Empower Speakers

Chris Wacker is CEO and co-founder of Laserfiche. Chris has been a pioneer of digital document imaging and a driving force behind Laserfiche sales, marketing and product development. Over the course of almost 30 years with the company, he has been instrumental in developing Laserfiche as the standard for intuitive, reliable and high-volume enterprise content management software in government, financial services, education and other markets.

Since joining Laserfiche in 1989, Karl Chan has been a driving force in the company’s software development. He held a variety of technology leadership roles before being named Chief Technology Officer in 2005 and President in 2014. In 2015, Karl received a CTO Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Business Journal for his creativity, leadership and vision in creating innovative technology solutions for Laserfiche and its customers.

Thomas Phelps IV is the Vice President of Corporate Strategy & CIO at Laserfiche. Thomas is currently responsible for corporate strategy, vertical marketing, analyst relations, corporate training and enterprise IT governance. Previously, Thomas was the national entertainment and media champion for cybersecurity at PwC. He led C-level relationships with clients and served as the Advisory Services leader for two Fortune 500 companies.

Peter Wayman is Vice President of Asset Management and Professional Services at Laserfiche. In this role, Peter leads the continued development and management of the Laserfiche asset management function, including setting corporate strategy for fixed assets management, professional services and consulting, and IT service management. Peter joined Laserfiche in 1996 and previously held positions in the development and sales organizations.

Tim Nichols, Vice President of Marketing, joined Laserfiche in 2016. Tim, who is responsible for setting strategic direction and goals for Laserfiche’s global marketing initiatives, brings over 20 years of software and start-up leadership experience in marketing, product marketing and product management. Most recently, Tim headed up Marketing for the Fraud Line of Business for FICO and has also held a number of leadership roles at Amazon.com, AT&T, Buzztime Entertainment, and OneHealth Solutions.

Ashwini Hassija is the Associate Vice President of IT at Molina Healthcare Inc. Ashwini has over 24 years’ experience in IT industry. He has been associated with the world of Healthcare IT for over 16 years in the areas of payer, home healthcare and pharmaceutical/bio-technology. Ashwini has worked in the areas of consulting services and corporate IT, and has held leadership roles at Molina Healthcare, Apria Healthcare, Amgen and PacifiCare Health Systems (now United HealthCare).

David has worked for Intertrust Group in IT for almost 5 years. During his time, he rolled out Laserfiche to all of Intertrust Group offices worldwide and trained almost 2,000 people. Intertrust Group also integrated Laserfiche with other Applications that Intertrust use and which they work in conjunction with LF Workflow.

Douglas Van Gelder serves as the senior IT professional responsile for the overall planning, organization, and execution of all IT functions for the Community Development Commission/Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles. His responsibilities include implementing and directing the design, coordination, maintenance and installation of the Commission’s information technology systems.

Karen A. Hobert is a Digital Workplace Content & Insights Research Director, with deep expertise in enterprise content management (ECM), enterprise file synchronization and sharing (EFSS), and social collaboration and communications technologies. Ms. Hobert has strong practical and operational strategy experience with ECM, communications, collaboration, and knowledge management capabilities.

Kevin Bertram is currently the application services leader for Oakland County Information Technology in Waterford, Michigan. Over his 30-year career, Kevin has held a number of IT roles in both application and technical infrastructure. Oakland County is one of the premier government agencies in the United States that has shown leadership in the application of technology to transform government and the delivery of services to constituents.

Brandon has been at Laserfiche since 2015. He is involved with product marketing, product strategy, and is the project manager of the Business Process Library. He is looking forward to sharing how the Business Process Library can help attendees speed up their process automation efforts.

Brian has been with Laserfiche since 1998 and has been working on web applications for most of that time. He enjoys using technology to make our users’ jobs easier. He is excited for his 17th Empower conference!

Jared started at Laserfiche over two years ago after graduating from UCLA. He works on the web team, managing and testing products like the web client, WebLink, Audit Trail and other integration services. At Empower 2018, Jared is most looking forward to hearing constructive user feedback and feature requests to bring into the software.

Katie Burke, Manager, Vertical Marketing, and Senior Government Program Strategist, is responsible for creating a variety of resources to educate the state and local government audience, including webinars, articles and white papers on technology trends affecting government organizations. Within Laserfiche, Katie serves as an industry expert and state and local government advocate. Katie graduated summa cum laude from the University of Denver.

Katie Gaston leads the daily operations for the Laserfiche Cloud program. With a tenured career history in software-as-a-service, she is passionate about helping to build cloud-based software Laserfiche customers love to use.

Lisa Miyake is a Program Manager with the Operations department. She manages corporate projects and oversees the implementation of internal systems. She leverages Forms and Workflow to automate business processes, and provides feedback to the development team based on her experience deploying solutions. Lisa is active with Laserfiche’s running and sailing clubs, and is an avid mountaineer.

Melissa Henley, Director of Marketing Communications at Laserfiche, oversees corporate marketing communications initiatives. She is a frequent speaker at industry events, user groups and webinars on topics including change management, presentation techniques and other management skills. Melissa, who joined Laserfiche in 2007, has nearly 20 years’ experience driving strategic marketing plans for leading software, financial services and educational organizations. She also is a member of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC) Foundation Board of Directors, where she serves as chair of the Marketing Committee.

Tessa helps ensure that Laserfiche software meets high quality standards and fully addresses users’ needs. At Empower, she looks forward to learning about all the different ways that attendees used Laserfiche this year. She’s always on the lookout for ways to make Laserfiche even better!