Speakers

On October 26, 2020, Sean Brune was appointed Chief Information Officer and Deputy Commissioner for Systems. In this role, he continues his focus on IT Modernization and Digital Transformation.

In July 2019, Sean shifted his focus as Assistant Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Chief Information Officer for IT Modernization to concentrate exclusively on digital services and IT modernization. He was appointed Deputy Chief Information Officer in August 2018 and has served as the Chief Program Officer for IT Modernization since July 2017.

Sean began his career with the Social Security Administration in 1999 as a Presidential Management Intern. After advancing through progressively responsible positions At Social Security headquarters in Baltimore, in March, 2011 he was named the Regional Commissioner for the Denver Region of the Social Security Administration, the Senior Agency official responsible for administering the nation’s social insurance programs for the 9.3 million residents of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah. His career at Social Security has included senior leadership roles in field operations, program policy, and enterprise risk management.

Prior to federal service, Sean held positions in secondary education and non-profit management. He is an alumnus of Bucknell University (BA), the University of Baltimore (MPA) and the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, VA and has participated in the Executive Education curriculum at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the Brookings Institute.

Sean and his wife, Karyn, have three children and reside in Towson, MD. Sean and his family enjoy spending time outdoors hiking, biking, and skiing.

Col. Donald L. Burton became the project manager for the General Fund Enterprise Business System (now known as Defense Integrated Business Systems) in July 2018. As the project manager, he is charged with overseeing the team that develops, acquires, integrates, deploys and sustains enterprise-wide financial and procurement management capabilities to support the Army’s current and future missions.

 A native of Nashville, Georgia, he was commissioned in December 1994 as a second lieutenant in military intelligence with an Air Defense Artillery branch detail from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.

Burton’s previous assignments include: PATRIOT launcher platoon leader, fire control platoon leader and battery executive officer, 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 11th ADA BDE, Fort Bliss, Texas; assistant G2, 21st Theater Support Command (TSC), Kaiserslautern, Germany; counterintelligence officer, Kosovo Force Headquarters, Pristina, Kosovo; commander, HHC, 415th Base Support BN (BSB), Kaiserslautern, Germany; intelligence systems evaluator, Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), Alexandria, Virginia; assistant product manager (APM) for multiple systems, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Chantilly, Virginia; executive officer and legislative affairs liaison for the director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Arlington, Virginia; director of acquisitions, logistics and technology, 402nd Army Field Support Brigade (AFSB), Camp Arifjan, Kuwait; deputy director for the Global Combat Support System-Joint (GCSS-J), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Fort Meade, Maryland; and product manager for the Distributed Common Ground System – Army (DCGS-A). He is a graduate of the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Burton earned a bachelor of science degree in computer information systems from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. In addition, he earned a Master of Science in computer information resource management, a Master of Business Administration from Webster University, and a Master of Strategic Studies from the Army War College. Burton is a member of the Acquisition Corps and is Level III certified in program management and information technology.

Burton’s military awards and decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal (three awards), Meritorious Service Medal (three awards), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal (five awards), Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal (five awards), Southwest Asia Campaign Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) Expeditionary Medal, the GWOT Service Medal, the NATO Medal, the Army Space Badge, and the parachutist’s badge.

Garrett Cook, Security Engineer, Tenable

Jeff Frazier currently serves as Vice President & Head of Global Public Sector, Snowflake, Inc., a world leader in  Data Cloud technology. In addition, Frazier serves on the Board of Directors/Advisory Boards for technology  companies operating in the Internet of Things (IOT), advanced encryption, and Artificial Intelligence markets.  Frazier is an Operating Partner at Digital Alpha Advisors, a leading private equity firm for the digital infrastructure  market.  

Previous to his early stage company and Board leadership, Frazier was the Managing Director, Office of the  Executive Chairman for CISCO, Inc. where he led Cisco’s Country Digitization initiatives. Previous as General  Manager, he led Microsoft’s worldwide public sector $8.5B dollar business. This included worldwide government,  national security, and international organizations such as World Bank, United Nations, and European Union. Prior  to Microsoft, Frazier was the Managing Director of the Global Public Sector for Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions  Group’s (IBSG), Cisco’s strategic consulting arm.  

