Mike Driessen is a Vice President for Government Technology and the Publisher for Industry Insider.  He is responsible for managing the strategy and operations for all recurring revenue services including GovTech Industry Navigator, a market and sales intelligence tool for private-sector SLED teams, and GovTech Industry Insider which provides daily news and insights into gov tech markets.   
Mike brings over 30 years of experience in IT consulting and systems integration with firms like Accenture, Grant Thornton and Hitachi Consulting.  His experience covers sales and marketing leadership, advising on digital strategies, and managing enterprise application alliances and implementations.  He has managed both large global teams and led start-ups. Mike lives in Los Angeles, although he grew up in the Midwest, and graduated from Marquette University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Business Administration.

Romelia is an IBM Distinguished Engineer working for IBM's Client Engineering team in the Dallas / Fort Worth area.  As a certified Senior IT Architect and Enterprise Design Thinking Leader she collaborates with leading Public Sector clients to design essential IBM solutions running on IBM’s watsonx AI platform.  Examples of key projects she has focused on include 2022 Helix County Water District Fleet Management, 2022 Space Force Space Surveillance, 2021 Harris County Connect 360, 2021 Tulare County Connect 360, 2021 DFW Airport of the Future, 2021 Office of Attorney General, 2020 Canadian Institute for Health Information, and 2019 City of Fort Worth Storm Water Management.  Romelia is also the Global IBM Distinguished Board Chair and leads Global Sales' Master Inventor program.  She has contributed significant intellectual capital including 84 U.S. Patents and over 10 Patents Pending.  She is also a member of the IBM Academy of Technology and the International Women's Forum.

Paul Forrester is the Chief Information Officer at the Florida Department of Commerce. Paul moved into the CIO role in October 2022 after previously serving as Deputy CIO and leading the Applications Development team. Paul also spent 25 years at the Florida Department of Revenue managing several teams in Information Technology. He has led major projects at both FloridaCommerce and the Florida Department of Revenue. He has also worked closely with Senior Leadership on a list of IT initiatives. Paul has a degree in Economics from the University of Georgia, as well as a degree in Management Information Systems from Florida State University.

Glendora was named as the FDOT Chief Information Officer (CIO) in June of 2023. Before taking on the role of CIO at FDOT, she served as the CIO of the Florida Legislature, Office of Legislative IT Services. Prior to her time with the Legislature, Glendora spent almost 10-years at FDOT, leading efforts to expand data infrastructure and management capabilities and to establish and execute cloud infrastructure and development strategies, helping accelerate FDOT’s move to a cloud environment, while also furthering development of enterprise services, service management, and enterprise architecture.
Glendora began her career as a computer programmer at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV). From DHSMV, she moved to take on additional opportunities with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). In total, she spent more than sixteen years with these two agencies, gaining skills and knowledge with each promotion.
Glendora is a collaborative leader, who is committed to building and strengthening relationships, while also working hard to ensure that technology is utilized to best support business needs. 
Glendora graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Management Information Systems. She also maintains professional certifications including Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Public Manager (CPM), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), and Florida Certified Contract Manager (FCCM).

Heather Hall serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). Her 19-year state career includes serving as the Director for Strategic Decision Support at the Health and Human Services Commission, the Project Management Office Director, Deputy CIO and CIO at the Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS); Project Manager at the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts; and other roles within DADS, Department of Human Services, and Office of the Attorney General.
Throughout her career, Heather has volunteered her time and professional skills to several professional organizations including Project Management Institute (PMI), Austin Chapter (President, Vice President of External Services, and Professional Development Day Director); Executive Women in Texas Government (Vice President/Conference Chair and Communications Director); and State Agency Coordinating Committee, IT Subcommittee (Vice Chair and Chair).
Heather is a PMI-certified Project Management Professional and holds a bachelor’s degree in Latin from Baylor University, a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in Information Science from The University North Texas.

Jamey Heary is the Chief Security Architect at Cisco Systems where he leads the Global Security Architecture Team. Jamey is a trusted security advisor and architect for many of Cisco’s largest and most strategic customers. His passion is consulting with customers on security design and architecture with a focus on integration for better together protection. Jamey is the author of three security books, holds patents on risk reputation techniques and also invented the SAFE security architecture process. He is a sought-after speaker for cybersecurity events and is a Cisco Live distinguished speaker. Jamey spent 8 years on the PCI Standard Board of Advisors. He is a CCIE and has been working in the IT security field for over 25 years. Jamey lives in Florida where he enjoys boating, scuba diving and travel.

