Mark Stutzman serves as chief technology officer (CTO) for AREA15, the world’s first purpose-built immersive entertainment district offering live events, distinctive attractions, interactive art installations, extraordinary design elements, unique retail, ground-breaking technology, bars and eateries and much more. With a location in Las Vegas just minutes from the Strip, AREA15 offers a robust, ever-changing roster of concert events, art exhibitions, out-of-this-world nightlife and boundary-pushing production shows. As CTO of AREA15, Stutzman is responsible for developing and implementing the technology and digital strategies to drive innovative solutions, optimize efficiencies, and achieve overall business goals. In addition, Stutzman is accountable for developing, acquiring, and deploying technology infrastructures that create compelling and immersive guest and consumer experiences, enhance marketing and sales capabilities, and streamline digital solutions for the company’s future.

Ramon Bourgeois has over 25 years in the restaurant and hospitality industry. He has worked for various restaurant chains as well as airport concessionaires, where he has been responsible of opening restaurants, developing multi-unit operational leaders, training, and domestic/ international business development. During his time in the restaurant industry, he has opened over 100 new restaurants in multiple countries around the world. Starting in 2021, Mr. Bourgeois was named as Chief Executive Officer upon completion of the acquisition by Equity Investors of New England, having previously served as the Senior Vice President, Global Franchise of Roma Franchise Corporation, Romacorp, Inc. and Roma Systems, Inc. as of November 2019, and was appointed a Director of Roma Systems, Inc., and Roma Franchise Corporation in January 2020. Previously, Mr. Bourgeois was Vice President, Global Franchise and was the Regional Vice President of Roma Systems, Inc.

Brad Browder is the Chief Executive Officer of HTx Services. HTx is a multi-vendor ATM and IT services provider based in New York. The company provides technical resources across the country to support financial institutions in their branch, headquarters and operation center facilities. With more than 30 years of industry experience, he leads HTx Services with a passion for customer engagement, service excellence, and HTx’s employees. Prior to joining HTx, Brad served as the Chief Executive Officer of Pendum, the nation’s largest third-party service organization for ATM and self-service devices in the retail (ISO/IAD) and financial institution markets. Before Pendum, Brad had a 15-year career with Diebold, most recently as Vice President of Sales Operations. Brad holds a B.A. in Economics from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN and earned his MBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH.

Before joining Networld Media Group as Vice President of Events, Cherryh Cansler spent several years as VP of Editorial managing the Networld’s nine B2B publications. Throughout her 20-year career as a journalist, she’s written about a variety of topics, ranging from the restaurant industry and technology to health and fitness news. Her byline has appeared in a plethora of newspapers, magazines and websites, including Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine. She also serves as the managing editor for FastCasual.com.

In October, 2020 Casey Christopher was named Quontic Bank’s first Chief Empowerment Officer. This role provides a channel for Quontic employees to initiate change, to participate in change and to cultivate change. Casey focuses on talent acquisition and retention of diverse employees, reframing employee mindsets, promoting inclusive customer acquisition and retention, and reimagining services and how they are delivered. She believes in constantly asking for feedback, uplifting others, providing challenging work, empowering others to impact change and creating a work environment that fosters teams to flourish and grow. Quontic re-imagines how financial products and services are delivered to both customers and the industry. She attended the Florida School of Banking, earning The Dr. C. Arnold Matthews Honor Graduate Award upon graduation.

EJ Kritz is a seasoned strategist, trainer, and keynote speaker with extensive experience working for some of the finest brands in Financial Services, Retail, Call Center, Franchising, and Media. As the Executive Vice President of apc's Training, EJ supports banking organizations of all sizes to build and deliver world-class training solutions focused on such critical topics as Customer Experience, Leadership, Management, Needs-Based Sales, Employee Engagement, Problem Resolution, and more.

With over 30 years of industry experience, Jean-Pierre Lacroix has garnered a reputation as a visionary design thinker, strategist, author, and speaker. Through an unwavering focus on future-proofing brands, Jean-Pierre is driven to produce measurable results through strategic insights that help brands own the at-purchase moment. Since the opening of Shikatani Lacroix Design (SLD), Jean-Pierre has grown his company into one of the most respected multi-disciplinary strategic design agencies in the world. Along the way, he has served as a board member of numerous associations and councils, as well as authored four books: The Business of Graphic Design, Belonging Experiences, Desire by Design, Think: The Future of Retail Banking, and most recently, Think: Inspiring the Future of Retail.

