ABOUT QUEST > BOARD OF DIRECTORS > DIRECTORS BIOS
President – Sue Shaw
Lead, ERP Solutions, Cenovus Energy
Sue Shaw is the current president for Quest. In her day job, Sue is responsible for maintaining a multi-year vision (people, process, and architecture) to support the ERP Solutions area at Cenovus Energy. This is a new opportunity for Sue which began early in 2010 after spending 20 years with Shell Canada. Her expertise is with JD Edwards software, in particular EnterpriseOne.
Shaw has been involved with Quest for quite some time. She began participating in the Technology SIG in 2001 and eventually became president. She moved on to lead the PeopleSoft Technology Product User Group. Shaw has also been involved with COLLABORATE education committees, the IOUC Support Quality council and the IOUC Product Development Committee.
Shaw's goal as a Quest board member is to promote Quest's benefits to Oracle by clearly communicating that end users have the most valuable input for the vendor, particularly for future products such as Fusion. She feels it would be beneficial for both customers and Oracle to strengthen relationships with user groups.
Executive Vice President – Darrell T. Hawkes Jr.
Senior Business Systems Analyst, Turner Industries Group, LLC
Darrell Hawkes is an IT project manager and manager of fabrication systems for Turner Industries Group in Paris, Texas, and Baton Rouge, La. Hawkes has been with Turner Industries for eight years in various roles increasing in responsibility. He is responsible for working as interface between the IT department and all levels of Fabrication Division Management. Ultimately, Darrell is tasked with evaluating the needs of Turner’s internal and external clients, developing solutions for those needs, and supporting or improving Fabrication Business processes.
Prior to joining the Quest board of directors, Hawkes was an active member of Quest for more than four years, attending multiple conferences and serving as president of the Industrial Manufacturing SIG. His goals as a Quest board member are continuing efforts to bridge the recently acquired JD Edwards and PeopleSoft customer bases with Oracle so Quest members can continue their focus on collaboration and shared value. Hawkes also hopes to add the perspectives he has gained through industry and user group service and apply his analytical skills to help move Quest into the future.
Hawkes is a graduate of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. He resides in Paris, Texas, with his wife, Dee, two daughters, Nichole and Michayla, and son, Samuel.
Treasurer – Robert Lieberman
Centro Properties Group
Robert Lieberman is the senior vice president and chief information officer for Centro Properties Group (formerly New Plan Excel Realty Trust). Headquartered in New York City, Centro is the fifth largest real estate company in the US. Centro focuses on the ownership and management of over 700 community and neighborhood shopping centers encompassing more than 110 million square feet of retail space.
Lieberman was directly responsible for his company's selection and implementation of the JD Edwards Enterprise One suite of applications. His other duties include executive management of all information technology resources and systems, as well as establishing corporate direction for strategic partners worldwide.
Lieberman graduated from Ramapo College in New Jersey with a degree in Accounting and is a certified public accountant. He currently resides in Hopatcong, New Jersey, with his wife, Lori. Bob and Lori have two children, Brian and Alex.
At-Large Officer – Edward Gillis
Senior Architect, Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance
As a senior architect for Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance of Hartford, Conn., Edward Gillis is responsible for enterprise-wide application architecture and application strategic planning. Gillis has extensive experience with PeopleSoft Enterprise products -- as far back as implementing PS Financials (General Ledger) v2.x at a major insurance company -- and has experience implementing and supporting PeopleSoft Financials (GL, AM, AR, AP, Billing, Purchasing, Contracts, Project Costing and Expenses); PeopleSoft EPM (Budgeting); PeopleSoft HRMS; and PeopleSoft AppConnect (Enterprise Portal). He has a B.S. in accounting from the University of Connecticut and an M.B.A. concentration in Information Systems Management from the University of Hartford.
Gillis has been a member of the Board of Directors for the PeopleSoft Southern New England Users Group (SNUG) since May 2001, and is currently the SNUG Treasurer and Membership Coordinator. His goal as a Quest board member is to help provide an independent customer voice to Oracle, helping ensure customers using any of Oracle's product lines (JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, or Oracle) are heard. In addition, Gillis' expertise is instrumental in helping Quest broaden its scope beyond JD Edwards products and customers.
At-Large Officer – Amanda McWilliams
Director of Treasury and Credit, Alliance Beverage Distributing/Glazers
Amanda McWilliams is the director of treasury and credit with Alliance Beverage Distributing in Phoenix, Ariz. Her primary responsibility is with the company’s banking/treasury management, which includes the management of corporate charge accounts, monthly tracking & reconciliation of cash positions and asset accounts management. She trains and supports a team of seven, responsible for all collections, cash transactions, direct banking and accounting.
