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Chris Tonas

2023 INFORMS Business Analytics Keynote Chris Tonas

Why Upskilling is Key to Future-proofing Your Workforce: A CTO Perspective 

The tech industry is at a crossroads. Sweeping workforce reductions and growing skills gaps in tech have all contributed to a climate of uncertainty and instability within the tech workforce. Now more than ever, data science and analytics professionals must leverage today’s most relevant technologies, such as cloud computing, AI, and cybersecurity, to power the future of technological innovation. How can technology “nerds” be the heroes to help us innovate our way through the current tech landscape, and provide smarter solutions along the way? 

Building strategies for continuous tech upskilling and reskilling is one way that leaders can future-proof their tech teams and ensure their workforce has the skills to tackle any technology challenge. This keynote will take a data-centric view on the business case for continuous upskilling for both individuals and organizations, including recently released data from Pluralsight about the state of tech skills development, and explore how emergent technologies are changing the upskilling game. Attendees will learn: 

  • The data-driven case for upskilling as a core business competency.
  • Upskilling innovations that are central to careers in fields such as data science. 
  • The transformational impact that upskilling has had on real-world technologists and organizations.
 

Chris Tonas is the Chief Technology Officer of Pluralsight, the leading technology skills and engineering management platform. Tonas joined Pluralsight in August, 2020, bringing with him more than two decades of enterprise technology product leadership and development experience. In his role, Tonas leads Pluralsight’s world class technology organization and is responsible for development and operations of the company’s flagship products. Tonas has built a career making developers successful while partnering with leaders to enable and elevate their technology transformations. Prior to Pluralsight, he was Vice President of the Applications Development Tools organization at Oracle, where he spent 25 years delivering tools, frameworks, and common cloud services to the developers in Oracle’s SaaS organization and to customers across the globe. When he’s not working, Tonas enjoys running, travel, and spending time with his family.