Fred Brittain is the Chief Information Officer for the State of Maine. He was appointed CIO for the State in April 2019 after 25 years with the University of Maine System. During his tenure with the University, Fred served in many roles within and outside technology including Chief Operating Officer for the University of Maine at Farmington.
Throughout his career, Fred has developed a focus on aligning organizational technology strategies and service delivery, development and execution of strategic plans, and maturing organizational cultures through a focus on partnerships. Designing mechanisms for an inclusive approach to technology governance and strategy has been a cornerstone of his methodology.
Fred is fervent in his belief that an organization can only be as strong as its people and is intentional in his practice of developing future leaders through providing opportunities for growth, as well as engaging in formal and informal mentorship. He has served as president on multiple non-profit boards providing support and programming for children and under-served populations.

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.

Doug Birgfeld is the Director of Project Management for Maine IT where the is reimagining the PMO with a focus on organizational transformation, strategic engagement and continuous improvement. The focus of Doug’s career is and has been leading organizations to greater effectiveness and quality outcomes for constituents Doug has previously been Innovation Director at The Department of Economic and Community Development and Virtual CIO for Maine Equal Justice. Prior to that Doug was Director of Project Management and The Agile Center of Excellence is his previous incarnation with Maine’s PMO. Doug is also a podcast producer, comedy writer and light entertainer.

Dan Andrews is the General Manager of InforME, a collaborative effort between the State of Maine and NIC Maine, responsible for the management of the Maine.gov portal and hundreds of online services. Dan has been a member of InforME for over 13 years. Prior to his role as General Manager, Dan filled the roles of developer, project manager and Director of Operations. A product of the Great State of Maine, Dan resides in the central Maine area where he enjoys spending as much time outside with family as social distancing protocols will allow.

Alan is Executive Vice President of e.Republic and Publisher of Government Technology magazine, where he is involved in the annual production of dozens of events as well as the editorial direction for Governing, Government Technology, Public CIO, Emergency Management, the Center for Digital Government, and the Center for Digital Education. Held regionally in state capitols and large metropolitan areas, the events address key strategy and policy issues as well as the use of information technology in state and local government and education.
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.

Brice Daniels is a Director leading Mandiant’s Proactive Service Line in the northeast region. Additionally, he leads projects within both the incident response and proactive service lines. In his incident response experience, he has helped clients with tens of thousands of systems respond to attacks from Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups. He has also led projects that help clients determine if they have been compromised by an APT group. He has conducted forensic reviews of Windows systems, Linux systems, PHP application environments, and MySQL databases. As a member of the proactive services team, he has led engagements involving red teams, penetration testing, architecture review, and other related services. He has worked on a variety of assessments including penetration tests, Active Directory infrastructure, enterprise wireless, web applications, mobile applications, mobile application frameworks, and mobile IP networking implementations. Prior to joining Mandiant, Brice worked for Ernst & Young and served in the United States Air Force.

Kirsten Figueroa is the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS). In her role as Commissioner, Kirsten is responsible for the development of the State of Maine's biennial budget, coordinating the financial planning and programming activities of state agencies, overseeing the administration of tax laws, directing technology services and infrastructure, advising the Maine Legislature on the financial statutes of state government, and the recruitment and retention of one of Maine's largest and most diverse workforces.

Rick’s professional focus is helping security teams develop strategic cyber risk management plans that help our clients comply with federal, state, and local governance mandates. As the co-practice lead for BerryDunn’s Information Technology Security practice, Rick provides our clients with strategic cybersecurity services including strategic planning, cybersecurity maturity modeling, risk assessment, and remediation planning.
He leads multiple cybersecurity projects across many disciplines. An expert in cyber risk management and cyber threat intelligence, Rick works with state and large metropolitan governments nationwide, helping clients reduce cyber risk through strategic and operational planning. As a member of BerryDunn's Recovery Advisory Team, he helps clients develop security strategies for remote workers and improve incident response capabilities.

In the IT industry for over 20 years helping customers modernize their IT infrastructure and applications. For the past several years I have been focused on enabling customer’s journey to the public cloud. I am an AWS Certified Solution Architect (Associate) and Cloud Practitioner.

Sharon has spent her entire career working in technology, with over 33 years’ hands-on and leadership experience, in various technology disciplines. As the MaineIT Enterprise Architect, she helps business and infrastructure partners meet their objectives by aligning agency initiatives with technology solutions. Sharon's current initiatives include working as part of a team shaping MaineIT to be a strategic trusted adviser through a robust cloud strategy, modernization, and cloud enablement plan to help Maine reduce its technical debt, and to provide our agencies the best possible tools to serve our fellow Mainers. Prior to joining State Government in 2003, Sharon worked in the utility and retail technology sector.

Travis M. Pace, Senior Manager of Network Security Assessments and Network Security Engineering for U.S. Cellular, joined the company in 1997. With over 23 years of experience across multiple operational and engineering functions, Pace transitioned to his current role with responsibilities for developing and implementing a class leading security program covering the implementation of carrier grade security solutions and vulnerability and risk management across the entire carrier space.
Pace holds an associate degree in I.T. Management and is actively completing a bachelor’s degree in I.T. Management with a Cybersecurity focus from Southern New Hampshire University. Pace lives in Maryville, TN with his wife and daughter.

Charles Rote currently serves as the Senior Manager for IT Security Governance within the Information Security Office for Maine Information Technology. He leads a team focused on the areas of cybersecurity risk management, regulatory compliance using the NIST Risk Management Framework, information security policies and procedures, and legislation.
Prior to his State government experience, he served in the U.S. Army for 24 years in various command and staff positions. His previous positions prior to retirement included strategic planning at U.S. Central Command and Professor of Military Science at the University of Maine.
He holds a B.A from the University of Maine and a Master’s degree in defense studies from King’s College, London. He is a Malone fellow in Islamic Studies and holds certifications in Business Continuity. He has been exposed to numerous cultural experiences having traveled extensively through the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Central and South Asia.

Thomas Steegmann is a Principal Architect for AT&T Public Sector Solutions supporting the mid-Atlantic region. Tom has been in the telecommunications industry for 20+ years, focused on next generation, enterprise solutions encompassing data communications and complex integration across multiple environments. Tom is currently focused on helping his Government customers modernize their workforce and infrastructure via mobility and cloud technologies, including IOT and Smart Cities.

Tom Yeatts is an experienced IT executive with a proven track record of delivering results. Before joining ServiceNow as SLED CTO, Tom served as deputy CIO for Howard County, MD. His responsibilities included designing the architecture and delivering IT projects in support of the county’s vision to connect its citizens and workforce on a secure and stable environment. Tom graduated from Virginia Tech and resides in Maryland.