Chad Bratton currently serves as the Chief Information Officer for the Office of Data & Innovation (ODI). As Chief Information Officer, he is responsible for IT and security operations for ODI's office and cloud platforms. Chad is passionate about improving service delivery within state IT operations, with over 10 years of IT experience in both the public and private sector. Chad was the co-founder of Survival Servers LLC, where he worked full time from 2012-2015 before joining the state. Chad previously served as Head of Information Technology for ODI where he procured and implemented ODI's critical IT infrastructure and systems to support engineering and administrative operations for a brand new department. Chad led the implementation of Google Workspace and MacOS for ODI, bringing in a new and innovative approach to state IT operations. In a prior role as DevOps Engineer and Digital Services Consultant with the California Department of Technology, Chad implemented improvements for critical services and was focused primarily on establishing continuous integration and deployment pipelines, and high availability architecture for ca.gov and other state websites. Chad is a graduate of California State University Sacramento, with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration: Management Information Systems and is a Certified Scrum Master (CSM).

David Brown is the Director, Vertical Markets Sales, State and Local Government and Education (SLED) for Spectrum Enterprise. David focuses on maximizing revenue and leading a team of sales professionals serving the needs of SLED clients in the West region.
With a career spanning more than 20 years in the telecommunications industry, David is a creative, solutions-based thought leader who concentrates on driving business growth through the distribution of new technologies and the continuous improvement in the client and end user experience. Prior to joining Spectrum Enterprise, he had a distinguished tenure with Comcast Business, serving as Vice President of Sales for the California region. He was instrumental in launching Software as a Solution (SaaS) products, identifying new channels to increase sales and initiating operational improvements to reduce service delivery times.
In addition, David held leadership positions with Verizon Wireless, and JumpStart Wireless. Throughout his career, he has led teams of sales professionals in consistently exceeding their revenue goals and has collaborated with senior leaders and business partners to introduce programs that boosted employee productivity and delivered organizational success.
David earned a Bachelor’s degree in political science from the State University of New York at Oneonta.

Win Chang began her career as a software engineer, developing financial application solutions at Texas Eastern Corporation. In 1990 she joined Oracle as a technical support manager providing exceptional customer support. Later, Win worked as an Applications Sales Consulting Manager for several years, managing a global Sales Consulting team. Siebel Systems and Hyperion also employed Ms. Chang before joining LogicalApps as the Customer Experience Vice President. She was responsible for several lines of businesses, including consulting services, customer success, education, and customer support. In 2008, Oracle acquired LogicalApps. Over the last few years, she has held several roles at Oracle, including Key Account Director, Support Account Director, and Cloud Accelerator Director. Today, she is an Oracle Solution Engineer Director.
Win was the recipient of the Oracle CEO's Cup Award for account management excellence in 2011, 2013, and 2014. She earned the 2014 YWCA Tribute to Women Award for contributing to Oracle and the community. In 2015, Win was honored with the Professional Business Women of California (PBWC) Industry Leader award for her leadership and involvement with Oracle Women's Leadership (OWL). Win received the 2016 Powerful Women of the Bay Area Award. In 2022, Ms. Chang was awarded the NAAAP Chairman award in recognition of her leadership and positive impact on the diversity and inclusion landscape for AAPIs at Oracle. She has served as the community leader for Oracle Women’s Leadership (OWL) Redwood Shores community since 2008. OWL is focused on giving back to the community, professional development, and empowering women to lead beyond. In 2016, she founded the Oracle Professional Asian Leadership (OPAL) Employee Resource Group, intended as a global employee resource network of professionals with an interest in Asian heritage, with its aim to inspire unity and leadership through professional development, mentorship, cultural awareness, and knowledge sharing. Win also serves as a board of director member for Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation. This organization collects and preserves thousands of immigrants' rich stories and personal journeys. It shares them with visitors and everyone living in America through education initiatives and public programs. In 2021, Win joined the ASCEND NorCAl board of director to support Asian American professionals develop their leadership and professional development skills.
Throughout her career, Ms. Chang earned the coveted reputation of a trusted advisor, strategic partner, and respected thought leader skilled at building consensus and strengthening relationships. She's had a life-long passion for mentoring, particularly on leadership-related topics.
Ms. Chang earned her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Houston. Win was born in China, grew up in Miami, Florida, and now lives in Redwood Shores, California, with her husband, Mike Chang, and children, Nicholas, Madison, and Michael. She is fluent in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

