Who are Global Knowledge’s IBM Master Instructors? The Software Mavens (Part 2)

Hopefully you had the opportunity to meet our Hardware Gurus in Part 1 of “Who are Global Knowledge’s IBM Master Instructors?” because now it’s time to meet our Software folks and get the final result from the Apple vs. Android debate, IBM Master Instructor edition.

Greg Arkus

Greg started off engineering on the Rational Quality Manager product. He worked through several acquisitions including QDB, Prism and Ardent. Eventually ending up at IBM, Greg spent more than 20 years there working in Worldwide Information Integration Enablement, Learning Services Architecture and Information Management Services Enablement. Greg’s professional focus is on IBM Information Server. His expertise has been acquired through 18 years’ worth of working through the growth and changes of the suite. Recently he lent his wealth of knowledge to a Redbook publication as a contributing author for Metadata Management with IBM InfoSphere Information Server.

Since college, Greg has been teaching in one form or another. In addition to teaching you multiple programming languages, he could also get you up to speed on driving a cab, flying a plane or perhaps putting on a sailboat race. His pilot skills should serve him well when he checks off the next item on his to-do list, buying a plane. In the meantime, you might find this member of team Android catching up on Kevin Spacey’s latest shenanigans as Frank Underwood on “House of Cards” or listening to some jazz and blues.

Certifications Held: IBM Master Instructor, IBM DataStage and Information Analyzer, Airline Transport Pilot, Certified Flight Instructor, 50 Ton USCG Captain’s License

Currently Teaching: IBM Information Management Training

William Lee Jacobsen Jr.

William started his career in the computer industry in 1982 as a PC specialist with the introduction of Apple II, subsequently moving to IBM XTs. After working his way up the Systems Programming ladder at the county of Fresno, California, William worked in various capacities for private companies before he came to land at the Department of Homeland Security as a senior AIX and TSM administrator and technical lead. William has worked with AIX since Gold Code 3.2.5 as a working administrator, and TSM since ADSM days as an admin as well. He’s a big proponent of AIX and TSM, believing them to be the best designed and maintained products in IBM’s inventory. Not surprisingly, this is where his expertise and professional passions lie.

William left DHS to begin teaching full time a little over a year ago. He shows his tech loyalties while teaching, as he uses his Apple IMac to deliver his Virtual Classroom Live sessions and his Apple MacBook pro when he is teaching in the Classroom Live environment. When he’s not teaching you might find him enjoying the outdoors and hiking the trails at Yosemite.

Certifications Held: IBM Master Instructor, Certified TSM Instructor, Certified AIX Instructor

Currently Teaching: IBM Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure Training

Lee F. Johnson

Lee started off his career with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a master’s degree in Management of Information Systems from the University of South Florida. So far in his career, Lee’s seen 10 years in IT for the retail and banking industries and 20 years with IBM in their Global Services and Software Group, specifically WebSphere Education and Lab Services. During his teaching history he’s instructed on almost every WebSphere branded product as well as many Rational and DB2 classes.

Before becoming an IBM Master Instructor, Lee was an instructor at a community college and an adjunct assistant professor at UNC Asheville, where he taught students computer science and how to program radio telescopes.

Lee’s most passionate about programming, software engineering and testing, with a particular interested in machine learning. He’s an Apple guy all the way, no shaky convictions here! In fact, next on his to-do list is learning Apple Swift programming language. His academic and professional purists spill over into his guilty pleasure and hobbies that include ham radios, orchids, astronomy and Sci-Fi conventions.

Certifications Held: IBM Master Instructor, IBM SOA technologies

Currently Teaching: IBM WebSphere Training, IBM Information Management Training

Robert “Bob” Lepine

Bob has had a 20-year career in information technology. He actually used to be a hardware specialist, but decided to make the switch to the software side. After the switch, business intelligence became his specialty, which seems to fit his current interests as he thoroughly enjoys the art of working with and shaping data to make insightful and impactful business decisions. Bob has quite a bit of teaching experience under his belt. His resume boasts 16 years of dedicated experience teaching software, 10 of those being specific to Cognos products.

Being that Bob’s the only master instructor we have that’s had significant experience in both the hardware and software realms, it’s not surprising that he had dual OS loyalties with regards to Apple and Android. (Best of both worlds, eh Bob?) Perhaps after a few of his favorite “Star Trek” movies, he can focus on his current goal outside his normal teaching duties of regaining Microsoft certification status.

Certifications Held: IBM Master Instructor, IBM Cognos TM1, Metadata Modeling, Transformer, Report Studio, Data Warehouse, Cognos MDX, Cognos Metrics

Currently Teaching: IBM Business Analytics Training

Peg Schwinck

Before starting her career, Peg achieved a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from California State University, Long Beach with a minor in Information Science. Her work in the field includes seven years as the manager of information development for IBM, five years as the manager for FileNet Image Services L3 team, and five years as a customer service (L2) support representative. Throughout her career Peg’s also had several professional teaching opportunities. She spent five years as a FileNet Image Services instructor and two years as a FileNet p8 admin instructor.

Most recently she’s contracted her services as an instructor to IBM’s Global Training Partners (GTP) to deliver IBM FileNet Admin, Workflow, and Install classes.

When she’s not teaching or being a FileNet rock star, Peg is dedicated to volunteering at Families Forward in Irvine, California. The organization helps more than 5,000 families per year who have fallen on difficult times. She’s volunteered there for eight years, and is passionate about continuing that work as long as she’s able. Peg’s also in the Apple camp, and will reluctantly admit she’s a sucker for reality competition shows like “Project Runway” and “Top Chef.”

Certifications Held: IBM Master Instructor

Currently Teaching: IBM Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) Training

Joseph Wilson

Joseph, like a number of our master instructors, spent a good portion of his career with IBM. He worked there for 13 years, serving as a developer, project lead, and senior managing consultant. The teaching and mentorship experience he holds is also impressive. His seven years of teaching experience covers DataPower, WTX, Cast Iron and WebSphere Application. During that time he also served as a mentor and senior consultant for DataPower and WTX. If you wanted to get certified to teach IBM before their GTP program, you came to him, as he was responsible for certifying other instructors as well as enabling business partners.

Joseph holds master’s degrees in both mathematics and computer science, and is considered a subject matter expert in the fields of application middleware integration and security, as well data analytics. If you are a classical music buff, then you and Joseph have something in common.

Certifications Held: IBM Master Instructor, Master IT Specialist in Application Middleware Integration, IBM Certified Solution Developer

Currently Teaching: IBM WebSphere Training, IBM Information Management Training

Assuming that you weren’t keeping a running tally throughout the blog series, the mobile OS of preference within our IBM Master Instructor group appears to be Apple (wamp wamp). A diverse and talented group to be sure, regardless of their misplaced fondness for Apple (pardon author bias).

Related Courses
IBM InfoSphere DataStage Essentials 9.1
IBM Cognos Report Studio: Author Professional Reports Fundamentals (V10.2)
WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration