Naveen Abraham is Chief of Core Infrastructure Services at Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA). Prior to coming to VITA, he served as the deputy division administrator of operations at the Virginia Department of Transportation where he was responsible for applications development, infrastructure and operations. Naveen reports to CIO Bob Osmond.

Vengatesh Agaram is Chief Information Officer of the Virginia Department of Taxation ("Virginia Tax"). Before being named CIO in January 2019, Vengatesh held leadership roles in both private consulting and state government agencies. From his arrival at Virginia Tax in 2004, he has championed two important agency causes: technologies that transform and enable digital business, and leadership that inspires and supports employees to their best performance.
Vengatesh grew up in Chennai, India, where he earned an undergraduate degree in Commerce & Accounting and a diploma in Computer Science. He later earned a graduate degree in Information Systems from VCU. After starting as a cost accountant, Vengatesh made a career switch to software engineering which led to his immigrating to the U.S. for a work opportunity in San Francisco. He spent more than a decade in the private sector before coming to Virginia Tax.
Vengatesh has been married for more than 25 years to his wife Nandu, a librarian at the Richmond Public Library. He has a son Vidur, a student at the University of Virginia, and second son “Chewbacca,” a 7-year-old Golden Retriever who rules the household. Vengatesh loves music, reading books, and gardening. In his spare time, he volunteers for charitable organizations and serves as a mentor for middle and high school students as a volunteer with the Technology Student Association and VEX Robotics.

As a Managing Director for US Cloud Engineering at KPMG, I bring 20 years’ experience leading technology solutions across industries, dedicating the last several years to the financial services sector. I have an extensive background as both a technology lead and architect across the full application life cycle, delivering digital user experiences from design and development through deployment and cloud enablement. I drive enterprise transformations in the adoption of industry leading modern delivery practices. By leveraging the principles of Agile and DevOps with the capabilities of the Cloud, I deliver impactful and value driven digital solutions. I am also an avid cyclist and triathlete, when I can pull myself away from the computer I enjoy spending time with my bikes, my lovely wife and my two great kids -- in no particular order of course ;)

Ray leads Verizon’s Domain Specialist group, which helps Enterprise and Government clients achieve mission critical business outcomes by leveraging technology.
His organization advises customers in developing transformation plans based on vertical industry use cases and horizontal business functions. Ray’s group has domain-specific expertise in Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, Manufacturing, Utilities, Finance, and Retail along with practices in Digital Experience and Securing Networks.
Ray’s roles have included technical sales leadership for network, cloud, cybersecurity, managed and professional services, application enablement, and responsibility for successfully accelerating Verizon's joint go-to-market sales efforts with key partners.
Ray earned a Bachelor degree with a major in Business from Lamar University in Texas and executive leadership certification from the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego. He currently resides with his family near Annapolis, Maryland and enjoys outdoor activities including volunteering with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Chris is currently the Director of Data Protection and Governance for the Office of Data Governance and Analytics, an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. She is responsible for building the agency’s data governance and security program and driving data governance maturity across the Commonwealth.
Prior to working for the Commonwealth, Chris was PRA Group’s Chief Technology Officer and has had multiple roles in IT leadership over the last 25+ years working for major retail, legal, insurance, and financial services firms. Her specialties are data, cloud, security, Devops, IT infrastructure and process improvement.
She has a passion for challenging the status quo, developing people, and leveraging technologies to deliver business value. For many years she was an adjunct instructor in the VCU Fast Track Masters of Information Systems program, has her CISSP, and recently was a global finalist for the Capital CIO Orbi awards.

Sudip has 18 years of progressive experience in IT consulting, specializing in Dynamics 365/CRM and Power Apps Platform. He has been pioneering in various Dynamics 365/CRM and Power Apps Platform implementations, which involves Architecture Design, Configuration, Customization, Dynamics CRM-xRM Application Development (using Dynamics 365 SDK within .NET framework), Integration, Legacy Application Migration, Deployment, User training, and Production Support. He has handled multi-million dollar ranging projects and a large user base. He has donned many hats during these various engagements.
I am just an ordinary person with a blessed heart and some not-so-ordinary dreams, which brought me from India to the USA several years ago. Besides work, I love to create a life that I love every day. So sometimes I'm in a playground with my daughters or in my kitchen.

Barry has worked in the IT field for over 37 years holding a wide range of technology leadership positions in the public and private sectors and was most recently the CIO for Chesterfield County, Virginia where he pursues initiatives based on digital transformation, open government, and citizen centricity. Under his leadership Chesterfield County Va was four times recognized as the #1 digital county in the USA. Barry holds a masters degree in public leadership with a minor in economics from Virginia State University and a bachelors degree in computer science from DeVry University. He has been adjunct faculty for Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently adjunct faculty for the Public Technology Institute in the certified government CIO program. Barry has been an active NACo contributor, a gubernatorial appointee to the Virginia elections security standards workgroup and a two-time president of the Virginia Local Government IT Executives (VALGITE) organization. He is a certified government CIO (CGCIO), a certified information security manager (CISM) and a national top 25 Doer, Dreamer & Driver. He likes to teach, research technology, write code and blog about technology leadership from his home in Moseley, Virginia.

Matt is an eGovernment services professional specializing in business development and technical sales, specifically in web development and payment processing services for state agencies and local government. As a former professional athlete, Matt brings the energy and composure of a world class competitor to his professional endeavors. He possesses a deep background in relationship management and written communication, and takes pride in bringing forward fresh ideas for solving problems for government partners of all sizes.

Bojan Duric is the Chief Data Officer (CDO) of the City of Virginia Beach where he promotes a data-driven and citizen-centric culture at all levels of the organization. As CDO, Bojan is responsible for implementing data and information strategies across the enterprise with wide impact not only on Virginia Beach residents but whole Hampton Road region. Shortly after joining the city, he successfully implemented the highly demanded Data Academy Program, a data and analytics literacy initiative which enriches employees with data and analytics skills to support factual based decision-making process. Some key advances for the City of Virginia Beach in his short tenure include the implementation of the first data and analytics platform for collaboration and a framework for certifying both data and practitioners, as he likes to call “Data Governance in Practice”. He views data as an asset to empower employees, boost citizen engagement, and increase transparency. It is worth mentioning several national, and state recognitions along with major cloud provider, AWS, Dream Big Category challenge winner for City’s data sharing initiative, Open City.
Bojan’s rich experience in data science and business analytics span multiple industries including government, transportation, healthcare, and consumer packaged goods (CPG). He has held key roles in financial, operational, supply chain, and sales and marketing analytics. His vast business background includes providing management coaching, training, and consulting to Fortune 100 companies and government contractors, such as Norfolk Southern, Carlsberg A/S, and ADS Inc. He is proficient in several open source and proprietary technologies and has developed a range of data solutions and analytics products recognized by influential data communities, and both private and public organizations.
Bojan is the advisory board member with Old Dominion University, Computer Science and Engineering. Bojan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from Rutgers University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Old Dominion University.

Shonte Eldridge is an award-winning strategy and organizational change expert who spent 23 years in State and Local Government leadership. She served in senior positions for a Governor, two States’s Attorneys, and two Mayors, and ended her public sector career as the Deputy Chief of Operations for the City of Baltimore. Shonte is currently focused on helping government leaders simplify cumbersome business operations and navigate an ever-evolving technology landscape.
Shonte was named one of the 25 women to watch by the Baltimore Sun newspaper and magazine in 2020 and is most known in the industry for her energetic approach to solving complex government challenges and developing process improvement and digital transformation strategies that get results.

Henry practices with Deloitte Consulting’s Government and Public Services strategy group where he advises clients on digital transformations and accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies to improve government service delivery. Henry has worked extensively with governments and NGOs in the Americas, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia in the areas of planning, growth, transformation, investment, and capacity building.

For the past 27 years, Lauren Farese has been a dedicated member of Oracle, focusing on bringing Oracle technology to various public sector customers. She currently holds a prominent position as Group Vice President of Cloud Engineering for the Public Sector – SLED Sales organization, where she provides support to all State and Local governments and Higher Education institutions. Previously, she led the US Federal government and Canada public sector engineering teams. Additionally, she plays a crucial role in supporting key Systems Integrators and partners who work with SLED Government customers. Throughout her impressive career spanning 35 years, Lauren has been actively involved in planning, developing, and implementing technology solutions for a wide range of organizations, including government, utilities, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and commercial sectors.
Before joining Oracle, Lauren's experience was diverse, having served as a developer, trainer, senior consultant, and solution architect at esteemed companies such as Advanced Data Management, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard.
Lauren's passion for technology extends beyond her work at Oracle. She is an active member of the NASCIO Enterprise Architecture, AI/ML and Data Governance workgroups, contributing to the publication of several technology briefs on emerging technologies. Moreover, Lauren is a valued member of the Smart Cities Council, and she has presented and been a panelist on numerous Digital Government Technology Summits, Alliance and GovExec events on various topics, including Data Modernization, Cyber Security, SOA/Integration, Data Warehouse/Data Lakehouse, Data Management, Extending SaaS Applications, AI/ML for Government, Analytics for Education, Application and Data Center Modernization, and Cloud and Hybrid deployments.
Outside of her professional endeavors, Lauren resides in rural Hunterdon County, NJ, with her husband and rescued animals. She is deeply engaged in her church and community. Currently, Lauren volunteers at the local food bank/thrift shop and actively supports animal rescue and adoption initiatives in her region. Her dedication to both her professional and charitable endeavors reflects her commitment to making a positive impact on society.

