Mark Thomas is the founder and president of Escoute Consulting, an IT governance consultancy focusing on helping enterprises realise benefits through risk and resource optimisation. As a nationally known ITIL and COBIT expert with more than 20 years of professional experience, Mark’s background spans leadership roles from data centre chief information officer (CIO) to management and IT consulting. Mark has led large teams in outsourced IT arrangements, conducted project management office (PMO), service management and governance activities for major project teams, and managed enterprise applications implementations across multiple industries.

Dr Suzanne D. Van Hove owns and manages SED-IT, a service management consulting and training company. She has worked in multiple professional verticals leading or coaching service management initiatives. She has also written and delivered accredited courseware for ITIL^® and ISO/IEC 20000, as well as multiple workshops and seminars, both nationally and internationally. She is the current chair for INCITS GIT1 – the US national mirror of JTC1/SC40, the Special Committee for Service Management. She also leads the US mirror for JTC1/SC7/WG24. Dr Van Hove is an adjunct professor at Indiana University, Kelley School of Business and has served on the board of directors of itSMF USA as the knowledge management director. In recognition of her contributions to the service management community, Dr Van Hove was the 2013 recipient of the itSMF USA Lifetime Achievement Award. An opera aficionado and avid rosebush gardener, Dr Van Hove resides in Louisville, KY, USA.