2026 Annual Conference: Technology

Leading Through the AI Era: Strategy, Workforce, and Technology in Financial Services

Ralph Buelling, EVP/Chief Information Officer, UW Credit Union

AI is not only a technology initiative; it is a leadership challenge that touches strategy, people, processes, and culture. In this session, EVP and CIO Ralph Buelling discusses how UW Credit Union is incorporating AI into its broader business and digital strategy while maintaining a disciplined approach to risk and governance.

The presentation will explore how leaders can build AI fluency across the organization, develop new talent models, empower citizen developers, manage organizational change, and establish the technology foundation needed to support innovation. Through practical examples and lessons learned, attendees will gain insights for moving beyond experimentation into implementing sustainable AI literacy and capabilities.

Ralph Buelling

EVP/Chief Information Officer, UW Credit Union

Ralph Buelling is the Chief Information Officer at UW Credit Union. He has executive leadership accountability for information technology, AI, analytics, data, and digital engineering at UW Credit Union. Ralph drives strategy, delivery, and operations across these areas, with focus on application modernization, engineering of member-facing technologies, AI adoption, cloud migration, security, enterprise infrastructure and project portfolio management.

Prior to joining UW Credit Union, Ralph oversaw the IT functions at Dean Health Plan. Earlier in his career, Ralph was the Divisional Vice President of Business Portfolio for Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a Chicago-based licensee of the Blue Cross & Blue Shield Association.

Inside the AI Super Factory: Datacenters, Myths, and the Workforce of the Future

Christa Markgraff, General Manager of Datacenter Operations, Microsoft

Microsoft’s Fairwater datacenter is one of the most significant technology investments in Wisconsin’s history, and its impact reaches well beyond the fence line. In this session, Christa Markgraff, Central Region Leader for Microsoft’s Data Center Operations, takes attendees inside the emerging datacenter economy and what it means for the region’s businesses, workers, and utility partners.

Christa will explain how a modern AI datacenter actually works and address the questions business leaders are asking directly, including the realities of water and electricity use and the myths that often surround them. Just as important, she will look ahead to the workforce these operations demand and the unique skillsets behind the cloud, exploring what the rise of AI infrastructure means for the worker of the future and what we should be telling today’s students about the college and trade paths that lead into this economy. Attendees will leave with a clearer, fact-based understanding of the infrastructure powering the AI era and a grounded sense of where their organizations, and their future talent, fit within it.

Christa Markgraff

General Manager of Datacenter Operations, Microsoft

Christa Markgraff is the general manager of datacenter operations for Microsoft’s U.S. Central Region, where she is responsible for delivering safe, available and physically secure datacenter services to Microsoft’s customer base.

Prior to Microsoft, Christa served as vice president of operations for one of the nation’s largest energy companies, overseeing supply, transmission, and system operations, while delivering reliable and sustainable energy to a multi-state footprint. Throughout her 30+ years in energy distribution, she held positions in operations, construction, engineering, financial analysis, technical compliance and customer development.

Christa has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Valparaiso University, and a master’s degree in business from the University of Notre Dame.

A Brief History of the Future

Mike Bechtel, Inventor, Investor, Futurist, Professor

Futurists, Mike Bechtel argues, are really just historians in disguise. The best way to make sense of what is new and next is to understand what is known and now. In this keynote, Deloitte’s former Chief Futurist traces the evolution of technology along three enduring cornerstones, interaction, information, and computation, and shows how the patterns of the past give today’s leaders a reliable lens on what comes next. He then brings that lens home to Wisconsin, exploring what these shifts mean for the industries that anchor the state’s economy, from manufacturing and food production to energy, utilities, and financial services. Rather than chasing predictions, he makes the case for a wide-angle view over clairvoyance, and for timing innovation adoption wisely. The sweet spot is rarely the unproven acorn or the fully mature oak. It is the sapling, the technology that has taken root but still has room to grow.

Attendees will leave with a practical framework for separating durable signal from passing noise, a clearer sense of which emerging technologies are worth acting on now, and a grounded view of where Wisconsin industry is heading next.

Mike Bechtel

Inventor, Investor, Futurist, Professor

An inventor turned investor, and now futurist and professor, Mike Bechtel works to make sense of what’s new and next in tech. His goal: Helping today’s leaders arrive at their preferred tomorrows slightly ahead of schedule.

A sought-after speaker, Mike’s rare mix of technical understanding, business savvy, and charismatic storytelling finds him giving over 100 keynotes a year to international business, government, and academic audiences.

Over his career at the forefront of “all-things-newfangled” (Chief Futurist at Deloitte, Global Innovation Director at Accenture, Venture Capital co-founder, and Professor at the University of Notre Dame), Mike has had a front row seat to the future for over 25 years.

Deliberate Creative Teams: The Leadership Edge Behind Every Technology Win

Amy Climer, Author and Innovation Consultant, Climer Consulting

New technology doesn’t create value on its own; the people and teams around it do. AI, automation, and digital tools can open the door to innovation, but whether an organization actually walks through it depends on something far less technical: how well its teams and leaders work together, whether they’re embedding new technology into daily operations or building the next tech-driven product for their customers.

Too many organizations have the tools and still stall out. Teams adopt new technology in name only, or leaders mandate change without building the conditions for it to stick. In this keynote, Dr. Amy Climer introduces the Deliberate Creative Teams model, a research-based framework for what teams and organizations actually need to turn new capability into innovative results.

Drawing on her research and her book Deliberate Creative Teams: How to Lead for Innovative Results, Amy shows leaders, from the team level to the C-suite, what it takes to implement technological innovations, whether that means transforming how their own teams operate or shaping what they build and offer the market.

Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of what drives (or blocks) innovation in their teams and their organizations, and a sharper lens for leading through whatever comes next.

Learning Objectives:
By the end of this keynote, attendees will:

• Understand what actually determines whether new technology takes hold in an organization.
• Recognize the leadership behaviors that turn new technology into real transformation, not adoption in name only.
• Gain a sharper lens for leading innovation at both the team and organizational level.

Amy Climer

Author and Innovation Consultant | Climer Consulting

Dr. Amy Climer is an award-winning author and expert on innovation in teams. She facilitates innovation with forward-thinking organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, FOX Sports, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. With a PhD in Leadership and Change from Antioch University and over 25 years of experience working with leaders and teams, she is widely regarded by executives as an asset to helping lead for innovation. She is the author of the best-selling book Deliberate Creative Teams: How to Lead for Innovative Results, a book for leaders who want their teams to be more creative, but don’t know where to start. Dr. Climer’s TEDx talk, The Power of Deliberate Creative Teams, has inspired over 100,000 leaders. She is the designer of Climer Cards, a creativity and teambuilding tool used by thousands to deepen conversations and generate ideas.

Dr. Climer is a Certified Speaking Professional and Certified Virtual Presenter, meaning that she is equally comfortable keynoting on a big stage, facilitating a retreat, or leading a webinar. She worked at UW School of Business and helped start the Accenture Leadership Center. In 2016, Dr. Climer won the Karl Rhonke Creativity Award from the Association for Experiential Education. In 2024 and 2025, CEO Monthly recognized Dr. Climer as the Most Influential CEO of Team Development in the Southeast, and in 2026, they recognized her as the Most Influential CEO of Creativity Training. As an innovation consultant, she can help any leader whose team is stuck to experience innovative success by utilizing her Deliberate Creative Team system. You can learn more about Dr. Amy Climer at climerconsulting.com.