Erik Avakian

Bio:
Erik was named Chief Information Security Officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in June 2010 and is responsible for the information security strategy, governance, technical standards, security policies, risk management, compliance, and cyber-incident response across the commonwealth. Prior to his appointment, Erik served as Deputy Chief Information Security Officer for the Commonwealth since 2007. Erik joined the Commonwealth in October 2005 as an IT consultant and technical architect for the Enterprise Security Auditing and Monitoring initiative. The tremendous success of the project helped Pennsylvania win the 2007 award for outstanding achievement in information technology by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and finalist recognition for the NASCIO 2008 Recognition Awards for Pennsylvania’s Security Incident Response Process. Erik leads a highly successful group of information security professionals. In 2009, his team won the ISE Mid-Atlantic Project of the Year award for "Safeguarding Citizen Data" and in 2011 were the winners of the GovTech award for "Outstanding Leadership and Innovation". In 2015, Avakian was named by GovTech as one of the top 10 Influencers in Government IT Security. Erik has assembled a vast array of experience and expertise in areas of security strategy and design, architecture, risk assessment, policy, compliance, incident response and forensic investigations, and has led numerous enterprise initiatives in areas including intrusion detection, security information and event management, data protection, and automated incident response. Erik holds numerous industry certifications including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Information Security Auditor (CISA), and is a Certified Government Chief Information Officer (CGCIO). He is an Executive Board member for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a member of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Security & Privacy Committee, the National Governor's Association (NGA) National Advisory Council on Cyber Security, (ISC)2 and their Government Advisory Board, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, and the Pennsylvania State Fusion Center.

Ron Baldwin

Bio:
Ron Baldwin has spent 30 years managing, designing, and building information technology solutions in the government and private sectors. He is a professional project manager who has overseen multi- million dollar budgets and has experience working with the legislative and executive branches of state government and with federal programs. Ron has degrees in Computer Science and Biology/Chemistry. In addition, he holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

Prior to his appointment by Governor Steve Bullock to serve as the State CIO, Ron was the Chief Information Officer for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, a $2 billion government agency with 3,100 employees. Ron was responsible for overseeing the contracting, management, implementation, and operations of information systems and infrastructure that directly support programs promoting the health and welfare of Montana citizens. This included an IT project portfolio of $100 million.

Paul Baltzell

Bio:
Paul Baltzell has over 18 years experience working in various areas of IT consulting and management. After serving in the US Navy, Paul began his career with EDS as a systems engineer later moving on to work with various consulting firms. In 2005, Paul led the State of Indiana IT consolidation efforts. This effort achieved a 14 million dollar yearly savings for the State through shared systems. For his cost savings efforts, Paul was awarded a Governor's Meritorious Service Award. In 2013 Paul was appointed CIO for the state of Indiana by Governor Mike Pence. Since his appointment he has focused on the implementation of a Management and Performance Hub working to turn Indiana into the first Data Driven State. This hub is helping Indiana to solve its infant mortality problem, something he considers a personal mission.

David Behen

Bio:
David Behen directs Michigan’s Department of Technology, Management and Budget, an agency of 2,700 employees providing administrative and technology services. He also serves as the state’s CIO.

Behen was named one of ComputerWorld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders. CIO magazine and Crain’s Detroit Business named him a top CIO, and Merit Network honored him for IT innovation. He and Gov. Rick Snyder were included in Government Technology’s top-25 IT doers, dreamers and drivers.

Bill Burns

Bio:
Bill is the Administrator for the Idaho Division of Purchasing within the Idaho Department of Administration. Bill began work with the State of Idaho in late 2008 and his Division responsibilities include managing State Purchasing, Central Postal Services, Copy Center and the Federal Surplus Program. Idaho’s state purchasing group is a centralized purchasing organization, which oversees the policies, procedures and procurements of all personal property acquisitions for the state’s executive agencies. Upon graduation from the University of Idaho with a BS in Business, Bill started his career as a CPA working for national accounting firms for 4 years. Bill is a former OEM and Supply Chain Manager, working 25 years at the Hewlett-Packard Company. At HP, Bill managed planning, procurement, procurement engineering, design for manufacturability engineering, global supply chain development and several key global strategic relationships across Asia. He also attended the Wharton Executive Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania, participated as a guest lecturer for selected MBA programs at Boise State University and was a partner in a supply chain consulting company. Bill is a NASPO Director and chairs NASPO’s Strategic and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

Doug Birgfeld

Bio:
Doug Birgfeld is the Director of the Project Management Office and the Agile Center of Excellence. Doug has been on a mission to introduce and implement Agile as the preferred project delivery method in a varied, fast pace environment. Prior to his work at the Maine PMO, Doug was a development manager who, with his team, implemented to first agile development team for the State of Maine. Doug also speaks about Agile, healthy organizations and leadership, regionally at private companies and groups who care about effective and humane change. Throughout his career, Doug has been a dedicated change agent and specializes in turning underperforming departments into high functioning teams. He is also an avid cold water surfer where being Agile is a definite requirement.

