Viscosity Presenters

CEO and Co-Founder Viscosity

Charles Kim

Charles Kim is an Oracle ACE Director, VMware Expert, an Oracle Certified DBA, Certified Exadata Specialist, and a Certified Oracle Linux, Oracle Cloud, and RAC Expert. Charles was selected into the Oracle ACE Program on May 2008 and became an Oracle ACE Director as of December 2009. Charles has been an Oracle ACE Director every year since 2009. Charles became a VMware vExpert in the class of 2013.

Charles specializes in Cloud, Exadata, RAC, and Virtualization (VMware, KVM and Oracle VM) and co-authored ten books around the Oracle EcoSystem:
– Oracle Cloud Pocket Reference Guide – A Handbook on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
– PDB Me to Oracle Cloud – A Lazy DBA’s Guide to Mastering Multi-Tenant
– Exadata Expert Handbook
– Oracle Database 11g New Features for DBA and Developers
– Linux Recipes for Oracle DBAs
– Oracle Data Guard 11g Handbook
– Virtualizing Business Critical Oracle Databases: Database As A Service
– Oracle ASM 12c Pocket Reference Guide
– Virtualizing Hadoop
– Solaris and Linux Recipes for Oracle DBAs

Charles is a co-founder and CEO of Viscosity North America, a highly specialized niche consulting organization comprised of industry experts in Oracle Engineered Systems, RAC, Oracle Cloud, Virtualization and Performance Tuning.

Charles holds certifications in Oracle Databases, VMware, Red Hat & Oracle Linux, and Microsoft and has over 30 years of Oracle experience on mission and business critical databases. Charles presents regularly at local, regional, national and international Oracle conferences including IOUG Collaborate, VMware World, RMOUG, UKOUG, New Zealand/Australia Oracle User Group, and Oracle OpenWorld on topics of Oracle Cloud, RAC, Exadata, Database Consolidations, Private Database Cloud, ASM, Linux Best Practices, Data Guard Best Practices, Performance Tuning, VMware Virtualization Best Practices, and 7×24 High Availability Considerations.

COO and Head of Applications Viscosity

Jerry Ward

Jerry Ward has built up and led the applications side of Viscosity North America since its conception in 2012. He serves on the board of the Emerging Tech Special Interest Group at multiple Oracle conferences across the country. He is passionate about what tech can do for communities, and he leads emerging tech sessions and conversations targeted around travel, hospitality, pharmaceuticals, finance and more.

Jerry has served as a consulting Architect for the VHA, Kellogg Brown and Root, Invesco, Fidelity National Financial, Dresser Rand, Ericsson, Nortel Networks, and the Human Genome Sequencing Center (BCM). Jerry has worked with Oracle technology since 1991, including Oracle database version 6+ and Oracle Applications version 9+.

He has been featured in the Houston Chronicle, Venice Magazine, 002 Houston, KXAN Austin, Tyler Morning News, Gulfscapes Magazine, and other business publications.

CIO Viscosity - Oracle Ace Director

Rich Niemiec

Rich Niemiec is the current Chief Innovation Officer of Viscosity North America. Rich is an Oracle Ace Director, a world renowned IT Expert, and was a co-founder and the CEO of TUSC, a Chicago-based systems integrator of Oracle-based business solutions started in 1988. Rich has served as President of Rolta TUSC and Rolta EICT.

Rich is the past President of the International Oracle Users Group (IOUG) and the current President of the Midwest Oracle Users Group (MOUG). Rich has architected and tuned many Fortune 500 systems over the past 25 years.

His experience in data processing ranges from teaching to consulting, with emphasis in database administration, performance tuning, project management and technical education. Rich is one of six originally honored worldwide Oracle Certified Masters and advised Oracle development from time to time. In 2017, he authored the Oracle “Oracle12c Performance Tuning Tips & Techniques,” an update of his previous 4 Oracle best sellers on Oracle8i, 9i, 10g, and 11i Performance Tuning. Rich was inducted into the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 1998.

