Here are the biographies for instructors selected to give pre- and post-conference workshops at SESUG ‘03. We have chosen them to present seminars in conjunction with our annual conference because of their reputation within the SAS user community for being subject-matter experts. All have excellent presentation skills as well as a great enthusiasm to share their knowledge with others. A listing of the workshops they will present is on our Pre/Post Conference Workshops page.

Greg Barnes Nelson

As President and CEO of ThotWave Technologies, Mr. Barnes Nelson leads software development activities and oversees the design, testing, and implementation of application development services. Mr. Barnes Nelson joined ThotWave with over 19 years of experience in market research, database marketing, systems development and project management. Currently, Greg is responsible for developing ThotWave’s service offerings for reporting and analysis applications in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Greg has presented numerous workshops and presentations at SAS user group conferences.

Ben Cochran

Ben is Principal Consultant at The Bedford Group, a SAS Software consulting and training firm. He is a SAS Certified Professional^TM for Version 8 of the SAS System and his firm is an Alliance Partner^TM of SAS Institute. He was an instructor with SAS Institute for over 11 years and is certified to teach over a dozen SAS Institute courses in addition to his own courses.

Malachy J. Foley

Malachy J. Foley is a Senior SAS Programmer/Analyst in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Mal has worked with all types of data for more than 25 years. His career in computing includes being an international consultant, a department manager, a university professor, and a CEO. He has consulted to IBM, Dow Chemical, Ford-Rockefeller Foundation, United Nations, Department of Agriculture, Agency for International Development, many universities, and numerous Latin American organizations. He has taught dozens of computing courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. He frequently presents papers and gives seminars at local, regional, national, and international SAS users' groups.

Neil Howard

Neil is Manager of Statistical Programming at Ingenix Pharmaceutical Services in Basking Ridge, NJ. Neil was a contract instructor for SAS Institute for seven years, teaching fundamentals, programming, macro, report writing, graphics, and the annotate facility. She has been a SAS user for more than twenty years and has presented numerous papers at user group conferences. She chaired SUGI 20 in Orlando, FL.

Bernadette Johnson

Ms. Johnson combines over 16 years of real-world SAS experience with an MBA to provide a unique insight on not only how to program using SAS, but how to turn your data into information your business can use. Her background includes over 8 years of service to SAS Institute in various technical-consulting roles, and currently as an outside consultant in a variety of industry sectors. Her forthcoming SAS Books-by-Users publication, "Instant ODS, Style Templates for the Output Delivery System", is a CD of ready-to-use Output Delivery System (ODS) templates.

Andrew Karp

Andrew Karp is President of Sierra Information Services, Inc, a SAS Software consulting and training firm located in the California Wine Country. A 20-year SAS user, Andrew has presented numerous public and customized training seminars on a wide range of SAS System topics to attendees around the United States, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, England and Belgium. In addition to his training practice, Andrew has worked on numerous consulting projects where he has applied SAS tools for data mining, forecasting, customer relationship management, reporting and other tasks. He has been an Invited Speaker at SUGI, SEUGI and SUGA, as well as at regional and local SAS user group meetings around the world. Andrew is a SAS Certified Professional(tm) for Version 8 of the SAS System. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from The George Washington University and is an avid amateur photographer.

Kirk Paul Lafler

Kirk Paul Lafler is principal of Software Intelligence Corporation and consultant with 25 years of SAS programming experience. He provides IT consulting services and training to SAS users around the world and holds the SAS Institute certification level of SAS Certified Professional, V6, and was a SAS Institute Alliance Member (1996 - 2002). As the author of three books and more than one hundred articles, Kirk is a frequent speaker at International, Regional, and Local SAS User Groups. He also writes a popular SAS Tips column that appears regularly in the BASAS, HASUG, SANDS, and SESUG Newsletters.

Russell Lavery

Russ Lavery is an independent contractor. He has used SAS for 15 years and specializes in the use of SAS and Statistics to solve business problems. He is the author of the "An Animated Guide:" series of presentations on SAS and statistical topics.