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.

Jimmie L. Collins has served as the Planning and Operations branch chief under the Hawaii State Office of Homeland Security since February 2020. In this position, she develops and implements statewide planning for a range of homeland security issues, including terrorism and domestic violent extremism, elections and cybersecurity. She leads the office activities related to operations such as in-state cybersecurity incidents and the recently emerging geopolitical tension’s impact to state safety and security. She also oversees programmatic responsibility for three statewide programs: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats. Her role also includes overseeing homeland security-related training events and developing and fielding homeland security-related exercises.Prior this position, Jimmie served in the Federal Civil Service for nearly 35 years across the Departments of Defense, Treasury, State and Energy, including overseas tours in Japan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Iraq; and travels throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Catherine Awakuni Colón is the current Hawaii director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. She was appointed to the position by Governor David Ige (D) on January 1, 2015. Promoted from within, she led two divisions at DCCA, working as the cable administrator for DCCA’s Cable Television Division, and as the department’s executive director for its Division of Consumer Advocacy. Catherine also served as chief legal counsel and commission counsel for a total of six years at the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. She holds a B.B.A. (Accounting) from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a J.D. from the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law.

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.

Kim Hashiro is the director of the City and County of Honolulu Department of Customer Services. She has held the position since May 2022. Prior to her appointment to the department’s top job, she spent 16 months as its deputy director. As director, Kim is responsible for the oversight of more than 250 employees with a focus on front-line public services as motor vehicle registration, driver’s licenses, state identification cards and satellite city hall operations.
Kim was once best known in city government and academia for her expertise in budget administration and human resources. Prior to assuming a senior leadership role with the city’s Department of Customer Services, Kim spent three-plus years running the University of Hawaii’s system human resources office. Before that, she served eight years as an administrative services officer for the city’s Department of Budget and Fiscal Services and also the Department of Enterprise Services. In addition, she was a budget analyst and data processing systems analyst for 14 years with the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.
An avid dog lover, Kim resides in Mānoa with her husband, Gary, and has a son, Jason, who is a junior in college, a daughter, Kaylynn, who is a freshman in college and has two shih tzus.

The Office of Enterprise Technology Services’ Cyber Security Program is led by State CISO, Vincent Hoang, who is responsible for securing state government information resources and infrastructure. He brings 20 years’ experience in developing and implementing effective information technology strategies, including the application of cybersecurity, network management and systems design to improve business outcomes. Vincent most recently served as the enterprise architect for Hawaiian Telcom, where he secured infrastructure for customers and conducted network architecture, performance, security risk and systems infrastructure assessments. He also worked as a senior systems consultant for Bank of Hawaii and a security engineer for Munger, Tolles and Olson in Los Angeles, CA.

Jodi Ito is the chief information security officer with the University of Hawaii System and is responsible for the security and protection of its institutional information assets. These responsibilities include development and management of policies and procedures related to information security, developing a research security program, conducting risk and vulnerability analysis for critical assets, conducting investigations into cyber incidents and conducting training on information security issues across all 10 UH campuses. She is also active in professional organizations such as EDUCAUSE, CyberHawaii, NWACC and REN-ISAC, and is the program director for NSA’s GenCyber camps in Hawaii.

Juha Kauhanen is a business architect at State of Hawaii Office of Enterprise Technology Services. In this role, he focuses on IT strategic planning and business analysis development with the agencies and data governance and management, leading the State Data Governance and Management Working Group. Part of the work is a current state maturity assessment of data governance and management across the state agencies, covering people, processes, policies, standards and technology aspects. This is paving the way for the soon-to-be-established chief data officer. Juha has worked in IT management and consultant roles since 1998, including over six years at Deloitte.

Daniel Liu is an enterprise architect at Google, helping state and local governments develop and implement compelling technical and functional strategies. He is a trusted advisor for the State of Hawaii and developed both Hawaii Safe Travel Application and Climate Resilient project. He is a published author, a recognized database expert and a frequent speaker at various global IT conferences and many state and local government sponsored technology events, including Hawaii HACC, Hawaii TRUE, Hawaii Public Radio and LA County Women in Technologies. Daniel has received the SELECT Editorial Award for Best Article in 2001, been named Architect of the Week by the OTN in 2004 and received Ken Jacobs Award in 2017.
Prior to joining Google, Daniel served as a principal architect at Oracle Corporation for 12 years, a senior manager at First American and built one of the largest and most complex database environments in North American.