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, quantum information science, artificial intelligence, high performance computing and systems integration.
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, an ASME Fellow, and serves on the ASME Board of Governors, the ANSI Board of Directors and the U. S. Council on Competitiveness as the Co-chair of the Advanced Computer Roundtable.

Dr. Mary Ann Hoppa is an Associate Professor and the Cybersecurity Graduate Program Coordinator at Norfolk State University. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in computer science and cybersecurity, and advises senior and graduate research projects. She is a co-Principal Investigator on several DoD, NSF and industry-funded research projects. She previously enjoyed a multi-decade career in IT research and development. Dr. Hoppa’s research interests include cyberpsychology, information visualization; and cybersecurity applications of big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. She holds multiple certifications in disciplines including business, electronic commerce and distance education.

Mohammed Monirul Islam is a distinguished professional renowned for his extensive skill set and unwavering commitment to advancing innovation in application development. His proficiency spans diverse technical domains, encompassing a wide array of platforms, operating systems, and databases, both relational and NoSQL. His mastery extends across several programming languages, and his familiarity with various cloud platforms and development tools underscores his dedication to staying abreast of technological progress.
Mr. Islam's distinguished career features significant roles, including his current role as Application Development Team Lead at the Virginia Department of Education and his previous position as Principal Consultant at IBM. He has orchestrated the creation of user-centric mobile applications and guided teams in constructing mission-critical web-based systems. His leadership has played a pivotal role in instituting development standards, optimizing performance, and ensuring code integrity.
Formerly an Adjunct Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Mr. Islam adeptly imparts programming knowledge to young minds, enriching their understanding of core concepts. He also stands as the driving force behind the educational "ICS Discover" YouTube channel (accessible at https://www.youtube.com/@icsdiscover), offering insights into the realm of computer science, navigating intricate technological landscapes with finesse, and refining potent tools into refined expertise.
Beyond his professional roles, Mr. Islam's accomplishments have garnered recognition, including the Governor's Teamwork Nomination Award from the Virginia Department of Education and Service Awards from IBM. His academic excellence led to merit awards from The City University of New York, where he held a prominent position in the Computer Science department.
With a commendable ability to analyze, design, and deploy software using cutting-edge technologies, Mohammed Monirul Islam's insights and expertise will undoubtedly contribute to the success of the panel discussion, enlightening attendees about the foundational elements of app development.

Dr. Lackey has more than 15 years of experience in collaborating with government agencies, customer groups, and Fortune 500 companies to develop winning strategies, optimize business processes, and deliver on strategic growth initiatives.
In his most recent role as VP of Business Optimization at GAF, the world's largest roofing manufacturer, Dr. Lackey led strategic growth projects and productivity efficiencies across the company. During his time at GAF, he built broad networks within the building materials manufacturing, distribution, and installation industry.
Prior to GAF, he had deep relationships with manufacturing companies and energy-related public sector agencies as an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company. His business acumen and transformation skills shine through his ability to identify winning strategies and mobilize people to turn them into value for customers and citizens. Some of these include launching a new paper and packaging company post an acquisition of equals, making significant and sustainable cost reductions in an international packaging company, establishing a lean operation program for a North American oil company, and driving an organizational transformation at a multi-state public utility.
Dr. Lackey's experience driving agile product development teams, designing lean shared service organizations, and leading strategic growth initiatives have made him a force multiplier in several organizations. He leads with a clear vision, strong passion, and inquisitive approach that brings out the best in those around him. He is deeply experienced in designing, planning, and executing complex value creation work streams with the input and oversight of boards, C-suits, and external partners.
Dr. Lackey received his bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Spanish from Duke University and acquired his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Pamela Marino (MPA) has over 20 years’ experience working for local government, the last 15 years for the City of Norfolk. Pamela began her career in communications and community outreach. However, in an interesting twist of fate, seven years ago Pamela was assisting the IT department with internal communications just as the city was considering launching an Open Data portal. Because of her passion for government transparency, she was asked to take the lead in developing the Open Data program.
This year, Norfolk’s Open Data Portal is celebrating its five-year anniversary. Soon after the portal launched, CivicLab was formed to create synergy by bringing together employees working on data initiatives located throughout the city. In addition to managing the Open Data portal, CivicLab provides advanced data analysis and Agile training to employees. CivicLab’ s mission is to provide training, tools, and assistance to city staff to help them make innovative, data-informed decisions and to increase transparency. Pamela has been the CivicLab director for three years.

