25+ years in a leadership role within the Information Technology field. Experience in Executive Management, Operations, Development, Cybersecurity (NIST 800-xx, ISO 2700x, FFIEC (Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT)), and Compliance (HIPAA and GDPR) expertise. Record of success in the implementation of enhanced or re-engineered processes or information technology solutions to increase organizational operational efficiencies. Ensure information technology adds the maximum value to the customers that facilitates the success of the organization. Developer of strong trusting relationships with team members and organizational management.

Landon Carter is a seasoned technical engineer specializing in storage and virtualization with over a decade of expertise. He designs and implements secure datacenter infrastructure across the US that redefines efficiency & security and elevates performance. He enjoys working with local business, municipalities, and schools to contribute in his community to unleash the power of technology one datacenter at a time.

Keith Cousins serves as Director of Business Relations and Governance for OIT where he leads contracts management, statewide IT sourcing, vendor management, service catalog, grants management, GRC, EPMO, and records disposition. Before OIT, Keith held senior leadership positions (aka nomad, gunslinger, engineer, and rainmaker) in publicly traded and privately held companies including KinderCare as Senior Director of Development, Movie Gallery and Hollywood Entertainment as EVP and Chief Development Officer, AT&T Prime Communications as Senior VP Development, Aronov as Senior Accountant, Newton Oldacre McDonald as Developer, and Triton Management as Chief Operating Officer. He has keyman experience in federal government IT acquisitions and modernizations, business analysis and process improvement, life cycle costing, and program control management with Computer Sciences Corporation as Program Control Manager, MCR as Cost Analyst, and Tecolote Research as Senior Cost Estimator. Keith’s management, development, and operations experience span every market in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Keith builds trust and motivates others to be kind, do the right thing, add value, and deliver within budget and ahead of schedule. A husband to a wonderful wife, Melissa, father of two talented daughters, Victoria and Emily, and grandfather to the best gifts ever, Liam, Graham, and Maisie.

Meg serves as General Counsel for the Association of County Commissions of Alabama (ACCA), where she provides legal direction for ACCA and works alongside the Executive Director in providing leadership for Alabama’s 67 counties. She provides legal advice on all matters faced by counties and has become a trusted source and problem solver for county government, as well as the ACCA Self-Funded Insurance Programs. Alongside the ACCA Policy Team, she often tackles issues facing counties during the legislative session and provides educational expertise to effectively implement the new laws impacting counties each year.
Meg previously worked for the Supreme Court of Alabama, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, where she served as the Assistant Clerk. She practiced in Florida in the areas of estate planning, real property and construction law, and general civil litigation. Meg is a member of the State of Alabama and the State of Florida bar associations. She received her B.A. from Birmingham-Southern College and her J.D. from Cumberland School of Law of Samford University. Meg has one son, Will.

Chief Information Officer for Alabama’s Department of Rehabilitation Services. I have a B.S. in MIS, an MBA, a Masters in Education, and a PhD in Education. I began my career with the State at ADRS in January of 2000 as an entry level software developer. Believing in the ADRS mission ‘to enable Alabama’s children and adults with disabilities to achieve their maximum potential’ I have spent my career working to ensure that every IT function is a tool that can be used to fulfill this mission. In addition to my CIO responsibilities, I am the ADRS Data Security and Compliance Officer while also serving on the Commissioner’s Executive Leadership Team. In these roles I am working to provide quality, cost efficient, customer-driven IT services and developing ways to hire/retain IT staff with the skillsets needed to be a premier IT provider of services in Alabama state government.

Bill Harvey is a longtime technology leader with over 23 years of experience, currently serves as Vice President at Fortinet, a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. He oversees the public sector business in the expansive US East region, covering 27 states and serving state & local government, and education (SLED) customers.
Bill's passion lies in helping customers solve problems, scale their offerings, and leverage technology for transformation. He has built a high-performing team that consistently delivers innovative and secure solutions, achieving remarkable results. Committed to talent development and fostering a culture of trust, authenticity, and diversity.

Andrew is a Senior Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) with 20 years of industry experience in a variety of engineering and leadership roles. He now focuses on helping public sector customers in their journey to realize the technical and business impacts of cloud computing.

