Speakers

As a Verizon Director of Government Sales Ray leads a group of subject matter experts which help government clients leverage technology to transform and achieve mission critical outcomes.

In his role Ray directs teams which address strategic use cases for transforming government operations. His group consists of subject matter expert teams focused on constituent experience, modern workplace, and cybersecurity solutions as well as domain specific expertise in Public Safety, Transportation, Healthcare, and Immersive Training.

Ray's telecommunications experience started with CellStar which was the first nationwide cellular agent for major operators across the entire United States and one of Motorola’s largest distributors. Ray led sales groups in Houston, Dallas, and then Chicago after the company went public.  His division of CellStar was eventually purchased by MCI.  

After leaving MCI Ray held leadership roles with GTE and Qwest.  His Verizon career started in Florida with escalating leadership positions across various strategic practice areas and included relocations to the Midwest, and eventually to the Washington DC area. His Verizon roles included technical sales leadership for cloud, cybersecurity, managed services, application enablement, and responsibility for successfully accelerating Verizon's joint go-to-market sales efforts with partner Equinix.  

Ray has a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree with a major in Business from Lamar University in Texas.  He currently resides with his family near Annapolis, Maryland and enjoys outdoor activities including volunteering with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Tommy Gardner is HP’s Chief Technology Officer for HP Federal, spanning the US Federal Agencies, Higher Education, K-12 Education, State and Local government customer segments, as well as Federal Systems Integrators. His current responsibilities include technology leadership, strategic technology plans, product and technology strategies, sales force technical support, and customer and partner relationships.

Previously, Tommy has served as the Chief Technology Officer for Jacobs Engineering, Scitor, and ManTech. Earlier in his career he was a senior technical executive at Raytheon. In the U.S. Navy he served as the Deputy for Science and Technology for the Chief of Naval Research. He oversaw the Navy’s Deep Submergence Program as well as its Advanced Technology Program. He also commanded the nuclear submarine, USS San Juan (SSN 751).

Tommy’s educational background covers multiple disciplines and fields of interest including: cybersecurity, data science, blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence, high performance computing and systems integration in government markets.

Tommy holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, an M.S. in Management of Technology from MIT and a Ph. D. in Energy Economics from George Washington University. He is a Professional Engineer and serves as Chair of the ASME Industry Advisory Board. He is an ASME Fellow and serves as faculty on the Blockchain Research Institute.

Paul Horan is a Principal Sales Engineer with Snowflake, and is one of the longest-tenured members of the Snowflake Public Sector team. Paul joined Snowflake in 2017, but his career as a data and data applications technologist spans nearly 40 years, with stops at Sybase, SAP, and IBM. Paul and his family live in the Arlington VA area.

Brandon Iske serves as the Chief Engineer for the Security  

Enablers Portfolio, which includes Public Key Infrastructure  

(PKI), Identity Credential Access Management (ICAM), Zero  

Trust (ZT) Architecture, and Software Defined Enterprise  

(SDE) for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). 

He started his career at DISA through the agency's recent  

graduates intern program. From 2010 through 2013, he was  

with the Endpoint/Enclave Defense team on the Host Based  

Security System (HBSS) program as the release manager,  

moving up to the lead engineer. In fall of 2013, he helped  

initiate the agency's Mobility program as the unclassified Mobile Device Management  (MDM) lead, helping to grow the service in stable and scalable fashion to over 50,000  managed devices. He was promoted in early 2016 and became the DoD Mobility  Unclassified Capability (DMUC) program lead, which oversaw unclassified mobile  capabilities to include DMUC's implementation of derived credentials. In early 2017, he was  selected to join the Cyber Directorate's Innovation Cell, focused on assured identity. He led  Purebred, DoD's mobile derived credential solution, as well as future efforts focused on  mobile multifactor authentication and mobile device key attestation. Starting in late 2018  through 2020, he led the initial planning, acquisition, and execution of DISA’s support to  DoD enterprise ICAM capabilities for authentication services and account lifecycle  management.  

He graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a Bachelor's Degree in  Computer Science. He is a National Science Foundation CyberCorps Scholarship for  Service Alumnus.

Cassia Jbeili is a Client Solution Engineer at MuleSoft serving Federal Civilian customers across the Public Sector. Graduating from the University of Virginia as a Systems Engineer, she began her career as a Product Manager implementing Salesforce + MuleSoft solutions, where she found her passion for supporting Public Sector customers & now directly helps re-imagine the opportunities that digital modernizations using MuleSoft's API-led connectivity approach.

Arveen is a Civilian Services Leader at Dell Technologies. 

Prior to joining Dell, Arveen was at Microsoft Corporation where she focused on  the Midwest region out of Chicagoland. During her tenure at Microsoft, she has  helped businesses drive innovation through application/ datacenter modernizations,  data driven business outcomes and by streamlining processes through automation, 

and operating model optimizations, all while keeping security at the forefront. 

Prior to that Arveen worked at Accenture as an insider – closely with the Board of  Directors and CEO’s office to help with strategic IT/Legal programs. 

She has also been a management consulting entrepreneur and has worked with organizations such as Sara Lee/Hillshire Brands, Northern Trust Bank and Redbox. 

Over the past five years at Dell Technologies, Arveen has been focused on outcome based services around IT, Digital, Workplace and Security Transformations. 

Her forte is to assist organizations in achieving their full transformation potential  through value driven outcomes, in alignment with people, process and technology.  

Arveen has recently joined the Dell Civilian business and is invested in growing  trusted relationships with partners and customers. Her team is focused on providing  consultative professional services effectuating successful business transformations.

G. Nagesh Rao currently serves as Chief Information Officer for the Bureau of Industry and Security within the US Department of Commerce. Most recently he was Director of Business Technology Solutions (BiTS) at the US Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of the Chief Information Officer, and prior to was Chief Technologist & Entrepreneur in Residence within SBA’s Office of Investment & Innovation.

Over the last 20+ years, Nagesh has worked for numerous organizations in the public, private, and not for profit sectors. During his time in the public-sector, he has co-developed federal-wide policy initiatives around spurring small business and technological innovation as well programmatic endeavors such as i6 Green, Patents for Humanity, USAID’s-SBAR Program, and SBA’s Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. Furthermore he oversaw the revamp and modernization of SBA’s digital platforms including SBIR.gov and SBA.gov, as well led technology direction, as part of SBA’s COVID-19 leadership response team, with respect to the agency’s Virtual Command Center, PPP and EIDL endeavors via the CARES Act. In his initial year of service at BIS-Commerce, under Nagesh’s leadership, the Bureau has overcome 15+ years of technical debt and digitally transformed the way business is conducted via COTS, Cloud, and SaaS based solutions adopting a modern day technology stack standard.

Nagesh’s musings (written and oratorical) have been featured and/or quoted via Wired, TechCrunch, WAMC-NPR, The Scientist, The National Academies, The Hill, FedTech Magazine, DC Inno, Technical.ly DC, NextGov, Daily Mirror (Sri Lankan version), Financial Times (Sri Lankan version), and The Courier-Journal.

Nagesh is a 2004 Mirzayan Fellow of The National Academies and a 2016 USA Eisenhower Fellow. Among many accolades that Nagesh has received over the years, prominent ones include the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman & Hind Rattan awards from the NRI Welfare Society, Fed 100, ACT-IAC Collaboration Award, BT 150, DC Inno 50 on Fire, 2019 Gears of Government, and the RPI Alumni Key Award.

Maria is the Deputy Federal Chief Information Officer in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of the Chief Information Officer. She was previously the Small Business Administration Chief Information Officer, and served at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Transportation in a number of technology leadership positions. Maria began her career in the United States Navy as a Data Processing Technician and later worked for the Department of the Navy in various technology and engineering positions. She was in the private sector for 5 years deploying and managing global enterprise technology programs. Maria retired from the U.S. Navy in 2007, with 26 years of active duty and reserve service, in which she obtained the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer, Information Systems Technician. 

