Mary Ellen Randall of 2025 IEEE President-Elect

Have you ever wished your team was excited and motivated to work together? Each day we strive to show our unique individuality. Then we come together at work to meld our ideas into a single product or service. It may seem impossible for a leader to bring these 2 counter cultures together and form a cohesive unit. The challenge also includes the stress of time constraints and deadlines.

Ms. Randall will share with you over 30 years of technology management experience, including building hardware and software products, developing new services, introducing products to the marketplace, and customer relationship management.

Learn some key principles that can accelerate this process and help engage team ,members, giving everyone an interesting role and improving team performance.

3 takeaways from this presentation will include:
1) Tips for interacting with individuals
2) Tips for cooperative decision making
3) Tips for celebrating success

Biography:

2025 IEEE President-Elect

Mary Ellen Randall is an IEEE Fellow and member of the IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu honor society.

She held technical and management positions in IBM, including an international assignment, hardware and software development, digital video chips, client/server services, network management, operating systems, and test design automation. She routinely managed projects
on an international scale.

She served on the IEEE Board of Directors as IEEE Treasurer, IEEE Vice President of MGA, and Region 3 Director, and served as IEEE WIE Committee Chair among other leadership positions. She created and developed the IEEE MOVE International Community Outreach Program for
Disaster Relief and STEM education. She received awards for this work, including the IEEE Haraden Pratt Award.

Ms. Randall is founder/CEO of Ascot Technologies, Inc., an award-winning software company which develops enterprise applications utilizing mobile delivery technologies. As a result, she was named a top “Woman In Business” in the Research Triangle North Carolina area and made
Business Leader Magazine’s “Impact 100” List.

She holds a M.S. Computer Science and a B.A. Mathematics from Binghamton University.

Address:United States

Mary Ellen Randall

Have you ever wondered how to take a seed of an idea to reality? The IEEE MOVE (Mobile Outreach utilizing volunteer engagement) Program started that way. That seed just celebrated its 8 th anniversary of providing service to the community and is expanding internationally. MOVE volunteers support disaster relief agencies committed to assisting victims of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, forest fires, and flooding. MOVE brings assistance in terms of short-term communications, and power solutions, allowing those affected by these natural disasters to stay connected.

When not deployed for natural disasters, MOVE volunteers conduct community outreach and facilitate learning opportunities for students and the general public in the areas o Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

Learn the key steps in developing such a program and MOVE with purpose.

3 key takeaways from this presentation
1) How to bring a vague idea to a fully developed international program.
2) How to build team engagement and enthusiasm.
3) How to develop relationships outside your immediate community.

Tarek Lahdiri

Workshop Overview

This workshop is intended for engineers, technical leads, project leaders, and functional managers who want to practice the fundamentals of project management or use SAFe@  as an operating system for business agility. These processes help them and their groups accomplish their endeavors, whether at work, at home, or in the community.  Participants will learn basic project management and SAFe@ techniques and most importantly, how to apply them in real life without excessive paperwork or overhead!  

PM Presentation Content

Introduction

• Definition of a Project

• Typical phases of a project

Starting and Planning a Project

• Defining the project scope and requirements

• Project risks

• Creating milestones, Scheduling and estimating

Managing the Project

• How do we use meetings and status to measure progress?

• How are design reviews and testing critical to gauging project progress?

• Risk Management

Running Meetings

• Planning Meetings

• Meeting Roles and Responsibilities

Closing the Project

• Ensure adequate hand-offs to all groups 

• Conduct a lessons-learned meeting

Biography:

Dr. Lahdhiri received the degree of Ingénieur Principal (BS+MS)-EE in Communication Systems in 1990 and the PhD degree in Control Systems in 1995. Dr. Lahdhiri is currently working for General Motors LLC in Warren, Michigan, USA, where he is holding the position of Strategy Leader for Real-Time Control Systems Simulations within the Advanced Development, Validation & Analysis Department. 

Dr. Lahdhiri is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of Michigan, licensed Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute (PMI), and Black Belt DFSS certified by General Motors LLC. 

Dr. Lahdhiri authored and co-authored over 16 journal papers and 35 conference papers and his areas of interest include Control Systems, Systems Engineering, Real-Time Modeling and Simulation, and Engineering Management.

Dr. Lahdhiri is a Senior IEEE member and has been leading several activities within the IEEE organization. Currently, he is the IEEE-USA Vice President of Career Member Services, IEEE Region 4 (Central USA) PACE Chair, member of the IEEE-USA Professional Activities (PACE) Committee, member of the IEEE-USA Career Workforce Policy (CWPC) committee, and member of the IEEE-USA Employment & Career Service (ECS) Committee.

Dr. Lahdhiri is the recipient of the 2001 IEEE-USA Professional Achievement Award, the 2004 IEEE-USA Professional Leadership Award, the 2007 IEEE-USA Citation of Honor Award, and the 2012 IEEE Region 4 Jack Sherman Award.

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Courtney Smock

Put yourself on the Hook - A lesson in personal accountability 

It's well understood that every successful organization needs employees who are willing to own their work and be accountable for the consequences of their work. But what does it really take to be accountable in this way? What gets in the way of being accountable? What happens if your work fails? This session answers those questions and reveals some surprising insights that will help you discover the personal power of putting yourself on the hook.

Biography:

Courtney Smock is a change expert and executive coach at Slingshot25. 

In her career, Courtney has gained valuable business experience leading organizational change. Her experience has allowed her to hone change skills. A teacher at heart, she designed The Change Course as a development program to share what she’s learned with others. She loves helping organizations build internal change capacity. Her facilitation skills are characterized by a unique combination of high energy and deep subject matter expertise.  She is confident, direct and funny. As such, she excels at creating a safe space for the exchange of ideas, effective teamwork and creating accountability for real change. 

Courtney has a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Iowa. She received her coaching certification through the iPEC organization.  

Courtney is a recent empty nester who resides in Coggon with her husband (and pets!)

https://slingshot25.com

(10) Slingshot25: Overview | LinkedIn

Courtney Smock

There are over 50,000 leadership books available on Amazon and more are added every day. We are drowning in a world of leadership
advice. This talk acknowledges that reality and takes you on a journey deeper into the often-forgotten and surprising truth at the core of
leadership. Prepare to clear away the noise, revisit the truth at the bottom of everything, and learn three ideas that will change the way
you lead forever.