Specifically, Frazier is a technology executive with 20+ years in the international business community with a  background in international business, distinguished public service, and an innovation focus on the public  markets. He is a six-time speaker at the Public Services Summit at Nobel, facilitator, guest speaker, and  author.  

Frazier brings broad experience and industry knowledge to any organization. Prior to joining the  commercial markets, he held various public sector leadership positions within municipal and federal  governments. As an FBI leader, Frazier administered a congressionally funded, international portfolio.  

Frazier has served on many public boards and commissions. In addition to his current board leadership, he  is a former board member for the International Affairs Council (IAC), Councilmember to the NC Governor’s  Innovation Council, NC Governor’s China Advisory Council, and was an appointed member of the United  Nations International Police Advisory Council (UN-IPAC). In addition to active participation at Frazier at the  Aspen Institute and Global Initiative for Transnational Organized Crime, Frazier is a non-resident, Senior  Fellow at the Atlantic Council.  

Frazier was a delegate to Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government: Senior Executive Fellow (SEF)  and Senior Executives in State and Local Government, a fellow of the NC Institute of Political Leadership, and a 2012 Eisenhower Fellow (2013 Douglas Dillon Fellow distinction). 

A native Californian, he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Science degree. Currently, he  resides in Cary, NC.  

Brian R. Gattoni is Chief Technology Officer for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), where he is responsible for the technical vision and strategic alignment of CISA data and mission services to manage risk to federal networks and critical infrastructure. CISA works with partners to defend against today’s threats and collaborating to build more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future.

Previously, Gattoni was the Chief of Mission Engineering and Technology, responsible for developing innovative analytic techniques and new approaches to technology insertion to increase the value of DHS cyber mission capabilities. In 2015, Gattoni was named DHS Systems Engineer of the Year. 

Prior to joining DHS in 2010, Gattoni served in various positions at the Defense Information Systems Agency and the United States Army Test and Evaluation Command.

Gattoni holds a Master of Science in cyber systems and operations planning from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Kurt Greening writes and speaks on the topics of cloud security, DevSecOps, and digital transformation. He currently leads the public sector team for Prisma Cloud at Palo Alto. Previous to Palo Alto, Kurt led teams at companies such as NetApp, Puppet, and Xgility. He has led teams that designed, planned, and executed over one hundred cloud migration projects.

Sonny Hashmi is the commissioner of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS).

In this position, he oversees the delivery of more than $75B of products, services, and solutions that enable federal agencies to efficiently accomplish their missions while saving taxpayer dollars.

Known as a cloud computing thought leader in the emerging technology industry, Sonny previously served as the managing director of global government strategy at Box. There, he worked with federal, state, local and international government organizations on cloud and mobility strategy.

Prior to joining Box, Sonny served as GSA chief information officer (CIO) and chief technology officer (CTO). He led the agency IT modernization strategy as GSA adopted cloud computing, agile acquisition and DevSecOps principles, and helped create a cloud computing and performance measurement roadmap for the federal government.

Sonny Hashmi is active in the federal IT community and has been recognized with several awards including the Fed100, FedScoop 50 and as a finalist for the prestigious Samuel J. Hayman Service to America medal.

He earned a master’s degree in engineering from Purdue University and a master’s certificate in innovation management from the University of Maryland.

Sharon Woods is a member of the Senior Executive Service and currently serves as the Acting Director for the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) Hosting and Compute Center (HaCC). In this role, Woods is responsible for overseeing DISA’s portfolio of hosting and compute capabilities and services with the mission of providing the warfighter with best-value hosting and compute solutions to achieve mission success. The HaCC partners with industry, leveraging its best practices to continue advancing modern data center and cloud capabilities.

