As Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the state of Tennessee, Curtis Clan leads the State of Tennessee’s security program. He is able to utilize his vast technical knowledge in networking and information security as well as his leadership skills developed over his career. With this knowledge and skills, Curtis keeps the State well ahead of any threats to the state information technology assets.
After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern Kentucky University, Curtis worked his way up the Information Technology ranks through positions at Fort Knox, Keesler Air Force Base, Fort Campbell, and finally the State of Tennessee. In addition, he has received his Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP) certification.
During his 23-year career at the State, Curtis has held multiple key positions in Information technology. Positions held being network engineer, engineering manager, director of network and finally in 2015 was named Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).
As CISO, Curtis has expanded the capabilities of the security program and drastically reduced the risk to the State.
Curtis believes in a strong work ethic, which he learned during his upbringing in a very small, but industrious farming community
Curtis is a dedicated father to his young son Hunter.

Lauren Collett manages the Google Cloud business for the State of Tennessee and is a Nashville native. She is a mission-focused technology leader with over 20 years of experience developing data-driven solutions for Government customers. In partnership with the State of Tennessee and Google Cloud, Lauren will be supporting the Statewide Enterprise Data Analytics platform to drive data insights across public, private, and non-profit agencies and improve data-driven policy decisions, budgeting, and constituent service delivery for Tennesseans.
She holds a degree in Computer Science and Visual Design from Duke University and divides her time with an active son who enjoys science projects, video games, and YouTube.

Matt Federoff served as the Chief Information Officer for the Vail School District in Vail, Arizona for 22 years. He helped open 18 new schools, and was first in his state to provide comprehensive wifi, 1-1 student laptops, and all digital content for instruction. Before Vail, Matt taught high school science for eight years, where he was named an Apple Distinguished Educator in 1997. Matt was the 2005 Arizona Technology Director of the Year, a 2007 National School Board Association "20 to Watch”, a 2010 Tech & Learning “100 Future Technology Leaders to Watch”, 2013 Center for Digital Education “40 Top Innovators”, and in 2015 received ISTE’s “Making IT Happen” award. Matt served on Intel’s Education Board of Advisors from 2015-16. From 2018-19 Matt assisted the Tucson Police Department in digitizing their police academy curriculum, earning an “Award of Merit” in 2019. Retired in 2021 after 30 years in public education, Matt lives with his wife and children in the wilds of the Empire Mountains south of Vail.

Neal has led the state and federal government business at Lucid, the only visual collaboration suite to help public sector teams see and build the future, for the past 3 years. He advises governments at all levels on how to facilitate a collaborative & innovative culture while also speeding up remote/hybrid work, rapid modernization, and cloud migration initiatives. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two little girls, golf, mountain biking, skiing/snowboarding, and anything else outdoors.

Tommy Gardner is HP’s Chief Technology Officer for HP Federal, spanning the US Federal Agencies, Higher Education, K-12 Education, State and Local government customer segments, as well as Federal Systems Integrators. His current responsibilities include technology leadership, strategic technology plans, product and technology strategies, sales force technical support, and customer and partner relationships.
Previously, Tommy has served as the Chief Technology Officer for Jacobs Engineering, Scitor, and ManTech. Earlier in his career he was a senior technical executive at Raytheon. In the U.S. Navy he served as the Deputy for Science and Technology for the Chief of Naval Research. He oversaw the Navy’s Deep Submergence Program as well as its Advanced Technology Program. He also commanded the nuclear submarine, USS San Juan (SSN 751).
Tommy’s educational background covers multiple disciplines and fields of interest including: cybersecurity, data science, blockchain, quantum information science, artificial intelligence, high performance computing and systems integration.
Tommy holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, an M.S. in Management of Technology from MIT and a Ph. D. in Energy Economics from George Washington University. He is a Professional Engineer, an ASME Fellow, and serves on the ASME Board of Governors, the ANSI Board of Directors and the U. S. Council on Competitiveness as the Co-chair of the Advanced Computer Roundtable.

