Who Are We?

LuminaGroup is an Information Technology and Business consulting firm. We are completely technology and vendor neutral, and focused on helping organizations large and small be as competitive as possible in these challenging times.

Our mission:

To assist our clients in gaining and sustaining competitive advantage by achieving maximum leverage of their resources, both human and technological. Our focus is in the burgeoning field of Business Technology – ensuring that technology initiatives are aligned with and supportive of organizational and business goals.

In addition, LuminaGroup has aligned with a top-tier consortium of consulting professionals, covering a wide range: information technology, telecommunications, network security, marketing, corporate communications, software engineering, healthcare, public health management/policy, business engineering, change management, knowledge management, online collaboration, and training and education. The net result is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. By providing these synergistic consulting resources, we greatly extend our effectiveness, to the benefit of our clients.

All internal contracting mechanics are usually handled by LuminaGroup or one of our consulting partners, so that our clients gain from access to multiple top-tier resources without having to juggle multiple contractual relationships or points of contact.

Steve Olshansky – Principal

Consortium Members:
Bert Bruns | David Carlson | George Deriso
Harvey Gates | David Keaton | Cathleen Wharton

Steve Olshansky, M.S.
Principal, LuminaGroup, LLC
Boulder, Colorado, USA

Mr. Olshansky has more than 20 years of business and technology experience. His focus has been on digital identity, federated identity and access management (IAM), and enabling and enhancing collaboration and knowledge management within and between organizations. His experience includes developing: technology strategies in support of business goals, Internet-based business applications, large-scale website and corresponding information architectures, knowledge management and electronic performance support systems, online communities and social networking, and online training and education.

He has focused his career on integrating and aligning technology with business processes — providing support to organizations large and small. He has worked extensively in the public and private sectors, improving efficiency and productivity. He has successfully managed large IT consulting and software development projects, as well as high-visibility web development efforts, from initial design through deployment.

He joined the Internet Society in 2014 and is Director, Trust Technology, Policy, & Strategy.

From 2001-2014 he was with Internet2, the U.S. Research and Education (R&E) advanced networking consortium, serving as the program manager for their security and federated identity and access management (IAM) working groups and projects. In 2011 he joined the staff of Internet2 as Director, Federated Technologies. He was working on a variety of projects focused on the development and deployment of next-generation federated identity and access management infrastructure, aimed at reducing the friction inherent in secure cross-domain collaborations and resource access for both public and private sector institutions.

Much of the work at Internet2 was under the umbrella of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Middleware Initiative, and later the NSF Software Development for Cyberinfrastructure program. He was also working on a variety of projects under way in the Internet2 Security area. In addition, he was working on developing the potential of client certificates into real deployed intra- and inter-domain services (e.g. VPNs, authentication and multifactor authentication, signed documents, signed email).

He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Colorado College, and a M.S. in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

He has:

• consulted for a boutique eBusiness/Telecommunications strategy firm, providing strategic advisory services focused on applications of information technology, competitive positioning, and emerging technologies — for clients ranging from G2000/F500 to startups.

• served as the technical editor for the HP Security Handbook (2005).

• performed Content and Business Development for U S WEST’s Data Services Division (!nterprise), responsible for performing due diligence and negotiating best-of-breed content partnerships for U S WEST’s IP-enabled services and platforms. In addition, he performed technical evaluations of submitted business plans for the U S WEST Business Development group, in search of investment opportunities in line with U S WEST’s strategic business goals.

• led several key projects for Digital Creators, a developer of Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS) and online corporate training and education: Developed the specification and requirements definition, design, and prototyping of an enterprise Knowledge Management / Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) for a Fortune 150 client; the specification, design, prototyping, and production of an automated CD-ROM/Web hybrid Ability/Skills Assessment tool; managed the design, production, and deployment of an interactive, on-line, multimedia corporate training and education project.

• served as the program manager for the early design, development, and expansion of the official State of Colorado government website; and developed associated training programs for state agency staff.

