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Virima's leadership team consists of dedicated, diverse, and highly talented professionals with over 20 years of experience each – all focused on revolutionizing the IT Operations of Global 10,000 companies.
Palaniswamy
Chairman and CEO
Palaniswamy "Raj" Rajan co-founded Virima Technologies and serves as the company's Chairman & CEO. With more than 15 years experience in the technology industry, Rajan has a deep understanding of current technologies…
Mike leverages his 20-plus years of experience with building great solutions and teams to solve clients' complex technology needs. His deep understanding of the challenges faced by today's IT professionals helped him guide the development of Virima ITAM/ITSM built on powerful asset discovery and dependency mapping technology.
SreeRam Royyala
SreeRam Royyala has more than twenty years of leadership experience working in a broad set of environments including Fortune 50 companies, SMBs, start-ups and non-profit organizations.
John M Lee
John M. Lee is Virima's Chief Financial Officer and is a certified public accountant. John brings more than has more than 20 years of accounting and financial reporting to the company.
Palaniswamy Rajan
Palaniswamy "Raj" Rajan co-founded Virima Technologies and serves as the company's Chairman & CEO. With more than 15 years experience in the technology industry, Rajan has a deep understanding of current technologies and has the ability to articulate the application of these technologies in various business contexts and models. A highly versatile and proven entrepreneur, Rajan also founded Vigilar, Inc, a leading network security technology firm; eLaunchpad, LLC, an early stage venture capital firm/incubator focusing on Internet infrastructure and network security technologies; and Emerald Systems, a boutique technology consulting firm. During his tenure at Vigilar, he grew annual revenues to $32M from 2000 to 2005, during the most difficult technology industry climate. Another previous success, financial aggregator VerticalOne was sold to S1 in 1999 in a deal valued at $166 million.
Rajan previously served on the Board of Directors for Vigilar, currently serves on the Board of Directors of Virima and serves on the advisory boards of several early-stage technology firms around the country. A leader in the business community, he is involved in several professional and community organizations. Rajan was instrumental in establishing the Atlanta CEO High Tech Council, where he serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and he co-founded and serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE). Rajan was honored as Georgia Trend's "40 Under 40" Rising Stars in 2000. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology.
As COO Mike Bombard oversees Virima's sales, marketing and support organizations. Mike joined Virima in 2010 after the merger with data center consultancy S2N Solutions of which he was a principal. Mike leverages his 20-plus years of experience with building great solutions and teams to solve clients' complex technology needs. His deep understanding of the challenges faced by today's IT professionals helped him guide the development of Virima ITAM/ITSM built on powerful asset discovery and dependency mapping technology. Prior to joining Virima and S2N, Mike had account executive and sales management roles with TippingPoint Technologies, Roving Planet, Southern Business Communications, and Enterasys Networks/Cabletron Systems. Mike has a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Management and Flight Operations from Daniel Webster College and is a licensed pilot. In his free time Mike enjoys boating and RVing with his family and dogs.
SreeRam Royyala has more than twenty years of leadership experience working in a broad set of environments including Fortune 50 companies, SMBs, start-ups and non-profit organizations. He has expertise in managing, architecting and developing enterprise applications with a diverse set of technologies, frameworks and specifications. Prior to Virima Technologies, he was founder and CEO at ZeroTouchWare, a provider of Enterprise Service Management solutions. At ZeroTouchWare, SreeRam conceptualized and delivered two major product lines in the areas of IT Service Management based on ITIL and Federated reporting for large enterprises. Previously, SreeRam held technical and management positions at Tata Consultancy Services, Manhattan Associates and AT&T. SreeRam's software industry expertise includes ITSM, SaaS services, information security and large-scale infrastructure management solutions. He is ITIL-certified and has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Andhra University and M.S. from NIT, Warangal, India.
John M. Lee
John M. Lee is Virima's Chief Financial Officer and is a certified public accountant. John brings more than has more than 20 years of accounting and financial reporting to the company. Prior to joining Virima, John honed his financial management expertise at positions in several Atlanta-area firms including The Covenant Group, eLaunchpad, Ellison, Boshell & Salmon, Houston & Company, and Hersch & Associates. John is a graduate of the University of West Florida with a B.A. in Accounting and was awarded his C.P.A. license from the state of Georgia in 1995.
The Board of Directors offers Virima expert business strategy insight and feedback that provides the company direction and helps Virima create efficient and lean business techniques and practices to reduce cost and provide superior service to our customers.
Rajan previously served on the Board of Directors for Vigilar, currently serves on the Board of Directors of Virima and serves on the advisory boards of several early stage technology firms around the country. A leader in the business community, he is involved in several professional and community organizations. Rajan was instrumental in establishing the Atlanta CEO High Tech Council, where he serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and he co-founded and serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE). Rajan was honored as Georgia Trend's "40 Under 40" Rising Stars in 2000. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology.
Chief Operationg Officer
Mike Bombard brings 20-plus years of experience in complex technology and consulting sales, international partner development and management/operational experience to Virima. Mike's sales career started with Cabletron Systems, a leading manufacturer of computer networking equipment. He worked his way up from entry-level telemarketing to Southeast Regional Sales Director for Cabletron's spinoff Enterasys Networks. That led to Director of IT Sales at Southern Business Communications where he led a team of inside and outside sales reps.
Following that, Mike was National Sales Manager for Roving Planet which was acquired by 3Com's TippingPoint Technologies division. At TippingPoint Mike became NAC Sales Manager for the Americas where he traveled from Canada to Brazil presenting the solution to customers, training TippingPoint and 3Com sales reps and developing partner programs. Mike ultimately joined former customer and long-time friend Greg Spence at S2N Solutions, a Data Center Consolidation and Optimization consulting firm. Mike was the VP of Sales and COO when S2N merged with Virima to combine S2N's proven data center consulting experience with Virima's innovative ERP for IT Operations technology.
Mike has a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Management and Flight Operations from Daniel Webster College and is a licensed pilot.
Dr. Paul Lopez
President of LPI Enterprises, LLC
Dr. Paul Lopez is the President of LPI Enterprises, LLC, which invests in early stage companies, providing financing and wisdom. Dr. Lopez is also the President-Elect of TiE Atlanta. TiE is the largest non-profit global organization focused on entrepreneurs, with over 13,000 members in 61 chapters across 21 countries, of which Atlanta is ranked as the 4th largest chapter in the worldwide network.
As an entrepreneur, he was a Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Element Funding, a residential mortgage lender with branches across Georgia, Florida and North Carolina that has served over 23,000 families with over $5 billion in mortgage financing from 2007 till his retirement in spring 2017.
In his prior corporate career, Paul worked for eight years as Executive Vice President of Business Development & Sales at HomeBanc Mortgage Corporation, a regional mortgage bank. Prior to working in the financial services industry, he was employed in high tech for 20 years at IBM and Xerox in field and headquarters positions, and has been a faculty member at the business schools of Kennesaw State University and California State University, teaching in their Executive MBA and BBA programs respectively. He has also lectured in Europe and Asia in the area of leadership.
He holds a doctorate in business administration from Louisiana Tech University, an MBA from the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calcutta, India.
Paul is highly involved in the community, currently serving on the board of Action Ministries, which administers to the poor across north Georgia through housing, food, clothing and education programs.
Paul resides in the East Cobb suburb of Atlanta, GA, and is blessed to be living the American Dream as a first-generation immigrant, having arrived in the US in 1974 to attend graduate business school. He has two grown children and five grandkids, all living in metro Atlanta. His hobbies are attending live theatre and international travel.
C.N. Madhusudan
C.N. (Madhu) Madhusudan is an executive, entrepreneur and deal maker with significant experience in setting up, acquiring and operating businesses in Europe, India and the United States. His expertise areas include growth/exit strategy, M&A, and cross-border transactions.
An early member of the team that built the NIIT Group in India, he established the group's presence in the United States. This US entity became the NIIT Group's largest subsidiary and was nominated twice for the Atlanta International Business Award. Later, as President of NIIT Ventures, he led several new venture investment initiatives and cross border acquisitions involving the US, Europe and India. As a corporate buyer, he evaluated a large number of founder led companies and developed a deep insight into entrepreneurial thinking, exit strategies, deal structures, post-merger integration and governance challenges.
He is the founder and CEO of VectorSpan Inc., an enterprise that enables companies plan their growth/exit strategy, engineer inorganic growth and make cross-border transactions and integration successful. He has consulted, trained and mentored leadership teams of a number of diverse companies and has led acquisitions of a number of founder led companies. He has significant transaction experience with private equity groups like Advent International, Bain Capital, Berkshire Partners, Furman Selz, GE Equity and global corporate acquirers like ADP, EBSCO, Eisenmann and Sodexo.
His board level experience spans companies in the United States, Europe and Asia. As a speaker, he has addressed audiences at the World Bank, IFC, IMF, Institute for International Research, Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, Columbia Business School, Ross School of Business, IIT Mumbai, SIBF, TiE and UNESCO. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of TiE – Atlanta, a not for profit group aimed at fostering entrepreneurship. He studied at the St. Joseph's College, Bangalore, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His professional education includes Business Evaluation at the Harvard Business School.
Arul Murugan
Arul is an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. He is the founder and CEO of 11-11 Ventures, LLC. Arul serves on the board of directors of TiE Atlanta and several early stage technology companies. He is also a member of the Grow committee of Tech Alpharetta (which is the technology hub of the South where 11-11 Ventures is headquartered.)
Prior to founding 11-11 Ventures, Arul founded Enrich (a global leader in Oracle Procurement SaaS) in 2003 and grew it to a global company across North America, Europe and Asia, before his exit in early 2016. Enrich is now a Data Intensity company, owned by a private equity firm. Arul had his second exit in 2017 to a large global private equity firm called EQT, based out of Sweden. During his tenure with Enrich, Arul acquired two UK-based companies and setup global development centers across three cities in India. He was recognized as "Entrepreneur of the Year" by B2B magazine, FETNA and E&Y. Under Arul's leadership, Enrich was recognized as Inc. 500/5000 company five years consecutively (Top 5 in IT), Deloitte Technology Fast 50 company and a pacesetter company from Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Arul's key strengths are business model innovation, applying the right technology to solve business problems, backed up by his finance acumen in managing a company or an investment portfolio. He is passionate about managing and growing investments across private and public companies. He started investing when he was 21 years old and enjoys managing most of his net worth assets by himself.
Arul received his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Madurai Kamaraj University, India, and is also a CPIM from APICS.
The CIO Advisory Board offers Virima expert end-user insight and feedback that provides the company direction and helps Virima create superior products and services that allow our customers to benefit from that expertise and save money on their data center initiatives. Members of the Advisory Board are accomplished individuals that hail from some of the most recognized corporations in America.
Fran Dramis
Former CIO, Bellsouth
F.A. ("Fran") Dramis is the CEO of F. Dramis LLC, a technology consulting and investment firm. He provides support, advice and capital to businesses providing web services, data security and IT infrastructure management. Mr. Dramis currently serves on the private company boards of Damballa, NanoLumens and Urjanet. In addition, he is on the advisory boards of Virima, Voyager Capital, Diabetech, Zixi LLC and Medify, Inc.He served previously on the private boards of RealOps Inc., US Oncology (Chair of Technology Committee) and IOCOM, as well as on the public boards of WebMethods, Inc., Avocent Corporation (Chair of Nominating & Governance committee, member of Audit committee and member of Strategy & Acquisition committee), Ditech Networks (Chair of Nominating & Governance committee, member of Compensation committee) and Netezza (member of Audit committee).
Mr. Dramis was formerly the Chief Information, Ecommerce and Security Officer for BellSouth. He joined BellSouth Corporation in 1998. During his tenure, BellSouth's IT and Security groups were nationally recognized as top organizations in their fields by receiving the following awards:
Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) Top 10 in Diversity category – Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT (2004) SecurE-Biz Leadership Award InformationWeek 500 Most Innovative Users of Technology (Ranked #10 in 2005) CIO Magazine's Enterprise Value Award in 2005 Before joining BellSouth, Mr. Dramis founded CIO Strategy, Inc., an information technology consulting firm. At that firm, Mr. Dramis led technology transformation efforts at Citibank, Coopers & Lybrand, NASD and Bankers Trust. Prior to CIO Strategy, Mr. Dramis was managing director and CIO at Salomon Brothers. Mr. Dramis also served as president and CEO of Network Management Inc., and president and chief operating officer of Telic Corporation. Early in his career, Mr. Dramis worked with AT&T, including Bell Labs, rising to the position of executive director of information product management.
