Tony Vargas, Sister Cities Committee Chairman

Tony's role at the First National Bank of Olathe, as the bank's Vice President of Information Technology, is to act as an interface between the bank and its internal data and item processing company as well as external vendors in matters that relate to technologies employed by the bank. This includes the research, study and feasibility analysis of new technologies as well as their effect upon existing business prrocesses. Tony spent over seven years working in Madrid, Spain, as an IT Professional and Telecommunications Engineer with Telefónica, Alcatel and SchlumbergerSema. During this time, he completed his Masters Degree in Computer Information Systems at Madrid's prestigious Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Some of his most distinguished projects include installing optical networks in Glasgow, Scotland; making technical presentations to the European Commission in Brussels, Belguim; working on eLearning software projects in Toulouse, France; and serving on the network management team for a video streaming application used in Athens, Greece, at the 2004 Olympic Games. Tony and his wife Maria are the proud parents of two children: Anissa, age 10 and Daniel, age 3.