Dr. Gary Cort has more than 30 years of software industry experience on projects spanning aerospace, communications, biomedical, financial, simulation, and real time environments. Specializing in software engineering, project management, configuration management, and software metrics, Cort has led large-scale software projects for NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he also served as Quality Officer. Prior to joining Axxios Consulting Group, Cort was vice president for software quality at Research In Motion, the developer of the Blackberry; prior to that, he co-led the world-wide CMMI deployment effort for Intel Corporation.

Cort works with Fortune 500 companies throughout the world to dramatically improve software project capabilities. He is a former Adjunct Professor of Software Engineering at the University of New Mexico and currently serves on various standards and advisory boards. He currently chairs ISO Technical Committee 176, which is responsible for the continued evolution of the ISO 9000 family of international quality management standards.

Cort holds a Ph.D. degree in Physics from Texas A&M University and is an ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer. He has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with the Software Engineering Institute and is a certified SCAMPI High-Maturity Lead Appraiser and CMMI Instructor as well as one of the authors of the SCAMPI B&C appraisal methods.

Dr. Paul D. Nielsen is the director and chief executive officer of Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute. Prior to joining the SEI in 2004, he served in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Major General after 32 years of distinguished service. For over four years, he managed the Air Force’s science and technology budget of more than $3 billion annually. He also was the Air Force’s technology executive officer and determined the investment strategy for the full spectrum of Air Force science and technology activities. The SEI is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center sponsored by the Department of Defense. SEI develops and transitions technologies in software architecture, integration and interoperability of software intensive systems, network systems security, process improvement, software engineering measurement, performance critical systems, software for high performance computing, and systems engineering related to software.

Peter Ector has more than 20 years of experience managing IT related projects. The last 10 years he worked as a senior project manager at Rabobank International, which is part of the Rabobank Group. Since 2004 he has been involved in improving process structure and process organization within the IT Infrastructure department via the Process Quality Improvement (PQI) Initiative.

Angela de Visser has worked for Rabobank International for more than 10 years, first as consultant and later as project manager and business support manager. Currently she is involved in the Process Quality Improvement Initiative as process & quality manager within IT Infrastructure department. She graduated from Maastricht University in Business Economics.