CIOs/CTOs

in October 2019 as the associate chief information officer for research and academic technology.

Prior to that, he was at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he served in several leadership roles covering research support, learning solutions and systems engineering. Before Wisconsin, Steve was an adjunct assistant professor and an instructional designer. He has a bachelor’s degree in radiotelevision communications and a master’s in educational media from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Ann Madea Simmons Bank

Ann Madea joined Simmons Bank in 2021 and serves as EVP, Chief Information Officer, responsible for the bank’s overall information technology strategy and operations. With more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Madea previously served as U.S. CIO for a large, global financial services company. Throughout her career, she has held leadership positions focusing on delivery, strategy, digital transformation, cloud, data and cyber strategies. Passionate about women and girls in technology, she was recently the Executive Sponsor for the Summer Immersion Program for ‘Girls Who Code’, a nonprofit organization that aims to increase the number of women in computer science. Madea is a graduate of University of Illinois at Chicago.

Erin Parker Arkansas Children’s

Erin Parker, FACHE, MBA, serves as the senior vice president/chief information officer for Arkansas Children’s. She is responsible for leading the organization’s focus on systems security, infrastructure and digital initiatives that make health care more accessible and unified for the organization’s workforce, providers as well as for patients and their caregivers.

A strategic thinker with additional expertise in health care compliance, Erin is a dynamic leader with a deep knowledge of the state’s only pediatric health system serving close to 700,000 children in Arkansas. She has a track record of driving culture to transform the use of technology in access to care, provision of care and the continuum of care. Parker has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration and is certified in health care compliance (CHC) and health care privacy compliance (CHPC). She is a fellow in the American College of HealthCare Executives (ACHE) and serves locally on the Rock Region Metro Board of Directors.

Rasesh Patel Apptegy

Rasesh Patel came to Apptegy with unmatched experience developing software engineering teams. Prior to becoming Apptegy’s chief technology officer, Patel spent 24 years at Acxiom Corporation, where he started as a software engineer and rose through the ranks to senior director of product engineering.

Patel has a reputation for being the “fixer.” Much of his work at Acxiom involved consulting with engineering teams to increase velocity and ship projects more quickly. At Apptegy, he’s built the engineering organization from 15 to nearly 150 engineers. His leadership has not only allowed the ed-tech company’s technical team to spread across geographies but also expand its products. Keith Jordan, a long-term colleague of Rasesh’s, described him as a strong counter-balance for most technical leaders: “Rasesh considers the engineer first and the work second. He’s always been focused on building relationships across his teams.”

Lizzie Phillips

Stephens Insurance

Lizzie Phillips is the chief information officer and senior vice president for Stephens Insurance. In this role, she manages the firm’s technology strategy and data analytics platform. Prior to joining Stephens, Phillips started Rock Analytics LLC, where she deployed her expertise in visual analytics to help companies build reporting systems. Her background in analytics was shaped by seven years of service to Keybridge, an economic and public policy consulting firm in Washington, D.C., where she was a director. Before D.C., Phillips worked for microfinance organizations in India and the Philippines and completed a Fulbright research study.

Phillips holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in economics and international studies from Rhodes College.

James Reed

Conway Regional

As chief information officer for Conway Regional, James Reed is responsible for the information system operations of the health system. In addition, Reed provides executive oversight of the pharmacy and quality departments and serves as Conway Regional’s corporate compliance officer. He has spent the past 10 years as CIO. Reed has also served as pharmacist and pharmacy director at Conway Regional and was administrative director of St. Anthony’s Medical Center for nearly four years.

In 2019, Reed achieved the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce’s North Metro Healthcare Award for Administrator of the Year. He is also a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.