Prior to this role, Woods served as the Executive Director for the Cloud Computing Program Office (CCPO), a team responsible for transforming cloud to enable the Warfighter by overseeing several cloud enabling projects and resolving enterprise cloud capability gaps in support of the Joint Force. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Woods oversaw deployment of the Commercial Virtual Remote environment, the largest Microsoft 365 tenant in the world.  

Before the CCPO, Woods was General Counsel for the Defense Digital Service where she provided legal counsel and bureaucracy hacking expertise for a team of federal government technologists working on high impact challenges at the Pentagon. Prior to joining DoD, she was an attorney for the U.S. Department of the Navy, specializing in information technology acquisitions.

Woods holds a law degree from the Washington College of Law, American University and a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University. She has received numerous awards from the Defense and Acquisition communities in recognition of her leadership and accomplishments, including the Pinnacle Award for Cloud Government Executive of the Year (November 2020), the Department of the Navy SPAWAR Exemplary Achievement Award (November 2015), and the Meritorious Civilian Service Award (December 2013).

Ms. Rosa Underwood is an IT Specialist in the IT Security Subcategory within Information Technology Category (ITC), Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), supporting the transition to a more modernized and resilient infrastructure. She also contributes to GSA initiatives for the adoption and integration of cybersecurity into the acquisitions process to help strengthen the resiliency of the Supply Chain, Government-wide.  

Rosa has an extensive background in IT and telecommunications with many years of profound experience from various roles in the private sector. Before joining GSA, she was a contractor supporting the implementation of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program at the Dept. of Commerce. In her role as a Senior Systems Engineer at Juniper Networks, Rosa focused on idealistic solutions for compliance with Federal and international standards for hardware and software, including cryptographic module validation programs, across routing, security, and switching platforms. Much of Rosa’s expertise comes from her tenure at Verizon Communications where she spent over 10 years of her career in Verizon Labs as a Subject Matter Expert (SME). Using her technical knowledge, Rosa crafted innovative solutions that led to 22 patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The depth of her experience includes roles in governance, risk, and compliance (GRC); project management; network operations; customer service; hardware and software testing; and systems integration.

Rosa’s professional experience is complemented by degrees in Internetworking Technology, Telecommunications Engineering, and Optoelectronics Engineering. She holds several professional certifications in cybersecurity, project management and cloud technology.

Dr. Tao Zhang, an IEEE Fellow, has been leading research, product development, and corporate strategies, which created disruptive innovations, new standards, and commercial products. He is leading the Transformative Networks and Services research group in the Communications Technology Lab at NIST. He was the CTO for the Smart Connected Vehicles Business at Cisco Systems, and a Chief Scientist and Director of Research at Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bell Communications Research) where he led breakthrough research on 3G/4G wireless networks and vehicular networks. He has cofounded two influential industry consortia (the Open Fog Consortium and the Connected Vehicle Trade Association) and served as a founding Board Director for them. Tao holds about 60 US patents and coauthored two books (“Vehicle Safety Communications: Protocols, Security, and Privacy” and “IP-Based Next Generation Wireless Networks”), several book chapters, and over 100 peer-reviewed technical papers. He served as the CIO and a Board Governor of the IEEE Communications Society and as a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society. He cofounded several international conferences and served on leadership roles for many conferences and journals.

A well-rounded leader, Mr. Carson is an AWS Ambassador who is highly technical with a strong grasp of the necessary requirements to conduct business in the public sector. He was an early adopter of public cloud, having worked with AWS technologies for the past 12 years. Carson has extensive engineering and architecture experience as well as a customer-focused mindset rooted in performance-based service delivery. He currently leads Effectual’s Public Sector technical pre-sales efforts. Carson holds seven AWS certifications, including AWS Solutions Architect Professional, AWS DevOps Professional, and the AWS Certified Security Specialty.

Tristan Ahmadi is a Principal Solutions Architect with Elastic, based in Washington, DC. His background in enterprise software deployment and unstructured data analytics served both commercial organizations and Federal agencies, with a specialization in Natural Language Processing, entity extraction, and sentiment analysis. At Elastic, he currently builds search and analytic solutions for civilian agencies.