Michele Myauo, Ph.D., is a cybersecurity and IT executive, board member, speaker, and author. Myauo has over 21 yrs. experience leading cybersecurity, IT systems engineering and services sales and business execution globally across academia, industry, and government, including the U.S. Intelligence Community and departments such as Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and State.
At Accenture Myauo is a Managing Director leading the North America Health and Public Service Security Industry focused on empowering healthcare, state and local governments, educational institutions and non-profits in rapidly adopting secure and resilient cybersecurity solutions to innovate and achieve more sustainably. Prior to Accenture, Myauo held leadership positions at Microsoft, as Director of Cybersecurity Services Delivery for the Global Secure Infrastructure Practice and leading the Azure Global Special Capabilities Infrastructure and Innovation Cybersecurity group. Myauo also held various cybersecurity and IT leadership positions at IBM and was a professor at The George Washington University.
Myauo holds a Doctorate in systems engineering from The George Washington University, a M.S. in industrial and organization psychology from University of Baltimore, and a B.S. in psychology from Bethany College.

Mr. Charles (Charlie) O’Shea is the Eastern Regional Executive for State Government Strategy at T-Mobile. Before joining T-Mobile, Mr. O’Shea had a long and distinguished career in public service, beginning as a New York State Assemblyman. While in the Assembly, Mr. O’Shea served on several powerful committees, none more important than the Committee on Ways and Means, which gave him deep insight into the financial operations of all state departments. After twelve years in the Assembly, Mr. O’Shea ran for and was elected as the Chairman of the Nassau County Board of Assessors and Nassau County Real Property Tax Director. In this capacity, Mr. O’Shea pushed for and secured a hard-fought modernization of the county’s tax assessment and collection system. After leaving elected office, Mr. O’Shea continued his public service career as the Director of Government Affairs & External Relations for the New York State Department of Transportation. His long and dedicated career in public service has earned Mr. O’Shea respect and accolades across the political spectrum in New York City and State Government Circles. After leaving government service, Mr. O’Shea joined the highly respected law and policy firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein as a government relations attorney. Mr. O’Shea was motivated to join the T-Mobile brand because of his longstanding efforts to improve and modernize government.
Mr. O’Shea, a graduate of Duke University and the Fordham University School of Law, resides on Long Island, New York, with his wife, Carole.

Julie Richards is a senior executive with 30 years of experience leading design and implementations of strategies and solutions for data and analytics, for commercial industries, NGOs and government organizations. Currently, as Director of Digital Insights for CGI, Julie is responsible for data and analytics strategy offerings, enterprise data governance and data quality solutions, thought leadership and business development across the U.S.

Carlos Rivero is an Executive Government Advisor at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Previously, Rivero served as the Chief Data Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia as well as Chief Data Officer and Chief Enterprise Architect for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration in Washington, D.C. Rivero has also worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Miami, Florida, as a physical scientist and as a Research Associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, where he developed a passion for geospatial information systems, ecological modeling, and data. Rivero earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies from Florida International University and a Master of Science in Business Intelligence and Analytics from Saint Joseph’s University, focusing on database design, data management, business intelligence, big data, and data analytics.

