Bob Ballard is the Principal Cloud Strategist for Planet Technologies, who comes to Planet with nearly 14 years of experience at Microsoft, serving most recently as Chief IT Strategist for State and Local Government. He has led some of the most strategic victories for Microsoft in both the commercial and public sector, starting with enterprise wins versus IBM and Novell, leading early efforts in the unified communication business, and finally, as one of the first cloud-focused resources in the company covering Public Sector. Ballard has had his largest impact in the cloud business as a key contributor in many large-scale Office 365 deployments over the last 4 years totaling nearly 2 million seats. Bob is a graduate of the University of Maryland and based in the Mid-Atlantic Area.

Bob’s knowledge of both the Cloud business and how to leverage it with state and local government customers is well known in the industry. Jeff Tozzi, General Manager of the State and Local Government Business at Microsoft, says, “Bob’s deep knowledge of the U.S. State & Local Government vertical, combined with his experience working on some of the most complex cloud migrations, make him a strong asset to an organization looking to show leadership in the transformation of the future in government and technology…his impact on the industry is significant—whether he is driving strategy, handling complex sales processes or serving as a mentor.”

Jennifer has developed leading approaches for Office 365 training programs for organizations of all sizes in advancing user acceptance and adoption.

Jennifer is recognized throughout the Microsoft community for being able to simplify Microsoft concepts. A Microsoft certified trainer and Customer Immersion Experience consultant, Jennifer spearheaded the launch of a one of a kind advanced training package leveraging  On-Demand Microsoft videos, Tips and Tricks sessions, user guides, and Office 365 help desk. With a background in cloud strategy and SharePoint, Jennifer regularly collaborates with Microsoft product teams to help provide them feedback and feature requests from the people she interacts with in business and within the community.  She is often invited as a guest speaker at major Microsoft events across the United States and Internationally, most recently she was a speaker at the Microsoft Ignite Conference in Atlanta, GA.

Brendan’s focus is on People and Process and capitalizing on lessons learned through communication and marketing strategies that guarantee the smoothest transition possible

Having consulted with government customers on industry best practices for almost 20 years, Brendan’s specialization is customer service and process management. A Microsoft consultant with certifications in ITIL and PMP, Brendan’s successful approaches to Office 365 have been successfully leveraged by government clients large and small. He has developed and led group initiatives with strategic and prescriptive communication plans, Wikis, flyers, and customized marketing and communication strategies.  As a recent keynote speaker at the Energy OCIO conference, he shared his team’s success story concerning the methodology and process used over the entire migration and delivery process. Brendan has been recognized for his efforts to enhance the customer acceptance of new technologies and has been lead project manager on multiple initiatives to adopt new technologies in government.

Fifteen years’ experience as Microsoft messaging expert and Office 365 architect to Civilian, Intelligence and Defense sectors. Corey has seen it all and has a knack for resolving complex situations and developing attainable action plans.

Corey has been an entrepreneur, messaging lead for a cabinet level agency, and lead technologist and architect for a top Microsoft consulting firm. Corey’s knowledge for government compliance and security combined with his unmatched experience in leading deployments for Office 365, make him a true expert on how to do Office 365 right. From email, to Active Directory, storage and disaster recovery, Corey has provided expert Office 365 guidance to agency leadership, security teams, and IT staff at over 20 Federal organizations ranging from 300 to 100,000 users. Corey has been responsible for identifying and effecting change in the Office 365 platform to better enhance Office 365 for government customers.

Julie is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate for Office 365. Since 2014, she has been supporting Microsoft products and technologies with a focus on SharePoint. Her areas of expertise include information architecture, user adoption, collaboration, content management, and training. Julie has created and managed custom training curriculum for a variety of audiences, and regularly trains Office 365 users in-person and remotely. When not working, Julie splits her free time enjoying the outdoors and playing video games with friends.

Miguel is one of only a handful of Microsoft Certified Solutions Masters for SharePoint in the world. He consults with government organizations across the country on getting the most value of SharePoint in Office 365 and hybrid architectures

For almost 18 years, Miguel has been consulting and mentoring government and commercial organizations to better utilize technology to improve business processes. One of his specialties is architecting and deploying hybrid cloud deployments for large scale organizations. Miguel holds numerous Microsoft and industry certifications, including the Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM) in SharePoint (Charter) and being one of the first in the world to earn the prestigious Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) for SharePoint 2010. He has had the opportunity to train Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) and product support roles within Microsoft around the world. His areas of focus include Azure, SQL Server, Identity Management, Security, .NET programming, and, of course, all released versions of SharePoint. Because of his broad and deep understanding of enterprise technologies, Miguel co-authored the Microsoft Press book, Microsoft SharePoint 2013: Designing and Architecting Solutions.

Patrick has advised government organizations, for over a decade, on best practices to integrate SharePoint and other Microsoft services effectively into business process. Patrick is regularly requested by Microsoft to speak at end user and partner events around the world, for his real world experience and knowledge. His unique background and training in cloud based Microsoft integration for government provide customers with rare insight in how to approach SharePoint, Azure analytics, and Power BI the right way. Patrick has led and developed teams to support everything from strategy, security and compliance, administration, branding & development to upgrading, and troubleshooting for SharePoint. Patrick’s areas of focus include also Azure (commercial and government cloud), SQL Server, Identity Management, custom development, and, all released versions of SharePoint! Patrick is a co-author of Microsoft® SharePoint® 2013: Designing and Architecting Solutions developed for Microsoft Press. His certifications include MCT, MCTS, MCP, MCITP, MCPD, MCSA, MCSE.