Nikhil is an accomplished technology leader with more than 20 years of experience in technology product development. Nikhil is currently a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft Azure Storage, building the storage systems that power the infrastructure of one of the world’s largest public cloud. Prior to Azure, Nikhil has led several products across cyber security, enterprise computing and communications segments. Nikhil holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology and MBA from Cornell University.

Dr. Xiaodong Che is the Chief Technology Officer of the HDD Business Unit and senior vice president at Western Digital Corporation. His responsibility is to shape the magnetic recording vision based on the long-term data growth, and to serve in the Corporate Global Strategy and Technology team preparing for the disruptive innovation transitions in the foreseeable future.

In 2008, Dr. Che joined HGST. During Western Digital’s HGST acquisition, he led the technology strategy and roadmap consolidation. Prior to that, Dr. Che served Quantum Corporation as a recording technologist.

Dr. Che received his BA in Physics from Fudan University in Shanghai China in 1987, and Ph.D at UC San Diego in condensed matter physics under Prof. Harry Suhl in 1991. Afterwards, he joined Prof. Neal Bertram’s magnetic recording group at the Center for Magnetic Recording Research as a post-doctor. He has been actively involved in the development and innovation of magnetic recording storage technology in the last three decades.

Nathan Thompson is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Spectra Logic, an industry leader in delivering innovative data storage systems and solutions that help organizations protect and preserve their digital assets forever.

Nathan founded Spectra Logic in October 1979 at the age of 19, while attending the University of Colorado College of Engineering in Boulder, CO. Originally called Western Automation, the company later acquired the assets of an interface firm known as Spectra Logic and, in 1993, the combined company was renamed Spectra Logic Corporation.

For 40 years, Spectra Logic, a privately held corporation, has served the needs of data-intensive industries, global corporations and government agencies by providing them with a continuous stream of advanced data storage and archive solutions based on ever-evolving deep storage requirements.

In 1996, Nathan’s business achievements were recognized when Ernst & Young and USA Today named him Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2003, he received the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award (DEAA) from the University of Colorado. In 2011, Nathan was invited to deliver the commencement speech at the University of Colorado Boulder for the Leeds School of Business, and in 2012, he was inducted into the prestigious Boulder County Business Hall of Fame.

In 2016, Nathan authored a book, along with Spectra colleagues Bob Cone and John Kranz, titled, “Society’s Genome: Genetic Diversity’s Role in Data Preservation.” In the book, Nathan draws on the lessons of history and nature in addressing civilization’s unquenchable thirst for information and our need to find genetically diverse methods to preserve this collective knowledge base – society’s genome – for future generations.

Active in local business and civic communities, Nathan is a member and former chairman of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). He is also a member of the YPO Gold and the Colorado Thirty Group, and serves on the University of Colorado’s Electrical Engineering Advisory Board.

Nathan is a licensed commercial instrument pilot with approximately 2,500 flight hours logged. He also collects and restores vintage pinball machines, some of which are on display in Spectra’s headquarters.
Nathan holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Originally from Slovakia, Vladimir joined the CERN IT department in 2001 to work as a service manager for the scientific computing batch farm. Later, he moved into the storage group where he is now responsible for CERN’s data archive, the largest in the domain of High Energy Physics.

He closely collaborates with major tape vendors for beta-testing, commissioning and running their equipment at CERN.

Jamie Lerner joined Quantum in July 2018 as Chief Executive Officer and President. Jamie is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the business while leading Quantum’s multi-pronged transformation initiatives to drive profitability, growth and innovation.

Jamie is a seasoned executive, with more than 25 years of experience developing innovative technology portfolios and leading large, high-performing organizations. Prior to Quantum, he served as the Chief Operating Officer of Pivot3 a leader in hyper converged infrastructure. At Pivot3, Lerner was responsible for field sales, technical support, professional services, supply chain and operations. Before joining Pivot3, Lerner held the position of President, Cloud Systems and Solutions, at Seagate Technology, where he was responsible for Seagate’s growth initiatives in cloud computing. Prior to Seagate, he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Cloud and Systems Management Technology Group at Cisco. He also was Founder, President, and CEO of CITTIO Inc., an enterprise system monitoring software company; Senior Software Architect and Product Manager at Platinum Technology (acquired by CA); and, a Senior Consultant at Andersen Consulting. Jamie holds a bachelor’s degree in quantitative economics and decision sciences from the University of California, San Diego.

Shawn has been involved in technology at all levels for more than 25 years. He has nearly 20 years of experience in magnetic tape; from testing to managing the P&L for IBM tape storage. Shawn has also been an I&O leader in the financial industry, which brings him a unique view of the needs of the customer. Shawn is currently the Tape Evangelist and Strategist for IBM’s Data Retention Infrastructures team.

Mr. Hellmold joined Twist in October 2021, bringing more than 25 years of industry experience in product, technology as well as business development roles in semiconductor memory and data storage. He will be responsible for promoting, educating and driving market awareness and reception for DNA data storage. His expertise includes driving product roadmap leadership and establishing strategic relationships with ecosystem stakeholders to fuel the adoption of DNA data storage solutions across existing and emerging archive storage use cases. Before joining Twist, Mr. Hellmold was Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Business Development for Strategic Initiatives at Western Digital. Prior to Western Digital, Mr. Hellmold held executive management positions at Everspin, SandForce, Seagate Technology, Lexar Media, Samsung Semiconductor, Fujitsu and SMART Modular. Mr. Hellmold has been deeply engaged in various industry trade associations and standards organizations including co-founding the DNA Data Storage Alliance as well as USB Flash Drive Alliance. He holds an Economic Electrical Engineering degree (EEE) from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.

