Phil Bertolini is the 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.

Christensen leads the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the Iowa Finance Authority as their CIO. With the motto “At the Next Level … Delivering Easy”, during his tenure he has led these agencies to be the first fully cloud based agencies in the State of Iowa primarily using Microsoft cloud technologies. Christensen now continues to push the envelope to look at new ways at serve to citizens and look at data that will put the right information in the palm of decision makers hands.
Christensen has an extensive background in leading technology in government, non-profit healthcare, and K-12 education over the last 20 + years – challenging each system along the way to think outside the box. He grew up in north central Iowa in the small town of Rockford; he studied at the University of Northern Iowa, Nizhniy Novgorod State University and Moscow State University; and now he resides with his family in Adel, where he also serves on the city council.

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.

Carmen Easley is the General Manager for NIC Iowa where she is leading the implementation of Iowa’s eGovernment Portal, Gov2Go. Previous to Iowa, Carmen was the Director of Operations for NIC Nebraska where she was instrumental in implementing the proposed citizen-engagement platform in Nebraska and has deep experience with state and local government and payment processing. Mrs. Easley has 15 years of leadership experience managing, operating, marketing, and transforming the State of Nebraska’s and Iowa’s digital government program for NIC. In her free time she enjoys playing the piano, reading and engaging in cultural activities with her family.

As the Director of Information Technology for both the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Probation Office, Michael Harger leads all technology initiatives for the Southern District of Iowa. Together, these agencies uphold justice within our communities as part of the larger Federal judiciary. Michael began his career with The Weitz Company after earning a Construction Engineering degree from Iowa State University. Focused on managing the construction of large scale commercial projects, his career took a unique turn towards technology in 1999 when he filled the role of liaison between IT and construction operations during a short term project. Enjoying the technical side so much, Michael moved into the technology field full time and has held several different roles over the last 16 years with Weitz, Bankers Trust, and now the U.S. Court.

Daniel J. Houston is chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Principal Financial Group®. He is responsible for overall management of the company.
Houston joined the company in 1984 as a group representative in the Dallas group and pension office. He held several management positions before assuming his current title in 2015.
Houston is a member of several local and national boards and recently served as the Chair of the Connectivity Subcommittee for the Governor’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Leading this work, his team put forth a bold recommendation to make Iowa a global leader in broadband by providing universal access, boosting speed for economic growth, and removing financial barriers to make broadband affordable for all Iowans.
Houston received his bachelor's degree from Iowa State University in 1984. He also authored a chapter in “The Upside of Aging” published by John Wiley & Sons in 2014, on the keys to achieving financial security in retirement.

Alan Kemp earned a Bachelor of Arts in both Political Science and Journalism from the University of Iowa in 1984. Alan completed the post graduate Lawyer’s Assistant Program at Roosevelt University in Chicago in 1985. Alan became the League’s Executive Director on December 31, 2007, after serving as Director of Membership Services for five years. Prior to joining the League in 1999 as the Assistant Director of Member Services department, Alan served two years as the City Administrator for the city of Mitchellville, Iowa, and three years as the Administrative Assistant for the city of Windsor Heights, Iowa.
In his role as Executive Director, Alan serves as the Administrator for the Iowa Municipalities Workers’ Compensation Association (IMWCA). Alan also serves as an ex-officio member of the Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP) and the Iowa Public Agency Investment Trust (IPAIT) boards.
Alan served on the National League of Cities Board of Directors from 2014 through 2016 and served as a member of the Executive Committee in 2016. He also served on the NLC Nominating Committee in 2016. He served as a member of NLC’s Presidential Election Task Force in 2015/2016. Alan served on the State League Staff Steering Committee from 2014 – 2016 and served as Chair in 2016. He has served in the past on the National League of Cities Advisory Committee and as Vice-Chair of the International City Management Association Governmental Affairs and Policy Committee.
Alan currently serves on the National League of Cities Risk Information Sharing Consortium board of directors. From 2018 – 2020 he served as chair of the board.

Daniele Loffreda is marketing lead for Ciena’s Virtualized Edge Solution State/Local Government and Education (SLED) and Healthcare in Ciena’s Solutions Development organization. In this role, he leads Ciena’s initiatives applying next-generation networking technologies to help these sectors deliver higher quality experiences to their constituents through disruptive technologies, optimized cloud strategies, virtualized infrastructure and improved data security.
Daniele has more than 25 years of experience helping customers leverage information, communications and technology solutions to provide greater value, streamline their operations and generate higher returns on network investments. In addition to his role at Ciena, Daniele has worked in pioneering roles at AT&T, Sprint and Fujitsu. He has presented at numerous industry conferences and published articles and posts on next-generation network connectivity as a critical foundation of enterprise transformation.

