Paul Bestgen is the Public Information Officer for Austin 3-1-1. He is responsible for the marketing, community outreach and media relations programs for the organization. Paul has spearheaded multiple successful marketing campaigns to raise awareness about Austin 3-1-1 and the mobile app. He is also working to develop a more robust community outreach program to compliment ongoing marketing initiatives.
Working for Austin 3-1-1 allows Paul to combine his passion for communication with helping others connect to the resources they need. He enjoys attending events across the city to meet residents and let them know how Austin 3-1-1 and the mobile app can help improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods.
Paul has a Mass Communications degree from South Dakota State University, specializing in Broadcast Journalism. He has over 12 years of experience in the communications industry, including television news producing and media relations. Paul also previously worked for the Texas Lottery, where he would draw the winning numbers live on air and help dreams of winning the lottery come true.

Tom Boehmer has been serving the government, education and medical industries throughout his 25-year career in information technology. As an IT enabler, he collaborates to address the strategic industry imperatives.
In his current role at Juniper Networks, he is a Sr. business development manager where he serves as a dedicated and strategic resource to Higher Education and Research Institutions across the Americas. He is focused on aligning Juniper Networks mission of connecting everything and empowering everyone in the next generation of learning and research environments.
Tom earned a BS in Business Administration with a MIS emphasis from the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

Paul Bowen is a security practitioner with over 20 years industry experience. Paul started out at Estee Lauder gaining a decade of experience as a manger of global security. He then moved from being a security consumer to a security vendor.
Paul spent almost a decade at Arcsight before and during the HP acquisition, transitioning to a conference speaker for HP as a Strategic Evangelist from the Office of Advanced Technology before spending a year with Mandiant, then another year with Fortinet before arriving at Arbor Networks. Paul is currently Principal Security Technologist with a focus on Advanced Threat detection and mitigation with Arbor’s new Spectrum Platform.

Brian Elms is a founding member of Denver’s Peak Academy. He was born in Denver and raised in the outlying suburbs. He graduated from Regis University and then served in the National School and Community Corps (AmeriCorps) as a team leader. He joined the Rendell for Governor campaign and eventually would serve as the Policy Director for the Pennsylvania Department of Aging. After working for AARP, Brian moved back to his hometown and served as the Assistant Director of Government Affairs at Denver International Airport. In 2012, he started working with the Peak Academy. He is a terrible snowboarder, a slow runner, and a horrible ping pong player. He has an incredibly awesome daughter and lives in Denver with his wife Leslie. Brian believes we can all change the world one innovation at a time.

Tony recently retired GS15 Assistant Chief of Staff G6 for Marine Corps Installations East. He has nearly 35 years in the Marine Corps active duty and Civil Service. Gillespie was responsible for the Voice, Video, Data and Security for all USMC bases on the East Coast south of Quantico, Va., and the primary architect and Pilot for C2C for the DoD.

Dr. Tolga Kurtoglu is CEO of PARC, a Xerox company, which is in "the business of breakthroughs.” He joined PARC in 2010. Practicing open innovation since being incorporated in 2002, PARC provides custom R&D services, technology, specialized expertise, best practices, and intellectual property to Xerox’s business groups, Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, startups, and government.
Dr. Kurtoglu oversees PARC’s R&D investments for Xerox and its innovation portfolio for commercial clients and government agencies in a diverse set of focus areas and competencies including human-centered innovation services, intelligent agents and systems, clean energy, smart packaging, machine learning and analytics, security and privacy, printed electronics and digital manufacturing.
Motivated by his passion for bringing innovations to market, Dr. Kurtoglu specializes in leading cross functional teams to apply science and technology to develop creative solutions to real world problems. Since joining PARC, he has held various leadership roles focusing on R&D management, product strategy, and technology commercialization. In his early years at PARC, he pioneered the formation of PARC’s digital design and manufacturing (DDM) program. Later he created and led the System Sciences Laboratory by building a technology portfolio across hardware, software, and process technologies. In both roles, he managed multi-million dollar R&D investments and product strategy encompassing several platforms and market offerings, and led successful transition of inventions from an R&D output to commercial software systems and services. Prior to PARC, he was a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center, and a mechanical design engineer at Dell Corporation.
Dr. Kurtoglu’s own research focuses on computation and artificial intelligence applied to design and manufacturing of complex systems, and application of preventive and predictive analytics techniques to engineered systems. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University -- both in Mechanical Engineering. He holds a bachelor’s degree in the same field from Orta Dogu Technical University (ODTU). He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and papers in leading journals and conferences in his field, and regularly serves in organizational leadership roles for the ASME, AIAA, AAAI, Design Society, and Prognostics and Health Management Society. He is the recipient of the IEEE Best Professional Paper Award at the Prognostics and Health Management Conference, IEEE Best Application Paper Award from IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, NASA Ames Technical Excellence Award, PARC Excellence Award, PARC Golden Acorn Award, and the Best Design Award in “Dexterous Robot Hand” Design Competition.