As one of the country's top IT leaders, Mr. Dramis has been recognized by a variety of publications as a top CIO. His awards include:
CIO Magazine's CIO 100 Award in 1999 CIO Magazine's Top 100 Leaders for the Next Millennium in 2000 Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders in 2002 Mr. Dramis is also an author of two books and a regular speaker at technology and leadership forums.
Dr. Richard Reiner
Chairman & CEO, Enomaly
Dr. Richard Reiner serves as chairman and CEO of Enomaly, a pioneer and leader in the cloud computing space. Prior to Enomaly, Dr. Reiner founded Assurent Secure Technologies, a SaaS company in the IT Security space that was acquired in 2006 by TELUS, a Global 1000 corporation. As chief security and technology officer of Assurent, Dr. Reiner led the creation of the world's leading threat intelligence capabilities. Subsequent to the acquisition of Assurent, he served as chief security and technology officer at TELUS, ensuring the success of the Assurent acquisition and playing a key role in several breakthrough multi-hundred-million dollar wins for TELUS. For the past four years, Dr. Reiner has served on the boards and advisory boards of many highly regarded early-stage companies in the IT infrastructure, security, and SaaS sectors, such as Veracode, Enomaly, Netclarity, Virima, Stonewall Software, and Fonolo. He holds multiple patents in the field of software security.
Sandra C Hofmann
Former CIO, Mapics
For the past four years, Sandra Hofmann has served as "Chief Information Officer-in-Residence" with the Advanced Technology Development Center, a nationally recognized science and technology incubator headquartered at Georgia Tech that helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies.
Most recently she was chief operating officer at Closets and More, the Southeast's largest custom closet design, installation, and manufacturer. Prior to that, Hofmann served as executive vice president and COO for Turknett Leadership Group, a character based management and consulting firm.Over 14 years, Hofmann held various executive management positions at IBM within the application development area as well as senior executive positions in customer service and support with several manufacturing software companies. She was also the first woman executive at Simplex where she served as vice president of technical services. Hofmann's influence reaches beyond her professional undertakings and she is very engaged in her community with the promotion of technology and ethical leadership. She serves on the Board of Directors for AAA Auto Club South, TechBridge, Women in Technology, and is the past chairman for the Board of Directors for Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM-Atlanta chapter) and past compensation committee chair for the AkroMetrix Board of Directors.
Jigesh Saheba
CTO & Vice President Infrastructure, ADP Pre-Employment Services
Jigesh Saheba currently serves as CTO and vice president infrastructure of ADP Pre-Employment Services. With over 18 years of experience in the IT industry, Saheba has successes in achieving bottom-line results while formulating and implementing advanced technology and business solutions to meet a diversity of needs. Prior to ADP, Saheba founded a technology startup specializing in B2B technologies. He served as the vice president of research and technology for VerticalOne, a successful Internet startup company.Saheba previously worked as senior java architect for the Java Design Center of Sun Microsystems. He began his career at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston designing and programming space shuttle navigation software.
Former CIO, Matria Healthcare
Mark Ryan previously served as senior vice president and CIO of Matria Healthcare. He was responsible for the leadership and business success of multiple organizations: data and network operations, architecture, data acquisition and standardization, clinical workflow engine delivery and development, call center design and operations, data security, application development, data warehousing and BI.
Prior to joining Matria Healthcare, Ryan was CTO and served on the Board of Directors of Vodafone Global Content Services, the world's largest mobile cellular phone service provider. During his time at Vodafone, he oversaw nine technology organizations including operations, architecture, application development, across eight European countries. Previously, He served as CTO of Weather.com/The Weather Channel, where his high-tech web site initiatives stabilized the company's web presence, improved customer satisfaction during severe weather situations and propelled Weather.com to be the world's most highly-accessed weather website. Ryan has also assumed the role as CTO for eBay, where his leadership resulted in the improvement of the company's web site stability, availability and overall quality. He spent 18 years with IBM prior to joining eBay and was an executive-on-loan to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Games as the chief integration architect.
Darryl Lemechabgh
Senior Vice President & CIO, Vertafore Inc.
Darryl Lemecha joined Vertafore, Inc. as senior vice president and CIO. He is responsible for leading corporate information technology strategy and hosting services for all Vertafore's business units including AMS Services, BenefitPoint, ImageRight and SilverPlume.
Prior to joining Vertafore, Lemecha held the position of CIO at ChoicePoint where he was responsible for technology shared services, security and risk management, customer support and implementation and customer credentials management. In his role as ChoicePoint CIO, Lemecha received numerous accolades including being named one of Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders, Oracle CIO of the Quarter and a finalist for the Georgia CIO of the Year.
Before ChoicePoint, Lemecha was senior vice president and CIO of Insignia Financial Group. At Insignia, Lemecha directed the firm's strategic and emerging use of information technologies worldwide.
Kas Naderi
CIO, CompuCredit CARS division
Kas Naderi currently serves as CIO of CompuCredit's auto subsidiary. Naderi joined CompuCredit to establish and grow its presence in subprime auto financing. He lead the integration of Wells Fargo Financial Consumer Automotive Receivable (CAR) and ACC Consumer Finance (ACC) into CompuCredit's auto subsidiary. Prior to joining CompuCredit, Naderi served as the CTO for AfterBOT, where he focused on leveraging Digital Receipt technologies to change how consumer good producers connect with their customers. He also served as CTO at MunicipalTrade where he led the design, development and operation of the first online Municipal Bond trading platform. Naderi was also the senior director of emerging technologies for Bass Hotels and Resorts. He was recognized by Computer World Magazine as one of the United States' top 100 premier technology leaders. Previously, Naderi held a number of leadership positions within IBM's development laboratory in Austin, TX, where he led the development for real time operating systems, data communication subsystems and mission critical middleware. He brings more than 21 years of executive and management experience delivering business value and global enterprise solutions within large, medium and startup organizations. He is a graduate of East Tennessee State University with Bachelor of Science in both Computer Science and Math.
Mark Kraieski
Chief Architect & Vice President, Consulting
Mark Kraieski has twenty-five years of broad and deep multi-industry information technology experience including architecture and large-scale data center transformation and migration projects. As Virima's Chief Architect and Vice President of Consulting, Mark is responsible for the technical quality of solutions, services, and products.Prior to joining Virima, Mark ran his own consulting practice focused on IT Transformation, Enterprise Architecture, and Program Assessment and Recovery. Clients included Equifax, A. G. Edwards & Sons Inc. (now Wells Fargo Advisors), Macys, Premiere Global Services, and Open Solutions.
Mark's previous positions include Chief Architect at iXL and Director of Electronic Commerce Services (including delta.com) at Delta Air Lines. Mark has also developed compilers and operating systems (Gould CSD / Encore Computer / Texas Instruments), managed development of military avionics (McDonnell Douglas), and managed global IT messaging projects (WR Grace). Mark graduated from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania with a BSCS in Systems Programming.
Former President and CEO, MAPICS, Inc.
Mr. Cook is an executive consultant to companies in the high tech industry in the areas of strategic planning, leadership and the roles of the C-level executives. Mr. Cook is retired from 12 years as Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of MAPICS, Inc. (Nasdaq/NM: MAPX). He managed the 1993 sale by IBM (NYSE: IBM) of the $60 million revenue MAPICS business to Marcam. He led the complex 1997 reverse spin-out from Marcam (Nasdaq/NM: MCAM), and conducted the public offering that created the MAPICS, Inc. business. As CEO he was responsible for the all aspects of the MAPICS software and service offerings worldwide, and managed all shareholder relations. In December of 1999, he negotiated the acquisition of a private firm – Pivotpoint and in November of 2002, he led the acquisition of Frontstep (Nasdaq/NM: FSTP). MAPICS grew to $173 million revenue by year end 2004, with over 10,000 active customer sites using the applications in 19 languages, in over 70 countries around the world. In December of 2004 Mr. Cook proposed a leveraged buy out by management that caused the eventual sale of the company, in an all-cash transaction, to Infor.
Prior to his tenure with MAPICS Mr. Cook was an executive with the IBM Corporation. His IBM career spanned 25 years, beginning as an application programmer and retiring from the position of Laboratory Director of the Atlanta Software Development Laboratory. During his career at IBM Mr. Cook held senior management positions in Information Technology, Production Control, Quality Assurance, Plant Engineering, Purchasing, and directed the Boca Raton site operations team during the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer.
Mr. Cook is currently chairman of the board of directors and chairman of the compensation committee of Qcept Technologies Inc., serves on the board of directors and chairs the compensation committee of Edgenet, and is the Chairman of the board of directors for Agentek. He has previously served on the board of directors, the nominating and corporate governance and the compensation committees of Indus International, was a member of the board of Tetradata Corporation, and served on the board and was chairman of the compensation committee of PrimeRevenue. Mr. Cook served as the Executive Chairman of the board of EnteGreat, Inc., and is also a fellow for CEO Ventures.
Additionally, Dick has experience on numerous boards of non-profit organizations such as the United Way, Urban League, and YMCA. He is a member emeritus of the Goizueta Business School Advisory Board at Emory University. Mr. Cook was the 2003 Chairman of the Board of Directors of the AeA as well as the chairman of its executive committee.
Mr. Cook earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida Atlantic University, where he has been inducted into the Business School Hall of Fame.
Darryl Lemecha
Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005)
Top 10 in Diversity category – Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT (2004)
SecurE-Biz Leadership Award
InformationWeek 500 Most Innovative Users of Technology (Ranked #10 in 2005)
CIO Magazine's Enterprise Value Award in 2005
Before joining BellSouth, Mr. Dramis founded CIO Strategy, Inc., an information technology consulting firm. At that firm, Mr. Dramis led technology transformation efforts at Citibank, Coopers & Lybrand, NASD and Bankers Trust. Prior to CIO Strategy, Mr. Dramis was managing director and CIO at Salomon Brothers. Mr. Dramis also served as president and CEO of Network Management Inc., and president and chief operating officer of Telic Corporation. Early in his career, Mr. Dramis worked with AT&T, including Bell Labs, rising to the position of executive director of information product management.
CIO Magazine's CIO 100 Award in 1999
CIO Magazine's Top 100 Leaders for the Next Millennium in 2000
Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders in 2002
Mr. Dramis is also an author of two books and a regular speaker at technology and leadership forums.
Kas Naderi currently serves as CIO of CompuCredit's auto subsidiary. Naderi joined CompuCredit to establish and grow its presence in subprime auto financing. He lead the integration of Wells Fargo Financial Consumer Automotive Receivable (CAR) and ACC Consumer Finance (ACC) into CompuCredit's auto subsidiary. Prior to joining CompuCredit, Naderi served as the CTO for AfterBOT, where he focused on leveraging Digital Receipt technologies to change how consumer good producers connect with their customers. He also served as CTO at MunicipalTrade where he led the design, development and operation of the first online Municipal Bond trading platform.
Naderi was also the senior director of emerging technologies for Bass Hotels and Resorts. He was recognized by Computer World Magazine as one of the United States' top 100 premier technology leaders. Previously, Naderi held a number of leadership positions within IBM's development laboratory in Austin, TX, where he led the development for real time operating systems, data communication subsystems and mission critical middleware. He brings more than 21 years of executive and management experience delivering business value and global enterprise solutions within large, medium and startup organizations. He is a graduate of East Tennessee State University with Bachelor of Science in both Computer Science and Math.
Mr. Cook is an executive consultant to companies in the high tech industry in the areas of strategic planning, leadership and the roles of the C-level executives.
Mr. Cook is retired from 12 years as Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of MAPICS, Inc. (Nasdaq/NM: MAPX). He managed the 1993 sale by IBM (NYSE: IBM) of the $60 million revenue MAPICS business to Marcam. He led the complex 1997 reverse spin-out from Marcam (Nasdaq/NM: MCAM), and conducted the public offering that created the MAPICS, Inc. business. As CEO he was responsible for the all aspects of the MAPICS software and service offerings worldwide, and managed all shareholder relations. In December of 1999, he negotiated the acquisition of a private firm – Pivotpoint and in November of 2002, he led the acquisition of Frontstep (Nasdaq/NM: FSTP). MAPICS grew to $173 million revenue by year end 2004, with over 10,000 active customer sites using the applications in 19 languages, in over 70 countries around the world. In December of 2004 Mr. Cook proposed a leveraged buy out by management that caused the eventual sale of the company, in an all-cash transaction, to Infor.
Mr. Cook is currently chairman of the board of directors and chairman of the compensation committee of Qcept Technologies Inc., serves on the board of directors and chairs the compensation committee of Edgenet, and is the Chairman of the board of directors for Agentek.
He has previously served on the board of directors, the nominating and corporate governance and the compensation committees of Indus International, was a member of the board of Tetradata Corporation, and served on the board and was chairman of the compensation committee of PrimeRevenue. Mr. Cook served as the Executive Chairman of the board of EnteGreat, Inc., and is also a fellow for CEO Ventures.


