Context for the CTO, CIO, CISO and Data Scientist
John Schuster of Platfora believes that great products result from a perfect combination of art and science. He has led engineering teams who have built products that customers love to use in the storage, networking, security, data integration, mobile, SaaS and cloud technologies. John has held executive and senior management positions at SnapLogic, Cisco, IronPort and Network Appliance.
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Peter Schlampp of Platfora is passionate about designing products that change the way users live, work, and interact with their world. He experienced first-hand the utility and complexity of big data while building products to secure enterprise networks. Peter has led Product and Marketing teams at Solera Networks, IronPort Systems, and Cisco Systems.
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Harnessing big data is as much about deep server technology as it is a battle to reign in complexity. The status quo is untenable — brittle infrastructure, impenetrable tools, and lots of user pain. Ben founded Platfora to change this and unify disruptive server technology with superb user experience into a big data platform, for business users, that just works. He is an industry veteran and big data thought leader and was head of products at Greenplum through the EMC acquisition.
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Mr. Jeffrey C. Johnson
Chief Technology Officer, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Mr. Jeffrey C. Johnson is the Assistant Director for the Information Technology Management Division and the FBI’s Chief Technology Officer. He is responsible for establishing and enforcing information technology (IT) project management best practices in the Information and Technology Branch.
Previously, Mr. Johnson was the Assistant Director for the IT Engineering Division, where he successfully delivered the Sentinel program, transforming the FBI to a primarily electronic case management system.
Prior to joining the FBI in August 2009, Mr. Johnson served in the private sector where he managed a variety of IT development projects. He provided enterprise instant messaging platforms and implemented world-class solutions for server build, patching, server management, server imaging, and host intrusion prevention. Mr. Johnson continuously delivered both improvements in business processes and cost savings.
From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Johnson served as Financial Services Director of Sales with Aditi Technologies where he oversaw relationships and business strategies with the company’s North American customers. He also served in several technology roles as Windows Server Engineering Manager, Windows Server Support Manager, and Unified Communications Manager with Lehman Brothers from 2004 to 2008.
Commissioned in the Navy after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1998, he attained the rank of lieutenant during his five-year Naval career. Mr. Johnson was responsible for training, developing, and executing information systems security policies for 178 commands, or approximately one-eighth of the operational Navy. He also led a group of 27 technical personnel to provide infrastructure services, including e-mail, server, web, database, and phone services.
Mr. Johnson received a Bachelor of Science degree with merit in marine engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy.
April 17th, 2013 – Lunch Keynote
Mr. David M. Wennergren
Assistant Deputy Chief Management Officer, Department of Defense (DoD)
Mr. David M. Wennergren has over 30 years of leadership experience in information technology and change management across the Department of Defense and federal government.
Currently he serves as the Department of Defense Assistant Deputy Chief Management Officer, where he is the principal deputy to the DoD Deputy Chief Management Officer and champions the Department’s efforts to better synchronize, integrate and optimize DoD business operations to improve effectiveness and increase efficiency. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Information Management, Integration and Technology/Deputy Chief Information Officer, where he led the information technology and information management efforts for the Department of Defense. In addition to these duties, Mr. Wennergren served for five years as Vice Chair of the U.S. Government’s Federal CIO Council, and has also served as Chair of the Committee for National Security Systems and Chair of the Department of Defense Identity Protection and Management Senior Coordinating Group, where he championed the successful deployment of the DoD Common Access Card. He has also served as the Director of the DoD Business Transformation Agency and the Director of the DoD-Veterans Affairs Interagency Program Office, championing the delivery of improved health information technology for service members, their families and veterans.
Mr. Wennergren served for four years as the Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer, during which time he also served as the Department of the Navy’s Critical Infrastructure Assurance Officer. He also served for four years as the DON Deputy CIO for Enterprise Integration and Security. Past assignments within the Department of the Navy also include redesigning the navy’s shore installation management structure, the Navy’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) teams for BRAC-93 and BRAC-95, the Commercial Activities (OMB Circular A-76) Program and working as a management analyst at Naval field activities.
