Rebecca most recently served as the Chief Data Officer for New York State’s Office of Information Technology Services and has 24 years of digital, data, analytics, and decision intelligence experience in the private sector. She holds an MBA from the University of South Carolina.

Heather Doxon is a Regional Engagement Manager (REM) with the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center (MS-ISAC®). As part of the MS-ISAC’s Stakeholder Engagement team, she works with our nation’s State, Local, Territorial, and Tribal (SLTT) governments and public education institutions to provide free cybersecurity resources and services through partnerships and collaborations. Heather manages partnerships with the hundreds of MS-ISAC® members throughout CISA Region 5, supporting their overall cybersecurity posture. She also holds a GISF certification.
Heather joined the Center for Internet Security (CIS) as an Account Manager with the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center (EI-ISAC®). Prior to that, Ms. Doxon worked in the Elections field for almost 15 years, most recently as a Training & Implementation Specialist for the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Elections Division and worked closely with the counties of the state on Elections security and best practices.
Heather holds a Certified Elections Registration Vendor (CERV) from The Election Center and is a graduate of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She also is part of Women in Cybersecurity and volunteers in her community with various civic and animal welfare organizations.

Charles Elliott is a Field CTO and Practice Lead within Google Cloud dedicated to empowering state, local, and education customers with cutting-edge AI solutions. His expertise lies in leveraging Google Cloud's vast capabilities to transform public services, accelerate research and scale development teams. With over 15 years of experience in Big Data, Analytics, and AI, Charles has a proven track record of helping clients design and implement innovative cloud-based solutions that streamline government operations, enhance community engagement, and optimize workloads.  Charles is also a trusted technical advisor to research institutions and actively champions the integration of cloud technologies in government and academic advisory boards.

Head of Mandiant Cyber Security Solutions, State, Local and Education, Mandiant / Google Public Sector

Mr. Ford is 30-year veteran in cybersecurity, crisis response, and intelligence-led cyber operations in both government and commercial sectors. Prior to joining Mandiant, Mr. Ford served in executive leadership roles for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Mr. Ford served as the responsible executive to the U.S.
Cryptologic Centers for strategic and tactical oversight of global cyber operations and key asset protection. In these roles. Mr. Ford developed the framework used by the U.S. Government to manage risk of cyber threats supporting government and critical infrastructure capabilities receiving recognition by the White House National Security Council and the United States Congress.
Currently, Mr. Ford serves as the Head of Mandiant cyber security solutions to State, Local and Education markets as well as professional service solutions. Mr. Ford leads operations, strategy and solution for our global partners, and globally leads Mandiant’s Insider Threat risk offerings. Mr. Ford coaches boards and executives on how to measure and manage enterprise risk, regularly speaks at industry conferences. Mr. Ford is a member of the Geneva Dialogue on Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace and the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise. Mr. Ford is the founder of Mandiant's Elevate program to advance women in IT security into senior leadership and Board positions.
Mr. Ford serves as an adjunct professor teaching advanced curricula on cybersecurity and risk frameworks at St. Mary’s University. Mr. Ford is a graduate of Harvard, John F. Kennedy School on Cybersecurity Policy; and a graduate of Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Business in Strategic.

Joel Golub is the Industry Executive Director for Local and County Strategy for Oracle North America. Joel has 30 years of experience as a CIO in California County Government, NYC Government and NJ State Public Transit.
He most recenty served as CIO in Orange County, CA, the nation’s 6th largest county supporting 3.2 milion constituents. During his 5 years at Orange County, Joel also served on two Orange County Boards responsible for the oversight of Law and Justice Technology and Land Based Radio Communications. Joel served on the Board for California County Information Servcies Directors and worked as their President promoting technology sharing and collaboration among CA county IT organizations.
Under the Bloomberg administration in NYC, Joel served as the Deputy Fire Commissioner and Chief Information Officer for the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY). As FDNY’s first CIO, Joel was responsible for key technology projects and transformations for the business.
Joel was also the CIO in San Bernardino County, CA which is the largest county in area in the United States providing services over a 20 thousand square mile area to 3 million residents.
Joel spent most of his career at NJ TRANSIT and remains one of the longest tenured CIOs in the public transit industry in the United States.
Joel studied at Montclair State University earning a BA in Mathematics and later earned his MBA from Rutgers University. Joel and his wife, Deborah reside in New Jersey and recently became grandparents.
Joel was a part time firefighter for over 40 years and recently retired from firefighting but remains extremely committed to improving technologies that support first responders and protecting the public. He is passionate about improving government services for their citizens and introducing innovation and new technology to make government more efficient and responsive to the public.

Nadia Hansen is a senior executive leading the Go-ToMarket strategy for local government across the USA and Canada at Salesforce. Nadia is a former CIO, board member, and recognized government leader who brings two decades of enterprise technology experience building a wide range of products, teams, and operations around the world across both public and private entities. As the former Chief Information Officer for Clark County, Las Vegas, the largest county in the State of Nevada with more than 2.4 million residents, 45 million annual visitors, and an $8 billion budget, Nadia spearheaded the technology innovation, strategy, and delivery of mission-critical services for the organization. She established Las Vegas as an innovation and technology hub for startups and budding businesses and is a key driver in engaging regional technology partners. Nadia created a first-ever technology strategic plan for the county with public-facing commitments, including the vision and mission for a unified customer experience 5 years out. She outlined the strategy and created a roadmap for improving public accessibility through Omni-channels - website, email, phone, and mobile and to bridge the digital divide.