Robert Bohn

Bio:
Dr. Robert Bohn, of the Advanced Network Technologies Division in NIST/ITL, serves as Program Manager for the NIST Cloud Computing Program. In this role, he manages and coordinates the goals and strategy of the program and also works with industrial, academic and other government stakeholders to address requirements needed for the US Government's successful and timely adoption of cloud computing as described in the NIST Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap (NIST SP 500-293).

Previously, Dr. Bohn served as the Technical Coordinator for the High End Computing Interagency Working Group (HEC-IWG) at National Coordination Office of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD). He now serves as a co-chair for the FASTER Community of Practice.

He was a recipient of a National Research Council fellowship at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA and worked in the laboratory of Dr. Louis Allamandola. He received Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Virginia under Lester Andrews and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois.

Doug Chandler

Neeraj Chauhan

Bio:
Neeraj is the State of California's CalCloud Project Director. He has worked for the State since 2005 and has managed several missions-critical services.

He has a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and has worked in IT for 18 years. In the private sector, Neeraj implemented large system integration projects.

Eric Ellis

Bio:
Eric Ellis is the Chief Technology Officer for Economic and Natural Resources for the State of North Carolina. In this position, he drives agency-wide technology initiatives. He also serves as the Director of North Carolina’s Innovation Center. In that role, he focuses on mobility, big data and analytics and application of emerging technologies. At any point in time, Eric oversees numerous technologies and projects at the iCenter and his leadership is critical to collaboration with agencies across the state. Eric has over a decade of experience working with technology companies as well as state and federal agencies. Previously, he worked with the US Environmental Protection Agency. He earned a Public Policy degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and designs software as a hobby.

Steve Emanuel

Bio:
As Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the State of New Jersey, Steve Emanuel is responsible for information technology (IT) governance and strategy for the Executive Branch of state government.  Additionally, Steve serves as Chief Technology Officer for the NJ Office of Information Technology and is responsible for operations.

Since taking leadership in New Jersey in 2011, Steve has established the statewide CIO Collaboration Council as a platform to increase collaboration among agency CIOs and IT directors, using events such as the annual New Jersey Digital Summit to engage with local and county government to identify best practices or areas for improvement or streamlining. Nationally, he helped drive the creation of the Best Practice Guide for the Cloud – a whitepaper published by the Center for Digital Government.

Prior to joining state government, Steve served as CIO for Montgomery County, Maryland from 2007 to 2011 where he managed an annual operating and capital budget of over $100 million.  From 2000 until 2007, Steve served as Amtrak’s CIO, overseeing an annual operating and capital budget of more than $220 million for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. He joined Amtrak in 1998 and served as Director of Network Operations before being named CIO.

Steve earned a B.S. degree in Sociology and Criminology from Eastern University in St. David’s, Pennsylvania, in 1976.  He and his wife of 38 years have five children and three grandchildren.

Chris Estes

Bio:
Governor Pat McCrory appointed Chris Estes as North Carolina’s State Chief Information Officer in January of 2013. As a member of the governor’s cabinet, he provides oversight of information technology projects, manages IT services for state agencies, local governments, and schools.

Chris led a collaborative effort by state leaders to establish the Innovation Center (iCenter), a working lab where state employees, students and industry work together in a "try before you buy" approach to testing information technology systems. The iCenter was recognized as a "Bright Idea" in government by the Ash Center at Harvard University in 2015.

Chris currently serves an Executive Committee Director for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). He also chairs NASCIO’s National Innovation Community, a coalition of more than 40 states that share strategies for bringing innovation to government technology.

Prior to becoming State CIO, Chris spent over twenty-five years in the high-tech, manufacturing and financial services industries for leading brands PwC, BearingPoint, and Booz Allen Hamilton. In 2014, Chris received a StateScoop State Leadership Award and a Triangle Business Journal CIO of the Year Award.

David Fletcher

Bio:
David Fletcher is currently the Chief Technology Officer of the State of Utah where he oversees the State’s egovernment initiatives and coordinates the introduction of new innovation and the state’s technical architecture program. David has a long history of involvement with technology initiatives, having previously served as director of the state’s Division of Information Technology, Deputy CIO over egovernment, and Deputy Director of the Utah Department of Administrative Services. During his tenure with the State of Utah, he has promoted the use of technology to improve citizen and business interaction with state government. Utah now offers over 1100 interactive online citizen and business services through its award-winning portal, Utah.gov. Many of these services have become the primary channel for service delivery. David has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Washington.