Steve Lieber is an expert in designing restaurant concepts, the art of pizza making and is a certified pizzaiolo from Italy. As Vice President of Franchise Development, Steve leads the team who sold over 150 franchises to over 50 franchise groups. His team has sold franchises in 20+ states and international deals in Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Our teams built systemwide restaurant sales of $100+ million USD in under 5 years. Steve was on opening restaurant teams for 10+ states in the United States. He taught franchisees recruiting techniques, training and operating systems, professionalism, food ordering and preparation, inventory controls, labor controls, local store marketing to increase sales and profitability of all locations.

Dan Morton is VP, Guest Experience, at Hilton, where he's responsible for guest-facing technologies like Digital Key, Connected Room, and Payments for Hilton's many brands worldwide. Previously, Dan led Product and Partnerships for Bose, a class-leading consumer audio company. He has also worked as a co-founder at consumer technology startups, an Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music, an engineer, and a composer. He holds an MS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BS from Texas A&M.

Glenn Murray has worked in the payments industry for over 20 years in various roles. He currently serves as Vice President – Strategic Growth for Sutton Payments a division of Sutton Bank, the issuer behind several high-profile programs including Square, Robin Hood, Door Dash, Instacart and many others. His team oversees business, product and partnership development for the division. He has held positions in business development, product marketing and relationship management at Discover, MasterCard, and PayPal. He is a native of Memphis, TN and has a BA from DePaul University in Chicago. He’s contributed to 4 books on various topics including authoring a book on sales and promotion.

Courtney O’Regan is SVP, Director of Marketing at Middlesex Savings Bank, one of the oldest and largest mutual banks in the country. In her time at the bank, Courtney has led exciting projects such as a rebrand, social media launch, digital marketing strategy, and most recently –the development of a formal customer experience program. She holds a BS in Mass Communications and Public Relations from Boston University.

Grace Pace is a digital innovator that has the unique ability to translate reimagined digital customer experiences into fully executed, ground-breaking bank capabilities. She combines the mindset of a community banker with the skillset of a financial technologist. Grace has spearheaded initiatives at community banks that enabled them to take their products and services to the next level. She is an expert in customer support and leveraging custom, real time core integration that allow community banks to offer personalized, precise service for customers and prospects. Prior to joining Quontic, Grace worked in digital products and implementation with Cardinal Bank, Republic Bank and First Financial Bank. She was an essential team member of Memory Bank, a neobank division of Republic Bank. During her time at First Financial Bank, she became an industry expert in online digital account opening and her expertise and vision has played a major role in how Quontic has revolutionized digital banking.

TJ Schier is the Chief Operating Officer of BigShots Golf owned by ClubCorp. BigShots Golf is the second largest player in the golf-entertainment venue space and growing quickly. The venues feature 40-64 hitting bays and up to 40,000 square feet of dining and event space. Prior to that, he spent two decades as a leading speaker and consultant in the guest service, employee retention and franchise space, delivering hundreds of speeches to operators, owners, GMs and industry associations. TJ also built hundreds of guest service and training programs for quick-service, contract feeder, casual and fine dining brands. During that time, he was also a multi-unit franchise owner Which Wich Superior Sandwiches for over a dozen years. His franchise company, SMART Restaurant Group, won numerous industry awards and recognition for their unique approach to hiring and training. Prior to starting his speaking and consulting business, he spent 18 years at Chuck E Cheese’s, leaving as VP of Field Support.

Naser Shahverdi is the founder and CEO of Aria Mall, a retail and e-commerce platform. He founded the company in 2015 and it has since grown to become one of the leading online shopping destinations in the Middle East. Shahverdi has a background in computer science and AI, and has also worked with numerous startups and tech companies in the past. He founded the mall in 2015, and it has since become a popular destination for shoppers in the Region. The main project was born from an idea long time ago and finally has registered in Amir Kabir University of Applied Science and Technology (Tehran, Iran) under the name: Designing and Development of an Online Virtual Mall. There are 7 different special markets in Aria Mall named: Digital, Home, Health, Beauty, Culture, Family & Fashion. Aria Mall introduces the famous brands to customers. We have also Aria Mag (Magazine) for news about Aria Mall & Technology and etc. Aria Mall customer's club is one of the loyalty programs plus video marketing.