Burt Lum is the State of Hawaii’s broadband strategy officer in the Hawaii Broadband and Digital Equity Office dedicated to digital equity and ensuring that Hawaii establishes robust, resilient, ubiquitous and affordable connectivity to the global broadband internet. He was previously the executive director of Hawaii Open Data, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the principles of open data/knowledge in Hawaii, including policy work and community collaborations. He has more than 30 years in Hawaii's technology and telecommunications sector and is a frequent speaker and panelist on the topic of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Michael Miranda is an assistant professor of Information Security at the University of Hawaii – West Oahu, which has been designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He is also the principal consultant at SPARTIX, a cybersecurity and technology consulting company, and serves as attorney of counsel for ES&A, A Law Corporation. Previously, Michael held various leadership and technical cybersecurity positions in commercial and government sectors. Raised in Mililani, Hawaii, he earned a BA degree in English from the University of Central Florida, a law degree from Gonzaga University and a BA degree in Information and Computer Sciences from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. He holds current Global Information Assurance Certifications (GIAC) as a Systems and Network Auditor (GSNA), Intrusion Analyst (GCIA), Forensic Analyst (GCFA) and in Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM).

Bob Muellner leads a sales team of account executives for the Salesforce Global Public Sector for Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii, based in Los Angeles, CA. He joined Salesforce in January 2014 after a 20+ year public sector career in technology sales. From 1994 to 1998, he served as district sales manager for Panasonic’s Personal Computer Division, focused on public safety mobile use cases for law enforcement.
Bob worked with the San Diego Police Department in transforming its mobile digital strategy for in-vehicle reporting and video. Joining GTSI in 1998 as its western region manager, he was responsible for managing both field sales and inside sales teams for the 13-state western region, expanding GTSI’s State & Local Government footprint. In 2005, he became a member of the Unisys Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure Services (GOIS) team, working closely with Los Angeles County, specifically the Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), in modernizing the County’s eligibility system, LEADER.
Bob began his concentration in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with his move to Verint (Lagan) in 2008, continuing his work with DPSS as vice president of western sales and broadening Verint’s account base in the western U.S. In 2011, he joined the Oracle team in Southern California and further expanded his portfolio in CRM to include the implementation of the City of Los Angeles’ 311 system, MyLA311, in 2013, along with other CRM projects in Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah.
An alumnus of the University of Notre Dame and Loyola University Chicago, Bob and his wife, Kajon, have raised three daughters in Southern California, who are all on their own life adventures. Bob and his wife have made nautical living their next chapter – living full time on their 40’ Sea Ranger in Marina del Rey, CA.

Chief Information Officer Douglas Murdock previously served as the enterprise technology officer at the Hawaii State Department of Human Services, overseeing some of the state’s largest technology initiatives. Murdock was also comptroller for the State of Hawaii, launching the successful effort to modernize the state’s antiquated payroll system.
As an Air Force Judge Advocate (attorney), Douglas was heavily involved in legal information technology, developing IT plans and program requirements for key Air Force systems. This included two years at the Air Force legal information services center, developing and programming databases and websites, implementing document management programs and gathering and prioritizing user requirements for various business applications. Douglas also led the legal office at the Air Force’s Electronic Systems Center in Boston, providing advice for procurement of a five-billion-dollar portfolio of Air Force and Department of Defense IT system.

Curt Otaguro joined Governor David Ige’s Cabinet as state comptroller and director, Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS), in January 2019. As comptroller, he assumed responsibilities and management oversight for a diverse group of state programs and activities, including the state’s accounting system; state archives, records management and storage, internal audit including HART invoice auditing, automotive management and parking control, repair and maintenance of DAGS managed buildings and grounds including the State Capitol and Washington Place, enterprise technology services, land survey and public works planning, design and construction for statewide capital improvement projects.
As comptroller, Curt also provided administrative support for three neighbor island district offices, three administrative offices and eleven attached agencies which included Campaign Spending Commission, Office of Elections, Enhanced E911 Board, Office of Information Practices, State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, State Procurement Office, King Kamehameha Celebration Commission, Information Privacy Security Council, Procurement Policy Board, Building Code Council, Access Hawaii Committee and Stadium Authority which recently transferred to another State Department in July 2022.

Burt Ramos manages a diverse NIC Hawaii team who develops and maintains over 150 digital government services through the eHawaii.gov portal program. The flexible funding models create innovation and efficiencies across the government landscape and build viable solutions even amidst constraints in agency budgets, technical and/or staffing resources. Burt continually fosters strong, lasting relationships with nearly all state agencies and many county departments. His team works closely with many state department directors and deputies to determine appropriate use of technology and implement long-term services and solutions for Hawaii citizens.

Trent Redden, senior director of Cybersecurity Solutions – Public Sector, has been with AT&T for 20+ years. Over the past five years, his primary focus has been leading the cybersecurity sales team across AT&T’s Public Sector for federal, state and local governments. Trent has a passion for cybersecurity and takes his daily responsibility seriously as a cybersecurity leader. In today's world, cybersecurity threats are at an all-time high and, with Trent's leadership, his team has solved key cybersecurity customer needs across the nation – whether it be a single-focused solution to meet an immediate need or a more holistic zero trust approach covering the entire customer environment. Building a more advanced cybersecurity posture one customer at a time is his primary day-in and day-out goal.

