Phil Bertolini 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. 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.

Milty Brizan is an AWS Solutions Architect with over 15 years of experience with Public and Private cloud. Milty specializes in containerization, micro-services , migrations and DevOps. In his current role, Milty works within The Commonwealth of Virginia to deploy secure, scalable and cost-effective microservices on AWS. Milty is a former Navy nuclear engineer and submariner, serving aboard the USS Norfolk (SSN-714) and USS Memphis (SSN-691).

Barry has worked in the IT field for over 37 years holding a variety of technology leadership positions in the public and private sectors and is presently the CIO for Chesterfield County, Virginia where he pursues initiatives based on digital transformation, open government and citizen centricity. Under his leadership Chesterfield County Va has been four times recognized as the #1 digital county in the USA. He is an adjunct faculty for Virginia Commonwealth University, an active NACo contributor, two-time president of the Virginia Local Government IT Executives (VALGITE) organization, a certified government CIO and a national top 25 Doer, Dreamer & Driver. He likes to teach, write code and blog about technology leadership.

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.

Mr. DerHovhannessian currently serves as a Vice President at Qlarion responsible for leading services for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He has over twenty years of experience and is an accomplished executive with a successful track record in consulting and industry positioning organizations and C-level teams to define strategies, drive data-informed decisions, implement multi-tier solutions, launch/enhance products, improve user/constituent experience, develop public/private partnerships, and increase revenue/funding. He is successful at driving adoption of new technologies, services, and organizational structures. Skilled at planning/delivering full product lifecycle and expanding on improving digital product offerings leveraging data sets through waterfall, Agile, and SAFe methodologies.
While he has spent his career working across private and public sector, he has spent his most recent years delivering client value across Virginia agencies, localities, health, and higher education.
Alex resides in Richmond with his wife and their two children.

As the Minneapolis CIO for seven-plus years, Otto Doll was responsible for all city IT services. He also served as South Dakota’s CIO for 15 years with responsibility for all state government computing, telecommunications, radio and public broadcasting. While with IT research firms, Otto has advised Fortune 1000, federal, state and local government CIOs on information technology assessment and alignment to business needs. He has served as a director with the United States General Services Administration, developing information technology strategic plans and oversight policy.
Otto received his computer science degree from Virginia Tech and is a senior executive fellow of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is a past president of NASCIO – a national organization of state CIOs. He also is a past president of the Metropolitan Information Exchange (MIX) – a national organization of city and county CIOs. Otto was named to Government Technology's 2004 Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers.

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.

Jason is an accomplished technology executive with over 25 years of experience driving innovation and transformation initiatives across global organizations. Jason collaborates with CIOs, CTOs and other technology leaders on strategies aimed at enabling business outcomes.
Jason is currently the Global Field Chief Technology Officer for Prisma Access and SASE at Palo Alto Networks. His recent previous experience includes leading Zscaler’s global business consulting practice and eight years at GE - enabling GE’s cloud journey through network and security transformation.

Tetoya has 20+ years of public safety experience assisting military and private sector businesses with Emergency Operation Centers, Government operations. As a veteran of the United States Air Force, she has developed extensive knowledge in emergency preparedness and project management.

Noel Hara is an experienced strategist that infuses technology solutions across the public sector to help solve the most challenging problems. As Chief Technology Officer with NTT DATA’s public sector, he blends over two decades of experience in the public and private sector with an insatiable curiosity for technology and applications. Since the start of the global pandemic, Noel has been responsible for adapting the company’s offering portfolio to support clients in their shift to remote working and learning while continuing to support constituents through the expansion of digital government.

Francesca Keating is Vice President of State & Local within the Defense and Civilian Sector for SAIC. She oversees all work within State & Local, focused on business development, program delivery and operational oversight. Francesca joined SAIC in 2009, holding leadership roles in headquarters moves; data center moves; business line divestitures; acquisitions; and corporate restructurings.
Prior to joining SAIC, Francesca held various executive positions with HP, KPMG and Oracle.
Francesca holds a BA in Communications from Pace University, and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

Brian Linder is an Emerging Threats Expert and Evangelist in Check Point’s Office of the CTO, specializing in the Modern Secured Workforce. Brian has appeared multiple times on CNBC, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR radio, and hosts Check Point’s CoffeeTalk Podcast and Weaponizers Underground, and has teamed on keynote CyberTalks at Check Point’s CPX360 events. For 20+ years, Brian has been an advisor at the C-level to firms big and small in financial, legal and telecommunications, on next generation cybersecurity solutions and strategies for cloud, mobile, and network. Brian holds a B.S. in computer science from Drexel University and an M.S. in Information Science from the Pennsylvania State University. (Optional Bumper – skip or use): In his spare time, Brian competes in Ironman 70.3 triathlons and a host of other multisport events, and is grateful to be raising beautiful twin teenage daughters, which is no doubt his most challenging race of all! Brian's energy and engaging presentation style and energy keeps audiences on their toes!

