Mike Agiovlasitis has served as a Deputy Chief Information Security Officer for the NYS Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) since April of 2021. In this role he oversees the Cyber Command Center that responds to cyber threats and incidents, as well as the Governance, Risk, and Compliance bureau within the ITS Chief Information Security Office.
Mike has nearly 25 years of experience working in information technology and cybersecurity and has spent the last 15 years in leadership roles with both ITS and the New York State Police. Mike received a Bachelor of Science from UAlbany and holds multiple IT and cybersecurity certifications including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Laura has over 20 years of experience leading/consulting on complex transformational programs in the public and private sector. Prior to joining Amazon Web Services, she served as the Chief Digital Transformation Officer at MTX, where she built a digital transformation organization to assist State & Local Governments and Higher Education institutions in planning and executing complex transformations for their agencies, including COVID-19 pandemic initiatives. She served the Commonwealth of Kentucky as an Executive Innovation Advisor, driving cloud adoption, modernization and maximizing the benefit of the cloud investment across multiple state agencies. In addition, for over 15 years she led global transformational programs for large corporations such as Schneider Electric and Lexmark International. These global programs included Enterprise Master Data Management, Quote to Cash, CRM, PRM, and Call Center Services Management.

Larry serves as an executive leader focused on cybersecurity assisting clients with governance, risk, and compliance services. Clients served range from large, global organizations operating in various industries to smaller, fast growing entrepreneurial organizations. Most clients are subject to several regulatory and legal standards, and he has consulted across various regulatory and industry frameworks including SOX, FTC, HIPAA, NIST, ISO, COBIT and COSO. He has also been involved in FTC consent order assurance assessments for clients operating in various industries. Larry also continues to serve as the lead audit executive for certain internal audit outsource and co-source engagements reporting to the Audit Committee. Prior to Focal Point being acquired by CDW in 2021, he served as a practice leader and the managing partner of Focal Point Data Risk Assurance, a CPA firm that issued SOC 1/2/3 and HITRUST reports. Previously, Larry served as the Chief Financial Officer of a national healthcare services firm. He has also held progressive financial leadership positions in both publicly traded companies and in public accounting. He recently completed a PhD at Florida Atlantic University and has research interests in audit, cybersecurity, governance, and regulatory impact. 

Grace Dillon currently serves as the Executive Director of the Revenue Finance and Integrity Portfolio at the NYS Office for Information Technology Services. A Portfolio Executive Director ensures IT needs are met for client agencies with a similar lines for business. For Grace, this includes the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance, Division of Tax Appeals, Gaming Commission, Office of the Medicaid Inpector General, Division of Human Rights, and several others. In her role she assists in the planning, development, delivery and operation of IT services and initiatives consistent with the New York State IT Strategic Plan. She oversees IT project governance for her agencies, identifies risks to meeting project deliverables, escalates isses to mitigate those risks and collaborates with client agencies and ITS leadership to align IT investments, services and projects with agency business needs and priorities. In her nineteen years of service to NYS, Grace has always lived on the bridge between technology and the business, supporting various agencies and serving in roles related to Information Security, Project Management and Client Engagment. She comes from a long line of storytellers and prides herself on her ability to use that skill to educate and lead others. Grace holds an Associate Degree in Computer Information Systems from Hudson Valley Community College.

Derek is Director, Northeast Region – Public Sector and Education Sales at T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS). In that position, he leads a team of Sr. Managers who have teams across 21 States focused on T-Mobile’s State, Local, City and Education (K12/Higher Ed) business. In addition, Derek represents T-Mobile and Military Veterans by working in partnership with other private sector firms to share best practices around hiring and supporting those who defend our country. Derek is Chair of T-Mobiles Veterans and Allies Network for NYC. He spent 12 years serving his country; two years in the U.S. Navy and 10 years in the US Army Reserves where he graduated with honors from Primary Leadership and Development Course earning the rank of Sargent. Derek received his Business Degree from Goldey-Beacom College where he concentrated on Sales and Marketing. Derek currently resides in New Jersey with his wife Jennifer, and kids Jakob, Elliot, Carly, + pup Angie.

