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Rob Thomas is a global software executive, with extensive experience in analytics, data, cloud, and digital transformation. Mr. Thomas is currently the General Manager of IBM Analytics, IBM’s software unit focused on data management, data governance, data science and machine learning, business intelligence, and artificial intelligence.

In his current role, Mr. Thomas is responsible for all aspects of IBM’s Analytics software, including product strategy, engineering, support, services, and sales & marketing. Mr. Thomas also has responsibility for appliance manufacturing and software development sites around the world, including the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, China, and India.

Mr. Thomas’ previous roles include management responsibility for IBM’s engineering services and semiconductor business in Asia Pacific. Based in Tokyo, Japan, he was responsible for this $1B operation, which included custom product design and manufacturing. Mr. Thomas started with IBM in IBM Global Business Services (GBS). Prior to joining IBM, Mr. Thomas performed as an equity research associate at Merrill Lynch and Wheat First Securities, developing a competence in how to value company operations and explore strategic alternatives for companies in a variety of industries.

In February 2015, John Wiley & Sons published Mr. Thomas’ first book, titled “Big Data Revolution: What farmers, doctors, and insurance agents can teach us about patterns in big data”. The Financial Times called the book, “interesting as a case study of the philosophical assumptions that underpin the growing obsession with data.” In December 2016, Mr. Thomas published his second book, “The End of Tech Companies”, educating business leaders on how to navigate digital disruption in every industry. He writes extensively on his blog http://www.robdthomas.com.

Mr. Thomas is an avid golfer and exercise enthusiast. He lives in New Canaan, CT with his wife and three children.

As organizations transition to the Cloud, we see evolution from private data centers to public cloud services for a variety of technical and commercial reasons such as offloading an application or big data management. The reality is that almost every cloud environment has a connection back to the data center. This is resulting in more hybrid cloud services being developed and many large enterprises already have hybrid cloud deployments.

Denis is passionate about technology and innovation – with more than 25 years of industry experience in Security, Networking, Telecommunications, Storage and Systems. Throughout his career, he has seen first-hand that disruptions and innovations can make or break whole industries. Those experiences have shaped his philosophy on the need to continuously drive change and innovation on his teams.

Denis joined IBM through the acquisition of Vallent Technologies in 2007. He helped integrate the acquisition into IBM while also leading a number of product development teams in various executive roles. In 2012, Denis began leading Product Development for the newly formed IBM Security business unit. Since then, he has lead a major transformation of the IBM Security product portfolio, and integrated a number of strategic acquisitions that broadened IBM Security’s capabilities in the market.

Denis was promoted to General Manager of the IBM Hybrid Cloud business unit in March 2017.