The Office of Enterprise Technology Services’ Cyber Security Program is led by State CISO, Vincent Hoang, who is responsible for securing state government information resources and infrastructure. He brings 25 years’ experience in developing and implementing effective information technology strategies, including the application of cybersecurity, network management and systems design to improve business outcomes. Vincent most recently served as the enterprise architect for Hawaiian Telcom, where he secured infrastructure for customers and conducted network architecture, performance, security risk and systems infrastructure assessments. He also worked as a senior systems consultant for Bank of Hawaii and a security engineer for Munger, Tolles and Olson in Los Angeles, CA.

Bruce Mirante, Cybersecurity State Coordinator CISA Region 9, joined the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in January 2024. Bruce is part of CISA’s Region 9 and serves as the Cybersecurity State Coordinator to the State of Hawaii.  In this role, Bruce builds strategic public and private sector relationships with state, local, tribal and private sector critical infrastructure entities, and serves as a principle point of contact to non-Federal organizations interested in engaging with the Federal government to prepare, manage and respond to cybersecurity incidents. Prior to joining CISA, Bruce was with Matson Navigation Company serving with their network and information security group. Bruce has been in Hawaii for the past forty years, working for the Federal government both as a contractor and a civilian employee. Bruce has also worked as an adjunct professor with the University of Hawaii system and other private colleges on Oahu. Bruce holds several computer industry certifications with Cisco Systems, Comptia, Juniper and Microsoft.

Darren Cantrill has been HDOT’s IT Manager since 2020, responsible for the planning, developing, implementing, and maintaining the back-office systems at the Department of Transportation. Darren and his teams are responsible for desktop support, data center operations, application development, and network infrastructure for all HDOT locations. Darren functions as the chief information officer of the Department and works closely with the other IT coordinators in each transportation division (Airports, Highways, and Harbors).
Darren has more than 25 years’ experience in developing and implementing effective information technology strategies through data-driven decisions. Darren has served in a management role for data center operations, production control, test operations, configuration management, development operations, and helpdesk.

Deputy Director, Department of Commerce & Consumer Affairs, State of Hawaii

Dean Hazama serves as Deputy Director for the State of Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA). Appointed in January 2023, he is responsible for the management of the department and its mission to protect Hawaii’s consumers and ensure effective and timely oversight of the regulatory environment for businesses and consumers.
Mr. Hazama has extensive institutional experience in fiscal, budget, and legislative management and brings a strong passion to serve the people of Hawaii.  He previously served in various federal positions at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard including as Technical Director of the Pacific Fleet Technical Support Center, Logistics Officer for the Pacific Defense Information Systems Agency, and Business and Material Officer for the Defense Logistics Agency Maritime Pearl Harbor. Following his federal service, he joined the State of Hawaii as Business Management Officer at DCCA and at the Hawaii Department of Transportation.
He is Chair of the Mililani Mauka/Launani Valley Neighborhood Board and former chair of the Honolulu Planning Commission and State Apprenticeship Council and is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in Accounting from the Shidler College of Business.

Tom Ku has over 30 years of experience in IT and has worked in a wide range of industries including Higher Education, Financial, Systems Integration, and others.  He now currently enjoys working for the State as part of the ETS Ohana. 

Bob manages the relationship & partnership with Hawaii and Los Angeles County for Salesforce Global Public Sector, based in Los Angeles.
He joined Salesforce in January 2014 after a 20+year public sector career in Technology Sales. From 1994 to 1998, he served as District Sales Manager for Panasonic’s Personal Computer Division, focused on Public Safety mobile use cases for Law Enforcement. Bob worked with the San Diego Police Department in transforming their mobile digital strategy for in-vehicle reporting and video. Joining GTSI in 1998 as their Western Region Manager, Bob was responsible for managing both field sales and inside sales teams for the 13-state western region, expanding GTSI’s State & Local Government footprint. In 2005, Bob became a member of the Unisys Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure Services (GOIS) team, working closely with Los Angeles County, and specifically the Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), in modernizing the County’s eligibility system, LEADER.
Bob began his concentration in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with his move to Verint (Lagan) in 2008, continuing his work with DPSS, as Vice President of Western Sales, and broadening Verint’s account base in the western US. In 2011, he joined the Oracle team in Southern California and further expanded his portfolio in CRM to include the implementation of the City of Los Angeles’ 311 system, MyLA311, in 2013, along with other CRM projects in Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah.
An alumnus of the University of Notre Dame and Loyola University Chicago, Bob, and his wife, Kajon, have raised three daughters in Southern California, who are all on their own life’s adventures. Bob and his wife split their time between their 40’ Sea Ranger in Marina del Rey and their ranch in the San Jacinto Mountains in SoCal.

Steve Sakamoto is the Chief of the Health Information Systems Office at the Hawaii Department of Health.  In this role he provides visionary leadership and oversight for the information systems and technology, coordinating department-wide IT projects across multiple administrations for critical public health initiatives.  He is a senior-level individual with IT experience encompassing technical, operational, business, management, and leadership skills.  His expertise spans a wide range of areas including cloud and mobile computing, project management, data management, enterprise SOA, artificial intelligence, and data security.
Prior to working at the State, he held key IT positions at Aloha Airlines, Inc., where he demonstrated his proficiency in infrastructure management, network design, system integration, and project management.  Steve holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information and Computer Science from the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Filifotu is a telecommunications management executive with over 15 years experience in leadership roles within Internet, wireless, fixed line & ICT service providers in the Pacific region & US. Successful in driving operational efficiencies, strategy and product development, campaign planning and execution, delivering against aggressive financial & operational KPIs. Experienced in delivering Corporate rebrands across regional markets, Commercial due diligence assessment and team integration in mergers and acquisitions. Brings strong leadership skills and ability to motivate and mobilize teams to deliver shared goals.