Heather Farr is a distinguished thought leader and accomplished professional with over 15 years of experience driving digital transformation and elevating customer experiences. Her expertise lies at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and business innovation. Currently a Senior Account Executive at DocuSign, she plays a pivotal role in propelling state and local entities into the future by spearheading intelligent agreements that expedite digital transformation. Heather's visionary insights empower organizations to harness the full potential of digital solutions for efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Formerly a Cognitive AI Business Executive at Beyond Limits, Heather led enterprise-wide cognitive transformations, unlocking new productivity and intelligence. Prior to her groundbreaking work at Beyond Limits, Heather made significant contributions during her time at IBM. Her roles were pivotal in driving impactful initiatives that redefined employee engagement through Smarter Workforce strategies.

Claudia works in the Chief Information Security Office (CISO) at the New York State Office for Information Technology Services. In this role she is responsible for managing all the Security Services Teams (SSTs) that provide information security services to New York State agencies and works directly with the CTO and CPO to ensure security is integrated in all projects and solutions provided by ITS.
Ms. Fisher has over 20 years of experience working in Information Technology with a background in software architecture and identity management. She joined the CISO over five years ago and specializes in leadership, risk management and secure architecture. Claudia has conducted several seminars throughout her career on technology, security, workforce and leadership.
Claudia has a bachelor's degree in Information Technology with a focus in Information Security. In addition, Ms. Fisher holds several certifications, including the ISC2 CISSP. She is currently enrolled in SUNY Polytechnic's MBA program. She was born and raised in Albany, NY and currently resides in East Greenbush.

Gail Galusha is the Administrator of Data Privacy and Security Services for the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex (WSWHE) Board of Cooperative Educational Services. In this capacity at WSWHE BOCES, she provides leadership, guidance, and oversight to 30+ public school districts on data privacy and security. She supports the development and implementation of policies and procedures mandated by education privacy laws, collaborates with district technology committees to develop strategic plans for data management, incident response, and disaster recovery, and also negotiates vendor data privacy agreements on behalf of her districts. Prior to her current role, Gail has worked for the NYS Education Department in the Office of Higher Education in Program Research; Binghamton University as a Designated School Official of Information Technology and Data Management; Ballston Spa Central School District as the Chief Information Officer, District Data Coordinator, Medicaid Compliance Officer and State Testing Coordinator; and for the Northeastern Regional Information Center as the Data Warehouse Program Coordinator.
Gail has a Bachelor’s Degree in Science, Mathematics, and Technology with an Information Systems Major, a Master Degree in Policy, and graduate-level certificates in Advocacy, Compliance and Risk Management, and Data Security and Privacy Policy.

Michael Haber currently serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the New York State Board of Elections, where he oversees strategic cybersecurity and technology initiatives. Studying physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, his professional experience has spanned both the public and private sectors. Michael came to the Board of Elections as a project management consultant with NYSTEC, after working as Implementation Director for Bespoke Software. Previously, he served as a technology project manager for critical infrastructure projects with the NYS Office of Homeland Security. His previous experience includes technology oversight and management with Lockheed Martin and ACS, also serving as Operations Director and Director of Processing for New York State Child Support. Michael has also been a long-time volunteer with numerous charitable organizations, providing leadership development training for college students, and having served twelve years on the Board of Directors for Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity.

Abner JeanPierre has worked in the public sector for over 25 years and has a proven track record on delivering results for client agencies. He currently serves as the Director of Classification & Compensation at the NYS Department of Civil Service where he oversees the state’s job architecture and compensation program, ensuring pay equity across nearly 70 appointing authorities. He and his team have transformed the Division of Classification and Compensation into a responsive, customer-centric organization that delivers effective solutions to help client agencies attract and retain talent.
A veteran of the United States Air Force, Abner received a master’s degree in public administration from Rockefeller College, University at Albany; and a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, in communications from the College at Oswego, State University of New York. In 2009, he was appointed by Governor David Paterson to the UAlbany University Council, the local oversight body. In 2016, he was selected as the Program Manager of the Year by the Public Sector HR Association’s Eastern Region.
He is involved in a number of causes, including serving as child advocate for Compassion International to raise awareness and funds to release children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty. He has also served as coach for various youth soccer programs in the Capital District.

