State of Illinois

Governor JB Pritzker was sworn in as the 43rd governor of the state of Illinois on January 14, 2019 and won election with the largest margin of victory over a sitting governor in more than a century.
After taking the oath of office, Governor Pritzker immediately began working with Democrats and Republicans to accomplish one of the most ambitious and consequential legislative agendas in state history. During his first session, the governor passed a balanced budget with a bipartisan majority, making historic investments in education and human services, while restoring fiscal stability to Illinois. The governor also won bipartisan passage for legalization of adult-use recreational cannabis and for Rebuild Illinois, the largest investment in state history to upgrade roads, bridges, rail, broadband, and universities in every corner of the state.
The governor took bold action, putting state government back on the side of working families by creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, raising the minimum wage to a living wage, making college more affordable for nearly 10,000 additional students, and advancing equal pay for women.
A national leader in early childhood education for over 20 years and having organized President Obama’s White House Summit on Early Childhood Education, Governor Pritzker this year made childcare and preschool more affordable in Illinois for tens of thousands more families. He also partnered with the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Share our Strength to fight child poverty by expanding school breakfast programs in low income school districts across our state.
Before becoming governor, Pritzker founded 1871, the non-profit small business incubator in Chicago that has helped entrepreneurs create more than 11,000 jobs and more than 1,000 new companies. Since the creation of 1871, Chicago has been named one of the top ten technology startup hubs in the world, and 1871 was named the best incubator in the world. As governor, he has expanded support for new business incubators and cut taxes for hundreds of thousands of small businesses while incentivizing job creation and innovation. He also extended research and development tax credits to help manufacturing workers and businesses thrive, and he worked with the business community to create apprenticeship tax credits to promote job training.
The descendant of refugees, Governor Pritzker believes our state and our nation should welcome and protect its immigrant families and that we must fight against the wave of intolerance that has risen in recent years. Before becoming governor, he led the creation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, a nationally recognized institution where hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, police officers and others learn to fight bigotry and hatred. As governor, he has built the most diverse cabinet and governor’s office in Illinois history.
Governor Pritzker and First Lady MK Pritzker have been married for more than a quarter century, and they are the proud parents of two children.

Jennifer Ricker was appointed by Governor Pritzker in September of 2020 as Acting Secretary of Innovation & Technology. In this role, she serves as the State of Illinois Chief Information Officer (CIO) and leads the Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT).
Jennifer was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary in February of 2020, focusing on application development and technology delivery to the agencies served by DoIT. She joined DoIT in February 2019 as Chief of Staff, serving as an advisor to the Secretary with responsibility to manage and direct agency operations.
With 21 years of service to the State of Illinois, Jennifer has held several other senior positions in state government, including: Acting Director, Deputy Director and Chief of Staff at the Illinois Emergency Management Agency; Deputy Chief of Staff for Public Safety in the office of the Illinois Governor; Acting Executive Director of the Illinois Liquor Control Commission; Chief of Staff and Director of Legislative Affairs for the Illinois Department of Revenue; and Legislative Analyst for the Illinois House of Representatives.
Jennifer holds a B.A. in history from the University of Missouri (Columbia, MO), and a M.A. in security studies (homeland defense) from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA).

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.

Roger Grimes is a 30-year computer security consultant, instructor, holder of dozens of computer certifications and an award-winning author of 10 books and over 1,000 magazine articles on computer security. He has worked at some of the world’s largest computer security companies, including Foundstone, McAfee and Microsoft. Grimes holds a bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University. He was the weekly security columnist for InfoWorld and CSO magazines from 2005-2019.

Will Arnold is a managing director in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Government & Public Services practice with more than 15 years of experience. Will serves as Deloitte’s Digital Service Delivery offering leader focused on service delivery transformation in the “next normal”. Will specializes helping clients with their organizational and workforce transformations and is a leader in Deloitte’s State of Illinois transformational work.

Wendy Blatt is the Regional Vice President for DocuSign's State and Local team. She has been with DocuSign for over two years, and leads the team, which supports the largest customers in the Western part of the United States. During this time she has helped countless State and Local entities streamline their business processes to save time, reduce risk, and provide better services to constituents and government employees. Throughout Wendy's career, she has also provided services to State and Local entities, while working for Oracle and Salesforce.

Gary Buonacorsi has nearly two decades of experience in the IT industry as a transformational leader for Government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. As Tanium’s SLED Chief Technology Officer, Gary is responsible for thought leadership in the public sector, SLED business strategy, and guiding customer security and operations transformations. Additionally, he defines long-term goals for the State and Local Government vertical, leads industry discussions, and conducts conference keynotes and seminars.
Gary comes to Tanium with a wide range of experience. Most recently he served as the State and Local Government CTO for Dell Technologies. Additionally, Gary’s career includes positions as CTO and CIO at the States of Nevada and Texas, along with Senior Director and Managerial roles at Dell EMC, Oracle and Merck-Medco.

With over 25 years in business and technology consulting, Travis has served a broad set of companies of all sizes. Most recently his focus is on serving the Public Sector as a member of Adobe’s Digital Strategy Group.
Travis and his Adobe colleagues are helping Public Sector agencies identify digital capabilities and strategies that align to their mission and deliver the greatest value to their citizens and employees. They also led a customer experience study to understand the effect COVID-19 was having on Public Sector agencies and provided clarity on where agencies should focus their efforts to promote resiliency. The outcomes of having this data rich study allowed agencies to understand how their ‘customer journeys’ are performing from a user’s perspective and how well they rank against peers.

