Master of Business and Technology Advisory Board

Warren Blanchard, the Managing Partner of Potomac Strategy Consultants (PSC) and Partner at Seven Elements Group is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience in business operations, strategy, product management, and finance. His expertise lies in building value for Fortune 500 companies. Before rejoining PSC, Warren held the position of Vice President of High-Speed Data Strategy at Time Warner Cable, overseeing the company’s $6.5 billion residential high-speed data business. He also managed business operations, strategic planning, and finance for the company’s online consumer portal during his tenure.

Prior to his role at Time Warner Cable, Warren held various key positions in operations, finance, and engineering at organizations such as FINRA, Ernst & Young, and Honda of America. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Purdue’s Krannert Graduate School of Management. In recognition of his accomplishments, Warren was awarded the Purdue University Outstanding Industrial Engineering Alumni Award in 2015. Additionally, he is a graduate of two prestigious executive leadership programs: The Corporate Athlete and NAMIC Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP) at UCLA.

Warren's commitment to leadership extends beyond his professional endeavors. He previously served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for The Woods Academy and has been an advisory board member for The Krannert Alumni Association, The Emerging Technology Consortium, and The YMCA of Silver Spring, Maryland.

Outside of work and community involvement, Warren is an avid golfer and sports enthusiast. He resides in Maryland with his wife and three sons.

As the Information Officer for R&D, Ramesh Durvasula is responsible for the technology portfolio (software, data, analytics, etc.) that accelerates the output of Lilly R&D, from drug discovery to clinical, regulatory, pharmacovigilance, etc. His mission at Lilly is to unite science with technology to accelerate the R&D pipeline and deliver innovative therapeutics.

Prior to Lilly, Ramesh spent over a decade at BMS, integrating drug discovery labs and digital systems into seamless capabilities. Before BMS, Ramesh spent several years at Tripos, a computational chemistry software firm. He is an active leader in many industry forums such as the Pistoia Alliance and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. Ramesh is a member of the Board of Directors of the 16Tech Community Corporation, focused on building an innovation district in the heart of Indianapolis. Ramesh earned his BA in Chemistry and PhD in Biophysics from the University of Virginia.

As a program manager, Nitin Jain is responsible for the flagship analytics program and product portfolio that is critical to achieving Caterpillar’s commitment to reach $28 billion in service sales by 2026. His mission is to lead and support a cross-functional team to deliver a robust, and scalable analytics solution that could grow with Caterpillar’s goals beyond 2026.

Before Caterpillar, Nitin was part of Capgemini INVENT, where he developed a product offering that helps customers manage their factory as a product. Nitin also spent over a decade at Cummins Inc., building many Engineering, Finance, and Data Management solutions at an Enterprise scale. Prior to Cummins, Nitin spent the earlier years of his career with a few software development companies where he designed and developed solutions for General Electric. Nitin got an Honor Scholar award during his M.B.A. from the Daniels School of Business. Additionally, Nitin earned his master’s degree in industrial engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi, and an Undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rani Durgavati University – Jabalpur.

Atul Kamra is the Managing Partner of SixThirty, a venture capital firm investing globally in early-stage technology companies at the intersection of finance, health, and privacy.

Before SixThirty, Atul served as Senior Managing Director and Head of Advice for Wells Fargo Advisors. In previous roles, he was President of First Clearing, Well Fargo’s Clearing & Custody Business, and Partner and Practice Leader of Booz’s Capital Markets & Wholesale Banking business.

Atul is a member of the Board of Advisors of Olin School of Business CFAR at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He serves on the boards of the St Louis Public Schools Foundation and St Louis Fashion Fund.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Bombay University, where he was awarded a National Merit Scholarship, and a post-graduate degree in Chartered Accountancy from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He attended Duke University in Durham, NC, where he earned his MBA degree on a Rotary International scholarship.

He is an avid cricket fan and captained his school and college teams.

Jim Miller is a former CEO, CTO, Google executive, and an early Amazon executive. Jim is currently on the Board of Directors of Brambles Limited (ASX Listed), The RealReal (NASDAQ listed), and LivePerson (NASDAQ listed). Jim is a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group where he advises their clients on issues of GenAI/ML, cloud computing and data centers, eCommerce, Retail, and digital transformation. Jim is an Executive Partner at Ethos Capital, a Private Equity firm specializing in digital platforms. Jim is a Partner at Rebar Advisors, an advisory firm that specializes in hypergrowth and digital transformations. Additionally, he is an Advisor to multiple early-stage, mid-stage, and public companies, venture capital firms, and private equity firms.

Jim’s expertise is helping early and mid-stage companies scale their operations through hyper-growth phases. He is a recognized thought leader in operations and supply chain management with additional expertise in software engineering, analytics, big data, product development, IT, Digital Transformation, Cloud, B2B, B2C, eCommerce, telecommunications, and computer technology and business practices. He has a unique combination of deep technical, operational, and GM skills.