Mr. Wennergren received his B.A. in Communications/Public Relations from Mansfield State University. He was a recipient of a Secretary of the Navy Civilian Fellowship in Financial Management, culminating in a Master of Public Policy (MPP) in Public Sector Financial Management from the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs. He has received the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Department of the Navy Distinguished, Superior and Meritorious Civilian Service Awards, the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Civilian Service Award. Other honors include being selected as the TechAmerica Terman Award 2010 Government Technology Executive of the Year, the Federal CIO Council 2008 Azimuth Award winner, the Government Computer News 2005 Defense Executive of the Year, the 2006 John J. Franke Jr. Award from the American Council for Technology, the Federal Computer Week 2006 Eagle Award (Government Leader of the Year), three Federal Computer Week Fed 100 Awards, the Computerworld Premier 100 Award, and the 2008 General James M. Rockwell AFCEAN of the Year. A huge believer in the “power of team,” he is also honored to have worked in two organizations that were awarded the Department of the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation.
Ms. Jill Tummler Singer recently completed 27 years of federal service and is now the Owner of Tummler Singer Associates, LLC, a woman-owned consulting firm focused on transformation, strategy, leadership, and technology. As a federal employee, she was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the Deputy CIO for the Central Intelligence Agency.
Ms. Singer has served in several senior leadership positions within the Federal Government. She was the Director of the Diplomatic Telecommunications Service, U.S. Department of State and Chief of Systems Engineering, Architecture, and Planning for the CIA’s global infrastructure organization. She held industry positions with Science Applications International Corporations, Inc. (SAIC), GE, Aerospace, and IBM. She received her MS in Systems Analysis and BS in Computer Science from the University of West Florida. She graduated from several leadership programs including the Federal Executive Leadership Program and the University of Virginia’s (UVA) Executive Leaders Program.
Ms. Singer currently serves as an Executive-on-Ground for the UVA McIntire School of Commerce and is a member of the AFCEA International Cyber Committee. She received numerous awards including CloudNow’s Lifetime Achievement in Information Technology Legacy Award (2013); Top Tem Global Breakaway CIO (2012); Top tem Women in Cloud (2012); Ten Most Powerful Women in Federal Technology (2011); CIA Mentor of the Year (2010); CIO Executive Council “Ones to Watch” (2010); and CIO Magazine Stand-Out Award for Collaboration and Influence (2010). She is also an accomplished speaker and published author (jillsinger.utilizer.com).
Chief Technology Officer, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
As the Chief Technology Officer of US Customs & Border Protection, Wolf Tombe is responsible for the proactive formation of cross-cutting integrated technology strategies, architectures and solutions across CBP. He is also responsible for establishing the Agency’s Strategic Technology Direction and associated Information Technology Transformation initiatives, which includes the CBP Enterprise Technical Architecture, CBP Technology Roadmap, Common Infrastructure architectures and high level designs, Technology Lifecycle implementation and Customer Transformation Services. Mr. Tombe Chairs both the SOA and Application Working Group and the Technology Review Committee where he provides leadership on technology planning, architecture, standards and adoption of industry best practices for technology management. As CTO, Mr. Tombe is the liaison for CBP with industry and other government agencies on technology issues and matters. In this capacity, Mr. Tombe founded the first US Government “Federal CTO Forum” in December of 2008. Recognizing both the need and tremendous benefits to be gained by sharing technology best practices and innovations between federal agencies the forum now has regular participation from twenty-six federal civilian and defense agencies.
Mr. Tombe joined US Customs and Border Protection in 2003 and supports CBP with more than 25 years of IT management experience in the Federal Government Sector serving in a variety of Agency’s on both the West and East Coast.
Mr. Tombe holds a Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University and is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute. Mr. Tombe is a recipient of multiple awards in the areas of Cloud Computing, SOA, Technology Innovation and an accomplished public speaker having presented at numerous public forums on issues pertaining to technology implementation and management in the US Federal Government.
Bob Gourley is the founder of Crucial Point, LLC and CTOlabs.com, a provider of technology concepts, vendor evaluations and technology assessments focused on enterprise grade mission needs. Mr. Gourley’s first career was as a naval intelligence officer, which included operational tours afloat and shore. He was the first J2 at DoD’s cyber defense organization, the JTF-CND.
Following retirement from the Navy, Mr. Gourley was a senior executive with TRW and Northrop Grumman, and then returned to government service as the Chief Technology Officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Mr. Gourley was named one of the top 25 most influential CTOs in the globe by Infoworld in 2007, and selected for AFCEA’s award for meritorious service to the intelligence community in 2008. He was named by Washingtonianmagazine as one of DC’s “Tech Titans” in 2009; and one of the “Top 25 Most Fascinating Communicators in Government IT” by the Gov2.0 community GovFresh.
He holds three masters degrees, including a Master of Science degree in scientific and technical intelligence from the Naval Postgraduate School, a Master of Science degree in military science from USMC University, and a Master of Science degree in computer science from James Madison University.
