Mike Ansley joined NIC, a division of Tyler Technologies, in 2011 and serves as Senior General Manager of NIC Colorado. Mr. Ansley leads a team of technologists who provide more than 650 products and services to state and local government partners across Colorado in partnership with Colorado’s Statewide Internet Portal Authority. A champion for digital transformation and operational excellence, Mr. Ansley has been instrumental in ushering in emerging, innovative solutions that benefit Colorado government agencies and the citizens they serve. Prior to joining NIC, Mr. Ansley served in the US Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN65) as a nuclear engineer and spent 15 years leading other public and private sector technology companies.

Phil Bertolini is senior vice president of the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. 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.

Vinod Brahmapuram is Senior Director of Security for state and local government and education markets at Lumen Technologies. With more than 25 years of information technology experience, Vinod has held cybersecurity leadership positions in three states, advising governors and legislators on key cyber issues. Before joining Lumen, he served as the State Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Washington.

Sean is a cloud architect supporting the State of Colorado in the Governor's Office of Information Technology (OIT), focused on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. He has helped build the AWS practice at OIT from the ground up and has served as a technical leader to aid in the design and development of cloud services supporting a wide range of cloud projects. Most recently he has been focused on building and delivering a training program to aid with scaling the internal operations of the AWS cloud at OIT. He loves Chipotle burritos, e-bikes, and going on adventures within the State of Colorado.

Mr. Coldiron has serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of Loveland, CO since July, 2019, previously serving as CIO in Fort Collins for 9 years. Overall, Dan has worked in and managed municipal IT for over 30 years. His responsibilities include the coordination and collaboration of all elements of the city’s technology portfolio and technology strategic direction, ensuring the effective delivery of technology services to internal operations, citizens, and the business community, while driving toward more sustainable and efficient outcomes.

Neal has led the state and federal government business at Lucid, the only visual collaboration suite to help public sector teams see and build the future, for the past 3 years. He advises governments at all levels on how to facilitate a collaborative & innovative culture while also speeding up remote/hybrid work, rapid modernization, and cloud migration initiatives. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two little girls, golf, mountain biking, skiing/snowboarding, and anything else outdoors.

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.

For the past decade, Sarah C. Hernandez has designed statewide strategies to address the systemic causes of inequities, advanced organizational change efforts, and created tools centered on institutionalizing equity and inclusion. She leads equity, diversity and inclusion work using a trauma-informed and healing approach to create sustainable and transformational change. Sarah currently works as the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Senior Manager at the Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology. Prior to OIT, she was the Office of Health Equity deputy director at the state’s public health department, where she was instrumental in driving Colorado’s first statewide EDI initiatives - including an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion executive order signed by Governor Polis. In previous roles Sarah led projects focused on community mobilization, community inclusion, program evaluation, policy change and workforce development. She earned a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Community and Behavioral Health from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Craig has worked in the IT industry for over 25 years and has focussed on security for the past 15 years. He started in security as a forensic analyst and incident handler. After doing that for several years he moved into leadership in the InfoSec space and has been leading security teams in different capacities for the past 10 years. Craig has experience in Higher Education, Healthcare, Software Companies, and State government as well as some non-profit experience. Craig is passionate about creating the Office of Know instead of the Office of No. Craig currently serves as the Senior Director, Information Security (Deputy CISO) for the State of Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology.

Jennings has over 23 years of experience in the K-20 sector, as well as 21 years of experience in the FCC E-rate program. He is an accomplished leader of sales, marketing & compliance/support teams. He brings to Fortinet extensive expertise in SLED, EDU, K-12, Education technology, funding, purchasing practices, e-rate federal funding consulting/compliance and strategic planning. He has proven to be successful in providing consultative services to local government & local education agencies (LEA’s) as well as school districts and state agencies.

Katherine began her career working with immigrants and refugees in Boston. This work led her to pursue a master’s of science in social work at The University of Texas at Austin. Since then, Katherine has managed AmeriCorps, workforce readiness, and career coaching development programs in Texas, Indiana, and Colorado. In August 2019, she joined the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment as the Director of the Office of the Future of Work leading the state’s efforts to raise awareness about the future of work, build digital equity, and through the State Apprenticeship Agency, expand access to registered apprenticeship programs.