Mr. Montgomery is a Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Dell Technologies. Chris helps public sector organizations align their business objectives with a supporting IT Strategy that enables digital transformation.
Chris is a well-respected advisor, having held CIO, CTO and CISO positions within NYC and NJ government. As former CTO, Chris has developed cloud migration strategies and implemented multiple cloud solutions using in public, private, and hybrid architectures. Chris holds multiple security and risk management certifications, and as a former CISO, he built information security and risk management programs from the ground up in highly regulated environments. During his tenure in NYC Government, Chris led multiple smart city and digital transformation projects modernizing legacy technology, having a positive impact with the way that citizens and businesses interact with City government.
He is recognized in the industry as a thought leader for organizational change management associated with technology modernization.

David (“Dave”) Morales is currently a Client Partner serving clients nationally at Unqork for the State and Local Public Enterprise practice, responsible for growth and delivery excellence across a number of platform and product solutions. He also has responsibility for maturing the service delivery ecosystem partnership strategy.
Dave has formerly served as a Partner/VP at IBM serving Go To Market and Lead Account Partner activities for the State, Local and Education (SLED) delivering the breadth of IBM Global Business Services available offerings to clients. He also had a national role to establish cloud adoption and journey support strategy across North America for SLED. As a former Accenture Managing Director within the Health & Public Service – his previous experience was North America lead of Technology Consulting Advisory for Cloud in the State, Local and Higher (SLED) sector – managing clients, account teams and cloud vendor relationships. His most recent focus areas were around Cloud Strategy & Assessments, Transformations and Operations.
He has over 33 years of large System Integration, Technology Consulting, and Applications / IT and Application Operations Outsourcing experience and has served both public, Federal and private sector clients. He has worked in the Human Services, Defense, Telecommunications, Health Care, Product & Distribution, and High Tech industries. His most recent experiences in addition to multiple SLED clients, includes Defense and Human Services sector experience with both public facing and internally focused capabilities for the last 19 years.
Dave is a 4-time award recipient honored as one of the 2018 Hispanic IT Executive Council’s Top 100 most influential and notable Hispanic Professionals in the Information Technology Industry.
Dave graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor’s degree in Operations Research / Industrial Engineering. He has provided support for the HITEC Foundation fund raising activities and has served in the board of the Saint Cassian School Foundation as Grants Officer as President, Vice President and Marketing Lead. He also is a Senior Board Member of an international Advisory Council Board for the operations of a 4-diamond luxury Caribbean condominium / hotel resort. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and he currently resides in the metro-New York area with his wife and daughter.

Joseph Morris is the deputy chief innovation officer for the Center for Digital Government and a national keynote speaker on issues, trends and drivers impacting state and local government and education. He has authored publications and reports on funding streams, technology investment areas and public-sector priorities, and has led roundtables, projects and initiatives focused on issues within the public sector. Joe has conducted state and local government research with e.Republic since 2007 and knows the ins and outs of government on all levels. He received his Bachelor of Arts in government and international relations from the California State University, Sacramento.

For more than 20 years, Co-Co Morton Opher has leveraged her digital expertise in leadership positions with the Virginia Board of Medicine (BOM), first as a Licensing Supervisor and then an Operations Manager. Today as a BOM Deputy Director, among her many duties, Ms. Morton Opher is responsible for identifying ways to improve customer satisfaction and the management of board applicant records.As part of this work, Ms. Morton heads the Board of Medicine’s initiative with KPMG to design and implement client facing digital automation to improve the electronic experience of applicants for licensure and renewal.