Do you find that when someone wrongs you or disregards your wishes or ideas that you get trapped. You become a prisoner of the cruel perception or act that someone has imposed on you. Well you become a prisoner of your own unresolved issues. The person or persons that you believe have wronged you are just a reflection of those things you need to look at and resolve in your spiritual path. If you choose to keep learning the lesson from the same person then they truly seem like your jailer, but in fact you have the key to walk out of the self imposed prison at anytime if you search within.


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Bernstein Shur Shareholder Kai McGintee to Speak on Panel at Annual Sports Lawyers Association Conference in Los Angeles About Sexual Misconduct by Student Athletes
Kai McGintee
Portland and Augusta, ME and Manchester, NH (April 19, 2016) – Kai McGintee, shareholder at Bernstein Shur, will speak on a panel at the Sports Lawyers Association 42nd Annual Conference about sexual misconduct by student athletes. The conference will be held on May 12-14 in Los Angeles, California.
McGintee will join ESPN journalist Jane McManus as moderator and other national experts for a panel where she will share her insights on the topic of Off-Field Athlete Conduct Issues: Sexual & Domestic Violence. McGintee will be offering her perspective as an experienced Title IX investigator who specializes in investigating sexual violence complaints for colleges, universities, and private secondary schools throughout New England. The other participants in the panel include Heather McPhee, Associate General Counsel of the NFL Players Association, Adolpho Birch, Senior Vice President of Labor Policy for the NFL, and Allison Rich, Senior Associate Athletic Director at Princeton University.
"Although Title IX was once known for creating gender equity in college athletic programs, in recent years this law has become the primary enforcement mechanism for addressing the campus rape epidemic," McGintee explains. She will discuss this epidemic, the complexities of Title IX, and the growing number of high-profile cases involving college athletes that have been accused of sexual misconduct.
McGintee is a member of the firm's Education and Labor & Employment Practice Groups. She represents private and public institutions of higher education and advises them in the areas of student affairs, employment matters and compliance issues, including in the area of Title IX. She regularly presents training sessions to administrators, faculty, and hearing boards on Title IX compliance and investigations. She has also successfully defended academic institutions in tenure and discrimination cases brought in state and federal court. She is a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys and the Association of Workplace Investigators.
McGintee graduated from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, where she now serves an independent appeal officer in the College's sexual misconduct cases, and earned her JD from the University of Maine School of Law. She resides in Yarmouth, Maine.
Founded in 1915, Bernstein Shur is a New England-based law firm with clients across the U.S. and around the world. The firm has more than 100 award-winning attorneys and professionals who provide practical and innovative counsel in more than 20 key areas, catering to a broad range of clients and industries. Bernstein Shur is known for simplifying complex issues and winning through steadfast persistence. The firm is Maine's exclusive member of Lex Mundi, the world's leading association of independent law firms. More information is available at www.bernsteinshur.com.
About Sports Lawyers Association
The Sports Lawyers Association (SLA) is a non‐profit, international, professional organization whose common goal is the understanding, advancement and ethical practice of sports law. There are approximately 1,800 current members: practicing lawyers, in‐house counsel, law educators, law students, and other professionals with an interest in law relating to professional and amateur sports spanning the breadth of the entire sports industry. The Association's Annual Conference takes place every May, with the 42nd Annual Sports Lawyers Conference scheduled for May 12‐14, 2016 in Los Angeles. Follow SLA online at www.sportslaw.org, on Twitter @SportsLawyers and on Facebook at the Sports Lawyers Association page.
FIRM NEWS11 Apr 2016 In Case You Missed It: #MaineLife episode featuring SeniorsPlus with Peter Herzog	FIRM NEWS26 Jan 2012 Digital Privacy: Supreme Court's Landmark Decision Affects Businesses Large & Small	FIRM NEWS3 Jun 2013 Affordable Care Act Update: Employer Exchange Notice & Deadline