Applied AI Scientist Viscosity - Co-Founder OraPub - Oracle ACE Director

Craig Shallahamer

Craig is a co-founder of OraPub, Inc., an Oracle ACE Director and now the Applied AI Scientist at Viscosity North America. He is a long time Oracle DBA specializing in predictive analytics, machine learning and Oracle performance tuning. He has over 30 years of experience in consulting, training and tool development in analytics (machine learning) and Oracle database performance tuning for literally hundreds of companies around the world, including Oracle Corporation. He has been actively involved in several Oracle user groups, including IOUG, NoCOUG and UTOUG, and has managed conference DBA tracks for several years. He is the author of two classic and best selling books - Oracle Performance Firefighting and Forecasting Oracle Performance. Craig is a researcher, blogger, an enthusiastic conference speaker and a passionate teacher.

Principal Consultant Viscosity - Oracle ACE

Sean Scott

Sean is an Oracle ACE, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Certified Architect Professional, and Oracle Autonomous Database Certified Specialist. He's a Managing Principal Consultant with Viscosity North America where he designs highly available and scalable databases, leads database modernization and migration projects, and coaches database teams on their journeys toward DevOps and automation. Sean is a featured speaker at user group conferences and events around the world and author of the upcoming Apress book, "Running Oracle on Docker" scheduled for release in 2022.

Principal Consultant Viscosity - Oracle ACE

Gary Gordhamer

Gary is a Managing Principal Consultant at Viscosity North America. He has spent much of his career focusing on enterprise application landscape and business process digitization.

Gary Gordhamer has spent much of his career focusing on enterprise application landscape and business process digitization. His technical experiences range from Oracle E-Business Suite, middleware, database and related technologies for the past 29 years. His professional background covers many industries including healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, and government. He is an active member of the Quest IOUG Database & Technology Community, serving on the advisory board. Gary is an Oracle ACE, and frequent presenter at Oracle OpenWorld and user group conferences.

APEX Director Viscosity

Erik Espinoza

Erik is the founder and CEO of our Guatemalan office. Partnering with Viscosity North America since 2014 as a consultant, he assisted in roles from Senior Software Engineer, to Solutions Architect, to now the Director of APEX and Development for all of Viscosity. After studying computer science for several years, Erik started programming for a local bank in Guatemala. He then got an opportunity to work for Xerox at 19. Xerox took him on a life-changing training course in the U.S. that helped grow and develop his English speaking ability, American business culture, and, most notably, his programming knowledge. He left Xerox in a leap of faith to consult with a start-up company in Guatemala. This jump gave him more experience and helped him reach new clients in consulting, including Tigo. This opportunity led him to connect to Viscosity North America!

Solution Architect Viscosity

Emanuel Cifuentes

Emanuel started professional software development at age 16, right out of high school. He was able to work on all kinds of software for banking, which gave him a good understanding of privacy and security. He then moved on to a startup environment to develop web and mobile applications. The startup had a lot to do with geolocation, tracking, and was really focused on usability. A few years ago, he started consulting for Viscosity North America in subjects related to Oracle, specifically the Oracle Database and Oracle APEX. He has been involved in many projects in the food, oil and gas, and healthcare industries, to name a few.

Senior Software Developer Viscosity

Luis Flores

Luis has been a lover of technology for as long as he can remember. He is always looking for the best way to solve a problem or a new process. If he doesn't have the solution, he will do his best to find a solution for it. He has been working around the application development space since 2013. He started working on Oracle Application Express in 2018 and has always looked at the best ways to leverage all the functionality, in the client's favor, to develop great and easy-to-use applications.

Senior DBA Viscosity - Oracle ACE Associate

Julio Ayapan

Julio is a Senior DBA for Viscosity North America and an Oracle ACE Associate. He is also a computer engineer and has a master’s degree in IT project management. Starting as a DBA in 2012, he has been working with multiple virtualizations, software development and database technologies related to different industries, such as telecom, banking, manufacturing, print media and retail. Having expertise in various RDBMS systems, he has become an Oracle Certified Professional in 11g and 12c, and became an Oracle Certified Expert for Data Guard and RAC and Grid Infrastructure administration. He is an expert in many areas of database administration, analytics, and operating systems, including high-performance tuning, high availability, replication, backup, and recovery, and recently in cloud technologies, becoming an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Certified Architect and a Microsoft Azure Certified Database Administrator. In 2014, Julio joined the Oracle User Group in Guatemala, a group to which he belongs and collaborates with several activities. He actively participates in Oracle-related forums such as OTN Latin-America and maintains a Personal Technology blog on http://oraclehomegt.blogspot.com.

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