Prior to joining the Quest board of directors, McWilliams volunteered her time working on Quest conferences as an education committee member for the 2004 Quest West Conference and by working with local user groups at the 2004 Quest Global Conference. She has served multiple positions with the Cactus League User Group, including past President and Treasurer.
As a Quest board member, McWilliams wants to reinforce Quest's stability as a resource for all members to rely on through restructuring of JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and now Oracle. She believes that stability, combined with the versatility of Quest’s offerings, will result in the continued support every user needs and has come to expect
Immediate Past President – Roger Parks
CIO/VP Information Technology, J.R. Simplot Company
Roger Parks is the president of Quest. A leader in the information technology industry, Parks is the chief information officer and vice president of IT for J.R. Simplot Company. Based in Boise, Idaho, the J.R. Simplot Company is a privately held food and agribusiness corporation. Simplot employs approximately 13,000 employees in the U.S., Canada, China, Mexico and Australia. The company’s annual sales are approximately $4.0 billion, derived principally from food, fertilizer, turf and horticultural, cattle feeding and other enterprises related to agribusiness.
Parks' duties include executive management of all information technology resources and systems worldwide for the J.R. Simplot Company. This includes the Corporate Data Center and Information Technology organization in Boise, Idaho, and numerous other data centers and information technology organizations around the world.
Parks is published in several industry trade journals, periodicals and in a couple of books recently published dealing with industry leadership strategies. He also is a recognized speaker a many industry conferences, CIO conferences and UCLA’s Andersen School of Management.
Parks graduated from the University of Houston in Houston, Texas, with a degree in Computer Science. He currently resides in Boise, Idaho, with his wife, Cyndi. His children are Roger II, Dru, Samantha, Jonathan and Grace.
Sue Duggins
Senior Manager, Financial Systems, Inc
Sue Duggins is the Financial Systems Manager for Yum Brands, Inc. Yum is the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system wide restaurants. They operate more than 35,000 restaurants in over 100 countries and territories under the Brand names of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants with revenues in excess of $10 billion. Yum utilizes PeopleSoft Financials and HCM for their domestic operations and JDE Enterprise One for international operations. They also utilize Hyperion for reporting and consolidations across both domestic and international platforms.
As the Financial Systems Manager for Yum, Duggins is responsible for the management of all domestic PeopleSoft Financial and Hyperion applications on the domestic functional side of the business. Her team provides end user support on upgrades, system enhancements, financial reporting and training. Duggins also participated as Project Lead and subject matter expert in Yum’s decision to implement PeopleSoft as their ERP solution in 2004. She has worked for Yum or one of the Brand’s for the past 28 years in various accounting and IT management positions.
Outside her Quest Board responsibilities, Duggins currently leads the RIUG (Retail Industry User Group) for both PeopleSoft and JDE. She is also a member of the Quest PeopleSoft Advocacy Committee and has presented or led sessions at both COLLABORATE and Oracle Open World for the past 2 years.
Duggins is a graduate of Bellarmine University in Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce with an emphasis in Accounting. She resides in Louisville, KY with her husband, Dean, and their two children Sarah and Sean.
Elizabeth Goins
Systems Analyst, School District of Manatee County
Beth Goins is systems analyst for the School District of Manatee County in Bradenton, Fla., where she has been an analyst since 1993. Her duties include the design and implementation of information systems related to the finance, A/P, A/R, purchasing, warehouse/inventory, construction/job cost, fixed assets and and HR/Payroll systems.
Prior to joining the Quest board of directors, Goins began participating, and continues to participate, in the Government SIG, the World Strategy Council (WSC), and the JD Edwards World User Group (WUG). She also has given several presentations and wrote the white paper for encumbrances in JD Edwards software covering issues in the EnterpriseOne and JD Edwards World product lines.
Goins looks forward to providing insight into the networking and technology needs of the World community as Quest continues to grow as a user organization. She would like to help define user group roles and responsibilities within the user group community, all the while educating members on how to maximize their membership investment in Quest. She has a particular interest in pursuing issue tracking using the Quest enhancement process and communication tools for use among members.
Goins is a graduate of the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in computing. She and her husband, Doug, live in Bradenton, Fla., with their son, Kyle, and daughter, Kathryn.
