Biographical Sketch: Walter Falk Business Development Executive IBM Enterprise Initiative – Cloud Computing Walter is an executive within IBM Enterprise Initiative – Cloud Computing division, where he is focused on business development, mergers and acquisitions to expand IBM Cloud initiatives globally. As part of this role Walter is deeply engaged in the corporate strategy around cloud and actively participates in the definition of new products, offerings and solutions in the cloud domain. Cloud Computing offer a radical transformation of how IT services are delivered, consumed and paid for. It is expected that Cloud Computing will transform IT services over the next 3 to 5 years. With his combined 18 years with IBM, Walter has held a variety of technical and executive roles in IBM across three continents; Europe, Asia and North America, within software development, sales, business development, and global services. In August 2006, Walter was asked to lead the global strategy and development of SOA Service Products within IBM Global Services. In this role, he managed the portfolio of service offerings that help customers leverage the value and innovation of SOA based IT infrastructure solutions. At the end of 2008, Walter was asked to take a leadership role to lead the strategy and development of IBM’s first private cloud offerings, which resulted in the introduction of Test Cloud and CloudBurst during 2009. Since October 2009 Walter has been leading business development, mergers and acquisitions across IBM for the corporate cloud strategy. Prior to his roles in global services, Walter was an executive in charge of strategic alliances for WebSphere and in this role he developed and managed the Siebel, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Dassault Systems, as well many other alliances. Walter has also held a variety of other roles including Development Manager of the Austin Lab for WebSphere. He started his career with IBM in Copenhagen, Denmark and spent 4 years with IBM Australia leading a number of implementation projects for large banks. Walter received his education from the University of Copenhagen in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is a Board Member of IBM’s Senior Certification Board – reviewing and approving the most senior technical candidates from across IBM. Walter is himself Senior Certified in SOA and WebSphere as well as Master Certified with The Open Group.