Ron Kifer, the chief information officer and vice president of Applied Materials Group will speak as part of the Austin Innotech CIO luncheon Oct. 29. Kifer joined Applied Materials in May of 2006 with the charter to transform that organization's IT capability to world-class status. He has more than 30 years of IT leadership experience across a variety of industries. Before joining Applied, he held regional CIO responsibilities within DHL Express for Europe as well as multi-regional responsibility for the Rest of World organization (U.S., Canada, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Emerging Markets). Prior to this, Mr. Kifer held executive IT leadership positions in software engineering, program management, and operations within the aerospace, financial services, insurance and transportation arenas.