Surendra Chenneerappa is an experienced IT technology leader, specialized in enterprise cloud practices, service delivery, and operational support solutions. His strategic mindset has guided his leadership in planning, designing, and deploying digital transformation initiatives. Surendra serves as State Technology Innovation Services Manager, leading DevSecOps, Software Engineering, and Planning & Product Management teams at California Department of Technology (CDT), Office of Digital Services (ODS). Before joining CDT, Surendra had an impactful journey at Circle Internet Financials for 2 years, where he served as the Director of Compliance Technology Portfolio. Prior to that, he spent over 14 years at PayPal, progressing through various managerial roles, leading risk infrastructure, regulatory compliance platforms, and financial systems.

Gary leads the VMware pre-sales engineering team with responsibility for state/local/tribal government, public health, utility and education customers across California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii. He and his team work closely with client stakeholders to plan, design and deliver business aligned technology solutions leveraging the broad portfolio of VMware and partner capabilities. Gary and his team are seasoned hybrid/remote work practitioners and regularly provide expertise and guidance to clients in this area.

Addie Cooke is the global AI public policy lead for enterprise AI at Google. In this role she supports Google Cloud's engagements on current and emerging AI policy files around the world. She advises teams across the organization including Responsible AI, governance, engineering, PR, compliance, sales, and legal on forthcoming AI regulatory and standards. Beyond her work on policy files, she works with product teams developing AI that deliver benefits to people through product launches, technology partnerships, and customer engagements. She previously worked at Accenture and Workday in similar roles and supported the legislative effort to establish the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. Before working in AI policy, Addie held policy, press, and research positions in the Texas Legislature and the United States Senate. Following the Senate, she helped lead a campaign to support the Obama Administration's reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Addie previously served in AmeriCorps Vista working with youth in East Los Angeles public housing, and is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer where she served a full term working with youth in El Salvador. Addie holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and MPP from the University of Virginia. Outside of work, she serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for abused and neglected children.

With over 12 years of experience working in the technology industry (IBM, Medallia, Unqork, DocuSign), Paul is passionate about partnering with clients to help them modernize their systems of agreement with DocuSign. As the DocuSign State of California Strategic Account Executive, Paul helps departments streamline their business processes to save time, reduce risk, and provide better services to constituents and government employees.

Veronica began her state career in 1988 when she joined the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, rising from a key data operator to operations and ultimately into systems programming. For the past 14 years she has worked in the Office of Technology Services within the California Department of Technology, rising to become Deputy Director for Platform Services. she oversees an annual budget of roughly $86 million and leads a team of 200-plus employees who ensure key state services are available around the clock. In this role, Veronica is able to fulfill her goal of helping to improve services to all Californian’s. She owes part of her success to the mentors who have helped guide her along her career path and gives back by mentoring others with a desire to enter the information technology field. She is a member of the Sacramento Latinas in Tech Chapter, and also a member of the Puente Project at the Sacramento City College.

Nolwenn Godard, ex Silicon Valley Tech executive and now Director of the Office of Data and Innovation for the State of California, has extensive experience in building products and platforms in global, fast-paced environments. She is passionate about harnessing data and technology for value creation and social impact.
At PayPal, she has led multiple market entries in extremely complex regulatory environments, expanded financial products internationally, grown their usage domestically, and transformed systems into scalable world-class platforms. She has helped grow product and engineering teams at PayPal and at the digital bank Sofi. Her early career includes an experience at the video game publisher Ubisoft and at a microfinance non-profit in the Middle East.
Passionate about leveraging Diversity & Inclusion as tools for performance and innovation, she has taught on the topic at UC Berkeley as a lecturer and has been engaged in social and civic action for over a decade (ex-president of the Employee Resource Group for women at PayPal, the co-president of the UC Berkeley Alliance for Inclusive AI and director of the Women Initiative Foundation, she has had the opportunity to lead an expert consultation and provide recommendations on how to foster gender equality in France to Marlene Schiappa and Roland Lescure, respectively French minister of gender equality French Representative for the French citizen of North America at the time).
Nolwenn earned her MBA from ESSEC business School in France. She was named one of Silicon Valley’s Top 100 Women of Influence in 2018.

