Board of Directors
mike walsh, president
MJWALS@DAMA-NYCR.ORG
Mike Walsh holds a Master of Science in Computer Modeling and Applied Statistics from the University of Miami. His graduate research, which focused on programming heuristic algorithms for optimally determining vehicle routing within time window constraints and truck capacity constraints, laid the groundwork for advancements in Artificial Intelligence.
Beginning his professional journey in 1982, Mike joined Peat Marwick's Operations Research practice as a management consultant, initially based in the NYC office. By 1987, he spearheaded the establishment of Peat Marwick Consulting's Albany office. Over the years, Mike demonstrated exceptional leadership and expertise, eventually rising to become partner-in-charge of KPMG's State and Local Government Consulting Practice for the New York and New England regions.In 2001, Mike played a pivotal leadership role in establishing KPMG Consulting's Better American Government practice.
As an IPO founder of BearingPoint, he led numerous technology integration projects, significantly improving operations for Governments , Higher Education and Not-for-Profit clients across the New England, New York, and Mid-Atlantic regions.Subsequently, as Chief Executive Officer at NYSTEC, Mike championed a data-driven, high-performance business culture, resulting in remarkable 30% annual compound growth over eight consecutive years. While stepping into down from his NYSTEC leadership position in 2021, Mike remains actively involved in the Capital Region community, providing guidance on entrepreneurship, Smart City initiatives, and serving on the boards of several non-profit organizations.
Pat Schaffer, Vice President of finance
pschaffer@tquala.com
Pat Schaffer is the owner and president of Total Quality Associates, Inc. (TQA). TQA is an Albany, New York based corporation that specializes in providing government and private sector consulting services in the areas of project management, quality assurance, requirements analysis, business process modeling, relational and dimensional data modeling, data validation, and training. TQA’s core competencies include the subject areas of healthcare and most specifically, Medicaid, and the technological areas of data warehousing and master data management. TQA staff qualifications include professionals that are certified project managers and database administrators, that have years of experience in both the Medicaid subject matter and data warehousing technology.
Billy Obenauer, vice president of online services
bobenauer@dama-nycr.org
Billy a member of the faculty in the School of Business at Ithaca College. He is a graduate of the PhD and MBA programs in the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY where he studied organizational behavior. Billy has had papers published in The Leadership Quarterly, Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, and Human Factors. His research has been presented at the annual conferences of the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Southern Management Association, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Eastern Academy of Management, and the Midwest Academy of Management.