Matt Jebaraj leads NYS ITS Program and Project Management Office (PPMO) and Business Analysis Services Team, as Executive Director. Prior to that, Matt was the Deputy Executive Director for ITS Workforce, Public Safety and Housing portfolio. Matt was the Deputy Director reporting to NYS Education Department (NYSED) CIO, leading IT Business Solutions, and launched NYSED's PMO and BA Services units. Before that, he has led multiple teams at NYS ITS, and has successfully managed various large, complex programs and technical deliveries. Matt has 25+ years of public and private sector IT management experience, including at GE Energy. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree and a Bachelor of Engineering degree. Matt has implemented multiple organizational effectiveness programs, in various organizations. He also formed and led local interest groups for the Project Management Institute (PMI) to mentor outstanding leaders, and served as PMI Upstate NY Chapter's Strategic Planning Director. Matt has been a panelist and moderator in previous NY IT Leadership Forums, and is passionate about bringing experts together to share ideas, and helping new and experienced IT leaders grow, and develop professionally.

Michele Jones is New York State’s first-ever chief privacy officer. In this new capacity at NYS ITS, she is responsible for driving the state’s strategy in protecting the personal and confidential data of New Yorkers amid a rise in digital service offerings and new data privacy laws and regulations.
Prior to joining ITS, Michele served more than 10 years in various roles, including General Counsel and Deputy Director of Risk Management, as well as Compliance/Data Protection Officer for Capital Region BOCES, where she was a key member of the executive team. She also managed vendor engagements, developed information privacy and security awareness training, and spearheaded the campaign to shift BOCES culture towards data privacy and security awareness.
Michele is a graduate of Albany Law School and holds a certificate in Human Resource Management from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Angela Liotta currently serves as the Public Information Officer and Communications Director for the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation where she is responsible for implementing strategic communications and outreach strategies for state-administered financial aid programs that support 300,000 college-going students each year. In this role, she also oversees call center operations serving approximately 100,000 students per year.
Prior to her current position, she served as a Client Engagement Director and Public Information Officer and Communications Director at the Office of Information Technology Services, where she worked to advance communications and marketing efforts, spearheaded numerous successful campaigns, including the launch of a new website, the creation of a social media strategy, and the development of stakeholder engagement plans.
Angela Liotta also served as the Deputy Director of the New York State Broadband Office, where she worked to advance New York State’s broadband agenda, including the successful Connect NY Broadband Grant Program. In this role, she worked closely with industry stakeholders, government officials, and community leaders to promote broadband access and awareness throughout the state. Angela also held public relations consulting positions, as well as communication and marketing roles in the private sector.

As Director of Human Resources for the New York State Department of Health, Karen oversees the agency’s human resources management and associated strategic priorities. Karen has served as a NYS human resource professional for over 20 years, with proven expertise in successful innovative solutioning and business partnership to recruit and retain a well-qualified, diverse workforce. Prior to joining NYS, she had a career in private sector management with experience including enterprise staffing, recruitment, training, performance management, succession planning and employee relations. Karen has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Management from Siena College, with a concentration in Computer Science, and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and Society of Human Resource Management - Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). Karen serves as Past Chair on the NYS Personnel Council Executive Committee, providing advice and actively partnering with stakeholders statewide to help shape human resources policy and transformational strategies/initiatives to resolve workforce challenges faced by all State agencies.