Jim was the Chief Technology Officer of Wayfair, a leading online retailer of furniture and home goods, and was on the Board of Directors for three years prior to taking the CTO role. As the CTO of Wayfair, he had responsibility for a team of approx. 3500 employees consisting of software engineers, product managers, UX/UI design, and ML/data scientists. He had functional responsibility for all of the technology and applications that power Wayfair and oversaw their rapid expansion during the pandemic as well as their re-platforming and migration to a public cloud provider. Additionally, he had responsibility for a multi-hundred-person data science team.

Jim was the Chief Executive Officer of Arevo Inc. In this role, he was responsible for commercializing and ramping Arevo’s continuous carbon fiber 3D deposition technology and fabrication processes.

Prior to this role, Jim was Vice President of Worldwide Operations at Google. In this role, he had responsibility for global operations, planning, supply chain, and new product introduction for Google’s Cloud infrastructure and Google Fiber. Additionally, he was responsible for Google Energy, LLC, and Corporate & Social Responsibility. He served as an Advisor for many of Google’s new initiatives in GoogleX, Consumer Hardware, and Verily/Google Life Sciences.

Prior to joining Google in 2010, Jim worked with leading companies in electronics, networking, cleantech, communications technology, manufacturing, and consumer services. His expertise in the supply chain was honed at Amazon.com, Cisco, First Solar, Sanmina-SCI Corporation, IBM Corporation, Intel, and Sierra Crest Consulting.

Jim has a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University, a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Master’s Degree in Management from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was an “MIT Leaders for Manufacturing” Fellow.

Jim Ostrognai joined the Salesforce Engineering Team in 2016, where I am now working on our newest offering, Data Cloud. I had the opportunity to join the team during the early stages of the project in 2019 when it was still in its top-secret incubation phase. Data Cloud is a revolutionary solution that allows businesses to better understand their customers by connecting, federating, and harmonizing their data. With the latest Gen AI innovation, it provides everything a company needs to maximize ROI from trapped structured and unstructured Data.

In recognition of my contributions to Data Cloud and the Marketing Cloud, I was promoted to SVP in 2024. In 2021, I was honored to receive my first US Patent and was nominated for IBJ's CTO of the year in the Largest Company Category. I hold certifications from Amazon, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, VMWare, and PMI, as I try to stay up-to-date with the latest technology. In 2018, I was honored to receive the Salesforce President's Award and also completed an Executive MBA from Purdue University Krannert School of Management. Before my current role at Salesforce, I worked for 17 years at Interactive Intelligence. I served as senior leader for 12 years, reporting directly to the visionary and serial entrepreneur CEO Dr. Donald Brown. During my time there, I witnessed the incredible growth of the company from 150 to 2,500 employees. I was involved in managing and scaling the company before its acquisition by Genesys Telecommunications for $1.4 billion in 2016. I enjoy giving back to my community and currently serve as a volunteer Men's volleyball coach at Zionsville High School. I am a Trustee for Anderson University, where I can contribute to the education and growth of future generations.

Aaron Wheadon is a seasoned leader with 20+ years of knowledge in international business management, business development, sales and sales leadership, customer experience, and strategic planning. He joined Kalsec in 2007 as an account manager and currently holds the position of Senior Vice President of Global Business Development, overseeing global operations in Europe and Asia, as well as driving commercial sales operations worldwide.

Aaron’s passion for business is representative of Kalsec’ s purpose: Unlocking the potential of people, nature, and science to nourish the world. His passions include developing new markets, leading sales and customer experience teams in their development, and discovering and implementing new ways to increase customer engagement through both human interaction and digital platforms. His depth of experience and knowledge of international markets and business practices is supported by an MBA earned in International Management from Purdue University.

Outside of Kalsec, he serves on the advisory board at Western Michigan University’s Food Marketing Program. He also volunteers to mentor youth and young adults in their educational and financial goals. This aligns very well with his personal and professional beliefs when it comes to living and supporting Kalsec’ s goals for excelling in its BCorp journey.

Aaron’s immediate family includes his wife, Julee, five grown children, with two more still at home, and their dog Phoebe. Aaron and Julee are very enthusiastic, amateur ‘foodies’ who enjoy discovering new food to make as well as new restaurants between Chicago and Detroit and bringing back new food ideas to try from wherever Aaron’s travel takes him across the world.

Dustin Wilcox is Vice-President and Global Chief Information Security Officer for Elevance Health, a Fortune 25 global leader in managed healthcare. He previously served as Vice-President and Chief Information Security Officer for Centene Corporation and has over 30 years of experience in Information Security and Technology where he has held a wide variety of technical and strategic leadership positions across a diverse array of industries including healthcare, financial services, defense, and energy to name a few.

Dustin serves on the advisory boards for IBM, Dell, and Boxx Insurance, and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Internet Security Alliance. He is a founding board member of the Security Advisor Alliance, a non-profit created by Information Security Leaders for the greater good of the InfoSec community, and continues to serve on their Executive Board of Directors. He is also a founding member of the metropolitan St. Louis CISO Roundtable.

Dustin, a graduate of the University of Iowa, served for a number of years as an adjunct professor of Information Security in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis and one of the founders of their Master of Cyber Security Management degree program. Dustin holds or has held a number of advanced certifications including CISSP, CSSLP, and GSEC among others.