Jon Toor leads Cloudian’s inbound and outbound marketing teams. Prior to Cloudian, Toor served as vice president of digital marketing and demand generation at Brocade. He also served as the vice president of marketing at Xsigo Systems where he led the outbound marketing team, a group he led from company launch until the company acquisition by Oracle. Prior to Xsigo, he served at ONStor as vice president of marketing. Toor holds an MBA, bachelor of science in mechanical engineering, and a bachelor of arts in economics all from Stanford University.

Fred Moore began a 21-year career with StorageTek as the company’s first systems engineer, and concluded as Corporate Vice President of Strategic Planning and Marketing. In 1998, Fred founded Horison Information Strategies in Boulder, Colorado, a data storage industry analysis and consulting firm specializing in executive briefings, market success strategy development, and identifying key and emerging technology trends for end users, storage industry suppliers, and start-up ventures.

A sought-after motivator and frequent keynote speaker at storage conferences and IT events worldwide, Fred completed the Berkeley Executive Program in 1997. He currently serves on a few select boards in the storage networking industry.

Fred also served as Editor of Storage for Computer Technology Review magazine, and has produced numerous books, articles, research reports, white papers, analysis, infomercials, and webcasts for the storage industry, analyst groups, and financial groups.

He is a 1989 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award and a 2004 recipient of the Arts and Science Scholar-in-Residence Award at the University of Missouri, Columbia where he received a BA in mathematics and an MS in computer applications in physical geography.

Lead analyst at Coldago Research (Coldago.com), Philippe Nicolas observes the storage industry for more than 30 years. He’s recognized for his market expertise and independence capitilizing on several product experiences having worked at Scality, Brocade, Symantec, Veritas Software, SGI and Compaq.

He also launched a dispersed data storage project named KerStor in 2009 that anticipated the p2p and blockchain-based storage wave appearing a few years later.

In parallel, he drove the SNIA in France for almost 10 years, being an European board member for 4 years and he’s the author of several reference tutorials for the association.

He’s also a key contributor to StorageNewsletter and shares his comments and views on his 2 famous storage blogs (filestorage.blogspot.com and continuousdataprotection.blogspot.com) launched in 2005 with more than 2000 posts as of today. His twitter handle is @CDP_FST.

He holds an engineering degree in computer science from ESI, a French computer science engineering school.

Brad Johns is President of Brad Johns Consulting LLC, an information technology consulting firm which specializes in storage technology economics, marketing, and strategy. He began a 32-year career with IBM in 1978 as a sales trainee in the Data Processing Division. He went on to hold a variety of positions that included marketing and sales management, consulting, and project leadership. While with the Storage Products Division, he managed an international team of professionals that developed and implemented worldwide marketing plans for IBM’s storage products. His teams also conducted market research and produced business plans for IBM tape products and hosted international tape customer councils.

Brad founded his consulting company after retiring from IBM in 2010. He has published numerous white papers and presented on the economic and technical benefits of tape storage for inactive data. Brad is active in the community and is a past President of the Tucson chapter of the American Marketing Association and Chairman of the Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission. He holds a master’s degree in Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Arizona.

At Amazon Web Services, Andrew is a Principal Product Manager for Amazon S3 Glacier, focusing on archival storage products. Andrew enjoys solving complex problems with cross-functional teams. Outside of work Andrew enjoys writing music, painting, and traveling with his wife and son.

Jay Jason Bartlett is a 32-year veteran of the high-technology industry experience with 12+ years in physical security market. As a serial entrepreneur, Bartlett is the CEO and founder of Cozaint Corporation, a firm focused on physical security solutions such as the patent-pending LTO-based “askALICE” video surveillance storage solution. askALICE is the first complete end-to-end video surveillance management solution that provides the easiest to use video playback solution with the most affordable video retention.

Qingzhi is a technical sourcing manager, responsible for sourcing technology strategy for HDD and tape archive storage. Prior to joining Facebook, he was a computer storage server system product manager at Super Micro. He was a technologist/engineer in hard disk drive technology staging and product development at Western Digital/HGST, Seagate and IBM. He received his Ph.D. in physics from UC San Diego.

As Senior Director of Enterprise Business Solutions, Tony is responsible for the entire IT infrastructure at Spectra Logic. He oversees hardware, DevOps, software and cloud system integration at the company. Tony also oversees the business intelligence department, which is dedicated to collecting and analyzing data to provide decisions makers within Spectra Logic with the right dashboards and tools necessary to improve processes and accelerate growth. Tony provides overall strategy designed to proactively deliver improved systems and services in partnership with the business. An employee with Spectra Logic for more than two decades, Tony’s IT expertise is often tapped for corporate webinars, product viability discussions and customer presentations. Tony has a BS in Business Information Systems from Regis University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Cyber Security at Denver University.