ANN S. PICKREN

Ann Pickren currently serves as the Executive Vice President with Firestorm Solutions, LLC. In this role, she serves as a Senior Business Continuity and Preparedness advisor in the Business Continuity industry for all Firestorm clients.  As the EVP, Solutions for Firestorm, Ann is responsible for the development of standards and methodology, the oversight of all delivery and the creation of custom solutions for Firestorm’s clients.

Prior to Firestorm, Ann was employed by SunGard Availability Services for 17 years. Ann joined SunGard, through their acquisition of Comdisco in 2001. She remained at SunGard through 2008. During that time, Ann served as the Senior Vice President of SunGard Availability Services, where she served in various capacities with the consulting and software practices. Her responsibilities included the management, development and support of software products for business continuity as well as the management of SunGard’s business availability consulting practice. Ann’s expertise spans all business continuity lifecycle services, from the establishment of Availability Programs, through Risk and Assessment services, Plan Development Services, Testing Services, Crisis Management programs and overall Availability Program Management across the enterprise. 

Ann joined Comdisco in 1992, in their Professional Services Practice. Before her national assignments, she was the regional director for Comdisco Professional Services. At the time Comdisco Availability Services was acquired by SunGard, Ann was the Senior Vice President for Technology Services.

Prior to 1992, Ann was the Manager of the Professional Services for a technology services and manufacturer.  In this role she developed consulting opportunities and managed client engagements and the professional staff in the consulting practice. The consulting practice specialized in the design and implementation of image-based application systems and local and wide-area networks, as well as systems integration.

Prior to moving into the consulting field, Ann held various management positions within information technology organizations for 16 years.  She was MIS Director for a manufacturing firm, manager of On-line and Database Application Development for a healthcare institution and held various positions in application development in an IBM mainframe environment.  She specialized in on-line transaction processing and database application development.

Ann holds a Masters in Business Administration from Georgia State University.  Her undergraduate studies at the University of Georgia focused in Math and Statistics. <<