Brian P. Gallagher

Brian P. Gallagher is the director of ISR Mission Systems Engineering within the ISR Systems Division, Mission Systems Sector, Northrop Grumman, where he is responsible for leading a team of senior engineers with expertise in the discipline of systems engineering and its practical application to large-scale, mission-critical ISR systems. Prior to this position, Brian was director of acquisition support at the Software Engineering Institute, where he was responsible for building teams from across the SEI’s disciplines to support the Department of Defense and other government agency acquisition programs. Brian was previously employed with the Aerospace Corporation, where he worked as a software acquisition and engineering advisor for several Air Force and NRO projects. During his Air Force career, he was the deputy chief of Software Engineering with an Air Intelligence Agency remote intelligence site, chief software engineer on the Range Operations Control Center Project at Cape Canaveral AFS, FL, a software project manager for the Titan IV Program Office, and a software engineer with Strategic Air Command. He received his B.S. in management information systems from Peru State College and M.S. in computer science/software engineering from Florida Institute of Technology.

Mike Phillips

Mike Phillips is the program manager for CMMI at the Software Engineering Institute, a position created to lead the CMMI Product Suite evolution for the SEI. He was previously responsible for Transition Enabling activities at the SEI. He has authored technical reports, technical notes, and various articles and has a regular column in news@SEI, the SEI’s newsletter. Mike also presents at many conferences around the world about CMMI. Prior to his retirement as a colonel from the Air Force, he was the program manager of the $36 billion development program for the B-2 stealth bomber in the B-2 System Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. In addition to more than five years of B-2 experience, he has four years of experience guiding acquisition programs in the Pentagon for both the Air Force and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. His bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering is from the Air Force Academy, and his master’s degrees are in nuclear engineering from Georgia Tech, in systems management from the University of Southern California, and in international affairs from Salve Regina College and the Naval War College. He is a graduate of the Program Management Course at the Defense Systems Management College and of the Air Force Test Pilot School.

Dr. Karen J. Richter

Dr. Karen J. Richter is a research analyst and senior project leader at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a research and development “think tank” for the Department of Defense. She has led numerous projects for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (OUSD(AT&L)) in acquisition management; systems and software engineering, integration, and interoperability; system lifecycle process management; integrated product and process development (IPPD) and concurrent engineering; advanced manufacturing practices and virtual enterprises; system quality, reliability, and maintainability; design and manufacturing technology including modeling and simulation; and lifecycle affordability. She also led or participated in projects for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (OUSD(P)) and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration (ASD(NII)). She was a member of the development teams for the CMMI SE/SW/IPPD and CMMI-DEV models and cochair of the development team for CMMI-ACQ. She has served on the CMMI Configuration Control Board and the CMMI Steering Group. She helped develop international standards on lifecycle process management, systems engineering, software engineering, and quality management as a member of both ISO/JTC1/Subcommittee 7 (Software and Systems Engineering) Working Group 7 (Life Cycle Management) and ISO/TC176 (Quality). She taught in the Department of Engineering Mechanics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering at The Ohio State University and the University of Maryland at College Park. She is the coauthor of three college engineering textbooks. She earned a B.A. in mathematics from Knox College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Sandy Shrum

Sandy Shrum is a senior writer/editor at the Software Engineering Institute. She has been with the SEI since 1995 and has been a member of the CMMI Development Team since the CMMI project’s inception in 1998. Her roles on the project have included model author, reviewer, editor, model development process coordinator, and quality assurance process owner. Sandy also is the secretary for the CMMI Configuration Control Board, a member of the internal configuration control board, and the CMMI communications coordinator. Before joining the SEI, Sandy spent eight years as a document developer with Legent Corporation, a Virginia-based software company. Her experience as a technical communicator dates back to 1988, when she earned her M.S. in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Her undergraduate degree, a B.S. in business administration, was earned at Gannon University.

Dr. Richard Frost

Dr. Richard Frost is the global director of Systems Delivery Process and Tools at General Motors (GM). He is responsible for driving software engineering and system delivery globally for GM. Within GM, he has spearheaded numerous initiatives to accelerate business innovation and streamline development, including incremental development, requirements visualization, and process optimization. He is a member of the CMMI-ACQ Advisory Board at the Software Engineering Institute and was a driving force in the global implementation of CMMI-ACQ at GM. Before joining GM, Richard was an IT executive at Volkswagen of America, where he was focused on streamlining development and aligning IT and business strategies. His tenure at Volkswagen included executive leadership of Systems Development, eBusiness, and CRM technologies. His background includes more than 25 years of executive and technical leadership in a variety of technologies. Richard received a Ph.D. in systems engineering from Oakland University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Michigan.

Tom Keuten

Tom Keuten works with General Motors as a process improvement lead. He was a member of the CMMI-ACQ Model Team and has been trained as a SCAMPI Lead Appraiser. His focus lies in the areas of organizational project management, quality assurance, and measurement and analysis. Tom has been a principal in multiple start-up management consulting organizations that focus on helping information technology organizations deliver innovative solutions to help their business customers. Prior to these roles, Tom played almost every role in the system delivery lifecycle working with many large and small clients of Hitachi Consulting and BDO Seidman. Tom earned an M.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and a B.S. in business administration from Central Michigan University.