Lewis Shepherd is an R&D executive with VMware, the pioneering Silicon Valley virtualization technology company and the world’s leading private-cloud-computing and multicloud-management provider. As Senior Director of Technology Strategy, reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, he helps shape the research and emerging-technology roadmap for the Palo Alto-headquartered company, including for disruptive prototyping efforts of specific relevance to governments and public sector agencies.
He also currently serves as a senior advisor to the US Department of Defense on AI/Autonomy and other projects, advises multiple other government agencies, and sits on the Federal Communications Commission’s Tech Advisory Council for Emerging Technologies. He is Chair of the Intelligence Committee at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), leading its conferences and collaboration with US and allied agencies.
Shepherd’s first federal leadership role was after the 9/11 attacks, when he moved to DC from Silicon Valley to help lead Intelligence Community innovation as Senior Technology Officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). In his role as the SES flag-rank head of Requirements and Research, his DIA team of technologists built multiple IC-wide capabilities, including the original versions of well-known systems Intellipedia, the IC Data Layer, and A-Space (TIME Magazine “Best Invention of 2008”). Shepherd’s organization deployed innovative technologies used at the individual, theater, and strategic levels, enabled wartime intelligence operations at U.S. Combatant Commands, and supported 70,000 users in 500+ global locations with real-time data, applications, video, and satellite communications on 30+ secure networks.
He subsequently spent seven years at Microsoft as Director & CTO of the Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments, a global practice providing R&D innovations for enterprise-scale mission problems, leading a team working diverse projects in AI, big data, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and holographic computing. Shepherd’s team at Microsoft worked directly with U.S. Government and defense agencies, along with allied governments in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America to apply advanced technical approaches to public policy challenges.
From 1984-2002 Shepherd was active in Silicon Valley in government, technology, and research, including helping create and grow two startups. He served as speechwriter and top adviser for the Mayors of San Francisco and San Jose, and his private consulting clients more recently have included SpaceX, Goldman Sachs, and several hedge funds.
Shepherd has taught Ph.D. data-science courses as Adjunct Professor, George Mason University’s Graduate School of Engineering, has traveled internationally for the U.S. State Department as a technology envoy, and has served on the Defense Science Board’s study on information operations and hybrid warfare and the Army Science Board’s study on AI/ML security. He has degrees from Stanford University (where he was a Rockefeller Graduate Fellow), the University of Virginia, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). He has been a guest-lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the UVA McIntire School of Commerce, Princeton University, Georgetown University, and many international universities.

Manmeet Singh is an Account Manager at Koverse, Inc., An SAIC Company. He’s a seasoned leader with expertise in Technology Solutions, Problem Solving and Business Development. Manmeet's areas of expertise include AI/ML, Advanced Data Analytics, Fraud, Waste & Abuse (FWA), Cloud transformation, data modernization, mobile, and cybersecurity in the healthcare, civilian, finance, army, state and local agencies. 

Mike is a Customer Engineer specializing in Applied AI. He is focused on the application of Conversational AI and Generative AI / Large Language Models (LLMs) to solve public sector challenges. He has worked at Google Public Sector for four years and helped many agencies apply Google Cloud AI Services.

Suresh Soundararajan is a Transformation Strategist that leverages technology with a passion for Strategic Transformation initiatives that aligns with the Organization Objectives effectively with focus on process, business model and cultural transformation.
Suresh specializes in Public Sector Innovation, Journey Orchestration through human centered experience and digital transformation and has 28 years of experience leading and managing multiple programs including extensive public health experience.
As the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Suresh provides Strategic Vision, planning and guidance to the agency leadership and ensures the Technology, Data and Security delivers outcomes that support VDH goals.
Suresh has been the CIO of VDH since 2019 and in the public health space for over 15 years and acted in different roles. He has won Agency Star awards in 2010 and 2017 and was recognized as a VDH Public Health Hero in 2011. For 13 prior years, he has consulted for both Government and Private Sector clients. He is described in general as an innovative and inspirational leader maximizing team’s performance through empowering and supporting inventive ideas from conception to implementation, focusing on service delivery using strategic and cost-effective technology and data solutions goals.
Suresh led efforts to implement a variety of innovative and collaborative solutions to address COVID-19 pandemic containment and vaccination efforts and was awarded Govtech’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for 2022, and his teams won Government Project Experience award for 2022. He was also a recipient of other Governor’s Technology Awards through the years. He is also a frequent speaker and strategic advisor on Public Sector/Government Innovations and on CIO Forums. He has been coaching youth baseball for 15 years and also a Henrico County Appointed Board of Directors for the Economic Development Authority.