Maria is a graduate of the University of Maryland earning a Bachelor of Arts in Information Systems Management, Harvard Business School Executive Education Program for Leadership Development, and the Navy Senior Enlisted Academy.

David A. Shive is the Chief Information Officer for the U.S. General Services Administration.

Shive oversees GSA IT — formerly known as the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) — and information technology operations and budget, ensuring its alignment with agency and administration strategic objectives and priorities.

Shive joined the U.S. General Services Administration's Office of the Chief Information Officer in November 2012. Prior to being named CIO, he was the Director of the Office of Enterprise Infrastructure, responsible for the enterprise information technology infrastructure platforms and capability that support the GSA business enterprise. He was also the Acting Director of HR and FM Systems for the GSA CFO and CPO offices.

Prior to joining GSA, he served in the District of Columbia government as a Chief Information Officer. In this role, Shive had executive responsibility for agency IT operations including financial systems, security and privacy programs, internal controls and compliance, strategic planning, enterprise architecture and performance management and measurement programs and directed the transformation of enterprise systems and processes, to public/private cloud hybrid. Shive was the recipient of the 2012 Washington, D.C., CFO Meritorious Service Award.

Shive began his career at Lockheed Martin Corporation in management and consulting roles overseeing large, customer-centric, IT organizations serving state and local, federal and international government customers. He is the recipient of numerous sector awards including the 2006 State & Local Government Executive Management award and the 2003 Management Award for Transformational Technology

Shive is a member of the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System Alumni Association; American Meteorological Society, DC Chapter; Project Management Institute, DC Chapter; the Air Force Association; and the Government Finance Officers Association.

He holds an undergraduate degree in physics from California State University, Fresno; a master’s degree in research meteorology from the University of Maryland College Park; and a post-graduate management certificate from the Carnegie Mellon Graduate School of Industrial Management.

Nathan Tierney is a retired military officer and former Chief Operating Officer of a software development and analytics company.  Nathan began his career as a U.S. Navy Rescue Swimmer, where he was awarded our nation's highest peacetime award for Heroism for an at-sea rescue.  Twice nominated for White House Fellowship, he served as an Apache helicopter pilot before joining the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment Night Stalkers, where his military career culminated in leading the technological development, and implementation of a $250 million change management program for over 29,000 personnel to create a Common Operating Picture and shift the organization towards a knowledge-centric culture. 

Since 2015, he has further dedicated his life to those in the service and has served in a variety of roles across U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, such as a Senior Advisor, a Director in both VHA and OIT, and as OIT’s Chief Analytics Officer. Presently, he leads the Talent Management Office, which consists of Human Capital Management, IT Workforce Development and Organization Development and Engagement. He authored the book, "Value Management in Healthcare: How to Establish a Value Management Office to Support Value-Based Outcomes in Healthcare". The book presents a 'how-to' guide to implementing value-based management in a healthcare organization. Nathan is a globally recognized subject matter expert in Value Management, healthcare technology and performance measurement methodologies.

Kevin Walsh is a Director in GAO’s Information Technology and Cybersecurity team. He oversees work related to CIO authorities, systems at DHS and DOD, legacy modernizations, and satellite and space systems. He has led reviews covering topics related to the authorities of federal Chief Information Officers, management of legacy IT systems, coordination of IT contracts, and assessments of IT-related risk.

Kevin joined GAO in June 2006, and led projects related to FITARA and GAO’s High Risk area on Improving the Management of IT Acquisitions and Operations.

Kevin earned a master’s degree in business administration from Virginia Tech. Kevin earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Kevin can be reached by email at walshk@gao.gov or by phone at 202-512-6151.

Adam Clater is a Chief Architect in Red Hat’s North America Public Sector organization. He has worked internationally with federal agencies, integrators and Red Hat partners & Communities to promote and define the use of enterprise open source solutions.

Adam has experienced first hand the evolving role that I.T. has played in the federal government for more than two decades, starting with his role as a Systems Administrator at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1997.

Prior to joining Red Hat, Adam was a senior architect, system administrator and lead for a variety of commercial and government agencies.