Team Biographies

Bob Yurkovic — Vice President
Business leader in emerging trends with over 20 years experience in senior marketing, sales, business operations, and IT roles for Fortune 100 companies. He has aggressively brought new products to market with annual growth rates ranging from 20% to 100% and forged high end portals by focusing on a superior customer experience and self service strategies. Advanced Portal management since 1994 and also holds 2 portal patents. Expertise includes taking the big picture into a strategy and executing on innovative vision. Worked leadership positions at AT&T, NCR, Lucent Technologies, Studio IQ, UnitedHealthcare and Ingenix Consulting.

Gerard Gorman — Creative Director
Gerard Gorman has more than 20 years of experience as a UI and web designer, art director, teacher, illustrator, and graphic designer. His prior work experience includes several Fortune 500 companies in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and telecom industries. 17 years at Bell Laboratories on the forefront of many Web and Mobile applications in use today. He has more than 17 years of experience as a professor in the Graphic Design degree program at County College of Morris in New Jersey. He has held a position as Electronic Design Committee chair and board member of the Art Directors Club of New Jersey (ADCNJ). His digital design awards include an American Graphic Design award, an Association of the Graphic Arts (AGA) award, several ADCNJ awards, and, most recently, the 2004 NISOD Excellence in Teaching Award.

Rob Knierim — Sr. Solution Architect
Rob Knierim is a PMI certified Project Management Professional with more than 10 years of project and program management experience in various industries including telecommunications, hi-tech manufacturing, and health care. Rob's eight-year tenure at Intel Corporation included the development and institutionalization of CMMI processes for large IT organizations.

Jane Bungum — UX Director
Jane has been providing user experience consulting services to Fortune 500 companies, start-up firms and non-profit organizations for over 15 years. She has strong expertise in user research, information architecture and all forms of usability evaluation (one-on-one, remote, unmoderated, international, eye tracking and expert reviews). She has worked with specialized user groups including children and students, users with medical conditions, seniors and high-end professionals such as physicians and lawyers. She uses the latest user experience methods and tools to understand both user attitudes and behaviors. She is a member of the Minnesota chapter of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) and the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) where she served as treasurer from 2007 – 2009. She has been a frequent speaker at professional and government conferences. Jane has an undergraduate degree in English and Communications and an Masters of Business Administration. She holds a professional certification in user interface design.

Donald Potts — Business Development Director
Donald Potts is a business leader in information technology with more than 20 years of experience in product management, professional services, sales and customer support. His responsibilities include New Product Introduction (NPI) in data warehouse, business intelligence, CRM and network routing applications. He has received customer service and sales awards while working in leadership positions at Texas Instruments, NCR and Avaya.

Marc Brockman — Sr. Program Manager
Successfully managed projects ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000 through full project life cycle (exploration, analysis, scope, requirements gathering, staffing, budgeting, training, deployment, end of life). Program Manager for leading global provider of e-commerce solutions to ocean carriers and their customers. Expert knowledge in client relationship management, interaction with business partners, subject matter experts, and negotiating with technology partners.

Eric Deger — Quality Assurance Manager
Eric Deger has more than 20 years experience in information technology consulting providing project management, quality assurance and business solutions for Fortune 500 Companies aligned with the corporation's business process, infrastructure, content management, and compliance requirements. He has directed quality assurance testing of workflow management solutions for publishing, financial and pharmaceutical clients and performed in project management, resource management, training, audit and analyst roles in telecom, aviation and service delivery organizations.

Robert Fasinski — Strategic Services Manager
Robert Fasinski is a professional business systems analyst with more than 25 years experience in the analysis, design and development of information management, financial analysis, and inventory management systems for Fortune 500 companies and Information Technology services providers. He has held organizational leadership positions managing development and analytical teams at telecommunications and professional services companies.

Jay Vyas — Sr. Application Developer
Jay has over 6 years of IT experience in object oriented programming, systems analysis, requirements analysis, software design, development, implementation and testing. He has strong background in object-oriented methodology, Object-oriented programming OOAD skills. He is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) and has experience in design and development of web-based, windows based, client-server system

Michele Garwood — Business analyst
Michele Garwood has more than 10 years of marketing and communications experience with a focus on writing and editing. Her responsibilities include editing training curriculum, creating user guides and online help, designing and implementing standardized training materials, and managing the design/layout of training materials. Michele's experience also includes training delivery; designing and developing instructor-led and e-learning curriculum; software quality assurance and user acceptance testing; proposal development; and designing and editing marketing materials. Michele holds a BA in English Literature and MA in Management.

Paula Allen — Project Manager/Senior Instructional Designer
Paula has over 12 years of technical project and program management, organizational development and facilitation experience across the health care, financial services, manufacturing, and technology sectors. She is skilled in relationship management, managing learning and development, managing IT project teams, directing system implementation projects, and guiding process improvement initiatives. Paula holds a degree in Journalism and also holds certifications as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Six Sigma Green Belt.

