Minnesota Digital Government Summit 2015

Shogo Cottrell is the Security Strategist within the Enterprise Security Products business unit at Hewlett-Packard. In this role, Mr. Cottrell is responsible for driving strategic initiatives and providing thought leadership and insight regarding the ever-changing global threat landscape. Prior to joining HP, Mr. Cottrell led the Information Security functions at Payless ShoeSource and Waddell & Reed. He was instrumental in establishing information security programs at both organizations that helped to reduce risk and protect the business from emerging and existing threats. Mr. Cottrell started his career as an Information Systems Officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and has over 20 years of Information Security and Information Technology leadership experience. He holds multiple certifications, including the CEH, GCIH, CISM, and CISSP security certifications and is an active member of the information security community, including InfraGard and ISSA.

Mr. Doll was appointed the City of Minneapolis Chief Information Officer (CIO) in February 2011, responsible for all IT operations.  Formally South Dakota's CIO for 15 years with responsibility for all state government computing, telecommunications, state radio and public broadcasting.  Mr. Doll received his Bachelors in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and graduated from the Senior Executive Fellows program of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is a past President of NASCIO - a national organization of state CIOs.  Mr. Doll was named to Government Technology's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers.

Natalie Fedie is the Vice President of Customer Success at GovDelivery, the leading cloud-based digital communications platform for government. With nearly two decades of experience managing strategic internal and external communications in both the public and private sector, Fedie understands the challenges that communication professionals face every day. In her current role, she oversees a vast team of consultants responsible for connecting client priorities with actionable data that enhances the citizen experience, ultimately ensuring clients achieve success in their digital outreach and engagement.

Don Friedlander is the director of Enterprise Applications for the Minnesota Information Technology Services @ the Department Revenue.
He began his information technology career in the private sector working with various mainframe systems. In the early 70’s, he assisted in debugging portions of the Univac VS/9 COBOL compiler, and designed and developed some of the earliest online insurance business transaction and accounting systems. He briefly worked with Rear-Admiral Grace Hopper and later, led a team that converted applications, systems, and data from Univac to IBM. Don also worked with some of the earliest personal computers and networks.
In 1987, he started as a consultant to the Minnesota Department of Revenue, became a state employee in 1993, and since then, has been involved in every major Revenue systems development and implementation. He is currently a member of the Revenue Business Systems Planning Team, the Integrated Tax System Oversight team, is co-chair of the Revenue Information Policy Team, and works with various internal and state-wide technology teams.

Elizabeth Frisch, Founder and CXO of The Thrival Company is the best-selling author of Mission to Million$ - Taking Big Ideas and Making Them Reality. Known for taking complex organizational issues and creating easy to implement frameworks, she has worked with over 50 different industries, all levels of local, state, and federal governments as well as NGOs/NPOs. She is nationally recognized for developing a unique and trademarked approach to performance and behavior-based auditing and has trained thousands of people globally in the areas of mobility management, business performance, auditing, and compliance. Having worked in state government herself, as well as provided consulting support to dozens of government agencies and cities, Ms. Frisch brings a deep understanding of the inner workings of public agencies and the cultures surrounding them.
Ms. Frisch has over 25 years of experience leading business performance, management, engineering, organizational development and auditing programs. She is also co-campaign leader and facilitator of the Central Texas 20/20 Mobility Campaign (funded by the City of Austin and Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority) working with dozens of organizations across Central Texas to build effective mobility strategies into their organizations including TxDOT, AISD, ACC, Freescale, Bazaarvoice, NetSpend, AMD, Seton Health Systems, Parkway Properties, and many others.
She is a trained facilitator and has facilitated hundreds of retreats, events, training courses and workshops and is a keynote speaker on the topics of leadership, teams, auditing, and business performance. She frequently works as a high performance executive leadership coach and is hired to facilitate difficult dynamics and contentious meeting situations. Her work in the for profit, non-profit, and governmental arenas allows her to bring a broad and unique perspective on how to combine the best practices in each model of business to create organizations that deliver on their vision and mission and have fun doing it! From the plant floor to the top floor, Elizabeth is just as comfortable in a hard hat and boots as working with boards and C-level management. In 2014, she was a Top 3 Finalist for the Austin Chamber of Commerce Small Business Leader of the Year out of hundreds of nominations for this award.