D.T. Magee currently serves as the Superintendent of the Norwalk (IA) Community School District, a position he has held since July 1, 2016.
Prior to his arrival in Norwalk, D.T. was appointed by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad to fulfill the role of Executive Director of the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners (BoEE) in July 2012. During his time with the BoEE, he also served terms as the Vice President and President of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC).
D.T. began his career as a high school business and technology teacher in the Jefferson-Scranton (IA) Community School District. In his 12 years at Harlan (IA) Community School District Magee fulfilled many roles including: teacher, coach, activity sponsor, assistant high school principal, elementary principal, and middle school principal. He also served as the Assistant Superintendent/Director of Human Resources in the Waukee (IA) Community School District.
Magee was appointed to serve as the interim director of the Iowa Department of Education for a ten week period during the summer of 2013 while a replacement was found for Dr. Jason Glass.
Magee is a graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he received a bachelor’s degree in secondary business education and specialist in education degree in educational leadership. He also holds a master’s degree in education administration from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Scott Marler became the Iowa DOT Director in February of 2020. He has worked for the Iowa DOT for 23 years, with experience in traffic operations, highway project development, regulatory compliance, and the natural environment. Marler has been active in leadership development and workforce planning and has also been instrumental in advancing geospatial technologies and systems throughout the Department.
Prior to serving as Director, Marler served as the Director of the Operations Division since December 2017. In his role, he was responsible for highway operations and traffic management on the state’s 9,400 miles of highways and bridges, including the areas of construction and materials, maintenance, motor vehicle enforcement, traffic operations, and traffic and safety.
Marler is active on several national committees associated with the American Association of State Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). He has served on a national technical committee for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an expert panel for TRB, and a course development committee for the National Highway Institute. Marler has also served on Governor’s councils and other state of Iowa task forces.
He holds a Master of Science degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

Jesse Martinez is the Cybersecurity Services Coordinator for the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) with focus on outreach, building relationships, and promoting cybersecurity awareness through presentations with local groups and partners. Through his work with the OCIO, Martinez assists the majority of Iowa counties ensure their cybersecurity posture by coordinating the configuration, deployment, and maintenance of cybersecurity services and integration with the OCIO Security Operations Center.

Zach Patton is the Chief Editor of the Content Studio at e.Republic and Government Technology. He has been covering the public sector for nearly 20 years. Until 2019, he was the Executive Editor of Governing magazine, where he also had served as a staff writer for more than a decade.

Dave has 30 plus years of experience within the telecommunications and wireless industries. He has been with UScellular for six years as a Wireless Solutions Architect specializing in LTE, IoT, SaaS and VaaS applications. Educating businesses in the use of technology to solve problems, enhance operations and maintain competitive positions are areas Dave strives to achieve.

Tim previously held roles as Amazon Web Services’s (AWS) Regional Leader of Security and Compliance Business Acceleration in the Americas, based in Seattle, and the Regional Security and Compliance Leader for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, based in London.
Prior to joining AWS, Tim was the Executive Director of Cybersecurity Strategy at the world’s largest gaming company, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, where he managed cybersecurity strategy and architecture protecting a 55,000 person organization working across numerous lines of business, spanning four countries, and generating ~$14 billion in revenue.
Formerly, Tim worked at Microsoft for numerous years where he held a number of roles including Global Chief Security Advisor, Director of Security, Identity and Enterprise Mobility, Director of Trustworthy Computing, and was a founding technical leader of Microsoft’s customer facing Incident Response team. Tim was the primary spokesperson for cybersecurity at Microsoft, and a contributor to Microsoft’s official security blog during much of this time.
Tim is the author of Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies. Other examples of Tim’s work, including many videos, are available at https://linkedin.com/in/timrains.

Leveraging his 35 years’ cybersecurity innovation experience, Jim Richberg has served as Fortinet’s Public Sector Field CISO since 2019. Prior to this, he served as the National Intelligence Manager for Cyber, the senior Federal Executive focused on cyber intelligence in the US Intelligence Community. Under Presidents Bush and Obama, he implemented the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative.

During Joel’s16 years in county government, he has served on the Iowa Counties Information Technology (ICIT) board as district rep, vice president, president, technology advocate, and is the current ICIT representative for the ISAC Board of Directors. He is Chair of the ICIT Information Security Committee and has been a contributor to the Iowa County Magazine. He also chaired the committee for the ISAC Smart Connections Conference in 2016. Mr. Rohne has also been providing digital forensic investigations for local law enforcement for the past 14 years. In his position as ICIT Technology Advocate, he was project manager for the ICIT "Paying IT Forward" initiatives that involves ICIT members volunteering to provide technology education and assessments to counties across Iowa. The "Paying IT Forward" program was recognized with the Iowa State Association of Counties Excellence in Action Award in 2013 and the NACo “Best in Category 2014 Achievement Award”. This program has assisted over 30 Iowa counties since its inception in 2011.

William’s team provides sales strategy and enablement for the U.S. State & Local, Canada and Higher Education and Research markets. William has an extensive background in State government, serving for 4 years as Deputy Chief of Staff to Kansas Governor Bill Graves, and 4 years as the Kansas Labor Agency Chief Information Officer, Operations Chief, and Employment Security Director. William spent the past 17 years in the private sector helping government agencies modernize service delivery to improve constituent outcomes.

Adam Steen was appointed Director of the Department of Administrative Services in early 2021. Prior to this appointment, Adam spent 18 years in the private sector leading organizations in industries such as: banking, financial services, manufacturing, and outdoor/hunting product development.

Teri Takai is 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. 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.

Anna Whipple is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of Des Moines, Iowa and director of the Information Technology Department that provides and supports technology for the capital city. She joined the City of Des Moines in 2008 as the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Manager and was promoted to CIO in 2016. Anna’s professional interests include Smart City leadership and collaborating with regional partners on Des Moines area Smart City initiatives. She believes there is never a dull day working in local government as there is always some new challenge calling for creative public leadership.
Anna is a graduate of Saint Olaf College and University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she is a Certified Government Chief Information Officer (CGCIO) by Public Technology Institute and Rutgers University. She has happily called Des Moines home for the last 17 years.