own skills and knowledge personally and professionally, which has made her a valued asset and team member at enVista.”
—Chris Rozzi
UX Manager at enVista -
TECH PRODUCT/R&D
Stephanie Zircher
VP, Programs
Nextech“There is no one more deserving of this honor than Stephanie. She’s passionate, strategic, influential and an incredible leader. She puts her heart and soul into building tech talent—and keeping it in Indiana—through K-12 computer science education. Nextech has a strong reputation for being the best CS partner for teachers and schools, which is 100% to Stephanie’s credit. She listens, problem solves and bridges the gap between education and industry, which is no easy feat. Above all of her numerous professional accomplishments, she is truly a friend to me and the staff at Nextech along with an amazing wife and mother to her three boys.”
—Karen Jung
President at Nextech -
TECH PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Jaylan Fisher
Associate Recruiter
Jobvite“Jaylan has been instrumental to our massive hiring efforts since the day she joined, but beyond her job she shows up every day as a committed member of the Jobvite team who demonstrates our values in and out of the office—we care‚ we keep it real, we do what we say and we embrace a growth mindset. She’s caring and giving back to our Indy community, keeping it real by providing leaders the feedback they need to hire more diverse talent, and constantly looking for ways to learn and grow. We are so lucky that Jaylan chose to join our team!”
—Kelly Lavin
Sr. VP of Talent at Jobvite -
TECH PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Miranda Nicholson
SVP, Human Resources
Formstack“Miranda has been a key player in growing a thriving, remote-first culture of more than 250 employees at Formstack. All along the way, she has built important systems to bring in talent, grow people in their careers, and keep them around for longer than the industry average. She continues to push and prod to ensure that we build a strong, equitable, and diverse team. She challenges other leaders to lead by example and keeps a people-first attitude in everything that she does. Most importantly, she has been able to take her skills and knowledge to now give back to the community through Edge, ITIA, and Nexus.”
—Chris Byers
CEO at Formstack -
TECH PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Val Spangler
Sr. Manager of BI Operations
hc1“As the Sr. Manager of BI Operations at hc1, Val Spangler combines diverse, real-world tech experience with an enthusiastic, collaborative approach to information systems. Val not only distinguishes herself by the quality of her own work, but by the way she tends to elevate the performance of everyone around her. She’ll challenge colleagues and executives to do better, and then partners with us to implement the changes that are necessary to make it happen. For example, the LRI of hc1’s CV19 dashboard. Working with our Physician Executive, Val helped iterate and land on a metric that allowed for transparency of the spread of Covid-19 to local levels. She wasn’t afraid to challenge suggestions that did not seem to meet the goal and not only offered a potential path forward, but helped implement the calculation.”
—Chuck Girard
VP of Business Intelligence at
hc1 -
TECH PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Patrick Wagner
Senior Program Consultant
BCforward“Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to personally witness Patrick’s growth, becoming a leader amongst his peers. Patrick’s stamina, drive, and passion for learning have impressed me as his manager. When Patrick joined the Digital Strategies & Innovation team at BCforward he was part of a team consulting our client on implementing a new way of working. Over the course of the engagement, Patrick showed proven servant-leadership abilities, which gave him the opportunity to step into his most recent role as a Senior Consultant leading a large-scale transformation. It has been a pleasure supporting him in his career journey.”
—Justin Christian
CEO at BCforward -
TECH PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Stephanie Williams
Customer Success and Enterprise Collaboration Specialist
State of Indiana Office of Technology“Stephanie is one of those rare technologists who not only understands how to get things done, but is able to improve those around her by coaching folks and also building and sustaining communities of interest. Stephanie works hard to understand what people are truly asking for, not just what they are saying, but refocusing on the outcomes that are desired and working collaboratively across the enterprise to deliver that business value. Her perspective, patience, wisdom, and expertise make her an invaluable member of any team.”
—Anushree Bag
IT Director at State of Indiana
Office of Technology
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