Phil Bertolini is a senior vice president for Government Technology, the premiere event and thought leadership content provider for state and local government technology professionals. Previously, he served as deputy county executive and CIO for Oakland County, Michigan. During his 31-year tenure, Phil built a world-class IT organization in the second-largest county in Michigan, just north of Detroit. As Oakland County CIO, he oversaw more than 150 employees serving over 1.2 million residents. In 2005, he was also promoted to deputy county executive, holding dual positions until his retirement. Phil’s efforts earned the county national attention, winning numerous awards for technology innovation and excellence. He was named Governing Magazine’s Public Official of the Year and Government Technology Magazine’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers. He was also honored by the President Obama White House as a Champion of Change.

Devon Braunstein is the Digital Equity Director for the City of Chicago. In this role, she leads the City’s broadband equity strategy, convening the Chicago Digital Equity Coalition, overseeing Chicago Connected, and designing an approach to increase broadband connectivity in the City’s least connected communities. Prior to her time with the City of Chicago, she worked for the New York City Department of Small Business Services in economic development, and Deloitte Consulting, where she focused on software implementation and tech strategy. Devon lives on Chicago’s Near West Side with her partner David and rescue dog Penny.

Jayson is a public sector technology subject matter expert with 20 years of city and county government experience. Prior to joining AWS Jayson served as the Chief Information Officer for the City of Cincinnati where he led the city’s enterprise technology department, chaired the city’s IT Governance Board, and managed the city’s capital budget and project approval processes. Jayson also has a background in public safety technology having served as a county 911 and Emergency Communications Director, as well as experience in the private sector as a Business Analysis Manager responsible for technology contracts and procurements totaling $350 million in annually.

Andrew Feuerborn is the Director of Data & Analytics for the City of Aurora, the 2nd largest city in the State of Illinois. For the past few years, Andrew has been building out the City’s Data & Analytics Division under the Information Technology Department. The Data & Analytics team’s mission is to provide greater government transparency and fully leverage data sources to engage and empower citizens, government agencies and private enterprises in identifying solutions to the City’s current and future challenges and opportunities for improved operational efficiencies and overall enhanced quality of life in the City.
Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice degree from the University of Wisconsin, Platteville, a Master of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from the State University of New York, Albany and a Master of Arts Teaching Certification from Aurora University.
After completing his master’s degree in Criminal Justice, Andrew began his professional life as a researcher with the State of Illinois at the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Andrew left the State of Illinois to become the City of Aurora’s first Crime Analyst in 1995 with the Aurora Police Department. Andrew quickly transitioned into an IT role at the Police Department and subsequently moved to a centralized City IT Department.
Over the last 28 years Andrew has filled numerous IT roles both within the Police Department and the City’s Information Technology Department. This includes serving as Aurora’s Director of Police Technical Services for over 10 years before transitioning to become the City’s first Director of Data & Analytics.
Since becoming the Director of Data & Analytics, he has grown the Division from a team of one to a team of 4 full-time staff including himself as the Director along with two data engineers and a data analyst. Together they have built a data analytics program from the ground up and have successful deployed numerous internal and public facing projects that have improved the City’s operational efficiencies and increased government transparency. The team continues to move forward with new initiatives and new technologies to better meet its internal city employees’ and external public customers’ needs around data.

Chris Hein runs a team of 50+ customer engineers for Google Public Sector. His team is responsible for architecting technical solutions to solve Public Sector problems. He’s been with Google for 9 years as a Solution Architect, Technical Evangelist, and now Director of Customer Engineering. During that time Chris has helped Fortune 10 companies and state governments alike work more like Google. He is also a member of the Executive AI Principles Fellowship at Google focused on ensuring ethical use of AI both internally and externally. His goal is to help public sector and educational organizations become more efficient and effective in furthering their mission using best in breed technologies and methodologies.

With a decade of experience in the cybersecurity industry as a hacker, John currently leads strategy for IBM X-Force: a global team of hackers, researchers, threat intelligence analysts, and incident responders. He is a former United States Naval officer, is OSCP-certified and has significant experience in offensive security and threat intelligence. His experience extends across several industries in addition to government which includes finance, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and life sciences, and healthcare. His work has appeared on or been covered in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Dark Reading, and VentureBeat.

Waseem is the Chief Information Officer at the City of Rolling Meadows. With his 25 years plus experience in Information Technology, he oversees all aspects of technology in the City. He received his Master’s degree from Keller Graduate School specializing in IT Management and Information Security. Over the years, Waseem’s skillset and knowledge have garnered him a lot of recognition, which is how he was able to be elected as the Vice President of Memberships for GMIS-Illinois in Nov. 2022.