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


OpenType features for Vertical Text?
I made some changes on my OpenType font for easier typing (on the Standard Ligatures feature, more specifically). They worked pretty well.
But when I changed the text direction, line breaks were put between each character and the feature wasn't applied.
What do I have to do to make it work? Thanks in advance.
Re: OpenType features for Vertical Text?
I don't know to be honest. It is probably something that your application is doing or not something supported by OpenType features.
Do any other OpenType fonts work in that application?
If I'm correct OpenType Layout Features are applied to an individual line of text. Maybe you can use a different layout feature in your word processor to overcome this limitation.


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Cyber (in)security: Looking back at 2017
Cyber (in)security, 2017 has proven, is a great leveler. From the individual tweeting on her cellphone, to the corner storekeeper who relies on digital payments, to the multibillion-dollar corporation and the most technologically advanced nations — no stakeholder has been found immune from harm. The woes of the world may be the same, but India's government, businesses and civil society cannot escape the reality that the country's digital spaces are uniquely vulnerable.
India is at once a bustling digital democracy and a budding digital economy. The national imperative to keep its networks open while coming down on malicious actors is easier proclaimed than addressed. But if this unique, finely balanced model can be created and sustained, it will be a shining example for democracies and emerging markets alike. For what it is worth, 2017 illustrated the difficulties ahead for policy planners.
The potential of cyber space is a factor of the trust that it commands from users, businesses and governments. Unfortunately, malicious agents — both state and non-state — have shown themselves increasingly capable of disrupting core infrastructure and services, and undermining that trust. By some estimates, cyber crimes are expected to cost upwards of $2 trillion by 2019. The risks, however, cannot simply be measured financially. The loss of personal information, corporate reputation and national security are immeasurably more valuable.
The potential of cyber space is a factor of the trust that it commands from users, businesses and governments. Unfortunately, malicious agents — both state and non-state — have shown themselves increasingly capable of disrupting core infrastructure and services, and undermining that trust.
2017 has been a tumultuous year for both technological advances as well as the means to disrupt them. Nations around the world are now waking up to the fact that 'protection' of their information systems is a national priority, both for their economies as well as their democratic institutions. For democracies attuned to the free flow of information — taking both the good and bad in their stride — this is a particularly vexing problem. Is information to be controlled and vetted?
Vulnerability within consumer devices, malicious bots, artificial intelligence and information warfare were some of the most important issues confronting cyber space in 2017. However, the cyber risk landscape is dynamic and responds rapidly to new technologies and new security measures. Considering that millions of new users are coming online every year, it is useful to take stock of this changing threat landscape and examine some developing trends which can benefit conversations on cyber security.
The promise of cyberspace is immense; can India's security architecture keep up? | Photo: Kickstarter
One of the most promising developments in cyber space is the growing interconnectivity of digital networks, and with it, communities. The internet of things (IoT) — a network of physical devices and objects designed to collect and exchange data — is perhaps the fastest growing field of technology in the 21st century. Be it moisture sensors to help farmers water their crops, or blood pressure monitoring devices placed in pacemakers, IoT has the potential to revolutionise our daily lives. Their impending ubiquity, however, makes it difficult to measure the inherent risks. As we race towards 50 billion IoT devices by 2020, each of these devices will collect vast amounts of data on our daily habits, activities, and lives. With every new IoT device, our digital footprint is set to exponentially increase — creating an ever-expanding number of entry points for hackers and cyber criminals.
In July 2017, hackers attempted to steal sensitive data from a North American casino by hacking into its internet connected fish tank. The compromised tank was then used as a gateway into other systems in the casino. The device was an unsuspecting vulnerability in the casino's system, and is representative of the larger risks the IoT ecosystem faces.
The Internet of things (IoT) — a network of physical devices and objects designed to collect and exchange data — is perhaps the fastest growing field of technology in the 21st century.. Their impending ubiquity, however, makes it difficult to measure the inherent risks.
A 2015 report by the United States Federal Trade Commission found that fewer than 10,000 households using home-automation services were generating 150 million discrete data points every day, i.e, one data point every six seconds. Worryingly, the data collected from these devices — from 'smart' wristbands to TVs — are not always secured. Most IoT manufacturers place little emphasis on device security, and very few industry standards have been developed so far to tackle this problem.
A team of researchers from Microsoft and the University of Michigan discovered multiple vulnerabilities in Samsung's 'smart home' platform. The most noteworthy of which involved them taking control of smart locks and smoke detectors connected to the network. The significance of this cannot be overstated — if hijacked by malicious hackers or criminals, these technologies can catalyse man-made disasters and bring entire cities to their knees.
These unsecured devices can also be used in an aggregated manner to attack critical internet, or public, infrastructure. In October 2016, Dyn — a domain name management product suite — suffered a massive denial of service attack. Interestingly, criminals used over 100,000 seemingly innocuous devices, such as printers, cameras and baby monitors to rapidly scale the attack. They were coordinated through the 'Mirai' Botnet, a freely distributed malware, used to infect the IoT devices.
By some estimates, the market size for IoT products and services in India is expected to reach around $9 billion by 2020. Apart from consumer markets, much of this growth will be spurred on by government initiatives that intend to integrate IoT devices with the smart cities mission and other infrastructure initiatives. This puts New Delhi in a vulnerable position; without an adequate cyber security framework, cities become prime targets for malicious actors, considering the damage inflicted can be rapidly scaled in terms of intensity and scope.
Source: McKinsey Global Institute
If the risks inherent in the proliferation of an IoT ecosystem offer any lessons, it is that the ubiquity of networked systems brings with it multiple vulnerabilities. The future of cyber crime is likely to be characterised both by large data breaches or sophisticated network attacks, as well as digital 'pick-pocketing' — millions of small value transactions that can cause disproportionately serious damage without raising suspicion. A series of aggregated, relatively low-value and distributed cyber crimes may in fact present a substantially more difficult challenge to regulators and law enforcement agencies than a single, sophisticated cyber attack.
Advance fee fraud, which contributes to billions of dollars stolen every year, is the classic example of low-level activity that goes undetected and remains undeterred. Coupled with the fact that the average time to detect a breach or fraudulent activity can take several weeks, the financial costs of such crimes can be staggering. In 2016, a criminal gang called the 'Lazarus Group' developed a software to manipulate the SWIFT system — which is commonly used for international financial transfers. By targeting banks with lower security, the group successfully initiated fraudulent transfer requests across multiple jurisdictions. Reports indicate that US$ 81 million went unrecovered from the Bangladesh National Bank, $10 million was lost from a Ukrainian bank, and a bank in Ecuador suffered losses up to $12 million, among several other such incidents around the world.
Just in 2016, Tesco Bank in the United Kingdom reported that cyber criminals stole up to 2.5 million pounds from over 9,000 customers. In 2016, Indian banks suffered a financial breach that affected 3.2 million debit cards. These digital pickpockets are not only harder to identify but the damage caused is nearly impossible to restitute. A pattern of attacks is not readily apparent in these circumstances, wasting crucial response time necessary for responding to these breaches. Further, many countries still lack the resources to devote time to smaller crimes.
For developing countries like India that are coming online on a wave of cheap and unsecured mobile devices, the implications are grave. This assumes added significance in light of the Aadhaar platform that seeks to improve government services, foster financial inclusion and build a digital economy. While the data in transit might be secure, the infrastructure and application layer of the ecosystem—which includes mobile handsets and services such as PayTM — continue to remain vulnerable. This is compounded by the fact that India's supply chains reside abroad, which makes it difficult to ensure system-wide compliance with security requirements.
Already, news reports have highlighted instances of personal data leaks and attempted unauthorised authentication. While the biometric database might continue to remain secure, a new wave of sophisticated digital pickpockets are likely to find vulnerabilities to use against individual low value targets that are more attractive compared to heavily secured 'fat cats'. The most vulnerable are likely to be the poorest, whose relative lack of digital skills and access to law enforcement capacity make them susceptible to such attacks.
A commonality between the insecurity represented by IoT and digital pocketing is that the vulnerability resides not just in the technology, but also in the human beings operating them. From forgetting to change default passwords on their thermostats to leaving access codes on a post-it note, the stage at which humans interact with machines represents a lucrative point of intrusion.
Source: 2013 Norton Report
Cyber crimes for financial gain, however, comprise only one side of the coin. Increasingly, more and more of our lives are lived online; our thoughts and actions affected by developments in the digital realm. The man-machine integration is near the cusp of completion, where every single action leaves a digital footprint. As Chief Justice Roberts of the US Supreme Court said, "modern cell phones… are now such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy."
Technology is fast evolving from a mere tool to an extension of our own selves — when we communicate online and store our thoughts on the cloud, we are not mere chefs wielding knives, we are authors, scripting our own private biographies. Over the past decade, scientists have been exploring the possibility of linking the human brain to computers — converting neurological impulses into code. It is only now that technological businesses like Tesla are foraying into this space, attempting a convergence of 'biological intelligence with technological intelligence', hinting at the commercial value in the hitherto untapped human data.
Currently, the law sees individuals and the technologies they use as two distinct entities. However, if we erode protections for our technological tools, we also encroach upon the private spaces of individuals. As this becomes viable in the next decade, how will our legal institutions seek to build distinctions between what we think and what we store online? If legal warrants can compel the divulgence of the contents of our hard drives, can the same warrants be used to divulge our thoughts? When centuries worth of legal scholarship around privacy has been navigating us towards increased control over our information, the challenge of tomorrow will be to remain private and yet connected.
Currently, the law sees individuals and the technologies they use as two distinct entities. However, if we erode protections for our technological tools, we also encroach upon the private spaces of individuals.
These same technologies will also pose constitutional challenges in India. For example, the Indian Constitution prohibits self-incrimination during criminal trial. Time and again the Supreme Court has interpreted this to protect the privacy of mental processes. Once these processes are 'on the cloud', will they be treated as private thoughts or merely records of thoughts to be used as documentary evidence?
Traditionally, Indian policy has been slow to evolve in the face of rapidly changing technology. The ill-fated National Encryption Policy of 2015, for example, unduly prioritised law enforcement imperatives against civil liberties and higher security standards. Once the line between the biological and technological blur, India will require new frameworks to ensure the integrity of such sensitive systems and protect the privacy and other fundamental rights of the individual.
Additionally, the direct threat from new technology is a fact that cannot be ignored. As artificial intelligence capabilities continue to grow in the near future, the likelihood of automated and autonomous attacks is on the rise. Data theft and network penetration represent only the least damaging scenarios. Former United States President Barack Obama has even gone on to say that a sophisticated machine learning algorithm could potentially steal nuclear codes.