Chris is a technology and security strategist covering State, Local Government, and Education at VMware. Chris brings over 20 years of public and private sector experience, leading transformative change through technology to his role. He is a well-respected adviser, having held CIO, CTO and CISO positions across the public sector.
Chris is a recognized cybersecurity expert, with a unique perspective that emphasizes leveraging security strategies to improve user experience and enable innovation. He is known in the industry as a thought leader for organizational change management associated with technology modernization, security, and digital service. Chris presently holds CISSP, CRISC, and CISM certifications in information security and risk management. Chris is an Air Force Veteran who honorably served in Operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch. Upon returning to civilian life, Chris held various engineering and marketing roles at technology startups, ultimately following his calling to public service.

Jacob is the Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Central and Information Services, County of Dutchess. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Marist College with a B.S. in Information Systems (2004). Jacob has over 19 years of government service to Dutchess County as well as 19 years of service as a volunteer firefighter.
He is a member of Dutchess County’s internal cybersecurity team. And has authored several organization-wide cybersecurity policies and department-level cybersecurity standards. Jacob assisted in planning 2020 and 2023 Hudson Valley Cybersecurity Summits.

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.

Michael Renshaw is Lumen’s National Director of Security Strategist, with responsibility for the company's SLED Security Sales. With 24 years of experience in IT, Mike has held a number of leadership positions in managed security, network engineering, and sales, with several technology startups and product/services organizations. He served with companies such as ITsMine, CenturyLink, Level 3, Akamai, Prolexic Technologies, Solera Networks, and others. Mike has worked with all levels of government entities, and the largest financial, e-commerce, energy, and telecommunications companies in the world.
He has created both networks and security solutions designed to have full asset tracking, enabling IAM, capable of handling DDoS attacks, with all giving full visibility to the customer. Mike started his career as an engineer designing and installing IP and telephony networks, then found a natural fit in security protecting customers against all forms of cyber threats.

Jim Richberg’s role as a Fortinet CISO leverages his 30+ years’ experience leading and driving innovation in cybersecurity, threat intelligence, and cyber strategy & policy for the US Government and international partners. Mr. Richberg’s broad operational experience –including his 20 years at CIA-- gives him practical insight into difficult cyber problems ranging from advanced threat capabilities to insider threat and supply chain integrity. He helped build the discipline of cyber threat intelligence analysis and has been an innovator in measuring cyber performance, risk, and return on investment (ROI). In his non-cyber moments, he builds and uses large telescopes and has run astronomy outreach programs for the Smithsonian Institute and the National Park Service

Bryan has driven thought leadership and reliability into enterprise security for over 25 years. He’s successfully demonstrated healthy revenue and customer base growth in Managed Security & Consulting, is a pioneer in computer incident response and cyber intelligence and co-author of some of the widest circulated security publications. Mr. Sartin is trusted advisor to Fortune 1000 CISO’s and CSOs.
As Security & Resiliency leader for Kyndryl Consult, Mr. Sartin is responsible for practice strategy, offerings portfolio, roadmap and consulting service delivery globally. He joined Kyndryl in 2021 to guide the practice thru spin off from IBM, helping establish underlayment for a new market leading and independent vendor- agnostic Security & Resiliency brand. Kyndryl is a 90,000 employee company with 19B+ in annual revenue.
Before joining Kyndryl, Mr. Sartin was Executive Director of Verizon Global Security Services. He oversaw delivery operations spanning 600 employees in 33 countries, 4 Directors, 3 datacenters 7 digital forensics labs, 2 offshore delivery centers and 5 research publications.

Mike is a Customer Engineer specializing in Applied AI. He is focused on the application of Conversational AI and Generative AI / Large Language Models (LLMs) to solve public sector challenges. He has worked at Google Public Sector for four years and helped many agencies apply Google Cloud AI Services.

Steven Spalten currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer at the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYS DFS). Steven has over 28 years of experience working within the New York State government. Prior to joining the NYS DFS, Steven served as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Strategic Officer at NYS Department of Labor, focusing on transforming services are provided to NYS residents and on modernizing business practices.
Previously, Steven worked at NYS ITS in different leadership roles, including leading the migration into Office365, serving as the Deputy Chief Operations Officer (COO), and as the Executive Director of the Tourism and Environment Portfolio.