Larisa Lobovsky — Senior Project Manager
Larisa Lobovsky has extensive qualifications in all aspects of Project Management involving all facets of Project life cycle, from business requirements to product deployment to customer support. She merges hands-on leadership style with excellent relationship skills to drive focused teams toward excellence. Larissa has outstanding people skills and contract negotiation abilities. She has a proven record in optimizing Total Cost of Ownership and in relating technical information to end users and leading projects to full fruition. Larissa is a Subject Matter Expert in ecommerce/ERP. She has also been a leader of cross-functional International teams.

Ian McAllister — Project Coordinator
Ian McAllister has more than a decade of experience in corporate, retail, and customer service industries understanding clients' needs and providing them with an exceptional customer experience, a high level of professionalism, and an uncompromising degree of quality and accuracy. He has supervised multimillion-dollar profit and loss statements and managed associated sales and controllable costs to produce the highest ROI for the business and stakeholders. Ian has worked diligently to develop and implement process improvements which increased efficiency, profitability, and repeatable, measurable results. He has developed training programs for internal and external parties to drive exceptional service and increased sales. He has provided high-quality results using his experience in sales, marketing, training, quality assurance, and operations, as well as through effective communications with various parties within the organizations.

David Siegel — Senior Application Developer
David Siegel has more than nine years of experience in web and enterprise application development, design and leadership. His experience is mostly in the Microsoft development domain, though he also has experience with Java and Oracle technologies. He has held lead developer positions with Intel and Dialogic and has led global development projects and deployments. David graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in May of 2000 with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science.

Garry Whitehead — Sr. Program Manager
Garry is a project manager with 10 years experience working mainly in the financial sector. He has experience working on project and process governance. Prior experience was working at Citibank implementing and deploying business directed solutions.

Jim Armstrong — Senior UX Architect
Jim is a user experience professional with over 10 years of experience and diverse skills including information architecture, instructional design, technical training, product development and project & program management. He has helped improve the user experience of websites and applications for organizations including UnitedHealth Group, LexisNexis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Xpedior and Pfizer. Jim is also a PMI-certified Project Management Professional, a member of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) and Project Management Institute (PMI). He volunteers in several local community organizations. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and sociology and earned PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

Nina Chavda — Senior UX Architect
Nina Chavda has more than three years of experience in User Interface Design and Information Architecture, specifically in the areas of user experience testing, heuristics, competitive assessments, wireframes, and site maps. She is skilled in designing applications, user interfaces (UI), websites, online ads, and e-newsletters. Nina is adept at various phases of project lifecycle, including requirements gathering and user analysis to information architecture (IA) design. She has a solid knowledge of human-computer interaction (HCI), navigation, and usability for UI design, as well as additional experience in Project Management and Financial analysis.

Cindy Marinak — Sr. UX Strategist
Cindy Marinak is a Certified Usability Analyst with 12 years of experience in user interface design and usability for enterprise software. Her expertise includes user interface and interaction design along with translating requirements into functional design specifications. Cindy's additional experience includes integrating design with Agile development and planning, creating prototypes for, and conducting remote, facility-based, or in-house usability sessions.

Larry Gonzales — Sr. Business Analyst
Larry Gonzales has more than 20 years of IT experience, including User Requirements, Quality Assurance, Systems Analysis; more than five years in consulting services (domestic and international); and four years with UHG. His UX&D responsibilities include User Research, Site-Mapping, Wireframing, and User Interface documentation.

Beth Harness — Sr. Business Analyst
Beth has 10+ years experience in healthcare, primarily focusing on technology and member web experience. Beth has worked for UHG for nearly 10 years on myuhc.com. She has performed several different roles: systems analyst, business analyst, release manager, BA manager, and, most recently, project manager. Beth's other work experience includes KPMG, American Management Systems, and Horizon BCBSNJ. Beth holds a BA in History / Art History from Rutgers University.

Leslie Weber — Sr. UX Strategist
Leslie Weber is a Lead Interaction Designer with 20 years of experience designing web and GUI application interfaces and performing user research activities throughout an Agile software development life cycle. Leslie is well-versed in user-centered design processes and methodologies including: User and Task Analysis, User Interface Design, User Interface Patterns & Standards, Design Documentation, Expert Review and Formative and Summative Usability Testing. Leslie has additional experience eliciting product requirements and writing Use Case Specifications.

Natalie Zett — Sr. UX Architect
Natalie is a user experience professional with over 15 years of experience in information architecture, visual design, technical communication, instructional design and development, stand-up training, localization, business analysis, and project management. She has worked in Banking and Finance, Agribusiness, Medical Devices, Manufacturing (identification solutions/specialty products), Legal Research, and Education. Natalie is also a published writer who teaches writing workshops at a variety of educational institutions including the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Natalie has an M.A. in Systematic Theology, a B.A. in Business Administration, and has studied graphic design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.