State of Colorado

Governor Polis is an entrepreneur, education leader, and public servant. He started his first business, American Information Systems, while in college out of his dorm room. By the time he was 30, he’d launched three successful companies, including ProFlowers, one of the world’s leading online flower retailers. Jared’s pioneering role in the internet economy earned him an “Entrepreneur of the Year” distinction from Ernst and Young.
Following these business success, Governor Polis committed himself to making sure other Coloradans had the opportunity to pursue their dreams. He co-founded Techstars, a startup accelerator that mentors entrepreneurs from all walks of life, and Patriot Boot Camp, which helps veterans start their own small businesses after coming home from their service.
In addition to his career as an entrepreneur, much of Governor Polis’ adult life has been focused on improving public education. He served six years on the State Board of Education, where he worked to raise pay for teachers and reduce class size for students. He also founded several public charter schools for at-risk youth, and served as superintendent of one of them, the New America School, which helps immigrants earn their high school diploma.
Most recently, Governor Polis served as the U.S. representative for Colorado’s Second Congressional District, which stretches from Larimer County and the Wyoming border, to the Central Mountains at the heart of Colorado’s tourism economy, to Boulder and the U.S. 36 high-tech corridor. During his time in Congress, the Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked Governor Polis the most effective member of Colorado’s House delegation due to his success working across the aisle to improve Colorado’s schools, protect public lands, and support startups and small businesses.
Governor Polis is a Colorado native, born in 1975. He, his partner Marlon, and their two children are all avid Rockies fans.

Dan Thurmon is the founder and President of Motivation Works, a company that helps leaders and their organizations move confidently through change and transformation so that they achieve and contribute MORE. Dan is an expert speaker and performer. He has delivered thousands of presentations across six continents for audiences including world leaders, Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs, educators, and even troops on the front lines of battle. In 2011, he was inducted into the prestigious Speaker Hall of Fame. Dan recently served as the President of the National Speakers Association. During his tenure, he led the Board of Directors and the 3,000+ member organization through a critical transformation, which included new governance, a new mission, higher member value, and greater financial accountability. He’s authored two books: Success in Action and Off Balance On Purpose. Dan produces an ongoing weekly video coaching series and podcast in which he shares leadership principles and life-enhancement strategies in under three minutes. He is a health and fitness advocate. In his 50s, Dan continues to train and perform advanced acrobatics, and enjoys hobbies such as golf, mountain unicycling and the flying trapeze.

Teri Takai is the Co-Director of the Center for Digital Government, 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. She is a member of several industry advisory boards. Teri 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.

Phil Bertolini is the Co-Director 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.

Dustin Haisler is the Chief Innovation Officer for e.Republic. As Chief Innovation Officer, he has a strategic role to help shape the company’s products, services, and future direction. Primarily, he leads e.Republic Labs, a market connector created as an ecosystem to educate, accelerate, and ultimately scale technology innovation within the public sector. Dustin began he career at a very young age as the finance director and later CIO for Manor, TX, a small city outside Austin. He quickly built a track record and national reputation as an early innovator in civic tech, for which he was named a Government Technology Top 25 Doer, Dreamer and Driver in 2009. A member of Code for America’s original steering committee, Dustin pioneered government use of commercial technologies not before used in the public sector – including Quick-Response (QR) barcodes, crowdsourcing, and gamification. Dustin went on to the private sector to help broaden the adoption of these and other civic innovations. His work has been featured in Wired, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Inc., and the Today Show on NBC. An in-demand speaker, he has given two TEDx speeches – one on Disrupting Government (TEDxAustin) and the other on Disrupting Education (TEDxLivermore).

