Brian Down

KEN PEPPLE is an IT Architect in the Sun Professional Services (SunPS) Asia Pacific practice. In this role, he assists clients with enterprise computing architectures, concentrating on advanced data center projects. In addition to these activities, Ken recently co-authored, with David Hornby, the Sun BluePrints(TM) book Consolidation in the Data Center: Simplifying IT Environments to Reduce Total Cost of Ownership.

BRIAN DOWN has been at Sun for five years in Sun's Global Sales Organization as a Senior Staff Engineer and most recently in SunPS, where he holds the position of Chief Architect for Enterprise Migration for the Americas. For several years, Brian has focused on developing Sun's migration methodology and solution strategy, helping to develop and identify the value proposition associated with such implementations. Prior to joining SunPS, Brian focused on performance and custom engineering initiatives related to strategic server installations for the GSO.

DAVID LEVY is a Senior Consultant in the SunPS United Kingdom (UK) organization. He is currently leading the program for the UK's Consolidation and Migration team, concentrating on data center architectures and economics. Prior to this role, Dave led the UK's financial services consulting team based in London. Dave has successfully completed numerous consolidation and migration projects for banking and media customers.

David A. Levy

Eric Shiraev is a professor, researcher, and author. He took his academic degrees at St. Petersburg University in Russia and completed a post-doctoral program in the United States at UCLA. He served at various positions at St. Petersburg University, NVCC, Oregon State University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. His research interests are diverse. He is an author, co-author, and co-editor of twelve books and numerous publications in the fields of global studies, history of science, cross-cultural studies, and political psychology. In his publications, he develops a distinct multi-disciplinary approach to analyze human behavior. Besides teaching and scholarly work, Eric Shiraev writes opinion essays for the media around the world. He resides near Washington DC. Visit his site: www.ericshiraev.com

Dr. David A. Levy¿has extensive experience as a teacher, therapist, writer, and researcher. He is Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University's Graduate School of Education and Psychology, where he has been teaching graduate courses since 1986. He received his B.A. degree in theater arts from UCLA, a M.A. degree in psychology from Pepperdine University, a second M.A. degree in psychology from UCLA, and his Ph.D. in psychology from UCLA, where he specialized in social psychology, with minors in psychological assessment and personality psychology. He served as Visiting Professor of Psychology in the Soviet Union, where he delivered lectures and workshops in psychology and psychotherapy at Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) State University, the Leningrad Academy of Science, and the Bekhterev Psychoneurological Institute. He was honored as a Harriet and Charles Luckman Distinguished Teaching Fellow at Pepperdine, and was a recipient of the Shepard Ivory Franz Distinguished Teaching Award and Charles F. Scott Fellowship at UCLA. Dr. Levy holds professional licenses both in psychology and in marriage and family therapy. He has worked in a wide range of private practice and inpatient psychiatric settings, he has supervised clinical interns, and he has utilized his expertise in psychological testing (particularly the MMPI) in forensic cases.

His numerous theoretical and empirical research studies have been published in scientific journals and presented at professional conferences. His book, "Tools of Critical Thinking: Metathoughts for Psychology," garnered widespread acclaim in both academic and clinical settings for its innovative approaches to improving thinking skills. Levy co-authored (with Eric Shiraev) "Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications," which became an internationally best-selling textbook. Levy is the author of "Family Therapy: History, Theory, and Practice," which was the first textbook on the topic available to Russian readers. His Levy Optimism-Pessimism Scale (LOPS) has been utilized internationally in a variety of research contexts, and he is a member of the Board of Editors for the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.

Levy is also the author of numerous satirical articles, including "The Emperor's Postmodern Clothes: A Brief Guide to Deconstructing Academically Fashionable Phrases for the Uninitiated," "How to Be a Good Psychotherapy Patient," "Psychometric Infallibility Realized: The One-Size-Fits-All Psychological Profile," "Stinks and Instincts: An Empirical Investigation of Freud's Excreta Theory," and "A Proposed Category for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM): Pervasive Labeling Disorder."

As a media consultant, Levy has appeared on dozens television and radio broadcasts (including CNN, CBS, NBC, PBS, A&E, and E!), providing psychological perspectives on current events, and examining issues and trends in the mental health fields. He has also worked as a professional director, producer, writer and actor in motion pictures, television and stage. He received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Performance in a Network Television Series, and he was a guest star on the television series "Cheers," where he portrayed the leader of Frasier's low self-esteem group.

Ken Pepple

KEN PEPPLE is an IT Architect in the Sun Professional Services (SunPS) Asia Pacific practice. In this role, he assists clients with enterprise computing architectures, concentrating on advanced data center projects. In addition to these activities, Ken recently co-authored, with David Hornby, the Sun BluePrints(TM) book Consolidation in the Data Center: Simplifying IT Environments to Reduce Total Cost of Ownership.

BRIAN DOWN has been at Sun for five years in Sun's Global Sales Organization as a Senior Staff Engineer and most recently in SunPS, where he holds the position of Chief Architect for Enterprise Migration for the Americas. For several years, Brian has focused on developing Sun's migration methodology and solution strategy, helping to develop and identify the value proposition associated with such implementations. Prior to joining SunPS, Brian focused on performance and custom engineering initiatives related to strategic server installations for the GSO.

DAVID LEVY is a Senior Consultant in the SunPS United Kingdom (UK) organization. He is currently leading the program for the UK's Consolidation and Migration team, concentrating on data center architectures and economics. Prior to this role, Dave led the UK's financial services consulting team based in London. Dave has successfully completed numerous consolidation and migration projects for banking and media customers.