Christine Maii Sakuda is the executive director of Transform Hawaii Government (THG). We envision a modern digital state government that is accessible, accountable and responsive to the people of Hawaii and that enhances the quality of life for Hawaii’s citizens. Prior to THG, Christine was the executive director for the Hawaii Health Information Exchange, an organization that connects the healthcare provider community across all Hawaiian Islands through a common IT network. She is a steering committee member of the Hawaii Executive Collaborative TRUE Initiative, the vice-chair of the state’s Information Technology Steering Committee, chaired by the State CIO, and a co-chair of the State Broadband Hui. Christine earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Santa Clara University and an Executive MBA from the University of Hawaii Mānoa. She enjoys spending her downtime with her husband Mike, 15-year old twins Olivia and Noah, her chocolate lab Nala and practicing hula.

Jussi Sipola functions as the enterprise architect for the State of Hawaii executive branch. In this role, he oversees the state’s IT roadmap and IT portfolio management and provides consultation to the executive branch departments with their large-scale IT modernization initiatives. Before joining the state in 2018, Jussi’s career spanned roles as a software developer, software architect, systems integrator, project/team manager and a product manager. In these roles, he has launched and maintained software applications for organizations ranging from software start-ups to large organizations such as Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, Fidelity National Financial, Cheap Tickets / Cendant, Care.com, Hawaiian Telcom, the City and County of Honolulu, the State of Hawaii, the State of Michigan, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Ranjani Starr, PhD, MPH, serves as the Hawaii Medicaid Agency’s health analytics and informatics administrator, overseeing the agency’s Health Analytics Office. She centralizes and consolidates key analytic functions of the Medicaid program, serves as the steward of the statewide All Payer Claims Data warehouse and oversees all research, evaluation and data dissemination. Previously, Ranjani managed an office that was responsible for all chronic disease surveillance, epidemiology and evaluation for the state of Hawaii, including all public health surveys administered by the Department of Health.

Dr. Tonya Lowery St. John is the principle investigator of Hawaii Health Data Warehouse (HHDW) in the Office of Public Health Studies at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. HHDW stores and organizes over 20 years of data from the vital statistics system and major health surveys from the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH), and makes this data available to the public through two websites (hhdw.org and hawaiihealthmatters.org) to the researchers via data requests. She is a member of the Data Governance Committee at DOH, which sets policies, procedures and standards for internal and external data sharing. She is co-editor of the Hawaii Journal of Health & Social Welfare and is a lecturer in epidemiology for the University of Hawaii. She has over 25 years of experience using data to improve public health.

Jackson Thomas is the managing director for Oracle Government and Education Business Development Organization. He leads a team of cloud enterprise architects and business value leaders. His organization is responsible for helping Oracle’s customers adopt cloud and secure their platforms, facilitating customers to move their workloads to the cloud with confidence. Jackson has also held roles at IBM, Mycroft and GE Financial over the course of his 20+ year career in various enterprise roles. Jackson is an enterprise architect with management experience, leading large scale transformation programs. He is a trusted advisor to his customers and has helped many customers through their modernization journey.

Marcus Yano oversees corporate business and government sales, technical and strategic consulting services and channel partner management at Hawaiian Telcom. He helps customers understand how to best leverage emerging cloud technology to begin their digital transformation in order to achieve their business outcomes. With his background as an information technology executive, Marcus provides keen insight into the latest technology solutions and cutting-edge systems to improve the company’s operational performance. He is a trusted advisor for many local companies ranging from micro-businesses to large enterprises.
Marcus also finds it essential to give back to his community. He serves as an Executive Board member and a volunteer at the Hawaii Special Olympics, a committee member of the TRUE Initiative and a member of the Office of the Information Technology Steering Committee, which helps to develop and implement the state’s IT strategic plans.

As the University of Hawaii’s vice president for information technology and CIO, Garret Yoshimi is responsible for UH systemwide IT systems and services. Garret provides executive leadership in collaboratively setting forth the overall vision, goals, strategies and plans for the effective and appropriate use of information technologies to advance the UH System.Garret joined UH in January 2015. Prior to serving as UH VPIT/CIO, he was vice president and chief operating officer for eWorld Enterprise Solutions. He brings to the university more than 35 years of experience in IT in both the public and private sectors in Hawaii. He has served as the first CIO for the Hawaii Judiciary, senior technology executive for the East-West Center and CIO for DTRIC Insurance.