Prior to Governor Kelly’s appointment as Secretary of Administration, Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace served as the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies at the University of Kansas. Dr. Burns-Wallace started her career as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) with the U.S. Department of State. Dr. Burns-Wallace has been selected for various leadership opportunities, awards and honors throughout her higher ed and government career, including the 2018 White House Champions of Change College Opportunity, and earning a Superior Honor and three Meritorious Honor awards from the U.S. State Department. Dr. Burns-Wallace serves as a national trainer and curriculum developer for various national professional development organizations, non-profits, and higher ed institutions on issues ranging including micro-aggressions, multigenerational workplace differences, diversity and inclusion, change management, professional development pathways, and strategic planning. Service is also a cornerstone of her journey. Dr. Burns-Wallace currently serves on Stanford University’s Board of Governors, and has previously held board roles in numerous local, regional, and national organizations, and international selection committees including Gates Millennium Scholars, Dell Foundation Scholars, and Rhodes, Marshall, and Fulbright fellowships. Dr. Burns-Wallace holds a dual bachelor’s degree in International Relations and African American studies from Stanford University, a Master in Public Affairs from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Anthony Huey is a highly popular international speaker and communications consultant who offers session attendees pragmatic communications tools, tips and techniques they can use immediately in their professional and personal lives. His career includes tenures as a news reporter, magazine senior editor, crisis management specialist, media relations consultant and executive speech coach. Anthony heads Reputation Management, LLC, one of the nation’s leading communications training and crisis consulting companies. He has presented nearly 2,700 keynote speeches, workshops and seminars. His direct client work includes a wide variety of advertising, public relations and communications initiatives for hundreds of trade associations, municipalities and companies.

Mike Ansley joined NIC in 2011 and serves as the President and General Manager of NIC Colorado, a wholly owned subsidiary of NIC, Inc (Nasdaq: EGOV).
Mr. Ansley leads a team of technologists who provide more than 650 products and services to state and local government partners across Colorado.
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.
Mr. Ansley provided transformational leadership to several state and federal NIC business units and is excited to be back in Colorado serving the community he calls home. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, and Program Management Professional and Project Management Professional certifications from the Project Management Institute.

Russell Castagnaro is Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology Director of Digital Transformation. His mission is championing solutions, processes, and technologies that make government services more accessible, usable, and responsive to the public, business, and internal agencies. Russell is also responsible for myColoradoTM and Colorado Digital IdentityTM - Colorado's mobile identity solution.
Previously he was the CEO of Wampei, Inc, a company dedicated to bringing electronic peer-to-peer payments to any business, regardless of credit, race, religion, age, origin, and with or without a bank or third-party.
His experience ranges from one of the first US eCommerce applications in the 1990's to ePhilanthropy solutions to eGovernment solution portals. Throughout it all, the commerce component was always there. From 2003 through 2016, Russell headed the team that ran eHawaii.gov. His team implemented over 120 services for the Hawaii State and County government that process over $2 billion per year, launched hundreds of state government websites, and won over 25 national and international awards.
Russell’s OIT projects have included the EthDenver Forward Colorado blockchain hack-a-thon, myColorado, Colorado Digital ID, enabling 100% remote work for state employees, implementation of virtual call centers, chatbots, and electronic signatures.

Alan is Executive Vice President of e.Republic and Publisher of Government Technology magazine and Techwire. In this role, Alan is involved in the annual production of dozens of events as well as the strategic direction for Governing, Government Technology, Emergency Management, the Center for Digital Government and the Center for Digital Education. Alan is also the senior executive that has overall charge of e.Republic’s research organization which includes, custom research, the Digital Government and Digital Education Navigator tool and the Content Studio (webinars and custom content).
Alan has been a guest lecturer at universities and a frequent speaker for key government and industry organizations. For over 35 years, Alan has worked with industry, education and government officials to help them better understand the importance and use of information technology. Alan received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento.