Jonathan Xavier Ozovek is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He became VITA’s first COO on August 10, 2019. As VITA’s COO, he leads enterprise IT services, service delivery, operations, supply chain management, customer success, investment governance, project management, and finance.
Prior to coming to the commonwealth, Jonathan has extensive experience in the private sector across the healthcare, consulting, financial services, and technology verticals and across the globe. This experience has been across nimble technology startup companies to industry leaders such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Johnson and Johnson, Becton Dickinson, Siemens Healthcare, and Citibank. He specializes as a turnaround and transformation executive with a proprietary methodology that delivers measurable outcomes rapidly. This methodology has delivered quantifiable top and bottom line improvements ranging from $8 million to $200 million within a range of 1 to 2 years.
In addition, Jonathan has a penchant for research, development, and innovation with a specialty in artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and machine learning. He has designed and developed systems ranging from a predictive commodity trading system, a medical device research and development Enterprise Program Management (EPM) system, and a cutting-edge last mile logistics platform and SaaS solution.

Julie has a long career leading strategies and solutions for data and analytics, for commercial and government organizations. Currently Julie is a Director of Digital Insights for CGI across the US. Julie is passionate about giving back to the community and has over 20 years on community, national and international committees.

Demetrias Rodgers is the Deputy Chief Operating Officer for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. He leads various teams responsible for Platform Operations and Enterprise Services as well being responsible for the oversight and governance of all Cloud based services for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Demetrias joined VITA back in 2016 where he immediately wrote the Third party use policy for allowing for third party hosted solutions to be used within the Commonwealth which cleared the way for the introduction of cloud services into the Commonwealth.
Prior to joining VITA, Demetrias held top IT positions in organizations such as WorldCom, SunCom AT&T, and most recently Northrop Grumman where he served as the IT Portfolio Services Manager for the VITA contract, In his tenure with Northrop Grumman Demetrias served in various capacities over the 10 years he supported the VITA/NG partnership including acting as Program Security Officer where he supported the needs of the Commonwealth security objectives.
Demetrias currently holds the following accreditations: ITIL V3, PMP, CISSP and CCSP. He attended Strayer University as well as the Booth School of Business’ as part of their Strategy Development Executive Program. He prides himself in being a strategic thinker with a history of finding and delivering creative technology solutions that enable organizations to better perform in achieving its goals. Demetrias was responsible for developing and implementing the model for assessing and ensuring ongoing oversight for Cloud Software as a Service applications and now is responsible for approving the use of all cloud services for the Commonwealth of Virginia Executive Branch agencies. Demetrias Drafted the Governors “Executive Order 19 Cloud Service Utilization and Readiness” which was signed by the Governor Northam on September 18, 2018.

Kyle Rosner serves as Deputy Broadband Advisor in the Office of Governor Ralph Northam. Kyle previously served as Broadband Policy Assistant since December 2018. Prior to joining the Northam Administration, Kyle was a government relations and advocacy associate for Patient Services, Inc. and served as Confidential Assistant to the Secretary of Administration in the McAuliffe Administration. Kyle is a native of Frederick County, VA and a graduate of Radford University.

Travis Sarkees has over 12 years’ experience serving the Commonwealth of Virginia. His focus is to makes it easier and more enjoyable for citizens, private businesses, and government agencies to interact with one another.
Travis has established a reputation as a leading-edge technology consultant, enthusiastic collaborator, and most importantly, an advantageous partner to the clients he serves. At NIC Virginia, he ensures the successful design, development, and implementation of one-of-a-kind technology solutions which ensure NIC Virginia is at the forefront of creating applications that execute secure government transactions with an intuitive user experience.

Gregory Scott was appointed Director and Chief Technology Officer for Fairfax County Government in September 2019. As Director of the Department of Information Technology and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), he is responsible for the management of all aspects of information technology supporting the County’s operations and service to its constituents. Mr. Scott directs the efforts of over 300 employees in the Department of Information Technology (DIT), including information technology planning, program development, budget & policy development, e-government, IT security and development of enterprise-wide technology architecture and standards. He also is responsible for planning and implementation of the County’s IT investment portfolio.
Mr. Scott has over a 35-year career in information technology the last 26 years with Fairfax County Government. Scott has overseen state-of-the-art solutions in a constantly evolving industry. For six years, he served as a deputy director of information technology, responsible for areas such as land development, health and human services, revenue services and e-government. In this role, Scott provided strategic leadership, direction and guidance to help county departments reach their goals and business objectives, while managing a portfolio of multimillion-dollar initiatives. As a deputy, Scott also helped implement many information technology policies and standards consistent with the changing IT landscape.
For 12 years, Scott led the Department of Information Technology’s E-Government & Enterprise Architecture Division, which includes county website properties, interactive voice response and customer relationship management. During this tenure, Scott served as the technical manager for the transition to a new enterprise resource planning system shared by Fairfax County Government and Fairfax County Public Schools that conducts finance, budget, procurement and human resource business functions.