Joe Grubbs

Bio:
Joseph W. Grubbs, Ph.D.
Modis, Inc. - Health Information Technology

Tom Jaskowiak

Bio:
Mr. Jaskowiak has extensive IT management consulting experience, including leading IT transformation initiatives focused on improving the business value of IT, large and complex systems implementation projects, and management of emerging technology-enabled business applications.  He has more than 15 years of Healthcare and Government experience while working at Accenture, The Monitor Group, The Hackett Group and Infosys Public Services.  Mr. Jaskowiak has executed programs and projects involving complex business processes and led efforts to assess and align IT decision making in large organizations in order to ensure that IT investments balance the best interests of both the enterprise and individual operating units.

Agnes Kirk

Bio:
Agnes Kirk is the Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Washington where she helps shape the statewide security strategic direction, policy development, delivery of statewide security services and statewide cyber incident response. She coordinates the state’s participation in national cyber security efforts and collaborates closely with public and private sector partners in securing critical infrastructure resources.

Jeffery Kriseman

Bio:
Jeffrey Kriseman, PhD, MSc was appointed the Chief Public Health Informatics Officer (CPHIO) at the Tennessee Department of Health (TNDH) in early 2014. Dr. Kriseman oversees informatics activities across the Department, and in partnership with State and Federal agencies. His role is to provide strategic direction, methods, standards, and infrastructure, in promotion of evidence based public health practice.

Ted Kobus

Bio:
Ted Kobus, co-leader of BakerHostetler’s Privacy and Data Protection team, advises on risk management, compliance, incident response strategies, and regulatory and class action defense. He has led more than 750 data breach responses, is ranked in Chambers USA, and was named an MVP by Law360 for Privacy/Consumer Protection.

Steve Nichols

Bio:
As CTO for the state of Georgia, Dr. Nichols advises the leadership of the Georgia Technology Authority and state agencies on technology issues. He has played a key role in important initiatives to modernize state government IT, including the privatization of IT infrastructure services and managed network services in 2009. He oversees Georgia’s state portal and led its award-winning redesign. Government Technology named Dr. Nichols as one of the nation’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for 2012. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Mario D. Mairena

Rueben Molloy

Bill Oates

Bio:
Bill Oates is Commonwealth CIO for the state of Massachusetts and is responsible for establishing and overseeing the Commonwealth’s strategy for using technology and leveraging innovation to run the digital business of government. Bill also serves as Agency Head for MassIT, the Commonwealth’s lead state agency for technology and innovation across the Executive Branch. A graduate of Boston College, Bill is also an attorney and member of the Massachusetts Bar. He received his JD from Suffolk University Law School in Boston and was awarded his LL.M in Global Technology Law in 2005.

Craig Orgeron

Alex Pettit

Dugan Petty

Kevin Pomfret

Bio:
Mr. Pomfret is founder of the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy and a partner at Williams Mullen. He counsels business and governments on the legal issues associated with geoinformation collected from UAVs, satellites and smartphones and a member of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee and the Humanitarian UAV Network.

Tim Robyn

Bio:
Tim Robyn has been employed by the State of Missouri since 2005. In 2013 he was named Chief Information Officer after serving as Acting CIO for a year. From 2009-2011he was responsible for leading the State's effort to develop citizen-centric websites.

Carlos Ramos

Calvin Rhodes

Matt Rigney

Michael Roling

Leslie Scott

Jim Smith

Mark VanOrden

Bio:
Mark VanOrden has worked in the IT industry for over 35 years. He has worked for the State of Utah for over 30 of these years. Mark started as a programmer for the Department of Employment Security in the early 1980s. He has since worked in many different capacities for the State including systems analysts, project manager and development manager. Mark has been nationally recognized for his work in Unemployment Insurance technology. He was named the IT Director for the Department of Workforce Services in 2006. In May, 2012 Mark was asked by Governer Herbert to become the State CIO and the Executive Director for the Utah Department of Technology Services.

Andrea Wallin-Rohmann

Bio:
Chief Deputy Director of Policy, California

Michael DeAngelo

Bio:
Michael DeAngelo is the Deputy CIO for the State of Washington responsible for providing strategic technology leadership and oversight of over $1B in IT spend for the State of Washington. Michael is passionate about leveraging technology in innovative and exciting ways to solve complex business problems. The State of Washington has been pushing into area like cloud computing, agile practices, Technology Business Management, and Holacracy to solve some long standing and emerging business problems.

Peter Aiken

Bio:
Peter Aiken, Ph.D., is widely acclaimed as one of the top ten data management authorities worldwide. He is a practicing data consultant, author and researcher, with more than 30 years. He has consulted with more than 50 organizations across numerous industries. Peter is the Founding Director of Data Blueprint. Find out more: www.datablueprint.com

Michael Cockrill

Bio:
CIO, Washington