Kimberly Hicks is the Deputy Director of Advanced Analytics and Evaluation at the California Office of Data and Innovation (ODI). Kimberly leads ODI’s Data Science Accelerator, a new state service that helps state departments improve their services and processes through the effective and efficient use of data. She has over a decade of experience in data science, analytics, and consulting in the private sector as well as public sector experience developing data science solutions for the City and County of San Francisco. Kimberly is passionate about promoting ethical data use to drive meaningful change for Californians.

Rajesh Jaluka is Chief Technology Officer of Government and Healthcare at Kyndryl. He leads a team of solution engineers and architects to solve problems for Kyndryl’s customers in government, education, healthcare, and life sciences. He advises customers on improving business outcomes with technologies, modern operating models, technical practices, and culture. He has experience leading application teams through DevOps and DevSecOps maturity to reduce the time to market for applications and deliver business value sooner.

Koji currently serves as CDT's (Department of Technology) Web Services manager, providing leadership for statewide digital service design, front-end development, accessibility, analytics, domain name registration, and the state web publishing system. Starting as a student assistant, he has worked for the state of CA his entire career and has over 15 years of experience in the civic technology domain. He also facilitates and leads the state's Digital Web Services Network, a community of practice for all web and digital services teams.

Jason Lally has more than a decade of experience in the use of civic data including data management, analysis, visualization, and engineering. He currently serves as the Deputy Director for Data Engineering and Services with the Office of Data and Innovation, a department of the State of California. He works with his team to help departments across the State adopt modern data infrastructure and Data Operations practices. Before joining the State, he was the Chief Data Officer of the City and County of San Francisco. There he drove efforts to make open data and dashboards available about the County’s pandemic response. He also worked with his amazing team to plan and implement comprehensive, automated reporting for PPE inventory and distribution. Prior to the pandemic, Jason helped operationalize the City’s data strategy under the first CDO of San Francisco, setting up processes that were copied the world over for managing an open data program.

Lloyd Levine is a former member of the California State Legislature where he served as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce. Currently, Mr. Levine serves as T-Mobile for Government’s National Senior Executive for State Government Strategy and is a Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California, Riverside School of Public Policy.
As a Legislator, Mr. Levine established himself as one of California’s leading experts in energy, telecommunications, and technology policy. Mr. Levine’s desire to accelerate the deployment of broadband technology led him to author and pass the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act (DIVCA), which changed the way video and telecommunications companies were regulated, bringing statutes into par with the current technologies. He also successfully authored legislation streamlining and expediting the process of siting high-speed communications equipment on state property, and legislation changing the way school districts can procure technology.
Mr. Levine served as a member of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Broadband Taskforce and was a Founding Member of the Board of Directors of the California Emerging Technology Fund. Mr. Levine currently serves as a Founding Member of the Advisory Board for the UC Riverside School of Public Policy, where he and the school’s Dean, Anil Deolalikar, co-founded the Center for Technology, Policy and Society.
Through his work and academic publications, Mr. Levine has earned a reputation as a nationally recognized leader in government technology and policy, including recently being named “one of the 40 most thought-provoking innovators in New York city and state” by the prestigious New York City & State magazine. Mr. Levine has appeared on television and radio programs across the country and has been published and cited widely in print media, with articles published in everything from daily newspapers to legal publications. Mr. Levine has also served as a panelist and keynote speaker at energy, and technology conferences around the world, and been a guest lecturer in many universities and law schools.
As a Senior Policy Fellow, Mr. Levine has multiple peer reviewed articles and book chapters on technology, utiliites, broadband and the digital divide and the intersection with government. Currently, Mr. Levine working on an edited book volume on the intersection of technology and government. Titled, “Technology vs. Government: The Irresistible Force Meets the Immovable Object it will be out later this year.
Mr. Levine currently resides in Sacramento with his wife, Emmy award winning KCRA Anchorwoman Edie Lambert and their two children.