Michael Pegues was appointed by Mayor Richard C. Irvin as the first-ever Chief Information Officer for the City of Aurora, Illinois in June 2017. Michael began his career working in various IT Support roles for AT&T and PepsiCo in the Greater Chicago Area. Michael has worked for the US Department of Defense as a civilian Automation Management Officer at the US Army Logistical Readiness Canter in Vicenza, Italy. In addition, Michael has held various senior IT positions in Hewlett-Packard France, Vodafone Hungary and Morgan Stanley in Budapest, Hungary and New York, New York. Michael holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from DeVry University and an Master of Business Administration (MBA) Global Executive Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management from Central European University Business School in Vienna and Budapest. Michael is a proud United States Army veteran.

Charles “Chuck” Ruehling is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Cook County, Illinois. He came to Cook County in 2018 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at Goddard Space Flight Center where he worked as the Cyber Threat Analyst and Certification and Authorization Official. Prior to that, he was the Cyber Security Program Manager for the Office of Environmental Management at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in Washington DC.
Chuck retired from the U.S. Army in April of 2011 and after a brief time as a contractor working for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) he started Federal Service for DOE. During his time in the Military, he served in numerous positions as a Telecommunications Systems Engineer at Fort Bragg, NC, Seoul, South Korea and culminating in an assignment with the Information Assurance Directorate at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, MD.
Chuck has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Iowa State University and a Master of Arts in Computer Resources and Information Management from Webster University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional since 2008.

Omar Sandoval is the Director of Government Programs for the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. Prior to joining the Center, Omar was the Director of Information Technology for the Naperville Park District.
Omar has won numerous awards which include a Distinguished Services Award, by the Naperville Jaycees; Four Under 40 Achievement Award, presented by the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce which recognizes young who demonstrate excellence based on leadership in the community, business leadership, and career and life balance. Government Technology magazine honored Omar with awards for Technology Innovations in the Park District Operations and Citizens categories; Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers and a Leadership Innovation Award for his efforts in assisting his own organization and others to start eSports leagues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Omar earned his Master of Science degree in Business Analytics with a concentration in Business Administration from Benedictine University. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at the College of DuPage in the Computer and Information Technology department.

Mark has been a technology and security professional for over 30 years. He began his career building security technology to protect electrical power grids and nuclear generation facilities. From there he moved to the financial sector working in stock and option trading security before joining the Internet boom where he built security solutions for large online retailers in the early days of e-commerce. Since then, he brought his experience to various global organizations in pharmaceuticals, talent management and media, higher education, marketing services, and HR/financial/management consulting. His government experience includes roles at the City of Chicago and Cook County Health. He is currently the Deputy CISO of Cook County.

Mark Taghap is the Chief Information Security Officer for the City of Aurora in IL. He brings 23 years of experience from the private sector where he’s held positions as Network Administrator, Information Technology Manager, and Director of Information Technology for various industries such as manufacturing, engineering, construction inspection, telecommunications, and public service projects with IL Tollway, IL Department of Transportation, and Cook County Office of Capital Planning. He’s led over 15 relocations/new building acquisitions/data center moves, ERP transitions, and electronic data interchange projects. In the past 5 years, he’s added cybersecurity in his repertoire of skillsets, and focusing in on risk assessment, mitigation, penetration testing, external address scanning, and vendor due diligence. He graduated from Northern Illinois University in Spring of 1999, University of Michigan’s Cybersecurity Professional Program in July of 2022, and currently in University of Texas’s Post Graduate Program in Cybersecurity and expected to complete in August of 2023.

Kayla Woods was appointed as interim Deputy Director on January 26, 2022. Kayla is an energetic leader with more than 15 years experience of impactful communications strategy, planning, and execution. Her experience includes media relations, contributed articles, event planning, speaking opportunities, website management, and social media. Her wide range of experience from the public and private sectors is instrumental in bringing together business strategy and communications for enhanced stakeholder alignment.
Prior to joining ETS, Kayla was the Director of Artist Relations for a worldwide tradeshow and media publication. Under Kayla's leadership, an integrated customer engagement program, Artistry Unlocked, was launched. She worked to achieve overall company goals through Artistry Unlocked and other departmental initiatives, focusing on data driven decisions, operational effectiveness and efficiency, and a culture of creative innovation.
Kayla is a northwest native, drawn to Wyoming's kind people, wild areas, and plethora of outdoor activities. She graduated with honors from the University of Arizona and is a local community advocate, serving on the board for the Cheyenne Civic Center. She enjoys cooking, spending time watching her two kids play sports, and hiking with her husband.

Chris Wysopal is Chief Technology Officer at Veracode. He oversees technology strategy and information security. Prior to co-founding Veracode in 2006, Chris was vice president of research and development at security consultancy @stake, which was acquired by Symantec. In the 1990’s, Chris was one of the original vulnerability researchers at The L0pht, a hacker think tank, where he was one of the first to publicize the risks of insecure software. He has testified to the US Congress on the subjects of government security and how vulnerabilities are discovered in software. Chris received a BS in computer and systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is the author of The Art of Software Security Testing. Chris is often called upon to download the latest Minecraft mods for his 6-year-old son. An avid photographer and nature-lover, Chris spends his free time hiking the many conservation trails near his home outside Boston.