• been a long time active participant (since 1994), and member of the founding board of directors, of Boulder Community Network – recognized worldwide as one of the earliest and leading example of thriving online local communities.

Bert Bruns
Managing partner, Bridges2Beyond
Netherlands

Mr. Bruns has over 22 years of experience in business engineering, large-scale change management programs and management consulting for a variety of businesses including financial institutions, airlines, Internet companies and start-ups; for strategy, technology and business architecture. He has held senior positions with IT architecture and business strategy consulting firms such as KPMG, Nolan & Norton and Gartner Consulting. Currently he runs Bridges2Beyond, a management consulting company focusing on sustainability, innovation and strategic initiatives.

Bert Bruns has studied both Computer Science and Business Science at the Technical University Eindhoven (Master Degree 1984-1989). At the Erasmus University Rotterdam (1989-1991) he has completed the post doctoral degree in EDP Auditing. During his total career he has kept up with professional education in the fields of consulting and communication skills, marketing, human resources, products (IT assessment, BPR, Business Transformation etc.) as well as workshops with international management gurus. In 2001 he has completed a three year course Professional Communication (interpersonal and organisational psychology) as well as a two year program in 2009. Currently he is engaged in a two year program to become a zen teacher. He has completed a program for board members, focused on how to perform in their supervisory roles (strategy, compliance, finance, etc.). Professional and personal development is a high priority, and something that he pursues continuously.

David Carlson, Ph.D.
CTO, Ontogenics Corporation, XMLModeling.com
Kalispell, Montana, USA

Dr. Carlson is an experienced researcher, developer, author, instructor, and eBusiness consultant. He is a frequent contributor to several technical journals, and has been a speaker at recent OOPSLA and XML conferences. In addition, he has taught graduate level courses in knowledge-based systems and computer architecture, and was a Sun-certified instructor for Java 1.0. During his 20-year career, Dr. Carlson’s focus has been on creating practical applications of leading edge technology, including application modeling and XML vocabularies. He earned his Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Arizona and is the author of two books: Modeling XML Applications with UML: Practical e-Business Applications (Addison-Wesley, 2001) and Eclipse Distilled (Addison-Wesley, 2005).

George Deriso, M.A.
Principal, Cosmos Partners
Boulder, Colorado, USA

Mr. Deriso is an experienced executive, entrepreneur and consultant who has worked with businesses of all sizes around the world. Prior to founding Cosmos Partners, George worked for Falcon Venture Partners, a Colorado private equity firm. Over his career, George has been instrumental as an executive or founder of 7 technology ventures. He also has worked in large multi-national companies, such as AT&T, Apple Computer and Gartner Group, providing him experience and insight that is meaningful across the full range of enterprises. He has lived and worked overseas, conducting business extensively throughout Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Mr. Deriso has a Masters from the University of California in Instructional Technology and Multimedia and an undergraduate degree from the University of California in Liberal Arts. He is an Advisor on the Boards of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship and the Technology Transfer Office, both at the University of Colorado, and advises new ventures and investors around the country.

Harvey Gates, Ph.D., P.E.
Boulder, Colorado, USA

Dr. Gates is a Professor Adjunct in the Department of Interdisciplinary Telecommunications, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder and has served in this position since 1981. Dr. Gates specializes in graduate-level data and computer communications. He teaches both in-class, as well as distance learning with the Center for Engineering and Computer Sciences (CATECS), and with the National Technological University (NTU). Dr. Gates is currently the Chair of the Department Technical Curriculum Committee. In addition, he is Co-principal of the newly established Research Center for Unmanned Vehicles in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Prior to these career accomplishments, Dr. Gates served as Vice President and Senior Principal for DMW Worldwide, Inc., Co-founder and Vice President of Class Works, Inc., Senior Vice President for BDM International, Inc., and Associate Deputy Director for the Institute for Telecommunications Sciences under the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Dr. Gates is also the principal of his consulting practice in Boulder, Colorado established in 1999. He is currently working with both commercial and defense related telecommunication initiatives. Dr. Gates has focused his entire formal education and career in computer and communication sciences and applying his knowledge in these disciplines to various customer applications. He maintains his leading edge in technology by teaching graduate level university classes and routinely instructing for national technology and professional development seminars.