Brandon O. Gibson was named Chief Operating Officer for the State of Tennessee in May 2020. Gibson previously served as Senior Advisor to Governor Lee, working primarily on rural and criminal justice initiatives.
Prior to joining Governor Lee’s administration, Gibson served on the Tennessee Court of Appeals for over four years after being appointed to the court by Governor Bill Haslam. She served as the chair of the Board of Judicial Conduct and co-chaired the Tennessee Bar Association’s Public Service Academy and Leadership Law program.
Prior to her service on the court, she practiced law in West Tennessee. A native of Dyersburg, Gibson earned her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in agribusiness from Mississippi State University and her law degree from Southern Methodist University.
Gibson serves on the board of directors of the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation and on the advisory council of Leadership Tennessee. She and her husband are the parents of one daughter and live on a farm in Crockett County.

Hugh Hale currently serves as Chief Information Officer for the State of Tennessee, Division of TennCare. He has been in this position for the past six years. Prior to joining TennCare, he was with Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), the largest not-for-profit home and community-based health care organization in the country, where he served as Chief Information Officer. Hugh has over 37 years of Healthcare Information Systems leadership experience. Hugh’s prior work also includes Executive roles with the IBM Corporation and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, including its subsidiary, Shared Health.

Kenny Holmes became the leader of go-to-market strategy for Public Sector at Fortinet in March 2019. He was selected due to extensive industry experience, expertise in a wide range of technologies, and his proven sales execution and analytics background. An advocate and speaker for the Public Sector, he has been in Information Technology for more than twenty years and held more than ten technology certifications and positions spanning from Engineering to Sales Executive. He is an expert in cybersecurity with a background in cryptography. He has worked in the Federal Government, State Governments, Research Institutions, and Universities on some of the largest security projects in the world. Kenny currently resides in the Chicagoland area with his amazing wife and ten-year old daughter. He spends as much time as possible with them including taking them along whenever possible on his business travels.

Derrick is the National Practice Leader for Cyber Operations within AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting, responsible for its direction and overall business performance. Derrick specializes in collaborating with clients on strategic cybersecurity initiatives such as cloud security, Zero Trust, SASE, cybersecurity operations, and cybersecurity transformation. Derrick leads a team of security professionals in designing strategic, future vision next-generation architectures and preemptively assessing network and cloud infrastructures to identify security weaknesses and mitigate risk. Derrick is a CISSP, a CMMC Registered Practitioner, and a Forrester Certified Zero Trust Strategist with 24 years of experience behind him as he advises customers in both technical and strategic-level discussions through workshop sessions, speaking engagements, industry forums, and overall collaborations sessions. In addition to supporting customer cybersecurity challenges, Derrick is also responsible for defining and developing new cybersecurity services for Cybersecurity Consulting based on common customer needs and industry direction.

Eco-system growth, including around advanced transportation/mobility solutions. Tim Johnson has an extensive tenure leading Emerging Solutions organizations across several industries. He is currently the Director of IoT Sales, Public Sector and Enterprise West Region for T-Mobile. In this role he leads teams to provide Federal, State, Local and Education communities with connected solutions which Enable Opportunity, and, for Enterprises do either do something they’ve never done before, or do something better, utilizing IoT Connectivity. He has held several leadership roles in sales and Product/Business Development where he drove IoT/Connected Community Eco-system growth, including around advanced transportation/mobility solutions.

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.

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.

Dan Rivera is the K-12 & E-rate Manager at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. Having three decades of experience in information technology, with a key focus in education, Dan appreciates the opportunity to provide his insight on trends in the education market space.

Dave has over 14 years of experience assisting State and Local Government agencies transform and modernize their organizations, working side by side with his clients to understand the issues they face on a daily basis and help them navigate to potential solutions. As a member of KPMG’s Health and Government practice, Dave has robust experience as a Project Manager, Business Analyst, and Technical Analyst, providing implementation quality assurance, functional and technical design support, user acceptance testing support, and target operating model development support throughout digital modernization efforts.