The 2016 Dyn attack was orchestrated by real humans, who used bots to execute attacks when they saw fit. Many believe that we are inching closer to an AI powered botnet attack, which is likely to be even more devastating. The US' Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency recently conducted a 'Cyber Grand Challenge', which pitted algorithms against each other to search for network vulnerabilities and patch them. Many have already warned that these techniques will be used to exploit vulnerabilities instead of fixing them.
According to Darktrace, a company which specialises in AI cyber security, countries like India are fertile testing ground for such attacks considering the lack of effective security architecture. In fact, the company reports that, already, a low-level attack took place in November 2017, which used malware that could learn as it was spreading, and altered its methods to stay in the system for as long as possible. Already, India struggles with conventional cyber attacks. The scale and intensity of new AI powered attacks could potentially cripple critical infrastructure and services.
It is unsurprising that Microsoft has called for a 'Digital Geneva convention' in order to establish the rules of the game when it comes to cyber space. Unfortunately, it is unclear if nation states have the necessary political will to undertake such actions. Previous attempts such as the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on cyber norms for peaceful use of ICTs ended in a deadlock, with countries disagreeing on whether norms of non-interference would compromise their state sovereignty.
It is unsurprising that Microsoft has called for a 'Digital Geneva convention' in order to establish the rules of the game when it comes to cyber space. Unfortunately, it is unclear if nation states have the necessary political will to undertake such actions.
In the future, these questions can be rendered redundant with the advances in machine learning. A sophisticated automated system capable of propagating without human intervention raises a troubling question — who is in control? Already states are debating rules for 'Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems' — AI systems that will be able to make life or death decisions in war.
This has raised complex questions around laws of war and human ethics. India, as chair of the Group of Governmental Experts Meeting on Autonomous Weapons, has already deliberated on many of these questions in November 2017. Where does the liability lie for machines that function outside human control? Which principles of international law provide protection against these attacks? These important questions beg resolution today; whether a consensus on the use and development of these weapons is possible, remains to be seen.
While many of these developments pose security challenges to individuals and businesses, the past year witnessed an event many thought was never attainable through technology — the subversion of democratic processes. Even today, the precise scope of Russia's 'influence operations' on elections in the United States and Western Europe is unclear. What is certain, however, is that Russia deftly manipulated the electoral process and social media in some cases to achieve its desired outcomes.
Hacking into the US Democratic National Committee's e-mail system was only the tip of the iceberg. The wave of leaks which followed damaged Hillary Clinton's presidential prospects by throwing the Democratic Party into disarray and fueling the popular anti-establishment mood against her. Equally significant was Russia's disruptive use of social media. The medium itself represents liberal values on and of the internet — an open and inclusive platform capable of bringing communities together. By inserting fake news and generating manipulated trends, Russia successfully undermined these values by polarising the American electorate.
For decades, Russia and other authoritarian regimes were haunted by the spectre of 'colour revolutions' at their doorstep. America's creative use of information technology and civil society resistance towards the end of the 20th century represented 'asymmetric operations' against communist regimes. To Russia, an enfeebled economy, cyber operations represented the perfect counter force — difficult to anticipate and difficult to trace but easy to execute across oceans. The digital disruptions of tomorrow seem eerily similar to the colour revolutions of the past.
Although the interference with American presidential elections has gained the most attention, to Russia, this is not new. Over the past five years, it has perfected these techniques in Eastern Europe — in states like Ukraine, Georgia and even Germany. Most countries in the EU states are bracing for similar operations during their own elections — with France having successfully taken somewhat controversial countermeasures such as banning TV and creating phony email accounts and fake documents to misdirect Russian hackers.
Speaking at CyFy 2017 — Observer Research Foundation's annual conference on technology, security and society — several panellists highlighted that Russian motivations are likely multifaceted. For one thing, they seek to undermine democratic processes in order to legitimise their own political systems. On the other hand, they also seek to disrupt the current forms of cyber governance, testing the limits to which conflict in cyber space is permissible.
India's primary geopolitical rival, China, has already developed the tools necessary to carry out such operations. After years of perfecting cyber espionage and other such techniques, even against powerful countries such as the United States, the likelihood that China will attempt to influence India's democratic institutions must not be dismissed. As a democracy, India will have to toe a fine line between preserving the free flow of information and preventing malicious actors from manipulating that information.
China, however, is not the only threat. Considering Pakistan's weaker conventional military prowess, what is to stop it from using asymmetric methods of cyber warfare? The implications of these events are dire. For one thing, revisionist regimes now have a reliable template to emulate in other parts of the world. That such actions require limited financial and technical resources dramatically reduce the costs of destabilising perceived rivals. Our traditional political and military structures no longer seem capable of keeping up with the deluge of attacks that rely on misinformation and propaganda.
These methods are no longer constrained by traditional paradigms of power. In the 20th century, military capability was determined by the size of a state's army, navy or air force. That Russia, a one-and-a-half trillion-dollar faltering economy, subverted institutions in America, an eighteen trillion-dollar superpower, only goes to show how effective 'influence operations' can be.
A democracy thrives on trust in government institutions and even in media. By undermining the integrity of this relationship, Russia successfully fueled polarisation and disaffection amongst the American public, thereby subverting the very basis of democratic norms and values. By all accounts, this was its ultimate objective. That other liberal democracies in Europe are bracing for similar events only serves to highlight the efficacy of these malicious methods.
These developments have thrown up critical questions around managing this upheaval. What structures and institutions must we build and empower to tackle these threats? The idea that causing disruptions through ICT activities is not a resource intensive exercise is only half true. It is steeped in western presumptions of power — that the one with the money and the muscle wins the war. The truth though is that both cyber defence and cyber offence need significant allocation of resources — not just in the institutions that emerged as a result of the teetering post-Cold War stability.
For a country like India, which still does not possess a coherent national cyber security architecture, responding to new asymmetric threats such as influence operations will be a difficult challenge. Such operations rely on political, ethnic and religious faultiness — which are abundant in India — to polarise individuals. Already, 'fake news' spread through WhatsApp forwards and social media has led to real instances of violence along these very lines. This year alone, for example, fake rumours about violence against Hindus in Myanmar helped fuel anger against a wave of Rohingya Muslim refugees.
Sprawling cyber commands and advanced weaponry will not address the asymmetric capability of hundreds of internet trolls glued to computer screens with the single-minded aim of falsifying news, spreading propaganda and subverting democratic institutions. It can be contained by building capacity at the grassroots — by scripting and consolidating narratives to counter untruths and empowering communities to detect and disregard falsehoods.
Sprawling cyber commands and advanced weaponry will not address the asymmetric capability of hundreds of internet trolls glued to computer screens with the single-minded aim of falsifying news, spreading propaganda and subverting democratic institutions. It can be contained by building capacity at the grassroots.
Taken together, these risks exemplify the double-edged nature of cyber space. While the internet has emerged as a vehicle for transformation, its development has come with significant costs. Today, a wide array of malicious actors — be it states or rogue individuals — threaten to disrupt and dismantle the internet's core infrastructure and values. Unfortunately, these threats are non-traditional, dynamic and dispersed, and large cyber defence institutions are limited in their ability to tackle them. Instead, the individual is likely to be front and centre in facing these challenges. We need to reimagine the role of the individual, who is at once a target and a trustee on the internet.
Accordingly, to tackle these threats, New Delhi will have to recalibrate its policy response. For one thing, building cyber capacity at the local law enforcement level is a must — a decentralised threat requires a decentralised response. Apart from building a new cadre of cyber security specialists, the Indian police force must build the capability to detect petty cyber crimes, and to analyse how these threats aggregate and cause systemic damage. Additionally, new institutional mechanisms must be put into place to build trust between individuals, businesses and the state. Victims of cyber crimes, especially low-value crimes, are currently reluctant to share information with the government. They must be able to have faith that the state will address their loss, and provide timely access to justice.
Second, new regulatory frameworks in India must incorporate 'security by design' amongst commercial products and services. A 2016 report by the Ministry of Finance on digital payments suggested a hierarchical approach to cyber security based on the systemic risk posed by different infrastructure layers and applications. This is a model that deserves replicating across networks — vulnerability must be addressed at its root. For example, some legislators in the United States have introduced a bill that will require devices to conform to specified industry standards and prohibits vendors from supplying devices that have default passwords or that possess known security vulnerabilities. India must be proactive in setting its own standards and norms for digital products, even as new platforms and networks continue developing in the market.
Third, India must invest in diplomacy. First, in areas like the UN GGE, as chair of the group on autonomous weapons, India is in a position to direct the conversation on norms, technologies and regimes to favour its interests. Simultaneously, India must also cultivate relationships with cyber powers like the United States, Israel and the EU, that can help in developing cyber security products and law enforcement training. And lastly, to reform international information sharing policies between countries and tech companies, considering that most Indian data is stored abroad.
Fourth, developing new technologies in India must be treated as a national security imperative. The government must fund research into emerging technologies, their impact on society and their implications for geopolitics. The new AI arms race between America and China is taking place in universities and think tanks, with generous aid from the government. Accordingly, these same powers will have the authority to shape how such innovations will reorganise society. To avoid being relegated in global politics, the effort to develop new technologies and to shape the norms which govern their use, must be catalysed by the Indian state.
Fifth, as a democracy, India must create institutions which are capable of bringing together local communities in order to create awareness about fake news and malicious propaganda. For example, the EU now has a 'specialized strategic communications unit', which brings to light influence operations by foreign actors. Additionally, the United States has recently listed election institutions as critical information infrastructure; a move which India should also consider in order to better prevent politically motivated hacking into party accounts and other such malicious efforts.
For a country that aspires to be a truly digital economy, India must internalise that the security of its ICT infrastructure is not a post facto consideration but a precondition for growth. At the same time, the over-securitisation of cyber governance can often lead to undermining rights which, in turn, negates the country's values as a free and democratic nation. The right answer ultimately rests on a fine balance between an ambitious aspiration of what Digital India will be tomorrow and a realistic assessment of what India's capabilities are today.
To read the full issue, click here.
This piece has been submitted to Seminar Magazine for publication in their 2017 Annual Edition.
Posted in Uncategorized on December 18, 2017 by Dr. Samir Saran. Leave a comment
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Except from my Nature Career Column.
Edited volumes, or anthologies, are very popular in research and academia. Several experts each contribute a chapter on their topic to form one book on a particular subject. An editor, or editors, oversees and manages the process.
Read the 10 tips here on the original article.