Kris Kiburz has worked in IT for almost 30 years. For the past 18 years, she has served the State of Colorado. First as a Business Application Developer and now as a Sr. IT Director. For the past three years, Kris has been creating some data-driven-panic by helping many state agencies see, at-a-glance, the relative health of each of the IT Products on which they depend to meet their business needs. Now agencies and OIT can quickly see how some applications have been aging in place and are overdue for enhancements or replacements. This awareness creates opportunities for agencies to prioritize the work of transforming their IT products and benefiting from things like Cloud Services, Digital Signatures, and more.

Kent has been with the City and County of Denver for nearly 10 years, and has been with Technology Services for the last 3.5 years. He has held various management roles within Technology Services, and has recently stepped into the role of Director of Data & Analytic Services. His team has recently implemented a Data Hub using modern cloud technologies. He also manages GIS resources that are responsible for the administration of the City’s GIS data. The Data & Analytic Services team has an overall goal to enable city agencies to be data-driven organizations.

Andy MacIsaac, is the Solutions Marketing Director for Public Sector at Alteryx, an advanced analytics platform. Mr. MacIsaac, has spent most of his career leading go to market efforts targeted at the public sector. He has a passion for helping public sector organizations leverage technology to solve problems that can improve the delivery of service, the achievement of mission and the quality of life for their constituents.

David McCurdy is an Executive Government Advisor at Amazon Web Services (AWS) guiding state and local government executives through strategy, policy, and governance challenges to help accelerate their cloud journey. David brings 20 years of experience transforming technology across government, healthcare, and telecommunications industries. Previously, David spent five years as Chief Technology Officer at the State of Colorado leading digital transformation and 10 years at Catholic Health Initiatives leading technology transformation.

Naber serves as the Chief information Officer (CIO) for the City of Greeley, previously CIO at the University of Northern Colorado for 8 years. Over 20 years of experience in government agencies including previously chairing the Colorado Higher Education Computing Organization. His background includes successful ERP implementations, project portfolio management, operational streamlining, and funding acquisitions for major projects. He is currently assisting in the development of a High Performing Government plan for the City of Greeley.

Nick Pistentis serves as Deputy Chief Information Officer at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He has over 15 years of experience in higher education technology, as well as several years working in private sector software and consulting organizations.

Mike is the Senior Sales Engineering Manager for Snowflake’s Higher Education and State and Local Practice nationally. He has worked for Snowflake for just over 2.5 years. Prior to that, he worked at SAS Institute for 21 years holding numerous leadership roles in various business units specifically supporting the public sector. Mike has over twenty-five years of experience with data-related technologies in the public sector. Prior to working at SAS, Mike spent two years at the University of Colorado at Denver as a SAS Programmer and Analyst, leveraging the capabilities of SAS in the Institutional Research Department.

Jenny Schiavone is the Chief Digital Officer for the City and County of Denver’s Department of Technology Services. In this role, she oversees the city’s digital experiences and the strategic transformation of how government connects with its customers. With more than 20 years of broad marketing and communications experience, Jenny decided to stretch into the technology space to help modernize government through equitable, intuitive, human-first interactions.

Teri Takai is the senior vice president of the Government Technology, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. She worked for Ford Motor Company for 30 years in global application development and information technology strategic planning. From Ford, she moved to EDS in support of General Motors. A long-time interest in public service led her to the government sector, first as CIO of the State of Michigan, then as CIO of the State of California and, subsequently, the CIO of the U.S. Department of Defense, the first woman appointed to this role. She then served as the CIO for Meridian Health Plan.
Teri is a member of several industry advisory boards. She has won numerous awards including Governing magazine’s Public Official of the Year, CIO Magazine’s CIO Hall of Fame, Government Technology magazine’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers, the Women in Defense Excellence in Leadership Award and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

Debbie Thibault has been with the State of Colorado and OIT since 2009. She is currently a Sr IT Director supporting the Department of Revenue and the Department of Regulatory Agencies. Throughout her time at OIT, she has held multiple positions within the Chief Financial and Chief Customer offices. It is this diverse background and experience with multiple areas of OIT that enables her to see the organization from a unique perspective. Prior to OIT, Debbie spent 20+ years managing businesses, architecting business systems and leading change in the private sector.