Mr.Gourley has published more than 40 articles on a wide range of topics and is a contributor to the book Threats in the Age of Obama (2009). He is a founding and current member of the board of directors of the Cyber Conflict Studies Association, and serves on the board of the Naval Intelligence Professionals, on the Intelligence Committee of AFCEA, and the Cyber Committee of INSA.
JJ Green
National Security Correspondent, WTOP
JJ Green is the National Security Correspondent at WTOP. He reports daily on international security, intelligence, foreign policy, terrorism and cyber developments. He also provides regular on-air analysis and guidance on global security matters.
He joined the WTOP family on March 11, 2004, the same day of the Madrid bombing by al-Qaida. In the years since then he has traveled extensively investigating, reporting and analyzing the U.S. war against terrorism and has interviewed the leadership of all the key national security components of the U.S. government and many security and foreign government officials around the world.
He hosts the weekly program “The Hunt,” which goes in-depth with experts on al- Qaida, the Taliban and emerging terror threats. He has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe and Africa covering national security matters.
He’s been embedded with the U.S. military in the war zone in Afghanistan three times and has reported from Kandahar, Zabul province and Kabul. He’s traveled to Israel, the Golan Heights, Israel’s borders with Syrian and Lebanon, and Gaza. As a part of his travels in the Middle East, he’s interviewed Israeli intelligence and military officials; and Palestinian political officials about the conflict there and the prospects for peace, and the roadblocks. He saw the weaponry Hamas and Hezbollah use, visited Israel’s military headquarters for briefings on their challenges and approaches to dealing with them.
He is the recipient of a National Edward R. Murrow Award (2009) for “Hidden Hunter,” his reporting aboard a nuclear powered, Los Angeles Class submarine in the Atlantic Ocean. He also won the prestigious Associated Press Douglas S. Freeman award for his investigative series, “Dignity Denied,” which explored decades of neglect at America’s hallowed Arlington National Cemetery.
He has also won more than a two dozen regional and local awards since he started working at WTOP. In 2012, he was honored by the University of Maryland, University College as their commencement speaker, in recognition of his broad body of national security reporting accomplishments. He’s also been recognized by top national security officials for his deep knowledge of international affairs and ability to succinctly analyze complex issues.
While embedded with the U.S. Air Force in 2006, during the height of the Iraq War, he traveled with the military 18,000 miles, to 10 countries in 31 days, covering the wars in Iraq, Africa and Afghanistan.
In addition to his work at WTOP, JJ lectures regularly at universities and colleges on national security issues and speaks often to U.S. government, military and national security organizations. He is also a contributor to Jane’s Intelligence Review magazine.
Before joining team WTOP, he traveled to and reported on the events, issues, people and places of Africa, Latin America and Europe for the six years on public and international television. He began his career in Washington 1989 at WMAL radio. In the mid-1990s he was trained as a TV correspondent at ABC News’ “Nightline.” Later he worked as a general assignment part-time correspondent at CNN. In the late 90s he was brought on at CSPAN as weekend host of the Washington Journal. In 1998, JJ began working as a correspondent for the Voice of America Television on Window on America and as host and correspondent of Africa Journal while traveling extensively until he joined WTOP in 2004. JJ graduated magna cum laude from Hampton University. He’s fluent in Spanish, speaks working level French and Korean and is studying Arabic. An avid athlete, he is an accomplished speed skater, a regular runner, swimmer, cross trainer and is an expert kickboxer.
Donna Roy
Executive Director, Information Sharing Environment
Office of the CIO, Department of Homeland Security
Donna Roy joined the DHS in December of 2006 and current serves as the CIO’s Executive for Information Sharing. She is actively engaged in helping DHS lay the foundation and building blocks for an information sharing environment and drives DHS technical policy development and coordination with the White House National Security Staff and the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment. As the CIO’s Executive for information sharing, she is focused on removing technology barriers associated with the delivery of the information sharing environment. Under her leadership are the oversight and operation of the program management offices for the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) and the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM).
In 2008, Roy received the DHS Secretary’s award for Leadership Excellence for exemplary dedication and leadership in advancing the data management practices in order to institutionalize information sharing. She has been selected for 2009’s Federal Computer Week’s Federal 100 award recipient for advancing data management and information sharing. The NIEM program, under her leadership, has been the recipient of the ACT-IAC Intergovernmental Solutions Award for 2009. Roy was the recipient of the Federal CIO Councils Leadership Excellence Award for 2010. She was selected again in 2012 for Federal Computer Week’s Federal 100 award for leadership in information sharing.