LOS ANGELES, Nov. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — UCLA IS Associates, a member-based executive IT leadership organization, announced three award winners today for its annual Executive Leadership Awards in the Corporate Enterprise, Startup, and Public Sector categories.

Awardees include Jeffrey Dailey, CEO of Farmers Insurance; Travis VanderZanden, Founder and CEO of Bird; and John Wicker, Director of Los Angeles County, Department of Parks and Recreation.

“The IS Associates Executive Leadership Award is a particularly distinctive element of the IS Associates,” said Jim Davis, Vice Provost of Information Technology and Chief Academic Technology Officer at UCLA. “As we are all experiencing the acceleration of digitization, the award is a recognition of how technology really affects people and how we live and interact on this planet.”

In recognition of the 40^th anniversary of UCLA IS Associates, the awards celebration will include an exclusive fireside chat with Davis and Dr. Ephraim McLean on the history and impact of the organization in the Southern California technology community. McLean is a co-founder of IS Associates and former Associate Professor of UCLA Andersen School of Management.

“Our focus from the beginning has been about sharing and celebrating the important ways technology empowers successful businesses,” said Don Olender, Executive Director of IS Associates.

“This year’s recipients of the Executive Leadership Award join a long and illustrious list of previous honorees, who also share that same insight—that the innovative use of technology in their businesses will always provide real opportunities, drive immense value and influence positive outcomes,” added Olender.

Jeff Dailey will receive the Corporate Enterprise award. He is the CEO of Farmers Group, Inc. (Farmers), one of the country’s largest providers of insurance for automobiles, homes, small businesses and a wide range of other insurance and financial services products. Farmers serves more than 10 million households through the efforts of more than 48,000 exclusive and independent agents and approximately 21,000 employees.

Through Dailey’s leadership, Farmers has established an enterprise-wide commitment to innovation, leveraging technology to accelerate the delivery of new products and services designed to enhance the customer experience at every point of engagement. Dailey’s strategic focus on modernization has spurred the implementation of customer-centric innovations like omnichannel self-service enhancements, drones and aerial imagery for claims processing, virtual reality for employee training and more. With an eye to the future, Farmers operates an Innovation Lab that brings together transformative thinking and game-changing technology such as Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Dailey joined Farmers in 2007 as President of Personal Lines when Farmers acquired Bristol West. In January 2011, he was promoted to the position of President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Farmers Group, Inc. Dailey was named to his current role of CEO on January 1, 2012.

Travis VanderZanden will receive the Start-Up/Entrepreneurial Award. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bird, a last mile electric scooter rental service.

VanderZanden has long been inspired to work on last-mile transportation solutions in large part because of his lifelong admiration for his mother, who drove a public bus for more than 30 years in his home state of Wisconsin.

Throughout his career, VanderZanden has been at the forefront of innovative transportation solutions, most recently as a pioneer in the ride-sharing industry serving as Chief Operating Officer of Lyft and as a Vice President at Uber.

He also founded the on-demand car washing company, Cherry, which was acquired by Lyft, and was Chief Revenue Officer and the first hire at Yammer, the business software company, acquired by Microsoft.

John Wicker will receive the Public Sector award. As the Director of Los Angeles County, Department of Parks and Recreation. Wicker is responsible for the operation, management and maintenance of more than 70,000 acres of park land and 184 parks, including 20 golf courses that comprise the largest municipal public golf system in the country.

In addition, Wicker oversees a Department that operates 40 swimming pools, more than 200 miles of multi-use trails, the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, and the world-famous Hollywood Bowl. He administers the Department’s annual operating budget of more than $243 million and 1,700 full-time equivalent positions serving more than 23 million park visitors each year.

Wicker began his career with Los Angeles County as a Lake Lifeguard in 1978. He has worked in a variety of positions with the Department of Parks and Recreation, including serving as the Chief Deputy for over 10 years before being appointed as Director on March 29, 2016.

The IS Associates 2018 Executive Leadership Awards Dinner will be on November 8, 2018 at UCLA’s Carnesale Commons. For more information on the event, visit isassociates.ucla.edu/2018ELA. UCLA IS Associates gratefully acknowledges Nth Generation and Druva for supporting the event.

For more information, contact isassociates@ucla.edu.

About UCLA IS Associates  
UCLA IS Associates leads the Southern California technology community with exceptional networking, quality professional education and informed insights into innovative and disruptive technologies. ISA’s programs are delivered through close collaboration with world-renowned UCLA faculty, Silicon Beach entrepreneurs and tech leaders from member organizations.

About Nth Generation
With a legacy of over 26 years, Nth Generation provides cutting edge, consultative IT services, encompassing a suite of IT solutions. Whether your focus is hybrid IT, security, compliance, intelligent edge analytics, transformative solutions or an array of technologies, Nth is a trusted industry and security advisor. The Nth team – partnered with an expanding array of innovative, renowned manufacturers – collaborates with your IT team, to ensure you achieve the most appropriate, proven, innovative methodology and IT infrastructure. To learn more, visit www.nth.com.

About Druva
Druva is the global leader in Cloud Data Protection and Management, delivering the industry’s first data management-as-a-service solution that aggregates data from endpoints, servers and cloud applications, leveraging the public cloud to dramatically increase the availability and visibility of business-critical information, while reducing the risk, cost and complexity of managing and protecting it. Druva’s award-winning solutions intelligently collect data, and unify backup, disaster recovery, archival and governance capabilities onto a single, optimized data set. As the industry’s fastest growing data protection provider, Druva is trusted by over 4,000 global organizations, protecting over 100PB of data worldwide. To learn more, visit www.druva.com.

Contact:
Thomas Phelps
626-590-9995
thomas.phelps@laserfiche.com

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