Beyond the Beltway 2015

Rosa Akhtarkhavari has worked for the City of Orlando for over 22 years and currently serves as CIO. In this role, she is responsible for the city's enterprise architecture, IT strategy and all aspects of IT operation. While employed at the City of Orlando, she has also served as chief security officer, deputy CIO, client services manager, financial manager and application administrator, manager and developer. Before coming to the City of Orlando, Akhtarkhavari worked as a technology consultant. She also worked at Florida State University while pursuing her Master’s degree and, before moving to the U.S., taught at Yarmouk University. She received Computer World Premier 100 Leader award (2014), Mayor Dyer Leadership award (2011), was honored as Campaign Coordinator of the Year (2009) and received the Federal Computer Rising Star award (2007). 

Deputy Chief Information Officer, City and County of Denver, CO

Christine Binnicker is deputy CIO for Technology Services at the City and County of Denver, CO. She is directly responsible for an application portfolio of over 300 enterprise and business applications; enterprise architecture; and project and portfolio management. At any one time, Technology Services typically has over $30 million of projects in flight. She has indirect responsibility for managing the day-to-day operations of the entire department, 300 employees strong. Binnicker started her career in the private sector working in the Accounting field and quickly transitioned into the IT field. She was instrumental in the creation of an in-house IT department for Paper Warehouse, Inc. on a national level and went on to be the IS director for a sporting goods retailer in Colorado.

Michael Cockrill is the Washington State CIO, appointed by Governor Jay Inslee on January 23, 2013. His responsibilities include overseeing the state’s strategic vision for information technology, evaluating state agencies’ IT spending and major technology projects and establishing IT policies and standards across state government. Cockrill brings to the state more than 20 years of operational experience building both software and software companies in the private sector, including PhotoRocket, Atlas Accelerator, Mixxer and Qpass. He is also a nine-year veteran of Microsoft, where he led Product Management on MSN’s original e-commerce efforts and the client strategy for Microsoft Merchant Server and Commerce Server, as well as design and development of the Microsoft Wallet and the Commerce division’s overall payment strategy.

Rodney Davenport is an IT professional with 20 years of experience across a variety of industries – including publishing, automotive, health care and energy – with skills developed across a broad array of computer technology disciplines. He is CTO for the State of Michigan, responsible for IT strategy; vendor management and innovation; and infrastructure and operations. Prior to joining the State of Michigan, Davenport was most recently employed with DTE Energy, where he focused on innovation and emerging technologies, as well as taking a lead role in Department of Energy research grants conducting an analysis of Smart Grid communication protocols. Davenport holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Lawrence Technological University.

Executive Director of Information Technology / Chief Information Officer, Harris County, TX

Bruce High has been serving as the executive director of Information Technology and CIO of Harris County, TX since 2009. He is a highly respected IT strategist with more than 28 years of experience in leadership. He has extensive experience in developing and defining IT objectives, strategic and tactical planning and in the implementation of technology to support business needs. As CIO, High is responsible for leading the county’s technology strategy and managing the overall IT operations. In 2014, he was recognized as one of Government Technology’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers in public sector. A native Houstonian, High has been serving Harris County for over 22 years.

Eric M. Larson is CTO for the State of Florida, working within the Agency for State Technology. He is responsible for the development of enterprise IT architectural standards, serves in an advisory role for the development of enterprise IT policy and conducts research and development for future enterprise IT services. He has over 17 years of information technology experience in infrastructure design, implementation and management in both the private and public sectors. Prior to Larson’s appointment as CTO in August, the previous 10 years were spent in public service implementing and managing the network, server, storage, telephony and IT security infrastructure for the Florida Department of Financial Services, as well as the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Chief Technology Officer, Georgia Technology Authority

As CTO for the state of Georgia, Steve 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 him as one of the nation’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for 2012.

Chief Information Officer, Cook County, IL

Simona Rollinson joined Cook County Government as CIO in April of this year. At the county, she oversees a team of more than 130 technologists and a capital budget of over $30 million annually for investment in the county's IT infrastructure. Prior to joining Cook County, Rollinson spent 17 years in the private sector. She was named president of Follett Software Company in 2011. As a key member of Follett’s management team, she led change and drove technology innovation and new product development in the highly competitive education-focused software market. Under her tenure and direct oversight, Follett dramatically expanded its software and service offerings while, at the same time, significantly improving operating efficiency.

Gail M. Roper has built her entire career around her belief that technology can enable the community. She believes the ability to use technology effectively brings communities together, empowers individuals and communities and provides economic development opportunities. With over 30 years of experience in the technology industry in the public and private sectors, she has participated in national and international speaking engagements and conferences on technology strategy and innovative solutions for the government sector. As the City of Raleigh’s first CIO, Roper has facilitated a high rate of community-focused efforts including recruiting key personnel and hosting the first broadband symposium to dialogue on the impact of the digital divide. Roper is a high-level innovator who focuses on aligning technology with business goals and community enablement.

Chief Information Officer, City of Houston, TX

Charles Thompson has served the City of Houston, TX as CIO since January 2012 and leads the Houston IT Services (HITS) organization. Prior to Houston, he served as CIO for the City of Phoenix, AZ, CIO for Orange County, FL Public Schools and CTO for the District of Columbia Public Schools. Before beginning his career in the public sector, Thompson worked in the private sector as a systems engineer, systems analyst and consultant with IBM, NYNEX Business Systems, SynOptics and Bay Networks. He spent two years as a senior manager in Seoul, Korea as an expatriate with Cisco Systems.

Chief Information Officer, Wayne County, MI

Ed Winfield is CIO for Wayne County, MI, the 17th most populous county in the United States. He provides information technology strategy and implementation for all Wayne County government departments and agencies. He has extended outreach into the communities within Wayne County and is an active participant in regional government collaboration forums. Previously, Winfield served in executive IT leadership roles in various industries on a global basis, including consumer goods, manufacturing, freight transportation, logistics, warehousing and management consulting. Throughout his career, he has applied IT innovation and leadership to improve company and government operations. He is a well respected IT executive and has received numerous recognition awards throughout his career, including Top 100 CIO.

As deputy CIO and chief operations officer for the state of Ohio, Spencer Wood plays a key role in optimizing the state's information technology environment and driving business value. The goal is to lower the state’s total IT costs and to redirect those savings into improved IT services and programs that benefit Ohio citizens and businesses. In the past two years, this redirection of IT costs resulted in more than $50 million in cost savings opportunities for Ohio citizens and 26 state agencies in 2014 alone. Wood also helps oversee the day-to-day operations of the state's private cloud, network and shared service delivery environment, providing services to more than 50,000 state employees.