Most dentists don't have the marketing budget available to corporate dental practices. As a result, it's important to stretch a dollar so you can attract the most patients with limited expenditure.
Thankfully, digital marketing services for dentists take many different forms. By finding the best combination of strategies to fit your budget and reach your ideal patients, you can maximize your marketing ROI and build quality leads for your practice.
In order to do more of the procedures that you enjoy and generate profit for your practice, you need to know what your prospective patients need. Page 1 Solutions works with many general dentists who want more cosmetic cases, and we also help specialists capture more patients within their niche.
Knowing the demographics of your patients affects all aspects of your marketing, including the imagery and content on your website, your advertising strategies and much more.
It's also important to think about your competitors in the community. If you have a family dental practice in a major city, you likely face significant competition for patients. You welcome patients throughout the city, but focusing on specific "name" parts of the city will result in more revenue.
Conversely, if you are one of the few or even the only orthodontist, pediatric dentist, periodontist, prosthodontist or other specialist in your city or even the whole state, you stand a better chance when marketing to a large geographic area.
Many types of digital ads, from display advertising to the native ad platforms on multiple social media networks, not only have the ability to target select demographics and geographic areas but also psychographic qualities. These are the traits that define your patients' thoughts, beliefs and behavior.
The messaging and parameters of your campaigns will be very different for patients who are youthful and health-conscious than those who are retirees.
From solo Web developers to professional marketing agencies, the options for designing a dental website are dizzying. There are many different factors to take into account when building a website for your practice, but don't let price be your sole deciding factor.
Odds are good that more prospective patients find you on their phone or tablet than they do on desktop computers. Your website needs to be more than just responsive or "mobile-friendly"; put yourself in the shoes of a mobile user first, and make sure your website is functional and looks good on multiple devices.
See how your website fares on Google PageSpeed Insights. This free tool provides digestible information about how quickly your website loads and identifies issues that slow it down. If your site scores Medium or lower, it's time to make some changes.
Dental care and your community changes, and your website needs to be just as nimble. A CMS gives you and your team the ability to make updates to your website. Announce new specials, add bios for new team members, write blog posts — all of these keep your practice fresh in the eyes of visitors and search engines.
The use of HTTPS on your website is no longer an option — it's a necessity. Users expect their information to be secure, especially when communicating with a medical practice. Furthermore, browsers are beginning to inform users when connections on a website are not secure. Investing in HTTPS signals to users that you take their security seriously, which builds trust.
Keyword research used to mean pairing valuable service areas with your location. By spamming mentions of those terms across a website, you improved your likelihood of ranking.
Those days are gone, and for good reason. Your patients don't search in this rote, predictable manner, and your SEO strategy needs to evolve in kind.
Nowadays, we perform keyword research by understanding the general topics users search (these usually encompass your practice areas) and assessing the myriad of ways your patients find information on those services.
Think about the shape of the sales funnel. A lot of visitors enter the funnel with preliminary needs and questions. After educating themselves, these patients become aware of their options and start applying what they know specifically to their situation. Finally, the patient is looking for the best dentist for their needs.
These last patients are the ones you and your competitors want to convert into leads and cases. By optimizing your website to appeal to different sections of the sales funnel, your practice will stand out from the competition and drive more leads.
Pay-per-click advertising strategies have also evolved due to the growing competition in paid search. You might get leads from PPC campaigns, but highly competitive keywords quickly devour your budget. A better strategy is pursuing less-competitive but nonetheless desirable keywords that drive leads while securing a better ROI than campaigns that focus exclusively on the "white whale" search terms.
The easy answer is be creative, but the best answer is be human.
Show patients you understand them with high-quality content!
Remember the keyword research section? Extrapolate from those words and phrases to determine what makes your potential patients ask specific questions about your services. And, when you answer them, make your responses relatable.
You are justifiably proud of finishing dental school, completing post-graduate training and keeping up with continuing education. But you wouldn't launch into a clinical explanation when describing your day to a friend or family member, and the content on your website should be accessible, too.
The best dental content centers on accurate and informative details. Next, you need to tell visitors why you and your team are standout providers of this treatment (but DON'T hard-sell). Finally, provide visitors with a means to contact your office without commanding that they get in touch.
Custom video content in which you address FAQS, tell patients about you and your practice and show users who you are with an office tour, scenes from community activities, etc.
Google is the world's leading search engine. Users turn to Google not only for information about your services, but also to find a dentist in the local community.
It's also important to ensure that prospective patients find you on leading directory and reviews websites, from Yelp to Healthgrades. Users might see you in a Google SERP first, but they learn more about you on sites that enable them to compare you to the competition.
No matter the platform, make sure the information about you and your practice is up to date and consistent. You don't want to confuse potential patients by listing conflicting hours or the wrong phone number.
Google My Business and many directory websites don't just display information. They also include reviews from actual patients. If you have a limited number of reviews, outdated reviews or a collection of average to bad reviews, your online reputation is at risk.
Some dentists choose to manage online reviews on their own or with the help of staff members. Once a negative review gets posted, however, it can be difficult to undo the damage.
A robust online reviews and ratings platform can alert you to negative comments before they are published online. They also give dentists the ability to amplify positive reviews through social media and automate reminder emails to encourage patients to share their experience.
Reviews build trust. If users see that a lot of patients have reviewed you online and provided honest accounts of their experience, they are more likely to choose you over your competitors. But consistency is key: A reviews platform should be easy to implement so you can cultivate positive reviews, control what gets published and post testimonials on the site that bring you patients.
Users on social media don't just connect with their friends. More and more, they want to forge a personal connection with businesses and service providers.
Patients also turn to social media when they want to read reviews for local dentists. Thus, Facebook and other platforms are another opportunity to manage your online reputation and put your best foot forward to visitors who find you outside of search results.
Patients won't always convert the first time they visit your website. However, this doesn't mean that you can't maintain their attention.
By embedding strategic call-to-action graphics on your priority practice area pages and linking them to dedicated download pages, you can build a database of potential leads and execute an inbound marketing campaign. Potential patients who submit their contact information in exchange for a free download will be added to a targeted email automation campaign.
These campaigns inform prospective patients and build rapport with them while they make decisions about dental treatment. Rather than arriving in the inbox all at once, these emails are staggered in order to hold the prospect's attention without overwhelming them.
Inbound marketing campaigns allow you to play the long game. You might not get leads on the first visit, but you give visitors the chance to get to know your practice and see how well you meet their needs, thus supplementing your lead totals over time.
You can also stay on potential patients' radar by tapping into their Internet browsing behaviors. Display and pre-roll video advertising leverages the popularity of select website to show users ads for your practice as they surf the Web.
Display advertisements appear on websites that belong to an ad network. This results in repeat — nearly inescapable — exposure, which keeps your practice top of mind.
Pre-roll ads play before the start of videos on popular platforms like YouTube. With this cost-effective strategy, you only pay if the user watches the entire video. And, because user engagement is much higher with video than other forms of content, there is a greater likelihood of converting a user who sees your ad into a patient.
How will you know if your digital marketing efforts are successful if you don't know how new patients are finding you? Google Analytics provides extremely detailed data on the Web pages users visit and what they do, not to mention how they got to your site in the first place.
With so many sources for potential conversions, online lead tracking is essential. It allows you to review trends month over month and year over year, and identify strengths and weaknesses in conversion elements of your site.
And, perhaps most important at all, it is a strong indicator of your marketing ROI. If a significant number of your online leads turn into cases, the effect on your bottom line should be positive.
As the saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." But, with the right training, your team members can take the phone and online leads generated by your digital marketing and consistently convert them into patients.
Lead intake training is a supplement to your Internet marketing efforts. It teaches the members of your staff to ask the right questions, gather the most important information and guide patients to the treatments that generate revenue for your practice.
The most successful dentists benefit from a seamless experience that begins with the practice website and off-site exposure, continues when prospective patients make contact and culminates when the patient arrives at your office. With a comprehensive digital marketing plan customized to your dental practice, you too can take full advantages of the many strategies available to capture leads and increase revenue.
Why Doesn't My Legal Website Generate New Clients?