Lewis Higginbotham is Rubrik’s Regional Sales Director for their South Central State & Local Government teams. Lew is an experienced Enterprise Technology leader with more than 10 years of leadership experience. Lew is responsible for guiding his team as they consult with clients and partners to help maximize the cyber and business benefits from their investments in Rubrik’s technologies and solutions. Prior to Rubrik, Lew spent 17 years at EMC and 1 additional year after the DELL/EMC merger. 

Trey Jones is an IBM watsonx Orchestrate Sales Leader, based out of the IBM office in Coppell, TX. Trey has been a speaker at several Digital Summits, which has allowed him to speak to a diverse group of audiences about the ethical use of artificial intelligence and generative AI. Trey’s previous experience has allowed him to help many clients implement and deploy solutions in the domains of Human Resources, Digital Labor, and Advanced Automation.

As the Chief Technology Officer for the City of Mobile since 2019, Scott Kearney oversees the IT and GIS Departments and provides leadership on technology innovations and IT initiatives. Previously, Scott served as the GIS Director at the City for 15 years.

Jennifer Loretz is a Senior Buyer with the State of Alabama, Department of Finance, Division of Procurement. Jennifer has worked for the State for over 25 years, with 18 of those years being in IT procurement. Currently, she manages the IT procurement and RFP buyer team. She is also heavily involved in training, maintenance, and enhancements of Alabama Buys. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family, being a member of the local YMCA and traveling.

Ramaswamy Macha is a 52-year-old IT Manager with over 20+ years of experience working in the government sector. He currently holds the position of IT Manager at the Department of Human Resources (DHR) in Alabama. His role involves leading multiple IT projects, including those related to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), Child Care, PowerApps, and Dashboards.
Ramaswamy is a PMP-certified professional with a Master's in Engineering. He's acclaimed for implementing Dashboards, Low-code/No-code technology, optimizing operations. Beyond work, he enjoys walks and a passion for movies.

I developed a passion for IT early in my career as computer technology was emerging where I transitioned from Engineering to Information Technology during a 15-year career with Dow Chemical. I then added 10 years of experience implementing and leading domestic and international finance, procurement, and supply chain systems in the automotive supply industry. I continued leading technology and teams responsible for enterprise systems implementation and support for 15 years in national retail distribution. For the past 6 years I have been leading the technology innovation in public sector as the Director of Information Technology for Dothan, AL. My team is currently leading a 4-year transformation project while in the 3rd year of implementing a full suite of Oracle cloud products impacting all 13 departments in the city.

Bio (max 150-words): John B. Murphy, Ph.D. is Rubrik’s Global Field Chief Security Officer. John is an experienced Cyber Security and Enterprise Technology leader with more than 20 years of leadership experience at some of the world’s largest financial organizations. John is responsible for working with Clients and Partners to help maximize the Cyber and business benefits from their investments in Rubrik’s technologies and solutions. Prior to joining Rubrik John held senior leadership positions at Bank of New York Mellon, Deutsche Bank and Automatic Data Processing in addition to advisory roles for several software startups.

My name is Virginia Neslein.  I currently work at the Department of Revenue as an IT Project Manager.   I started working for the State 6 years ago, and have been with ALDOR for almost 4 years now.  I started my IT career working as an Oracle Forms Developer, which eventually led to working as an Oracle DBA.  I worked as a contractor at Gunter AFB,  and then for the State of AL.   I worked for numerous companies including Anteon, Litton PRC, Oracle Corp, Lockheed Martin, and even through my own company for over 20 years.   I hold a Bachelor’s in Information Technology from Auburn Univ at Montgomery, and a Masters in Computer Science from Troy University at Montgomery.  My most recent certifications are the Comptia Security + and PMP.  Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my husband and 3 teenage girls!

Matthew is a graduate of AUM with a major in Management Information Systems and a focus on Software Engineering. He began his career in the trenches, doing Visual Basic programming and Access Database management for the university.
After joining the Department of Public Safety, he rose through the ranks from entry level Programmer in 2009, to Application and Data Management Chief for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency in 2020.
Matthew sets the road map for development standards while keeping up with evolving information technology, digital assets, agency resources and business needs.
Recently Matthew had a lead role in the modernization of the Driver License system, completely removing its dependance on mainframe technology, and affecting every licensed citizen of Alabama.
Though it’s been a long road from VB and Access through many different iterations of code and database tech, Matthew still holds to core Object Oriented design principles, and champions a reusable and scalable approach to application development.