Dr. Gates has a Ph.D, a Master of Science, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Electrical Engineering in the State of California since 1978. Dr. Gates is the co-author of two books and the sole author of numerous journal and conference publications. Additionally, he holds numerous Board of Advisors and Corporate Management Council positions for a myriad of organizations.

David Keaton
Principal, Keaton Consulting
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Mr. Keaton has over 20 years of experience in computer and telecommunications technology, business, and standards. He is accomplished at leading geographically dispersed multidiscipline teams

to deliver leading-edge products. He has developed parallel processor architectures that range from supercomputers to small embedded< systems; provided planning, analysis, and technical development of software, hardware, and network infrastructure; developed international standards; and provided training for diverse groups of technical and nontechnical people.

Mr. Keaton is currently working on an extension to the C programming language to provide better mechanisms for preventing buffer overflows, a method typically used by hackers to exploit flaws in computer and router software. He has tested part of this work at Cisco with astonishingly good results. Soon, it is likely that all vendors will be required to certify their products to be free of buffer overflows, similar to the “Y2k-ready” campaign.

Another recent project involved creating a new scheme for selective encryption of MPEG-2 video at 10 times the efficiency of the Sony Passage system. This allows content producers to provide free distribution of videos that are either unusable or low quality until customers unlock them by purchasing a decryption key.

Mr. Keaton continues to expand his areas of expertise and is conducting ongoing research in computer architecture and studies in new telecommunications developments such as software radio. He holds a BS in Computer Science from New Mexico Tech and is currently pursuing graduate studies in Telecommunications and Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He serves on the international standardization committee for the C programming language (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG14) and on the Information Infrastructure Standards Panel (ANSI IISP).

Cathleen Wharton, Ph.D.
Louisville, Colorado, USA

Dr. Wharton has over 20 years of experience in telecommunications, high-tech, and academia. Her career has spanned the Storage, Internet, and Telecommunications, and Healthcare industries – all with an emphasis on software. She is an experienced business leader and technical contributor who has successfully designed, delivered, and managed numerous customer-facing solutions, products, and services for the market. She has broad product development experience for the consumer and small business markets as well as significant consulting experience within the education and large business markets. Dr. Wharton also has experience with and knowledge of Fortune 500 companies’ product development and operations teams, IT organizations, enterprise architectures, operational support systems, integration issues, process reengineering, and change management.

Dr. Wharton provides business and technical, executive management and hands-on, consulting services to businesses, governmental agencies, educational and non-profit institutions. Her consulting and industry experience is in business processes and business development, e-business and marketing solutions, educational and training solutions, new product development, program and project management, software engineering and application integration, user experience and human factors engineering, and technology strategies. To her clients’ engagements she brings outstanding client communications and management skills, proven end-to-end software solution delivery expertise, broad business development experience, continuous excellence as a top-of-the-line “bridge” person between business and IT organizations, and strategic negotiation and contractual skills with partners, vendors, and internal organizations.

During her career, Dr. Wharton has held a variety of positions. For example, she has extensive industry experience in key management and project delivery roles as a Senior Software Engineering Manager (Sun Microsystems), Assistant Vice President of Business Systems (Great-West Healthcare), Vice President (BoldTech Systems, Inc.), Chief Technology Officer (e-Trinsic, Inc.), Director of Content and Business Development (U S WEST !nterprise) and Member of Technical Staff (U S WEST Advanced Technologies). Dr. Wharton has also worked at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Palo Alto, California, AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey; and taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Wharton holds a United States patent, has published extensively in the computer science and human factors communities, and has achieved worldwide recognition for her co-development of the Cognitive Walkthrough usability inspection method. Dr. Wharton holds a B.S. in Psychology, a Certificate in Cognitive Science, and a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Computer Science. Her undergraduate degrees are from the University of Denver and her graduate degrees are from the University of Colorado at Boulder.