Donna M Sneed assumed her role as a Product Owner for the Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement in March 2020. Mrs. Sneed has had the opportunity to oversee and implement numerous divisional projects and system enhancements in alignment with the agency’s mission, vision and goals. She is currently serving as the Product Owner for the Division’s first Robotic Process Automation (RPA).Donna began her career with the Division in 2006 as a Fiscal Technician. Since then, she has acquired over 15 years of experience within the Child Support Enforcement program, holding positions such as a Support Enforcement Specialist, a Fiscal Operations Supervisor and a Program Coordinator Senior, prior to accepting her current position. In 2017, Mrs. Sneed earned her Bachelors in Human Services from Bluefield College. She is a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) and received her certificate in Project Management. Mrs. Sneed is married to Kevin Sneed and is the mother of three. She serves as a volunteer coordinator for HandsOn Greater Richmond, served on the Advisory Board for Human Services at John Tyler Community College and is a current Board member for SupportOne LLC, a non-profit organization serving adults with intellectual disabilities.

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).

Erin Sutton is the Chief Deputy at the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. As the Chief
Deputy she oversees the day-to-day operations of the agency and provides overall support to the State
Coordinator during emergencies.
Erin has worked in emergency planning and management for the last 15 years, most recently serving as Director of the City of Virginia Beach Office of Emergency Management since 2014. She has also held positions with the Virginia Beach Department of Public Health, developing the Virginia Beach Medical Reserve Corps and leading the city-wide pandemic planning effort as Emergency Planner. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Radford University and her Master of Science in Microbiology and Immunology from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She is a Certified Emergency Manager, Certified Floodplain Manager and has her Project Management Professional certification.

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.
Teri is a member of several industry advisory boards. She 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.

Marcus Thornton is the Deputy Chief Data Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He brings 20 plus years of experience in the area of software engineering and application development. He leads the technical operations for the Office of Data Governance and Analytics (ODGA) and serves as its Chief Operating Officer. Prior to serving the Commonwealth, Marcus was Senior Manager of Application Development for Retail Data LLC, a data company focused on competitive pricing metrics and visualizations where he led the software engineering department. Marcus believes technology, innovation, and data continues to be the staple for improving the end-user experience.

As Executive Editor at e.Republic, Steve is responsible for the coordination of editorial strategies and standards across all the firm’s media platforms. He directs the editorial teams that produce Government Technology, Emergency Management and Digital Communities and their respective Websites, in addition to developing and maintaining corporate policies and standards for editorial. Steve has over 20 years of writing and editing experience including more than 17 years covering technology in the state and local government market.
Steve joined e.Republic in 1996. During his tenure, e.Republic’s print and electronic media have received many awards for editorial excellence, including “Magazine of the Year” from ASBPE for Emergency Management in 2013, “Best New Web Site” from ASBPE for emergencymgmt.com in 2009, ”Best Overall Publication” at the Maggie awards for Government Technology in 2008 and “Magazine of the Year” from ASBPE for Public CIO in 2007.

As an Enterprise Account Executive at Granicus, Ryan has previous experience partnering with private and public sector organizations to help achieve digital transformation through robust communication strategies and digital service delivery. Ryan’s focus has been bringing highly secure digital solutions to financial services, healthcare organizations, and government agencies across the country. Ryan graduated from Winona State University with a major in Management Information Systems. Ryan is a native Minnesota resident where he is a proud girl dad to his two daughters.

Michael Watson is the Chief Information Security Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia at the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA). With over 15 years of experience working in the information security field, he leads the Commonwealth Security and Risk Management team which provides security governance, oversight, and risk management for the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government in Virginia.
Michael holds a graduate degree in telecommunications with a focus on security and management from the University of Pennsylvania and earned his undergraduate degree from James Madison University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), incident handler, intrusion analyst, penetration tester, and information systems auditor.

Anthony Wood is the innovation spark for the Commonwealth of Virginia. As befitting his role as Head of Innovation for the VITA Innovation Program, Wood is in constant motion. He has brought excitement, curiosity, volunteerism and partnership to Virginia agencies, localities and universities and the vendors who support their initiatives. Programs on topics from blockchain to unmanned systems and smart communities have helped keep the commonwealth on the cutting edge of opportunity. Wood's Virginia government career began, appropriately, at COVITS, and it is with his typical great enthusiasm that he addresses Virginia's Innovation Symposium today. Hold on to your hats and prepare to meet the future!