Taylor Nichols is General Counsel to the Alabama Department of Finance, where he advises the State Finance Director and the Department’s divisions including Procurement and Comptroller. In this role, he is also an Assistant Attorney General and counsel to the State Board of Adjustment. Prior to Finance, he served as Deputy Attorney General for the Office of Information Technology (OIT), where he was general counsel to Alabama’s Secretary of Information Technology. He previously served as Policy Analyst for Governor Bob Riley, Deputy Chief of Staff to Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey, and counsel for the Alabama Department of Commerce.

Joseph “Joe” Parker serves as a Cybersecurity Advisor (CSA) with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), based in Huntsville, AL.
As a CSA, Mr. Parker provides cybersecurity assistance to critical infrastructure owners and operators within both private and public sectors. CSAs introduce organizations to various CISA cybersecurity products and services, along with other public and private resources, and act as liaisons to CISA cyber programs. CSAs can provide and coordinate cyber preparedness and resiliency assessments, share threat information, and facilitate incident coordination and support in times of cyber threat and disruption. Mr. Parker has 29 years of service with the Department of Defense in both active duty and civilian roles as a Counterintelligence Special Agent with the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). He has served as a field cyber subject matter expert for DCSA in Huntsville for 17 years prior to joining CISA in 2023, providing tailored field cybersecurity services supporting Alabama, Tennessee, and other regional state partners. Mr. Parker has also served as a Task Force Member with the FBI Cyber Division’s Threat Analytics and Collaboration Unit (TACU) for several years and continues this relationship representing CISA.

Greg Price is the Chief Security and Technology Officer for Troy University. Greg founded and served as the director of the Alabama Computer Forensics Institute for ten years.
Greg founded the Alabama Cyberkids Awareness program in 2006. Since 2006, Greg has spoken to tens of thousands of Alabama youth on the benefit of internet safety. He has written several IT books and guides, focusing primarily on Information Security,
In 2012 and 2013, Greg received the International Laureate for work in promoting child safety through technology. Greg’s information security team at Troy University was recognized as one of the Top 3 Security Teams in the United States for 2009, 2010 and 2011. In 2015, SC Magazine selected the Troy University Security Team as the best in the nation. Additionally, ComputerWorld magazine named Greg as a member of the top 100 IT leaders in the world.
He is an active member of the Governor’s Human Trafficking Task Force, FBI-InfraGard, holds industry certifications in a variety of security disciplines and serves on advisory boards for three Fortune 100 companies.

Daniel Urquhart serves on Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s Cabinet as Secretary of the State of Alabama Office of Information Technology (OIT). First formed through the passage of Senate Bill 117 and signed into law on May 21, 2013, OIT is responsible for the strategic planning, governance, and resource utilization of all IT for the state.
Prior to his appointment by Governor Ivey to lead the agency on July 1, 2023, Secretary Urquhart served the State of Alabama for more than two decades and spent the past three years as Deputy Secretary of OIT.
Before joining OIT in 2020, Secretary Urquhart served as the CIO for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) where he played a vital role in working with industry partners to design, build, and implement a state-of-the-art criminal justice network that exceeded regulatory compliance requirements.
The first fifteen years of Secretary Urquhart’s professional career were spent in the private sector. He held various technical and leadership positions in the banking and finance, drug/medical wholesale, childcare services, restaurant concepts, and consulting industries where he led and implemented various business and decision-making systems and platforms.
Secretary Urquhart attended Auburn University at Montgomery where he earned a BSBA in Management Information Systems.

Jeremy Ward serves as the Communications Director for the State of Alabama Office of Information Technology (OIT). With two decades of experience in the field of institutional advancement and communications, Jeremy has held leadership roles in various higher education and non-profit organizations. Prior to joining OIT in 2022, he most recently served as Chief Development Officer for the American Village Citizenship Trust, a nationally acclaimed American history and civics education center.
Jeremy attended the University of Montevallo where he earned a BA in English.