Anuja leads the Solutions Architecture team supporting Education and State/Local Govt business for the eastern half of the US at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Along with her team, she focuses on helping customers drive innovation and productivity by leveraging the cloud to transform their business and service their constituents and learners. Anuja has over 25 years of tech and leadership experience from having worked in start-ups as well as Fortune 100 companies.
Anuja is passionate about Inclusion and mentoring Early in Career Talent. Anuja has presented at several Industry conferences on technical and leadership topics. She holds a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering and Colorado State University respectively.
Anuja lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children. She is a breast cancer survivor and has shared her journey through her blog (http://theanujaksingh.wordpress.com/) to help others as they face their own varied struggles.

Eric Skomra leads State and Local Government customers in IT and business transformations by applying Dell Technologies solutions, 25+ years of public and private-sector IT experience, and a passion for excellent customer service. Eric served in the public sector as the CIO for the State of Ohio Medicaid Agency, CIO and CTO for two Ohio counties, and the CIO of an Ohio city. Eric built and ran three IT departments, two data centers, one disaster recovery center, and was recognized nationally as a "Broadband Hero" for his regional and statewide broadband expansion leadership. Eric has also led in Healthcare IT, supporting a physician's corporation, two hospitals and multiple clinics.

Herb is a State, Local and Education Strategist. Having history in various government CIO roles he is responsible for assisting customers achieve their strategic outcomes through understanding their business issues and how policy can impact business outcomes. He has been sharing best practices learned from around the country on optimization, workforce modernization and hybrid cloud. He also is providing insight in practical implementations of AI, Smart Communities and blockchain at many government conferences. Prior to joining in 2018, VMware Herb served as the State of Wisconsin Deputy State CIO and CTO, CIO for Health and Family Services and Corrections.

Zack Webb is a Chief Technology Officer with over 20 years of IT experience solving the complex challenges that face mid-sized local government. He is an “outside the box” thinker with an entrepreneurial spirit and a “best idea wins” attitude.
Over the years Zack has sat in nearly every seat in IT from night shift operations, user support, network administration, systems administration, data center design, application development, and eventually CTO. Zack has led countless projects and currently leads one of the largest public sector IT teams in the region.

Chris Weggeman (Lt Gen, USAF, Ret) is a Managing Director in Deloitte’s Cyber and Strategic Risk practice. Chris is an experienced multi-domain warfighting Commander with a demonstrated history of leading in the Defense, Air Power & Cyber Operations enterprises as Deputy Commander of Air Combat Command, and Commander, Air Forces Cyber ( 24th Air Force). He is a 25-year combat-proven F-16 fighter pilot with 4 combat tours. He is a founding father and architect behind USCYBERCOMs Cyber Mission Forces, authorities, missions and capabilities. Skilled in U.S. Department of Defense, Joint Staff, Air Force, enterprise Training, Policy and Leadership, Chris has a Master’s degree in Military Strategic Studies from USAF Air War College and Military Arts and Sciences from Army Command and General Staff College.

Juan Williams was appointed Commissioner of the Department of Human Resources by Governor Bill Lee. Prior to this appointment, he spent fourteen years at Duke Energy’s Piedmont Natural Gas Division in management positions in Human Resources, Utility Operations, and Change Readiness.
During his tenure at Duke Energy Nashville Resource Center, Juan advised managers, supervisors and employees on matters including operations and workplace culture. Previously, Juan served as the Director of Change Readiness with focuses on business process, systems and technology, talent management and restructuring. He also led the Human Resources department with oversight over Employee Relations, Labor Relations, Talent Acquisition and Business Support functions. In addition to nearly 17 years of human resources and operations experience, Juan is an active member of the community and serves on the PENCIL Foundation Board of Directors, Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence, and the National Association of State Personnel Executives, Boards.
Juan is a results oriented energetic leader with a focus on excellence in communication and continuous learning.
Juan received a bachelor’s degree in business from North Carolina Wesleyan College and MBA from Queens University in Charlotte, NC.