Rita is an accomplished Senior Executive and Thought Leader, with over 30 years of success across the health care, higher education, and telecommunications industries. Leveraging extensive experience in program management for health care companies, she is an asset for education, technology, networking, and telecommunications companies of all sizes, who seek assistance with team building, training, and M&A. Her broad areas of expertise include integration, business process improvement, project, and change management.
Throughout her executive career, Rita has held leadership positions with Johnson & Johnson, Stanley Works, ServiceLink Field Services, LLC (formerly FIS), and The University of Phoenix. She was responsible for growing the IT department for a Venture Company KMC Telecom, driving the cost of the bottom line down while increasing value of the services. She also proved instrumental in negotiating a successful sale of the company, after more than seven years of profitable growth. She played an integral role in managing the implementation of IT governance, quality and compliance for ServiceLink Field Services, overseeing areas including risk mitigation and 100% compliance with governmental agencies. Additionally, in her role with The Stanley Works, she consolidated data centers, assisted in running the company’s helpdesk and servers as well as implemented ITIL while increasing system uptime and saving 25% on expenses, and reducing outages by 30%. She has recently moved her career into the public sector with her role within the Governor’s Office of Information Technology as the IT Director for Human Services.
Rita holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics with Mt. St. Vincent and Manhattan College, an MBA in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Studies from Farleigh Dickinson University, and a Doctorate from the University of Phoenix.

Seth Kindley serves as a Principal Systems Engineer at Pure Storage, where he is a technical advisor to: engineering, product management, sales, marketing and presales leadership in the field.
Seth has been a trusted advisor to US Federal customers since moving into data storage in 2005. Prior to Pure Storage, Seth worked at EMC Inc. as a Senior Systems Engineer focused on HPC within the Department of Energy.
Based outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Seth lives with his wife and two children and enjoys fishing and working on his property.

As the Chief Applications Officer for the City and County of Denver, Chad oversees Technology Services’ Applications Division. This team is responsible for the design, delivery, maintenance, and support of software applications and databases across the city. He focuses on business relationship development and executing against strategic plans to improve municipal service delivery through technology and innovation.
Chad has experience in several industries and an extensive technology background which includes applications, project management, infrastructure, operations, and telecommunications. He is a United States Army veteran and is very active in his local community.

Bob Nevins is the Director of State and Local Government Strategy and Business Development for Oracle Public Sector. Bob has wide background of experience in the health and human services market both in the private and public sector. Bob spent over 20 years in a variety of senior leadership roles in Massachusetts state government. He was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Massachusetts Health Connector, which was the first state-based health insurance exchange in the country. Other senior roles have included the Director of Mass.gov, where he oversaw the ambitious eGovernment initiative, and Deputy Commissioner for the MA Department of Revenue where he drove new and emerging technologies in the child support enforcement and tax administration programs. Bob began his career in government with the MA child welfare agency.

In 2015, after a two-decade career in the private sector with companies like Intel, GoDaddy, and Expedia, Morgan Reed moved to the public sector as Chief Information Officer for the State of Arizona. In less than 4 years, he transformed the IT organization which helped achieve the Governor’s goal of government operating at the speed of business. In late 2019 he joined Amazon Web Services (AWS) as an Executive Government Advisor, to coach State and Local Government (SLG) executives through strategy, policy, and governance challenges to help them accelerate their journey to the cloud, and help governments innovate for their customers.

Ashok Sankar is the Director of Solutions Strategy focused on public sector and education markets at Splunk. In this role, he is responsible for evangelism of the company’s solutions portfolio, leading thought leadership and strategic initiatives, customer engagements and content marketing strategies for the company’s portfolio of data analytics solutions. He brings expertise across analytics, security, mobile, cloud and virtualization technologies and their applications in public sector and commercial industries. He has presented at seminars and conferences on topics that include security, mobile technologies, cloud computing, content management and industry applications.

Ed has been with Colorado State Government for 28 years. He started his career at the Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) in 1992 and spent 20 years supporting their IT needs. He was their IT Director for 7 years prior to moving to the Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) as the Deputy Director of Infrastructure Operations for 5 years. Ed currently is the IT Director for the Department of Transportation and the Interim Deputy Chief Customer Officer for OIT. He has dedicated is entire career to public service in Colorado.