Joey Hornsby was appointed Director of Information Technology Services for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) in May 2014. As IT Director, Mr. Hornsby serves as Chief Information Officer and is responsible for all aspects of FDLE’s Information Technology and Security programs.
Mr. Hornsby’s duties include support of the Florida Crime Information Center (FCIC), providing Florida’s Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice entities access to local, state, national, and international information repositories. Duties also include supporting the country’s 3rd largest criminal history and biometric identification systems, as well as stewardship of Florida’s Criminal Justice Network, state government’s largest wide area network connecting over 1,800 Local, State, and Federal agencies across 500+ locations. These systems, in concert with many others, support Florida’s Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice communities and serve as national and international gateways for access to criminal justice data.
Mr. Hornsby holds a Bachelor of Computer Engineering degree from Auburn University and has over 32 years of public and private sector IT experience including networking, systems, infrastructure, security, and data center operations.

Mike Hussey is an industry executive director for state and local strategy for Oracle Government and Education. Mike has 25 years of senior leadership experience with the State of Utah where he most recently served as CIO for the State of Utah and the executive director for the Department of Technology Services.  While serving in this cabinet-level position, Mike was known as a collaborative and transformative leader who enjoys applying technological advances available in the market.  Among some of his accomplishments while the state CIO, Mike led the state’s cloud journey and digital transformation efforts, created the state’s first cyber center, and formed the state’s first innovation fund.
Mike has been recognized as a “Top 25 Doer, Dreamer and Driver” in the public sector.

Henry Jia is Specialist Solutions Architect with the AWS Public Sector team with over a decade of industry experience in applying AI/ML solutions to solve enterprise challenges.  Henry now works with customers in the GovTech sector to design and prototype innovative solutions using AWS Generative AI tools and services, with a particular focus on AI alignment and ethical AI.

John currently serves as the Application Services Manager for the State of Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) where he previously served as a Section Manager managing development teams. In his current role, John and his team support cloud infrastructure, enterprise services, enterprise architecture, application development, and product delivery. Prior to joining FDOT in 2016 , John was with the Florida Department of Revenue for 17 years managing numerous teams and software projects. John maintains professional certifications including: Project Management Professional (PMP) Certified Scrum Master (CSM), and Florida Certified Contract Manager (FCCM).

Scott is a fifth-generation native Floridian. Born in Jacksonville in the mid-1950s, Scott was raised in Broward and Martin Counties. An international businessman at age 21, Scott was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1980 from the south Miami-Dade County area at age 25, defeating a two-term incumbent. Scott served in the early 1980s.
Scott has been a technology and communications consultant for the past nineteen years, and moved his practice to Tallahassee in 1991. His weekly technology column for Knight/Ridder Newspapers, “The Help Screen,” went on hiatus in 2002 after seven consecutive years of production. It ran coast-to-coast and appeared regularly in such newspapers as the Boston Globe, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Detroit Free Press, the Tallahassee Democrat, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Orange County (CA) Register.
In 1995, Scott became Director of Information Technology for the Republican Party of Florida and guided the party’s IT, data collection, software production and GIS efforts through two campaign cycles – the two most successful cycles in state Party history. His legacy at RPOF includes the first state Republican Party Website and the groundbreaking “Victory Suite” software program.
In 1999, Governor Jeb Bush asked Scott to leave that position to design and helm Team Florida 2000, Florida’s statewide Y2K preparedness effort. The largest IT project in Florida’s history, Team Florida 2000 became a national model and garnered several state and national best practice awards. TF2K’s statewide critical infrastructure survey and disaster recovery awareness programs were a precursor to Florida’s best-practice homeland security efforts following 9/11.
In early 2000, following the success of TF2K, Governor Bush asked Scott to repair the ailing state Census partnership. Scott’s redesigned and reenergized effort, Sunshine Count 2000, was a critical and media success, and helped Florida secure a second new Congressional district, which no political pundit thought possible.
Immediately following the Census project, Scott designed a plan for enterprise-wide information security. In early 2001, Scott created the Office of Information Security within Florida’s State Technology Office. Efforts were accelerated following 9/11, and Scott won a national “Best of Breed” award from the Center for Digital Government in 2002 for the Florida cybersecurity effort. A derivative of the effort, “SecureFlorida.org,” was launched jointly by Scott, the State Technology Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 2003 for the benefit of the general public, local governments and the private sector.
In March 2001, Scott was appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Florida Department of Corrections. He served in that capacity for nearly six years. Under Scott’s tenure, the Department’s Office of Information Technology has won seventeen (17) Davis Productivity Awards from Florida TaxWatch for technological innovation and excellent stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
Scott is a past-president of the Corrections Technology Association, a hemispheric association of state, federal, tribal, county and municipal corrections technology professionals from the Pacific islands to Canada, the United States and Mexico. He also served on the Article V Technology Board and served as the Corrections representative to the CJJIS Council. He was the last chairman of the Florida Geographic Information Board (GIB) in 2001. Scott also was elected unanimously by his peers as Chairman of the CIO Council of State government chief information and technology officers for 2005-06.
In November 2006, Scott returned to his legislative roots and accepted the appointment as CIO for the Florida House of Representatives. “It’s good to be home,” he said.
With his unique background in government, business, emergency preparedness and disaster recovery, Scott is now recognized internationally as an expert in preparedness for an eventual influenza pandemic. Scott has lectured extensively across the country on the topic, and is frequently consulted for quotes and comments from the national and trade press on the subject. His presentations are referenced by the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the State University System of Florida, the University of Illinois, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the National Institute of Corrections. Scott appeared on Fox News Channel as part of its ongoing swine flu coverage. 
At the personal invitation of Dr. Michael Osterholm, a well-known, deeply respected and frequently-quoted expert on public health issues, Scott lectured at the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) September, 2009 conference titled "Keeping the World Working During an Influenza Pandemic." It was the final opportunity to inform business, government and industry prior to the full onset of 2009's H1N1v pandemic.  As a result of his pandemic efforts and overall body of work, Government Technology Magazine recognized Scott as one of the Top 25 public technology leaders in the United States for 2008, along with FEMA Director Craig Fugate and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In 2017, for his overall portfolio of accomplishments, Scott received the inaugural Florida CIO Hall of Fame award from Public CIO magazine.
Scott McPherson is married to the former Marta Carballo, and is stepfather to her two grown children.  High school football fans know Scott as The Voice Of the Trojans, calling games for Tallahassee Lincoln High School’s nationally-recognized football team. He retired from announcing in 2013, following his 12th year behind the microphone.