Serge Leontiev has 20+ years of IT experience and has been with Oracle for 6 years. Prior to Oracle, Serge worked as an IT Consultant and Software Architect for various Government agencies. He is currently an Enterprise Cloud Architect at Oracle, and supports Public Sector customers across US and Canada. He helps customers develop strategy and solutions and strategies around Mobility and IoT.

Chris is currently the Director of Security and Compliance at Okta, where he is responsible for corporate compliance, application assessment, and responding to customer security inquiries. Prior to Okta, Chris spent 6 years leading the adoption of Cloud Technologies at LinkedIn, helping them grow from 350 to over 6,800 employees. He started his career designing, developing, and delivering content management, system administration, and messaging solutions for customers such as Nestle, Cisco, AMD, Telus, and the US Department of Defense. He is also an active member of the Northern California ski community, where he volunteers with the Tahoe Backcountry Ski Patrol performing search & rescue, and teaching ski mountaineering & outdoor survival.

Paul Noren is the Manager of Project Portfolio Management for Texas NIC. His focus is on driving better decision making and value through the effective implementation of project portfolio management and the continuous adoption of Agile software development best practices. Paul has over 18 years of experience in business analysis, product, project and portfolio management for Fortune 50 companies in the computer hardware, telecommunications and insurance industries. Paul has a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Donna Ribinskas is Director of Product Management and Project Portfolio Management at Texas NIC, with responsibility for strategic planning and tactical delivery of projects and products to many Texas government entities. With over 30 years of diverse business and technical experience, Donna’s entrepreneurial spirit and infectious enthusiasm has helped drive success for start-ups and Fortune 50 organizations, domestic and international.
Donna has held leadership roles at Dell, Broadwing and MCI, in multiple disciplines including product management, program management, and product development. She thrives on challenges, and is passionate about solving business problems and developing high-performing teams, and is a frequent speaker on technology topics.
Donna holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Southern California University. Her diverse work experience includes working in Mexico, Canada, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

Dale Richardson serves as the Chief Operations Officer for the Texas Department of Information Resources.  He is responsible for the state’s Data Center Services program, telecommunications network, web portal Texas.gov, and the Project Management Office of DIR.

Mr. Richardson joined the state in 2013 as Director over the Data Center Services program.  Dale was instrumental in leading the DCS program to new heights in terms of meeting contract service level agreements and customer satisfaction for State Agencies participating in the program. 

Before joining the state, Dale’s career spanned over 30 years in the information technology and telecommunications industries.  Serving in several leadership positions, primarily in engineering and operations, Dale brings a demonstrated ability to lead organizational teams on planning, engineering, constructing, and operating advanced networks and data center operations.

Dale earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Business Management degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1995. 

Lisa Richardson is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Information Technology (IT) Division Director for the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). The IT Division provides the Commission’s IT infrastructure, project management, applications development and support, and web services, as well as, the oversight and management of numerous IT contracts. As CIO, Ms. Richardson reports directly to the Deputy Executive Director and is part of the Commission’s executive management team. Ms. Richardson is responsible for IT strategic planning, process improvement initiatives, and for maintaining systems for IT governance. She is TWC’s Information Resources Manager (IRM) and participates with other agencies in IT planning and IT initiatives at a statewide level. Ms. Richardson is a member of the SACC IT Subcommittee; serves as an advisory board member on the Texas CIO Academy, the Texas Digital Government Summit, and Austin Women in Technology organizations; and, is a TASSCC Board Director.
Ms. Richardson has over 25 years of service with the State of Texas, including 14 years with TWC and 10 years with the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission. Previously, Ms. Richardson worked in the public sector as a health care certificate of need researcher and consultant. Ms. Richardson received a Bachelor degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Computer Science from the University of Oklahoma and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas, LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Bijal is a leader in PwC’s Digital and Customer Experience Practice. She has over 14 years experience helping clients leverage digital platforms and emerging technologies to connect with customers and optimize organizational performance. Bijal brings a human-centric design approach to her technology projects and a passion for creating exceptional customer experiences. In her many years of leading Agile-based design and development projects, she has emerged as a specialist in Agile adaption and complex program management (from mobilization to execution). She is experienced in all phases of rapid prototyping and solution development—from ideation and design to launch and execution.

