Ed Kahan Business Optimization Leadership Seminar
Smarter Operations for Smarter Planet
June 30, 2010
Organized by IBM Research – Haifa
Ed Kahan - IBM Fellow, IBM Software Group
Ed Kahan was the Chief Architect and CTO of the IBM Software Group, Enterprise Integration. Ed was a certified consultant and an active member of the IBM Academy of Technology. His responsibilities included strategy development, design, and development of advanced technologies for Web Services, service oriented architectures, and enterprise integration products, tools, and solutions for IBM clients. Ed was recognized inside and outside IBM as an expert in complex systems integration, architectural design, and technology implementation.
Ed developed the IBM Architecture Description Standard (ADS), used by the IBM WW technical community, and authored the IBM Software Development Method. Working with IBM research, development, and services divisions, Ed architected, designed, and deployed state-of-the-art integration solutions with international IBM clients.
Upon joining IBM in 1984, Ed worked on engineering design systems, manufacturing systems, and many complex business systems for IBM clients, world wide. He established IBM thought leadership in architectural design and thinking. He was a frequent presenter at industry conferences on architectural design of modern IT systems. Ed was a founding member of the IBM Global Services Technical Review board, which creates and reviews reference IT architectures. He was a member of the Software Group Industry Solution Board. He was a leader of IBM Academy of Technology studies, which advance IBM’s technical leadership position.
Earlier, Ed held systems engineering, development, and teaching positions in IBM divisions. He had an extensive knowledge of design and implementation of complex systems in several industries, including large retail systems, discrete manufacturing (designing and implementing CIM systems), process industries (petroleum exploration and production, chemical and food manufacturing), defense systems (simulation and real time systems), medical systems (community health information networks—CHIN), transportation (trucking and railroad scheduling systems, business-to-business systems), and telecommunications companies (call center, order processing, and switch interface systems).
Ed was the recipient of the Blue Chip award, several Golden Circle awards, Hundred Percent clubs, and technical excellence and leadership awards.
Prior to joining IBM, Ed worked in acoustic, vibration, and signal analysis research in Europe and US. Special research interests involved the effect of vibration on humans in industrial settings (hand, arm, and whole-body vibration) and the link between business models and technology.
Ed held a degree in mechanical engineering.