Darrick Mowrey has been a Cloud Architect for over a decade with a wide experience of applying data and AI to solve a diverse set of government issues.

With 15 years in the Cybersecurity space, Josh Pearl has spent the last 4 years working to secure Public Sector organizations in Florida. As the Public Sector Systems Engineering Director for the state of Florida at Fortinet, he has had the opportunity to work with many FL-based Government organizations to understand their goals, the technical hurdles they face, and how to put them in the best position possible to mitigate cyber-attacks in a world where they are becoming increasingly ubiquitous.

Cole Sousa is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Florida Department of Children and Families, with four years of dedicated service, including two years as CIO. Cole is currently spearheading a significant digital transformation initiative, focused on modernizing critical departmental applications and systems. He believes in fostering collaboration among diverse teams, driving innovation, and maintaining active engagement with industry leaders to ensure the department remains a pioneering force in using technology to support the well-being of Florida's children and families.

James Taylor serves as a Senior Board Member of the Florida Center for Cyber Security, a Board Member of the Florida State College of Jacksonville School of Technology, a Board Member of the Tallahassee Collegiate Academy, a member of the Tallahassee State College Cybersecurity Advisory Board, a Board Member of Innovation Park N Florida Innovation Labs, and serves on the Florida State University Gap Proposal Review Committee, a Board Member for Florida’s Public Sector Academy and a Board Member for the Florida Digital Government Summit.
Mr. Taylor served as the technology industry representative for the Governor’s Reopen Florida Taskforce, and the Cybersecurity and Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Legislative Work Group in the Florida House of Representatives.
In 2019 James began assisting the FBI in developing partnerships with higher education institutions by implementing free FBI Cybersecurity Symposium educational events across the state. In 2022 James was appointed as one of 16 leaders in industry, education and workforce development to serve on the State’s newly created Credentials Review Committee.
James is the creator of Florida’s Tech Day at the Capitol, the Florida Technology Magazine for state legislators and agencies, FTC’s State Advisory Workgroup, Government CIO Mentorship Program and the Private Sector Academy.
James Taylor lives in Tallahassee Florida with his incredible wife Penny and is a recent graduate of the U.S. Department of Justice FBI Citizens Academy.

Michelle Taylor is the Chief Information Officer since January of 2020 for the local government of Leon County, Florida, where she previously served as the Director of IT Operations. Prior to her career with Leon County, Michelle held technology positions with The Florida State University’s College of Law, Department of Biological Sciences, and College of Education. Michelle received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from The Florida State University and is a Certified Government Chief Information Officer through FSU’s Florida Institute of Government. Michelle has three decades of experience in successful IT hiring.

Kathryn “Kate” Williams is the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Child and Family Well-Being. Kate began her career with the Department as a Child Protective Investigator, and she still maintains her CPI Certification today. With almost two decades of experience, Kate brings frontline experience, a vast expertise in child welfare, and innovation to the role.
Mrs. Williams previously served as the Deputy Secretary for the Office of Child and Family-Wellbeing where she oversaw Operations in OCFW. During her time with the Department, Kate has lent her knowledge and insight to a number of statewide initiatives that are transforming our system of care including her role in spearheading an effort on frontline-focused initiatives through best practice identification, standardization and implementation. Additional initiatives include leading the charge in the creation of the Family Navigation Program, participation in the SSPE workgroup while Florida implemented our Child Welfare Practice Model and serving as the Policy and Practice Team lead for the CPI Efficiencies Project. Kate is a native Floridian originally from Clay County. She has a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from the University of North Florida. Kate now resides in Tallahassee with her husband and two children.