Melinda has 24 years of progressive experience in IT; including recent roles as Acting Chief Operating Officer, Executive Director of IT at VITA and Office of the Governor, Digital Innovation & Technology Director. Private and public experience in IT including roles at VITA with previous state IT roles at the Department of Motor Vehicles and the State Corporation Commission. Extensive background in project management, website and application development as well as enterprise solutions. Melinda is an enthusiastic leader who strongly believes in building “positive” success orientated teams. Melinda has a Master of Science, Management of Information Technology from the University of Virginia, as well has attended the Virginia Executive Institute (VEI) and is a VITA Executive Leadership Development Program Graduate. In her down time, Melinda enjoys traveling with her husband, helping rescue animals and loves a good mystery novel.

Jamey Stone is a seasoned IT professional with over two decades of progressive experience, dedicated to leading and orchestrating technology teams and programs supporting Virginia's executive branch. In his pivotal role as the director of business platform solutions at the Virginia IT Agency, Jamey adeptly merges his technical acumen with visionary leadership, propelling forward innovation and setting the pace in Virginia government.

Marcus Thornton serves as the Deputy Chief Data Officer (CDO) for the Commonwealth and is from Danville, Virginia. He has worked in software engineering for the last 20 years. Before becoming the Deputy CDO, he worked for a data company that specializes in the collection of retail pricing data across all of North America. As the Deputy CDO, he serves as the Chief Operating Officer to the Chief Data Officer and the CDO’s technical adviser. He creates new partnerships between the Office of Data Governance and Analytics and Commonwealth agencies and shows them how sharing data across the Commonwealth can be leveraged to make more informed decisions and increase their own efficiencies.

Chandler Vaughan is a Senior Broadband Policy Analyst in the Office of Broadband. Before joining the Office of Broadband, Chandler worked for a local government in Southside Virginia to assist with broadband planning efforts. In the Office of Broadband, Chandler assists communities in accessing state, federal, and tribal resources and has played a key role in the development of policies, procedures, and guidelines for broadban
d infrastructure deployment programs, play an instrumental role in scaling a $50 million dollar program to accommodate a $700 million investment of American Rescue Plan Act funding in 2021 and now an additional $1.5 billion investment in both deployment and non-deployment broadband programs under the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act.

As Senior Director, Stephen leads Fortinet’s Offer Development Team to trail-blaze a cross-collaborative effort to help partners and customers envision, design, build, and operate security services. As such, he meets with a diverse set of leaders including C-Suite members, line-of-business leaders, and technical practitioners to align security vision with operational capabilities and tactical skills.
Over his more than thirty-year IT/InfoSec career, Stephen’s vast experience and expertise has led him to serve as Trusted Security Advisor to Fortune 50 companies and organizations across verticals including government and education. Stephen is a seasoned executive resource and has served in key leadership roles throughout his career including Principal Perimeter Security Architect, Information Security Director, Associate Principal, and Managing Principal of the Americas Region.
Stephen is a published author in the Information Security domain and speaks about various topics at Cybersecurity industry events. He has earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Computer Science (Concentration in Information Security) and has maintained CISSPÒ certification since 2005.

Michael Watson is the Chief Information Security Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia at the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA). With over 15 years of experience working in the information security field, he leads the Commonwealth Security and Risk Management team which provides security governance, oversight, and risk management for the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government in Virginia.
Michael holds a graduate degree in telecommunications with a focus on security and management from the University of Pennsylvania and earned his undergraduate degree from James Madison University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), incident handler, intrusion analyst, penetration tester, and information systems auditor.

Paul has worked in Information Technology for more than 25 years in both the private and public sectors spanning Fortune 100 companies, international services providers, and the travel industry. He is currently a Deputy Chief Information Officer for one of Virginia’s largest agencies, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services where his efforts have orchestrated IT transformations and streamlined operations for 12 state hospitals and the Central Office consisting of both traditional and remote workforce employees.

Stephanie Williams-Hayes is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Virginia Department of Health. Using her positive attitude, she is intentional about building partnerships, promoting security awareness and education, making continuous quality and process improvements to mature the Agency’s Information Security program.
She was appointed to serve on the Virginia Cybersecurity Planning Committee. This planning committee is charged with assisting with the development, implement and revision of the Commonwealth Cybersecurity plan to improve the information security posture within local government. She also serves as the IT Healthcare Chair on the Commonwealth Information Security (IS) Council to strengthen the security posture in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Stephanie earned her Master’s in Business Administration from Averett University and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Information Systems from Virginia State University. She holds several industry certifications such as CISM, CISA, PMP, and ITIL.