David Egts is the Chief Technologist of Red Hat’s North America Public Sector organization where he directs a global team of technical experts and field product management to help government clients improve service delivery the open source way. The Office of Chief Technologist, which he leads, adds value to flagship Red Hat technologies such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift, and Linux containers. His team helps Red Hat achieve ideal product-market fit by ensuring current and future government requirements are factored into existing products and R&D efforts with a focus on security, compliance, standards, efficiency, and technological improvements. The government readiness activities performed by his team positively impacts public and private sector organizations in the US and internationally with a particular focus on Australia, Canada, Japan, and the UK.
David’s dynamic outward-facing role as a coalition builder reinforces and expands Red Hat’s relations with key government and open source community stakeholders nationally and internationally. He is a trusted Red Hat media spokesperson whose deep technical dives, C-suite policy discussions, and keynote speaker abilities enhance Red Hat’s technical reputation and positioning.
David received industry-wide recognition as a FedScoop 50 Industry Leadership awardee and a finalist for WashingtonExec’s Chief Officer Awards. He is a Red Hat Chairman's Award recipient and has won multiple highest employee honors from previous employers Silicon Graphics and Concurrent Technologies Corporation. He is a past Co-Chair on the Board of Directors for the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) Software & Services Division (SSD) and is an active member of the Agile Government Leadership Association and the AFCEA DC Emerging Technologies Working Group. David is a Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) and a three-time graduate from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS and MS in Computer Science and an Executive MBA (Katz Graduate School of Business).

Deanna Cook is the General Manager of NIC Illinois. A results driven leader, Deanna has over twenty years of experience in delivering innovative and successful digital government solutions. She is passionate about the role technology plays in providing unsurpassed convenience and information delivery to citizens. Throughout her tenure with NIC, she has managed NIC’s partnerships in Virginia, Mississippi, and Illinois, in addition to a mobile development engagement with the United States Secret Service. Deanna currently lives in Chicago with her husband and their two Bichons.

Pedro has 4 years with the State of Illinois and was previously a Senior Network Engineer with T-Mobile US. Pedro is a US Army Veteran in the Satcom field.

Dessa Gypalo serves as the inaugural Chief Data Officer for Cook County, IL. At Cook County, her focus is creating a culture of data while leveraging existing data assets to make informed decisions. In her short tenure, she has laid the groundwork to build a robust data analytics operation and enhanced the County’s Open Data presence. Previously, she led data teams and initiatives at NGP VAN/ EveryAction, Enroll America, and Obama for America. Over the last decade, Dessa has worked with local and national political campaigns, as well as provided data support for numerous nonprofit organizations.

For over 18 years, Carla has been responsible for developing, managing and maintaining all relationships between AT&T and State of Illinois Agencies. Overall, she has 24 years of experience in the telecommunication industry which includes managing staff, designing solutions and proposals, negotiating contracts and conflict resolution. This experience enables her to understand many of the unique challenges that Illinois governmental agencies face as well as the often-shared goals across governmental agencies to cost effectively improve operational efficiencies.

Rob Ross is the inaugural Chief Data Officer of the Cook County Assessor’s Office, heading new The Data Science Department there. In the past two years, his department has built an open-source automated valuation model for residential properties, automated reporting applications to measure assessment quality, market analyses, and other reporting and analytical tools. His department publishes the source code for all their tools and analyses, and, through the Cook County Open Data Portal, an increasing amount of previously inaccessible data.

Vidya Shankaran, is the Field CTO for Cloud and Emerging Technology solutions at Commvault. A seasoned technologist, she delivers customer value, through pragmatic outcome-based results. Vidya has over a decade and a half of global experience across Software development, Solution Architecture and Account Management. This has helped her understand and gain unique perspective on the real-world challenges of IT customers supporting businesses from data management and business continuity point of view.
In her current role, Vidya evangelizes Cloud and emerging technologies with customers and ensures a seamless integration of Commvault’s solutions in customers’ data architecture. She is currently based in New Jersey and enjoys reading and practicing Yoga in her spare time.

Lori Sorenson serves as the Chief Technology Officer for the Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology. In this role, she is responsible for providing reliable, secure, customer centric IT solutions to over 55,000 internal users and the Illinois residents interacting with client agencies. Lori serves as a state policy advisor for broadband issues and helped to secure a $420M investment for the Connect Illinois broadband initiative. In 2010, she led the Illinois Century Network $96M broadband infrastructure project to build a 2,000 mile open access fiber network directly connecting over 350 community anchor institutions.
Lori has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry and most recently served as the Chief of Network Operations for the Department of Innovation & Technology. She earned her Master of Business Administration at the University of Illinois Springfield and a Bachelor of Science degree at Illinois State University.

Luke Stowe is CIO and Interim Director of Administrative Services for Evanston, IL. One of Government Technology's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers of 2018, he works to bridge the gap between technology and business practices.

Bulent has been a leader supporting public sector for well over 20 years primarily focusing on helping State CIOs better understand how to most efficiently leverage technology to bring velocity to their digital transformations and ultimately, improve people’s lives. He has served at the leadership roles in most every technology based association from NASCIO, NASTD, CompTIA, TechAmerica. Additionally, he works closely with our eco system of partners to align solutions to further meet the most challenging issues facing public sector today.