text:
Missouri Western scores on all 12 possessions to beat Lincoln 71-8
The Lincoln Blue Tigers couldn't stop the Missouri Western Griffons on Saturday afternoon at Dwight T. Reed Stadium. Missouri Western had possession of the football 12 times. The Griffons scored 12 times. by Greg Jackson Nov. 17 2019 @ 12:30am
Lincoln running back Hosea Franklin stiff arms Missouri Western defensive back Drew Sachen while looking for room to run in the second half of Saturday's season-ending loss for the Blue Tigers at Dwight T. Reed Stadium. Photo by Kris Wilson / News Tribune.
The Lincoln Blue Tigers couldn't stop the Missouri Western Griffons on Saturday afternoon at Dwight T. Reed Stadium.
Missouri Western had possession of the football 12 times. The Griffons scored 12 times.
"On top of that, our guys did not play with any passion, any pride," Lincoln interim head coach Malik Hoskins said after a 71-8 loss. "It is embarrassing the product that was put on the field today."
It's the most points scored in a single game by Missouri Western since the Griffons had 81 points in 2011, also against Lincoln.
"We didn't tackle, we didn't block," Hoskins said. "We didn't do anything that we've been coached to do."
Missouri Western began the game with a kickoff return for the touchdown. Cooper Burton ran down the far sideline for a 77-yard score, and Sam Aviles added the extra point to put the Griffons ahead 7-0 just 10 seconds into the game.
It was the first special teams touchdown allowed this season by the Blue Tigers.
"We don't have lane integrity, we don't play with discipline on that group," Hoskins said. "They just don't believe that right now they're supposed to be on the field with these guys."
The Lincoln offense punted on five of its first six possessions and was 0-for-7 on third down in the first half.
Hoskins said the offensive line had difficulty blocking Missouri Western defensive lineman Chris Blakeney, a 6-foot-3, 315-pound junior.
"We could not block him from the word 'Go!' and he just kept getting in the backfield and being disruptive," Hoskins said. "He forced our guys to just shut down, and they shut down up front."
Following the kickoff return for a score, Missouri Western put together a 13-play, 46-yard scoring drive that ended with a 40-yard field goal by Aviles. Devon Holmes caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Vespo to extend the lead to 17-0 with 3:57 left in the first quarter.
Vespo finished the game 18-of-21 passing for 240 yards and three touchdowns. He filled in for quarterback Wyatt Steigerwald, who was ruled out for Saturday's game due to concussion protocol.
The Griffons added four more scores in the second quarter. Following a 36-yard field goal from Aviles, Markel Smith broke loose for a 64-yard touchdown run, then Cole Kruse scored on a 1-yard run. Vespo's 60-yard touchdown pass to Damen Wheeler Jr. with 1:49 remaining in the quarter gave Missouri Western a 40-0 lead at halftime.
"We just bowed down to them," Hoskins said after Missouri Western ran 57 offensive plays for 590 yards. "Last game of the year, guys were just content with letting that clock run so they could get off the field."
Wheeler Jr. caught another touchdown pass in the third quarter, this time from 10 yards out. Deron Thompson followed with a 17-yard run to make the score 54-0.
Lincoln's only scoring drive of the game would follow, and it took more than seven minutes off the clock. During their 14-play, 75-yard drive, the Blue Tigers were 4-for-4 on third-down conversions.
The possession was capped by a 31-yard touchdown run from Tori Hicks. Chancellor Johnson threw the 2-point conversion pass to Jarrin McKeithen, and the Blue Tigers trailed 54-8 with 13:48 to play.
On the play before Hicks' touchdown, Lincoln running back Hosea Franklin left the game with a right ankle injury and did not return. Franklin finished the season with a program-record 1,359 yards rushing.
"This kid is the leading rusher in the conference and he's one of the top five running backs in the nation," Hoskins said. "I didn't want to put him at risk anymore, because he is banged up."
Hoskins said he plans to utilize Hicks more in the run game next season to take some of the workload off Franklin.
"Hosea's been banged up all season, but nothing major," Hoskins said. "We just have to be smart about what we're doing offensively. Guys like Tori and Hosea are undersized, and we know in this conference, they're going to take a beating."
Missouri Western (8-3) added a 20-yard field goal from Aviles, a 2-yard touchdown run by Jared Scott and a 6-yard touchdown run by Travon Harris to finish the scoring.
Lincoln quarterback Desmond Hunter was 6-of-15 passing for 38 yards, but he left the game in the first half with a knee injury. Johnson played the rest of the game behind center and completed two passes for 19 yards.
Franklin had a team-high 61 yards rushing on 20 carries for the Blue Tigers. His counterpart, Smith, had a game-high 146 yards rushing on seven carries for the Griffons.
Lincoln ends the season with a 1-10 record in its return to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
"I know we're better than how we played," Hoskins said.
After a grueling 11-week schedule, Hoskins and the Blue Tigers will have a break before spring practice next semester.
Hoskins hopes to work on recruiting for the 2020 season this week, but as interim head coach, his future with the Blue Tigers has not yet been decided.
"It's just kind of 'wait and see' right now," he said. "But I do know as long as we're waiting, people are on the road and they're jumping ahead of us.
"Maybe the decision is going to be made soon, where our guys can get out on the road (and recruit)."