Jeffery currently serves as the Deputy Director, Chief Strategist at the California Office of Data and Innovation, where he leads the Strategy, Partnerships, and Training teams. He was appointed by Governor Newsom to this role in October 2022 after serving as ODI’s Deputy Director of Service Innovation. He began his work in state service as a volunteer, leading the Governor’s Data Insights Working Group as part of the administration’s COVID response team, eventually joining ODI permanently as the Insights Program Manager.
Jeffery’s work at ODI is focused on helping state departments develop innovative ways to engage with underserved communities and improve the customer experience for all Californians when interacting with their government. He played a pivotal role in developing a direct engagement and digital analytics model that increased the equitable delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine, and his team has shipped many examples of user-centered government services, including most recently with the launch of abortion.ca.gov.
Prior to answering the call to public service, Jeffery served under two chief economists, developing data communications and thought leadership programs at Redfin and ZipRecruiter. In addition to his leadership roles in recruitment-tech and prop-tech, Jeffery is also a seasoned data journalist, known for his coverage of the housing crisis and the socio-economic legacy of the Great Recession. His work has appeared in the LA Times, Business Insider, and FastCompany, among other notable publications.
A proud graduate of two California state universities, Jeffery has a Master’s degree in critical theory and comparative literature from University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and his young son.

Taylor McNally is a Senior Deep Learning Architect at the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center. He works with customers to help them imagine, identify, and integrate generative AI into their businesses. He has a deep understanding of machine learning and generative AI and is passionate about helping customers use this technology to solve real-world problems.

Martin Oberhofer leads the software development teams worldwide for in the area of data governance, AI governance, data products and master data management. He is also an IBM Distinguished Engineer - a position awarded in recognition of deep and sustained technical contributions to IBM. Martin is a technologist and leader with deep expertise in enterprise data architecture across multiple domains such as data observability and data quality, data integration, artificial intelligence and machine learning. He has a proven track record in translating customer needs into software solutions working collaboratively with globally distributed development, design and product management teams.
Previous to his current assignment in the IBM Analytics development organization, Martin worked with many large clients around the world, at the enterprise level, providing thought leadership on data-centric solutions. In this role he repeatedly brought the business and IT teams together by communicating solutions to complex problems in simple terms.
He is an elected member of the IBM Academy of Technology and a certified IBM Master Inventor with over 130 granted patents, has authored numerous publications and is the co-author of several books.

JP Petrucione joined the CA Office of Data and Innovation in October 2019 as “employee #1.” Over the last several years, he’s played many key roles, including leading strategic communications and creating a data insights team that was responsible for developing a vaccine sentiment model that brought together first-party user journey data, vaccination rates and equity data during COVID. He currently serves as ODI’s Deputy Director for Research.
As ODI’s Deputy Director for Research, JP is helping to build a human-centered research practice that uses modern tools and methods to engage directly with Californians - both residents and state staff - to gather data about their experiences and needs and bring those data into service design and delivery.
JP’s experience also includes over a decade working with local, state and national political campaigns experimenting with then-new technologies like social media and big data, to inform media strategy. In 2004, JP was then-Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Deputy Communications Director, and played a lead role in the Winter of Love when Mayor Newsom legalized gay marriage and lanched a new phase of the LGBTQIA rights movement.

Katie Regan currently serves as the State Data Services Manager within the California Department of Technology (CDT). CDT’s Data Services team includes geospatial services and is dedicated to sustainable and accessible data sharing, elevating data management standards, leading various centers of excellence, and providing support to strategic data initiatives. Before joining the state, Katie led the creation of the Office of Performance and Data Analytics at the City of Stockton, which focused on performance management, data governance, open data, and operationalizing analytics for equitable service delivery to residents. Prior to joining public service, Katie consulted for medical device and pharmaceutical clients where she led program implementations, streamlined business processes, and risk assessed regulatory compliance. Katie has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Puget Sound and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law.

Ron Robinette serves as Chief Service Assessment Officer at the California Department of Technology (CDT). In this role, he is responsible for operating the Critical Services Offices which includes the national award-winning CA Stabilization Service team and nationally popular Technology Modernization Fund. Both programs were initiated with his leadership.
With a career in public service spanning more than 25 years, he has assisted in the state response to emergency situations such as H1N1, the Angora fire, and COVID-19. Ron’s accomplishments at CDT since 2017 include: project planning in over 300 efforts, reducing project planning time by 50%, directing projects for COVID information dashboards, and instantiating both the Technology Stabilization Fund and Technology Modernization Fund. Previously, Ron served as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the California Department of Community Services and Development and was recognized as a CIO of the Year in 2016. His state service includes roles in the Application Development Branch of the California Department of Public Health where he worked on numerous key projects, and as a Senior Project Analyst at the State Water Resources Control Board. Over the years, his technology teams have received numerous state and national awards.
Ron received a Bachelor of Science in Business with an emphasis on Management Information Systems from Sacramento State University and a Master of Science in Management from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with specializations in analytics and project management. He is also an alumnus of several IT leadership programs.