Myron is a Business Development Manager at Alcatel-Lucent. He specializes in educating CXOs and IT decision makers on the business benefits of convergence services and technology advancements. In this capacity, Myron draws on over 40 years of technical and strategic marketing experience in both service provider and enterprise networks. Myron is noted for his in-depth product/service knowledge and the ability to understand complex, technical information and present it in simple, concise easy to understand formats.
Myron began his telecommunications career in 1970, in the Bell System. Myron participated in the advent of IP networks, Security, VoIP systems and advanced Optical technology. Myron continues to articulate the value of advancements in communications to the business user, and communicate the vision of the next generation Mobile Technology networks and services that will be driven by innovations enabled by IMS.
Myron Gregorek has participated in a number of industry forums including CCS (Collaborative Communications Summit), IPCOMM, NASTD (National Association of State Telecom Directors), NASCP (National Society of Contingency Planners), National BDPA, Multi-city CIO Forums, local CIO Symposium Chapters, ISSA (International Security Summit), NEA (National Education Association) and the Convergence Technology Council. 
Gregorek holds an engineering degree from the NJ Institute of Technology.

“There is show business in every business.” This is Andrea’s mantra. Andrea is the founder and executive director of Pythia, where she helps executives and companies across all industries realize their vision by helping them craft and communicate a compelling story. Andrea is a strategist; working with executive teams, she is able to drive strategy and specific business results with a customized narrative engagement. Andrea creates consensus and generates a transformational experience to propel organizations forward to meet their mission. Her facilitation helps bring teams together to cross political boundaries and create breakthrough thinking to achieve unparalleled results.

Before starting Pythia, Andrea spent 15 years in sales at Oracle Corporation. Andrea invented StorySelling at Oracle, a unique approach to complex sales that helped customers see a vision for their business—which later became the foundation for her work at Pythia. Andrea also led engagements for strategic Oracle customers, developed executive content and coaching techniques, and directed and produced global content to sell Oracle’s products and services.

Systems engineer and writer, Wesley Kennedy, architects and manages hyper converged infrastructure environments for his clients, then presents the technology behind his unique solutions to other engineers through his industry-focused blog, whiskykilo.com.

Robert Maki has 28 years of professional experience in the IT industry, and has been Chief Information Officer at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for nine years, during which he has focused on transforming IT services at the agency into a “fee for service” delivery model.  He also has extensive experience in geospatial data processing and database design, and worked previously as a lecturer and graduate student advisor at the University of Minnesota.

A professional actor for over thirty years, Jim Ross Meskimen appeared in the films Apollo 13, The Grinch, Frost/Nixon, The Punisher, There Will Be Blood, and many others. Some of Meskimen’s TV credits include recurring roles on Parks & Recreation, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Friends, Whose Line is it, Anyway?, Lie to Me and Rules of Engagement. In 2011, the Australian Today Show dubbed Meskimen, “The World’s Greatest Impressionist.” His viral Shakespeare in Celebrity Voices has over a million views and subsequent viral videos have cemented him as a major YouTube talent. He can be seen currently in Impress Me, an original half-hour comedy that originated as a successful web series. Meskimen lives in Los Angeles with his actress wife, Tamara. Their daughter Taylor is also a performer. His mother is beloved actress Marion Ross, who played Mrs. C in the long-running ABC comedy Happy Days.

R. Gregory (Greg) Tschida is in his 30th year with the Minnesota Department of Revenue and has been the agency’s Chief Information Officer since 2011. In his CIO role, Greg manages a staff of over 125 IT professionals and a budget of $25 million. He is a member of the Minnesota Department of Revenue’s Senior Management Team, is a co-chair with the Deputy Commissioner of the Department’s Business/IT Alignment Governance team, and is Executive Sponsor of the Integrated Tax System Oversight team. Greg has over 25 years of experience managing large scale department-wide projects including Strategic Planning, Tax System Re-engineering, and Data Warehousing. Additionally, he has been active in the statewide Enterprise Architecture Team, the statewide Project and Portfolio management team and the Government CIO Forum.

As Vice President of Government Market Segments, Richard Varos is responsible for IBM’s Market Segments across its Global Government Industry business. He leads the sale of IBM’s industry solutions to address the complex array of issues that government clients face. In this role, Richard works closely with government leaders across the world to help leverage IBM’s capabilities and proven best practices in order to address emergent challenges, meet citizen demands and ensure ongoing economic growth.

Before assuming his current position, Mr. Varos was the Vice President of Public Sector in the Growth Markets, responsible for IBM’s business across the Government, Healthcare, Life Science and Education industries. He led overall sales of IBM’s information technology product and services portfolio, including the establishment of partnerships for this business segment.

Previously, Mr. Varos served as the Worldwide Director of Smarter Cities Solutions within the Public Sector. This practice provides solutions to clients addressing the emerging transportation, water management, and public safety challenges they face as leaders of cities around the world.