text:
Divinity: Dragon Commander review
Having a dragon in your corner
By Giancarlo Saldana 05 August 2013
Impactful decision-making in almost everything you do
Fun RTS battles and dragon combat
Charming characters
and in-game lore
Aerial controls make multitasking difficult
Not enough RPG elements
High learning curve
A real-time strategy game that's part RPG, aerial shooter, and deck builder—sounds a bit like a Frankenstein experiment doesn't it? Divinity: Dragon Commander may sound monstrous when you think of all the genres it encompasses, but play it for a few hours and you'll be surprised at how well all of its features work together. With choices to be made on both the battlefield and in the throne room, Dragon Commander is a robust experience that's as impressive as it is challenging. Oh, and did we mention you can play as a badass jetpack-toting dragon, too?
Dragon Commander follows the story of the half-dragon, half-human son of a fallen king who must bring peace back to his late father's kingdom and stop his greedy siblings from destroying his empire. You're aided by a powerful wizard and an assortment of generals, diplomats, and advisors that make their home on your command ship and HUD. While the campaign's plot isn't particularly original, the conversations you'll have with your crewmembers are an engaging way to get to know your diverse kingdom, its customs, and its people. Voiced by talented actors, characters have unique personalities and mindsets that bring life and humor to the game's story and introduce you to its fascinating world.
"...Dragon Commander is a robust experience that's as impressive as it is challenging."
Conversations aren't just for show as they will also lead to decisions you'll need to make that ultimately affect how you fare in battle. By pleasing an elven diplomat and siding with him on same-sex marriage laws, for example, you not only gain additional troops when battling on his people's lands, but you also gain passive bonuses and extra gold from them as well. Each controversial decision you make feels important and shapes your kingdom to your liking. It also complements the game's RTS side by letting you build your army around the orders you enact. Despite Dragon Commander's focus on battle and conquest, these more thoughtful (and political) RPG elements provide a nice break from the action without completely taking the emphasis away from waging war.
When you do need to fight, however, Dragon Commander presents you with a board game's approach to conquest. Before any fighting can take place, you'll need to plan out your moves during a strategy phase that resembles a game of Risk, ultimately requiring you to dominate surrounding lands. Each turn, you can move your pieces to different countries, purchase additional troops, or play cards that give you buffs in battle or hurt your foes. While this phase of combat may not be the most entertaining, it's still crucial as you'll have several choices to make that ultimately affect the flow of battle. This mode doesn't hold your hand or advise you on what you should or shouldn't do, so there's definitely a sharp learning curve here, as one wrong move can lead to the enemy dominating your capital and costing you the game.
"Conversations aren't just for show as they will also lead to decisions you'll need to make that ultimately affect how you fare in battle."
The battles in Dragon Commander function like those in a typical RTS game and emphasize quick decision making. The main goal is to overcome your enemy's forces and capture his base, and you'll need to build recruitment facilities to have enough resources ready to build units and keep your defenses in check. With the emphasis being on speed, you'll always need to be on your toes checking in on how your troops are faring against an enemy and on how many resources you have left to spend. You can also customize what units you have at your disposal and grant them buffs to mold your army into how you want to play it. From your ship, you can purchase skills to increase the accuracy of your grenadiers, for instance, or the strength of your cannons. Decisions are at the core of Dragon Commander, and it's cool that you can play battles the way you want or choose to skip them altogether and leave the results up to probability.
Another awesome thing about the battle phase is that you can transform into a dragon and provide additional backup to your units from the skies. This gives the game an aerial shooter-like feel as you target enemies with your mouse and bombard them with fireballs, spells, or any other attacks you decide to purchase and level-up. Being a dragon does come with some disadvantages because you can't build anything or create new units while flying. You can still direct your units on the field, but the game's aerial controls make doing almost anything that's not shooting difficult and disorienting. Of course, you don't have to transform at all if you don't want to, but this extra layer of combat really does spice up the otherwise just-competent RTS component of the game.
"The battles in Dragon Commander function like those in a typical RTS game and emphasize quick decision making."
Online mode provides the same strategic and battle phases for you to choose from and lets you join up to three other players at once. In addition to simply boosting the game's replay value, online skirmishes require more strategy as you'll not only be playing with multiple human players, but you'll also need to watch out for their enemy dragons. Engaging in aerial dogfights certainly boosts the game's action levels, but you still need to be a skilled strategist to win.
Dragon Commander is fun, challenging, and filled with decisions to make. You'll experience a little bit of everything from choosing a wife to deciding whether your army could benefit from having zeppelin bombers. Every individual component works so well that you might even wish the game would have focused more on a specific area or genre. This doesn't hurt the game, but like its aerial controls, it leaves you wanting more. Still, Dragon Commander manages to combine all of its different gameplay elements and delivers one cohesive experience that's highly worth playing.
This game was reviewed on PC.
Genre Role Playing
Description Divinity: Dragon Commander is a role-playing game set in the time when both magic and technology were at their peak in the Divinity universe.
Platform "PC","Mac"
US censor rating "Rating Pending","Rating Pending"
UK censor rating "",""
Alternative names "Dragon Commander"


text:
Södertälje Kings este un club profesionist de baschet din Södertälje, Suedia. Echipa joacă în Basketligan. Clubul joacă meciurile de pe teren propriu în sala Täljehallen. Södertälje este echipa cea mai de succes din istoria baschetului suedez câștigând 10 campionate naționale, cu 3 mai mult decât următoarea echipă LF Basket Norrbotten.

Palmares
Campionatul Suedez (11):
 1978, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2005, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

Sezoane

Referințe

Legături externe
 Site web oficial

Echipe de baschet
Fondări în 1968

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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IE Questions: What Are "Unproved" Reserves And Why Should You Care?
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Tax reform is going to impact renewables, oil and gas, and energy overall in the western U.S. Now that the President has signed the final tax bill into law, what does it mean for western energy? Inside Energy helps unpack.
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President Trump campaigned on a platform to make American energy great again. "We're loaded," he said, at a 2016 campaign appearance in North Dakota, referring to fossil fuel reserves. By unleashing those reserves and slashing regulations, Trump promised, he would usher in an era of "energy independence" and, ultimately, American energy dominance. In fact, on energy and environment, Trump is slowly making headway on those goals, with help from a trio of powerful and like-minded cabinet members.
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No words begin to express the ache in our hearts, the fire in our brains and the stillness in our guts following the loss of our dear friend, Inge Perkins and her loving life-partner Hayden Kennedy, last weekend to an avalanche and tragic aftermath that would make Shakespeare shudder.
We've chosen to take a few days of silence before attempting to express our grief to our extended MR family. Yes, Inge was an MR Ambassador, one we were glowingly proud to associate ourselves with for so many reasons. For some of us, Inge was our little sister… a true family member. She was a blithe, angelic badass whose myriad talents bedazzled us from early in her childhood. We've watched her grow up in our town, quietly, calmly, humbly blowing the doors off any objective upon which she's ever set her sights. On rock, on snow, in the mountains, in the gym, with family, friends, and community – she has taught us - by example - that we can all be better. And, we needn't post about it or boast about it. Inge was and will always be the embodiment of the expression, "actions speak louder than words."
There have been many stories written about the tragic avalanche and related details that took Inge's life. Please know Inge was as calculated and precise as anyone we have ever met. And, yet – like all of us – Inge was human. The most beautiful human – inside and out… north, south, east, west… you could ever have the pleasure of knowing and adventuring with.
Here at MYSTERY RANCH, it's a dark day. However, because of our love, admiration, friendship, and inspiration from Inge Perkins… we will each try to find our way back to the light. So, light a candle, say a prayer, take a road trip, sleep in your truck, write a postcard to a friend, be a giver, not a taker… be a better person for the rest of your days. That's what we can do to honor Inge.
"I grew up bushwhacking around the Montana and Norwegian mountains with my parents, constantly whimpering from fear and discomfort, but always wanting to go out again."
When I was nine, I watched a film about a girl saving wolves by climbing a cliff over the Norwegian border with the wolves, and I was intrigued instantly. I started training and competing with the Bozeman Climbing Team, giving me the skill base and strength to grow as a climber. However, after a trip to Wild Iris in Wyoming, the process of projecting beautiful routes in stunning areas while living outside amongst supportive company became far more appealing than traveling for competitions. I have continued to train while in school so I can realize new goals when I have the opportunity to travel. However, the biggest motivation for me to be in the best shape I can be has consistently been my desire to be able to climb lines that inspire me wherever I go. As my love for climbing and skiing grows, my dream is to intertwine the two more and more as well as use my drive to push myself in these pursuits as a means to explore magical corners of the world while sharing the excitement with others.
"Everything is a circle from far enough away."


Official Bolton Wanderers replica home shirts have been reduced at Bolton Central.
The club's Macron home shirts in adult sizes are now priced £24.99, with shorts, socks and mini-kits also reduced.
CLICK HERE to visit the club's online store or call in at Bolton Central.