Kim Sinclair joins me in our studio for Episode #095 of Underserved. Kim spent college in Friartown, leading the pep band on the road for fun and adventure supporting Providence College sports. After stints working for the Department of Revenue and consulting, Kim found herself moving into the healthcare payer and provider space at Boston Medical Center's health plan. By asking many questions she learned the many intricacies of the insurance side, which helped implement the Massachusetts Healthcare reform project “Romneycare” (the state predecessor to federal "Obamacare"). We talk about not wanting to be a CIO and then becoming one, being forced to make layoffs as your first foray into management, and some unusual requests serviced during COVID.   LINKS   linkedin.com/in/kim-sinclair Doberman Rescue Unlimited - Doberman Dog Rescue of New England - Doberman Rescue Unltd (dru.org) Heartworm Basics - American Heartworm Society Providence College https://www.providence.edu/

Taco Bell CTO Steve Plank is my guest for Episode #094 of Underserved. Steve rose quickly through the ranks in heavily regulated industries helping to manage document compliance. It took 4 trips to Taco Bell's headquarters to switch industries and get a job offer. Since then Steve has spearheaded Taco Bell's digital transformation, resulting in billions of e-commerce revenue and tighter relationships with their ravenous customer base.  Also covered are the Temple/UMass basketball rivalry in the 1990s, if/when to get your MBA, and moving from buy to build.   LinkedIn: Steve Plank: https://www.linkedin.com/in/plankstephen/ Gary Charbonneau: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gacharbonneau/ Sue Jean Lin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suejeanlin/ Dirty Money (Season 1: Episode Drug Short) https://www.netflix.com/title/80118100 Taco Bell: https://www.tacobell.com/ The Taco Bell Foundation: https://www.tacobellfoundation.org/

Susan Kelly is our guest for Underserved episode #093. Susan fell in love with computers early on, being curious about technology and loving the time/aggravation saver of spell check. She leaned into product management early in her career, in telecom, education technology, and call center software. We also talk about how companies struggle to allow employees to grieve a loss, watching a technology sea change wipe out your project, and going to bat for your direct reports.   Susan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-kelly-mba/ Faire https://www.faire.com/ The Beetle Cat, a New England classic https://beetlecat.com/ The Ideal 18 sailboat https://shumwaymarine.com/ideal18/ The Soggy Dollar, home of the Painkiller https://www.soggydollar.com/ 

Yan Robert joins us as our guest for Episode #092 of Underserved. Yan grew up in Quebec like JP Beaudry, one of our previous guests, and even attended the same university in this small world. Yan was ahead of his time with an Internet directory he founded in the late 1990s. We talk about his ongoing work with SAP and the new chapter in his career surrounding it.   Yan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanrobert/ SAPTopia website : www.sap-topia.com SAPTopia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/saptopia-consulting-llc

Episode #091 features Sesh Tirumala, CIO of PagerDuty. Sesh is a podcast veteran, and shares with us his experiences implementing systems in 120-degree heat, being a technologist in Appalachia,  and managing incremental IT costs. Sesh has felt the pain of having to justify IT's existence, proving it is a revenue generator and not just a cost center. We also talk about implementing charitable giving in small companies vs. large companies.   Sesh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sesh-tirumala-449a93/ PagerDuty: https://www.pagerduty.com/ Sesh on CIO Classified Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/make-big-data-work-for-your-business-with-michael/id1528611923?i=1000558165883 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seshtirumala/