Stanton
Jones
TPI
Stanton Jones is Director, Global IT at TPI, the world’s largest sourcing data and advisory company. In his role, Stanton is responsible for corporate IT strategy, governance and operations. Stanton has extensive experience building, leading and managing IT in global, mobile, service-based organizations, and focuses his efforts at TPI on using technology to support corporate growth initiatives, improve productivity and reduce business risk.
Previously, Jones served in multiple technology service delivery roles at Rapp Collins Worldwide, a leading database marketing service provider and member of the Omnicom Group. Stanton designed, developed and supported some of the industry’s largest, most advanced databases for clients across multiple industry verticals, in addition to roles in development, account management and data center operations.
Prior to Jones' role on the Quest Board, he was a key team member of both the Fusion Applications Communications Profiling Team and the Fusion Road Mapping Team within the Product Development Committee of the International Oracle Users Council.
A graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, Jones' also holds a Masters degree in Information Systems from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas and is a PMP-certified Project Manager. Jones resides in Spring, Texas with his wife and two children.
Gerhard Karba
Westfield, LLC
As Global Chief Information Officer for Westfield, the world’s largest retail REIT, Gerhard Karba is responsible for global technology strategy as well as all information technology operations worldwide. He has over 20 years of experience in business and technology leadership in multiple industries, with the past 8 years in commercial real estate.
Karba joined Westfield in 2007. He has spent his entire business career in the United States, most of it for multinational or global companies. Having started in industrial engineering, he gravitated towards technology in the late eighties, building a successful career as a software entrepreneur and executive during the internet boom of the nineties. He entered the real estate technology arena in 2000, when he joined Goldman Sachs to develop an internet based real estate exchange. Prior to joining Westfield, he served for five and a half years as the CIO for Hines, the world’s largest privately held developer, owner and manager of commercial office real estate.
Karba holds an undergraduate degree in business and marketing from college in his native Austria, a bachelor degree in finance and computer science from Pace University in New York, and an MBA degree from Pace University.
Kirby Miner
Trex
Kirby Miner is the Chief Information Officer for the Trex Company, the nation’s largest manufacturer of composite decking, railing and fencing. Miner is responsible for assessing the relative impact of emerging technology to strategic business needs and interprets their meaning to the organization’s senior leadership team. In his current role, he participates in overall business technology planning, bringing a current knowledge and future vision of technology and systems as related to the company’s competitive position.
With over 20 years of technology experience, Miner has overseen numerous large software implementations for mid-tier industrial and medical manufacturing corporations, including several international deployments. Prior to joining Trex, Miner has held several technology leadership positions in public corporations including Triarc (Arby’s Restaurant Group), Coloplast and 11 years with Harsco Corporation.
Jeff West
Questar Corporation
Jeff West is the Enterprise Portfolio Manager for Questar Corporation, where he has worked for 26 years. In his current position, he works with internal audit, the company’s ERP systems, information security and IT portfolio management.
Currently, West manages PeopleSoft Financials and HR. In the past, he’s worked with MSA, D&B systems and Oracle Financials. He brings a wealth of user group and technology board experience to his new role on the Quest Board of Directors. In the past, he’s served on the MSA Customer Advisory Board and the PeopleSoft International Customer Advisory Board.
When he’s not working or volunteering, West enjoys travel, snow skiing, hiking, laughing with family and friends, reading historical fiction and watching college football.
Michael Whitmer
Hudson
Michael Whitmer is the Hudson Highland Group’s CIO & EVP of Operations. He is responsible for all aspects of application solutions, technical operations, and IT delivery and strategy. Whitmer has a strong background integrating technology into business operations and managing complex enterprise technology, from infrastructure to applications. His professional achievements include a multi-million dollar ERP implementations; the architecture of multiple reporting & analysis solutions, customer contact and data warehousing platforms; and technology integrations for mergers and acquisitions.
As VP of Information Services for Spherion Corporation, Whitmer led the Applications Solutions, Field Technology, and Technology Strategy organizations for Spherion's Staffing and Professional groups. Previously, he served as Director of Technology Strategy for software and services firm Witness Systems, and he also has experience as a manager, senior consultant, and technical architect with firms such as AT&T, MCI, and Turner Broadcasting Systems.
Jon Vaughn
Executive Director, Quest International Users Group
As executive director of Quest, Vaughn is the primary liaison for the Quest Board of Directors and membership. He oversees all of Quest’s day-to-day operations and leads a staff focused on executing the Quest board's strategic vision and ultimately fulfilling the Quest mission.