Trace3, a pioneer in business transformation solutions, today announced the 2014 finalists and judges for its annual Trace3 Outlier Award. The winner will be announced at the company's annual Evolve user conference on January 30, 2014 at the Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa in Las Vegas.

The Trace3 Outlier Award honors exceptional individuals who consistently deliver dynamic innovation and outstanding leadership in the field of information technology. By carefully managing risk and utilizing their own ingenuity, these visionaries deviate from the norm to solve challenging problems at the intersection of business and technology. The Outlier award recognizes CIOs who are transforming their business offerings via innovative technologies to drive further market success.

"We are delighted to announce the finalists for our 2014 Outlier award, along with a distinguished panel of independent judges," said Josh Berezin, President of Trace3. "We are honored that our award finalists and judges include some of the most accomplished executives and visionaries in the field of information technology. Each Outlier award finalist has embraced a core belief at Trace3 that companies need to constantly evolve through a culture of innovation and risk-taking to stay relevant and competitive in today's market."

2014 Trace3 Outlier Award Finalists

  • Charles Connoy, Vice President of Global Platform, Sony Computer Entertainment America
  • Colin Black, CIO, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions
  • Greg Reischlein, CIO, Newport Corporation
  • Shohreh Abedi, CIO, Farmers Insurance
  • David Anderson, CIO, CH2M Hill
  • Jamie Cutler, CTO, QEP Resources
  • Judy Batenburg, Vice President of IT Infrastructure, Starz Entertainment
  • Chris Laping, Senior Vice President of Business Transformation and CIO, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc.

2014 Trace3 Outlier Award Judges

  • Asheem Chandna, Partner, Greylock Partners
  • Bill Schlough, Senior Vice President and CIO, San Francisco Giants
  • Keith Morrow, CIO, Epsilon
  • Ken Venner, CIO, SpaceX
  • Sven Gerjets, Senior Vice President of Information Technology, DirecTV, Inc.
  • Tony Coba, Senior Vice President of Information Technology and CIO, The Heat Group
  • Ralph Loura, CIO, Clorox

Previous Award Recipient: The HEAT Group

Last year, Trace3 honored Tony Coba, Senior Vice-President and CIO of The HEAT Group with the Trace3 Outlier Award, for the innovative implementation of a cellular neutral-host Distributed Antenna System (DAS) at AmericanAirlines Arena and for the creation of numerous award-winning sports and entertainment products and services. The HEAT Group is comprised of the National Basketball Association's Miami HEAT and the 19,600-seat AmericanAirlines Arena.

Mr. Coba was chosen due to his implementation of the DigiTix system, which simplifies the order fulfillment process by allowing customers to select the games they want to purchase, at a price point they can afford. As a result, fans have more options to build their own a la carte partial season ticket plans with personalized HEAT experiences, providing customer incentives with real-time discounts based on their level of spending.

In an interview, Mr. Coba said, "DigiTix has changed the sports industry to allow consumers to be more in charge of their choices and in charge of their spend, which allows consumers to take in what they want to consume not what the team wants to sell."

Mr. Coba's decision to implement the DigiTix system for The HEAT Group meant carefully balancing risk with innovation, a leadership decision that improved the business returns as well as the customer experience.

About The Trace3 Outlier Award

The Trace3 Outlier Award is an exclusive honor, awarded annually to one individual from a select group of finalists. Past Outlier Award winners have demonstrated the following common attributes in their careers and in their approach to information technology challenges:

  • They understand the industry and business goals of their company as well as the technology and how that technology applies to the business
  • They deliver creative, out-of-the-box technology solutions
  • They build the trust of business leaders in their company by being both transparent and collaborative
  • They understand precisely how technology is going to deliver against their company's business goal
  • They are skilled in building the right team, stimulating open team communication, and providing team leadership for consistent, positive results

To view the highlight video of the January 2013 event, please click here: http://outlier.trace3.com

About Trace3

Founded in 2002, Trace3, a pioneer in business transformation solutions, empowers organizations to lead their market space by keeping pace with the rapid changes in IT innovations ensuring relevance to specific business initiatives required to maximize revenue generation by leveraging the latest Silicon Valley, cloud, big data and datacenter technologies maximizing organizational health. We have a unique ability to deliver optimal solutions combined with our talented team and over 10 years of documented best practices that unify people, process and technology. Over 2,000 globally recognized companies' trust in Trace3 to stay relevant and innovative in today's highly competitive market. Please visit our website at www.Trace3.com.

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Trace3@gutenbergpr.com