Steve Troxel has over 25 years of progressive experience in information systems infrastructure, software, cybersecurity and management, and over 10 years of experience as a business owner in the Arizona community. He served as the interim CTO of the Arizona Department of Education, and has been serving public sector agencies for over 15 years. He continues this passion as a solutions engineer at SHI, working with agencies and municipalities in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

A proven leader in information technology with over twenty years of executive experience, Kevin has led transformative change in global companies and the public sector by using creative solutions and agile product delivery to grow digital capabilities and provide exceptional customer experiences. Kevin is the Chief Information Officer for the City of Fort Collins, Colorado, and is leading the business digital transformation for the city with a focus on the customer experience, digital equity, self-services, smart city capabilities, and business transformation. Kevin has received numerous awards and certifications, most notably: 2021 Colorado CIO of the Year finalist, and Certified Government Chief Information Officer.
Kevin earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Science in Industrial Psychology and Organizational Behavior and has an established track record of leading cross-functional, business and technology teams through effective change management to modernize business operations through transformative digital solutions. He spent most of his career leading global business and technology teams to accelerate revenue growth and sales while reducing operational costs by transforming the role of IT from a service provider to an agile, product focused thought partner. Kevin served as a business unit CIO for General Electric, playing a key leadership role in the post 9/11 catastrophe restructuring the business and implementing global, mobile digital solutions. Kevin also led the product modernization for Swiss Re Corporate Solution and Travelers Insurance consumer division. He received top honors for his ability to propel these businesses into the digital age and has garnered acclaim for his unique ability to transcend organizational silos meet the ever-growing needs of customers.
Kevin’s priority is to recruit and develop future-focused top talent, fostering highly diverse teams who are empowered to drive change and innovation. Kevin demonstrates the leadership skills and outcomes needed to transform both business and government operations in our digital age. In addition, he passionately supports philanthropic ventures and has served on multiple social justice and arts boards. Kevin is a unique CIO, and we are fortunate to learn about his insights and experiences.

As a Client Technical Leader, Chris provides overall technology vision, guidance, and strategy for Public Sector clients across the United States. He is a highly talented, forward thinking IT leader with expansive experience in Hybrid and Multi-Cloud solutions, Cloud strategy, infrastructure architecture and design, IT systems transformation and systems integration.

Joe is a cloud security engineer, designing policies and building technologies to create a best practices driven security and compliance framework at the State. He also serves as a liaison between the Information Security Office and the Technology Office in matters regarding Amazon Web Services (AWS) compliance, security, and incident response. He has facilitated the expansion of security operations capabilities in the cloud through the integration of SaaS services and custom built applications. He is currently working on a solution to automate compliance auditing for databases in AWS. When not at the office, Joe can be found at bluegrass concerts, doing yoga, or playing with his two dogs at the dog park.

Ray Yepes is an experienced cybersecurity practitioner with strong business acumen, technical knowledge and proven leadership skills in information security and IT privacy, risk and compliance. Before joining the Governor’s Office of Information Technology in April 2022, Ray served as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in the Lone Star State. Prior to that work, Yepes co-founded and was the director of a full-service cybersecurity company whose clients included Fortune 500, 200, 100 and 50 companies. He has also served as the CISO for a Fortune 200 company. A strategic thinker, Ray has focused on building strong business relationships while delivering customer-centric solutions throughout his career. He believes that while cybersecurity tools are indispensable for any organization, embedding analytics into manual processes is a must in order to close security gaps. Ray holds a Master of Science in criminal justice and a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Sam Houston State University, as well as associate of science and associate of arts degrees from North Harris Montgomery Community College. He also holds a myriad of certifications including InfoSec’s Evaluation Methodology (IEM) and Assessment Methodology (IAM), EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), among others. Ray enjoys volunteering in his spare time and has co-founded various nonprofit groups including environmental and animal rescue organizations.

Len Zheleznyak is the Head of Customer Value and Transformation Advisory for the Public Sector at Google Cloud. In this role, he leads a team of professionals that assist the Public Sector in building the case for change through a comprehensive value driven methodology that uncovers efficiencies, increases citizen engagement, and delivers impactful mission outcomes. Len and his team partner with Cities, States, Federal Agencies, and Institutions of Higher Learning to uncover the opportunities that the intersection of technology, innovation, and government can deliver to improve the lives of the people these institutions serve.
Over the past 20 years, Len Zheleznyak has had leadership roles in Consulting, Strategy, and Value Engineering, with a continued focus on leveraging transformation to drive differentiated value in the Private and Public sectors. Prior to Google, Len served in Value Engineering roles at both Oracle and Palo Alto Networks where he helped build out their respective Public Sector Value Practices. Len received his Bachelor’s Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Denver, Daniels College of Business. He resides in Colorado with his wife Jacqueline and their two children.