Alex’s curiosity of the world and his surroundings began at an early age. Because of the many road trips his family took, he gained an increased interest in maps and Geography. This love of Geography led him to enroll and earn his Bachelor's degree in Geography from Texas State University in 2005. While in school, he was introduced to GIS and computer programming. He took this new found knowledge of GIS and applied for a position at the Texas General Land Office. Alex has worked with the Land Office since 2007 in the GIS division making mapping applications and other GIS products. Alex is a certified GISP professional.

I have been working in various industries relating to security, information systems, and personnel management for 20 years. I have been an instructor in various areas. I have been with the Comptroller for over 3 years and was working in the private sector prior to my government service. I hold a Certified Information Systems Security Professional certificate, as well as a Bachelors Degree in Business, a Masters In Information Systems, and a Masters in Criminal Justice and Security Administration. I am currently working on my Doctorate in Business Administration. My passions are technology and showing dogs.

As cofounder, member of the board of directors, chief security, safety, health and environment officer, and technical fellow, Don Shafer developed Athens Group’s oil and gas practice and leads engineers in delivering software engineering services for exploration, production, and pipeline monitoring systems for clients such as BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell. He led groups developing and marketing hardware and software products for Motorola, AMD, and Crystal Semiconductor. From the development of low-level software drivers to the selection and monitoring of semiconductor facilities, he has led key product and process efforts. As an expert witness, he helped win for the plaintiff the 2nd largest jury verdict in Texas history: $238 million. He developed, produced and delivered a MOOC with the IEEE and UCal Irvine on Version 3 of the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge, of which he was one of the technical editors.
He received a BS from the United States Air Force Academy and an MBA from the University of Denver. Twice treasurer of the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors, past editor in chief and chair of the IEEE Computer Society Press, an IEEE senior member, and a Golden Core member, he is a software engineering subject matter expert for the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Advanced Research in Software Engineering Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Shafer has contributed to many books and published articles, and is coauthor of Quality Software Project Management, published by Prentice-Hall. He is a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Software Engineering and is a Certified Software Development Professional and Software Engineering Instructor. His current projects include the development of a multi-volume set of Software Engineering Proven Practices for the oil and gas industry based on more than a decade of extensive engineering work done at Athens Group. His current patents deal with control system hardware and software virtualization for functional and performance validation and verification.

Doug is a storage and availability distinguished strategist at Veritas with responsibility for all U.S. Government, Department of Defense, State and Local Government as well as Healthcare providers and other select accounts. Doug is currently in his eleventh year at Veritas. Doug holds certifications for OpenStack (Certified Architect); CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and ITIL v3 (Information Technology Infrastructure Library).

Brigitte Sollie is a Subject Matter Expert for IBM’s Cloud and Cognitive Division. Brigitte has over 20 years of service in the public sector. She is the former Deputy Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer of the Ohio Department of Public Safety – A consolidated agency consisting of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Ohio State Highway Patrol, Ohio Homeland Security, Ohio Emergency Management, Emergency Medical Agency, Office of Criminal Justice Services, Ohio Investigative Unit and Administration. While there, she led her teams through the largest successful government Agile transformations to date, completed enterprise email and data migrations, retired mainframes, and implemented wireless and mobile initiatives. She also served as a chairperson on the Governor’s State of Ohio Optimization Initiative to create and implement the strategic plan for infrastructure, security, and human resource consolidation to the state level.
Brigitte’s other career leadership roles focused on Cyber-Crime Investigations, Data Analysis and Intelligence, and Computer Forensics. After leaving State service and prior to joining IBM, she owned and operated an IT security and cyber investigations company.
Brigitte earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Heidelberg University and her Masters in Information Resource Management/System Design from Central Michigan University.

Jeremy Wilson is the DIR Security Operations Manager in Communications Technology Services. Jeremy is responsible for overseeing the daily security operations and activities of DIR’s networks and programs at the Network Security Operations Center (NSOC). This role is critical to protect State resources from the ongoing cybersecurity threats and he works closely with the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer, State agencies, security service providers and COOP/COG efforts.
Jeremy has over 15 years of security and leadership experience. He has held various security roles in the Texas Army National Guard and prior to coming to DIR in May of 2014 he worked for CapGemini as a Security Planning Analyst supporting the DIR Data Center Services program. He is continuing his service in the military and is a Major in the Reserves.