Marcy S. Stevens, has served as Chief General Counsel to NYS ITS since January 2020. In this role, she is the chief legal and policy officer for the agency and is responsible for all legal matters pertaining to and affecting NYS ITS, as well as in its capacity as a statewide service provider. Marcy has been with the agency since 2016, previously serving as ITS Deputy Counsel and Director of Litigation & eDiscovery.
Marcy has nearly 15 years of legal experience in the public and private sector. Prior to joining NYS, Marcy worked as a civil litigation attorney, most recently at a national law firm in the commercial and liability defense litigation practice, where she served as a member of the national eDiscovery triage team and represented corporate clients in high-exposure tort claims and employment matters.
Marcy is a key member of the NYS ITS leadership team, as well as a respected resource across the state for her ability to bridge the gap between complicated legal and policy matters and their intersection with technology tools, information security and data privacy issues.
Marcy holds a Juris Doctor (JD) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Western New England University Schools of Law and Business, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University. Marcy is in the process of obtaining her CIPP/US Privacy certification.

Ben Straub is the Head of Public Sector for Atlassian. He leverages over 25 years of experience in enterprise software to lead the go to market efforts for government, federal systems integrators, defense contractors and education. Prior to joining Atlassian Ben held various go to market leadership roles at organizations such as Pendo, ServiceNow and Cornerstone both in the public and private sector. His unique perspective of seeing the many differences in the markets helps him become a trusted advisor to public sector organizations looking to drive significant digital transformation.

Deborah is an accomplished C-level influencer, with a broad range of experience in government, policy, cybersecurity, privacy and information technology. She is an experienced and highly respected thought leader who has held executive roles for over two decades. She recently retired from her position as New York state’s chief information security officer (CISO) after over 35 years of public service.
In that role, as part of New York state’s information technology transformation and consolidation initiative, she helped redesign how the state protects its data. As state CISO, she directed the state’s comprehensive cybersecurity governance, risk management and compliance program, providing strategic leadership and vision and assuring business-aligned, risk-based investments that maximized business opportunity and minimized cybersecurity risk. She also directed the NYS Cyber Command Center, hotline, procedures for reporting and response to cyberthreats and digital forensics.
She holds multiple industry certifications, including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP); Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC); SANS Strategic Planning, Policy and Leadership (GSTRT) Global Information Assurance Certification; and Project Management Institute certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Mr. Varshney is a VP & Senior Partner in IBM Consulting and leads the AI & Analytics business in US, Canada and Latin America. He serves as a trusted advisor to c-suites cross-industry. Leveraging the transformative power of AI to deliver quantifiable business results has afforded him global recognition. Over the past 16 years, he has partnered with several fortune 100 global brands on their Cognitive Enterprise journey. He leads with an “AI&” approach to augment all aspects of enterprise workflows with responsible AI @ scale, content intelligence, conversational AI and IoT computer vision. He also holds multiple AI patents.
Across various roles at IBM, Mr. Varshney has had the privilege of working with and building world class talent, curriculum, assets and methods. As part of IBN’s Chief Analytics Office, he leveraged analytics to transform various aspects of IBM’s own business. Having driven real world transformation across a global enterprise, he gained deep understanding of the organizational challenges and what it takes to drive adoption of analytics.
Prior to joining IBM, Mr. Varshney gained experience in strategy consulting and deploying analytics in various domains ranging from bio-medicine, financial services and technology at Bain & Co, Bloomberg LP and Intel Corporation. Shobhit earned an MBA with distinction from Johnson at Cornell, MS in Computer Science (focus: Bio Medicine) from Cornell University and BS in Computer Engineering and Math with summa cum laude from University of Arkansas.
He lives in Dallas, TX with his wife and 2 young kids. In his personal life, he is passionate about photography, is a tech geek and loves to brew beer.