Michael W. Fairless joined the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in February 2013 serving as the Branch Chief for Servers and Storage. Prior to joining the SEC, he was a Program Manager and Assistant Vice President with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) from January 2001 until February 2013, Director of Operations with Petra Incorporated from January 1999 until January 2001. Prior to joining Petra, Mike served in the United States Navy as a Master Chief Intelligence Specialist from 1977 to 1999. Highlights of his military service include 6 Operational deployments to the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and the Arabian Gulf and service as a Master Chief Petty Officer of the Command, Intelligence Officer, Intelligence Systems Officer, and Leading Chief Petty Officer.

Mike is an accomplished and tenacious professional who believes that a true leader empowers others, providing tools and support, while challenging individuals and teams to stretch beyond their comfort zones. Mike has demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement, concentrating on building strong teams, developing valuable tools, and sound processes with an emphasis on the identification of best practices. He has facilitated multiple organizational and leadership development events focused on optimizing the enterprise through enhancements to organizational design and developing high performing teams. He has led large and complex system development, system engineering, and logistics management and implementation efforts in support of customers at the United States Navy, Naval Air Systems Command. He has also managing large IT Infrastructure and Service Operations in support of the United States Central Command (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Information Enterprise Systems), U.S. State Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mike’s academic achievements include a Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Bachelors in Management of Technical Operations, and an Associate’s Degree in Technical Education. Mike’s is a Certified Enterprise Architect (CEA), Project Management Professional (PMP), and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. He holds additional certifications in ITIL Service Operations and has spent many years studying and implementing Agile and Lean best practices in a variety of non-traditional environments.

Loren Hudziak is a Google Solutions Architect with 20 years of IT industry experience. Initially an application developer and DBA, he gradually shifted to big data, analytics, and cloud solutions through work at Oracle, Borland, and IBM. He holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science and Information Systems from American University where he also currently teaches as an adjunct professor.

Dr. Michaela Iorga is the Senior Security Technical Lead for Cloud Computing with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Co-chair of NIST Cloud Computing Security and Cloud Computing Forensic Science Working Groups. Michaela is a recognized expert in cloud computing, information security risk assessment, information assurance and ad-hoc mobile networks. She has an extensive knowledge base in the development of complex security architectures and a deep understanding of security, privacy and identity and credential management issues in the cyberspace - an expertise she gained while serving, in different roles, government, academia and private sectors. In her role at NIST, Dr. Iorga promotes American innovation and industrial competitiveness by working with industry, academia, and other government stakeholders to develop and disseminate vendor-neutral cybersecurity standards and guidelines that meet national priorities. Her current focus includes the development of security, privacy and forensic science specifications and guidelines that support the widespread adoption of cloud computing.

Roopangi Kadakia is the Web Services Executive for NASA since 2011. She has been instrumental in bringing over 150 applications and websites into the cloud. Prior to her time at NASA, she was the CISO for the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group where she created a global security program. She was also the CISO and Deputy CIO for Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. Roopangi was the Technical Director for the Presidential Initiative FirstGov at startup. This is now usa.gov. Roopangi has also been Peace Corp Volunteer in Malawi and has worked Peace Corps.

John MacKinnon brings the insight of a 20+ year veteran of Government IT. As the leader of Akamai Public Sector Channel business, John’s seen the explosive growth from the industry leader in Content Delivery Networks into a 90M business unit with nearly half of its revenue from cyber security protection. The former Industry Chair of the IAC IaaS Sub-Committee, John will bring insight from 10+ years in Government Cloud having worked in ISP, hosting and now FedRAMP compliant CDN. John lives in Falls Church and in his spare time referees your son’s lacrosse games. As an 8 year season ticket holder for the Capitals, John joins his wife and two kids in the never ending hope that the Stanley Cup will come to DC this year. Enjoy his presentation on Akamai’s unique insight into worldwide cyber security as the world’s largest cloud security platform.

Ashley Mahan is the Agency Evangelist for FedRAMP, leading the effort to integrate FedRAMP and cloud computing into agency IT portfolios. Ashley is no stranger to FedRAMP – she has supported the team as an Information Security Officer (ISSO) since 2014, shepherding many cloud service providers through the FedRAMP JAB/Agency authorization process.

Previously, Ashley served as a trusted Cyber Security Advisor for the Federal Government for the past decade where she provided leadership, strategy and expertise to multiple federal partners to obtain, maintain, and enhance compliance with applicable IT policies. Additionally, she developed and implemented robust Cyber Awareness Training Programs to shed light on evolving cyber threats and supported agencies as they went through Cyber Security inspections. Ashley holds a Master’s of Science in Information Technology as well as a Bachelor’s of Science in Business.

Dr. Tibbits was inducted into Senior Executive Service in February 2004, appointed Deputy Chief Information Officer for Enterprise Development for Department of Veterans Affairs on 7 December 2006 – July 2010. He is currently the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Architecture, Strategy, and Design.

Dr. Tibbits served in DoD as Director of the Business Management and Modernization Program and Transformation Support Office until September 2005, then served as Deputy Director of Military Health System Office of Transformation, representing Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs). While at VA, Dr. Tibbits led the Transformation-21 Work Group to set in place the IT organization, processes, projects, and knowledge management tools necessary to prepare VA to operate in the 21st century.

Dr. Tibbits is an experienced executive in change management, organizational development, global health IT systems, planning, problem-solving, metrics, outsourcing, contracts, finance, employee effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.

Dr. Tibbits served as Program Executive Officer of $400M Defense IT enterprise, with 18 yrs leading change management, process re-engineering, and IT initiatives supporting health care of 8.5M people, 50M visits, 1M admissions annually in Military Health System.

Dr. Tibbits led IT operations for approximately 100 hospitals, 500 clinics, 100 data centers, networks, and 125,000 desktops; and implemented controls to manage total ownership costs.

One of the 2016 Federal 100 awardees, Mr. Robert W. Vietmeyer is the government lead and strategic advisor to the Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Information Officer (CIO) on Enterprise Cloud Computing. Widely-recognized for his expertise across all aspects of cloud computing, he is responsible for guiding the Department’s adoption of cloud computing and the modernization of its IT environment. Current focus areas include the adoption of commercial cloud services, cybersecurity, cloud contracting and achieving efficiencies through IT consolidation and cloud transition.

Mr. Vietmeyer has over 20 years of experience delivering mission critical systems for the Department. Formerly with the Defense Information Systems Agency, he held several technical leadership positions including Chief Engineer for the Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) program and the Global Combat Support System (GCSS). In 2010, Mr. Vietmeyer was awarded the Federal CIO Council’s Leadership Award and Federal Computer Week’s Federal 100 Award for his work supporting agile development and creating the collaborative software development environment - Forge.mil.

Mr. Vietmeyer has a Master of Science in Information Systems from John Hopkins University and lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and three children.