Joe Sullivan is an innovative and passionate IT professional who’s transforming businesses by leveraging more than 25 years of global IT operations experience to design and implement strategic IT solutions. Joe has held various technical and senior leadership roles in both the public and private sectors. Joe received his MBA from the University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management. In Joe’s current role he partners with clients to not only solve today but more importantly create roadmaps for the future.

Adam Thomas is a seasoned technology and security professional with nearly 30 years of experience in the IT vendor space working in both technical and management roles. He's built his career helping customers and partners achieve their operational goals and objectives while keeping cost and complexity under control. Over the years his core strategy has been to closely partner with key players to educate and promote greater awareness around the latest trends and challenges in the security landscape and to help identify and design solutions that best fit the needs and capabilities of the organization. This includes focusing on improving and streamlining security operations, implementing orchestration and automation to free up valuable human resources and reduce mean time to repone (MTTR), thereby minimizing negative impacts to business operations. In his current role as a Security Architect with Fortinet, he is responsible for technical and business relationships with state and local agencies as well as large educational institutions.

Blake Valenta has spent over a decade leveraging data to improve the lives of the public.
As the Deputy Director of Data Programs and Policy at the Office of Data and Innovation, Blake works to empower the use of data by ensuring the state has the processes and policies to manage, access, and use data efficiently, effectively, and responsibly. In this role, he and his team manages an AI ethics toolkit process for ODI’s data science service, develops statewide data standards, and facilitates data sharing via the management of the CA Interagency Data Exchange Agreement (IDEA).
In 2016, Blake was a Research Fellow with Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance. His placement was at DataSF, the Office of the Chief Data Officer in the City of San Francisco. There he co-drafted with the CDO a recommended race ethnicity data standard for the city. In 2018, he was hired by DataSF as an Analytics Strategist. In that role he ran the DataScienceSF program implementing a first of its kind AI ethical framework into the project lifecycle process. In addition he designed, incubated, and grew an Analytics Accelerator program which trained over 600+ staff in dashboarding tools and helped provide the training and support foundation for many of the city departments dashboarding initiatives and the city’s overall covid response.
He holds a degree in political science from University of Chicago and a masters degree in Public Policy from UCLA.

Alex Vega, a dynamic IT leader with over two decades in the industry, presently shines as the Principal FSA for Cloud Native services at CDW's esteemed Digital Velocity practice. Specializing in ITMS, Data Center/Cloud, and DevOps, Vega's expertise extends to pioneering strategies in Private and Public Cloud Architecture. Recognized for consistently delivering projects that defy challenges, his approach is deeply rooted in fostering collaborative success and ensuring client satisfaction. His capability to communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences has made him a sought-after figure in the realm of IT solutions. Beyond the world of tech, Vega's passions span boating, scuba diving, and, most endearingly, fatherhood. He firmly believes in drawing wisdom from the past, making the most of the present, and looking forward with optimism, echoing Einstein's words.

Scott White is a Regional Manager at AT&T’s Cybersecurity Consulting with over 20 years of combined experience in telecommunications, data networking, and cybersecurity industry and over a decade of leadership within AT&T Business. He currently leads the strategic operations in the Western U.S., overseeing client services and end-to-end management. He is a security subject matter expert in applying security and risk-management principles to help enterprises design and achieve information assurance objectives. Scott currently works with Fortune 500, local and state governments, and small-to-medium size enterprises to evolve their security program maturity across numerous domains of InfoSec, supplying much needed cyber talent and expertise on-demand. With a comprehensive understanding of industry standards, frameworks (ISO 27000, NIST, PCI, CIS, etc.), and regulatory requirements, Scott is a trusted expert in navigating the complex world of information security. Scott’s certifications include CISSP (ISC2: 525981), CISA (ISACA: 20169257), CISM (ISACA: 1737561), AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, and ITILv4 Foundation.

Blaine Wasylkiw is California's Deputy Chief Technology Innovation Officer within the California Department of Technology. Before being appointed to this role, he was the Chief Web Officer for the state of California. In both his previous and current positions, he plays a key role in state government's digital transformation and supporting the recently launched California State Digital Strategy.